Walking Stinker

Gwen & Beckham's Halloween costumes arrived in the mail this week (thanks mom!). Of course I had to try them on the kids to make sure they fit (ha ha, I couldn't help myself). Luckily they fit perfect and the kids looked adorable.

Right after I put Beckham's cute little skunk costume on him he turned around, let go of the coffee table, stood, and then took three steps into Nate's arms. Huh? Where did that come from? Beckham has not even been interested in walking let alone standing. I guess that he needed his super hero skunk costume on to have the confidence to walk. Love it! Here is the video I took right after he took his first few steps. Way to go little stinker!

Catch-up #2

While on our vacation in Utah we got to finally meet baby Noah and his family!



Those who have followed this blog from the beginning know baby Noah. For those who have not, Nate has a relative who had a baby boy (Noah) about a month and 1/2 before Beckham. Noah was born with a severe CHD of Critical Aortic Stenosis. He received a heart transplant when he was 27 days old. Noah's mom (Crystal) and I have become great friends and she has been such a support to me during everything that we have gone through with Beckham. It was so great to finally meet them in person.



Noah and Beckham are on different anti-rejection medications. One of the meds causes hair growth and the other causes hair to grow in slow and thin. Can you guess which little guy is taking what med?

Here's some more fun pictures of the heart twins. We sure love you Noah and family and can't wait to see you again!

Catch-up #1 (Beck's Birthday)

I need to "catch-up" everyone on the other stuff we did this summer besides stay in the hospital. Beck is doing great right now so I am going to take advantage of it. First and foremost....

Happy Belated Birthday Beckham!

Our little rock star turned one year old on August 1, 2008.

We were fortunate enough to be in Utah over his birthday and celebrate with our families. Beck was lucky enough to get two birthday parties.

Eating cake at the Scadlock grandparent's home

Schaalje grandparents party

Here are some fun facts about Beckham:

1. Favorite word - "ball"
2. Interested in walking? - Not in the least bit!
3. Favorite foods - anything (this kid is an eater!)
4. # of teeth - 8
5. Favorite thing to do - steal stuff from his sister and then crawl away as fast as he can (it's pretty cute because Gwen is bawling and Beck is laughing).
6. Least favorite thing - getting blood draws. This happens quite frequently and he never gives up fighting it. You think that he would after all this time.

What a year this little guy has had. We are so grateful for everyday that we have had him with us. He is our little miracle baby and we love him more than we can express. Happy Birthday buddy!

Dylan's Dragon Walk

Hey all you Iowans...

A special Walk for the Help-A-Heart foundation is coming up on Saturday, September 27th at the Wagner Park Bandshell in Ankeny. Help-A-Heart is an amazing organization that helped us out so much while Beckham was in the hospital in Iowa City. This walk is in honor of Dylan Hooper, who passed on June 30, 2008. We met Dylan's family while we were in Iowa City for a follow-up appoinment for Beckham and instantly fell in love with them. Dylan was such a fighter and our hearts are broken for his family. Dylan's mom and another mom of a CHD baby founded the Help-A-Heart foundation to offer finacial assistance to familes with children who have CHD's, who have to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. This event is such a great fundraiser for such an amazing foundation. If you are available please come! I would love to organize a team in honor of Beckham, but I don't know if that will be possible due to limited amount of time we have. If you are intersted in being on a team for Beckham please let me know. Below is race info:

Registration is a donation of $20 for an individual & $40 for a family including 1 or 2 T'shirts. You can pay an additional $10/shirt if you need more. The individual & team who are the highest fundraisers will receive special recognition the day of the walk. There is a limited supply of T-shirts so please pre-register to guarantee your shirt. Register for the race here.

The last news interview...

At the beginning of July we attended an award ceremony for Methodist and Blank Childrens Hospitals where they received and award for their success rate of families deciding to donate their loved ones organs. We did a post about this event in July but we could not post the news clip because it had not been posted to the news station website. We finally received the news clip. We think they did a pretty good job. Hope you enjoy it as well!