So, last week Trace, my mom, and I made the trip to Baltimore for his check-ups at Johns Hopkins. We were lucky enough to get to stay at the Believe in Tomorrow Children's House, which is such a wonderful place! The staff and volunteers there are so great, Miss Cathy even had Trace help her feed the fish each morning! Plus, it is a block away from the hospital, so it is super convenient! Trace had a blast playing with some new friends in the playroom there as well.
We saw Dr. Hoover-Fong, Trace's Geneticist, and Dr. Ain, Trace's Orthopaedic Surgeon. Dr. Hoover-Fong was very happy with Trace, although worried about his leg bowing... then we saw Dr. Ain and were told that Trace needs his legs straightened...like before summer. Wow, we knew that his legs would need straightened eventually, but from previous visits we were thinking like around age 7, so this was kind of a shock. We don't have anything scheduled yet, as we are waiting on a call back from Shriner's Hospital to see if doing some lengthening with the straightening is an option. We want to do what is best for Trace and are going to explore the options available.
We did get to meet up with
Amanda and Parker at Arundel Mills, which was nice! Parker was so adorable yelling "Taaaaace"! The boys explored Bass Pro Shops and the Disney Store for a while, then we ate at Johnny Rockets. It was great to see them again, and I can tell you that Parker and Trace will be terrorizing retail outlets and playgrounds together in the future!
Yes, that is a black eye that Trace is proudly sporting, he fell off a chair during one of his climbing acts and caught his eye on the seat on the way down. His eye was on day 3 for these pictures. Gotta love the looks you get from people when they say "Oh my, what happened to his eye" and you say "He fell off a chair" and they say "Yeah" when they are obviously convincing themselves that we must have hit him...
We also got to make a trip to the National Aquarium and catch the Dolphin Show! Trace is kinda scared of aquariums, but he LOVED the dolphin show. The dolphins are amazing and did lots of really cool tricks showing off their skills! It is a definite MUST SEE if you are in the Baltimore area. Trace also really enjoyed the Jellyfish exhibit, it was really cool!
After the aquarium, we went over to Barnes and Noble so that Trace could play at the train table (he actually remembered this from when we met the Greene family there a year before) and ate a yummy dinner at Houlihans. Mom and I also got in some retail therapy at the Prime Outlets in Hagerstown on the way home - Gymboree and Children's Place were the big winners of all my hard earned money!
Although the appointments didn't go as great as they could have, it was still a good trip! The idea of surgery is scary, but it is what it is and Trace will be much better off. We see Trace's neurosurgeon in Pittsburgh next week, we don't have any concerns on that front, so hopefully it will go as expected and there are no surprises there.
