We spent a wonderful week in Spain. Kaitlyn coped well with the flight and the heat and enjoyed every minute! She especially liked going in the pool and dancing to the live entertainment in the evenings. She wasn't so keen on the local food though and survived the week on fish fingers, pizza and chocolate ice cream:-) Our hotel was very much child-orientated and we spent most of our time there, at the main pool and excellent beach club. Below is a selection of holiday photos.

Our Spanish Holiday 2008

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Kaitlyn has now started to walk by herself! We are very proud of her- she takes great delight in

her new found independence and will regularly give her self a round of applause for her efforts! We had a check up at BCH recently , the plan is to stop one of her medications next month and thereafter reduce another which will leave her with only two lots to take. The planned catheter has been put back again as she is doing really well at present. They may be able to get away with a CT scan which will avoid a general anesthetic so we are keeping our our fingers crossed for that. We have booked a holiday to Spain next month and we are all looking forward to enjoying some sunshine for a change!

Here is a picture of Kaitlyn with her friend Thomas at his 2nd birthday party last week. A good time was had by all and Kaitlyn particularly enjoyed eating her party food! Thomas has a very similar heart condition to Kaitlyn but his problems are on the right side whereas Kaitlyn's are on her left. He only lives a few miles away so it is nice to have another family close by who knows what its like to have a child with heart problems. Kaitlyn also has another friend "Joshua" who is aged 2 and has the same condition as her , again lives only a few miles away , and they say this type of heart problem is rare!

We had a lovely Christmas! We spent the day at my parents with my brother John and his wife Claire. Joshua was so excited when he opened his nintendo wii that he almost couldn't breath! Kaitlyn was in good form having just got rid of a nasty chest infection just in time for Christmas day. It seemed unbelievable that a whole year had passed already. Kaitlyn's next check up is in March. She is still cruising the furniture but not quite walking by herself yet and is totally refusing to speak! oh well am sure she will do things in her own time. Happy New Year!

We attended an outpatient appointment on 29 November 2007. Kaitlyn's heart function was described as good and her leaky valve is no worse than when it was last checked. she is also gaining weight nicely and overall it was a positive appointment. In the last few weeks Kaitlyn has had a chest infection but luckily she responded well to antibiotics and is fine again now. She is also standing better and can walk along the sofa holding on ! We can now hopefully look forward to a happy Christmas at home!

Simon ran a 10k race on 14 October 2007 for Little Hearts Matter. This is the charity for Kaitlyn's heart condition, it offers information and support for families. Jeremy Weston (Josh's Godfather) also ran.It was a chilly but fine day with a very good turn out. Apparently it was a "tough" course with a hill to climb! Both ran brilliantly and finished safely. Here is a pic of them with Kaitlyn before the start. The other pic is of Rachel Robinson whose son Samuel also has hlhs and is a month younger than Kaitlyn. She ran the 15k well done to Rachel! I may be tempted to have a go myself next year........