Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Major Update

First and Foremost, let me apologize for being delinquent on the blog. I was gone last week to Omaha, NE and was there during the terrible weather and tornado warnings! Let me just say that the first night there, after a trip to the Omaha Zoo, there was a tornado warning and I spent the first 1 1/2 hour in the 2nd Floor Ballroom of the Embassy Suites. Not a lot of fun and when I texted Matt about it, his reply, "Welcome to Nebreska."

Well, a lot has gone on, I have taken some new pictures of Emily that I need to edit and put on her, including 18 month and Easter Bunny Pics, will also need to do some more. The first thing to update on was her 18 month check-up:

  • Emily now weighs in at 24 lbs, best guess as she didn't want to stand on the scale. She had 2 shots, her MMR and Chickenpox vaccine and cannot be around anyone that is pregnant or is undergoing Chemotherapy for a month (apparently the chickenpox vaccine is a live one!) She tolerated those well and she is now 31 1/2 inches tall but would not let the nurse take her head circumference. I talked to Dr. Liston about the terrible cardiologist appointment we had, and we decided to just monitor her for now. I also brought up her speech issue and how I still feel she didn't say enough words. She has since referred us to Early On (more on this to come). No more Well Check-Ups until she turns 2 but we have to return in July for another shot of MMR, since we were delayed in getting those done.
  • Early On Appointment: Occurred today actually, she called me last week while I was in the Detroit Airport waiting to fly out and scheduled the appointment for today. She is a very nice lady and so I took this afternoon off to be home for the appointment. Matt was home, but didn't want to be a part of the appointment, so he was working on a co-workers car. It was really interesting to see what she did and what kind of questions she asked. At one point Emily completely lost interest in trying to complete a task that she was to get done. It was stacking blocks onto each other, apparently they are supposed to stack 5 blocks onto each other and after 2 Emily just had no interest in it anymore. The Results: Emily is on target in Fine and Gross Motor Skills, Cognitive Recognition, a Step Ahead for Coping Behavior (which surprised me) and was a little delayed in Speech. This made me feel slightly better to know I wasn't completely crazy! Emily is 18 months and 2 weeks old and she was at the 13-15 month level, where she should be at the 18-21 month level. So a little delayed. We qualify for Early On Services because of this and we will be getting a report in the mail stating the findings and will have another meeting to design her "game plan". I am all for this and really want to learn ways to help her in her speech. Matt informed me that she wasn't behind and he didn't see a problem with her speech and that she didn't need any services. I am going to disagree and get some help. As the Coordinator stated, "It is a small delay, but we can intervene early and keep it from becoming a bigger issue down the road."
  • My worst FEARS have come TRUE: Emily is a BITER!!!!! She has bitten two boys at daycare! Alright, I know you are probably thinking it is a stage and it is normal, but I feel like I am walking the Mom Hall of Shame right now. I am now "THAT MOM" who can't control her kid. AGGHHHH....She hasn't bit me yet, bit Matt tonight on the thumb and we corrected her, and at daycare she is corrected, but still can't wait for this to be over! One of the boys she bit on the back and the other little boy (which is brand new by the way) on the leg. We aren't sure what she was doing when she bit the little boy on the back, but we know that the other little boy that was bit on the leg had done nothing to her when the "incident" occurred. She was sitting on the little step and he walked by her, didn't touch her, and she reached down and bit him on the leg. Left a mark and apparently when she bit the other boy on the back, it was a perfect circle! Uggghhh,....and that is why I said I was surprised that she was a step ahead in coping behavior!
  • Emily is also terrified of REAL Rabbits. I again took her pictures with real rabbits, or perhaps I should say attempted to take her pictures with real rabbits and it didn't go so well. She was ok with them as long as they sat on my lap or someone else's, but the instance you put them on the floor or they started moving, screaming ensued! It was funny but not, especially when I was in a hurry trying to get the pictures taken! Chuck E Cheese should be interesting this year when we go with daycare! As one mom told me, "You can chase your child into the kitchen when she gets scared!" She had to do that with her son one year, he was terrified of Chuck E Cheese and went running and screaming into the kitchen to get away from him! More fun to look forward too.
  • Words at this point: Bye Bye, Mama (though not in relation to me, just when she wants something), All Done, Da (Dog) these are the words we hear constantly. Matt informed me he heard her say Mine today, I have heard her say Baby once, and Yes. We cannot get her to say Up for the life of anything nor milk or juice. I know you are all thinking, you don't want her to talk because once she does she won't shut-up, but I want to make sure she is normal. I know, I know Over paranoid Mom here.

Well, I think that about wraps up this update for now. Will be posting more pictures soon!

Bowling

As you saw from the video, we took Emily bowling! It was quite an experience. We determined that she is good for about 1/2 game, which we tried to bowl 2 with her and you definitely need to have 2 people there to watch her at all times. When we first got there, she was really into it and wanted it to be her turn all the time, which we had to tell her that she had to wait. So, then Matt or I would take Emily up and roll the ball with her. Worked well, for the first 1/2 of the first game. She did well though, she got an 83 and an 83, including 1 spare!
It has been a long time since either Matt or I went bowling so we were both rusty but soon found the groove. I forgot how expensive bowling was! For the 5 games that were bowled we spent $14.50 on bowling and then another $25 on lunch and drinks! What an expensive day, but it was still good times in the bowling alley!



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Bowling Bloopers

Here are some outtakes of the bowling snapshots. As you can tell it became quite a struggle to keep her interested!



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Aaaccchhhhooooo...

Emily loves her babies! I did not try to teach her this, but she is such a good little mommy. She wipes their noses, changes their diaper, gives them drinks from her sippy cup, and even burps them. It is so cute to see her play with her babies.

The Easter Bunny will be especially good to her this year and she will be getting a big surprise for her babies on Easter.



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Say Cheese

I told Emily one day to say Cheese and this was the smile that I got....
Just a cute one.
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Spoon

Emily is getting so much better with utensils! Well, I really should just say, spoons, as she has the scooping motion down, but not the stabbing motion! This was her feeding herself yogurt, which she now insists on at home! If you don't give her the spoon to feed herself, she throws a fit and won't eat any, so it is just better to give it to her. This was the first time of me really letting her eat by herself, and even since these were taken about 2 weeks ago, she is so much better!



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New Hat!

Like Emily's new hat? She got into the cupboard and pulled this out and thought it was funny to put it on her head =)


She is Mad at me because I took it off her head and it fell onto the floor...
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Peek-A-Boo

Emily loves the remote and playing on the couch! She also enjoys the game of peek-a-boo!!!



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Car Repair

We finally changed the batteries in Emily's car. It took us awhile to figure out where they were located, but I eventually did. Matt was going to take apart the whole car, by the time I looked at it =) Emily was not too happy that we took it to try and change the batteries! Afterwards, it was really cute, she grabbed the screwdriver and tried to "unscrew" things on her car.


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Monday, March 9, 2009

Cardiologiast Appointment


Well, we had Emily's Cardiologist appointment and I was not happy. First I will start off by saying that all is well with her heart. But the rest, I was quite upset about.

The Beginning: As I had previously mentioned, she was to have an EKG and an Echocardiogram, as stated by the previous person I talk to. Well, we arrive and turn in our paperwork and wait just a few minutes. We get called back by the nurse and she takes Emily's vitals and asks what she is being seen for. So, I tell her about her turning blue and her low O2 levels. Well, the nurse tells me that she is fine and she is sure the Dr. will tell us the same thing and that kids with heart issues usually stay blue the entire time and it doesn't come and go. That made me feel better. She also does her EKG and leaves and says the Dr. will be in soon.
The Dr. comes in and basically says that she is normal. That it is normal for kids to turn blue! Well, I ask about her turning blue first in her hands and feet and then around the mouth area, he says it is fine and that it is normal. He states that some children just turn blue around their mouths. He then procedes to tell me how the brain is connected to arteries and veins and that as she grows the brain controls will become better, ummmm...ok Dr. I am not an idiot! He basically was trying to tell me that she would out grow this!
He also checks her O2 levels and states that he doesn't know why our Dr.'s office got a reading of 90% on Monday and that Friday, he was getting a reading of 96%, which he stated was fine. He took the reading on all 4 extremities and they all came back normal. He told me that their machine must have been wrong. Then he says she is normal and leaves.
We had no Echocardiogram done and the appointment took 25 minutes by the time we paid our copay and left; when I was told it would be an hour to hour and a half appointment. And to top it off, he just left us and didn't give us our discharge paperwork and the nurse had to track it down! I felt like we were rushed out of there and I am sorry, I still don't believe it is normal for a child to turn blue!
To top it off, Matt tells me after the Dr. leaves, "I told you so." Nice honey, nice. I am still upset about it and that is why I didn't post right away and I will be talking to our Dr. about that appointment when I take her in for her 18 month appointment on the 20th. My mom instinct is telling me that it is not "normal" for my child to turn blue. So, I am not sure how far I will continue to push it right now, especially since Matt thinks I am crazy for being concerned about this, so we will see.
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Steak N Shake

Lookl how cute she is in the Steak N Shake hat!!! Oh and then you can see the lovely weather that we had down here that day. These pics were taken on 2-22-09....yuck!!!


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New Toy

We finally got Emily some blocks! Which she loves to play with. She really isn't interested in building things or letting you build them, she just really enjoys taking them apart! Matt wouldn't let me buy the "girly" blocks so we had to buy the primary colors!

Mine All Mine...
Destroying Daddy's Robot...
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Sunday, March 8, 2009

Bowling

Emily's First Spare!!!!! More post coming, inlcuding an update from appointment! We had a busy weekend that involved a lot of family fun time, including seeing the puppies at a pet store, Chuck E Cheese, Ikea and Bowling!