Galveston 2009 (post 5)

We found a kite for Kaylie that we knew she would love. It had some of her favorite characters from Sesame Street on it including the love of her life Elmo.

The wind was blowing making it perfect for kite flying. Here she is actually flying her own kite. 2 seconds later mommy was chasing after the kite she was once flying. At least she held on long enough for a picture op.

As we started to pack up daddy ran over to the trash to throw some stuff away. Kaylie grabbed her chair and followed. The funny thing was when Jason turned around to come back to us she continued walking dragging her chair behind her. That would have been fine but she was going in the wrong direction. Once I realized she was refusing to come back because she was ready to go in I went after her.

Jason's cousin Hillary came in on Monday for the day. Kaylie loved playing with her!

What you don't know is it is WAY past her bedtime. Don't let the smile fool you...she let us know what time it was the entire meal.

Moo and Neigh came to dinner with us as well.

Tuesday was rainy so we decided to visit the Aquarium. Unfortunately, she was not a fan. She did not mind the small tanks but were terrified of the big ones. She felt like they were going to swim up and get her. Definitely a different experience than last year when she walked up and touched the glass. This time she wouldn't even get out of her stroller.

She did the best with the penguins. I think the fact that they the were birds helped. They would swim right up and she didn't care.

For some reason she was really excited about going into this cage. It was the only thing she was willing to get out of her stroller for. I hope this is not a sign of things to come!

This picture was taken on Tuesday night right after she had fallen flat on her face from a chair. Poor thing cried like I have never seen her cry before. She would hold her face and say oweeee. Broke my heart!

Galveston 2009 (Post 6)

4 generations...great grandpa, grandma, daddy, and daughter

Grandma Chris, Kaylie, Aunt Jennifer, me, and Great Grandma Jo.

Great Grandma Jo (in pink), Grandma Chris (green), mommy, and daughter.

On Tuesday night we went to a Rudy and Pacos. It was absolutely delicious!

Grandma Chris bought Kaylie this duck. It quacked, lit up, and sprayed water. Kaylie loved it. (Wednesday)

With 2 disabled family members an elevator is required to get to the main floor. Kaylie loved pushing the buttons.

Wednesday was our best day at the beach. We spent way too much time out.

She ran up and down the beach pushing this thing in and out of the water.

First time to feed the birds. If you feed one they will all come!

Bow courtesy of Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Terry. They gave her a bunch for birthday and she looks great wearing them.

Gray Area

First thing this morning our absolutely wonderful GI doctor called us with Kaylie test results from her upper endoscopy. The two main things they were looking for were eosiniphilic esophagitus (EE) or thrush of the esophagus.

The first time Kaylie had this procedure done she had just turned 1 and everything came back perfect. This time some things had changed. Dr. An told me that she has esinophils in her esophagus. These are the white dots that he saw when he did the procedure. Last time she had 0 this time she has 15. This is where we come to the "grey area." 20 is the magic number that would diagnose her with EE and since she is so close he and the pathologist are conflicted. Most likely these are there because of her excessive vomiting and her esophagus is angry at her but we have to do several things until we can know for sure. We will have to find the right combination of medications in an attempt to empty her stomach out faster and keep her from vomiting. The medications she has been given have been know to cause more vomiting so we are giving it with a dose of Zophran which helps with nausea. Since Kaylie tends to reject things a week or two into something new we will have to give it time to work. If this works we will add one more that will also help in emptying her stomach. It will be a process.

If she does not stop vomiting that is where the second possibility comes in. Since her numbers are just shy of 20 they are not ruling EE out. Vomiting can be a sign of EE which is why he requested the test to begin with.

What does all this mean?!? Dr. An and I have agreed that Kaylie is not your typical child. She has never done things according to the book. I asked Dr. An if it was typical for the numbers to go up and he said no but with her anything is possible. It is possible that we may have tested her right at the beginning of all of this. Again, it is not normal that they change but she did go from 0 to 15 in a year. He said that we will do another upper endoscopy again in a few months and if it is EE the numbers should be much higher.

Overall the results were helpful but incredibly frustrating. It makes me question the issues with the Russell Silver. If she does have Russell Silver it would cause her to throw up as welll. It makes me want to go ahead and just pay the money to test her for that. At this point it would be worth it and relieve any doubts we may have. At this point we need the answers to help us stop hunting for what we think might be wrong. Time will tell as to what we are going to need to do. Right now I need to be blessed with some patience because it is starting to really get to me.

Finally!!!

Do you know what this picture means?!?

We are now 20 lbs.

20 lbs. 6 oz. to be exact. Now she can face forward and I think it is weird for all involved. It is so nice to be able to see her and know what she is doing. Way to go baby girl!

We turned her around yesterday and as you can see she is clutching her animals and babies. Although she doesn't seem scared or over stimulated she continues to hold all of her toys. The worst part comes when something falls. Before she was able to reach it. Now it falls to the floor and the weirdest screech comes from her. She is starting to realize once it falls it will not be back any time soon.

The picture below was taken as we were getting her ready for bed. She decided that no one was allowed to close and look a door for privacy. She kept sticking her fingers under the door to get Jason's attention. Now that she is able to reach and open doors the lock has become our best friend when the other parent is around allowing us a little privacy.

Update

Kaylie did great this morning. We decided to give her the loopy juice which is supposed to make them forget what is happening. This is the funniest thing ever. She was laughing and giggling like crazy. She wanted to walk instead of sit in our arms but was to spaghetti like to stand. When she was sitting she was obsessed with her shoes. At one point she had me laughing so hard I had to give her to Jason to hold in fear that I would drop her. Hilarious!

We took her back a little after 8. They have you go into the room with her until she is out. The procedure only took about 15 minutes. Afterwards Dr. An came in to talk to us. He told us it was most likely nothing but he did see some white dots in her esophagus and stomach. He used his water tool to blast most of it away making him think it is dried spit but not all of it went away. This could be a sign of Eosiniphilic Esophogitis or thrush of the esophagus. It could also be something as simple as the dried spit and be absolutely nothing. Because of the white spots he took a few extra pieces of tissue to biopsy than if her esophagus/stomach had been spotless. He hopes to get the results by Thursday but with the holiday I do not anticipate getting them until Monday.

My poor baby girl

5 out of the last 6 days Kaylie has thrown up during/after a feed. Up until now she had been doing better and all of a sudden it hit us like a mac truck. The worst part to all of this is that her explosive fits have changed form. Before it was open mouth out it comes (exorcist like) and now it is in the form of a retch. If you have not experienced retching I do not recommend it. I have not been bothered by her eating issues until this started and all I can do is close my eyes and hope she can get over it sooner than later. Because of all of this and a few new things that she has been doing with her feeds we are going to have another upper endoscopy tomorrow morning. The crazy thing is I talked to him today he scheduled it for tomorrow. That is good service. He told us that their is a chance that the things they were looking for last June could actually be here now. That means they are looking for the Eosiniphilic Esophagitus again as well as other issues that can cause mass exodus of her meals. He also mentioned that it could have to do with her Advair. Occasionally oral steroids can cause thrush of the esophagus. I am actually curious to see if this is it. This would explain why she had a random yeast (sorry too much info) infection a few weeks ago without having been on any antibiotics.

Please pray that she will do well with this procedure. I honestly do not think they are going to find anything major. The only thing I think might come up would be the thrush of the esophogus. That would be an easy fix. Please pray she handles the anesthesia well. I am not too concerned about it. This will be her 4th time to be put under and it is a short procedure.

We will have preliminary results tomorrow but then they will send of a sample to be biopsied. We will let you know once we find out.

Random stuff

1 of 4 posts - I know...I know...I am way behind! Sorry I guess we are having too much fun!

This post is basically a bunch of random things that I have been wanting to tell everyone. Enjoy

With my new stay at home mom status I have been concerned/massively stressed about Kaylie's development. She has learned so much at daycare and gained a lot of her ability to enteract with others there and has gained increasing control of her motor skills as well as her ability to process new information.

Thankfully, I have been pleasantly surprised at the increase in her speech. She went from knowing 40 words while only speaking 10 to 15 of them to saying 2 to 3 word phrases using words we had no clue she even knew. If someone else was listening they would still think she was talking jibberish but being her mommy and daddy we can pick it up. Occasionally it may take her 10 times before we figure it out but once we do we are totally shocked.

Here are some of the things she has said...

* more bites
* my turn
* get ball
* see ya
* mommy's shirt
* daddy walk
* thank you
* daddy sit
* she can say all of her numbers (will repeat what we said)

Other things...

* She has started singing songs she hears on the tv or the radio. She only knows certain emphasized parts but once she hears it she will repeat it immediately. She will also try to do the hand movements even though they look nothing like what the tv is doing. Gotta love it! I am thrilled she is attempting it.

* I am trying to hold off on potty training until summer is over. The only problem is she comes running over screaming, grabbing, and pointing about going to the bathroom even though she has already gone. She does not care where we are or who we are with (not that I expect her too). Once she even pointed and started to discuss it with me. I am not ready for this stage!

* She is on the verge of figuring out how to use her feet to climb up things. Her arms are ridiculously strong and she is starting to try to pull up and us her feet to climb up. I pray she stays in her crib for at least another month or two. I am not ready for her to be in a big girl bed.

* When it is time to go to bed and she does not want to she will get on the couch and say, "I sit, I sit."

* She will grab your and and drag you where she wants you to go. Since we are curious as to where she is taking us we humor her.


I love this picture. Doesn't it look like they are about to kiss?!?

Her walrus face. I will be interested to see if she is working on her two year molars. She has started putting things in her mouth again.

The other day we went outside to play. When we do this I go ahead and water the plants using the pool water. After the first time I did this she decided it was her turn.

At one point she decided to hold off on watering the plants to take a drink of her own. It slightly grossed me out!

I took this picture of Kaylie and Kalie yesterday at the Wiggly Play Center. They had both come down the slide and Kalie fell to the floor. Kaylie thought it was funny so she joined her laughing. I realized this picture was similar to some of the ones we took when they were just a few months old. It is crazy how fast time flies.

The Wiggles

Yesterday we went to the Wiggly Play Center. This time it was not as crowded so Kaylie was not as overwhelmed as she was the first time. After about 20 minutes and some help from Felicia and Kalie we got her up into one of the smaller play gyms. I knew if I could just get her in she would be fine. Sure enough it worked. After showing her how to get over a few things she became unstoppable. At first I sat at the top to make sure she could get up and then after awhile she went up without any help what so ever. As you can see by the video I was shocked at how strong her arms are. The other kids were tall enough to throw their legs up. Since she is short she used her arms. I fear climbing out of her crib is not far behind.

Happy Father's Day

It has been two years since Kaylie has been born and still it is weird when Jason and I realize that we are mommy and daddy to a beautiful baby girl. It cracks me up because we find ourselves wishing someone else Happy Father's/mother's day before we realize it pertains to us too. I know I reminisce about Kaylie's past probably way too much but my goodness...Father's day 2 years ago our little baby girl was celebrating her 1 month of life weighing shy of 2 lbs. It makes us appreciate these holidays even more. We love you so much baby! We hope you had a wonderful day! Kaylie is so incredibly lucky to have you for her daddy.

Kaylie meets baby Garrett

Last week we had a visit from Jason's cousin Russ, wife Deanna, and their little baby Garrett. We have been so excited about meeting him. With Kaylie's immune system it has been almost impossible to travel so we were thrilled when they told us they needed a place to stay so they could house hunt before moving back to the Dallas area after serving 8 years in the military. It took a little bit but after awhile Kaylie was so excited to have Garrett here. Anytime she would hear him she would stop, look around frantically and repeat baby over and over. So adorable. We are so excited to have you guys so close. We can't wait to watch the two of them grow up together.

RF and FAC

This past week has been incredibly busy. We have had a lot of fun mixed with a lot of dr.'s appointments and therapy sessions. Monday we swam, Tuesday we went to My Gym, Wednesday was Kindermusik, Thursday was Wiggly Play Center, and Friday was library. Tires me out just typing it!

Saturday night I was able to go with Way Way to see my absolute favorite country group Rascal Flatts. I have loved them since the first time I heard them on the radio. I like them soo much Jason sent me and Jolie to Vegas for my 30th to see them so when I heard they were coming to Dallas I knew I had to go. This year the concert was at the Superpages.com center. This facility was outside so with the heat it made for an interesting night. Jason was glad Way Way wanted to go otherwise I would have had to drag him. Thanks Way Way I had a blast!


Sunday was a family day. What an awesome day! We spent the first part of the day at home. We ate breakfast that my wonderful husband cooked and played some games while Kaylie napped. Later that afternoon we went to the pool at the Frisco Athletic Center for the first time this summer. We were worried about how she would react but after about 10 minutes in the big pool she was trying to jump in on her own. We ended our night with dinner at Babe's...Yummy!


Random funny...Anytime Kaylie plans on leaving somewhere without permission she will look at you, blow you a kiss and then say bye bye. It is usually followed by her closing a door, going down the stairs, or walking into another room. Today she did all that adding a "see ya"to the end. We sat there not really believing what we had just heard. It absolutely cracked us up! She is really starting to say a lot of random phrases. The only problem is it is hard to understand most of them.

When the husbands are away...

...the wives will play.

This past weekend the guys took their annual trip which means that the wives get together with the kiddos to hang out. In the past few years the wives outings have changed drastically. They went from hanging out at the pool, staying up as late as we wanted watching movies and eating junk food to changing diapers and crowd control. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Each year a new little one is added to the mix and each year it gets better and better.


This is one of my favorite pictures! They do not look like they are toddlers. They are so grown up looking.

I am blown away at how well the two of them play together. When we walked into the door Fletcher was in his high chair and yelled "Kaylie" before he even saw her. I know they have to grow up but they need to slow down just a little. I remember when we thought a raspberry was cute.
Another one of my favorite pictures. My baby girl is no longer a baby!

They decided the bathroom was the "in" place to play. Kaylie brought her chair in and sat down with a book while Fletch read his book in the corner.

We did not see the need to take to cars around town so we put them both in Jolie's car and went to the Dallas World Aquarium. If you notice Kaylie is still not facing forward. It should be an incentive for her to hit 20 lbs.

The Aquarium was fun but disappointing. It is incredibly cramped and is not designed well for strollers. You end up having to wait in line to see anything and when you finally get your turn you have to cram into this small space just to be pushed out be others trying to see. If we go back it will not be for many, many years.

I know she doesn't look it but she was really happy during this picture. We are standing in front of a waterfall and I do not think she was too excited about having drops of water fall on her head.
Andrew, Fletcher, and Kaylie

After nap time we went outside to play. I love this picture. Kaylie dropped her paci and Fletch picked it up for her and put it in her mouth. She was shocked when she realized she now had a mouth full of sand.

Mr. Bear and the wagon

We decided to take Kaylie for a walk in her new wagon. Since a girl can not ride alone Mr. Bear joined along for the ride. He was very well behaved. He decided to sport his sunglasses to show Kaylie how awesome it was to wear them outside. Once we put his on hers quickly followed. We were shocked to see her keep them on for a good 15 minutes.

Kaylie and the dogs were watching a bunny that was hiding in a bush. Mr. Bear took this opportunity to catch some rays.