Galveston 2009 (Post 3)

Her get out of my way face. At times her stroller is used as a weapon and has to be put in time out.

She was good at entertaining everyone. She gave us all many things to laugh about!

One of our famous arm out pictures. You can get the best pictures this way.

Were working on mastering this skill with all three of us. This was one of our first successful attempts. It is hard to get her to look for let alone to get a smile.

Mommy and her daughter.

Our family...Happy 4th!!!


I took this while we were downstairs grilling. We were waiting for the meat when Jason began to play with Kaylie. I didn't do anything special. It is probably one of my favorite pictures from our trip.

I thought daddy might appreciate seeing his little girl in his chair playing with the X-Box controller. She did not know anyone was watching.

Kaylie tends to take interest in what we are eating but when you offer her some of your food she refuses. Surprisingly, she tried Jason's cocktail sauce. We are not sure if she liked it or not because of the face she kept making but she continued to take bits. We were all in shock!

Two amazing men...Papa and Jason


Kaylie worked on building her comfort level with everyone through her fist bumps. She did not give hugs willingly for a day or two. Instead she would "fist bump."

Galveston 2009 (Post 4)

Even her Ruff Ruff knew how to "fist bump."

Aunt Jennifer and Grandma Chris

We caught her watching the neighbor's dogs. They had 6 of them!!!

For our 2nd attempt at the beach (Monday) I tried to put a hat on her. For the most part I had it on her and it stayed on her. After seeing the look of distress and look of anger in her eyes I decided it wasn't worth it. She enjoyed herself so much more after it was off.

Now she has become some what fearless. She fell a few times, stood up and kept on going. We made sure to stand next to her at all times. This little thing could easily get swept away with the smallest wave.

She loved playing with her beach toys. For once her toy was used for its intended purpose.

I put this on because of how small she looks in such a big ocean. I love this picture!

Splash, Splash, Splash!!!

This was one of the only times we let her run out by herself. She saw her daddy and away she went. No fear!

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.