HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, ELLA!!

Our sweet little Ella is ONE!! Happy birthday, baby girl! We love you sooooo much!!

Things are Things

A couple weeks ago I had to break the news to Kaylee that the American Girl doll she really wanted was sold out for good. Basically I told her, "get used to it, there will always be things you want that you can't have," but in much more sympathetic language. Or so I thought...?  A few days later when she was whining that "I never get what I want" I started to tell her the same thing again but she stopped me and said, "I know! I know what you're going to say, 'things are things. Your whole life will be like this.'" Hmm, interesting interpretation. So now when she starts to complain I just say, "you know, Kaylee, things are things..." and she either tries to not laugh or gets mad and storms off. Either way, she stops complaining. :-)

Crawling!

3 weeks shy of her birthday, Ella, with quite a bit of prompting, finally crawled a few steps! Until now she would only ever take one little step on her knees before belly-flopping, lunging, scooting and rolling to get where she wanted. That still seems to be the preferred method of movement, but my guess is now she'll start to crawl more and soon be all over the place. Gate steps, here we come again!

Ella-MRI update

We finally got Ella's next MRI scheduled - for Jan 7th! That's the day both Kaylee and Andy go back to school after winter break. They initially had her scheduled for mid-March, but when we said her pediatrician wanted it sooner rather than later, they said the earliest available was 1/7. We've now left a message for her pediatrician (who was off today) asking if we need to try to get it done sooner or if that date is fine with her. Ella's 1 year appointment is scheduled for Jan 14th, so if we do have her MRI done on the 7th, hopefully the pediatrician would have the results in time for us to go over them at that appointment. So for now, just more waiting!

On another note, Ella is super congested right now, so it's a good thing her MRI wasn't scheduled for this week! It started a couple days ago, but yesterday got worse, then last night she couldn't stop coughing and woke up crying. Jamie steamed up a small bathroom and held her in there for a while around 11pm to help loosen the mucus, then we put Vicks on her and a humidifier in her room. She was back in bed around 11:30/45 and managed to sleep until 8 this morning. Poor thing was pretty miserable today with a red/raw nose. Andy's preschool Thanksgiving Feast is tomorrow and he really wants Ella to go, but I'm not sure she'll be up for it! We'll see how she's doing in the morning. So far so good tonight (more Vicks and humidifier again), but it's only been a couple hours since bedtime.

Another tooth for Ella!

On Saturday I noticed Ella has another tooth!  Looks like it popped through a day or two before that.  The bottom left tooth next to her middle teeth.  So she's up to 7 now!  It's hard to get a peek, but I'd guess the same tooth on the right side wouldn't be too far behind.  She's going to have a whole set of chompers before her first birthday!

Kaylee's ears - update

Kaylee's rescheduled surgery appointment was this morning. Unfortunately it didn't go as well as hoped. There was not any fluid in her left ear, so they did not put in the tubes (or even cut in to look in the right ear). That means her hearing loss is most likely due to something with the ossicles (little bones in her ear) not transmitting sound completely. Fortunately, the loss is apparently not bad enough to worry about hearing aids, so they just want to keep an eye on it for now, and to make sure it doesn't get worse. They suggested having her teachers seat her somewhere that her good ear would be towards the teacher, just to make sure she can follow along easier, but all feedback from her school is great so we don't seem to need to worry about that yet.

Kaylee, like Ella, also seems to get pretty sick from the anesthesia, so she didn't have a very good time for at least 2-3 hours after she woke up. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine before we left the hospital since she was sick at least 3 times while we were there. It seemed to help, but it didn't completely stop her sickness. By about 2pm, though, she was bouncing off the walls like usual and since seems to be completely back to normal. Other than pain medicine as needed, ear drops for a few days and making sure to keep water out of her ears until we see the doctor again (in about a month), I guess we are back to the usual routine with her.

No updates on Ella yet. We need to call tomorrow to try and get the MRI scheduling sorted out.

Recent Conversations with Andy

Some conversations with Andy from the past couple weeks:

Me: Andy, do you have a dirty diaper?
Andy: No, but don't smell.

*****

Andy came up to me with a little stamp Kaylee had gotten at our fall festival.
Andy: Mommy, can I stamp this on my hand?
Me: It's Kaylee's new stamp.  Why don't you put it back and when Kaylee gets home you can ask her; she'll probably let you have a stamp on your hand.
Andy, after pausing a moment to think: Mommy, can you close your eyes?
Me: why?
Andy: just close your eyes and I will go to the play room and come right back.

*****

Andy likes to turn on the lights and fans.  In Ella's room yesterday he turned on the fan and it was already cool in there, so I pulled the chain to stop it.
Andy, in a mad voice: I want to cut that string!  I want to put on butterfly wings and you tape them on me so they will stay and I will fly up to that string and cut that string so you can't turn off the fan anymore!