My bedtime prayer by Zoe

Tonight when John and I were putting Zoe to bed we followed our typical routine of brush teeth, read a book or two, say prayers, and finish with singing a song (almost always Jesus Loves Me). Zoe surprised us by wanting to say her prayers by herself. She has never wanted to do that before. Her first prayer went something like this.

Jesus loves me
Jesus loves me
Bible
Thank you for Grandma
Thank you for Uncle Mike
Thank you for Nana
Thank you for Papa
Amen

I was surprised at how well she did, and that John and I didn't make the list.

Sophie's Progress

Sophie has made a lot of progress in the last 3 months since doctors figured out what was causing her to not want to eat or drink.

She has reflux, which was diagnosed when she was 3 days old. She is on Prevacid and Zantac to treat it. A couple of weeks ago the doctor had us try to take her off her morning dose of Zantac. After 4 days of fitful naps and crankiness, we put her back on it. Since she still visibly refluxes almost every day she will stay on both her medications for now. The doctor still thinks she will grow out of it and not require surgery. She is in the 4% of children that don't grow out of it by 1yr.

She had her first Barium Swallow test in August to help figure out why she stopped wanting to eat very much and drink at all when she was 10 months. The test showed she is silently aspirating when she drinks or eats thin, half-nectar, and even sometimes nectar consistency liquids and solids. She had some penetration of the airway, but did not aspirate with honey consistency. The outcome of the test was that we have had to thicken all her liquids and solids to at least nectar consistency.

She had her second Barium Swallow test yesterday morning at Cardon Children's Medical Center. She didn't tolerate this test as well as the last one, but they were able to get her to drink (from a spoon) enough to determine she has had a small improvement in her swallow but still silently aspirates with thin and half-nectar consistencies. She didn't have as much penetration with the nectar consistency as last time. So until we repeat the test in 3-4 months she has to continue to have everything thickened to nectar.

She has increased her drinking over the last 3 months but still does not drink nearly the quantity recommended to gain the weight she needed to make up and continue to grow. In a typical day she will drink 8 oz of milk. Some days are less. We have found ways to supplement, such as making her oatmeal with half-n-half to get extra calories in her.

When she was in to see her Ped GI a couple of weeks ago she was up to 19 lbs 11oz (14 months old). The doctor and I were very happy with her weight gain and she moved from the 5th percentile to the 10th in weight. She is back up to the normal range for height which explained why she grew out of almost all her clothes. I will count that as a blessing!

She was cleared from speech and physical therapy about a month ago. She took her first steps just before 13 months and is walking well now. She walks everywhere instead of crawling. She has also started to talk - more than just dada. She actually said Mama before Zoe (who talked really early). Her new word is "up". She is also doing better at her sign language at meal time. It is a wonderful thing when they can begin to communicate.

Race for the Cure 10-10-10

John and I completed our first 5K run together on Sunday, October 10th. We set out to prepare for this race with our friend Audrey several months ago. I joined a workout group in June in an effort to get back into better shape after having the girls. During class we started running some and then more and more. In the beginning I pretty much hated the running parts of class but after a couple of week began to like it more and more.

Kelly and Audrey

The Susan G. Komen race is a cause I really believe in, so Audrey and I decided we would work toward being able to run the 5K. For me that seemed nearly an impossible goal since I couldn't even run a mile in high school. John started helping me run. Even with all the trials with Sophie over the last 3 months, John and I or Audrey and I found some time to run.

Starting the race

We woke the kids up early on Sunday, fed them in the car and drove to downtown Phoenix for the race. I knew there would be a lot of people, but it was amazing how many people were there wearing pink and race bibs. Our race started at 8:20am but we didn't even cross the start line until 8:25 because the line was so long. We finished the race just before 9am. The girls did great! We ran nearly the whole race. At times it was hard to run because there were so many people. It was a great personal and family accomplishment to cross the finish line. We plan to make it an annual race for our family.

Running in during the race

Sophie playing after the race

Zoe playing by the stroller

Sophie's Surgery

Sophie in her gown in the pre-op room

I am happy to say that Sophie's surgery for her tube placement and her Laryngoscopy went well.

Sophie started her day very early at 5:15am so that we could be at the surgery center by 6am. Her surgery was scheduled for 7am but the doctor was late because he was treating a patient at the hospital next door. Sophie was a trooper even though she was very tired and hungry. The anesthesiologist took her back at 7:30am. They initially put her to sleep with a mask for the tube portion and then they started an IV to administer more anesthesia while they did the Laryngoscopy. The procedures took about 35 minutes and then doctor came out to talk with us.

Dr. McKenna said he suctioned out a lot of mucus from her ears before he placed the tubes. He explained that because the mucus had been removed she will all of a sudden hear much better which may be alarming to her when she wakes up. Then he showed us the pictures he took from the Laryngoscopy (pretty cool). She has a little redness at the opening of her esophagus which would be expected with reflux and she has had a cold. He actually would have expected to see more irritation than he did. Her vocal cords look great and have no damage to them. Her epiglottis which is what needs to mature more to correct her swallow defect looked good with no abnormalities.  We are so thankful for a good report.

She was still trying to wake up when they brought her to us in the recovery room. She still had her IV in and was hooked up to a monitor. After about a minute or two she became very unhappy. She was a little better once they removed the IV from her foot but was still disoriented and pretty unhappy. After about 25 min in recovery we were able to leave. She stopped crying once we left the building and went to sleep in her car seat almost immediately. She slept almost 3 hours and then was awake this afternoon for a little while - ate well and played. Still a little tired from all the activities of the morning so is back to sleep.

John and I are so grateful for all your prayer and support. We were thankful for good staff and doctors this morning. (The anesthesiologist told Sophie this morning that her doctor (Dr. McKenna) was the doctor for a lot of rock stars.) It is certainly an answer to prayer that she doesn't have any damage or serious irritation to her voice box or esophagus with how severe her reflux is. Praise God!

The Big ONE!

It is hard to believe a year ago I was holding a baby girl that was only a few hours old. We loved her from the time we found out I was pregnant. That love and awe of her has grown over the last year. Her first year has had its challenges, but her laughter and smile are so contagious.

Watching Zoe and Sophie's relationship grow has been so rewarding. Zoe loves her little sister and wants to show her how to do things all the time. This morning she was so excited to play with Sophie she kept asking to get her up from her nap.

We had a great birthday party. I made her a giant cupcake cake and several small cupcakes. Sophie's cupcake was vanilla since we have learned she does not like chocolate, at least not yet. My friend Audrey came over to help make some of the decorations and Sophie's Happy Birthday sign. We had a great turnout of friends and family to celebrate with us. Sophie liked her cupcake. I think she really likes the cream cheese frosting the best. Zoe loved helping Sophie open her presents.


Happy 1st Birthday Sophia!


To view all photos from Sophia's birthday visit our Flickr page.

Queen Creek Olive Mill

John had Monday, July 5th as a holiday since the 4th was on a Sunday this year. We took the day to spend it with the kids and took a trip to the Queen Creek Olive Mill. Sophie and I have been there a couple times with some of my extended family when they were here to visit earlier this year, but John and Zoe hadn't been.

It is a pretty interesting place about 30 minutes from our house in Queen Creek, AZ. They have an olive orchard with some of their youngest trees on-site. The olive oil they sell comes from their much larger orchard that is about a mile away. It is a great place to see how olive oil is made. They have a wide variety of products for purchase including a vanilla bean olive oil, chocolate olive oil, chili olive oil and roasted garlic olive oil. That is just a sample. I bought the garlic olive oil several months ago and loved cooking with it. They also sell olives of course as well as many types of tapenades.

The restaurant on-site sells some really good food. Because it was so warm on Monday we ate inside but in the cooler months it is great to sit outside at a table in the orchard. Zoe eyed the gelato when we first walked in, so it took a little coaxing to get her to finish the PB&J I had brought for her. After lunch and walking around a bit, she asked for ice cream. We took her to the counter and offered her a sample of the strawberry cream gelato. She wouldn't even taste it and pointed at the chocolate and says "that one". Well, what can I say -- she loves chocolate. Thankfully she hasn't learned to ask for it at home, yet. So we decided to let her have her own small cone and not worry about the mess. Good thing -- because she was a mess. It required a trip to the bathroom, removing the clothes, a complete wipe down and a new set of clothes. No big deal, she had a great time and doesn't get treats like this very often.

John even decided to let Sophie have a taste of ours. Unlike her sister at this age she already loves ice cream. Zoe wouldn't eat ice cream until nearly two because she thought it was too cold. She also didn't taste it for the first time until after one.

The olive mill has a small garden in which they grow vegetables that they use in the restaurant. They also have some of the biggest sunflowers I have ever seen.
 

Garden at the Olive Mill

A few of the giant sunflowers on the property

We had a great trip and time with the kids. John and I almost felt like it was a mini-vacation.

4th of July and Family Fun

Sisterly love

We had a great 4th of July holiday. We spent the morning at church and running a few errands with the girls. After naps we headed to my sister-in-laws (Alisha) birthday celebration at her moms house. We had a great time with family and Zoe loved playing hide and seek with all the cousins. Happy Birthday Alisha!

After the party we headed home to put Sophie to bed. We let Zoe stay up to watch fire works for the first time. A church less than 2 miles from the house was having a fireworks show so we  were able to sit in comfort of our own backyard and watch them. They started about 8:30pm and lasted till 9pm. Zoe was really not too sure about them. She was scared of the loud noises so she sat in our laps the entire time but she did enjoy watching them by the end. After they were over it was off to bed for her, about and hour and half later than normal. She did great.

The 4th is also John's dads birthday. We didn't get to celebrate with him since he lives in New Hampshire but John did wish him a happy birthday on the phone. Happy Birthday dad!

It was a great day to reflect on how great our country is and how blessed we are to have our worldly freedoms living in the United States as well as spiritual freedom in Christ. Even with all the political issues in our country we still are very blessed and I am so thankful for that. I thank my dad (Army), Uncle Mike (Marines), grandpa Crowley (Army), and my grandpa Brusch (Navy)  for serving our country. And for all the other men and women who have served and are serving our country we are indebted to you. Thank you!

Happy Birthday to us as a country!

Zoe

Sophia

FRED'S PLAY ROOM

I and probably all my cousins can remember grandpa's (Fred) play room. The play room is located in the basement of my grandparents house and is an amazing model railroad. It features all the houses my grandparents lived in while my mom was growing up, I think 7 in all. They are amazing replicas. It has mountains, tunnels, and even a long bridge.

My grandpa used to run the trains for us when we were kids, and I remember he spent a lot of time in the basement working on the model railroad. Since he passed away nearly 15 years ago, my Uncle Mike has taken it over and has completed more of it. It is a work in progress.

While we were at grandma's house for our weekly visit, Uncle Mike was working on the railroad so we took Zoe downstairs to see it for the first time. She was in love. Uncle Mike even ran the trains for her. It was great to see the smile on her face and ask "Where did it go?" when the train would go into the mountains.

The trains in grandpa's basement continues to bring joy and amazement not only to Zoe but also to me.

No longer my baby

Zoe started sleeping in her toddler bed this weekend. We assembled her toddler bed, which we have had for months. I bought it on Craigslist long before Sophie was born thinking we would move her out of the crib before Sophie was born. We realized a couple of months before my due date she was just not ready to move out of her crib. She LOVES her crib and sleeps so well in it.

On a whim John and I decided to put the bed together and she how she would do on Saturday for a nap. She did pretty well going to sleep in it, although we didn't think about the fact the bed is under two windows so she spent some of her time in bed opening and closing the shutters. I had to go up after about 10 minutes and remind her it was bedtime and not to get out of the bed. She wasn't getting out of bed to play with her toys -- oh no -- she wanted to get out on the side and climb in over the foot board, my little climber. She slept really well until she fell out. John and I were concerned about that because she moves so much when she sleeps still. She still does laps around her crib at night. So she got scared when she fell out and that was the end of her nap -- still about an hour, not bad for the first time. We ended up putting up a guard rail that is meant for a twin bed that we got from Jeanetta. It actually fits perfectly the entire length of the bed so she can't fall out. This also makes it feel a little more enclosed for her which I think is what she loved about her crib. In time, we will try to remove the guard rail in hopes she learns to not move as much when she sleeps.

Last night John and I were out and my dad put her to bed in her new bed and she went to sleep without a problem. Slept all night and woke up a little early this morning and again played with the shutters. My hope is the novelty will wear off after a while.

Again today she napped and is sleeping in her bed tonight. This afternoon I had to go in a remind her again it is nap time, not play time. But after that she settled down and went to sleep for her normal two hour nap.

This started because when Zoe was at Veronica's, her babysitter, on Friday she slept in a toddler bed rather than the normal pack-n-play. Veronica said she did great, so John and I figured maybe she is ready. John thought maybe now would be a good time to try it since she does nap and go to bed without any problems. She actually asks to go to bed occasionally.

I had a hard time with her sleeping in the "big girl" bed last night for two reasons. It made me realize she is growing up and no longer my baby. It was also uncomfortable know she can get out of bed and roam around her room and the house. Until we can gate her room we decided to lock her door tonight. I am sure in time I will get more comfortable with the idea she is up and possibly play in her room while I am sleeping.

Peach picking

Yesterday the kids and I along with Trenton, Kristen and Alexa, loaded up in the car for a trip to Schnepf Farms to pick peaches and apricots. We managed to fit three car seats across the back seat for the three girls and then Trenton climbed in through the back of the car to get in the seat in the 3rd row. We still even had room for the peaches and groceries on the way home. I am amazed how much fits in the car sometimes.

We had a great time. We went about 9am so that it wouldn't be too hot - it was about 90F. The mosquitoes were much worse than the heat. I think Zoe, Trenton and I walked away with who knows how many bites - we have red bumps all over our legs and arms.

Sophie wasn't too enthused about picking peaches since it was her nap time but she was a trooper and let us have fun picking the peaches. Zoe needed some direction to pick the ones on the tree, most of which weren't low enough for her, rather than picking them up off the ground. I think she had a pretty good time. Zoe has enjoyed helping me make things with the peaches. I am trying to figure out how I am going to use all of them. So far I have made peach puree (aka baby food) for Sophie and peach tarts tonight for dessert. We have also eaten several of them because they are so juicy and flavorful - way better than any peaches I have bought in the grocery store. I still need to come up with another idea to use the rest of them.


All in all, I deem peach picking as a successful adventure with the girls (and Trenton). I think both girls will enjoy it even more next year. We may even pick some apples and plums later this month although it may just be too hot by then.

To view all the peach picking photos visit our Flickr website. 

If you are interested in picking your own peaches, apples, plums, etc you can visit the website for Schnepf Farms.

Tennessee

At the end of April, we took a trip to Tennessee to visit John's mom, Linda, and his grandfather. It was Sophia's first plane trip. We left early in the morning and thankfully were able to get Sophie to take a short nap in the Moby wrap in the airport. The kids did pretty well on the plane ride. Sophie was a little fussy toward the end of the flight since she was tired. Zoe had a great time looking our the window, eating snacks, reading, and watching Finding Nemo.

After arriving in Nashville and a quick lunch, we were off in the car for the 2 1/2 hours drive to John's moms house. Thankfully, both kids slept most of the trip. John even got to take a nap.

After arranging and re-arranging Zoe ended up sleeping in a pack n' play in the office area of the house and Sophie ended up in a pack n' play in the laundry room. Zoe actually asked to go to bed the first night and did great all night. Sophie, on the other hand, had some trouble getting to sleep. John's mom slept on the pull out couch in the living area and John and I were in her bedroom. She is so nice to give up her queen-size bed when we come to visit.

The next day we spent some time outside playing with the kids. We played some baseball (toddler style), ran around, and played with pinwheels. Sophie hung out on the blanket most of the time playing with the edges of it and the grass while watching us. It was pretty windy that day, so thankfully the shop provided some shelter.

That evening we went to Jerome, Linda's cousin, to see all the animals and have dinner with them. We has some really good BBQ, yum. Zoe really enjoyed feeding the fish in the pond, petting the goats, and riding on the cow. Sophie looked around a lot but wasn't too impressed, still just a little too young. It was a great visit with them.

That night was the start of a couple of days of rain and lots of flooding. The kids slept through the crazy thunder and rain just fine but I didn't sleep much. We spent a  lot of time indoors playing, and when the rain would let up briefly we took a walk outside. We even got caught in the rain one evening when we walked down the street to James and Martha's house to visit. They ended up driving us home after it started pouring.

Sophie on the tractor at James and Martha's house

We took a trip later in the week to Maggie's farm, Linda's aunt. They own a lot of farmland and some really big farm equipment. Usually we get to take a look at the farm equipment and Zoe got to stand in the wheel well of one of the John Deere combines last time, but this year it was too wet. There was a lot of flooding all over TN. Mary Beth even tried to come up to visit one afternoon but wasn't able to make it because some roads were closed from the interstate up to Sharon, TN where we were.

Flooding from the storm. The river overflowed and covered the farm land.

Nashville got the storm after we did and had severe flooding. The interstate was closed for a couple of days, but thankfully it opened the morning we needed to drive to the airport in Nashville. We spent a lot of time trying to find out if we would even be able to make it to Nashville to make our flight back. Since they opened the interstate the morning we left, we were able to get to the airport without a problem.

The flight home was pretty good for John and Zoe. She went to sleep within 30 minutes of takeoff in John's arms since it was her bedtime. Sophie never did go to sleep which made for a very exhausting flight home for me trying to keep her happy in the back of the plane.

We made it home and all in all it was a great trip! We wish we could make the trip more often to visit Linda and granddaddy.

To view all the photos from our trip visit our Flickr website.

Sophia turns 6 months - half way to ONE!

Well, it is hard to believe it was 6 months ago that we were in the hospital delivering Sophie. I am continually amazed at how fast the time goes with the kids. Unfortunately this past month has been filled with quite a bit of sickness for Sophie and for Zoe. Sophie spent nearly the entire month sick with either complicated bumps or a double ear infection and fluid in her lungs.

Despite all the sickness she has learned to sit completely on her own, tasted her first solid foods, and is grabbing things including mommy's hair and Zoe's toys.  She also got her first taste of snow this month.  She's spending more time outside in the Arizona winter - enjoying that while we can before it gets >100F.  She's still sleeping (mostly) thru the night when she's not feeling too sick - for which we are both very grateful.

Sophie also got a surprise visit from her Auntie M in February - Mary Beth and Lee stayed the night with us on their adventures en route to Memphis.  We had a really good (albeit brief) visit with them, and they loved seeing both the kids- Zoe for the first time since she was 7 months old and Sophie for the first time.

To view all her 6 month photos click here.

Bumps and more bumps

I am writing this post as a log of the events that happened while Sophie was sick.

On Monday morning Jan. 25th I noticed 4 small red bumps on her right leg and 2 on her left leg. Didn't think too much of them but wanted to keep an eye on them throughout the day. By that evening they were still there and a little larger although didn't seem to be bothering her. Several more appeared over the next 2 days. By Wednesday the 27th she had probably at least ten on her legs and two on her arm and one on her face. I took her to the doctor that day. Three providers looked at her and determined it was most likely bug bites, but could possibly be folliculitis. They prescribed Amoxicillin as a precautionary measure in case it was folliculitis. John and I didn't agree with it being bug bites since Zoe didn't have any but weren't sure what was going on. She was running a low grade fever of 100 degrees F everyday. She was also pretty cranky and wanted to be held if when she was not asleep.  I took her back to the doctor on Friday the 29th because the bumps and spread more to her arms and hands. She als had many more on her legs now. Some were clustered together with the entire area very inflamed and red. There were other single bumps also. A couple on her legs were looking very angry and welt-like.

Photos taken 1/28 of right (top) and left leg (bottom) 

At the doctor visit on Friday we saw our normal PA we usually see. He asked the doctor to come in a look at Sophie because he was unsure what they were. Our doctor thought they were most likely a herpectic virus. He said it could be a staph infection but not likely. He changed the antibiotic in case it was a staph infection to Cephalexin and also prescribed an antiviral medication (Acyclovir) in case it was a herpetic virus. They told me she may get a few more bumps over the weekend but by Monday she shouldn't have anymore and should be getting better. They also wanted us to take her to the ER if her temp went up to 102 - 103 degrees F.


On Saturday she seemed to be feeling a little better and some of the bumps started to go away. We thought we finally were at the end of this but then on Sunday that changed. She slept a lot Sunday morning. I had to wake her up after nearly 4 hours. She was pretty warm so I took her temp and it was 102 degrees F. She had more bumps and a couple were getting pretty bad again. She also had one on her face now. Tylenol brought her temp down to 100 degrees F and we kept an eye on her the rest of the day.

Photos taken 2/1/2010

On Monday (2/1/2010) morning her temp was 99 degrees F so we decided to wait on calling the doctor again and see how the day went. By 2pm she was pretty cranky again and her temp was back up to 102 degrees F. I called the doctors office and talked with the nurse. She consulted with the doctor and they wanted us to take her to the ER. I called John to come home from work and my parents were able to come stay with Zoe.

We decided to take her to Phoenix Children's Urgent Care rather than the ER near our house in case she had to have any procedures done. We wanted people who deal with infants all the time to take care of her. So glad we did.... We were in and out of the urgent care within 2 hours. The doctor came in, talked with us, looked her over good and then left the room. When she came back she had a huge medical book with her. She showed us some pictures and then laid out her theories on what was going on. Her most likely guess was Gianotti-Crosti Syndrome which can be caused by many different viruses. It lasts between 2-6 weeks. Her next thought was in line with our pediatrician - a herpetic virus. Her final idea was a MRSA infection mainly because my mom has a MRSA infection in her foot. None of us could figure out how she would have been exposed to it from my mom but they wanted to treat her for it to be safe. They also drew blood to do a CBC and a blood culture. Her CBC numbers were good and we got the culture results back later that week - everything was fine. The doctor changed the antibiotic to Clindamycin to cover MRSA and left her on the antiviral medicine.

She already had diarrhea from the other anitbitoics so the pharmacist recommended giving her a probiotic supplement. We tried getting that in her with cereal but she really wasn't interested in eating cereal or nursing much. We had her on the Clindamycin only 2 days before we stopped it. It seemed like it was making her more sick. She didn't want to eat and had 5-6 diarrhea diapers a day. Her tummy was bothering her so much. We decided the danger of keeping her on it was more at this point then having her on it for something we all didn't think was very likely she had. After about two days - so by Friday the 5th of Feb - she finally started feeling better from being on the antibiotic. The bumps were noticeably starting to heal by Thursday the 4th.

Now about 3 weeks after the first bumps she still has discoloration where several of them on her legs were. She also still has some scabs. Her arms look really good and you can hardly even tell she had them. I am sure in a another week or two her legs will look back to normal.

She had about two days of feeling better before she started coughing and has another infection. Well, that is another story.

Oh the relaxation and snow - what a great weekend!

What a great weekend in Pinetop. We spent Friday night through Monday morning with several of our friends at one of their parents' cabin in Pinetop. There were 4 couples and 3 babies. The babies did great playing with each other, mostly looking at each other since only one of them is mobile. Sophie and Maddie are a day apart and Timothy is about 2 1/2 months older. He is getting around pretty well.

There was still quite a bit of snow up there from last weekend's storm and it snowed on Sunday morning. We introduced Sophie to snow for the first time. She did pretty well with it but didn't appreciate the cold. The weekend can be summed up as relaxation with great friends, LOTS of food, and Super Mario Bros.

Zoe and Lily spent the weekend with my brother and his family. She loves playing with her much older cousins. I hear she had a great time.

View more pictures on Flickr - click here.