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