Summer 2016

I. Suck. At. Blogging.

Has it really been nearly 6 months?! Oops. So much for that new laptop making things easier. There is so much to catch up on! First, we're just ten days from Elodie's second birthday, and just 9 days from my first day back to work! I was rehired to my school district back in May, and I will be working Monday-Thursday each week in two different schools as a school psychologist. I am excited to go back, although as my two years of "leave" with Elodie comes to an end, it's definitely starting to feel bittersweet. My mom is coming out to help me with the transition, so Elodie won't start daycare until the 22nd. We found a great in-home daycare that is really close to Brian's school. We're hoping she loves it!

Noah will be going into first grade this year. He loved Kindergarten, but being a first grader means he gets to play on the "big playground" so he is pretty excited about that! His reading has really taken off, and I'm thrilled that he's so excited about being a reader. He is still our very talkative, very outgoing little guy and I love him to death.

Elodie is a typical almost two-year-old nightmare toddler. She has big opinions, but also huge amounts of love for the special people in her life. Over the past six months, she has made amazing developmental leaps. She went from calling shoes "lows" to speaking in 3-5 word sentences. She asks questions like, "Why Noah sad?" and makes comments like, "I don't want diaper!" (As she runs away giggling.) She is a feisty little thing who is almost always either making me laugh or pulling all my hair out. In terms of her hydro, we haven't had any complications. (Knock on wood!) She had an MRI shunt series back in May which looked fine, so we'll follow up again in November or so. And as for her g-tube, we haven't used it since February. We are talking about pulling it, but want to see how she'll do with daycare germs and puking bugs. Her most recent swallow study showed progress, but she still needs her fluids thickened to "nectar" consistency. My worry is that a puking toddler won't want to drink thickened pedialyte when sick. Hopefully she won't get sick at all, but if she does I want to see how she'll do before we remove our trusty back-up device.

This summer we went to Minnesota as usual. We spent a week at my parents' cabin over the 4th of July, and then a week with my in-laws. We finally got to meet our nephew Lincoln who was born back in September, so that was pretty special. It was a great trip! I even got to meet another August 2014 mom that I've been talking to for years on BabyCenter. It really is cool how the internet can bring people together!

And last but not least, back on June 13th, we said goodbye to our furbaby Gilbert. After two years of managing his diabetes, and a year of being almost totally blind, we felt it was his time. Hopefully he's found a sunny spot up there!

Our annual visit to the Rhubarb Festival.

We've done lots of evening walks at our local state park.

Our annual family photo at the lake!

My little beach baby

At the lake!

With the in-laws!

Minnesota never disappoints!

I hope anyone still following me is doing well! I miss this space and community, but most of us are rarely here anymore. I used to be upset by people who fell off the face of the internet, but I totally get it now! Life is crazy with kids! And I wouldn't change it for the world.

Gilbert
August 16, 2003 - June 13, 2016

Eighteen Months!

After turning in my work laptop in August, I started using our external hard drive to blog, but that was a pain. So please excuse the long hiatus. Thanks to a tax refund, we were finally able to buy a new laptop, so here I am.

Little Miss Elodie hit the ripe old age of one-and-a-half today. My baby is now a full-blown toddler! How is that possible? 

Elodie is full of personality! She loves everyone that loves her, and expresses her affection with hugs, kisses, and cuddles. She likes to hug my legs and lets out the sweetest little "mama" when she cuddles anyone. The other side of Elodie is quite sassy and opinionated. If she doesn't get her way, watch out! She has been known to hit, scratch, and bite. When she is really upset, she will bang her head onto the wall, floor, or something else hard. It's a terrible habit that I hope will eventually be replaced when she is better able to verbalize her feelings. And speaking of talking, Elodie currently has about 25-30 "words." I use that term loosely because many of her words sound identical and we rely on context to understand them. There are other words, such as "low" for shoe, that only we as her parents understand. However, she does have some other words that are fairly clear and obvious. I keep waiting for her to use something for Noah, but so far he has no name. 

In April we will have her 6 month review with Early Intervention. Her OT was here today and we both agreed that we won't continue past that date. I'm hoping we will qualify her for speech-language services though, due to my concerns about her receptive language and her articulation. It's bittersweet to graduate from OT since we love her therapist, but it's also pretty amazing! Elodie is not just walking, but running and climbing on everything in sight. She has figured out how to open our lever-style door handles. Nothing is safe! So yeah, motor skills are no longer a concern. Her current OT goals now revolve around eating. Well, in the last week and a half, we have stopped using Elodie's g-tube. I finally decided to take the leap and see what she would do without it. As I suspected, she was more than happy to drink her thickened milk/Pediasure blend and eat all of her meals. Some nights I will push an ounce or two of water through a syringe for extra hydration, but that has been it! It's amazing how much this girl loves to eat considering how difficult it all started out for her. Most nights I think she honestly eats a bigger dinner than Noah. Despite her enthusiasm for eating, she is still only tipping the scales around the 15-20th percentile. We had a nutritionist come out last week and she weighed her at 20lbs 4oz, and measured her at 32 inches. We are supposed to recheck in a month to see how she is doing now that she is not using her g-tube. Fingers crossed for a slight gain! Oh, and Elodie recently sprouted about 5 new teeth, including 3 molars. That seems to be helping her successfully eat a larger variety of textures.

There is so much more I could say about how awesome Elodie is, but instead I'll sum it up like this. If someone would have shown me a crystal ball 18 months ago and given me a peek of how things would be today, I would have dropped to my knees and cried tears of joy! It's pretty remarkable to having a living miracle in my presence every day. She truly inspires me! Some days I still can't believe she exists and that I have been given the honor of being her mother.