May 30: Fun in Indy

We are back home after spending the past week or so with Daniel's parents in Indiana.  While we were there, we had a little birthday party for Isla with his family.

I made these cupcakes and thought they turned out fairly cute.

 I love this picture of Audrey playing dollhouse with Uncle Scott.

 Isla wasn't too sure about opening her presents, but Audrey was happy to help!  =)  Isla got this push car from Mimi and Papaw.

The rest of our week in Indy was fun too.  The girls loved playing with Mimi and Papaw, though I forgot to take pictures, so I have no photographic evidence of that!  We got to go to the Y with Mimi one day and go swimming, which was a big hit with both girls. 

We also got to spend an afternoon with our friends Eli and Beth and their kids Hunter, Gauge, and Lily.  Again, I failed to take pictures of our time together, but we had lunch at their house and spent the afternoon at the park.

Then we also got to see our friends BJ and Kellie and their kids.  And I did remember to take pictures this time!  We got to meet sweet baby Lucia for the first time!

And we got to hang out with Truett, who is the funniest and most adorable three year old boy!!

Audrey had fun playing with Ava.  In the past, the two of them have not always gotten along so well.  But this time, they had so much fun and played together the whole time.  Here are all the kids together, transfixed on the ipad.

Good News for Isla!

We heard back from the endocrinologist about Isla's test results today.  They tested for thyroid problems, growth hormone deficiency, kidney function, anemia, celiac disease, and Turner syndrome (and maybe a few other things that I am forgetting).  And all of those results were normal!!

The only abnormal result was in the bone age x-ray.  It showed delayed bone age, which is actually a good thing.  The x-ray shows that her bone age is younger than her actual age now, which means there is still room for her to grow.  At her height, if her bone age was normal or advanced, that would be more cause for concern, as it would limit her ability to grow in the future.

Her official diagnosis from the doctor was "late bloomer" which is also called constitutional growth delay.  Kids with constitutional growth delay often fall off the growth curve during the infant and toddler years, because they are not growing at the same rate as other kids.   According to what I have read, Isla should start to catch back up to the growth curve in the next few years.  Then she may be delayed in growth/development again around puberty, but she should grow into normal adult stature with no other problems.

So this is great news!  I am greatly relieved to not have to do any more tests on Isla and to not have to worry any more about why she is so much shorter than everyone else her age.  We just have to follow up with the endocrinologist in six months, as they still want to keep an eye on her growth and development for a little while and make sure nothing changes.

May 25: Good-bye House!

We officially moved out of our house yesterday.  It is such a weird feeling.

We had some great friends who came to help us pack up the truck on Thursday night.  (And hopefully all of those great friends will be back again to move it all to our new place!!!)

 Then we all spent the night in an empty house. The girls thought it was fun to eat breakfast on the floor Friday morning!

 Then we sent the girls to a babysitter, and Daniel and I cleaned every inch of the house.  I was not sad at all to say good-bye to those cabinets!

 When it was finally time to leave, it was pretty sad.  And just crazy to think that we will NEVER enter the house again!  After living there for eight years, I feel like I know every square inch of that house.  And our new house, I know very little about!  We briefly walked through it three times, but it will be a whole new place for us to get to know.

 The girls thought it was fun to run all around the empty house.

 And so we say good-bye to our first home...sad to leave, but excited to make memories in a new place!  I just wish we didn't have to wait three weeks to move into our new place.  We are in Indiana right now, and it doesn't quite feel real yet.  It's like we are just on a trip to visit family.  Then I keep remembering that we don't have a house to go home to right now.  Like I said, it is just weird!!

May 21: Audrey's Last Day of School and a Piano Recital

Today was Audrey's last day of preschool for the year!  Her school had a Family Fun Day this morning, with play time on the playground and popsicles for everyone!

Her is Audrey with her class aid, Mrs. Roscetti.

And with her teacher, Mrs. Clark.

And with her Bible and Music teacher, Mrs. Plake.  It's possible that Mrs. Plake is her favorite teacher.

Audrey and her bff Anna posing outside their classroom, the Yellow Room.

Tonight, I also had my piano recital with my piano students.  Not ideal timing with all we have going on this week, but when I scheduled the recital, I didn't know we would be moving out this week!

Between the last day of school activities and the piano recital, I was packing.  Today's big task was to get all the laundry done, and then all of that laundry had to be packed.  My goal was to have everything in either a box or a suitcase, and I did accomplish that.  But it stressed me out.  We have to pack for the 3.5 weeks that we won't have a house, so I had to figure out what clothes me and the girls would need during that time.  Then I had to make sure we had clothes out to wear for the next few days.  And then I put everything else in a box.  Doesn't sound that hard, I guess, but it was causing me much distress today!

Isla's Two Year Pictures

At the spur of the moment today, I decided to take Isla's two year pictures.  It was not ideal.  It was the middle of a bright sunny day, which means not great lighting.  Audrey was with us, and taking along an unpredictable four year old as an assistant is not ideal either.  Not to mention that I really should spend my time today packing, not taking and editing and posting pictures!

But mpix is having a free shipping deal this week and I wanted to get the pictures before Isla's party, so that made today the day!

Audrey was actually a great assistant.  Her job ended up being the briber.  She held a box of raisins, and every time Isla smiled or cooperated, Audrey would give her a raisin and lots of encouragement!

Isla started the photo shoot making this face in every picture.  She is an excellent pouter, and she was not afraid to show off this skill for the camera!

But once we broke out the raisins, we finally started to get some smiles from her!

 

And my assistant photographer also wanted to be in a few shots!  =)

 

And one final shot of the sisters together!

I can't believe Isla is going to be two next week!  And I can't believe that we won't live in this house when she turns two!  Crazy stuff going on around here!

May 18: Daddy/Daughter Date Night

Last night Daniel took Audrey to see a local production of The Little Mermaid.  She got to go on this special date with Daddy because of her improved "report card" at school. 

Even though it is just preschool, they send home progress reports at the end of each semester.  When Audrey got her report after first semester, she had several areas marked with a 2 (on a scale of 1-4).  They were things like "shows self confidence"  and "responds well to changes in routine" and other such things.  Everything that was marked with a 2 had to do with Audrey's confidence and independence (or lack thereof).

But since this day in late January, Audrey had been doing a hundred times better at school.  No nervousness, no tears...she has been like a new girl these past few months.  On her report card, all of the 2s had been changed to 3s and a lot of the 3s had improved to 4s.   I am so very proud of her for changing her attitude, being brave and learning to love going to school by herself every day!

Back to the show, Audrey was obviously a big fan.  When I asked her what her favorite part of the show was, she said without hesitation, "Ursula!"  Those of you who know Audrey know she is a big fan of princesses.  But she is also a big fan of the bad guys in most movies.  Ursula, Jafar, Mother Gothel, Scar, the queen/witch in Snow White...Audrey loves them all.  Not sure what that says about her!

May 18: Another Growth Update

Isla had her follow up with the endocrinologist today.  The purpose of the visit was to measure her height again and see how much she has grown in the past three months.  As always with these types of posts, brace yourself for more details than you ever wanted to hear!

I wasn't sure what to expect.  Based on the way her clothes fit her, I was guessing that she had gained weight, as her belly is definitely bigger than it used to be and she fills out her shirts more.  But her 18 month pants are still plenty long, sometimes too long, on her and this doesn't seem to have changed at all over the past few months.  So my guess was that she hadn't gotten much taller.

And I was right.  She gained almost two pounds in the past three months, weighing in at 23.8 pounds today.  (I'm not 100% convinced on the accuracy of this measurement, as Isla wasn't being very cooperative.  They had to weigh me, then weigh us together, then subtract the difference...and Isla was very squirmy the whole time.)  I don't know what percentile that put her in today, but she has definitely gained weight at a good rate recently.

The problem is that she is not gaining height.  And if she continues to gain weight without getting any taller, that is definitely a problem!  I'm afraid she is going to just keep getting rounder and rounder.  Over the past few months, Isla has grown just under 1 cm taller (they do everything with a metric scale).  She was 78 cm on February 1, and today she was 78.8 cm.  That translates to just barely over 31 inches, and it puts her into the 1% for height.  Her percentile in February was 6%.  She has been borderline on the bottom of the growth curve for a while now, but she has now officially dropped off the bottom. 

So the good weight gain combined with the not very good height gain signaled to the doctor that something is not right.  If she were just "small stature" as we talked about at her last appointment, her weight and height would remain proportionate.  But since her height has almost stopped growing while she continues to eat well and gain weight normally, the doctor thought it likely that something else was going on to stunt her growth.  So she ordered some tests.  A lot of tests.  A lot of tests that are not very much fun for an almost two year old.

Isla and I headed down to the lab, where she first got some x-rays.  This was the second time Isla got x-rays in her short life (the first was for her neck as a baby).  How many almost two year olds can claim that?  Isla did not cry at all during the x-rays, but she was very nervous.  She kept saying "Mama? Mama? Mama?" in a scared little voice.  But she laid perfectly still, and they were able to get all three pictures (one of her arm and hand, one of her leg, and one of her foot) easily.  These x-rays will help the doctor to look at her growth plates and bone age to determine if something is not right there.

After the x-rays, we went back out to wait for our turn in the lab.  Then it was time to get a urine sample and draw blood.  Getting a urine sample on command from a non-potty trained almost two year old is not easy, and we were not successful today.  The doctor said not to worry about it, and if they need to, they will try again at a later date. 

Drawing five vials worth of blood from an almost two year old is also not very easy.  Isla took it like a champ.  The worst part was that they had me hold her down on the table even while they were getting everything ready.  Isla was looking straight into my eyes, whimpering, with the most confused look on her face, like she was saying, "Why, Mama?  Why are you doing this to me?"  It was horrible.

While drawing her blood, Isla cried, but she remained perfectly still which made it easier on everyone.  It felt like an eternity for them to fill up all the vials, though I'm sure it was just a couple of minutes.  Once they finally finished, Isla lost it and just started crying and sobbing uncontrollablly.  It took forever for her to stop crying, and then once she stopped, she just laid still and wouldn't move until she finally fell asleep at home.   She was not happy.  Fortunately, after she woke up from her nap, she was back to her usual happy self.  Poor girl, it was not a fun morning at all!

After all of that, I thought Isla deserved a special treat.  Though she did come home with eight stickers this morning, as everyone at the doctor's office felt sorry for all she had to go through.  Daniel and Audrey went out on a date night tonight (more on that in another post), so Isla and I went out to get ice cream!

And while I am writing about Isla, I finally got a little video of her talking!  Yesterday, she was all of a sudden ready and willing to talk to me on camera.  It's not much, but it is the most she has ever talked in front of the camera!