Guess What I'm Eating...

We are also trying to expose Mia to alot of diferent textures and tastes to help with her sensory issues. So, I offer her anything we are having (even some spicy things). And to add as many calories as possible, we are trying to get her to dip her foods in things (ranch, etc...). And dipping also strengthens her fine motor skills....

She continues to do great with her fork and spoon... So, what's she eating?? Maybe whipped cream or....?? nope. It's sour cream! YAH!!! I love sour cream and apparently so does Mia because she'll eat it by the spoonful!!!!!

The Big Burger!!

Mia's so big....and so is the burger we got her at BJ'S recently. She vacillates between wanting to hold the food herself and having it torn into little pieces. So, I thought we would try a burger. Needless to say, we ended up tearing it into pieces, but she was a good mimic when Aunt Cathy showed her how to take a bite..... And then there is always the "Chucky Face".......

A Big Red Bird

Well, here's the girls. Needless to day, the girls and I love Red Robin and recently, the Big Red Robin was there. The girls were really good sports about posing with (him/her/it?). Mia liked the Red Robin from afar, but anytime it would come near her, Mia would freak out a little. But, the girls have had a busy summer so far. The first week after school got out, they went to Sports Camp at the University of Redlands. Each day they did traditional (tennis, soccer, etc..) sports, non-traditional sports (football-dodgeball, land/sea/air) and swimming. The very next week was church camp. Annie stayed in a cabin with the girls and Sis. Tina and Sis. Dondra and such a great time. Annie went to church camp every year before we moved but she vaguely remembers, so it was a brand new experience for her. Scott stayed from Tuesday through Friday night and helped out building the derby cars (there is a CampTown Derby Race each year.). By the time the girls came home, though, they were FILTHY!! Mia and I stayed home--yeah, I woosed out. I decided to keep her home--but she ended up getting the appointment with the Occupational Therapist moved up to that week, also...... But, we are going next year, for sure. Christina and Samantha are getting ready to go into the 7th grade and just turned 12 a few weeks ago. It's really hard to believe that they are so grown up!! School for all three girls starts the 13th of August--2 days after we get back from Wisconsin!!

Coming soon.....

will be a new post. I'm off school for the summer and I had planned on blogging like crazy, but alas, I have not! But, the Lord has blessed and we're all doing well, and the REAL plan is to blog this week.....really.

Why it's important to tell mom when something hurts!

So, some of you may know that Annemarie was in the hospital. Well, first we were in the Emergency Department and then the hospital. Last Wednesday morning, Annie was saying that her tooth on the upper left was bugging her. So, I took a look and didn't see anything but I made her an appointment for Thursday morning at the dentist. Well, Wednesday night when she and Scott got home from church, I noticed that her cheek was a little swollen--but still nothing when I took a peek. Anyway, when she got up Thursday morning, she was a little more swollen so off to the dentist we went. He took an x-ray and noticed a little shadow around the roots of a baby tooth, but the tooth itself looked fine. So, we started her on antibiotics and made an appointment to take the tooth out (we had to get the infection down so the local anesthetic would work.). Oh, and I guess I should mention that Mia started running a fever Wednesday night and so after we took Annie to her appointment and Mia napped, we took Mia to Urgent Care and got HER antibiotics for double ear infections!! Poor thing..but, she's doing great, now. Well, then it was back to the house and I just had Annie rest for a bit. Well, when she got up to the table to eat, I looked across the table at her and couldn't believe what I saw--the swelling had gone up under her eye and was starting to move across the bridge of her nose.

So, it was off the Loma Linda University Medical Center Emergency!! I wanted to go there because I knew that they have a dentist on call and I was hoping we would run in some antibiotics and take the tooth out in the Emergency Department. So, here is Annie in her bed in the ED looking horrible, I know......

Here she looks VERY tired because we arrived at 7:33pm, got called back at 9:45pm and waited in the hallway (Annie slept on a gurney) until 11:45pm when we were finally put in a room (he even slept through the trauma that was right next to her!!). At about midnight, the doctor came in and sounded like Annie would get an IV, a CT Scan and then get the tooth out...... She got the IV at about 1am and then it was off to CT (and let's just say that the IV was put in with the help of two nurses... :-( The CT showed that there was an abscess around one, maybe two baby teeth but that the infection had spread up around her eye and was also moving toward the midline of her face.

So, they gave her her first dose of antibiotics at 2am and then we slept for a bit. I didn't realize it until we woke up, but it wasn't until 5am-ish that the dental resident came in. And that's when she decided Annie should be admitted. SO, I ran home to get some things while Sis came down and sat with Annie and then we were moved upstairs to the Adolescent Acute Care Unit of LLU Children's Hospital. Annie then got antibiotics every 6 hours and had her vital taken every 4 hours. She was allowed to get up and move around so we went to the playroom for a bit and then went to the Activity Room for a movie (National Treasure 2) Friday afternoon. She had some visitors (Bro. Wiggins, Chris, Grammy, Aunt Cathy and the girls, Nic and Kay) and went to get a bite to eat at the cafeteria with Scott and I.

And then she was discharged Saturday afternoon. This is Annie in her bed getting her last IV antibiotics while watching TV (of, course!). She was very brave considering everything and was very cooperative with all the people who came in to see her and mess with her..... Yesterdy, we went to the Pediatric Clinic at LLU School of Dentistry and had the 2 suspicious baby teeth taken out with the help of a little nitrous oxide :-) Again, considering the size of the teeth (2 molars), she did great!! She is now on antibiotics for the next 9 days and the swelling is 99% gone. She's back at school and doing well. While we were sitting in the ED on Thursday night, I was asking her if her tooth had been bugging her for awhile and she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess..." Finally, she said that it would hurt and then go away and she would forget to tell me and then it would hurt again and stop, etc, etc, etc.... So then we had the discussion about how important it is to tell mom ANYTIME something hurts!! ;-)

The Girls

Last month, Tony took the girls to Disneyland for an Uncle Tony Day. YAH!! So, we was able to get a picture of the love when they got there....

Then, Scott and I took them about a month later. Disneyland had a special offer and you could go back for free within 30 days, so that's why the girls lucked out with two trips in one month ;-)

And this is all of us standing in the "C" over at California Advernture. It was the first time I was able to ride the rides at California Adventure (I was pregnant with Mia when we went last). It was hot, but we had so much fun!!!

It's been so long....

And here's Mia in all her glory ;-) She is getting very big! Here's the stats: she's 24lbs., 8 oz and 31 1/2 inches tall. She now has 14 teeth and she's working on 2 more. She has been officially out of hibernation for a month now and is doing well. She does get rather antsy in church because she hadn't been in church in about 6 months. But, she'll get there. She's been enrolled in the Early Start program (the early intervention program in CA) and is doing well. She was evaluated in March at 17 months, 14 months corrected. She was falling anywhere from8 to 13 months, depending on the skill with some skills hitting at 18 months. She's still not walking and is wearing holes in her pants and pajamas in the meantime! We think (and her teacher agrees) that it's more of a confindence thing. Her doctor is happy with her muscle tone, etc., so we're trying to help her gain more confidence with some tricks from the physical therapist.

As you can see she is able to get off and on her zebra by herself......

and then it's down to her knees!!!

So she's going to be evaluated again by the physical therapist in June and we're waiting for an appointment for an evaluation by occupational therapy (fine and gross motor skills). Her teacher, Netti, comes to the house once a week with different toys and techniques to get her on track. Her verbalization is getting much better--Uncle Tony and Aunt Cathy are excited because she will say ca-ca. yah. ;-) But, she is also saying mama, dada, baby (at least it's the sound she makes when she wants her baby) and bubba. But she's also making so many more sounds than she was before. We are very proud of her......She is still on medication for reflux and has another appointment with the GI doctor in a few weeks. I'm hoping to finally be rid of that medication. God has truly blessed us!!

Poor Kona

Mia likes to get in Kona's crate, much to Kona's displeasure!! But, she's really cute, even if the photo's a little grainy! I'll try to get a photo of her locked in (heeheehee).

Another Trick

Awhile ago, Mia figured out that she could put things on her head. And then she figured out that she could do it with food.

Here she is, so proud, of the pears on her head......

But, then I had to clean her up and so we decided to give her a mohawk.....

and then a sprout! She still doesn't have alot of hair, but it works.....

She's found the TV

Well, Mia has never been very interested in television, which I have been fine with (unless I needed to shower or something!). But, now she's found it. Right now, her favorite is VeggieTales and the basketball playoffs, yes, basketball. So, one morning, I went to get some coffee and the news was on. I came out of the kitchen and this is what I found.

Mia was in quite a mood on this morning. She brought me her sandals and wanted them on and then took a sweater out of the clothes bag that doesn't fit for me to put her on. Whatever, she was happy. I love it when she lays on her tummy. It makes her look like she's so big.

Then she spotted me and and I got "The Look"!

Break Time

I'll take this break to share a little about how my sister is doing. These are her feet while we were out shoe shopping with the girls last weekend. She loves these sandals and buys them every year in various colors like white, brown and black. Well, we had already been shopping for quite some time when we realized she had on one in each color. Of course, I took a picture (heeheehee). But, this is how she is .....poor honey can't even put on the same shoes....ahhhh ;-)

Don't let that grin deceive you! Inside that sweet face is a little stinker!

Mia's been working on some of her fine motor skills, including using silverware (notice no bowl or plate.....she throws them so they don't stay on her tray for too long--I told you! ;-) )

Anyway, she is doing very well. Depending on the food, she's very good at getting it on the fork and getting it in her mouth. The spoon, well, we're still working on that!!

This is the face that I get quite often. Please feel free to post a comment and tell me what you think she's saying....I have my own ideas that I'll share later....

March for Babies

As some of you may have known, we were able to participate in the March for Babies fundraiser for the March of Dimes. As it was our first year, we arrived early to check everything out. There were two walk distances to choose from: a 2 1/2 mile "stroll" and a 6 1/2 mile walk. So, we decided that, because I knew it was going to be warm, that we would do the stroll this year. We looked at the map and I noticed that everyone started out in the same direction and then there was a split. (Go ahead....you know what's coming!) Well, because the walk started at Riverside Community College, I was extolling to my nieces the importance of a college education and, yep, we missed the split. Before I knew it, we were well on our way to walking 6 1/2 miles through Riverside on one of the hottest days we had had up to that day. The girls, however, were very excited and assured me that they would be fine. So, off we went. There were a few difficult spots, but we ended up having a really good time and seeing some beautiful parts of Riverside.

There were some booths and one of them was NICU trivia. The question the girls picked was, "What does NICU stand for?" They knew an so they got a little blow up ball, beads and temporary tatoos. You can tell by the shadows that it's EARLY!! I think we got to RCC at about 7:40am!! But there were family and team booths to look at and things to see to keep everyone occupied until we headed out!!

Annie and Samantha

Annie and Christina

And here is everyone at the FINISH LINE!!!! As we crossed the Finish Line, there were volunteers who were handing out "We Did It!" stickers. Well, the girls thought that if we put the sticker on Mia's head then she wouldn't eat it.....they were right, she didn't!

I have to say that I am very proud of the girls. They toughed it out and there was actually very little complaining. At least now we know what to do and not do for next year!