Sunday, March 8, 2009

Angelina is 2 years old!

Ok more like 2 years and 17 days. I can't believe how the time has flown! I am amazed at how well she is doing. Its still bittersweet to think of how difficult those first few months (1st year!) were and how well she is progressing.

What is Angelina up to these days?

She walks all over the place- even stops to jump or dance if the spirit moves her!

She eats well by mouth, even fights us for our food sometimes. Her favorites are pasta, beans, fruit, cheese and she LOOOVES her milk. Oh yes, she recently discovered pickles- yuck!
She sings- its so cute! I'll have to catch her on video one of these times.

She competes for attention with Marcelina and Alex (mainly Alex). To the point that she tries to babble louder than they talk (pleasant experience). Or if everyone is telling a story, she has one to tell too!
She doesn't say too many words clearly. The sad thing is that more and more she is trying to communicate verbally, but it is difficult to understand. But at least she is trying! She use to be extremely quiet-- not anymore! She can actually be pretty demanding-- wonder where she gets that from? She does try to say "I love you" it is so sweet to hear her!
She puckers up big for kisses. And leans into you for hugs.
She can't get enough of Kobe-- especially when the poor guy is trying to rest in his crate. Funny thing is that when I move her away so that he can have some peace-- he whimpers for her.
And her Daddy's favorite: she runs to the door to greet him with hugs and kisses when he gets home from work.
Angelina is so spunky and full of happy energy. We keep a busy schedule too. She still goes to physical therapy twice a week, speech therapy twice a week, occupational therapy once a week, and her early start teacher comes once a week. I'm contemplating putting her in a group class like My Gym, but I'm a bit nervous about exposing her so much to other kids. I recently put Alex in a class there and he LOVES it! I thought he deserved it because he comes with me and Angelina to therapy wishing he had therapy. I'm sure to him it just seems like playtime for her. Anyhow, when I take him to the My Gym class, some of the mom's have other little ones and Ms Angelina is so antisocial with them! She's better with the adults. If one of the other little girls tries to approach her, she either tries swatting them away or is practically growling at them. So maybe we need to work on her social skills a little.
As far as meds we are slowly decreasing how many she is on. Recently her Infectious Disease doctor took her off Septra. (prophylactic antibiotic) I thought about hyperventilating ;) He actually said if I wasn't comfortable with it we could wait to take her off. The thing is she's been on this med since she 1st came home (3 months old) from the hospital. Because of her DiGeorge syndrome she is likely to have a compromised immune system. Kids with DiGeorge can either have no thymus or a partial thymus which will affect how they fight infections. A way of measuring this is by measuring their Tcells. Angelina's have always been on the low side, but the low normal side. If you are on an antibiotic too long, it can actually stop working for you. So for now, we will discontinue using it. Hopefully she does well without it and we won't have to go back on it.
She is still on post-op meds, Lasix and Aldactone. They are suppose to be temporary, so that's a relief. I'm hoping to stop her Reglan soon, since she hasn't had reflux symptoms in a long time. That just leaves her calcium glubionate. Once she's off the Lasix, we can recheck her calcium levels and decide whether she needs to be on it anymore or whether it needs to be adjusted. That one makes me a little nervous too. Angelina had seizures when she was 2 days old because her calcium level was so low (again because of the DiGeorge).
We did see her pediatrician last week, and she is very happy with how Angelina is doing. Our little monkey is measuring 31 inches and weighs 23.6 pounds! I'm pretty sure she was due for poopy diaper though! So maybe she's right at 23 pounds ;0)
Angelina has taken her first big tumble! She thought it would be good idea to run down our driveway. She got a black eye from jumping on the bed!We love getting churros (and being goofy) at Disneyland!Angelina truly enjoyed her cake. She actually dug a hole on the other side of it!Are you sure I'm suppose to hit it mom?Kobe- hoping he gets a go at the pinata!Trying to get 10 kids in a picture is NOT easy!Playing with some of her new toys!

Talking and walking!

That would be I LOVE YOU!

Thanks for checking on us!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Monday, February 23, 2009

A new addition to the family

We have a new addition to our family......
...his name is Kobe We found him at the shelter, looking a little sad,

Marcelina is the first to hold him at the shelter before we bring him home.

Much better....holding a clean Kobe! Kobe & his leopard, we got it in hopes he'd cuddle with it & not miss his brothers and sisters too much :(
He also likes toys that don't belong to him!

Angelina can't get enough of him.....




Poor guy, sometimes I have to rescue him from her!

Except for all the pink, I'm pretty sure he is feeling right at home!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Boogery weekend!

So it figures that as soon as I go back to work Angelina comes down with the sniffles and cough. That was last Friday. Luckily daddy did a good job with the Tylenol and humdifier. She kept her sats up, and she mostly coughed at night. Now its just the occasional stuffy nose. Marcelina had had a bad cough but thats pretty much gone away. Lil Alex you can tell doesn't feel super good, but he doesn't complain. He does though get more cuddly. What i don't get is how the stuffiness doesn't keep him from talking??? How can a little boy talk so much? I don't get it. My hubby came down with it too, but he doesn't complain much (anymore), his head cold also seems to be resolving.
This Friday I finally came down with a fever and was not feeling well at all. I ended up not working my 2 usual days, and staying home with all the sick monkies ;)
Some pictures and videos from the last few weeks:
I don't get it- how & why does so much food end up on the floor???
Look Mommy, what a cute little girl...
She kind of looks like me...
It is me!This is Angelina's "Frankenstein" walk!After her cardiology appointment we always go say hi to the fishies
Angelina was so excited to see them!
Listen to her get all excited:
Is my flower too small? ;)Before I went back to work Alex wanted us to go out and eat...the kids are usually well behaved at restaurants but its a bit tiring for me because for some reason they seem to say "Mom, Mommy" a whole lot more! Anyhow I was tired and not too crazy about going. I'm glad we did, we had a good time and kids cracked me up!
My Cute, silly boys:
Crazy Girls:
Ok so maybe I had a little too much fun with this!
***************
Watch Angelina get all crazy on th trampoline- she loves it!

Oh and for you mommies working on getting the kids to stand and weight bare, check these out:

http://www.chinadirectstore.com/squeaky_shoes.htm They don't have much support because they are little cheapy canvas shoes, but they sure make her want to stomp around!

By the way, check out my monsters @http://www.visitmommyscorner.blogspot.com/ , maybe some of you can give me some tips on my converstation with my daughter...

Monday, January 26, 2009

Angelina is spunky as ever. She's all over the place, and following requests (commands doesn't sound nice:) quite well. She is using her voice a lot more, but its still hard to understand her verbally, otherwise she does let her wishes known. I can't believe we are getting so close to her Birthday already. 2 years old, seriously? When did that happen. Kathy, Isaac's birthday is coming up too isn't it? And Orion too!
Sigh... on Saturday I go back to work after having a month off. It flew but I am so glad, that most of the time was spent at follow up appointments and not in the hospital! I'm a little worried because Marcelina has been home with a fever one day and a bad cough since. Alex just started to cough today. I'm praying Angelina won't come down with it. It's hard enough keeping them away from each other, but I still have to take care of all my babies, so hopefully I don't spread it all around! Hmmm, maybe I should go get more hand sanitizer!
My laptop is also sick, so Alex my hubby is trying to cure it! hopefully I can post some more pics soon. On a happy note: does anybody feel like winning something? Check out these adorable signs!
Check out http://ashnicole1129.blogspot.com/ to get a chance at the cute give away!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Pray for little Angel David's family

I'm not sure where to start, except to say how horrible I feel about not being a better support person and friend. This post is not about Angelina or about myself. I stayed up last night, catching up on blogs that I hadn't visited in a while. When I got to Pray for Baby David, I was shocked to find out, that this family had been through so much in the past 9 days. February 3rd was suppose to be their big day. Instead baby David was born January 12th via emergency c-section. He was here for 3 short days, then went on to be an Angel. This mom, Nikki reached out to so many of us fellow CHD mommies, trying to prepare herself as best she could. I admired Nikki for doing this, for seeking out all the stories good and bad.
And while I was caught up in my own story, I am glad there was so many other families there for Nikki and her family. There is not always a happy ending. I pray each day brings them some healing. Please keep this family in your prayers.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Just a few pictures...

Starting the day off with some milk and some major BED HEAD!

Its easier to clean Angelina up at the sink after meals, but with the high doses of Lasix she tries drinking water whenver she can!

By the way, notice the sunny day? Its been in the 80s out here, if you can tell I live in Southern California ;)

Angelina's facial expressions are a crack up. I guess they make up for how quiet she is sometimes.

Angelina after having pasta Auntie Jessi made for dinner, it was ALL over her face!


Exploring in the kitchen...


Told you it was warm! We even got out to the park.
Proud Marcelina pushing her little sister on the swing.


And we can't ignore the lovely tricks her brother teaches her!

Hope everyone is doing well!