Family trip to Aunt Georgie's

We were blessed with a rare full weekend get away in mid Feb to join the rest of my family at my Aunt Georgie's house.  My Grandmother's birthday would have been Feb. 8 and seeing as how special all our visits to her sister Georgie's house were as we were all growing up, we decided we should all gather there around this time of year.  Family was always one of the most important things to my Grandmother and she would love the fact that we were all able to make a trip to see Aunt Georgie together.

A big thanks to my parents and Kristi&Casey who slept with the kids this weekend and let Mike and I enjoy a full night of sleep without a small child waking up either in the middle of the night or early morning hours.  Too bad I was sick and didn't get to relish this as much as I would have liked.

We didn't do much, which is typically the way it is with these visits.  It's more about just being with each other than doing anything special.  The big guys went to play golf Saturday morning.  Noah, Kristi, and Grandma spent some good time running around outside and exploring.  I really hope we can make some more visits to the lake soon--such great outdoor space for Noah to be a boy!  Though seeing the actual lake this time was a challenge.  When full, my Aunt's house sits right on the lake, but with the drought the last few years you have to walk quite a ways to even get to the water.  The cove her house is in is dry currently. 

The kids traveled fabulously!!  This was Emily's first trip away and first time to spend the night anywhere other than home.  We planned our travel around sleep times so she actually slept for most of the driving (about a 2-3 hour drive depending on traffic).  Noah almost always travels great. 

I sure do miss my Grandmother.  I wish she were here to see her Great-Grandchildren and see how wonderful they are--I know she would be so proud of them.  But I'm thankful that I know we'll see her again and am so blessed that she left us such a family legacy.  She gave us the best gifts--teaching us that faith and family are the most important things in life.  Such a great weekend celebrating the gift of our family!  Love you guys!!

Good morning!!  At least when she wakes you up early, she's really cute!
Thanks again Grandma and Granddad!

So cool that we used to play on this tire swing as kids too

Exploring the great outdoors

Climbing the rockwall at the neighbor's treehouse

Yeah, treehouse. This thing is serious.  It's even wired for electricity and has beds in it.  Crazy.

They found the water!

Love the look on her face, think she's trying to figure out exacly what this thing is

The best way to figure out what it is:  Put it in my mouth!

Working hard on writing his name on all his Valentines.  So proud of him!

Emily 7 months

7 months, baby girl!  That means you're over half way through with your first year already. 

This has been a busy month for you.  And busy is a good word for you these days too.  You are quite the active participant in the world around you now.  You do great sitting on your own now and are trying oh so hard to crawl.  You've finally figured out that by rolling, you can move around so you now go back and forth with ease.  And you've been doing what I call "the inchworm crawl" for almost a month already.  You can move, just not very quickly and not very gracefully.  You scoot around on your belly and can rotate yourself 360 degrees, you reach and pull with your arms, and eventually get your legs up under you and reach some more and inch forward, face plant, half roll, roll back and do it again.  You can move a good 5-6 feet this way but it takes you several minutes to do it.  Once you get more coordinated, we'll be in big trouble.  I think movement is certainly on the horizon.

You have really been such a happy baby lately.  Daddy and I contrast this to the baby you were at 2-3 months of age and it's night and day difference.  We love you still the same but you are much more fun these days, full of smiles and giggles.  You get very happy to see us, especially me (which I love!  It's nice to be adored!), reach for us with your cute little arms and have even started to give slimy but sweet open mouthed kisses.  You seem to adore your big brother as much as he adores you.  You light up anytime you see him.  You seem to be noticing and making the connection between our names, looking for Daddy and brother when I ask you where they are.  Along with the mommy adoration has also come some separation anxiety--this part is a little harder.  When you want mommy, you really want mommy.  And you make your frustration known.  Though it can be hard, it's also another reassurance of typical baby development which is a good thing. 

The biggest and best milestone this month though has been the emergence of your babbling.  Oh how I've been waiting for this one!  On the morning of Sat 2/18, you were sitting in your highchair having just finished breakfast, the boys were loading up to go to the gym, and out of no where you just started babbling "ba-ba-ba, na-na"  Serioulsy I almost cried.  I know that sounds silly, but I was so very excited.  I know you haven't really be delayed in this area yet, but we've been waiting for it for a long time. And with every visit from your speech therapist or auditory teacher when they ask us if you've started this yet, each time I said no, I got a little more worried.  It's hard not to be asked over and over again if you are doing something and not get worried when I repeatedly say no.  So now, to be able to say you've done it, are continuing to do it--it makes me so happy!  Communication with you is going to be a huge milestone for us, so I'm thrilled to see that you've taken this first baby step. 

You're still not super talkative.  And it's hard to know if this is just a personality difference or is at all related to your hearing loss.  Only time will tell.  There are just certain times of the day that you are more quiet and content I think.  And other times you want to talk it up.  We're enjoying both but will keep trying to work on getting you to make those sounds for us.  So far ba, na, da and a few mm's.  None that have assigned meaning to anything yet so I guess that's probably what they'll want us to watch for next.

So what else have you been up to this month?

I look at the list of foods you've tried this month and it goes on and on.  Lots of fruits and veggies.  You've liked everything I've given you so far and have gotten so much better at eating solids.  At the beginning of the month you were still sticking your tongue out alot and it was hard to get the food in your mouth. Now you open wide and get cranky if we're not giving it to you fast enough.  No finger foods yet.  We've tried giving you puffs a few times and though you like them, you still need to work on that pincer grasp some before you're ready for those.  You can get them up sometimes, but most of the time they just stay in your fist.

You're also sleeping much better at night now.  You weaned yourself from the swaddle and now that you decided you like to roll around you like to sleep on your side or stomach and I think this helps you sleep better.  Over the last couple months we've finally gotten into a routine with your nap and sleep schedule and this has proven to be a good thing for everyone. 

A few other highlights: We've had some playtime with friends while we celebrated Ms. Bea's birthday; You slept through a babysitter while Mr. Jay stayed here so we could go out for Valentines day; We had some family time with an outing to Chuck E. Cheese to see the cousins and celebrate their birthdays and also had a great weekend visit with all the family on the Tilton side with a quick trip to Aunt Georgie's. And of course you had your big day of testing at Dell Children's and we were so very pleased to have all good results come from that.

Whew!  It was a big month for you, sister!

As always sweet sister, we love you and look forward to more adventures ahead!

And here are a few more photos for your enjoyment.

Sibling love

Noah always loves to get in on the action when I'm taking Emily's monthly photos.

I love how these two love each other so much.  I only hope they always get along so well!



N-O-A-H

Here's one proud little boy who is learning to master the art of writing his own name!

Valentines day gave us another great way to practice as he wrote his own name on all the little Valentines he made for family and friends this year. 

Way to go Noah!

 

Great News!

On January 30th Emily had some repeat hearing testing and CT scans done at Dell Children's Medical Center.  The hearing test was another ABR (auditory brainstem response)--the same she's had done 2 other times to diagnose her specific hearing loss.  This 3rd test was just to follow up and make sure she's had no change or progression of her loss.  She has not!  Praise God that her hearing loss is stable at a mild-moderate loss in both ears at this time.  Though we would of course have welcomed a divine healing of her ears, we were very pleased do find out that it has remained stable and so she should still respond well to amplification with hearing aids. 

The CT scan was done for two reasons.  One-to look at the structure of her inner ear.  This was to see if there were any abnormalities that might point to either a cause of her hearing loss or that might place her at increased risk of a progressive loss.  Two-to look at her brain again to see if there were any signs of calcifications from CMV (a virus she tested positive for back in September that she was likely born with--it can cause a range of symptoms including hearing loss and we've seen specialists to get her cleared for many of them.  See this post if you haven't been following and want more details:  Emily Update).  All CT scans were NORMAL!  Again, Praise God!

As I'm writing this, I now can't remember if I ever posted that we saw the pediatric opthamologist earlier in January also.  That visit also gave us good news--no signs of damage to her retinas and normal eyesight for her age at this time!  Praise God!

Do you catch the theme here?  Praise God!  We are very thankful to have continued good results from all the medical visits and tests we've encountered with her so far.

You may be wondering why her tests were done at the hospital? Both the ABR and CT require a very still child.  Getting a 6 month old to hold still is just about impossible, so both tests require sedation.  Her earlier ABRs could be done while she was sleeping, but as children get older it gets harder to do this and get accurate results.  Both tests could be done separately with light sedation with gas or oral medication.  But since we did both at the same time (this was our choice in order to limit the number of times she had to be sedated) she required a light general anesthesia.  Which meant going through day surgery.  Not a huge deal, just lengthy and expensive.  My only complaint was the apparent 3 attempts it took to start her IV.  She still has little bruises on her hands.  But thankfully she was already asleep when they did that part so it didn't bother her and really, I do understand from a technical point of view how hard it is to get a successful stick on chubby little babies. 

She did great.  She was such a charmer with all the staff she came into contact with--she smiled, and laughed, and aah-gooed at them.  She was apprently the life of the party when they were getting her settled in the OR.  She cracked us up waking up in recovery.  She looked awake and acted completely drunk--no muscle tone, head lagging but with a huge grin on her face. She'd smile and try to grab at us but had no coordination.  She tried to eat, but again, no coordination so milk just dripped out of her mouth. Then as she really came to, she got ticked off.  Typical post anesthesia cranky baby.  She was fussing and sleepy most of the rest of the day but pretty much back to her normal happy self the next day.  Again, very thankful that all went well and no complications with anesthesia.

Here's our girl all gowned up and ready to go!

Happy Half Birthday Emily!

Happy Half Birthday to You, Happy Half Birthday to You, Happy Half Birthday dear Emily, Happy Half Birthday to You!

Yep, Noah and I sang to you on your half birthday (Daddy was still in Chicago).  6 months baby girl!  You are getting to be such a big girl (in both size and development!).

17 lbs 9 oz and 26.6 inches--both in the 75th percentile.  Your head size is between 50-75th percentile.  You're still hitting all your milestones.  We're waiting for you to babble but for now enjoy hearing all your goos, coos, oohs, ahh, and lots of raspberries.  And the giggles--you laugh more and more.  I think it's my favorite sound!

The first day of your 6th month you finally rolled over from your back to your belly and you haven't stopped since.  In fact, now it seems like you've forgotten how to roll from your belly to your back.  You almost immediately roll over when we put you down on your back and then just lay there on your belly and get mad.  I can't figure out if you don't like being on your belly and can't get back over or if you are mad because you want to be on your belly but want to be moving.  If only we could peek into that little brain of yours. 

Lots of other big developments this month too--you started sleeping all the way through the night consistently(whoo hoo!!).  You go to bed between 6-7pm, I feed you before I go to bed around 10-11 and then you sleep till 6 or 7 in the morning.  Way to go!  I've been waiting for this one since July! You also started sitting up on your own--first just leaning over with your hands in front but have quickly moved to being able to balance ok on your own for more and more.  Still not ready to just be left alone sitting up (you topple easily) but you're getting better and better.

You also started some solid foods this month.  So far we've just done brown rice cereal, oatmeal, and banannas but you're doing well.  For weeks leading up to this you would stare intently and even try to grab at anything I was eating or drinking so by 5 1/2 months I decided it was time to let you give it a try.  I've already made some squash and sweet potatoes for you and hope to be able to continue to make at least some of your foods at home for you (just like I did for big brother!).

We've had some fun things too--of course this month included some big holidays and lots of family time.  It was great to have all the Tiltons and Whites together for your first Christmas.  We spent your first New Year's with the Smiths--you and Caleb stared at each other and weren't disturbed by the fireworks the Daddies and big kids set off at all.  (In fact the big kids were more scared than you!).  You spent some time with the Smiths too so we could go to a wedding and had your first time in the church nursery on Jan 1 when Daddy preached and then again on the 22nd when he was out of town.  We'll look to do more and more of this I think. 

You amaze us with new things almost every day it seems!  Happy Half Birthday little one!  Can't wait to see what this next half year brings!

And since I always have a hard time picking just one monthly photo, here are several to enjoy!

Remebering Great Grandma

Mike's Grandma (his mom's mom from Chicago) passed away on January 16th.  She'd been home under hospice care after choosing hospice over a major surgery to attempt to correct an intenstinal blockage.  She was at home with her family the day she died.  Mike, Brian, Vanessa, and their Dad made the trip up to Chicago for her funeral and for some family time.  They were there Thursday through Sunday that week.  We are thankful they were able to make the trip, spend time with family, and stayed safe while they had 8-9 inches of snow while there on Friday.

This is Grandma and Grandpa Swiderski at Mike's cousin Jennifer's wedding in 2004.

Though we missed him, the kids and I did well with Daddy gone for four days.  This was my first extended attempt at single parenthood and though I wouldn't choose it regularly, it went better than anticipated.  Thankfully the weather in Texas was nothing like the weather up north and we enjoyed 70 degree days giving Noah the opportunity to spend some time on the new playscape in the backyard.  We even managed an outing to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  We took these pictures there and sent to Mike to tell him we were thinking of him and missing him!