Happy Birthday!!!

Today is Arianna's birthday. I can't believe she is already 2 years old. I haven't had time to post videos or pictures but we had her party on Sunday. Here is a picture I did take of her today.

I'll post more when I get some time.

The early interventionist came over today and we went to the little park by our house. Of course I forgot the camera but she had a blast like always. At the end of our visit I asked if we could take December off and she said yes. Have to admit it's great to know Arianna is doing so well we can take a whole month off from seeing her. :) She'll call me after Christmas to schedule a visit in January.

The only therapy we will have in December will be her speech therapy. We don't see her ST until December 9th and that will be an entire month without therapy, due to our therapists schedule, so she will be pleasantly surprised to hear all the new words.

As for myself...we'll I'm studying away trying to get prepared for my final on Friday. I'm a complete wreck about it at the moment. The hardest part is waiting 2 weeks for my results. At least that gives me time to clean my office. For those that have seen it know it really needs to be done.

You won't believe it...but....I went roller blading today with Arianna. Of course she stayed in the stroller but I pushed her around the walking trail at the park twice. Yeah for me!! For a kid who really doesn't like the stroller, she loved it. She was actually crying when I told her it was time to go. Guess the wind in her face felt good (Sorry Kathy, I know Isaac doesn't like the wind) Looks like I finally found a way to exercise, get out of the house, and do something fun with Arianna. Just don't expect any pictures of this ordeal cause I will never let it happen. Can you believe I was using the same old roller blades I got when I was little. Good thing my feet haven't grown. :) I'm going to try and go out again tomorrow. Arianna's early interventionist wanted to meet at a park anyways because we are having such great weather.

Fun at the park!

Since we are isolated again we decided to head out to the park for some fun outdoor time.

Ari with her Daddy

Sitting in a tree for the first time. She even ate a few french fries while she was up there. It was so funny cause she kept asking my mom to put her up there and of course my mom wasn't going to say no. LOL! You need to realize where she is sitting is about 6 feet off the ground. :)

Ari with her Mommy!

Ari touching the leaves. She loves when her Daddy lifts her up like that.

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Videos

I thought I would post a video so you can hear a little bit of her talking. She says "da-do" for angel and it's just so cute!

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Look at You Now

Thanks to Steve for posting this on his blog. This is a wonderful video filmed at the Cardiac Unit at Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

This is Mark O'Shea singing "Look at You Now."

***Scroll to the bottom and stop the music so you can hear this song***

Nutrition appointment yesterday

I finally finished with the course I was taking but still have to take the final. Needless to say I've been taking it easy the past few days...I really just needed a break.

But we did see the nutritionist and OT yesterday. This is really the scale I go off of because she is completely naked and accurate everytime. Are you ready....she officially weighs 22lbs 2ozs! That is a 1lbs 2ozs weight gain in 2 months! Her height was 33.1 cms which is a 3 cm gain in two months. This puts her just below the 10th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height. It's so nice to have my baby higher on the charts finally. :)

Thats about it going on here. We spent a nice relaxing day at home. Arianna fell asleep at 5:45pm and woke up about 9pm ready to play. *sigh* Looks like she'll be up for awhile. Oh well...good thing she can sleep in since tomorrow brings another relaxing day. Daddy on the other hand has to be up at 4am for work so I better go spend a few minutes with him before he's off to bed.

Venting

Okay...I just need to vent for a second. We took Arianna this afternoon to get her first round of synagis and the nurse giving the shot was sick. Can you believe this? First I need to expain that this is not a doctors office just an office they rent out since their main office is in Phoenix. She was going on and on how she started getting sick on Thursday and Friday it was horrible. Then tells me the coughing started back today. I gave Robert the look and he just shook his head. So when I got home I called their main office and told them about this and they were very upset. The director told me she is very thankful I called because they never get feedback on their Tucson clinic. I told her I know alot of new parents don't speak up and wouldn't even know who to contact to address this. Arianna is the oldest child they are seeing for Synagis so I feel responsible to look out for these families in a way....I know it's silly but I do.

Nothing but good stuff in this post :)

Helping mama clean.

She loves helping me in the kitchen.

This was the only way I could get her to eat for 2 days.


Too cute!

As you can see she is doing just fine. Her runny nose stopped the following day. However, I woke up with a little head cold probably just due to the weather change. Can you believe I actually pulled my jacket out last night.

Tomorrow I take Arianna in for her first round of Synagis. I know she won't be happy about that but it's for the best.

I almost forgot to tell you all....this weekend Arianna's talking has really taken off. I keep a list of words she can say for the speech therapist and I just added all her new words in it tonight and she can say.....65 words!!!! She can say seven 2-word sentences and one 3-word sentence, which is "help me up" (when she wants to help me cook). I really think keeping this word list for Arianna has really helped me out. I'm starting to work on putting the words I know she can say into sentences and have her practice saying them. I'm also starting to teach her more signs again because I've really backed away from it lately. It's amazing in one afternoon she picked up 4 new signs. This kid is amazing! She is really into saying different letters so we are working on saying and signing letters with her right now. She's also doing really good with her colors. It just amazes me how much she picks up.

And one last thing....Arianna went potty in her toilet today!!! I haven't pushed potty training because she's been working on her speech more lately. Well the past few days shes been telling me when that she needs to go potty...yes she can say "poye" so we go sit on the potty. I walk away for a minutes cause she likes her privacy...isn't it funny already and she needs privacy...and she runs up clapping and saying "yeah". She is growing up so fast. *sigh*

Arianna started with a little runny nose today. Go figure...you go to the doctor for a check up, healthy, and you end up getting a runny nose. I just hope that's as far as it goes.

Tomorrow Arianna gets to go spend the afternoon with her Grams and Bepa and I'm excited to get a little break. I honestly can't remember the last time I was home without her. I will be using this time to study, study, study, so it's not a real break but close enough. I feel like a horrible mom for being excited about having my daughter spend a few hours away but I guess all moms go through it. She is just such a hand full lately. So Mom...you better be ready. ;)

Pulmonology appointment today

Today was our appointment with the pulmonologist. I have to brag on how good my little girl was. Normally she cries through the measuring process but not today. She was a total angel. She weighed in at 21 pounds 13 ounces, which is up 13 ounces in 2 months. Not too big of a gain but it's a gain so I'm taking it. :) Her height was 33 inches, which is up 1.1 cm in 2 months.

Then the resident doctor came in to get a history....normally I don't mind when I have to talk to them but today was just irritating. I understand everyone needs to learn but sometimes I just wish they would read the patient history before assuming what was done/or wasn't done. This was our conversation:


Resident: So when is she having heart surgery?
Me: She had surgery when she was 6 months old.
Resident: So she's done? (seriously I thought it was only non medical people who asked this.)
Me: No...she will need a pulmonary valve in the future.
Resident: So when will that be?
Me: Not sure. Cardiologists don't give you a timeline.
Resident: So she had like a shunt put in? (her exact words)
Me: This is where I explain she had the full repair but she needed me to go in further details to explain everything they did to her pulmonary valve. Guess for curiosity sake.
Resident: Just looked at me with this "WOW" look on her face.

Not sure if she gave me that look because of everything I knew or if it's because I'm just a heart mom and she's the freakin resident and I had to explain everything when all she needed to do was take a few minutes to review the chart. Sorry it just really irritated me today.

So after our brief conversation she did her physical exam on Arianna and I was so proud of my little girl. She did everything the doctor asked, including opening her mouth which she never does.

The pulmonologist comes in and he was so sweet and pleasant to her. He picks her up and puts her on the table and starts his exam. The entire time she is all smiles and lets him do whatever he wants to her which including making her lay down and she normally cries when they do that. The resident kept saying she's amazed that shes only 23 months old cause she is so well behaved. Yup...that's my little girl. YEAH RIGHT...only for them. LOL!

So the doctor said she sounds good but wanted to get a chest x-ray to compare to the previous 2 films which had some changes on them. Since Arianna is healthy at the moment (crossing my fingers it stays that way) I took her immediately to the other clinic for x-rays. The doctor should be calling me next week with the results.

We are to follow up with him in 3 months, earlier if she gets sick. He is a little concerned about the fact that her August cold caused her sats to drop in the 80's and be put on O2 at night. He really doesn't want to see what a winter cold will be like for her so he told us to be cautious and not take her anywhere populated like the mall, stores, etcs. They did check her O2 sats when we were there and she was satting at 96% which is what I've been getting at home.

I did ask about taking her up to the mountains and possibly on an airplane (not sure if we can even afford it, but in June is the Mended Little Hearts convention in Florida and I really want Robert and Arianna to come with me). He said we can take her for a trial run up the mountain but we have to bring the pulse ox and oxygen. He just stop at the first rest stop and check her sats, if she's good then we can go to the next one, so and so forth. If she can hold her own at 7,000 feet then she is good to go on a plane. He said if she does require oxygen at that level it's okay cause we could always arrange for oxygen on the plane. (Kathy your the first person I thought of when he said this.) He also suggested maybe taking a train ride to Florida but I'm not so sure about that. He did say even though her sats may be borderline at a higher elevation while resting we have to take into consideration that physical activity will make it worse.

As for me....I've just been busy studying. I'm hoping to take my final in two weeks. I'll be so happy to have this course over with and look forward to working as a medical transcriptionist starting next year!

Arianna LOVES her big brother!

This is what I came home to this afternoon....

Arianna covered in marker.

Then we went to the little playground by our house.

By the time we left she was able to go up the stairs and side down all by herself. I had my camera with me that can also take video, so the quality isn't that great but I just had to share.

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~Happy Halloween~

Here's some video I took last night. Make sure to scroll to the bottom and pause the music so you can hear her little voice. Don't mind the very end of the video, I was taping over Robert's airplane stuff (and yes he gave me permission.)

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She was so tired my baby girl fell asleep trick or treating

She did wake up once we got back to Aunt Lissa's. She made out with alot of candy and had a blast! I have to say Halloween is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. Having kids sure makes this holiday so much fun! :)