Happy New Year again!

It is the last day of 2012!

We had a great Christmas with our families but unfortunately it was the Christmas that just kept on giving. Savannah's latest gift? A stomach bug that she probably caught from one of her cousins. After a day of vomiting Savannah is doing MUCH better. She has never puked before and was very upset and confused each time she had to vomit. I felt so bad for her! She did have a great Christmas playing with cousins and getting all of her new gifts. Her favorites are definitely Legos and a Cabbage Patch baby. 

Cardboard box wins every time over an expensive gift!

Gifts from Santa, Mom and Dad.

Just woke up and impatiently waiting for her castle to be assembled.

Always in motion! This is the reason why I still haven't finished her 2yr portraits!!!

Daddy did such a great job on the balcony this year!

An awesome Christmas Day Sunset! (taken while Dad was driving!)

 Now on to those pesky New Years Resolutions again. My resolution last year were to get more exercise and hopefully lose more weight. Well I am happy to say that I started Medifast in September and lost 40lbs by Thanksgiving. Right before Thanksgiving I started an program of jogging and have come to absolutely love it. I have been able to maintain my weight loss with no problem and haven't had to watch what I eat that closely. I have never ever been a runner but it has been awesome. When people say it is like free therapy it is so true! To keep up the motivation this year I plan to run a 10k in Feb, 5k in March, and then the Disneyland Dumbo double dare (10k Saturday and half marathon on Sunday!) in September. Congrats also to my hubby who lost 45lbs on the Medifast system!

Hope you and your family had a great Holiday and that you have a happy (and relatively healthy!) New Year in 2013! Cheers!!!

Now Size 8/10 and before at my heaviest at size 16!

Blood draw time

Savannah's insurance finally approved our request for genetic testing, so today we headed to Children's hospital for the much dreaded blood draw. As we arrived we checked in at the front desk staffed by volunteers. They let Savannah pick out a beanie baby as a gift and after reviewing the selection she picked out a cute little cat. Then we headed to the lab were we given a pager and a forty minute wait time. Since we were all hungry we headed to the McDonalds in the lobby and had a snack while we waited. As soon as we had finished eating the pager went off and we went back to the lab.

We met with our phlebotomist (blood tech) who escorted us back to a quiet room with hysterically screaming children right outside the door! Savannah was quiet as she watched the woman gather the needed supplies. Then I held Savannah while the tech drew the blood. Savannah just quietly watched while the blood was being drawn. Not even a peep or whimper. She was such an amazing, brave little girl. I was in awe. It was so different than any other blood draw so far!

 On the way out we had to stop by the volunteer greeters desk again to get our parking stub validated. The volunteer then insisted that Savannah take another stuffed teddy bear as a present. It was really sweet and Sav was thrilled to have the new toys. Overall it was the best trip to Children's hospital that we have ever had!!!

 

Hopefully in a couple weeks we will get the results back. Today's testing will be looking for Stickler and Marshall Syndromes. Stay Tuned!

Just another wordless Wednesday!

Merry Wordless Wednesday!

*~*~*Wordless Wednesday*~*~*

First day of school!

About two weeks ago Savannah had another speech evaluation. They determined her receptive speech is on track for her age. Receptive meaning she understands what we are saying to her. Unfortunately, her expressive language skills were assessed at a six to nine month level. She still can't make "ba" or "da" sounds and she has very few 2 word phrases (my favorite is a sarcastic "oh, mommy!"). So we were offered two choices. Either she could have speech therapist come to our house and work one on one or attend classes with other children. We thought it would be a great experience for her to have time with other children in her age range. I also think she might learn from being around the other children too.

So this week she attended her first class. Her classes are now on Mondays and Wednesdays for 2 hours a day at a local elementary school. She is in a class with a total of eight students, all with varying degrees of mental and physical disabilities. I stayed with her for a few minutes on the playground and then took a quick tour of the classroom. The teacher offered to let me stay if would help Sav adjust to the first day. I was confident that she would do just fine and decided to leave.

I came back an hour and half later. I met with the teacher who told me Sav did great and didn't even care that I was gone! She did well with the other students and even enjoyed a snack while there. So now that she did great on her 1st day of class she is being rewarded with her first week long break for Thanksgiving!

*~*~* Wordless Wednesday *~*~*

Eye Exam Day

We went back to children's hospital for Savannah's eye exam under general anesthesia today. I was able to walk her back for the first time ever and hold her while she was given the anesthesia. She started to cry as we entered the operating room but was out like a light just a few minutes later. I then made my way back to the waiting room while the doctor did the exam.

It only took about 10 minutes and we were able to meet with the doctor for the results. Bad news is Savannah's corneas are bigger than normal. They measured at 12mm when the average cornea is only 10mm. The good news is everything else is completely normal including the size of her entire eyeball. The concern with children that have large corneas is that it is often caused by excessive eye pressure (i.e. glaucoma/cataracts). Thankfully her eye pressure test came back normal. Whew! Bad news again- She may need to have regular eye exams under general anesthesia a couple times a year to monitor the pressure in her eyes. Good news- she has been recovering from the anesthesia quickly and really likes the post-op chocolate ice cream!

Sav after being given her dilating eye drops.

Enjoying the post-op chocolate ice cream!

*~*~Wordless Wednesday~*~*

Happy Halloween!

It's the baby zombie apocalypse!!

Savannah had fun tonight helping her grandparents hand out candy to all of the kids that visited. She didn't do any trick or treating tonight because she loaded up with candy and other goodies on Monday night during Disneyland's Halloween party. I don't think I have ever gotten so much candy in one night! (About two shoe boxes full of just candy) They also gave out healthy options if you asked. We netted 10 small bags of carrots, 25 bags of Craisins, and a bag of sliced apples. The Halloween party was a lot of fun and I hope we get to go again next year!

Wordless Wednesday Again!

Ear tubes again

This last Thursday we made another trek to Children's hospital for Savannah to get her ear tubes replaced. Originally she was supposed to have her eyes examined and her tubes done at the same time. Unfortunately her eye doctor had to cancel the week before.  Savannah's ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) was scheduled to go on vacation the next week and we couldn't coordinate both appointments in a timely manner so we decided to split the procedures to get them done and over with.

After waking up nearly an hour late that morning we made it to check-in with a few minutes to spare, only to be told that we had no appointment. After some frantic calls to the ENT's answering service, they assured us we did have appointment and the doctor would straighten everything out when he gets to the hospital.

Her ENT arrived a little after 7am. He talks to the staff and we are escorted to the pre-surgery area a few minutes later. As promised Savannah was taken back to surgery at 7:30am exactly as scheduled. Fifteen minutes after that  her doctor meets with us and tells us all went well. After that we thought we had just enough time to hit the Mcdonald's in the lobby before she would make it to the recovery room. Before we even finished our order our assigned pager was buzzing for us to return to the waiting area.

She was being held by a nurse and was somewhat awake by the time we came back to see her. About 30 minutes later they took her vitals again and we were released to go home with no restrictions. We arrived home a little after 9am and she slept solid until noon. Savannah was a little grumpy and tired for about 24 hours but is doing much better now.

In less that two weeks we get do it all over again for her eye exam on November 8th. At least we know what to expect this time and we know that now she is older her body is able to handle the general anesthesia much better.

Wordless Wednesday!

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday!