Spring/Summer 2007 Update!

Sorry this has taken so long to update! It seems to be increasingly harder for me to get a good block at the computer to sit, and think (and type!) Anyway, let’s see what all I can update you with while I can….

 ~Julia~

In October 2006 her pediatrician became concerned about her short stature and wanted to run a whole gamut of tests to rule out any chromosomal abnormalities (Including Turner’s Syndrome) and possiblky try to put her on growth hormones. As most of you know, I seriously bucked against this. I was 9 months pregnant at the time and have just grown tired in MY own 26 years of living of hearing “how small” I am (and how small Julia is in her 4 years of life) as though it is a disease needing a cure, or as though I am with holding food from my child resulting in her not growing to her “peers” (nevermind that mom is barely 5 foot tall and dad is 5 foot 10, and was a small child when he was growing up too!) Anyway….we recently went ahead with the blood tests and can officially say, guess what?! Julia is a normal healthy happy newly-turned-5-year old little girl! (This is where I slap my head and say “I told you SO!” but it does feel good to have medical science to back up what my intuition was telling me all along)

Her growth hormone levels are normal, No turner’s syndrome or any other chromosomal abnormalities, her thyroid is normal, all of her “levels” are NORMAL! But still..if you can believe this, the doc put in a referral to send her to an off base endocrinologist to see “if she qualifies” for growth hormones….I truly don’t understand why this doc thinks being short is such a terrible thing. The projection of Julia’s height from now until she us 18 puts her at 5 foot tall, surprise, just like me! So I really don’t understand all the “concern” of that being “avoidable if possible”…at any rate Joe and I have decided to go speak to this endocrinologist just to get a specialist take on it. The way we see it is this, Julia does not need growth hormones. God made her this way for a special reason and who are we to try to “fix” it as though it is a mistake? But it will feel nice to have a specialist say “you know, she is just small like her mom” so anyone else that says “MY! She is so small!” can just plant a nice big smackeroo on the back of my knee…no really, we’ll be polite. We are both interested in what they may have to say….we just have no desire whatsoever to put our child on medication simply because it is optional and not seriously needed for the wellbeing of her overall health.... and HELLO?! Genetics anyone??

Otherwise Julia is doing fantastic! She recently had her 5 year well baby check up and is 36 inches tall and weighs 27 pounds. She is wearing size 3T to 4T shirts and 2T pants. She plays imaginary games with her sister and bounces around the house constantly. The “why?” game has started (oh yippie) and her writing is continuing. She is so involved in discovering her world and trying to make sense of it. She can not take anything just as it is…she continues to question the” why, how, when, where” aspects of everything! A simple discovery to the joy of Earthworms can easily lead to a weeks worth of study and materials pulled off the internet (I love homeschooling! Really all it is, is indulging my child’s natural curiosity and encouraging her desire to learn myself, and not leaving it to an outside influence! *grins*) not to mention the rest of that night alone was spent, you guessed it, pure earthworm talk! Lol! She has also become very interested in the way things grow. I have 3 anonymous seeds that she randomly found on the ground sitting in a cup of water on the table lol!

~Megan~

She is doing very well! She will be 4 years old in just a couple weeks! I can’t believe it! She has really been developing in the artistic area. She is our little diva. She sings songs she makes up, hums while twirling in the mirror, and loves imaginary play with dolls, cars, and stuffed animals.

(Here she is with her friend Aidan. I have no idea what pose she is doing lol. Isn't he so cute?! His mom took this picture and she said when he saw it he said, "Look mom! There's my gurlfriend"...look at his expression, it's just too cute. They are church buddies and can occaionsally be spotteed holding hands inbetween playing with dinosaures and matchbox cars.)

For her birthday we have a wooden dollhouse to give her to encourage her natural love of pretend play and mimicking family. She also is really loving books right now. I lose count to how many books she has me read to her a day. (and you know I really don’t mind! I LOVE that she is enjoying reading so much and pray this instills a love of books in her) Her favorite “character” right now is Maisy Mouse. We have ordered a few Maisy books for her and hope to make a Maisy cake for her birthday.

Her party will be on her actual birthday of July 2^nd and we’re doing an “art” themed party like we did for Julia’s second birthday. With Megan’s natural artsy-fartsy mind this suits her perfectly. Julia is very analytical. She explores to make sense of her world. (for instance she loves writing people’s names and making pretend mail to send. She can write her name, “mom” “dad” and “Megan”) Megan just celebrates life in general. Her art constantly amazes me because of how her brain works. Last week she drew a “chinchilla” for me!!!! It even looks like one lol! Cat? Dog? Those I expect, but a CHINCHILLA?!

The next day she found my bingo stamper and made me a page “full of balloons.”

Her creativity is just abounding! 3 weeks ago I bought them some toddler scissors to work on their fine motor coordination and also because I just knew they’d love cutting things. Two days later I had TONS of random pieces of construction paper littering my house, so they made their first collage. It is hanging in their play room now. They loved it and are currently cutting more paper for another one! (*mental note, mommy needs more glue!*)

I will post pictures of her birthday when it comes!

~Joey~

He is growing like crazy! At his 6 month check he weighed 15 ½ pounds and is 26 inches long. He smiles, coos, giggles, squeals, babbles “dada, mama, gaga, blah blah” and everything in between…he is sitting 5-10 minutes unsupported and is a scooting madman! He is officially mobile…nothing in my house is safe and I am really having to step up on vacuuming lol. He constantly explores. Where Julia inspects her world (my future scientist?) and Megan celebrates life (our artist), so far Joey must conquer….explore and conquer, explore and conquer! We’ve had to be careful not to drop him on several occasions as he will push himself completely out of your arms just to face outward. His hands are constantly out reaching, grasping, and pulling. Everything is in his mouth! He is the most adorable little caterpillar, inching his way across our living room! He started on baby foods around 5 months old and is now on oatmeal with a fruit or veggie twice a day. His sleeping is getting better. No longer is he up every 1-2 hours a night, but a more consistent 3 hours. No teeth yet, although he has had several bouts of teething pain. Those first ones are always the hardest the get in, it seems.

He did have a bout of shaking spells around 5 months of age that scared us for abit. We now know they were not seizures, but perhaps something along the lines called “shuddering”. Shuddering has no found cause, seems very common in baby’s 4-6 months old, happens as they are falling asleep or upon waking, needs no medication, does no apparent physical harm, and seems to be something the babies outgrow. It is also more common in breastfed infants. Two “spells” happened while he was nursing where his arm, then his head, then his whole upper body began to rhythmically shake for about 5-6 seconds (although it felt much longer!) I called his name and held his arm still against my chest and the shaking subsided. He then curled his body around me and nursed vigorously for a few more seconds, then finished eating and went to sleep as usual. He woke up fine. No fever. No nothing. He was seen by the ER and had a follow-up appointment at the peds office. Everyone has the same ruling “pretty sure it is not seizure activity, although we’re not too sure what it was.” He has an appointment for July 5^th to be seen by a pediatric neurologist in Cambridge. He only had those two episodes and hasn’t had any sense then. I am not worried, more curious than anything about what the specialist will say. With all the online research I have done, I am content with the Shuddering possibility as it best describes what I witnessed as in the type of shaking he had…I don’t think it was a seizure either.

(Sleeping with my baby blanket handmade by my grandmother 27 years ago!)

Other news on the home front:

Britain is FINALLY warming. Seems June/July is the time frame to finally break out the shorts and leave the jackets at home. The kids and I have truly been enjoying getting outside more and see some sun for a change! Two weeks ago we took a small cartrip to Petite’s Animal and Adventure park…basically a very small amusement park designed for toddlers to have rides their own size! The kids had a blast and I have a few pictures to include here:

 (Daddy with his girls)

("Look Ma! I can drive!")

("Choo! Choo!" Julia and Megan ride the train)

(Dumbo has nothing on us! Wave Megan!!)

Our new van should be here in the next two weeks. Feels like we have been waiting and waiting and waiting. We keep putting off any further road trips until we can drive a more dependable vehicle. All is well anyway as we are trying to save as much as possible for a small visit back to Oklahoma. I miss my family and friends. I miss good AMERICAN food, I miss paying for things in dollars and not pounds and pence. I just miss home. Flying commercial would cost near 4 grand which we do not have, so right now we are checking out taking military hops, then renting a car and driving down. We’d probably stay 1 week to ten days with no other plans than to eat, eat, eat and visit the people we’ve missed so much the last 2 ½ years. Right now more than anything we are waiting on Joey’s passport. It will take 2 months to come in, and his Visa requires a trip to London and 500 pounds (equals 1000.00 American dollars...it is reimbursable, but none the less that is quite a chunk of cash!)…so we need time to get the passport/visa in and money to do it all. It will probably be this fall before we’ll be able to come…so just be praying everything comes together and it is a safe, unstressful trip.  Well, that’s all I have for now.

 (Are you SURE that's it mom?...)

I’ll just post a few extra pictures and check back later when we have an appt date for Julia’s Endocrinologist and after Joey’s neuro appt.

 (....Nope, just one more pic! Megan giving Joey kisses, of course)