Thinking about grass growing

12 months adjusted 5
Originally uploaded by markhud

We are so proud of you Claire. At one year adjusted you can walk holding someone's hands, pull to stand, transition from laying to sitting and sitting to laying, you are beginning to talk, you explore everything around you. You fight like crazy when doctors, nurses and other medical staff mess with you. You have a very expressive face and a magical smile. You are friendly and outgoing. Strangers ask us "is she always this friendly?" and we proudly say "yes". You have a lovely sweet disposition and enjoy playing with just about everything...especially paper and other things we don't like you to chew on. Today you showed me your tongue when I said "Stick out your tongue." You will also clap on demand...when you feel like it. You got into kneeling position at your leapfrog music table all by yourself. Last week you busted out of your bouncy seat and I found you standing at your crib rail. You love looking at books and turning the pages. You like nursery rhymes.

Happy Birthday Claire

Today is the anniversary of Claire's due date. Her adjusted age is now 1 year.

Weekend away

We enjoyed a weekend in Lompoc. Claire got her 8th tooth while we were there and made some progress towards crawling. She can scoot faster now on elbows and knees. I'l post more photos soon. Great to see family and friend in Lompoc and fun to see Claire charm everyone with her ready smile.

Talking

Claire's been talking up a storm. She learned how to say "hat" yesterday and said it about 100 times today. To celebrate, we read the Berenstain's Old Hat New Hat three times. She will sometimes say bye, "ba" for ball and "k" for cat. She learned to say hat because I wear one on our morning walks and tell her i'm putting on my hat. This morning when Mark put on his hat she looked at him and said "hat"

Weekend News

Claire has started scooting forward on her elbows and knees mixed in with lots of rolling around and pivoting. Her vocabulary is increasing too. She says Mama and Dada in reference to us and she says "ba" for ball and "k" for cat.

She seems to be getting more and more ticklish every week and laughs at other times when not being tickled too. We took a walk this evening and Mark had her in the carrier and she thought it was hilarious that I was walking next to her so I made faces and played peek-a-boo and played along while she squealed with delight and laughed her silver bells laugh.

Her stomach was unsettled again today. She seems to do worse on the weekends. Hmm.

MRI results already

The following is a quote from CLaire's neurologist that I just got in my email

"The MRI reveals destruction of the tissue where the old hemorrages were
with a resultant cyst involving the right temporal and occipital lobes.
The cyst appears to be draining into the venricle (normal fluid filled
cavity)on that side. There is no description of a cortical dysplasia
(malformation)as was prior suspected, which is good and there is no
development of hypdrocephalus and no further bleeding. There is some
asymmetry in size of a small area of the middle part of the brain on the
right (hippocampus), but again, no obvious malformation. Please let me
know if you have any questions."
DR. VHD

The one-year MRI

Claire had her MRI yesterday. Hopefully this is the last one she'll need. It was a difficult experience. We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 am. They have to sedate and/or give general anesthesia so that a small child can be still for an hour or so during the scan. This meant Claire had to fast 6 hours, have an IV and breathing tube and be hooked up to a bunch of monitors...all of which she finds very unpleasant. Needless to say there was a lot of crying and attempts to wriggle away. She even objected to the putting on of the ID bracelet. I was a little relieved once she was asleep. But then they gave me the boot. I didn't know I wasn't going to be able to stay with her. I had lunch in the Cafe with Nina who thankfully accompanied us. Then I finally was paged a couple hours later and with difficulty found the recovery room (Which was labeled P.A.C.U and said nothing about "Recovery".) I walked in and heard a pathetic-sounding cry which didn't sound at all like Claire but I somehow knew it was her. I was right. She looked terrible with eyes puffy from crying. I cried when I saw her. I held her and sang to her and talked to her for about 40 minutes till she was feeling better. Then we went to the another area where we had waited at the beginning of the day. Eventually Claire was hungry and took a bottle and was able to hold it down. Around 3pm we finally headed home. We should get the diagnosis in a week or so.

Today I was still exhausted from the experience and had two naps by noon. Claire seems to be back to normal and had a good PT appointment this morning.

Busy Friday, week, life

Life with Claire continues to be busy. She finished her course of antibiotics on Sunday. She has been napping well, and slept well last night. There was a little mixup with leaving part of the Amby bed in Arizona. Thankfully, Grandma noticed right away and shipped out the part to us.

I am so happy to have my little girl and wife back with me. Claire has grown noticeably in weight, strength, and sophistication. Also, she is much more vocal, and sometimes seems to say some words and sounds with meaning.

Unfortunately, the gagging has resumed several times a day, and throwings-up about every other day. The nutritionist recommended adjusting the strength of the formula mix. Also, we are looking for a non-dairy probiotic, since Claire is allergic to milk protein.

Pictured is Claire's favorite short-suit, given to her by the Joneses from Church. This picture was taken during the 4th-of-July visit to Arizona.

Busy Friday

Claire had various ups and downs since my last post. I took her to the pediatrician on Friday morning. It turns out it was an ear infection. Her stomach has settled down and last night she had mostly 3 hour stints of sleep...while she was sick it was 1-2 hour stints. Yesterday was her first day with no feverish episodes so the meds the Dr. prescribed have definitely started to work.

We also went to the nutritionist who gave us a lot of useful information.

We left 8pm on Friday to visit my folks. Stopped at 1:30 am in Blythe. Stayed at a very nice Holiday Inn Express. Got here the next day at 1:15 pm. Mark had to return for work on Monday. Claire and I sill stay to celebrate my Grandma's B-day on the 4th and will return to CA with my Brother and nephew.