"Bike!" "Hat!"

And it begins...

Maggie's really feeling the season now after a very exciting evening with Grandma and Grandpa Crist, Omah and Opah, Cousin Issac, and Uncle Jake and Emily. Her and Issac seemed to really enjoy each other's company. They jumped like crazy little monkeys all over our bed with Boston. Zac said he peeked at them while they were playing in Maggie's room, and Issac was helping Maggie blow her nose!

Maggie fell asleep very quickly after her family left. You could tell she was exhausted from having soooo much fun!!!!

Thanks to all our family for a wonderful evening.

(Grandma Crist-Did you get good pictures of Mags and Issac? We didn't get any good ones:(

If so, could you send me some to post on the blog?)

Quick Ear Update

Magnolia and I saw Dr. Beck yesterday for her post operation check up. Ears look perfect!!!!!! She even has a cold right now, which would have typically meant her ears would have been a mess. They also completed a hearing evaluation, which she passed with flying colors! It was so interesting to watch the hearing evaluation. She did the hearing probs and the sound booth. I asked the audiologist how children her age typically do (I know many families in our program have to go back and have their child sedated to complete a hearing evaluation). He said Maggie was unusually good, and quite smart! Mid-test she looked over at him, and said her little "hi." He told her that flirting wouldn't help her pass.

Have you ever been out walking in the snow?

Magnolia poses on the "I" bench

The Smiths

Magnolia and her daddy

"No!" (Snow)

Hello Walk

Here are some pictures of our snowy stroll down "Hello Walk" on the Admin Lawn. Looking out onto the admin lawn covered in snow is one of my most favorite sights to take in.

The whole family, minus Gramma-Gramma who didn't feel she could travel and opted to stay home with the dogs instead, headed to Moscow to see Auntie Hailey graduate. We had a great family weekend, full of lots of Moscow fun! We enjoyed eating at our favorite places, walks around campus and we went to the basketball game where Maggie saw Joe Vandal for the first time. She didn't take her eyes off him the entire time she was there. She kept looking at her Joe doll, which she needed to take to the game, and then at Joe down on the court. She'd say "Joe!" and point at him with this serious look on her face, like "Oh my gosh! He exists in real life!" It was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

Did I mention that we flew to Moscow? Well Maggie and I flew anyways. Maggie did excellent on the flight. Many people on the flight complimented her. I was actually quite surprised at how well she did. She made small talk with the people next to us, read her books, enjoyed some complimentary juice, basically acted like she'd been flying her whole life. Well except for when her diaper leaked on the flight there and she peed all over herself and her Mommy, or when she had a last minute poopy diaper that almost held up the plane from leaving Moscow on time.

But Seriously, what's an airplane ride with a one year without a little poop and pee????

Post Op

Magnolia did great! And as you can see from the video, she is still doing great.

We arrived at the clinic at 7am. They checked Maggie in, and sent us back to the post op area to get all Maggie's info. The nurses gave Maggie a piece of princess paper with her name spelled out in glitter glue with stickers, so she was already thinking these people were pretty cool. Dr. Beck carries each of her children back on her own, so she joined us after a moment, and Maggie went willingly into her arms to head back for surgery. The nurse stopped back by a few moments later to tell us that Maggie didn't even cry!

It only took about 10 minutes, and Dr. Beck carried an unconscious Maggie out of the surgery room and laid her in my arms. Zac and I looked down at our limp daughter, that shockingly was still sucking away on her pacifier, and couldn't help but smile. She woke slowly, and didn't seem too disoriented---just mad. She looked at Zac and signed/said "all done." We offered her some juice which she gulped down, and then we were told we could leave, simple as that!

Now she's climbing up on the couch, poking her dog's eye and trying to get into my purse. That's my cue to go...

A Cheese Story

A few nights ago Zac and I got even braver, and decided to give Magnolia a few bites of our pizza. Of course pizza has cheese. Maggie didn't seem to be too excited about it, but ate most of what we gave her. We again haven't seen any of the common reactions to the allergy, and can assume at this point she HAS OUTGROWN THE SOY AND DAIRY ALLERGY!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight for dinner Zac was cutting up some cheese slices, and all of a sudden Maggie shouted "Cheese!" and pointed to the cheese. Zac and I both looked at each other, wondering how she knew what it was, but then decided to offer her a piece---she inhaled it! We gave her one more slice, which she also inhaled. Apparently she likes cheese.

We were so overjoyed we decided to celebrate with a slice of strawberry cheesecake that Sara had brought over for us. Our family actually sat together and shared some dessert (I told Maggie this should have been her first birthday!)

Besides the immense joy we feel about the positive results of the soy/dairy reintroductions, we are also very excited for the results of the tubes Maggie will have inserted into her eardrums at 7am! I've seen many children's speech and language explode after they get tubes, and we are hopeful Maggie continues to make progress in this area as well. During the few months that she was fluid/infection free she had a gigantic language spurt, and now has a vocabulary of around 70 words, and is combining a few words on occasion. I can generally understand what she is saying, but it can be difficult for others a lot of the time. We definitely see her speech (articulation) become much more unclear when she isn't hearing well due to the ear infections. Knowing the importance of hearing during this period in development helped us make this choice about going ahead with tubes.

Tomorrow we may have a new little girl. A dairy eaten, soy eaten, pain-free, hearing little gal!

We've ran into a lot of little things in these first 16 months of parenthood. Zac and I have been pushed to some extremes that a lot of new parents don't experience. We have both exhausted our sick and vacation leave through all these illnesses Maggie has had, we've gone completely broke paying for hyper-allergenic formula, doctor visits, prescription after prescription of antibiotics, and dairy-free/soy-free foods that Maggie could eat.

Parenthood is not easy, and I don't think it should be. It's the greatest most life changing thing anyone could ever do, and anything that really alters you comes at a cost.

I'm so proud of myself for continuing to advocate for my daughter. For trusting my intuition starting with that feeling that something just wasn't right when my baby would scream every time I breastfed her, or for heading into the doctor's office every time I just "knew" something wasn't quite right with her, and realizing that my daughter was suffering from chronic ear infections.

I'm so proud of my husband for stepping up and becoming an admirable father, who thinks of his daughter first, and has made so many changes in his life to be the best parent he can be.

I'm so very proud of my little girl. Who didn't have the easiest start, but probably doesn't even know it, because she's just so happy and finds joy in all the little things each day!

Congratulations Us!

Tubes on Tuesday

Dr. Beck didn't hesitate. Magnolia isn't responding to antibiotics and her ears are still really bad after five days of being on the third, much stronger, antibiotic. The procedure will last around 10 minutes. She will have to be sedated (gas), but will wake up in our arms. Apparently only 1 in 10 children continue to get ear infections after tubes!!!!