One Big Huge Update

Since it has been soooo long since I have posted anything, I figured I would just catch up on everything in case I don't post again for a while. We did another blood test a couple of weeks ago and everything is still good. Her platelets were still low (58,000) but that is up from 23,000!!! And no blasts showed up in her blood which of course is excellent. We went in to the ENT because she never passed her newborn hearing test and because she was so little, they couldn't really see in her ears anyway so they just wanted us to wait until she got bigger. I knew at 9 months that she was suddenly hearing quite well so I didn't push seeing them again until she was 18 months. The doctor looked in her ears and said there was no fluid in her ears and her ear drums looked shiny which I guess is how they want it to look. She will refer us for a hearing test and she said that as long as she can hear to at least 20 decibels (I think), then that is all she needs to pick up speech. So thankfully, no tubes are needed!!

Then the next day, we did a follow up with her cardiologist whom she hadn't seen since she was 5 months old. He is following her to see if her PFO and VSD (small holes in her heart) have closed. Due to the many blood draws that Ella has had in her life, she has officially hit the point where she doesn't want any doctors touching her. She will sit and flirt with them until they touch her and then she starts whining like there is no tomorrow. Of course this made it hard for the cardiologist to hear but he said he didn't hear any murmurs. I asked him if we would do an echocardiogram to be certain if the holes had closed and he said "Do you think she will be less afraid next year?" Like I know how she will be a year from now. I told him that I am not afraid to hold her down so let's just go for it this year. If the holes have closed, then we will be done with seeing the cardiologist so I figure, why wait!!

And lastly, we have FINALLY gotten Ella authorized to get some OT to try to get her to eat solid foods. I ended up just asking my pediatrician if we can do it through our private insurance instead of waiting on the state to provide it. She would be 10 and still drinking formula if I wait on the State of CA!! So we have kept our pediatrician pretty busy getting us referrals this past month. Ella is weighing in at 23 lbs 3 oz this month....so I guess the formula is sustaining her just fine for now. Below is a bunch of pictures that probably should each be their own post but I may never catch up if I don't just post them all now.

Ella - 19 months

One day I decided to do some real pigtails and they actually kind of worked. The long piece of hair on the top of her head that usually makes up her antenna type ponytail is now almost long enough to reach to her pig tails. I just put her on her little car and she sits still pretty well.

I think this is my new favorite picture

Pigtails......post nap!!

Below you will see lots of pictures of Ella's new favorite activity......standing. She is finally pulling up to everything she can reach and then just standing there. She does it with such ease now and it seems like just yesterday she couldn't do it at all. Just another example of the little milestones that we usually take for granted. I just love that now I can stare at her cute butt!!

Another new thing that Ella is doing......getting in the kitchen cupboards. So on Daddy's last day off......the childproof latches went on. I can finally relax again. We only had 2 broken crystal bowls!! Little stinker!!

Needless to say, Daddy has been pretty busy childproofing lately. He finally got the gate installed for the stairs but not before Ella quietly made it to the top TWICE without any of us knowing!! Of course when I finally decided to do a video of her climbing, she takes her sweet time doing it. As usual, sorry for the grainy quality of the video!!