January & February Update

I’m late on this!   Ellie is now 15 months old but here is what she was doing at 14 ½ and later in this blog entry at 15 months old:

 

 So at 14 ½ months old…

Height: 29.5” Weight: 21lbs 9 oz
I think this puts her in the 30% or so for height and weight. A little perspective, this is the height and weight that Payton (who remains in the 90% for height and 66% for weight) was at 9 months old.
Wears: 12-18 month clothes, size 3 diapers, size 4 shoes
New things she can say: “Wah-wah” for water or for anything she wants to eat, “Bee-Bee” for baby or for other random things.
Sometimes signs “All Done” and attempts to sign “Ball” and “Water”. Can sign “More” but doesn’t sign it when she wants more of something.
Can pull up on everything now and has started walking while holding onto things. She can now let go and stay standing for up to a few seconds. She also lets go and tries to walk to us but as soon as she tries she falls face first (usually into our arms unless we aren’t there to catch her!)
Pretends to blow her nose on random things, fake coughs into cups/toys, grabs her toes and screams to indicate that she wants me to play “This little piggy” with her, likes to play peek-a-boo, likes the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. She is very silly and fun.
She wants to read book after book. She grabs a book and starts screaming as she bum scoots on over to me. Her favorite books are the Highlights magazines, Biscuit books (about a dog named Biscuit), and any book with animals. She now can find and point out a few items like dog, cat, ball, bird, and fish.

Ellie UTI Update

Despite concerns that she had an antibiotic resistant UTI, the Augmentin did the trick and got rid of the infection.  So we are very thankful for that!  We are hoping this was just an isolated incident but we will attempt to keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn’t get recurrent UTIs.  Unfortunately since she didn’t give clear signs that she had an infection the last time, it’s hard to know what to look for.  I mean, does waking up crying every 30 minutes indicate a UTI or is that just her???  I’d hate for it to get to the point that she’s hyperventilating and her heart rate is through the roof just for us to know that she has another UTI.

 Ellie Heart Update

We had another health scare with Ellie the last week of January.  She was playing with Payton and when I picked her up to get her ready for bed I realized that her lips were a dark blue color.  Almost navy in color but her lips weren’t solid blue, more like patches of blue.  Charles was also in the room and I pointed it out to him.  Then we watched as her lips gradually changed back to normal.  She was also breathing really fast but we knew that could have been because she and Payton were playing so hard.  It was pretty scary because immediately your mind goes to the worst--- which is that I immediately feared it was due to the heart abnormalities that Ellie has seen a pediatric cardiologist for since she was 2 weeks old.  The next day I got her in to see her cardiologist.  Poor Ellie, who has had 3 catheterizations done in the past 2 weeks and is not feeling very fond of doctors and nurses at this point, was not a very cooperative patient.  In fact she screamed and cried constantly during the entire appointment and nothing, not suckers or stickers or videos, would make her stop crying.  I’m actually surprised they were able to do an echocardiogram on her because of it, but they did.  And thankfully the doctor said her heart is functioning just fine and actually looks a lot better than the last time he saw it.  That she still has some mild thickening of the pulmonary valve but that the other valve looked good and that the PFO (small hole in her heart) had actually closed itself completely.  He said, “I’m sorry but I don’t know why her lips turned blue because her heart looks good”.   This was great news!  Although we still have no idea why her lips turned blue.  Hopefully it won’t happen again!  This child has been giving us some scares lately but thankfully she is overall a healthy little girl!

Payton Update

I’m always updating about Ellie because babies grow and change so much but so do 3 year olds actually so here is a 3 1/3 year old update for Payton.

Height:  39.75” (90%)

Weight: 33 lbs 6 oz (66%)

BMI: 14.86 (26%)

Yes once they outgrow measuring the head circumference they apparently start calculating BMI instead.  Payton, who used to be a tall, chubby baby, has now become a tall, thin little girl.  It’s still hard for me to believe she actually is a little girl now.  The past 3 1/3 years have flown by.

Clothing size:  4T and even fitting into some 5T clothes

Shoe size:  9 .5

Reading:

At 3 1/3 years old, Payton is now reading many three letter words on her own.  She knows all of her letter sounds and can sound out basic words.  I didn’t even realize 3 year olds could learn to read but she just started picking up on it so I started working with her on it.  We have these foam letters that stick on the bathtub and I create words and then see if she can sound them out.  The other night I created 16 random, 3 letter words, and she sounded out and read 13 of the 16 words correctly without help.  She then asked me, “Are you so proud of me?”   And the answer is Yes, I am so very proud of her!

Favorite books:  Payton has many favorite books but books she has been really into lately have been….

·         Olivia books

·         Pinkalicious books

·         Care Bears books

·         Highlights magazines

After really enjoying books about trains and animals for so long, Payton has just started becoming interested in books that seem a little more “girlie”.

Winter Show and School Update

On the evening of Thursday, January 30, 2014, Payton had her first school performance.  The 3 and 4 year old class sang a couple of songs first and then Payton’s class (the 2 year old class) sang two songs with them.  They sang the “B-L-U-E Spells Blue” and “I’m a Little Snowman” songs.  And yes Payton is in the “2 Year Old” class this year because they go by the kid’s age on September 1, which is how the public schools in Texas do it too because you have to be 5 on September 1 to start Kindergarten.    And on September 1 of this past school year she was still 2.  This means, with an October birthday, Payton will always be one of the oldest in her class.  But actually her 2 year old class at school has several others will fall birthdays too so she isn’t even the oldest in her class.

Payton has really been loving her first year of preschool.  She attends school two days a week for 3 hours and looks forward to those days.  She has the sweetest teacher.  She tells me her best friend in her class is a little girl named Myar and her favorite thing to do at school is to ride scooters outside. 

Cold Weather

In January we had a couple of strong cold fronts.  For both cold fronts they cancelled school in Galveston because of the threat of freezing rain but no ice actually accumulated on the roads for either cold front. Charles was still able to commute to work in Houston and so it didn’t affect us the way they thought it would.  I think some places, particularly north of Houston, did get some significant ice/snow but not here.  I posted some pictures on my facebook page poking fun at how extreme everyone was reacting to the weather but instead of laughing, people seemed to have taken me seriously.  Clearly cold weather is not a joking matter in Southeast Texas.  But seriously, cancelling school because the forecast calls for it to get down to 34 degree and well, that’s pretty close to freezing and entirely too cold for anyone to be in school, right?  On one of those almost freezing days I took the girls to the grocery store because we needed food.  I had the girls bundled up in a couple of layers and an old man, in a t-shirt, came up to us in the store and said, “You shouldn’t have such little girls out in this weather”.  I was very nice about it but some people definitely need to mind their own business.  My family needs to eat whether it’s cold out or not.  Plus the day before, when it was sunny and 70, I opted for the girls and I to spend the day at the park rather than in the grocery store and I don’t regret that decision one bit.

So, despite all the cold weather, Payton still hasn’t seen snow in her 3 years of life.  I asked her, “Do you know what snow is?” and she told me, “Yes, you skate on it”.  Well, that’s ice but close enough!  We did get some sleet and when she thought it was snow I allowed her to believe it was…..  Once again, close enough! 

Lala and Papa 

The last weekend in January, Lala and Papa (my parents) were able to come visit for a weekend.  Payton enjoyed showing them her new trampoline.  We also played a round of Putt-Putt that I think my mom won (I just know it definitely wasn’t me--- I’m pretty sure I got last place!)  and then we ate lunch at Jimmy’s on the Pier.  Their dog Baby stayed at our house while my parents stayed in a hotel and each morning Payton would tell them, “I took care of Baby for you”.  Payton showed my parents how she knows how to work the remote control to our DVD player on her own and Lala said, “Oh, Papa and I don’t even know how to do that!  Will you come to our Georgetown house to fix our DVD player for us?”  So throughout the weekend Payton would tell Lala, “Don’t worry Lala, I’ll come fix your TV for you”. 

February 2014

During the second weekend of February we had a strange event take place one evening where a couple of people tried to enter our house while we were home.  I was in the shower when I heard Charles yelling at Payton to, “Go to the bathroom with Mama!  Go right now!”  I didn’t know what was going on.  But apparently some people opened our screen door and were starting to mess with the door knob when Charles ran across the room and locked the front door.  The people then got in their car and drove away.  Because of the way they didn’t leave quickly and had parked in the driveway to begin with, we have a feeling they weren’t trying to cause trouble but were probably confused and had the wrong house.  But, to have someone try to get into your home at night is still a bit unnerving and we did call the non-emergency police number to report the incident.  

Valentine’s Events

The Wednesday before Valentine’s Day we attended a Valentine’s play date at our friends Cristal and Skyleigh’s house.  It was so cute to see the girls (yes, it was all girls and one baby boy in attendance) all dressed for Valentine’s Day.  And Cristal had prepared some really cute crafts and snacks for the kids.  

On Valentine’s Day, Nana (Charles’ mom) came to visit and brought lots of treats for us and the girls.  Charles and I never used to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  It just seems like a silly holiday and when you’re single it’s the kind of day that just makes you want to puke so I think we both hold some resentment towards such a puke-worthy holiday.  We do, however, sometimes talk about the year we both came down with an awful stomach bug on Valentine’s Day that we dubbed the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” but otherwise we generally ignore the holiday.  But, with our girls, I just can’t resist the excuse to dress them up cute and take pictures.   Plus Payton is at the age where she now has expectations that something good will happen on Valentine’s Day.  This year, in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, she kept mentioning that maybe for Valentine’s Day she would get her own watch.  So, Charles ended up getting her a watch and a train whistle and he got Ellie at tractor toy.  Because those are kind of unique Valentine’s gifts for little girls, I posted about it on Facebook and Charles responded with, “Be my Valentine’s?  Woo Wooooooo!”  which I thought was funny.

Nana Visit

As I said above, Nana was here for Valentine’s Day and stayed the week.  Charles had off for President’s Day so we took the girls to the Houston Zoo.  Nana had things she needed to get done at her beach house so she didn’t go with us but she came over that evening for dinner.  She had brought Payton so many presents this visit that when she came over Payton asked her, “Do you have a present for me?”  Nana told her, “No, I’m sorry but I don’t today” to which Payton looked sad so she told her, “Don’t be sad”.  Payton then said, “I’m not sad, I’ve just had a long day”.  LOL 

We like to tease Payton and call her Payton “Mayonnaise” because that’s what she calls Payton Manning.  We like to say things like, “Wait, are you Payton Mayonnaise?!”  To which she responds with, “No, I’m not Payton Mayonnaise!  I’m Payton Falgout!”  Well one of the mornings that Nana was in town, Payton was talking to Siri on my iPhone and every time Payton would tell her that her name is Payton, Siri would call her “Bacon” instead.  So we have started to joke around with Payton by calling her Bacon Mayonnaise, which frankly makes me a bit hungry each time I say it!

Mardi Gras

This past weekend was the first weekend of Mardi Gras.  The 1^st weekend is always a big weekend for us because the two biggest parades of the weekend come down Seawall by our house.  The weather was warm and sunny and just perfect.  The first parade we attended was the noon Krewe of Aquarius parade.  This year they extended the Seawall parade routes to not only go down Seawall but to also then go to the Strand.  That’s a 4 mile parade route!  (And most of these kids marching in the bands participated in both parades so they walked, danced, and played their instruments for 8 miles on Saturday!)  So, possibly thanks to the long route, there weren’t too many people standing around us for the parade.  Which meant every single float that passed noticed Payton and threw to her.  She caught tons of beads and 4 stuffed animals!  Ellie sat in her stroller and seemed to enjoy the parade as well.  Parts of the parade are really loud with fire trucks, marching bands, blaring music so I never know how my girls will react but to date they have always seemed to enjoy the parades.

Around 4 some of our friends (the Andersons, the Gehrkes, the Bohlmanns, and the Hendersons) and my brother Kyle and his girlfriend Marissa came over.  We had pizza, drinks, and deserts and the kids had a little time to play together before heading to the parade at 6.  The kids again scored plenty of beads and other items.  The big hit of the night with the kids were these flashing light up balls and glow necklaces being thrown from the floats.  I’ve never noticed them throwing a bunch of the light up balls before but it was a genius idea, they loved them!  After the parade we came back to the house and spent some more time hanging out.  We had a firepit going in the front yard that especially the guys, and some of the kids, enjoyed sitting around.  

The next day (Sunday) we took the girls to the afternoon Children’s parade downtown.  On our side of town (by the Gulf) it was super cloudy and cool but downtown the weather was sunny and warm.  I had dressed the girls and I in longsleeves and we were literally sweating.  Got back home from the parade and it was still cool and foggy.  Amazing how just a couple miles further from the water makes such a difference.  The parade was small but Payton enjoyed it and it was nice to get away from the constant fog for a bit.  

The 1^st weekend of Mardi Gras so much fun!  It is always one of our favorite times of the year.  Let the good times roll!

Ellie’s 15 month update:

Height: 29.5” + Weight: 21lbs 9 oz +

Wears: 12-18 month clothes, size 3 diapers, size 4 shoes

 
New things she can say:  “Ba-be” for belly button (and she can show you her ba-be),  she whispers ”Eyessssss” and can point to my eyes, she uses the word “Be-be” to mean baby, Ellie, Payton, and bye-bye.  

She is getting good at being able to walk while holding onto things.  She can also stand herself up without holding onto anything and can stay standing for a few seconds at a time.  She has still yet to take her first steps.  Apparently 15 months is the cut off between what is considered “normal” in regards to walking and was is considered “behind”.  But she continues to develop and progress so at this point I’m not feeling concerned.  I do think she is getting close to taking her first steps and might do so in the next month but I don’t see her truly walking around for a while yet.

Because I keep getting asked the question, she is still not a good sleeper but overall we have all adjusted to her sleep pattern.  I have no complaints and don’t wish to receive any more sleep advice from well intending people.  ;)

Charles

I know I don’t normally write about Charles and I but some of our family knows that he recently went to MD Anderson for some testing due to the colon polyps that he has been having removed since he was a teenager so I thought I would give a quick update on it.  First a bit of background, when he was a teenager he started experiencing symptoms that caused a doctor to perform a colonoscopy where the doctor discovered he had colon polyps.  Since then he has had to have periodic colonoscopies to remove the polyps.  The polyps are adenomatous polyps which means although they are not cancerous, they have the potential to become cancerous if not removed.   Unfortunately in recent years the number of polyps that they have had to remove has increased.  Last year I think the doctor removed 12 and this year he had 18 new ones that needed to be removed and will have to have another colonoscopy (this time to be done at MD Anderson) in just 6 months.  So his doctor, not knowing what could be causing all these polyps in a young person, referred him to MD Anderson for genetic testing to see if it’s one of two known genetic mutations that can cause colon polyps.  Charles just got a call from them today letting him know that his testing came back negative for those genetic mutations.  That’s pretty much a good thing because the genetic mutations he was being tested for can be bad but what it likely means is that he has a genetic problem that they haven’t yet discovered (because even the 2 they tested him for were just discovered in the past few years).  The doctor who called him said they are waiting on FDA approval to study a few more genes that could cause colon polyps and they will be in contact with him in the years to come as those tests become available.  He underwent the genetics testing for a couple of reasons---- first to try to get a diagnosis for his condition so they’d have a better idea of how to proceed in the future with his treatment and second to know what to expect in regards to if our girls will eventually need to be tested for this disorder which appears to start affecting a person in their teenage years.  With the results coming back “inconclusive”, he will just proceed with periodic colonoscopies.  We are just grateful that his first polyps were discovered years ago and therefore his condition, whatever it may be, has been and continues to be manageable.

Conversations with Payton:

One funny thing I heard Payton tell Ellie after I gave her the baby from the King Cake:

“Ellie, you are too wittle to play with baby Jesus. You will try to eat him and he will make you sick and then you will throwed up. “

She then, 5 minutes later, lost the baby and we were concerned that Ellie would be the one to find it.  I ended up finding the baby later when folding laundry.  Apparently Payton had dropped it into the washer machine while helping me load it with dirty laundry.  Oh life with a 1 and 3 year old!  It’s fabulous and crazy all at once.

A more serious conversation with Payton about her Grandpa Chuck (Charles’ dad) who passed away 10 years ago:

Payton: "Are you making soup?" Me: "No, dirty rice." Payton: "Oh, Grandpa Chuck loves dirty rice." Me: "Yes he does. This is his recipe." Payton: "Yeah but he lives far away." Me: "Do you know where he lives?" Payton: "Yes, he lives in a house, but not close to us. I don't know where his house is."

We have told her before that he lives in Heaven with Dixie and Haven (our dogs) but as far as she is concerned Heaven is just another place far away like Albuquerque is far away.

2^nd Weekend of Mardi Gras

We had warm weather again for the second weekend of Mardi Gras.  I can’t remember another Mardi Gras where we had such nice weather for BOTH weekends.  I rented another camera lens (I’m trying to decide which lens I want to purchase) so Saturday morning I took some Mardi Gras themed pictures outside to try out the lens.  After that we attended the Krewe De Rosaire parade and caught some beads and a whole boat load of Moon Pies (that Payton loved) and candy.  That night was the big Knights of Momus parade.  This is the biggest parade at Mardi Gras Galveston and it always has just a completely electric atmosphere.  We always have so much fun at it and this year was no exception.  

The next day, Sunday, there were two more parades down Seawall by our house.  Our friends Christina and Brian brought us a Mardi Gras decorated cookie cake because they know how much we love cookie cake and attended the pet parade with us.  Ellie really got a kick out of the pet parade because she is fascinated with dogs right now.  Christina and Brian brought their dog China with them so both girls enjoyed petting and seeing her too.  After that we came back to the house so the girls could take a nap which meant we missed seeing the Childen’s parade which was okay because we’ve attended a lot of parades this Mardi Gras.

Ellie’s 1^st Steps

The morning of Sunday, March 2, Ellie let go of the bookshelf that she was holding onto and took a step in my direction on her own.  This was her 1^st independent step!  A couple days later she again took about 1 ½ steps towards me before sitting down.  She is very hesitant to try walking and just takes tiny baby steps before sitting down but this is definitely her showing some progress towards being able to walk!

Fat Tuesday

Unlike the two beautiful weekends we had for the Mardi Gras celebrations this year, Fat Tuesday was rainy and cold.  Payton had school in the morning and it was “Crazy Hat Day” so she wore her crazy jester hat along with her Mardi Gras shirt.  Reid, a little boy in her class, also wore a Mardi Gras shirt and crazy Mardi Gras hat.  Payton had a very fun day at school because, in addition to it being Crazy Hat Day, it was Emma’s birthday (a little girl in her class) and her mom brought the class pizza, cupcakes, balloons, and party favors.  I arrived at school to pick her up a little early so I got to watch (through the one-way window looking into the classroom) Payton and her classmates in music class.  The teacher would put on different songs and the kids had a blast dancing around to the music.  Payton looked like she was having so much fun.  She kept grabbing Myar’s hand to dance with her.

That evening I picked up food from Leo’s Cajun Corner (their chicken/sausage gumbo is amazing!) for dinner.  After dinner my friend Christina came over and rode with us to the Strand district for the Fat Tuesday Parade.  There was a light rain and the temperature was about 39 degrees.  I had dressed the girls and I in about 6 layers of clothes each (literally) but I managed to forget Ellie’s hat and Payton is the only one of the 4 of us who own mittens but I meant to bring Ellie some socks for her hands.  Charles gave his hat to Ellie and I took off my wool socks and put them on her hands.  So both girls appeared warm despite the weather (Payton later told me she was not just warm but hot for the parade).  Because of the poor weather there were very few people at the parade.  We watched the parade the first time at the very beginning of the parade.  We got loaded up with beads, stuffed animals, candy, glow balls, and other trinkets.  An extra-large strand of beads got thrown at Christina and actually hit her in the face, making her teeth really sore.  Thankfully she was okay and didn’t lose any teeth in the incident!  After the parade passed we then walked to the Strand to catch the parade a second time.  Again we caught tons of goodies.  In the 10 years that we have attended countless parades, we have never caught some many beads and other items!  And the quality beads we caught were also unmatched!  We were so excited and it was a great time despite of (or thanks to) the yucky weather.

I think that’s about it since the last time I updated this blog.  This afternoon starts spring break for most Texas schools so I expect this weekend and week to be a little bit crazy around here.  I will definitely make a mental note not to drive down Seawall, that is for sure!  Hope everyone has a good one!