Lake Tara Beach

Our lovely neighborhood sits near a lake with a beach so Kayla, Donna, and I went yesterday. Kayla had a great time splashing, playing in the sand, and trying to touch everyone's floats. It was better than taking her to the pool because she has the tendency to just want to walk right in to the deep water. At the lake she has to at least start shallow.

Eating sand against my instructions of not to eat sand.

Haha - now she knows why it's no good.

Location, location, location

Kayla's new interest is moving ALL of her toys to one location. The most popular spot is the couch. If you are sitting on the couch during this process, you will be buried. She piles everything up just so and then when she's finished she starts moving everything back to the floor.

Kayla LOVES her Daddy. I hope they always have a special relationship.

She is healthy and happy!

18 months

I took Kayla for her 18 month check up on May 1st. She is in the 97th percentile for her height and the 50th for her weight. She is developmentally at or above where she should be and the Dr. has no concerns.

Great!

Kayla is at a very fun age for me. I love to play with her and watch her discover how to use things and figure out the world. She catches on quick!

Here is Kayla with her favorite blanket she calls "Nemo". She doesn't like to be too far away from it!

Great news!

We took Kayla to her follow-up appt. from her surgery and we got some great news! Her reflux has been cured and she is no longer on antibiotics! The Dr. wants to see her back in one year for an ultrasound, assuming she has no recurring infections. She has been off of her meds for one week now and is doing great!

We were thrilled!

We had a nice Easter celebration. Kayla hunted for eggs and had a great time putting them in her little basket.

She is almost 18 months and really starting to talk a lot, and "read" books to herself. It's funny!

Here is Kayla hunting for eggs.

Boo for Colds

Poor Kayla spiked a fever last Tuesday and had another febrile seizure. It had been almost 9 months since her last one. I'd forgotten how scary they are!

She seemed a little tired and grumpy that day but not enough to make me think she was sick. Regardless after her seizure she felt very warm and I gave her some Tylenol to start bringing her fever down. Cary's Mom was able to come help me get her to the hospital to make sure she didn't have a UTI. Thankfully she didn't! Just a cold virus, but I'm still so surprised that made her have such a high fever. She still has a little cough this week and I'm pretty sure I've caught it but we're surviving.

I feel so much better when she is healthy!!!

We go 4/14 for her surgery follow up visit - hope it worked!

Kayla's Surgery Update

Wow! The surgery went better than I expected. Here's what happened:

We woke up early Wednesday morning and arrived at Egleston around 6am. Kayla was not able to eat or drink anything but she managed pretty well. We sat in the waiting room until about 7am when they called us back. We met with someone from anesthesia, Kayla got a quick check up and I was told she had an innocent heart murmer...that was kind of weird to hear but apparently no big deal. They gave her a sedative and within minutes she was getting very sleepy.

They took her to the OR and we didn't see her for about 3 hours after that. The surgeon came out and told us it went perfect so you can't get a better outcome than that! When we finally got to see Kayla I could tell she had been crying hard but she was able to drink some juice. She took a short nap and the rest of the day was spent entertaining her, letting her drink some, and trying to keep her happy and comfortable. She did not like trying to sit up and preferred to lay down. She was hooked up to an IV and a foley (catheter). Every 4 hours a tech came to check her vitals and all of our nurses were pretty good. Around 6pm they cleared Kayla to eat solid food so she had a grilled cheese and some peas. She liked that. She seemed a little uncomfortable so they gave her some Tylenol and a medication to treat bladder spasms (if she happened to be having any). The night was rough. She didn't sleep longer than a 3 hour stretch (like having a newborn again)! Morning was better and they told us we would go home around lunchtime.

We all started getting a little restless by then but once Kayla was unhooked from all of her tubes she was ready to run and play! She recovered so well. She has an incision on her lower abdomen about 2.5 inches long - bigger than I thought but they closed it with something called Dermabond so no stitches! Once we were in the car she took a nap and when we got home she acted like herself. I was a little worried about how she would sleep but we gave her a dose of Tylenol right at bedtime and she slept without a sound for abou 12 hours.

It's Day 5 today since the surgery and she is still doing great!

Our church and other friends were praying and we really appreciated it.

We'll have a follow up in a month to verify that it was successful.

Kayla right after the surgery and then standing up for the first time:



Coming back to life!

March Visit with Mimi

Had a nice few days with Kayla's Mimi.

Kayla enjoyed rifling through Mimi's suitcase and helping her cook and wash dishes with her Waffle House hat on.

Mimi is surprised that Kayla likes to talk so much!

We visited the Gold Museum in Villa Rica and Kayla loved the water wheel and all the stones she could get her hands on. We also took her to Lazy Donkey - she loved the chips!

Anxiously waiting for Wednesday - Kayla's surgery. Have to be at Egleston BY 6am - early!