Pulmonology Follow-Up

Lily had a follow-up appointment with Pedi Pulmonology today. Guess what - we don't have to go back to see them again for SIX MONTHS!!! What a huge weight lifted off my mind. There are, of course, some tests that have to be done in the meantime, but this feels like a big step.


Dr. Smith was thrilled to hear that Pedi Neurology is not worried at all about her sleep study from a few months ago. She said that it is very rare to get a report from Neuro saying that they are not concerned about a 24-weeker. However, even though the neurologist doesn't need to see a repeated sleep study, the pulmonologist still wants to repeat it in a couple months. They just want to be on the safe side and make sure she's improving over time. So we'll be doing that in September. We also talked about the swallow studies. The doctor said it's no big deal if we repeat the study and Lily still needs thickened liquids - she will eventually outgrow it. But we can't stop thickening without having a good swallow study because Lily's aspiration has always been silent. She doesn't cough or choke when she aspirates these trace amounts of liquid, so we would have no idea if she was damaging her lungs. So we'll be repeating the swallow study in July.

Overall, a good report - just the same old follow-up stuff.

Sea World San Antonio

We recently spent some vacation time with Grandma and Grandpa Corning, Uncle Chad, Aunt Cara, Reagan, Rayden, and Great Grandma Gladson. Everyone rode to Texas in Randy and Karen's RV, visited at our house for a little while, and then headed to San Antonio for a few days. We all had a great time!

Here are some pictures of our trip to Sea World. Everyone thinks of Shamu when they think of Sea World, but the sea lions actually put on the best show!

Splash Time!

Lily loves playing in our sprinkler so much that Grandma and Grandpa bought her a sprinkler toy of her own. Lily loves her Splashtime Playmat! In one of the pictures, you can see that she's learning her body parts and is pointing to Elmo's eye. In some of the pictures, you can see what happens when she decides that she's finished -- She doesn't like the grass, so she does a bear crawl across the grass to the sidewalk. Funny baby...

You guessed it... More pictures of Lily!

Curly Mohawk

Several months ago, Lily had an appointment in the Medical Center. When the doctor walked into the exam room, she exclaimed, "You have a curly mohawk!" Lily's hair still hasn't grown in very much on the sides, but it's filling in quite a bit on the back.

Spoon Feeding

Lily's been practicing with her spoon. She doesn't scoop the food, but if I put food on the spoon (or fork) and hand it to her, she will take a bite and hand the utensil back to me so I can put more food on it.

Happy Father's Day!

Dusty had a great Father's Day, beginning with breakfast in bed! He had to share with Lily, but I don't think it bothered him a bit. Lily gave him a card that said she was giving him great big hugs and kisses for Father's Day.

CRANU 3 & Church-Wide Cook-Out

Dusty helped referee at our church's CRANU tournament the weekend before last. Cranu is a combination of croquet and canoeing, in case you were wondering! Dusty had fun; he said there's more to croquet than you might imagine. Lily and I joined him at the church for our annual church-wide cook-out during the end of the tournament, and a good time was had by all!

Intense croquet match in progress!

Lily can take bites off of an apple. (She can also do this with sweet corn - very cute!)

Piggy Bank

Once Lily figured out what to do with her piggy bank, she wanted to put ALL of the coins inside! It was really cute because she managed to stick her tiny little index finger in the slot with the coin almost every time. Now that she put away all the loose change lying around, it's just a few coins here and there, and she gets excited when I hand her a penny and lift her up to the piggy bank on her dresser. Cutie pie!

According to the instructor of my most recent CPR class, coins are the item most commonly choked on by small children. Of course hot dogs and grapes rank high on the list as well, but please be careful when your kids are putting money in their banks!

My Daddy's Rocking Chair

This rocking chair was my Daddy's when he was a little boy. Grandma and Grandpa Corning refinished it for me, and it has been here in our house since before I even came home from the hospital. I have sat in the chair before, but I was too small to do it by myself. But I'm a big girl now, so I can rock all by myself! Mommy has to help me get in and out of the chair, though. I also rock my baby dolls, and it's a great place to sit while I watch Baby Einstein. Daddy's rocking chair is just my size!

There's a hole in my wall!

Well not anymore, but there was a hole in the wall! Hanging our TV above the fireplace was a little more complicated than I thought it was going to be. As you can see from the pictures (they're numbered chronologically), Dusty and Grandpa Scott had to sand the wall before cutting a rectangular hole. They installed another power outlet and ran all sorts of wiring before patching the hole with new drywall, texturing, and painting it again. Then the bracket was mounted on the wall, and the TV was hung on the bracket. They also set up our surround sound system. A lot of the wiring had to be run in the attic, which is no small task to begin with, but adding the Texas summer heat to the mix made for quite the project!

I am looking for an audio cabinet to put next to the fireplace. I don't want metal and glass, though; I'd like a wooden cabinet. There are lots of pretty audio piers available, but many of them are taller than our mantle. So until I find the perfect one, we still have the TV box keeping Lily away from the stereo equipment.

Oh, I almost forgot! The guys found a Pepsi can inside the wall! How funny to look inside that hole and see something from the early 90's when the house was built. They took a picture, but we couldn't reach it. I wonder what else is sitting around inside the walls...

Lily says, "Thanks for your help, Grandpa! Baby Einstein is much more fun to watch on the big TV!"

Not like soda!?!

Lily is so funny... The things she has been saying and doing lately are just precious! She makes me laugh all the time! And recently, if she's not making me laugh, she's almost making me cry by giving the sweetest little hugs and kisses that you could ever imagine. We are so very blessed to have this little girl light up our lives!

I don't give Lily juice or soda. In the past it was because if she was going to drink something, it needed to have lots of calories to help her gain weight. So she always had fortified milk or high-calorie formula. Then it suddenly got really hot outside, and I thought I had better give her some water so she wouldn't get dehydrated. So I introduced water in a regular sippy cup, only to find out later that she was still aspirating and continues to need thickened liquids. So I found a good straw cup and introduced thickened water (thick liquids won't go through the valves of typical sippy cups). So that was great - she loves water! But I still didn't give her any juice because she really doesn't need the sugar, and it's supposed to be limited to something tiny like 4 oz per day anyway. So I figured, why bother with the thickening nonsense if she can only have that small amount anyway? So we just stuck to milk and water, and that was fine.

Lately she's been eating enough that if we happen to be out somewhere for lunch, I order her a small portion so she can have her own food. Last week, her small portion turned out to be a kid's meal at a fast-food place. I decided to go ahead and get her a little bit of orange Hi-C, since they gave me the cup with her meal. Lily didn't know what to think of it! She would take drinks, but after each swallow, she would crinkle up her face and shake her head like it tasted sour! Quite funny! So I decided that she doesn't really like Hi-C, which is perfectly fine because I never had any intention of giving it to her on a regular basis.

But how about some juice once in awhile, since she's such a big girl now? Well, we picked up some apple juice and let her try it... She doesn't even like that! She took a few drinks, but the sour face returned, and she started letting it spill out of her mouth instead of swallowing it. She really just didn't like it. I'm ok with her not drinking juice. Milk and water are good for her, and she likes them. While juice won't hurt her, she definitely doesn't need it.

So I had let the idea of introducing different drinks go to the back of my mind, but today when we were leaving Chick-fil-A, I was holding this giant Lily on one hip, the way-too-big-for-a-one-year-old diaper bag on the opposite shoulder, shaking my keys around so I could get to the button to unlock the car door, and carrying my Coke in the hand that was also holding Lily. Lily thought it would be a good idea to take a drink of Mommy's soda, and I just wasn't in any position to stop her as I walked across the parking lot, admidst the cars in line for the drive-thru. So she took a big swig, made an awful face, and spit it out all over her shirt and my arm. Absolutely hilarious! I'm sure she didn't think it was funny, but the look on her face was priceless.

But then I got to thinking about this... Like I said, I'm ok with her not liking juice. No big deal. But how can she not like soda!?! That is just weird!!! Well, maybe it only seems weird if you're completely addicted to it like I am. Normal people might think it's great that a little girl only wants milk or water. But still! Not like soda? Really? Maybe it's just because she wanted Diet Pepsi instead of Coke. Alas, most places around here only have Coke products. What a shame!

But if you need a Pepsi fix, you can stop into the little Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble (or maybe any Starbucks, I wouldn't know, I don't drink coffee - only soda). Think of me as you enjoy your regular fountain Pepsi with no ice. Bliss!

Little Monkey

Lily has been climbing on everything lately! Twice now, she has used a bag that we have as a step to get on top of the coffee table. She just climbs right up there, crawls back and forth, and sometimes sprawls out with her cheek resting on the cool surface of the table (strangely reminds me of Pepper). I've never let her see me watching her do this, since I of course don't want to encourage that behavior, but it's very funny if you can spy on her when she's not looking.
Here are some photos of her climbing on my step-stool (more info about the funny-looking wiring and other background stuff in another post, I promise). Lily is not even a teeny bit afraid of climbing on things, but she seems to be afraid to take her first steps. She's perfectly comfortable walking all around the house, as long as she's holding onto my finger (not hand, mind you, just a single finger is enough to make her feel secure). But the moment she realizes that she's let go of whatever she was holding, she plops down on her bottom. One of these days...

This is just like the stairs - piece of cake!

Up we go...
Hi, Mom!
Oh, did you think I was stopping at the second step? No way, I'm going all the way to the top!
With just a little help, in case I lose my balance, that is.

Belly Button!

Baby Tami has a belly button! Lily can say "belly button" very clearly, but sometimes she gets excited...

Downtown Aquarium

We visited the Downtown Aquarium last Wednesday. Lily had fun looking at the fish, but I think the best part of the Downtown Aquarium is the train, which takes you through a tunnel that is actually the shark tank. Lily was excited when she noticed one of the sharks swimming above us.

She liked pointing at the fish.

In the aquarium exhibit, there is a little bubble under one of the tanks. Lily loved it.

There is a spray park, so of course Lily had to put on a bathing suit and splash around! I have a terrible time keeping a hat on Lily's head, but I keep trying because I'm afraid her scalp is going to get sunburned through her fine hair. Most of the time I just have to put sunscreen on her head because the hats make her mad.
Check out that belly!

On our final ride on the train, Lily was so exhausted that she fell asleep sitting up, before we even got into the shark tunnel. She was just plain worn out! She didn't even wake up when the train blew its whistle, or when the ride stopped and we put her into the stroller.

A Trip to the Zoo

This was technically Lily's second trip to the Houston Zoo. But the last time was a year ago, when she was about 5 pounds and still on oxygen and an apnea monitor. So needless to say, she didn't really care about looking at the animals last year! This trip to the zoo was loads of fun. We literally spent the entire day at the zoo, and Lily had a blast. She napped on the way to the zoo and then again for about 45 minutes while we were there. Otherwise, she was awake and having fun the whole day.

Lily really enjoyed looking at the animals. After only a couple of exhibits, she had clearly picked up on the idea that she was supposed to look for an animal each time we stopped the stroller and pointed at something. She was pointing and laughing, sometimes even talking to the animals. I am so glad we took her to the zoo at this age - too young to really understand or remember it, but old enough to enjoy seeing new things.

Lily's first carousel ride!

Mist fans are awesome. Enough said.The Children's Zoo has a small spray park for cooling off. This was Lily's first experience with a spray park, so we started out with the tiny little sprinkler that you can barely see her covering with her hand. She had fun, though, so I also took her through the bigger sprays. She really likes the water!
Lily has visited two petting zoos before, and she hated them both. So I was nervous taking her to pet the goats, but she surprised me by wanting to pull the poor goat's ears. After touching the goats, she wanted to climb into the other animals' pens to play with them!
We took a break in a small covered area inside the Children's Zoo, and we found a little tunnel to walk through. (No, she's not walking by herself yet. Very close, but not yet.)
There were all sorts of fish inside this tank, but Lily only cared about this blue one who kept swimming back and forth in front of her. She tried very hard to catch it.This toucan was by far Lily's favorite animal in the zoo! He put on quite a show for her, hopping, dancing, and singing along the branch. Lily was cracking up!
For the rest of us, this little bird is probably the most memorable animal in the zoo. It was not even a teeny bit afraid of us! It started getting closer by perching on a vine a few feet above Lily's head. Then it landed on this railing, only a couple feet away from Grandpa Scott, who was leaning against it. The bird hopped along the railing, right behind Grandpa, pausing only to peck at his arm and back. It proceeded further along the railing, all the way to Grandma and Lily. The bird and Lily had a staring contest, and Lily did not hesitate to reach out to try and grab the little guy! He turned his head back and forth, clearly sizing Lily up. I think Lily won the staring contest, but the bird got the last word by flying right past her face to return to his perch on the vine. It was so funny!
We all had a great time at the zoo!