A good chuckle

I peeked around at Ashlyn on our way home from Emory.  This is what I saw.  It gave me a good laugh!

Dear Santa...

We headed out to Emory this weekend for a fundraising event, Hee Hawg!  It is an annual event to raise money for the Rains County 4-H club hosted by Mimi's group, Lake Country Neighbors.  There was a delicious BBQ lunch, bounce houses, raffles, vendors and other stuff for the kids to do.  We tried our luck in a raffle for this John Deere tricycle.  We didn't win the bike, but Ashlyn has started her Christmas list early!  And she has been very good!

I am convinced if cuteness won the raffle we would be the proud owners!

Fall party and book exchange

We had a party in Ashlyn's classroom on Friday.  As the room mom, I was responsible for organizing it.  Secretly, it was Ashlyn's going away party, but I disguised it as a fall party!  There was great involvement from the other parents and a really good turnout!  We had a book exchange for the kids and also brought new or gently used books to donate to the classroom to help build up their library.  Once again, I didn't get too many pictures (I'm detecting a theme...I am not a very good photographer).  But we all had a great time.  I handed down the "room mom" duties to Evan's mom, Allison.  She will do a great job!

Ian, Ms. Tomika & Ashlyn
(They fight over her lap)

 The Gang!

One eye open

I think I may have mentioned before that Ashlyn is a little spoiled at school (one of the reasons I don't want her to transition...I am not sure the new teacher will give her quite as much TLC).  Ms. Lydia and Ms. Tomika are pretty crazy about Ashlyn.  So much so that Tomika stands next to her crib while she is trying to fall asleep during nap time.  Ashlyn falls asleep fairly quickly, but will occasionally open one eye to make sure Tomika hasn't moved.  Once she is deep asleep, Tomika can tend to the other children.  A little spoiled...don't cha think?

Ms. Tomika sent me these pictures at work.  We are going to miss these wonderful ladies!

One eye on Ms. Tomika

Practicing napping on her nap map (with Tomika sitting next to her)

Ashlyn meets Big Tex

Ashlyn enjoyed her first trip to the State Fair!  We went with a group from my work.  We were a little late (quick stop by the pediatrician to check on a nagging cough/cold...no ear infection...but a little wheezing to keep an eye on) but had a great time!  Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures (a few of my co-workers took some so maybe I will have more to post later).  We enjoyed our Fletcher's corn dog, the beer garden, walking through the auto buildings and listening to some live music...and the weather was perfect!

Grocery shopping with my cuzzy

Kristin, Jules and Janice came in to go to the fair.  The weather didn't cooperate so they ended up spending the evening with us!  We didn't mind the last minute visit and Ashlyn and Jules had a great time in the shopping cart!  

Check-up with Dr. Burns

We had an impromptu check-up with the plastic surgeon who is managing Ashlyn's hemangioma.  We had completely weaned her Propranolol (the medicine that she has been on since she was 6 weeks old) and were noticing some rebound growth of her hemangioma.  Dr. Burns worked us in for a clinic appointment to check on it.  He thought it had grown as well.  We took new photos and pulled up the ones from the previous appointment.  It did appear that it had grown a little since her last visit in July.  This is very unusual for this type of tumor.  They usually are completely done growing by 12 months.  In all of his practice (and he is the world guru for these things) he has only seen 1 case where it grew after 12 months.  He still feels confident that it is a hemangioma (versus a venous malformation or an ateriovenous malformation or some other tumor he did not want to discuss) because of the way it presented (not there at birth), how rapidly it grew over the 1st months of her life and because it responded so well to the medication.  The other types of tumors wouldn't have done that.  So we started back on Propranolol (0.6 mL twice a day).  We are still scheduled for her first laser treatment in December.  He gave us a little more detail about that treatment :(.  Basically, it is going to look worse before it gets better.  He will treat it with 2 lasers, 1 to penetrate the deep, blue, bruised looking portion and one to target the superficial red area.  The deep laser leaves a lot of swelling and the superficial one leaves bruising.  And if we don't get swelling and bruising, it wasn't intense enough to get the job done.  Poor baby.  He still thinks this is the right direction to go and we feel confident with his decisions.  Like I said, he is the expert!  Needless to say, we will be taking Christmas pictures early this year!  Prayers for a safe and effective treatment are appreciated!

Having her vitals checked

Such a big girl!
 (1st time standing to be weighed and measured!)

Walking papers

We got the notice today that Ashlyn is going to start transitioning to her new classroom on October 17th.  She will start on Monday with an hour and a half and work her way up to a full day in her new classroom by Friday.  Chance and I both had the opportunity to meet her new teacher today.  Ms. Denise seems very nice...maybe a little more strict than Ms. Tomika and Ms. Lydia, but I think that is a good thing.  I think Ashlyn needs a little more structure and challenge in her classroom.  She is still in the infant room and she is definitely not an infant anymore.  She has been a little more feisty and I think it is because she needs more activities throughout the day.  I have to admit, the transition will leave me a little anxious because she is not quite as mobile as the kids in her new class, but I honestly think it will be good for her.  I did find a really cute nap map today!  We are going to practice the next couple of weeks at home...I still can't wait to see her nap on a cot!  Will update more as the transition begins.

Kind words

As we (the 3 of us...Chance and I on either side of Ashlyn each holding a hand) were walking back to our car this evening after dinner an elderly lady stopped us and asked how old Ashlyn was.  We told her "almost 17 months...getting so big" the usual stuff we say to people that stop to chat.  For some reason what she said after that melted my heart!  She said, "She is the most precious thing I have ever seen.  Thank you.  She made my week".   Well sweet lady, you  made my week...Thank You!

Outdozin'

I couldn't think of a better title for this post...makes me laugh every time I say it!  Whenever I spend a significant amount of time outside...I have to call it "outdozin".  Really not sure how you spell it...but that is my best guess!  Quick story...a couple of years ago I had a young, funny black woman as a patient.  She was hilarious...cracked me up all of the time.  One Monday I went to see her and I asked her how her weekend was.  Her response, "I'm exhausted.  I was out dozing all weekend".  I mistakenly thought she meant sleeping on and off all weekend...dozing.  Nope, she was OUT DOORSING all weekend.  Cruising around the campus in her power w/c.  Outdozin'!  Cracked me up.  Same woman who when I suggested we practice fall recovery before she discharged home told me, "Oh, I can get up from the floor...I fall all of the time in my room"!  Not what your PT wants to hear.  Same patient who hoped her son left his "heat" in the car when he came up for family training...not because it is illegal to carry a gun on the premises but because he has a warrant.  Go figure.

Anyway...back to our post.  We were outdozin' all weekend and it was great!  Ashlyn was a trooper since she came down with her first cold of this cold/flu season on Thursday.  Gma stayed home with her on Friday hoping a day of rest and good naps would speed up her recovery!  We had lots of fun stuff planned this weekend and we decided to go ahead with it all, even though Ashlyn wasn't 100%.  She seemed to enjoy it all and didn't even mind the fact that the only naps she had this weekend were in the car.  She is very easy going!

We started Saturday by heading out to Canton for 1st Monday.  We met Mimi and PaJ out there just in time for some yummy Canton food  for lunch (my favorite part of 1st Monday:).  It was a little warmer than anticipated but we all enjoyed walking around looking at all of the junk!  I love to walk around the pavilions where the real treasures are...but it was way too crowded for a stroller in there!  I have never seen so many people at 1st Monday!  We walked around for a few hours until we could no longer take the crowds and heat.  Ashlyn had on her squeaky shoes and she loved walking around (still holding on to a finger).  She was quite the hit!  We headed home and relaxed and ordered pizza.  We had to rest up for our next outing.

Sunday morning we met Gpa, Gma and Aunt Sarah at the Dallas Zoo.  The weather was gorgeous!  Couldn't have been better.  Ashlyn really liked looking at the animals this time.  She would actually look at them, point and grunt.  Last time we were at the zoo, I think she was still too young to get it.  She did NOT want to be in the stroller or be held.  She wanted to walk!  She still needs to hold on to 1 finger, but she walked those little legs off!  Needless to say, the turtles made it around the zoo more quickly than we did.  But it was a lot of fun. We got to feed the giraffes, have a close up encounter with a cheetah and watch the bird show.  We had a blast.  We left early enough to grab a good table at our favorite pizza joint, Eno's to watch the Cowboy's game and celebrate Aunt Sarah's birthday!  We sat up stairs and they had the huge windows open.  I could have sat there all afternoon!  But oh no...our day was not complete...we still had to go house hunting!  We headed to Frisco to check out a couple of houses with Aunt Gayle.  It was a very busy weekend and we were all ready to crash by Sunday night!  Outdozin' is exhaustin'!
The only pictures I have from the weekend were at the zoo.  Thanks Gma!  Next time we will pass around the camera to make sure you and Sarah are in some shots!

I am sure this Jeep is REALLY clean as Ashlyn chews on it!

Love this picture!
No, the giraffe is not about to eat Ashlyn's arm!

 We did a lot of this

She is getting so big!

And more of this...

See, there is Aunt Sarah!

Me and Gpa!

And some stairs