O Where did the time go... It's almost been 2 years

Summer at Gaga's Big Lake

The second most favorite thing of Avery's is the Wawa, this is next to of course her Baba. Avery and her siblings have had a blast the times we've spent up at Gaga and Russ's Lake in Big Lake. Great fun was had by all when we entertained our good friends the Caplingers and then again on the 4th of July! More post to come... too late to continue tonight! Happy Summer!

Wow..... what a wild 17 month ride in this house.. As Jeff and I were just talking this little babe taught us so much..... With lots going wrong from the beginning.... everything that could have gone wrong in Ava's pregnancy could have did....her arrival was dangerous and scary. Once she arrived all the pregnancy troubles were wiped away and we were in love with our sweet little new one.... Her newborn days we tough and filled with doctor appointments in the mid of sub zero temps, prosthesis changes, tape and poly grip... all of which we hated and were thankful for at the same time. Oh my... the crying, the car rides.... and oh I almost forgot the pumping every 2 hours. We laughed b/c Avery cakes taught us that maybe we didn't know everything there was to parenting....... our theory that colic wasn't' real... perhaps not true :O) , and oh yeah when meeting with physicians.... Go with your intuition.....use their knowledge, but make your own decisions do your own research! The Big kids have been awesome with everything and their lives have been blessed to have their little sister join this house. Happy 1.5 year birthday Avery Elizabeth!!!!!!

17 month photos

Happy Birthday Madeline! wow 9 years old!

I always wanted a 9 year old daughter and n...o....w I got one!

Yep, it's becoming a tradition in this family......smashing your face in your B-day cake!

Just a minute mom... just a lil early Mornin reading!

Lots going on around here!

Dance Recital end of May !

Toddlerhood

At what age is a baby no longer a baby?

It struck me as I was taking theses that Avery is not so little anymore!

15 month photo!

It seems I am either too busy or taking photo's of others that I

neglected to get Avery's 15 month photo done. Here is one ill attempt to get a shot... We need to get her tongue in her mouth! She acutally has been keeping it in a lot lately! Silly girl thought this table was her dance floor!

Playing

Avery just playing..... running around her crib and hiding from Mom!

A Tribute to our Maga on Mother's Day

Here is a picture of our Maga, Avery's Great Grandma, My Grandmother who passed away New Years Eve. We loved her dearly and miss her so much. Avery loved seeing her in her nursing home near the end. She was drawn to her as she lay in her bed. She would dive towards her every time. It's almost as if Avery knew that she needed her somehow. To this day Avery begs to see maga in a photo we have in her room. She looks at it, points, plays and then kisses Maga every time. We Love you Maga..... we pray for you everyday.

Flu shot ordeal

After being told that the flu shot was PERFECTLY SAFE... the exact words of our pediatrician we decided after 6 months of hounding by the ped's office we reluctantly gave Avery the flu shot to ward off possible flu due to her upcoming surgery....... WRONG decision. I did not listen to my Mothers intuition.. I just new I should not give her that shot and I was right. I only gave it to her b/c the peds office scares a mother into it... "Ya know... she is going to be in the hospital at the worst time of the year...."

Well, it turned out that the Peds office didn't do their homework on my daughter BEFORE they gave her the shot... Avery is HIGHLY allergic to EGGS... Eggs are in the shot. All peds have to do is to test for this before the blankly put eggs into a body of a little one with no way to get the eggs out.

In the end we endured, 6 plus weeks of rashes, sickness, vomiting, wheezing that would not go away with the nebulizer- All this from a kid who never had a rash or any allergies that we knew of BEFORE this shot.. Every was eating all sorts of stuff that never bothered her. Even stuff with eggs and wheat.

She now has to stay away from all EGGS, WHEAT, SOY, NUTS, SHELLFISH.

The worst of it too was that Avery began to have behavior changes and staring episodes that scared me to death.. She would leave what we were doing and stare for like 2 minutes and we could not rouse her. She has since recovered.

I have learned a lot about vaccinations, and antibiotics/vaccination combination since this ordeal. I have a new found respect for parents who say that something in a vaccination did harm their child. I now cannot vaccinate Avery for the MMR and maybe no future vaccinations.

They say the percentage of harm from a vaccine is small, but hey... when it's you it's 100%.

We will chance the measles, which are highly recoverable vs the chance that a vaccination will harm our child's brain. Autism. When children have a chance of 1 in 130 getting a diagnosis of Autism and you have thousands of parents tell the medical community what they are seeing and nobody listens.

I do believe that the combo of Avery's allergy and her prior antibiotic use prior to the shot caused her to have such problems.

It's funny how your peds office is there for you when you do what they say... but when there is a problem they hide. We wrote letters, told the peds office that we were here to stay and that we did not want to pushed off to other doctors, we asked them to file a VAERS form, they did and we also asked they to acknowledge that this shot caused these problems. We wrote the whole staff a letter and asked them to change their policy to telling parents it's completely safe and to test for egg allergies in children before they inject them with this shot.

In the end her doctor say that the rashes could be unrelated, that her allergies might have come out anyway, and that there are not studies to indicate such problems from the flu shot.. I told them to study Avery and that there are tons more people just like her... We are not really studying people like her b/c if we did... What would that do to the Flu Shot/ Pharma industry.

People would actually be able to think for themselves. Know the risks, get all the info before you take the chance in vaccinations.

I have inoculated all my kids prior to Avery, but on a modified schedule. Looking back the chicken pox shot is probably the reason our oldest got Pneumonia when she was 3- a complication of the chickenpox shot. I would also say that her Asthma and allergies could maybe also be a result of too many antibiotic and her vaccinations.

I am not saying that people should not vaccinate at all, I just want people to know that maybe they can don't have to get all the shots and maybe you can wait before you inoculate your little baby with something they have no chance of getting until they are older...

I was recently told that vaccinations are a way to keep populations disease free, but they are not safe for the individual. They may keep outbreaks at bay or even knock them out, but at what risk to the individual. All I am asking is let the parent decide if the risk of damage is worth the risk of a childhood illness.

This is one way to get the dishes done!

Oh, Where does the time go... Avery is on the go... no more time for the BLOG. Avery is 15 months and only in the 5th % for height and weight.. She's tiny... Lately though she is putting on come more chunk. Allergies seem to be in check, but she always has a runny nose. We stay away from all processed foods and anything with eggs or wheat in it. This leads to a very healthy diet.. the Zone diet for those if you who know what that is.. Getting fats in her is my biggest worry... Her speech seems to be progressing well at this point... she chatters and even now sings in her own cute way. New words popping up all the time. Early Intervention is coming out once a month b/c i begged they help me make sure she is on the right track for speech. Her palate seems to be functioning fine,. She has great suction and can even get drinks from a straw. She loves the outdoors and her new burley. I have put Avery on PROBIOTICS every day and since then she is doing wonderfully with no yeast in the diaper area and sleeps through the night... not until I put her on these. A friend turned me on to this therapy for kids who have had problems with yeast and have lots of antibiotics and or reactions to shots.... As promised me next blog will be about the dreaded reaction to the flu shot..... but first here are some recent pix!

Stealing cards with the girls!

Wow....lots of action around here.. We have a walker...finally...! Avery has been dabbling in walking for a long time and finally she is off! We are almost past the 12 week post surgery on the 9th ..so next week! Avery is doing well... We just need to get her tongue to stay in her mouth.. She has kept it out about 80% of the time since surgery. Avery just had her evaluation for speech through early intervention.. she did not qualify. This would normally sound good, but it's really bad in her case. This means that she will not meet the requirements to have speech with EI. This program in invaluable for these kids and Minnesota is one of few states that do not automatically qualify these kids. Most other states do recognize that it is essential.. Avery is talking at 90% so she is doing well. She doesn't say too many new words, but is doing that jabbering in sentences where you swear you heard things like...Right there, what's that...etc..

Her newest word was Papa... Hi Papa was repeated about 1000 times in one day.. very funny. Today to my amazement I asked who loves Mama... Avery raised her hand and said I duuuu! This was awesome b/c I have been teaching her this forever... I'd always ask her who wants to take a bathy...then I'd raiser her hand and say I do I do meeeee..., I'd do this for lots of questions.. Today she did it all on her own...

Sign language is a fun and neat thing to do with the wee ones..... but I have been hesitant to do it with Avery for fear she will use them instead of talking... the ST who came out said if I attempt them with Avery who is already " a talker" then it's likely she will talk even more with signing...... She has learned two signs in just two days and has used them to ask for more milk...-Not too sure how much of this I will do- we'll see!

Allergies.... well there is something going on..... We are watching Avery's diet and still she has a running nose and sneezes a lot. I think we go in for her 15month check next week.

Avery reading to George!

kissing cousins

Avery and her adorable little cousin Ethan who is just 15 months older had a blast today. Ethan and I went up to get Avery up from morning nap and I asked him if he wanted to go in the crib with Avery..thinking he would say no for fear that it would be his nap, but he politely said - YES! So I put him in and away they went. Jumping, giggling, and kissing.. I never once told them what to do. Ethan showed Avery how to whip her stuffed animals out, Avery got Ethan to copy her tongue action, and all had fun for about 30 minutes... maybe more.. I have so many cute pix.. Here are a few!

Thanks for a fun day EJ- love Avery Elizabeth

Hi DADDY!

HI Daddy- it was good talking to you today on the computer! We will send more pix!- Love you and see you soon! Love your girls! Goose, Monkey, and Ava!

Ahhhhhh 5 weeks post operation palate!

Well, we are feeling closer to our old routine. I am not freaking out if she puts something near her mouth and eating is going really well and my little peanut is beginning to put on some weight. She lost over a pound and seemed to get very skinny. she really had not gained weight in over 3 months.... I am guessing she is now at her per surgical weight... of 19.8 lbs or larger.
We will see the doc for our 15month well check - which will not include the MMR or any shots. We think we have the allergies under control. Avery can have milk as her allergy to is is low so we just need to watch it.. Other wise the allergies are soy, wheat, peanuts, all fish and all nuts... We will re test next year to see if things have changed. We need to carry an epi pen with us at all times and I am suspecting green peas may also be a problem..not sure yet..... can you be allergic to peas?
Avery's palate seems to have healed well. I still freak out at times about whether or not she has a fistula.... Some baby mush still comes out her nose at each feeding, but it is very little. I've been told that it is very normal and it will happen for 3months until the palate softens up. A palate repair is much more complicated than just covering up the gap. It's layers upon layers of muscle, tissue, nerves, etc... This is why anatomy and your surgeon is so important. For a cleft affected child avery had great anatomy she was lucky... so I only hope we picked the right surgeon... He's growing on me! :O) Jeff will know what I mean...long story short, I didn't like any of the surgeons all that well... like Dr. L the best! At one year old Avery loves to play with toys, is extremely quick with language and has an great memory for her age... She remembers and associates things you would never expect a baby to connect with. She will sit for 40 minutes to read books...of course we are not reading them all the way, but skimming the pages are more like it... She Loves those board books with textures and also loves flip up books. Avery has learned to defend her self against the unwanted pick up or kisses and squeezes. She will hit at the kids if they try to move her from a danger area or take something from her.. Then she will feel bad about it and give them nice touches. She is also a stinker...She is the exact replica of Hayden, but in a girly form and had the personality and back profile of Maddie....She also chuckles like Maddie did at her age.. and also whips the toys behind her head as hard as she can. when she is done looking at it... just like Maddie- weird! Her voice is huskie like Rue's so it will be funny to see how that develops. As for speech she has developed this new jabber and it is the cutest thing ever... it's like a fast Auctioneer...and she points all the while she is doing it... Some new sounds seem to be emerging, but the latest is she has made up signs to tell me she is done. She points with pointer when she wants out of her chair and she wants me to use my pointer to giver her pointer a high five.. then she is done and wants out... Too funny.. then when we say thank you to her she blows us a kiss..... the weird thing is that she is doing the real sign language sign for thank you! I love it... if she only knew!

oooohh ahhhhh eeeeh

These are the sounds ava makes when she sees her george. Loves her two monkeys. She has always had an affinity for stuffed animals since birth. Will write more later!