Labor Day Weekend

Mom, Dad, Michelle, and Michael came to visit this weekend and help Tyler along with our renovations. The new siding is looking great!

Lake Cottage

Ella's Heart Tests

Ella had a big day on Monday at DeVos Children's Hospital. She had a pulmonary perfusion scan in which they injected her with nuclear medicine and then took pictures of her lungs to see how much oxygen was flowing through each one. Then she had a chest CT scan. She had to be sedated for these pictures so she could lie completely still in the new machine which takes picture slices from different angles and produces 3-D images. Everyone at the hospital was lovely and caring and great with Ella. Other than getting the initial IV in her wrist, she was a good girl and did well with the nurses and doctors.

Today, Dr. Schneider called with the test results, and a had a very good report to share with us. The pulmonary fusion exam showed a symmetric distribution of oxygen between the right and left lungs. The right lung was using 54% oxygen, and the left lung 46%. This was pleasantly surprising, because surgery would not be necessary unless the percents were split dramatically, more than a 80%/20% split. The CT scan showed that the left and right pulmonary arteries are both average in size and growing. There was no discrepancy in size and no narrowing of the left pulmonary artery like originally noted in her open heart surgery.

Yes, she is growing healthy and strong, and her heart, too. This is the best news that we could have received, and we are praising God for our little miracle girl. She'll have a routine cardiologist appointment in 6 months at which time they'll listen to her heart and take blood pressure, just normal stuff. It may be several more years before they need to do in-depth testing like this again. It's definitely not something that will be done every year due to the high amount of radiation in the CT scan.

What's happening at ONE year old

Here she is, walking for the first time on June 2. Now, she chooses to walk everywhere she goes, unless she is tired and just wants Mama to carry her. She's still an explorer and tries to understand how everything works. This week she opened the oven and crawled inside. She likes to open and close the dishwasher and she also know how to turn that on. Tyler watched her play with the dog last night, and she was trying to put his collar on him. She is determine to figure out the buckles on things like the dog collar, her high chair, and her car seat. She is also strong. She was trying to get over our wooden gate, which is half of a door. Since it wouldn't open, because Tyler had blockaded it, she attempted to climb over it. Woah! She did a pull up to try to get over. Also, this week she has started to be more affectionate and loves to give slobbery, open mouth kisses on the lips. She'll take turns giving kisses, first me, then Tyler, then me again, and back to Tyler. It's cute. Then she kissed the dog on the nose, then she kissed her stuffed animals. I even saw her kissing the animal pictures in her book. So, watch out when you see her next. She'll want to give you a kiss, too!

Progress on our House

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Here it is! The latest pictures, taken over Memorial Day weekend by Tyler's parents. Yes, the addition is framed and roofed. Tyler is finishing electrical, plumbing, and hvac vents, then we can get our inspections. The windows arrived a few days ago, so I'm eager to install those. The next step will be siding. If anyone wants to help Tyler, I'm sure he would appreciate the encouragement.

Strawberry Picking

Saturday we picked a flat of yummy strawberries with the Lezan family. Ella mostly crawled around in the straw and ate lots of berries. And, we had to take turns holding her towards the end. We think she may be allergic to them because her skin got blotchy after eating so many. Saturday night and Sunday I made strawberry jam with a low sugar recipe. It turned out really great!

After picking berries, we visited some animals at the Krupp Farm "petting zoo." As you can see in the picture, Ella wanted to crawl into the pen with the animals. She crawls on everything these days including tables, chairs, ladders, and fences.

Vacation in Hawaii

Ella did much better than I expected on the 8-hour plane ride to Maui. It helped having my parents with us to entertain her. She barely cried at all and was mostly content. She enjoyed exploring the condo, crawling into cupboards, and climbing on the furniture.

The pool was her favorite. First she enjoyed climbing up and down the steps going into the pool. Then she got braver and like to swim back and forth from me to Grampa. Then she learned how much fun it is to jump in the pool and did this over and over again, with our help of course. She really wanted to put her face under the water, but I wouldn't let her yet.

The beach was fun, too, but much messier. Our first and only visit to the "baby beach" she had sand from head to toe including in her ears and on her eyelids. She liked throwing the sand in the air. Yuck!

We also enjoyed touring some gardens, visiting Haleakala National Park, seeing cool fish at the aquatic center, and going to a magic show. Upon our arrival home, we were exhausted due to the 6-hour time change. Ella had a fever for a few days, but with no other symptoms. Perhaps she picked something up in the airport. We're enjoying our summer vacation at home!

Ella's First Birthday

Ella's Easter Surprise

Grammy Sandy and Grandpa Russ brought Ella an Easter wagon filled with toys! Ella loves her wagon the best and likes to watch the wheels move round and round. Ella says thanks for coming to my house and playing with me! I love you!

We've finally started!

The project has begun! We have a building permit and now a foundation poured for our two-story addition. We'll have a new kitchen downstairs and Ella's new bedroom upstairs. As you can see, Tyler enjoyed the excavating and Ella got to take a ride too!

Playing Outside

Pictures from Karen

Karen is our neighbor who watches Ella several afternoons a week. She sent me some great pictures of Ella, Claire, and Rachel playing.

9 months

Ella had her 9-month appointment this past week with Dr. Macedo. She was being all bashful and shy at first, but then she warmed up to the doctor and was playing with him. Ella is still growing big at 19 pounds, 28 inches. She's also still in the 90% for height and 70% for weight, but still a smaller head. The doctor looked at her chipped tooth and didn't think it was much to worry about. We've made an appointment with a pediatric dentist, but they most likely will decide not to do anything as it's not very deep or sharp. Also at the appointment we found out that Ella has an ear infections so she is on some antibiotics to clear that up. No shots this time!

Mostly, Ella is keeping us busy because she is so active. She crawls from room to room and pulls herself up to stand very often. She can stand without help for 30 seconds all by herself! She is fascinated by how the doors swing open and closed and likes to play with them, not minding when she continually gets banged in the forehead. Instead of crawling around obstacles, she likes going over them. Her favorite thing to do at night is crawl back and forth over Tyler when he is lying on the carpet. She's getting really good at it. Even when she does a face plant, she doesn't cry. Tyler says that she is his little bruiser!

Photos by Jen Smith

Pictures for Nanna!

1- Ella loves animals! This is Marbles, Ryan and Michelle's new cat.
2- Ella and her friend Claire at Karen's house while I'm at work.

The Month of January

I have a lot of catching up to do! We drove home from New Jersey on Tuesday, January 2. It was a long 12 hours in Tyler's truck, but we finally arrived home safely. The very next day, I left in the morning to take Ella to the doctor's office for her second dose of the flu shot. The sunshine and warm weather (it reached 50 degrees that day!) deceived me and after turning onto a back road, I lost control of the car. My poor Civic went into the ditch, causing the air bags to deploy. I was in shock and completely freaked out, not even knowing I had hit black ice until the police officer explained the situation to me. Ella was not hurt at all. Our Graco SafeSeat did its job well. I got second degree burns on my right hand from the air bag explosion, partly a chemical burn and partly heat. My skin is healing quickly and now it just looks like dry, red winter skin. Anyhow, I'm not quite sure why God allowed us to be in this accident, but it forced us to search for a new vehicle a little sooner than we had planned. We found a sweet deal on a Honda Pilot in the paper, so now we have our family SUV, which was really helpful this weekend during the blizzard that we experienced in Grand Rapids. I love my new vehicle, but am still traumatized by the accident and am more cautious than ever when driving now, always looking out for signs of black ice.

School's back in session at Chandler Woods and I welcomed Krysten Karpicke, a student teacher from Central Michigan University. She is getting to know the students and families and has been a tremendous asset to our classroom. With a new person on our team, I'll hopefully make it home a little earlier for the next few months. Tyler and Ella will sure love that!

Also this month, Ella had another cardiologist appointment. She had a successful ultrasound this time! She stayed still longer because she wasn't feeling well and Tyler came along to entertain her and help me out. Dr. Schneider gave us a super report. Her circulation is great--like a normal baby her age. They'll keep watching her left pulmonary artery as it could be enlarged with a stint in the future to increase blood flow to the left lung. No need to worry about this now, and it is a minor procedure compared to the surgery she has already gone through.

Ella is sure growing up. She is now quite a proficient crawler, from room to room, and even into my lap when she wants comforted. She is also beginning to pull herself up. She can get toys out of her basket herself, and she tries to operate the stereo, adjusting the volume and opening and closing the tape cassette holder. TODAY she really surprised us when she was standing up in her crib, holding on to the rails. I was shocked and happy, and she laughed very pleased with her new accomplishment. Tyler lowered her mattress to the bottom setting in the crib so she won't fall out in her "climbing."

December and January have been such l o n g months for us because Ella has been sick on and off and NOT sleeping through the night anymore. First she woke up because she was really sick. Then she woke up because she was coughing or couldn't breathe. Now she wakes up... FOR NO REASON AT ALL! or at least none we can discern. I'm not feeding her during the night anymore. I'll give her a bottle of water (a great suggestion from Aunt Kathy-Thanks!) or put her Nuk back in her mouth and tell her to just go back to sleep. And she usually does. Now sometimes I don't even have to get out of bed to check on her when she cries. She usually can fall back asleep on her own. So... we are heading in the right direction. Tyler and I are getting a little more sleep now and we all want to stay healthy!

My biggest challenge this winter will be writing my final grad project so that I can complete my Masters Degree in Elementary Education. There will be no slacking off on this research and writing as I have a very "persnickety" prof who has very high expectations and strict deadlines. My new mantra this semester will be "They only give A's and B's. They only give A's and B's." The worst thing that can happen is that I would have to rewrite my paper... which I've already been asked to do. It can't get much worse, so it can only get better, right? The real reason that I am finally writing in this blog is because it is much more fun to do than my research. so basically, I'm procrastinating again. But, hey, I did really need a break.

If you made it to the end of this entry, you are a TRUE FRIEND! Thanks for caring about our family so much to read my long ramblings.