Seriously, is it really a week away from Christmas and the last blog I posted I was complaining about people pushing it on me?!?! Geez! These past few weeks have been a whirlwind and it's not getting any better. We are two days away from leaving for FL and I've yet to start packing for four people and preparing the dogs for boarding for 10 days. I don't really know where to start and I hate that feeling. This past week has been so busy with doctor appointments and other errands that I'm a little behind in laundry, but what's new?!
Speaking of doctor appointments, Annie had her 2 month check-up and you would never know she had a slow start in the beginning! She is now 24" long (94th percentile) and 11 lb, 4 oz (60th percentile). Her head circumference was measured at 15 1/2" (75th percentile)!!! So, apparently my girl is long and has a big head!! Once again, I do believe she will slow down dramatically just like Ella did after the first year, so we'll see how these measurements continue. Her next appt. is in February. As for milestones, she has become the most smiley baby in the past couple weeks. Mommy and big sister are able to get more smiles than daddy, but I think she's still figuring out who he is as Stephen has been super-busy this past month! She starting to coo more and more and is getting more interested in her play mat and focusing a lot more on objects. It's fun to see her "grow-up", but it's going w-a-y to fast already.
Ella has also had her share of doctor appointments in the past couple weeks. Last Friday she had another procedure on her lip (this would be the third, but different, procedure). For those of you who don't know, when Ella was about 2 or 3 she had a mucoceil (a salivary gland inside the mouth that was damaged by trauma like biting inside her mouth or a fall that didn't heal properly and made a pocket of fluid) inside her lower lip. We were just watching it for a while, but it continued to get bigger and it started to look like she had chewing tobacco inside her lip all the time. So, between her dentist and her pediatrician, we decided to get it excised because that was the usual treatment to get rid of it. Well, after the first excision scar tissue formed and her lip still looked big. So, in March of this year we had it excised again and what do you know, the same thing happened. We decided to see a plastic surgeon and get a second opinion and Ella ended up getting an MRI because the doc thought this was more than just scar tissue, likely a type of lymphatic malformation which means that excision will most not likely work anyway. So this time around the doctor decided to use a laser and cauterize the area to reduce the malformation. So, after this past Friday Ella had a lot of swelling, but not pain thank the Lord. Her follow-up appointment on Wed. went well and a lot of the swelling had gone down, but we still to give it time and wait to see if the procedure did anything. So, her next follow-up is in February as well and at that time we will decide if something else needs to be done. Prayers would certainly be appreciated as we are really hoping this works and Ella can go on with her life without worrying about how her lip looks and answering everyone's questions about what's wrong with her lip.
After this busy week I was able to get some pampering in and got my hair cut. That always makes me feel better. It's almost as good as a massage to me. It will give me the extra boost I need to finish everything that lays ahead of me...not only packing for four people, but wrapping gifts for a little Christmas that we'll have here Monday so we don't have to lug everything to FL! So...Stephen is on-call today and I will be officially starting to pack! Or will I?! Maybe I'll wait until tomorrow...
