Happy 2nd Birthday, Caroline!!

Happy Birthday, Caroline!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

We celebrated Caroline's second birthday this year with family and Elmo.  She was so excited and actually giddy about all the Elmo party food and spending time with her favorite people.  Seriously, who wouldn't be happy to be the center of attention?

Super excited!

Elmo Cupcakes or "cookies" as Caroline
calls them

Oscar vegetable tray and Elmo fruit tray

Poppi and GiGi!

Nonnie!

Big Pappa!

Uncle Packy!

Uncle Trey!

Aunt Emme and Uncle Jason!

Helping herself to a cookie

Eating an homemade Elmo cupcake

Caroline - You are such a silly little girl and you make your daddy and me laugh on a daily basis.  We continue to be so blessed by your amazing spirit and determination.  You have really taken off with communicating and learn new words daily. You love to tell everything bye bye and night night.  You take care of your stuffed animals - among your favorites are Elmo, Curly and Zoe.  In fact, you never leave Elmo.  You are very obsessed with trucks, airplanes, bracelets, purses, music and water.  You love your Little Gym class and try to swing from almost everything like it's a bar.  While we were at the doctor you started swinging from the desk.  

You are 31.5" tall and weigh 20 pound, 6 ounces.  This puts you at the 10 percentile in height and 0.33 percentile for weight.  We continue to work hard to find high calories foods that you like.  Last week, you had a physical therapy evaluation because you are still tippy toe walking and curling your right toes.  You are going to wear night braces on your feet and start weekly physical therapy.  The therapist is hopeful that this will make a big improvement. We continue to thank God and remind ourselves how lucky we are that you only have these small issues.

March for Babies

As some of you all probably know, Ryan, Caroline and I were the Ambassador Family for the March of Dimes March for Babies this year.   It was a neat opportunity to learn about the work March of Dimes does for babies born too early.  Caroline received surfactant therapy to help her lung development and the effectiveness of this therapy was discovered by March of Dimes grantees.  Most importantly, I learned that at any given time there is $9,000,000 in research money from March of Dimes in the Texas Medical Center.  For this reason, I am asking you to consider making a gift in support of March of Dimes.  As Ryan and I found out 20 months ago, prematurity affects all types of people… even moms with good prenatal care.

If you are interested in learning more, I’ve included a link to a podcast of a radio show that I was a guest speaker on before the walk.  Podcast

Here is a clip from KPRC the day of the walk.  Caroline made the news again.  KPRC News Clip

 Here is the link to Make a gift

Thank you so much for your support!

Happy 18 Months Caroline!

Caroline you are are so much fun and incredibly busy.  You absolutely love the park and cry when it's time to leave.  You are finally starting to gain weight (17 pounds, 4 ounces) and you got your first tooth (followed by 9 more!).  You've started talking more and love to roar like a lion and bark like you best friend Charlie, our dog.  

17 lbs 4 ounces!  

Playing in a fort under the coffee table

LOVE my bike and taking it to the park

Things get crazy when mom leaves town

Cowgirl!  Ready for the rodeo!

We celebrated your baptism with family on January 29, 2012.

You are wearing a dress worn by your Great Great Grandmother, Honey Grandy.

Here are some favorite videos of ours!

This is yesterday while Daddy was watering the tree.  You couldn't get in the water fast enough!

You love to wear my shoes and carry around purses.  

You and Charlie love each other!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning... Santa came!

Advent Candle

Today we lit the Advent Candle and most importantly... Caroline enjoyed the church nursery.  She actually played and took a nap.  This was the first time in two months that we didn't return from church to pick up a baby who had been crying for an hour.

Yea!!

  

Happy 15 months!

Look at that BIG girl

Happy 15 months!  Caroline, you are so much fun and we love laughing with you and watching you explore.  You are getting into everything and  take your toys all over the house.  Today, I found my hair product in the kitchen cabinets.  You are a monkey and are trying to climb everything.  You've started talking and can say duck (first word at 14 months), no, bye bye and uh-oh.  You love to walk towards the dogs pointing and telling them "no".  As soon as you finish talking to the dogs, you crack up laughing.  Charlie is your best friend.  Here is a video of you all playing. 

You are waving and clapping too.  Miss Tina, your speech therapist, has been very impressed with your progress. 

You've are really starting to catch on you height (steeper growth than the growth chart) but have slowed down a little bit on your weight gain.  This month you are drinking soy based pedisure and yogurt.  There have been so many times I've thought you were allergic to milk and changed my mind before trying a non-dairy diet.  Laura, your nutritionist suggested we try and we've seen a huge increase in the milk you drink.  I'm thinking we will see an increase in your weight gain this month too.

15 Month Stats
16 lbs
27 1/8 inches tall

Your first tooth is FINALLY here (12/1/11 top left).

This December you are in a commercial for Texas Children's Hospital.  Here is a link to the commercial.

Pumpkin Patch

Halloween

You look just like your Daddy!

We have a walker!

She loves ducks, I think that may be her first word!

Caroline actually took her first steps the first of September (9/6) but we caught her on video twice today.  The links are below.  She is really standing by herself and has taken off several times today.

Walking 1

Walking 2

Caroline had a develpmental evalutation on Friday.  She did faboulous even though she had 102 fever...  All week, Caroline really didn't sleep and refused to nap.  We could only get her to sleep in her carseat.

Ryan and I really thought it was reflux - her doc even agreed.  We increased her dose of prevacid and then a fever showed up the next day while we were at her evaluation.  The therapist and developmental docs were so very impressed with her.  She was at birth age or adjusted age (when she was due, October 27) on almost everything.  Yeah, Caroline!!  We will do a formal evaluatuion around 22 months through the program that follows former NICU graduates. 

Turns out the fever was another UTI.  Poor Caroline continues to get these.  It seems to take us forever to realize she is sick.  She stops sleeping, then starts throwing up and finally a fever.  Thank God for an antibiotic shot becasue Caroline is back to herself today.  She's been all over the place and enjoying entertaining herself.  Here is a video of her talking to her baby and a picture of her enjoying the rain.

Talking - Of course, she stopped when I started the flip camera. 

So very excited to play in the rain!

We are going to see Dr. Schwabe, the cheif of Physical Medicine at Texas Children's, on Tuesday.  Tina, Caroline's fantastic speech therapist, noticed she is tight on her right side.  Caroline culrs her right toes and fists her right hand - these are due to her prematurity.  The developmental doc was not that concerencd but thought Dr. Schwabe would be able to help us nip this in the bud. 

Margot and Caroline have been going on some adventures during the day too.  They go the Children's Museum, library and continue to love the park.  Here is a picture of her first trip to the Museum. 

She's wearing green for her BFF, Quinn, who was having heart surgery. 

Caroline and I go to a music class on Saturdays. She LOVES this class.  Last week, she really started talking to everyone.  She loves to show off for the big kids.

Celebrating one year and bad pants

It's been awhile since I checked in with the Caroline Junkies.  I originally started writing on this blog to update family and friends about Caroline and to relieve some nervous energy (I almost blew up the internet).  Now my time is better served teaching Caroline to say "Dada" (she has already mastered "Mama").  I have heard there are some people out there that want some more updates.  Caroline is doing great, and I am not a talented enough writer to write just for the heck of it.  I'll leave that for the good bloggers like Allison Aars (http://wehaveaars.blogspot.com/) and Meagan Clanahan (http://clanahanfam.blogspot.com/).  Meagan and Matt's baby girl, Quinn, will be having heart surgery in about a month.  I can say without hesitation that the best heart doctor in the business is her surgeon.  So send your thoughts and prayers in their direction.

Katie already updated everyone about Caroline's first birthday party.  We took Caroline to the doctor for her one year check up.  She is 14 pounds, 2 ounces, and 25.5 inches.  She is now in the 0.1% of height for the premie girl growth chart.  It may not be much, but you have to start somewhere!  She continues to get great reviews from her pediatrician about her overall health.

As many of you know, we are the "sponsor family" of the TCH Bad Pants Open golf tournament that will be on October 12th in Kingwood (Sign up for the Bad Pants Open).  On Thursday, we went to the Bad Pants Open fashion show at the hospital.  We ran into two doctors that took care of Caroline a year ago, including Dr. Speer, the doctor that checked her into the NICU.  I can still remember talking to Dr. Speer on August 13, 2010 at Caroline's bedside while her nurse, Jennifer, was moving a million miles per hour.  I was in a complete daze, but he assured me that they would give Caroline the best care.  A year later, I found myself talking to Dr. Speer in a pair of John Daly golf pants while Caroline was munching down a cheese puff.  Surreal.

The fashion show was actually a lot of fun.  I learned a lot about the golf tournament from families that had amazing experiences at TCH over the years.  Many families have been helping out with the tournament for several years (now in it's 14th year).  It was pretty neat to hear stories from those that experienced the NICU 20+ years ago and how much it has changed in such a short period of time.  I am happy that we will hopefully help the hospital take it to another level by helping raise money for the NICU and the Texas Children's Pavilion for Women which opens in early 2012 (cool video about the Pavilion).  My story should have stopped there, but I...cannot...resist....  Katie, Caroline and I were on a local FOX26 news story about the fashion show - Baaaaadddd Pants.

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite photos of Caroline from her first year:

Always reminds me of how far she has come.

Holding Caroline for the first time was worth the 2 week wait.

Signifies her daily struggle.

Finally able to keep her eyes open.

First day of no oxygen...

...had to leave work to see it with my own eyes

First time to capture a smile.  It was only the beginning.

She knows how to get my attention

Look at me now

Life is good

Finally met the rest of her family.

Her normal self.

Finally out and about.

Mother's Day

Typical Caroline.  Blurry feet because she will not stop moving.

Trying to beat the crazy heat.

Pulling up

Having fun

Vacation

Deserved birthday cake