17 months

Mooo!

The kid is a talker. Much of the time we can't understand what she's saying, but more and more her words and sentences are starting to make sense. The other day she turned to the dog, who was outside waiting to be let in, and said, "No. Go potty!" I love when she uses a bossy voice and chastises the pets. She just said "Bless you" after Baby Torah sneezed. One of the highlights this past week was when Emma started to say "Gramma." My mom's heart melted. This kid is amazing and adorable.

In the past month she has sprouted her bottom two canines. I believe that just leaves the top two canines and four more molars until she has all of her baby teeth. What a big kid.

When I look at older pictures, I am amazed to find that she is, in fact, getting cuter and cuter with time. She is more physically capable every day. She really enjoys playing in water and swimming. She loves playing with babies and animals. She loves singing and dancing. You should hear her belt out the hymns in church. My apologies to the people sitting around us on Sundays, there's no way to keep a straight face when Emma's singing along.

Her first appointment with the pediatric rheumatologist went pretty well. We should be able to start some more medication soon to get this inflammation under control. That will be very good. Keep your fingers crossed that it works.

We love our Emma Bean.

Sixteen Months

Yesterday, my Emma hit the 16 month mark. We celebrated with a family trip to the Spencer cabin for the weekend with Barry's dad and older sister. Even the dogs came. It was Emma's and my first time there, so it was pretty special. We had a lot of fun playing in the snow and enjoying the fresh mountain air! I even rode with Barry on the snowmobile! The only bad part was that Em doesn't sleep so well when we're somewhere different, so it was an exhausting trip.


The biggest developmental change that I've noticed in the month is Emma's ability to communicate. Her speaking vocabulary has grown so much in the past few weeks, it's amazing! She can say so many words now, including truck, car, paci (pacifier), light, nurse, milk, snack, night-night, sock, clock, baby, mommy, daddy, Dawn, Addi (Addison), kitty-kitty, boo boo, up, please, help, bath, hat, phone, eye, nose, mouth, yes, and no. Please keep in mind that many of these words don't exactly sound like the real thing, but I know what she is saying and she knows exactly what she means. She also makes animal noises, which is a lot of fun. She knows the sounds that are made by a cow, horse, sheep, goat, duck, goose, dog, cat, monkey, and snake.

Em now has four molars. Well, she's got three and a half, but that's close enough for me. Sometimes she really likes brushing her teeth, sometimes she really hates it. I hope she's learns to like it better so she can grow up with no cavities like her mommy.

A very difficult discovery has been made in the past month. A few days after her fifteen-month-day, Emma started limping and was clearly in pain when trying to walk in the mornings. I couldn't figure out why. Eventually it became obvious that her ankle was swollen. It didn't get better, so we went to the doctor. It didn't get better, so we took an x-ray. It didn't show anything unusual, so we did bloodwork. The bloodwork indicated that Emma could have Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. The next day a few of her fingers appeared swollen as well. Three days later a knee became extremely swollen and painful. The fact that it's showing up in many different joints confirms the diagnosis of JRA. We're going to see the ophthalmologist this week, going to recheck bloodwork next week, and waiting to get in to the juvenile rheumatologist. Things are okay overall. She is on an NSAID that helps with the pain. She's still limping and still swollen, but we're getting by for now.

No mother wants to hear that there is something wrong with her baby and it is very difficult to see your perfect child in pain. However, everybody has their trials in this life. This will be one of ours. Thankfully, Em has a great pediatrician, a loving family, and a strong will. I'm fairly certain that this will change our lives, but I'm glad that JRA is a manageable condition.

My poor little Bean.

Thankfully, she is still her happy, wacky self most of the time. She makes us laugh and smile. She gets around everywhere (she just doesn't run quite as fast any more) and gets into everything. She makes my life complete.

Memorial Day Stroll

My husband is a good man, not all that skilled when using Google Maps, but a good man. He planned a nice walk for us on Memorial Day. We would walk approximately 2.5 miles, eat lunch in downtown Los Gatos, and walk back. We met up with his cousin, her husband and baby, and began our trek along the Los Gatos Creek Trail. It was great, lots of different trees, ducks, geese, and people. I really enjoyed catching up with his cousin and I'm glad our baby girls finally got to meet.

We'd been walking for a while when I asked Barry how much further we had. "Just a little bit. Downtown is right up there." he said, pointing ahead. We walked a while further and my legs started feeling like jello when I asked again. He gave me the exact same answer. Oh great.

Finally we made it, ate some Mexican food that was too expensive and only moderately yummy, then got up to make out way back. We began walking back and enjoyed a nice break while the girls chased geese. Then we wiped all the goose poo off of their shoes, pants, and hands, and continued our journey. I was tired by the time we got to our cars, but it was a good kind of tired.

Once we were at home we played around on Google Maps together and discovered that the route was actually 4.5 miles one way. I walked nine miles yesterday! I'm proud of myself.

As for Barry, his excuse is that he used to ride his bike on that trail all the time as a kid and it never seemed very long. My husband is a good man, just don't trust him when he tells you the approximate distance of a trail or length of time it takes to travel.