Mia has been making so much great progress recently, I love it! It's neat to see her start emerging as a walker. She'll now attempt to walk places on her own, sometimes it's only 5 steps, but other times she'll go 15. Praise God!

She's also taken quite a bit more initiative eating on her own. Up until now I've had to make sure she gets fed, but now she'll feed herself and she really likes eating fish. Go figure.

Lastly, she's made some great progress with her speech. Tonight she said her name blending the sounds together, rather than saying, Mmmm...eee....aaa... It was so nice to hear her say her name blended. So praise God for such great progress!

Today we went to LA and back. Mia had an ultrasound of her kidneys done. She's had this checked yearly and continues to show improvement, there has been some slight swelling of one of her kidneys. The hope is that this time it will come back and normal and we won't need to see nephrology or do another one of these ultrasounds again. That would be so nice...to start removing the number of doctors that we see. :)

It was a quick trip, but I forgot that today was a holiday weekend, so there was a little bit of traffic on the way home. But not too bad. We are glad to be home. We should hear back by next week Tuesday or so on the results, hopefully it will be great news!

Yesterday Mia weighed in the same. She's seems to be doing well on her gluten free diet. I have noticed some bowel changes as we have started to cut out dairy also. We haven't completely cut it out, but are getting closer.

Mia has started to say more sounds also, which is great. She can even sound out a few words. We are working on getting her to blend the sounds together to make a word, but I'm so encouraged that she is trying to speak more.

She continues to make great strides in walking, I am hopeful that she will take off this summer sometime. Her balance is getting better and she can now stand up from the ground without holding onto anything, it's just barely there because she still struggles with that, but I feel like it one step closer to walking.

She also has gotten more time outs lately because she will get frustrated and hit. I think it is a lack of communication, she just can't explain what she wants exactly and gets frustrated. We continue to learn more signs and work on speech all at the same time.

We are doing fine from the accident, I don't have any pain anymore and Brother appears to be doing just fine also. We are very grateful it wasn't anything more serious.

Mia likes the Wind

Mommy took this video a couple days ago and we thought it was so cute, we just had to share it. Daddy's shoulders were so tired! It's a great game and quite a workout, and it's a favorite in our house now! God is good. I'd like to close with a quote my favorite philosopher, Brian Regan.

"Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!"

Today I was in a car accident with Mia and my mother. We were heading to therapy and got clipped from behind as we were making a left turn. Needless to say I was a bit shaken up about the whole thing. There were several other cars involved in the accident and two of them got really damaged. You can pray for the lady that rear ended all of us, she was taken to the hospital and couldn't feel her legs. Her husband came by later and said she was doing much better, but I don't know what that means. To be on the safe side, I went to the hospital also to make sure that Brother was ok and they monitored me for awhile. He was doing just fine, kicking like usual and his heartbeat was strong, so I was sent home. I'm extremely grateful that none of us were hurt. Please pray for the lady that was sent to the hospital and I'm hoping I will be able to find out more information about her, but I may never know.

So many Praises for Brother and Mia

Today we went in for another follow-up ultrasound with Brother. Everything looked great! There was no more dilation of the kidneys and everything else looked great also. Thank you God for great news and thank you for praying! At the end the specialist did some 3D shots of Brother, he definitely has Mia's chubby cheeks. It was very sweet to see him in 3D.

Mia had an eye doctor visit today and she's doing really well also. She appears to be using her left eye more, which is another praise. She's getting a new pair of glasses because we are going to remove some of the astigmatism correction hoping that her brain will train itself to correct it on its own. And we decided to get her a pair of sunglasses also because her eyes are so sensitive to light. We'll post some pictures when her new glasses come in.

Yesterday at therapy Mia was walking so well by herself. She can now take about 11 steps, if she is concentrating and motivated. So, our goal is to work even more on the walking, but she's doing great. Another Praise!

We are so grateful at all of the good news we have received recently. Thank you Lord!

Getting Bigger

I'm so excited that Mia is finally starting to gain more weight. Today she weighed in at 22 pounds 6 ounces, Praise God! Every move in the right direction is so encouraging to me.

I've been doing some reading about being Celiac and also Lactose Intolerant, apparently they go hand in hand because of a weak digestive system. So, I'm going to soon try Mia on a dairy free diet, just to see how her body responds to that also. My first step is to switch her whole milk to rice milk, that is by far where she gets the most dairy in the day. I thought I would gradually transition her over the next few days to see how she responds to the rice milk. I'm choosing rice milk over soy milk because I've heard that your body can build up an intolerance to soy also and I want to be able to give her some other soy products. So rather than overloading her with too much soy, I'll try to balance it out a bit. We will see.

As for Brother, tomorrow we see the specialist again for another ultrasound. He will be checking the kidneys and our prayer is that they are not enlarged anymore. He will also be looking at the digestive system since Brother is now a bit bigger and it should give him a better picture of whether or not there are any issues there. Brother is now 26 weeks, it's hard to imagine that I'm almost to the final trimester!

Missing her Grandpa

Mia just had a very short visit from her Grandpa, when he dropped off some stuff for us. After he left, Mia signed Grandpa and went to the front door and knocked on it. She is definitely missing her Grandpa this morning!!

More Jesus Please!

Mia has been using her sign language quite a bit more these days and will frequently use 2 or 3 signs together, which is great because kids learn to speak the same way. They start with 1 word and then string 2 or 3 words together. We've been singing quite a few songs recently (she loves music) and one of the new ones she has learned is Jesus Loves Me...new in that we've added signs to the song. So, it's the sweetest thing ever when we are finished singing and she signs, more Jesus please. I tell her that you can never have too much Jesus! :)

Weigh In Day

Today we weighed in Mia and I was pleasantly surprised to find her at 22 pounds 3 ounces, so pretty much where we were last week. That was great because we've been eating so differently, I didn't know what that was going to do.

Today at therapy we were discussing how close Mia is to walking, she just needs a bit more leg strength, the balance will eventually come. The therapist was making her walk on her own, just having her arms there in case Mia needed them for support, which she did every now and then, but she's so much closer than before, she just needs a little more strength. I really hope she walks before she is 3, but I trust God's timing and her timing. Will you pray with me that she'll get it figured out this summer? I'd love to see that happen. :)

So being gluten free has been a learning experience for us. Eating out is the hardest because grilled cheese was our staple before. We still haven't attempted to eat out yet, thankfully Mia is too small to even notice. Her Nana found this great book called Gluten/Casein Free shopping guide. They also have one that is just Gluten Free and one that also incorporates Soy free. Anyway, the author was diagnosed with Celiac disease along with a soy/casein intolerance. So, she and her husband have compiled lists of food that are gluten/soy/casein free. It's an awesome reference, especially for a newby like me who is uncertain about so many things. They've done extensive research to list these products. It's obviously not perfect, but it's a nice reference. I highly recommend it if this is something your family is starting or new to. Here is a link to the website and it shares more about the 3 book options.

http://www.ceceliasmarketplace.com/

Mia continues to do well otherwise. Tomorrow we get weighed in, so I'm just hoping with our diet changes that we don't lose weight. We will see tomorrow.

Gluten Free

So far life has been ok going gluten free. Mia's Nana found her some pancakes from Trader Joe's that are gluten free, so breakfast is a much happier meal now. She doesn't mind eggs, they just aren't her favorite. I tasted the pancakes and they are pretty good, they are thinner, but with some butter and her favorite jam, you can't really tell.

We've tried some different rice pastas also and those aren't that different either. I think the hardest part for us will be eating out, especially if we are just trying to get something quick, because Mia doesn't eat salad yet and she struggles with chewing some meats still. We might just have to pack her meal along for awhile.

We've made an appointment to see a GI specialist, but that's not happening until the beginning of July, so we'll continue to be gluten free until then and see what kind of a difference it makes. And in the mean time, I think we are going to try and get Brad tested to see what his blood work numbers look like, just as a comparison to Mia's. I'm not sure if that would be super helpful or not, but I am kind of curious what his blood work will be.

I'm shocked at the number of people I keep hearing about in the past couple of weeks who've also been diagnosed as Celiac. It makes me wonder what's in the water? or bread for that matter.

The First Day

Today was our first official attempt at being gluten free. So far it hasn't been that bad. I got several pamphlets from our doctor and they talked about initially just trying to modify your diet and find gluten free alternatives, if something called for a flour tortilla, then a corn tortilla is ok to use. So, for breakfast we had cheesy eggs and banana. For lunch we had our grilled cheese, but with gluten free bread I found at Trader Joe's. And of course for dinner we are having sausage and avocado and probably some type of mixed veggie/fruit. And of course ice cream for desert. :) The thing about gluten free products is that sometimes there are hidden things you have to be concerned about, like if an ingredient says modified food starch, that might actually be gluten, you have to do some further research to find out. And the corn tortillas I bought were made in a factory where other wheat products are made, so there could be trace gluten in it, but at this point, I'm not going to freak out about that. I'll start with the major changes and work down to the minor ones eventually, if need be. I think overall it will force us to not eat so much processed food, which, really isn't a bad thing. We're just taking it one day at a time and not being too overwhelmed with it.

On a side note, I weighed the little missie and she's now 22 pounds 2 ounces...I'm so excited we are back to 22 pounds! Praise God!

One More Thing????

We got Mia's blood work back today and she tested positive for Celiac disease. There are 5 areas they look, and she only tested positive in 1, so the doctor said it was mild, but still there. So, our next plan of action is to cut out all gluten over the next 3-6 months and see if that makes a difference. I was a bit overwhelmed driving home and thinking about what that would look like, but after talking with Nana (Brad's mom), I feel much more at ease because it is so much easier to be gluten free these days than when her mother was diagnosed with this years ago. And there is so much more information out there too. Gluten intolerance and a Lactose intolerance go side by side, but at the moment we are just going to cut out gluten, we'll look at other things later on, if need be. I'd love for these changes to help her bowel movements and even her skin rashes (which is common with a gluten intolerance). We'll see, only time will tell.

Is it May already?

Somewhere between March and April it turned into May...and quickly! We've been doing well, I've been taking it easy and I think I have fully recovered, but I'm trying to ease back into normal duties so as not to bring back any bad feelings. Thank you for praying for me and Peanut/Brother... :)

Something we've struggled with since birth, it seems like, is Mia's sleeping. We'd get her to sleep through the night and then a few days later we'd be back to where we were. Probably the longest stretch was when she was wearing the hip brace. We started delving into some "accidental parenting" by bringing her to bed with us and before you knew it, she was there almost the whole night. Daddy decided we really needed to work on this before Brother comes and so I went away for a woman's retreat a few months ago and he instituted the "never again in our bed" policy. I must say I was skeptical, but after a few weeks, she was sleeping better in her own bed, getting used to being in her bed all the time...we would join her (yes, talk about uncomfortable...a twin bed...) when she cried. It was still a lot of work, but then we found Green Monkey (a gift from a coworker) was like a security blanket to her...and so every nap/bedtime meant having Green Monkey around. And every now and then she'd make it all the way through the night without crying, we were getting excited. Well, about a week ago, she just started to do it consistently, it's been so nice! We've only gone in there once the whole week...that's a major breakthrough, she'll even wake up and fuss a bit, but get herself back to sleep most of the time. I feel like we've turned a page and I'm so excited.

Now, to not make the same mistakes with Brother and to train him so much earlier...that will be the true test to see if we've learned anything in our parenting!