She Caught Me

Wow, I haven't blogged in a week. I can hardly believe it myself! Well here are some cute pics of Emma. She can reach the buttons on the tv now and she frequently starts pressing buttons and then walks away like I won't know it is her. Well I caught her! Here are the cute pics of my catching her. Page was watching a movie and Emma walked over to the tv and started messing with it. For those of you wanting to know about Emma's latest visit to the allergist I have an update, kind of. Her test results from the blood draw indicated that there is no allergy to milk, soy, chickpea or sesame. She has allergic reactions every time she has milk and soy and hummus (chickpea and sesame) so I was really confused as to how the tests came back negative. Thanks to Sherry I called back and asked for skin testing to be done in addition to the blood work. Sherry told me that in some people the blood can be negative and the skin positive and vice versa. So on September 11 we are having skin tests. If those are also negative we will go see a GI specialist to try to get some answers. Thanks Sherry for your advice and support. I will keep you guys updated.

Mama

Emma finally said mama this morning! I was washing dishes after breakfast and she got between me and the sink and started whining "mama, mama, mama." I was so excited I stopped doing dishes and picked her up and cheered!

Emergency Room

Today was our first E.R. visit and it wasn't for Emma! This morning we went to Abby's house to play and around 11:00 Page told me that her left hip was hurting. I checked it out and didn't see any redness or any sign of bruising. I figured she had bumped into something and didn't think much more about it. 30 minutes later we were packing up to leave and she starts crying about her stomach hurting. I figured she was just upset about leaving and hungry for lunch. I put her in the car seat and told her we could pick up chicken nuggets on the way home since she was so hungry. She was crying and whining about her tummy and hip hurting. I got her the nuggets and gave her one to eat in the back seat to stop the whining. She took a few nibbles and then grabbed her stomach and tried to bend over in the seat. She started screaming saying that it hurt worse and would not eat any more. By the time we got home and I got her out of her seat to see what was going on she could not even walk. She was screaming and crying. I took her to the bathroom to see if she had to poop and nothing. I called the doctor and she said to bring her in for 1:15. We got there and the Dr. could not find any digestive sounds in her intestines and thought that with the symptoms and the lack of sound in her intestines she might have Intussusception, which thanks to Sherry I had heard of before. We were sent to the E.R. where we spent all of an hour. The doctor there was wonderful. As he was telling us that there was nothing wrong with her, Page let out a manly fart and told us that she had to poo poo. Once she had a bowel movement she was herself again, running up and down the halls and looking for food. Anyway, we spent a very expensive afternoon so that Page could poop in a hospital bathroom. She was very excited about that fact by the way! I was so scared that something had exploded inside of her the way she was carrying on. I am SO thankful that it was just some gas, but she sure knows how to scare us!

Just Not Ready

I tried to start weaning Emma off of the bottle today. She gets 4 bottles a day and I decided to start with her 11:00 bottle for the switch. Now Page took to this method with no problems and was off of the bottle by 13 months. I simply substituted a sippy cup for 1 bottle a day for 1 week and then 2 for the next week and by the end of the month she was off of the bottle. I held her like I would when I am feeding with a bottle and had no adverse reactions whatsoever. As you can see by the photos Emma was quite upset with the change. After 30 minutes of this type of behavior I decided that she just wasn't ready to give up the bottle. She had gotten herself so worked up she is sweating! This is a common problem she has when she gets upset and when she is eating. She gets so hot that her body, including her head, start sweating. We will try again in a week or 2 and I am hoping it will be easier than it was today.

Allergy Testing

We saw our first allergist today. (I say first because I don't know if we will be going back to her.) Because Emma is on Axid for reflux we aren't able to do skin testing. Emma had to have a blood draw for testing. She was so good! Page was on the floor crying because they were hurting Emma and Emma was just sitting there watching them stick the needle in her arm. She did not even cry. I am seriously wondering if she can feel pain. What child doesn't cry when they get a needle poked in their arm?! Anyway, we should have some results on Thursday about milk, soy and chickpeas. (Sherry, I did not read your post about the sesame until we got back and the doctor did not offer to do any other testing at this point. I am, however, going to talk to her Thursday about it when she calls back with the results.) I am also currently looking for a GI specialist and a new pediatrician so that we can figure out what is going on with Emma and start working on a solution. We had such a great pediatrician and allergist in Baton Rouge. I so miss having such a great network of doctors. I am sure they exist in Dallas, I just haven't found them yet.

A Glimpse Into The Past

Here are pictures of Page at 1 and Emma at 1 just for fun!

The Birthday Party

Emma had 2 birthday dresses, the first her Nonna got her for her birthday and she wore it before the cake. The second was one I found at a little boutique in Brookhaven while I was in Mississippi and she wore it after the cake. (My mom and I went shopping one day and I loved the dress so much I had to get it.) We had her pictures done with both dresses too. The party was great, there were about a dozen kids there and lots of food and balloons. I had to wake Emma up for the party because she hadn't taken a nap earlier due to stomach issues. She had gotten a hold of something that really hurt her stomach and spent the afternoon crying and in pain. She finally went to sleep around 2:00 and the party was at 3:00. She crashed around 7:00 that night with no trouble. Emma really loved the baby doll from her big sister, I think that was her favorite present. She got lots of clothes and some new toys as well. Page even got some presents too! My mom bought her a doctor's kit and it has been a huge hit around here. We now play doctor more than ever if you can believe that!

The Cakes

The soyfree shortening was VERY hard to work with. The small smash cake and the large pink cake were both done with the soy free dairy free icing, that is why there isn't much decoration on them.

More pictures

Vacation . . . Continued

Now to pick up where I left off, the Baton Rouge side of our vacation. We left the farm on Wednesday after lunch hoping the girls would get a nap in during the 2 hour drive. Wrong, they kept each other awake and, as you can see the picture of Emma chewing on her foot, became very creative in ways to stay awake. We had a nice quiet evening with Will's parents and got to see the renovation they had completed to the master suite. Page loved taking a bath in the tub. Emma, however, was a little overwhelmed and did not stay in long on any occasion. Thursday morning we had Emma's 1 year portraits done and I honestly don't know how we managed to get a cute picture in. She screamed almost the entire time and when she wasn't screaming she was clinging to me. Thursday night we headed over to the Tigerland Vineyard church. Friends of ours have started a church out by LSU and put together a little party for all of our friends to be there and visit with us. It was a great night. Page got to see her friend Anna and Grace and Emma was introduced to Vicki and Micah's baby boy. He was born 2 weeks before Emma. I pulled out the camera to take pictures of the two of them getting acquainted and thought she was kissing him. She was actually biting him. He let out a scream and had a terrible bruise on his cheek. I was so mortified. She had bitten Page once, but that is the only other bite she had ever done. She then proceeded to try to bite anyone who came around her. I had to hold her the entire night so that she wouldn't bite anyone else. The next day cousins Louis and Giacamo got into town and there was a lot of excitement there. Page adores Louis, who is 4, and she was thrilled to see him. Giacamo is 1 1/2 and just Emma's size. We had to keep Emma from biting him all weekend too! Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market and got ready for the birthday party and Sunday we left for our flight just after breakfast. I will write more on the party when I get those pictures up.

Birthday Girl

Emma is officially 1 as of 12:29 this morning. I took pictures of her pictures through the months so they are not the best quality, but you get the idea. I can't believe it has already been a year. These pictures are of her at her birthday party in Baton Rouge Saturday afternoon. She was very dainty about her cake and did not make much mess at all! She had a great time and loved her cake, which I made soy free and milk free, and the balloons. Page helped open the presents and blew out the candle for her. She even tried to snatch Emma's cake before I could get the other cakes cut. I had to make 3 cakes for the party, one allergenic free cake for Emma, one for the kids and one for the adults. I will post pictures of that and the rest of our trip later. I can't believe my baby is a toddler now!

11 Months



10 Months



9 Months



8 Months



7 Months

Emma is 1!!!!!

6 months



5 months



4 months


3 months


2 months

The Jackson Zoo

Here are the last pics from the first half of our trip at the Jackson Zoo with one picture that was too cute not to add. Emma was trying to avoid getting a diaper on and hid between the recliners!

Cows, Chickens and Donkies!

More pictures

These pics are from swimming one day and the girls playing in Uncle Spud's (Chris) boat. We saw deer in the field behind the pool almost every afternoon when the girls were swimming. That Sunday my GeeGee and Aunt Danielle made the trip up to see the girls and we had bbq red fish, ribs and chicken. It was so nice to see them and to visit since we hadn't seen them since January!