Lilly’s Nightgown

Several months ago Lilly and I were at target when she saw a princess nightgown. She decided she must have it. I hadn’t used nightgowns before but she was just so excited about it that I bought it for her. The nightgown has been one of the best things I have ever bought her. She would wear it every day, all day long if I let her. She looks so cute in her blue princess nightgown.

 

Lilly wanted to spin in her Princess dress (that is what she calls it)

Lilly is giving baby Bennett a hug.

 

Preparations

We have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for the arrival of Baby Bennett. Here are the things we have gotten done.

We finished the nursery.

We brought up all of the baby stuff from the basement, dusted them off and made sure everything was clean. Every time I brought something new up Lilly would say ‘Oh Cute’ in her sweet little voice she uses for that kind of stuff. She would then spend several minutes talking about the baby item and explaining to me how it works.  She is particularly enamored with the bouncy seat, car seat, and double stroller. She already knows what seat is hers in the double stroller (like Sheldon in Big Bang Theory).

My friend here in Iowa, Heather Bell, threw me a baby shower. It was an open house shower at our ward’s swim day. It was super nice of her and we all had a good time swimming and eating yummy food.

 

We finished buying everything that baby needs. We just need a new monitor now.

We have also been getting some things done around the house including painting the hallway, updating the guest bathroom, and cleaning the carpets. Lilly was hilarious while Tyson was painting. She sat in her little couch watching Tyson the whole time. About every 2 minutes she would comment on how pretty or cute Tyson's painting was and then she would thank him. Tyson had his own little cheerleading section for the chore.

 

Now I am just working on finishing cooking that baby – three more weeks!!

Lilly's Condition

I have been debating with myself about doing a blog on Lilly’s ‘condition’. I have decided to blog about it for two reasons: 1. I have asked for several people’s advice about the situation and wanted to keep everyone in the loop of how it is going and 2. I wanted to write it down for record keeping purposes.

I first became concerned with Lilly when she was around 9 months old. She was not gaining weight and was dropping down percentiles (greatly) on the child height and weight chart. I kept mentioning my concerns to our pediatrician and was being told that if Lilly dropped another 10% they would look into it. She went from 50% to 10% in about 1 year and our pediatrician still wasn’t addressing the issue.   

Then when Lilly turned 2 she started having some digestive issues. The issues were causing extreme bloating, cramping, and constipation. She was having these ‘episodes’ about every 2 weeks. It was extremely difficult to see her in so much pain and not knowing what to do about it.

Around this time her eating habits also became very poor. I couldn’t get her to eat more than two bits of each meal. There were a couple of instances when she wouldn’t eat anything for a week straight and when I would call the pediatrician they would push me off and tell me it is normal toddler eating behavior.  It was frustrating for me because I knew it wasn’t normal and trying to force Lilly to eat was causing a lot of bad feelings during meal times.

After a long discussion with Tyson and knowing that this year we would hit our deductable we decided it was time to take Lilly to a specialist. We were referred to a GI specialist that is based out of Iowa City and visited our area every other Friday. (A GI specialist is a doctor who specializes in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.) The office is usually scheduled 3 months in advanced; however, we were able to get an appointment for the same week due to a cancelation. I feel like getting that early appointment was a big blessing for us.

When we went to the appointment they took Lilly’s weight and immediately labeled her has failure to thrive. Children are diagnosed with failure to thrive when their weight or rate of weight gain is significantly below that of other children of similar age and gender. I had mixed emotions when they told me this. I was relieved that someone was actually taking Lilly’s weight issues seriously. I was a little sad that she was labeled with that since I am the mother and it is my responsibility to ensure thriving occurs. I also told myself not to be too concerned because failure to thrive is mostly something we can work with.

After listening to all the symptoms the doctor put her on a fiber plan and decided Lilly needed some blood tests. She said that her symptoms sounded a lot like Celiac Disease. Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

Lilly did so amazing with the blood tests. They took 3 vials of blood from her. When we first walked into the lab they asked me if I was getting the blood tests. I told them no, that it was for Lilly and the lady visible cringed. She went to get someone in to help her. Lilly sat on my lap while they took the blood. She cried for about 5 seconds right when they pocked her and then for the rest of the time was so interested she didn’t say a word. She couldn’t stop watching. The ladies were so impressed with how well she did that they kept giving her prizes and telling her how wonderful she was.

Side Note: Lilly loves the doctor and any doctor tools.  She loves going to the doctor with mommy and she thinks she is the doctor and nurse. She even does well when it is an appointment for herself. She gets really engrossed with everything and is super interested. She usually likes to bring her own doctor tools with her to mommy’s appointments and then tries to help. Blood and shots don’t seem to bother her and she wants to be right in the action. If she continues to be this interested I wouldn’t be surprised if she did something in the medical field. She would be a good Physicians Assistance.

About a week later the doctor called us with the blood test results. Everything came back normal. They checked her thyroid, vitamin D levels, and the celiac stuff. The doctor said we had two options. They suggested we do the next step in celiac testing and have an intestinal biopsy since her symptoms matched so well. I guess < 25% of people that tests come back negative end up having it, especially when the patient is so young. They also suggested we put her on an increase calorie plan and have a follow up appointment in 3 months to see if she has gained any weight. We decided to go ahead with the increase calorie plan. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try this and we wouldn’t have to do any kind of surgery.

So for the last month and a half Lilly has been taking daily fiber and we have been increasing her calories. A lot of people have asked me what an increased calorie plan entitles.  It is me following Lilly around the house with food. If she asks for candy or a snack I give it to her and she knows I’ll let her eat on the couch so she eats ½ of her meals there. But as long as she is eating I don’t care. I’ll fix the couch issue later. I have also been doing stuff like putting butter and extra mayo/sauces on her sandwiches, trying out new snacks, and giving her anything with a lot of fat in it. She has a treat after EVER meal. Usually moms are looking for the healthiest snacks at the store with the fewer amount of calories. I am looking for the less health items with the most calories. If a granola bar is dipped in chocolate – fantastic we will take 2 boxes.  We still make sure she eats her full meals with fruits and vegetables but if she wants a bag of chips to go along with it I give it to her. (This is all doctor approved and suggested by the way.)

The fiber has really made all the different though. It has been a small miracle in the Harris household. She doesn’t have any more issues with cramping, bloating and constipation. Because her stomach feels better she is actually eating all of her meals and I don’t have to fight with her. She is in a better mood. It has been nice just seeing her feel better.

Our follow up appointment is in mid August. To me it looks like Lilly is starting to fill out. Her thighs are getting bigger and she has little love-handles. On our scale she has gained 1 pound; however, I don’t trust our scale that much. On my doctor’s scale she has gained 2 pounds but who knows if my doctor’s scale is the same as Lilly’s doctor’s scale. We will have to wait and see. If we go to the doctor’s and she still is small I think I am going to continue with the fiber plan and increased calories. She is doing so well with it I don’t feel like the biopsy is needed at this point of time.

Another Side Note: This area is an approved zone for celiac individuals to come on their mission. We usually have one missionary with the disease at a time. It makes cooking a meal for them difficult but it has been a learning experience for us. When I walked out of Lilly’s first doctor’s appointment one of the families in our ward was sitting in the waiting area. Hopefully having the celiac missionaries in the area isn’t making us all paranoid our kids have celiac disease. 

Lilly has set up a picnic in this picture with all of her snacks...and don't forget koala

4th of July Weekend

Our 4^th of July Weekend was a lot of fun this year, especially because Tyson had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work. On Wednesday morning Tyson took Lilly to the movies on a daddy daughter date. It was the first time Lilly has been to the movie theater so to make it special he bought candy, a drink and popcorn. They went to Despicable Me 2. Tyson said that Lilly enjoyed the movie for about 30 minutes and then probably spent the rest of the time enjoying watching people in the theater. She did really well though and lasted the whole time.

We started our 4^th by going to our local parade. Tyson stayed home for that. Lilly and I were lucky to sit in between two families that were extremely interested in her filling up her candy bag. They thought she was so cute and small. She loved the parade. Her favorites this year where watching the big trucks and the dancing cheerleaders.

 

After the parade and a nap we played outside in the swimming pool. Tyson made a slip and slide for Lilly out of a tarp. Her favorite thing to play with was probably the hose though.

 

Once Lilly had her fill of playing in the water we took her to get fireworks and items for our dinner. The firework stand was extremely under stocked so we ended up with only a handful of items. We had a yummy impromptu picnic in our back yard and watched our small firework show. Lilly loved the Snaps the best. We bought two boxes and she enjoyed them so much I wished we would have gotten more. She was not a fan of the other fireworks though, they scared her. We kept asking her if she liked fireworks which she would say yes to but then we would ask her if we should light more and she would say NO. She won’t even hold the sparklers. It was a good thing we didn’t get very many items.

This is Lilly acting scared of the fireworks

Friday we spent relaxing and recovering from our adventures on the 4^th. Lilly did have a swim lesson Friday that we went to. We took a fun Parents and Tots class where a parent goes in the pool with the tot. The next class up is the 3 year olds and Lilly was really ready to be in that class. She could do everything they taught in her class and was somewhat bored of it.

On Saturday we decided to explore the marshes over in Illinois, by Tyson’s work. The area we went to was set up as a park and had walking trails and some cool look out points. Tyson spent about 20 minutes unsuccessfully trying to catch Lilly a frog.  It was sweet that he tried though – Lilly said she wanted one. We saw lots of frogs, a turtle, a beaver, birds, and bunnies. The marsh was a little flooded so we couldn’t go on all the trails. But that was okay for my big pregnant self.

 

We tried to get a picture of my belly so everyone can see how me/Bennet are growing

 

Auction

We spent last weekend going to an auction in Solon, IA. It is about an hour away and was a pretty drive. Tyson was looking for some wood working tools and he thought Lilly would enjoy a short auction. When we got there I realized that I didn’t dress Lilly appropriately since it was at a farm and there was cow poop everywhere. Lilly was wearing sandals and shorts. There was also no place for me to sit which is a necessarily this far along in my pregnancy and Lilly was scared to use the stinky bathrooms. To top it off the short auction ended up being a LONG auction. After spending about an hour hanging out in the car with Lilly, I decided to drive to Iowa City and get her some better shoes so she could enjoy looking at the animals on the farm.  

Iowa City was about 30 min away but it was still worth the trip. We used the potty in Walmart and got her some socks and cheap sandals. I was going to get her rain boots but they didn’t have her size. Lilly was so excited that the socks were for her and not for baby Bennett. We also got some lunch and drove around their awesome mall. The mall had a children’s museum, skating rink, movie theaters, shopping, and full size carousel. You could spend a whole day there doing all of the activities.

When we got back to the auction I put Lilly’s new socks and sandals on. She thought they were so cute and stylish she still wouldn’t walk on the ground with them. She was afraid they would get dirty. She now thinks that it is quite fashionable to wear socks with sandals. Lilly had to enjoy the chickens and cows from afar because she wouldn’t walk around.

Several of the trailers were cleared off when I got back so there were places for us to sit and we enjoyed the rest of the auction. Tyson got 2 tool items he needed and I got an old fashioned trunk for $10. They weren’t going to get to the trunk until later in the auction so I played the pregnancy card and told them I couldn’t stand for much longer and asked them to do the trunk next. Then I was so confused by the way the auctioneer talked and I didn’t even know they were selling it and almost lost it. But they had my back and told me to raise my hand.  The trunk is storing our sheets nicely in the closet. It will be perfect for a teenage boy’s room.

On the way home from the auction we stopped by Lake Mcbride State Park to see what it was like. It was a nice state park that had a camping area and a lake people could swim in. The lake even had a nice beach area. We decided that it was worth going back to the lake and Iowa City for a small weekend trip. There was plenty to do there.

After we got home Tyson told Lilly that they could sleep out in the tent that night and eat candy. I don’t think Tyson understood what he was getting himself into. Lilly stayed up until 10:30 and woke up at 5:30. Then guess who had to take care of her once she was awake – me. It ended up being a two nap Sunday and hard day at church. She is not going camping with daddy again until she is older.

It was another fun weekend for the Iowa Harris Family.  

Zoo

Last weekend we took Lilly to the zoo. It was an enjoyable family activity and we all had fun. However, Lilly did have run-in with a swan. She was feeding the fish, ducks, and swans at the feeding station. She was picking up the loose food on the ground and throwing it in the water. She got a little too close to a swan and it bit her hand twice. She was shocked but she didn’t cry. It made her upset for about 30 minutes after ‘the incident’. It left a small bruise on her hand. Tyson let the swan bit him just to see how bad it hurt. He said it wasn’t too bad.

We found a lost carousel ticket on the ground. There was no way to return it to the owner and no one came looking for it so we decided it was okay to use it. I hope that is honest. I am glad we did use it because Lilly loved the ride. She was sad when it was over and had a lot of fun waving at daddy. Next time I’ll make sure to buy her a ticket because she had so much fun.

We also had tickets for the train. Lilly could see it and hear it throughout the park and was obsessed. Every time she saw or heard it she asked if we could go on the train. We told her we would ride it at the end but she didn’t really understand that so I told her we could ride it after lunch. Then she started asking if we could eat lunch every time she heard the train.

Before you look at the pictures you should look at our blog from last year’s zoo visit. http://tysonkarenlillyanddontforgetthedog.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-05-26T13:55:00-05:00&max-results=7&start=34&by-date=false. I can’t believe how much Lilly and Tyson have changed.  I guess I have changed too - this time around I am big and pregnant. I took a couple of the same pictures just to do a comparison.

 

This was before the biting occurred

 

 

I thought this was a good stomach picture - you can kind of see how big I am getting

 

 

Flat Stanley

We had a visit from Flat Stanley. He arrived from Mr. Holt's Class at Ponderosa Elementary School where my nephew Sam Wirick attends. We had so much fun with Flat Stanley. We felt like tourist. Here are some of the things we did.

While he was here, these are some of the things he did and saw:

·         Stanley stayed in our home in Bettendorf, Iowa

 

 

·         Stanley hung out with our cute dog, Herbert

 

 

·         Stanley visited the Mississippi River and fed ducks

 

 

·         Stanley crossed the river and visited Moline, Illinois

 

 

·         Stanley went to John Deere Headquarters in Illinois

 

 

·         Stanley enjoyed the John Deere Museum and sitting on all of the tractors

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         Stanley saw a farm. There was no corn growing on the farm yet so it was pretty bare

·         Stanley thought it was very cool seeing two different states while visiting us

·         Stanley liked coming to Bettendorf, Iowa and visiting the Harris Family

 

Some other interesting things about my home are:

Bettendorf Iowa is part of a bigger area called the Quad Cities which originally consisted of three cities in Illinois and one city in Iowa. The area has now become larger and contains more than 4 cities. However, it is still called the Quad Cities. The Mississippi River divides Illinois and Iowa. The Quad Cities is home of John Deere Headquarters. We have a lot of tourist come to this area to tour the John Deere facilities and museums. We also have a Buffalo Bill’s museum and a lot of interesting history regarding the Mississippi River. The thing we like most about this area is the River. We like driving across the many bridges, seeing the boats, barges, and locks, and learning about the ecology of the Mississippi. We are also home to the TV Show on the History Channel, American Pickers.