yummmmmmmm!

ice cream. candy bars. chocolate chips. pudding. cheese. pizza. cheeseburgers. McDonald’s chicken nuggets. milkshakes. cheezits. goldfish. animal cookies. sour cream. cottage cheese. Culver’s frozen custard. granola bars. Blizzards. mac and cheese. yogurt. milk. butter. margarine. sour cream and onion chips. grilled cheese sandwiches. any kind of cereal. bagels and cream cheese. smores.

All these foods and more are in Melia’s not too distant future. She had her food challenge this morning, and she is officially no longer allergic to dairy and all milk products! We were hoping to celebrate with an ice cream cone, but it takes a few weeks to gradually add lactose back into her diet so she doesn’t get tummy aches. She did a great job at the almost four hour appointment, and the nurse said she was the best patient they have EVER had. We celebrated by buying some Oreos. They have a teeny bit of dairy in them, so they have been off limits for two years. She enjoyed them, and Graig showed her the twist and lick method where you twist the cookie apart and eat the middle first. We are really excited to watch her enjoy this whole new world of food. I just hope we don’t forget all that we know about feeding a child with food allergies because we are fairly sure we’ll be going down this road again with Kailyn.

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o happy day!

Here are the girls when we went swimming a few days ago. Though you can’t tell from the pictures, Kailyn LOVED it. She simply loves being in the water. Melia was so excited to be able to swim with her sister even though Kailyn only lasted about 30 minutes before she was ready for a nap.

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Kailyn went to have her hearing checked on Wednesday. The clinic she went to was at the hospital where she was born. I haven’t been there for awhile, and it was really strange how some of the emotions and feelings of our 101 days there came flooding back as soon as I drove in the parking garage. In some ways it seems years ago that the only contact we had with Kailyn was holding her hand and changing her diaper through the little openings in her isolette, and in other ways it seems like it wasn’t that long ago. I was surprised at how strange it felt to be back there. Her hearing test went fairly well, but the doctor wasn’t able to determine how well she is hearing in her left ear. She thought there may be some fluid on that ear, so she asked me to take her to our pediatrician to have that checked out. I took her to see Dr. S on Thursday, and she said there was some fluid and gave her a prescription. She also talked to me about changing her formula to one that many babies use when they have food allergies. She said that it tastes different and smells different and many babies just won’t take it at all. Well, Kailyn seems to be in agreement with that. She HATES the new formula. We are still trying to give it to her several times a day, but the most she drank at one time was 1/2 ounce. We have a long way to go with getting her to change over.

We enjoyed the nice weather today by all of us going geocaching with Aunt Mel who is here for the weekend. It was awesome to FINALLY have a nice day where we could be outside for awhile. We even used the grill for the first time in a long time! Hopefully it’s finally going to feel like spring in Michigan.

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pb & j

Today is a momentous day. Melia had her first ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She’s been eating sunflower butter as a substitute for peanut butter, and she was a little nervous to make the switch. Here’s what she thought about it.

She also had peanut butter smeared on apples with her safe chocolate chips mixed in for fun. It’s so great to see her eat some “regular” kid food. She has her dairy food challenge next Tuesday, so hopefully we’ll be adding a lot more fun food in her diet soon.
We took Kaily swimming for the first time on Sunday afternoon. I’ll post some pictures soon.

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home again

It’s so nice to have Graig back home again. Melia was so excited to see him that she talked his ear off all day Wednesday, and Kailyn just kept staring at him and smiling really big. It was so cute. All his girls missed him. His trip to Kenya went really well. The past couple of days we’ve been doing some projects around here while Graig adjusts back to our time zone. Melia and I have been working hard in our flower garden, and it’s looking nice. Tomorrow we get to take Kailyn to church for the first time. I’m really excited to introduce her to a lot of our friends for the first time.

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the hibernation is officially over, sort of

Kailyn had a checkup on Friday, and we were given the official OK to take her out and about with us! This is sooooo exciting! I’ll actually be able to take her to church next week! And now I can go to Target or Meijer anytime I want (around feeding and naps, of course). This is big news, people! However, her doctor recommends keeping her away from other children and situations where she would be sharing toys with other kids. The longer we can keep her healthy, the better it is for her. She continues to grow well. She weighs 12 pounds, 10 ounces. I think that actually puts her in the ballpark of how much Melia weighed at 5 1/2 months (Kailyn’s adjusted age). Melia was in the 5th percentile for a long time, and that’s about where Kaily would be if she were born in November.

In the last post I mentioned that Melia seems to have outgrown her dairy allergies. On Friday, Kailyn’s doctor said that it looks like Kailyn may be developing them now. Dr. S is going to email our allergist and get back to us about whether or not we need to change Kailyn’s formula and/or take her in to see the allergist. This was disappointing news for us, but not too surprising. The good thing is that we really like our allergist.

This weekend the girls (and the dog) and I took a road trip to see Aunt Mel. It was quite fun. We went to the zoo. The weather was perfect, and Kailyn did great! Only two more days until Graig gets home!

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allergies and eyes

I am very excited to tell you about some great news we heard the past couple of days. Some of you know that Melia has food allergies. When she was three, she was diagnosed with food allergies to all dairy, milk, eggs, soy, and we were told to also avoid all nuts. This was an overwhelming life change for us, but in a few months (with lots of support from friends who had traveled this road ahead of us) we found a way to live with it. Gradually, we were able to add soy back into her diet, and in August (right before Kaily was born) we found out that she had also outgrown her egg allergy. While it was really nice to be able to give her food with soy and egg ingredients, I longed for the day that we would be able to feed her dairy products, too. Before her allergies, I never read food labels and I had no idea how difficult it is to feed children with allergies. Well . . . . Melia had her annual allergist appointment about two weeks ago. Her skin test showed that she had outgrown her milk allergies, but we needed blood work to confirm it. Yesterday we got the results back! She is no longer allergic to milk or dairy products, and it confirmed that she does not have a nut allergy!!!! We are beyond thrilled!!! This means she can eat ice cream, pizza, all kinds of cheese, sour cream, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, whipped cream, plus MUCH more!! It also means I don’t have to buy her soy milk and dairy-free margarine, and I won’t have to make a separate dinner for her. She can also eat at any restaurant now, and she can have other kid’s birthday cake!! It’s so exciting! She will have a food challenge soon. This means we will go back to the allergist and she will drink milk while they monitor her reaction (or lack of reaction). Once we pass that test, daddy has promised her her first ice cream cone in over two years.

More great news for Kaily. The physical therapist came for her appointment yesterday. Kaily continues to progress right as she should for her due date. I was a little concerned that she wasn’t rolling very often, but the PT showed me something I had missed at the last appointment. After helping her adjust her legs just a bit, she has already been rolling over a lot! She does a great job at tummy time and is starting to move herself around a little, but the best news of all came today. I took her to her follow up appointment with the eye specialist that helped her in the hospital. He did a thorough exam and said that Kaily now has “normal baby eyes” and that he didn’t need to see her for any more appointments! We are just so overwhelmed and humbled at God’s work in Kailyn’s life. She is a true testament to miracles. It is just amazing how far she has come since she was born eight and a half months ago weighing only 2 pounds, 2 ounces. We really think of her as a “normal healthy baby”, and we give all the praise to God for her growth and progress. Tomorrow she sees her pediatrician for a checkup, and I’ll let you know how much she weighs now. She is growing well and actually has little rolls of baby fat.

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staying busy

The girls and I are doing well. This weekend Aunt Mel came to stay with us, and since Grandma was here, too, we had all the Austin girls in one place. It was fun. So far I’ve been able to talk to Graig every day, and the time that we are apart has gone by quickly. Melia started swimming class today, and I’m hopeful that this attempt at learning to swim goes much better than when she was three. It’s fun to see how different our girls are from each other. Kaily adores being in the water at bath time. She acts as if she were born to swim, and Melia likes being in the water but is much more timid with getting water in her face.

Kaily is beginning to do some new things. She is trying very hard to sit up. She does quite well with a little support. She has discovered her toes and enjoys playing with them. She is also starting to pass things from one hand to another. She has a strong preference for fruit over vegetables. I tried feeding her peas for the first time today, and I wish I had a camera to capture her expression. After trying for several minutes to get her to actually swallow some peas, I decided to give her some prunes. She was so happy that she actually laughed when I changed the menu.

Graig took our camera to Kenya with him, so I’ll post some recent pictures when he comes back.

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