Random Pictures

Solana loves our Schwan's guy (probably because he delivers ice cream). Here she is waiting to assist.

Chloe AND Solana eagerly await Daddy's return from work every day.

Slip N slide with Angela's girls, Ari and Kylie.

My and my favorite famous friend and photographer, Angela.

Chipmunk on our deck.

Cardinal. They have a nest right outside Solana's window

Blue Jays love peanuts.

Solana's AWESOME teachers - Mrs Minham & Mrs Thimmons.

My big girl graduated Pre-K!

Our friend, Ann, with Chloe. Ann married one of Dave's oldest and best friends, Dave Fay, last year on August 23rd. My Dave was to be best man and Solana flower girl. As the wedding approached I was placed on bedrest and then we lost Leila so Dave and Solana didn't fly to Colorado for the wedding. Good thing, because my water broke and Chloe and Leila were born on their wedding day! Now Ann is pregnant and her due date is...August 23rd! Pretty crazy, huh? They live in Ohio now and Chloe will surely be best buds with their little guy, who she's sitting on in this picture :-)

Lipase Milk Solution? Fingers Crossed!

I've been feeding Chloe frozen milk for a while now. And ever since I noticed the bad taste I started giving her the most recent stuff (the milk I pumped and froze in March). I threw out all of my September milk. We're down to early February and I noticed she's starting to turn her nose up at it. That leaves October through January in the freezer. I can't bear the thought of throwing that all out. Nor do I want to pump more than my current three pumpings a day and I'm not ready to go to straight formula.

I called Chloe's nutritionist to ask if I could put agave syrup or some other flavoring in her milk to make the frozen stuff taste sweet just like the fresh stuff. She suggested baby food like banana. GENIUS! That hadn't occurred to me! Chloe's adjusted age is 5 1/2 months. Babies can start eating baby food at 4 months (it used to be 6 months when Solana was a baby) so Chloe's totally old enough. I pureed some banana last night and added it to a frozen milk bottle. She sucked it down! I didn't puree it quite enough and kept getting little pieces stuck in the nipple so I'll do a better job next time but I'm super excited that she took the bottle. I had been mixing half fresh and half frozen in order to cut the taste but this one was full on frozen and she didn't mind at all.

I'm sooooo excited. I may not have to throw out my milk after all! I've been pumping for 9 months now. I'd like to stop when Chloe turns 1. If I can count on using frozen milk after that I can quit pumping in three months and still have enough milk to get her through one year adjusted. :-D

Things are really Calming Down

There isn't too much going on at the Hendrickson house lately. It seems like Chloe's medical concerns have sort of plateaued for the time being. We only had one doctor's appointment last week and that was her 9 month check-up. It felt like such a normal week! Freaky!

Her new contact has stayed in place for a week and a half. Yeah! I only have to take it out once every four nights and Chloe doesn't mind the in and out so bad since I don't do it very often. We go to the Optho on Wednesday so they can test her vision. I'm curious to know what they'll say...
She has accompanied Solana and me to a few stores and even Solana's end of the year picnic for Pre-School. (My sweet girl is going into Kindergarten. Sniff Sniff.) We go a little crazy with the antibacterial wipes during outings and I only had to offend one mother at the picnic who decided to hold Chloe's hand without asking (I actually felt kind of bad about saying something. I tried to be really nice about it but just couldn't hold my tongue...)

Chloe now rolls over every time she's placed on her belly. This is a great success - something we've been working on for months. It's her new cool trick and we love watching her perform it. She'll do it over and over and looks so proud of herself when she lands on her back. The only downside is that I count on tummy time to be "off the back of her head" time. I think most kids her age are sitting readily but Chloe's always laying on her back (unless I'm holding her, of course, and I do that A LOT). The back of her head's a tad bit flat, though. I asked the Ped yesterday and she said it's not bad and not to worry. I suppose I won't worry but I still try to keep her off her back as much as possible. Leticia sent us a Bumbo. I was excited to use it - not so much as sitting practice (it doesn't really work those muscles) but at least as a way to get her in the sitting position and off her back. Our little turkey will have no part of it, though. She arches her back and throws herself back in order to get out of it. She's strong! We're working on sitting exercises every day, though. She'll get it eventually. In the meantime I'll be working on getting over my obsession with the back of her head. Her hair will cover it eventually, right? :-)

We've been spending a lot of time at home. Dave has plenty of work to do in our yard. We bought a house on an acre lot and it's all yard. This is three times the lot we had in Colorado and we love it! We have lots of mature trees and it's like a private park/getaway in our own backyard - which is nice since we spend most of our time at home. I have a vegetable garden going with tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, onions, brussel sprouts, cucumber, potatoes, kale, spinach, lettuce, pumpkins, watermelon, and herbs. I just set up my new compost heap today - kind of bummed that I didn't have any compost to work into my garden for this year but if I can get it hot enough I should have some ready to work in this summer. This will help my veggies grow better and tastier!

We also set up a bird feeder in the back yard. I have a perfect view from where I sit and feed Chloe. So far we've identified 11 species of birds at our feeder. Plus squirrels, who love our birdseed. I started throwing peanuts our for the squirrels to lure them away from the bird feeder. They haven't gone for the peanuts but the chipmunks under our deck have. Let me tell you something: Chipmunks are just about the cutest creatures I've ever seen. If you've ever considered bird watching I highly recommend it. You just may get a surprise! Our book is called Birds of Ohio Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela. It's organized by color so you can easily look up the bird you've seen. We've had so much fun. And Solana totally gets into it, too. Once we learn a bird she squeals to tell us when it's back and she loves flipping through the book to find a bird she sees on the feeder.

That's about our lives in a nutshell. We've had friends over a couple of times so we do manage to socialize a bit. Dave's setting up our old tent and is having a campout with Solana tomorrow. The neighbors are even coming over for hot dogs and s'mores. We're very excited about the s'mores :-)

9 months old!

Chloe's 9 months old today! I can hardly believe it...

Chloe Update

Chloe had her developmental clinic yesterday. I was annoyed for a number of reasons when I got there and felt like we were wasting our time seeing yet another physician to assess Chloe's development. In the end I was satisfied. The State program called, Help Me Grow, already sends a Physical and an Occupational Therapist to our house and we have an Early Intervention Specialist involved with Chloe. This physician had a little bit of a different perspective on the same thing. I guess we'll continue to follow-up with her. Doesn't hurt too much to have somone else on her case. Plus, she only wants to see Chloe twice a year. We can skip cold and flu season so as not to expose Chloe more than necessary.

She was pleased with what she saw and puts Chloe at about three months developmentally. She's not concerned, though, and thinks Chloe will catch up soon enough. She had a lot to overcome at the beginning and her recent vision issues and surgery probably put her behind further. Nothing that she shouldn't overcome. The PT and OT both put Chloe in the 5-6 month range for most areas. I'm not surprised at the discrepancy and it's not all that important to me. I'm definitely seeing her improve every day and expect more now that she has vision in her left eye.

Speaking of vision...the little squirt popped out her contact AGAIN last night. We've now lost it three times. Found it twice after extensive searching - once on her back and once on the floor almost under the bed. The third time was the charm. It's gone. We went this morning to get another one. We're getting better, though. I'm putting rewetting drops in her eye all the time and I think that helps keep them in. Unfortunately, these lenses are our only option right now. The vision center is working to get a different type of lens - gas permeable, I think. Those should be a tad less expensive and better for Chloe's eye. They should have them in 3 months or so.

Chloe's doing great. She's so sweet and usually happy these days. No more constant crying fits like she had when we first brought her home. She's getting stronger, more talented, and beautiful every day. We're in love. It's a gorgeous day outside! Can you tell?

Solana's Dream

I woke up at 3am and heard Solana sobbing from her bedroom. I jumped up and ran over. I thought she was asleep and crying so I just started rubbing her back and stroking her hair and face. She was awake, though. Through her sobs she told me that she had a bad dream. Chloe fell off a cliff and went to heaven. I was floored. Little kids have dreams about dieing? All I could do was comfort her and hug her. I told her Chloe is just fine and sleeping in my room and it was only a dream. She calmed down and was able to go back to sleep. I worried about her the next morning, though.

Fortunately, I have Leticia. I called her and asked what to do. She suggested that I help Solana make up an alternate (happy) ending to her dream and that might make her feel better. When Solana woke up I asked her if she remembered me coming into her room. She did but said her dream was too sad to talk about. "How do you know your dream was sad" I asked. "Did you see what happened after Chloe fell off the cliff?" I knew I was walking on thin ice here. If she gave the wrong answer I was kind of hard pressed to pursue Leticia's idea.

"Well, no. The dream was too sad when she fell so I ended it and woke up and just...started crying." Thank you God!

"Well, maybe something good happened after you stopped your dream...? I think maybe she landed on a puffy cloud that carried her to the hospital and everyone at the hospital knows Chloe so they called us right away to come and get her." Solana said that Chloe WAS in her little bouncy chair. She got into it and decided that Chloe and her chair fell onto our car as we were driving by. (not sure why we were driving by as Chloe sat in her chair on top of a cliff but I didn't dwell on details...)We felt a bump and stopped to check it out. Voila! Chloe on top of our car safe and sound! WHEW! Solana felt oh so much better after that. In fact, she was cheering at her happy ending.

I feel so much better after that. THANK...YOU...LETICIA...

Gross Lady

We just had our first unwelcome (attempted) touch. Solana, Chloe, and I were leaving the hospital after Chloe's eye exam when I decided to stop at the bathroom to change her diaper. I was carrying Chloe and Solana was pushing the stroller. A lady followed us in and I was on high alert as she looked at Chloe. She said, "How cute" and simultaneously reached for Chloe's exposed hand. I did my best Ninja imitation and swiveled away causing her to barely miss Chloe's hand. Her hand dropped - rejected. I tried to act like I was going for a paper towel but it was totally obvious I didn't want her to touch Chloe. The lady used the toilet and then, as I was still changing Chloe, scurried out of the bathroom WITHOUT WASHING HER HANDS!!!!

I felt soooo justified in my earlier rudeness! I explained what just happened to Solana and she was thoroughly appalled. "Gross! That lady has bad manners!" That's right, Solana.