Eden's Edition...2 years 3 months!

Eden turned 2 years 3 months on 2/2/17. I thought I had posted about it, but I guess not.

She is 25 pounds and 34 inches tall.

Her name should be "miss independent" because she wants to do everything by herself.

We discovered that she knows how to get water and ice from the fridge dispenser.

She is wearing 24M/2T clothes and size 6 shoes.

She wears size 4 disposable diapers, but has been showing interest in potty training.

Eden always wants to "brush your hair" to anyone who happens to be here.

She can dress and undress herself.

 

I had a memory card go bad, so these are the only pictures from her 2 year 3 month photo shoot that I have.

Keeping Up With Kanaan...3 Year 3 Month Update!

On December 4th Kanaan turned 3 years 3 months old!

He weighs 25lbs 6oz and is 34.75in long.

He is wearing 3T shirts, but can still wear 18m pants. 3T pants are too big around the waist, but are long enough. He pretty much has to wear sweat pants or his pants fall off him, even the 24M/2T ones.

He loves to sing "The Little Drummer Boy", "ABC", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Jesus Loves Me", and the Paw Patrol Theme song.

Paw Patrol is his favorite show, but Veggie Tales is a close second.

Kanaan loves reading.

He is wearing size 4 diapers.

Kanaan is in size 6 shoes.

His favorite foods are mac and cheese, spaghetti or anything with noodles, pizza and  potatoes. 

He also loves fruit. 

He really like the Charlie Brown movies. 

For Christmas he asked for a train and cars. 

His bedtime is at 7pm, but he will usually talk to himself for a few hours before falling asleep. 

He always falls asleep in the middle of the day. He takes a nap when we are home for 2-3 hours, but even if we are out running around he will conk out in the car. 

He wakes up between 6:30 and 7am. 

His favorite books are the Llama Llama Series.

Each night he sleeps with his Elephant, OT (a stuffed dog), his Build A Bear minion "Kevin", and the "Chase" from paw patrol we got him for his birthday. He calls them his kids and will carry all of them around in his arms. 

He calls people kids. For instance if we go somewhere as a family he will say, "There are 4 kids in this car" 

He can mentally count and knows how many of something just by looking. At least up to 4. He may know more, but that's the last one I remember him knowing for sure. 

He can put on his shoes, socks and pants on himself. He still needs a little help with his shirt. 

This isn't new, but he can still recognize and identify the entire uppercase alphabet, as well as name things that start with the letter he's referring to. 

He has a superb memory, and will bring up things from months before. 

He loves to boss his sister around, which she does not appreciate. 

He constantly is taking his shoes and socks off, even on 3 minute car trips. 

He can spell his name, but doesn't want to learn to write it. 

He always asks for ice in his water. 

Sometimes he calls Eden "Edie". 

He loves to do puzzles. 

He always asks for mustard on his "hangabers" aka hamburgers. 

He doesn't like food that is too spicy or "micey" as he called it a few months ago. 

He's always doing crazy acrobatic moves. 

We took the rail off his crib on his birthday and he will stay in his bed until we (or Eden) come to get him in the morning. 

Love you so much Buddy! 

Family Health Update!

I haven't done a health update in awhile, so I thought I'd let everyone know what's going on with everyone.

KANAAN:

KIDNEY: Kanaan's kidneys are stable. We have switched to a new nephrologist. The "new" one that we had after Dr. Seifert left, was really pushing the Human Growth Hormone injections. Andy and I just really didn't feel comfortable doing them, especially as Kanaan is still growing, he's just short. Neither one of us come from super tall families anyway and there are a lot worse things in life than being short. We also felt, like he didn't really listen to us, and we just felt like we couldn't trust him 100%. When your child's life is in a doctor's hands you need to be able to trust him 110% and we just couldn't. We were able to switch to another Dr. in the same group there at STL Children's hospital,  Dr. Hmiel. We met with him in August, and loved him. He was great with Kanaan and even gave his Sesame street characters a checkup too. He agreed that Kanaan didn't need the Growth hormone injections and was also fine with having our pediatrician (who used to be a pediatric nephrologist) checking up on Kanaan's kidneys in between visits to him. So instead of us having to travel to STL every 3 months, we can go to STL every 6 months, and see Dr. Collins in Quincy at the 3 month mark in between STL appointments. We go back to STL to see Dr. Hmiel in September. Kanaan's labs looked good. His creatinine was stable, his phosphorus was low enough that we were able to discontinue the medicine he was on, and the other labs looked good too.
NEUROLOGY: Kanaan met with the neurologist a year ago in August. They said they didn't see anything that would indicate why Kanaan wasn't walking much at that point. He started walking right before we went to that appointment and they said if he hadn't been walking at that point they would have wanted to do an MRI, but they didn't see any other signs or risk factors for other problems going on, so they said it was our call if we wanted to do one. We decided not to, it wouldn't have changed the care for him, it just may have given an answer as to why he walked later, but may not have as well. We didn't want to have to put him through all of that if it weren't necessary, and since it wouldn't change anything if he did do it. We didn't do it.We went back in August to see them again. Once you see Neurology, you have to follow up with them once a year. This year at his appointment, the Neurologist said that they thought Kanaan may have something called "Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome" Which is a condition where the connective tissue is super flexible, it can cause problems with joints and the heart. They scheduled an appointment for us to meet to a genetics specialist, to determine
if they thought he had it as well.
GENETICS: We met with the Genetics Dr in October. Our pediatrician said she didn't think Kanaan had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, because it would be extremely rare for him to have 2 different, unrelated conditions. They Genetics doctor, looked over Kanaan and asked lots of questions regarding our medical history and Kanaan's pregnancy. She said she didn't believe that he had Ehlers-Danlos. He is super flexible in the joints and skin, but wasn't exhibiting any other symptoms, and we have no family history of it. She did say that they don't usually diagnose someone that young with EDS anyway, and we didn't need to go back to her unless other symptoms popped up or if we suspected Kanaan's kidney disease to be hereditary.
ORTHOPEDICS: Kanaan also met with the orthopedic doctor last winter at the beginning of the year as a follow up on his SMO braces. At that time he had been wearing them for about 6 months. They decided that he didn't need to have his SMO's anymore and instead has a shoe insert to put into his shoes. When we went back in August to see the Neurologist, they trimmed up the inserts a bit for us to fit in more of his shoes since we were at Shriner's anyway. We don't have to go back to see the Ortho until January.
CARDIOLOGY: At Kanaan's 3 year checkup his pediatrician heard a heart murmur, so she scheduled an Echo to be done to look into it. Normally it wouldn't be a concern, but since they were questioning the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, she decided to go ahead and have the echo done to have results for the genetics appointment. The test showed that Kanaan's Aorta is mildly dilated. The pediatrician said she has patients with it that do have connective tissue disorders (like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) and some that have this that don't have any tissue disorders either. We met with the Cardiologist Dr. Nicolas. He is from STL and Springfield and comes to Quincy once a month. When the nurse called to tell me the results she mentioned that usually for the first appointment you have to go to either STL or Springfield, but then can follow up at Quincy, simply because it's hard to get you in as soon as they need to see you in Quincy. Well when the cardiologist office called to let us know our appointment time, they had scheduled us in Quincy for mid November. Kanaan's echo test was done the very beginning of October. We met with Dr. Nicolas and he said that since Kanaan isn't showing any other symptoms or effects of the dilated aorta that we can just do another echo in 6 months. If it were still dilated then we may start a medication. He said it's something he could grow out of, but also he said not to rule out the Ehlers-Danlos completely, because a lot of the symptoms don't show up this young as well. He didn't seem too concerned about it since Kanaan is doing well and it doesn't seem to be bothering his daily life.
EAR/NOSE/THROAT: Kanaan had tubes put into his ears in May. He had several several ear infections last year and because of his kidneys, he has to have a lower dose of antibiotics to clear it up, which often is not sufficient to clear it up and we have to switch to a different one to try to clear up the infection. Antibiotics are hard on the kidneys, and Kanaan always spikes a fever and that also makes us worry about dehydration which can be detrimental to his kidneys. With the tubes if he were to get an ear infection we could put drops in his ears to treat it instead of antibiotics. The drops aren't filtered through his kidneys like the antibiotics would be so it would be easier on his kidneys to have the tubes. Tubes in his ears won't necessarily prevent him from getting ear infections, but it would be easier to treat once he did get them. His hearing tests came back fine, before the tubes, and the main reason we decided to go ahead with them was because of his kidneys and how hard ear infections are on his body. Since he's had the tubes put in in May, he hasn't had any ear infections at all. I'm not exactly sure off the top of my head, but I think this may have been the longest he's ever gone in his life without one. We still haven't had our followup from the tubes. He goes to a doctor in STL because of his kidneys and needing anesthesia, they wanted him to see a pediatric ENT instead of one here that doesn't specialize in kids. We've tried to schedule our follow up when we are already going to be in STL and it hasn't worked out yet. Which is why we haven't had our follow up. I'm not really worried about since, he hasn't had any infections since the surgery, and he passed the hearing test before the surgery, so I don't anticipate him not passing after the surgery. We have some other St. Louis appointments coming up so I am going to try to schedule a follow up when we are already going there.

I think that is all of Kanaan's specialists we see. He's battling some Croup now, but otherwise is doing good.

ANDY: In February Andy was hospitalized. We originally thought it was his gallbladder, but it turned out that his liver was inflamed, and his kidney function was at Stage 3. His liver function ended up returning to normal, and they determined he must have had some type of virus that attacked his liver. His kidney function, however, has not returned to normal. He had a biopsy in October, and that showed that his kidney disease is caused by sleep apnea and extra weight. He is working on losing weight, and had a home sleep study. The study did show that he has sleep apnea and will be getting a cpap machine soon to help with that. Hopefully this will keep his kidneys from getting worse, and maybe even improve some. We aren't sure if Andy's kidney disease is connected to his mom's kidney disease or not. If it is they said it is likely not connected to Kanaan's kidney disease, because Kanaan's kidneys were never normal, and Andy and his mom's kidneys were normal and then started to fail/failed. Which could end up affecting Eden even though her kidneys are completely normal right now. Hopefully her kidneys will never have an issue. Also this means that Andy cannot donate his kidney to Kanaan when he needs a transplant. On October 27th, Andy broke his ankle and foot. He fell on our front steps and broke a bone in the ankle and one on the side of his foot as well. He has been in a cast since November 1st. It is his right foot so he can't drive which has made things more complicated, as I have to drive him to appointments/work/home etc. He goes back to hopefully have his cast taken off tomorrow and they said he would have a walking boot for awhile after that. I'll be so glad when he is able to walk around again. I've been doing all the housework, childcare, and driving. Shuffling him and the kids around while trying to work 2 jobs and get everything done at home and everyone to all of their doctor appointments is a lot, I'm exhausted.

BRITTANY: Over all I am doing well. I did have to have my gallbladder removed in July, but since that has been done, I haven't had any trouble with that. I do have pre-diabetes, which was expected since Mom had type 2 diabetes and I had gestational diabetes with the kids. I'm on a low dose medication to help keep my blood sugar down, but otherwise am doing fine.

EDEN: Eden has a little cold right now, but otherwise is really healthy. She is rarely sick, and if she does get sick, she usually is fast to recover and doesn't seem to get it as severe as Kanaan does.

Eden's Edition...2 Year Update!

On November 2, Eden turned 2 years old!!

Eden weighs 24lbs 8oz and is 33in tall. 

She can sing the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, and Happy Birthday. 

She is no longer in a crib, and is doing well in her "big girl" bed. She does go into Kanaan's room when she wakes up. 

Eden is wearing 24M/2T clothes and size 6 shoes. She wears size 4 disposable diapers and Large rise in cloth diapers. 

If we ask her if she is a cutie pie she says "No, Tootie Pie" it's so cute. 

Everything is "My do it" 

Some of her favorite things are "Hair Bears"(Care Bears), Paw Patrol, and Doc McStuffins. 

She is full of attitude and sass. She has two care bears that talk "Grumpy Bear" and "Cheer Bear" I told Andy her Care Bears match her 2 mood options. She is usually one or the other. If she's particularly grumpy, food or sleep usually makes it better. 

She likes to have her hair done and a bow put in. Although she usually takes the bow out in the car if we go anywhere. 

She can undress and dress herself. Often, when I go in to get her up from nap, she has her shirt on backwards or pants inside out. She also will take off her diaper. 

For her birthday she got a grocery cart and she calls it her "car seat". 

She loves Pogo a ton. Pogo mostly just tries to stay as far away from her as possible, unless she is eating. But, she is learning to sit still and pet Pogo, so he is beginning to tolerate her. 

Kanaan is her best friend. They are inseparable. If she falls out of her bed she cries "see Kanaan" and will run to his room instead of ours. I had to take Kanaan to a doctor appointment and she stayed with Andy. We were gone for about 4 hours and they both laughed and hugged for about 5 minutes as soon as we got home. 

I bought a new candle this month and set it on the counter to light later. The next day I couldn't find it and I searched all over. The next day I found it in the bottom of the trash can with bite marks out of it. Apparently, Eden must have smelled it and thought it would taste good. Took a bite out of it, decided it was bad and then threw it away. Now when she see it she says "Mommy's candle right there. Don't eat Mommy's candle, it's yucky. Mommy's candle gets hot"

She has 3 pairs of shoes she prefers to wear, gold sparkly flats, Pink and silver sparkly flats, or black boots with sparkly bows on them. Sometimes when I put her tennis shoes on she will take them off and put on one of the other pairs. Then she cries and cries when I have to switch them back. 

Andy broke his foot, so she is obsessed with owies right now. Several times a day she says "Daddy hurt his feet" "Daddy has owie on his feet" She also claims she has an owie on her finger all the time. Nothing is wrong with her finger, she just wants you to kiss it. 

She is such a firecracker and we love her so much. I can't believe we've had this spunky, fiesty girl for 2 years now!