In the midst of all the fun of the summertime… we get to go to doctor appointments (insert sarcastic YAY). 

Tomorrow marks 6 weeks since ME has had the injections/sclerotherapy surgery done. And we do see some results. Not everyone would notice, but we know her face well – her ever-changing yet adorable face that is… but ya know what we mean. They did an ultrasound at the appt we had today (she hated it, as she hates having food on her face when she eats, let alone ultrasound gel and a dr putting a wand on her face). She compared it to the ones she did the day she had surgery and some of the cysts injected are smaller or gone, some are a bit smaller but not enough etc. But the good thing is we DID see results. It could’ve been that she didn’t respond at all, but she did and that is GOOD NEWS so we’re thanking God for that. And even though recovery is rough, it’s better than cutting and ending up with scar tissue and regrowth etc. So this IS a good thing. She said with the size and severity of hers, we still may see more results in the next few weeks (sometimes it takes longer with bigger ones).
The best results were on the right side close to the chin area and the tongue (which I will address momentarily). There is what we call a "ball" in front of her ear. That’s a big one, and it did go down a little, but is obviously still there. We’ll see how far that goes down but it may need another round of injections. It is not uncommon to have to go for injections more than once. So while we were there, we scheduled her next surgery.

Thursday, September 13th. This was perfect for us, because it was after the summer events and her Uncle Daniel’s wedding in September etc. Then we have the rest of September to recover and de-swell from this surgery. At least we know what to expect. The only good thing is, she’s young and we’re doing as much as we can for her before she can even remember this stuff! If there is more sclerotherapy needing to be done after that, it will be held off until 2008 as I have the baby coming and then the holidays etc. And of course she will need time to recover and whatnot so there’s no time to do it before all that.

Wednesday, August 1st she had a previously scheduled Tongue reduction surgery. This was going to be a surgery in which they reduced the tongue in size by cutting. However, since the injections did well with the tongue, we’re going to go that route again for it. But we’re keeping this surgery date- because she does need lasering on the tongue. This is a procedure she’s had before. She bounces back within the same day, it’s not overnight… she does well etc. The lasering is done to the surface of the tongue to get rid of what they call the "vesicles" on her tongue… they look like red blistery/bubbles. These are common with her condition being in the tongue and all… plus her tongue is large causing her mouth to be open more than often and it dries out. So anyway, that surgery is all set.

WOW I’m 20 weeks pregnant today!!! Halfway Point already! Time is flying. I guess with a 2 year old and a million events- I seem to be less focused on what is going on inside. Though I must admit, it’s hard to forget I’m pregnant… as the belly is getting bigger, I am up and down at the bathroom a lot and the little wiggle worm inside is kicking away!

So today was my big ultrasound. And yes, we stuck to our plan and didn’t find out the sex! Everything looked wonderful which was a big sigh of relief and a big PRAISE THE LORD! Not that we assumed anything would be wrong but we know how delicate pregnancy can be and are very thankful that everything is going smoothly so far. My 20 week ultrasound was when we found out about ME’s condition last time, so as you can imagine it brought back those memories. But also good memories as we remember ME sucking her thumb and stuff!

This baby was on the move! Pictures were once again hard to get because of that. When I go back in 4 weeks for my regular appointment they are going to give me another ultrasound to measure some things they didn’t get to because the baby was moving around a bit. Growth was on track and matched with where I am in my pregnancy so that was good. The baby was moving its arms and legs a lot and was in a folded position where it’s feet were both up by his/her head and so were his/her hands. The placenta is posterior this time which explains why I felt it earlier and stronger this time around. With ME my placenta was in the front (anterior) and that muffled some of the earlier kicks… until she was big enough to punch and kick me around it… haha.

I have the ultrasounds labeled. (You might want to click on them to read/see them better and open them up bigger). They are the best shots we got of this little one right now. Andy and I are glowing today as we are so excited and are still in awe that our 2nd child is on it’s way.

So even though we have a lot of events and things to do this summer- we’ve been having a lot of fun. Well, especially ME. Beyond the fun outside on her "new" swingset (given to us by Andy’s aunt) and playing with her outside toys… she has been busy running out and about with me visiting and going to some of our events which are more geared towards her…

Last week we went to my friend from high school (Brenda)’s daughter’s birthday party. Her daughter, Kasey was at ME’s 2nd bday party. They have a fun time together. Connor was there too, as his mom is also my friend – and we all went to high school together. The 3 of them were really cute together.

Then that weekend we went to my sister in law’s and she got to play her most favorite role.. mommy… expect not having to pretend-play. She was so cute patting her baby cousin Evan when he was upset and rocking him in his bouncy seat etc. She loved just laying next to him on his play-mat and everything. And it was fun for her to play with my sister in law’s dogs. Plus ME really likes her aunt and uncle very much – so all in all last weekend was great.

After that fun-filled weekend.. today we went to Music class that I signed her up for over the summer. (Which happens to be taught by Aunt Rose’s mom). It’s only for about 6 weeks and started today. There are 10 other kids in the class but I think 8 or 9 showed up today. ME has been in this type of music class before, with less kids and when she was a bit younger. However there was a big difference as she was following it more and having even more fun being independent. Plus being around the other kids was very inter-active for her. Straight from the class we went to visit my cousin Michele and her 2 kids. One of her daughters (Madeline) will be 4 in November, the other is 8 months (Emily, will be 1 in November, as well).
ME loved playing and running around with Madeline, trying to keep up with her though of course. She had a blast from the time she got there til the moment she left and they were truly adorable together. As you can see even lunch time was fun:

It’s great to see her with other kids, she really enjoys it and I’m glad we’re getting to do that more.
And what’s best is we started her in the sprinkler. Madeline showed her how it should be done and ME had a pretty good time being so new to it and all. And I must say she looked pretty darn cute in her bathing suit! I was particularly excited about this sprinkler event because she can’t go in pools with the trach and all (way too dangerous) and the sprinkler was a great alternative- it was nice to see her having some good ole’ summer fun!

The fun doesn’t stop here. This weekend we are going up to Albany to visit Andy’s cousin, next weekend we’re going to my friend Dawn’s twin girls’ first birthday party (there will be a few kids her age there too). And then of course… more to come…. – so be on the lookout for the July photos at the end of the month because these cute photos I added certainly do not end here…

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Independance Day! Mary Elizabeth had a blast as always! No real update tonight, just showing off Andy’s nerdy-ness with this picture… and ME’s cuteness too!!