It's been busy

The past couple of weeks have been filled with lots of appointments and visiting with family and friends. For Halloween we took the girls to Texas to visit some friends. We had a great time just hanging out and catching up with them. On our way back home we stopped at my parent's home to break the drive up. We brought my mom back with us, and she was a great help with getting the house ready for Christmas. I knew I'd never be able to do it on my own. With her help it still took about 4 days to get everything done, and all we decorated was the living room and dining room.

The girls had an appointment with the ENT to make sure that their ears look good. Thankfully they are looking great, and she was very impressed that the girls have never had an ear infection. Because of Emma's PDA surgery (heart surgery) they wanted to look at her vocal cords to make sure they were function properly. The ENT told us here is a nerve associated with the vocal cords that runs downward and then back up in the upper part of the body. Since they enter the body through the back to preform the PDA surgery it seems that this nerve can sometimes be "nicked." They have found that baby's weighing less than 2lbs. at the time of surgery have a greater chance of damage to the vocal cords. While Emma has had no symptoms that anything might be wrong with them, we opted to have them look at them just to make sure they were fine. Emma was a trooper. They put a small scope down her nose and took a look. Thankfully everything checked out. Both cords looked great. They don't need to see us unless we think there is an issue.

We also took the girls for their first dental appointment. They did very well. Abby has 6 teeth and 4 molars working their way in. Emma has 4 teeth, but is working on 2 molars. I was a bit concerned with how slow her teeth are coming in but they assured me that isn't a big deal, and actually told me the longer they take to come in the better the teeth usually are. In Emma's case we are hoping that's true. Her 4 front teeth have come in a bit yellow, and Dr. H told us that is most likely to her severe jaundice issue she had. She was practically yellow for 6 months. He did say that since the body is great at repairing itself that her adult teeth should be fine. The girls will continue to see him every 6 months.

The last eye appointment went well. Neither of the girls had any change in their eye sight. Emma no longer has a dominant eye so we have changed the patching routine. Instead of 4 hours a day, we patch her for 2 hours and we alternate which eye is patched every day. Since Emma's strabismus has increased we are looking at surgery to correct it. If her vision doesn't change in the next 4 months it is likely that surgery will be scheduled. This really terrifies me, but I know that it will be a great thing for her.

We had a speech therapist come to the house and evaluate the girls. Call me crazy, but I'm one of those parents who wants to catch a problem early rather than later. She thinks the girls are doing great and at this point she doesn't feel they need any help. Due to their early arrival she does want to continue to check on them every 6 weeks or so.

The new car. Thanks Tara and Craig. They love it!!!

Emma taking a rest.

Abby getting ready to trick or treat.

Two cows and a dog. Love Holt's grin!!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (aka Cousin Bailey) and Emma

Two cows, a turtle, and the geek (Cousin Kelsey)

Three future Aggies