2014

So, the new year started with you being able to walk. You were very timid about it at first and it wasn't really until end of January/beginning of February that you officially gave up crawling and just walked everywhere.

Soon after walking came all the talking!! It seemed everyday you learned new words, and now here we are in September and you can let us know with words what it is you would like and are learning new words all the time.

I know you've done SO MUCH MORE in the past 9 months, and this is what I get for not being better about writing it all down, but I just can't seem to remember everything that you've learned and exactly when you learned it.

About 3 weeks ago you started asking to watch "Let It Go" everyday. This referred to Frozen and you favorite part of the movie. At first you would sing just the words "Let It Go" When that song came on. Now you can sing the end word of every line plus other words through out each of the songs. You will finally name individual characters (Elsa, Anna, and Olaf) instead of just saying "Let it Go" anytime we ask you what you're watching or who is this character.

It's so exciting to see you learn more and more everyday. You play so well, and Labor Day weekend you started going down the slide at parks again. You had done well in March but then seemed to be timid about it. So it was exciting to see you want to go down slides again. You also were willing to do the big slides instead of just the little ones.

The Swings are still your favorite part of the park. If someone is willing to push you, you would stay there all day.

At Grammy Parrish's house your favorite activity is to jump on the trampoline! You are SO GOOD AT THIS!! You started jumping on the tramp at about 17 months. We did a wiggle worms class, which was a mom and tots gymnastics class. You learned how to do a somersault... kind of, you would at least bend in half and put your hands by your head, though you never could kick over by yourself but were more than happy to have me help push you over. They had a little tramp that you always ran to first. You learned about taking turns in this class since there were other kiddos that also wanted to jump when they came to that stage of the obstacle course.

We always did a little warm up activity and then the obstacles. Last came the bars. By then you were usually pretty tired and grumpy from being told what to do that you didn't like to do bars. Near the end of the 10 week class we could finally get you to grab hold of the bars and let us swing you or help you flip over.

ANYWAY ever since the start of that you loved jumping on the tramp, learned how to climb the ladder to get on the tramp, and could go down the slide if you wanted off the tramp. You are definitely my little independent girl who wants to figure out ways to do things all on your own.

Some of your favorite foods are Watermelon, Cottage Cheese, Apples, Pizza, and Mac 'n' Cheese. Also Cheese Ravioli.

You like to make funny faces or repeat what other people say or do. You sometimes talk in your "monster" voice, where the words you say come out... gravelly? I suppose would be the closest way to describe it.

You started sleeping in a toddler bed June 2014. After the first 2 nights of falling off the bed you have done wonderfully!!

There was one night when mama accidentally left a sippy cup full of water on the nightstand next to your closet... in the morning when I went to get you up the sippy cup was in the bed with you, empty. So at some time in the night you got up and found the water on the opposite side of the room then went back to bed.

There was another night when I accidentally left the diaper bag in the room, you found your puffs, and took them to bed. These actually spilled everywhere and left a nice mess for mama to clean up.

So after those two incidents I've learned to make sure that your room is completely picked up before you go to bed. There have been mornings when you have different books in your bed. It always makes me happy, and makes me wonder when in the night it is that you wake up. Is it before you fall asleep? Or in the middle of the night? Whenever it is, you are very quiet about it.

HMMM.... I guess that's a good update for now. Here's some pics of the last 9 months:

You would walk with your arms behind you: Drinking from a straw at Taco John's. You picked up the cup all by yourself and did this.
Pretty hair do
 
 pretty dress

Daddy's Little Valentine

trying on mommy's shoes

feeding yourself
  first time wearing helmet and going on a bike ride.

Okay, that's probably enough for now.

So many things

I'm not even sure where to begin. Quick recap of the holidays, for Thanksgiving we went to a cabin in Cascade. You spent the majority of the time going up and down the stairs. This was your favorite activity at the time. Honestly, you still love going up and down stairs.

For Christmas we woke up at our house for presents, then went to the Parrish's for that Christmas, hmmm... actually, no, I think we did Christmas for the Parrish's the night before? Well, I can't remember!! I know we talked to Uncle Dylan though!!

Then we spent the afternoon/evening with the Johnson's.


playing peek a boo

Christmas Dress and Hair for Jill and Chris's ward:

trying to take a drink from a glass for the first time. you also got your first haircut on Christmas morning, we trimmed your bangs.
On the 26th we did X-mas with the Siepert's. We celebrated New Year's with the Overall's. You went to bed about 9 or so then we woke you up about 11:55pm so we could all celebrate the new year together.

OOOOHH and YOU FIGURED OUT HOW TO WALK, the Sun after Christams:



Wow. Ok. so there is 2013!! Here's a cool thing google put together for 2013

Well, there is a very quick rundown of 2013... so much has still happened. we're almost halfway through September!! We'll see how quickly I can get us caught up through these last 9 months!

An attempt at catching up

Dear Jyzelle,

It has been a very long time since I last did an update. We’ll see what kind of quick recap I can get done.

After your stay in the hospital and the 3 weeks of antibiotics going to the hospital every day, there weren’t any more “exciting” adventures in regards to your health.

I love Halloween, and was excited to do something fun for your first Halloween. Your last “first” holiday! I decided to go with Link and his fairy Navi for us. I originally wanted your dad to be Link and I’d be Zelda or something, but it ended up not working out that way so I just dressed up as Link and you were, of course, still Navi.

We went trick-or-treating with Aunt Jill, Aunt Nicole, cousins Savanna and cousin Kelson. You weren’t too interested in any of the festivities or going door to door and got wore out pretty quickly.

After Halloween I was excited because that meant 2 days until your birthday! I had been planning for a while, at least, knew I wanted the theme “Under the Sea” because The Little Mermaid DVD came out beginning of October. I had been buying packs of balls to use in your swimming pool, since of course, November is a little cold to do an actual water filled pool!

I made you a cake, with blue frosting, and put Ariel and Eric on it from the Princess Barn Little People. We had blue and white and greenish-blue balloons and same for the streamers. We made taco dip, had some salami and cheese cut up to put on crackers, and some rice krispies for those that couldn’t eat Gluten.

You had quite a few people come see you for your first birthday! You had Grammy and Papa Parrish, Grammi and Grumpy Siepert, Aunt Nicole, Jill, Kimberly, Tessa and Uncles Richard, Jared, and Chris. Heather and Logan came, as well as Kim and Jake and Flynn Overall. Our neighbors, the Soren’s, Jaron, Lindsey, Lillian, Connor and McKenzie came as well. All of your cousins were there too! It was a good fun full house. You got spoiled J

 

There you are with most of your presents J

 

I had more pictures of you on your birthday, but they’re on my camera and I seemed to have lost the cord that hooks the camera to the computer. L

Next up will be the holidays. Let’s see if I get it posted in less than 6 months from today. Haha J

Hospital Stay Part 3

Ok, so where did we leave off? I believe we're on Monday now, which was our original hopeful day of getting to go home! Well, this didn't happen. They decided that they wanted you on IV antibiotics rather than oral antibiotics so they scheduled to have a PICC line put in your arm.

And to go w/the theme of this little adventure, this did NOT go well! At about 12:30 they took you and I to the procedure room and then put you to sleep with this milky white medication, I don't remember the name of it but it wasn't general anesthisia. I then went back to our hospital room to wait for you. The nurse and doctor told me it'd be 1/2 hour to 1 hour and then they would be done. Well about 2 hours into it they called me and said they were unable to get the PICC line in your arm and asked if it was okay if they did a central line. (The difference between a PICC line and a Central line is basically placement I believe. A PICC line goes in through a vein that connects to the vein above your heart, such as through the arm or leg. A Central line goes directly into the vein near your heart.)  I wasn't sure then what the difference was and asked a few questions then told them they should know best so go for it. This still took about another hour, they had trouble getting the Central line in as well. So finally! I was able to go back to the room to see you. You were a bit groggy but as soon as you were fully awake you just wanted a bottle and to play!

From this point on it became a bit harder for you to stay entertained, finally I just put a blanket down on the floor in your room so you could play down there with plenty of room to roam around. There wasn't much else that went on Monday, we were just anxious to get to go home Tuesday since so far all your blood cultures hadn't come back positive.

Well on Tuesday we were hoping to get to go home early afternoon. Well of course, this didn't happen. With your central line the hopsital was trying to get our insurance to approve Home IV Therapy. They had told me Monday there wouldn't be a problem and they'd be able to get the insurance to approve it. Well at about 5 Tuesday night they finally admitted they probably wouldn't get it approved and asked if we'd be willing to stay one more night while they continued to work with the insurance. I said NO, we want to go HOME! I let the gal know that they can call me with any questions and we can just come back to the hospital so you can get your antibiotic. She agreed to this so we started packing everything up and finally got home about 7 that night. It was such a relief to be home!

Well, for the next 3 weeks we made the trip to the hospital every day so you could get your antibiotic through your central line. They had a playroom so we usually just played in there. The antibiotic was Rocephin, it took a 1/2 hour to go through the IV, so we were usually at the hospital anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. This depended on who the nurse was that day. Our favorite was a nurse named Ellie who was always ready for us when we got there so it never took very long with her. Other nurses wouldn't order the medicine until we were there and it could take an hour just to get the medication up to our floor!

Well on August 9th it was finally the day to get your central line out! I had to work so Grammy took you to get your last does of antibiotic and your central line out. You did great with everything and then were free! We were super excited because during all this time we hadn't been able to go swimming. SO on Sat Aug 10th it was our Ward Swim Party so after 3 weeks of not being able to get real good and wet we had a fun pool party w/all of our Ward Friends :)

I'm so glad that even though there seemed to be a lot of complications during the hospital stay, we were able to get you feeling better and healthy again!

You are such a sweet angel and always so good-natured and I'm very glad this experience did not change your sweet spirit at all.

I love you, princess

Love Mommy :)

Hospital Stay Part 2

So after getting you admitted to the hospital we learn that they are worried there might be more to your infection then meets the eye. They decide that because of how swollen your ankle is they want to get an X-Ray and an MRI to see if something more is going on. Well, while they worked out on all the scheduling you had quite a few visitors! Your neighbors the Sorens' came by, your Grammy and Papa, your Uncle Jared and Aunt Jill and Uncle Chris and cousin Kelson! You are a very loved little girl. :)

Well they did the X-ray in your room and then scheduled the MRI for the next morning. Well the Xray just showed swelling, which, hello, was already obvious. The MRI got pushed from 8:30 to 2:45 so your fasting had been for nothing, BUT since it was scheduled for not too much later all you could have were "clear" liquids, so you had some pedialyte, but that seemed to help your grumbly tummy some.

 They finally took you down for your MRI, and since you're just a baby, needed to do some general Anesthesia to make sure you stayed still. WELL the MRI showed there was some fluid in your ankle, but the Dr.'s said they were sure it was just AROUND the joint, not IN the joint. However, just to be sure, they decided you needed an Ultrasound. SO that night we took you down to have an Ultrasound, which again showed a LOT of fluid in your ankle. The Dr.'s decided it was best to put you under anesthesia again to get a biopsy of the fluid. After this they said the liquid was cloudy, instead of clear, but didn't think it was anything too serious. The Dr. let us know the lab would get a reading on it (not really sure how all that works) and then would maybe have you have surgery in the morning if it needed drained.
(So MRI happened 7/18/13)

Well, we never heard anything that night so we went to sleep. At 6 the next morning a hospital transport gentleman came in to take you to surgery. I hadn't heard anything from the Dr. so I asked to speak with one before he took you away. A little bit later your nurse came in saying that the transport had come in because the surgery spot had been reserved, but that no orders had come from the Dr. yet. So we went back to sleep. (Actually, I don't think you woke up for any of this, so just I went back to sleep, haha)

WELL, maybe about 5 minutes later the nurse came back saying the Dr DID want to do surgery and so transport came back for you and we met with the Dr down in pre-op. He said they still weren't convinced it was a joint infection but they wanted to get your ankle drained just to be on the safe side. Your daddy came over to be with me while you were in surgery.
(Surgery happened 7/19/13)

After surgery the Dr met with us to let us know everything went well and you would be waking up soon.

We went in to see you and you were clutching your angel bear still groggy but I was so happy to get to see you!

 Your Ankle Pre- Surgery

Getting to see you right after surgery

So we got to go back to your room and there we stayed for a few more days. You started to feel much better on Sunday when your fever went away. I don't remember much from Saturday, so I suppose not much happened besides monitoring your progress. OH and your Grammi and Grumpy Siepert and Auntie Nicole came to see you!! You were in such a good mood when they stopped by, you played and did your new trick, which was nodding your head, and were just full of smiles and giggles!

Sunday was another day of just sitting around making sure you were doing okay. Your Uncle Jared and Grammy and Papa Parrish were frequent visitors. And of course your Grammi and Grumpy Siepert and Aunt Nicole came to see you again before having to go back home. (I don't have pictures of that now, they have the pictures on their phones/ipads)

Also on Sunday they removed your soft cast to take out the drain on your foot. At this point they did tell us that your joint was infected as well as your blood had been infected. They told us as soon as you went 48 hours with negative blood cultures we'd be able to go home, so we knew at that point that it wasn't going to be Monday like we were hoping.

Well, I guess there is going to be a part 3 because it seems like there's still so much to tell and I'm getting sleepy!

Love you Princess!!

Hospital Stay

Dear Jyzelle,

Well, my dear sweet baby girl the past week has not been so good to you. On Saturday July 13th we went up to Cascade so I could go White Water Rafting with your Aunt Kimberly an PaPa, you stayed at the campsite with Grammi Parrish. Well while I was on the river Grammi noticed you started to get a bit fussy and very clingy. When we got home that night you continued to be very clingy and fussy so we put you to bed early thinking you were just tired and maybe teething.

Well on Sunday you would do nothing but lay on my chest, which is VERY unusual for you. You love to play and move around and explore EVERYTHING! Well, as we were getting you ready for church I noticed that you wouldn't put your right foot down. Dad and I then started thinking back through the day and realized that anytime your foot got moved you would get upset and cry. We then noticed how much you were favoring it and that it was swollen and a little red.

We were going to try to go to Sacrament meeting anyway but you seemed to get worse so decided to take you to the Urgent Care instead. We weren't sure what had happened, I thought you might have twisted/sprained your ankle, your Grammi thought you had a bug bite from the lake that got infected. The PA at the Urgent Care had you get it X-rayed. The X-ray came back normal, but seeing you favor your right foot so much he wrapped it up anyway and told us to follow up with your Dr. on Monday.

Well after this we started noticing your fevers and so decided it must be an infection of some sort. We went to see your Dr. on Monday and she agreed about the infection and gave you the antibiotic Cephalexin and drew a line around the redness on your ankle so we could see if it got worse. We then went home and I just cuddled you all day and pretty much all day Tuesday as well. It was hard to see you not want to play or do anything, but I was glad that you wanted me to comfort you as best as I could.

On Wednesday July 17, 2013 we again followed up with your doctor. You still had a fever over 102 and the redness had moved down your foot. She suggested we go to the ER so they could run tests more quickly then she could there in the clinic.

When we got the ER they got your right back to a room, took a look at your ankle and took notice of your fever and went to work to get some blood work and get you on an IV. They got a poke in your hand and got the blood out but couldn't get your vein to open up (I think I'm remembering/saying that right) to have the IV go there so they tried your foot. Again they could not get your vein to cooperate so they then had another nurse come try. It still took some time but finally they got an IV in your hand and let me just say that was so hard to sit through to watch you cry so much. I might have cried a little too :(

They then decided to keep you for 24 hours so you can continue on the IV antibiotic and make sure you were getting better. (This didn't happen)

Well, I'll finish this later, there's still a lot to go.

I love you my princess!

Love, Mama

On a roll

Dear Jyzelle,

You got to go camping for the first time this past weekend! After we woke up from our nap on Saturday Momma decided she wanted to go camping. So we made a quick lunch and started packing up the Jeep to head out on our adventure. Well, a while ago we lost our sleeping bags, and so for Momma's and Dada's birthday Grammi and Papa helped us get some new ones :)

We were going to go to Willow Creek but when we got there all of the camp sites were full, so we decided to keep on driving for a bit and see what we could find. Your dad had remembered seeing a meadow type area when him and your uncles had gone fishing so we were going to try and find that. Well before we got that far we found a spot that looked like it had a flat area to put up a tent and looked like it had some rocks around to make a fire pit.

We pulled over, I strapped you to me with the Moby Wrap and began finding rocks to put together a pit while Dad started chopping wood. After we got that all put together and the tin foils dinner cooking we started setting up the tent and the rest of camp.

There wasn't much else exciting going on besides a normal camping trip. You slept in my sleeping bag with me, and slept better than me too. haha.

After we got up (early, as it seems when camping it's impossible to sleep in) we had breakfast, got the jeep packed up then went on a little hike! (Sadly I don't have those pics, they're on Dada's phone). You fell asleep but it was still a lot of fun and a BEAUTIFUL view!

We made it back in time to get to church, but as Sacrament meeting went on I realized I did not pack your diaper bag right. Had a bottle but no formula, had 1 diaper but no wipes, had baby food but not spoon!! So we had to cut it short and head home.

On Monday we went SWIMMING!! I know I've said this before but you just love the water SOO much! We went with your Aunt Kimberly, cousins Abbigail and Brooklyn, and your friend from next door Lily! After about 1 1/2 hours of swimming you got tired so just laid your head down on Momma's arm and relaxed. It was so sweet to get to cuddle with you. Lily asked if you would cuddle with  her and I said we could try, and you did for a minute or two!!

For dinner we had the missionaries over and served them Elk steaks, corn on the cob, and french fries. It's always fun to have the missionaries over :)

WELL, last night at about 3:45 you woke up fussing a bit but before I ever even got out of bed you had stopped and gone back to sleep. Then at about 6 you did the same thing. Well a little after 9 you finally woke up for good! While I was feeding you breakfast I remember thinking those 2 times you had woken up that you were probably teething, so I decided to check! And sure enough there on the bottom you have 2 teeth!! I'm so excited for you!! I love watching you grow and every new thing just makes me so excited for you!!!

I love you baby girl! My sweet Princess!

Love, Momma

                                                     Daddy putting you to sleep :)

                                                       Had your first ice cream cone!

                                                            And you discovered dirt...

                                                So Happy to play with momma and Dada

   Fell asleep drinking your bottle, but I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of it. Dada has some don't worry :)

                                              First time in a tent you had to go exploring

                                              Having some breakfast at the camp site :)

  

                                                               Ready to go on a hike!

                     So much fun swimming!! Whenever your feet are in the water you just kick and kick                                                               and kick!!

                          You always fall asleep holding on to your toys in the car seat. haha

                                                          Just a relaxing evening at home :)