John took Avery to see Dr. Fisch today for her 18-Month Well Visit (sorry, no pictures!). Here are her stats:
I guess you could say it's all gone downhill since my last post. My poor little Reagan has been through the ringer. After playing in the snow, she seemed just fine. She did tell me that her tummy hurt and I proceeded to lecture her about how she was probably just hungry and she needed to be better about eating and how I was worried about how little she eats each day, blah, blah, blah. We bathed her, then put her to bed that night (Saturday, Jan 3rd) and about 30 minutes later, we heard her crying. John ran downstairs, since it's VERY unusual for Reagan to wake up once she's gone to sleep.
When he carried Reagan upstairs, I stood frozen, taking in the sight of my now messy little girl ... she was covered in throw-up and she was crying hysterically. I wasn't sure where to begin because it was just so messy. We finally got her in the bathtub again and got all the sheets changed ... of course, as soon as we put her back in bed, it happened all over again. She ended up taking 3 baths that night and threw up 4 times before I finally went to sleep at 2 AM. By 9:00 on Sunday morning, John said she had thrown-up another 4 or 5 times and she'd hardly slept. She slept most of Sunday and we had to keep her downstairs when my sisters and their kids came over that night for dinner ~ what a bummer that she couldn't play with her cousins!
By Monday, I was nauseous and feeling lousy in general. My sisters were planning on coming over that night, but I had to cancel because I felt so miserable. By Tuesday afternoon, Reagan was acting rather normal. We were so relieved because we were scheduled to fly home on Wednesday. My parents took us all to Asian Star for dinner to celebrate John's recent birthday and Reagan seemed to be feeling normal. She even ate some rice at dinner, a big step for her, since she'd hardly eaten a morsel of anything for almost 3 days.
On Wednesday morning, Reagan was back to her lethargic, whiny, sick-self. We were getting really nervous about flying with her. I decided to call Delta to see what our options were. To my surprise, they were very accommodating and allowed us to postpone our departure. It's a good thing, because the vomiting started again that afternoon ... she threw-up 4 more times, all within the time frame that we would have been 30,000 feet in the air, enclosed in a tight space with strangers surrounding us! I was so relieved we weren't on that plane!!!
So now it's Thursday and she seems to be doing much better. I'm still suffering with stomach pains and now a nasty head cold, but at least Reagan should be okay tomorrow on the flight home. We leave Salt Lake tomorrow evening and we'll be in Newark late. Here's hoping that all goes smoothly and that Avery remains healthy between now and then!
They made us all wear hair nets (something that Reagan protested against the entire time) and take off all jewelry. A tour guide took our family through the entire factory, explaining how everything worked. It was fascinating and delicious (they let us sample candy as we went)! 
They didn't allow cameras in the factory (so I swiped this one from their website), but my favorite part was watching the orange sticks being made ... they are the only company that makes orange sticks (orange gelatin covered in milk or dark chocolate) and I've been eating them since I was little. My parents have put a box of orange sticks in my stocking every single year and I love them.
After our free tour, we were each given a bag of salt water taffy and then we went shopping in their gift shop. Reagan was dying for jelly beans.
Alyssa picked out some raspberry sticks
Blake, Alyssa and Reagan
My mom treated us all to some candy :) Thanks for buying, Mom!
As I tried to snap a shot of Reagan, Blake jumped in front
Makenna
After the candy tour, we went to lunch at The Training Table (Yummy!), then John and I took the girls to my grandparent's house (my dad's parents).
My grandpa brought out his favorite toy, the Elmo who does the chicken dance.
Reagan and her great grandma, playing catch with a ball of green yarn.
Grandma helping Reagan build a chain of monkeys (remember the old monkeys in a barrel?)
My grandma taught my grandpa how to knit hats out of yarn. He's really good at it!
When I saw this picture on the wall, I couldn't help but take a picture of it with my camera. It's a classic. It's of my dad's family (he's the oldest of 7 kids). I remember this day so well - it was in Murray and it was freezing cold that day! I didn't realize until just now that my grandparents aren't in the picture ... I guess they just wanted it of their kids and their families. Anyway, I'm on the bottom right, in a light pink dress with black shoes. My little sister Camille is in the red and white dress and my older sister Benee is in the red dress, with the scowl on her face ... we've been making fun of her ever since!
That night, my parents took us to a new favorite Japanese restaurant called Matsu.
The next morning was NYE day (Dec. 31st). Reagan insisted on wearing a dress that day. Here's a cute picture of her eating breafast with Nana.
John and I left around 11:30 AM to go skiing for a half day (we're not in the best shape, so we knew we wouldn't last a full day on our first day of skiing in 2 years!). We were there for the 12:30 afternoon start time and I took these pictures with my iPhone ... it was a beautiful sunny day, 45 degrees up there!
I took this picture as we were going up our first lift. John and I love going skiing together. We always have such a great time. After skiing for an hour and a half, I took out my phone at the top of the moutain to take a picture of the beautiful view ... I noticed a voicemail from my dad. Aw-oh. When I called him, he said that Reagan had tripped and fallen right into the corner of the coffee table. The bleeding had stopped, but he figured she needed stitches. John and I raced down the hill, jumped in the car, and headed down the canyon. We met my mom and Reagan at the new IHC hospital ER.
The doctor numbed it first by putting a soaked cottonball on the wound for about 30 minutes ... here's a picture of her with a bandage wrapped around her head to keep the cotton ball in the right spot. She wasn't happy about it, but she was a pretty good sport overall. Thank goodness for my iPhone, since she watched some of her favorite shows while we waited for it to get numb. When the doctor came back and looked at it, he opted for the Durabond glue, since it would be much less traumatic on her than stitches. We're a little concerned about what kind of a scar it will leave, but at least it's right above her eye brow - we hope it won't be too noticable.
We came home from the hospital and let Reagan sleep ... she took a nice long nap (unusual for her). Then Benee and Doug dropped off their kids for the NYE festivities, since they had dinner plans with their friends.
Camille and my mom organized dinner for everyone and it turned out wonderfully: we made our own version of Cafe Rio's pork salads.
Alyssa and Blake
Too funny
Samantha wanted in on the fun, so Camille helped her put on this skirt - as you can tell, she was very happy to be following the big kids!
Reagan and Alyssa
Avery
My mom sent Reagan this pink tent to NJ, but also bought one to have at her house for the grandkids ... Avery and Samantha were playing together so well, going in and out of it.
Bring on the Guitar Hero Rockband!!! 
Do we look like rockstars??
We celebrated New York's NYE (10:00 vs. midnight) ... we all went outside and made a huge mess! Benee had purchased all kinds of fun items for the kids.
I love this action shot of Alyssa getting me with silly string
LOVE the silly string ...
... the kids were covered in it
I just took these random pictures of Reagan to go along with this post about our conversation on the way to preschool this morning. Here's how it went:
Amanda: Are you going to show Ms. Lisa you're new RED coat today at preschool?
Reagan: Yep, because I LLLOOOOOVVVVVVVEE Red!
Amanda: Today you're going to talk about farm animals. Do you know what kind of animals you find on the farm?
Reagan: Um, a RED barn!
Amanda: That's right, you probably find red barns on farms. What about the animals that live in the red barn?
Reagan: Um, RED roosters!
Amanda: Very good Reagan! What other animals live on a farm?
Reagan: How about red cows? [little chuckle, she cracks herself up!] Cows have black spots.
Amanda: That's right. Sometimes cows are brown.
Reagan: Just like my eyes! I have brown eyes.
Amanda: Yes, you have beautiful brown eyes!
Reagan: Yep, just like Papa. Avery has brown eyes too. But you don't have brown eyes. You have blue eyes. Mama, would you like me to get you some brown eyes at the store so you can be like me and Papa and Avery?
Yesterday was a combined well visit for Avery (1 year well visit) and Reagan (3 year well visit). I figured it would be easiest to combine them so I only had to haul them to the doctor's office once. What a huge mistake that was! Let's just say I looked like and felt like I'd aged at least a year in the hour that I was in the doctor's office.
Reagan went first and she refused to get on the scale to get weighed. This was even after we had practiced that morning on our scale at home. I was trying to coax her onto the scale with kindness and then started getting more firm as I watched the nurse getting very antsy and annoyed that it was taking so long to persuade a 3 year old onto a stupid scale. We finally got her to hop on the scale long enough to get a reading of 30 1/2 pounds!
The nurse tried to measure her height, but I have no idea how accurate it was ... she recorded it as 35 1/2 inches, which only put her in the 25th percentile for height. I just looked back at her 2 year well visit stats and it looks like she was 33 1/4 inches, in the 30th percentile. Here's hoping that her Papa's tall genes start to kick in!!
After the "big girl" scale, she said she wanted to sit on the baby scale, which read 30 pounds, 7 ounces. It's about time this girl reached 30 pounds! I couldn't believe that she was in the 50th percentile, considering that it's virtually impossible to get her to eat! 
As soon as I undressed Avery, she went nuts with the paper on the table. She was long past her normal nap time and in hyper-active, over-stimulated mode! She was going crazy with the paper, rolling around in it, having a grand old time!
Then I put her on the scale and she would NOT sit still for anything! All she wanted to do was stand up and dance around! Once again, the nurse was not amused. Usually, the nursing staff is wonderful, but I think it was lunch time and she'd had a long morning ... it was impossible to get an accurate reading on the scale because Avery would not stop moving around. The nurse finally estimated her weight as 22 pounds, 10 ounces, putting her in the 75th percentile for weight. Her height was 29 inches, 45th percentile. When we were there in September for her 10 month well visit, she was 21 lbs, 2 oz and 28 inches long. 
As we were waiting for the doctor, Reagan found my camera and started taking pictures of Avery and me ...
Then Dr. B came in and everything went downhill from there ... at first, Reagan was talking to him, telling him her name, being sweet as pie. Then he pulled out the stethescope and she went crazy! Usually, Dr. B is really patient, but I guess he wasn't in the mood to go the extra mile ... he just accepted the fact that she was going to scream and he tried to get it over with as quickly as possible. He even picked her up and put her on the table, which only made her freak out even more. If you know my daughter, you know that she's very particular about who she lets pick her up. Anyway, the exam was a horrible experience for everyone ... Reagan was screaming a very high pitched scream and I was holding Avery. Sure enough, Reagan really freaked Avery out and then she was crying too. At this point, I wish I could have grown an extra set of arms. 
Here's Reagan watching Dora on my iPhone after her finger prick ... it was the only way I got her to stop crying and fussing. It's been a rough week. Poor little Reagan came down with a fever on Tuesday night, so I took her to the doctor on Wednesday. The doctor said it was probably just a virus, but did a strep test just to be sure. The strep culture came back negative, so it looks like it is in fact a virus. I feel so bad for her ... she's been so lethargic for 3 days now, battling this fever. I took her in again this morning, just to be on the safe side, since the fever hadn't subsided at all (still 103 during the night and again this morning). Reagan's never had a fever last this long, so it made me nervous. About an hour ago, I looked over at her and she had fallen asleep sitting straight up on the chair. This is my girl who no longer naps. It's really wiped her out. Let's just keep hoping Avery doesn't come down with it too!
For those of you who don't know, I thought I should tell you what an incredibly lucky person I am. I often look at my life and wonder how I deserve to be so fortunate. Honestly, I am blessed in so many ways. If you're a regular reader of this blog, it's probably pretty obvious how much I love and adore my girls, which is why this post needs to be about another person in my life who deserves just as much recognition.
John, Johnny, Honey, Babe ... these are the things I call him, this wonderful man of mine. As I type the word "mine," it brings a smile to my face because I'm so proud to say that he's mine, all mine! He is my husband, whom I love and admire, respect and look up to on a daily basis. He treats me with unwavering, unconditional love and it's amazing to be on the receiving end of such love. I know he would do anything for me and this security that he offers me is such a priceless feeling.
Being a mom is the most wonderful thing I have ever experienced. As most moms would probably agree, trying to be the best mom sometimes gets in the way of being the best wife. I often feel like I give so much of my time, love and affection to my children, yet not enough to my husband. I don't ever want him to feel like I take him for granted, so I want to express my love to him publicly ...
Honey, I love you so much! I don't know what I'd do without you. You are the most incredible man I have ever met and I know that I am so lucky to have found you. I admire your intelligence and I love that you make me think and grow as a person. You challenge me to think for myself and explore subjects I wouldn't typically consider. I love the way you see the world and I respect the code by which you live. You treat people fairly, always show respect, and you go out of your way to abide by the rules. You are an amazing role model and you constantly make me proud. Watching you with Reagan and Avery brings me so much joy and happiness ... sharing the role of parenting with you is the greatest part of my life. Our girls couldn't possibly have a better father. Thank you for being my wonderful husband!
I was shocked when he called me around 4:40 that afternoon to tell me the procedure was over and everything looked great! The doctor said his veins were big and clean and there was no need to worry about his heart. The abnormal stress test results were false positives and the pain he was experiencing was most likely a pinched nerve. What a relief!!! John was so happy that he even let me take this picture of him in the recovery room!
I know I say it every time I post about Avery's Well Visits, but seriously, how is my baby 10 months old already??!! Today was her 10 month check up and she weighed exactly 21 pounds. Her growth has obviously slowed down a lot, since she only gained 1 pound, 5 ounces over the last 2 months since her 8 month appointment. She measured 28 inches long, which means she grew 1.25 inches.
Here's my naked baby on the scale :)
When I showed these pictures to John, he said she's going to kill me one day when she's older! I couldn't help but take her picture, since all she wanted to do was stand up on the scale. Believe me, this was the most flattering picture I took :) Actually, I think all the crawling around has thinned out her thighs a little bit!One thing they do at the 10 month appointment is prick her finger to measure her blood for anemia. I was a little worried about this test, since Reagan didn't pass it at this age. The nurse squeezes a few drops of blood onto a disc that goes into a reader ... if the number comes back lower than 11, it means she's anemic and has an iron deficiency.
The first time she did the test, it read 8.8. She said their readers had been giving lots of low readings, so she performed the test a second time. It came back at 9.2, still too low. Dr. Battista said he wasn't confident in these numbers and told me I needed to take Avery to a lab so they could do a more efficient test.
I decided to go straight to Labcorp to get it overwith. I guess I wasn't thinking very clearly when Dr. B told me to go there because I didn't realize they'd have to draw blood! I guess I assumed they'd prick her finger again and then do a more efficient type of test? I don't know. Obviously, I wasn't thinking. So when the technician told me babies made her nervous, I was a little freaked out!
The technician said that if Avery didn't have good veins, she wouldn't do it ... she said she'd only try for a vein one time, since she refused to stick a baby more than once. Luckily, she got a vein on the first try and it wasn't too bad. Avery was great and hardly even cried. I'm SURE it was more painful for me than for Avery!
The test results came back low again, 10.1 ... this means she'll have to take these horrible iron drops that taste horrible and stain everything for the next 5 or 6 months. I asked Dr. B if this condition was a result of our genes, or a result of our eating (not enough iron-rich veggies?) and he assured me it was neither. He said that babies grow so rapidly in their first 10 months that it's difficult for their blood supply to keep up. The iron reserves get depleated and need some help to get replenished. It's not a big deal, but it definitely made me sad to see my baby having blood drawn!
