They Grow Up So Fast

My babies are growing up. Its seems that everyday they are doing something or learning something new.

Ayla is not quite yet 28 months old and she is talking,talking and talking some more. At times, I look at John and ask if she has taken a breath lately. She can actually talk in sentences and carry on a conversation. She knows how to work the I-phone and I am not kidding. When someone calls, she can slide the bar and answer it and put it on speaker. No one believes me until they see her do it, it is hilarious. She can also play songs, games and watch her videos on the phone as well. I know some adults that can not work the I-phone, and she is only two years old. She loves to color, play with stickers and sing. She is not at all interested in potty training, and thats okay. She will get there eventually and I am not at all worried about that. She knows a ton of bible songs and can sing every word to Jesus loves me. If I am certain about one thing that I see in Ayla's future, it is that in some way, shape or form music will be apart of it. It's almost like music is apart of her, its in her.. in her soul. She loves music and her most recent love is a musician who plays the trumpet "Chris Botti".Yes my daughter loves Chris Botti. My sister was babysitting last week and the next day she called and said "man Ayla really likes Chris
Botti, she kept asking me to play his dvd all night". The very next day after Amy babysat, Ayla kept saying to me "Chris Botti hot", "Chris Botti hot". I kept saying, Ayla I don't understand, what do you mean "Chris Botti hot". I thought for a moment that maybe something was wrong with her dvd player in her room where she was watching Chris Botti so I went in there and checked it and it was fine. So I thought to myself surely she can not be meaning that Chris Botti is hot as in Chris Botti is cute. So then I said "Chris Botti is cute" and she said " yeah Chris Botti's cute". So I called my sister and asked her if by any chance that she mentioned that Chris Botti was hot in front of Ayla in which she reluctantly replied..um, yes, I think so!!! Holy cow my two year old thinks Chris Botti the trumpet player is hot, her Daddy is not going to like this!! So even now she tells me all the time that Chris Botti is cute. I think we are going to have our hands full when she gets older!!!

She even asks to listen to him when she goes to sleep. She will carry around Johns I phone and listen to him and hum along. I would say music is medicine for her. It has always helped her to relax and we always have it playing at her doctor appointments.

Another cute thing that she does is when she asks for more of something, she puts more on the end of the sentence like, "Ayla wants cheese crackers more" or "Ayla wants kickle more" kickle meaning pickle!! It is so funny how she refers to herself in the third person. When she wants to be held she says "Ayla hold you" or just "hold you" instead of saying me. We have also been talking about some of the Disney princesses lately and she calls Snow White, Snow WIPE!! She is a little character and it is so fun seeing her personality develop more and more each day! Oh and everyone is a SHE or a HER, male or not, you are a SHE or a HER..lol... When Brennan wakes up from his naps, Ayla says, "I'm going to go get HER" and when he is crying, Ayla says, " She is crying".

Here is a video of Ayla listening to Chris Botti. We were on our way home from the mall and as you can tell, she was extremely worn out! She is also being silly and has her headband across her forehead instead of on her head!! The other video is of her in the hall dancing and listening to Christ Botti. If you watch until the end, Brennan goes into his room and Ayla tells her Daddy to go in and get HER!! Too cute

NEED A HAIRCUT?

This was the scene at our house last night. Brennan has needed a haircut for a while now and John kept saying I am going to cut his hair. Okay first of all let me explain, John cuts his own hair, Kaleb's hair and even some of his co-workers hair. He even keeps clippers in his locker just in case....this is funny, but he actually had a surgeon call him on a weekend on one of his days off asking if he would come into work and cut his hair... he has been doing this for years now.

But the problem is he only uses clippers, he never uses scissors. Brennan of course is too little for clippers and I kept telling John you are not going to cut Brennan's hair, you are not a hair stylist ..to his reply very serious "Lesli, if I can do surgery, I can cut hair", okay I'm sorry I don't really see how the two relate. Surgery and cutting hair. Anywho, I finally gave in and let John cut Brennan's hair and I have to admit (reluctantly) that it turned out very cute!

So after cutting Brennan's hair and feeling good about himself, he said "I am going to cut Ayla's hair now". I just laughed because I knew Ayla would not allow this, especially since she cried the whole entire time Brennan was getting his hair cut. Brennan didn't even cry, but Ayla was not happy about it at all. To make a long story short, John eventually trimmed the ends of Ayla's hair and I was not able to get pictures because she was screaming the whole time and I was trying to bribe her with suckers. This took forever to get both kids hair trimmed, I was exhausted and when I finally sat down I was unhappy to discover that I had missed "A Very Duggar Wedding" on TLC in which I had been waiting to watch all evening. Oh well, at least my children have hair cuts now and seriously, look at these precious faces!!!!

This is Brennan after his haircut! Isn't he the cutest thing!!

Here is Brennan before his haircut!!

This is the best picture I could get last night after Ayla's haircut!!

OBAMA BOUND

I know this is a couple of days late, but Kaleb had an opportunity to go to D.C. for the presidential inauguration this week. His dad was lucky enough to get tickets and they left on Sunday morning and were able to go to the concert Sunday evening at the Lincoln Memorial. They said it was awesome and they had to watch it on screens because you couldn't get anywhere near the front! This concert was televised on HBO and included

Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder.

They had a great time together and I was so glad that Kaleb could go and be apart of History. It was an awesome day and I pray that President Obama will make the right decisions for our Country and continue to keep us safe. I had the inauguration on the television all day and I was telling Ayla, that is Obama our new president. So all day she kept saying "I want to see Obama", "I want to get my shoes and see Obama". I tried to explain to her that we could not go see Obama but she was not going to take that for an answer and she was quite upset that we could not go see Obama. Reasoning with a two year old, well I guess there is no reasoning with a two year old!! Oh well.. it was still a terrific day and one that will never be forgotten.

Lab Work Update

Ayla had her lab work done last week and the results are great! This is the first time EVER that her lab work has been this good. Her hemoglobin has improved and her platelets are almost within the normal range. Her sed rate is still normal as well. Even though she is still on prednisone, I can't help but think that maybe the Methotrexate has started working. I am going to start weaning her off of the prednisone so time will tell. She is still acting like she feels well too so this is definitely a good thing. Her ankle is still swollen and her right arm will not straighten all the way out but neither seem to be causing her any pain.
Thankfully, lab work will only have to be done every eight weeks now instead of every four. I always dread taking her to the lab, because she is beginning to remember what happens when she goes there. I always put lidocaine cream (numbing cream) on her arm before we go in hopes that it will help a little. She cries as soon as I get the tube out of the bag and start to put it on her. I tell her that I am putting lotion on her. This last time when she got her blood drawn, she was crying and I kept telling her it was okay and to try and not cry that it will be all over soon.
Now, she pretends to draw my blood with her medical kit that she got for Christmas and she tells me "it's okay mommy, don't cry". It's so funny, she also takes my blood pressure, listens to my heart and checks my mouth and ears. I am hoping this will help out a little when we go to our doctor appointments. She is not fond of getting her blood pressure taken and she freaks out at the sight of a stethoscope. Oh, and every day since I put the lidocaine cream on her arm, she thanks me about three times a day for putting "lotion" on her arm. It goes a little like this, out of the blue

"thank you mommy for lotion on my arm, its all over"
me- "yes honey, its all over you are okay".
And she is happy with that, and continues on playing...

A NEW YEAR, A UPDATE AND A BELATED CHRISTMAS!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Yes, I know it has been forever since I posted so I will try to update everyone in this post. First of all these first three pictures were taken two days after Christmas. Yes, that's right, we were at a park and it was sunny. Actually it was very sunny with a record high temp of 75 degrees. I thought I would take advantage of the day so I took Miss Ayla to the park and she had a wonderful time. She loves to swing and go down the slide. I also thought I would try out my new camera that my wonderful husband bought me for Christmas. I have been wanting a nice camera for a while now, so this was a great surprise and as you can see, it takes awesome pictures. I still have alot to learn, I'm not quite sure how to use all of the features on it. I am thinking about getting a book to see if I can teach myself. If you click on the picture, it will maximize it and you can really see how clear they are.

AN UPDATE

Ayla's last appointment was on December 5th. Since she has been on the Prednisone (started on nov,17th) she has being doing awesome! We were expecting a great Dr. report but it seems that now her jaw (right side) and several of her fingers are involved as well. Before the prednisone, she was complaining just about everyday that her fingers were hurting. Since she has so many joints involved now the Dr. told us that the chances of her going into complete remission are very slim. She said that she would be able to lead a "normal" life, play sports, etc but she would just have to take medicines to control her arthritis for probably the rest of her life. I do appreciate the Dr's opinion, but I am not going to give up faith that we will one day beat this disease. Only God knows the future and I am willing to put my trust in him and be content with whatever the future may hold. Don't get me wrong, I am continually stressed out and I worry all of the time, but I do know that God is in control and that his will will ultimately be done. Since the Dr's appointment, we have decreased and increased the prednisone again. We thought since she was doing well we could start decreasing the pred. About a week after she started feeling bad again, her left foot began to swell and her hands were shaking when she would eat. The Dr's bumped up her pred and she is doing good again. They only wanted her to be on it for a couple of months and that is coming up in one week, so I am waiting to hear from them to see what they want to do. She has just had her 12th dose of methotrexate so we should be starting to see some improvements soon. We just had her blood work done today so I am anxious to see the results of that. Her next appointment is February 6th.

Pictures at the park

CHRISTMAS
Christmas was fun as always this year. The kids loved all of their toys and we LOVED putting all of it together Christmas Eve night...um hm... I love sharing Christmas with friends and family , I will never grow tired of opening our home to friends and family. I love each and every one of you and I am so glad that you ALL are a part of our life! Since I haven't posted for quite some time, I have added some Christmas pictures of the kids.

Ayla and Brennan playing in their new kitchen!