St. Louis

We had a great time in St. Louis! Here are some photos from our vacation.

Maggie's 1st Royals Game

Today, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa Smith, Uncle Jim, Aunt Jen and Nathan, and Rob's aunt and cousin. We had a busy day, too. First, we started out at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Then, we went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch and over to Oak Park Mall for some shopping. After that, we headed out to the stadium for Maggie's first baseball game!!

Now she didn't really nap all day, so we weren't sure what to expect. She lasted the first 3 innings, but they were pretty rough. So, we went to eat and walk around for the next 3 innings. Kauffman Stadium has added a lot of things to do in the outfield, including tons of activities for children. Maggie had a blast playing on all the equipment they had. Then, we headed back to our seats for the last 3 innings and she did pretty well. Grandma Karen really helped out though!! Plus, the crowd got really excited since the Royals were doing so well!! They even won!!




Tomorrow we head out bright and early for our vacation to St. Louis! We are so excited to be able to get away for a little bit and spend some time together before school starts up again!

What Child Labor Laws?

Maggie was quite happy to hear that minimum wage went up today!!!

Happy Birthday Nana!!

Happy 60th birthday to Nana Jacobs!!

Love,
Maggie

Positive Note

Today I called about Maggie's lab results from last week's appt. The nurse practitioner said that all of her results showed normal levels with her liver functioning. Now, we still don't know (and won't until Mag's MRI on Aug. 5th) if the lesion on her liver is a new one or not, but these results are one more reason for us to believe she is okay. On top of the lab results, she is eating okay, acting okay (ie. not overly tired), pooping okay, her liver felt normal when Dr. Lewing examined her, and her external hemangiomas haven't changed any either. We are looking at all of these things as positive signs. We just pray that the MRI confirms that this lesion has always been there.

Commenting on Posts

A few people have asked/wondered how to comment on any of the posts from Maggie's site. All you do is click on the "0 comments" (or whatever the number is before "comments") link and fill it out. If you do not have a Google account, you can leave a comment without registering by clicking the anonymous button under the comment section.

Maggie's Doctor's Appt.

Today Maggie had her 6 month checkup with the hemonc. clinic. She also had a follow-up ultrasound. She did so good during the ultrasound! She just laid there (once she remembered it didn't hurt). She even ended up putting her hands behind her head for a little bit and looked so relaxed. I wish I had my camera for that!!

After the ultrasound, we headed up to the hemonc. clinic. She weighed in at 22 pounds and is 32 inches tall. Dr. Lewing did her physical exam and thought everything looked great. She went over the ultrasound results with us, too. One of the larger lesions on Maggie's liver that they've been watching continues to be stable. However, they did find a lesion they've never seen before. Dr. Lewing told us she doubts it is a new hemangioma since it is highly unlikely for Maggie to grow anymore at this point (they usually stop going through their growth period by 6 months old). She also said since it's on the back of the liver, they could have just missed it before through ultrasound. Dr. Lewing gave us 2 options: do a follow-up ultrasound in 3 months (instead of 6 months) or do another MRI. Dr. Lewing said she felt completely comfortable with either choice. Rob and I chose to go ahead with another MRI because it will give us more definitive results. We want to make absolutely sure of what we are dealing with here. Plus, Dr. Lewing said the last MRI Maggie had done was 2 years ago so it would probably be good for us to compare results anyway. The downside of doing an MRI is that Maggie would have to be put under again, which is so agonizing.

Also, Dr. Lewing decided to go ahead and draw labs to double check Maggie's liver functioning, etc. We do not have the results of these yet, but Maggie did so good for this, too. She did cry, but I had prepped her for what was going to happen before we even went to the hospital this morning. I told her she would get a shot, that it would hurt a little, and when it was done she would get a Bugs Bunny band-aid, which she loves. As long as we reminded her of this, she was fine. In fact, she kept repeating what the nurses were saying (ie. "almost done", "just a little more", "no more ouchies").

Rob, as usual, had to paint the big picture for me today and reassure me that everything will be okay. Honestly, my head keeps telling me that it can't be a new one, and that they just missed it before. This proves once again that we still have a long road ahead of us.

Maggie's MRI is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 5th at 9am. Please continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. They have already sustained us through so much.

Big Girl Bed- Night 2

Last night Maggie went to sleep fine and slept the whole night! She never once fell out of bed either! :)

Today's nap was a whole different story though. She cried and cried, kept getting up, laid there for a very long time before she finally went to sleep, and woke up soon after, too! I think grandma and grandpa being down here had a little something to do with it though because she does not want to miss a single thing.

Tonight however, she laid right down and went right to sleep, never even made a sound.

Big Girl Bed- Night 1

Well, Maggie started off well, but about 1:30am I woke up to her screaming/crying. She had slipped out of the bed and was laying half on/half off of it. We fixed that pretty quickly by comforting her and adding another side rail to her bed. She woke up again about 2:30, but quickly went back to sleep after some more comfort time. She woke up one other time, but was quiet again within a minute or so (we did not go up this time).

Naptime today went fine other than being a little shorter than usual. I'm wondering if she's waking up slightly, rolling over, etc. and seeing that it's something different so she wakes up. Who knows!?

If you look at the pictures from yesterday's blog, you'll see the side rails that came with the crib were 2 short ones (which left a nice, long opening in the center of the bed). Rob took those off and instead left just the 1 long side rail that we added last night. We figured it gave her less of a chance of sliding off again. :)

So far so good, she is still sound asleep at 11:00, but the night is still young!!

Big Girl Bed

Tonight was Maggie's first night in her "big girl bed". She was pretty excited at first, running in her room and jumping on the bed to check it out. Once she realized she was going to sleep in it that way though, she wasn't too sure. I held her for a minute and we talked about it some more. Once I laid her down, she got up once, but quickly laid back down. Then, she cried for all of 30 seconds before she quieted down and fell asleep. As of now (11:30), she is still sound asleep. Hopefully she'll stay asleep!! We'll see what she does when she wakes up tomorrow morning, and how she'll be going to sleep in the future.

Fireworks/Fourth of July

Paola had their fireworks last night, so Rob, Maggie and I went out to see them. This year was definitely different than last year! Maggie got into them even more by pointing to them and saying "pretty", or reaching out for them. It was so cute!!

Today, Maggie and I went up to my parent's house for a cookout. Grandpa even watched Maggie for a little while so Grandma and I could go out to see a movie!

We hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Fourth of July!!

Squeeze Painting

When our school had it's PTO auction, I bought a basket full of arts and crafts ideas and supplies. I figured it would be fun for Maggie and I to do some of them while I was home over the summer. Yesterday, she did some squeeze painting. We mixed flour, salt, water, and tempera paint (for some reason she chose brown as one of her colors) in squeeze bottles and she went to town! It took her 3 sheets of paper before she discovered she could put her fingers/hands in the paint to create a totally different design! She loved every minute of it and since we didn't use all of the paint, she got to do it again today. Notice the glob of paint on her nose in some of the photos, too!

*Anyone that knows me knows this was a big step for me because I really let Maggie go free and get as dirty as she wanted! :)

Uncle Brett's New House

Uncle Brett and Christiana were finally able to get their house laid on the foundation today. The 2 parts have been sitting on their property since April, unable to do anything but sit there because of all the rain we've had (the ground was too wet to get the crane back there). So, today, we went up to see it put on. Maggie thought it was pretty cool, too. We are all very excited for them and can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving in their new house!! :)