Sophie's New Blue Room

This past Saturday we decided that it was time to paint Sophie's room. Over the course of the almost two years we have been in this house each part of the house has slowly but surely gotten a fresh coat of (much needed) paint. Sophie's room is one of the last rooms to see such a transformation. We definitely did not want to go to girly with our paint choice as her room is girly enough. Neal and I settled on a pretty blue that complimented her bedding. Apparently we are really into blue, as there are several other rooms in our home that are various shades of blue, including our room, but whatever it all looks good and we are pleased with it. Sophie was so excited that her room was blue and that she helped a little bit. Most of her time was spent on our bed watching DVDs on the portable DVD player and eating from a gigantic box of Goldfish. She did really well for the entire time it took for us to paint the room, which was a while!

We are also so so excited that Sophie is now paci free ALL THE TIME! She was ONLY getting her paci at bedtimes, but we felt with 3 years old fast approaching and another baby on the way it was time for her to give it up. She did amazingly well and only had two small incidents where there were tears, but after that she worked it out like a champ. Granted, it does take her a little longer to fall asleep, which is almost a little entertaining since I get to hear the conversations that she is having with herself and her stuffed animals upstairs over the baby monitor!

The count down is on only 8 more days until we go back to the orthopedist to see about getting Sophie's casts off, so keep praying that this becomes a reality and my little girl gets her full mobility back!

We do normally have sheets on our bed, incidentally enough it was also the day to wash the sheets!

Neal pieced together panoramics of her room before and after, aside from the closet doors looking a little funky I thought it came out really good.

We also completely did away with the changing pad on top of her dresser it is now a full on big girl dresser, no more changing table.

Yet Another Doctor Visit Update

We had Sophie's visit with the pediatric urologist today and it went VERY well. We were very pleased with what he had to say. Although, we were not pleased with sitting in the room for over AN HOUR waiting to be seen, but I will say that he did spend more than the typical 10 minutes with us. He definitely took the time to explain all of our options to us. In the end we decided that the best course of action for Sophie at this time is to continue on the low dose of antibiotics (to prevent any further infections) daily for another 3-5 months and then stop and see how she fairs from there. Only time will tell what our final course of action will be, but for now this is what we feel is the best choice. The doctor did say that typically 70% of children with Grade 3 reflux (her left kidney) tend to out grow it in about 5 years and 80% of children with Grade 2 (her right kidney) out grow it in about the same time frame. As far as the two ureters in her left kidney he is not concerned at all, phew, and actually the double ureter does not go all the way down to her bladder it just kind of branches out into a second one at the top going into the kidney. All in all it was a good appointment and all our prayers were answered, we really could not have asked for it to go better.

Baby #2 Update

I had my appointment today with the midwife and looks as though we will be having just one baby...phew! Although two at a time would have been a very welcomed blessing. I am still measuring a little over, but nothing like last time. At this visit I was 23 weeks and 4 days along and measuring 25 weeks. So the baby just had a nice little growth spurt early on and everything is working itself out, the baby is still set to arrive sometime around November 13th, but as most know due dates really mean nothing, it is all up to the baby and the good Lord above! Everything else looks excellent, the baby is head down, curled up along my right side and has a heart rate of about 144.

I am finally getting some relief from the awful fatigue that I have been experiencing, my endocrinologist upped my dosage of meds (again) due to the fact that each month I have seen her since my 14th week my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels have dropped. It seems like it may finally be under control. Not really a huge deal, my body seems to do this when I get pregnant, it probably does not help matters that I already have a thyroid condition, but it usually doesn't flair up until pregnancy. With Sophie my thyroid was overactive and didn't present any problems for me until my 25th week with this little one I am underactive which started in my 14th week, which is why I have been so darn tired! I am not too concerned since I know the drill, I see my endo religiously each month from the moment I get pregnant, she takes really good care of me and at this point it is not effecting the baby negatively at all, just me, isn't that how it always goes with motherhood!

The New Strap Me In So I Won't Fall Out Swing!

She is a trooper I will give her that, it takes a whole lot to scare my little girl. Only days after literally flying off the swing Sophie was asking to get back outside and swing again. However, she was asking to swing in her old baby swing that used to hang from the large tree in our yard before we got the swing set. That "red swing" she was referring to broke and got thrown out. Thanks to Great Grandad Sophie now has a brand new "blue swing" that Mommy feels much safer with and that she will be swinging in until she reaches the maximum weight limit! So, thank you Great Grandad for providing hours of entertainment for Sophie and putting an expression of true joy on her face. It is so wonderful to be able to go outside with her and have something that she can do rather than have done for her since most outdoor activities are limited for us these days.

Oh yeah, just yesterday Sophie told Neal that when she gets her "pink thing" and her "red thing" off she is going to swing on the other swing and do a back flip off that one too! Ummmm I don't think so! I think we are going to have to keep a closer eye on this kid than we thought!

The Mountains

This past weekend we took a trip to Blowing Rock, NC with Neal's parents. The weather was absolutely amazing!!! It was so gorgeous, we couldn't have asked for a nicer temperature we actually had to wear light jackets and pants Saturday afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed the 60 degree weather that the mountains had to offer. We, of course had this trip planned out long before Sophie's injuries and had plans for lots of fun outdoor activities, but we made due. Papa and Gigi Slimick came well prepared to entertain Sophie with lots of books and activities. She was so excited to be in the mountains. We had no idea how close Blowing Rock was to us and how short of a drive it was (only took us about an hour and a half to get there) so we will for sure be making some day trips!

So excited about the chocolate covered marshmallow on a stick!

Checking out a worm.



View from the deck of the house.


Enjoying the very brisk morning air.



Sophie had to hold the leash and walk Lucy.

Rolling With The Punches

Things are progressively moving forward here at the Slimick household. We are doing what we can to stay busy and thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has sent stuff, and dropped stuff by the house to help keep Sophie entertained and busy, which is a hard feat for a 2.5 year old since most things only hold her attention for about 15 minutes! So you can imagine the multitude of activities that we are running through and how the wheels are turning in my head with new ideas of things to do. I can't begin to express what it means to receive all the cards, emails, packages and get well wishes from everyone, I am overwhelmed with how many people care about my Sweet Sophie!

Sophie had her follow up appointment with her orthopedist today and he said that she is healing well and that the half cast will do and he sees no need to put her into a full on leg cast up to her thigh! YAY!!! Our prayers were answered with that one, since she is just feeling confident enough to crawl around and be semi mobile with out bearing weight on her leg, having her in a full cast would have presented a whole new set of challenges for her and us! So that was good news. We go back in 3 more weeks for the removal of both her leg and wrist cast at which time he will x-ray with the casts off and see how the healing has gone. From there the doc will decide if she can remain cast free or if she needs to be re-casted for an additional few weeks. Please continue to keep Sophie (and me) in your prayers, pray for swift healing for her and patience and strength for me. I never realized how much I relied on her walking around and following me around until she could no longer do it. I am nervous to leave her alone for too long in the play room for fear that she will try and stand on her leg, however she has been really good about that and seems grasp that she can not under no circumstances stand on her "pink thing" as she calls it. It really is almost like having an infant again (better get used to that one....hehe) only it is a 30 pound infant who wants to get up and run and do things! We are definitely taking things one day at a time and things are getting done (laundry, dishes, cooking, ironing etc.) just a lot slower. She really is handling this remarkably well and it is so amazing to me how resilient my sweet girl is, she just keeps rolling with the punches, bless her little heart.

Today, in an effort to keep some semblance of normalcy and pass some time, we baked some cookies. A favorite activity of both mine and Sophie's, I love to have them in the house and she loves to help and lick the batter! I had to make a modification in how she she helped since she usually stands on a chair at the counter, but it all worked out well and the cookies turned out fab. The recipe is a little out of season, but I happened upon it when thumbing through an old Parenting magazine when looking for words that start with 'C' for Sophie's alphabet book. It is a good fall cookie recipe, Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies. I love using pumpkin in recipes because it packs a good nutritional punch of Vitamins A & C and Potassium, plus I just love those fall spice smells, nutmeg and cinnamon mmmmmm.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup pureed fresh or canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnammon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 cups rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla; beat. Mix in combined flours, baking soda and spices, then stir in oats. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

Below are just some cute pics that I have been meaning to post of Sophie before the big break(s). I just had not gotten around to it yet. It makes me a little sad to see her cast free, smiling, happy and free to run around. We'll be there again running around though in a couple weeks, right now I will take the casted smiles knowing that things could have turned out worse.