16 Months Old!!!!!!

Just a quick note. She's officially one year and four months old. Time flies, eh? Anyway, just a couple of pictures that I have taken over the last couple of days! First, she loves to cuddle her daddy. . .

Ahhhh....relaxin.

Adorable.

Then I decided on some black and white pictures because I learned how to change the settings on my little digital camera. I think one day I will invest in something major. But yeah, dreams right? Anyway, that is about it. Enjoy. <3

Oh, what is this I see over here?

The tentacles on Squishy, are - um - squishy.

Climbing...it begins!

So, Monster has slowly been making her way up in the world. As in, she's been climbing. She is able to get up on my chair and dad's chair, and she would use her MegaBlocks bag to get higher to reach for things. Today though I took a quick bathroom break and came back to this...

Halp! I have a dog after me!

So my camera was automatically on Sepia settings for whatever reason, came out decent, but it looks like she climbed up on one of my shipping boxes and was trying to get away from Ronan. LOL. Now before anyone gets in a tizzy...the screen door is completely locked, and the big door was originally closed, so obviously she is able to open doors now too. *sigh* I have to buy those door handle cover things now. Ugh.  But, anyway, here is a normal color picture....

Yep, I'm up here. Now, how do I get down? 

I just thought it was adorable, and I thought I would take pics. :) I might mess around with that Sepia setting though - I've been trying to get into some photography lately - we'll see. Anyway, enjoy!

15 Month Checkup.

YAY! It was not fun. She knew once I tarted taking her clothes off that it was shot time. :( She cried sooo bad...and I had to hold her down. I hate doing that. Anyway, she weighs 26.8 pounds, is 34 inches tall, and her head is 44cm around...giant headed baby. as expected she's a little speech delayed, no big deal. She's lost one ear tube and the other seems to be floating in the middle ear, so that one should also be coming out soon. Wewt.

Other than that, it was a good day. She slept a lot of course, she always does on shot days. But I made her cookies and we had some homemade tortillas with butter so things were better after that. But poor thing hates those shots. I don't know of any baby who doesn't.

Yep. It was a decent day overall. We've got to set up an appointment with the Children's Hospital to do a hearing re-check for 18 months, at which time I am sure they will decide whether or not she needs tubes again. So far with the other tube she's been doing fine. No infection, no goopy mucous coming out of it, nothing. So, fingers crossed for no more ear tubes. But no big deal if she does. *shrug*

Happy Thursday all! <3 JESS

Reading is FUN!!!!!

So....Kaylee loves to look at books. I am sure that is true of most babies. I don't know however how many babies are starting to point at words while you say the sentences. <--Damn. I just became that mom...the one who brags incessantly about her child and thinks no other child does it. I am sure there are plenty of other children that do it. So...yeah. She points at the words, and then kisses the pictures, because we are all about kisses right now. I love this little girl. Anyway, pictures! Don't mind the orange...Broncos were playing :) Oh, and shots tomorrow :(

She loves this book. It's called "Are You Ticklish?"

I will now read the numbers book on the floor.

Efalunts. <---Kaylee said so.

The crocodile.

But I don't want the story to be over, Daddy. Read it again. He did, several times.

 Then there was the Ronan incident: She absolutely had to sit next to him while she was in Daddy Monster's chair. So, she got up. And he made her cry eventually, but then they made up and chilled for a bit. <3 my babies.

What's up doggie?

No. I don't want Ronan kisses. No.

Oh...what is that?

So, that is it. Tomorrow, shots. :(
And, yeah that is about it. Happy hunting. Enjoy the snow if you are gonna get some...they say we are gonna get some in the morning. So we will see. Anyway, much love <3 JESS

Crayons and Blocks.

So, yeah. Kaylee got some crayons for Christmas. We decided it would be ok, we're not going to let her color on her walls or anything. And she actually hasn't, because she has been busy eating the crayons. And using the crayons on her books rather than paper. We've had some interesting experiences with rainbow poo because of the crayon eating. Life is fun. Here is a pic of her coloring her book.

You can kinda see where she ate off the paper.

She also got a package of MegaBlocks from my mom and dad. She loves to play with those. She makes Daddy Monster get on the floor and build stuff with her. She has also taken to dragging the bag (with all of the blocks in it) around the house, putting it down next to something that she can't reach the surface of, standing on it and taking whatever she can off of the top. *sigh* I have yet to get a picture of that...she always jumps or falls off before I get the chance to snap it. :D silly Monster.

My blocks! I loves them!

Aside from that, not much to tell. She is a rambunctious little Monster. She's getting so big! I was able to get her hair into a tiny ponytail, I wrote about that already didn't I? Eh, oh well. I need to get some of those really small rubber bands so I can start getting her used to the feeling. She will have pigtails at some point. It will happen. Yeah, so not much really left to say. She goes for her 15 month appointment and vaxs on Wednesday, so that is going to be a fun day! I will try to make it fun anyway. Maybe I will buy an ice cream machine soon and we can make vaccination days Ice Cream Days! That would be awesome...

Well, gotta go. Much love from Jess, Grant and Monster. <3

Just a quick bit of info...

When Kaylee was born and we found the kind of feeder that she needed, we shelled out a ton of money for her special bottles. Well, she no longer needs them and I figure if we do have another kid sometime in the future the chances that he/she would be cleft affected are pretty small. I kept a few, just in case, but otherwise I have all of these feeders that are in sterile packaging collecting dust.

I've listed them on ebay at a steep discount if anyone knows anyone who wants them. Do a search for "Medela Special Needs Feeder" on ebay and 10% of the final sale cost will go to SmileTrain.org. This helps me recoup some of the cost on these bottles and also will help someone feed their kid and gives a little bit of money to a wonderful organization that goes around the world to help kids with clefts get their surgeries!

Thanks for reading and thanks for the help. JESS

For the Last Time!

Ok, I am now going to get on a soapbox for a minute or two. I don't normally do it, because well to be honest, I just let things ride. I let things roll off of my shoulders and onto the ground where I step on it a  lot, and then forget about it completely. But I do have to say something when I get blamed for something I had absolutely no control over - period.

So, the story. I am a decently active in a number of online support groups (and I will admit I have not been to them in a while...the holidays, you know?) for moms and dads with cleft babies. Not just unilateral clefts like Kaylee's, the groups kind of encompass the whole of the types of clefts that are seen. So, while I may not know what some moms go through in terms of a bilateral cleft lip and palate (where the cleft affects both sides of the lip and roof of the mouth) I am able to help a little in just knowing what it is like to have to answer the same questions over and over again (what happened? why? did you take xyz while pregnant? etc, etc.). So, when someone asks the aforementioned questions I am well prepared with my answer and am able to deliver my answer with confidence. *ahem*

"Clefts are formed within the first six to seven weeks of gestation and can be caused by many factors, and the fact is they don't know all of the factors. It has been suggested that clefts can be inherited genetically, that they can be caused by environmental factors, and /or that clefts are formed because of a medication that is being taken. In our case it appears to be genetic as there may be multiple family members on both my side and my husband's side who are cleft affected in one way or another. In no instance is it something that a mother "did" to purposely cause it. That is ignorant and rude to even suggest."

That is what I say. That is how I present it. I don't think it is rude, or condescending. If it is, hell, someone tell me so I can find a way to reword it. Anyway, today I got an email from a woman who has been reading this blog (and many other blogs, from what I gathered) and it says:

"While I enjoy reading your blog, it seems you are purposefully trying to impart incorrect and misleading information on your blog. Firstly, about how it can be genetic. From what I have researched there has been absolutely no studies to support that theory. 

Secondly, drugs cause these kinds of deformities and when babies are born with this type of deformity it is well known that the mother has had to have been doing drugs. I am talking about illegal drugs. Only mothers who abuse their bodies in such a horrid fashion have babies with this kind of deformity. You can lie all you want to, but you and all the other mothers on this blog and on the support groups will be found out in the end.


Thirdly, the way you talk about your daughter on your blog makes it sound like you were just an innocent woman having a baby and ooops! the baby just happened to be deformed. You KNOW why that baby is deformed and you (and those other idiot drug addicts) are not innocent women. You purposely tried to hurt your children, so you could get all the attention in the world. You did your babies no favors and now they are the one's who must pay for your drug abuse.


Please, just give your baby to someone who deserves to have it. Someone who hasn't done anything wrong. It will be better for you and your child in the end. Please, for the love of these beautiful babies - let them go.  These children will be in my thoughts. Always, Sarah."

So...there you have it. Apparently, myself and the thousands of other mothers who have cleft affected babies are drug addicts. I have already blocked her from viewing this blog and  I have already reported her email address to the admins of all of the support groups including babycenter, cafemom, and whattoexpect. So, hopefully we won't see her in any of those groups. I don't know if I am the only who got an email from her or not, but I will be damned if I let this go.

So, for the sake of other random people who are of the same mindset - please educate yourself by viewing any one of the links on the right hand side of this blog. These links will provide you with up to date accurate information from verifiable sources both in print and on the interwebs. Please don't be an ignorant human being. Read, and learn and then have an intelligent conversation with me.

People, that email infuriated me to the point of tears. Because I am an innocent woman. My baby doesn't deserve what she was born with. She never should have to go through this. But I will tell you one thing - I love her no matter what. I loved her when she was just a second line on a pregnancy test. I loved her just the way she was. And I love her just the way she is now. I love everything about my monster. That is all that any of it comes down to.

Also, just to add....I don't know this Sarah woman. I have never met anyone who thought like she does. But I will say that I do not have to justify anything to her or to anyone else. I have nothing to prove or hide. Period.

Happy Tuesday ladies and gentlemen. Happy Tuesday.