Who are you callin' short....not me!

Yay! Pierce is ONE and no longer considered 'short stature'. He has graduated and moved from the 4th percentile to 9th. Woohoo! I was so excited he had his little growth spurt. I mean, he's not going to be tall by any means and may not be a star basketball player, but there is now 8% of the population of one year-old boys out there that are shorter than he is. That sounds a whole heck of a lot better than 3%. He also jumped up in his weight percentile. He is now in the 32nd percentile and outweighed both of his sisters at his 1 year check-up. He is weighing in at a 21 lbs. 10 oz. No wonder my back has been hurting a little bit more lately. I was curious and looked back at the girls stats from their 1 year check-ups. Emerson hadn't even reached 20 lbs at that point and Reagan was 20 lbs even but but were quite a bit longer than Pierce. So, my itty bitty boy is now a lil' short chunk. I think he is going to be a soccer player because he has thick legs. We just need him to start walking so he can work on his dribbling (soccer not basketball) skills. Plus, he may have an advantage because his Aunt Heather can coach him.

Overall his check-up went pretty well. Because he has recently had some strange bruises on his chest and his last CBC came back with him being anemic (I know, when are we going to get a break?) they have ordered a bunch of blood work. Yep, that means another trip to lab at Children's. At least they know us there! And, Emerson is going to be thrilled that she is not the one getting poked this time. I didn't take him today because the poor little guy already got 4 shots today and I have to say he definitely did not do as well with pain as the girls. It's okay, he'll toughen up soon enough. He's going to have to start defending himself because his sisters take EVERYTHING away from him. In fact, I don't think he got a chance to open any of his gifts at his own party this past weekend. Emerson picked out a Toy Story Woody stuffed animal to give to Pierce and I figured out later she picked that one because SHE wanted it to play with. What a little stinker!

I decided to throw my little man a Texas Rangers themed-party. Well, I really did it for my 'big man' because Pierce had NO idea the party was for him. And I'm the first to admit that as much as I can't stand baseball, this party was the most fun I've had planning. It turned out to be a big hit except for the part where his father and I accidentally let him grab his lit candle. He cried and it took a while for him to try his baseball cupcake. He ended up loving it! But, on his real birthday when we lit another cupcake he immediately started crying. He vividly remembered burning his finger. It was so sad. However, he quickly perked up after I offered him some ice cream. He sure does love it, just like his big sister Emmy. The party got a little crazy once the kids went outside in the play pools and started stripping. Yep, 4 out of the 6 kids got butt-naked. Things got so wild at some point that poor little Tripp's (the son of our great friends) bottom started bleeding after too many trips down the slide into the plastic pool. Luckily, it was just a scratch and he was fine. I would post some pictures of the craziness but I might get arrested for kiddie porn.....ha!

As I was looking back at Emerson's 1 year stats I realized I used to record all of her milestones and write what she was doing each month. I feel awful I haven't done the same with the other two. So, here is a little about what Pierce is doing at ONE:

*he was a little slow at reaching these milestones but he IS FINALLY crawling on all fours and pulling to a stand

*he says mama (his first word, which makes me SO happy!) and no (I guess we say that a lot in this house

*he is BY FAR the LOUDEST of the 3 and yells whenever he doesn't get his way

*he LOVES the bath and shower

*he has 2 bottom teeth and we can just now see his top 2 coming in

*his favorite food is fruit (yep, pretty much any fruit you put on his tray he devours)

*he is my only child that accepted whole milk after formula...and I'm proud to say that I will NEVER buy another can of formula EVER AGAIN!

*he really enjoys playing with his sisters and they love playing with him (I got lucky!)

*he likes to bite faces....I know, weird! It's playful not vicious.

*he knows how to give big, wet, slobbery kisses

*we read the same book EVERY night or he gets upset

*much to his father's dismay, he does not like red meat and will only eat chicken

*he LOVES to swing

*he's a GREAT sleeper, sleeping 11-12 hours at night and 1-2 naps totally 3 hours during the day

*he put EVERYTHING in his mouth, even fitting an entire golf ball (toy) in his mouth. And, yes we put them away until he stops doing that.

*LASTLY, HE IS THE CUTEST LIL' MAN I HAVE EVER LAID MY EYES ON AND I LOVE HIM MORE EVERY DAY! I can't imagine my life without him and he is the BEST 'oops' of our lives!

Well, hello again.....

So, I just haven't had the energy to keep up with this blog. I really doubt too many of you are that disappointed. But, for those of you who are checking for updates on Emerson I thought I would post a quick note about what has transpired since my last post.

~The milk/dairy-free diet DID NOT work. And, she was a real trooper for the 4 weeks we tried it. When we got word from the doctor that it was okay to quit the diet we drove through McD's to Emerson a chocolate shake. She took one sip, looked at me and said, "oh my goodness mom, this is sooooooooo delicious!" It was too cute and I was so happy she was happy.

~Unfortunately because the diet didn't work, her hemoglobin and hematocrit levels have continued to decline. She is nearing transfusion (blood) levels so we are now taking very proactive steps in finding the source of the bleeding.......

~Which means that she will be having exploratory surgery. We meet with the pediatric surgeon on June 22nd. He is currently the Chief of Surgery at Children's in Plano so we feel confident in his abilities. And with today's technology, this is considered to be a fairly noninvasive surgery with the main risk being general anesthesia. And, we know she has done well the other times she has been put under. Other than some mild nausea (that is controlled quickly with some IV meds), she bounces right back.

~The surgeon will cut a small opening at her belly button and insert an instrument that guides through the entire digestive tract to look for the site of the bleeding. They still hold true to the theory that it is a Meckel's diverticulum or lesion from an ulcer which should be visible to the surgeon.

~Tomorrow, Emerson will have another Meckel's scan at Children's to check ONE more time to see if they can see any abnormal growths before the surgery

~We are hoping the surgery will provide the doctors with the answers we have been waiting for since all this started over a year ago.

~If not, we already have a plan B. Our pediatrician would then refer us to the MayoClinic for pediatrics (which is in Minnesota). Think Dr. House from the television show. Basically, you go for about a week where you are set up with a team of doctors that specialize in different parts of the body and do a battery of tests in hopes that they can solve "this medical mystery" that the doctors keep referring to. It is just so discouraging every time the doctor comes back without any answers and says, "Emerson is STILL just a mystery to us."

~However, we do feel confident that the problem (once it is officially diagnosed) can easily be fixed. She has been through so many tests and has been carefully monitored that we know the big answer isn't going to be a tumor or cancer or any other horrible word. I feel so much empathy for mothers and fathers out there that have to watch their children suffer through the rigors of cancer. I have a hard time watching Emerson get her blood taken, I can not imagine what those parents and children go through during treatment of such a terrible disease. All in all, I would say that Jamie and I are pretty darn lucky and blessed.

Okay, so that wasn't exactly a quick note. I will try to be better about posting on a more regular basis. The other 2 kiddos are doing fantastic! Pierce is going to be ONE exactly 2 weeks from today. I can't even imagine the emotions I will feel that day. He is my last baby and it has all gone by TOO fast. I'll try to put a post about him after his birthday to let you all know what he's been up to.

Please keep Emerson in your thoughts tomorrow. Even though she has become a pro with all the procedures she has done, she still doesn't WANT to go to Children's tomorrow. She knows the drill, but it doesn't make it any easier on either one of us.

I'll end on a light note: GO CELTICS! SQUASH KOBE!!! (Gosh, I can't stand that guy!)