Down at the Farm

Instead of the normal park playgroup today, we got to take the kids to a small farm owned by some people in our church, The Adams'. Several years back Alora went here with her preschool class when there were new baby goats. This time, Max got to go see the new baby goats and he loved it! The Adams' no longer had their cows, but the kids got to see huge geese, peacocks, chickens, quail, two big pigs, goats, and three new baby goats.

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes #3

Tonight after I got Max out of the bath he started pulling at his left ear. It made sort of a squeaky sound so I told him he probably just got a little water in it. He looked at me and replied, "I think it's my brain juice."

Out of the Mouth of Babes #2

I knew Max was up to no good when he rode his little ride-on toy into my closet.  I have Valentine candy hiding in there and suspected that's what he was after.  A minute or two later he rides out saying, "I have nothing mom."  Translation: I have something I shouldn't.  I told him I wanted to check the wheels on his ride-on, and even though he looked a little suspicious of my claim, he wheeled over the toy.  I pretended to check the wheels and then went straight to the seat (it lifts up).  "No, Mom!"  Opening it I discovered about 10 packets if starburst!  That stinker.  I explained to him he could not have all of them because they would make his belly hurt.  I even said he might throw up.  He looked straight at me, his clusters of cute freckles speckling his little nose and exclaimed, "That's okay.  You can clean it up!"  Dang those cute freckles!

Brave

Today was Alora's first visit with the Endocrinologist.  She met with Dr. Constantine S. Djedjos at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  Surprisingly, she wasn't really nervous, even with Max teasing her that she was going to get a flu shot. 

Based on the charts and records that he had received on Alora, he too classified her as "short stature."  He ordered an x-ray of her left hand/wrist and then several blood tests.  Some of the things he wanted to check was her thyroid levels, pituitary gland, liver and kidney enzymes, among other things.  He also wanted to make sure she wasn't missing a certain chromosome (aka Turner's Syndrome in girls).

After meeting with the doctor, we got her x-ray taken and then headed back up to the lab.  I purposely DID NOT tell her about this part because I knew she would freak out.  When it came our turn to go back in the lab, she didn't even ask any questions about what we were doing.  Thank goodness!  The technician made her sit in my lap and then the freak out began.  The tech started laying out vials and needles with tubes and Alora about lost it.  The tech was super good and got the line in and then Alora stopped freaking out.  I was shocked!  She just sat there, watching him fill up 5 1/2 vials with her blood.  She didn't scream, kick, or hit.  She did AWESOME!  This was not typical at all of her.  She was so brave! 

Waiting to be called back to the lab.

The doctor will get the results back in about 2 weeks and then we will go from there.  If he notices some issues, then the next step is a more extensive blood draw that takes about 5 hours or so in the hospital.  I hope she doesn't have to do that... maybe she's just a "late bloomer."

After all the blood draws.  HARDLY ANY TEARS!

UPDATE:  Her bone age came back as 5 year old.  She's 6 1/2 and I guess that's nothing to be concerned about because it is sort of subjective.  All of her blood work was pretty normal.  We will go back in about 2-3 months and the doctor will remeasure her to see how she's ranking and then we'll go from there.

Suns vs. Mavericks

Jeremy, Noah & Jackson went with their (Uncle) Ryan tonight to the Suns vs. Mavericks game down in Phoenix.  Since the boys have been pretty into basketball lately, they were stoked to attend.  They even got to go down on the court after the game and shoot a free throw! 

 

 

Apparently the cheerleaders don't like to wear clothes.

The boys (first two kids in line) got to shoot a free throw!  (Looks like the cheerleaders found their tops.)

Jack shoots!

Noah prepares to shoot.

 

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Max, tonight, as he got ready for bed:

Max: Are bones real?
Me: Yes.
Max: I don't like bones.  I'm scared of bones.