is anyone else addicted to this game.... "Ticket to Ride"? We can't get enough of this game around here!
Everyone made it to midnight! Once it hit, we were quickly off to bed! ha!
OH, and 3 days before New Years, Ella Grace had Tubes put in her ears, and her adnoids removed!!! Everything went fine, and by the time we got home, she never complained about or had any side effects from the surgery! And let me tell you, the girl can HEAR!!! What a huge difference we have seen, and she is so excited! The first night, when we came home, she got on one of her Christmas toys, that happens to play music when you sit on it. Her eyes got big and her mouth opened wide, and she gasped as she listened to the music! Brad and I were both sitting there with her, and it was a joy to see her HEAR things that she hadn't heard before! She can hear me when I call her name at a normal voice level across the room, and she is already jabbering and beginning to make word sounds like never before! It has been so exciting for her! She is now enrolled in private speech therapy, and I'm hoping we are going to start picking up words quickly. We just met her speech therapist for the first time last week, and she has more energy than anyone I have ever met! I think she is going to be just the right person to get us further along in our speech progress! We are just a tad bit over the moon excited!
Ella Grace had a scope done on Jan. 6th, and was officially diagnosed with Celiac Disease. These were not words we wanted to hear, but we had already been warned by the doctor that he was pretty certain that she was going to test positive. We are now learning how to feed her foods that are safe, and are praying that we are doing everything right, so that her numbers can come down. She will meet with the doctor again in March/April, where they will test her blood to see how we are doing on the new diet. I'm just praying we don't have to worry about "cross-contamination" which is alot to go into, but let me tell you, it's going to be an absolute nightmare if we have to deal with it. It's been rather shocking to find out the foods that have "gluten" in them..... Ella can't have cottage cheese, but she can have a Coke... now does that even sound right (and don't worry, we don't give her Coke!)? I'm finding that we just have to stick with veggies and fruits, and I'm very thankful for gluten free pasta's that are out there, since pasta is her favorite food group! So far, things are going pretty well, it's just a new way of life/thinking for me, since I do all of the cooking, so it's been somewhat of a challenge. We will get through this, though, and it will soon become our new normal!
Ella Grace is through with procedures for now! WHEW!!! Seems like we've been going non-stop for the past 3 months with dr. appointments, but things are finally slowing down! She now has OT and Speech every Wednesday morning, and they are also fitting her with Orthotic Shoe inserts to help with some problems that she has with her feet. We have been matched with an awesome group of therapists who are helping us SO very much. OT is mainly working on chewing therapy, and we are already seeing some progress being made! It's slow going, and alot of work at meal times, but we are gonna get there!
Since this post is all about one super sweet, determined little girl, I will leave you with a little cuteness! Proudly displaying her art work from school!
