Second and Fifth Birthday

Yep...it's taken me almost 2.5 months to do a birthday blog.  Yes, that's right their birthdays were January 28th and February 1st and I'm just getting around to it.  But hey, I'm doing good to just keep them alive and fed on goldfish, cookies and milk and from pulling each other's hair.  These past 6 months have been a challenge to say the least now that Sloane is old enough to fight back, run, climb and destroy all of Hadley's hard work as she is trying to hard to practice her name, numbers, letters, etc.  Isn't the job of a little sister to cause excitement and keep things interesting?!  Well this year we kept things exciting and surprised the girls with a trip Disneyland.  We kept the secret really well until Mimi and Grandaddy flew in and then had the big reveal that night when daddy got home from work.  I don't think Sloane had any idea what was going on, but boy oh boy Hadley knew just what was coming and just couldn't contain her excitement.  And to top it off...Mimi and Grandaddy were COMING with us to Disneyland.  An experience that will likely never happen again and it just makes that experience even more magical that they came.  

Sloane was mesmerized by Tinkerbell, gave all the princesses and characters a hug, loved the little rides and of course the churros.  Hadley thought the ENTIRE trip was heaven on earth.  She braved the Cars ride, thought the Bippidi Boutique was princess heaven, and the afternoons of quiet time while Sloane napped was meant for a big sister.   Sloane is sooooo into Moana, Tinkerbell, Anna & Elsa, while Hadley continues to be sooooo into any princess, Cars (still since she was little), and anything girly.  Meaning we had to go on the pink teacup, visit Minnie Mouse because of her bow, and try and visit every character to get their autograph.  

Birthday interests: 

Hadley

-Still loves penguins and I mean LOVES penguins.  Like obsessed.  

-Still a super picky eater, although loves mac n cheese, pizza and her snacks and milk

-Loves going to Starbucks for a "purple milk" and muffin

-Loves school, especially the days she gets a "job."  Her favorite is the teacher helper

-In love with her array of princess dresses

-Is doing swimming and dance right now, but loves when they do tumbling at dance

-Best friends: Leah, Georgia, Addy, Anna, Madison

-Favorite color: red

Sloane

-Favorite color: yellow...for sure

-Will eat or try just about anything but the struggle is getting her to sit long enough to eat

-Loves dogs, cats, animals, tinkerbell (currently), and being outside

-Also enjoys going to Starbucks (which is a walk from out house) and getting chocolate milk and bunny/yogurt pouch

-Does gymnastics (Little Gym) and dance at school

-She's willllld and a disturber of the peace at home :) 

-Best Friends: Declan, Ben, Georgia, Addy, Abby, Ellie and Eva 

Both girls are pretty easy going, love to come to Barre 3 class with me (maybe because good behavior there means they get milk from starbucks after), love being with Abuela, Mimi or Grandaddy, and still love our amazing babysitter Caitlynn.  They are doing great at school and Sloane loves going to school the same days at Hadley.  Hadley will be in kindergarten this year at Schallenberger with her neighborhood friends and I'm beyond thrilled about one less preschool tuition!! 

PDL Treatments #13-17

Yes...delayed this post about 6 weeks because, whelp taking care of two girls is just busy busy busy.  I am trying to keep this up as best I can so I have something to look back on when Sloane is older.  Our dermatologist said it's always nice when they get older and are having trouble with their birthmark to have a "Birthmark book."  I'm certainly not writing a book, so this is the best Sloane will get.  So here I go...

Just when we thought things were done...our Dermatology follow up in February 2017 showed some growth in our short 6 week break.  Our dermatologist mentioned again that the most aggressive treatment shows the best long term effects and is best when finished before the age of 2 years old.  At least that's what I remember.  So we started back up again in March 2017 and did 5 treatments ending the last day of June.  Our dermatologist took a 5 month sabbatical so we got a nice long break over the summer to enjoy no doctors appointments.  Sadly over that time there was continued (yet minimal) growth and we restarted again in November.  

Since Sloane's last treatment in June was pretty bad now that she's older and more aware of whats going on, we decided to do general anesthesia to get a better treatment and more focus on the eye area to help minimize the damage that could be done to the optic nerve as the vessels grow.  

That treatment in the beginning of November went great, she tried to lick the inside of the anesthesia mask and thought the hospital was so much fun with her new best friend Ms. Veronica.  She woke up slowly, much better than her sister when she had versed, but still was feisty once she realized what was going on.  A few weeks between this treatment and the next, Sloane had her seizure episode.  I mentioned in my last post about her treatments, that we were cleared by neurology but since this occurred we get to see them every 3 months.  In December, we were cleared from neurology to continue with treatment as we learned that her port wine statin and seizures were unrelated.  This last and hopefully final (this time better be for real) treatment was tricky as we were coordinating with ophthalmology to get a good visualization of her optic nerve to see if damage had been done.  Sloane had a narly little cough that we were canceled from surgery the beginning of December, but then rescheduled the week before Christmas, getting our Christmas miracle.  We got great news that the optic nerve is un-damaged and this last treatment miiiiight be the end.  Our dermatologist said more treatments may not show much more improvement and to be honest with you....it looks AMAZING and you can barely see it.  We will continue to follow up with ophthalmology every 6 months since the vasculature behind the eye can change at any time.  We don't see ophthalmology and dermatology until JUNE!!!  And we will find out what Neurology says when we go back to see them the March 1.  

Holidays 2017

Welllll...Life has been just a tad bit crazy over the past few months to say the least between Sloane's seizures, Hadley's ears and all the holidays that came around that time.  Therefore I have not posted anything (sadly) about Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas from last year.  So, since I have some peace and quiet and don't feel like paying medical bills, I'm deciding to post on these fun holidays and share some photos.

Halloween 2017 Hadley was Elena of Avalor (Disney Junior Princess) who is a Latino Princess in a georgeous red glittery dress.  And Sloaney was a purple bunny.  She had a wild interest in bunnies at the time because our wonderful neighbor had a bunny statue on his front door step who she constantly wanted to visit and pet.  Hadley's dress came from the Disney Store and Sloane's adorable corduroy bunny dress/costume was from Wild Things Kids Play Clothes on Etsy.  We did our typical pumpkin patch visit to Spina Farms and made daddy carry our extra large pumpkin this year.  Hadley did her field trip with school, so our front yard had an abundance of pumpkins this year.  Sloane had her first Halloween parade at school with her little friend Ellie and Hadley continued on the tradition with her buddies on the preschool playground.  

Since we really went from Halloween straight into Christmas in Hadley's little mind, we only got a few photos of our turkey dress and Thanksgiving.  We stayed true to the "not decorate until after Thanksgiving" mindset, but Hadley was beyond excited this year and Sloane was so excited for "Sa Sa" to arrive. 

Now onto Christmas, fast and furious this month was considered.  We went to Patchen Tree Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her neighbors.  We followed the Bay Area flow up the mountain with everyone else to cut down a tree.  We have officially determined that Hadley gets car sick and does not do well on 1. winding roads and 2. road trips.  So after getting up there and looking around we decided on a "Charlie Brown tree" and came on home.  It was a good funny tree to talk about over the month.  Hadley was soooooo excited with decorating and Sloaney had something to say about every.single.ornament we took out the box.  

Hadley's preschool had a Breakfast with the Elves event one Saturday, where the school mascot Henry got dressed up ready for pancakes.  Hadley also decided she wanted to donate a toy to a little girl who "Doesn't have any toys" and her school had the first annual Holiday Show.  I must say, we are in for a adorable dance recital because she was SOOOOO into her holiday show.  Sloane still wants to watch "Hadley dance Hadley dance" videos on our phone.  Sloane clearly wants to be just like her big sister because every time Mariah Carey's song "All I want for Christmas" would come on the radio they would both start doing the dance moves.  

Our Santa visits were endless.  Sloane had no fear of him, although she was hesitant at first.  She kept pointing at him, giving him high fives, looking him up and down and kept saying "Sa Sa" when we would leave.  We visited several different Santa's and she had the same reaction each time...but no smile :) Our favorite Santa I would say would be the free one at Bass Pro Shop.  We did go during the week, where there was no line, but he was so patient with both girls and the fact that he was amazing and FREE was a total plus.  

We continued the tradition of making tamales this year and started a new one with going ice skating.  Sloane was determined to go ice skating, but due to the crowd and Mason's lack of coordination, she got to watch and eat goldfish and cookies.  

Christmas day was magical as expected.  Our kids are truly blessed.  Hadley asked Santa for 3 things, thank goodness the same three things to every Santa we saw.  She got a Barbie castle, American Girl doll, mermaid fin to swim in the pool with, and a Moana necklace.  She got an extra toy from Santa with a little note from the jolly man for her heroic efforts in helping Mason during Sloane's seizures.  Sloane got a matching sleeping bag like her sister has, a Fischer Price barn and a giant giraffe like at their preschool.  The girls were sooooo excited about this giraffe and apparently it's a girl giraffe named Henrietta because "she has eye lashes."  Each year the girls get 3 gifts because baby Jesus got three gifts from the 3 wise men.  Hadley immediately picked up on the fact that she got 4 gifts and then she noticed the little note from Santa about her extra gift.  The girls continued their day with their cousins with donuts and playing with their new toys.  

Our year ended with a bang with little H headed to the emergency room because every.thing.is.closed on the holidays and we needed to see a Pediatric ENT doctor.  All is good and she did an outstanding job as she got to watch endless amounts of You Tube and got a new penguin.  Anyway, I'll gather my next set of photos for Sloane's end of treatment and will probably post again soon.