Kemble at Three Years Old

**In my defense.... I've had this typed for weeks - but kept having issues getting pictures to upload! **

Did I really just type that?! I cannot believe my baby is three! The time has seriously flown by. I will admit, however, that I'm not typically one of those moms who gets teary-eyed at the thought of her baby growing up. Really, it's just exciting to me, because every year and every milestone is more fun and special than the last. *Disclaimer... I reserve the right to retract this sentiment when she hits the age of 13*  Do I miss her being a little snuggly teensy thing in my arms? Absolutely!! Did I love that more than having a full-on adult-like conversation with her over a jigsaw puzzle? Nope!  Now, with that being said, earlier today I was thinking about her new room, which she will be moving into pretty soon, as soon as we finish the painting and find her a new big girl bed, and the thought of her leaving her crib (even though it's a toddler bed right now) did almost make me cry.

 in her crib just a few days old, between her 2 NICU stays

see how much she's grown?! And this was taken 6-8 months ago.

jumping in her crib almost 3 years later...

We are so in love with our Kemble-girl! She makes us smile and laugh daily. 

Anyway, Kemble had a FANTASTIC PINKATASTIC 3rd birthday party last weekend. We've been talking about a Pinkalicious party since before her 2nd birthday party, and it was so fun to put together. I love that she really helped plan her party and what she wanted to see and do during it. She soaked up every detail and loved it all, especially the pink cupcakes!  Almost all of her friends and family were here (we missed Tres, who is in Colorado/South Dakota/Wyoming working at several elk and antelope hunts) and we had a great time. We had pink lemonade, pink cupcakes, pink candy, Mr Swizzles' ice cream bar, and an array of green foods to cure the Pinkititis we were all sure to get as a result of all that pink stuff! We played Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake, had a pinkeriffc photo booth with Goldie and Pinkalicious, and had a cupcake pinata - which was Kemble's favorite.  She got AMAZING gifts, all of which she absolutely loves!!   I was so proud of her for opening and "reading" every card and thanking everyone for their gifts. She got a fabulous dollhouse, a Zingo game she loves to play, a big pink stuffed chair with your name on it, that she sits in constantly, some puzzles and books - her favorites, lots of Princess stuff which is a major hit right now, Pinkalicious pajamas & sticker book, a salon chair for her dolls, several art supplies and chalk fun, a pink Poodle purse, a Tangled purse, some little Tangled figurines, which go everywhere with her now, and from us, roller skates and a Pinkalicious bicycle, both of which she asked for NONSTOP but never wants to use. Go figure! I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of goodies too.

Yesterday, she had her 3-year checkup with Dr. Fung. This is the first time we've seen her for a well visit (we saw Dr Henry last year and that was when the unfortunate vaccination almost-event happened...we've seen Dr Fung for some other stuff, which I'll go into later...). Anyway, she got a doctor kit from Reese for her birthday and has really been playing with that and learning about all the tools, and we'd re-read a few of her Doctor visit stories. When they called her back, she ran on back, hopped on the scale and weighed in at 28.6 lbs. They measured her height, which was just shy of 37 inches tall. That puts her in the 28th percentile for weight, and the 44th for height, and gives her a BMI of 14.9  How funny that her BMI is just the same as mine! ;) Just kidding, of course, that would be my dream!  The nurse also took her temp, blood pressure, head measurements, and pulse ox - which still makes me nervous, even though it's been 3 years now since our NICU days. When Dr. Fung came in, she greeted me and Kemble, then just began asking Kemble all kinds of questions. Kemble answered them all correctly and politely. I was so proud of her!! In the past, doctors have always just quizzed me about skills and milestones, but she asked Kemble to demonstrate all of them, which really impressed me. She asked her if she rode in a carseat in the car, if she could climb up and down stairs, if she was a boy or girl and what her full name was. I wanted her to keep asking questions so Kemble could show her how smart she was! :) She asked her if she liked to read and things like that, then asked her to draw a circle, a person, and to name all of the colors of the crayons in the box. Then, she asked her to do some "tricks" - spinning, hopping, balancing on one foot, and touching her toes to check her spine. She commented on what a happy, sweet girl she is! After that she did all the routine exams and Kemble was such a champ, even during the flu shot, which was luckily the only one we had to get this time.

Here are a few pictures of Kemble lately (and not so lately)

 being silly wearing daddy's shoes

on the firetruck at school

 GO Indians!

being silly in her favorite skeleton pajamas

watching Cinderella in her Cinderella dress 

fun at the homecoming parade!

Here are some funny things my girl has said/is saying these days, although lately it seems like everything she says is hilarious:

• We got a new couch, and I immediately deemed it a no-food-or-drink place! It's not leather like our old one, and while it's suuuuper comfy and we absolutely love it, it's not as spilled-milk friendly as the old one. So now, anytime Stephen or I brings a snack, or even a glass of water, to the couch with us, before we can even have a bite, Kemble's saying "We never, ever, ever eat on the couch!" in her sternest little voice and wagging her little finger at us.
• When playing hide-and-seek, "Ready or not, here me my come!!!"
• "Here my am!"
• The other day, I was naming some of the kids in Kemble's class because BB was asking her who her friends were at school, and I said Benjamin (a sweet little boy with the same birthday as Kemble who is also in her Musik class with Ms Conni) and BB said "Is Benjamin your friend?" and with such hilarity in her voice, Kemble replied "NOOOOOOO he's not my friend, he's a BOOOOOOYYYY!!!!!!!" (Is hilarity a word? I think it is...)
• She says "Ta-Da!" when she's accomplished anything and she wants you to see it.
• Just now, as I'm sitting here typing this... Kemble said, out of the blue "So... let's talk about my doctor appointment the other day." And I said, "Ok, what do you want to talk about it?" She said "My temperature and my blood pressure and everything."  HAHAHA this girl cracks me up!!!!!
• She'll say "You not wanna watch me" when she's about to do something she knows she shouldn't....
• When I asked her why she wasn't eating, she answered "I don't like that seaweed" referring to the herbs and pepper on her food. She's said it a few times since then too.
• She calls the movie theater the "movie-ater" and every day when we pass by it she says it. So silly, I don't know where she got this pronunciation from!
• My friend Krista is the director of Funday School and she led chapel one morning and they were talking about helpfulness and she asked some of the kids if they help their parents. She called on Kemble, and she said Kemble stood up and grinned and said "I help my mama make cookies". My heart pretty much melted when Krista told me about it! :)

Her favorite things right now include:

• Her Tangled hair, which she literally wears almost every waking minute. We try to limit it leaving the house, and it's never allowed at bedtime. It's one of those things I take for granted and it's just a daily thing, but then when other people react to her wearing it constantly I realize it's pretty cute and funny and a tale we'll tell about her when she's older.

She got her Tangled hair in March when we went to Disney on Ice, and has hardly taken it off since!

• Dancing. She dances constantly. She has made up her own dances too, including a funny and cute one where she says "Sliiiide to the other way, Sliiiiide to the other way, Jump forward, Jump backward, March one time, Clap your hands" and then it's usually punctuated by some other random thing like "hope around the room" or "now run like this" 
• Kitty. Her best friend.
• All things sparkly, pink, or princessy

• Singing.... she sings constantly too! Her favorites are "The Boat Song" from Tangled, Twinkle Little Star, The Whole World in His Hands, and she's dubbed "Call me Maybe" as "Mama's Song" and wants me to sing it every night, and LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" and "Sexy and I Know It" as Daddy's songs and wants those sung to her by him every night too. Don't worry, they always sing "Stinky and I know it" instead - she has no clue what the real words are!

• Ms Becky, her Mother's Day Out teacher (again) who she absolutely loves to pieces! She's made switching schools and going to school a delight for Kemble - thankfully!

Kemble and her good friend Reese saw the firetruck at school

• She's also really enjoying going to church and Bible class each week, for a while it was a struggle to leave her in class, but she's doing great now and looks forward to it, and can't wait to go sit with Nonnie for church.
• blocks - especially for building Tangled towers

She pointed to the top of her tower and said "Rapunzel is up here", then pointed to the bottom and said "and Mother Gothel is down here and Rapunzel pulls her up with her hair!"

• Her favorite foods right now are: strawberries, apples, grapes, cheese, yogurt, ham, hamburgers, french fries, ABC pretzels, anything with frosting and sprinkles on it, bacon, pancakes, waffles, lemonade, ABCs and 123s, rice, beans, green beans, Chick Fil A nuggets
• Her favorite treats: Skittles, Smarties and suckers, sugar cookies, ice cream and snow cones

• She's pickier than she used to be, and really not into vegetables of any kind right now except for beans.... hopefully she'll grow out of that. She goes in spurts with fruits too, right now she's anti-banana.
• Trying on shoes. She loves to go sit in her closet and try on all of her shoes, and they have to pass the dance test
• She loves going to the Waxahachie football games and yelling "Go Indians" and trying to catch a football when they score. She also loves cheering on the Aggies at home!

• puzzles - she's way past shape puzzles and is having fun figuring out jigsaw puzzles now
• Fresh Beat Band, Strawberry Shortcake, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc McStuffins, Jake & the Neverland Pirates, SuperWhy, Angelina Ballerina, and Disney movies of all kinds - especially Tangled, Tinkerbell, Nemo, and Princess & Frog
• Her Tag reading system. She picked up how to use it very quickly and enjoys reading books with it. It's designed to help her recognize words and begin to read.
• Play-doh and painting with watercolors - she'd do them all day!

• Her wooden magnetic "paper" dolls. She has 3 sets and loves them all and plays endlessly with them!
• Playing dress-up. She wants to dress up constantly! I love how imaginative she is getting!

Cutting my hair.... (with pretend scissors of course)

• Books: anything princess related, anything Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, the Ladybug Girl books, her new Ten Little Monkeys Pop book - so entertaining!, 
• Being outside, she'd kick or throw a ball around for hours on end. She's still anti-slides and sometimes loves the swings and sometimes wants nothing to do with them! She also loves sidewalk chalk, hula hoops, playing tag, and her bounce house. BB and Daddy Butch bought her a sand and water table this summer and she absolutely loved it - she'd play with it for hours on end if I'd let her!

• Callianne. She absolutely adores her, loves every minute with her, and talks about her constantly. She looks up to her so much and I know they will have a unique relationship growing up - it's so hard to believe they are second cousins... they seem so much closer than even first cousins.

She knows all of her alphabet, knows the sounds each letter makes, and is enjoying trying to sound out and spell words. She knows how to spell Kemble, and she recognizes a few words by sight. She knows where she lives, her birthday, all of her shapes and colors and numbers through 20, and she can even count backwards from 10 - although none of us taught her that, she just kind of did it. She also can tell time on a traditional clock - again, I explained it to her briefly one time, and this past week she's surprised us by being able to tell what the hour is, followed by "o'clock" or "thirty" depending on where the big hand is. We were shocked and amazed! She knows her days of the week, too and loves to know what day it is and what plans are for the upcoming days. She looks forward to Saturday and Sunday when Daddy's home and she can go snuggle in bed with him to watch "hartoons". We say all the time that this age is so fun, we just love all she's learning and how curious she is. The other night, after Stephen gave her a bath, she saw the water draining and asked where it goes. :)

One other thing that's been going on in Kemble's life lately is a new diagnosis following a big scare. Bear with me, this is a long story and you have all probably heard it before, so just feel free to skip it if you want to, but I felt it was important to record here, because someday it will be a distant memory. I often wish I'd been able to record the events and our feelings while Kemble was in the NICU, and I did, and those struggles I'll never forget, however the details get blurrier and blurrier as time goes by. 

She went through a phase where she'd tell me her tummy hurt a lot.  At first I dismissed it as something new she'd learned to say. I figured maybe her tummy was hungry or full, or maybe she was feeling some gas pains or something. She'd had a couple of UTI's in March-April. Well, one that we thought was a UTI based on her discomfort while going and frequent accidents, so the doc put her on antibiotics and she'd almost finished her course when the culture results came back negative. A few days later she spiked a fever, and really did have a UTI that time and was put on a stronger antibiotic, Bactrim. She missed a lot of school because the potty issues were very stressful for me and it seemed to get worse every time she went to school. Afterwards I found out that one of her teachers wasn't letting her use the little potty, insisting she use the big one, which a) kemble has always preferred her little one and has trouble getting on/off regular ones, and b) she went through a phase where the loud flush scared her. I think she was trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) to hold it as long as possible, and so first she was just having accidents and pain as a direct result of holding it longer than she should, and then she eventually gave herself the real one by doing so. It took several months for her to be fully potty trained again, and it was extremely trying for me, knowing she knew how to do it and simply couldn't or wouldn't anymore. (Thank goodness, we've been back to 100% for months now!) Anyway, back to the tummy hurting. One day we were at Target after school, she told me it hurt, then lifted her shirt up to point to it, and I saw several very small bruises scattered around her tummy. I know, most moms would've assumed she'd just poked it on something (5 times) and continued their shopping trip. However, my hurt sunk into the bottom of my toes and my adrenaline began racing. I'd always heard that unexplained bruises on the back and stomach were signs of leukemia. I called Jill to see if I was overreacting, and she thought I was. Ha!  However, it ate at me for a few hours and I caved and called the pediatrician for an appointment the next morning. We saw Dr Fung for the first time (I'd been wanting to switch, as Dr Henry's nurse and Kemble do NOT get along and every visit was extremely traumatic for Kemble -AND ME! When I say extremely traumatic, I mean screaming bloody murder every second from the minute they called her back, refusing to get on the scale or have anything checked, I mean a downright, utter, hissy fit to the extreme. Needless to say I avoided taking her if at all possible! So, I'd been aiming for a switch soon, and ta-da! She ran right back with Dr Fung's sweet nurse, cooperated with everything and was such a little trooper, never shedding a tear!). Anyway, Dr Fung said the bruises looked harmless, and since Kemble seemed to feel just fine, she wasn't concerned, however she offered to do the bloodwork to appease me. I took her up on it, and Kemble sat so still and calm while a little lady pricked her finger and spent minutes scraping blood out of it --- the worst, in my opinion, but Kemble just watched her like it was nothing.  I went home feeling reassured and calm.

Oh... by the way, did I mention that Stephen is in Mexico during all this?

 with her own stethoscope.... she did so great this day!

 the bruises. tiny and faint.... i know. but where the heck did they come from?!

Ice cream man after a long day!

So the next morning, my phone rang. It was the nurse, who said exactly what I didn't think I'd hear after I said "Hello"..."Kemble's counts are very low, we need her to come back in this morning to repeat the bloodwork." Stunned, worried and confused, I couldn't muster up anything to ask or say.  

After we hung up though, of course the questions filled my mind..............

Wait! Red cells or white? Surely she means her red blood cells, it would explain the weird bruising and Kemble was anemic as an infant, and well.. she doesn't eat a whole lot of meat these days and she's been off her iron supplements for quite a while. Yes, of course that must be it, she's anemic again. No biggie, we'll get back on iron! Super easy to fix. But..... what if.... But....

So we go straight to the lab, I asked the lady at the desk which type of cells were so low, she said she couldn't tell me, but glanced at her screen anyway. I saw the shock and worry fill her expression. She stammered out, "it's her white blood cells, they are very low" She told me that the minimum was 1500, and Kemble's were around 200. Of course, I panicked once again and fought hard to hold back my tears while Kemble got her finger pricked again. I didn't want to worry her, but could hardly contain my own fears. I asked to speak to the nurse, and it was Dr Fung's day off so we saw Dr Henry's nurse (the one who has been so mean in the past) and I broke down, as hard as I tried not to. She didn't really have much to say except they didn't know what was going on yet and that they'd let us know when the results came back.

We made another appointment for a few days later with Dr Fung to, yet again, have more bloodwork drawn, and sweet little Kemble, oh it breaks my heart typing this and seeing this picture. She just stuck her finger out, ready for it to get pricked again. Man, the girl is tough when she needs to be. It simply amazes me! 

 Unfortunately, this time they wanted a venipuncture instead to get a better sample, so we had to go over to the hospital and she had to get her arm stuck and several vials of blood drawn. She wasn't as calm through that, but still did OK. They ran lots of testing and smears on this set. The hope was, that maybe the capillary sticks were not good representations of her blood. Unfortunately, those results came back the same, with low neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. Her red blood cells, platelets, and other types of WBC's were all at normal levels. We still had no answers and although Dr Fung did tell us that this could be a very normal and temporary issue, I was still very worried. She said this can occur as a result of a temporary suppression following a virus, such as mono. The worst case scenario would be a bone marrow disease - definitely not something we want to face. She referred us to a pediatric hematologist/oncologist for further testing and treatments. They also cautioned us against letting her anywhere near germs, because with such a compromised immune system, she could catch anything easily and her body would not be equipped to fight it off, so we spent the week at home, away from germs and people, awaiting the hematologist appointment.

her little hospital band from the hospital lab

 A week or so later, we went to Medical City to see Dr. Ghisoli, a hematologist/oncologist. He was amazing!  He first took us to a living room area where he observed Kemble while asking us a million and ten questions about her previous health, as well as ours and even our parents'.  He seemed really focused on the Bactrim and (as I'd already read via Google) the possibility that this might be a temporary suppression of her WBC due to the Bactrim, which can kill off the neutrophils. He also stressed that Kemble appeared extremely healthy and not a child who was sick. He told us to live our lives, resume our schedules, and not to worry about cancer, given the fact that all of her other levels were normal. He really made us feel welcome and reassured and I trusted his opinion completely.
Here's a breakdown of Neutrophil levels (ANC) for the record: Optimal ANC =3000, Acceptable = 1500, BARE MINIMUM = 500, Kemble's ranges over the past 6 months = 100-500. Scary stuff.  SOOO thankful that she has not had any problems and that her little body seems to be fighting off all those bad germs without the neutrophils (also a sign that her body may be compensating by making more neutrophils or other types of WBC's in order to fight something off, because of course she would have been exposed to many, many things over these past few months).

 Here are pictures from our first day at Medical City:

So anyway, she saw Dr Ghisoli every month following that until August, when he gave her a 3-month clearance, so we'll be going back in a few weeks. Every time he says she's a perfectly healthy little girl. With levels hovering under 500, she's been officially diagnosed with neutropenia, and he's ruled out a temporary suppression of any kind at this point. However, as long as she is not experiencing recurrent infections (she hasn't even had one since all this began!) it's considered benign, so she falls into that category easily.  She did test weakly positive for the type of neutropenia in which her own body is attacking it's neutrophils, called Autoimmune Neutropenia, but whether it is that or an unexplained Chronic Benign Neutropenia, she should outgrow either one by the age of 5. Both require supervision and regular testing by the hematologist to make sure nothing changes, but as long a she is not showing any signs of infection, he will not treat it at all.  He is amazed by her energy and lack of illness and always has a very positive report for us. Last visit, he planned to do a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (to test for any disease but also for a baseline) but her levels had bounced up to just above 500, the highest they'd been in 4 months, so he opted not to do it, with the warning that he may change his mind and do one at any point, which we dread and hope won't happen, since it requires anesthesia. In the meantime, I tend not to think about it much, thankfully!

I promise to TRY my hardest to not make posting blogs an annual thing. We all know I've made this promise before, but I really need to make a point to sit down more often to post little snippets. However, this is probably going to get more and more difficult to do..........

........because we are expecting another baby! 

I'm due at the end of March. :) So far this has been a very smooth pregnancy, with no morning sickness again, in fact, it's been a VERY similar pregnancy to being pregnant with Kemble - just a little heartburn, a little sciatica, and a LOT of fatigue at first. Let's just hope this one doesn't decide to make his or her grand appearance 5 weeks early!  Are you proud of me for saying his or her... because we're all three 100% convinced it's a girl - and after my first sonogram (at 13 weeks) the sonogram tech said it was definitely looking like it might be a girl. The next sonogram, the cord was between the legs - Dr Daum guessed boy, but I'm not convinced until we get a shot without the cord there. Kemble refused at first to even acknowledge that it might be a boy! I know she'll be thrilled either way though, as will we.  She'll be a great big sister! We can't wait to meet our newest addition to our little family!  Time for a new blog name..... hmm....