22 Months & Looking "Fine"

Alivia's 22-month update is slightly delayed, but I have a good reason! I was waiting until we had come back from her semi-annual checkup at Children's, which was supposed to be last week, but ended up being today. It was worth the wait!

But first ... the usual stats.

Weight: 23.5 pounds (34th percentile!)

Height: 33 inches (48th percentile)

Milestones: Alivia is a talking MACHINE. She is totally a girl and just talks, talks, talks, especially at bedtime. She's also tall enough now to open and get into the top kitchen drawers (fun!). She uses the potty about twice a day. And she's about to take her first plane ride (but don't tell her and Tyler!) on Sunday when we fly home from Chicago. And this isn't really a milestone for her, but it is for me: we've moved her rocker back into her room from the living room, so now we have a better bedtime routine with books and quiet time rocking. :)

Likes: Goodnight Moon, Elmo on YouTube, ham, pickles (she eats them for breakfast if we let her), M&Ms, chasing Tyler or being chased, playing swords with Tyler. Basically anything Tyler likes, she does too.

Today's visit to St. Louis went very well. We did the usual routine: bloodwork, echo, visit with the doc and lots of waiting inbetween. But I suppose if they keep telling us good news, they can make us wait! Anyway, the doctor came in and says, "Yeah, she's fine." Totally casual, like she wasn't scarily close to needing a heart transplant a year ago! What he meant by "fine" is that her heart's ejection and shortening fractions were within normal range, albeit the low end of normal. But, as the doctor reminded us, normal is NORMAL no matter where you fall in the range! So the plan is to let her grow out of her one medication that she remains on; we'll keep the dose the same, and eventually as she grows, that dose will be so small comparatively, it won't be worth taking anymore. Consider it a slow weaning process.

That's so incredible. SO amazing. We've gone from looking at a lifetime of medications and limitations ... to being on the road to normal?? Absolutely crazy.

We don't have to return to St. Louis for a year now, so we'll just do periodic visits with our local cardiologist. When we go back to Children's, Alivia might be enrolled in a new research program to find more causes of this disease since so many children fall into that "we don't know what caused this" category. If she can help prevent others from getting this, great. BUT, the doctor said he wouldn't be surprised if her heart is doing TOO well for her to participate. Awesome. :)

So now we can completely focus on Christmas! I'm so excited to spend these next several days with our family and to see my kids on Christmas morning. We're ready!

Here are a couple pics from our Christmas card outtakes...none of which made the cut! Total waste of time. It would have been so cute. The tagline was going to say, "Happy Holidays from our crib to yours!" Get it? Sigh...