Ada is Tough

Ada had surgery to remove her cataract when she was two weeks old.  Since then, she has worn a contact lens and we do daily patch therapy (5-6 hours) to help her use the weaker eye.  She has been an amazingly patient child with all of it and we have been really lucky.  We were finally able to see a new doctor in Phoenix a few months ago who decided that another surgery was necessary to clean out some tissue that was growing in her lens capsule and was blocking some of her vision.  After a failed attempt to have it done a month ago (Ada got a fever the morning of the scheduled surgery), everything went as planned last week and along with getting the tissue cleared out, the surgeon was able to implant a lens into her eye.  This means that, for the time being, Ada doesn't have to wear a contact lens.  It was a difficult decision because some experts still recommend waiting until the child is a lot older if possible, but we felt that it would be easier for everyone if no one was worrying about losing contacts or hurting her eye with a contact in and the surgeon was confident that it would be a good thing for her.  Ada was a champ through all of it (and still is with several drops daily and resuming the patch therapy).  We really couldn't have gotten any luckier with a child who is emotionally and physically strong enough to remain cheerful- even when her eye is getting poked and prodded all the time.  She almost always has a smile on her face, even when she's in the pre-op room waiting for surgery! 

 

And she had to wear this huge colander-looking metal shield over her eye for a week after, but she never complained (except when we were untaping it from her face to apply drops).

 

Ada has recovered, and aside from having to wear sunglasses a majority of the time to protect her eye in the rare chance that she would run into something that could injure it, she is back to her old shenanigans.   And we could just be imagining it, but her vision seems to be better than it was before!

Trip to Utah in pictures

So many pictures and so little time to write.  Here's the trip to Utah as documented by our cameras.

We hardly get to eat breakfast in places like this anymore.

Finally hot enough for sprinklers.

Birthday presents from Auntie Lu.

Not enjoying the train as much as we thought she would.

First Chuck E. Cheese experience, and I never thought I would say it, but it was actually fun for us, too.  We might have to go again sometime.

Ada is very proud of Dad's artwork hanging at Primary Children's Hospital.

 

 Hogle Zoo for Ada's birthday.

After years, we finally got to see Trish and Bentley before they have their new baby!

Exploring Cascade Springs with Grandma.

Lots of quality time with the cousins.

Flute lessons from Grandpa.

Swimming!

Relaxing in front of a pile of presents.

Walks to the park.

 

More swimming.

Kris and Nate's backyard.

Family photo at Calf Creek.

Wagon rides.

Cheers for Kris and Nate getting married.

A lovely mountain wedding.

Time to relax before we have to head back to Flagstaff.

Huge Update

Things have been crazy here.  There are so many updates so we'll just start with a list.

At number one, we have the most significant/life-changing:

 There were chances to post this earlier, but we just kept putting it off for various reasons, then we decided to wait until one of many milestones of the journey.  We found out yesterday that Ada will be getting a little sister sometime around Thanksgiving!  We were a little surprised to see the girl bits in the ultrasound, as there have been so many girls born in our families lately, but she looks healthy and beautiful so we are excited. 
To accommodate #1, we have #2:  We moved to a bigger place in Flagstaff.  After our 2-week trip to Utah (more on that later), we came right home to get the keys to our new place- a townhouse on the other side of town.  We spent the next several days moving and have happily fallen in love with almost everything about the place. 

It has a 2-car garage (=storage), an extra room that Bryan can use as an office and it's close to things that will be useful- like the hospital, pediatrician, downtown Flag and several parks. 
#3:  Ada turned  two years old.  Along with that has come screaming and defiance, but those are overshadowed by her increasing knowledge of the world, talking, singing, improved dance moves and endless entertainment.  She is such a great girl and we wouldn't know what to do without her.

The road trip to Utah will take a whole other post, so I will get to it soon.  Right now we are recovering from a LONG day that started at 4:15 a.m. when we had to wake Ada up to eat breakfast before she was cut off from eating at 5:00, due to her scheduled eye surgery in Phoenix.  All was going well until we realized she was running a fever of about 101 degrees.  We knew we needed to call the doctor to check in, but it was so early in the morning and we had to leave for Phoenix before the offices were open.  Fortunately, we didn't get too far out of town when we were able to talk to the surgeon who had decided to cancel the surgery due to her fever.  By the time we got home, a construction crew had shown up to fix both of our balconies, thus preventing any of us from taking naps until about 3:30 this afternoon.  Ada was a champ, but she's still sleeping and fighting off whatever is causing her fever.  We sure ended up with a strong daughter.

The Cutest Thing She's Ever Said

We were all eating breakfast together this morning and we were counting Ada's last bites of yogurt (it helps her finish when she's getting distracted).  Bryan was adding Sesame Street's Count Dracula laugh after each number and Ada looked at me with a big smile on her face and said "Dad crazy".

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

 It all started with a trip to Phoenix.  After another cancelled eye appointment, we decided to still head down to Phoenix and see Julie, who was in town from Fairbanks for a conference and hang out with Carol and Ellie for a few days.  We had a great time- we got a tour of the nice parts of downtown

we fed ducks and koi at the Japanese gardens

and had plenty of park time.

We also ate lots of sushi and frozen yogurt (the only things that sounded good in the heat), saw a dog show, swam in the pools, visited the Asian market and went on walks.  On the last night, Carol and Ellie came with us to dinner and Ellie ended up passing out on Carol's lap for the entire meal and started running a fever.  We saw them briefly the next morning and Ellie was still not doing very good.  After spending so much time with them (and sharing food and drink), we were just waiting until whatever bug it was hit us. 
The day we got home, we found out she was diagnosed with strep and had to go on antibiotics.  Two days later, Ada started getting a fever so we took her into the doctor and told her what was going on.  Even though her strep test was negative, she had all of the symptoms and had been around someone with strep, so the doctor prescribed antibiotics.  The next day, we noticed her rash was changing to more blister-like sores, so we took her in again.  This time (after finding out Ellie's diagnosis was based on her symptoms, not a strep test) the doctor was convinced she had Hand Foot and Mouth disease- a relatively common childhood illness, but something I had never heard of until then.  Apparently, I never had it as a child, because that night, I went to bed with a sore throat and woke up feeling worse than I had in years.  It started with a fever and body aches and has now turned into a really sore throat and painful blisters all over my hands. 
It's amazing how much more you learn about conditions and illnesses when you have a child.  In the past two years, I almost feel like I went back to school for epidemiology! 
Anyway, we are all doing better here, but hopefully you won't be seeing us for a couple of weeks- we could be contagious for a while. 

"Spring Break" pt. 2

The next weekend, we headed up to Escalante to do some work on the house (Ada and I pulled weeds)

and to see people we have been missing.

April happened to be in town from Yosemite and Ada made a new best friend.

She was SO happy when April came down to Flagstaff for a few days to hang out on her way through town.  We went out to Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments, which were great.

When April left, Ada was pretty disappointed to not find someone sleeping on our couch, but the next day, the Hansen family showed up!

Ada is a little younger than two of her cousins, enough that she would get overwhelmed pretty quickly.  But not this time.  She's finally catching up and able to actually interact and have fun with them.  It's been great to watch.
And then there's Grandpa!

And Grandma came prepared with everything to have an Easter egg hunt

 make an Easter cake

and feed us all an Easter dinner!
Another great weekend!