4 Months!

Hungry Caterpillar, Bubbles, and Puppies

I can't believe how big she is getting and how much she can do. It feels like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital all curled up and unsure of the world. Now she is so confident of herself and her surroundings. She is getting so good at holding her head with only a little wobble here and there. She enjoys sitting up as much as she enjoys laying on her back. Her stomach has always been less then a total favorite, but she is staying on it for longer and longer periods of time. Yes, the teacher in me comes out! Each morning we have circle time where she sits up and we sing songs and read books. Here we are this morning. She likes when I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.


We love those intense faces as she tries and figures our the world around her. Daddy and I really hope that she continues her fascination with learning new things for the rest of her life!

Mommy also decided this week to rearrange Grace's bedroom. It is not too different but a few things moved around. I realize it is incredibly hard to find time to actually clean this room! Either I am playing with Grace, or Grace is sleeping.... The weekends are crazy because we actually get to spend a lot of time with Daddy so we aren't cleaning then, so this week I cleaned in the morning while Daddy was still home to play with Grace. My cleaning turned into a deep clean which turned into a room change! I also included some pictures of Grace in her crib. She has lots of fun toys hanging on the sides so that she has things to look at while she is falling asleep. I try and change the toys out once a week to give her new things to look at. She also continues to lose hair on the back of her head. I am just so happy that she is a healthy baby and has the ability to move that head all around, even if it is causing the hair to break. Positive thinking. =)

Bath time! I wanted to include some pictures of Grace in her little blue baby bathtub. The tub will be going up in the attic this week. Even though Grace still fits in it, she is starting to really squirm and splash and it is causing her to flip in weird positions. Here you can see she has flipped herself completely sideways, but she can also get her bottom to go over the little seat and she slides down in the big part of the tub. She tried her first time in the big girl tub and she loves it. She lays on a white squishy mat and kick kick kicks!

Life as a puppy in the Macaluso house is good. Wanted to give a quick update on our dogs. They both will be turning 5 this year! Athens in March and Bean in June. I really can't believe we have had them for almost 5 years, although I can't remember a time without them. Bean spends most of her days sleeping under the covers in the bed or all curled up on the couch next to the heater. She is showing more and more interest in Grace. When Grace is up on the bed, Bean will go over and lay near her or lick her fingers. Athens spends most of his days running around our fenced in back yard. He loves chasing all those squirrels and showing them who is boss. Often he will just sit at the bottom of the tree and hope some animal will fall out so he can chase them! He is already very attached to Grace. He follows me every time I go in to check on her and if she does cry in her crib, which is rare now, he will come out to find me so that I can check on her. =) They are good dogs.

My girl! We have been putting her hair up in what Daddy calls "Her side pony" on the top of her head. When we pull it out before bed time, her hair stays up in the exact position it was with the hair band in it! It makes us laugh, but I had to include these pictures of me snuggling my girl.
Grace's playroom. It is really coming together. We love that it is such a fun and inviting space and we wanted to share some pictures. The yarn balls and crayon wax mobile are both pinterest inspired and we love how they came out! Thanks to Uncle Taylor and his girlfriend Jenna for helping us out with both of those projects!


All in all another fabulous growing week! Another exciting thing that happened this week was Grace rolled from her back to her side for the first time! We are just loving watching this little one grow, grow, grow. Keep it up sweet cheeks. We love you!

xoxo

Mommy & Daddy

Duke and My Beautiful Girl

3 1/2 months. I can't believe she is getting so big! This week we took Grace to Duke and saw a pediatric dermatologist. Here is Daddy and Grace being patient in the waiting room. After our appointment we walked around the Duke Gardens, beautiful!



Here is the letter I sent out to our family and friends giving an update on how the appointment went:

Hey Family & Friends,

Wanted to write and let you all know how the doctor’s appointment went this morning. I know some of you have already heard, but it’s good to get it in writing! Obviously this is our first time dealing with this kind of situation, so if there are any questions you can think of that we should ask the doctors or thoughts about the treatment plan, please feel free to send them!

First, the doctor at Duke was wonderful! She is the head pediatric dermatologist there and she knew what she was talking about! Not only was she a wealth of knowledge but she was also very cute interacting with Grace. Grace could not get enough of her, she just talked to her the whole time we were there! That made us feel good.

On to the important stuff: There are two different types of hemangiomas both types can be superficial (just the red on the surface) or deep tissue (the black/purple underneath) or a mixture of both.

The first type of hemangioma is present at birth (the one on Grace’s back/shoulder) This hemangioma on Grace is a mixture of the superficial and deep tissue kind. These hemangiomas either go away very quickly (with in the first year of life) or they are permanent and require “cosmetic” fixing. It is too early to tell which one Grace’s will be – but I am guessing the permanent one as it has gotten bigger since birth.

The second type of hemangioma presents its self within the first weeks to months of life (the one on Grace’s nose) This hemangioma on Grace is just a superficial one, only on the outside of the skin. These hemangiomas will grow much bigger before shrinking down, however they will eventually shrink down. The problem with these hemangiomas is that once they shrink down often you are left with extra skin/scaring.

In order to prevent the nose hemangioma from growing much larger (blocking the nose opening, or creating extra skin/scaring) we are going to go ahead and start treatment. We actually will do the treatment on both hemangioma even though the one that is a concern is the nose. The treatment we are starting is a topical ointment that we will put on Grace’s nose and back twice a day. We take two drops and rub it into those areas. It is actually a kind of eye drop that they have found works on hemangiomas, although at $40 for a tiny bottle, it better be amazing!

If we do not see improvement on the hemangiomas by our next appointment at Duke on February 15^th, then we will switch and begin an oral treatment. The oral treatment is actually a blood pressure medication that they found works, however it comes with additional problems. 1. We will have to monitor Grace’s blood pressure to make sure she is not having a negative reaction. Keeping up with blood pressure on an infant is challenging, they wiggle a lot. It took us three times at the doctor office before we finally got a good read! 2. We would have to keep up with Grace’s blood sugar levels. If she is eating normally then all will be fine, however if she doesn’t get enough food in her belly, her levels could drop with the medication, which would bring on a whole set of its own problems. 3. There is some rare thing that can happen to their heart if they have a certain, hard to detect, heart problem. So, before going on the medication we would have to do an ERG. Basically they would put pads on her chest and listen/look at her heart rhythms.

Ideally we will see progress with this ointment we are using and quickly so we don’t have to go to the other treatment plan. However it’s nice to already know what to expect. Again, any additional thought that you all have please feel free to share!

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts!

Kendall, Gabe, and Grace

So many different angles of this little face and every one adorable! I am so glad that I get to spend the rest of my life taking pictures of this little girl.

On Friday Auntie Jen and her boyfriend Seth came over to visit. They were both at Grace's dedication so it is fun for them to get to spend time with Grace as she grows.
This picture was actually taken two weeks ago when Mimi was actually here visiting, but I wanted to put it in this week. Mimi's Birthday was on January 27th, here Grace is holding her gift for Mimi. She gave some yummy blueberry tea! Notice how she is holding the bag ALL by herself!
More pictures of my sweet girl. She is sooo serious, it cracks us up. We think half the time she is wondering whether or not we are crazy, which we are! One thing is for sure, she will know how much she is loved.


We love you Grace Jacklyn. Can't believe you are getting so big! We put all your 0-3 onsies away this week. You still fit in most of them... but Mommy was ready for a change! You still wear your 0-3 pants, I think those will be out for a while! Also we heard your first consonant this week! You said "gggg" Of course that makes sense seeing as how you hear "Grace, Grace, Grace" all day long. Can't wait to see how you change this week.

xoxo

Mommy & Daddy