Leaving Las Vegas

Our next stop was Zion National Park in southern Utah.

Karsie loves being able to crawl and move around... what a nice break before the drive ahead.

We arrived at Zion, already sweaty, but excited to explore.

We promptly found a creek and decided that it was time to play!

It was much cooler down by the water... and so pretty.

Karsie was toasty too... so she got her little toes wet (semi-against her will). Once she felt the cooler water she didn't seem to mind as much.

Clapping on the shuttle bus.

We loved walking by the Virgin River down to the gateway to the Narrows... and if we had more time and the right shoes, we would have walked into the Narrows some.

Karsie loves riding along wherever we go. She loved all the green on this walk.

Zion is full of AMAZING scenery... like this massive rock wall that weeps.

On the walk back... getting a little tired.

On the shuttle back... really super tired!

On our way to Bryce!

Vacation Volume I - "108*"

In case "108*" is a bit confusing, let us enlighten you. It was the temperature in Las Vegas when we passed through and stayed for the night. Yuck!

Our first stop was Las Vegas. Since it was a weekday (Sundays are weekdays to the hotel businesses) hotels were cheap, so we treated ourselves to the MGM Grand. It was okay. Not great. We are a day behind on posting, so we'll get yesterday's up tomorrow or tonight. This was a picture taken on our way out to get dry ice on our way out of Vegas. Why dry ice? Breast milk. We are trying to keep 45 bags of breast milk frozen for two weeks. Well, it's 45 minus 3 each day.
Can you tell Kevin had on a carrier backpack for Karsie in 108 degree weather? We decided to take a walk to the Bellagio for a buffet (one that we would not end up getting) from our hotel, which ended up being quite the ordeal. They're doing construction on new condos on the strip and that caused us to go up and down and up and down stairs and escalators for many blocks. Not fun when you're carrying a 20 lb child (okay, more like 18.5 or so).

Kevin got Karsie out of the carrier and went to the garden at the Bellagio to cool off. So sweet!
We placed Karsie in front of some flowers at the entrance of the garden. We got a few looks from staff, but all the guests (and a TON of other people on this trip so far) gawked over how cute she was. Yes, we're proud, biased parents.

After we saw that the line at the buffet was way too long and Karsie was way too tired to justify spending that much on food that we will not get to eat as we take care of a tired child, we settled on McDonald's at our hotel. But before we braved the heat again we found a chair and rug for Karsie to play on. We also enjoyed the air conditioner.

Look at that sweet little bum! She LOVED the rug. A Bug on a rug. Ha ha....ha ha..........ha........................ha. (And yes, we wiped her off before she had a chance to chew on hands or feet).

After her spa treatment... Karsie got ready for bed like a big girl. It was time for her first night on vacation. She did very well. In fact, she has done amazingly well sitting in a car for hours at a time. There are moments, but she's a good little trooper.

Up next.......Utah and some national parks!

Birthday Party #1

That's right... we are those parents, the ones that have two parties for their kid. We had her first party today and despite the fact that she probably won't remember it... we all had a great time!

Cousin London and Uncle Matt playing above the pool.

Cousin Kelty playing with bubbles.

All the kiddos playing in the pool (Kelty, James and London).

Karsie got some cool toys... this is Emily... Karsie LOVES Emily (from the same family as Jaque the Peacock and Mortimer the Moose)!

Karsie and Kelty comparing notes on how to best play with this toy!

Cupcakes for the birthday girl!

Blowing out her candle.

Enjoying cake for the first time... not quite sure what to make of it!

She loved the texture in her hands though!

Olivia helped clean Karsie's mess.

Cake face!

Sharing with Murphy too!

Some Pictures from Today

Who do you see in her (here)... Kevin or Michelle??

Karsie loves lasagna... but not the pasta balls... she makes sure none stay in her mouth.

This meal was promptly followed by...

...this bath.

She LOVES being in the water... be it bath or pool... she is our little fish... which bodes well for her since swimming is a non-contact sport and might suit her tummy well later in life!

San Diego Adventures

Here are some favorites from our San Diego trip...

We had an awesome picnic with lots of friends... 4 babies, 4 dogs and many great friends. It was such a fun time to see some faces we haven't seen in a while and spend time catching up!

Karsie continues to LOVE being in water... she splashed half her bath water onto the floor... but she had a blast doing it.

After bath time, Karsie's curls really stand out!

We also spent some time with Karsie's Auntie Chrissy and Uncle Todd... Karsie loves them and said "Todd" and snuggled with Auntie Chrissy.

We had a lovely Fourth... and enjoyed the COOL San Diego weather!

The view from my parents balcony... at one point we saw 9 different fire works shows over the city! What a treat!

On our way out of town we had to stop at the zoo... Karsie did her impression of the lion for us.

And we enjoyed the time with Karsie's God-mamma.

It was a great trip... and we are excited to get back there pretty soon!

Breastmilk

Well, we made it! We have successfully weaned Karsie off of all medicine (aside from vitamins and Prilosec) and we now are giving her only breast milk. We're kind of at a funny time because we're on a ticking clock with the breast milk. We have just enough frozen to get us to the next G.I. appointment. Remember all those bottles and bags of breast milk in the freezer we showed you a few months back? We've burned through most of those and are quickly getting down to nothing. The good news is that if all goes well and she gains weight on this diet (fingers crossed and lots of prayer) she might be put onto regular cow's milk. That would be good for two reasons:

1. It would save us a TON of time not having to keep on top of thawing breast milk and moving them from freezer to freezer.

2. It would keep her from having to go onto formula because once we get back to the appointment, we'll be out of milk and Michelle isn't producing enough to meet Karsie's needs at this point. It's a good thing she was so diligent at pumping for so long even after Karsie stopped getting it for a long time.

Gain weight little bug!

The Limper and Spinner

Cruising and Limping

(This picture has nothing to do with the blog entry, but it's awesome!)

We can't really title this entry "crawling" yet because Karsie has kind of a weird mode of transportation. She is definitely mobile. She can go pretty fast and is getting faster by the day, but it's hard to call it a true crawl.

She crawls with her right leg and arms, but she tucks her left leg under herself and it's pretty much a limp or dead leg. If she had neurological problems with her left leg it would make sense, but she just uses it to keep her omphalocele up off the ground while the right leg does all the work. We think she permanently tucks it under because she knows how to use that leg to get herself back into a sitting position so she doesn't want to risk using it and having it go somewhere too far that she can't get back into a sitting position. So she keeps that leg in sitting position while she crawls and her right leg does all the steering and moving. Therefore, we have a child that crawls with a limp.

She also has learned how to spin using her legs. At Nana and "Grampa's" house she has lots of hardwood floors and she has learned to spin around in circles. She learned it chasing their cocker spaniel around and around, but then she learned she can do that without the dog. Kinda fun!

Happy 4th to everyone if we don't get a post up between now and then.

Goodbye Napper!

Oh the fun...

So, many of you may not know that we have been very blessed with a pretty happy, pretty compliant kid. Karsie has her days and moments like every baby, but for the most part, she's relatively easy...excluding medical stuff.

One of these areas that we have been blessed with good fortune is napping and nighttime sleep. Karsie pretty much knows when it's time to sleep and rolls over fairly quickly and goes to sleep. We put her down and there may be a fussy period for about 2-3 minutes, but she rolls to her side and goes down not too long thereafter.

All that is changing. She has learned now how to get up from laying down and get into sitting/crawling position. And now she does it ALWAYS! Last night we found her sleeping sitting up. We just put her down for a nap and before we even got out of the room she had...(ok...literally just got done checking on her because weird noises were coming from the room and this is what we saw...she's supposed to be napping)

Ok...before we had even gotten out of the room she had swiftly pulled herself up and was sitting up. Long story short...she has replaced her compliant napping attitude with sitting up and playing. And here we go...

Summer Days

"Homemade chicken noodle... yummy!"

"This is my new trick... check me out!"

"Hi dadi!" (Translation: hi baby)

"Hurry up and fill my pool please! It's hot!"

"I love swimming with my doggy."

"No crowding, Olivia."

"Love my little pool!"

"No more pictures mom... I'm swimming!"

Reglan Be Gone!!

We're done with Reglan! Last night, Karsie was given her final dose of Reglan as we have been weaning her off of it. Reglan is a medicine that is a bit controversial. While most doctors say that the benefits outweigh the risks, Reglan carries with it a link to brain issues. The purpose is to help Karsie with digestion. The GI doctors said that the bad effects on babies is very low, but Karsie was being given such a small amount that the risk is even lower. In fact, her dose wasn't ever changed since she was in the NICU. So Karsie has since gained 10 pounds and her dose has been the same, so it really has been a super long wean.

However, we really weaned her these past three weeks, and she has kept up her normal amount of pooping, so it looks like we're done for good. There is a small possibility that she may have to go on if she isn't digesting properly, i.e. not gaining weight as a result of digestion, but we're pretty sure she's done! Yay!