Photo Session with Jackie Willome Photography!

I'm over the moon about the promotional pictures taken by Jackie Willome Photography, yesterday! Click the photo below, to see a slideshow!

SEVEN MONTHS BEHIND!

Wow, time really does fly. It has been 7 months since my last post! Wow, I guess I'll have to go over the highlights month by month.

April 2010 - Let's see...Morgan turned 17 months in April. She was identifying the letters in her name, saying several words like "Mommy", "Daddy", "baby", and all kinds of other words. She could identify the letters in her name and "read" it, although she'd say (and still says), "Morney", instead of "Morgan". :)

May 2010 - This month was actually pretty eventful. She had her 18-month check-up and these were her stats: Height 33 1/2" (90th percentile), Weight 25 lbs., 10 oz. (70th), and her Head Circumference was in the 90th percentile.

Her eczema still wasn't completely cleared up, so despite being told several times that a blood test for allergies might be pointless, I requested that one be done. The process of drawing Morgan's blood was temporarily traumatic, but the results were worth knowing.

Morgan has the following allergies: (Allergies are rated in Classes 1 to 6, with 6 being the most severe...)

Class 5 - Milk, Egg Whites, Peanuts

Class 4 - Cat Dander

Class 3 - Dog Dander

Class 2 - Soy, Wheat and Walnut

THAT WAS A SURPRISE! I did not expect that many allergies. I was particularly taken aback by the soy allergy, given that we had been giving her soy formula and then soy milk. It certainly explained why her eczema hadn't cleared up all the way. We got a referral to an allergist and she told us to take Morgan off all the allergenic items and keep her away from cat and dog dander for 2 full months. The improvement was marked, albeit slow.

June 2010 to present - I've made a zillion trips to Whole Foods since there and should have a parking spot with my name on it. :) We tried rice milk, at first, but then I found HEMP MILK! Before you start to giggle, please note that there is 0.00% THC in hemp milk. I am NOT getting my baby high! It has Omega 3 and Omega 6 and all kinds of wonderful vitamins and minerals and Morgan loooooooves it. It's a little on the pricey side, because hemp cannot be grown in the U.S. and it has to be imported from Canada. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Basically, they can't tell the difference between hemp and cannabis (which would be used to make marijuana), so they've made it illegal to grow either one. I think it's awful, given all the many benefits of hemp, but that'd be a story for another blog post.

As part of her diagnosis with a severe peanut allergy, I was given 2 Epi-Pens. Epi-Pens are used to deliver an emergency dose of epinephrine, in the case a severe allergic reaction, with the risk of anaphylactic shock. It was a little nerve-wracking to know that we now had a need for such a thing, but as far as we know, Morgan has never been exposed to peanuts, so hopefully, we won't ever have to use it.

We had some minor setbacks in the quest for safe foods. I once tried goat's milk yogurt, because the label stated that it "may be tolerated by many with milk allergies". Hmm, well NOT MORGAN! :( My poor baby projectile-vomited all over the place and that was the last time I tried anything even remotely suspicious.

I know that all sounds bad, but Morgan is actually doing very well. Her skin has pretty much cleared up and her only problem areas are her hands. She's still so very happy and smiley.

She's almost 23 months old now and will be turning two mid-November! She talks SO much now and she completely amazes me with all that she learns. She can almost count to 20, she knows all her letters, she can identifies dozens of animals. She's even speaking in 5-word sentences, lately. She has been watching a lot of Dora the Explorer. I never thought I'd watch that show, but she learns SO much from it! She can count to 3 in Spanish and knows a few other words, like "cuidado" and "hola". She talks along with the show, sometimes, and she even forms her own sentences. She came in the other day and said "my stroller is in there". She said all 5 words, not just "stroller there", but a complete sentence! She even sings, which is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. I don't mean that she'll be doing opera soon, but I mean that her little voice is so sweet to my ears. :) I'm hoping to get a little video of it, soon. I do have one of her saying her "ABCs", that I will post.

I'm going to bed, but hopefully it won't be another 7 months before I post, again. Good night!

Oh, and here is an updated picture of Morgan!