Maryam's new sand table

Here is Maryam's newest toy. Its a sand/water table. When it gets a tad bit warmer we'll add the water! Until then, Mommy will just have to continue washing sand out of all that hair everyday.

Its great! It has a train that goes around the outside and sail boats to float in the water....once we add it.

Cheeeese

Maryam saw the camera this morning during breakfast and started saying "cheeeeese" and smiling! So I took the oppertunity and snapped some great shots.

Silly, silly baby!

Maryam's "chair"

Since Maryam's been sick, she's been carrying around a box of tissue. Friday morning she carried it around and then put it down by her chairs. I thought she was just going to sit in her chair and watch cartoons. Not so much...she sat on the tissue box in front of her chairs and watched cartoons. Silly baby!

Maryam at the park with Mommy

You would think that after running around in the sun for 3 hours that she would have exhausted all of her energy, nope! When we got home from San Diego I took her to the park to run out a little more. Unfortunately the lights weren't on so we had to leave before the sun went down.

Here is a picture of Maryam and Mommy before going down the big slide together.

Here is Maryam on the swing. I'm so glad that she started liking the swings. She still doesn't have strong enough muscles in her shoulders to pull herself up on many of the climbing equipment, so the swings and slides are nice alternatives.

Maryam did not want to eat dinner tonight. She threw every piece of food that I put on her tray. Finally she calmed down and just hugged on a pumpkin guy until her dinner was done. I think she just finally ran out of energy. You can see that she looks a little tired in this photo.

22 months

I think its funny that we mom refer to our babies in months. Today Maryam was exactly 22 months. STRANGE. Its hard to believe that in only 2 months my little baby will be 2 years old. When are we supposed to stop saying their age in months anyway? Maryam is wearing an outfit that Auntie Maymay (My friend Mayda) gave to her. I never thought this would happen to me, but I'm actually kind of sad that she's big enough to be wearing 24 months. Its weird, because for the first year and a half of her life I was SUPER happy when she'd go up a size because that meant she was healthy and growing. After hearing "failure to thrive" too many times you start praying for weight gain and larger clothes. BUT LOOK AT HER A YEAR AGO!

So small. Its almost like looking at two different babies! What a difference a year can make, well, what a difference a month can make! Just a few months ago Maryam was still on oxygen and not walking. Maybe that's why we mothers refer to our babies ages in months, because so much can happen in a month. OK, I solved the mystery.

Well, I've been a very bad blogger. I wrote the above passage yesterday and never published it. DUMB. Oh well. This photo is of Maryam and her OT Dawn. Dawn will be having a baby of her own in a few short weeks. Maryam really seems to like Dawn. Of course today Maryam did not perform to her best abilities. BUT she did swallow a Cheerio and a few pieces of a french fry. She also swallowed A LOT of ranch dressing which is good because ranch dressing has many calories in it!
I've been taking Maryam to the park in the morning so she can run out some of her energy. I've noticed that when she's outside all she wants to do is run around. It got me thinking that maybe she's not outside enough. So, I'm doing the good stay at home mommy thing and taking her to the park. Yesterday some moron lady asked me Maryam's age. I told her that she'll be 2 in December. (I avoided the whole month age thing that time...its hard to remember! I have to remember two! She's 22 months actual but 18 months and 1 week adjusted...c'mon!) She actually looked at her and said, "why is she so small?" Um, she's not! I got mad and wanted to say, "why are you so ugly?" but I didn't. I just said "She's not small, she's huge, she started out as only 1 pound 10 ounces." The lady said, "oh, wow. Sorry." I just took Maryam off the swing and left. Of course that made Maryam really mad...she wasn't done swinging, but I didn't want to have to subject myself or Maryam to anymore idiocy. I know that we preemie moms are a sensitive bunch, but really, Maryam isn't small for her age at all, not for her actual age and especially not for her adjusted age.

First Trip to Oak Glen, CA

WHAT A DAY! Brett and I took Maryam up to Oak Glen for the day. Cowdy Scott, Auntie Sarah and Charlie Mae met up with us on the way there and Yaya and Papa came with us from Twentynine Palms. First we stopped to pick pumpkins in this SUPER HUGE pumpkin patch. Maryam got REALLY dirty. I actually had to change her clothes when she was done. And honestly she was more interested in running free and playing in the dirt than she was in all the "balls!" She stopped calling them balls quickly. She also didn't like how prickly the vines were.
Maryam hadn't seen Charlie Mae in over a month and she was so happy to see her. Charlie Mae hugged her and Maryam smiled and leaned in. That's all the affection one can ask for from Maryam. It was very touching.
After pumpkin picking we went to Oak Tree Village where the girls got to play in the petting zoo. Maryam went NUTS! She loved it. She ran in and instantly started petting a super huge black pig. It could have very easily eaten her. She just ran around from animal to animal feeding them kernels of corn. She would only feed them one kernel at a time though. And yes, she did put a kernel in her mouth, shocker. We all had a wonderful time.
I have some wonderful eating news. While we were sitting down at lunch I was giving Charlie and Maryam Cheese Puffs. Maryam swallowed them! Notice in the photos where Maryam is wearing the pink dear shirt there is very little, if any orange on her shirt. The best part, she wasn't wearing a bib! Those Cheese Puffs were swallowed! HOORAY!
Auntie Sarah came over and gave some Cheerios to Charlie and put some on Maryam's stroller tray. Maryam took them one by one and put them in her mouth. I thought, wait for it, they'll all be coming out any second now. She has a tendency to pack them in like a chipmunk and then spit them all out in one big clump. When they didn't come out I had her say, "ah." I saw that she had a mouth full of mushy Cheerios. I quickly put a straw into a water bottle and had her take a swig. She took a few sips and swallowed 3 times. I had her open her mouth again and it was all gone! HOORAY! She swallowed 5 Cheerios. Then she did it again and again and again! Only she wasn't needing the assistance of the water anymore. It was like she just knew what to do. All in all I'd say she ate between 20 - 30 Cheerios today. I couldn't be happier. This is day 3 of Maryam swallowing food. Say your prayers that this is just the beginning of a lifetime of normal eating from now on.

Princess Maryam

Maryam found a princess crown yesterday and decided that she wanted to wear it. She walked around the house wearing her crown. She had no idea that she wasn't wearing it properly and I thought it was too cute to try to put it on correctly.

Maryam didn't sleep very well last night. She's still suffering from her molars coming in. She actually cries in her sleep. Its so sad. I managed to put teething gel in her mouth without waking her up. I was pretty surprised that she didn't wake up from my fingers in her mouth.

A different perspective

Well here's a view of Maryam we hadn't seen before. Maryam is trying to do summersalts. I have no idea where she saw this before, but she's attempting. This weekend at my mom and dad's house, she did this. These two photos are from Saturday, the bottom two are from Monday night.

And then there's Mr. Bishop, where there's a hiny.... Silly doggy is definitely a hound dog.

Photos from today

Here is Maryam sitting next to her favorite chair in the house....why? I don't know. But when I took this picture she was trying to say "piggies." It sounded more like "peeeg."

Here are Maryam and Anna playing in the "off limits" room. They do this a lot. I'm not very good at keeping it off limits though.

Here is Maryam running outside in the rain....Bishop decided to chase her. Notice how her left arm is. That's what the therapist was talking about. Her left arm is practically across her chest while the right arm swings as its supposed to. And ALL day today I had to keep telling her not to walk on her toes. She understands me because she goes down on to her heels for a few steps, then she's back up again. I'm doing the exercises so hopefully we'll see an improvement over time. One thing I noticed today while doing the exercises was that her left ankle is much tighter than her right ankle. When I told Brett he was concerned because the trouble with her shoulder is on her left side too. When all the CP talk was going around a few months ago, we did some research and learned that some of the common signs are having one side dominance, tightness in the tendons and low muscle tone. Well, her left ankle is tight and her left shoulder has very low tone. But does that show that one side is dominant over the other? I'll have to ask about that.
In VERY good news, I heard back from Dr. Wojtczak, Maryam's Pediatric Pulmonologist and he agrees that her numbers look good enough to stop supplementing her oxygen! HOORAY! He wants to wait 4 to 6 weeks to see if she continues to do well, if she does, he'll write the order for her to be released! HOORAY! I've still been checking her every night and will continue to do so while we have the pulse oximeter here. Last night when I went to sleep she was at 97%! That is AWESOME!
Keep her in your prayers. Thank you.

Bumbo Baby

Maryam took the Bumbo off the chair at the dining room table to do this. First she was kneeling in it.

Then she was standing in it.

Next she tried moving it. That was hysterical because she just couldn't get a good hold on it. Either her hands are too weak or the Bumbo is still too heavy for her.

I thought I'd post this picture so you can see how the Bumbo chair is supposed to be used. This is Maryam last year at this time. Its almost hard to believe its the same baby!

At the park tonight

Maryam and Anna on the slide together. After a few trips down the slide they wouldn't go down it without each other.

Christi trying to make them hold hands for the photo...we're such posers.

Here is Maryam and Mommy after our 3.5 mile walk. SUPER fun!

Checking out the terrain

Mr. Bishop in our amazingly landscaped backyard. Don't be jealous y'all!

Here is Maryam checking out the backyard. She NEVER wants to go outside to play, probably because its way too hot! But yesterday she kept pointing outside and saying, "iontdat." Which we have figured out means, I want that. So, we took her out to see what she thought. Mostly she lost her footing and fell down a lot. But she did have fun putting her hands in the dirt and picking up and dropping rocks. Of course, I didn't get any of that on film, because I left the camera inside. By the time I came back out, she was on the porch and ready to go back inside.

Even Mr. Bishop got tired of being in the sun!
Today we took M out front to check out the front yard. Daddy was out watering, our sprinkler system needs some work, and M was wandering the yard. Our street is on kind of a hill so there is a good 3 feet difference between our house and the house next door. M was over looking near the property line when she slipped on some dirt (SHOCKING) and then rolled into the neighbor's yard. She rolled twice! It was hysterical! The good news is, she stood up and laughed! She wasn't embarrassed or hurt, I think she thought it was fun.
We're still testing Maryam's O2 levels at night. A couple of nights ago I put the pulse oximeter on her and she wasn't staying over 90% on 1/16 liter of O2 per minute. So, I turned her up to 1/8 LPM and nothing! It didn't budge! FINALLY it went up to 92%! This scared the crap out of me. It took me going all the way up to 1/2 LPM until she finally got up over 95% and even then it stayed steady around 95-96%...not good. I started skimming my memories for the day, was she feverish, was she breathing hard, did we give her the breathing treatment, does she need lasix? Then, it happened. She rolled from her back to her stomach....and voila! 100%! Clear as day...100%. So, I turned her down to 1/4, still 100%, turned her down to 1/8, still 100%, turned her down to 1/16 and we got some movement...98%. 20 minutes later I go in to see how she's doing...still at 99% on 1/16 LPM. Relief....I was going to finally go to bed. Then it happened again....her levels started dropping. When it stayed at 92% for more than a minute I got up to look at her, I wanted to see if she had her face buried in the sheets or something, NOPE! She had rolled on to her side!
OK...I've never been more convinced that her O2 needs at night are positional. When she's on her tummy, she's fine! Its when she's on her back or side that she starts requiring help. When she had her Preemie Follow-up appointment in June her neo put in a referral for Maryam to see an Ears, Nose and Throat doc because her tonsils looked large and because Maryam is a restless sleeper. Her appointment is July 31st and I'm definitely convinced now that she needs to see this specialist.
In molar news, it still hasn't cut through. Last night poor Brett had to stay awake with her until 6am. Stupid me got dehydrated, so I was pretty much useless. I had her up until 2:30, when I got so dehydrated that I got sick and could barely stand. At that point Super Daddy took over and I started to recover.
This evening we went swimming with The Carnes Fam. Anna tried teaching Maryam to do Patty-Cake better! It was super cute! Super Mom Chrissy actually took photos of the girls together, I stayed in the pool. When she sends me copies, I'll post them. Tonight Maryam went to sleep at 11pm, since she only had a half hour nap today, ran a muck ALL day, went swimming for an hour and a half and only had 5 hours of sleep last night, I'm anticipating a full night's rest. Good night!

Our girl

Her Daddy is so proud. (I'm sure Uncle Scott is too!!) We walked around the corner to find Maryam using the beer boxes as a jungle gym.

Then, not even an hour later, Maryam made Mommy and ALL the women in her family proud by playing in shoes!!!! Hooray!!!