I am in a bit of denial these days.  Less than two weeks from now my baby is turning 1.  One. Year.  Old.  Where did the year go?  Talk about absolute whirlwinds.  And thirteen days after Finley's birthday.  My little man is turning 4!!  Crazy.  And I typically don't fret about how old I am getting - but I got a nice reminder yesterday when Sylvia brought her son's girlfriend over to meet Finley.  Magda and Finley absolutely hit it off.  I noticed Magda was wearing Rolling Meadows High School shorts so I asked her when she graduated - thinking she might know the Sepke's and she said - I just graduated.  I was like holy cow - well you don't know my friend then - I graduated in 93 so Lisa would have been a year younger than me (I was thinking aloud) to which Magda said, "I was born in '92.  NINETY TWO????  Holy hell.  The feeling of oldness washed over me.  All I could do was laugh.  And feel old.

Just in time for her 1st birthday, Princess Finley got her second tooth!  This one was much more of an event than the first - she was working on this one for a couple of weeks, trying to get whatever she could in her mouth so she could chomp on it - and finally it popped through Sunday.  That little tidbit of news didn't make it in to Monday's update because I was still in shock over pulling out her g-tube on Sunday!!!

Today I worked from the office and brought my Change Makers jug in.  My master plan nearly went awry though because I left the house without it today and didn't realize it until I got to work.  My dear sweet husband took pity on me because he knew how much I wanted to bring it and he dropped it off at the office for me on his way to work this morning.  How sweet!  I also donated blood today at work.  I had made the commitment to myself after Finley's first open heart surgery that donating blood was something I needed to start doing again since Finley has been so fortunate to get donated blood so many times over the last year.  Well I finally got around to doing it.  I was a little nervous because the last time I donated was after Nate was born and I felt like CRAP for the rest of the day.  But you know what - it went a-okay and I am planning on trying to donate every 56 days now!


That's it for now.  I have a big client meeting tomorrow that I am looking forward to putting behind me so I am off to prep for that!

I accidentally pulled out Finley's g-tube yesterday.  There.  I said it.  And I feel horrible.  The truth is - it was bound to happen....I just didn't want it to happen to me!  This time - it was much more anti-climatic that the first time (Nate chase dog, dog runs into pole and knocks it over at 6:30 am when Mike was out of town).  I had set up Finley's pack-and-play on the patio in back so we could enjoy some family time outside together and as I leaned over to put her in to it, the tubing from her feeding bag got caught between me and the side of the pack-and-play and as I put her down, the tubing stayed put because it was pinched and out it came.  Just like that. No crying.  No blood this time.  In fact - I don't think she knew what happened until I went to put it back in.  The first time this happened - it had never been changed before.  The button is changed every three months and the first time is supposed to be done in the hospital so they can make sure everything healed the way it should and so they could show us how to do it.  Well the first time it got pulled out - that was a trip to the ER.  This time, while we had watched them do it before - its much different than when you have to do it yourself.  (As a side note - all of the other times Finley has needed it changed, she's already been in the hospital so they just did it for us!)  So I thought I would call the pediatric surgery resident and just have them talk me through it just to be sure.  So as I sat there and waited on hold, I got out the new g-tube kit and Mike was a good coach and was saying, "Remember they did this....Remember you are supposed to do that..."  It was good.  He stays so calm in these situations where I tend to freak out a bit.  Any way, as we were still waiting on hold, Mike held little Finley's arms while I was trying to re-insert it and - it wouldn't go it.  Then Mike kindly reminded me, to my horror, that I needed to put surgical lube on it.  POOR GIRL!  And here I have been trying to just put it back in the hole!  Needless to say, a little surgical lube and a couple of tense seconds later, I got it in!!!  And Finley being Finley, calmed within a couple of minutes and then went back to playing.  I on the other hand tested her blood sugar a couple of times within the next hour because I kept thinking - what if I didn't get it in the right place??? I am not sure where else I thought it could have gone but I was paranoid.  Needless to say, it all worked out in the end and now we can cross another thing off our list of "What happens when".  Oddly, its sort of comforting to know now that if it happens again, we can take care of it.

Nate fell asleep with his Buzz Lightyear in his hand on Friday.  This one "Rocket Buzz" is his favorite!

The rest of the weekend was fun - and slightly less eventful - but fun nonetheless.  I rounded off the week with my 4th-day-in-a-row trip to the new grocery store to do my shopping on Friday night.  I am proud to say - I didn't go all weekend!  And while the prices seems comparable to say, Jewel, I somehow managed to spend quite a bit more than normal.  I am hoping this was just a beginners luck sort of thing and that it doesn't continue - otherwise - I might be going back to Jewel!

Finley cuddling with daddy

Yesterday I spent much of the day trying to get some things done for Finley's birthday party!  I still cannot believe that in two weeks from yesterday she will be turning one! Nuts!  It will be so nice to have everyone over to celebrate her first year and all of her triumphs!  There are so many people coming that haven't even met Finley yet and so many people that touched our lives and offered so much help and support over the last year.  Its really going to be such a special day!

Finley's first White Sox shirt (not technically - she grew out of the first one when she was in the hospital originally).  Notice the fancy pants - momma's favorite (courtesy of Lisa!)

From behind....seriously?  How cute is that?

A rare photo of Nate - the unphotgraphable....

I am proud to say we are Change Makers this year!!  What is a Change Maker you ask?  Well, as part of Eric and Kathy's 36 hour radiothon for Childrens Memorial Hospital in September, they do this Change Maker thing leading up to it where all of the "Change Makers" collect spare change from anyone and everyone they know - quarters, dimes, nickles, pennies, DOLLARS - and all of the money gets donated to Childrens Memorial Hospital.  We are officially Change Makers in the Roth household so PEOPLE LISTEN UP!!!!  If you are stopping by for a visit - bring your spare change!  If I see you at work - I am going to be hitting you up for your spare change!  If you see me out and about - I just might be carrying this container you see here and I need you to fill it with your spare change!!!  As Nate would say, "You get that?"  What I am trying to say here is we need your help so we can fill this container up and then some!!!  WE NEED YOU!!!!

On another note, I survived the work week.  Mike came home last night, just in time to celebrate his birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!).  And the anticipated craziness of my week was crazy indeed but I have to say, it could have been incredibly frustrating but things just seemed to fall in to place so I didn't have any Earth shattering mishaps, frustrations, etc.  Everything just sort of flowed.  And it was good.

Nate's recent art project which I adore!

Finley saw the urologist for the first time yesterday.  It was an interesting visit.  He started out by saying that he wasn't sure Finley ever had a UTI in the first place.  What?  I guess her culture that got this ball rolling to begin with only grew 1000 bacteria.  You need 10,000 for it to be considered clinically significant.  And since there are tons and tons of people in the world with kidney reflux today who are perfectly fine - 75% of them have no idea they have it at all and never have any issues.  And since Finley's is only on one side and a low grade (2-3) Dr. Cheng said that he'd like to try to confirm that there was no damage to her kidney as a result of the UTI (we are going to do this via a kidney scan) and if the scan comes out okay - he said he is going to take her off of the preventive antibiotic that she takes now and we can cross him off our long list of doctors.  WHOO HOO!!  He said that he thinks that the reason they focused so much on the UTI because they were really trying to figure out what was wrong in the hospital, why she was running a fever, etc. and that was the only thing that presented itself.  He said that had that not happened, and we didn't have the subsequent follow up tests, we may never have known Finley had reflux because she might never have had a problem with it.  Go figure.

My sweet little Nate shared his Wall-E toy with Finley while she was sleeping last night....so cute!

Admittedly though, my biggest excitement this week came in the form of the new grocery store, Mariano's Fresh Market, that opened up a couple blocks from my house.  I like to think of it as a cross between Whole Foods (but better) and Jewel.  I was eagerly awaiting its opening (Tuesday at 6 am) and so I stopped by that afternoon after work thinking nothing of it.  What I encountered was a parking lot I can only liken to Woodfield Mall on Christmas Eve.  The place was a mad house!  Truly, I went in for a loaf of bread and milk and the first three things I put in my basket were: two beautiful cupcakes that were decorated as flowers, some Snickerdoodle cookies (Nate's favorite) and a bottle of wine (they were giving out samples!).  Here is a run down of the excitement - they have: a gelato stand, espresso stand, fried dough stand, brick oven pizza station, panini station, sushi bar, and a bakery, deli/cheese/seafood/bakery/butchers counters that put all other stores to shame.  Seriously, I was really geeked up about this.  And you know what, I have been there every day since it opened!  Last night I picked up dinner (a brick oven pizza) and today I went for a birthday cake for Mike!


And so I leave you with a picture of my little princess doing what she likes to do best these days - play with her toes....

Can you blame her?

As though Monday's weren't bad enough, I have sort of been dreading today an extra special lot.  Mike is out of town through Wednesday and in addition to Finley's two doctor's appointments this week (today and Wednesday) I also have/had two client meetings this week (today and Wednesday).  Not to mention my own physical on Thursday (which I am dreading but that is a whole other story entirely).  My day went a little something like this:

Wake up at 4:30 am.  Pump.  Mix milk.  Shower. Start the sprinklers (our second try at growing grass this summer).  Get Finley up, changed, hearing aids in, etc.  Get Nate up and situated.  Get dressed.  Get Finley's stuff packed up and leave at 7:15 am for Finley's 8:30 am appointment with the Immunologist at the Children's clinic in Lincoln Park.  Leave the clinic at 10:15 am, get home by 11 am.  Change clothes, make lunch (that I can eat in the car) and turn around and drive BACK out to the city for a 1 pm client meeting.  Leave the office at 3:30 pm and sit in the afternoon rush hour to get home.

Bad planning you ask?  Perhaps.  But when Mike's trip got scheduled it was already too late to reschedule these appointments.  The Immunologist wouldn't have been able to see Finley until September and it couldn't wait that long and who knows how long it would take to reschedule the urology appointment considering that got scheduled in May and our July 21st appointment was his first opening!!!  My day on Wednesday will look similar except the client meeting is in Lincolnshire in the morning and the doctor is in the afternoon.  Anyway....

Today's appointment with the Immunologist was a follow up to the blood work Finley had done in April when she was hospitalized unexpectedly for an infection in her airway.  It was at that time that we learned about her sub-glottic stenosis and the fact that her airway was 75% closed off.  (We later learned that was NOT a result of the infection - the infection was just a bonus!)  At the time of her infection, the lab initially said her culture came back positive for Staph and Strep.  This raised significant concern because of Finley's previous surgical wound infection in her chest after her first open heart surgery.  So the doctor ordered this blood work up with the thought that perhaps Finley has an immune issue (which sometimes occurs with CHARGE).  After the bloodwork was done, we ended up getting a call from the lab saying - oops - the culture was positive for Strep only - not Staph (which was actually the biggie).  And so we went on our merry way with some amoxicillin (once the infection was under control and Finley could breathe on her own again).  At that time, her blood work came back - it showed she had a suppressed lymphocyte count - which wasn't completely atypical since she was fighting an infection.  At that time, the immunologist wanted us to follow up a couple months after her surgery (to ensure the blood she received during surgery wouldn't impact the results) but before her first birthday because they advised us not to allow her to have any live vaccines until this blood work was complete.  The doctor was very pleased with Finley's overall exam today, he had trouble listening for her heart murmur because she had a lot to say to him during the exam and she was chit chatting so loudly - he couldn't hear!  She was an absolute trooper in the lab and actually had to be stuck twice because the first vein gave out when they were drawing the blood.  She wasn't happy (and neither was mommy) but she bounced back right away as soon as they were done.  So what now?  Unfortunately - these are the worst kind of tests - the ones you have to wait two weeks for results on.  And so we should hear something in a couple of weeks.  What does it mean if an issue is identified? Well, since the results of her first test didn't show anything aside from a reduced lymphocyte count, aside from not getting live vaccinations and irradiated blood (if she were to need a transfusion), there really isn't anything they would do.  They might decide a course of prophylactic antibiotics is necessary but she's already on the for her kidney reflux and so we have that base covered.  More to come on that.

In spite of the heat and humidity this weekend, it really was gorgeous outside (bright sun, blue sky, etc.) and so Nate did what every kid wants to do on a hot day - he ran through the sprinkler...

Finley working with her light box.

And she got her little toesies painted...


So, let us all be thankful that Monday is gone again and we don't have to see him for another week!

An extra special thanks to Grammy for coming over today at 7 am and for helping out all day.  I couldn't not have made today work out without you!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I had a wonderful date with my little man last night.  Much to my chagrin, dinner turned into McDonald's but that was what Nate wanted.  The movie was awesome and Nate is hilarious - for some reason he doesn't like to eat popcorn DURING the movie - he always wants to get popcorn AFTER the movie.  So, when the movie ended, I got him some popcorn and we went home.  Today when I picked him up from daycare he said he wanted to go to the movies again.  I asked him what he wanted to see - he said "the movie with the little cheese puffs".  I said, you mean the movie we saw the sign for yesterday?  "Yes", he said.  Ah yes - Despicable Me  - I asked him. "Yep, 'Spicable Me".

Not a fan of getting his picture taken.

Well, the humidity is good for something!  Finley is still fighting a little cold and so Gigi has been bringing her outside for a couple hours each of the last mornings and I will say - the humidity has done wonders for her cold and she absolutely loves it!



Finley had two great therapy sessions today.  Her therapists continue to say how amazed they are with her progress post-surgery.  Finley works hard during her sessions and there are a few things in particular that Finley loves - practicing standing is one of them.

Finley and her physical therapist, Meg. (How great is this picture???)

Finley is a smart girl though - she knows exactly how to get herself out of therapy when she doesn't want to work or when she's done for the day.  She does this fake cry thing with alligator tears until the therapist stops and puts her in the position she wants - then the smile returns to her face.  Sometimes she will even fake falling asleep until the therapist leaves and then what do you know?  She perks right back up.  Sometimes though, she is legitimately tired, like today, after working hard with Gigi on her tummy outside.  She just didn't have enough left in the tank to finish therapy.


Perhaps the funniest part of the day was when Gigi and I were getting ready to take Finley to have a new hearing aid mold made yet again. Gigi commented that her hearing aid wasn't buzzing as much as it had been and lamented that it figured since we were getting ready to take her to the doctor.  Then it occurred to me - it was time to change her hearing aid batteries and the darn things were likely dead.  Sure enough - they were.  The reason this is so funny though is because she had just finished up with the hearing therapist and had had a great session - but her hearing aids hadn't been working the whole time!  The therapist was so impressed because Finley was babbling to her the whole time and I suppose the distraction was good because she didn't seem to notice that they weren't working at all!

And last but certainly not least - I was wrong - more people than I can count on my two hands are reading my blog!!  I need two extra fingers!!  Thanks for showing me the love guys!  I feel much better about the fact that I have more friends out there!