Holding Steady and Being Amazing

Shayna's Tuesday labs were good again with just normal liver number fluctuations.  Her EBV load in her blood dropped even more, which was nice to see.  We're still struggling with a strange rash that started behind her right knee a month ago.  Initially it looked like poison ivy (we'd gone blackberry picking a couple hours before I noticed it so that made sense) but it didn't go away with steroid ointment.  I also noticed bumps on her palms and soles which the doc said was probably a virus but couldn't explain the spreading bumps on her body.  The back of the knee began to look fungus like so Pittsburgh said to stop the ointment and wash her in Selsum Blue (the selenium sulfide is an anti-fungal).  This dried her skin to the near cracking-bleeding point so we visited the pediatrician again and went back to steroid ointments Wednesday.  Ped thinks it's a virus like HFMD while Pittsburgh's new thought is it could be something to do with the preventative bacterium she's on, so we knocked one oral med off our list.  Two nights with just the ointment change and her skin was already looking much better.  The important thing through all this is that Shayna has been happy and unaffected except during the first week when she was fussier, had trouble sleeping and didn't eat much.  She has been engaging in many feats each day that show how amazing she is.

We had a precautionary ultrasound Friday for which she laid perfectly still while a stranger jellied and probed her belly.  Granted, I did feed her a light fruit breakfast when she was supposed to be on a 10hr fast (ridiculous on so many levels) and brought my computer with Finding Nemo.  I was blownaway by the fact that she just lay on the table perfectly still the whole time.  

She's also getting to be quite a good climber with the ability to coordinate her hands and feet on irregularly placed steps an other "odd" climbing surfaces.  She's started looking at where she should place her feet next instead of blindly reaching upward.

Her language understanding is increasing at an incredible pace.  One daily conversation usually goes:

Shayna: "Aba", Me: "what about Aba?", Shayna: "bye-bye", Me: "yes, Aba went bye-bye.  Aba went to work"  This is the typical conversation about most people and things Shayna mentions.

Today all 3 of us went on the deck to watch the Apache Helicopter fly over.  I'm holding Shayna and she says: "Aba", Me: "what about Aba?", Shayna looks at Aba furows her brow and thinks hard for a few seconds (you can see in her face she's really pondering how to answer this since the usual answer is not appropriate) "Watches" she declares to her parents' utter delight.  Needless to say, I thought my child was the most brilliant child on earth at that moment.  

In the Market for a Mohel!

For those of you not familiar with Jewish tradition, this means we're having a boy!  We were even able to tell on the ultrasound ourselves.  Shayna came and was fascinated by the pictures on the screen.  I wonder what her little brain thought of us, telling her we were taking pictures with a special camera of the baby inside Ima's belly.  She was also a little concerned about me as she had to be on the table with me the whole time she was in the room or she would cry.  SJ's estimated weight was 13oz +/- 0.9oz.  We're excited to know and I'm excited about the shopping I'll get to do (after I get all of Shayna's stuff packed away properly).

Shayna is doing great.  We had labs today and, while she wiggled much more than usual, she didn't let out a peep.  It was also teaching day for Nahum and Becca.  They each now know how to get Shayna's lab stuff together and where to take her for the blood draw.  Becca also got a tour of the birthing center (they're at the same hospital).  We're all ready for SJ and any issues along the way now.

Shayna's physical therapy is almost done.  The only thing she can't do is climb onto a straight-backed (dining room) chair so we're still doing a lot of climbing and crawling exercises in addition to the core strength bouncing and jumping.  She's well ahead of the curve as far as language goes with well over 50 words, some in both Hebrew and English.  She likes to tell us about everything she does and sees.  She'll even read some of her books to herself, pointing out the different animals (I heard her for the first time yesterday).  She loves books and loves to study each page of whatever the current favorite is (right now it's any monkey, dog, or new baby book; though, any animal book will do).  For those of you who aren't on FB, you should check out our latest youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM-sXfguaUk. Shayna also likes to help me in the kitchen these days.  I measure the ingredients then she pours them in the bowl.  She's also good at handing me eggs but not so much the stirring.  Here's a picture of us with our Rosh Hashanah challah.