Brynn the girly girl

Brynn is the biggest hoot lately!  She's so funny.  She says and does the funniest things.
She's such a girly girl that she has been begging to go to Dance class, she dances in front of the mirror any chance she gets, she's in my bathroom putting my make up on, asking me to paint her nails, put make up on her and dressing up in my clothes and jewelry.  Then she'll look at herself in the mirror and say "aren't I adorable?"

          she got into my lipstick!  

Every day she makes us put on a dress with a ballerina or a princess skirt so that she can twirl the day away. At night it's a nightgown with a ballerina skirt.  Anything girly and fru fru, she wants it.

Last week we took her to her first ballet/tap class and she couldn't wait!  As soon as we dressed her in her ballet clothes she said "mommy don't I look adorable and cute?!"

At class she paid very close attention to the instruction and the teacher.  She loved it.  She has natural dance abilities so I'm so excited to see what she can do.

Fainting Spell

We had quite the scare two weeks ago and last week was pretty eventful and scary for us!  I was changing Ava's earring in my bathroom one day and she started pulling away from me so I thought maybe it hurt and went to pull her back closer to me.  When I looked at her eyes her pupils were dilated so big and I could immediately tell she wasn't there. She kept going back so I caught her as she fell to the ground and realized that she had just fainted on me!  As she lay there her hands curled up and she sort of flopped around like she was having a mini seizure.  It was so scary!!! When she came to she was very upset and said "mama that is what happens to me at school!"  She's never fainted there but she's felt dizzy at times.

The doctor did several tests on her and ran an EKG.  A couple of days later they called me and told me to go see the cardiologist because the EKG came back with possible Left Ventricular Hypertrophy.  I already had an appointment for Friday and when I got back to my desk at work I began looking up what LVH was and immediately freaked out!  It could be life threatening and require heart surgery or possible transplant depending on the cause of it.  I was on the phone all day trying to get answers but nobody would return my calls until the next day.  Steve and I were both so upset.  I couldn't sleep and every second I looked at my child I worried that she could have a possible life threatening heart disease.  I briefly was in the shoes of parents who receive terrible news about their child's health.  I can't imagine what they go through on a day to day basis and how they pull through.  Every time I looked at her I thought of the possibility of losing her.  It was the worst 3 days of my life.

On Friday we went in for her Cardiology visit and it turns out that we actually had ballet with the cardiologists daughter so we already knew her! I watched as they did the Echo and it was amazing seeing Ava's heart on the screen.  I watched as she measured the thickness and the size of the valves etc.  The doctor came in shortly after and said that her echo looked good and no LVH!  That was the best news I've ever heard and what a relief!  They decided to send her home with a halter monitor to rule out any arrhythmia's and that came back today as normal.  Again, great news!  She does still have the murmur that they thought had disappeared, but it's still innocent so no concerns there.

Based on her blood pressure tests it looked like she is easily dehydrated (her blood pressure drops and heart rate increases for quite some time when she stands up).  I was surprised by this and said she drinks fluids constantly.  The doctor said some children are just way more sensitive to fluid imbalances and because she's so tiny it's not surprising that she is one of them.  So lots and lots of water for Ava and plenty of salty snacks.  We have made her carry her water with her everywhere and drink all day.  So far we haven't had any dizzy spells and she seems to be feeling good.  We'll see how she does at school, as that's when she's told me more than once that she felt bad on the playground and had to sit down.  We will do bloodwork at her visit in a couple of weeks to check for anything there, but so far all has been great news! 

All results of the halter monitor were normal!  

Ava's 6th Birthday Interview

How old are you?  6
What is your favorite thing to do?  Run around and play in the house and help my mommy pick up groceries
What do you want to be when you grow up?  An Artist because I'm good at art and I think I should be.
How are you going to make money?  I'm going to sell my pictures and then it's going to cost $1
What is your favorite food?  Cookies
Who do you like to spend time with?  Mommy because she lets me snuggle with her and I'm her snuggle bunny.
What do you do really well?  I run really well
What makes you laugh?  When people tickle me
What is the best time of the day?  Spending time with my family
What are you afraid of?  I'm afraid of the dark because it gives me the willies
Who is your best friend?  Emma
What do you like to do with your family?  I like to go outside and play in the playhouse with my family and I like to run and play with my family.
What do you love to learn about?  I love to learn about Math
Where do you like to go?  I like to go to learning express because it's got lots of toys
What is your favorite book?  Fancy Nancy because she's fancy and I like fancy
If you had one wish what would it be?  It would be seeing a unicorn because I like unicorns

Tooth Fairy Pillows

Ava hasn't lost any teeth yet but I suspect it's coming soon (I didn't lose any until I was 7, but hey).  Grandmother  made the girls these super cute tooth fairy pillows!  I love that she kept their color scheme and everything (Brynn is lavendar and Ava is pink)

Summer Synopsis

I have so much to catch up on here!  Since the summer started Emma and our friends moved away to Oklahoma.

It's been almost 2 months and we have yet to meet our new neighbors.  It's been pretty sad, but luckily we have several other friends in the neighborhood.  The girls have been loving summer because we got them a nanny for the summer so they could stay home and take it easy.  They have been two happy little campers!  It's been nice for me too because she keeps the house clean and the mornings are a breeze.  The girls get to sleep in and play all day.  Mimi does reading and 1st grade workbooks with Ava each day to keep her up to speed.

We have been reading the book "have you filled a bucket today" and the girls have been working really hard to be bucket fillers (be kind to others) instead of bucket dippers.  We even set up little pink buckets that gets filled with a marble every time they fill someone's bucket.  When they dip from someone's bucket they get a marble removed.  When the bucket is full they get a special treat.  This system works great for Ava, but Brynn could care less, but it's a good thing that she isn't much of a bucket dipper.

On the weekends we've been having family movie night and the girls just love it.  Ava eats up family time and goes on and on about how much she loves her family and that family movie night is the best night ever!  :)

So far this summer we've received a visit from aunt Kristi, Ava's gone to science camp with cousin Trent, we've had mine and Ava's birthday party and we've already had a visit from Gigi, Papi and Emma and Christy who all flew in just to be with Ava on her birthday!  We are blessed.

With Aunt Kristi

They love sleeping in the same bed at night

Our kick off to summer with a slumber party

Getting our "medicares"

Divas

Science camp with Trent

Blues Sisters?

Ava's Princess Birthday Party

For over a year Ava has been asking to have her birthday party at Sweet and Sassy.  So this year we invited 8 of her little friends to join us for a princess party.  It's really cute, each little girl gets to pick from a selection of princess costumes, then they do their hair, nails and makeup complete with crown and wand with plenty of glitter.  After that they walk in a fashion show and the birthday girl gets to pick 3 of her favorite songs for her and her friends to sing and dance to.  They had a blast!  Ava was so excited.

We had a little mishap with the cake.  HEB made the wrong cake and wrote in ugly blue icing "Happy 16th Birthday Princess Ava"  What tha....Anyway they fixed it, the cake was even more hideous, but nobody knew any different so the party went on.  Thank goodness Gigi was there to keep me calm and keep me from blowing a fuse.  haha!

The Princess were pooped after the party

Ava's birthday present from mommy,daddy, Gigi, Papi and Meme.

The Girls 1st Circus

The circus had perfect timing this year.  It fell right when Gigi and Papi were in town so we all went to the circus.  It was a really good circus and the girls had fun.  They did get a little bored at times but they really loved the poodles and their tricks.  Brynn and I were both holding our ears as there seemed to be a lot of explosions (not my cup of tea).