Trista Faith: July Re-Cap

I hope everyone has had a great July. I know we sure have! It's been busy and full of chaos, but what's new, right?? :)

Here is a picture of Trista on the 4th. We had a small get together and, of course, crazy big and loud fireworks thanks to my pyrotechnic loving husband!

Trista is doing really good. She has a total of 5 teeth now and she's working on her 6th. Still all on the right side. Weird - for some reason her teeth aren't coming in on the left side.

She still isn't walking on her own yet, but she is crusing behind her baby stroller and loves walking around the table. BIG NEWS! She's started signing!!! She can sign "more" and "all done"! Those are the only 2 that she has shown us so far, but I can tell she's trying to work on more of them. I'm really hoping for the"ma-ma" sign soon!!

She has really started loving her brothers. Almost to the point of obsession with Talan. Talan & Alec do a lot of wrestling and Trista seems to think she's ready for that. She gets right in the middle of them and wants to be a part of the action. She might be little, but she sure is tough! The boys are starting to realize that already!!

She's almost 17 months and now up to 16.5 pounds. She's still on Alimentum which is a little tough just because it's so pricey. Most babies her age have been on regular milk for at least 3-4 months by now. She just loves her some Alimentum - I can already tell she's going to be a picky eater!! Speaking of eating, she is tolerating her baby food much better now. She loves bananas and strawberries and is starting to like sweet potatoes. Just yesterday she ate some pizza and really liked it too! Maybe she's getting over her "gag" reflex after all!

She's completely medicine free! No more reflux medicine twice a day. WOO-HOO! Can you tell I'm happy to say that?? Don't get me wrong, she still has reflux episodes, but they are getting MUCH better. :)

She had another Genetics appointment in July and, although she tested negative for Noonan Syndrome, the doctor still thinks there is a good possibility she has it. Apparently, only 60% of positive results actually show up positive. Weird, huh? He asked if we wanted to do another round of testing and we decided not to test anymore at this point. Maybe later. She just has way too much anxiety right now around doctors and hospitals. Another blood draw would send her over the edge. Since it is not going to change her course of treatment right now, we will wait until she's a little older for more testing. The poor little thing needs a break!

As you can probably tell in the pictures, her eyelids are becoming increasingly droopy. We have another appt. with the Opthamologist and Plastic Surgeon next month to determine when surgery will be needed.

She's still doing great with her hearing aids. She continues to be heavily involved in speech therapy, physical therapy and aural rehabilitation. She also sees her Audiologist every 2-3 weeks to have her hearing tested. She's still measuring moderate hearing loss in the right ear and moderately severe in her left ear. People always ask if she can hear "normal" with her hearing aids on. That answer is no. She will never be able to hear like we hear. They can only amplify sounds for her.

Me & the boys and Kevin, Jaime and Sam went to Monster Jam (aka Monster Trucks) a few weeks ago and had a BLAST! Talan loved every minute of it. Kevin & Jaime brought some flags for him to wave and he was very serious about waving those flags. It was so cute - we just kept watching him because he was so into it all. I love this age - I want him to stay 4 forever!!