Joon and Penny.

Joon is almost 100% back to normal now. She's talking all the time, she just pronounces some things weird, like she has some kind of accent. I'm so so so happy to have her back the way she was before. Every days she says funny things and smart things. We have great conversations. The other day we were talking about mammals, and how they all make milk for their babies. She listed a bunch of different animals, telling me which ones make milk, and which don't. She asked me if monsters make milk, and I said I didn't know, and we debated whether or not they were mammals. She says she wants to climb the mountain like Captain Kirk. She keeps referencing Futurama.

Joon started preschool a few weeks ago, and she's doing great! She's really enjoying it, and I think it's going to be good for her. She brought home her first Scholastic order forms, and I want to order her a bunch of things, but sadly we can only afford one cheap thing. Every day, they learn about a different color, and they're encouraged to wear that color. They do crafts and learn new songs, and Joon is always so excited to tell us about everything she did at school.



Penny is growing crazy fast. She's doing all sorts of new stuff every day. She's grabbing things pretty well now. She can get toys into her mouth. She is desperate to get food. Every time there's food nearby, she tries to get it. She also rolls around constantly. She generally doesn't like being on her belly, but she still rolls onto her belly within minutes of being put down on her back. She's having problems sleeping now, and I think it's because she's teething. She's making all sorts of noises, and when you say Hi to her, she usually responds with a big "Hiii!" She can sit for a few seconds with her upper body propped up on her arms.

We went to a hot air balloon festival, and Joon was pretty excited about it. Penny also seemed interested in the big brightly colored balloons.



On Friday, my mom and I took the kids to Helen Hunt Falls. We hiked through the forest for a couple of hours, and played in the stream.



Then we took a quick trip to the zoo.



Joon turned three this past Wednesday. We had her birthday party yesterday, and it went well. Not many people showed up. Joon liked all the presents she got. We gave her a Dorothy the Dinosaur costume, a Wags the Dog costume, a plush Shifu from Kung Fu Panda, and a set of pots and pans for her toy kitchen. My mom gave her some toy food and a bunch of books. She also got a puppy Play Doh set, a mermaid playground bath toy, a pottery wheel with clay, and this fashion thing where you mix and match outfit parts and trace them.





Joon requested a puppy cake, and my mom made one for her. Joon and I made a pinata together. She wanted it to be a blue puppy, so that's what I made. But then it ended up being just Joon and one other three year old here, so we decided not to break the pinata, and just dumped out the contents and let them take what they wanted.

Crayons

Yesterday, Joon and I made crayons. Well, actually we just remade crayons. They were already crayons to begin with, we just modified them.

A few weeks ago, Walmart had school supplies on sale. Crayola crayons were just 25 cents for a pack of 24. I picked up four packs.

Joon helped me peel the paper off and break the crayons into pieces. I think this was a really good exercise to help her rebuild her fine motor skills.



Joon picked out color combinations, and put them into cupcake liners.



After a few minutes in the oven, the crayon pieces lost their form and began to melt together. I took the pan out and let them cool for a few minutes. After they solidifed, this was the result:



We only used half of the crayons for this batch, so we'll be able to do it again later. I think next time, I'm going to mix the colors up more.

Talking!

Joon has had a language explosion the last two days.

On Tuesday, she had her last follow-up appointment at The Children's Hospital. The doctors said she was doing great, and they said we can wean her off of the rest of her medications. That day, she pointed at Penny and said "Penny." She also said hug and kiss.

Yesterday, she started off strong, saying butt, belly, hands, and feet. She chanted these words throughout the day, and added in several other words, including many more body parts, and lots of animals.

Today, she said even more. She was naming things left and right. Animals, colors, objects, etc. She was talking all day. She even said some sentences. She started off with really simple sentences, like "I'm a cat." By the end of the day she was saying things like "The frog wants to look at the llamas."

She's talking much slower than she used to, and it's like each syllable is a separate word. She's also pronouncing things a bit differently. Her vowels are a bit odd, some words sound like she has a British accent. But she's really making astounding improvements. It won't be long until she's back to her normal self. I'm just amazed at her strength and pluck.

Happy Baek-il, Penelope!

Penelope is 100 days old today!

It's a Korean tradition to celebrate a baby's 100th day of life. In the past, many babies didn't survive through the first few months. If a baby made it to 100 days, they would likely make it to their first birthday. If a child made it to their first birthday, they had a good chance of surviving to adulthood. So a long time ago, it became customary to wait until the baby was 100 days old, and have a big party. Babies are dressed in the traditional Korean dress, called a Han-Bok, and displayed with lots of fruit, rice cakes, and other food.

Three months!

Penelope is three months old!

We earned this ribbon:



1) Baby Name and Age: Penelope, three months
2) Weight/length/clothing size being worn: She's wearing mostly 3-6 months, and some 6-9 months.
3) Food! Formula? Breastmilk? Combo?: She's 100% breastfed, she's never had a bottle.
4) Sleep habits: She sleeps great! Most nights, she sleeps about 10 hours straight, then gets changed and fed, and usually sleeps another hour or two.
5) Is baby on a schedule? If so describe: Yeah, we wake up in the morning, get changed and fed, then play for a few hours. Take a morning nap, play for a couple of hours, take an afternoon nap, play for a few hours, and then go to bed.
6) Whats driving you crazy, if anything: Nothing much. She hates being in a car seat.
7) Milestones of course: Sleeping through the night, rolling all over the place, babbling like crazy, teething something fierce, reaching for and picking up toys, sucking her thumb.
8) How are you doing in general: Pretty good, considering how crazy things have been.
9) Are your health and weightloss concerns going well?: Alright. I've lost about half of the weight. I'm not worried about it.
11) Pictures:

One week:



Three months:

First week home.

Things have been busy around here. I've been working on writing this for a week.

This whole ordeal we've been going through has brought us so much love and really showed me how awesome people are. I am so amazed at all the support we've been receiving. I had several friends bring us meals while we were still at Evans. Two of my friends even offered to take Penny for a while and nurse her because she doesn't take bottles. People sent cards, balloons, and packages. Friends called, visited, invited me over to talk, and offered hugs and ice cream. I've received hundreds of comments from random people wishing Joon well, and countless people have prayed or chanted for her.

And then there were all the volunteers at the Children's Hospital. Almost every day, kids came around with a cart, giving away coffee, tea, and popcorn. One day, they came by with wagons full of donated blankets, and Joon got a Nemo quilt. We had many visits from the super sweet dogs in the Prescription Pet Program. A Harley Owners Group hosted some pizza parties, and a barbeque where they let the kids sit on their motorcycles. And one day they even had a massage therapist giving free massages!

A lot of people have asked if they can do anything to help us. Well, I think the best thing would be to send a card or letter of thanks to the wonderful doctors, nurses, and other employees at the Children's Hospital. Or if you're crafty at all, consider making a blanket and donating it in Joon's name. If anyone does make a blanket to donate, I'd love it if you'd snap a picture and show me.

The address for the hospital:

The Children's Hospital
13123 East 16th Avenue
Aurora, CO 80045




Joon got discharged from the hospital last Monday. It's so great to have Joon home. She's so much happier here, and that helps her recovery. It's so nice to be in our home, sleeping in our own beds, and making our own meals. Joon is glad to have all of her books and toys (including her new kitchen my mom bought her). She was excited to see the cats and fish and turtles again.

Joon's doing great. She's pretty much back to normal now. She's walking normally, running, jumping, going up and down the stairs, etc. She's eating and drinking. She's just having a bit of trouble with her fine motor skills, and she's still not talking yet. She's babbling a lot, and trying to learn to talk again. I'm still trying to get her speech therapy set up. Tricare is being stupid about it and making it a huge hassle.

Joon still has her PICC line in, because she had to get two more doses of rituximab and that has to be done through the PICC. We have to flush it a couple of times a day, and have to have a nurse come out to change the dressing and everything. They sent us a big package of supplies, hundreds of syringes and tiny bottles of saline and heparin. It seems so wasteful to me that the syringes are all single-use. I understand why they can't be reused with the PICC line, but it's still a lot of syringes to be throwing away.

On Wednesday, we had to go back up to Denver because Joon had an appointment with the rheumatologist that's going to be in charge of her care now. One of the med students that worked with Joon when we first got to the hospital is now with the rheumatologist, so she knew how bad Joon was before. They were pretty stoked to see how much Joon has improved. The rheumatologist said she's worked with about 10-12 kids with NMDA encephalitis, and they had the same treatments Joon has been receiving, and all had complete recoveries. She's really optimistic about Joon.

Friday we had another appointment, for Joon to get her weekly Rituximab infusion. She gets that through her PICC line, and it takes a few hours. We had to stay another hour after that was done to make sure she didn't have any reaction. The appointment was at 8AM, so we had to get up really early to leave the house at 5:30, but the kids slept the whole way there. After the appointment, we went ate lunch, and then walked around the mall for a while. We'll have to go back this Friday at 8 AM again for her last infusion.




Penny is growing so fast now. She's rolling all over the place, and always pushing and kicking so much. She's still working on those two teeth, and so she drools and chews a lot. She babbles all the time, and she laughs with this ridiculously cute laugh, it's like she's yelling "HA! HA!"

She loves to stand. We have this exersaucer thing that was a gift for Joon when she was a baby. Joon would never put up with things like that, she needed to be held constantly, so we never even took it out of the box until now. Penny has been using it now, and she loves it! She can't reach the toys yet, but she likes to look at them.

Penny has been sleeping through the night since we've been home. She was doing pretty well while we were in the hospital, but now she's doing great! She went to bed at 8 last night, and slept until 7 this morning! I just hope it continues this way. She's also been napping well. She generally goes down easily when I swaddle her.

She is sucking her thumb now, which is so cute. She has learned to grab things, though she doesn't quite know how to let go yet. She swipes at toys, and she has discovered her toes. When I'm changing her diaper, she helps me out by grabbing her toes and lifting her butt up in the air.



I'm thinking of starting Elimination Communication with her. EC is when you follow a young baby's cues and get them to use the toilet. It worked really well with Joon, but I didn't think we'd be able to do it with Penny because our attention is split between the two kids. I'm going to get a cheap little potty chair, and try it out. It can't hurt to try. She seems ready for it. Actually, I probably should have started a long time ago, but you know, we've been busy.

I'm so glad she's such an easy baby. Joon was very high-need, and I don't know if I would have been able to survive this last month if Penny was as needy as Joon was at her age. I am so lucky to have a mellow baby while I REALLY needed her to be so. It's so great to be able to put her down in her crib and have her go to sleep! I was never able to do that with Joon. Even up until she was two, she had to be nursed to sleep in our bed, and then I'd try to slip away, and half the time she'd wake up and I'd have to start over again. She still occasionally has a fussy night, but overall she's so easy.

Penny is almost 3 months old now. She'll be turning 100 days old in just a couple of weeks, which means we'll be celebrating her Baek-il! The Baek-il is a Korean tradition, celebrating a baby's 100th day of life. In the past, the infant mortality rate was so high, it was a pretty big deal for a baby to survive the first few months. Penny's Baek-il is on the 22nd. We will be making Korean food, and a birthday cake.

Penelope talking.