It Is WELLS With My Soul : 2014

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Fall Family Photo Shoots

At the beginning of November, we had family photos taken. A teaching friend of mine recently started her own photography business and over the summer we won a facebook drawing for a free session. She did AWESOME and we will be loyal customers from now on!

She did such a great job and worked so hard to capture a very important picture for us...Blakely standing unassisted. THANKS MILA, YOU ROCK!

Matchy Matchy with Mommy Mommy

Well, I am officially that annoyingly dorky mom that matches her kid every Sunday. But, I am not even sorry because I LOVE it! Gonna keep this up til she refuses!

Red with Black and White Polka Dots

Black and White Stripes

Pink with Black Cardigans

Navy and White Polka Dots with Pink Shoes.

Just because we were traveling back from CO on
Sunday instead of going to church doesn't mean we can't match!
Teal Shirt with Black Leggings

Mommy Favorite: LEOPARD!

Monday, December 8, 2014

November Or Shall We Say NEWvember!

Well, beside one little set back, November was a breath of fresh air for us. Hopefully this is just the start of a new wave of goodness for our little family!

This picture was taken right before our appointment
with the genetic counselor. It was an appointment that filled us
with great hope, much like this sweet face does!

playing with momma on our day off.

She stopped playing and came and gave me a hug.

Blakely sharing a sucker with Kaitlyn

Now she is sharing with Nana

Would you like some??

B's first school lunch. Chicken nuggets of course!

Goober made it into our bed one morning

Last day with a patch. We know for sure she will be
having surgery soon but we are waiting to see if it will
be just for her eyes up and down or left and right as well.

Well our little set back for the month...One Friday after an afternoon nap, Blakely stopped baring weight on her left arm. If she was a walker I probably wouldn't even notice because she would still eat with it, grab things with it and more but she wouldn't use it to crawl. We had our Dr check it out at church the following Sunday and then went back to the Dr. Monday when she still wouldn't use it and after xrays revealed a possible dislocated shoulder we went to the pediatric orthopedic specialist who said he thought it was fractured elbow and had us put it in a temporary cast and come back for more xrays in two weeks. Well, we went back and the new xrays revealed a fractured shoulder and that it is healing well and we don't need to do anymore. Whew. But seriously, we splinted her elbow for two weeks for nothing....grrrr!! But this kid, she is resilient and as you can tell it doesn't slow her down. Quite the amazing kid she is!

happy girl on her way from the orthopedic to the ophthalmologist

Momma's little shopping buddy

Enjoying some pumpkin french toast on Thanksgiving morning

Thanksgiving Day

The Family

Cuddles for mom!

the water bottle makes her happy

uh oh....here goes all Daddy's money

She loves it!

It was definitely a better month but we are looking forward to December as we celebrate the Tia's Wedding and Jesus' Birth!

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

18 Month Update!

Weight: 24 lb 6 oz
She is in the 74th percentile in weight.
A jump in percentile by 60% since her 12 month appt.

Length: 32 1/4
She is in the 72nd percentile.
A jump in percentile of 25%

Head Circumference: can't remember exactly, she is in the 83rd%
One of things they talk about in the research about her syndrome is the possibility of "microcephaly," which means small head and can effect cognitive abilities. However, clearly she does NOT have a small head! She is actually very proportional, tall like both her mommy and daddy!

Sizes: Haha, she has grown so much! Looking back at her 12 month update post, she has jumped a year in clothing size in 6 months! When she was 12 months old, clothes labeled 6-12 months fit best and now at 18 months old, clothes labeled 18-24 months fit best.

Social: Like gross motor skills, she is delayed in speech and language. However, as an early childhood specialist I know that those important gross motor skills like walking have to be mastered before kiddos start talking. I mean, really, there is a reason kids don't talk before they walk. She is saying mama, dada, buba (the dog), uh...oh, rock (like a rocking chair) and she is starting to say Hi. She waves hi and by all the time. And she will say "uhhh" for up. I know in my gut that once she starts walking her words will explode! She babbles constantly and sometimes she looks at me and just spews off a whole bunch of jumble and I just know she is telling me something. Oh, and my mom swears she has said "nana" :)

On The Move: Well, she is walking! It isn't her main mode of transportation, and honestly I don't think it will be until we fix her vision issues. I mean, would you want to walk if you couldn't see the ground below you? She will take 15-20 steps independently. We are working on standing independently. It was cool to look back and read her 12 month blog update. At that point she was barely crawling, and crawling slow. Now she crawls faster than a crab and climbs on anything and everything! Its all about progress people, and we are making progress!

Food: She eats so much and pretty much anything and everything. Which is no surprise considering she gained over 6lbs in 6 months! We stopped giving her milk before naps and bed time about a week ago and it has pretty much eliminated all the spit up issues we have been having for, well forever!

Sleep: She naps only once per day now, typically. If she had an early morning she will take a morning nap, like on Fridays when we wake her up at 6:15 instead of 7:15. She is still sleeping relatively well at night. In the past month she has been doing this new thing where she will start whimpering around 5 am and will whimper on and off until you go in. All she wants is to literally be held and cuddled for less than 5 minutes. Now, let me preface this with I am an extreme believer in "Baby Wise" sleep training, I truly believe it is the reason that Blakely is such a good sleeper and I have kept a semi good hold on my sanity. But, my kid isn't a cuddler ever so if she wants to cuddle for five minutes sometime between 3-5 am....I am not opposed and truly enjoy it :)

Likes: Eating, I mean really...its a passion for this kid. She also likes tormenting poor Max the dog, but he is so good to her. I think it is because he knows that come dinner time, she will always feed him from her chair. They are best buds :) She also loves bath time and will blow bubbles in the water! I am gonna need to get her in swim lessons this summer for sure!

Dislikes: She does not like it when I leave the room or get out of the car. She screams, currently I find it very endearing, ask me later and I may be annoyed. But she loves me so much she doesn't want me to leave :)

The past six months have been a whirlwind of a time. But like all seasons of life the phrase "this too shall pass" is applicable. And its true...it does. The tides are turning for this family and I know better times are ahead. But I also know, that come what may. God is in control and we are incredibly blessed to have our Miss Blakely Mae Wells!

I don't have any new pictures to really share since I share them in our monthly updates so I am going to just pick one from each month that is my favorite!

13 Months: Silly Goober visiting Grandma and Grandpa Wells in Garden City!

14 Months: LOVED LegoLand!

15 months.., going on 15 years???

16 Months....Look at those long legs!

17 Months and loving life!

18 Months: We love our little monster!

Monday, November 10, 2014

October with our Little Punkin' Eater!

Welp. October was a bit better than September but still a rather hard month at the Wells. We started it out finding out that unlike we were orginally told, that she does in fact have a genetic disorder. For the FULL STORY jump over to our blog posting entitles 17 p13.3 Microduplication Disorder.

However, in the midst of chaos and uncertainity we have chosen to have peace in the faith that God will work all things for his glory.

We had some glorious moments in October. Momma got a few extra days at home with Blakely after Parent Teacher Conferences, we visisted First Fridays with our dear friends Ryan and Karissa, we went to the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City, and Blakely turned into the cutest MONSTER for Halloween!