A rather lengthy post today...

Since I have the day off (Good Friday) and a few moments of peace (naptime) I thought I should update the blog with something more substantial than a ketchup bottle jpeg.

We've had a pretty exciting week!

We had dinner in Fridley for Katie's 3rd birthday. The menu: Kool-Aid, Hot Dogs, Macaroni and Cheese, Cake, and Ice Cream. Pretty adorable, clearly by special request. Oddly enough I was thrilled to have a hot dog. I HATE hot dogs! Once (maybe twice) a year I think..."oh fine...I'll eat a hot dog if I HAVE to" so I was a little taken aback that I was so pumped....weird.


Right away when we arrived Paige got her hands on one of the zillion balloons in the living room. Naturally, Katie was concerned (any red blooded American 3 year old would be) that her cousin had one of HER balloons. A struggle ensued, ended with Paige dazed and balloonless. Katie calmly announced that "paige wanted to share that one with her." Riiiight. She is too darn cute. If you haven't had a chance, click on Kristi's blog link on the right of the screen (thetiessenticket.blogspot.com).



On Thursday Paige and I headed downtown to Amma's (Grandma Blake) work. I guess technically its Auntie Jessie and Uncle Ben's work too, but it was really Grandma's gig. She was a little shy around the lab ladies but overall had a fun time looking at the pictures of herself in Grandma's office and spinning in her desk chair.

Friday (today) we headed out to Mike's work for lunch. We got to break in the highchairs that he ordered for Medtronic. It seems strange to me that a company that size (with so many employees who have children and grandchildren visiting for lunch on non-school days) would' not have had highchairs available. Its been a real pain for us the last year to try to hold Paige or feed her in the stroller. Mike submitted the idea/request to a committee at work and got the green light! What a smart daddy!



After lunch we headed over to Rum River Veterinary clinic. Because Tuffy has renal failure she needs to eat (expensive) special (expensive) prescription (expensive) not cheap (expensive) dog food. When we arrived the guy said he "had a proposition for me." "Go on.." I said. Seems a lady recently bought a large bag of the (expensive) food that Tuffy needs. She did open it BUT her dog now no longer...ahem..needs it. Infer. Anyway, she wanted it to go to someone who could use it. He told her he would make sure it did...more or less to make her feel better. He said he assumed it would get tossed in the trash at the end of the day and then we came along. We got to take the HUGE bag free of charge! Maybe a little creepy, but a deal is a deal!



As if that wasn't great enough, we got home to find that the fed-ex guy had dropped off Paigey's new shoes! Aren't they cute! I LOVE them and so does she. She's napping with them right now. Not on her feet...she's cuddling them along with bun-bun. What a girl.



Our girls test results are back from her lab appointment by the way. I'm not sure who has/hasn't heard the results yet, so I'll post the details in case you haven't. The tests for "general inflammation" came back fine. The tests looking at her kidney's came back fine. However, one of the 5 tests they did looking for celiac disease came back positive. We've been referred to the U of M to see a pediatric GI doctor to discuss what needs to happen next. Celiac disease is very serious if it goes undiagnosed. However, Dr. Dessa has assured us that she isn't going to die of malnutrition while we figure this out. :) The GI appointment will be several hours long. Sigh. We'll find out then (May 4th by the way) if a test is needed to definitively diagnose or rule out celiac as the cause of Paige's growth problems. The test is an intestinal biopsy, we don't know much more than that. She will also have an echo cardiogram and see a pediatric cardiologist that same day for her heart murmur. In the mean time, we are stuffing her FULL of food. Its been hard enough eliminating dairy from her diet, the idea of eliminating wheat/gluten too is a little overwhelming. On the other hand, we are extremely grateful that we have a pretty healthy kid. They could diagnose her with everything under the sun and we would still be the luckiest parents to have such a great baby!