Friday, February 20, 2009

Harper is Funny

Harper and I are currently in Utah for my brother's mission farewell. Tonight Harper decided to put on a little show and danced to some music from my sister's cell phone. Sorry about all of the noise in the background but my Mom and sisters were laughing hysterically.



Untitled from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Everything's OK

Well my Mom had her operation yesterday to remove the benign tumor from her brain and it looks like things went about as good as we could have hoped. She is in recovery right now with my Dad by her side and we'll plan on visiting her several times during her stay in the hospital over the next couple of days. The next few days should also tell us exactly how well things actually went and what the future holds for my Mom. At this point I feel as though our prayers were answered and that things are going to be OK.

On the Harper front our little tyrant continues to rule the roost. She also continues developing at a furious rate and has just added clapping to her ever growing repertoire of essential life skills. Over the last couple of weeks she has also taken quite a liking to being held by me, which Erica and I suspect has something to do with the way I hold her, which is essentially however she wants to be held. When Erica holds her it is kind of in one position, but I let her squirm all around, which she does in order to get at what she wants. I feel a bit like a mobile wheelchair with Harper as my occupant. Still, it is very cute to see her get excited to leap out of Mommy's arms into mine. I think we're in for some trouble at this rate.

For now I leave you with this photo of the the current President and Vice President of the "Too Cool For You Club."

Sunday, February 08, 2009

appointment update

Last week we had a nice long day at UCLA medical center. Harper had two appointments and we were also there because Tom's mother had several appointments because she is having a pituitary tumor removed on Friday.
About 6 months ago Harper was diagnosed with kidney reflux. This problem was causing her to have frequent urinary tract infections and requires her to take a low dose of antibiotics every day. We found out from her tests last week that the reflux is resolving itself! We are so excited. She is still on the low dose of antibiotics since she has had a recent infection (though the urologist said that it is very possible that the sample was just contaminated), but we are going back in 6 more months to find out if we can take her off the antibiotics completely. The urologist said that it is very unlikely that the reflux gets better this fast when the patient has a duplicated system (that is where you have two ureters on one side instead of just one), so we are feeling very lucky. Hopefully the tests in a few months will show that she is all better. Now we are just waiting to hear back about a kidney ultrasound that will tell us if Harper has any scarring around her kidneys caused by the infections that she has had.

A few months ago Tom's Mom went in for an MRI to see if they could find out anything new about her epilepsy. Instead they found a large, benign tumor in her brain that was not causing her seizures, but that would potentially cause her to lose her vision. Luckily she only lives about 90 minutes away from UCLA where there is a team of three doctors who works together to remove these tumors and on Friday she is going to have it removed. We are just hoping that everything goes well and are glad that we live close enough to be able there for the surgery and attend her appointments with her.
On a brighter note, Harper has been fantastic lately. She is finally gaining some mobility and is rolling and scooting all over the place. She can crawl to the side and go backwards, but she hasn't quite figured out how to go forward yet. Any day now . . . I guess I better baby proof the apartment.
Harper sticks her tongue out like this when she's concentrating. So funny.Here's Harper in her dress before church this morning. Apparently I'm not as interesting as her fingers because she didn't want to look at me, but she looked so cute in her little dress :)

Sunday, February 01, 2009

An Enigma


We've been trying to figure out what color Harper's eyes are as well as her hair. Both change with every outfit along with the current lighting. Some days I think she has brown hair and brown eyes. Other days I'm convinced I have a blond hair, blue-eyed child. In the sunlight her hair looks much more red, almost coppery. Her eyes also seem to shift from teal to green. Hopefully she gets this all figured out before she gets her driver license. "I don't know" is probably not a good response to eye color and hair color.

What color hair and eyes do you think Harper has/will have?
(Click the photo for some close up scrutiny - not that it will help.)

Birthday Celebration

I had a fantastic birthday. On Friday we visited the Getty Center. It was great. Even if you aren't a big museum fan (Harper hasn't quite learned to appreciate museums so we didn't spend much time inside) the grounds and the view are amazing. Here are some photos from the trip. The first is of Tom and Harper on the tram up to the museum and the others were taken at the museum. Notice that we are wearing shorts in January. It has been a warm month.And here is a panoramic photo that Tom took from the Getty with a few landmarks labeled.
On Saturday (my actual birthday) Tom surprised me with hot chocolate and a chocolate cake donut (two of my favorite things) for breakfast. Then we went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. Here is Harper looking over the menu:
And after that we all shared some Pinkberry. Harper was a big fan.I loved spending my birthday with my two favorite people! Here is another photo of Harper from this past week:When we took Harper to the doctor for her 9 month appointment we had a urine test done because we are visiting the urologist later this week and she wanted to make sure that Harper didn't have an infection first. Well, it turns out that she does have another UTI. I feel so sad for her. She has to take these terrible antibiotics that makes her sick and we hate making her take it . And we have to go back to the doctor tomorrow to make sure her urine is clear of bacteria before the urologist visit on Thursday. This is all very frustrating. I hate seeing my little girl feel bad and hate having to take her to the doctor all of the time. I also hate that all of this costs so much money and that I have to even worry about how much it costs when all I want is for Harper to be healthy. We'll update when we find out more from the urologist. We were hoping for good news, but considering that Harper has another infection it is doubtful that her condition has improved. Please keep her in your prayers!