Two updates in one!

Thought I'd give you the latest on Adele and Skeeter in one shot. We'll start with the good one...

Adele had her monthly check-up yesterday and she's doing just fine. Still hugging the 25% for her age (actual), but the doc says that's fine. That's just her trend right now. The doc is sort of surprised she's so small considering that Steve and I aren't small people, but she says she won't make any final predictions until she's at least a year old, adjusted. Even then I won't take it as Gospel--I can't help but think of Steve's "little" brother, Jason, who was a preemie and the smallest of the triplets for many years, until he hit those last two years of high school. He's now 6'4". And then on the other hand, I have a couple aunts on my mom's side who are petite, so she could take after them. The doc is happy with her muscle tone and strength and is not concerned in the LEAST that Adele shows no interest in scooting or crawling or movement of any sort. I guess she got MY lazy gene. The doctor said that Adele is just so relaxed and laid-back (true) that she just doesn't have the motivation. She can't be bothered to go get something--yep, that's my daughter! The yucky part of the visit was that she had to have a vial of blood drawn so we could test her for milk protein allergy and finally answer that question once and for all. It was hard, as you can probably imagine, finding a vein in her tiny arm, but they did eventually. She cried, of course, but otherwise handled it well. Such a trooper!

Some fun new tricks she's learned:

• Clapping! Sometimes she forgets to open one hand and claps with a fist, but you can tell she's SO proud of herself when she does it!
• We're working on "uh-oh." She can get the rhythm/inflection, but sometimes not the right sound. And sometimes when I say "uh-oh" she gives me her fake cough instead, but in the "uh-oh" inflection. Tee hee!
• She's really good at "dada" and I think is even starting to use it discriminately. She's finally added "mama" although it's more "mamamamamamama" and seems to use it more with me than anyone/thing else.
• I swear, SWEAR, she is trying to say "good doggie." She definitely makes a sound like "goggie" or "gog" when the pup is anywhere near, and if we say "good doggie" she'll use the right inflection/rhythm and end it on a "goggie." I don't know...seems too coincidental NOT to be that, right??
• She's great at sitting on her own (when she feels like bending in the middle, of course) and one of our "exercises" for Tiny-K this week is to get her to start bearing weight on one arm at a time so she can learn to get from a sit to the ground without a complete toppling. That one is still a challenge. She CAN do it, it's just an issue of getting her to do it.
• I can't remember if I mentioned this, but her second bottom tooth FINALLY came in! No more snaggle tooth!

I think that's about it for her. I know I'm overdue on photos, but I plan to post some after this weekend. :)

Now for the Pupdate...

We went to our local vet Wedesday for a recheck and things hadn't improved at all. Unfortunately, the vet saw something in the eye that concerned him and he sent us to the specialist in KC. They were able to get us in yesterday, thankfully. The vet there confirmed what the vet here suspected--there is a tumor of some sort in that eye, and that's the cause of the glaucoma. Right now there's no way to tell if it's cancerous or benign, and the only option is to remove the eye. However, we have to first determine if he's a candidate for surgery. Monday, I will take him to the vet here (we don't need to go back to KC again as all the remaining procedures can be done here in town) and they'll give him a chest x-ray and abdominal scan to check if he has any growths elsewhere. If all is clear then the eye will be removed ASAP and sent off to be biopsied. A week or two later we'll know the results of that and will deal with whatever news that brings us. If the x-ray/scans show other tumors...well, I don't know. It will all depend on how significant they are and what the timeframe looks like. Obviously our goal at that point would be to keep him as comfortable as possible for as long as possible, with as conservative treatments as possible. There are a lot of scenarios that could happen there, none of which we like to think about at this point.

Steve and I have a lot of guilt because we both realize we will eventually have to put a price cap on things, and we both feel terrible about that. I hate saying "it's just a DOG" but when it comes down to it, that's the truth. We love him terribly, and he's a fantastic pet and friend, but we always knew we'd outlive him so we have to be prepared to draw the line, especially when we now have a child who requires signficant care herself.

Anyway, it all just sucks (pardon the vulgarity).