Housewarming Weekend

This past weekend all of my sisters were here for the weekend with their significant others and a few other friends as well - we had a house full! The occasion was a little house warming, breaking in the new house, and our recently completed patio (minus the landscaping still not quite complete). We had guests from Thursday to Monday so there was a lot of activity for Ellie, and of course she got spoiled - being held and played with ALL weekend long!

Before all the activity started though, Ellie had a visit to the Dr. on Friday. This was another follow-up for her kidneys, to a Pediatric Urologist this time. Her Dr. is 1 of 2 in this specialty in the state of Wisconsin, and they alternate traveling up to our area (from UW Children's Hospital in Madison) once a month. He's also a professor of Pediatric Urology at UW Medical School so I'd say Ellie's in pretty good hands! He looked at her ultrasounds (taken a few weeks ago) and her kidneys are still enlarged, BUT, it's not getting any worse, she's had no signs of infection, and she still isn't having any urine reflux, so he felt pretty confident that this would be something she'd outgrow. His diagnosis of her current condition was that her right kidney was a 1 and her left was a 2-3. This is on a scale of 1-4, where 4 is the worst and usually means there's some sort of blockage, which could require surgery. Until both are at a level 1, she'll continue to have ultrasounds to monitor; however, much less frequently now. Her next one will be in 6 months. He said this could be something that they watch into her teenage years (crazy to think that far ahead), but as long as it doesn't get any worse, and she doesn't have any problems (urinary tract infection), than he's not concerned. He also said that years ago when ultrasound technology wasn't so good, something like this would never have been detected, but now that they CAN see so much, it can't just be ignored. So, we'll see again in 6 months...but for now, Ellie's showing absolutely no sign of anything being wrong - she was ALL smiles all weekend long!

Saturday morning, Auntie Sara, Auntie Shannon, Auntie Stephanie, Ellie, and I went to the Farmer's Market in Appleton for fresh corn and flowers. Ellie slept for about half of it, but woke up to check out some of the action. Here she is hanging out in the shade - it was a hot day!



Back at home, the rest of the day was spent playing in the backyard. Ellie loved playing with everyone! Here with Mom...



Smiles and giggles for Javi



And Auntie Sara





And Auntie Shannon



Auntie Shannon also bought Ellie a little pool for the hot weekend. She wasn't so sure at first, but quickly got much braver! Testing it out slowly...



Playing in the pool with Auntie Steph





Face first!