Rory's Endoscopy

Sorry it has taken so long to update. My friend Morgan flew in from Spain and stayed with us for a couple days before heading to Cape Breton for the summer. It was soooo great to see her.

Rory did fabulously, before, during and after. She handled the sedation very well, and the whole process took about an hour. She wasn't cranky or hungry at all. She had a few sips of water before we left. The GI said he didn't see any obvious damage, so needless to say, we are VERY relieved. I was fully expecting them to "see" something, so now I can learn to relax knowing there is no damage to her esophagus.

We have to wait a couple of weeks for the biopsy results, but we're feeling confident that they will be fine. We've accepted that she is just a poor eater based on her past, and will always be a small little girl. I've decided to only offer her a couple things at each meal, and if she eats GREAT, if not, no big deal. She's actually done well all weekend. She is once again eating bread and toast and eggs, she loves her snacks and cheese and bologna, and last night she ate potatoes with carrots mashed into them, which is also a first for her. :) It's more and more becoming a quantity issue, so after her feeding clinic appointment on Wednesday, we will hopefully have a plan for increasing her food intake, perhaps by reducing her formula. I'm still very concerned about doing this. They weighed her right before the procedure, on an empty belly, and she weighed 18lbs exactly. I just can't help but feel this is a very poor weight for a 15 month old, but I guess I have to accept that it is okay.

We really feel so relieved and are looking forward to addressing her behavioural issues with food, and moving on to a prevacid-free life with Rory. Thank you to everyone for listening and supporting us. While I know this hasn't been an emergency, life-or-death situation, it's been very frustrating and worrisome for our family to see our daughter not eating as a "normal" baby should. We now realize that part of our stress has been having "expectations" that have not been met, and we now resolve to put aside expectations and let Rory go at her own pace. :) HUGS.

Rory's GI Appt

First off, there was NO puking on the bus. YAY!! In fact, she drank her bottle on the way home, and was passed out cold when we arrived. I know it was risky, but she wanted it.

The nurse weighed and measured her. She's still 18lbs 3 oz, so no gain in 16 days, but that's pretty normal. She did grow in height though. 29 inches tall!

The GI explained the endoscopy and these are the most important things he said:

(1) They will be looking for inflammation and taking biopsies to check for such things as allergies, celiacs, etc. He said they don't scope babies too often, but when they are Rory's age and still haven't outgrown reflux, in addition to her poor feeding, this is the best route to rule out additional problems.
(2) He will come to talk to us after the procedure and give us any information on what he "sees". The biopsies will take a few weeks to report back on.
(3) Any problem he finds will be treatable, and we'll deal with that if anything shows up.
(4) If the scope comes back fine, we will leave her on prevacid and follow up with the feeding clinic. He said her feeding problems can be caused by two things....immediate discomfort OR past discomfort from which she has healed but now exhibits behavioural problems because of it.
(5) Sometimes the scope is fine when in fact the child is still having pretty bad reflux, so we will probably have to wait for her to outgrow it.
(6) He will not prescribe a different medication because he doesn't think it will make any difference.
(7) Sometimes there is no answer to why a child with reflux has feeding problems, but it is extremely common. She may have feeding problems up until pre-puberty (around 8 to 10 years!!) He figures she will always be on the small side, but should take off with puberty.

So now we wait until the morning. Please say some prayers that she does well under anesthesia, and comes out without nausea or any other problems. We are so scared to put her through this, but we feel we have to.

We have to be at the hospital at 7:05am, and they will take her in at 8:35am. Will update when we get home.

Rory the Ham!!

This was intended to be a "chocolate ice cream face" video, but it turned into Rory making faces for the camera. What a little ham!!! We gave her a dish with a bit of ice cream and her own spoon, and she was licking the spoon and loving it! She didn't eat much of it, but she had fun smearing it everywhere! I cannot stop laughing at this video!!!!

Am I saying "NO" wrong or something??

No, no, no, no, no....that is what my days persist of lately. Rory, NO.....NO, Rory......Aurora Jamie, NO! And she just doesn't understand. Or does she? She has no fear of me, whatsoever. Which I guess is good in most ways, but it's not good on the discipline front. It's really tiring. I try to pick my battles, I try to understand she's probably bored. We could spend half an hour reading, coloring, snuggling and as soon as I sit down at the computer....BAM, on the coffee table. I get up and turn the channel from Treehouse to something remotely adult, BAM, in the drawers, up at the window, scaling the back of the couch, digging in the garbage for leftovers.....which I just don't get!!!! She won't eat in her high chair, but will happily munch on some toast crust found sitting on top of the trash. UGH and YUCK!!! NO!!!!

Don't get me wrong. With this new found daredevilism comes lots and lots of laughter. LOTS! There's the new phrase of the week, "uh oh". Turns off the tv....uh oh, rips my magazine to shreds, uh oh. Oh, and the diaper crotch grabbing that now indicates she has pooped and indeed knows it. And to make sure I notice she waves her hand in the air to let me know it smells....peeeeeewwwww!!! But the best of the best of Rory this week has to be the finger up the nose trick! We've tried to tell her it is yucky to stick her finger up her nose.....that she will hurt herself. Nope, she thinks it's hilarious.....probably because neither Mike or I can keep a straight face when she does it. I mean, the first time was by accident, but now she does it on purpose to get a rise out of us, and just the fact that she KNOWS she can get a rise out of us makes us laugh even harder. BUT, all the fun came to a crashing end last night when she, with all her baby finger might, stuck her finger up MY nose.....and lemme tell ya, I was NOT laughing. IT HURT!!! So, now we add, NO, Rory, no picking mommy's nose!!!! No, Rory, no picking your nose.

And she puked again last night on her bedtime bottle. No Rory, don't puke on mommy! She's cut an eye tooth, so that could be it. She's drinking her own bottles now, so I don't like to stop her to burp. I figure she'll stop when she's ready. Well, last night she drank 8 oz straight, sat up, burped and barfed in one fluid motion....guess I'll be stopping her next time. :) I'm still pretty new to letting her self-regulate....but it's pretty darn awesome!!!

We're Back!

We finally fixed our computer, for sure, this time. We had to back everything up and wipe it. But we're back. :)

I was feeling pretty defeated about Rory's feeding evaluation, but it took me a few days to realize that what they have helped us with already is actually working....sort of. Rory is no longer refusing at the start of meals. We are feeding her purees, and she is consistently eating about a tbsp before starting to spit and refuse. This is still concerning, but it's better than nothing. I also realized that I shouldn't just settle if the doctors have pre-conceived ideas about Rory's feeding problems. Yes, she ate great at the evaluation, but it doesn't change the fact that she can't survive without formula, on a couple tbsps a day. SO, I called the co-ordinator and spoke with her about a number of issues and questions that I had and i feel MUCH MUCH better.

I asked her what we are supposed to do when she starts to spit out her food. Initially we were told to reward and praise when she takes a bite, but now we must make her wait until she swallows the food before reward and praise. Needless to say, mealtimes have not been great since this new approach. We are also supposed to tell her sternly, "NO SPITTING". Another question I had was how much "ignoring" should we do before ending the meal. Seriously, after a few refusals, I KNOW whether or not Rory will continue eating. She said after a half dozen or so ignorals....lol...ignorings?.....refusals and ignorances....lol....anyway, then we should end the meal. I also asked if we should reduce her formula intake since she was obviously hungry the other day after vomiting her breakfast. She decided not to mess with her formula until we've had the scope and spoken to the GI. It will do more harm than good to try to "starve her to eat" if she is having medical issues that cause her pain. Soooooo, we'll discuss that at her next feeding on July 2.

I also re-iterated that Monday's feeding was NOT the norm...that's she's not eaten fruit since, but that she IS catching on to the positive reinforcement. It's just a matter of getting her comfortable enough to continue the meal past 5 minutes and 5 bites. My friend Sarah told me that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so I decided that I would not be defeated, and that I will continue to push the doctors to realize that YES, Rory DOES have feeding difficulties, even if it is just caused by reflux. It's been so long trying to get this far, I think I convinced myself the same thing would happen again....she'd be pushed aside and we'd be made to wait another 6 months to a year for someone to listen.

So, yeah, it's been an intersting few days, and I'm kind of glad the computer was wacky. I was able to clear my thoughts and look at things with a new perspective.

having technical difficulties

I'm not sure if our computer still has it's virus, it's really messing with our web browser. The only time I can view my blog is by posting a post. I can't get any other ones to load. Hotmail doesn't work, only through msn. UGH....what is going on? We just bought McAfee Internet Security Suite for 50 bucks and thought it was fixed. I do NOT want to pay PC Medic $70/hour.

This is an edit: Apparently posting no longer works either...I can't see my blog....waaaaahhhh!!!!

Rory's Feeding Evaluation

Rory had her feeding evaluation yesterday at the IWK at 11:30am. I took her on the bus so Mike didn't have to miss another day of work. He'll have to miss a day next week for her endoscopy. Anyway, she threw up her morning bottle all over herself and the aisle. I had to hold her shirt out so she could finish puking. AND I didn't have a change of clothes, a cloth, nothing. I was mortified and so mad at myself for not taking a change of clothes. I should have known the bus would make her puke. So, I had to strip her off to her diaper and put on her coat. Then I bought her a shirt at the dollar store. LOL.

So, we get there and they want to feed her the foods she will eat first and then try the foods she won't normally eat. They showed me how to use positive reinforcement....they had all kinds of cool toys and she only got to play with them if she took a bite. They blew bubbles and had boxes that they shook and she could only see inside if she took a bite. They caught on very quickly to how curious she is. Then if she didn't take a bite, all four of us were to turn away from her for 20 seconds and start the process again. She caught on very quickly and decided to eat bites of bologna, cheese, soup, bread, pear and kiwi!!!!! ALL OFF THE SPOON!!! And she was playing peekaboo with them and smiling and laughing and eating and everyone had a gay old time except me. I was just about in tears. Mike and I KNEW this would happen. It's not that I was upset that she ate, just that she won't do it for me AND she made me look CRAZY!!!

They did say that she was delayed with her chewing skills, which is typical of refluxers. They want me to stop giving her pieces of things at mealtime that take forever to eat, and start giving her regular people food pureed and/or mashed, so that she gets more calories per bite...HMMMM....why didn't I think of that?? SHEESH!!! She won't eat purees...maybe a couple bites, that's it. So, we will be going back on July 2 to do another feeding evaluation using purees. If they can get her to eat purees off the spoon, I will be STOKED. It's so much easier. Obviously, she CAN eat, so it is most likely a behavioural issue, so this should work. After that they will provide support by phone. They said she doesn't have oral-motor problems and that the tongue thrust is just a preference thing.

I just don't feel like they can get it based on one feeding. But they are the professionals I guess. I've resolved to stop stressing so much about her eating, and just let her go at her own pace. She is growing and is healthy, and hopefully that will remain the case, even if she is always a poor eater. I've done all I can with trying to get her help. If positive reinforcement is the prescription, then we will fill it.

Her scope is next week, and if it comes back clear, my obsession with getting her to eat will come to an end. We will look forward to the future and getting her off medication.

They were no help when it comes to cup training, or giving formula advice. We were advised to discuss this with her pediatrician, and will be seeing her on July 17.

Mommy & Daddy are going OUT!!!

We're going to a movie tonight for the first time in 15 months. :) Uncle Mikey is babysitting. We are going to put her to bed and go to the 9:25 pm show. It is so great that Mikey will do this. Our cell phone doesn't work, but I will just tell him if she wakes up and doesn't go back to sleep he can rock her or get her up. He won't have to feed her cause she usually doesn't eat at night, unless it's 3 or 4 am. And if it's an emergency, he can call 911. LOL, funny, I'm not at all nervous about leaving. We are really exciting to have an evening out. I might even straighten my hair and put on makeup. YEAH!!!

Look who's holding their own bottle!!

Rory is a bit behind in giving herself her own bottle. We have been trying for quite some time. She always prefers to dump it on the couch or the coffee table or herself, or let it hang from her lips and suck air, never trying to tip it up. She had made some progress holding it while I am holding her in the cradled position.....BUT today I propped her on the couch and positioned her hands, like I have done so many times before.......and VOILA! She only drank about half of it and wouldn't do the rest, so I fed it to her. It's a great step forward though. Now if she would just drink it on her own without me "preparing" her we'll be all set! YAY for Rory!!!! You have no idea how exciting this is, 15 long months of bottle feeding her when most babies can do this at 6 months of age!!! YAY!!!

No wonder she doesn't like to eat!

Rory ate rice last night for the first time. It was mixed in with pureed chicken cacciatore. She also ate frozen yogurt. We were joking that she didn't want to go back to the feeding clinic.....then a while later she puked on Mike, the couch, the carpet and the coffee table, and retched into a towel until she was dry. :( No wonder she doesn't like to eat! I hate being happy when she eats something new, only to see it floating in yogurt vomit on the coffee table an hour later. But we remain optimistic that she ate RICE!!! YAY!!!

Rory's Feeding Clinic Appointment

It went well. We met with the psychologist and the co-ordinator. We talked for about an hour about her eating issues, and he is confident that her reflux is to blame. Eating has never been a positive experience for her because of the discomfort she feels. This is why she "loses" foods, because she will eat them, feel discomfort, and choose not to eat them anymore. He said we are going to have to make feeding as pleasurable as possible, singing, patty-cake, bubbles as rewards for eating, and to basically ignore her negative behaviours. Apparently, all the coaxing I have been doing has been reinforcing her non-eating. Asking her to take bites and doing airplanes etc is positive attention from me, which in turn, reinforces her not to eat. I mean, I'm not totally convinced, but will try the new approach without coaxing.

She weighed 18lbs 3 oz, which although small for 15 months, is actually an okay weight because she is so short. She is within normal limits for ideal body mass. He also said he feels her issues are more behavioural, rather than her having swallowing issues. I'm in agreement that reflux has caused some of these behaviours, but not sold that she doesn't have other things going on.

Because of the "tongue thrust" that we are concerned about, they scheduled a feeding evaluation for Monday, June 16 at lunchtime. This way they can see what I'm talking about and determine if it is a selective thing based on her tastes or if she will need to work with a speech language pathologist on some of her eating "mechanisms".

They said we are not overfeeding her formula, that she should still be getting hungry, so that is good. I was nervous about cutting that back, so now we don't have to. I really feel like we only scratched the surface today. Based on what happens at her feeding evaluation, they will better determine our plan of action for following her. We may just implement some changes at home based on the fact that she is not malnourished. The main thing is that they are going to follow her, so that I won't feel so alone in my frustration.

They said the gagging and self-gagging is because of the discomfort of reflux. It is her way of telling us she is refluxing. He said she definitely needs to remain on medication until she outgrows it.

I asked about a feeding plan, to try to get her to eat more calorie dense foods, and if I should be trying to get her to eat baby food, or table/finger foods, and he said we'll wait until they evaluate her and discuss that then. I'd love to see her eat some homemade, healthy baby food instead of canned soup and bologna.

All in all, I don't feel confident that they've seen the whole picture. Once she is scoped and we know the medication is actually doing it's job, and that these issues ARE behavioural due to discomfort, I think I will be more confident in their assessment. They said it will be a slow progress and she will still have good and bad days because of the reflux, but if we can reprogram ourselves to look forward to and enjoy mealtime, things should start to improve.
Here's hoping....will keep everyone updated.

The Public Gardens

Food Log for Clinic - Day 3

Today was a horrible eating day. :( She is starting to refuse the ONLY foods I have left to feed her. Her gagging behaviour is becoming worse, and she is now gagging herself with her sippy....on purpose!!! I forgot to add in her logs on here that she has drank 1 oz of water from her sippy each day. Now that I'm keeping track I am realizing she hasn't been drinking as much water or eating as many cheerios as I thought she was. How could I have been so ignorant of this????

Breakfast: 3 bites cottage cheese, 1/4 slice bologna, 3 cheerios, 6 oz formula

Morning snack: 1/2 baby sized oatmeal raisin cookie

Lunch: 2 bites sweet potato baby food, 3/4 oz chicken soup with brocolli, 3 licks of frozen yogurt tube, 8 oz formula

Afternoon snack: 1/2 slice cheese, 2 cheerios

Supper: 2 bites potato salad, chewed 3 pieces of chicken but spit them out, 6 oz formula

Evening snack: 4 cheerios and 1 FRUIT LOOP (she has always refused these before!)

Bedtime: 8 oz formula

Food Log for Clinic - Day 2

Well, Rory didn't eat well the last two days, so I'm a bit disappointed. Rather than writing down everything I offered her, I'm just going to write down what she did eat.

Breakfast: 1 bite of cottage cheese (major gagging), 1 bite of baby blueberry muffin, 1/4 slice of cheese, 6oz formula

Morning Snack: 1 baby-sized oatmeal raisin cookie, 4 Gerber lil' Crunchies

Lunch: 3/4 oz Cream of chicken soup with pureed brocolli, 3/4 of 1/2 slice of bologna, 6oz formula

Afternoon Snack: 2 cheerios, 4 cheezies

Supper: 1 bite mac n' cheese (gagging), 2 bites of shepherds pie (gagging, choking, self-gagging) and licked some cheez whiz off a ritz cracker

Evening snack: I skipped it because she wasn't having a good day

6 oz formula at bedtime
4 oz formula at 3 am

Food Log for Clinic - Day 1

Rory has been doing well with her eating, but it's still not great. In the last two weeks she has started eating cream soup and sliced meat!!! A big step forward!!!!
Amount Eaten is in brackets and bold
Breakfast:

1 tbsp Beechnut Apple Granola Raisin
Baby food - Stage 2 (None)
1 tbsp Scotsburn Cottage Cheese (4% m.f.) (.5 tbsp)
1/2 (12.5 g slice) slice of Larsen's bologna 5 pieces (1/4 slice)
(cut into 10 pieces)
Similac Advance Concentrate (24 cal/oz) formula (6 oz)

Morning Snack:

1 Arrowroot Cookie (1/3 cookie over 1 hour)
6 oz water in sippy cup (1 oz)
(grocery morning-portable snack)

Lunch:

2 tbsp Canned Campbells' Chicken noodle soup (1.5 tbsp)
(noodles chopped up)
2 Ritz Crackers (none)
1 tbsp Roasted Red Pepper Dip(.5 tbsp licked off crackers) caused rash!!
2 Delmonte pear slices (none)
1 Healthy Handfuls (6g) Oatmeal Raisin cookie (All)
2 oz Homo chocolate milk in dixie cup (none)
Formula (6 oz )

Afternoon Snack:

Half a Yoplait yogurt tube - frozen (a third of the half maybe) (melted)
10 cheerios (5)
2 oz Homo white milk in Rubbermaid straw cup (2 sips without spitting!!!)

Dinner:

1 tbsp homemade mac n cheese about 12 noodles (3 noodles)
small (square inch) piece of pizza (sucked off sauce and cheese)
1 tbsp homemade chocolate ice cream (none)
(whipping cream, Carnation Instant Breakfast, banana)
Formula (6 oz)

Evening snack:

Half slice Black Diamond Cheddar cheese slice (quarter slice)
Bedtime formula (8 oz)

So, when you add it all up for the day, it is actually quite good. We have not seen her eat this well in a long time. :)

On a mission

Today I moved all the furniture in our living room, dining room, and bedroom to make things more functional. Rory wouldn't stay off the love seat by the window, so now her playpen is there. I was so pleased with the choices I made. I also cleaned our couch and love seat...they were getting funky. I have been so down lately, coming out of the winter blahs, and it was so nice to have a burst of energy and get stuff done. I have decided I am far too negative, and should start counting my blessings more.
On the Rory front, nothing much new. She is eating very small pieces of sliced ham and bologna (yuck). Two days ago she choked on Melba toast, and tonight she choked on a soggy french fry. But she is really being a trooper in her booster seat. Much more patient, even though her overall intake sucks. She is starting to turn her nose up to cottage cheese, which isn't good, because it's her staple "breakfast" food. She will not swallow toast, grilled cheese, pancakes, waffles, french toast. I'm thinking about adding egg back, but will wait until we speak with the feeding clinic.

I'm pooped. Goodnight!!

1 week till Rory's feeding clinic appt!!!

I'm very excited. Weird, I know. I know they will not be watching her eat at this appointment, but I'm really hoping that they will acknowledge that she does have feeding problems. The hardest part about this struggle has been the self-doubt, probably brought on by her laid-back GP and pediatrician. When I question myself, I tell myself things like:

She has never eaten a whole jar of baby food.
She has never eaten more than 3 kinds of baby food.
She doesn't eat toast or bread.
She doesn't eat fruit of any kind.
She doesn't eat cereal.
She doesn't eat real meat.
She won't let me feed her.
She won't hold her own bottle.
She won't drink juice.

The list goes on and on in my head. I just want them to help me find ways to meet her caloric needs with food so that we don't have to rely so heavily on formula. I just want them to evaluate her to rule out other problems she might have that I may not have seen or known about. I just want them to tell me I'm not crazy and that there are better ways of doing things.

I seriously hate hate hate feeling so incompetent. It makes sense, though, why I would feel this way. It's always been a struggle and I don't think I've built the confidence that comes along with being able to acknowledge a need (hunger) in your child and then taking care of that need.

And if they think Rory is just picky and there is no problem, we will push on as we have done her whole life. I will cry crocodile tears and keep researching and trying my best.

She is pure joy. Outside of eating, she is not a difficult baby. She is always happy, very smart and loving. I thank God for her every day. I just want her to enjoy fresh strawberries and whipped cream, ice cream on a summer's day, yummy corn, rice, banana, apple, chocolate........there is great pleasure in food, and I want her to know that.

1 more week.....

Why do I do it??

Why do I do it? Why do I give her potatoes when I know she will cry all night?? Maybe it's because it's the only vegetable she will eat. Maybe it's because the pediatrician said she shouldn't be having bad reactions to potatoes. Maybe it's not the potatoes. Maybe it's a coincidence that she is always cutting teeth when I give her potatoes. If it's teeth, why does she sleep one night and the next night not? I don't know if it's the potatoes at all. What I do know is that I am totally exhausted. Not just from the crying baby either. I can't fall asleep anymore. I will literally toss and turn for hours, and when I do fall asleep, I am awoken by the horrid grinding of teeth...HORRID grinding that Mike has recently started. We figure it's stress related. Why can't my stress-response be grinding teeth instead of insomnia??? If it weren't for naptime, I'd be a zombie. Only 2 more hours till naptime. I LOVE naptime!!!

On the plus side, it is an absolutely gorgeous day out. I wish I had some friends nearby to go outside with. I took Rory for a walk to the store for cheezies, but the thought of walking for 20 minutes to the park, to play by ourselves, and walking 20 minutes back home just doesn't appeal to me today. I'm too tired! Which totally stinks, because it's supposed to rain the next two days.

It's soooo HOT!!!

I hate our apartment! It's like a sauna in here. 27 C is too hot for indoors! Rory's hair was so curly today from sweating. She's been sweating a lot lately. It's concerning Mike, but I'm pretty sure it's because of the heat in here. I've been letting her run around in her pamper and gave her a nice luke warm bath tonight. She loves her baths.

So, today, I took her high chair apart and transitioned it to a booster seat so she could sit at the table with us. We put her plate and spoon on the table, a towel underneath her chair and let her "eat". We took turns giving her potatoes. She didn't want her carrots or pork or applesauce. She had about a tbsp of potatoes and then she gagged on a lump and she was out! But you could tell she quite enjoyed sitting at the table like a big girl. She was very proud of herself. BUT, when it was coming on the end of our meal, she started throwing herself around in the chair, flung her head back and cracked it on the wooden chair, TWICE! But I figure she'll learn not to do it after a couple more times. lol. It was a nice little stress-free family dinner, though. :)

A Day Out

Yesterday we went to the wildlife park with Rory. It was exciting because she loves animals. I packed a cooler with bottles and cheese, cheerios and lil' crunchies. I was determined that everything would be great. I'm usually on high alert when we go out because Rory is a stinker when it comes to eating and drinking. She pretty much skipped breakfast and had her bottle around 8:30am. We set off for the park around 10am, and figured we could give her lunch and a bottle at the park. Yeah right. She absolutely refused to drink her bottle. We tried on a bench, and we tried in the car and she wasn't having it. She ate a couple pieces of cheese on the way home, and a couple cheerios, but Mike was concerned she might choke in her car seat (duh, I should have thought about that, but I was more worried about her eating something), so we waited until we got home. She finally drank a bottle at 2:30pm, and decided to skip her nap entirely.

I hate that she won't eat or drink when we go out. It's not a big deal, I guess, because I can usually get her back on track when we get home, but it would be nice to go out for the day and not have to stress about what she hasn't eaten or drank. It's always been this way. It doesn't make me optimistic for the coming summer and all our "plans" to do things with her. Last summer, every time we tried to go out she puked or refused her bottle, so we were hoping this summer would be different. I mean, it will be different, certainly not as bad as last year.....she's fine with not eating.....it's mommy that just can't bury the frustration and worry.

Oh well, all in all, it was a fun day. We didn't get pictures because what we thought was a good battery was, in fact, not. I wish you could have heard her laughing at the otters. It was precious and all worth it!!!