ZJ is 17 months old!

3.6.13

ZJ is still climbing on everything.  I was washing dishes one evening and turned to see her standing on the kitchen table.  She climbs on everything, disregards my “No!” and often starts marching or stomping when I catch her on things.  She’s also decided it’s fun to run away when you ask her to come to you.  We’ve still been working on identifying parts of her face.  She’s recently started pointing to the proper parts more often and just started saying “eye” when pointing to that but sometimes says it and points to other random parts of her face.  She is great at identifying her belly and will lift her shirt to show you.  She’s always loved her books more than toys and likes to flip through them but now finally likes to have them read to her and will sit for several in a row and bring them to me.  She is learning animal sounds and woofs like a dog and tweets like a bird so far.  She woofs if she sees or hears a dog anywhere.  She still says “ahhh” and “eeeee” if she sees a tooth brush but now hates having her teeth brushed and fights it.  She also seems to have become a toddler this month and has little fits.  She does it when she doesn’t want to go somewhere or can’t have something.  She will just fall down, refuse to walk and flail about.

ZJ is inconsistent with her food preferences.  One day she’ll eat something and the next day throws it all on the floor.  Sometimes she’ll eat certain items from my hand but not feed them to herself.  She has been practicing using a spoon.  She’s also had peanut butter and several tree nuts now without problem.

ZJ had one mild cold this month.  ZJ had a sedated heart echo which clarified her exact congenital heart defects.  She has a Transitional AV Canal Defect which includes four abnormalities (endocardial cushion defect, primum ASD, cleft mitral valve, VSD).  When her heart was forming during the first eight weeks of pregnancy it did not form properly, leaving three holes in her heart and a cleft valve.  The holes in her heart allow deoxygenated blood to mix with oxygenated blood.  Even though she is healthy right now and not affected by the defects, she needs open heart surgery within the next six months to repair two of the holes to avoid problems expected to occur while she is still a toddler.  In addition to the Transitional AV Canal defect she has tricuspid valve regurgitation and an aberrant right subclavian artery but neither of these issues is causing problems.