Sorry no pictures, but you'll understand why...

It's a big big day in our house today! First of all, Lily was starting to show trace amounts of protein in her urine for the last couple of days, which obviously concerned me a bit...especially since she has had a cold for the last few days and relapses can be triggered by that. Thankfully today she is back to negative. Needless to say, I am very relieved. But the even bigger news...Lily went poo-poo in the potty today...hence the lack of pictures! I am so so very proud of her! She has been doing pretty well with going pee-pee in the potty, but every time she had to go #2, she would make the announcement of what she was doing and run to her corner to take care of business. At least she was telling us what she was up to...that's a big step. Anyway, each time she would make this announcement, we would ask if she wanted to go in her potty and she would very sternly answer, "No!". Well, today I am letting her run around "nekkie" to help with the potty training process. We were playing in the living room and all of a sudden she ran up and bolted. Then I hear her yelling from the bathroom, "Mommy! I'm going poopy in the potty!". I immediately ran into the bathroom to check it out, and sure enough, there it was in all its glory! She was a little concerned at first, but once I got excited and told her how proud I was of her, she started to get excited too. It's amazing how telling a child how proud you are of them can bring such joy to their faces. She was just so happy, and then she immediately reached for her M&M's. She's no dummy! So, another of many first milestones is accomplished today. There is still work to do in the training department, but today, I could not be more proud of my baby girl.

Big Steps for our Baby Girl

First of all, we have very good news to report from the doctors office. We went to see him on Friday with a urine sample from Lily. The three of us were in the office when the nurse came in with the results. The doctor looked shocked and took off his glasses like he wanted to be sure he was reading it correctly. He very excitedly told me that her urine had negative traces of protein. YEAH!!! This means she will still need to be on the full dose of prednisone for 30 days and then we can start weaning her off of it. I will be so glad. While part of me knows this medicine is obviously helping her, there is another part of me that feels like I'm giving her poison, knowing all of the possible side effects. The only ones the doctor is really worried about is weight gain as her appetite will continue to increase, so we will need to continue to monitor her diet closely. There is also a possibility that she may get diabetes as a side effect. While this would go away once she is off of the prednisone, we would have to treat her as a diabetic until then. We pray all will go smoothly and she won't experience that.

And then there is today...a VERY big day. For many weeks, months even, Lily has been practicing sitting on the potty. I have been telling her that if she goes pee-pee in the potty, she will get M&M's. She repeats it to me all.the.time but has never gone. Today, she came up to me and said, "Mommy...go pee-pee in the potty RIGHT NOW!". I said ok, thinking she was just going to get in another "practice" session. I took her clothes off (yes, all of them. For whatever reason, she likes to be naked on the potty) and set her down. I started cleaning in the bathroom and as I looked over to check on her, she was standing over the potty looking down into it. I looked in and could not believe my eyes. My big girl went pee-pee in the potty! I got so excited. Robert heard and came down the hall to check it out. We both started cheering and clapping. Lily just kept looking at us saying, "Go pee-pee in the potty, get M&M's." So she got her special treat and enjoyed every last one. She was still running around "nekkie" as I was shaking the kithen rugs out back. She came out with me and proceeded to pee on the patio. I explained to her that we only go pee-pee on the potty, not outside! She looked at me and said, "Shayna (our dog) go pee-pee outside!" Aye. We still have some work to do, but what a big day/week for baby Lily!