Arlyn Taydem Mackin Has Arrived!!: February 2018

It has certainly been a long year and exciting that Arlyn has continue to suprise and amaze us. She is almost a year old and I just wanted to reflect on the last year in how wonderful a joy she is being a part of Scott and my life. Arlyn was able to go on her first vacation to Texas and had joined Daystar a respit program for medically fragile children. She is meeting her goals and expectations for her age. Arlyn is slow to eat and still is heavy to rely on baby bottles and baby food 3x a day. Arlyn is so excited about Elmo and also loves my little pony (mostly her hair). She is walking along things and is trying hard to keep up with the older boys at home. At 9 months old she was able to dip her feet in the gulf of mexico and the little boys this was a new experience as well. At 11 months old arlyn started to say "dada" with meaning always looking around for her playful daddy, loves to face time him on his lunch breaks and loves daddy so very much.

Cardiology has not cleared Arlyn yet but does feel like she is doing wonderful, we are still on tract with 4 month follow ups for awhile really just watching her hypoplastic mitral valve and assuring that she is growing apropriately. We ran over a little bump when we found that Arlyn was quite anemic at 10.5 months old with Hct 29 and Hgb 7.8 so we started iron supliments. We are hopeful that by the end of march this will be resolved. She is barely on medication now and just mostly for her gut but honestly she is also less pukey than she has been previously. I am so excited and trilled to see what this little girl will do in her life already overcoming so much.

Happy Birthday Arlyn Taydem Mackin!!!