McKinley Jane: 18 Months Old

McKinley Jane - 18 Months Old

Our tenderhearted, fearless daredevil, Miss Kinley Jane is now 18 months old!  This girls is growing lightning fast.  She is still a Mama's girl and loves her time with me but has proven to be a people person like her big sissy.  Her Sunday School teachers LOVE her and think she has a big personality.  She is tough as nails and tender as a flower.  She will quickly scammer up to the tallest part of the big kid playground and slide down the big slides on her belly.  She will lay her baby doll tenderly on the floor, cover it with a blanket, and give it a big kiss and say "awwww".  She generally plays well with Lena and they often hug each other just because.   

18 Month Stats

Size 5 Diaper

Size 6-7 Shoe

Size 2T Clothes

26 Pounds

34 Inches Tall 

Naps once a day from 1:30-3:30

A doll among dolls.  Yes Kinley and Lena have a dozen dolls...literally.

Ready for a cupcake treat.

A little humor and Kinley's favorite "Baba".

This girly girl loves her tiaras, jewelry, and shoes!

Kinley HATES the sand but wants to play. She refuses to sit in the sandbox but will play from the outside.

18 Month Favorites

Book: Mickey Mouse Road Trip

Anything Mickey Mouse

Food: crackers, M&Ms, dip (katchup and ranch), and not much else.  She did like strawberries for a short time.

Toys: playing dolls with Sissy, her stuffed puppy, reading books, putting things inside something then taking them all out...over and over again. 

Playing outside (She is fearless and will go down all the big kid slides on her belly.)

Naptime and her "baba" (bottle) 

Dressing Up:  Our little girl loves anything girly: sunglasses, hats, tiaras, shoes, etc!  

Reading a Mickey book on a family road trip.

Juice and scrambled eggs is a breakfast staple in our house!

Getting into Mommy's cabinets.

Its always great to be outside.  Here she is enjoying a wagon ride.

This girl loves her dips!  She calls it "dit" and always gets lots of curious stares when she eats in public.

Got a pretty bad black eye from crashing into the bunk bed ladder.

18 Month Milestones

Four teeth and getting two more in the back

Favorite Words: Mama, Dadda, Nooo, caka (cracker), wawa (water), Give back!, 

Started coloring

First big black eye (from bumping the new bunk bed)

The Thaw

Five years ago today I got one of the most important phone calls of my life and I missed it while I was at my friend Sarah's baby shower.  I remember after the shower was over standing on the sidewalk outside the house nervously listening to this voicemail message....the message that brought news that would change my life.  March 5, 2011 was the day that Lena and McKinley were thawed as embryos after being frozen together by their genetic family in 2006.  We received this precious picture of these embryos four days after this phone call on transfer day.  Lena and her twin (on the left) were transferred to my womb and McKinley (on the right) was refrozen and kept in frozen storage for almost three more years before she was thawed again and transferred to my womb.  I kept this voicemail on my phone for four years...I couldn't ever bring myself to delete it and so I recently recorded it instead.  The Lord has done things in my life that I would never have imagined.  Miraculous things!  He is so very good to me. http://youtu.be/zHw6DwcRvjM

Sisters

February 2015 (Lena 39 months, McKinley 6 months)

In October 2014 we officially learned that McKinley is Lena's genetic sibling.  We had guessed as much since they have so many similarities: the shape of their mouth, the color of their eyes, the shape of their head, their noses, the way they sound when they sneeze, the fact that they both sneeze profusely in direct sunlight...I could go on and on...  The fact that they are genetic siblings is amazing for many reasons but primarily because McKinley, statistically, should never have been born.  

November 2014 (Lena 36 months, McKinley 3 months)

 Lena and McKinley were frozen in the same straw of embryos at the 2PN stage (18 hours after fertilization). (They were created and frozen together in 2006.) They were thawed at the same time in March 2011 and then spent 5 days together in a petri dish until they were blastocysts.  McKinley was then deemed by the embryologist as the "lowest quality" embryo of the three that were thawed and was refrozen.  Lena and her sibling (the embryo on the left) were transferred but we lost Lena's twin at 7 weeks. Three transfers later, in November 2013 McKinley was thawed again after having survived being frozen and thawed twice and was transferred and born 10 months later against incredible odds. They are now reunited again!

McKinley Jane and Lena Joyce together in a petri dish (the two embryos on the right) (March 2011)

McKinley Jane and Lena Joyce together once again at St. Jude (August 2014)

It was a very difficult decision for Dan and I to refreeze one of the three embryos instead of transferring all three.  I remember calling myself a "utilitarian" for choosing to refreeze McKinley to avoid jepardizing Lena and her twin by risking a triplet pregnancy.  I wonder now what would have happened had we transferred all three embryos at once...but McKinley and Lena are here now and together again! 

Lena loving on her sister in utero! 

A hug for McKinley when I was in my third trimester.

Excited to become a big sister!

Lena gets to touch McKinley for the first time.

Visiting baby sister on the day she was born.

Giving McKinley her Sunshine Bear

Holding McKinley for the first time and giving her the first of many kisses.

Lena didn't like having to go home with Grandma and Grandpa when we stayed in the hospital.  She insisted on giving McKinley a hug and a kiss before she left for the evening.

So excited to see sister during a hospital visit.

The big sister!  "She came out!"

A new companion to keep us company on our car rides.

Sisterly affection

Lena loves holding McKinley

Another chance to hold sister or "Little" as Lena calls Kinley

Kinley Jane hanging out in the boppy with Lena

On some nights Kinley joins Lena in bed for story time.

It will fun to watch these two miracle girls grow together.  They have come so far to both be here with us. 

Lena and McKinley with their Care Bears - Feb. 2015

McKinley's Newborn Photos

Last week we headed to JC Penny to get some newborn pictures taken during the "sleepy baby" stage.  Here are some of my favorites:

Wearing a headband made by our friend Lisa Jean.

Kinley loves keeping her hands near her face.

Wearing a headband made by our friend Emily

I love that tongue!

McKinley is laying on a blanket that Great Grandma Orr started knitting and Auntie Lorraine finished.

This is the necklace that I wore to all of my embryo transfers in honor of my sweet Snowflake Babies.

One of my favorite newborn outfits is this jean jumper with cherries - cute full body shot but Kinley isn't happy about the flash!