My Toddler is Offically Toddling

Here it is, almost time for Christmas. All the Christmas presents are wrapped and under the tree (except the ones from Santa). I got a Christmas present (and birthday.. and I'll go ahead and throw in next Christmas too) present pretty early, though, and it was the best present I could imagine. My little girl, who is now 2 years and (almost) 5 months is now walking. Walking like a champ, at that. Practically running (with the occational topple overs). She started really trying hard I'd say about October. She tried and tried, and would make more and more steps each time. There were somedays that she didn't even try and resorted to crawling again, which made me believe she just wasn't ready yet. Then the next day she'd be on her feet trying again. She's now, as I said, walking and sometimes running, especially when her Daddy walks in the room. Her walk turns into an insta-run and she just dead weights in his arms. She is most definitely a Daddy's girl, but Mommy gets her snuggles in too. She is also standing in the middle of the floor and walking off. No more pulling to stand on furniture for this girl. She still needs her AFO's as her ankles haven't really improved, but that's a small thing. Whatever helps my girl reach her dreams is okay by me. We're beyond thrilled in this household, and that's nothing compared to how happy it's making her.

She sees speech therapy on a weekly basis now as she is behind, but that's also something that has blossomed all the sudden for her. She's not speaking as much as a "typical" 2 year old, but each day it seems she says something new. Lets see, a collection of words and phrases: "I did it!" "Hello (she likes to use this one on any stranger in her vicinity)" "Shhh! (not really a word, but I'm counting it)", "Bye bye" "yes (or yeah)" "Nah nah! (her version of no way, Jose)" "thank you" "uh oh" "Dino Dan (her favorite show on earth. We really don't understand the appeal. She either has a serious crush on Dan or she's really into dinosaurs)". As well as the normal words like Mama, Dada, Papa (her grandpa). She also surprises us and says a lot more when she thinks we're not listening. I sneakily listened to her repeat all her animals on Peek-a-boo Barn the other night (an app on the iPad). Yesterday we took her to Toys-R-Us to get some last minute ideas on Christmas gifts and she snuggled one of her favorite characters on one of her favorite cartoons -- Team Umizoomi. His name is "Bot" and she said "Bot Bot!". She also loves Bubble Guppies and when she saw one of the characters on the shelf said "Bubble Bubble!".

It's near impossible to remember every word I've heard her say. I really should have been writing them down. But that's generally what she's doing. We could not be more proud of her.

Kalen started 1st grade in August, and had a good few months. We're having an issue with a mean kid in his class who likes to exclude him in activities and tries to encourage other children to do the same. It all started when Kalen announced that he got to go to Universal Studios and a water park for his birthday this year. Since then, his classmate has not been so nice. I assume it's jealousy. They use to be best friends. We're fighting that right now, and if it doesn't improve I will be requesting a conference with his teacher. I can't stand the thought of someone being mean to my boy. He's too nice of a kid for that. Other than that he has been getting straight A's and is reading like a champ! I will be updating again soon so I can include pictures from our Universal trip. It was a blast and something that I know he will never forget. I'm so happy we were able to make his birthday so special.

I'll be updating soon. There's more I'd like to add, but that'd make this post way too long. I'll be back!

Birthday Party Post

Before I talk about Madison's wonderful 2nd birthday party I'd like to share the results of her recent ABR. Everything was fine! The hearing in her right ear has neither improved or gotten worse and has continued to stay the same. A relief for us, for sure.  They mentioned that while everyone varies on their opinion of her needing hearing aids, that it's ultimately our decision and so we're weighing options right now. Her doctor doesn't feel like it's necessary because the hearing loss is so minor, while I'm sure others would disagree. I'm not sure which route we'll go, but I'll be sure to update on that later. Sedation went fairly smoothly, except the fact that she woke up completely panicked that she didn't have Mom or Dad there with her. It's the first time in her whole life that she has ever had to wake up in a strange place, and she didn't take it well. Why they wouldn't allow us to be back there during recovery puzzles me. It took us a good 20 minutes after they brought her to us to calm her down again. The nurse mentioned it being a side effect of sedation, which could very much be true. All I know is a fully conscious Maddy would react about the same way. All in all, she did great and we shouldn't have to worry about another ABR for quite some time as long as she cooperates in the sound booth next time.

Now to report on her PARTY! It went wonderful. She did not meet the "walk by my second birthday" goal but that's just fine. She's working hard towards it and we couldn't be prouder! I can't explain her party as well with words as I can with pictures, so without further ado...

Her birthday banner and presents with her picture center on the mantel.

Kalen waiting for the party to begin. He was very patient, but excited to get started.

She's a finger food type of toddler and rarely eats big meals. I found it fitting to not only serve finger foods, but these cupcakes instead of cake. The cupcake on top with the tiara is hers.

Momma's ballerina.

She quickly learned that this gained lots of laughs and cheers and so she showed off quite a bit with this trick during the party. ;)

Madison with her best friend and her cousin Violet. These two are adorable together!

Sometimes she just needs some love from her Aunty Jenny.

Madison watching her crush, Dino Dan. She is so in love with this boy!

Clearly  I'm not an amazing photographer, but my dad is! These are a few of the ones he took:

There were so many pictures, so forgive me for not posting them all. If I posted all of them this would be an extremely long post! Thanks to everyone who came and made her day so very special. She's one loved little girl.

She has a speech evalution coming up and I'll be sure to report on that.  Kalen starts school in 12 days so I've been spending my time getting him ready for school. It's such a shock that I have a 1st grader now. I'm so very proud of both of my babies.

Nervous Mommy Alert

It is time for Madison to have another routine ABR. She got the all clear to have the procedure done on July 23rd. To all who read this, say a little prayer for my darling. Her mommy is a bit nervous. They will be using anesthesia for the first time, and I really don't like that idea.

I will also admit that I'm nervous for the results. Her last (and only) ABR showed a minor hearing loss in her right ear, but there is a chance that it could get worse with time, or that she could lose hearing in that ear altogether.

So, again, when you get the chance, say a little prayer for my princess. We want the results to be that her hearing is the same, or that by some miracle it is better. God has shown me lots of miracles with this girl, and I'm believing this will just be another. Just a simple, small post for now. I'll be posting about her birthday party soon (July 12th, yay!), as well as the results of her ABR sometime after the procedure. Thanks so much for reading. :)

We'll just call this Part 2

Pictures of my girl taken from her grandpa on July 2nd 2012. Instead of starting a new post, I thought I'd just add it to this one. :)

This is sort of a continuation of my last blog. I haven't wrote anything in a year, so naturally I have more to say and didn't want to put it all in one entry.

I noticed in my last post that I said Madison doesn't like to feed herself. Well, that's not the case now. She (most of the time) refuses to let us feed her! She does fairly well with a spoon, but could use more practice. Truthfully I think I hold her back in some ways because of my obsession with keeping her clean. How terrible is that? She gets messy enough eating with her hands, but a spoon? She likes to fling food with it and I've found food a good 5 feet from her tray because of this. Speaking of holding her back, I've been withholding on teaching her to drink with a straw because in my mind, she just "wasn't ready". She proved me completely wrong the other day when she learned how in about 2 minutes. Bad, bad mommy.

I've been working on her walking a bit more lately because I've set this goal for her to walk by her birthday which is two weeks away. She's SO close, but is terrified of falling. Just like her sitting up, she's very cautious and doesn't like taking risks. She can stand independently, but once she realizes that no one is holding her, down on her butt she goes. There are times that I catch her standing by the television holding onto nothing for 5 minutes at a time. But as soon as I praise her for it, she loses balance. She's also "walking" with her little push toys. Her car, her wooden walker, pretty much anything on wheels. I'm so proud of her progress and think she's a super hero, but man do I wish she'd master this in two weeks. I don't know why it's so important to me. I know that when the time passes and she's still not doing it that I'll just set the next goal and not get bothered by it. I guess it's just because I know she can if she'd just believe she can too. She's going to get there, and I'm proud of her for it. Whether it be tomorrow or 5 years from now.

Another thing I want to discuss is her speech. I really do believe she's saying more than we realize. When I give her kisses or a hug, or her sippy she'll say "thank you", but in her own way. It's very hard to make out. You may be asking yourself how I know it's a "thank you", and it's because she has this play kitchen that sings songs and at the end of one of the songs it says "thank you!" and each time, she says it back. The same thing, over and over. I wish I had a recording of it. It sounds sort of like "tank uh". Adorable? Yes. And this is the same thing she says to us after the things I've listed above. It's the same with a app on my phone that she plays. At the end it says "goodnight!" and she says it back to the game each time. I wish I could make out the words a little more, but I believe with time they'll get more clear. I feel a little guilty that I'm her mother and that I have a hard time understanding her attempt at communicating.

I'm sorry. These past few posts are all over the place... but so is my brain, so I guess that fits. ;)

No pictures this post, just wanted to go into a little more detail on my darling girl. I can't wait to update with pictures from her party as well as pictures on my crafts blog. Speaking of, you should follow it! You can find the link at the top of this blog on the left.

Enough is enough. Thanks for reading!

Forgive me?

"Sorry, my mom really stinks at this! We know everyone wants to see our cute faces!"

I'm terrible, lets face it. How many times have I wrote an entry saying "I'll do better about writing!" (I have said that, haven't I? I don't know. I don't even want to look back to see because it depresses me that I haven't kept this up all that well. If I haven't said it, I've thought it). I'm pretty sure my last entry was nearly a year ago, and now I can't be certain what I've said, what I haven't said. Madison is turning two next month on the 13th. I'm not ready for her to be two. I no longer have a baby. Kalen is out of school for the summer and successfully completed kindergarten. I'm also not so ready to have a 1st grader. Where does the time go?!

"In a year's time I've gone on a boat ride with my cousin Violet --

oh, and I learned how to pick my nose."

We'll be celebrating her birthday July 12th and I PROMISE to post pictures! I have to. Truthfully, we did away with internet for a while and it turns out that typing anything with length on my iPhone was not so favorable. But now it's back, and I really do want to do better about this little blog here. This entry is going to be all over the place, so please forgive me...

What haven't I written about Madison in this years absense? Truthfully there isn't much to report on. She's doing wonderful. She's saying a few words: "Mama", "Dada", "Thank you" (sounds more like "tank uh"), "Hi", "Hello", and truthfully I think she says more than we realize, she's just not being very clear with her pronunciation quite yet. She gives kisses galore and loves to snuggle her baby dolls and feed them. I actually caught her putting on "lipstick" in her mirror the other day which was by far the most adorable thing I've seen since first seeing her grab her baby and rock it while patting it's back. She's not walking yet, but so close. She does pull to stand on everything she can and cruises. Yesterday we got her to take one step unassisted. Baby steps (literally)! Her physical therapist says it'll be no time before she begins. She has AFO's for her ankles because they tend to "cave in" when she stands which have helped tremendously with her balance. She crawls at rocket speeds and gets around just fine without walking, and I think that's why she just doesn't bother with trying. Why risks falling and learning a new task when she gets around fine without it? If only she realized that if she starts walking she'll be able to run away from Mommy in public instead of being confined to a stroller. Wait... Maybe I like the crawling. :)

She's a terrible eater, which is the only real complaint I have. She only eats a tiny bit at a time, and it's never enough to be considered a meal. I give her Carnation Instant Breakfast daily to try and bump up her calorie intake, but I don't believe it's doing much. She weighs 20 lbs right now, but is proportionate. For now I suppose that'll do. Her nutritionist isn't wanting to explore a feeding tube at this point, but I'm not too sure I agree. I'm going to give it a little more time and see how things go.

Kalen is doing fantastic, as usual. He got perfect grades all year in kindergarten, and is growing so much and in so many ways. I'm so proud of my big boy. His birthday isn't until October, but we'll be going to Universal Studios to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (he's a big Harry Potter fan, as is his mom). We're both extremely excited. ;) I also PROMISE to post pictures from that trip. I really do!

Here we come, 1st grade!

Sorry for the extremely long update. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, and if so I'll just make this a two parter. I've been doing this really terrible thing where I use my iPhone for every picture I ever take, and I'm looking forward to whipping out my nicer camera and using it to document our lives through this blog. More exciting things to come!

"One year ago, the mountain ahead of us seemed so high.
Now, as I look down from a plateau, I marvel at the beauty I didn't expect to see.

One year ago, I was so scared about what the future held for you.
Your problems only had a name, now I see only your precious face.

One year ago, I didn't know how blue your eyes would be.
Now, they sparkle and dance back at me as we adore each other.

One year ago, I listed my requests to God about your birth, health, everything.....
Now, I smile as I realize that He answered every single one, big and small.

One year ago, 'normal' life seemed a thing of the past.
But this summer, we came 'full circle' as we introduced you to our summer fun.

One year ago, our family wasn't complete.
Now, your chubby little hands hold ours.

One year ago, they told me that you might not be okay.
Now, I proclaim to the world that you are just perfect.

One year ago, you had a name but we didn't know who you were....
Now, I watch in awe as you grow and touch lives just by being you.

One year ago, I couldn't imagine this day. I could hardly imagine how we would get
through that first week. Now, we're here and I'm so glad we're not back there.

One year ago, I had no earthly idea how hard this year would be.
Now, I thank God for carrying me while I carried you. We made it, sweet baby."

Since my daughter's first birthday just passed, I found that fitting to post. I'm not sure where it came from (it was sent to me by my mother), but it fits our lives perfectly. I bawled like a baby when I read it. I love how it says "we made it, sweet baby". We have a long journey ahead, but if we can make it through those first few weeks of finding out her diagnosis, we can make it through anything.

She had her nutrition appointment yesterday and her granny, aunt and cousin came along (along with her usual fan posse -- me, Mike and Kalen). They weighed her and got 16 pounds 2 ounces which is 7 ounces lighter than what her pediatrician office weighed her at, so that was hard to take. She was also measured as not quite as long, but I forgot the exact measurement. Truthfully I think I tried zoning out after seeing she weighed less. I'm sure it's just the difference in the scales, but darnit 7 ounces a lot for her.

We found out she is off the scale for "normal" growth. No more 3rd percentile. The dietitian said we won't even think about a g-tube until we exhaust every other option. Right now she's on a higher calorie diet and then we'll be weighing her again in 7 weeks. I feel a bit discouraged, though, because she isn't taking to table foods all that well. She's so used to her baby food and tries to swallow it down before chewing. She also doesn't like feeding herself. If I put food on her tray, she either swipes it off onto the floor or she picks up each piece and tosses it. I also hate how guilty I feel for pumping my baby full of fattening foods. Who sticks a tablespoon of butter in their baby's oatmeal?! I know it's necessary, but man do I struggle with it.

I'm praying with a bit more practice she'll get the hang of it. She'll be seeing genetics next month so I'm curious what they'll have to say.

I got all my school shopping done for Kalen. Now to just sit back and wait for school to start. I'm excited for him. :)

This Month a Year Ago...

Has it really been a year already? Looking back at when she was born, I could hardly imagine her being six months, let alone a year old. I thought, "there's plenty of time before even thinking about that!". It has truely gone by so fast.

We had her birthday party July 14th, and it was so much fun. I was a bit worried because she hadn't napped as long as I hoped she would before her party, and I figured she'd be one grumpy grouch. She was quite the opposite, actually, but that shouldn't surprise me. She typically does things opposite of what most people expect of her!

I went with a Hello Kitty themed party. I've always loved Hello Kitty, and since she's too young to pick her own party idea I figured I can get away with it. Here's a few pictures of the decor...

Next was her cake. Luckily, for first birthdays they give you a free 7 inch cake that matches the main one for the baby to dig into. They turned out really cute!



This was the main cake.

Along with Madison's own mess cake to play with and eat!

Her cake didn't stay pretty for long, but we'll get to that in a minute. It was a small party, which made it a bit more special if you ask me. I liked celebrating with close family who love her as dearly as her mom and dad does. She's one lucky little girl.

Here's a few of the birthday girl!

This is her with her cousin Violet. Poor Violet looks like she's being sit on, but I assure you she was fine!



Now on to the goodies! Kalen helped her open her gifts. He's such an incredible big brother.

Madison with her first present. And YES she started digging in by herself! (She wanted the paper so she could eat it, but lets just continue believing she was REAL eager for her present!)

Sissy and her brubber. That was the present he got her. It also became one of her favorites!

Pretty baby

                                               Kalen showing her the new onsie she got!

Digging in!

Gift from Aunt Jenny (also one of her favorites)

We loved this gift because not only does it have rails around it to guard her from falling off, you can remove them when she gets a bit older. You can also attach a handle and take her for a walk on it. How cute is it?!

Blowing out the candle!

On to the messiest part of the day. I'm pretty sure she could win an award for Most Messiest Cake Eater...

Starting off...

Getting worse...

And worse...

Nice, huh?! She had icing from head to toe

The aftermath...

She required a double bath that night. We had to take the highchair out back and hose it down. It was so bad! It was worth every bit of it, though. I wasn't too sure that she'd touch the cake, let alone do that.

The very next day (I know, I know. We had to go right after her first birthday celebration. So unfair.) she had to go to the doctor for a 12 month check up. It unfortunately included shots. I debated for weeks if I should postpone the MMR. I was terrified of a bad reaction. She never had a reaction from a shot before (besides fever and soreness), but for some reason this one had me on edge. I'll admit that it was mostly because of all the controversy involved with it. We decided that it was best to go through with it in the end, though. We don't know how strong her immune system is, and if she did catch measles or mumps, I'd never forgive myself. It was hard enough to come to that decision, but with my luck she started to have an almost immediate reaction to it. You can imagine how upset I was. I kept saying "I tried to make the best decision for her, and this is what happens". It was a bit of an overreaction, though, because she was fine. Where they had given the shots her legs had developed some welts. We had to stay a bit longer than anticipated to ensure that they wouldn't spread. She turned out fine, and they went away within hours. She reacted better to these shots than she has any others. No fever, no agitation, no soreness. I was very surprised, because I anticipated a few days of sickness.

We got some good news while there... she had gained 9 ounces in a 3 week period! She also gained about another 1/2 to 1 inch in height. That's such a huge relief. She still will be seeing the nutritionist on the 28th of the this month, but she has now been switched to whole milk versus formula. I've also upped her food intake as well and she has been handling this very well. I'm ready to get a few more pounds/inches on my girl!

Other than the nutritionist, we won't be needing to see anymore specialist for a while. She goes for a routine check up with her geneticist in September, but that's all for now. Phew. She has been doing incredible. She's still not walking, but we're working towards that direction. She's refusing to crawl (she rolls or pushes with her legs while on her back to get where she wants), but her PT thinks she may just be one of those children who never crawl. We shall see. We'll just continue to let Maddy be Maddy.

On to the other utmost important part of my life... Kalen starts kindergarten August 16th. Seriously? My first born is in kindergarten?! I'm so proud of who he is as a person. I've been so blessed. I truely couldn't ask for better kids.

His birthday is in October, so that's the next celebration we're preparing for. I'm pretty sure he'll want a Ben 10 themed party, but that could change by October. I can't wait! I definitely enjoy this stuff as much as he does.

I'll be updating on her nutritionist appointment and hopefully on some weight gain! Wish us luck!