Cirstyn is 9 months!

Boy this girl is growing!  She is FINALLY crawling and pulling up on furniture.  She had her 9 month check up and was only 16.1 lbs (10th %) and 28 1/4" (75th %) tall.  She has FINALLY started crawling and pulling up on the furniture.  Dr. G think that she is just burning more calories than before since she is mobile and probably lost a little being sick.  I told her Cirstyn gets distracted during nursing so she's probably not drinking enough milk.  She agreed so we decided that it's time for Cirstyn to switch to formula and whole milk.

This girl has such a personality!  She says Bye and waves backwards...it's so cute!  She gets mad when Brady takes something from her and she let's us all know about it.  She had her first tooth break though today as well.  I felt it just after we got home from the pedi appoitment so she'll finally be getting some teeth.  It's a good thing I'm weaning her now!

There's no picture right now because my camera is broken and I can't find the card for my cell phone to get those pics....soon!

Angelina and Bradyn's 3 year checkup

All looks good for these two at 3 years old!  Despite Angelina's sickness, which she is doing well with, she looks good!  She weighs 31 pounds and is 36" tall!  Dr. Guthrie was impressed to hear about the HBOT and the COM therapies that she has been to recently.  She's still at like a 9 month level developmentally but Dr. G got to see a very good side of her personality and some of her words and babbling.  It's hard to determine what age she is cognatively, but she's a smart girl that definately knows what's going on! 

Bradyn is growing like a weed as well!  He's weighing in at 31.6 pounds and is 38 1/4" tall now.  Angelina is catching up with this skinny boy!  He was in full force just chattering away and commenting on EVERYTHING he could, he's so funny!  Nothing off to report here, just a growing, healthy boy. 

Dr. G did have to comment about how much they have grown since she first saw each of them and that time has just flown by.  It just doesn't seem like they should be 3 just yet, but here they are!

Sickness in our house!

January 31 - Well I guess I should have expected it but the first week of school went so well for Angelina and now she is paying for it!  I took her in to see Dr. Hayward on Saturday and she basically has Bronchiolitis.  We gave her a breathing treatment early in the morning prior to see the doc but she still sounded wheezy.  She has an ear infection and is very, very snotty!  We have to give her breathing treatments every 3-4 hours and as needed overnight.  She hasn't had a fever at all yet so I'm pretty sure it's not RSV, but we'll see.  I hope this goes away soon!

February 2 - Okay we went back to the doc's office today because Angelina still isn't any better, in fact I thought it was worse.  I was right.  They gave her three breathing treatments in a row over the course of an hour and a half.  I thought we'd be taking a trip over to Cook Children's because her sat's were low, like 88-90.  She did sound better after that and her sat's were up to 95 so that is enough to keep us from going to the Cook Children's ER.  Larry was convinced I'd be calling him to say we were going, but I told him to keep the faith and I was right!  We are giving her treatments every 2-3 hours now around the clock for the next 3 days.  Better at home than back and forth to the hospital! 

February 3 - She has been better last night and today.  The more frequent breathing treatments are really helping her and she is not really coughing that hacking, painful cough anymore.  We go back tomorrow for her 3 year checkup so they will take a good look at her again to make sure she is on the right track to getting better!

Angelina started school today :)

What a big girl she is now!  Angelina started school today at the Weldon Hafley Development Center.  Hey wasn't that guy the principal of our junior high and high school?  Anyway, she did so well.  She was so brave not getting upset when we had to leave her but decided to make some new friends with her classmates and teachers.  She must have been in an overly impressive mood because she sat in a cube chair (pretty much a chair shaped like a cube) without sliding out until it was time to do something else.  She laughed and played and had a ball!  Her teacher, Ms. Galpin, commented on how happy Angelina was and such a joy to have in her class.  Her transition was much smoother than expected!    When I picked her up she had the biggest smile on her face that made my heart smile so proudly for her.  She is such an amazing girl and I love her so!

Happy 3rd Birthday Bradyn and Angelina!

OOHH SLIDE!

Brady Bouncing!

Daddy catching Brady

Here I am!

Angelina with Nanny and Hattie

Andar and his little man Landon

Yeah Pizza!

It's the Birthday Girl

It's the Birthday Boy!

Brady loved his Thomas Cake

Angelina's pretty princess cake

Blow out your candles babies!

Keep blowing...

Your turn Sissy!

Angelina loves her cake!

Yummy chocolate cake!

Happy, Happy Birthday to YOU Brady and Angelina!

Well, well, well it's been three long but short years since these two graced our lives! My how time has changed them from tiny fragile babies to a thriving handsome little boy and beautiful little girl. I can't sit and think about it too long though - it's too emotional!

Boy did they have a good time at the Pump It Up Party place jumping and sliding all around! Brady couldn't get enough of all the bouncing! Angelina even got in with her daddy and giggled her belly off bounce, bounce, bouncing!  Their family and friends brought lots of neat presents they got to open after pizza and cake!

As luck or fate would have it an old friend - whom we had not seen in probably 5 or 6 years - is the manager. So she brought her son with her so we could meet him and play with the kiddos. It was really great to talk to her and catch up!

Thanks everyone for coming out everyone making it such a good time!

(I will have to add more pictures when I get them.  My camera broke right after the last picture!  There are more, I just haven't been diligent getting them from Andar and Karen!)

All the hard work is actually paying off!

OMG it seems that since the HBOT Angelina has really come out of her shell more so than before. She has been doing so many things that she wasn't able to before. She's been taking steps when held upright, she can take steps with a walker at therapy, eating food is getting SO MUCH BETTER, she's staying limber (for her), she seems so much more aware and has actually been making choices!


A week ago I took her to see Dr. Teitelbaum for Craniosacral Manipulation Therapy and he was so impressed. She hadn't seen him in about 2 months (before HBOT) and couldn't believe how loose she still was. I made sure to tell him that Angelina hadn't been back for BOTOX since August since she has remained loose. He asked all about the HBOT and how Angelina's responding to it then when it was over he told me that he has never had a patient similar in condition respond to the Craniosacral Manipulation Therapy like she has. He used the word NEVER and in a good way! Yay Angelina! I can't tell you how uplifting that was to hear about my little girl!

Angelina saw her speech therapist, Jana, on Friday and it had been about 3 weeks or so since we saw her last. Jana was so impressed with how much faster she was swallowing food and actually engaging the spoon with her mouth. Angelina was grabbing my hand and pulling it toward her face to get what was on the spoon! It was great!

She'll be starting school on Monday and I am hopeful that we continue to see postive results. She'll be in a class with about 7 or so kids, one of which has a wheelchair and leg braces similar to Angelina's. I hope that is good motivation for her to do more things that are difficult for her right now.

She's such an inspiration and I just love her so! In the words of Brady "Great Job Sissy"!

Future Professions....Maybe :)

I'm ready to take on the world with my trusty laptop! Watch out Bill Gates...I'm the next big COMPUTER THING!

 

Scoot over Billy Joel...there's a new PIANO MAN in town!

Giddeyup Horsey...Ride'm Cowboy!

Hey Cowpokes! Wednesday at school was Trailride Day and boy was it a BLAST! I had lots of fun making my 10 gallon cowboy hat and my stick horse Horsey! I got really dirty saddling up on the trailride. My friends and I were real Cowboys!

Cirstyn is 8 months!

This girl is just growing so fast!!  She is almost able to get into sitting position from lying down and can pretty well get to sitting from being on all fours.  This girl rocks a lot now and has tried to crawl but all efforts have landed her on her face!   She copies sounds we make and laughs at EVERYTHING especially Bradyn, her silly brother!  I love the way she will hold your face and stare right into your eyes, it's like she's telling me how much she loves me - so sweet!  She's just a little doll!  She has been saying "mama", "dada", "baba" ramdomly and we have been showing her the signs for mom and dad.  Now I think she's saying "mama" and "dada" purposefully because she will try to do the hand sign for both.  Such a smart girl!

I think she's almost 28" tall now and probably weighs in at 16.5 lbs but we'll find out next month at her 9 month checkup.  She's been eating the house now taking in about 1.5 to 2 jars of baby food or a bowl full of cereal and fruit then nursing afterwards 4 times per day.  She's an inspriation to Angelina since they are culinary partners right now and loves her sissy!   Her personality is so big and delightful but she is developing that sense of "stranger danger" although it's not too bad yet.  Teething has been bothering her lately as she chews on everything but no toothies have popped through just yet.  She's been pulling up on the big toys, sofa and ottoman but can't quite get all the way up...I'm sure that's not far behind!  She's a silly, sweet, dramatic bundle of love!

The Cookie Monster!

Okay the last few days have been a culinary wonder for Angelina! Today we were "having" a cookie (aka teething biscuit) and I usually tap it on her teeth because she thinks its funny and I will scrape it along her back teeth to try to initiate a chewing motion. I couldn't believe she actually started to bite down on it and didn't try to fight it out of her mouth! I let go and she kept it in her bite so I snapped a picture then she just grabbed on and handled it herself. She totally demolished this thing! It was a funny scene because we were all at the table and we were telling Brady to look at sissy with the cookie so he says "ooh sissy got a cookie, mmm that's good!" Larry was taking pictures with his cell phone as well.

For the longest time now she has been only taking small bites of baby food probably not more than 1/4 of a jar on a good day. Well, I guess she has decided if the baby can do it, then she can do it too! Now she is able to get about 1 1/2 jars down per day and has been trying to give herself water out of the sippy cup. She can hold onto the handles and bring it up to her mouth but hasn't yet figured out that she has to lift it up to get the water so Mommy helps just a little bit!

This is just another bit of positive response to the HBOT!