Growing up

That is exactly what a little Emma is doing. This weekend we moved her into a big car seat, she finally weighs enough (21 lbs as of Friday). Her pedi advised me to keep her backwards & Chris preferred that as well, but the seat was just to unstable for our liking so she is facing forward & loving it. She just sits there & smiles that sweet smile of hers.

She is saying more & more words every day, I can't keep up with all the words she knows now. There are many times she is trying to tell me something & I have no clue what she is saying.

Today in PT she did great. Leslie asked me to bring our push toy to see if she would work better with it & it was a hit. She walked & pushed in everywhere. She even took a total of 10 steps on her own walking from me to Leslie. She is actually pretty stable on her feet too. She will be running around with Morgan soon, so watch out cuz, here comes Emma.

A Huge Scare

No this isn't related to Emma's heart or her hand but it is Emma related.

Emma was playing in the kitchen with her mini soccer ball & I went into the living room to make a phone call (only a minute or so - long enough to leave a voice mail) & when I got off I noticed Emma wasn't making any noise. As most moms know, a quiet toddler usually equals trouble or mischief is brewing, so I started to call for Emma. Normally she will answer but nothing. So I got up to look for her & couldn't find her. The back door was open but the screen was closed & locked so I knew she wasn't outside. So up decided to check up stairs & my gut was right. She had climbed all the way to the next to the top step & was reaching out for Zoie & Samantha who were both at the top of the stairs. She had climbed all the way to the top without making a peep. It just made my heart sink when I saw her sitting there & she thought it was no big deal of course. I didn't fuse at her because I was just glad she was okay but man did it scare me to see her sitting there.

Normally something has to trigger her to climb up the stairs, one of the pets is sitting there or following us up them but nothing like that happened. Plus our stairs have a landing half way up & turn & go the rest of the way up so she had no trouble getting up them at all.

After I had calmed down I called my sister, Karen to share the news & she informed me Emma did the same thing at her house today while I was at the doctor. She keeps my neice Morgan who knows to stay off the stairs & she usually tells Emma "No No" but this time all she did was sit in amazement and watch Emma climb. My brother-in-law, who works from home, found Emma & immediately called for Karen. She was just has horrified as I was to find Emma at the top of the stairs. So she has had quite an eventful day.

We knew Emma was capable of climbing stairs, especially since her PT, Leslie, taught her how several months ago & we keep a baby gate at the bottom when she attempts to climb but we will have to use it at all times now. That will make a total of 5 baby gates in our house up most of the time. One at the laundry room to keep the dog out of the cat box, one at the bottom of the stairs, one at the top of the stairs, one on the upstairs hall bath to keep the dog out of the other cat box & one at the office to keep the dog from eating the cat food (wee take this one down during the day). We are so tired of gates & its only the beginning.

Remembering

It was 2 years ago tonight that Daddy passed from this earth & went to a better place & so much has happened. I sometimes find myself talking to him & wishing he was here to at least meet Emma & Morgan but then I have to remind myself the state he was in the last six months to a year he was with us. I am so glad I shared with him one of the first ultra sounds from Reach we had of Emma when I was 7-9 weeks pregnant. It was soon after that he passed away. It was almost as if he was waiting or God kept him with us long enough so he would know one of my biggest dreams had come true.

One of the things I remembering him always telling us was that your family is always here, no matter what & he is/was so right. Not that we were not a close family before he passed but we have become even more close since & maybe that was the good that came from him passing. We learned, mourned & cried a lot those nearly 10 years Daddy was sick & we are a stronger family because of it.

I miss you Daddy & I can't wait to see you again one day.

CHD Awareness via Nascar! Help Vote us in

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Baby Byrd or Beaver

So Emma has unfortunately been using the rails of her crib as teething rings, as a lot of babies do, but it started getting out of hand. She was actually causing the wood to splinter & we were of course worried about that getting in her mouth & her damaging her bed so we tried to fix it. We first got a furniture crayon, which didn't work well at all so we used the gummy rail guards which seem to be working well. Emma also started chewing on the front of her crib which isn't as easy to cover since she has a sleigh bed, but guess what we found. They make cloth covers for the front rails of the crib, but of course they can be really pricey, so we asked Chris' mother, Grammy an interior designer, if she could make one & we are thrilled with how it turned out. Unfortunately Emma is still chewing on her bed rails but at least they are protected now & she can't do any additional damage.

Emma's side rails

Side rails with gummy guards

The reversible rail cover (the other side is pink, of course) from Grammy

Sweet 16

or at least that is what her Daddy is calling her today. Yes our baby girl is 16 months old today. On one hand it makes me really sad that she is becoming less & less of a baby each day but on the other hand she is so much fun & learning a ton of new things.

She is so close to walking but she just isn't quite confident enough to take off & do it. She will walk behind push/walking toys & ride her car all by herself but she will not let go of furniture or toys to walk. The church has an easter egg hunt planned at the end of the month & I would love it if she was walking by then, I think she would enjoy it a lot more.

She is saying more words but I can't think of what the news one are right now. She is still obsessed with facial body parts & names the constantly. She LOVES her cousin Morgan a.k.a. "Moga" & they are so sweet playing, hugging & kissing all over each other. For some reason Emma has been calling Chris "Paw Paw" all weekend but we keep correcting her & she insists he is Paw Paw.

She is doing very well with her new splint/brace & I think I have finally gotten used to putting it on correctly, its a little tricky at first. She does ask us to take it "off" constantly since she knows it comes off unlike her bear cast. She is allowed to have it off under supervision while eating, playing or bathing for a little each day & she does great without it on. I on the other hand am still having a hard time looking at, bathing & dressing her hand since its still very dirty, bruised & swallon from surgery. She also keeps asking to have the dirty/bloody goo "off" which I am sure makes her new thumb stiff & feel weird. I sure will be glad when its all healed & looks clean like a normal thumb & not a post surgery thumb.

Active Again

As of yesterday we are officially active with Lifetime Adoption Center again. I sent them our updated text for our birth mother profile & now we are waited on them to approve it & make any chances that are necessary. Then we will send them a shorter version for our web page & magazine page & print 50 copies of our profile for them to pass out to potential birth mother. I will post a link to our web page once its updated & live on the internet. After all that, then we just wait, which is the worst part & hopefully we will be matched in the 13 months we have remaining on our contract.

Cast is off

This morning I took Emma to have her cast removed & she was absolutely terrified, bless her heart. She literally screamed her head off the entire time, or at least as long as some medical person was present in the room with us.

Unfortunately my predictions about myself were dead on & I didn't handle it well at all. The tech was removing her cast, I was fine, clipping of the gauze inside, still fine, but once it was off & I saw bloody gauze & then the 2 pins in her hand, it was over. Thankfully I asked Chris to meet us at the appointment, just in case, & I needed him there. I quickly told Chris he needed to take Emma so I could lay down on the table, I was feeling very faint, already seeing spots, sweating & shaky. If any of you are like me, a medical wimp, you know all the signs but this time they hit me really fast. Fortunately I didn't pass out & the staff was very attentive to my needs.

So back to Emma, much to our surprise, Dr. G put Emma in a molded, hard splint (only temporary) until we can go back on Thursday to get her fitted for a real splint. This splint looks just like the ones you see everyone wearing who is suffering from some kind of hand or wrist injury & it will go almost to her shoulder just like her cast did. She will wear this for 1 month but she will be able to take it off under supervision (eating, bathing, therapy playing...). Then she goes back in a month to be fitted for a new & smaller splint the only goes 1/2 way up her forearm that she will only wearing while she is sleeping. Then she should be free from bondage on her left hand/arm.

Emma's signatures on her cast

More signatures

Her new hard splint wrapped in gauze tape.

Emma's first busted lip. She fell flat on her face last night in the kitchen cruising between the chair & table leg.