Christmas

The Christmas holidays have been fabulous! We had Christmas at Nana and Papa H's last Sunday since Angie and Tom drove to Boston for Christmas week. Olivia opened all her gifts and enjoyed them all! Grandpa Q was still in the hospital w/pnemonia that day so we visited him there for awhile. On Christmas Day, we did Santa at home, then had lunch at my aunt's house with Dad's side of the family. Olivia played with Owen (4) the most and just had a jolly ol time with aunt Margie at the piano playing Silent Night! Most of the adults brought gifts to do the chinese gift exchange, lots of fun! As for Santa gifts, Olivia slept in until 7am, then really wasn't fully awake for the opening of gifts...but she saw a sheep stuffed animal and said "baaaa" for the first few minutes :) Santa gave her a princess toddler bed, comforter, Hello kitty sleeping bag for naptime at daycare, crayola items, fingernail polish, hairbows, Little Mermaid Aquadoodle, Bella Princess dance DVD/mat/wand, shoes, Dora and Elmo DVDs, Toddler Bible Songs CD...she was actually TIRED of opening gifts by the end!

Oh yes, I had Bri's gifts and a few of Olivia's unwrapped gifts under our bed before Christmas and a couple of days before Christmas, guess who is looking under there and finds a Wiggles coloring book and brings it out to mommy? Yep, the little angel happened to be on the floor playing and noticed it under the bed!!! So that gift was given early.

Well, after Aunt Margie's on Xmas, we drove to Grandpa Q's house, now home from hospital. His twin came down and we all opened gifts and ate a good ham dinner. Olivia loved the baby doll and carrier from Grandpa...carried it around all night! Then Friday we drove to Ohio to have Xmas with Bri's family until yesterday. It was a nice trip seeing family up there and getting lots more gifts and eating good food! Olivia is a piggy pig sometimes, must be going through another growth spurt! She did really well around everybody though, and just struts around between people like she owns the place :) She got to play with Emma (4?) and Grace (2) again (saw them back in the summer) which she loved! She and Grace headbutted at one point and Grace got a bloody nose :( Overall, a wonderful 4 Christmas' for us all!

Update

Olivia feels fine this week...the injections from friday gave her slight bruising on a couple spots on her arm, but she never said it hurt or anything after we left the doctor's office Friday. Over the weekend, I noticed she is using her right hand more on her own and wants me to know it, she says "hand" and looks at her right hand, until I praise her for using it! We are starting to strech her arm and will be getting her to do tasks with both hands like carry a tray or big ball.

Brian is off all week except Wednesday, so Nana is keeping olivia that day. Until then, she is enjoying extra time with her daddy! Today he said he felt like he cleaned up the living room all day (toys, toys and more toys from Christmas at the Holland's yesterday!) and Olivia talked his ears off. They went out to get the oil changed in the highlander and had lunch at McDonalds. We leave Friday for a weekend in Ohio for Christmas with Brian's family up there. I'll just be glad to get the work week over with, it's SLOW although I have a lot to do in 3 days!

Parade and Daycare Program

This year, we bundled up and faced the 36 degree weather to take Liv to her first Christmas parade! We went to salem and it was good! Apparantly on the way over, she chewed threw her left mitten so her fingers were exposed the whole night! We finally found a parking spot near Main Street (near beginning of parade route) and walked up to the corner to see. Liv was excited to be there. Of course after 35 minutes of it, she got fussy and we figured she was just too cold so we headed back to the car. So, the two things we talked about, we didn't get...candy and Santa! Good first experience for one, though!

Last weekend we did go to the mall and Olivia got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas--after some Mommy direction! She wouldn't smile for the pic but it was still adorable, she gave Santa high 5 and a hug hi and bye! Cute!

Last night was Lakeside Daycare's Christmas program...The two's went first and sang 3 songs...very quietly! :) Olivia didn't get her jingle bells to shake so she was looking for those the whole first song, then at one point, she pushed a little boy over so she could get between him and another little girl. Luckily, he didn't push back! The kids did well for a first performance before an audience of 300 at least! So proud of our little angel.

The push...Angie with Olivia and best friend, Abby and mom Tosha @ cookie reception afterwards.

Today was her first botox appointment with Dr. Brown. Angie and I took her up there and Angie babysat afterwards until Brian and I got home from work. Olivia did good, needed 2 doses of verset to get her sleepy enough to do the procedure. He injected 5 different muscles in her right arm, over in about 3 minutes, I'd say. The long part was waiting for the numbing cream and verset to kick in. they kept a check on her vitals before & after and let us go once she seemed more awake and could keep water down with no coughing. Followup in 3 months. The botox should last 3-9 months and we have to strech her arm and encourage her to use it to do a lot of motions she hasn't been doing. The botox relaxes the muscles with tone so she can use them and other muscles to do these motions. Will keep ya updated, I am just really relieved this was finally done...this was 3rd scheduled appointment, had to reschedule when had ear infection and when she ate the morning of the appointment (not supposed to eat within 8 hrs of the verset and we didn't know that).

We also had a followup with Dr Apfel this week, the neurosurgeon. Went very well, she just wants to keep an eye on the 2 gaps that we can still feel where her bone hasn't filled in since her surgery last January. Said could take years to fill in and doesn't want to put her through radiation of an xray or ct scan now. We will just be patient and see how it does.

Merry Christmas, everyone! This one is fan-tabulous for us, Olivia recognizes Santa, loves the tree and lights. She helps me bake and we sing carols often :) Such a big girl now.

Watching Seasame Street Live this year!
First gingerbread house made at Nana & Papas last weekend

Thanksgiving

This year, Olivia helped me mash the sweet potatoes for my casserole :) It was fun! We had a busy day, first making the dish, then lunch at Aunt Margie's, playtime with her 3rd cousins, hospital visit to see Grandma Holland, then back to Nana & Papa's for dinner and to see Grandpa Quinn.

Amanda brought Lauren over Friday for dinner and a visit since they were in town and Cari and Ben, and Aunt Angie came too! O and L got along great and played until they were both worn out!

Saturday was a lazy day at home and today Brian and I went to church while Ang kept O. The rest of the day flew by too quickly for it's back to work and daycare tomorrow after a nice, long weekend :(

This week, Monday is PT for Liv, Wednesday is OT & ST, I have an OB/GYN appt on Thursday, same day as Bri's followup on his foot. Then Friday is Liv's botox appointment with Dr Brown in Radford. Brian and I are both going. I'm very anxious to see how much it helps her right arm muscles relax...we'll have to work with her every day to use that arm more once it kicks in. She'll still see Cynthia for OT once/week for now, even after the botox. Please pray for Olivia! Thanks to all for prayers and support. Love ya!

updates

Well, Brian is still wearing the rocker shoe another month...but it's healing well. He's working again this Saturday, 3 in a row now, they've got him busy, busy at work! As for me, I am feeling good-just a little tired and worn out, but overall good! OK, maybe a little nauseous in the mornings until I eat. And at work, having to put up with a bunch of #%$^ these days and my moods/hormones are not letting me be as calm and patient as normal!! Also, I attended a friend's dads funeral this week that was pretty emotional. :( But I'm alright. Getting more and more excited about the new baby!

Little miss olivia has a runny nose again and SURELY will be cutting those molars any day now...little moody, picky lately! She sleeps pretty much every night in her own bed, though, so that is good. We had speech tonight at our house and Linda went over some of her conclusions for the Early Intervention review...olivia has improved greatly since beginning speech but some aspects are still not at her age level's expectations. I'm not too worried about this though, because she's 2 1/2 and saying more words/phrases EVERY day! One thing coming up is Dr Brown's botox injections in her arm, next Friday, IF they can verify how it will be covered first. Dealing with insurance and pharmacies is absolutely one of the most frustrating things to deal with! And we have the neurosurgeon follow up scheduled for Dec. 15th w/Dr Apfel...been 4 months since last check up and we are still watching the two gaps in her head where the bone hasn't grown together yet. Will keep ya updated....gotta go to bed now!

We have some wonderful news!

God willing, our family will be blessed with another little one come on or about June 22nd, '09!!! We are very excited~had first ob/gyn appointment this morning! (will post sonogram pics soon) The next appt is Dec. 4th (mom & dad's anniversary!), due date is the day after mine & Brian's 6th wedding anniversary, and remembering back, Olivia's due date was april 20th, 2 days before my birthday! Of course she came early, but still the date thing is pretty cool!

Halloween was fun for us--we took Olivia trick-or-treating to a couple houses in Salem, then Angie and I took her to Nana & Papa's in Rocky Mount. Olivia had a party in daycare that day and so after all the trick or treating, was pretty pooped. She passed out on the way home and went right to bed when we got home! Precious.

My department at work did the Hee-Haw theme!

Halloween night at Nana & Papa's! Olivia gets everyone to do what she wants at this house! :)

Great weekend!

Cutest messiest face in the whole world!

We had a great time visiting family in Galliapolis over the weekend. Olivia is quite the little card player! And after we got home Sunday, we carved our pumpkin and baked the seeds, fun! Olivia was fitted for her new left shoe insert today and was back at daycare after a day with Aunt Angie yesterday!

doctors' appts

Last week we saw dr kerkering, a pediatric neurodevelopmental doctor and she said we are right on track with her therapies right now and she tested Liv in different area, coming to the conclusion that she's at a 30 month old level...which is exactly how old she is! So that is great. We do not need to see this doctor again unless we feel it necessary.
Then we saw dr brown again on friday-went well, too. we're to keep her right sfo on her foot and they are prescribing a foot insert for her left, too, to keep her foot in line. We're going to try a few different things on her arm and leg to reduce tone/relax muscle so we can have more effective OT and restraint therapy. She's doing very well, we just want her to have all the opportunities to help her to use that right hand. We're so proud of her!
Update on potty training: she went potty three times for dada and me yesterday and twice for aunt angie today! good girl!
Martinsville was great today-little hot at times, but traffic wasn't too bad and we had a day at the track, like the good ol days! of course we missed olivia every minute! :)

Pumpkin patch

We went back to Layman's farm to get a pumpkin this year...great fun for all!

Time for Autumn

The leaves are changing and the days are getting a little shorter...yes, Fall is here! :( makes me sad. But makes for great photos outdoors!!! We went to Peaks of Otter on the parkway last Sunday and it was gorgeous up there. The pic below is what we saw most of the time spent outside there! :)

Last week, I met Coreen, Liv's new PT and she is great. Seems to really know her stuff and Olivia acts comfortable around her, so that's good. We are trying kineseo tape on her foot/calf now instead of the new SFO (brace) for two weeks to see if that will correct her middle stance, if you will. They saw that she is putting all her weight on the inner part of her feet instead of the outer. The brace still looks to be uncomfortable to some extent, because Olivia is overcompensating and turning in that right foot with the brace on (to clear the floor when her toes drag so she won't trip), although it's not rubbing or too tight or anything like that. I'd rather her not wear it, if it makes her walk with difficulty, but the va prosthetics guy says that it fits good and IS doing what it's meant to do for her. We'll see what Dr Brown and Dr Kerkering say next week, too. We met with speech therapist Linda today at our home and she was impressed with how much Olivia is saying now, over 60 words I wrote down! She'll see her twice/month until she turns 3 in April. Monday the 6th was the 2 year anniversary of Liv's AVM bleed...the details of that day are not something I like to think about necessarily, but they are embedded in us now. I think of how far she's come and how blessed we are to have her here and share her life and love of life! Thank God for her and her "story" that we will share with others forever how God did a miracle that day and has a plan for her life. Please pray with us that He will continue to heal her every day. There are still a couple of gaps in that bone flap since her last surgery, we are waiting out right now to see if it'll grow back like it should as she gets older.

Anywho, Bri goes back to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully won't be wearing any more funny foot contraptions!!! I think he's gotten pretty lazy this summer b/c he didn't walk on that foot as much as usual, by no means and now he gets tired quickly :) LOL (love ya honey) 'Til next post...

Well, Olivia and i both are feeling better this week. She hasn't woke up in the middle of the night for over a week. No 2yr molars yet either, though. The other day Brian caught her with one leg on her crib rail, trying to climb out! He said if she was standing on her pillow to do that, she probably could have swung her leg further and fell out (ahhhhh!) So we'll be transforming her bed to the toddler bed probably this weekend after our yard sale! We want to move her bed into the spare bedroom since it's bigger and her toys can fit in there with her bed, instead of being out in the living room.

I'm going to meet her new physical therapist, Coreen, tomorrow at daycare. Then next week, we'll have Speech therapy at home Wednesday afternoon with Linda, who used to do it before the summer...she's great. Oct 14th is Dr. Kerkering appointment-pediatric neurodevelopmental doc. and Oct. 17th is Dr. Brown again. Tristen has ordered a new wrist splint and we are still taping Olivia's arm with Kenesio tape. She's adjusted a little more to her new foot brace, too. Her foot doesn't seem to be turning in quite as much, although her balance still needs some work with it on. I'll be interested to see what Dr Brown says about it.

Thanks Nana G and Grandma Call for the big girl pottie box of goodies last week! Olivia liked it all, but really took to those Crayola brushes!

Brian

Bri went back to the doctor today about his foot...and the cast is off! YAY! He goes back in two weeks and until then is wearing a "rocker shoe" that puts the pressure on his heel when he walks. But just the cast being off is a huge PLUS for us all!!!

Miss Olivia got sick Tuesday night and so Nana H kept her Wednesday at home. Then she went back to daycare today and I stayed home! I had a fever from about 7pm last night until 9am this morning. Just felt weak today and my throat hurts, my nose is stuffy and I'm sneezing some. Yuck.

Can't wait for the weekend-although it will be raining and i wanted to have a yard sale saturday :(

fall is here

Olivia has been doing great lately, sleeping better at night, although her nose is starting to run again... but she is continuing to go potty for us a couple times a day and talks our ear off most of the morning and evening :) She is starting to put words together, like "ow, that hurt mommy" or "no, decter (dexter), no". We took her back to va prosthetics last week and they say her new foot brace fits good and is doing what it is supposed to as far as making her walk a certain way. She just needs to get used to wearing it. It's just funny cause her therapists don't think the brace should make her gate pattern look worse or turn her foot in MORE than it looks like she does WITHOUT the brace! But we have dr. brown's appointment next friday so we'll see what he says about it, too. He's who ordered it. I am meeting Coreen, Liv's new physical therapist, at her daycare Thursday morning for her session, too. She'll be seeing Liv once a month, like Heather did. And we see Dr. Kerkering, a pediatric neurodevelopmental doctor, on Oct 14 th I believe, to get her take on any delays Olivia may have. I'm seriously thinking about making an appointment with a new pediatric orthopedic doctor, per the suggestion of a couple of her therapists.

Update on Bri's foot--he goes Thursday to get his 2nd cast taken off. It should be healed completely this time. (GOD WILLING!!!) He will be sooooo glad to get this cast off for good! And I dared him to touch his callous again :) LOL

Updates

Have had a good couple of weeks. Brian's foot has been in a cast for a week to heal faster...he goes back to the doctor Thursday. Hopefully, this is his last week of staying at home.

Olivia's new foot brace has been on a week and now we may have to get it adjusted because it makes her turn her foot in even more! I don't know if she really even needs it at this point. She has an appointment Wed. this week and tomorrow her new physical therapist is stopping by to see her walk/run in it. You all should see how FAST she runs without a brace at all...she's a speed demon! She stayed the night with Nana & Papa H. Saturday night and did good. She's feeling better than last week, for sure. I haven't felt her gums in a couple days, but I don't think she's cut her 2 yr molars, yet, although that may be the cause of the sleepless nights.

One great accomplishment to announce tonight!!! Daycare has been sitting Olivia on the potty throughout the day lately. Well today I picked her up at 5:00 and they had just sat her on the potty and she actually went while sitting there, they said! When I came into her room, she ran to me and said "pee pee". I asked her if she needed to pee pee or just went. and when I asked if she went pee pee on the potty, she said "Yeah!" She knows what is going on here!!! Isn't that GREAT?! It's the first time she's done that, although she's sat on it plenty of times at home! We're so proud of our big girl tonight!

"ah-boo"

This evening, our little princess finally TOLD us she had pooped in her diaper!!! It's the first sign to start potty training! After dinner, we were in the living room and she came over to me and with a look so serious, said "ah-boo" and I said "a boo?" and she said "ah-boo" again and again. I then asked "did you poo-poo in your diaper?" and she said "yeah" and turned around so I could look down the back of her diaper. And sure enough, she had! :)

Today at daycare Olivia would not go down for a nap, not sure why! But she fell asleep on the way home and did OK until bedtime at 8:00.

Brian went to the new podiatrist today, who did another xray, swab test, and is referring him back to the first doctor who we didn't think too much of. So he has an appointment tomorrow where they'll probably go ahead and do a MRI to make sure the infection is not in the bone. I'll keep ya posted...

Dexie vet trip

Well, we finally got Dexter to another vet...Cave Spring Vet Clinic. They did a thyroid test, ear swab, bloodwork to check his organs, fecal, the list goes on! We really liked this vet, they are very nice and thorough, so we hope to get Dexter feeling better soon. He does have a yeast infection in his ears and his skin conditions more than likely are thyroid related-we'll get results back Thursday. So he's taking a few different pills now and we bought some medicated shampoo for his baths. And the funniest part of the evening was when we were all in the exam room with Dexter and the vet took Dexter out of the room twice to draw blood and get a fecal...and Olivia cried from devistation!!! She had tears in her eyes and kept reaching for the door saying "Dexter, dexter!" It was heartbreaking! So adorable that she cares so much for him!

Labor Day weekend

We had a great weekend...some shopping, yardwork, Tech football (BOO ECS!), good food and company at Aunt Faye's, then slip n slide and cookout at home Monday! Olivia is a mess! She enjoys the pool and slip n slide SOO MUCH!

NEWS!

Saturday, August 23rd, my favorite sista in the world became a "fiance"!!!! Tom proposed at Trios restaurant downtown Roanoke! Ring is absolutely beautiful! We're so happy for them!

Last Friday Angie went with us to the park with Olivia, it was fun. Olivia chased another little girl around for about 10 minutes and loved swinging and going down the slides. Nothing slows this girl down! We love it, though!

Nana's trip to beach

Week before last Nana H. went with friends, Mabel and Karen down to N. Myrtle for a few nights! The pics look like they had a really good girls trip and enjoyed the great atmosphere that only Myrtle Beach has. Those crazy girls!!! Makes us all the more READY to go to a beach on our next vacation!

Doctor visits

Well, Thursday mid-morning at work I got a call from Olivia's teacher, Kim. They needed me to come get Olivia due to temp of 100.1 and diarrhea. She's had a runny nose and cough for almost a week, but we were giving her OTC meds. So, I brought her home and took her to see a nurse practitioner at her doct. office that afternoon. She did NOT have a temp there and her stomach, ears and lungs were fine. She said it was a bad cold with upper respiratory congestion and just needs to run it's course. She did write a prescription for a cough medicine with antihistamine to give twice/day. So Olivia went back to daycare today and was ok besides runny nose. She's been sleeping good at night again, though, so that's good!

Monday the 25th, Liv starts the Toddler Town room at daycare--such a big girl! This room works more with potty training, they still go to Melody Makers every Friday and have play time outside, etc. They do walk down to the cafeteria for breakfast instead of eating in the room, like her old room. Other than that, I really don't think there's much difference. OH, and the cost goes down $15/wk for us, which is GREAT! I think it'll be good for Olivia to be around kids her size for a change. She will probably pick up on more words from them, too. It's an exciting change!

Tomorrow afternoon, Liv is going to Nana and Papa H's and spending the night...so, it's a date night for us! We'll probably go out to eat and rent a movie. And get a few things done around the house we've been putting off. I'll probably be mowing the yard for the third time since Brian's been having his foot cut on....gosh, that sounded rude. It's ok honey, I really don't mind :) Brian's third trip to the podiatrist was yesterday too, and he has to go back in 2 more weeks... AGAIN...to see how much it's improved. The doc is concerned that it still may be infected so prescribed Brian 2 more antibiotics. We are not too happy with this doctor and so are getting our family doctor to refer Brian to someone else. This guy just really seems questionable on some things he's asked Brian and it almost seems he's just out to get as much $ out of us as he can...and Brian's foot IS healing slowly, but not fast enough, we think. He's really not been able to enjoy this summer, not being able to stand on it a lot or swim or anything! Will keep ya updated on this.

Saturday, we visited my college bud, Marcia and took a tour of her house in Rustburg. It's an old farmhouse she is remodeling and it is gorgeous! The views of the open fields and mountains make it all the more special. Brian and I both fell in love with it and Olivia had fun running around everywhere!

Uh Oh

Last night Angie was visiting and Olivia had her diaper off, "airing out", which we hardly ever do. Well, she walked back to me and Brian's bedroom and came back out asking Angie "What's that?" Angie followed her back to the foot of our bed where Olivia pointed down to the wet spot on our carpet and asked Angie again "What's that?!" :)

She does go and sit on the potty sometimes, but we are still in the process of getting her to tell us when she has a dirty diaper. So, the potty training has slowly started...not in much of a rush, though.

She's had a good week at daycare already. Tuesday is ICECREAM day during the summer...mmm! Tomorrow night we are going to the Avalanche baseball game in Salem, so that will be fun. Friday is her Occupational Therapy with Cynthia at daycare. Brian and I are trying to work on constraint therapy at home each night (It's HARD when she doesn't want to cooperate)...will keep everyone posted.

Happy 81st to "pa pa" Quinn!

With a beautiful day Saturday, we cleaned the house and hosted a cookout for some friends. Olivia got to play with her long-lost buddy, Elijah, and his sister Madylin. It was fun for all!

Today was granpa quinn's 81st bday and after coming home from the hospital yesterday, he was ready to get outdoors and enjoy the day! We all met up at Smart View to enjoy lunch and give grandpa his gifts. Badmitten was fun (and tiring!) and some played horse shoes. Brian tried to stay off his foot as much as possible since he didn't really do that yesterday. It was a beautiful afternoon! Olivia took a nap on the way home and after we ate dinner, went outside to play some more! She was ready for bed at 8:00, too. I'll be heading that way in just a little bit!