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...