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!