2012 a great year

I vow that 2012 will be a great year for our family! O is in Kindergarden, Madi in Toddler Town @ daycare, and both doing well. Olivia and I are part of a Daisy Troop here in Roanoke and I've started taking the girls to a gymnastics class once a week. Our house is on the market and we hope to move into a slightly larger home by mid-summer! Dexter has been seizure free for a year and just got his semi-annual grooming done. Brian's company should be bought out (finalized in courts) this summer, too, which will be wonderful for those folks. Olivia started w/an OT at Carilion in the Fall and sees her weekly and has an IEP at school w/OT, PT (dropping for 1st grade), and adding Speech/Language back in shortly. Her special education teacher has seem lots of progress, as has her regular teacher, whom we all adore. Olivia has opened up to her classmates and become more social and outgoing since the beginning of 2012. Her ADHD has been controlled w/a new stimulant med. we tried this school year w/little to no side effects...and we're adjusting dosage soon to help w/attention to task issues popping back up. Till next time...

Is it almost Thanksgiving, REALLY??

Today, Olivia missed her 1st day since starting Kindergarten :( but it was necessary! Of course today was the school's Thanksgiving program, but we missed it. Because... She vomited around 8 times between 7am and 9am...doctor prescribed Omnicef for ear infection and bacterial infection/cold/sinus. We can give her Claratin w/prescription so hopefully feel ok for school tomorrow. She's doing alright in K so far, the ADHD meds help tremendously, per her teachers. Everyone's been great to work with at Grandin Court, and we are blessed to have such a good team on her IEP. She's started to attend the YMCA Magic Place after school for the last few weeks and Brian just picks her up when he gets off work. Anywho, things are going alright, we go back up to UVA on Dec. 12th for follow ups w/Dr Norwood and her new orthopedist. We've acquired the remaining funds to sign her up for their constraint therapy program, which we'll do in April, starting with her spring break week. So her new therapist is working on a few things to strengthen her wrist/fingers to prepare for that. Maddi is doing great in daycare at our church, and is just growing up so fast. She talks in sentences already and plays with Olivia like she's also in Kindergarten! :) love them baby girls! Brian's company should be back on track under new management by spring, everything is going through the court system now. We pray they will buy his press back and get him back to doing what he was hired for and give the employees raises after staying with them through all this! We really want to be able to buy a new house by spring/summer of next year. We've so totally outgrown this one! I can't wait! But trying to be patient.

Rest of summer

We had a great summer with the girls and family! Took them to Fairystone park to swim one Saturday, we went to the Columbus Zoo w/Nana Donna and Cousin Jennifer in August, girls spent several nights with Nana & Papa H., Maddi's 2nd birthday was so much fun on the weekend before July 4th! Olivia was back at Lakeside for the summer and got to go on multiple field trips (Pump it Up, Duck Pond, Museum, Parks, etc.) Maddie and her had "swim days" each week, too, and we filled up our little pools in the back yard a LOT this summer :)

Summertime fun

Princess Olivia

Surgery on April 29th, 2011 went great. Olivia did excellent and thank the good Lord that we were able to bring her home the following afternoon! This was by far the hardest thing Brian and I have faced since her first emergency surgery. I talked to Olivia the day before and she didn't say much except when I told her she'd have to stay in the hospital for a night or two and she said "No". When I woke her up Friday morning, she said she didn't want to sit in the chair (she hates dentist, beautician, etc. chairs!)...and then later said she didn't want to go to sleep in the hospital :( Bless her little heart, she was nervous as we were and even got sick while we were waiting to see Dr Apfel before the surgery. She's so brave though, and trusted that mommy and daddy were telling her the truth and that she'd see us soon. It was so hard to expain things to her this time. I went to the O R with her again this time and left her side at 7:30am. Call from nurse at 9:45 that Olivia was doing good, but it'd be awhile longer. We kept checking at the desk, and got a call at 1:00 that they were closing up. 2:00 a call from Dr. Apfel, things went well, just long because they had a lot of work to do on the synthetic piece. CT after got her to the PICU and it showed a perfectly shaped head! surgeons were happy and of course we were too. She got sick a couple of times that evening from the anastesia or maybe the loritab on an empty stomache. But she woke up at 2am and ate some goldfish and let me brush her teeth. Then ate breakfast, lunch and we were released at 4:00pm Sat.! Home for a nap, then dinner and playtime with mom and dad. She has slept all night every night since being home. Hospital stays always messed up her sleeping in the past, but not this time. She woke up from anastesia saying she wanted to go home :) So glad this is over and just want to thank everyone for support, thoughts and most importantly, PRAYERS!!! Our miracle baby keeps on amazing us and we thank God for her every day!
Sutures come out Monday, May 9th, and follow up w/neurosurgeon May 25th. She'll go back to school right after Memorial Day, 4 1/2 weeks post-surgery. She hasn't been on her ADHD meds since April 22nd. We may just keep her off of them through the summer now.

Olivia's 5th Birthday!!!

Cupcakes in her preschool class and Chuck E Cheese for dinner, yum! :) Girls were worn OUT! And Sunday at her party, there were 12 kiddos total, with two little bitty babies which we were glad attended! Thanks to all for coming, we had such a fun day and made great memories for Olivia in the upcoming difficult days for her. Please pray for her surgery which has now been moved to Friday April 29th at 7:15am. It was moved back 4 days, due to the synthetic piece being to specific to Olivia's gap. Dr Apfel wants it bigger so she can trim it once in surgery and make sure it fits her exactly. All these last minute changes, even though the doctor's office did call the manufacturer to make sure the CT scan was done in enough time for the scheduled surgery (4 weeks out) Anyway...what's done is done. Olivia will have spring break next week and get to spend time with Nana and Papa in the days before her surgery, this way. She probably will be in the hospital for 2 nights and kept out of preK until the day after Memorial Day (4 weeks post surgery), per neurosurgeon's suggestion. We want her head to be healing w/o chance of being hit by another child or fall.
In God we trust! As Pastor Tom told us, Olivia is in God's hands, the safest place that she can be! :) I love it.