Up Up Up

In the last few days, Elle has not only learned the word "up" but she has also learned the word "uh oh." I hear both words no less than 200x a day and I love it! I usually ask her to repeat whatever it was she just said because I get such a kick out of it!

This week has been pretty tough. After our appointment on Monday with our Genetics doctor, Elle must have picked something up from the hospital because she has been sick ever since. She was ok on Tuesday but woke up Wednesday with a runny nose and fever. Usually I dread a runny nose because not only is Elle miserable, but she is incredibly sensitive about her nose because of her 3 nose surgeries. The only way I can get anything near her nose is to make a game out of it...and even then...it's hit or miss on cleaning her up. A runny nose in our house almost always equals puking rally too. Since she is tube fed, we have to be uber careful when her nose starts to run - we have to slow the feed down so that it takes almost 2 hours for it to run. Ugh! Today has been the first day we haven't had major puking rallies...whoo hoo for progress! This morning the pedi told me that the virus Elle has will probably take 4 - 5 days to run it's course. 3 days down...2 more to go!!

Elle watching her sign language dvd in her pink chair...in her elephant shirt...ode to animal print friday!

Despite her being sick, she has still kept me on my toes this week. We finally installed the child locks on our kitchen cabinets and when she realized that this morning, there was a lot of screaming going on in our house! We left 2 cabinets open for her to pull stuff out of and that seemed to appease her for the rest of the afternoon. I'm praying she is on the road to recovery. I hate her not being 100%!

A Meeting with Genetics

We are so lucky to live in Houston and so close to Texas Children's Hospital. When Elle was diagnosed with CHARGE Syndrome we were blessed to meet one of the fabulous doctors that leads research on the syndrome - and thankfully, she is a Texas Children's doctor. I believe there are 2 doctors in the United States that do extensive research on CHARGE Syndrome and Dr. L is one of them. We are so blessed! Monday we had an appointment with Dr. L so she could see Elle's progress. As soon as Dr. L walked in to the room, Miss Elle hammed it up. She was crawling all around the room, pulling herself up on Dr. L's skirt and trying talking the whole time. Dr. L was so impressed by all Elle's activity. I was telling her about sign language and how Elle has really excelled with it. She asked to see some of Elle's signs so I sat Elle on my lap and we went through some of her signs. Elle had done around 10 signs when I looked over at Dr. L and saw her wiping tears away. She was laughing and clapping and was so impressed by our little Elle. I absolutely love that she is as thrilled with Elle's progress as we are. Elle is like a little sponge. She has sign language every Friday and seems to learn something new every week. I get so tickled spending the days with her - I think I laugh most of the day at her and her little expressions and things she does. Everything we do - she mimics. This weekend, I had a sneezing fit and I looked up to see Elle mimicking me. Oh My - she is one very smart little girl!

More Vacation Pics

I didn't edit any of these...but I think they are still pretty cute!

Mother's Day Weekend

I wanted to wait to write about Mother's Day until after today. Elle had OT and PT today for the first time in a week and since our PT reads the blog...I wanted to wait until after we saw her today to say that Elle is now officially crawling! Whoo hoo!! It started while we were on vacation and now the kid is blowing and going WAY more than I ever thought possible! The day before Mother's Day was when I caught her in action crawling through the kitchen. I sat Elle down on the floor today in the gym and said "Michelle, Elle has a trick to show you." And off she went...crawling across the gym towards Michelle. It is so awesome to see her progress!

This past Saturday evening, we took Elle over to see Witt for the first time in over a year. It was absolutely the best Mother's Day gift ever to see Witt and Elle interact...and for Mark and Vickie to have their grandbabies together!

Last Mother's Day we were still in the hospital with Elle. This year, it was so nice to wake up and be in our own home - all three of us. Little did we know last year how much our lives would change over the course of the year. Everyday has been an absolute blessing and I am so honored to be Elle's momma! We spent the morning in church with Lee's family and then spent the afternoon with my family in College Station. I couldn't have asked for a better mother's day!

I am so blessed to have so many wonderful Christian women in my life. My own mom is absolutely incredible and the best mom any girl could ask for. She is the kindest most thoughtful person I know. She makes every birthday and holiday seem even more magical than the year before and knows how to truly make a person feel special. She takes after her mom in so many ways and I am so blessed to have her in my daily life. I don't know what we would have done if she hadn't sacrificed for us and took care of Elle while I was working. I only hope that I can be the kind of mom to Elle that my mother has been to me. I have lost both of my grandmothers but I take so much comfort in knowing that both of them are watching over us from Heaven. Lee's mom and grandmothers and all his aunts have been apart of my life since November of 2003. I am so truly blessed to have a mother in law that I love. We talk on pretty much a daily basis and we are so lucky to have both grandmother's so close and a part of Elle's daily life. I love her sense of fashion and her designer's eye. She is tasteful and elegant and has the biggest heart. Lee's grandmothers are the same way. As the matriarch of a wonderful family, Meme is the essence of a strong Christian woman. I was telling Lee this weekend after talking to Meme on the phone that I love it that when meme says "I love you" she means it and you know it. Lee's other grandmother, Eleanor, is the cutest lady you will ever meet. She is soft spoken and even though her memory isn't that great, she is such a joy to be around. Her face lights up as soon as she sees Elle...which of course makes us thrilled to see her interacting so well. Lee and I are so blessed by our incredible families and especially our amazing moms and grandmothers.

Now that Mother's Day is over I will post some more vacay pics. We gave some of them out as presents to our mommas this past weekend!

My New Obsession

Thanks to my friend Erin I have a new obsession...

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/

http://www.fleamarkettrixie.com/

I just had to share...

Family Vacay 2010

For the past few days Lee, Elle and I have been enjoying the sand and surf in South Padre Island, Texas. Oh SPI how I love you!! We left early Saturday morning and made it down there around 1:00 Saturday afternoon. It was our first family vacay since Elle was born. Lee and I braved taking the dogs with us. They needed some r & r too!!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

We got into our condo and Elle immediately started crawling around. She's not much of a crawler at our house, but on the harder carpet at the condo, she was doing so well! We pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Went to the grocery store to get some necessities, took the dogs out on the beach for some surf time, made hamburgers, basically just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the soothing sounds of the waves right outside our doors.

Sunday, May 2, 2o10

We started our day with a wonderful walk on the beach. Like my text to my workout buddies said "walk on the beach 30 minutes pushing the jogging stroller - walking with the wind - great calf workout...35 minute walk back into the wind...great cardio, arm, calf...everything workout!" I was literally doubled over trying to push the stroller back in the wind. We took Elle to the beach for the first time Sunday afternoon. She wasn't too sure what to think about the sand and stayed on the towel between our beach chairs (under the umbrella). She loved climbing on the beach chairs though!

Monday, May 3, 2010

We explored the town and did some window shopping. I was on the hunt for something unique to commemorate our first family trip. I saw some promising purchases but didn't buy anything until I dragged Elle and Lee to (what seemed like) every cutesy little store on South Padre Island. We went back to the beach and this time Elle was all about it! She was like our very own little baby sea turtle - slowly making her way to the water. She was hilarious - crawling all over the beach. Every so often she would stop and lick the sand off her hands. We can't get the kid to eat food but she sure did like the sand! Like our friend Steph says "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt!" I had to keep reminding myself of that every time she would stop and lick her hands!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

We headed to Sea Turtle, Inc. They are a center that rescues sea turtles in South Padre and surrounding areas. If you are ever on SPI, I highly recommend that you check out the sea turtles. It was totally awesome! Elle wasn't too sure about the sea turtles because most of them were bigger than she is! I think I enjoyed it enough for the both of us!! After our morning with the sea turtles, we drove out on the island until the pavement ended to the most beautiful beach. The water was spectacular and the sand absolutely beautiful. Lee and I took some pics while Elle napped. We headed back there later on that afternoon once Elle woke up for a photo shoot! I will have to post the pics from our photo shoot in another post....there are just too many good ones and I need to narrow them down!

We left early Wednesday morning and made it home early in the afternoon. It was so sad leaving - especially when the sunrise looked like this...

It was so nice to just be together as a family and I am thankful we were able to do this. Here's to many more family vacations!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

It's funny. I thought that once I stopped working, I would have more time to do things for me....finish the thank you notes from Elle's birthday....finish Elle's sign language book that she uses in therapy....blog. I guess I had a huge misconception because I haven't had much time to do any of those! Elle has now decided to only take one nap a day instead of two so we are blowing and going all day long! Lately, Elle has made huge strides in both physical and occupational therapy. I love that both her therapist think outside the box to entice Elle to work. Last week, her pt said "let's try this and see if we can get Elle to use her arms to hang on to help build arm strength." I think as evidenced by the video we all enjoyed the new exercise!

Elle is starting to explore more and more. We are so thrilled that she is starting to crawl instead of army crawl. It is so much fun to watch her unsteady little hands and legs while she is figuring out this whole crawling thing. Everyday she gets a little better and can go for a little longer.

And this is Elle's newest trick...