If Sadie was born in almost ANY other country, instead of getting the therapy she needed to walk around in Squeaky shoes and chase cats, she would have been put in a mental instution.   Yes you read that right, MENTAL HOSPITAL.   Even though Sadie is a genius and more than 100% mentally, she would have been stuck in a hospital where she didn’t belong, fed baby food her whole (shortened) life, abused, neglected and Lord knows what else.   That idea is simply unfathomable to me and I am sitting on the couch crying and thinking about going to wake her up from her nap.

I was talking with a sweet little old lady recently, bless her.   Like we women love to do, she was running her mouth and sharing her opinion that almost got her punched in the jaw.   I was bragging on my friends who are adopting a little girl from another country.   She said “Well that is fine but there are plenty of children who need good homes here.”   Granny was entitled to her opinion and she is right.   Lots of children in lots of places had the bad luck to be born to an ugly dumb worthless fool “parent” who didn’t see how precious of a gift they were.   These ignorant fools are in the US and abroad.

Within 20 miles from my house, there are about 15 places to get Physical or Occupational Therapy, 4 Aquatherapy places and countless places to get orthopedics and prosthetics made.   And I live in a small town!  In America, we have absolutely everything in the whole world except a good place to grow some coffee!!!!  These children who live in China, Thailand, or take-your-pick of a “Developing Nation” they don’t have a good place to get braces made.   They don’t have a free Shriners hospital.   They don’t even have 911!

Since we’re very invovled in AMCSupport.org, we have heard lots of stories from AMC Moms who adopted their AMCers from here or from other countries.   The baby food story is from them, a child who has AMC was being fed baby food even though she was 10 years old.   It was just easier on the handful of care-takers running a huge institution filled with hundreds of kids.   I have heard of a child who was punched in the stomach repeatedly when she had a potty training accident.   Some religions view disabled children as a curse and encourage the families to ship the child off to these institutions or even to kill them before the bad omen spreads to the family.

So poor ole’ granny got an earful from me the other day.   All children deserve a home and a chance at a good life, education, love and some dadgum clean drinking water.   But if kids are in orphanages or foster homes in the US, at least they have a shot.   I know it’s not a perfect system and there are lots of hard-luck stories around, but just about anything is better than the best care in a Developing Nation.

Everyone was EXTREMELY generous to us last year during our aquatherapy fundraiser.  We raised all the money we needed for a year’s worth of Aquatherapy for Sadie in less than a week!   We’re not planning to continue that, at least for a year or so since our main goal was for her to learn to walk.  So we’re asking that whatever you were planning to contribute to us, would you consider sending that to our friends who are adopting a little girl from Thailand?   She has AMC and is about Sadie’s age.   It is heart breaking for me to think of these kids in other countries who could be walking around like Sadie if they had just had therapy like my little girl has.   Thanks for reading and please help my friends!
http://www.gofundme.com/morrisonadoption

These are my friends who are adopting a little girl who has AMC.

Most of the time when I write a “hang-in-there” blog post, I’m thinking about new moms or expecting moms who know that their kids have AMC already.  But sometimes it’s really hard to keep trudging along when your kid is 9 months old or 18 months old or hasn’t hit a big milestone or even grown at all in a while.  No one ever said that being an AMC Family is easy.   And if you think that it is….well let me assure you with a big ole’ Southern Smile that it AIN’T!

Hang in there Sister.   It won’t be like this forever.   The hours and hours of therapy that a baby needs until their first birthday are boring, stressful and you’re scared that you’re hurting them.   Newborn to age one is a stretching, bending, splinting, casting,  surgeries nightmare.   People have to sometimes remind you to “enjoy your baby” because you’re checking off a to-do list every time you change their diaper and then do their therapy for twenty minutes afterwards.   You don’t get a break from the therapy and all your “normal” friends don’t understand why you don’t have time to go out to eat with them.   “Ummm….because I’ve been stretching my child for 3 hours today and I still have more to do.   SO excuse me if I don’t feel like taking off my ugly faded sweat pants to go to some lousy restaurant with you and have you ask me ‘So how’s everything going…really….? Let’s catch up.’”

Most of that is over for us now.   I still do hours and hours of therapy daily for Sadie and I still get annoyed with people who don’t understand how stressful it is.   When Sadie was learning to walk, I never ever ever ever ever went a day without doing at least 2 hours of standing and walking with her.   Do you know how hard it is to bend over to support your child while they try to take steps for hours?   Well let’s just say that I buy epsom salt IN BULK at Sams STILL from all the back pain.  We used to take Sadie to big box stores every day and let her walk around wherever she wanted in her toy walker to build up leg strength.

Right now, Sadie is walking around the living room yelling “JUMP JUMP JUMP!”   She is watching Dora the Explorer and spinning around in circles.   She can do that because she is a walking, talking miracle baby.  I still stretch her feet 3 times a day (when I change her socks) and I do all sorts of fun therapy with her (that is just playing, as far as she is concerned) to stretch her joints.  But it’s FUN!   Honestly, fun.   It’s not like the bending her wrist and counting to 15 that I used to do when I changed her diaper as a newborn.   Her feet is the only thing that I haven’t figured out how to make into a stretching game.   But even with that, I just sing through the alphabet song twice for each foot.

If you’re an AMC Mom who’s been at this for a while, then you’re probably pretty overwhelmed and I know you’re thinking “Oh my goodness.   Is this going to be horrible for the years and years until my son/daughter/grandchild starts to walk?”   Absolutely not!   It gets better, easier and more enjoyable all the time.   When Sadie was 1 and I looked back over her 12 months of life I was terrified that I wasn’t strong enough for this journey with all the fear and worry that comes along with it.   At her second birthday I wondered if she would ever walk and questioned that I was even doing the right thing by working her so hard every day.

Sadie began walking on March 10th, and after about 2 weeks she was really good at it!   When she first began, I would run along beside her to have one arm in front and one in back for when she fell.   And yes I caught her a lot.   But as she got better and better I gave her more and more freedom.   Now she walks everywhere.   And she still falls occasionally, maybe 3 or 4 times a week.   When she does, she throws at least one arm in front of her (no small feat for an AMCer) and she lands on her arms while holding her head in the air!  I am so proud!  We worked hard on falling in PT and it has paid off!

Now that Sadie does her own “Walking therapy” I have about 2 extra hours a day!!!   Life is great!   She still needs me for OT, our other play therapy and foot stretching.   But to build up her leg strength and balance, she does that solo!   I have had time to put up laundry occasionally, sometimes clean the house even get a new hair style (which I despise.)  Several friends/therapists have come over and been shocked to see a swept and mopped floor with laundry and toys put away.   One day I was even wearing a matching outfit and had fixed my hair.   I thought my friend was going to pass out.   That’s when she said “WOW!   Your house is clean!   And…..how did you have time to style your hair?”   I told her that I had enough time now that I had 2 extra hours a day!   I don’t feel so overwhelmed anymore.   I still need a nanny, maid, masseuse, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist and Dog-walker to live with me to help out!   Now hiring!   Will pay with fresh cooked food and baby hugs!

My point is, hold on sister.   Take a look back at how far you’ve come every now and then.   Look at the pictures of your little one when he/she was born and look at how their joints were.   Look at your pictures from your first Philly trip (or wherever you go for treatment) and think about how far your little AMCer has come.   Squeeze your baby, have a good cry, maybe buy yourself an ice cream cone, a big one!   YOU are doing a great job of taking care of your baby and YOU should be proud.   You are a dedicated parent who has worked hard to become educated and take the best possible care of your child.   It’s OK to feel overwhelmed and like this will never end.   But it will and you will be proud, thankful and so so so glad that you stuck to your therapy routine.  Until then, just know that we’re all praying for you!  Hold on!

 

 

As  a mom, wife and crazy youngISH lady I have lots and lots of favorite Bible verses.   But my favorite for today is Luke 2:19 when the shepherds have come to tell Mary all that they have heard about Jesus.   Forgive my paraphrasing but Basically what has happened is that Mary and Joseph are there with their newborn baby Jesus and the Shepherds come to tell Mary that they know that this little tiny baby is the Savior of the world!    They were running around telling everyone about the huge Angel Choir which had come and announced this to them!

^{Luke 2: (NIV of course)}

¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Today I was at our local Shriners getting a new cast on with our fantastic OT there.   We were worried that Sadie wouldn’t be able to wear a cast this week because her skin was looking slightly irritated last week.   So I packed her elbow splint in the diaper bag this morning (just in case) and hoped for the best.   We sawed off the cast while everyone held their breath and waited.   Sadie’s skin was clear and fine!   So that was good news.   We stretched and straightened Sadie’s arm over and over for a while.   I washed the cast debris off of her, enjoyed a cast-free hug and we geared up for this week’s casting.

For those not in-the-know, when Sadie was born HER ELBOWS DID NOT BEND!      They moved literally one or two degrees and obviously the average elbow bends maybe 170 degrees or so.   To be functional, you only need 90 degrees.   90 is our goal and we’re trying to avoid risky elbow surgery with casting instead.  We’re only casting her right arm because her left was not responding to casting.

All of the above is certainly fine but it’s not exactly Earth-shattering news.   HERE is the news.   Sadie’s elbow now bends to SEVENTY DEGREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   SEVENTY!!!!  70!!!!!!!!!!!!    This amazing news!   We had about 45 when we started casting a few weeks ago!   If we can get 20 degrees more, everyone look out because this AMC Mom will be kissing people on the lips!

I got this news today and I just can’t hardly believe it.   I’m in shock.   Naturally this makes me think about Mary and how she must have felt when some random, stinky shepherds came running up to her and told her than Angels came and told them about her baby.   This is a good kind of shock.   But I’m hardly about to believe that it’s real.   This is one of those times when I think that being an AMC mom is AWESOME!

I’m so amazed and so thankful.   Is this real?    What if Sadie really could have functional elbows without surgery?   This is awesome.   Someone come pinch me!   This is so exciting and I just wanted to make sure everyone knows.   WOOHOO!   70 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I was in high school, for a brief, horrible time bell-bottoms came back into fashion. We called them “flared jeans” to differentiate ourselves from our bell-bottom wearing moms. But….they were bell bottoms. The first time I wore my new “Flared” jeans to school I realized that my legs were not like all my friend’s legs. All of my friends had little tiny skinny legs and wore the jeans like they were intended to be worn. I have such freakishly large muscles that the (supposedly wide-legged) bell on the bottom was actually skin tight against my massive calf muscle. I looked ridiculous. That is when I realized that my legs were 100% different from all my friends and naturally I was self-conscious about them.

As an adult, I am proud of my WWE wrestleresque muscles and I’m not ashamed of them at all. As an AMC Mom, I know the value of strong muscles. In college I worked at a sporting goods store (where I met my fantastic husband <3.) One night some of the men who worked there were talking about working out and were comparing their muscles (yawn!) As they were comparing their legs, I busted up in their circle and pulled my pant-leg up and flexed my calf. The biggest guy there said "DADGUM! Your muscles are huge!!!" Just what every young woman wants to hear….riiiiiight.

I know that I've mentioned before. But we've always been curious as to how Sadie is going to look since almost everyone in my family is a super-strong giant. Tonight I was reading Sadie her bedtime story and we always say a prayer afterwards then I hold her for as long as she will let me and it's bedtime then. Well tonight I was rubbing her leg and I felt a BIG OLE LEG MUSCLE IN HER THIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY BABY IS GETTING STRONG!!!!!! That girl walks at least 4 hours a day now and is getting stronger. I can feel it when I hold her and feel the strength in her back. I can feel it when I touch her legs and ACTUALLY FEEL MUSCLES. I can see it when she runs to me across the room! The Good Lord is healing my baby and making her strong! This is SO EXCITING! I love my little muscly baby!

It’s been almost 2 and a half years since I was pregnant with Sadie and mercifully some of those painful memories are ebbing away.   One thing that I will never ever forget, though is how people treated me.   Some people just avoided me (and still do) like a leper.   I guess they didn’t know how to treat a pregnant woman who already knew that her baby had special needs.   I made them uncomfortable.   Some people were kind and said that they would do anything to help.   Lots of people said they were praying for me.   But you know what absolutely NO ONE except for other AMC moms said?   Not a single person told me “Congratulations.”   Sadie is not a curse and neither is any kid with special needs.  All babies are blessings.   When an expecting mom gets the news that she is not carrying a regular/typical/whatever you want to call “Normal” bouncing baby, she does not need you crying in her face.   

Please please please don’t forget to say congratulations to these moms.   It’s great to be willing to help and to let them know that you’re praying and PLEASE do both of those things, definitely.   What I’m asking for is to be happy for them too.   Don’t forget to congratulate them please!   Thank you!

Today has been absolutely amazing.    My side of the family always has a huge Easter Party and everyone hunts eggs, acts silly and makes fun of each other.   We have a happy, loud & crazy family.   So it’s always fun.   

One of the things that has been shocking to me is to compare this year with last year.   Last year, as we were hunting eggs, Mom held Sadie up to an egg that was hidden in a planter and poor Sadie could barely use her arms enough to touch the egg.  She couldn’t pick it up and hold it.   She basically slapped the egg and that was it.   And as my cousin reminded me today….Sadie got stung by a bee doing that last year!   Poor girl!   

This year….I can hardly type all this through the tears.   This year, Sadie is walking.   She has perfected walking through grass as long as the surface is relatively level.   This year Sadie carried her own Easter basket.   This year she looked by herself and FOUND EGGS!   This year she walked up, stooped down, picked up the eggs in ONE HAND and put them in her basket.   This year she could balance enough to carry a basket with FOUR hardboiled eggs in it.   She walked around everywhere she wanted to go.   She found eggs by herself, even the ones hidden behind or under things!  She screamed “EGGS IN BASKET MOMMY!”   She walked all over my cousin’s house and said people’s names.   My child is a walking, talking little person.   

What is next year going to be like?   My two year-old can already count to ten, speak complete sentences and she knows how to hum “The Alphabet Song.”  She is a genius, as we all know.   I am simply dumbfounded at what all has happened this past year, even just the past few weeks.   God has blessed us beyond measure and my child is a 100% miracle.   As I always tell her, she is an Angel from Heaven.   This is the best Easter ever, except for the first one, of course!

As of tomorrow it has been 3 weeks since Sadie began walking.   It has been a fantastic three weeks for us!   But, it’s only been 3 weeks.   I remember exactly how I felt sitting in this same spot 3 weeks ago tonight.   We had just come back from yet another stressful Philly trip.   Sadie was asleep in her crib and I was cleaning the luggage and washing all the clothes which get contaminated in the million airports.

Most mildly affected AMCers walk around age 2 and I suppose that 27 months is pretty close to 2!   But 3 weeks ago I was wondering why my genius baby was taking so long to do something that she certainly had the ability to do.  I thought of all the walking babies I knew, not toddlers but BABIES….kids under 1 that just stood up from their pacifiers and walked around with the greatest of ease.   I was jealous of those kids sure.   But what I was really jealous of was the other kids with special needs who were already walking especially AMCers.

As a group, we collectively don’t talk about being jealous of other kids who have special needs.   “Normal moms?”   Sure, we can trash talk about them and talk about being jealous of what their kids do.   That is totally acceptable.   But we would sooner die than express how we feel when another one of “our” kids learns to walk even though we all think it behind closed doors.   To be honest, I don’t even want to publish this post.   But obviously if I’ve thought it, big money says that another Mom is thinking it too.

I’ve got all this on my mind because I know that a lot of moms were told by ignorant, fool, ugly doctors that their babies would never walk.   Obviously that is ludicrous because (as Dr vanBosse says) a newborn baby is nothing but potential.   We should never limit them by saying that they can and can’t do.   To do so would be like looking at a newborn and saying that he won’t like the cheeseburgers because he has AMC.   It’s ridiculous and it is 100% impossible to actually know.  Despite what these doctors think, they are not God and they can’t see the future.  This is not a post about doctors.  But while I’m at it….let me throw in the fact that doctors are EXACTLY like any other business.   If they aren’t good, then DO NOT go back to them.   If you get food poisoning at your local Diner, then DO NOT go back there no matter how good your neighbor claims that they are.   If your first doctor, second, third or ONE HUNDREDTH doctors says that your baby will never walk, then find doctor 101 and get their opinion if you think your child can.   We are these kids’ moms/dads/grandparents/future-parents-adopting-from-around-the-world, and we know best.

My concern tonight is for my friends who have kids Sadie’s age (or younger, or older) who aren’t walking.   I know that  when I posted on Facebook/called you/sent you a message about Sadie walking, you were happy for me.   But I know that you sighed a little and thought about your little AMCer and wished it was them too.   I’m not mad at you Sister.   I was there just 21 days ago.   What I want to say tonight is that walking is not the goal for some kids.   Maybe it’s taking a few steps to transition from chairs to wheelchairs to cars to seats in public.   That’s OK.  Maybe it’s not even that.  I know people who were born simply without their lower extremities.   Walking on legs is clearly not an option for him.  

What I want to say is, I have never been so happy in my life as I am to see my walking baby.   There is nothing like it for me.   I want all my friends to celebrate with me.   But, I appreciate the mom I was talking with this week who admitted that she was jealous.   If there comes a time with all your kids walk, I promise that I will celebrate with you and until them, we will continue to celebrate every “little” accomplishment.  

Our children are special.   They inspire me everyday and I thank God a million times a day for the chance to belong to AMCSupport.org and to have the chance to help not just AMC Moms, but to help everyone to learn more about AMC and how we can help these kids.  While we’re waiting on our genius, perfect babies to accomplish their next great thing, let’s please celebrate with the children who are achieving their great things.   Let’s be honest with each other about how we feel and let’s let that honesty bring us closer.   If I can’t be honest with a fellow AMC mom, then who can I be honest with?  Please don’t hate me!

 

The greatest thing ever in the history of mankind happened on March 10th of this year.   Sadie started walking!   She walks independently now – everywhere!   The whole story of how it happened is as follows.

Aaron, Sadie and I were down visiting my in-laws at their house.   My Mother in Law had just gotten Sadie a doll house and Sadie asked to stand up to play with it.  So my MIL stood her up beside it to play better.   Then Sadie turned to her right and walked to their couch.   She cruised down the length of it while holding on with her hands for support.   Then she turned and walked to their loveseat!   Their living room is long and narrow.   So it was an easy walk.   Somehow….Sadie walked towards me next.   As for the rest, you’ll have to bear with me because we all were crying so hard that I was QUITE oxygen deprived, for days.   But from what I can vaguely recall, Sadie decided to explore their house.  She walked around from room to room with us taking turns holding the edge of her shirt for support.   This went on for about 45 minutes.   She just walked and walked and walked.   She went into every room and touched everything, picked up everything and just explored until her little heart was satisfied.

Since March 10th, Sadie has been walking better and better every day.   We quickly realized that holding the edge of her shirt was hard on our backs and she would need some sort of harness to avoid bending over.   My dear, darling husband suggested a dog leash which I was NOT OK with, for obvious reasons!   But we did fashion her a wrap-under-her-arms harness with a 4-inch wide section of soft blanket that was about 4 feet long.   It worked great.   But when she DID fall, it quickly tightened and was too tight around her.   We tried the Walking Wings that they sell at babiesrus for “regular” babies to learn to walk.   Sadie hated them with a passion.   Then we finally headed to Target (thanks to my mom’s suggestion) and bought one of those kid-leash things.  Say what you will.  That thing is fantabulouso!    It is a backpack monkey that we clip around her chest and she walks well with it.

That being said, I never use the monkey anymore.   Sadie doesn’t mind it.   But she DOESN’T NEED IT!  WOOHOO!!!    Aaron is still scared and I don’t blame him.   So he uses the Monkey.

Sadie is scared to sit down by herself so when she is ready to stop walking and sit down she says “Sit down Mommy!” and I put my hand beside her bottom to catch her as she falls.   And she can’t get up from sitting to standing yet.   So when she wants to walk she says “Walk Mommy!!!!!” and I go help her get up.

Sadie has had a few falls (pretty much daily) now that we’re giving her so much freedom.   But she walks by herself all through the house with no support.   She can also walk in stores and on level ground or gravel.  But she does struggle in grass or patchy ground.   And Lord knows that our backyard is a mountain.  So we are working hard on that now!   I am so proud of our walking baby!

But the best thing happened tonight!   I got Sadie’s bath ready and took her to her room to get her undressed and ready for bathtime.   We work on standing barefoot on a daily basis and she has taken a step or two barefoot.   But tonight that baby walked down the hall to the bathroom barefoot!!!!   It is about 20 feet!   If we had a bigger house, I believe she would have walked further!

Since Sadie is the smartest, most hilarious baby on Planet Earth, she is frequently saying breath-takingly funny things.  I want to keep a record of them so I can always remember.

2/29/2012

Today at Aquatherapy her OT Liz was praising Sadie for being such a genius and she asked “How did you get so smart?” Sadie promptly answered “From Mags.” Maggie is our dog!

3/14/2012

After Sadie’s bath, I always give her a lotion massage because A) she has really dry skin, B) Massage offers lots of benefits to muscles and can even improve range of motion!   Sadie always likes to play and especially loves to hold something to play while I’m lotioning, dressing and re-bracing her.   Tonight the nearest object was a yellow crayon.   As Sadie was holding it, she wrote her first song.   It’s called “Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color! Color!  Color!  Color!”   She wasn’t just screaming it, like usual.   She was singing!  Sadie colored her stomach yellow and then colored her diaper yellow.   By the time I got her dressed, she had moved on to coloring her quilt (where I lay her to dress her after baths.)  The poor child looks like she has jaundice.   But no….she just has better range-of-motion in her joints and can now color her stomach!  WOOHOO!

3/27/2012

Sadie plays downstairs and has a bedtime snack before we brush our teeth, have story time and bedtime prayers.    She is allowed to play pretty much whatever she wants.  Tonight she has Aaron ‘s camera and she screams “DADDY’S CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!  PLAY!!!!!!!!!”  When she sees it.    She took a picture of herself, then brought the camera to me.  She showed me the picture and said “Picture of Daddy!”   I said “No honey.   That is a picture of you.  That’s baby!”   She said “No!   Picture of Daddy!”   This argument has gone on for a while with no end in sight.   Well…..they do look a lot alike!

At bedtime, Sadie currently likes to be tucked tightly into her blanket.  So I tuck her in, kiss her and Say “Night night baby, Mommy loves you.”   Tonight she responded “Night night Mommy.   Now Murse.”   So I tucked in her toy Smurf and kissed him too.   Then she asked me to tuck in “Pinky” her stuffed elephant.   So I did that too.  Her ability to talk and communicate is astounding.   She is so sweet and boy does that Toy Smurf “Murse” get around!   He goes everywhere we go and she frequently insists on feeding him because “Murse Hungry Mommy!”

4/2/2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnqEB1VRsxc

The above commercial came on.   I normally wouldn’t let Sadie watch something like that because it says “s-e-x-y” on it and I would rather her not hear that word.  But I was cleaning up her enormous toy-pile and I didn’t see it coming.   Besides, that commercial is hilarious!   Anyway, Sadie watched it evidently.   I know because she screamed “I WORK OUT MOMMY!”   You certainly do Sadie!

4/11/2012

I’ve got a big landscaping job coming up.   So this morning Sadie and I went to my favorite nursery to look for some special plants we needed.   As I was squatted down inspecting a fern to make sure it was healthy, Sadie turned around suddenly and screamed “I’LL HOLD YOU MOMMY!!!!”   Then she ran to me and hugged me.   What a precious child!!!!!!!

4/17/2012

We have a favorite restaurant near our house that we go to at least once a month.   So we know all of the staff.  We were there tonight and Sadie had stolen an artificial flower from the table’s vase and played with it all throughout her meal.    Sadie and I went tonight and the owner’s daughter came over to play with Sadie.   Sadie made her smell the flower 10 million times and each time the girl would say “Ooooh!   It smells so good!”  Then finally she told Sadie “PEEUW  IT STINKS!”   Sadie cracked up and began screaming “I PUKE!   I PUKE!   I PUKE!”   Ha ha ha.   That was Sadie’s interpretation of what our friend had said.   It was hilarious and somewhat embarrassing.

4/26/2012

Some slack person forgot and left her basket of nail polish and everything out on the coffee table.   Sadie walked over to it, dug out the dark red polish, brought it to me and said “Paint nails Mommy.”   I said “OK honey” and tucked the polish away behind me.  Then she kept bringing me bottles.   So I had to dig out a pink that was appropriate for a cute little toddler.   I painted her little fingernails!   She does look pretty cute even though she promptly went outside and began digging holes.

I just put Sadie to bed and we always have a bedtime prayer after our bedtime story.   As I was praying tonight, every single time I said “Thank you” Sadie screamed “THANK YOU!  YOU’RE WELCOME!”   Over and over.   It was awesome!    She also walked up and down our driveway for the first time tonight!

5/8/2012
Before I go to bed I always sneak in to have one more look at my gorgeous, genius, perfect baby. Since she had taken off all her socks and shoes, she was barefoot and had her blanket down around her ankles. I covered her up and she opened her sure and smiled. She said “thank you Mommy. Beatin’ beatin’”. “beatin’” is what she calls a blanket for some reason. But isn’t it sweet how she always says thank you? I am so proud of my polite little lady!

5/16/2012

Sadie loves little packets of seeds for my garden.  She carries them around and makes everyone look at them.  ”SEEDS MOMMY!  Look!!!”   Today she carried all the ones (that I had out sorting, about 10 packets) across the room to our dog Maggie.   She said “Woof Woof.  Here’s seeds Maggie.”

When Sadie is bored, particularly if she is riding in the car or boat, if she doesn’t feel like playing with any of her 9 millions toys in the car, she will meow to fill the time.   That is the first animal sound she learned and she loves it.

5/21/2012

Sadie always calls “MoMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY” When she wakes up from her nap.   She is ready for me to come get her!   She was calling me today, as normal.   I usually run in and make a big deal about how glad I am to see her because A) I’m super-glad to see her and B) Otherwise, she gets cranky when she wakes up from her nap.   Today it was hot in the house so she was sleeping in just a shirt and diaper with a blanket.   As soon as I walked in her room she said “Hi Mommy.  Diaper off and I pooped in bed.”  Ha ha ha.   What a funny little messy girl.

I’ve been wanting to write a post about my Dad for a while but honestly I didn’t know where to start.   I have always been a Daddy’s Girl but since I’ve had my own daughter, my dad has transformed into grandpa aka “Grandpo” of the year.   He loves that little girl and has been finding every possible way to show that love!

One of the most amazing things about my family is how supportive they are of  me.   Not only since we started this Special-Needs journey, but always.   I have wanted to be a Master Gardener since I was very very young.   I just finished the course and have graduation next weekend!  When Aaron was working (which is 90% of every day and night) Dad kept Sadie and took care of her all afternoon so that I could go to class.  Today he watched Sadie for a few hours because Master Gardeners do lots of volunteer hours around town in some of the Public gardens to maintain them.    I got to work in some gardens this morning since Dad was willing to watch Sadie!   He also gave me my graduation gift early, a big ole’ giftcard to my favorite nursery!   I love how my parents celebrate with me and make a big deal out of everything.   I know that I am very blessed to have them healthy and living nearby.

Dad goes with us to Philly every time and always helps haul Sadie’s mountain of bags.   He helps when I’m stuck at Shriners all day trying not to sob my eyes out that we have to go through all this.   If I’m just upset in general, I can call my Dad and he’ll try and make me feel better, then tell me to “stop whining.”   Ha ha ha.  When there was a fire in our hotel in Philly, Daddy came barefoot, running down the hall in his pajamas to make sure we got out OK.   It was freezing outside and he didn’t even get a coat or shoes.   He just came running to get us!

Today he did something that absolutely no one in the world else is willing to help me with and that is Sadie’s therapy.    Ever since Sadie was born, if I have to do anything outside the house, from buying groceries to doing Master Gardener stuff, it has always been a choice to make between getting her therapy done and doing the other thing that I had to do.   There is simply not enough hours in the day for both.   Dad has been to all of the Philly appointments with me and has learned so much about AMC and what we have to do to help Sadie learn to walk, bend her elbows etc.   So today he pretty much forced her to walk.   I have a video of it on Facebook, if you’re my friend on there.   It means a lot to me that he would work on that with her.   I know it’s hard for grandparents to see Sadie suffer in any way or have to work hard to do something that comes “Naturally” to most children.   But it’s not exactly easy on me either and with Aaron gone all the time, I’m the one doing nearly all of her therapy and it is a LOT.   One of my stay-at-home mom friends recently went back to work and her mother-in-law is doing her child’s therapy.   I am SUPER DUPER UNBELIEVABLY jealous.   I wish that were an option for me.   I’m not saying that going back to work and having to leave Sadie is desirable in the least.   I absolutely do NOT want to do that, ever.   I’m hoping to not have to if we can possibly afford for me to be a stay at home mom for a few more years.   (HINT HINT!   HIRE ME TO LANDSCAPE YOUR YARD!!!!!!)  But just to have a break from this day-in and day-out endless therapy routine would be outstanding.   Knowing Daddy, he probably didn’t even think about what he was doing, but he helped me a ton.   Plus that walking encourages Sadie and Lord knows it encourages me.

My stupid car broke down a few months ago, naturally Aaron was working so it was Daddy to the rescue!  He came and rigged it up, then followed me home to make sure I got there.   The next day he took it to his mechanic and even paid to have it repaired!   He helps my brothers (and sister in law) as they have been moving into a new house.   He takes the Senior Citizens from his Church on trips and drives the big bus for all of them to ride with him.   Dad takes care of my Grandma and makes sure she has everything she needs.   He even takes her to get her haircut and all of those “little things” that a lot of people take for granted.   He knew a young couple whose car broke down one time and they made very little money and really couldn’t afford a new one, so he gave them his extra car.

My dad is special.   I love that he helps with all of our family’s needs and wants and is willing to do whatever he can to help anyone who needs it.   He’s retired and he’ll say that he “goofs off” all day but he is actually busy helping everyone and taking care of his family.   My dad is fantastic and I hope I never take for granted how much he loves us and is willing to do anything to help us.   I love you Daddy!