I get all these wonderful pictures and videos of Emma on my phone, with great intentions of putting them on the blog. Next thing you know, there are like, thousands of them, and one has nothing to do with the other....so blog posts like this just happen. A melting pot of Emma.
Her first modeling gig (courtesy Phil Hyman Photography):
More beach shots: (I can't get enough of her ringlets!)
Wonderful naps on the beach
Another trip to the lake:
What happens to baskets of clean laundry when left unattended:
Poor Maggie fears for her life in the wagon, but checking the mail in it everyday is one of Emma's favorite things to do at Nan's house
Emma decided she wanted to "push" Lola on our walk...look closely, and you'll see Emma holding Lola's leash. She actually did a GREAT job with holding on to Lola!
Every child's dream toy: a cardboard box and some crayons
Emma recently had to have a standard assessment at physical therapy, and it turned into a pretty fun day for her. Here are a couple videos of some skills we weren't aware that Emma possessed.
As for this first one, Melanie (Emma's therapist) and I were chatting about Emma while she crawled around. Emma moseyed on over to the practice stairs and decided to climb!
Emma's aim is much better than we realized. Training for wheelchair basketball has to start somewhere...for now, it's form and aim.
...that I'm burning the candle at both ends. Which would explain the lack of blogging here lately, in spite of how much material I have. So in the interest of keeping things simple, I'll let the pictures do the talking to document our trip to the beach this summer.
First stop, Beaufort, to see our beloved Jim and Becky, who treated us to a ride on the river
Next stop, beach! Now look at this beautiful beach hair:
The baby girls:
Play time!
Dinner with the fam, plus a visit from the Taylors
As we do every July 4th, we celebrated at church. For your viewing pleasure, a small collection of my own pictures as well as couple others from our loving church family:
Patriotic Emma
Wondrous Emma (even though the fireworks weren't all that wondrous themselves)
We took Emma to the lake for the first time last weekend, and she had a great time. We went with our friends Matt and Caroline, who she loves. Oh, and how could I forget their dog Charlie? In Emma speak, we went with Matt, Ca-wine, and Chawee. Friday night she was practicing how to wear her sunglasses on her head in preparation for Saturday:
Nosy britches only slept for 8 hours Friday night, and she woke up Saturday morning saying, "Daddy. Phone. Matt. Ca-wine." Nothing about Mommy sleeping in the other room. No concern for me whatsoever.
When we got down to the dock on Saturday morning, Emma said over and over and over: "Fwim. Wah-TERR. Git in." (Fwim = swim) I was so proud of our little doodlebug. Here are the things she wasn't afraid of:
(1) being dangled over the edge of the dock to be put in her float
(2) wearing a life jacket
(3) floating in a big huge lake
(4) being on a boat
(5) going fast on a boat while Daddy tubes
and finally....
(6) TUBING LIKE A BIG GIRL!!
Thanks, Matt and Caroline, for Emma's first weekend at the lake!
As a January baby myself, I was always so jealous of those kids who got to have fun outdoor birthday parties. Sadly, Emma will be able to have outdoor birthday parties in March, but they won't be quite as fun for her as for other children. Swimming, running, riding bikes, climbing playgrounds, even plain old recess games will be almost impossible for her.
The bright side? We live in a great city with The Boundless Playground. It was built to accomodate children with handicaps, and it's the first one of its kind our state. It just so happens that our friends' son recently celebrated his birthday there! We got our first little taste of this neat playground, and Emma thoroughly enjoyed herself! George the Train was a big hit, too. Riding the train went much better this time around. The last time we rode a train with Emma, it derailed under her and Russell. Thank goodness Russell had a sense of humor about it. I'm pretty sure that any woman would have had a weight complex about it for weeks.
Have you ever noticed that children don't seem to feel the heat in the summer or the cold in the winter? They are completely oblivious to the weather conditions that make us adults miserable. Same thing with pool water. I seem to remember noticing if the pool seemed colder as a child, but that thought was fleeting. It kind of reminds me of Jesus instructing us to have faith like a child. Just take life as it comes, and trust that everything's fine. Enjoy life in the now. Well, here are two little girls who took on a freezing cold kiddie pool filled straight from the hose like it had been preheated to a cozy 70 degrees (ok, I made that number up - I have no idea what comfortable water temperature is). Rose and Emma had a blast in our latest toy for Emma. Emma loved it because she wasn't surrounded by a float that got in her way, and the water was shallow enough for her to crawl in. Rose loved it because all she wants to do day in and day out right now is walk around and see different things. The large pool and slide were perfect for exploration. Rose's mama, Sally, DID call her out on one "playground violation" in particular: Rose reeeeally wanted to climb UP the slide.
Russell and Sally only got in up to their ankles at first. Sally wisely stayed in up to her ankles. Russell later sat down in the water and is still trying to get the feeling back in his lower half.
"Mom, I NEED to climb up that slide. And tell MB to get that blasted camera out of my face. Not cool."
Ah, yes, the say-cheese face. All you other moms, when do they stop doing this and smile naturally?
Emma got in the pool again the next day after a stalled thunderstorm filled it up for an hour. This made for an even colder pool, but OF COURSE, she didn't mind. We thought it was a slight problem when her skin started to turn a little purplish blue. This is when I wanted to be her for just an hour: we gave her a warm bath, threw a soft blanket in the dryer, and wrapped it all around her, which is how she feel asleep in her daddy's arms. Doesn't that sound heavenly?
Thanks for all the prayers that everyone sent up for Emma at the dentist yesterday. The dentist himself was wonderful. Actually GOING to the dentist was not. Emma was terrified of leaning back for the cleaning and the exam, and I've never seen such sheer terror and fear come over her. Her whole body was shaking, her eyes were huuuge, and she was panicked. It was absolutely the saddest thing I've ever seen. Today she had a follow-up with the opthalmologist, and she was scared of him, too, for the first time ever. So it appears that the dentist has damaged her. Great. We really need Emma to NOT be afraid of doctors since we see them all the time. The next encounter with a doctor is in July with an ENT when they'll probably shove things up her nose and down her throat. What do I do until then? Go around visiting all our doctors so that she gets used to them? I thought my little girl would never be afraid of doctors since she's done so well thus far.
Before things took a turn at the dentist's office, Emma enjoyed playing in the "park" - the precious little play area in the lobby. I was trying to get her to look at me for a picture while she was sitting on the tiny bench, but I was rudely obstructing her view of the other children in the waiting room. As punishment for my rudeness, she refused to look at the camera and looked around me instead. As Russell would say, I would have made a better door than a window.
On the brighter side of things, Emma's wheelchair came in today. Now it just has to be assembled and fitted to her arm and body length. That will happen in a week or two - YAY!!
Dr. Troup. The man is a Godsend. And I'm scared to death of him. Well, not HIM, but what he has to say. More specifically, the conclusion he comes to at the end of everything he has to say. Emma had a routine visit with him a few weeks ago, and it was pretty mild. Nothing too exciting, just a lot of cautious question-asking by Dr. Troup and nervous answering by me, trying to figure out just exactly what he was getting at with each question. Conclusion: barring any unforeseen hiccups, Emma will have another MRI in January 2013 to assess the situation with her compressed brain stem and the giant cyst along her spinal cord.
Emma's choking has leveled out; no better, no worse. Which means that the compressed brain stem probably isn't CAUSING the choking. It's not helping matters, but I don't think it's hurting, either. It's my understanding that the choking would get worse if the compression is causing the problem. So many of Troup's questions were aimed at getting me and my mom to say, with 100% confidence and in complete agreement with each other, that Emma's choking was getting better, worse, or staying the same. We agreed: staying the same. The next issue is the cyst - if it becomes symptomatic, Emma will most likely begin to lose movement in her arms or dexterity in her fingers. I think my mom is a little more worried about this than I am. It can be fixed by draining the cyst....assuming we don't miss the signs and it causes more permanent damage. Now THAT scares me. But I'm watching Emma become more and more accurate with her fingertips while using our iPhones and iPads, so I think we're ok for now.
You know, let's get the other medical mumbo jumbo out of the way, too. Emma has had a hoarse throat for the last month or so, and she goes to see an ENT in July. I don't know what they can do about it, especially since my mom's diagnosis is probably correct: Emma's constant choking and coughing has damaged her vocal chords. Hmmmm, if we could only get Emma to stop choking...that's my prayer EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Join me in that prayer, won't you? Oh, and while we're all at it, how about throwing one up for tomorrow, Wednesday, at 3:50? It's Emma's first dentist's appointment. Yikes. She HATES having her teeth brushed, so I guarantee that wherever you are in the world, you will hear shrieks of anger and fear around 4:00 tomorrow. The highly sensitive gag reflex that's so characteristic of spina bifida might necessitate that everyone in the exam room wear protective vomit gear.
Ok, medical update. Check. Boooorrrrriiiiinnnggggg.
...I don't even know how many pictures and videos are going to end up on it. Because it's taking quite a long time to upload all the busy things Emma has been up to.
Some of her cute, incorrectly pronounced words are fading into words in which consonants are in the correct syllable, pronouns and "the" precede many of her words, and possessive s's are at the ends of nouns.
Emma is learning how to be a housewife. I will DIE if she ends up on The Real Housewives of Some-Place-Rife-With-Scandal. She loves playing with her dolls, feeding them, putting them to bed, putting them in chairs, and checking for dirty diapers (which includes sniffing their hineys, pinching her nose, and saying, "Shoooo"). She also spends many, many hours at her play kitchen at my parents' house cooking up all sorts of things. Man, she loves that kitchen. Oh, and she enjoys wiping down counters and mopping with my old play mop. See? I'm telling you, housewife in training.
Ok, so she likes housework. But her true passion in life is technology. And she uses her manners when asking for it. This little clip also shows you what she and Daddy do to unwind and snuggle in the evenings, while still giving Emma the independence of the whole couch to herself.
Emma's also doing really well with learning to walk at therapy. Her biggest struggle is balance, but she definitely has the rhythm of walking down pat. The next step (which is still pretty far down the road) is to get her walking in a walker like the one in this video but without anything around her waist or under her rear. Check this out:
Ok, I'm just going to have to break up these Emma updates. It's late (actually, it's only 9:46, but I feel like it's midnight), so there will be more little Emma tidbits coming up later this week!
Russell and I live in Greenville, SC and have been married since December 17, 2005. We have a Pekingnese/Shih Tzu mix named Lola, and our first child, a daughter named Emary, or Emma for short, was born on March 16, 2010. Baby #2 is due in April 2014!
