more January

outside playing on one of the only nice days we had in January

Mommy, I'm going to be a VOL too

This is the garage after it was cleaned, it will soon explode.

Please let me out of bed, I'm done with my nap now.

Grant's new account has had him working crazy hours, this was Adelaide trying to wait up for him, of course she had her favorite toy too, tupperware.

January - Just because

I'm not getting what I want...wah

I'm busy...come back later

I actually cooked and it was good. I didn't tell Grant it was healthy until after he ate it.

In the middle of rearranging the furniture, again.

playing blocks tired them out.

Cold in Florida

Florida may not have inches or feet of snow, but has been extremely cold this year. Thirty degrees is thirty degrees no matter where you live, COLD COLD COLD. On average we may run our heat 2 weeks a year, but this year it's been on for 2 months straight and we are getting stir crazy. Even Buddy is anxious to get some play time out of the house.

2 months late - New years weekend

GG and Pap came for a visit...

Adelaide's favorite hobby: taking all of the tupperware out of the cabinet.

Pap takes a nap, it's tough watching football all weekend

GG, I know whats in those bags

Night, night time

Lost Christmas pictures

Since we weren't home for Christmas this year, the gift opening was delayed until New Years weekend.

Grant the super fan

Nana's cookies didn't have a chance when Adelaide found them.

so many toys, so little time.

even the technologically advanced had to read the robot directions.

please Gramps, can we open packs now?

Valentine's Day - Guppy Love

Valentine's Day isn't a big holiday in our house, it's safer to say that it isn't a holiday at all, but that isn't the case at school. SO it was time to make Adelaide's class Valentine's for her party.

The Valentine's weren't the hit of the day though, the sugar intake is what Adelaide was most excited about. They spent the whole day eating cupcakes, cookies, chips, etc.

We hope that everyone had a great Valentine's Day.

Guppy Love,

Adelaide

Results Are In...

Grant nor I have a genetic disorder, so the chances of it happening again are the same as the first time. Maybe maybe not.

Now we know that Adelaide's disorder is not hereditary.

Early Steps Program

After two canceled appointments, we finally were able to get Adelaide to the Early Steps program evaulation. This is a program run by the state to help children that have developmental delays. Our main concern of course is her gross motor skills.

Adelaide's appointment was at 12:45, of course right in the middle of a work day in downtown Jacksonville, which isn't close to where we work or live. So Gramps saved the day and picked A up from school and played chauffeur to the facility where Grant and I met him. This saved me from having to take a full day off from work. I was a little worried about her being an absolute mess because it was right in the middle of nap time, with strangers in a different environment than she has ever been in.

Low and behold the kid made us look like overbearing parents and absolute chumps. To put it mildly, Adelaide was a rock star. She did almost everything they asked of her; including games, looking for objects and people, sharing, standing and even pivoting and taking a few steps. Grant and I were in pure shock and made sure to tell the therapist that she doesn't do these things at home.

At the end of the day...drum role please...she was so good that she wouldn't qualify for the program. BUT due to her diagnosis she will be enrolled into the program immediately. So, physical therapy will start again soon, except this time the therapist will be going to see A at school and the state is going to help fund the therapy. This is such a blessing, if you haven't ever paid for physical therapy be very very thankful as it can be a real drain on the finances.

A will be reevaluated in another 3 months or so for her speech and we will have constant communication with the therapist. Also, A may later on qualify for a 3 year old program with the school district, but that's a long time from now.

A GIANT thanks to Russ for pulling through for us one more time on Adelaide coverage.

park

Just another Saturday at the park.

The day her shoes were ruined

Adelaide spent some good quality time with Grams and Gramps, but she now isn't allowed to wear new shoes when she goes over. Mom let her crawl around the driveway on the first day she wore her new shoes.

Note: Mom felt guilty and bought Adelaide new shoes that have rubber toes.

fun with cameras

Adelaide is a huge fan of cameras, remote controls, laptop, pretty much anything electronic. So the other weekend Grant taught Adelaide a new trick. Grant took a picture of Adelaide and showed her and then she took a picture of him. it was really funny to witness.

Girls Night Out

Last month we had our first Girls Night Out at YesYouCanvas and we all had a great time. The bad part was that the class was packed and we were all so interested in our paintings that there wasn't a lot of chitty chat time.

Steps video

Sorry it took so long to get this uploaded and that it isn't the best quality. Of course our video camera wasn't charged or within a quick reach, so this is the best we can do for now.

As you can see, Buddy is really excited about Adelaide's new mobility as well.

She Did It, She Did It, Yay She Did It

In our house Dora and Mickey rule the tv, so we can't help but shout, "You Did It, You Did It, Yay You did It", every time Tootie does something new. This week we were able to shout it from the rooftops, because SHE DID IT...STEPS! Finally, she is taking steps towards gaining a tiny little bit of independence.

First she started doing it at school and of course I missed it and then Grant got to see it when he picked her up. Finally on Friday after work I convinced her to show me her new moves. Adelaide still won't get into a standing position on her own without pulling up on something, but if you stand her up and scoot away she will come towards you. Sometimes it's a step or two and others it's more like 5 or 6. She falls a lot, so thank goodness for the padding in the diapers.

Adelaide is so excited that all day Sunday she kept crawling over to us and standing up and letting go to show us her new trick. She can pretty much stand for as long as she can without laughing and then once that starts she falls over. I can't not mention the fact that she learned to get off of one of the couches by herself too. It mostly involves her landing on her rear end, but she's tough.

We were able to get the great event on video, not the best video, but a video none the less. I'm hoping to get it uploaded tonight to share with everyone.

Bye Bye Bobby

Stephenie and I got to say our goodbyes to Bobby Bowden in person on New Years Day. I'm not saying that I'm an FSU fan or even a Bobby fan, but you can't discount the legacy that this man has in college football. Even those that weren't there to cheer on the Noles stood up for Bobby. At the beginning of the game they even let Bobby throw the flaming arrow into the ground instead of the traditional Chief Osceola. A really nice touch if I do say so myself.

Some of you may be wondering how it ended up being Steph and I and not the whole clan or Grant and I, well plain and simple the boys ditched us. We had tickets for everyone to go to the Gator Bowl, but it was on at the same time as the Penn State game, so they stayed at home with Tootie Girl. Their loss, we had fun!

It was fantastic to see the stadium packed which is a rarity if you ever watch the Jags you know that doesn't happen very often. I did get a good laugh, I saw a few people that I knew at the game and at one point the guy sitting next to me asked if I knew everyone in Jacksonville. You should have seen the shock on my face, because I always feel like I don't know anyone here.

Where is your...

When you ask Adelaide where her body parts are, this is what you get...

hair - scratches her head

ears - puts her finger in her right ear

mouth - sticks her finger in her mouth and pulls it out just right so that it makes a popping sound

tummy - lifts up mommy's shirt and taps my tummy

nose - pictures are better than descriptions...she will not be happy about this when she is older.

Coupon Queen

I've been the butt to many jokes referring to coupons, as I have become completely obsessed with saving money on the essentials so I had to laugh when I was looking through pictures and stumbled across this one. My little Coupon Queen in the making.

no update

Week 2 and still no update from the Geneticist on Grant and I's blood test.

I received an email from a good friend this week whose son also has developmental delays and I felt like I was reading Adelaide's story. Luckily for my friend they knew their son had a disorder from birth so they were able to start looking into specialist and treatment much earlier on. I tried to give the few words of wisdom that I had, but I know that I was tired of hearing what everyone had to say too.

No two children are the same, but her story was so similar it made me feel like we weren't the only ones out there struggling with this. Maybe it's my ignorance or a lot of my friends ability to hide their struggles, but for the longest time I felt like everyone else I knew had a perfectly healthy child except us. Not that I would change anything, though my arms do get tired of having to carry Adelaide around all of the time.

Russ's Birthday

This is only a few months late, sort of like 3, but I promised myself and everyone else that I would get this blog updated.

November is a busy month around our house, we have many birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and everything else that you can imagine. The tradition is typically that Russ makes whatever you want for your birthday dinner, though this year I'm thinking that he fell down on the job. Of course the rest of us don't cook so we took him out.

III Forks is a fantastic restaurant that happened to have their by invitation only opening on Russ's birthday weekend, so it was our gift to him. The food was phenomenal, but I don't think we will be going back anytime soon or at least with Adelaide. The food was expensive, but the issue that we have is that it is not baby friendly by any stretch. They did have a highchair, but no changing tables and they wouldn't allow us to bring in our stroller so that she could sleep. Not easy to try and eat your steak while Adelaide is grabbing the fork from your hands and trying to feed herself.