The Big Day

Tomorrow is the big day and we'll take all the prayers we can get!!!  So happy my girl won't have to be stared down anymore when we go out in public but at the same time I'm reminded of people that can't help the way they look or how they were made and so people will always stare at them. I know we are blessed.

I'm excited for her and nervous and scared all in one.  Just thinking about tomorrow has given me butterflies.  I know she is in good hands and she will be well taken care of and that many people will be thinking and praying for her tomorrow.

Good-bye "bump"...you will not be missed and you will be forgotten about very quickly...I hope!!!

Into EVERYTHING

The month of July has been a very low key, not much going on, kind of month.  K and I have done lots of "hanging out" together though I'm sure she thinks of it more as let me run around the house and see what I can destroy today that I wasn't able to destroy yesterday.

I must admit, I have had my moments of, I'm ready to pull my hair out...can't wait til its this child's nap time, want to holler at the top of my lungs (which I sometimes do, especially when for the third time that day I have slammed the exact same toe into the exact same toy laying in the middle of the floor) kind of days.  Which in response triggers K to repeat the exact same sound that I just made.  So we now have two people hollering out loud in the house instead of one.  In which the dogs respond by quickly running upstairs because they become scared and most times I have to just sit there and laugh.

It's tough being a stay at home mom.  Definitely not something I ever saw myself doing but her being born early kind of just threw me into it.  I do love staying home with her but all good things must come to an end.

Basically this month has been filled with "What can I get into?"  She is so stable on her feet now that she has no problem getting around and no problem getting into whatever she can!  You should see her when she spots the dogs/cats water bowl on the ground.  Most times we pick it up as soon as we come back home because home girl LOVES to splash in it, like she's in the tub or something.  But occasionally we do forget to get it up.  She looks at the bowl, turns to look at one of us to see if we are watching and then takes off like a bat out of hell.  She runs as fast as her chunky legs will carry her all the way to the bowl to instantly bend down and start splashing around. 

She is also quite good at emptying a cupboard of cooking appliances like it's no ones business.  Exhibit A...

This child keeps me on my toes!!  I can't look away for more than a minute because if I do, she'll be on top of the couch or using her other toys as step stools to get up on something.

See the little yellow toy at the bottom on the left...yes, she used that to get herself up on the exersaucer and then proceeded to get herself stuck.

And this is her, "Well what do you want/can you help a sista out?" look.  My guess is is that she is going to be a high energy, like to do things my way, kind of girl.  In a room full of Indians, my guess is that she'll either be the Chief or want to be the Chief.  Oh my...we are so in for it.  Though I knew this when she wanted to do things HER way at 29 weeks.

And we are also going through a hitting/biting/pinching phase.  I'm pretty sure it is her just testing her boundaries and also because she can't use words to communicate, this is how she does.  But by golly...she has tested my patience to no end. The words/phrases Gentle, No Kenley, and Be Nice are said MANY times throughout the day.  But she's learning, I can tell...hopefully!!!

But it's hard to stay upset at this girl for too long!

Again, got out the wok and had a seat...

She makes my heart smile!!!

The Beach and A Baptism

At the beginning of June we headed down to SC for a much needed get-a-way for the week.  We joined up with our good friends Jenny and Danny, her mom and their two little ones.  So I guess you can say we were really invading on their family vacation.  We had a great time!  We had never been to this part of SC before so it was great getting to go somewhere new.

This was the view from our condo.  To the left is the ocean and all together it was about a 3 minute walk to get there.  Needless to say all that goes into spending the day on the beach with a 15 month old can be kind of exhausting so we didn't spend too much time down there.

But we did spend plenty of time at the pool.  Squeaks was a little frightened of both the ocean and pool when she first got in but she got over it quick and had a ball in both!!

We also visited a stable/petting zoo where you could take pony rides.  Other than it being about a 100 degrees outside, we enjoyed that.  Kenley was a little weary of the much bigger animals but I did get her pretty close to the friendly deer that roamed free through the grounds.

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This past Sunday we finally got the girl Baptized!!!  What can I say but that it brought tears to both of our eyes and she was a perfect angel!!!  I thought for sure when Hedge came and took her out of Jim's arms we were going to have a screaming child on our hands.  But she didn't scream, she didn't cry, she just looked at Hedge, studied his face while he poured water on her head and kept checking him out even after she was handed back to Jim.

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Kenley had a behavioral hearing test last Tuesday and she passed with flying colors!!!  Lets just say I didn't have any worries with my girls hearing to begin with...the last time she was at the Developmental clinic, our doctor told us that they like to give this test to all babies born before 32 weeks.  No fluid in her ears and everything looked clear and she passed the test!! 

Our big appointment is coming up in August and I'd be lying if I didn't say I thought about it every day.  Not bad thoughts but I think I'm ready for it to happen.  I caught a lady starring at her yesterday, yes an adult, and it kind of ticked me off.  It's one thing when little kids stare but an entirely different thing when an adult stares.  I wanted to say to her, "Were you wondering what that thing was on her face?  If you were I would be more than happy to tell you what it is."  Thank goodness K doesn't know the difference right now and it will be removed before she'll ever know the difference.  Some people have no manners.

Not too much longer and her bump will be no more!!

I'm sure I'll look back at these pictures one day and have a hard time believing it ever existed.

New Developments

Between last times post and this one, it seems my girl has changed overnight.  She is a walking, talking, getting into EVERYTHING machine and I have no clue where it has come from. 

She had her second Developmental check-up a couple of weeks ago.  She's doing great and is right where she is supposed to be developmentally.

It was a two day trip to the beach where my gracious and always wanting to help father met me at the hospital for her appointment.  I knew we would be there awhile and I needed some help wrangling the wild girl.

She was such a good girl.  She is a meaty 23 lbs and 29 inches long.  While getting my info, the nurse kindly asked "And is this the daddy?"  Ummm, not quite.  We explained he was PaPa (grandpa) and we all laughed and she made the remark that you never know these days...very true!  We go back for her last appointment in Feb. of next year, which is crazy to think about because she will be almost 2 then!!

I'm pretty sure she used up all her patience on that day because the next morning we had the eye doctor appointment.  Lets just say she wasn't so willing to sit still and hang out as she was the day before.  But that appointment went well and we go back to see him in 6 months.


While we weren't at the hospital or the eye docs, we were hangin out at MeMe and PaPa's and lets just say we had a great time!

Especially when we got to feed the turtles!!

It was so funny...my girl had NO fear what-so-ever from these turtles.  Wish we had a pond like that behind our house, we would be out there everyday!!

We just got back from a weeks long vacation at the beach and needless to say I have tons of pics from that.  I'll be posting on that next but the last picture I want to leave with is a before and after.  Right after she was born, the nurse from my doctors office told me we needed to buy something to put in her isolet and take weekly pictures of her and it to document her growth.  Well that turned out to be a pink bunny, actually at first it was a mechanical monkey with two baby monkeys and one of the baby monkeys was ripped from his mothers arms to be put in with her...but we decided she probably didn't need wires and such in her isolet with her, hence the pink, wireless, bunny.  I just now took an updated picture of her with the pink bunny.

Before...

      *Here she was 10 days old


And After...

Amazing the difference a year and some months make...

Brief

I don't know exactly what to post this time around.  I have so much swimming in my head it's not even funny.  Dance competitions, traveling, funky work schedule (not mine by the way) not getting to see my girl on Mother's Day....too much to go into detail about every little thing.  So I'll be brief.

My girl attended her first dance competition a couple weekends ago.  Not one that she will remember but it was a momentous occasion for me.

If nothing else we enjoyed taking pictures in the back of the car!

My girl is getting too big too fast.   Her choice of transportation is walking, she has just about outgrown her "baby" car seat and has now been fitted for her new big girl car seat.  Can't say I'm exactly thrilled about this.

Kenley doesn't look too thrilled either!  She knows what's going on...


And a tentative removal date of August 30th has been set.  I know that day will be here before I know it and I already have a hard time imagining her without her "bump".  I don't really see it anymore when I look at her but now being so used to it being there, I wonder how she will look without it.  Guess we will find out soon enough!!

And life is good!

*Side note...I wanted to mention that I get "help" with my music from another blog that I follow.  Enjoying the Small Things...My list would be a lot smaller without her!

LIfe

Life has been busy these past few weeks.  We've celebrated a 60th bday...my 30th bday...Easter...and another lasering.  Needless to say my time to sit down and write has been a close nil to none.  I am hoping we are on a down swing now and I'll be able to write more.

Milestones.......A HUGE one has happened.  My girl has figured out her legs and is quite the walker now!

                         *This was the first time she had shoes on her feet while standing...what the heck??

Don't get me wrong, she still crawls but she for sure tries to walk to her destination first, usually before she gets the wobbles and lands hands first forward, and then she continues on.  Once she gets to the spot shes headed to, she pulls herself back up and walks around some more.

We spent some extended time down at MeMe and PaPas where we thoroughly enjoyed our self!

And Easter came and went.  This was of course her second Easter but its really even hard to think she had a first one when she spent that one in the hospital.

And then we had our second lasering.  We have had some insurance drama this go around so needless to say Mommas been a bit stressed more than usual but this time everything went smoothly and she came out just fine.  Hopefully, fingers crossed, this was the last one and next time we visit the hospital it will be for the removal. 

                          *This was pre-op...Hangin with daddy

                        *Finally getting some food down around 9am

                              *Poor thing was really out of it this time.  Took her a bit longer to bounce back.

      *Poor girls "bump" looks like it could walk off her face by itself its so big....and the purple is the Anesthesiologist's writing.


I was also given the opportunity to go back with her while they put her under.  I wanted to go mostly because I am curious as to how things work behind closed doors and if I can see some of the things that went on with her while she was in the NICU, I was pretty sure I could handle watching a mask be placed over her face and watching her fall to sleep.  I'm glad I did it.  I wanted to be with her while she fell asleep and if given the chance to go back with her again, I want her daddy to go so he can see what it is like. 


So basically in all the commotion that has gone on with trying to make sure she gets this second lasering performed, I am once again reminded that God is in control.  I know He is but every now and then you need a little reminding.  I got a call a week before her appointment informing us that insurance was not covering ANY of the lasering and in order for her to get it done, we either had to appeal, which meant canceling her appointment, or putting down a crazy amount of money for a deposit.  I was sad instantly b/c all I want is to have this removed from her face as quickly as possible. The younger the better for her.  Here I go thinking, well, I guess she'll never get this thing off. (That's how I respond to certain situations...I instantly think the worst and become sad and down)

Of course, it was to be that she get her lasering done.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."   Proverbs 3:5-6

All in God's time...everything is in God's time...This has been proven to us time and time again.