The Park and Vitamin D

It was sunny and 72 degrees here on Wednesday, so we headed to the park to meet the Gillilands, soak in some Vitamin D, and play!!

I think this may be the first time Shelby has seen her shadow:


Aubrey is definitely looking more and more like her big brother:

Also, Shelby's first time on a swing (besides the indoor baby one):


The boys ran around the play area shouting "To Infinity and Beyond", then pretended to be bears on the soccer field:


Meanwhile, Julie and I got to catch up, so everyone got their friend fix! Good idea Julie!

my boy

Harding has taken to calling me "mom" recently. At the dinner table tonight he said, "Could you please get me some more milk, mom?" I knew that this would happen eventually, but I'm trying to delay it as much as possible. He currently fluctuates between calling me "my mommy", "mommy", "mama" and occasionally "mom". I am okay with the first three titles ("my mommy" is my favorite, though). In my mind, "mom" is what kids call their moms when they no longer prefer you over anyone else in the world. "Mom" is what kids call their moms when they become too cool to tell them they love them in front of other people. I know Harding hasn't reached that point yet, but it still makes me sad to hear "mom" when he is only three years old. He is still my boy, always will be. I'm not quite ready to be relegated to mom status. Harding loves to experiment with different words and phrases that he has heard other people use. Hopefully this whole "mom" thing is just something he is trying out and it won't stick.

My Niece, Riley Dearing Moss has arrived!

She is beautiful. She is perfect. She has the most adorable chubby cheeks. I love her so much already!

ACC Basketball Championship

Who says that you can't do anything spontaneous after having children? Well, me. I have said it countless times. Last weekend, Trip and I proved me wrong. I think March Madness must have gotten to us...



It would be a huge understatement to say that Trip is a very big fan of all sports involving his alma mater, Georgia Tech. Here he and Harding are, posing with the GT cheerleaders in front of the Ramblin' Wreck a couple years ago:



Tech was playing a great ACC tournament in Greensboro this past weekend. We watched them win their game in the semi-finals on Saturday. Before going to bed that night, Trip and I kept talking about how much fun it would be to actually go to the final game on Sunday. When we woke up that morning, Trip said (joking), that we needed to leave in about an hour to make it to the game on time. I think that he was shocked when I said, let's go! Anyway, we actually managed to get both kids dressed in their Georgia Tech gear (provided by my sister Chris), snacks and drinks and diapers and camera packed, and out the door in a little over an hour. Sadly, the only thing that I forgot was the card to my digital camera. And unfortunately, Georgia Tech did not win. They trailed behind Duke the entire game, but the outcome actually came down to the last couple seconds and we had such a great time cheering them on.



Harding did not pay attention to much of the game, but he loved the energy in the place and had a good time watching his favorite mascot, Buzz dance around. Shelby was scared at first because it was so loud in the Greensboro Colliseum, but she eventually settled in and kept dancing to the band's music.



Anyway, GT has a pretty tough bracket for the NCAA tournament. They play their first game against Oklahoma State tonight. The Kinnairds will definitely be watching (on television this time). Go Jackets!!

Celebrations

We have had a lot of good things happening around here lately.

First, and most importantly "Bebe" was able to get all the junk out of Shelby's hair using DeSolvit (safe for children's skin according to the bottle):

Just kidding, of course the most exciting news was that Shelby did not have any seizures during her 24-hour EEG.  This doesn't mean that she never has any seizures, but it was very good news, and we hope it continues.  Our neurologist thinks it's  because we have her medication at the right level.  I'm not 100% sold on that yet, since we never had a 24-hour EEG done BEFORE she was medicated.  We will investigate that more later, but right now we are happy.  Also, Shelby got her cast off this week, and she was thrilled!  Here she is having fun with her great-grandmother Burney.

Finally, I wanted to show everyone the land that that we are now the proud owners of (along with my brother and parents). We're working on creating a little Kinnaird family mountain compound. The views are spectacular.  It's going to take a little work to get the it looking good again after the previous owner had portions of it logged, but we are up to the task:

Here's another view from about half-way up the property.  There are 360-degree views from the top.  We are very excited and can't wait to build our house here (a few years from now).

bad hair day

Shelby's neurologist wants to get a better idea of what (if anything) is going on with her seizures so he ordered a 24 hour EEG study. Basically, they superglue all the electrodes to her head, wrap it with gauze, and send her home attached to portable monitoring equipment. We haven't gotten the results yet.

Here is Shelby all wrapped up and snuggling with her "MoMo". The poor girl has a hip brace, a therapy cast on, and electrodes glued to her head. Thank goodness the electrodes are now off and we'll be through with the cast on Tuesday.


Did I mention that they GLUED those things to Shelby's head? Her hair was coming in so beautifully too.... They told me I would be able to get this glue out with baby oil over the course of a week. I'm skeptical.


Today is her 9-month birthday. I guess we won't have professional photos taken this weekend. This business of glue matted all in my pretty daughter's hair has me very upset, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all.


When a girl has a bad hair day, they either put it in a ponytail or wear a hat. Luckily Shelby has plenty of hats.


Happy birthday little 9-month-old! I love you so much. We'll have pictures taken in a couple weeks.

snow days in pj's, etc...

We've had another couple of snow days here in the mountains. At our house, that means you get to stay in your pajamas till at least noon and if Harding begs persuasively enough, you get to have waffles for breakfast.


Shelby has become interested in Harding's dancing Elmo doll, which has made Harding decide that he likes Elmo again too. Elmo is great for a child with a visual impairment because he is solid red, moves and makes noise.


We've been trying to think of things that will motivate Shelby to use her left arm and hand. She loves to splash that right hand in the bathtub. We had a breakthrough the other day on the floor with this bowl of water.


Also, we all signed Shelby's therapy cast. Maybe the signatures will cover up how dirty it is, unfortunately they won't cover up its smell. Maybe I'll try Febreeze on it. If we do this therapy again, I will know to cover the cast with a plastic grocery bag during meals.