First Words!

We are so excited - Shelby is now "officially" saying her first words.  In my opinion, "dada" was her first word, and I think she has been saying it for weeks.  However, yesterday she said it to me over the telephone, and then said "mama" (which sounds more like "baba") to Tiffany.  Any time she makes any kind of improvement or reaches a milestone like this, we are just overjoyed. 

She really seems to be doing better every day.  In fact, she seems to be eating better as well.  I hope this continues, but she has been really putting down some food lately.  She has even been feeding herself little "puffs" which are kind of like cereal for babies.

So, next month is a big one for us.  We have an MRI scheduled, and then trips to Shelby's neurologist, neurosurgeon, and pediatrician.  We will keep you posted.

Swagger Wagon

Trip and I are seriously considering purchasing a van, so I had to laugh when my cousin Katy sent me a link to this advertisement for the new Toyota Sienna:

It humorously captures the stage that our lives are in right now. Enjoy!

soccer game pics

Apparently I am feeling particularly bloggy today....excuse the multiple posts, but there was so much to catch up on.

Today the kids and I accompanied Trip to the first game in his spring soccer tournament. This season, many of our friends elected to graduate to playing in the over 30 league. Trip could have too, but he wanted to keep playing with his brother. Anyway, sitting on the sidelines with only Harding and Shelby made me realize just how much I miss congregating (and getting rowdy) on the sidelines with all our friends (the wives and kids of Trip's old teammates). We have formed a little tribe over the past 6 years and I have enjoyed watching our little soccer family grow as we all have gotten or are getting married and have kids. Laura, Kiersten, Lacy, and Kristen...we need to get together somewhere besides the soccer field....and soon! And Ashlee, why weren't you at the game today?

Left to my own devices, I took pictures of the kids and actually watched the game. They won and will be advancing in the tournament...yay!

At one point, Harding actually said, "That's enough pictures, Mama". I was just glad he halfway posed for a change.

Blackshear and Jekyll

May will be a busy month for us, we have already had three traveling adventures and will be camping out Memorial Day weekend. I love being home, but I also love getting out of town. There is so much that has to be done when we are home, so there isn't much downtime. I love getting away from it all, especially when we go with people that help with the kids!

Last weekend, we were invited to a party in Blackshear, GA to celebrate my brother-in-law Matt and his fiancee Ashlee's upcoming wedding. Ashlee grew up in Blackshear and we had never been there before, so we made the trek to South Georgia. The weather was great (not too hot) and South Georgia folks certainly know how to throw a party. We were treated to fried fish, hush puppies, the best baked beans I've ever had, and homemade lemon bars at a house overlooking a fully stocked catfish pond.

Even better, Trip's parents took us to Jekyll Island for a couple days before the party. We had a lovely much-needed vacation. Here are the pictures:





Also, when we were down in the Golden Isles of Georgia, we went to see our old friends the Burgesses, who live in Brunswick. Although Harding was disappointed they didn't have any trains to play with at their house, it was really good to catch up with Jimmy and Jen and meet their sweet baby, Amelia Jane.

Kindermusik

Shelby has been taking Kindermusik classes since January with Miss Beth. This has been a wonderful experience. The classes have fallen during my tutoring hours, so getting Shelby to class has been a team effort with Trip's mom, my dad, and Trip accompanying our girl to her weekly classes. It has been worth it--Shelby loves music and rhythm and instruments. We are lucky to have Beth Magill as her teacher--she does such a great job and is truly talented. Check out her website if you get a chance. We're looking forward to August, when Kindermusik classes begin again.

Shelby's hips

We went to Charlotte earlier this week to get a second opinion on Shelby's hip dysplasia. On our way, we passed through the city of Shelby, so I had to get a shot of the sign. I love that Shelby is a "city of pleasant living"!



Shelby's new orthopedist, Dr. Virginia Casey, gave us some great news--Shelby no longer has to wear the abduction brace 24 hours a day! Her hips have improved since December, and it was only mild dysplasia anyway, so Dr. Casey thought it would be fine for Shelby to only wear the brace at night. We are thrilled and relieved to be through with that thing. This will give Shelby more of a chance to catch up developmentally now that she won't be so constrained all the time. We are working hard on rolling over right now--she is so close!

I really appreciate our pediatrician and PT for encouraging us to seek out this second opinion. I am learning more and more that a lot of treatment decisions that doctors make are subjective and variable, depending on who you see. I won't be as hesitant to go elsewhere if I am unhappy with an aspect of Shelby's care in the future. Also, thanks to my parents for accompanying me on this trip. We made a mini-vacation out of it and had a great time at the Embassy Suites pool in Charlotte.

vision update, petit mal seizures

This is another one of those good news, bad news posts.  I'll start with the bad.  When we were at the ophthalmologist appointment yesterday we noticed Shelby Frances kind of "go absent" for about 5 or 6 seconds while she was looking at a light-chaser toy.  At first we hoped she had just spaced out, but we called the neurologist anyway.  The nurse said that it sounded like a petit mal seizure and the doctor thought it might have been an isolated event that happened because of the light-chaser toy.  But now we have seen at least one more since then.  For now, we are just going to keep track of all the episodes, and will see what the EEG shows in about a month.  She is already on a pretty high dose of her current seizure meds (keppra), so the dr. may end up switching to a different kind. Of course we hate for Shelby to have any kind of seizures, but these are mild, and hopefully won't become a regular thing.  Also, that's the last time we will use any sort of light-chaser toy or any rapid blinking lights around her.  We have a bunch of appointments coming up in June, (EEG, MRI, neurology, neurosurgeon, pediatrician, etc) so I think we will know more soon.

Now the good news.  If you recall, last time we went to the ophthalmologist, Shelby's teller-accuity vision assessment was approximately 20/360 (which we were very happy about).  This time it was 20/130 (or better).  We were ecstatic about this!  What an improvement!  Of course we were expecting some improvement because we can just tell she is seeing so much better, but that was unbelievable. The doctor has not prescribed any glasses yet, but said that if magnifying glasses could help her in the future we would look into them.