When Grandma and Grandpa visit...

We were so excited when my grandparents called and wanted to come up to see Mady and us in Cheyenne.  Since they heard Mady was making progress walking, they wanted to see it for themselves.  
So the first weekend in October, they flew to Denver, drove the 2 hours to Cheyenne and spent a few days with us.
The first day they were here, we got our very first snow of the season.  These next 2 pictures are of Mady and Grandpa checking out the snow.  These are some priceless pictures I'll always cherish.

 We braved the weather in the afternoon and ventured outside.  Mady wasn't a fan of the snow or the mittens. . She'll have to get use to it soon!

We had to get some nice pictures before church on Sunday.  Mady didn't quite cooperate very well...

Thanks for coming to see us Grandma and Grandpa! 

It's been awhile...

since I've blogged.  But it's been for a few reasons. 
 1. I'm in the third trimester of pregnancy and I have been really tired
                                           and
2. Mady has been perfecting her walking skills.  Yes I said WALKING skills!  I wouldn't consider her a full time walker yet but we're very close!  I will post a video as soon as I can get one.  Usually when I pull out the camera, it causes a fit and she refuses to show off her walking skills.

In the meantime I'll try to get caught up on a few things we've been up to the last month.  
Yesterday, we went to the pumpkin patch.  We had so much fun as a family!
We drove down to Wellington, Colorado to a place called Harvest Farm.  Check out the website here.  It's a great rehabilitation farm for men who have substance abuse problems.  

We first checked out the bunnies and the pigs.

We then went to the petting zoo.

And no tears this time!  YAY! 

Then our brave girl went on the barrel train with Daddy.  The barrel was a little small for Jeremy though:-)

After that we went through the corn maze.  Mady wasn't that excited about it...maybe next year.

And proof that I was indeed there....here's our family photo.

Mady's favorite thing was the corn bin!  We had to make her get out of it to pick out a pumpkin.  She kept signing and saying "more!  more!"

We ended our time picking out pumpkins for Mady and Baby sister.  

Mady and I were pretty tired by the time we left.  It was a great family day together!

Random pictures

Here are some pictures I've taken on my phone.

Some good news

Today we went to the first of several specialists appointments we have for Miss Mady.  We drove to Aurora (1 hour and 1/2) to the Colorado Children's Hospital to see the rehabilitation specialist that specializes in mobility disorders.  
First, can I just say that the Colorado Children's Hospital is pretty much the best hospital I've ever been to.  It was so easy to park, find our Dr. office, and beyond that, they had wagons which Mady could ride in.  (That was a huge hit with Mady of course and may have jumped up to the top on her Christmas wish list.)
The specialist gave us some VERY encouraging news.
In his opinion, he thinks that she has a Collagen 6 disorder which means she has extra stretchy collagen which causes her joints to hyperextend.  In her case, he thinks she probably fits into a group of kids that have this disorder that cannot really be defined.  Meaning that genetic testing may or may not discover what she has.  This is a VERY good thing.  If you're ever bored, google disorders with hyper mobility.  Some of the disorders that have hyper mobility as a symptom are not good.  Some even can shorten the life span.  The Doctor was certain that she did not fit most of these disorders.  
He also tested her reflexes.  I found this interesting because no other doctor has done this before.  He said that because she has good reflexes that it's not a cognitive problem.  Her muscles will fire when the brain tells them to which is GREAT news.  And that in itself rules out a lot of things she could have.  
We asked a lot of questions, of course.
One of my concerns was that in a lot of kids with hyper mobility, it can affect their organs.  He said that it typically only affects hearts and eyes.  If her collagen was affecting her heart, we probably would have heard a murmur by now, and so far, no other doctor has picked up on that yet.  GOOD NEWS!   
Overall, Mady will get stronger and will learn to overcome her extra stretchy collagen and will be a "normal" child.  
The doctor did dash our dreams for our child when he said "She probably won't ever be a construction worker though!"  HAHA!
Perhaps the most encouraging thing he said was "We see a lot of children with hyper mobility."  Sometimes, being parents of a kid that is developing differently makes you feel isolated, like she's the only one struggling with this.  It also doesn't help when her previous primary care doctor admitted "I have never seen this before."  To know that she's not alone and that it's not unusual is very encouraging.  
So where do we go from here?
1. We will be getting genetic testing done even though the results may be inconclusive.  It will help us know if there are any major concerns with Mady's health.  This wont be until January.
2.  We will be seeing a cardiologist just to make sure there are no heart problems.  We're hoping to get this done in the next couple of months.
3. We will have a follow up appointment with the rehabilitation specialist so he can track her progress.

After being at the Children's hospital and seeing all types of children, Jeremy and I are so thankful.  We saw children who were hooked to IVs or that were unable to do anything for themselves.  We are so blessed.  I kept telling Jeremy, we could be going to this hospital for so many worse reasons than a gross motor delay.  There are so many children there that can't leave the hospital and come back to their home.  We have much to be thankful for.  Miss Mady is healthy and will get stronger in her own time.  

Looking forward...

to meeting this sweet little girl Miss Abigail (Abby) Hope!  

Only 11 more weeks to go!  I'm hoping for more like 9 or 10 more weeks but who knows...this little girl could be stubborn like her older sister.

We finally decided on her name.  It took us awhile this go around unlike Madelyn which we had picked out VERY early.  I love the name Abigail which means "Father's joy" or "Joy of the Father".  We know this little miss will bring so much joy to us and her Father in Heaven.  "Hope" was a huge word for me in my healing after losing our precious 2nd baby in December.  Learning to have "hope in the Lord" was a powerful lesson I learned and continue to learn. So naturally, we wanted her middle name to symbolize the hope we have in Christ.  

These full face pictures always look a little alien-like.  

This little girl did cause her mom and dad to worry this week at my doctor's appointment.  The doctor was concerned because I was measuring small so they sent me directly to the ultrasound room.  Thankfully, Abby measured right on track and there was enough amniotic fluid.  We will just keep monitoring my size.  (I guess the doctor doesn't realize that I am chasing/carrying around a toddler ALL. DAY. LONG and that this little one may be small like her older sister.)  
We're working on Abby's room but are not even close to being ready. Hopefully in the next month we can get her room set up.  We can't wait to meet Miss Abby!

Being More Intentional

Over the last month and half since we moved to Cheyenne, Mady and I get to spend TONS of time together.  We haven't found a babysitter yet so Mom can get out a little bit on her own and some of the bible studies through our church haven't started just yet.  (They'll be starting in a few weeks with free childcare and I'm SO excited!)  At times, it can be very tiring spending all day with my little girl and having no outlets for me.  I don't do well with very limited or non-existant social time.  The first 2 weeks went well because we had a lot of different places to explore around Cheyenne.  But as soon as the "new-ness" of it wore off, I began to have a more selfish attitude.  
So to combat that, I decided to be more intentional with Mady each day.  
Since I was a teacher, writing lesson plans comes naturally to me.  I decided that to help me become more intentional, I would write a general lesson plan for our week and what activities we were going to do each day.  Thanks to pinterest and the HUGE amount of toddler websites, I came up with lots of new activities.  Now we don't always do a new activity EVERY day, but I try to do something new at least every other day.  
Sometimes our activity is going to the library or the Children's Village.  
Other times its an art project or a sensory tub.
And sometimes, it's more of a "learning" activity like our Red Day we're planning for this Friday to learn about the color red.

Here's an example of an activity we did last week.  We made a foil river and had lots of fun playing in the water hose and watching ice cubes make their way down the river.

I'm hoping that starting this now with only 1 child, I will be able to continue it somewhat when I have 2.  I know that it will look different and we will have to be more flexible when I have more than 1 little girl around but it's a start. I also hope to incorporate bible lessons in our weekly plan as well.
 I can tell by Mady's behavior and my attitude that being more intentional each day has helped tremendously!

Lately...

we've been:
1. Cleaning our play kitchen and other things around the house.

2. Riding in our pink car.  Everyday we go down to our mailbox in our pink car with the mailbox keys.  Then we come back and "deliver" the mail.

3. Pushing our baby around in our pink stroller.

4. Figuring out how to get partly undressed while sleeping(??)  Don't know how she did this but she wasn't too happy the morning I found her like this.