Well, it's been a while since I've posted an update on how we're doing! To tell you the truth, not too much is new here. We're doing very well and very busy! Kyle just started his semester and has been super busy the past six weeks with his summer class, a few weekends away, and preparing for a retreat that he is speaking at this Labor Day weekend. Hopefully things will slow down a bit for him beginning next week. We are so blessed the the Grace Book Store has decided to keep him employed part time this semester! So work is keeping him busy as well. We're still in the candidating process and are praying for God's wisdom and direction as we seek where the Lord would have us serve.
Suzie is doing very well! She is sitting up much better and I can finally leave her alone while she is sitting. She still hates it so most of the time she gets out of it fairly quickly. She can use her left hand to help her get out of it and when she falls to the right side she just kinda rolls out of it. She is now getting 5 hours of therapy each week which is keeping her busy, but I think it is helping her improve quicker. She has become a pro at combat crawling and will leave the room when I'm not looking:) She says, "Ma Ma" sometimes for me and "Ma ma ma" for more. She says "Da Da" for Kyle sometimes too. She is laughing a lot and usually in a good mood as long as she gets her nap. We think she's teething right now so sleeping at night is a little tricky. Hopefully that will pass soon!
Here is a little video of her sitting and smiling at Mommy.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Steals and Deals
I have recently begun to study the supermarket/drugstore circulars each week to combine their sale prices with coupons to save money. I used to subscribe to a website but I was only able to see one store, so I thought I'd try it on my own. I only look at the stores that are close to my house: VONS, Ralphs, CVS, and Rite-Aid. CVS has the best bang for your buck for sure with their Extra Care Bucks (thanks Karyn!!). Several items every week are not only on sale, but generate ECBs which function at CVS just like cash, only they have an expiration date and you can't get cash back for them. If you do it right and only buy sale items, especially items that generate ECBs, you will end up getting many things for free or for a very low price. I thought it would be fun to periodically post some of my great deals, so here is the steal of the week (again, thanks to Karyn):
Regular Price:
L'Oreal Revitalift Lotion with SPF: $19.99
L'Oreal Cream Cleanser: $6.99
Normal total for 2 of each plus tax: $59.22
What I Paid:
Sale price for lotion: $14.99
Sale price for cleanser: $5.99
CVS coupon: $4 off $20 or more
L'Oreal Lotion coupon: $5 off
L'Oreal cleanser coupon: $1 off
ECBs when you buy $20 in Loreal products: $10
My total for 2 of each with tax: $4.90
Total Savings: $54.32
What a deal!! I had to do this in two separate transactions to use all my coupons. I had two of every coupon plus I already had some ECBs to use. If you don't already have some, you would have to pay an extra $10 for the first transaction and have $10 ECBs to use next time. Not too shabby!!
Regular Price:
L'Oreal Revitalift Lotion with SPF: $19.99
L'Oreal Cream Cleanser: $6.99
Normal total for 2 of each plus tax: $59.22
What I Paid:
Sale price for lotion: $14.99
Sale price for cleanser: $5.99
CVS coupon: $4 off $20 or more
L'Oreal Lotion coupon: $5 off
L'Oreal cleanser coupon: $1 off
ECBs when you buy $20 in Loreal products: $10
My total for 2 of each with tax: $4.90
Total Savings: $54.32
What a deal!! I had to do this in two separate transactions to use all my coupons. I had two of every coupon plus I already had some ECBs to use. If you don't already have some, you would have to pay an extra $10 for the first transaction and have $10 ECBs to use next time. Not too shabby!!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Suzie's New Tricks
Ever since we got home from Dallas, Suzie has been doing a lot of fun new things. Some of her new tricks are:
~New Sounds~
The day Kyle came home from summer camp, Suzie decided it was time to introduce the "M" sound. We both got to hear her say, "Mama," for the first time. It was so sweet! Since that morning, "Mama," and "Nana," are two of her favorite sounds. She knows that I am Mama, and she can say it, but I don't think she's saying it specifically yet. But it's still so fun! She's also starting to string different sounds together. She is definitely becoming a little chatter box!
~New Moves~
Before we left for Dallas, Suzie had attempted to scoot forward a couple times. As soon as we got home, she just started scooting all over the place! Because her right arm is so weak, crawling on all fours is very difficult for her. So she is adapting by doing combat crawling, where she doesn't have to push up on her arms. She's getting pretty good at it! She can combat crawl all the way across our living room now. Although she is weaker with her right arm, she at least is using it when she moves, so that is great! Here is a little video of me enticing her with one of her favorite things....the remote.
~New Skills~
Suzie is now waving hi and bye pretty well. She won't always do it, but she does quite often. Especially when she sees herself in the mirror. She is also giving "five" a lot now. She does most things with her left hand only, so she's not clapping or signing for "more" yet. But we're working on it! She also loves to kick her legs like crazy! I don't know if that's a skill, but she is quite proud of herself for doing it. Here's a video I caught of her kicking away.
~New Food~
Suzie is starting to really not want baby food any more. She wants to eat whatever we eat! Sometimes when she is refusing her baby food, I'll take my fork and get some baby food on it, and she'll eat it because she thinks it's my food! We are incorporating a lot more table food into her diet like bread, crackers, cheese, yogurt, pasta, soft fruit and veggies, pureed meats, and of course a little ice cream:) It's hard because she eats like a normal one year old, but only has two teeth, so we have to make sure all her food is soft enough for her to gum.
~New Bed~
Our long girl outgrew her little portable crib a while ago so we had been in search for a standard size crib. A very generous family gave us a crib the other day so my dad helped us set it up for her and the little crib came down. I was expecting her to have a hard time sleeping in her new crib because she has a very hard time with change. But she is loving the space to roll around! She has begun to sleep later which I am loving. She doesn't get squished into the corner of her new big crib so she doesn't wake up in awkward positions. I had to wake her up at 9:00am this morning to make sure she could get a nap in before therapy. And yesterday she didn't wake up until 10:00am! It's been a while since she slept in like that.
~New Schedule~
Her additional hours of therapy have been approved so beginning this week we will have five hours of therapy a week. That sounds like a lot, but my friend Dana's son get 7.5 hours, so that's even more intense. 4 of the hours will be in home, which is wonderful. She will have multiple hours in one day, so I'm curious how she will adjust to that. I'm excited for her to get more therapy though and I hope it helps her progress even faster! She also recently dropped her third nap so she takes a morning and afternoon nap and then stays awake for a longer time in the evening. Now that she is more mobile, she's better at entertaining herself so I can get more done around the house while she's awake.
~New Sounds~
The day Kyle came home from summer camp, Suzie decided it was time to introduce the "M" sound. We both got to hear her say, "Mama," for the first time. It was so sweet! Since that morning, "Mama," and "Nana," are two of her favorite sounds. She knows that I am Mama, and she can say it, but I don't think she's saying it specifically yet. But it's still so fun! She's also starting to string different sounds together. She is definitely becoming a little chatter box!
~New Moves~
Before we left for Dallas, Suzie had attempted to scoot forward a couple times. As soon as we got home, she just started scooting all over the place! Because her right arm is so weak, crawling on all fours is very difficult for her. So she is adapting by doing combat crawling, where she doesn't have to push up on her arms. She's getting pretty good at it! She can combat crawl all the way across our living room now. Although she is weaker with her right arm, she at least is using it when she moves, so that is great! Here is a little video of me enticing her with one of her favorite things....the remote.
~New Skills~
Suzie is now waving hi and bye pretty well. She won't always do it, but she does quite often. Especially when she sees herself in the mirror. She is also giving "five" a lot now. She does most things with her left hand only, so she's not clapping or signing for "more" yet. But we're working on it! She also loves to kick her legs like crazy! I don't know if that's a skill, but she is quite proud of herself for doing it. Here's a video I caught of her kicking away.
~New Food~
Suzie is starting to really not want baby food any more. She wants to eat whatever we eat! Sometimes when she is refusing her baby food, I'll take my fork and get some baby food on it, and she'll eat it because she thinks it's my food! We are incorporating a lot more table food into her diet like bread, crackers, cheese, yogurt, pasta, soft fruit and veggies, pureed meats, and of course a little ice cream:) It's hard because she eats like a normal one year old, but only has two teeth, so we have to make sure all her food is soft enough for her to gum.
~New Bed~
Our long girl outgrew her little portable crib a while ago so we had been in search for a standard size crib. A very generous family gave us a crib the other day so my dad helped us set it up for her and the little crib came down. I was expecting her to have a hard time sleeping in her new crib because she has a very hard time with change. But she is loving the space to roll around! She has begun to sleep later which I am loving. She doesn't get squished into the corner of her new big crib so she doesn't wake up in awkward positions. I had to wake her up at 9:00am this morning to make sure she could get a nap in before therapy. And yesterday she didn't wake up until 10:00am! It's been a while since she slept in like that.
~New Schedule~
Her additional hours of therapy have been approved so beginning this week we will have five hours of therapy a week. That sounds like a lot, but my friend Dana's son get 7.5 hours, so that's even more intense. 4 of the hours will be in home, which is wonderful. She will have multiple hours in one day, so I'm curious how she will adjust to that. I'm excited for her to get more therapy though and I hope it helps her progress even faster! She also recently dropped her third nap so she takes a morning and afternoon nap and then stays awake for a longer time in the evening. Now that she is more mobile, she's better at entertaining herself so I can get more done around the house while she's awake.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Suzie's First Flight
On Saturday, Suzie and I headed off to Dallas to visit one of my closest friends, Karyn. Darby and Karyn just had a baby girl in May and I couldn't wait to meet little Calla! Suzie did so well on both flights. The first flight I had an aisle seat which was so helpful. The take off and landing didn't seem to bother her ears at all, so that was great. She just got tired of sitting with me. But I worked hard to entertain her and we made it there in good spirits. It was so great to spend the extended time with Karyn. Since both her and Darby's families live here, whenever they come visit it is difficult to coordinate seeing too much of them. So it was so nice to have three full days of just talking and catching up. I felt so much more connected to their life once I got to see where they've been living. Suzie did so well the whole trip, although she did get a little spoiled sleeping in bed with momma. And she was a little rough with poor little Calla. But we are so thankful for how well Suzie did and for the Hughes' hospitality to us while we were there. Since Kyle was still at High School camp when we got home, I was really wishing I had stayed with them an extra day. Here are some pics I found on their blog of our two babies. Suzie seemed liked such a big girl next to sweet little Calla!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Double Stamp Wednesdays!
One of my favorite places to go in Santa Clarita is the Golden Spoon. They have many different flavors of creamy, delicious, non-fat frozen yogurt to choose from, but to be honest, I pretty much stick with the same few flavors:) There are three locations in Santa Clarita so it's pretty much convenient to just stop on by no matter what direction I'm headed! One thing I really appreciate is that they offer stamp cards for frequent customers. (Starbucks has yet to catch on to this). I recently discovered that they have, "Double Stamp Wednesdays." So no matter how many you buy, they give you two stamps per yogurt purchased. You only have to buy 8 yogurts to get a free small, so if my monthly (okay, weekly) trip to the Golden Spoon is on Wednesdays, I get a free one after only visiting four times! It's a pretty good deal so I just couldn't keep it to myself. I always appreciate it when others share these tips on their blogs. Happy yogurting!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Professional Shots
On Wednesday my mom went with me and Suzie to get her pictures taken at the mall. Suzie did so well and she got a lot of great shots! It was so hard to choose which ones we wanted and they were so cruel to bring out several of them in beautiful frames. It took a lot of self-control for us to walk out there is only our free package and a few additional sheets. Here are the ones we brought home:
You can view all the pictures here.
You can view all the pictures here.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Many Ages of Suzie
Suzie recently received her one year reports from her therapists. They all put her at different age levels for her development. Here are the many ages of Suzie:
Actual age: 12 months
Adjusted age: 9 months
Cognitive/social/expressive: 9 months
Left side fine motor: 9 months
Physical: 7 months
Right side fine motor: 6 months
Overall, I was very encouraged with what her therapists had to say. They are hopeful (but cannot guarantee of course) that Suzie will be able to overcome the obstacles with her right side and that there won't be many things that she cannot do. She is already learning to adapt to the difficulty of the increased muscle tone on her right side. She passes things immediately to her left hand if she wants to examine it better or eat it. Or, if we give her puffs and pin her left arm down, she will try really hard to use her index finger and thumb to grab the puff because she knows she can't turn her hand to get the puff in her mouth if she fists it like she does with the left. She's been unsuccessful in doing it so far, but getting closer. It just seems like she's very aware of her limitations already. She's getting much better at sitting and uses her left arm mostly to support her, but is getting better at balancing on her own. Her right leg remains partially bent to relieve the muscle strain. She can now sit for a couple of minutes and is getting better at catching herself when she falls. She also tolerates the crawling position for longer, but isn't really close to doing it on her own. I'm so thankful for how well she is doing. Every session she makes a little progress. God has been so gracious to allow our little girl to do so well!!
Yesterday we went to the doctor for Suzie's one year check up. The doctor was very pleased with her progress and growth. She is now officially on the charts for her actual age!! In fact, she is growing so well that the doctor decided to take her off formula and onto whole milk! She really is a big girl. She received her one year vaccines which she did very well with. Her eyes got all big when the first needle went in and she screamed while they gave her the shots, but after I picked her up she stopped right away. Here are her current stats:
Weight: 17 lbs. even (actual: 3rd%; adjusted 14th%)
Length: 28 1/2 inches (actual: 25th%; adjusted 75th%)
Head Circumference: 18.1 inches (actual: 75th%; adjusted 90th%)
These three pictures were taken the past week
She got some cool new shades to help her get through the summer
Here is Suzie all dolled up and ready for her party
She was so glad to have her Granddad and Nana here for her birthday! Many thanks to them and to Nema and Papi for all they did for her birthday party.
Here is Suzie's friend Joshua enjoying the balloons
We had a little table displaying a collage with a picture from each month of Suzie's life, her first diaper and booties, the sign from her incubator, and a picture of Kyle that looks just like Suzie
Suzie had her very own cake all to herself
Although she got a little scared when everyone sang, "Happy Birthday," she definitely enjoyed digging into her birthday cake!
She decided that the dogs needed some frosting too. Daphne had pink and green icing on her back the rest of the day.
Our family picture:)
Actual age: 12 months
Adjusted age: 9 months
Cognitive/social/expressive: 9 months
Left side fine motor: 9 months
Physical: 7 months
Right side fine motor: 6 months
Overall, I was very encouraged with what her therapists had to say. They are hopeful (but cannot guarantee of course) that Suzie will be able to overcome the obstacles with her right side and that there won't be many things that she cannot do. She is already learning to adapt to the difficulty of the increased muscle tone on her right side. She passes things immediately to her left hand if she wants to examine it better or eat it. Or, if we give her puffs and pin her left arm down, she will try really hard to use her index finger and thumb to grab the puff because she knows she can't turn her hand to get the puff in her mouth if she fists it like she does with the left. She's been unsuccessful in doing it so far, but getting closer. It just seems like she's very aware of her limitations already. She's getting much better at sitting and uses her left arm mostly to support her, but is getting better at balancing on her own. Her right leg remains partially bent to relieve the muscle strain. She can now sit for a couple of minutes and is getting better at catching herself when she falls. She also tolerates the crawling position for longer, but isn't really close to doing it on her own. I'm so thankful for how well she is doing. Every session she makes a little progress. God has been so gracious to allow our little girl to do so well!!
Yesterday we went to the doctor for Suzie's one year check up. The doctor was very pleased with her progress and growth. She is now officially on the charts for her actual age!! In fact, she is growing so well that the doctor decided to take her off formula and onto whole milk! She really is a big girl. She received her one year vaccines which she did very well with. Her eyes got all big when the first needle went in and she screamed while they gave her the shots, but after I picked her up she stopped right away. Here are her current stats:
Weight: 17 lbs. even (actual: 3rd%; adjusted 14th%)
Length: 28 1/2 inches (actual: 25th%; adjusted 75th%)
Head Circumference: 18.1 inches (actual: 75th%; adjusted 90th%)
These three pictures were taken the past week
She got some cool new shades to help her get through the summer
Here is Suzie all dolled up and ready for her party
She was so glad to have her Granddad and Nana here for her birthday! Many thanks to them and to Nema and Papi for all they did for her birthday party.
Here is Suzie's friend Joshua enjoying the balloons
We had a little table displaying a collage with a picture from each month of Suzie's life, her first diaper and booties, the sign from her incubator, and a picture of Kyle that looks just like Suzie
Suzie had her very own cake all to herself
Although she got a little scared when everyone sang, "Happy Birthday," she definitely enjoyed digging into her birthday cake!
She decided that the dogs needed some frosting too. Daphne had pink and green icing on her back the rest of the day.
Our family picture:)
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