Not your average girl!

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Kristen Page

Time is zooming by and I haven’t given an update in a long time. The girl had a great initial recovery following surgery and spent the summer getting stronger. However in September, some of the symptoms that led to the surgery returned. We went for her bladder testing and had about 3 weeks of frustration trying to communicate with doctors. We finally visited the urologist for the follow up after the CMG. The test wasn’t “normal”, but definitely did not totally explain the accidents. We are trying a new medicine and will see the urologist again in 6 weeks. Additionally we were asked to follow up with the gastroenterologist and the neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon ordered another MRI (10/30) and follow up with him (11/5). I’m hoping that this is a “better safe than sorry” MRI and that nothing is wrong. I’m praying that the girl is just taking a little longer to recover than the “average” child.

“I’ve been thinking…”

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Kristen Page

Tonight the girl said “Mommy, I’ve been thinking that when I get big I want to be a farmer and cook for my sheep.”

This mom loves the idea! I’ve also been thinking about the future. Tomorrow we have the follow-up with the urologist. No matter what the doctor says, I know the girl will be ok. She’s clever, funny, persistent, and nothing’s going to stop her!

September is gone?

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Kristen Page

I can’t believe that September is over! We had an appointment at Children’s every tuesday of this month! I wish I had an update to share, but we are still waiting to learn the results of some of the girl’s tests. Once we know more, I will post an update…we go to the spina bifida clinic on the 16th.

Today is the daddy’s birthday! He’s getting pretty old, but he’s still smiling. The cake was the girl’s idea:

Thanks to food allergies, we have to come up with alternatives to “icing”…this one tasted good, but wasn’t going to win any artistic awards.

We had a good weekend celebrating with daddy. Even the trees were celebrating!

We had a nice time hiking

There were lots of frogs…most were hard to see!

The girl had fun balancing across logs (for those who know this mom…yes, I checked and this log was “clean”)

The girl wasn’t excited to learn that there could be “poop germs” from raccoons on this log! Maybe she won’t ever be my field assistant?

It was a good weekend! Saying goodbye to summer!

Lessons from a preschooler

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Kristen Page

1. “the boose is at the end of the line” (caboose)
2. “girls are cute”
3. “witing (writing) is fun”
4. “snack time is my favorite”
5. “aliens can be any color”
6. “you need a rocket ship to get to outer space, of course”
7. “germs are invisible”
8. “the trow-up germ is the baddest”

(I’m not sure all if this knowledge came from preschool curricula, but it sure is fun to hear how she’s thinking!)

A big day!!

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Kristen Page

First day of Preschool!!!!
Her teacher brought her to the car and told me that she was such a “sweet girl!”

After the first day of school, we had to go to Children’s for a follow up CMG. This is the test where we find out how her bladder is functioning. It wasn’t fun, but the girl was “so brave” (in her words). After the test, we headed to the Lego store. We would have bought her a skyscraper if we could. She loves skyscrapers!!!

The girl is doing great!!! A full update is coming soon.

Time Flies

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Kristen Page

I can’t believe the girl is ready for preschool! Today we went for a mini visit. We have our first day of preschool (without parents) next week. It was fun to meet new friends and teachers.

The girl loved sorting shapes and colors!

She also had fun decorating her placemat.

It’s going to be a fun year for sure!!!

Hooray for Parades!!!

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Kristen Page

The girl loves parades!!!! The best part? It’s a tie between being with one of her best friends (who also loves to scream), and watching marching bands!

I was impressed that the girl remembered her tractor identification lessons from her Poppie. Here she is telling her friend that this tractor is a Farmall:

We got lots of fun “swag” at the parade. My girl doesn’t like candy, but she grabbed political literature, pencils, a bottle of bubbles, and even bandaids. We’ve already used it all:

Hooray for parades!

The Hunt

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Kristen Page

We’ve had a good time hunting for “treasures” and “critters” this weekend. The girl’s Nana is here and we took her to a few of our favorite places. Here are some of the highlights!

“I see something!!!”

“Mommy, roses have pricklies on them”

My girl

The girl with Daddy and Nanna.
Look! A Red Tailed Hawk

“I found a roly-poly!”
Continuing the bug hunt at home….

We caught a few critters…Amos wasn’t impressed, and a little miffed that he didn’t have a net.Nice hummingbird moth!“Grasshoppers are prickledy!”
We released everything…I’m not sure we can say that they were “unharmed”

“I broke my roly-poly!”

Celebrating Summer

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Kristen Page

The last weekend before school starts (for the girl’s mom anyway) was fabulous! We had so much fun celebrating many things!

The twirly girl danced under the oaks while we celebrated good friends starting their journey together!

And then, we celebrated good friends with lots of squeals, giggles, butterflies and imaginary journeys!

(catching butterflies is hard!)

This mom is celebrating the fact that her girl is:

1. On a swing!

2. Twirling!

3. Running (almost as fast as her friends) and not falling!

4. Balancing across the propped up slide

5. Smiling all the time and an a constant source of joy!

Field Work

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Kristen Page

The girl was her mommy’s field assistant today. She’s such a good listener now, that she was able to meet a quite sleepy raccoon. Don’t worry, no animals were hurt in the creation of this post – the raccoon was asleep, and woke up shortly after the pictures were taken. (The girl didn’t touch the animal either – don’t worry, her mommy hasn’t lost her mind).

We know that our girl loves music, building with blocks, bugs and dirt…so I think she got a good dose of both mommy and daddy. Who knows if she’ll ever work with animals like her mommy does, but I can tell she’s considering it!