Bumblebee

Well I think that has got to be the cutest Bumblebee I have ever seen!

Five Question Friday

Here are Belli's answers to Mama M's Five Question Friday!!

1. What were you doing the last time you had a really good laugh?
My mommy kept jumping in the air an pointing the hair dryer at me when she landed. I jumped about 10 feet into the air every time and giggled so much I got the hiccups!

2. Who was your first celebrity crush?
That Leo on Little Einsteins is a looker. And smart too =-)

3. What is one talent that you wish you had?
Singing. Oh wait, that's a talent my mommy wishes I had.

4. How often do you and your spouse go out without the kids?
Pretty often. I just drop the kids off at the pool and we go on our merry way. Get it? Kids at the pool? Hahahahaha.

5. What color is your bedroom?
Purple. It is actually my mommy's old room and she picked that color when she was a freshman in high school. Who would have ever thought I would be sleeping in the same room my mommy did?!?

The Bright Side of Motherhood

Being a mother is absolutely the best thing in the world. Kids are so funny and constantly make you laugh. For a while when they are young you are their absolute favorite person in the world. And they are (most of the time) very loving and cuddly. The following is a list of some of my favorite funny and/or loving things that my sweet girl has been doing lately.

Whenever my dad falls asleep in his chair Isabelle starts screaming at the top of her lungs, "Granddad!!! Wake up Granddad!! All done sleeping Granddad!!!"

We have been working on potty training. Whenever Isabelle uses the potty we scream and holler, do our happy dance, and Belli gets s sucker. Well lately she has taken to clapping and saying, "Get a sucker" whenever she is sitting on the potty. Leading me to believe she has done something. But, no sometimes she is lying.

She now asks anyone and anything "Whatcho doing? What time is it?" And by anything I mean ANYTHING. Like her blocks, or her books, or her stuffed animals. For instance she will pick a block up and say, "Hey block! Whatcho doing block? What time is it?"

Whenever someone walks into the room or Isabelle finds a toy on the floor she will exclaim, "Oh there's (insert name of person or toy here)!" At the tops of her lungs like she hasn't seen that person or thing in YEARS. Like last Tuesday when we were sitting at the doctor's office waiting on her neurosurgeon to come in. She kept asking me where is was. Over and over and over again. When he finally walked in the door she yelled, "Oh THERE he is!" Too funny!

A few weeks ago one of Isabelle's PT's let us borrow a gate trainer to take home and work on walking. Well I put it in the car next to Isabelle and whenever I would make a turn or go around a curve it would tip over onto Isabelle's car seat and Isabelle would say, "Oh. Be careful walker."

The other day it was a little chilly in the house so my mom put a portable heater at the end of the hallway which is where Isabelle's time out is. Isabelle scooted over to the bottom of the stairs and looked up and said, "Heater's in time out!"

Isabelle loves to scoot up to me and say, "Hold you mommy." It is melt your heart sweet.

Almost every night my mom asks Isabelle is she can put her to bed and she will say, "No, mommy rock."

One time when I went to get her out of time out I sat down in front of her like I always do so we can talk about why she was put in time out and all that stuff. Well before I could say anything she scooted up real close to me, put her head on my lap and said, "Lovin?" Like she was asking me if I wanted some lovin. It was sooooo hard to keep a straight face.

Isn't she funny? And sweet? See I told you so =-)

Five Question Friday

It's time again for Belli to answer Mama M's Five Question Friday. Here we go!

1. What's your favorite horror movie?
Well I have this movie with babies singing. Except the babies aren't actually singing, they just have big people's mouths where the babies' lips should be to make it look like they are singing. I don't think it is that scary but it totally freaks my mom out!

2. Bath tub or hot tub?
Either! I've had a sponge bath everyday since July 8th. I just want to get in the water!

3. Do you prefer to view a movie at the theater or at home?
I've never been to the theater before but I heard the nachos and cheese are GREAT!

4. If you could choose a maid, cook, or chauffeur which one would you choose?
Um, hello?!? Didn't you guys know I already have all three? Her name is mom and she does everything I ask!

5. Electric Slide, Boot Scootin' Boogie, or the Macarena?
Boot Scootin' Boogie! Or should we say Boot Scootin' Booty!

Appointment Results

We can all breathe a sigh of relief!

The x-rays still look great and everything is still in place. He wants to see us back in 6 weeks for a CT scan to take a look at the bones a little better and see how much the fusion has hardened. If everything looks good she may be able to get the halo off shortly after. I am excited to think she may have the halo off by Christmas time but I am also a little nervous about. Although it has been a big pain in the rear it provides her with the best protection for her neck to it has kind of given me a sense of comfort. But I know that he will not take it off if she wouldn't be safe without it so I guess I shouldn't worry!

Hope you guys have a great Tuesday!

Couple of Prayer Requests

*Update*
I wanted to add one more prayer request. I just came across this blog about a 13 month old little girl named Emma Crew. She is a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome and is currently fighting for her life. From what I understand this happened at her daycare. Please pray for this sweet little girl and her family.

*Original Post*
My creative juices have not been flowing these past few days so I don't have anything interesting of funny to write about. I do however have to prayer requests to ask of you guys.

The first is for Belli. She has a checkup with her Neurosurgeon tomorrow to check on her spine. Please pray that she has a good checkup and everything looks ok. I am always afraid that we will get bad news at these appointments because up until the one last month we did get bad news every time we went. So hopefully lasts months appointment was the beginning of a new trend.

The second is for a coworker's one and a half year old daughter Raylin. She is having some problems with her immune system not building up antibodies and she has not built any defense against illnesses. She saw an immunologist last week and they didn't really get any answers. The doctor just drew some blood to get a base line and they will be going back in January for a check up and to see if things have changed. Please keep her in your prayers, especially with the flu and cold season coming up.

Thanks in advance to all of you!

I also need help thinking of something to use for the letters "G" and "H" for our Alphabitty Moments. I missed it last week because I couldn't think of anything. Any ideas would be much appreciated!

Five Question Friday

Thanks to Mama M for hosting! Here are Belli's answers for Five Question Friday.

1. What phrase or phrases do you say a lot?
"Whatcho doing Mommy?" and "Mommy, hold you?"

2. Swimming: Are you a kamikaze off the boat, take the plunge from the deep, or a gradual, slow submersion from the shore or shallow end kind of person?
I just like to sit on the shore and wait for the biggest wave to knock me over.

3. Have any tattoos? If not what would you get?
No ma'am. My mommy says I have to wait until I am 18.

4. What is your favorite tree?
The Musical Tree of Many Colors. You know...from Little Einsteins.

5. What is your favorite non-physical thing about your significant other? What is your favorite physical thing about your significant other?
Non-physical: The way it keeps me warm at night and keeps me calm in stressful situations.
Physical: The softness when it touches my face and the smoothness of the tag.
I am of course talking about my blanky!

A Bunch of Randoms and an Important Subject for Those with Girls

Life has been pretty boring and uneventful the past couple of weeks so I don't have one topic to make a whole post out of. Instead I am just going to throw a whole bunch of randomness at you. First, an Isabelle update. She is still going strong. No infected pin sites so far (knock on wood) and no more ER trips. She is starting to pick back up on her eating thanks to my mom's wonderful mashed cheese potatoes that Isabelle has for almost every meal. We were able to borrow a gait trainer from her PT at Children's so she has been doing a lot of walking in it and is doing so great! I am so hopeful that once that halo comes of she will keep moving forward by leaps and bounds. We have a check up with her neurosurgeon next week and I will certainly post about that afterwards. Please keep her in your prayers that we have a great check up! Isabelle has also been full of "funnies" lately. Her new favorite phrase is, "Whatcho doing, Mommy (or Daddy or however)." It is so stinking cute. She will follow you into a room and say, "Hey, whatcho doing Mommy" like she hasn't seen you in weeks. She has also learned a new phrase from my dad. For the past week or so whenever she would toot my dad would say, "Did you hear that duck." So, you guessed it. Now every time Isabelle toots she says, "I heard a duck!" Sooooo embarrassing. She hasn't done it in public yet but I am just waiting. Thanks a lot dad =-) Second, for all of you Birmingham folks don't forget about the poinsettia sale the The Bell Center is doing. They are $15 dollars a piece and the proceeds go to The Bell Center. Money and orders must be turned in no later than October 30th and the poinsettias will be delivered December 7th. Contact me if you are interested. Third, my sister has recently started a blog Tales from the Concrete Jungle. She is currently living in the Bronx working on her PhD in Theology. She normally has really great stuff to write about ranging from politics to religion to just random funniness (and boy can she be funny). So far she only has two posts and is not living up to my normal standards but I am sure some of her creative juices will start flowing soon =-) Fourth, I wanted to mention something to those of you out there with girls. I was at the mall this weekend and I over heard a conversation between two girls who were probably eleven or twelve. I was in the food court waiting on a smoothie when these two girls walked up behind me in line. I heard one of them say something along the lines of, "Oh good that one has the fat burner boost in it. I need to get that one and try to get rid of this stomach I have." Then the other girl says something along the lines of "Oh gosh me too. I am so glad it is starting to turn cold so I can start wearing some bigger clothes to cover mine up." I didn't turn around and look at them because I didn't want them to think I was staring but as I walked away I caught a glimpse of two very pretty girls who were probably already skinnier than they needed to be. It was so sad to me that these girls thought they needed to lose weight or cover up their "fat" which was already non-existent. So, to those who have little girls (or even older girls or boys for that matter) please make sure that you teach them self worth. Make sure that they know how pretty they are and that the most important thing is their health, both mental and physical, and not being the smallest girl in the class. Ok, let me step off my soap box now. Ok that is all of the randoms I can think of right now. Later!

Pet Peeves- The Workplace

Since I love doing my pet peeves posts (say that three times fast) and was particularly annoyed at work this weekend I thought it would be a great time to do a pet peeves in the workplace post. Some of these are general peeves that most can relate to others are more specific to the type of job (apartment leasing). Feel free to leave your workplace peeves in the comments below. If you want to say what type of job you have if you have specific peeves that will be great too.

1. Pulling on the door knob and knocking to get in before we are opened. You are not special enough to get to come in early. Go away.

2. Calling back five seconds after the first time. If I didn't answer the phone it's because I am with someone at the moment. Please wait at least five minutes to call back or just leave a message.

3. Coming in five minutes before it is time to close to sign your lease, get keys, etc. This takes at least fifteen minutes to do. Thank you, you have now made me late.

4. If you come in five minutes before it is time to close to sign your lease, get keys, etc. please do not take your wonderful time to read every single word of your lease and ask me 50 million questions before signing it. This will take at least thirty minutes. Thank you, you have now made me extra late.

5. People who come in five minutes before closing time and say, "I am so sorry. I know you are about to close but..." If you know we are about to close, DON'T COME IN. You are worse than the people who just don't care.

6. Residents who come in and ask me to look up directions to 500 different places when you could have done it on the resident computer and then proceed to FALL ASLEEP in the chair while you are waiting. Yes this did happen this weekend.

Hope you enjoyed! And like I said please feel free to leave your workplace peeves in the comments.

ABC's

Did you guys know my Belli is a genius? If you didn't know it before, now you do...



And don't you dare tell me those aren't the cutest pigtails you have ever seen! Or that that wasn't the cutest, redneckest (if that is a word) "W" you have ever heard!

And don't you love when she gets done saying her ABC's and she says, "All done taking picture." She is so stinking cute!

Ok, I will quit bragging on my child now!

Wait, one more thing. She can also count to twenty-ten (aka thirty).

Ok, ok. I'm done now!

Five Question Friday

I cannot believe it is Friday already!  Where does the time go?  Here is it...Mama M's Five Question Friday, Belli style.

1.  What is the one thing you reach for the most in one day?
Whatever my mommy tells me I can't play with.  That's what I reach for the most in one day.

2.  What is the farthest you have been away from home?
Shriner's Hospital in Greenville, SC

3.  What kind of cell phone do you have?  Love it or hate it?
I do not have a cell phone.  I am only allowed to use my Fisher Price rotary phone.

4.  Coke or Pepsi?
Coke.  Everyone is always drinking Coke and I want some sooo bad.  Even when mommy is drinking some clear stuff out of the glass bottle with a long neck I still think it is Coke and I want some!

5.  If you could go back and change anything about your wedding day what would it be?
Oh is only I could foresee the future and knew the answer to this question.  Then I would make sure it didn't happen!

 

Alphabitty Moments- F

I have been thinking very hard since last week what I was going to use for "F" for my Alphabitty Moments (by MamaBear).  I was still thinking about it at about 2 o'clock today and had just decided I was going to skip it for now and come back later, when it hit me.  Instead of using an object or a specific thing why not use a concept?  What is something that has been so important in Isabelle's childhood.  Something that we always look forward to?  Well that, of course, would be the FUTURE.  Isabelle's physical development has always been slow going and we are constantly waiting for the future when she will hit her next milestone.  And while I do not like to wish her childhood away I do find myself looking forward to the future a lot when she will be able to do more things.  So....

 F is for Future...

This is the first picture I have of Isabelle holding her head up on her own.  She was 5 1/2 months old.

This is the first picture I have of Isabelle sitting up on her own.  As you can see I still had pillows around at this point because she was still not very good at it.  She was 10 months old.

This is the first picture I have of Isabelle standing.  She has to be holding something and she cannot get into standing on her own.  She also cannot stand without her AFO's yet.  She was 15 months old in this picture.

 

And this next picture...Well this is our future.  This sweet, precious, amazingly wonderful little girl named Addison was born just two weeks after Isabelle.  Also, with Larsen's Syndrome.  I met her mom, Julie, over the internet through an online message board for people with Larsen's Syndrome.  We keep in contact regularly to celebrate the joys of our girls accomplishments and to compare notes on how they are doing.  It is so nice to have someone to talk with about all of the issues that come with LS but it is even nicer to have someone with a child who is almost the exact age as your own.  I got on Facebook the other day and to my surprise I found this picture...

 

Little Addison at a little over two years old, is finally able to stand independently.  We are so incredibly proud of this accomplishment and look at Addison as our future.  I know that once Isabelle gets her halo off she will grow leaps and bounds with the physical development.  So congrats Addie!!!  And we are certainly looking forward to our FUTURE!

How God Chooses Mothers for Special Needs Children

Someone showed me this story a while back when Belli was younger.  I have not been able to find it since then because I could not remember what it was called or who it was by.  It was posted recently in an online forum I go to sometimes that talks about a wide range of topics.  I wanted to post it here mainly because I want to save it and not lose it again but also because I just really like it.  People often ask me how I handle having a child with a disability and I think this story pretty much sums it up. 

God Chooses Mom for Disabled Child 

Written by Erma Bombeck Published in the Today Newspaper Sept. 4th, 1993

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures, and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children.

Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen? Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments forpropagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

"Armstrong, Beth; son; patron saint, Matthew.

"Forrest, Marjorie; daughter; patron saint, Cecelia.

"Rudledge, Carrie; twins; patron saint.... give her Gerard. He's used to profanity.

" Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child." 

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a handicapped child a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel." 

"But has she patience?" asks the angel. 

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she'll handle it." 

"I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence. She'll have to teach the child to live in her world and that's not going to be easy." 

"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." 

God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness." The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?" 

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, there is a woman I will bless with a child less then perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says "Momma" for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations." "I will permit her to see clearly the things I see---ignorance, cruelty, prejudice--- and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side." 

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in midair.

God smiles.  "A mirror will suffice."

Five Question Friday

It's time again for Mama M's Five Question Friday.  I look forward to this every week because it gives me chance to learn more about Belli.  Since I give answers that I think she would give it helps me to think about her and learn thing's about her I may not have though of.  So here goes...

1.  What is your favorite ABBA songs?
A-B-B-A?  Geez you adults don't even know your ABC's.

2.  The thing you love most about the fall?
The cool air.  I almost always have some sort of cast or neck brace on (and this year a halo and vest lined with fake wool) and they can get really hot.  That cool air keeps me from sweating so much.

3.  What store would you love to spend your heart's desire?  Money is no object.
I would buy every pair of BabyLegs every made.  Ok that's not true...that just what mommy told me to say.  I would spend it in Toys-R-Us to buy Sesame Street movies.

4.  What is your favorite snack food?
I heart Goldfish.

5.  What was your first car?
Last Christmas I got my very own ice cream truck.  It plays music and has bars around it so I don't fall out.  I'm not allowed to use my cell phone while I'm driving though.

Alphabitty Moments D & E

So I got a little behind on my Alphabitty Moments (hosted by MamaBear) with all of the studying I was doing for the GRE (which I did GREAT on by the way).  So I am going to do both D and E today so I can catch up.

D is for Doctors...

Starting when Isabelle was one week old we went to see her ortho every week for nine weeks to get recasted with the intent of correcting her knees and feet.  After that we went at least once a month up until her surgery in February 2008.  Then it changed to every three months, then six months, and now we don't have to go back until August 2010.  Woohoo!  I wish I could say the same for her neuro.  Isabelle started seeing a neurosurgeon at four months old.  She had her first MRI at that time and then every three months after that she alternated between x-rays and MRIs until June 25, 2009 when we got the so dreaded news of the necessary spinal fusion.  We have become GREAT friends with her neurosurgeon now.  We will probably be seeing him once a month for the next few months.  Isabelle also sees a GI every six months for constipation and reflux.  Luckily she rarely gets sick so we have managed to only see the pediatrician for just well baby check up with the exception of maybe two or three times.  I am so hoping that these doctors visits that have become such a huge part of her childhood will not follow her into adulthood. 


E is for Elmo...









What else would E stand for?  Isabelle has a minor unGodly obsession with Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street characters.  While this is a big step up from watching Baby Einstein movies I am looking forward to the day when she starts to get interested in Disney movies so I can actually sit down and watch one with her and not have a headache from the annoying voice from Elmo.  Although I do not necessarily wish that time to come soon.

Well there you go.  Those are Isabelle's Alphabitty Moments.  Also, I added Blanky for letter B in the first Alphabitty Moments post because her blanky is oh so very important!  Next week is F and I have not a clue what I am going to use so feel free to make suggestion!