January 2016

I can't believe that it is already the last day of January! To start off the month Emma had her 9 month (we are a little behind because of the steriod at 6 months she couldn't get her vaccinations while taking it) Dr appt. and she hadn't gained a lot of weight since her last appt. so we had to start supplementing with formula. My milk had lost it's fat content so basically my milk was now just for taste. As hard as breastfeeding is especially as a working mom, you would think that I would be super excited to stop breastfeeding, but I was actually sad cause she loved to eat and what if she didn't like formula. For a while I felt like a failure and kept giving her breastmilk every other bottle and formula the other. Then Brandon said why? She eats the formula just fine and she needs it, he was right I was exhausting myself trying to pump enough for her to eat. So I am officially done breastfeeding and yes now I am relieved. So in conclusion we have another Dr appt. next week to assess her weight gain which I think is huge! Her 12 month clothes we got for Christmas are starting to get tight! Here she is at 10 months (January 20, 2016)

Happy 10 Months Princess

Brandon had an open house this month and so he brought home the balloons for Ava, but they turned into Emma's. She loves watching them and she even held on to the string tugging at the balloons then she tried to eat the string. Yes, I know how irresponsible of me to let my 10 month old eat the string of a balloon, but nope we celebrated because Emma has never taken a toy to her mouth before. So nice job Emma we are so proud of you! See pics below

In order to get our Christmas Tree down without tears we told Ava she could build a fort/hut but not until the tree was down because were else would we build it...big mistake I just barely got the fort/hut taken down today! But I will say these 2 enjoyed their time together inside the fort/hut.

We came across a great item mention by our PT to help Emma to practice sitting up a little bit more independently (we worry about her getting her head too flat by always laying on it or sitting her her support chair). It is called a Hugaboo we ordered it off Amazon (different prices for different colors/designs). So far it's been a great purchase. She should be a Hugaboo model don't you think ;)

Emma also had an eye appt. and we got some pretty good news! Her astigmatism has decreased by half! The Dr. says that most kids are born with an astigmatism and most kids lose it on their own, but where Emma most likely stopped developing between 3-5 months she wouldn't lose it on her own. So the glasses have done their job so far and we will recheck in 4 months to see if the rest has started to go away on its own or if we will need to come back to the glasses. But for the next 4 months no glasses for this little lady. So again I become the only one in our little family with glasses. 

I have to give a shout out to Ava, Emma's big sister. Ava's dance class had a parent observation day and she did so awesome! She had only been in dance class 4 times. I am impressed with her talent! Nice work Best Big Sis!

On a sad note Emma has come down with a cold this weekend. We are doing lots of Tylenol and Ibuprofen to help keep the fever down so we don't see those horrible seizures. Plus lots of suctioning of her little nose. It has wiped her out! Hopefully she's back to normal tomorrow, I have seen a couple smiles today!

On a mommy note I wanted to share something that I have come across this month and have fallen in love with. It's a podcast called Bringing Up Betty. We all have moments in our lives when we feel lost and think that no one could possibly understand how you are feeling....well I have felt that way many times as I am sure we all have, but I finally found a podcast that has confirmed all my feelings and emotions about being a special needs mom. It hits so close to home and I feel "normal" for once about my feelings. This is a wonderful podcast even if you aren't the parent of a special needs child but simply love or care about one, which I am sure we all do. I had never listened to a podcast before but I am so glad I started if you are interested you should check it out. -Bringing Up Betty- is the name of the podcast and there is also a Facebook page and website.

Happy Birthday to Emma's Daddy! We are so blessed to have Brandon in our lives. He is the best daddy and husband. He is a very hard worker and helps with the girls more than I could ever ask for. On a side note...one day he will realize who he should really cheer for.... GO BRONCOS!

I left the cutest little video for last! I was eating a Creamie one day and let her have a couple licks and she loved it. Then 3 days later Brandon was eating one and Emma started to make noises, almost screaming at him, we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then it came to me....she wanted the Creamie and we were right! Here is the video that followed all that "screaming" LOL! Someone loves her Creamies - Lesson here: Don't stand between this girl and her Creamies!

*Check back next week I believe I will have some exciting news to post* 

NO I AM NOT PREGNANT LOL
Until then.... <3 EMBRACE LIFE <3

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016

As much joy as 2015 brought us, it also brought a lot of pain. The joy of welcoming our beautiful little girl Emma was a highlight of our year, she has brought so much happiness into our lives. But sadly this moment brought a lot of fear and pain as well. Learning that our perfect little girl was going to have struggles her whole life, not to mention a shortned one, was the most heart stopping, painful thing we have ever gone through. Being a teacher and helping parents understand that their child might be a little delayed has been a part of my life for the last 10 years but nothing prepared me for the moment when someone would say those words to me...."Your child will be severely developmentally delayed". My heart dropped, things went blurry and I can't remember much after that except that I loved this little girl and I was going to do everything in my power to help her live the life that she deserves. The response from friends and family was greater than we could have ever imagined and we can't thank you all enough for that! Lissencephaly (smooth brain) was a word that I had never heard of until March 25, 2015, 5 days after Emma was born, 1 day after she started having seizures. This word will be a part of our lives but it will not define our lives. We are starting to find our "New Normal" and that is mostly because of Ava, Emma's big sister. She plays with Emma and lights up her/our life. I don't know how things would be without her. Emma will only laugh at Ava, and by laugh I mean really laugh, we occasionally will get a giggle but Ava gets the full on laugh and I wouldn't change it for the world. The bond that these two have made over the last 9 months is incredible. This is where the joy part comes in....seeing them together makes me realize things are exactly the way they are suppose to be and we are going to grow together as a family and 2016 is going to be amazing!

Here are some of our highlights of 2015 with may firsts for our family and Emma :)

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EMBRACE LIFE

Don't forget to follow Emma on Facebook too for more info more often (lol it's easier to manage)

https://www.facebook.com/Embracelifeemma/

November/December 2015

The Holidays were a wonderful time for our family for the most part. Thanksgiving was amazing and so fun to share with our wonderful families. Christmas was full of parties, family and so much fun! Here was the sad part Brandon got strep, Ava got pink eye, then croup, and then pink eye returned! Emma got croup too and that was very scary, causing her to have 2 seizures after 51 days being seizure free. Thankfully we were able to monitor her Oxygen level and heartrate with our Owlet (if you don't know what this is and are having a baby it's a must click here!) and with some steroids she was much better but it still lasted from the 20th -27th. We finally got a smile again on the 27th, 7 days without a smile from Emma was rough. So glad to have her happy self back. Yes, I was in a war zone but thanks to OnGuard (essential oil) I survived, LOL. Like I stated above Emma is back on track doing well and seizures are still under control, we have found that fevers are what really spikes her seizure activity. So our goal is no fevers aka keep this little girl as healthy as possible.  on a side note if you know you are going to be around us and you are sick or have been sick please, please, please think of Emma and if you think you still are not 100% then stear clear....please her life depends on it.

9 MoNtHs
Emma turned 9 months old on December 20, 2015...wow how time flies. Here are some stats on Emma.

*Height: 27 in
*Weight: 16 pounds 8 ounces
*Loves sweet potatoes
*Started to laugh - a real laugh not just giggles (see video below)
*Says Mama when hungry - not sure she relates it to me as her mom but none the less she is saying it
*Still trying to gain hand awareness -
*Working hard at head control and sitting up
*Can roll from side to back
*Grabbing toys when put in her hand - not on her own but still big
*Smiles bigger everyday
*Loves listening to her toy violet sing and light up
*Loves her new play yard mat from her new friend Abby - see story below called Chirstmas Eve
*Stills everyone's heart when they look into those big brown sparkling eyes

ChRiStMaS EvE
Christmas Eve started off as magical as always with having kids especially a 4 year old. We visited with family exchanged gifts and then headed home to decorate cookies and watch the Christmas Story. As we were decorating cookies Brandon started to tell me how earlier he recieved a voicemail from someone who said we didn't know him and he didn't know us but they had a gift to us from his family to ours. My heart dropped people are so nice...don't get me wrong we were skeptical at first kinda weird right. But he said he would be over soon. When they got to our house they explained how they heard about Emma from the Festival of Trees (previous post) and it stuck out to them because they too had a daughter with Lissencephaly and her name is Abby! We were so happy to finally meet another Liss family. We loved meeting Abby and her family she was amazing she gave us so much hope for Emma. They delivered some gifts for the girls and us we were overwhelmed and can't thank them enough. I also have to thank Abby's sister for writing Ava a letter explaining how important and special her job is being Emma's big sister, I still cry just thinking about it. It is the best letter and Ava wanted to hang it in her room, and that's exactly where it is at this exact moment. We would like to thank Abby and her family for reaching out to us it made our Christmas extra special.

Here are some pics from the last few months to get everyone caught up on this cuteness I live with everyday.

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Angel Hands Foundation Christmas Party was a blast!

working hard

Merry Christmas from The Tapia Family

Emma's First Movie on New Years Eve

Emma loving her sweet potatoes 

The best helper and best big sister hands down!

Emma Laughed!!! Hearing your children laugh together is the best sound in the world.
It is a sound that I wondered if I would ever hear and in these moments I know that we are so blessed to have eachother.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

EMBRACE LIFE

Festival of Trees 2015 ~ Embrace Life

For the last 3 years our family has decided instead of exchanging gifts for Christmas we would donate money and put it towards decorating a tree for the Festival of Trees. The Festival of Trees is a fundraising event for our local Childrens Hospital. People deocrate trees, wreaths, mini trees, gingerbread houses, and quilts. These items are then sold silent auction. Never did I ever think that one day we would do a tree for my own daughter. Well this year it happened our tree was dedicated to our very own Emma! It was called Embrace Life, it was a nursery rhyme theme with tons of other items for little girls. It turned out better than I could have ever imagined. Thanks to all those who donated time and money to make this tree possible. Also thanks to Primary Childrens Hospital for all that you do everyday for children. I asked friends and family who went to the festival to post a pic with the tree and here is a video that I put together of everyone who tagged us in their picture that they seen Emma's tree.

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