Birthday Fun and 1 Year Checkups!!!!!

Ava is 5!!!

Emma is 1!!!

 I cannot believe that it has already been a year since this beautiful rare gem joined our family and 5 since I became a mom. We could not be more blessed to be their parents and Ava loves being Emma's big sister. Thank you Ava and Emma for choosing us to be your parents. You inspire us everyday to EMBRACE LIFE and be the best people that we can be. You have taught us so much and brought so much love and faith into our lives.

Boy does these girls know how to party!!! Ava's Birthday is March 3rd and Emma's Birthday is March 20th, she brings spring which makes so much sense because as Ava sings to her everyday she is our SUNSHINE. At her party we were so lucky to have my amazing cousin and her husband, Jeff Eastman, with Jeff Eastman Photography set up a photo booth that took pictures every 30 seconds. We had all sorts of props, needless to say we are so excited to get the pictures back. We also had a visit from the one and only Mascot Miracles Foundation!!!! The mascots,  Princess Jasmine, and Aladdin were a HIT! I cannot thank this amazing group enough please please if you can donate to this foundation do because they help families like ours everyday. They even brought each of the girls a Build-a-Bear!

Girls with their Build-a-Bears and princess crowns - see more pics with mascots/princess-prince in the video below

Here is a link to donate to the Mascot Miracles Foundation https://www.gofundme.com/mascotmiracles Thanks in advance!!!

Here is a little video of her party: so many more pics to come I will post them when I get them all :)



Here is a little video that I put together of Emma through out her first year of life, that was playing at her party. I love making videos of my girls every birthday to show them how much they have grown and how many accomplishments they have made. -note: it is about 25 min long so what til you have time to watch it :) you will have to click to be redirected to youtube to watch it...its safe to click I promise :)



I love when Neurology appointments go well. She was very happy with Emma's progress, or inchstones I should say and was thrilled about her seizure control. She did refer us to a doctor to help treat/look into her spasticity (high tone) we will schedule an appointment soon. She doesn't think it's horrible but worth getting it checked out to be proactive. We also had a Well Check with her pediatrician and he too was pleased with her overall growth, height and head growth. She is still on the small side but still thriving. Her head is growing but at a slow rate, she is in the <3% for her head.
*Weight: 17 pds 15 oz
*Heigh: 28 in
She got 3 immunizations today and we are praying that we can keep her fever down to prevent any seizures please pray with us for no seizures! She handled the shots like a CHAMP and loved her grape sucker mommy and daddy let her have after lol. The perks of being one years old moms lets you splurge every now and then, like frosting on your bday and suckers when you get shots haha. Emma also did a little showing off at her appointment sitting up unassisted for a few seconds with both hands flat....inchstones make my heart happy!

1 year well check and 5 year well check

Ava is use to mom taking millions of pics and Emma is like stop already LOL

Big sister also had her 5 year Well Check and she is rocking it. She passed vision with no problem and she is growing like a weed. As for her development, she keeps shocking me daily on what she knows how to do. We are very proud parents of both of our girls! Here is a proud parent moment that happened at Emma's Birthday Party.

Thanks for your continuous prayers, love and support. 

󾬖 EMBRACE LIFE 󾬖

~Questions Answered~

*On Emma's facebook page I had asked her followers what info they would like to know and what questions that they had. This post is based on those questions and some just wanted a little more info on certain things like seizures and therapy. Hope this information is helpful.

Before I was a special needs parent I was a little nervous around special needs children/people and not because I was scared of them but because I was uneducated. I never knew how uneducated I was until Emma was diagnosed. We haven't experienced much staring or looks yet with Emma until recently when we got our GoTo Seat. Before now she's just been looked at as a typical infant. As we put her in her high chair at the resturant with her seat or in her seat in the shopping cart I started to notice that it was going to start happening and I wanted to be prepared for it. As a special needs parent I am happy to share Emma's story and I would rather you just ask instead of stare. We need to teach our children that special needs people are not scary but that they are very similar to us, no matter what they look like, how they move, or what devices they use to help them function through life. This is one thing I feel blessed about with Ava is she will grow up knowing that being different is ok and we love and accept people no matter what they look like or what abilities they have or don't have.

What Do You Say?
I am not speaking for every special need parent and I know that a lot of people don't like to share their childs story but not me I am very happy to share, awareness is key! Here is my suggestion on how to approach a child with special needs. Keep in mind not all people feel this way but for me it is how I feel. I understand staring is part of learning and exploring new things but asking questions can help get you more answers.

* if you are curious just ask :) approach and say something nice and positive about my child. Ask her name, say shes cute, ask her age etc. This gives me an opening to share more if I want to or I can keep quite if I choose to. If you have a child there let them ask questions too they are curious and we should let them be it will help them more than you know in their future. 

Here is a podcast that I listen to about raising a child with special needs they are interviews with parents and other fantastic info that I have learned. If you listen to this episode mainly at the spot of 18 min and 30 seconds you will hear another special needs parent feelings on this topic (we are pretty similar). Side note: if you are a special needs parent or caregiver I suggest listening to this podcast BRINGING UP BETTY, every episode is benefical I have learned so much and I have felt normal in moments that I wasn't sure feeling a certain way was ok. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bringing-up-betty-true-tales/id1021491238?mt=2&i=356422064

More About Emma and Lissencephaly 

Emma's lissencephaly is caused by a partial deletion on Chromosome 17. This would classify her with what's called Miller Dieker Syndrome or ILS or Classic Lissencephaly Sequence. What this means is Emma has the most typical type of lissencephaly Lissencepahly is a rare condition 1 in 100,000. But I have actually learned over the last year that lissencephaly can actually be caused by other chromosome deletions as well, and possible infections early on in pregnancy but most are due to a genetic reason. I have read that there are about 20 different types of lissencephaly but they are still researching. I am not too familiar with those so I won't go in to much detail I just know it's not only chromosome 17. As far as research goes sadly I have yet to find any they just don't know enough to start researching :(. There is however one yes that's right ONE specialty Doctor located in Seattle and he can go in to more detail to help us better understand the severity of the liss that Emma has but we have decided that we are not going to take that route. There is no cure or treatments for her besides therapy and controlling seizures, which we already do. A doctor will not write Emma's story, she will write it herself. Here is a link to the info that we received at Primary Childrens Hospital moments after her diagnosis. It took way longer than expected for me to read it I didn't want to hurt. Sadly they didn't have much more info than this 3 page report. 

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/lissencephaly/lissencephaly.htm

Our hearts were broken the world was dark our lives flipped upside down. But now nearly a year later (March 25 was diagnosis day) I would have never guessed we would be where we are. Emma is our world and our tour guide in this new world that we live in, we couldn't have been blessed with a guide.

Seizure History

Emma started to have seizures at 4 days old our first night home from the hospital. I thought I was crazy mom but then I showed my husband and he agreed something wasn't right. We took her to our pediatrician who we showed a video to from our phone of one of the seizures we recorded. Because of course when you actually go to the dr for something that you went for it doesn't occur when you are there. He first looked at me and knew something was wrong he knows us well because of Ava. He watched 2 seconds of the video and said yes she's seizing. Then he said is Ava somewhere safe we replied yes and he said for a few days and we said yes and he said good head to primary Childrens hospital and don't stop anywhere!!!! He had hospital staff ready for us. That day she had between 25-30 seizures. The most heartbreaking thing ever (see video below). They started her on phenobarbital. After about one month her seizures where controlled to maybe one a week. She stayed on pheno for about 5 months with one slight increase due do seizure activity because of growth. At about 6 months infantile spams started. This was hard for Emma we started prednisolone steroid and increased the dose to the max that we could in the 3 weeks and sadly no improvement. We had to wean her carefully. Our next try was to increase pheno to our limit. Her body didn't handle this well and she slept almost all day. The levels were too high for her body. 5 weeks later still having 10 min clusters of spams. We researched some meds ourselves and decided to ask to try zonisamide and it helped control the spasms but now she stopped eating. She dropped from 25-30 oz of milk to 8-10 oz. Eating is something Emma is so good at and we didn't want a feeding tube as we couldn't just let her not eat so we talked with the dr and dosed her down to where she was eating again but the seizures were still happening. In Utah you have to have 3 failed seizure meds in order to received a hemp card to try CBD oil. Emma qualified to try this so after much research we decided to give it a try. Emma started the oil on Oct 20, 2015 once she was safely weaned off all her prescription seizure meds. She had one seizure on Oct 29 that lasted about one minute. She had 2 more seizures on Dec 20 due to having croup. She got RSV and double ear infections with fevers reaching 103 and I was shocked we didn't witness one seizure. We are so blessed to have the Charolettes Web in our lives. Along with seizure control I  believe that Charolettes Web has also brought us Emma. She started to smile and laugh something we hadn't witnesses before. Therapy sessions started to last the whole time and without tears. She was a new person....she was Emma 💜.  

Here are the two types of seizures that we have seen exibited by Emma.

4 days old (video we showed her Dr):

Infantile Spams:

Early Intervention/Therapy

Emma started with our local early intervention program at 4 months old. They did a bunch of intake evaluations and tons of paper work lol but Emma qualified. They started to work with her every other week for an hour for physical therapy we started small of course because she was only 4 months old. As she got older we increased the time to one hour every week. Our amazing PT let us try Aqua therapy with Emma and the first time not so great but the next 2 times was great. We have since also added occupational therapy and vision therapy. The vision therapy is not because she can't see but to help build her eye muscles and learn how to move her eyes correctly to follow objects find and them by sound Etc. Emma's PT and OT come together so they can work her at the same time and by having two people they can push her a little more. They come once a week for an hour, vision also comes once a week for an hour and if we get pool therapy we get that 30 min a week (it's a hit and miss if the pool is ok to get it wink wink). Currently, in therapy she is working on sitting, rolling over, swatting at toys, following or tracking items, holding two items at the same time different hands, and weight barring on hands and knees. I am sure I missed some things like head control which is as constant that we work on. Between therapy appointments Brandon, Ava and I work so hard to help Emma meet these goals and milestones or inchstones as we like to call them. We are also blessed that Grandma and Grandpa help work her too during the morning while mom is as work. We are so lucky to have them to help out and we can't thank them enough. *make sure you read the previous post of my favorite items that we have used to assist Emma in therapy*

*On Emma's facebook page I had asked her followers what info they would like to know and what questions did they have. This post was based on those questions, if you have any questions or comments that you would like answered or addressed please leave them in the comments or you can email us at Embracelifeemma@gmail.com. I am happy to answer any questions I love creating awareness. Thanks and remember to EMBRACE LIFE!

Things Change...But It's Our New Normal

The other day I had a friend come over and she seen all of the adaptive items that we have for Emma and she said how she would have never thought about needing some of these items just for her everyday life. I agreed and mentioned that I too had never heard of some of these items before but now it's our new normal. I am starting to see things in a new light, by that I mean how can I make this work for Emma. I thought we had all the baby items needed because of Ava but boy was I wrong, not many of them work for Emma. So I thought I would share some of the items that we have bought for Emma to help her have better quality of life and some things help mom and dad too!

We had to buy a better baby carrier for Emma one that fits her body better. She has such high muscle tone I wasn't able to use the carrier that we already had for Ava. This has been a life saver (as long as it's not hot, this girl is a heater)

Emma can't sleep flat too often for a couple reasons, first of all she has major reflux and will gag throughout the night if she is not propped up (aspiration is something that is a huge worry for kids with Lissencephaly). Second she still has the startle reflex like newborns have and so when she throws her arms out to the side it wakes her up and scares her so badly :( So with this Day Dreamer bed she is able to sleep on an angle and also the sides are high enough to catch her arms when she gets startled. Swaddling use to help with the startle reflex but sadly she is too big for all the swaddles now :( but they still fit under her arms and she can be swaddled from the armpits down. The socks on her hands are because for some reason her hands get ice cold at night. The WubNub binky is amazing too!

 This next item is a life saver for mommy! I didn't realize how much bathing my cutie would kill my back. For the first 2-3 months bathing was a breeze but once she started to get bigger and she no longer fit in her infant tub things started to get harder. Trying to hold up a 10 month old that weighs 17 pounds in the bath like a newborn (she cant sit up or control her head much), is very hard work. We tried a ton of bath inserts etc but nothing worked. Finally through some friends on a Lissencephaly group we found the Primo bath and it is amazing. Bath time has become fun and easy again.

It is molded to fit her body and she can't slide down!!!

This next item is a Tumzee another item we found through friends in a lissencephaly group. It helps Emma with tummy time and helps to let her arms be in front to practice bearing weight through her hands.

We had a high chair for Ava but it didn't have straps over the top and it didn't recline so we had to invest in one the reclines and has the supportive straps that Emma needs. 

Emma is unable to hold her bottle at almost one years old and we try everyday to help get to this goal. It is a battle everyday but this little contraption has helped the process along. Somedays she wont even touch it but other days she is more willing ;) This was a good day :)

Sitting up is very hard for Emma because of her lack of head and trunk control. This cool item is called a Hugaboo and it helps assist her in sitting up and practicing head and trunk control with a little more support than other sitters, for example a bumbo gives her zero support to practice in this sitting position. After the age of 7 months of age kids need to be sitting up as much as possible to help in many areas of development including vision. There is a whole new visual field being used when she is sitting instead of laying down. She loves to see the world in an upright position. This is also helping her bear weight on her hands if you notice in the picture below this was a good day actually a great day (both hands down happen like 10% of the time lol)!

Here is Emma practicing her head and trunk control in the Hugaboo!

We have another sitter on its way thanks to the Angel Hands Foundation called a GoTo Seat from Firefly. I am over the moon excited about this seat. As I mentioned above about her visual field changing and needing to develop even though she is unable to sit up so we need to provide as many opportunities for her to sit up as possible and I believe this seat will be our saving grace! This seat can be put in a high chair at restaurants (poor thing still has to sit in her car seat and she wants to look around), it can go in a shopping cart mommy is so excited for Emma to look around at all the people and things in a store, a swing, and wagon, the possibilities are endless. Big sis is excited for her to sit and play on the floor with her. Emma has a hard time playing in her sitting devices she has now because she is so focused on trying to sit up that she can't pay attention to much else. So needless to say we are very grateful to the Angel Hands Foundation for making this happen for Emma and our family. 

World Rare Awareness Day:

World Rare Disease Day is tomorrow Feb. 29, 2016!!! We are asking for your support in representing Emma and many others who are living with rare diseases. We ask that you please wear jeans, Emma wristband, jean ribbon and/or purple (epilepsy). Show your support by posting a pic and tagging Emma's page or using #embracelifeemma #WRDD2016 #lissencephaly #utahrare  

Embrace Life Emma Shirts:

Don't waste anymore time because it is running out! Only a couple more days to make sure you get your Embrace Life Emma shirts. The fund closes on March 2nd! Here is a link to get yours ordered today before its too late! 

LINK TO ORDER SHIRTS https://www.bonfirefunds.com/embrace-life

Here is what the shirts look like :) They come in youth, unisex, ladies, long sleeve, and hoodies 

EMBRACE LIFE

Happy Valentine's Day 2016 ~ Emma's First Valentine's

This weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day almost everyday lol. So much fun to be together and be healthy. Emma is feeling much better, she has a follow up on Friday to make sure she's in the clear but we are very hopefully. She is back to her cheerful self. Love you all! 💕


EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT
Emma got an early 1st birthday present from a great friend this weekend. We love this beautiful quilt it is too perfect for words so here is a little clip to show you how amazing it is. Thank you Liz!

EMBRACE LIFE <3

Looking Back....

This post is all about looking back on our journey to becoming parents and things that happened during my pregnancy with Emma that all make sense now...

It all started back in July 2009 when we found out we were pregnant. We were over the moon excited about becoming parents. But then sadly our emotions of excitement were replaced with complete sadness. We found out that we had a Blighted Ovum (link) and my body was not recognizing it and the sac just kept growing. Finally at 12 weeks I had to have a D&C it was a very sad moment for us the realization was all too real. We decided to take a break and recover from this emotional roller coaster before trying to conceive again.

Then finally July of 2010 we found out we were pregnant again!!!!! This time my amazing OB let us come in early for an ultrasound to check to make sure it wasn't a blighted ovum again. We were thrilled to hear a heartbeat, it was our little Ava we felt so blessed in that moment that we were going to be parents. The pregnancy went pretty well until about 14 weeks and I started spotting so I called my doctor who rushed me in and we found that I had Placenta Previa (link). We were so scared to get this news, but we were told that as my uterus grows for the baby that most likely the placenta will move with the uterus and the previa would go away on its own. About 15% of women are diagnosed with some degree of previa in the second trimester and 90%will resolve on their own. 1 in 300 will not and will require c-section delivery and can become dangerous. Well guess what folks I was that 1 in 300 and not only did I have placenta previa but complete (full) previa not just partial. I started to have lots and lots of bleeding at about 33 weeks and rushed to the hospital where they life flighted me to IMC another hospital because they had a NICU for Ava and a blood bank for me. Luckily, we were able to keep Ava in for 3 more weeks (in the hospital) went home for 5 days then had a scheduled c-section at 36 weeks because I kept bleeding. She was perfectly healthy at 5 lbs 17 in long and not one moment in the NICU. 

Then two years later in 2013 Ava was going to be a big sister!!!! That lasted for about 4 weeks and then the spotting started again we went to an ultrasound and to our surprise it was a blighted ovum again...this hit me hard but not as hard as the first time. I felt blessed to have Ava and that helped me get through this loss. My body again would not recognize that there was no baby so I had to have another D&C. 

July 2014 we got another positive pregnancy test we were scared and excited all at the same time. We got in for another early ultrasound and we heard the best sound ever...a heartbeat!!! Tears of joy doesn't even begin to explain how happy we were that Ava was going to have a sibling. As time passed we kept a close watch having Dr appointments weekly and everything was going perfectly. It was time for the decision if we wanted genetic testing done and we said yes, we did it with Ava and so let's do it again. Later that week we got a phone call from the Dr office and it was the doctor I knew at that point something wasn't right. She explained to me that my numbers came back a little off so she recommended that we got get an extensive ultrasound done to check for other "markers" to see if the baby might have something like Down Syndrome. We of course scheduled right away to get that ultrasound down because the wait was killing us.  5 days later we had our extensive ultrasound showing no extra markers but to be safe they asked if we wanted another blood test that was 99% accurate or we could do an amniocentesis. We were set on no amnio because we knew no matter the outcome we did not want to lose this baby and the amnio comes with chance of miscarriage. So we did the blood test that checks the following chromosomes 13, 18, & 21. Seven days later we got the results....we had a perfectly healthy baby girl. We celebrated and cried knowing everything was going to be ok. We didn't tell many people because we didn't want to raise emotions if they didn't need to be. Well now we know that Emma does have a genetic disorder because she has a deletion on chromosome 17 which wasn't tested for, but that was the reason for the numbers being off in the first genetic test (makes sense now). During the pregnancy Emma had the "hiccups" A LOT, they would start fast and then slow down. Now I know that also wasn't the case and that poor little girl was having seizures in my stomach. I never connected this until we were at primary children's hospital and I sat and cried as I watched her have over 20 seizures and get the hiccups right after, the rhythm was exactly the same as when she was in my stomach. When she was delivered via c-section one of the nurses said wow her head is to tiny, this is also a trait of children with Lissencephaly. There are so many things we could have taken as a sign to know about Emma's condition before her delivery and seizures at 4 days old, but I wouldn't change it for the world because for 4 days I had a perfectly healthy baby girl and we all got to bond as a family and Ava got to hold and snuggle her sister. If we would have known before I doubt we would have got those precious moments for 4 days, before we spent a week at Primary Children's Hospital.

These precious moments would have been missed! <3

So needless to say our journey to becoming parents has not been an easy one, but we feel so blessed to have our two beautiful little girls in our lives.

"Charlee's Law" - We Love You Charlee

Charlee - See I bet you are already in LOVE with this cutie pie <3

To Start off this post I would like to wish Charlee a Very Happy 8th Birthday (last week). This little Angel captured my heart and I thank her everyday that she did. I feel that I was suppose to meet Charlee and her amazing family. They were meant to be in our lives. I also believe that Emma knows Charlee and they spent time together in heaven, there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of Charlee and her family. Charlee sadly passed away in March of 2014, but she left us with so much joy and hope. If you would like to learn more about Charlee and Battens Disease you can read more on her blog and/or facebook page. I promise you will fall in love with her just like we did.
Here is her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/charleesangelsbenefit/info?tab=page_info and here is her website: http://charleesangelsbenefit.blogspot.com/

Everyday that passes we never know if Emma will have a seizure (or how many she will have) and sadly this was the same for Charlee. We have tried loads of medications and none of them have seemed to work. They would make Emma so tired and she would sleep all day, seizures kept happening and she stopped eating. We were so scared about what to do next we had tried so many medications and she was still having seizures and she wasn't "there". She was just present with little function because she was so tired and the seizures were wiping her out! Finally it hit me CHARLEE!!! Charlee and her family fought to get Cannabis oil legalized here in Utah for people with Intractable Epilepsy. However, it's not as easy as it sounds. There is a process you have to go through in order to be considered for a Hemp Card here in Utah. Our first step to qualify was Emma had to have 3 different failed seizure meds, sadly and thankfully Emma had this requirement before she was 7 months old. Second we had to get paper work filled out and approved by her neurologist to have the proof that Emma has intractable epilepsy and 3 fail seizure meds. After this we had to take the paper work filled out by the Dr and ourselves and deliver it to the State Department of Health. We had to pay $200 for our Hemp Card. This card is only good for one year and then we have to renew it for $50 every year after that (unless you miss the deadline then its full price again). The downside is all of this is an out of pocket expense including the purchasing the CBD oil, we also have to guide ourselves through the use of the oil because legally our Dr can not help us with dosing thank goodness for the Realm of Caring and CW Hemp. Yes, it is costly but so so worth it. We worked hard along side Emma's neurologist and she is fully approved to use CBD oil YAY!!! 

In previous posts I have been very vague about Emma's meds just stating that we were trying a new one this was because I didn't want to jinx anything before we got our own results from the oil. I am proud to say that Emma is on CBD Oil and it is doing wonders for her. Her seizures are under control and her progress overall has improved so much. We have got to see her smile, hear her laugh, and most importantly we have been able to see who Emma is and we love her personality so much! I hated to see her so drugged up on meds. Everyday that I give Emma the CBD Oil I think about and thank Charlee and her family for fighting so that so many families get to see and feel the benefits of CBD oil.

Emma's Family with Charlee's Amazing family

Emma with Charlee's Parents - Catrina and Jeff Nelson

Results of "Charlee's Law"

Read more about Charlee's Law:

http://charleesangelsbenefit.blogspot.com/2014/03/cannabis-bill-signed-into-law.html

THANK YOU CHARLEE AND FAMILY WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

Fly High and Dance with the Angels Princess. We will always be one of Charlee's Angels and yet she is ours!

*Update on Emma: She is currently fighting double ear infections and RSV :(. We are hoping to stay out of the hospital. Follow on her Facebook page for more immediate updates sometimes it his hard to blog, facebook is faster and easier.

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

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