Christina got her first hair cut today. She did wonderful and not one tear. Now her curls just bounce all over. Kirsten, Crystals sister cut her hair. Kirsten even got multiple kisses before and after.  Derek and I took Cole and Evan most of the weekend and we had lots of fun. After the hair cut we went to the play place in the mall and ran around for a while. Derek was laughing at me for crawling under the tree with Christina. I told him that he was lucky we didn't get stuck. Christina also went down a slide and Evan helped to catch her at the end.

Today was filled with games of hide and seek along with counting and alphabet songs. Christina got a kick out of scaring Cole.

So school starts soon for Christina and the closer that is coming the easier it seems to be to let her go. I am sure now that Christina is ready. She just loves to be moving and doing stuff all the time.

Next week is Christina's last week of therapy through SPOTS house. Guess what??? It took three years and she now goes to Katy and Jenny with no tears at all and they can even talk to me while holding her. It was amazing. Like I said go figure one week left and now she has no problems going. She looks forward to going to therapy.

Christina had her first haircut today. She sat very well with no tears. Her curls really show now.

Evan and Cole came over today also. We had fun. Evan and I baked cookies. Christina and I played hide and seek with them. Christina had a lot of fun. She did not want to stop. Christina even was quiet when we were hiding. And, she counted with me.

It was a full house and a lot of fun.

Derek

This Sunday I was only gone for a couple of hours. Christina seemed to enjoy the extra time with Daddy.

The little squirt was up early today and did not take much of a nap. Christina went to bed nice and was in a great mood and playful and giggly went she went to bed.

Angela keeps pushing her leg to the "too much pain" point. Her leg is getting better, but it is a slow process.

Yesterday I blew up the little kiddie pool and Christina and I walked around in the water for a little while.

So be it,
Derek

Well, it has been very busy and stressful here. I'll start with the update for Angela so the update on Christina makes more sense.

After several tests and trips to the U of M, Angela finally had surgery on her leg. The docs needed to do more work than anticipated once inside. Needless to say, Angela is in pain. She is following orders and staying off her leg and keeping it up. Late Monday afternoon her ankle bulged and and became very painful. We went to the ER and called her surgeon at U of M. It is bleeding inside and swelled around the area. Lots of pain and not much to do except put more pressure on it. Angela is healing and wishing it would go faster. Being in this position is frustrating for Angela.

Christina has developed more of an attitude since about a week before Angela's surgery. She wants mommy, and only mommy. We think she is very aware of Angela's feelings and wants to console mommy.

With Angela not able to play with Christina like she used to, Angela gets more frustrated. Christina gets more cuddly with mommy. If Christina hears or sees Angela she starts whining. Christina has had a lot of time outs and stern reprimands. When Angela is not around Christina is wonderful for most of the time.

My update, well, I'm healthy. I am ready for a vacation. When everything settles down, I will go camping. It bothers me that Christina and I bump heads with her attitude. Down the road I am sure it will be beneficial, but right now it adds to the concerns at hand.

Oh yeah, Angela may need to have the same surgery again on the other veins in the same leg if they fail now that the others are gone. That would be a few months down the road though.

Cheers,
Derek

Today was a busy day. Carl our neighbor had a real big cook out and lots of food. It was fun with great food. We then went down town to the Summerfest that they had.  It was great. We got rained on and Christina loved being in the rain. Christina and I were dancing to the music in the rain. She also went on a pony ride and did very well. She chose the pony that she wanted and pet him as well. She did wonderful for her first time. She really did like to ride them. They had a petting zoo and we got to see a camel, zebra, fainting goats, and more farm animals. When we said that it was time to go home she got real upset because she did not want to go.  

Tomorrow Christina is going to go with Deb and Cory to do some more fun things this weekend.

On Thursday we were out side in the gait trainer and she walked all by herself in the grass. She did so great and went pretty far.

On Tuesday Christina got her first award and ribbon. She completed her summer group held by Special Olympics. Her very first young athletes award. It was a great group and am very sad to see that it is over. On the bright side they will be having it again.  Then later on in the day Christina picked out her back pack for school. She chose a tinker bell one. She also chose tinker bell binder with giraffe and elephant folders. She is such a big girl. She chose all of her supplies and was very positive on what she wanted. When leaving the store she carried out her tinker bell back pack and I had to play tug of war to get it back from her. She likes to carry it around. It is so cute because the back pack is about half the size of her.

Behavior issues- Christina is very good at pushing our buttons. She gets many time outs and sure knows how to protest if she does not want to do something. She is also getting better with others and when speaking to someone she is starting to look at them. I have been working in that.

On the 19th I have a meeting with Mary ( her soon to be teacher ) and Lori ( her soon to be speech pathologist ) to talk about the school plan. Then on September 1 there is an open house we all go to. Boy she is growing so fast.

I will be posting her back pack pictures soon possibly by this weekend.

SPOTS house is going well for Christina too. She is still working great with Katy and Jenny.

Well we have just been hanging out doing summer stuff. Things have been pretty mellow. SPOTS house therapy has been going real well. Also my group with special Olympics has been going well too. I did get a new button that I get to use as my voice. I got that from my new speech pathologist. Her name is Lori and me new teacher's name is Mary. I did find out that I will be going to school on Monday and Tuesday and the the next semester they will see if I am ready to go 4 days a week or three.

I have been talking a whole lot more. It's a lot of work but I like to make noises. I can count and say the ABC's with mommy and daddy. I have been saying hi and waving to more people. I have also made some new friends at group. We were also approved for a new stroller from UCP and we are all waiting to get it. I do like the jogging stroller we have now. I really like to go fast.  So thats about all that is new here. Oh ya I really like to chase balls. Cole and I were playing with the beach ball we have on Friday. It was a lot of fun.

Don't forget to check out my picture show there will be new ones soon.

Christina's birthday party went well. We had a small group over on Saturday the 11th. Cole and his family, Cory and Deb, Dan, and Patti came over. Sammy and his grandma stopped by later.

And, Angela and I had a date night. Christina hung out with Cory and Deb while Angela and I spent some quality time together. No computer, ipod, phone, cleaning, picking up, etc. We stayed home and watched a movie together. We watched the whole movie. Have not been able to do that for three years. I enjoyed that.

Time for me to go to work and I hear Christina starting to wake up.

Derek

Christina had her birthday party yesterday. It was real fun. Deb, Cory, Grandma Patti, Crystal and family, and Dan came over and had cake and we opened more presents. Christina liked every thing that she got. Then she went with Deb and Cory so Derek and I had some time alone.

This morning Judy and her grandson Sammy came over for pancakes. Judy is our neighbor. After we played. Sammy was teaching Christina to fly, hop, wiggle, walk and run. He starts her engines and then they are off.  It is real cute to watch. Sammy wants to teach Christina to play golf when she gets older. Sammy is 3 and will be 4 on the 20th. They get along very well. Sammy then had to teach Derek to fly as well and then Derek and Christina raced Sammy.  Pictures of flying will be added to the slide show later.

We had a meeting this morning with Mary and Laurie from the school and the transition is starting. Mary will be Christina's teacher and Laurie will be working with her for speech.  Derek and I are very happy with the people that we have working with her.  They are a great team just like her therapists that we had and still have until school starts.

She has been going to a UCP play group and that has gone super well. On Tuesday it was the fourth week and there was crying and she worked for the volunteers. SUPER !!!! Katy, her PT, came to show them some ideas to do with her. Thanks so much Katy.  Everyone at this group is just great with her.  This coming week Mary and Laurie are going to go and see how she is doing and chat. I am very happy with how things are changing over.

Christina is getting so big we have to buy  her very first backpack for school. I can't believe that she needs a backpack already.

Last night Christina had an upset belly and we cuddled for an hour and half while I rubbed her belly, I guess I made it feel better because she fell asleep. That and she had a real long busy day too.