A Step in the Right Direction

Keira is a very special baby. At such a young age, she has already received a miracle of healing allowing her to overcome her spinal cord cyst and regain her strength. She went from being way behind in her development to being ahead of most babies her age. It's as if God didn't want us worrying any more, so he left us no doubt about her physical abilities.

As soon as she could stand, that's all she wanted to do. She much preferred being on her feet than crawling. Then as soon as she could stand, she took a great interest in walking. She quickly learned how to walk around furniture and walls and loved when we would walk her across the room saying, "Walky walky, Baby. Walky walks!"

Every time she stood up on her own, I would encourage her to take steps with no luck- until today. I stood her a few steps in front of me and let her get her balance. Then, while Art watched, I let go and she took her first two steps. She did it two times in a row! She hasn't totally taken off across the room yet, but she is definitely walking at nine months old just like I did.

"Standy Uppies, Baby!"

A New Life

I finally got my braces off today and I never expected this day to be full of so many emotions. I am so excited just to have straight teeth again and hopeful that my corrected bite will result in some relief for my jaw joint disorder. I have suffered for the past three years with my jaw telling me when I'm done eating instead of my stomach. I can't bite into an apple or eat corn on the cob. I can hardly make it through a sandwhich or a hamburger. I can't kiss, I can't even smile like I used to. You don't realize just how much you use your jaw for until it doesn't work right.

As a young adult with braces, I have been very self conscious about my braces for the past two years and constantly felt like my appearance dwarfed my professionalism. I am already very young, working in a world of people twice my age, so I feel like I have to constantly fight to prove I'm not a kid which is hard to do when you have braces on. I'm just glad that my appearance will reflect my age now.

More than any other emotion I have felt today, I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and independence. When I got my braces on, I was under the impression that my dad's dental insurance would pay for half of the cost. The day after I got my braces on, my dad e-mailed me and told me that he took me off of his insurance. I was devastated. Even though it has been difficult for me to pay the approximately six thousand dollar bill, I did it- and I did it myself. Looking back, I realize that was the final tie I had to my father and it solidified my independence from him and helped me learn I can provide for myself entirely.

Lastly, I am so glad to be done with the conflict with my old orthodontist who totally screwed me over. I feel like I finally won the battle. It's so good to not have a daily reminder of him in my mouth any more. Never ever go to Dr. Donald Snyder. EVER. I mean it. I do, however highly recommend Dr. Bruce Havens, who finished up my braces when no one else would even take a look at them. Even though it cost me more to have them finished somewhere else, I knew I had to stand up for myself and defend the truth.

I feel like today was the dawn of a new life- a life without braces- a life of independence.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Sense of Humor

Keira is just about the happiest baby you will ever encounter. It is very easy to make her smile and her smile has been said to be the best smile anyone has ever seen, make hearts swell, and even spread happiness to the world. She spends most of her time with a contented smirk on her face. As content as she is all the time, it is very difficult to make her laugh. She squeals when she is excited and giggles a little from time to time, but I can count her whole-hearted laughs on one hand.

I have come to learn that, like me, she has a very unique sense of humor. Not just anything will make her laugh, and when something strikes her as humorous she laughs long and hard, but enjoy it while it lasts because it won't be funny again later.

The first belly laugh she made was a few months ago when her favorite sound to make was something like a dog panting. One night I imitated her panting and she thought it was hilarious. She laughed long enough that I could call up my mom to listen to her.

The next time was when I first played boo with her by putting a blanket over her then pulling it off and saying "Boo!"

The next occurrence was one night when I was changing her diaper she was making stubborn grunts while kicking her legs straight and I imitated her grunts which she thought was hysterical.

Some time later I was trying to entertain her so I tossed one of her toys up in the air and she started to chuckle. I did it again and again and she was falling over laughing.

Then tonight I put her in her high chair when I was getting ready to feed her. When I pulled her binky out of her mouth to feed her, she had quite a suction on it so I said "Pop!" when it cane out and she laughed the hardest she has ever laughed. Then I would pretend to suck on her pacifier then pull it away and say "pop" and take turns with her and she was laughing SO LOUD. It woke up Art and he came out to see what was going on. It was the first time he ever heard her laugh like that. Poor guy misses out on so much having to sleep during the day!

The things that make her laugh are so RANDOM and there is no way you could do anything to intentionally make her laugh. It's just whatever strikes her as entertaining at that given time. You could try to get her to laugh even 5 minutes later and she might smile, but you will never get her to laugh. Sometimes I wish she would laugh more often because I love hearing it SO MUCH, but it sure makes me savor the moment all the more when the time comes. I soak up every last drop of that humor and I LOVE IT.

One thing I don't love... she has reached the age of awareness that bed time means that I am going to leave her alone. She has been awesome about bet time up until about a week or two ago then all of the sudden... she could be fast asleep and the moment I lay her in her crib- wide awake and crying. I have been using the 5-10-15 method which, in short, is where you lay them down then come back in after 5 minutes and lay them back down, give them their pacifier and blanket or what not, then walk away. You repeat in intervals increasing by 5 minutes each time until they go to sleep on their own. It teaches them that you aren't going to run in there every time they cry without making them feel abandoned. She hasn't been too happy about this, but she has been doing better each day. She usually never makes it to the 15 minute check without passing out and sometimes goes to sleep without crying at all. It's been difficult, but I refuse to get trapped into rocking her to sleep every night or letting her stay up til odd hours of the night.

She has, however, developed an additional redeeming quality- as if she needed any more to compensate for the bed time troubles- she has learned to give kisses. She kisses me quite often, Grandma and Daddy too, but this was too funny. She was at my mom's house and my mom let her play with a baby doll for the first time. Keira grabbed it and gave it a big kiss! She gave it several open-mouthed smooches, one of which is captured in this picture.

I hope you enjoyed the rare pictures of me showing my braces, because I'm getting them off in 2 weeks! Hooray! I am so happy! After 5 years of orthodontic treatment, I am ready to show off my $10,000+ smile. I am hoping it makes a difference with my jaw joint disorder in the long run, but for now I am just looking forward to enjoying perfectly straight teeth, and I promise to wear my retainers this time.

The Better Part of a Year

My little baby is 8 months old! That is the better part of a year old! I am having a hard time coping with the thought that only 4 months from now she will be one year old. That is just not possible!

In the past month she...

learned how to crawl backward, then forward,

got her first injury requiring up to 20 stitches in her finger,

started standing up in her crib, then pulling herself up on just about everything she can get her hands on,

used her standing skills to pull herself up on the coffee table then side step all the way to the couch then walks across the front of the couch too,

learned how to drink through a straw and a sippy cup,

decided she loves to play patty cake and tries to do the hand motions herself,

started calling me MOM although her favorite sound is "buh".

She loves to touch cats and dogs and will gladly grab handfuls of fur if she gets the opportunity then SQUEALS!

She likes to ride on Daddy's shoulders and holds on to his hair.

She has three teeth- all on the bottom, and she loves to give kisses on your cheek.

I don't know what I ever did without her.

Unfortunately, I am now back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Try as I may to retain some weight, my body had alternate plans. I can now easily fit into the jeans I bought right before I got pregnant- the jeans I had to buy because I got too skinny for all my other jeans- the jeans I swore I would never let myself fit in again- a juniors size 3 tall. I am putting myself on a weight gain and exercise diet in an attempt to gain some weight because I feel like a bag of bones. I am very uncomfortable in my own body and really don't care for how bony I look right now! Art says I just have to have more babies to make the weight stick, but I am not going to deploy that plan any time soon!

Just a Job

My job search has ended and my days of unemployment are soon behind me. I will start my job as an order tracker at Safeguard Business Systems on the 22nd. I am happy that I won't have to spend all of our savings to hold us over so we can still move this year, but as for the job itself, I wish I were more excited. They are in a good part of town, over in the business area on the west side of Riverpark, and they are paying me what I wanted. I should be thrilled, but the industry is business printing and promotional items which is nowhere close to real estate or law and the job, at least from their description of it, sounds too easy for the set of skills I have aquired over the years. The title alone makes me shudder- order tracker. Buhhh. A big part of me feels like I need to stay in a more glamorous industry and work in a more mentally demanding job, but then I realize that after 6 years straight of full time especially mentally demanding jobs I probably deserve an easy job in an industry that I'm not so emotionally connected to. Just a job to pay the bills.

I also feel a little conflicted spiritually. I really didn't receive any confirmation in my heart that this was the right job for me. I didn't really feel anything to the contrary either. I talked to Art about it and he said that he thinks that just because it isn't exactly the "right" thing for me doesn't mean that I shouldn't do it or that it won't work out. I think he's right. So for now it's "just a job" to me, but who knows- perhaps there is more in store for me than I realize. And maybe after my probation period I can talk them into giving me a better title... like Executive Order Supervisor or something. That would look way better on my resume.

The cutest girl I ever saw...

was sipping cider through a- cider through a straw!

Today we had an impromptu barbecue at Grandma's house and, as usual, Keira was very interested in what I was drinking. I remembered that Aunty Vivian always drinks with a straw and asked her if I could borrow one. I read somewhere that babies learn how to drink with a straw at a young age best because they still have their sucking instinct. Her first instinct was to chew on it, but it only took her a minute to get the hang of it. She was sipping cider- I mean juice- through that straw in no time.

Another fun thing to do with sucking skills... crawl around while sucking on a ribbon. I couldn't let the week pass without posting this picture.