Hide'n'Seek

Oh, one more adorable thing. Before I knew about Mamie's spina bifida, I had a dream when I was pregnant of my little girl running away and hiding from me and it kinda broke my heart when I felt like that would never quite happen. Well, just not exactly how I had imagined.

The other day, Mamie and I played hide and seek. I hid in her room and kept saying, "Come find Mommy!" and she'd army crawl into the room and get so excited and giggle when she found me. Then I hid in the bathroom and did the same thing. Then in my room. Then Daddy came home and I told him to hide under the desk and I "chased" Mamie (crawling) into the living room where we found Daddy under the desk. So cute! I just LOVE my girl!

Beany Baby

So the other day, I find Mamie had army crawled her way into her room and found not just a left over cracker, but a little sealed container of sugar water stuff that we used when she was really little to get her to settle down when we replaced the feeding tube. Anyway, I found little bite marks in the top of it. She was sitting there happily eating her cracker and sugar water. Great snack. LOL

Here is my little "beany baby", enjoying some beans. She likes to use all natural products to give herself a facial as well. It's amazing what some beans can do for blemishes.... ;-)

At the Beach

Mamie's first birthday
Mamie with Mommy and Daddy

Mamie the secretary

Our little sweetheart, Mamie

Mamie finished her last swim lesson this past week at the local rec center. It was Monday and Wednesday mornings for 4 weeks. Usually, after the swim lessons, I would take her and sit on one of the steps in the hot tub with her in my lap (she was not in the hot tub at all). Anyways, there was a water aerobics class for seniors at the same time and some of them usually went in the hot tub afterward. There were 2 ladies in particular that we would see nearly every time and talk to named Marty and Karen. They would offer to hold Mamie so I could get in the water, and they would just talk to her and wave to her and enjoy her cuteness. On the last day of swim lessons, the babies in the class got to go down a big water slide (with their mommies of course.) As the other parents considered whether or not they wanted to do it, me and Mamie were of course the first ones there, (adventuresome spirits that we are). I put on her cute life jacket that made her look like a marshmallow man and we went down 3 times! By the 3rd time, she was giggling. We came out of the slide right near the water aerobics class and all the old ladies were watching and cheering her on. It was so cute!

She has also REALLY been getting around! She army crawls her way around the house, we are thinking of getting a gate for the kitchen, cuz she eats all kinds of junk off the floor. She likes to go down the hall, especially if Wade or I is down there in our room or the bathroom. She has also started going down the 2 stairs to the family room. We definitely have to watch her when she does that because she goes face first and usually ends up rolling down them.

She loves to say hi and wave. Everywhere we go, she smiles and waves at people. But the best is when she actually says hi. Its so cute, and people never expect it because she does it completely unprompted. She just sees them smiling and says hi! She also loves music and you can never turn music on without Mamie starting to dance. She just waves those little arms so vigorously! We recently had the primary program at church and we'd hold her up a little on each song so she could see all the kids. She loved watching them sing, and of course participated by waving her arms.

When I tell her to do the wiggle, she does a cute little wiggle with her body and head. Today I said "giggle" and she thought I'd said "wiggle", so she did. When I say, "Give mommy kisses" she just kinda leans against my cheek for ME to kiss HER, I guess.

I've gotten her some new toys recently from Goodwill and the HUGE Pass-it-On consignment sale at the fairgrounds. I also got her a lot of clothes and was very pleased with my purchases. She has grown out of most of her clothes, so she really needed a lot, although I probably bought too much.

Mamie is such a sweetheart and we are thoroughly enjoying having the cutest baby in the world for our daughter!

April

I haven't posted on here in forever because mostly I've just been sending mass emails to family but I thought I'd post something for the rest of you who don't get regular updates.

Mamie is doing great. She got her braces remade today. They were going clear up to the top of her legs but these ones are only going to go to under her knee. For those of you that have not seen them, the braces she had had a really cute ladybug print on them. They have all kinds of prints you can choose from. I was excited to have new ones (for her), and Wade relented and let me choose the pattern I really wanted-skulls. She won't have them forever, so for those of you who think I'm crazy to give a 91/2 mon. old skull printed braces, it's just temporary. Well, they will still be for awhile, but someday we'll go to sunflower print. Before she was born, I had this joke with my sister Jeni about Mamie liking pirates. I don't remember how it got started, but that's where it comes from. And I think they show her tough personality. lol

Mamie is spoiled rotten by both sets of grandparents. And spoiled with love by all her cousins too. She is a VERY smart little girl and learns quickly.

Mamie is the happiest little thing ever. I could listen to her giggle all day. She LOVES to jibber-jabber and is such a chatterbox. She is always smiling and wherever we go, people are always commenting on how sweet and alert she is. She absolutely loves people and always manages to get everyone's attention-from sweet little old ladies, to cranky men who look like they don't even like kids but just can't help smiling in spite of themselves when she gives them her little grin. I think she thinks the sun shines just for her. :-) She can sit up, rock back and forth on all fours, roll over from back to tummy and tummy to back, and loves music and singing. She knows the word, "kisses", and loves to give mommy kisses, which mommy loves to receive, no matter how wet they are. She has 2 teeth with more on their way in. She loves to eat and although she had some initial trouble tolerating eating peas, she now eats everything we give her.

I've been having a lot of struggles with my epilepsy lately. I decided to try a new medication with the hopes that the constant sleepiness I've been experiencing my entire life might subside. Well, it did, but along came a whole bunch of other problems. After many months of trying to convert to a new drug, we came to the conclusion that it was not gonna work. I had more seizures since the beginning of the year than I've had since I was diagnosed at the age of 12. A few weeks ago, I had a several day inpatient EEG at the hospital. I don't remember it really well, because seizures do funky things to your memory and I had 2 while I was there. Well, the dr. put me on another new drug which seems to be controlling the seizures very well but I'm dealing with some other side effects. The dr. said they weren't typical for this drug, so maybe it's just my body dealing with these changes and I will get used to it and not have those effects anymore. So I'm just waiting and hoping they'll go away. I've had a lot of severe anxiety but I think it's getting a little better.

It sure is nice to not be so sleepy all the time though! It's amazing how much more time and energy I have! I've been having trouble falling asleep though. I just get so anxious and cant' stop thinking. When I first got out of the hospital, it was so hard to think that I could barely answer a question or make a decision. I still have trouble thinking of a certain word or way to express what I want to say, but it's gotten a lot better. I can take care of Mamie on my own now. The first 4 days of last week, I had friends and women from the ward "babysitting" me and Mamie till I was with it enough to care for her by myself. It has been a great way to get to know people and make friends though.

We moved into a house towards the beginning of the year which we are loving. Wade's parents bought it as an investment and we are renting it from them. It's pretty nice and has a big yard.
Wade recently got a job selling insurance so we're super excited about that too. Well, I will go give going to sleep another try. Sigh.