An Update!

Well, obviously we were WAY overdue for an update. Halloween pictures definitely should not be the last pics up here. :)

There hasn't been too much new going on around here. Last I updated though Gwendolyn was set to start her serial casting, put on one cast and it came off. Well, we took her back to see what they said. They were a little worried that the same thing would happen just because her feet are so small. But, they thought they would try to put on another one, only this time not put so much padding into it. He was concerned with Gwendolyn and her lack of sensation and possible skin breakdown but went ahead and tried again. It worked! All in all she ended up with 3 weeks of casting and 3 different casts. (4 if you count the one she took off) ;) But the PT was very satisfied with the results so we stopped at 3 weeks. She has much more range of motion because of the stretching that the casts did, so for now we have no plans of any surgery in the near future. Yay!!

At SB clinic a while back they also told that she was in need of bigger carbon fiber braces since she had almost outgrown the ones she had. These are the pink braces that come up to her knees. They are meant to react with her step and help to kind of "push her off" as she steps. Her old ones were not hitting her right below the knee anymore so they were not doing everything that they could do. They also wanted a little bit more support from her SMO's, which are the small ankle braces that she wears. I was actually happy to hear that they were recommending this. I felt that she was in need of newer braces for awhile now. We got very lucky with the doctor that we spoke with at clinic. She really took a long time with Gwendolyn, watched her walk, and listened to our concerns. They were able to see that she was crouching quite a bit while she stood and walked.

We finally got the new braces the day before Thanksgiving. However we had to wait a few weeks to use them because we also needed to order her new shoes as she obviously did not fit into her old ones any more. And besides that they were really getting beat up. Gwenner is pretty hard on shoes. She prefers to crawl places which really wears out the toe of her shoes, and squeezing all of the brace apparatis into a shoe is pretty hard on shoes too. We usually have to spend a bit more on her shoes than we do Braelyn's so that they hold up longer. The orthotics guy recommended a certain type of shoe that was really meant to fit around braces. There were two problems I saw with these shoes. They are very expensive, and I was not in love with the way they look. So I did a bit of research and found her some NB Extra Wide shoes that have worked wonderfully! Extra wide is definitely the way to go. She loves her new braces and shoes and has asked to walk more than ever! She usually prefers to crawl around the house, but all day Saturday she insisted on walking with her walker everywhere. I could really tell how much straighter she was standing. Now if only we could get her to use her crutches more! THAT is my next mission.

Braelyn has been holding her own as usual. She has really been impressing us with some of the sings she says  and asks about. She also is really in to drawing people lately. Drawing Daddy is her usual favorite, but she takes a turn drawing each family member, or "her people" as she likes to say. Then she tells us how much she  loves "her people". She has really latched on to this new baby in the family thing also. She will tell us how she will have a baby in her belly tomorrow. Really anytime in the future is her "tomorrow" so it cracks us up.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the Christmas season. The girls are starting to get excited. Gwendolyn is still pretty unsure about the Santa guy. She went from yes, she will sit on his lap, to I will see him as long as he doesn't touch me, to I don't want him to look at me. Yep, she's all over the board. So we will see how it goes. Braelyn seems ok with things for now. She's ready to talk to the big guy. We will probably go visit him in the next couple weeks and then again at Daddy's work party closer to Christmas.

She loves to grocery shop. 

She doesn't get to enjoy too many bubble baths. But when she had her first "real bath" after 3 weeks in a cast we lived it up!! 

Our girl has quite the fashion sense!

This was Gwendolyn waiting for her braces at the doctor. 

We got Gwen's school pictures back! Her teacher must have pulled some sort of miracle to get her to smile that big for a picture. 

Braelyn ended up with a bit of food on her nose one night while eating dinner. Daddy wasn't home yet, but she wanted to leave it there until he did get home so that she could show him. I told her I would take a picture instead. :)

The girls helped me decorate for the holiday. (sort of) ;)

Halloween Fright...And A Missing Foot

Well, we figured it was about time to update again. Things have been going pretty well around here. The girls really enjoyed Halloween this year. They made lots of Halloween crafts at school and were very excited to go "Tick or Teating". Gwendolyn even got to practice at school. And Daddy of coarse practiced a lot with both of them before we went. We started out eating some dinner at Grammies, and then went to a few houses around our neighborhood. The girls did great. They said thank you and everything. :) Their new daycare also wanted them to stop by there so we drove over and hit a few houses in her neighborhood too. All was good until we went to a house that was really decorated with mummies and skeletons. Braelyn was pretty ok with it and Gwendolyn did surprisingly well too until one of the skeletons started talking. Then it was a completely different story. Sister was not a fan. She was sitting on Daddy's shoulders and I thought she was going to squeeze the life out of him she was so scared. It passed quickly though once we left their porch and we ended the evening with their cousins back at Grammie's. 

You can see also that the girls helped me carve up the pumpkin this year. Well, they helped me clean it out anyway. They wanted a Dora pumpkin and I tried to use one of those stencil thingys, but it just didn't work out at all. So, I turned that little pumpkin around to the other side and cut some basic triangle eyes, a nose, and a mouth thinking I had failed and the girls were going to be so disappointed with this "traditional" looking pumpkin. But when I showed them, Braelyn screamed, "It's Dora!!". To which I replied, "Yep, did that all for you girls." ;) Kids are fun.

The girls went as "Best Friends" for Halloween. I think they pulled it off quite nicely don't you? 

Trick or Treating in our wagon.

The girls with their cousins. (Enjoying some suckers of coarse)

This was how I found them sleeping the next morning. They were so tired from being up late. It was very hard for me to wake them up. I thought it was adorable how they were sleeping in the exact same position. They are always sleeping right next to each other, but not usually in the same position. 

This was a story all in itself. And not one I'm proud of either. :) Braelyn was sitting right next to us on the couch and said, "Mommy, how do I look?" I turned to look at her and this is what I found. :/ Yep....sitting RIGHT next to me!! Oh my...

Braelyn brought this little piece of art home from school the day before election day. I really laughed out loud  when I saw it. I think any really good president would want to stay with their mommy and daddy and watch tv right?? This one's a keeper. :)

And that brings us to the update on Gwendolyn and her casts I mentioned in our last post. I took her to the hospital yesterday to have her cast put on. They did decide to go with only putting it on her right foot because her left foot is the other extreme. It's got TOO much range of motion. So, even though it may have helped her to have two casts to make her feel "even" when she walked with the casts on, it would have been very bad to have her stretched all the time on that side. She did really well with the entire process. She didn't complain a bit and actually walked pretty well with her little walking boot. So here is a picture of her cast when we got home yesterday. Notice the foot inside? 

Well, this morning Gwendolyn was playing in the living room while we got ready and when we walked out guess what we found on the floor?..............

Notice the lack of foot inside? When asked what happened, Gwendolyn looked up and said, "I don't want to wear dat cast anymore, Mommy". Now obviously, a cast is NOT supposed to just come off. So we are not exactly sure what happened. I thought I had noticed it being a bit loose before it actually came off, but I still can't believe it just came off her leg all together. We have an appt. tomorrow morning to see what can be  done about this. I'm nervous they are just going to say it won't work for her after all. Then I'm not sure what we will do. We are hoping that the issue is just that her feet are too small and we might have to wait a bit. Again, prayers appreciated for our little lady. :)

This was Braelyn's school picture she had taken before we had to take her out of preschool. We thought it turned out ADORABLE! 

This is just our Gwenner being Gwenner. She got her school picture taken today, so we hope to share that one soon as well!! 

All Sorts of Transitions...

Change can be good right? Well, we've had quite a bit of change around here and I'm afraid it's not quite over yet. First of all our beloved Tracy who has been doing daycare for the girls for a little over 2 years had to leave us. So finding a new daycare situation that we liked as much was extremely difficult. I know most people don't like change, but I REALLY do not like change. And I was REALLY worried that my girls were not going to like change either. We did end up eventually finding something that has so far worked great. It is the same place that the girls' cousin Lindsay goes and it's still an in-home daycare, but there are a lot more kids there to play with. Which is great especially for Braelyn. That was the hardest part of this transition I think was the fact that we had to take Braelyn out of her preschool. She really like it there and we really liked it for her. She loved her teacher and her new friends so it was very hard to explain to a 3 year old that she couldn't go back. But we kept telling her that she would be going to Lindsay's school and she seemed ok with that for the time being. The new daycare also offers a preschool program three days a week so she is still getting some preschool. And Gwendolyn is still going to her school which she also loves! The biggest change for her now is that she has started riding the bus to school! She wasn't too thrilled about this the first day as you can see:

But, practice makes perfect and she has gotten a lot better at holding it together while getting on the bus in the morning. The bus then takes her after school to the new daycare where she spends her afternoons. She has transitioned pretty ok as well. The only problem thus far is that she hasn't started feeling comfortable enough to nap there yet. That can pose a problem come 5:00 at night when that sweet little girl can turn into quite the little grumpy pants!! But all in all, we are making it through this transition. One week in and we are still smiling and happy!
Here's the girls at their new daycare with their cousin:

The other big thing Gwendolyn had to go through this week was her bi-annual SB clinic visit. I really wasn't too nervous for this one as we've done this every six months since she was born and really nothing huge has ever come from it. Well, this time ended up being just a little bit different. Still nothing huge I guess, but there will be something new that Gwendolyn will have to get used to again. First off we are going to try even harder to see what she can do potty training wise. It's always a wait and see with SB kids, but she's shown some promise in the area so we are just going to try harder. I think we need to give her more credit than we have been on what she is able to do. She's surprised us in so many ways already. She even asked her teacher at school to go potty and actually went (both) when she was taken.

But the biggest change Gwendolyn will have to endure will begin next month. For over two years now we have been told that her right side is really tight. She can't fully straighten out her knee, and her right ankle/foot will not go to a complete neutral (90 degree) position. She tends to walk up on her toes a lot. This can cause problems down the line with bracing and mobility. In fact we have already seen some issues with keeping her right shoe and brace on and we are pretty sure this is the cause.

At this clinic we were very fortunate to have an excellent PT and the actual director of the SB clinic visit us. They spent a very long time talking to us and each other, and really looking at her walk and the positions her feet would hold. They ended up suggesting that we do a set of serial castings for her over the next 4 weeks or so. This was a bit surprising but at the same time reassuring to me. So far we have always been told to just keep stretching her every day and if that didn't work they would need to do surgery to loosen her. Which we have also been told by others to avoid at all cost for as long as possible. Needless to say we have had mixed messages about this situation. So I was relieved to hear there was something non-surgical that could be done for her now and not just "wait" to see if the stretching helped her.

So what will happen is that we will take her the first week in November to get her first set of casts. We are still unsure if she will get casts on just her right leg, or also on her left leg. They are supposed to be walking casts so hopefully she will be able to still walk when she has the casts. (Not sure how she will tolerate that yet.)  Then every week, for about four weeks after that she will be taken back for a new cast and the hope is that with this "24 hour" stretching she will be able to have some outpatient PT at the hospital to kind of teach her how to walk correctly again and we won't have to have the need for surgery. We would welcome any prayers for our girl during this process. I know she's not going to like it and my fear is she will become discouraged and not have the drive to walk like she has now. The whole thing is a risk but we are hoping we are making the right decision. Anything to avoid surgery. Because that could end up causing even more damage.

Here is a picture of Gwendolyn at clinic. She was an absolute trooper during this looooong day of doctor visits and poking and prodding.

We have had some fun the past few weeks as well! We've had birthday parties to go to and lots of sisterly love. Just today the girls were giving each other hugs while sitting on the floor and Gwendolyn said, "I love you sissy." And I heard Braelyn respond, "You are my bestest friend." Life is good.

Gwendolyn doing her homework. 

Braelyn is still wishing it was summer.

Her favorite part of birthday parties....the cupcakes. :)

Do I have something on my lip?

Daddy had a day off last week and decided to take them on a little field trip to meet the Jayhawk.  I think  by the look of this picture Gwendolyn will end up being our Hawkeye. :)

Another field trip with Daddy. This one to Panera to enjoy pumpkin cookies. This picture cracks me up. 

Oh, one more thing. Ever since their birthday and Nana bought the girls a Veggie Tales movie, the girls love EVERYTHING Veggie Tales. We have since acquired 2 more more movies and 3 music cds which I have listened to each one atleast 5 times in the car. This short little video just shows a snipit of their excitement of all things Veggie Tales. 

Guess What??

Finally....an update!

Sorry for yesterday's blank post. Didn't mean to publish that! ;)

Wow, so I knew it had been awhile since our last post, but really didn't realize the last one was back in August! So sorry! September was a crazy month. With getting into the real swing of things with school myself. And my birthday, and planning for the girl's birthday, and football season, it's been even busier than normal around here. 

So, a ton has happened this month as well. As usual, I will try to explain mostly with pictures since I know that's really what you all come here for anyway. :) First off....our baby girls are THREE!!  Can you believe it? Their birthdays were on Saturday. Remember when they looked like this?

Yeah, they are big girls now. And they will remind you of that if you ever call them "baby" too. ;) We had a fantastic party with family and friends at a local park. The girls had a blast. Here are a few pics from the day. It was a gorgeous day, but kind of sunny and I only had my phone to take photos, so not all of them turned out that great. 

After their big birthday bash, and a few looooong naps at our house, we went out to eat to celebrate. We decided to wait until the next day for the girls to open their presents from us. Braelyn has been asking for a PillowPet that lights up. She saw the commercial on tv in July and has literally been talking about it ever since. I of coarse went out and bought it for her thinking this will be the best birthday gift ever! She's been asking for this toy for 3 months! Guess what? She's scared of it. She really likes it in the daylight, but don't even try to shut off the lights and show her how the thing is supposed to work. Because she will throw that thing out of the room so fast! :) Yep....it happened. 

Gwendolyn doesn't usually ask for much. She got a new doll from her Aunt Susan and Uncle Kyle, so I got her a little wheelchair that her doll will fit into. She really seemed to like it. She loves pushing her dolls around the house in things anyway, so she really liked that her dolls have a chair just like she uses sometimes. 

In other news....Gwendolyn started preschool yesterday! Yes, I lost sleep over her going, yes I shed some tears of my own that morning. But, she was so excited to go! She actually did great! She cried a little bit when Grammie and Nana dropped her off, but it didn't last long. Her sweet teacher even emailed me some pictures of her in class. She said that Gwendolyn was timid and quiet and just took everything in, but she did it! And she did it without us. This was such a huge step in her confidence and independence. We were very excited that she did so well. That afternoon when asked how her day went she said, "I made friends, I like my teacher, I had fun!" That's my girl. :)

I can't believe how quickly my baby girls are growing up. Everyone said it would fly by, but I would be fine if it would all just slow down a bit. Hope this post finds you all well. And I will try my hardest to keep up with the beloved blog more. Keep in touch!! :)