It has been too long!

Ahh, I am finally writing.  I have to start by apologizing to my fellow blogging friends. I know how much I enjoy reading everyone's post and seeing those cute kids all over the country and world, so I am sorry I have not been returning the post.  It seems as though the last few weeks has been extremely busy and quiet all at the same time.  My cousin Becky and her son Hunter were in town a week ago from North Carolina, and we got to hang out with them a few times. Becky and I grew up together until she moved to NC, and have been pretty close, so it's always GREAT to see her! Hunter is getting so big and him and I are good buddies!  He's so cute. Becky's husband wasn't able to make it, he had to work, but hopefully we get to visit them soon. We missed you Kevin!  We also found out Becky is expecting baby number 2 which is super exciting!! Here are some pics of their visit.

.Becky and Will

Becky and Kaela Me and my Hunter

Will and his cousin Hunter

The kids are doing great!  We have been trying to keep busy doing things on the weekend while it's nice. It has been pretty nice here too for the most part.  We went to Chicago a couple weeks ago just for a night. It was kind of a last minute decision, but it was a lot of fun. I thought maybe it would be a little crazy, but the kids were so good. Matt picked me up after work on a Thursday and we went straight from their to Chicago. We stopped in St. Joseph Michigan to get food and walk around a bit. It's such a cute city.  Right on the lake, lots of little shops.  We didn't get to Chicago until about 9:30, which was fine. We just hung out and went to bed, then got up in the morning for our day in Chicago. We did shopping in the morning, ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then went to the aquarium.  The kids were really great for the most part and slept most of the way home.  It was a fun trip.  

Otherwise I think things have been fairly typical. Kaela got her new brace about a week and a half ago. It fits really well and she doesn't seem to mind it at all.  She also got her afo's (ankle feet Orthodox) and she seems to mind those a whole lot. She screams the whole time she has them on.  That's always a joy.  So we will slowly work on those.  We need to get her some shoes to fit over them too.  She is into everything these days.  In fact right now she's trying to type her own post.  She is quite the little diva. She needs what she wants when she wants it ...and quite often gets it.  She's walking along the couch really well too.  I still think it will be quite some time before she's walking on her own, but we are okay with that. We do have Will who enjoys running 90% of the time rather then walking so he keeps us busy enough right now.  

There is some upcoming big news....a few things actually. First, Kaela has an MRI Tuesday. They are doing a flexion/extension MRI of her neck.  Keep us in those thoughts if you remember...hoping that goes well and comes out good.  She will have to be put under general anesthesia, which sucks, but we want to be sure her neck is okay. I will try to do a little post this week about neck issues with Metatropic babies/people.

The other big news is....Will is starting pre school in a week and the kids are starting daycare in 2 weeks.  This is HUGE! Matt has been in school and staying home with the kids during the day since Will was born.  They have never been in daycare, so this will be a big step for us.  Will is going to be going to preschool in the mornings and then will go to the daycare in the afternoon. He's a young preschooler, (2 1/2) but I think it will be really good for him.  I always said I wanted him to start preschool early since he hasn't been in daycare, but now all at once it's a little hard to think about.  Oh- the reason they will be in daycare is because Matt's starting a internship that is full time, and I will still be working my job. I'm excited for Matt, i think this will be really great for him, but also really hard for him. Remember he's been the one that has been home with the kids all this time. I think it's going to be really hard on him.  Lets hope it goes well for everyone.  It will only be 3 days a week at day care which is nice. I have Friday's off and Matt's parents are going to take Monday's off for the 4 months of the internship.  We are very thankful to them for that because it helps us save money and we know they will be in good hands with their grandparents.  Daycare is so damn expensive. Excuse the language, but I'm not sure I know any better way to describe it unless I use more offensive words :)

So that's a quick overview of things that have happened and things to come, as well as some cute pictures of some cute kids :)

A little girl and her big cup My handsome boy! He's not a little baby anymore :( They grow up way too fast! But you both will forever be my babies and my shinning stars!

I nasty

I gave the kids a bath after dinner tonight since Will's helping feed Kaela turned into Kaela being covered in yogurt. I give them their baths take them out and get Kaela dressed. Will is walking around with no diaper and says, 'Mama I potty." So I ask him, 'do you need to go potty?' He says I potty I potty, sure enough, he peed right there on the kitchen floor. So I say tell him we don't go potty on the floor we only go potty in the toilet or diapers, not the floor, "that's nasty".  His response? "I nasty." Not asking, not upset about it, just telling me in a 'well of course it's nasty, I'm nasty" kind of a way. It was quite funny.

Here's a pic of the little man thinking he's pretty cute after mom laughs at him...

Kaela after her bath just being her cute little self.

Update on Kaela & boys, there's a new girl in town!!

Kaela had her scheduled appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon here at the University of Michigan Wednesday.  It was a long day! We got to the hospital before 9 and were there until about 1:10.  It makes for a longer day with a 13 month old and a 31 month old :)  They were both very good though.  We started with xrays of Kaela's spine to check her scoliosis and kyphosis.  We then went to meet with Dr. Hensinger, Kaela's ortho.  He brought the pictures of her spine which I could tell right away were quite a bit worse then they were 6 months ago.  Her scoliosis has increased quite a bit, just about doubling, and her kyphosis went from just about nothing to a 32 degree curve.  (I think that's right).  I know 32 doesn't sound that bad in comparison to some, but with the scoliosis and knowing this is not going to correct itself it is pretty bad. Plus it didn't take long for it to get to this point.  The Dr. was actually a little concerned about the kyphosis. He said they don't really want it to get past the 30's, and that they try not to do surgery until the kids are at least 3, but we are going to have to watch this closely :(  Kaela's back brace has been way too small for awhile now, so he ordered a new back brace as well as afo's (ankle/foot orthodics) because her feet are really turned in. Her legs are bowed too but we are not worrying about those right now.  Since she's standing so much now, we need to get these on her feet/legs to help her feet stay straight as she stands.  She likes to stand on her ankles sometimes as well as her tippy toes, which doesn't look like it feels too good.  Hopefully these will help her out.

So after we met with the Ortho we went to check out and go down to get fitted for her back brace and afo's. While I was waiting in line to check out I had Kaela's brace around my arm and this lady said, 'look she has a brace just like yours.' So I look over and there's the cutest little girl sitting there with her mom. My first thought was oh my gosh, that little girl has Achondroplasia! I didn't really know if I should say that and all I could that about was me saying, 'Does she have dwarfism?" and the lady saying "What? NO!" and me shoving my foot in my mouth:) I  mean I was sure of it but still....so instead I asked if her daughter used the brace for scoliosis or kyphosis or both...then she told me, oh she's a dwarf. I said OH MY GOSH! MY DAUGHTER IS TOO! I was so excited. I mean I knew this, but she told me and we now share something in common :)  We both KNOW we have dwarfs :) okay so anyway, I got talking to her while Matt was out in the hall giving me looks like would you shut up and get moving, not knowing why I was talking to this lady.  So anyway, the mothers name is Misty and I think her daughters name is Hayley.  She is 28 months old and seriously is one of the cutest little girls I've ever seen!  Kaela is going to have some competition now :)  Misty said she has never met anyone else in person and that the people she talked to have older kids so she didn't think there were any kids around here the same age. They are from Milford, assuming I remember correctly.  I told her there are a bunch of cuties around the same age and said she has to get together with all of us which she sounded very excited about.  So that was very exciting.  I can't wait for you to all see how cute this little girl is. I thought about asking to take a picture but didn't want to sound like some weirdo asking to take a picture of her kid that I just met.  So that's pretty exciting.

Now that's not the end of our excitement. Matt and I got an email last week from a father of a little girl in the UK who has Metatropic Dysplasia just like Kaela. So that's pretty cool right? Now most of you know MD is very rare so of 80 some people in the world, here's another little girl's family that finds us who's daughter's name is Kayleigh. Which is kind of cool seeing how close their names are, then we find out Kayleigh was born 6 days after Kaela!! And not six days and 3 years, but just 6 days! They were told Kayleigh had Achondroplasia sometime after she was born (not right away though), but just found out in June I believe she has MD. I think they are going through what we went through in the 1st six months now since they just found out she has MD. MD has quite a lot of complications and can have some life threatening problems, so I think it's been hard for them thinking she has Achondroplasia which in most cases doesn't have a ton of problems, to MD :( So Matt and I have been in touch with her dad quite a bit the past week.  They seem like a very nice family and I know once they get through all the scary stuff you hear when you first find out it will be easier to deal with. Of course we will have things to go through their whole lives, but I know the first six months was very very hard.  Kayleigh and Kaela look a LOT alike too.  I won't post any pictures because I want to respect their privacy. Maybe one day..but not for now, but trust me, she's cute :) So anyway- that has been really exciting for us. Hopefully one day we will be able to meet them in person!

So otherwise we are enjoying these nice summer days while they are here and looking forward to my cousin and her son Hunter visiting soon!!  The kids are growing and changing so fast! It's really fun watching them play together and watching how they interact with each other.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Tonya and Will (and family) we are thinking of you and are here if you need anything! 

A few pics of the kids for your enjoyment!

Look at those arms stretch :) It's so cute she does this every time she sees us now :)

Will loves talking to his Aunt Rachie in Texas..as you can see he also loves playing in flour with this trucks (even right after a bath)!

The kids at the hospital being so good.

P.S. I added a guest book. We'd love it if you signed it. It's fun to see who reads (even those of you who don't comment)! :)