Finally allowed to ride forward-facing

Alas, Maya is 20 lbs. It took FOREVER for her to get there, but now we just need to keep the weight on her. We'll find out in a couple of weeks where she ranks on the charts, but I think most kids are there by 1 year. Charlie turned his carseat around and installed the new Britax carseat in my car. Its funny because we put Maya in the Britax and we still have the other car seat installed just to test out the new seat. Maya got sad and pointed to the other car seat. She wanted to sit in her old one. I guess she got used to it after 17 months! We thought she would be really excited though because now she can see us and we can see her alot better. It does come with some issues though - now she can see when I am on my phone or blackberry and insists on me giving it to her.

Some of last week's events:
Last weekend (weekend after Memorial Day), we headed up to Lake Conroe with Grandma and Paw Paw. Maya really enjoyed being on the boat and loved the waves, rougher the better for her! She even pointed to that most uncomfortable life vest so she could go on a boat ride. We were trying to teach her how to say "Paw Paw boat", but all we got was "pa pa". That was all Paw Paw needed to make him do whatever his little granddaughter wanted! I took her to the pool and we practiced some aquatic therapy. She enjoyed it when I threw a ball and then her and I chased after it over and over again. She felt like she was running I guess!

On Monday, Maya did really well at therapy. Deb, the therapist, was impressed on how well Maya is doing. We put her on a bench and a bigger play bench in front of her. Maya was able to sit on the bench and balance herself for a really long time, while also playing with her toys. To make it harder we replaced the bench with a balance ball (the peanut ball) and she did really well on that, too. You can tell she was working so hard and really trying to put some weight on her feet. This isn't the first therapist to comment on how well Maya is doing. Tyler and Kristin, her other therapists, are saying the same thing. It just really uplifts me to hear that. They said the medicine would take 3-6 months, but its only been a little over 2 and it seems to be "working". I hate to jinx it, so I will stop here.

Costa Rica here we come! Paw Paw has been trying to talk us into going to Costa Rica to check out the stem cell clinic there. Just to update everyone, this is the same clinic that his friend's friend went to from Dallas and is pretty much completed healed from MS. Charlie and I were having our doubts about going through with any of it, so Paw Paw offered us an look-see trip to Costa Rica. At the same time, Grandma was looking into taking a family vacation this summer. We put two and two together and we now have a family vacation to Costa Rica in July. Charlie, Maya and I will take a daytrip to visit the clinic and talk to the doctors. Here is a link to the incredible, all-inclusive villa we are staying at (http://www.villaestrella-costarica.com/). Everyone in the fam thought it was too good to be true, but we are booking tomorrow :-). We will be celebrating three birthdays on the trip - Amy and I are turning 30 - ouch - and Paw Paw will be 21 (plus 40).

p.s. about the clinic - we haven't made any decisions yet and I know everyone has questions and comments about what they are seeing on TV, etc. Trust us - we know what is out there and we are keeping up to date on the latest stem cell therapy (SCT) do's and dont's. If anyone knows Charlie and I, we can't even buy a mattress without researching EVERY single thing out there for weeks on end. SCT isn't something we will be impulsive about.