Happy 3rd Birthday MAYA!

Happy 3^rd Birthday our sweet little Maya. We can’t believe you are already three years old. Time flies! You’re not a baby anymore. This past year you have gone from sleeping in a crib to sleeping in a big girl bed. You went from saying a few words that few people could understand to full sentences. You make all of us laugh at the things you say and faces you make. You are so sweet and kind. You always tell us how much you love us and give us so many hugs. You say thank you to the littlest things. We are so proud of you and just adore you! Here's the latest on the things about you...

Favorite foods: eggs with cheese (every morning!), pasta with Alfredo sauce and on occasion mommy's lasagna, any type of enchiladas, burritos, spinach dishes, lentils, grilled chicken (and any other white meat that we can pass off as chicken), some kinds of beans and black eyed peas, almost every kind of soup, cheese sandwiches. Maya eats really well some days and tries new things. Other days we are stuck with pasta and cheese sandwiches.

Favorite toys: any kind of dollhouse. She has Dora, Polly Pocket, Barbie, The family grand dollhouse. So many! Her next favorite thing to play with is her kitchen. She loves to serve you coffee and cupcakes! It is quite fun to play this game with her. She gets SO excited when you sip your coffee and ask her for some more. She says "sure" when you ask her for more. Uncle Sunny bought Maya an iPad this year. She loves it and so does mommy! the iPad has been amazing for her and really makes her work on her hand control and lots of applications that will help with memory. She also still likes watching Dora DVDs as well as Sponge Bob. Barney is still wanted DVD-wise, but nothing else about him!

Maya just loves to sing! She and I sing-talk to each other all day. Christmas was a hit with her this year mainly because of all the singing you do. I am so impressed with how many songs she can fully sing now. Earlier this year and even just a few months ago she would miss several lines at a time, but now she is keeping up with us. Her favorite this year was Silent Night. This one is a bit hard so she does tend to skip the end fairly quickly. I am glad I sung all these songs to her early on because it made Christmas that much more fun.

On the medical front here is what we have been doing with Maya. She's been doing her cough machine treatments twice a day, stretching her arms and legs and ankles twice a day, we work on her reaching and sitting during her playtimes, she gets in her stander at least 2 hours a day and now we are making the goal 3 hours a day, she wears her knee brace at night, her ankles braces all day except naps and her Benick back brace when she is in her wheelchair or sitting on the floor. She goes to phyical therapy twice a week and receives home occupational therapy twice a week. We got her fitted for her BiPap machine, but we are so bad and haven't put her on it yet. We are just now introducing the mask to her. She is so very scared about it but we have to start it sometime!

Maya has such a great personality. We just can't get enough of her! I just want to be with her all the time but its been a little more tough now that baby brother is here. I hope she knows how much we care about her and love her. She is just a great little girl. This coming year Maya will get exposed to (hopefully) preschool, a horseback riding class, maybe some piano lessons.

For her birthday celebration (and later her actual party) we took Maya to ITZ. All her cousins were on Christmas break so they were able to join in on the fun! Here are some pics from the fun day.

Kaden's 1st Christmas

One clonked out little dude. He did awesome during the Christmas Eve service.

Maya thoroughly enjoyed herself on Christmas Eve as her uncle Shawn held her, let her light a candle and sing her now favorite song "Silent Night"

Christmas morning....Kaden's favorite part was watching his big sis open all her presents.

We finished out Christmas day at Gigi's house. My parents were out of town at Disney so we were at one house all day. We played Deal or No Deal and Chinese Christmas and got him with a truck full of things at 11 pm! The best part of Christmas (besides being together of course) was when we were all playing Chinese Christmas and arguing about who stole what from who and Maya just starts singing "Silent Night". Too funny!

Happy 1 month Kaden!

Happy 1 month old Kaden Neal! We went to Gigi's house for dinner and saw that cousin Kinley and Kaden were wearing the same outfit. This wasn't planned at all and even Kinley's twin sis Kaitlin wasn't wearing the same outfit.

Kaden, in your first month you have been such a great baby. So quiet! You are eating every 2-3 hours, closer to the 2 hours than the 3. You are sleeping about 3 hours at a time at night and sometimes 4 hours. Your sis is getting used to having you around and often asks to give you a hug and kiss. She loves you so much and your daddy and I are delighted to see the instant love between brother and sister. The first couple of weeks took some adjusting as we were getting used to having a baby in the house plus taking care of Maya. But we now have a system down. We have to say, the second baby is so far much easier than the first. Practice makes perfect. I remember after Maya was born Charlie and I were rethinking ever having more. But this time, we are still perfectly comfortable talking about a third. Given some of the challenges we will face with Maya, thinking about a third is already a good sign that things are going well. Sure the day fills up quite fast and we are more tired than ever, but having two kiddos is alot of fun too. I also remember wondering how I could possibly love another child when there was so much love for Maya. Well, I found it. I am in love with my little boy just the same as my little girl. They each share a special place in my heart. Anyway, we are doing good so far and hope it lasts!

I was late typing this post so couldn't do alot of comparisons from Maya to Kaden. I did want to post a picture of Maya at 1 month old. I think we are looking at the same baby, different gender, 3 years later.

Video: This is SMA....Please watch

http://www.gwendolynstrong.com/2010/11/gsf-this-is-sma-video.html

Shrek

So we wanted to start introducing Maya to watching kiddy movies like Shrek instead of watching the same 20 minute episodes of Dora, Barney and SpongeBob. So I put in Shrek and was so excited for her to watch something new. She acted all excited too and then looked at me and said "mommy, this bores me". Oh really, Maya. I didn't know that little 2 years could get "bored" so easily or use such words as bored. If that wasn't enough, I put on the Jetsons the other day and she said she didn't like that cartoon "because the people are ugily". Where do kids pick up this stuff? Oh yeah, it was probably SpongeBob. Great.

Kaden's announcement

Triple Play Blue Birth Announcement

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Kaden's first week and Pediatrician visit

Kaden is doing well. In his first week he has managed to pee on everyone and everything. Charlie and I are exhausted from all the clean up! Nothing was more priceless than the look on Maya's face when he peed on her. She looked up at me and said "mommy, he peed on me". Other than that, he is easy...cries when he is hungry. Doesnt cry for much anything else except a bath or a cold wipee. The longest he has slept through the night so far was 5 hours. Woohoo! He only did that one night though. Occasionnally I have gotten 4 hours straight which I am very thankful for. Charlie is helping out alot and waking up to change diapers or burp him. Gigi gave Kaden his first bath. I thought I could do it myself but I was scared like with Maya. Not sure why. Oh well, Gigi enjoyed getting the honor to do it :)

1st pediatrician visit for Kaden went very well. He has already gained back all the weight he lost in the hospital so we got a free pass for going back for another visit until he is 2 months. Not surprising considering how much he is eating! We did have to get his heel stuck for the newborn screening, but I think he only cried about a minute. Here are his stats at 10 days old:

81%  for length

27%  for head
39%  for weight

A few days afer the newborn screening we were called back to retest Kaden's thyroid. It was abnormal. I didn't realize how serious it was until the doc got me all scared. Happy to say that after a very long 24 hours of waiting for the test results, his thyroid levels came back normal. But we have to test it again soon and make sure he is eating well and gaining weight.

We had Kaden tested (for the third time) for SMA and we are thrilled to triple confirm that he does not have SMA. The IVF/PGD process was worth every penny and we are so lucky to have the technology available to have a healthy baby.

Look who

is on the http://www.fsma.org/Home/ homepage!

Maya gets her 1st powerchair

November 29th -
Maya got her first powerchair. A Koala made by Permobil. It was an overwhelming day already since Kaden was only a week old and now something else new to learn. It was also a bittersweet moment for Charlie and I. Another chapter in the world of SMA. We are so very excited for Maya to be able to explore like other children, but so sad to have to use this type of equipment. The manual chair is an "at-home" thing, but the powerchair is for outside and that takes on a whole new issue. We also worry about her wanting to use it all the time and that would bring on issues like not using her arm muscles or creating a curve of her back (scoliosis).

All of Maya's excitement, however, helps us get over our sadness and fears. She loves the independence. We don't have a lift for the new car (we got a Ford Expedition EL a few weeks prior) so right now the only time she is getting in her new chair is when the weather is nice and we can go outside. I thought she would throw a fit not being able to use it in the house, so I covered it up with a blanket the day after we got it. She got up the next morning and said, "mommy, why did you cover up my car?" Ha! I tried ignoring it, but ultimately removed the sheet and she got over the fact that it was her outside chair. The moment I realized how much she loved it was when we were out on a walk (yes, we still call it going out for a walk even though it kills me to say that) and she wanted to see all the Christmas decorations. She told me that she loved her new chair and that she was happy to be able to go faster (since she can't go as fast in her manual chair). It was then that I realized how much she needed that chair. Now I get to see what a curious little toddler Maya is and that finally brought a smile to my face.

Kaden's delivery

The story of Kaden's labor and delivery -
I was 41 weeks pregnant with Kaden and had to be medically induced on November 22nd. My parents came to the house the night before to stay with Maya and take her to therapy and so we could leave bright and early at 5 am! By 7 we were getting settled in our room. Dr Ritter came in at 8 to see if I was dilated anymore. Still a 1. He tried breaking my water which was probably the worst pain I could remember being in. Charlie almost passed out since I was screaming. Fun stuff. That didn't work so Dr Ritter said he would start my pitocin and get the contractions started. I think he finally broke my water about an hour later. I got the epidural around 10 and my contractions were getting stronger. By 11, I had only progressed to a 2. Dr Ritter thought I would have the baby by noon but I had to change his plans a bit. Naturally the epidural wore off on a part of my body like it did with Maya. They came and came me more and it helped a little bit. The next few hours were not fun. I was in some pain even with the epidural. Had to ask the family to leave. No one wants to have people reading a magazine and having a Sonic drink in your labor room while you are screaming with misery in pain, you know? I invited people back in as the pain went away. Kaden's heart beat was getting pretty low at times so the nurses were in there making me move all over the place to get it back up. At one point there was a little scare because Kaden was sunny side up. Again the nurses were just making me move around and I think they may have even turned him around but I don't remember. By 2:45, I had progessed very well. I think I went from a 5 to a 9 in about 20 minutes. Dr Ritter made it there on time this time (he was running a tad late and got a standing ovation for his arrival for my labor with Maya!).  I think it was about 5 pushes and out came Kaden at 3:28 pm. I would say that this labor was worse than my labor with Maya but the delivery was much better than with Maya. It was all about the pain. I felt all of the delivery with Maya, but with Kaden I was so numb during the delivery part that I was able to enjoy holding him this time around!

The looks: Kaden did beautiful and only cried a little bit. As he was in the incubator where they clean him all up, Charlie and I were just joking that he didn't look like any of us! We were like "whose baby is that?" Ha! But now it is clear...he is Maya!

The name - We had a bit of trouble naming him like we did with Maya. Kind of like a "oh crap what are we going to call him" kind of a decision. With Maya we made everyone wait outside while I fed her and we argued about the name. With Kaden, we invited the ladies in while I nursed and then ran the name by the fam before we made it official. I think it still took Charlie and I about a week to be settled with the name! Neal was always going to be his middle name. The spelling of Kaden was my thing. Charlie gave in to spelling it with a K not a C on the way to the hospital that morning. Woohoo. I win.

Big Sis - All I wanted was Maya to be the first person in the room after we had Kaden. And she was! Charlie and I were so excited to have her there to meet her new baby brother. She was long past due on her nap so we didn't get much out of her, but she did give him tons of kisses. She was just scared about seeing me in a hospital gown and with an IV! The next day after she was all rested, she held him and hugged and kissed on him. She was very excited to have the new addition to the family.

Even with all the pain, I am so thankful for a relatively smooth delivery. I was so nervous about having a c-section. So glad that I could have him naturally and him be healthy!

Charlie and I were thankful to have all our family be there and several friends were able to visit too. Here are some pictures of our special visitors while we were in the hospital. All of the hospital and going home pictures are here.

the babies of 2010...Kaden and the three girls!

Lauren changed his first diaper...

                             Ben had some hugs for big sis Maya

Kaden Neal Pringle - He's here!!!!!!

We welcomed our newest family member yesterday, Kaden Neal Pringle. Kaden arrived at 3:28 pm, weighed 8 lbs and is 21.25 inches long. He is a sweet little thing like his sister. He has at least one dimple, maybe two and a huge birthmark on his backside. He is fair skinned like Maya and we think he has light eyes. His hair is pretty dark. I need to compare some pictures of him to Maya when she was born. We aren't really sure yet who he looks like, but after his bath there were a few times that he resembled Maya when she was born and after her first bath.

His first night was great and he came and visited me every 2 hours from the nursery. He is nursing very well. He had his "man" surgery this afternoon and I think thats the first time I have really heard him cry since he was delivered. I can't wait to learn more about him and tell you all about him. But until then its time to take care of my new little boy!

Happy 6th Anniversary!

I am posting this for my husband who is driving back from College Station tonight.

Anniversary celebrations:
Steak dinner...$100
Spa gift certificate for your wife...$300
Going to the A&M game while your wife is 40.5 weeks pregnant on the day of your anniversary, having a big win over a #8 ranked Nebraska team to the largest crowd in school history...PRICELESS

Go Aggies!! (and thank you Baby Pringle for holding out today....see you in 2 days).....

Baby Update

Still pregnant and today was the due date. If baby brother doesn't want to make his appearance on his own, we will have to force him out next Monday, November 22nd. He clearly wants to share his birthday with Thanksgiving week. I'll update again this week after the next ultrasound....

38-week Ultrasound

Charlie, Maya, Gayla and I all got to see Baby Boy in action this morning at my ultrasound. I hadn't had one since 20 weeks, so we were all very excited to finally see what is going on in there. He is head down with his hands crossed over his face. We could see his lips moving up and down like he was sucking. We were able to confirm my suspicions about his big butt being what was sticking out all the time on the right side of my stomach and on the left side, I was able to find out that it wasn't knuckles protruding out of my belly but feet! His likes to stick his big toe at my belly and it makes the cutest little indention on my stomach. The weight estimate is 7 lb 2 oz. He thinks the baby will be 8 lbs by next week. He did mention that he won't let me go overdue. I guess that means I may not be able to take on a 9 pounder!

Maya was so cute on the way to the appointment. First she said "mommy, baby okay?" and then after I said yes, she asked "is he done yet?" She wanted to show him her toys but I told her she had to wait another week or two.

Profile picture. You can see forehead from right to left, nose, lips, chin.

Picture of his foot.

The Nursery

 The only thing that will make the nursery complete is a NAME! Take a look at some of the pics of the "monkey" nursery. Once we have a name picked out, we will put wooden letters above the crib. I have a few more monkey decals to put on the walls and few little things here and there I ordered online. Need to get the toy box up there as soon as we stain it. This time around I know not to get stressed about the nursery being done. We barely even went in there for the first few months with Maya!

I have made such great progress in the past week. I started maternity leave last Wednesday and just about everything is ready. Washed like a million clothes, burp cloths, bibs, blankets and have his take home outfit (and Maya's) from the hospital. Got the whole set up in the living room. We learned from Maya to put everything in the living room and master bedroom!

Now I can start running errands that never seemed to get done when you are working and get Maya's medical stuff in line again. I've been having such a great time with her lately. Really liking this time to spend with her before it gets crazy around here.

Pregnancy Update - Week 36

Today I am 36 weeks along. Baby boy is making some serious movements. The kind that hurt and take me away for a second. On Saturday morning, we were on our way to the A&M game (my last road trip for sure this time) and I was telling Charlie how weird it was that I hadn't started my Braxton Hicks yet. Funny cause I had them the rest of day and its been going since Saturday. I was out grocery shopping last night and literally couldn't finish. By the time I got to the check out I was taking such small steps. I'm sure people were wondering what the heck was up. Migraines have started and so has the stress of not being ready in time. All this is jsut evidence that the day is coming that we get to meet the little guy. And yes, still no name yet. Charlie and I are really having a hard time on this one. With Maya it was at least narrowed down to two. We have a few things out there with this one, but definitely nothing in the top 10 category yet.

Maternity leave officially starts this Wednesday. We still haven't finished the nursery but its just a matter of time now. We could actually finish it in about 3-4 hours max but just hasn't been the priority. This past week and weekend we got the big things ready like putting together the co-sleeper for our room, play pen for the den, car seat, swing and bouncer. I need to start washing everything this week! I think this weekend I'll hit up Gayla's house for all the rest of the stuff she bought and get to washing all the blankets and picking out his go home outfit. Baby book is en route. Cord blood banking set up. Hospital bag is started.

Next ultrasound is set for October 29th!

Don't Lick It

You ever wonder where your kids pick things up? Well, its probably you and you just don't know it yet. Friday night we were on our way home from dinner and Charlie and I got Dairy Queen. Maya still doesn't eat ice cream. Anyway Charlie got his usual ice cream cone. As we pull out of the drive thru and Charlie is driving and eating away Maya says to him "Daddy, don't lick it, eat it." What? So Charlie takes another lick. Maya says "NO DADDY, don't do that. Don't lick it. Eat it!" In order to get himself through his favroite dessert, Charlie had to hide the licking all the way home! So I thought this was blog worthy on Friday night when it happened and started typing. Then at dinner tonight it dawned on me where Maya got this from. We say it to her ALL the time. But its with cheese or ketchup or any other kind of dip. She will just lick the cheese off a chip, lick the ketchup off a fry and so on and we always say "Maya, you can't just lick it, you need to eat it". Smarty pants.

MDA Telethon video Link

Here's the link to the video that Channel 2/MDA did on Maya and our family for the MDA Telethon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVI6KTOZkk

September updates below

I am getting worse and worse about updating the blog. You can thank my husband for that since I have had to play mommy and daddy the past several weeks due to Charlie's deadline at work. Here is what we were up to this month....

San Antonio trip to Sea World/Morgan's Wonderland - click here
Labor Day weekend/MDA Telethon - click here

Football Fan? - click here

Pregnancy Update - Week 33 - click here

Trip #4 to Salt Lake City - click here

Additions to the family:

We welcomed Kaitlyn and Kinley to our family on September 13th. The girls were scheduled to be born the week after, but a last minute trip to the doctor found bloood pressures and heart beats high so it was time to get 'em out into this world. Kaitlyn was 5.5 lbs and got an immediate thumbs up. Kinley was 5.2 lbs and needed to stay a night in the NICU. Before long she was with her sis and her big brother Mason (and the rest of the 20 Pringle and Kallus crew!). Maya was very excited to have two new cousins and loves to hold them. I am wondering what she will think when her baby brother finally does arrive. Will she get confused at all the babies or will she know this one is "hers". She asks to take home Addi and the twins so I'm sure she will ask to take Baby Brother home as well.

The Nursery:
Baby Brother got his nursery furniture this month! We just love the set we ended up with. Gayla came over with all the bedding and all its matching accessories and we started to get it set up. We went through the old bottles and tossed the pink and yellow and made room for blue and green! So I don't have a picture yet, but we are doing brown and blue as the colors and monkeys as the theme. The walls are painted, furniture is in the room. Now we need to put up some decorations and get all the baby clothes (probably 50 or so new outfits) from his Grandma Gayla. Once I get things done, we will post the finished product! Here is a sneak peek at the furniture (here) and the bedding (here).

Fun Maya stuff to share:

"Be careful! - When Charlie or I are driving and Maya is in the back playing with one of her toys in the back or having a snack, she has started to say "Mommy (or Daddy), BE CAREFUL!! Usually when we are going over speed bumps, or railroad tracks, when we start driving again after being at a red light. Recently, we have even gotten "be careful, slow down". Our little backseat driver :-)

Affectionate or Cunning?
I'm not sure when she made the switch, but one weekend Charlie and I noticed that Maya was overusing or maybe misusing the "I love you" phrase. She has always been the most affectionate little person we've met and we eat it up everytime she tells us she wants a hug. But now she is trying to use it to her benefit. Every now and again when she hears us getting ready for her cough machine or getting ready to put on her back brace or do her stretches, she says "I love you, Daddy" or "I love you, Mommy"..."come give me a hug". And then when you do hug her, she throws in a "awwwwww, love you, too". I guess she thinks we won't do any of that stuff with all this affection, but I hate to say that she was just delaying the inevitable. Doctor's orders...

Daddy's girl -
Maybe its because Charlie has been gone so much lately or maybe the phrase is just true. Maya misses her daddy so much when he is at work. She asks him in the morning to not go to work and to stay home and play with her. She doesn't do that to me!! On the weekends, she completely monopolizes his time and attention. "Daddy, you no go to work today...you play me in my playroom, k?" Its real sweet to watch them though even if she doesn't do it to me!

Let’s pray –
Kids say the funniest things and we wish we could capture it all on video. Jesus Loves Me is still one of Maya’s favorite songs and she associates it with praying I guess. We were eating lunch together one day and she looked at me, took my hand and said “mommy, let’s pray Jesus.” We put our heads down, closed our ours and then Maya says “Jesus loves me yes I know…Amen”, opens her eyes and there you have it. We said a prayer before lunch!

SLC Trip #4 - New doctor in town

We took our fourth trip to Salt Lake City to see Maya's neurologist. Dr. Swoboda is taking a one year research sabbatical, so we are now being seen by Dr. Sakonju. With my dad traveling, my mom selling jewelry and Gayla taking care of what seems to be a day care of newborns, Charlie and I took this trip with Maya alone. We had a free day with this trip and the weather was being nicer to us than the rare blizzard we had from last April. The circus was in town so Maya got an impromptu visit to the Greatest Show on Earth. She had a good time watching the show, but judging by the picture you can see she had more fun eating the popcorn!

Day 1 is the visit with the neurologist and research/study team to go over the past 6 months history. Then we do the EMG nerve study test. We were prepared to have Maya sedated with versed, but she does so horrible with the side effects that we attempted to go through the EMG without any sedation this time. Maya got through it like a champ! We had a little crying/whining, but no tears! The EMG uses a tool that zaps you and that is what is thought to be painful. No, not our Maya. She didn't think anything of the shock, rather she didn't like the tape they used to put on the wires. Go figure. The child life coordinator kept her busy with bubbles and she had her DVD player. 15 minutes later, test was done and no horrible side effects from versed. Yippee!!!  Totally deserved of a new toy, Maya! So the results showed that Maya is stable since the last visit. She did not have any (real) increase or decrease in her nerve activity. While they like to see the upward trend, the team was happy to see she didn't go down in her scores (She is 1.0 on the MUNE scale and was a 1.1 last time). Maya's growth chart shows she is 25% for height and between 10-25% for weight (estimated at 15%). They didn't get a chance to evaluate her diet that morning, but we will hear about that later this week. Like Charlie and I always say, the numbers are just the numbers. We can see that Maya has more strength than she did a year and a half ago. That is all we need.

Day 2 was Maya’s physical therapy assessment. We usually meet with Donata, but I guess she is semi-retired now and we now have Janine. They do the same test on Maya every time to mark her progress. Last time Maya took forever to roll over both ways but this time she did it in half the time! It still takes her a little bit to get it going but at least we can say that she can do it. They measure the degree of curvature of her knees and she has about a 5 degree knee contracture. They said we are doing everything we can – stander time, knee brace at night, stretches – but correcting that 5 degrees is pretty hard. I hate that it will get worse over time once she starts using a power chair. I wish there was something else we could do to avoid her knees from getting stiff. These are just the nasty side effects from not being able to stand or walk L The visit was actually way quicker than we expected. Donata usually tries new things with Maya as you can see from the previous posts. We didn’t do anything but the assessment this time and were in and out in about 30 minutes. I asked more about a back brace and what Maya could benefit from, but that is also a catch 22. She needs it when she sits, but if you use it too much, she could stop using those muscles and lose that function. Or if you don’t use it enough, she could slouch too much and develop scoliosis earlier. There’s just no good answer to all this bracing. Charlie and I find the back bracing to be the toughest to cope with. Probably because its hard to even change her diaper with it on (which also makes potty training tough!), or that her clothes with the brace have to be one size bigger than without the brace. If you ever wonder why she has so many clothes it’s because we have to keep two sizes of everything – with and without the back bracing. Maya really isn’t a big fan of it either so that makes it even tougher to put it on her. We keep reminding ourselves that it is for the best. Anyway, back to this visit, we didn’t find out the scores yet, but I hope to post it when we do. We still didn’t get her scores from the 3rd visit last April so hopefully we will get both this time.

Pregnancy Update - Week 33

I thought I should at least try to do one comparison to my pregnancy with Maya. I've gained around 22 lbs. If you look back at 28 week update, that's 9 pounds in 5 weeks. Yikes! I looked back at my diary with Maya and unfortunately didn't mark my 32 week weight. I am sure it was about the same though.  All was well on the front except now I am growing...everywhere! I can hardly recognize my body. I've never looked forward to nursing so much as I do now. At 7.5 months with this one, I look like I was 9 months with Maya. Here's the comparison from 6 months with Maya to 7.5 with Baby Brother. I hate showing belly pics, but its for the memories. Do yourself a favor and do not enlarge the picture. Charlie could hardly contain himself. He said my belly looked like a roadmap.

I feel about the same as my 28 week update, tired and finding it hard to walk around! I have felt him move for quite sometime now, but now the kicks and punches are getting stronger and a weebit painful at times. Its all in good fun and I am happy to be experiencing such things. Afterall, a man can't do it. HAHAHAHAHA! Charlie is home at a decent time now, so my evenings aren't as bad as they were.

We have not picked a name yet. I promise we are not hiding it like some people think. In fact I would love to say we were keeping it a secret because then that would mean we had a name picked out!

Football Fan?

In August, we took Maya to her first Texans game. She hasn't been to a football game since the Aggie game when she was 9 months old so we were a little hesitant to take her. Not after that day. We found out Maya is a closet football fan. Maya sat with me, Gayla, Bryce and Mason and she was cheering and yelling "first down" with everyone else in the stadium. It was the pre-season game against the Cowboys, so there was plenty of noise. She loved it and didn't want to leave. Since then, she has asked to go to football game everyday. She says "i go football game morrow, k?" Like as in not a question, but a demand. So, how could we not try out another Aggie game. We took Maya to the Sept 11th game and she did so well and had so much that we took her back again on Sept 18th. The last game she was able to hang out with her cousin Bryce. She enjoyed wearing the Aggie gear, eating a Freebirds taco during the game, and giving kisses to her daddy everytime the Ags scored. We got a future Ag here...she likes the war hymn, laughs when we sway during Hullabaloo, and chants "Go Aggies!!"  Even after 3 football games, she is still asking when her next game day will be. In the meantime, she is sitting nicely and watching football with her daddy on TV (and playing with SpongeBob of course).

Labor Day Weekend 2010

We started off Labor Day weekend by kicking off another Aggie football season. Charlie and I went to the game and Maya got to stay at the lake with her grandparents. The next day we had a fun get together with our friends and all the kiddos. It was a little crazy having all the kiddos but we all enjoyed a little pooltime and a BBQ. Maya had a great time and got to share all her toys in her playroom! Unfortunately I was so busy in the kitchen I didn't get any pictures!

Monday was the MDA Telethon. This year, we were invited to participate in the telethon by being one of the showcased families during the local broadcast. I mentioned this in an earlier blog but they came out to our house and taped Charlie, Maya and I about her diagnosis, living with SMA, and how the MDA helps us. We had to get there pretty early so Miss Maya wasn't exactly her perky self. At our broadcast time, they played our video and then were interviewed live by Lauren Freeman of Channel 2 news. Maya was a bit camera shy and just had a blank stare most of the time. We did finally get her to say bye to the cameras after the short interview. Lauren caught me by surprise with some of her questions, but hopefully we managed to come up with good responses. They didn't prepare us for what they would ask so we were a little nervous, too. We stayed for a picture with Lauren and Dominique Sachse (spelling?) and mingled with a few other families and sponsors. I guess Maya was a big hit because we got two invitations to attend fundraising events where they will show Maya's video and help promote the MDA.

San Antonio trip (Morgan's Wonderland and SeaWorld)

Maya, me, my dad and Renuka took a little vaca to San Antonio. I had been wanting to take Maya to Sea World and Morgan's Wonderland all summer and between Charlie's schedule and my dad's we finally got something on the calendar, but without Charlie.  August 31st to September 3rd.

On the way to San Antonio we stopped at the Wildlife Safari in New Braunfels. Charlie and I had taken Maya there two years prior, but this time she had quite a bit more fun. My dad did all the things you shouldn't like sticking Maya's head out the window and allowing the animals to come to your window to feed them.

I think at one point he even moved a herd of zebras by driving right through them. Don't worry, no animal was harmed....except maybe the ostrich. If any of you have been to this place you know what I am talking about with those ostriches. They are MEAN! Maya fondly (not) remembers the ostriches from this trip and still talks about how she is "scared of ostich".

Thursday we went to Morgan's Wonderland which is an amusement park made especially for special needs. There is only one of it's kind, but I heard that the owners have plans to build more all over the world. It really is a special place with wonderful volunteers. They have a few rides that you can put your wheelchair directly on like the carousel, but Maya was more interested in us picking her up and putting her on the rides. At least we know there is the capability for taking her powerchair one day.

We spent about 4 hours there and then took a little side trip to Austin to see my brother and the kiddos. Maya always has a good time with her cousins and this time she wasn't in their line of fire of throwing toys at each other, BUT the dragon castle was knocked over on her about 5 times. Sanjay didn't want to smile because he wanted to take his own picture of us.

Friday we headed to Sea World. Luckily a cool front came in and we enjoyed some nicer weather. We started with the dolphins. Maya wasn't a big fan of feeding them but I did and so the dolphins came close.

Lots of shows, meeting the animals, and her favorite ride...

 About 5 minutes after the Shamu show on our way out...sorry, Maya, no octupuses at Sea World!