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.