Another doc on the list - Cardio

Maya had a cardio workup today and another doctor to add to the list. Luckily her heart looks good and we don't have to go back for 2 years. What prompted this visit was me hearing about a study one of the SMA doctors was working on. Apparently over time, all the other stuff that SMA does to your body can also affect your heart. I've heard that before but it has never been a significant discussion at any of the conferences. I thought we could at least get a baseline for Maya and then track her over time to make sure the lung functions are not putting any stress on the heart.

Happy Easter

Fun times with the entire family this Easter!

Here are some eggs that we all did at the house and Kaden and the bunny.

We had quite an Easter weekend! First on Good Friday, we spent some time in Sugar Land at my dad's house. They helped me watch the kids while I worked a few hours. Maya got to test her powerchair around the block and in their house for the first time.

Saturday morning we headed to Corsicana for the annual Taylorosa Egghunt. This is Charlie's brother's wife's family. Debbie and Max host an egghunt each year at their now ranch. Everyone has so much fun there. The kids are all around each other and usually that is enough, but Taylorosa Ranch boasts a nice outdoor patio with pool and swingset, a tennis court, a few horses and a whole lotta land in the back for the guys to practice shootin' their guns. This time I rode back there with them to see what it is that they do there for so many hours. Got to ride a "rhino" through the "jungle" as Maya calls it. She said she didn't want to go through the jungle because of all the bumble bees. I wish that the only thing we had to be afraid of were bumble bees out there! I have digressed...back to the Easter egghunt. This was Maya's first egghunt with her powerchair. She did pretty good and got about 20 eggs. We put them on top of the bushes for her. She giggled so much along the way.

Kaden got a couple eggs too. He didn't care too much at this age of course but he sure did get a lot of attention from the extended family. He had so much fun going on the swing. After the visit with the Taylor's, we had dinner and then to nanny and papaw's house for baths for the kids. Kaden wasn't happy about the carseat for a while but he finally fell asleep. I can see that in the future the trips for Kaden are going to get tougher as he will want to get out and play!

Sunday morning, we headed to church with a smaller crew.

Then off to Sugar Land to spend the day with my mom. Maya always get so excited about going there. We notice that she gets quite rude to her daddy and I when we are at my mom's house. She tells us to go away or not to come there. We don't usually take it the wrong way. She is used to being there by herself and getting all the attention that she doesn't know what to do when he has to share their time with all of us! But Papa usually takes over playing with Maya and my mom with Kaden. Charlie and I were actually able to sit on the couch and just relax.

We had a nice lunch and dinner. Maya had round two at the egg hunt. We hid the eggs outside and some inside. Since it was all for Maya we out the eggs all in her reach from her power chair. She had SO much fun. After she got over the fact that the Easter bunny wasn't hiding around the corner to scare her. She thought he was going to be there. She was saying "is EB going to be there" EB is the Easter Bunny after this year's movie Hop. We were telling her that EB doesn't stay around cause he has so many other egg hunts to visit all day. It took her sometime but she finally got around to starting her egg hunt. She found all of them of course and wanted to do it again. It was like hide and seek for her. EB brought Maya and Kaden all money this year. He knows Maya doesn't like candy so he gave her dollars and quarters. Kaden even scored a $20!

We all sat on the couch and watched Maya open her eggs. She told us all to stop talking and to listen "okay everyone...stop talking and listen to me....I'm TRYING to read the instructions". Meanwhile she is opening up one of the dollars and starts to "read" what it says. Then she goes on to tell us what the instructions are. "go to the store and buy a toy". Quite the imagine this was has. We did get this all on video but this like all the other videos take all day to load up here. Definitely one of Maya's funniest moments.

Diva?

We are suddenly into hair, makeup and nails. It really happened all of a sudden but the last couple of months have been all about it. Everytime Maya is in the bathroom with me, she tells me she needs to do her makeup. I have a special little drawer for Maya that she can reach with her stander or her wheelchair and I try to leave the drawer open just enough so she can pull it all the way open. Then, I leave everything in the front for her to reach and I even leave the cap off her Lipsmackers chapstick slightly so she can pull the rest of the cap off herself. I'm not entirely a big fan of it all, but she picked it up somewhere so might as well have fun with it.
Here is where it started - mommy's stash of lip gloss. Its not her color...

Then I decided to buy Red Lipsmackers.

Then we have the lip gloss watch that the Egmons got her...as you can see it is on her face!

Now the nail polish. I painted the first round...

And Maya took the second round....again, this one is thanks to the Egmons! We were at the doctor's office waiting for about 3 hours and I finally caved and let her paint her own nails.

She is also into her hair, but I didn't get any pics of that yet. The diva is also starting to look in the mirror. She will talk about how beautiful she is. Fun times.

And her favorite color is RED. "I don't like Pink, Mommy. No more pink. Only Red."

Maya the Photographer

Maya loves playing with our digital camera and its been dropped so many times by me that I can't say no to her using it. My only concern is that she will erase something. She has known for a while now how to take a picture, see a picture, watch a video. I can't say that it is all bad. Some of the pictures I have with Kaden are her taking them! I'd like to share her "portfolio" in case any of you are looking for a good deal.

My favorites are the beany babies. She had them on her lap in her powerchair at the Miss Texas Wheelchair pageant. Everyone around us was giggling at her taking pictures of her stuffed animals. I must admit it was kind of funny.

Kaden 5 months

Happy 5 months Kaden!

In the past month, we’ve really seen part of Kaden’s personality come out. He is a good natured boy so far and smiles just as much as his daddy does. Just give him a little attention and make a peek-a-boo or too and you will have him cackling. He is so strong and starting to be real fun at diaper changes. Oh I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in a couple more months when he’s going to be a handful to change a diaper.

Kaden is a mini-Maya. I started looking at some pictures of Maya as a baby and just can’t believe how similar they look. It’s hard to believe but when you look at pictures of Maya now compared to Maya at baby, she has drastically changed. The blond hair really is what changed Maya’s look. She used to have dark hard just like Kaden.

We still can’t make out his eye color yet. I’ve gotten people say they are dark, blue, some say dark green, some gray and some brown. Maya said the other day “look Mommy, him has brown eyes jus like you!”  Ha – that English, wow, es good. Thanks for that, Yvonne…

I got one of those exercausers for him and he just loves it. He likes the floor jumper and the door jumper so much. And recently we found out that he is old enough for a walker. Didn’t know it until we saw him in Maya’s old one (I had let Michelle borrow it) at Mason’s party and he entertained himself for over an hour!

Kaden rolled for the first time on April 2nd.

He had cereal for the first time on April 10th.

Pringle/Kallus Dance Off 2011

This is the second annual dance off event at the Kallus house at Mason's (very belated) birthday party. A little Lady Gaga got everyone dancin! I say Part 1 cause there is bound to be another this year. I couldn't get the video to post so here is just a pic of Maya with hands up in the air singing to "Dynamite".

Should we be worried?

What's wrong with these pictures? Oh that's right, Maya's the baby, not Kaden. I've always heard about this, but now we are seeing it all the time. The older sib wants to play with all the baby toys. Maya is no different. You see the pictures of what we have allowed, but things we just had to say no to are his swing, the door jumper, and his teething toys. All else seems fair game...watch out Kaden.

Cooking and Spoiled

Maya has gone from playing with her kitchen in her playroom to wanting to help us in the real kitchen. She says "can I help you" and it is a very sweet gesture. I really wish she could do more to help. One is age of course, but the other is her strength. Its hard for her to stir stuff, but we get by. I do alot of hand over hand and let her feel the motions. She loves it and we love spending the time together. Apparently she has been helping Yvonne make her eggs in the morning for a while - again, I blame this on working too much. Tonight, Maya and I were making a chocolate pie for her daddy. You will see in the picture the part of the pie she started to stir (by mistake). Oh well, it all tastes the same. Another one of the cupcakes we made for Yvonne's birthday.

I was putting Maya to bed tonight and I had to explain to her why I couldn't lay down with her. I said, who is going to have to clean up that mess we made in the kitchen? She said "ruth?". As in the housekeeper Ruth. Well Maya, aren't we getting used to the lifestyle? No, that would be mommy that has to clean up. Thank you very little!

Maya feeds Kaden's 1st solids

Maya wanted to be the first to feed Kaden his cereal. She did a great job and eventually learned not to shove the spoon too far in. LOL!

Miss TX Wheelchair Pageant

Maya and I attended the Miss Texas Wheelchair pageant together. Everyone said that she should enter one day - she has to be 5. We sure will be entering her! The woman that one was originally diagnosed with SMA, but later was found to have something else. All the contestants are pretty amazing and have accomplished so much. Our friend, Angela, is the president of this organization. We sat at Angela's friends table - all teachers from Klein ISD! Maya was able to meet her future asst principle. They were all happy to see her maneuvering herself so well in her wheelchair. It was a great little date night for her and I. Enjoyed doing this with her.

She made some friends and took some pictures.

 She danced.

 Took some pictures with the Ross Volunteers.