At Home in the Mountains

Well, not much has happened since last time I wrote. We did go on a super long walk on Friday that included taking Maddy to the park to swing for the first time. She seemed to enjoy it. It was very windy that day. She fell asleep on the way back home. We had to stuff a blanket behind her because the swing was just a little to large for her to sit in without something to pack her in a little bit. This was a different day. We stopped by Sonic after our run (kind of counteracted the benefits of our workout) and got a D.P. for me and an ice cream for Aaron. I think Maddy liked the ice cream but it was hard to tell. She kept wanting more but she never really smiled or got really excited while she was tasting it. I guess she just wasn't quite sure what to think about the stuff. Oh yeah. So I don't know that I've really mentioned this yet, but on February 27th we will run the Cowtown 1/2 Marathon in Ft. Worth. My mom is coming down to run it with us and the goal is to qualify for ...

Well I was going to have an update about Maddy's hearing aids today, BUT I idiotically wrote down the wrong time for her appointment and so we missed it. I blew my afternoon driving down to the Callier for an appointment that was supposed to be that morning. Uggg! I am still mad at myself because now she has to wait another month for the adjustment on the volume of her hearing aids. So in lieu of that I thought I'd just post some cute pics of Maddy's antics lately for everyone to enjoy.

We ate lunch with Pappa today. Maddy liked the button on his hat. Maddy is learning to pick up food, put it in her mouth, chew it, and swallow it. She loves these puffs--I think just because she gets to feed herself. These pictures are backwards but this is her chewing the puff after she put it in her mouth. Putting the puff in her mouth. Yum! Yum! Picking the puff up. A little harder to do with a toy in your hand. Something new. Maddy started holding her own bottle some. She has been putting her hands on her bottle and helping hold it for quite a while but she just now got big enough to manage the bottle on her own. It is nice because it frees up more of my time, but the downside is that it takes her an EXTREMELY long time to finish a bottle on her own. I have been thinking about perspective lately. When I was little and I'd get upset about having to try to do something new or something hard or something I didn't want to do, my dad would say, "Now cain't never could d...

In this picture Maddy is trying to see what is inside the camera lens. :) We have been getting back into the doctor appointment circuit with a bang. An appointment every day so far since we've been back. On Monday Maddy got a new set up at Scottish Rite. She only has to wear one small plastic splint on her foot. They switched her to soft velcro braces for both knees and she only has to wear those at night. That makes it much easier on us too. We will try to put the plastic splint on her foot without the taping we usually do for a week before we go back in and if the splint stays on we won't have to tape anymore so pray that will work out for us! Today we went to the developmental pediatrician. Maddy is doing good. She is most behind in her gross motor skills-at about a 4 1/2 month level. Her language skills despite her hearing impairment issues are at 7 1/2 months and her cognitive and fine motor skills tested at 8 1/2 months so overall a really good report. Some of the testing...

Thanks to everyone for praying. Aaron's mom came back to Amber's last night around midnight. She is not doing good. She is definitely in a serious depression phase right now. She told Amber she spent her time away praying that God would let her die because she can't handle everything anymore. She has a psych appointment tomorrow morning in Montrose and Aaron's grandma is picking her up this afternoon to take her down there. Just pray for both of them because it is going to be very stressful until the appointment and even then I'm not sure what the psych can do for her. She really needs help from some of the government programs available but of course government red tape is slowing all of that on and everybody is just having to try to hang on for now hoping that they will come through soon. I am not sure what they are going to do about her possible kidney problems. I think the goal now is just to get her to her appointment tomorrow and then go from there.

Just a quick note to ask for everyone to pray for Aaron's mom. She walked out the door of Amber's (Aaron's sister's) house last night into the cold with her little dog Ziggy. She refused to take her cell phone with her. She was gone all night and no one has seen her today. Amber was going to go report her missing to the police so if they see her they can pick her up and take her somewhere warm. Aaron's mom is bipolar and she left Amber's house because she got mad at her because Amber didn't have money to buy her cigarettes. This is obviously really stressful for the whole family but there is not much anyone can do at this point. Reporting it to the police is about all anyone knows to do. Several family members have gone out looking for her around the neighborhood and Aaron's aunt called the homeless shelters but they would not give her any information although they did say no dogs are allowed so it is very likely that Aaron's mom did not stay there l...