Exciting stuff!

I'm pleased to announce that my 9 month old babe is officially OFF THE BOTTLE!! WHOhOOO! Even with a couple of weeks to spare before the one month deadline before surgery! I'm pleased with that. I really didn't think that she was ready. Just one day she ate a sippy for me and then again for Hal and we haven't stopped since then. Bottles got bagged up and put away and she's officially on a sippy cup! I'm super excited! She was drinking juice for a long time in her sippy, a full bottle worth in fact. But she wouldn't drink her formula. Then all of a sudden..poof she wasn't so stubborn! :) I'm happy cuz this means there is no chance that they have for needing to reschedule her palate surgery. They said she had to be off the bottle for a month prior to surgery. Well, we beat this. :) YEAH!

What's going on with us?

Just figured I would give an update of how things are going around here. It's been a long couple of weeks with all the festivities of the weekend and the fact that I'm working a bunch. Which is a good thing!

So here goes...

Owen

Almost done with Kindergarten and has only 2 weeks left of school. Bitter sweet moment as I know we are getting old and Owen is growing up too quick.
He has his very first loose tooth. About time as he is 6 1/2 and now just starting the tooth loss process. :)
He's addicted to his Nintendo DS. It's basically all he wants to talk about.
He's playing T ball and enjoys it. Not sure if he's doing it next year or not. I don't think it's his favorite thing to do.
He starts soccer soon. That is his favorite thing to do!

Madison

We are still waiting to see if Maddie gets into Pre-k. She is on the list but we are not sure what's going on yet. I may or may not call sometime soon to find out.
Maddie caught a HUGE 12 inch Crappie all by herself the other day. Daddy swears he didn't help her at all.
We are still deciding if we are going to send Maddie to dance class in the fall. She is looking forward to it but we are not sure of scheduling yet. :( poohey!

Paige

Paige started speech a couple of weeks ago. I think it's pretty worthless at this point as she can't really do much until after surgery but I'm all for at least giving it a try.
Paige has 5 teeth. One of which is sitting on the site where when she was born there was a cleft there. With the help of that wonderful NAM, she now has a tooth there! Pretty great stuff!
Paige crawls! She was army crawling for a long time but now she's crawling like a pro. She's also starting to pull herself up on things!
Paige is a sweetie!

Hal

Hal graduated college and we are still waiting to hear from the hospital on a position. Right now there just isn't one. So he will be working as a floater at this point until a position becomes available. Pretty much sucks but it's something at least.

Mandy

Still working as a Behavioral Specialist. Love my job but would like a straight 8-3 teaching position in the near future. Sent out applications but haven't heard anything this soon into the summer.

So that's a wrap up of how we all are. Life goes on even when I don't blog. :)

Cute Randoms

Maddie turned 4!

Can you believe it? I can hardly believe my princess girl is 4! It just seems surreal!

We had her party at the local bowling alley. Loads of fun with pizza, chips, presents and more.

A few pics...

Hal Graduated College

It's finally time! Time to FINALLY move on with our lives. Hal graduated Clarion University on the 8th of May. He is now going to be a RN. Which is awesome. I'm working mad hours as a Behavioral Specialist, so we can finally move on past the college days. I love it. At least for a little while before Hal decides he wants to go back to school. Sometimes I actually miss being in college and learning new things but now I'm self motivated to learn about my clients.

Any how, Hal had a pinning ceremony and a graduation. My camera was being stupid so most of the pics sucked, but the kids looked adorable! Here's a few of the pics!

Oh and the kids are the ones who got to actually pin Hal at the ceremony in front of about 200 or more people. Very cool!


Maddie was being kinda silly but they were both very good throughout both ceremonies! Thank goodness! They both took turns playing games on my iphone. That was the best babysitter ever! :)

Change in Plans

Hal got a phone call from Dr. Grundwalt's office this week. They called to postpone Paige's palate surgery. They are now saying they think she is too young. They told us all along that 9 months was okay because she was doing so well. Now they are saying they want her off the bottle for a whole month and that they will wait till she's 11 months. So her new surgery date is July 16th. I'm pretty annoyed but kinda releaved. It has been hard to take her bottle away from her, she's sooo young. But, this gives us a little more time to get her switched completely to a sippy. Which she is doing really well at. I had just planned to have her off and ready to go by surgery. Now they are being a little more picky about it. Not quite sure why. We were suppose to go to a cleft team meeting on Monday. Erica and I think that she got bumped because another kid needed to get scheduled and they figured she was young anyways. Other than that, not sure what has changed in 2 weeks when Hal was there and they were saying we were still on for the surgery. They also told Hal that she could have her touch up surgery when she is 3 and not 5 but now I'm not holding my breath for that. ARG!

Anyways, Paige is doing really well. She is starting to really motor around. She is babbling really well and is just a ball full of energy. She is one of the sweetest (with Maddie and Owen included in there) babies I know. Paige literally can light up a room and she's sooo good all the time. (knock on wood). She's literally an angel baby!

Well, anyways, just a quick note to inform all that surgery has indeed been postponed. I guess it too gives me more time to figure out who is going to be watching Owen and Maddie during that time too. I guess we will see.

Thanks for reading!

March of Dimes

Recently, I was contacted by a representative in Germany asking if I would be interested in using Paige as a spokesperson for the March of Dimes there. One of my very good friends live there and she must have told her our story. Of course, if it gets more help for cleft lip and palate research, I would do almost anything. The March of Dimes does research for cleft lip and palate. So I said yes. I wanted to share with you the poster that they used with Paige's face on it. I was proud to be her mama!