Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

For the last couple of days I have left the "Supergate" up and have put Lily in her area for a little while each day for independent play. She seems to LOVE this! I think that it gives her boundaries to be able to focus on her toys. Otherwise, she is trying to play with cords, laptops and the Christmas Tree. :)

11 months old today!

We can not believe that Lillian will be 1 year old in 30 days! This year has flown by! It is almost scary! I need to get busy on her decorations and finish Christmas shopping!

Lily has been a little irritable the last couple of days, and more tired than usual. I am thinking that she is going through a growth spurt and or teething. She still only has her two bottom teeth. She has been working on the top ones for months now. Tonight she started acting fussy and ready for bed about 5:30 pm. Ken and I both know that this is far to early to put her down. So, we were trying to hold her off. She usually gets her bath about 6:15 - 6:30, nurses and is tucked in and asleep by 7pm. We knew that we would not be able to hold her off any longer, gave in and bathed her about 5:45 pm. The last couple of days if I grab the boppy and put it on my lap she can't crawl to me fast enough! (She is NOT ready to be weaned) Once she finished nursing we could have sworn she was saying... more like fussing "nigh-nigh" "nigh-nigh" She did this several times. I took her into her room and tried to calm her and rock her. She wanted no parts of this. She wanted in her crib and was ready for slumber! She is not much of a snuggler... I miss her sleeping in my arms. She is such a big girl.

Here are a couple photos from today... She's trying to get the tree.

Lily's Big Sister

Lily loves her Big Sister SOOO much she insisted that we show her off here! Here is my oldest daughter "Tori" getting ready to go to her Junior Ring Dance. (I decided not to post photos of her and her date. I'm not sure how he'd feel about being on Lily's Blog..lol)

Ohhhhh.... I forgot to mention that Lily is now Crawling on her hands and knees. I had grown accustomed to her army crawl. We could hear her on the move. :) However, I did notice today that when she wanted to go in stealth mode.. it was back to the army crawl. She is still pulling up on everything and cruising more and more.

One year ago today........

One year ago today, Ken, Tori and I went to see the OB for a late routine ultrasound. (Original Post can be found here: ) I was almost 33 weeks pregnant. We had already had our genetic counseling due to my "advanced maternal age." Lily's 19 week ultrasound revealed NO abmoralities and we waved the amnio because we were confident that no matter what we'd proceed with our pregnancy. You can imagine our utter shock when our Dr. uttered the words hydrocephalus. To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of it. I will never forget him saying that her prognosis did not look good. He stated that we still "had options" even this late in our pregnancy. He even explained that we would have to travel to another State because of legality reasons. I remember leaving his office emotionless and numb. I felt like this was not reality, that any minute I would awake from this nightmare. Over the next few days we went to numerous appointments, blood work, amnio, and extensive ultrasounds. I have NEVER been so scared in all my life. I have NEVER prayed so hard. I have read several fellow bloggers that learned of their babies diagnosis early in their pregnancy, 20 weeks or so. I think God knew that I would not be strong enough to be able to endure that.

Ken and I are so grateful to be on the other side of "that" day. I have reflected a lot this week and have read what I wrote one year ago. I have to say that my Faith was astounding! I knew that everything would be "ok." Now, I had no idea what "ok" would be. Lily is such a huge blessing and such a miracle. I KNOW that she has touched MANY! (Including our original OB who has met her and said how hard that day was for him as well, how it pained him to give "options" even if he did not agree with that route) Ken and I are so grateful to God that he has allowed us to be her parents. We are SOOOOO Thankful!

Our Little Explorer!

I could just eat her up! See her little bruise on her forehead.. :( The end table bit her.

Independent play.....

Ken and I have been debating on whether or not to dispose of our couch. Yes, our couch. We spent entirely too much on it and well to be "Frank," it was made poorly. We have a matching Love seat and over sized chair that is underused. So, yesterday Ken was off and we had been planning on putting up the Christmas tree. We even debated that b/c Ms. Lily is so active these days. (What a HUGE blessing and we are extremely thankful!) Anyway, We carried our couch out to the curb and I rearranged our living area. Last week I purchased a "Supergate." My original plan was to barricade the tree. After removing the couch and the rearrangement, I decided to move all of Lily's toys to the now bare end of the room.

I am excited on her ability to have some "independent" play time. When her toys were on the other side of the room she was easily distracted and was busy trying to get cords, laptops, remotes and the like. Now, she has an opportunity to play with her toys. :) I Love watching her!

Lillians previous CT scans.

I received Lily's CT scans (via disk) in the mail today. It included all of her scans except for the one when she was born. The first one that I have is dated 01/15/09. It is similar to what they saw when she was born. 01/15/09 would have been in between her second and third surgery.

The large golf ball sized area in the center is the Arachnoid Cyst that was causing the CSF blockage and the hydrocephalus. The dark areas are all fluid.








The next scan is dated 03/12/09. In these scans the Cyst is GREATLY reduced and there is less fluid.





The last set of images are from 07/27/09 and the Cyst is just about non-existant and there is further less fluid.

November Nor' Easter......

ICk! The weather today is just flat out gross. Today, I am SO grateful to be a SAHM! (Of course, I am grateful everyday.) I am so glad that we don't live in a high flood zone. We have some minor flooding around our house. Nearby cities Like Norfolk, some areas are under water. :( This mostly has to do with us being so close to water level and the tides running so much above.

Our Back yard...


Front Yard...


The worst is yet to come. High Tide is about 5:30pm.

I decided that today.. Lily could stay in her PJ's all day! :)

And... we have an active one!

This morning I was looking for directions to a local consignment store that had the 8 panel Supergate that I have been looking at but not wanting to spend $100.00 on. I looked at Lily she was sitting on the floor in front of her chair... I read the 3 lines of directions and look back to find this!

hmmmmm...... What's wrong with this photo? ;)

I snapped this pic this morning right after breakfast. :) :D

Startin' to Cruise....

I knew Lily was working on a "developmental advancement" by her behavior. (Sleeping more, eating more, and the tongue sucking thing that she does.)


Here it is!


*edit*I reloaded the video... hopefully it works now. :)

Curiosity...

Lily is so BUSY these days..... I am really beginning to wonder how we are going to put up a Christmas tree. I REALLY want to put the big tree up this year. We did not last year being we knew that we'd be in/at the hospital and it would just be one more thing for us to do when we finally made it home. I have been looking on Craigslist for a indoor play yard/fence. I am So grateful that she is SO Busy! :D

Morning at the Neurosurgeon's office

Well... Our visit this morning went great. Lily's head circum is now 46.5. He asked me about her milestones; crawling.. Yes, Pulling up.. Yes, cruising.. No, Saying 4 words...I'm pretty sure. She says Momma and Dadda, Bye Bye and we are pretty sure she says Kitty. He is pleased with her progress. She was very social in his office and hammed it up. :) His scheduler did not have the disk ready with her scans so she is going to mail it to me. As soon as I get it I'll post her before and afters. So, we do not return until NEXT July!! At that appointment we will get another CT (it will be one full year) and we will schedule her surgery to remove the catheter that was left in on her last surgery.

He also said that he recently had another baby come to him with a similar situation and he used what he did with Lily as a "model" for this other baby. I sure hope that the results are as wonderful as ours have been!

I can hardly believe that the Holiday season is so quickly approaching along with Lillians FIRST Birthday! Where has this year gone?