Kayleigh

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Freeman family today. Little Kayleigh lost her courageous battle yesterday. We have been following this story for some time now and our hearts go out to the family. If you would like to know more about the story, scroll down and click on the button under the blogs we follow on the left hand side.

Birthday Party

Addy had a great birthday party on Saturday. The party was scheduled for 2:30 at a local park. I was very nervous all morning that the party was going to be a dud due to the weather. Well, God must have been on our side. By 1:00 the rain had stopped and it was beautiful blue skies. Due to the little bit of wind that stuck around, the park itself had dried very quickly. The kids had fun playing on the playground while the food cooked. As you can see by the pics, Addy had a blast. The last present was a customized chair from Grandma and Grandpa Mills. Once she opened it she didn't want to get up. With the crown on she looks to be sitting atop her throne. Very cute! Thanks to everyone for making it a great day for a special little girl.

Birthday Crown

Addy received a special gift from a parent of one of the students in my classroom. The crown is handmade and customized to your liking. Check them out on her blog: better than normal. This was a gift so I didn't give her any ideas and she couldn't have made this crown more perfect for Addy. Not only does it have her name on it, but it also has Dora. I brought it home Friday afternoon, Addy put it on and didn't take it off until it was bedtime. When it did fall off, she immediately asked to have it put back on. She loves it! Great job Melanie!

Happy 2nd Birthday Addy!

We had a very small celebration for Addy today as the big Dora birthday celebration will be coming this weekend. I think by the end of the day she finally figured out it was HER birthday. We just celebrated dad's birthday last week and mine is this upcoming Monday so she has been overwhelmed with birthdays, so when you ask her who's birthday it is, she just looks at you and will sometimes respond that it's daddy's birthday. She tried so hard to blow out the candles and finally managed with a little help from me. Her swingset was her big present from us, but we also got her 2 new DVD's.....Dora and The Wiggles. Before she even opened them, I asked her what they were thinking that she would respond with the word "present". Nope, she said "shows". Guess the packaging kind of gave them away. What fun it that! Anyway, Happy Birthday Addy from mom and dad. You have come so far in the 2 years that we have been blessed with you.

Farm

Today instead of going to therapy, the whole early intervention group went on a field trip to the farm. Since it was Addy's birthday and a field trip, mom and dad both took the day off of work and went along. The farm was Wolcott Mill in Ray Township. It was a very basic farm made up of only animals. The day started nice, but the rain was pouring down by the time we left. Addy didn't seem to mind though.

Swingset

Aaron had a long weekend project....putting together a new swingset for Addy. It was her birthday present from us and we figured with the beautiful weather, this was the weekend to put it together. It took 2 full days, and Addy waited very patiently as she slowly watched it being put together. Good work Daddy!

Patiently waiting

Helping Dad

Finally.....it's done

And she loves it.....

Going shoe crazy!

Addison received her new AFO braces last week. Even before they arrived I was going crazy trying to find shoes. I had a really difficult time finding shoes to fit her small SMO braces, so I knew that finding them to fit the larger braces would be difficult. Before they arrived, I purchased a larger size of her current shoes as well as 2 pairs from a company called Hatchbacks. They are specially designed shoes made to fit over orthotics. I ordered two different sizes because until I had the braces in hand it was difficult for me to tell which size we would need. They are only sold online and I didn't want to order wrong and have to shop back and forth.

So, the arrival of the braces came and the orthotist decided to try the braces on with the size 5 Hatchbacks. He seemed happy with them in the short period of time she had them on. I was very hesitant. I felt that they made her feet feel two sizes bigger than normal. So, we went with them and spent the weekend wearing the Hatchbacks. They absolutely did not work!!! The poor kid could hardly move in them. Walking was extremely slow and transitions on the floor were almost impossible. So, Sunday night came and 2 more pairs of shoes got ordered online from Nike. Not many shoe company's make shoes in wide widths, but Nike does. She wore the braces very little all week due to the shoe issue.

The new shoes arrived and one works!!!! Hooray! In the meantime I also found out that New Balance makes an extra wide width. I am planning on ordering a back up pair from them. The downfall is that she has no dress shoes, so when we dress up, she has to wear tennies. I would like to try and keep one pair cleaner for those occasions and give her an everyday wear and tear pair.

At least the saga is over. This week in my house I have had:
1 pair of Nike size 6.5
1 pair of Hatchbacks size 5
1 pair of Hatchbacks size 6
1 pair of Nike size 5.5
1 pair of Nike size 6.0
1 pair of Nike size 6.0

Wow, that's a lot of money. I can't wait to return some and get my money back. More on how she's doing with them later.