Blog help, light reading, and Toys "R" Us

So, if you've visited the blog before you might notice it looks different, and a little wonky. Can I just say, this technological stuff is not my strong suit. That being said, if it is yours and you feel like giving me a tutorial, there are some changes I would like to make to the blog and I could use your help. Pretty please?

This morning I had to take Livi to her pediatricians. We don't go there very often because mostly she sees specialists, but we had to follow up about some issues last week. At preschool last week Livi did not pass her hearing screening. Boo. There seemed to be a kind of blockage in her ears. After talking with the pediatrician today, they looked better. The culprit? Probably remnants of the cold lurking in her ears. We plan to get retested soon to make sure. But, while we were waiting to see the dr. I managed to find a large and pretty book for us to read. We practiced "hands up" command and she got it after the first time I helped her. She repeated hands up when I asked and I helped her hold the top of the book. The right hand seems much more adept at holding than the left, so its a one-handed job, but Livi held the book for herself 4 or 5 times when prompted by "hands up" for an average of 15 seconds per hold. Pretty good if I do say so myself!

So she had some spittle and I caught her with her eyes closed. Still cool.

Lastly, I caught wind of this toy guide for differently abled children put out by Toys "R" Us. I looked through it and Livi is differently abled than their idea of differently abled, but I thought the idea was cool and it would be helpful for lots of people, so here is the link to the toy guide.

Our big news

No, Gabby isn't here yet. Thank God. But we have some other very important things happening in our life that we are ready to let you in on. As a side note, this will be a longer post with no pictures of Olivia, but it definitely concerns her. Try and stay awake grandparents.

So, to start, when Brian and I moved to Kansas City 5 years ago we knew we were coming by ourselves. We didn't know anyone and our parents didn't live here. When we had Olivia 2 1/2 years ago I bet some people wondered how we would make it without the support of parents around. Today, you will see how we made it. Besides wonderful parents who come as often as they can and are totally supportive of us, we have acquired some amazing friendships. Friendships that might be as close to family as you can get without being blood related. We are so blessed with lots of friends who look out for us even in ways we aren't looking out for ourselves. A couple of months ago these friends came to our house with an idea. Today, you will see what happened with that idea.

For a while now Maggie, my dear friend and a physical therapist, has been asking me reasonable questions about making our house more accessible for Olivia. I didn't know the first thing about our options as far those things go, and knew for sure we wouldn't have the money to do any kind of huge renovations to the house. So, I just kept pushing it to the back of my mind and putting it off in conversations with her. I just didn't know what to do. Her husband, Wes, is a very talented carpenter and works all kinds of construction and renovation projects, both as a full time job and on the side. A few months ago Wes, Neil, and Steve (all building professionals in some capacity and friends from church) came to our house to discuss our options as far as accessibility. It was obvious (especially given my pregnant state) that it was difficult for me to carry Olivia and her Kid Kart or Kid Walk to the car as they were both beginning to get heavy. Olivia will not be getting any lighter and with another baby on the way they saw that we would need some help. Here is what they proposed. This is a letter from these three wonderful men to you. Please take the time to read it.

Ramp letter

Along with the information in the letter, they wanted us to pass along two things: the official budget for the ramp/porch project and a picture of what the proposed changes will look like. (Sorry about the size. Click on it for a bigger picture. We had to change the format of some of these documents.)

Here is what our porch looks like now

Here is what the proposed project will look like finished

We are so humbled and very excited for these changes to our house. If you would like to give towards the projects there are two ways to do so outlined in the letter above. If you have ANY questions, please email me (kelly.s.yocum@gmail.com). If they are "official construction" questions or something I can't answer I will forward them along to Wes. If you would like the PDF of any of these documents printed out or emailed to you we would be happy to do so. Just let me know.

Told you. Long post. But worth it, I think. This project will make life for us and Olivia more than manageable. I can't believe that people care about so much that they would offer their services and their time to organize every bit of this project just so we can get Olivia in and out of the house easier. Amazing. Thank God for them.

2 things to celebrate!!!

First, I gotta say-- just ONE comment about the fro? Really? Jamie is it? So disappointed in you people. So disappointed.

Secondly, we need to get to the celebrating. Its been quiet around our house the last week. Livi got a cold early last week and we have been doing a lot of snuggling and reading and sleeping AT HOME-- which means (drumroll) that we managed to get through 95% of a legitimate illness without going to the hospital. This is a first, people. Get excited. I say 95% because she is still coughing some and has a little bit enough of a runny nose to warrant not going to preschool today-- which makes me sad, both for her and me. But, I'm sure that another day of rest will get us ready for our usual schedule. This is what my Tuesday night through Sunday has looked like

By the way, she is watching cartoons in this picture. Thats the life, right? Also, sorry about the poor quality of the picture. I was trying to figure out why that was when I realized I probably had to squat down for this picture. Being 33 weeks pregnant (I know!!) my balance is not what it used to be. Pretty sure I'm falling over during this picture.

And on to the second celebration-- Livi's new chair came! This is great because we've been squishing her in this blue rocking chair for like ever. Its a great chair, but my kid is freakishly tall now and no longer fits in it. So, a beautiful and generous early Santa Claus gift came yesterday and we could not be happier with it!

It comes in two boxes in two parts that hook together with Velcro so even an idiot like me can put it together. See, isn't this picture quality better? Because I'm not falling over. We made our first venture into normal schedule yesterday right after the chair came when Livi's vision teacher came for therapy. Of course we had to try out the new chair!

That pink light up thing is called a light stick. She loves it. She was raising and lowering her arms on command to reach the light stick. Every time I look at her now I realize she looks more like a girl and less like a baby. She just looks so old! AAAHHH! Also, how do you like my laundry in the background. Don't judge--its clean and folded and has since made it into the drawers (the hardest part of laundry for me.)

Hopefully we'll soon have pictures of the whole fam out and about in this beautiful fall weather.

Happy Birthday, baby!

Brian,
Today you are 29 and I could not more proud of the man you have turned out to be. I have loved you for the past 5 1/2 years, and am more impressed with you now than I ever even hoped to be. You are sensitive and caring, a diligent worker, compassionate, honest, and soulful. You are talented, humble and selfless-- especially when it comes to your family. We have been through a lot as friends and spouses and finally as parents and we will go through a lot more. But now, more than ever, I am sure that with you by my side I will be taken care of, protected and lead in an honorable way. Livi and I love you so very much! We wish you the happiest birthday ever!

And since the blog is mostly about her, lets take a minute for a Brian and Kelly photo montage...

No more Target toys

I think we are reaching the end of an era with Olivia. It will not be long before we won't be able to buy her appropriate toys or devices at the store and cart them home with us in the car. We will soon be relegated to only online shopping. Some people can online shop just as well as in the store. Not me. I like to actually see what I'm buying in person before I spend all the money on it. But, thats how it goes. The toys in the store that are intriguing to her she cannot operate because they require more fine motor skills than she has. Yet, the toys she can operate on her own are for much smaller children and the reward (lights or music or whatever) is not appropriate for her age. We are morphing into the "special needs" section of entertainment which most of the time just means "we're going to charge you triple for it, just because we can".

If you have seen any pictures of Olivia in her little (stressing little) blue rocker you know she is obviously way too tall for it. Her poor little head tilts to the side because her body is so dad-gum long! We use that chair mostly for chilling at home. We've been looking for something to grow with her, but it needed to be size appropriate and have straps to keep her in since she can't sit in a regular chair by herself. You cannot go to the store and buy these things. Instead, you have to get them online and pay, yes, triple the price or better. So, in the next week or so Livi should be getting one of these in the mail...

And, since its poop brown you KNOW we had to get the purple straps. This is a VERY generous Christmas present from a very dear loved one. Thank you. It should fit her for a couple of years and will sit in this base thing in the living room or will actually also strap into the dining room chair so we can all eat together.

Later this week I will post pictures of Olivia in her new nighttime sleeping device--a hip brace. If we are diligent (you better believe we will be) this brace SHOULD keep Olivia from needing hip surgery later on. Will she like it? probably not. It doesn't have purple anything. Its just white. But, she will tolerate it and then get used to it and we won't have to worry about having a hip cast on some time down the line.

The best toy she will be getting soon? Her very own iPad. Yes. Before you judge, hear me out. It IS for playing, but mostly for therapy. Apparently the iPad is replacing all of the previous very expensive speech tools with of all of its amazing therapeutic and educational apps. It will also hook up to her switch with an adapter, so instead of trying to make her fine motor stills improve to use the touch screen, she will be able to use her switch. I am SO excited to get this for her. Merry Christmas, sweetie! Don't worry, we'll be sure to get you a purple cover for it.

So, am I done shopping at Target? Heck no! I got another girl that will be here in a matter of weeks (9ish). You better believe I will still be visiting my local Target plenty!

By the way, I'm a terrible blogger. We're home. Got home Friday. Olivia was just SUPER sore all weekend from the spinal tap on Wed. but back to her old self now and getting ready for preschool as we speak. 

Room for one more?

We've been busy busy lately, but in a good way. Brian went to Philly last weekend for a conference and the girls had the weekend to themselves. We survived and had lots of fun! Then Tuesday afternoon we left for Livi's neurology appointment in St. Louis. Wednesday at 7am we got to the hospital and they did a spinal tap to use some of her spinal fluid for some more tests as to the cause of her epilepsy. Later that afternoon we met with her neurologist in clinic and came up with more steps to our plan for Livi's treatment. We are so lucky to have providers that care so much!

We got home from St. Louis last night at 8pm. At 11:30pm we were in Childrens Mercy's ER because Livi had another fever. We wanted to check everything out considering she had needles stuck into her spine earlier that day and were concerned about infection. Turns out she has some sort of a spot on her chest x-ray that is either pneumonia or a slightly collapsed lung. I might know more when I speak with the dr.'s today, but suffice it to say we are all very tired, but doing well considering. She is just on her regular home regimen of things now with the addition of antibiotics. We'll see where we go from here. Brian and I might be worse off than Livi--getting home from the hospital at 4am after two days of travel and getting up at 5am the day before.

I had another (one of the weekly) perinatologist appointments for the baby (who we are now positive we will be calling Gabrielle). She looks great again this week! But the craziness of the last few days got me thinking---do we really have room for one more? Of course we'll love her like crazy, but so much of what we do even down to the hour is about taking care of Olivia I just don't know how we'll make it work. I know, I know....everyone does. We will too. Just seems insane to think about. We'll want Gabby to feel she gets as much attention and love as Livi. What will we do with a midnight ER trip? Only have one of us take Livi? Take all of us? Go nuts?

Oh sheesh--it'll work out somehow. I do need your help, though. First name is definitely Gabrielle. Last name is still definitely Key (don't worry, honey). Middle name is under further review--suggestions?

No pants afternoons

This weekend was the first time in a year and a half that Brian and I have found time to get away for a few days without Olivia. It was fantastic, but of course we missed her. Because of the generosity of some very kind friends, we spent the weekend in northwest Arkansas at a lake house alone. We fished. We slept. We did watch about an hour of football while we ate lunch. And then we fished some more. The whole time we enjoyed the best weekend ever and this view...

Meanwhile, in Joplin, my mother enjoyed this view...

Thats my grandma and my dad reading Livi's pop-up book to her on my parents new and wonderful back porch. I'm trying to convince my mom to call it the 'mom cave'. I'll let you know how it goes over... I think the picture was meant to convey to me that everyone was perfectly fine and having a good time. The first thing I noticed was that my mother was making sure Olivia felt right at home at their house--by keeping with our tradition of 'no pants afternoons'. Generally, if we aren't going out of the house, Olivia is doing stuff in a diaper and a shirt. Its really just laziness on my part. Also, Livi gets Miralax regularly and its just easier to keep from washing another pair of pants, thus she just doesn't wear any. Apparently no pants afternoons doesn't keep EVERYONE from washing extra laundry---sorry grandma!

Side note: I am 29 weeks pregnant. How is this going so fast? I need to get my act together. The 'nursery' is still 100% Brian's office. Whoops!