Smart, Happy, and Strong :)

It's been a while since I have written, but things have been going well. Molly is getting stronger by the day and is starting to have new tricks. She is rolling from her back to her stomach by kicking herself over, mostly in an attempt to get a toy out of reach. Yesterday, she learned to open and close her hand in a waving motion, so it probably won't be long before she will be waving hello and good-bye. She has started shaking all of her toys and seems quite proud of herself. Books seem to be her new favorite toy. She is definitely cutting teeth up top, but nothing has broken through yet.

Jim's parents were here this past weekend for a visit and we all had a nice time. Molly was on her best behavior. Jan, Jim's Mom, got the chance to hold Molly for the first time and it was a special moment for everyone.

Jim compiled a DVD of all of the videos we have taken over the past 8 months. It was emotional to look back at the video from the first few months. It was such a difficult time back then. I am so appreciative that Molly is doing so well right now. She has far exceeded what we had envisioned and I hope that she continues to do better than we expected. As my Dad would say... "stay tuned".

I am continuing to house hunt, but we aren't planning on putting our house on the market unless we find the perfect house. We will reevaluate in the Spring.

Sorry for the delay in postings. I will try and be more consistent.

Hanz or Franz?

She is here to Pump You Up! (from SNL)

Molly is getting quite strong! Yesterday she repeatedly rolled from her back to her stomach in both directions. She is also putting a little bit of pressure on her feet and "bouncing", which is quite scary, but also great for her development.

She is babbling up a storm and has been quite happy lately. I think she is cutting teeth up top, which has given her trouble now and again. She has also learned that if she reaches out for something we will take her over to touch it - a very fun game :).

Jim is away for the weekend racing his car. My Mom is here to keep me sane and make sure I have someone to help out if something happens.

Welcome to Separation Anxiety...

Molly has entered the world of separation anxiety today. It came on all of a sudden and from what I've heard it's here for the next few months - ugh! It is strange to think that up until this point she has not realized that she and I are not the same person! She will be 8 months tomorrow and I think this has hit when the book predicted.

No other big news for now...

Two Spoons or More

Good morning. Things are still up in the air as far as what to do regarding our house. There are too many things to take into consideration. Will Molly be in a wheel chair all of the time, or will she be able to walk some? How handicap accessible does her bathroom need to be? Does our garage need to be handicap ready? Could we adapt our home? and on and on...

We went driving this weekend and came across a new neighborhood that we could build in. It is the same builder that built our present house, which we love. They have a floor plan option is quite open and would work well for Molly. We could include a full bathroom on the first floor as well as a bedroom. The downside is that it is another 5 miles away from Jim's work and would add at least another 10 minutes to his commute. It is a newer area with neighborhoods going up all over the place. I have liked being in a somewhat established part of town. We are relatively confident that we need to move, but we do have time. The issue is, that if we want to build our own house, that if we wait we will be MILES away from everything and even farther from Jim's work. It is so much to think about. We could also hold out and wait for a house with a first floor full bath to come on the market, but then we are in the situation of owning two homes at once. I love finding the "right" answer and it is extremely stressful for me when there are pros and cons to every option. The house that was for sale in our neighborhood seemed like a winning option, hopefully something else like that will come along again. We have a long list of "must haves" for Molly and then some "nice to haves" for us (like being close to Jim's work) that make our wish list rather long and specific.

On the Molly front...Jim has been having a challenge feeding Molly lately. She wants to grab the spoon and gets quite upset if he doesn't let her have it. I was not having the experience when I fed her, but today she decided that I was no different! She was VERY insistent that she "feed herself" and then refused to release the spoon. It is adorable and also quite messy. Our best "work around" that we have found thus far is to introduce a new spoon with food while she is holding the other. This works for a bite or two and then she catches on and puts an end to it. Man oh man are we in for trouble with this little munchkin. She has a VERY strong will and seems to already know what she does and does not want! She is a character and, thankfully, is a VERY happy little girl.

My mom went to an OI gathering in the Chicago area last weekend (while she was there for work). She saw a lot of the families from the conference and met up with "Dr. Melanie" (a doctor with OI that we met and connected with at the conference). It was good to hear what she learned. It was also hard, because yet again Molly was put into the severe category. We know that there are children who are more severe, but we got to see what a more severe case looks like 10 and 20 years from now and it is hard to envision the path that will lead to that. We have been having such a good stretch with Molly and she has been getting so strong and has been so active. It is hard to think about the future and all of the challenges that will come her way. She is a happy little girl, and I don't envision that changing even with all of the difficulties she will have to face, but it is hard to know that she has so much pain ahead of her. I know that there is research being done and I hope hope hope that they will develop some new treatments in time to help our little cutie.

UNCLE MIKE "THE ROCKER" meets Molly for the first time:

Here's some proof...

Molly is completely camera shy, so it has taken us until today to capture her "mamama" on camera. CLICK HERE to see the video

She has been enjoying her new purple chair a lot. It has been so nice to have a place to put her so that we can "play" together. It was hard when she was flat on her back for all of our interaction. She has started "slapping" her hands against her legs when she is excited. There is no question that this little girl has A LOT of personality - she is so FUN and happy!

We still haven't figured out the whole house thing, but fortunately we have some time to mull it over. Jim is hopeful that we can add a bedroom and bathroom to the first floor, but I am concerned that this will cost us too much - we shall see! It is nice to have options.

Under Contract

We have been busting our behinds this weekend trying to clean up our house and box things up to get ready to put it on the market. We had an appointment today to meet with the selling agent and before we had the opportunity to talk about putting in an offer (contingent on the sale of our house) they received two offers and have now accepted one. I am quite disappointed, but I guess it just wasn't the right place for us.

We are still thinking about preparing to sell, if the right house comes along, but it may be a year or so before everything falls into place. Thankfully, we have time and can wait for the right thing to reveal itself. We will of course keep you posted.

Molly has been getting stronger and stronger. She is now twisting herself all around and is getting close to rolling from her back to her stomach. We are going to have to be on our toes from now on!

She has continued to be a chatty cathy and is now making "m" and "b" sounds. What a little cutie!

Mamamama

Molly has learned to say mamama and is having a ball doing so. She had said it a few months ago, but it was only a few times and then it was gone. It seems like it is here to stay this time. She has been "talking" all day long! It's adorable!

We have been busy today trying to get our house into shape, which is quite the task. We haven't figured out if we will be buying the house we saw, but we want to be ready in case we do so we can get our house on the market.

If any of you out there have ever bought a house before putting yours on the market, please email me with suggestions!

Movin' Right Along...

Ugh, more big decisions are hitting us at the moment. We went for a walk yesterday morning and noticed a house in our neighborhood is for sale. We came home and looked at it online and noticed that it has an above ground pool, a hot tub, and a first-floor master bedroom. These are all of the things that we had hoped to find in a house for Molly. Along with a flat driveway, flat lot and a cul-de-sac for her to play in. We made an appointment and went to see it during Jim's lunch. We like the feel of our house more, but this house is perfect for Molly.

I already had an appointment with an adaptability person lined up, so we had her look at both houses. She confirmed what I had thought. Our present house won't work for us once Molly is mobile. We could of course make this house work, but the amount of money we would have to put into it just wouldn't make sense. On the other hand, she gave this other house a thumbs up. Even if Molly is exclusively in a wheel chair we could make it work with some minor modifications. This is a tough decision and it has hit us all at once. I spoke with her physical therapist on Wednesday and she made me aware that we will be looking at ordering a wheel chair for Molly when she turns 2! That gives us 18 months to be in a house that Molly can move around in. YIKES!!

It is nice to have the option of a house in our neighborhood with most of the things that we will need for Molly, but it is also extremely overwhelming. The house is bigger than ours and comes with a bigger price tag. It is scary to take on a bigger mortgage, but is also very tempting.

I think we will be making a decision in the next few days, so I will keep you posted. It's SO much to think about.