Climbing the Stairs

Not only was Thanksgiving a time to be thankful for our family it is also a time for learning! Baby "D" mastered crawling up the stairs at grandma and grandpa's house over the weekend. She was so proud of herself. I am not sure if 9month olds are normally doing this now, but I like to think that she is exceptionally smart for her age! I forgot to the tell daycare that she can do this.....I sure hope that her daycare provider doesn't turn around and see her half way up the stairs! :)

Here she is on Thanksgiving day. As you can see, she doesn't have much hair but I just couldn't resist putting a bow in her hair.

THANKSGIVING

What a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Being home with my parents is so relaxing and wonderful. My mom (grandma) made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and the baby had her first Thanksgiving meal. I think she really liked the turkey because she just kept eating and eating. She also ate mashed potatoes and stuffing and green bean casserole. After cleaning up, she and I went for a walk. The weather is a little brisk but I am very thankful that we were able to get outside.

Two weeks ago we went to get family pictures taken. I have uploaded one of the baby. She is 9 months old. SOON we will be having a 1 yr old birthday party. I think I might cry and celebrate all at the same time.

Confirmation

We went to the Mayo on Friday and received a confirmation on our diagnosis. The doctor was very calming and reassuring that what we are dealing with is very minimal compared to many other children. It was very sad to see all the pictures of babies who had more severe cases of K-T.
Other than that, things are about the same in our house. We are really looking forward to going to grandma and grandpa's for Thanksgiving.
I am also thinking about Christmas and decorations. I know that baby "D" will be in to everything so we might have to put the tree downstairs this year. When I dropped her off at daycare this morning, the babysitter said that she has two trees and one is downstairs! I sure hope that "D" can keep from crawling and pulling on it :)

Weather

The weather outside is gorgeous and I can't wait to get off work and go enjoy it with the baby! She loves to be outside. Our dog also loves to go for walks so tonight will be perfect! Last night baby "D" took her car "thing" that stands up and pushed it forward. Of course since it was moving forward so was she otherwise she was going to go face forward on to the floor. It was amazing to watch her walking or rather trying to walk with this device. I then stood behind and gently pushed the car forward a little at a time so that she could keep up. We walked back and forth around the living room several times. So then I tried to have her stand on her own without holding on to anything and she stood for about 2 seconds becoming so unstable that she fell over. I think that she might be walking before she is 1. Then LOOK OUT!!!
I am still amazed by her everyday and no matter if I have a bad day at work or things just aren't going in my direction, I can look at her and everything is better. She is a blessing!

The diagnosis is Klippel Trenaunay Syndrome

Ok SCARY!!!!!! I can hardly believe that my beautiful angel has a syndrome. And it seems to be one that has a vast array of levels. The doctor did say that based on a scale of 1-10 hers is probably a 1 or 2 so that is good news. Here is the really wierd thing.....I am back teaching in the mornings because we had to release a teacher from her position (long story that I will get to another time) anyway, the woman that is teaching in the afternoon, her grandson has the same diagnosis. Her daughter called me tonight and told me about a support group and gave me her phone number and some other very helpful advice. The one thing she did say is that Mayo and a clinic in Boston are the only two hospitals that work with this syndrome so I guess it is good that I live in Minnesota.
I must say that this is all a little overwhelming at the moment but hopefully as we all learn more and get more educated, things will not seem as overwhelming.