Partying Hard

October 26th was Aaron's birthday.  He turned the big 27!   Since it was his special day, he picked what we would do.  Of course, it involved pizza!  (Surprisingly, it did not involve a movie.  That's what he's requested the last several years!)

Both of our families met at CiCi's for pizza.  (Aaron's birthday, Aaron's choice!)

This little girl, Ellie, took LOTS of pictures!

Here are Aaron's family...well parts of them from a 3 year old's perspetive...

                   

           

                         

          

We came back to our house after dinner for cake and ice cream.  

Aaron wanted carrot cake & butter pecan ice cream.

We sang, ate, and Aaron opened his presents!

Happy Birthday, Aaron!  We LOVE you!  Nora & I appreciate EVERYTHING you do!  XOXOXO

She's Starting...!

There's a few new things going on this week...




First:  Nora's starting to crawl!  Here we go...

Second:  She still likes every food (except peaches...she'll eat them just makes faces)!  Even mango!  Yum!




And now the big news:

Nora has been diagnosed with Brachycephaly and right Plagiocephaly.  Now, those are just fancy names for basically having a flat and wide head.

Her head looks something like this.  This is an example of a child with a mild case of both Brachycephaly & Plagiocephaly.

It is not an extremely severe case, but one severe enough to need correction.  The number of cases of Plagiocephaly has recently skyrocketed from 1 in 300 to 1 in 60, since babies have been sleeping on their backs, while the number of cases of SIDS has decreased rapidly.  For most children with Plagiocephaly it is corrected with re-positioning their head while laying on their backs.  For some, this does not correct the problem.  Some children, like Nora, were born with it.  Most babies are born with an odd-shaped head but it usually rounds out over the first few months.  Nora's head shape is from her position in utero, so it wasn't anything we could control.


Well, now Nora is ready to start her treatment!  On Wednesday, we will go back to the doctors (Cranial Technologies) and Nora will get her DOC band!  It is one version of a cranial helmet.

This is what a DOC (Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty) band looks like.

We've been for the evaluation and the DSi already.  The DSi is where they take a 360 picture of Nora's head to make the band perfect for her head.  

This is the DSi machine.  Nora sat on the stool.

They put some pantyhose over her head to smash her hair down to get a good picture of just her head shape.  This is Nora with her clinician.

They held her up and tried lots of things to get her to sit still and straight!

Now we are in the waiting process.  We have to wait 2 weeks for the band to be made and then they'll fit it to her and we'll learn all the ins and outs of it.  

This is has been such a learning process!  I have never known why some children wear helmets and I'll admit this was not a reason I thought it could be!  While Nora's head shape may seem insignificant, it has a great impact on her life later!  Since her head isn't perfectly round, that means her skull bones aren't perfectly aligned.  By treating this now we are preventing future problems and possible surgeries.  Otherwise, she could end up with jaw problems, TMJ, an underbite, sinus problems, etc.  It may seem this is just a cosmetic procedure, but it's definitely a proactive one instead!  We'd rather Nora look cute in a "new hair accessory" for a few months than need painful surgeries later!

Stay posted for pictures of Nora sylin' in her band...soon!

Note:  To find out more information about Nora's condition or treatment, visit www.cranialtech.com 

The LOOKS of Nora

Nora keeps us laughing and we have more than our share of fun with her!  She doesn't mind wigs...you'll see what I mean!

Yum...trying rice cereal for the first time.

Yay, I like it!

Groovin' in April's Farrah Fawcett Wig at Travis' surprise party!

Trying on Daddy's fro wig for the party...fits perfectly!

Dancing the disco with Daddy...

Stylin' in Great-Great-Grandma's curls...

 Playing with the halloween goodies at Walmart...

Some serious bed head...

About to eat on April & Travis' boat...it's a tight fit between the lifejacket and the bib, but she didn't seem to care!

Daddy found a safe place for her... 

Sleeping with Daddy...

6 Months!

Time is flying by and Miss Nora is getting bigger and bigger!  We absolutely LOVE her to pieces!  She is the better than any ipod or game system!!  She is so good at smiling to melt our hearts day or night.  (Well, by night I mean when it's bedtime---thankgoodness not during the middle of the night!)

Here's some quick facts and pictures of her so you can see how much she's grown...

Nora is now 17 lbs 3 oz (75-90%ile) and 27 in (90%ile).  If this continues, Aaron may get his wish---a daughter taller than her mother!  Meanie.

Nora can now sit up on her own for extended amounts of time, makes constant gibberish noises and sounds, blows raspberries, moves all around without crawling (not quite sure she's gets there though), and plays by herself with her toys!  She loves to shake her rattles, look at her books, hit herself and her toys over and over again, banging her hand or foot on the ground to hear it thump on the floor or her bracelet jingle, eating her toys, pulling my finger into her mouth and biting it, rocking on all four, playing peekaboo, copying our faces, and of course watching tv.  She can hold her own bottle, but that's not something she enjoys...she'd rather grab onto my hand and hold it instead.  I think she knows holding her bottle makes her arms tired!  She also likes drinking out of her sippy cup.  She caught on on the first try!  (She sucks really hard and still prefers the same nipples she's used all along so I think that's why it was easy for her.)  I'll admit I'm not too excited for her to learn to crawl and have to go behind her getting into stuff, but it's so fun watching her grow!!

Some of the most exciting news:  Nora also has her two bottom teeth!  Yay!  (And boy are they sharp!)  I'll get a picture of it soon.  It's hard because her tongue is always playing with them and in the way!

Happy 6 Month Birthday!  She got a new toy for it!

She also got a few sippy cups!

She's starting to twist to try and get out of her Bumbo!

She sleeps hard and wakes up happy!  (Most of the time...)

Blogger is being difficult with uploading videos, so I've uploaded them to YouTube.

Click below to see Nora blowing raspberries:

Blowing Raspberries 

Click below to watch Nora battling her new toy penguin.  Sometimes she wins, sometimes the penguin...=):

Nora vs. Perky the penguin 

Click below to watch Nora getting on all fours and wanting to crawl:

Wishin' to Crawl

Ellie...Under the Sea

Aaron's niece, Ellie, turned 3, August 16th.  We celebrated it the next weekend with Aaron's Dad and siblings.  Since it was at our house we came up with the decorations, decisions, and details for it.  Aaron wanted a low-country boil and came up with doing an "Under the Sea" themed party to go with the shrimp.  Ellie LOVED it!  We decorated the front door and the food table with fish and blue streamers.  We love all of Aaron's nieces and nephews but only the girls were able to come to the party.  

Unfortunately, most of the pictures I took got lost when my hard drive crashed.  Here's a few pictures and a video I was able to recover:

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

She gets SO excited for presents...especially if they're babies!  She got 2 babies this year!  I have a cute video of her waiting to see what the newest one can do, but I can't get it to upload.  Just imagine PawPaw trying to figure out what the baby does and how to get it to work and her standing patiently whispering "what's it do, what's it do" getting more and more excited the longer it takes.  It was priceless!

Ellie, birthday girl

 Hayley, her sister

The girls LOVE playing with Nora's toys!

Travelers

We're big travelers lately.  I think it's the found freedom of me not working anymore!  It's so nice to be able to just go by Aaron's schedule!!

One of the places we went several times this summer was to visit my Dad and Vivian.  This last time we also got to visit my brother, Xan, since he's living there now while going to Trident Tech.  

      

Aaron was hard at work while we hung out.  As usual.  He likes to stay busy!  He tiled the backsplash in their kitchen.  It looks really good and definitely WAY better than it used to with just plain white tiles.  Good job, Aaron!

Nora discovered petting Dad's dogs.  Russell was a good sport and let her grab his fur without flinching.  We all discovered Nora heartily laughing if Russell barked loudly.  I didn't get the belly laughs on video, but I got some chuckles.  

There are lots of computers at my Dad's house.  Even Nora has one.  Well, it's Millie's too--they share since their small.

My Dad stays busy.  He works hard on his yard, well unless he's hunting, or target shooting, or being a computer geek with Xan, or something.  =)

Don't worry, we'll be going back soon.  Aaron is dying to go gator hunting with them!!

Summers Over, But the Memories Will Last (Until Next July!)

Disclaimer:  I KNOW this is WAY beyond over due...but here it is anyways.  I've had some technical difficulties.  After the beach we ended up heading out of town a few times and it took us FOREVER to get back into the swing of things and then...MY COMPUTER CRASHED!!  It's taken me a while to get things back on the computer and organized.  Of course our internet gets REALLY slow sometimes (no clue why!) but today it's pretty fast so, finally a blog!

We LOVE the beach!

We LOVE the family time, the temporary life style, the fun!  This year I LOVED all the help with Nora!!

We REALLY missed Aaron when he wasn't there but are so thankful for him and his hard work while he was home!

I am SO grateful I have a daughter that LOVES the beach, ocean, & pool and can go with the flow.  It made it soo much easier!

We CAN'T WAIT for next year!

Instead of posting TONS of pictures, here's a link to a gallery.  Feel free to peruse.  (I'm sure only family would be willing to look at all those pictures!)

http://gallery.me.com/lani.dunnam#100006