May Fundraising Stats

Our fundraising stats as of the end of May are $3,000. HOPE for Ari has just recently become a non-profit organization, so we plan to start distributing the free grocery certificates with donation outside grocery stores. If anyone would like to participate in this, please let me know at elisamtaylor@hotmail.com. Also, if anyone else would like to make pledges to sell certificates, we would greatly appreciate it! I hope everyone that has purchased a certificate has registered theirs to get your rebate voucher.

Summer is Here

Temperatures have hit three digits this month, and we've welcomed the warmer weather by enjoying one of our favorite family activities: swimming! We've gone to Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center (kid water park), been hanging out in our backyard pool, and I've even set up a blow up play pool for weekday fun in our courtyard. All three of my kids are crazy about the water, which is great because Jake and I can't get enough of it either. Isabella is just as content as can be hanging out in her floatie or getting carried around. Gabriel loves jumping off the high side of the pool into the water. He is so brave! He doesn't mind going under the water, and he seems to get more and more comfortable every time he gets in. Of the three of my kids, Ariana is my fish! She just couldn't be happier than when she's in the pool. She starts laughing excitedly at the very sight of her bathing suit. Once she's in the water, her tone totally relaxes and she's able to kick and move her arms and splash. She loves putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. If she didn't have Cerebral Palsy, I just know she'd be swimming independently by now. Ariana also likes to "jump" (while we hold her) into the pool like her brother, Gabe. I am signing the twins up for swimming lessons this summer, and I'm so excited!

ASU Graduation 2009

My sister, Marci, just graduated from ASU's Nursing School. We are so proud of her! We got to go to her Commencement Ceremony and listen to Pres. Obama give the commencement speech. It was a very memorable experience. It was really neat to be present at something that monumental.We celebrated later over dinner at Digestif.

Happy Mother's Day

Today was such a great day. After church, Jacob gave me a heartwarming card that he wrote and a gift from him and the kids. So sweet! Then we went out for dinner at Chelsea's Kitchen. Everything was so delicious, and you know I'm a sucker for good food! Even the kids had a great time.

Family QT

We went to Holbrook again to visit Jake's family and be there for our little neice, Madison's, baby blessing. This was our first time meeting her, and she is just so sweet. It was fun to get to see family, but unfortunately, the trip did not go entirely smoothly. On our first day there, Gabe fell in a patch of goat head thorns and he suffered the entire next day with an allergic reaction. He was not a happy camper.

This week, we also had a visit from Jake's brother Ryan and his family. They stayed with us for three nights, and we really had a good time. The kids, especially, had a blast with their cousins. We went swimming, watched movies, went to a water park, and just enjoyed hanging out together.

Isabella's Prosthesis

On May 4, we picked up Isabella's very first prosthesis. It is custom made just for her little arm, and it should last her about another 6 to 8 months or so. It is a passive prosthesis, meaning that it does not open and close volunatarily, but it can be opened to hold a toy. So far, she likes it sometimes and not others. She treats it as if it were any toy -- enjoying mouthing it and banging it around and then taking it off and tossing it aside. I am supposed to put it back on her whenever she takes it off, but the reapplication is the part that she resists the most, so I'm not super consistent about it. Bella is to wear the prosthesis when she is awake, so she learns to utilize it and grows accustomed to thinking of it as a tool.

I am currently freaking out, because I can't find the thing. She threw it off at church, I tried to put it back on, she fought me, I put it down, and I think I left it there. This thing is going to drive me insane. As if I don't have enough to remember, now I have to worry about keeping track of a very expensive, custom made piece of equipment that my baby throws to and fro whenever and wherever we go. *UPDATE* Found the prosthesis in the crib! Yea!

I digress. Anyway, if she uses this prosthesis, she will get to move onto her first myoelectric prosthesis probably by the time she reaches 15 months old. That, to me, is just amazing. The myoelectric one will open and close voluntarily when she contracts and relaxes her arm muscles. So, that is my goal: for Isabella to be able to have the option of using a prosthesis that she operates on her own. Go Bella!

April Milestones

This month, Gabe had a few notable achievements. His speech is getting more sophisticated every day. He is able to use sentences, pluralization, and sometimes past tense. His articulation is getting better, and I can pretty much understand everything he tries to say (although not everyone can). Some of my favorites of Gabe's sayings this month are "hold you?" (when he wants me to hold him), "Where are you?", "I yuv you mommy", "thank you", "you're welcome", and "ka chow!" (Lightning McQueen from 'Cars'). Gabe has also been showing a great deal more empathy lately. He frequently demonstrates this when other children, including Ari and Bella, cry or when someone says 'Oh, no!' by compassionately inquiring "What happened???". I think it's so cute. He is also gaining a deeper understanding of feelings. He can intentionally make different facial expressions (i.e. sad, angry, happy). When looking at illustrations of people exhibiting different expressions, he can identify what feeling is being felt, and his own expression and tone mirrors that emotion. For example, he'll say "Oh, Bella. Bella cry. Bella sad." Or when he does something wrong (like throw his food onto the floor), he'll anticipate my feelings by asking, "Mommy angry?". If I was upset, it sure is hard to stay that way with him being so darn cute.This month, Gabe has starting peeing in the potty! He started doing this at the very beginning of April, and he's been doing it ever since. Gabe usually goes potty 4 or 5 times a day, which pretty much amounts to whenever he's asked. He loves the routine, including the flushing and handwashing. He thinks washing hands is just so great. He has still not gone #2 yet, despite our encouragement. He usually tells us that he has to go potty, and when we get there -- surprise, #2 has already been deposited in the diaper. I know he'll get there soon. We have a couple planned trips so I'm not going to start the serious potty training (timer and all) until we get back and settled.

Gabe has fallen in love with a toy. One toy that he has still not tired of since the day he got it from his Grandma is the Plasma Car, which Gabe lovingly refers to as "Yellow Scoo-ter". Gabe, like all children, goes through phases with his toy preferences, but this one has not budged from the top of the charts since day 1. He still rides it throughout the tiled floors of our house every day. He is very possessive of it, and doesn't like to share it ever or with anyone. He loves that thing. Lastly, Gabe has started memorizing things he hears. He seems to have a great memory, from what I can tell. He has memorized parts of at least 10 books, parts of several movies, and knows the words to so many songs. His favorite songs to sing are the ABC song, Twinkle twinke, and Insey Weensy Spider. Gabe is doing much better with learning his lower case letters. He knows most of them, confusing similar-looking ones like (r, n, h) or (p, q) or (b, d) or (u, n). Gabe has also counted as high as 40 all by himself, but he has a habit of skipping numbers 13-15. Gabe also can count objects up to 12, instead of just counting from rote memory. He can arrive at the correct number of objects most of the time. I'm really proud of my little boy, can you tell?

This month, Ariana has made some slight improvements in her tummy pivoting. I can tell that she is getting stronger, and she is able to pivot (army crawl in a circular direction) faster and more efficiently than before. She has been trying to pull her knees up under her, but she always shoots her arms out in front of her whenever she does this, preventing her from staying up in the 4-point position for more than a few seconds. Ari has starting babbling a little more this month, using more consonants than before. She has even started saying "Dada" to and about her Daddy, and sometimes when verbally prompted. Other than 'hi', 'Dada' is her second word (she stopped saying 'mama'). We are so happy for her. Ari has been doing some neat things in play recently. Ari really enjoys pretend play now. She's been at it for a couple months, but she's recently started to get very excited about having tea parties and pretend feeding her baby and her mama with a spoon, talking on the phone & saying "hi", and other make believe games. In some ways, she's just like a regular two year old girl. Ari has also been enjoying putting things in and taking things out of containers and trying to stack and nest cups and blocks. She often does this at her table, that her Grammy & Grandpa made for her, while sitting independently. This requires so much concentration on her part. I love to see her little determined spirit.

This month, Ariana has been very affectionate. She will happily oblige me almost anytime with a kiss upon request (she doesn't know how to pucker, but she give great kisses anyway) or a hug. And let me tell you, Ariana gives the best hugs ever! She wraps her arms around you, pats your back, and nestles her head on your shoulder. It melts my heart each time! Ari has been noticeably more affectionate with her stuffed animals as well, which is super cute.

Ariana has also been increasing her receptive language vocabulary a ton. She demonstrates this by her ability to identify objects, including people, food, toys, and body parts. Of the body parts subset, she can correctly identify and point to her hair, head, ears, face, mouth, teeth, tongue, hands, tummy, belly button, legs, toes, and feet. This month, Isabella was the babe with the most going on. At the beginning of the month, she started sitting independently. She is, so far, my most coordinated baby. Despite her apparent balance offset (missing part of an upper extremity), she sits securely and is able to turn in all directions while sitting. She frequently goes into the splits while playing, which she doesn't seem to mind at all. Bella rolls in every direction, and has learned how to pivot on her tummy as well. She seems so eager to get up and crawl, but that would be a much more difficult task with just 1 1/2 arms. Isabella has been babbling consonants. She loves to have little "conversations" with her sister Ariana. I love overhearing them talk to each other. Bella is also a little jokester. She is getting such a great sense of humor. She loves to play peek-a-boo and she "gets" a lot of humor that I wouldn't expect her to grasp just yet. For example, on a Baby Einstein DVD, there is a little puppet skit that involves some slapstick humor. Isabella just cracks up hysterically when she sees this scene. It's terrific! Although still totally laid back and just all around great company, Isabella has been getting a little more demanding this month. Sometimes, she won't tolerate being put down or left alone even for a second (who could blame her?). She is quite content most of the time though, as long as there are people around. I think that she may be teething, seeing as how she is drooling like a faucet, she puts everything in her mouth, and her crankiness comes and goes.

In addition to breastfeeding, Isabella has been eating a jar of baby food three times per day (fruit, veggie, dinner). She loves drinking diluted apple juice out of the sippy cup, although I don't just let her run wild with it because she'll spoil her appetite. She typically naps 2-3 times per day, about 3 hours total. And she is saying "hi" and "mama". She says "hi" in a high pitched squeal while waving her short arm. She says "mama" when she needs me. :) Other than Bella, Isabella has some nicknames that I want to note. They are Isabelly, Belly, Belle, Bella Barella, Nubbin, and Shark Bite.