Wordless Wednesday

WALKING :)

KIYA WALKS!!! That's right. Kiya is finally officially a full fledged walking toddler. She just let go and did it while we were are my parents house this weekend.

She was walking here and there between one piece of furniture to another before this weekend but my parents house has lots of open space. I honestly thought she was going to crawl a lot this weekend. Boy was I wrong! Now she will walk across the room. ALL BY HERSELF. You can set her down in the middle of a room and she will stand there and then just take off walking. She will pull herself up to a stand and then off she goes.

We are finally there :) She is a tad dramatic about all of it and can sometimes be caught fussing and walking at the same time. Such is the life of an overly dramatic, teething, almost two year old.

Some serious obstacles have been presented to Miss Kiya and she has stared each one down and conquered it. She is truly an amazing kid. I so did not give her enough credit. I thought after the cast she would be so mad and just give up. She was the opposite. She bounced back bigger and better (and straighter) than ever.

So thank you Mehta/EDF cast and Sure Step ankle braces, you helped make my 22 1/2 month old a full fledged toddler. I am so proud of Kiya and just love to watch the joy in her eyes as she walks across the room all by herself. You can see she is just so proud of herself and so are we.

Where to start.....

If you read my last post, you will note that I was talking about everything happens for a reason and life throwing curve balls at me. Wow....boy when it rains it pours.

I am officially unemployed. Yeah kind of came out of nowhere. I mean I knew in the next 12 months sometime I would lose my job but this happened very suddenly. We had a plumbing emergency at the store last Friday night that didn't get fixed until Saturday and well due to the damage we couldn't open for business. I spoke directly with the CEO on Monday and he assured me that the damage would be fixed and we would reopen for business later in the week. Well on Wednesday he called to tell me that they decided not to reopen the store. WHAT????

So Thursday I get a call from the controller and confirm I do get my 30 days severance pay but they are retroactively cancelling my health insurance, effective last Saturday. CRAP! We had prescriptions called in for my husband that weren't filled until Monday/Tuesday of this week. I picked them up and had to pay to co-pays but now fear that we will get slammed for the rest. His meds aren't cheap. We could be facing a bill of over $1000. UGGHHHH. We could pay for COBRA for 30 days which in essence will cost us an arm and a leg and then some. Can we say nightmare?

So I have spent the better part of the last couple of days looking for a job and figuring out our health insurance. I think we have insurance figured out. It is manageable, we just need to see if hubby gets approved with his pre-exsisting condition.

As for a job, I was finishing up some details for the coffee shop and had to stop at the bank. I have been in this bank at least twice a week for the last 3 plus years and we bank there as well so I know a lot of the staff. Well, the Service Manager came over and told me she just posted a full time job with benefits if I was interested and that I should go online and apply. I did just that. Fingers crossed I hear something soon!

It would be more stable hours, with a few Saturdays but doable. We would need to make some adjustments in our childcare but we could figure it out.

And so it goes....I just keep telling myself there must be a reason this is all happening. I definitely don't understand it but I am working through it. In the meantime I am enjoying some quiet time at home with the dogs. (We don't want to pull Kiya out of daycare because as soon as I get a job we will need it again and we don't want to lose our spot to one of the many families on the wait list. )

Perfect?

I got into a conversation today with an employee at my favorite local coffee shop. She knows a little bit about what is going on with Kiya and asked how she was doing. I told her she was great of course and she asked me, "don't you wish you could make it all go away, poor thing?"

I didn't really know what to say. I actually think my life is perfect just the way it is. I have a wonderful husband, two adorable dogs, a great family, amazing friends and this perfect little girl and hopefully someday in the future an equally perfect little man. Sure my husband works too much, my dogs are kind of nutty, Kiya has a curvy back and the wait for my son is getting really really long but I wouldn't change a thing.

I can't imagine my life any different. Sure there have been some curve balls thrown at me but I have always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I may not always understand the reasons but if it is meant to be it is meant to be. When I tell someone that they look at me like I am crazy, why wouldn't I want to change the things that aren't perfect in their eyes?  I guess if I could wave a magic wand and make Kiya's scoliosis go away that would be great but that isn't reality. The reality is she has scoliosis and because of that we have met some amazing kids and families that are really like our extended family. So does this casting stink? Sure but it is doable. Kiya is thriving and we know we aren't alone.

We had a follow up appointment yesterday at Shriner's and were fortunate enough to meet 3 more amazing kids and their moms and dads. It was such a blessing to meet them. They have been such big supporters of Kiya and have helped us through our journey. We saw the doctor and all was well with the cast. No sores, skin breakdown, etc. We went and visited with Nurse Gwen and cast tech Robert and they were so thrilled to hear how great Kiya was doing.

And I thought, you know what? Kiya really is great. She is lively, sassy, bossy and well all the things almost 2 year olds are supposed to be. She is way too smart sometimes and she is loud and she is silly. Since her cast, she has become so much more independent. Her balance has improved. She can stand up without holding on to anything. She can stop and pause while she is walking. Heck she is walking. She walks way more than she crawls. In fact the other day I had to stop and think if I saw her crawl. Sure she has good days and bad but she is truly incredible. Why would I want to change that? Watching her, I have learned so much. Sure life has thrown me some curve balls but it has thrown big ol' boulders at Kiya and every time she bounces back with strength, attitude and laughter. It is a remarkable trait and one I know will serve her well in life.

So to life I say, bring it on. I may not like what you bring, but I know it is supposed to happen and I know that it can be managed. Heck I sure don't like scoliosis but I love my extended scoliosis family and I would never have met these amazing kids and parents. So keep on throwing those curve balls, we are getting pretty good at hitting them out of the park.  And with each curve ball comes another amazing revelation or gift.

++Brief update in Kiya's Kare Korner

Yucky food combos?

Okay so I have seen some gross food combos in the last almost 18 months and have decided it is time to write them down. Why? Well, I don't want to forget so I can tell Kiya all about what she used to combine together. Her combos fall into 2 main categories. Things she dips in ranch dressing and things she dumps into her yogurt and then eats.

The following items have been dipped in ranch: (I am not listing the normal foods, just the weird ones)
--chocolate teddy grahams
--cinnamon teddy grahams
--banana
--pretzels
--pasta with tomato sauce
--raisins
--peaches
--apples

The following have been dumped into her yogurt doesn't matter which flavor:
--cheese pizza
--pasta with sauce
--hot dog
--cheese
--raisins
--chicken
--fish sticks with ketchup already on them
--peas

This all seems really gross to me but doesn't seem to bother her in the least. On the plus side she eats pretty well it is just gross to watch a chocolate teddy graham being dipped in ranch or hot dogs in banana yogurt really got me the other day.

Silly girl.

Wordless Wednesday

What am I up to?

Too much really. Stretched a little thin but loving it.

Kiya is keeping me on my toes for sure. She is trying to be sneaky but given that she is set to loud all the time that hasn't really worked. Add to that that she is just too darn cute and let's just say the next couple of years are going to be interesting. We are headed to Chicago for a follow up appointment at Shriner's. She is approaching one month in cast and they like to check on the kids after the first month in their first cast. Her appointment is Monday Oct. 11th. I am super excited because some other amazing mom's will be at Shriner's that day and I can't wait to meet them in person.

We also got Kiya's 2nd cast date. It will be December 14th. We can cut her cast off up to two weeks prior to that which would be very close to her 2nd birthday. We are opting for about one week/8 days prior as it makes me nervous to take it off. I don't have to worry right now about her back getting worse. No cast means her back could get worse.

The rest of life is also keeping my busy. I now occasionally blog at

http://www.luckycastclub.blogspot.com/

Okay, I have only posted once so far but I am a new author. It is a joint blog with multiple authors who are moms with kids with infantile scoliosis.

You can also check out this cool website, set up by a friend I hope to meet on the 11th.

http://www.luckycastclub.com/

Basically both ventures are there to empower and reach out to families dealing with scoliosis. Our ultimate goal is to set up a non-profit organization to raise funds and gather supplies for families and kids dealing with this condition. We are starting small and dreaming big.

First up, a Pajama Drive. More details will follow but ultimately, we are trying to collect comfy pajamas size 12 month to 5t to distribute to kids on their cast day. We got Dora pajamas for Kiya from a dear friend and it was really neat. We want all kids to have that.

If that isn't enough, I may be joining forces with an old friend from grade school who now works for Project C.U.R.E to see if we can get some more medical supplies headed to hospitals in Ethiopia.

Add to that that I still work full time, am a full time Mom and have two crazy pugs who don't get nearly enough attention and my plate is FULL. I wouldn't change a thing though. Busy is good. Keeps me out of trouble.