Halloween 2010

We took Kiya trick or treating today for the first time. She was hands down the cutest little cat ever :) I don't think she really understood it all at first but once we got going she was so into it. She would grab her bucket and walk up to the doors. She didn't always say trick or treat but she definitely said thank you and very loudly said it.

She was a total pro about all of it. She wasn't scared of the people, the other kids or the one kind of scary house. Everyone thought she was just too cute for words and we couldn't help but agree. It was a huge success.

She ate her first Peanut Butter cup tonight and LOVED it :) That was the only piece she ate tonight since it was close to bedtime. We had planned on going to just a few houses but she was having fun and our street was kind of lame so we went around the block. She loved every minute of it :) And so did we. Can't wait to do that again :)

Here are some pictures of  our super fun night.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Kiya to the Pumpkin Patch today. It was a little muddy but she seemed to not mind at all. In fact she was WAY more excited about the chickens, rooster and duck then anything else. She pretty much wanted a chicken. I think she would have preferred to bring a chicken home than a pumpkin.

 CHICKENS!!! Let's go....

 Our not so successful attempts to get a staged cute picture of Kiya. She was way too distracted.

 Look chickens again :)

 Here she was just annoyed. There was a rooster and it kept up the cock a doodle doo's and every time Kiya would glare and say " LOUD". Pretty cute. Then we asked her what a rooster says and she said "doo doo doo"

Overall we had a good time other than when we told Kiya she couldn't pet the chickens...she didn't like that and kept trying and the poor chickens kept running away. I actually felt bad for them. Here is this super loud toddler running straight for them. We did manage to keep her away from the free kittens, that would have gotten super ugly as I know she would have wanted one and I also know we are so not cat people and have 2 dogs that very much hate cats. Maybe next year she will like the pumpkins more than the chickens. I doubt it but we shall see :)

Pajama Drive

So I know I mentioned this briefly before and some of you are my friends on facebook so you have seen it and some of you have sent me pajamas already... thanks Stefani.

But here is the official info.

The Lucky Cast Club is holding a Pajama Drive. Check out some cutie pies in their casts here.

The Lucky Cast Club will be collecting New Pajama's to send home with our little cast friends this fall/winter. Casting is uncomfortable for many of our little friends so we thought it would be fun to add a little soft sunshine to their casting day's. You can help us reach our first PJ drive goal by donating a new pair of fun PJ's size 12/18 months to 5t. Lucky Cast Club members will be collecting PJ's until our next cast dates.

Ours is December 14th, but we can ship donations that arrive after that date! Thanks for your support. Here we grow Lucky Cast Friends! The plan is to collect over 150 pair of pjs and then divide then between our hospital in Chicago and then also to Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Salt Lake City Shriner's hospital and others as well.

We are well on our way. My nutty idea was to collect 52 pairs of jammies, one for each degree of Kiya's curve. Why? So that each one of those degrees will represent a smile on another child's face.

So if you are so inclined to want to help, leave me a comment with an email. Thanks for all of the support you have shown to us during this journey.

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