Emma's Wing

Before I was even pregnant with Emma, I wanted to paint her room. Everyone thought I was jumping the gun a little given that I wanted to paint it blue. I kept hearing, "but how do you know you will have a boy?" To which I would respond, "I'm not, I'm having a girl. But blue will be her favorite color too!" Some found my response odd, but I was excited about having a baby and wanted the room blue no matter the gender. So I went to Home Depot and bought two different paints - same color, but one was a flat and the other a semi gloss finish. I did vertical stripes alternating between the two and absolutely loved the results. The project was a big pain in the ... but it was more than worth it. However, that was the only room in my last house that was a different color. When Emma began to show signs of sight around a year old, I noticed that she loved to feel the wall in her room when I had her laying on the changing table. She always loved to feel the wall and would always reach for it each night when I'd carry her into her bedroom to put her down. I realized she knew where she was based on the color. It made the hours of taping and painting (and colorful language) even more worth it.

Emma's First Room

When we moved, I thought about painting her room again like her last room. I kept thinking about how she could recognize her room from the color, but it wasn't as high of a priority as unpacking and getting everything out of my storage unit. Then I realized, during my ex's first week of summer visitation in July, that the perfect time to do it would be during his other week of summer visitation in August since the storage unit was now empty. This meant I needed to pick out paint and decide what I was going to do so I could get everything ready to paint the morning after she left. That way, it would have plenty of time to dry and air out before I put everything back and she came home. Or at least that was my plan...

Once I started looking at paint colors, I looked at the colors of her furniture, bedding, and bathroom accessories for ideas. I knew I was planning on painting her bedroom, bathroom, and playroom in a matching color scheme... but I wasn't a fan of how her bedding clashed with the colors I was leaning toward. So I started looking for bedding and found a set I adored!!! And to my surprise, it even included PINK! When I went to buy it, I found out that it was on clearance - EVERYWHERE. My excitement turned into disappointment quickly when I realized it was because the set was sold out and only a few accessories were still available. I checked everywhere, but no luck. I then started a search for something similar and found something that I still liked in the same color scheme, it just didn't have elephants on all of it like the first one (but there was still one elephant). Now her room would be the blue from her furniture and bathroom accessories, the white that was the trim color in the house, and the pink and grey from her new bedding. Now that the colors were chosen, it was time to decide what color would go where and get the supplies!

The colors:

Top --> Bottom: Summit Gray, Childlike, Stream, Pure White (Sherwin-Williams)

I decided to go a bit more extravagant with the painting simply because I like to make things special for Emma. This is why the project took longer than anticipated... even with plenty of help. So, without further ado, here are Emma's new playroom, bathroom, and bedroom (before/after):

Playroom:

Before

After

Bathroom:

Before 

After

Bedroom:

Before

After

Now that this project is over, I think it's time to finish unpacking. Maybe by the end of this month, I'll be done. Until then, I have three beautiful rooms for my baby girl that I'm proud of cause they make her smile.

Two and a Half Years

The last six months for Emma have come with many changes. She has increased her vocabulary by leaps and bounds (saying her ABCs, counting to twenty, and spelling her name to name a few) and is picking up new words daily. She has continued to show improvement in all of her therapy work and made all of her therapists so proud. We are currently in transition for a three of her four therapies (OT, VI, and Speech) and are still waiting for a new PT to be hired so she can start receiving those services again. I will miss the therapists that we've had, especially her OT that has been with us since Emma was two months old, but I'm excited to see what the future holds.

New Big Girl Bike
7/14/13

Yesterday, Emma had her first check up with her neurologist since she had her first seizure back on May 3rd. She weighed in just under twenty-five and a half pounds and measured thirty-seven and three quarters inches long! So while she really hasn't gained any weight, she has grown almost two inches in six months!!! I can't believe how tall she is getting.

During the appointment, her neurologist reviewed her case and asked questions about how Emma had been doing the last three months since she was diagnosed with epilepsy. I was pleased to report that she has been seizure free with no signs of any side effects from her daily preventative medication she had been put on. The recommendation by her doctor was to keep her on the medication for two years before we consider taking her off. During that time, she will have a natural tapering off of the medication due to growth provided we do not have to increase her dosage.

While preforming the physical part of the exam, he noticed that her back showed signs of secondary scoliosis. When sitting, the left side of her back stuck out further than the right side of her back no matter the position she was in or which way she turned. This was something I hadn't noticed, but once he pointed it out, I could see it. Children like Emma who have a low muscle tone are susceptible to developing scoliosis since their muscles do not provide enough support to their bone structure. He set her up to be evaluated and asked to see her back in three to four months. We checked out and made a follow up appointment with him in November.

Later this month, Emma has check-ups with her ophthalmologist and developmental pediatrician. We'll be looking at how the eye patching treatment has been going over the last five months. She recently figured out how to take them off on her own, but thankfully it has not become an issue so far. I am really looking forward to seeing the face of her developmental pediatrician when she sees how much progress Emma has made. This will be a great month for Emma!

Emma said "off" with such pride after removing her eye patch all by herself.

Without geometry, life is pointless.

For those of you that know me well, using a pun for the title is only surprising because it's only the first one. I felt a math pun was fitting to some degree since this post includes Emma counting. For those of you that don't know me as well, my sincerest apologies. Just think of my attempt at humor as a plateau - for a plateau is a high form of flattery. (Ok, I'm done with the puns... for now.)

I wanted to give a quick update to say that Emma has really become a sponge and is saying so much now that I hear new words daily. I've now lost count on how many words she can say and understand and I couldn't be more thrilled about it! And considering how much I love numbers, that too is impressive. The only thing I have kept count of now is how many bad words she has said - thankfully it is just one, and it was just an error in enunciation. We are working on how she says the "EEP" at the end of "sheep" because it currently sounds more like "IT" at times.

 

While I see Emma daily and witness the progress first hand, it is always a nice reminder to hear from those that haven't seen her as frequently about how amazed they are by her growth. For over a year, Emma has been working on learning her ABC's and counting to ten. When you would say a letter or number to her, she would make a sound back to you for the next number or letter that followed - sometimes the sound that was similar to the correct one. Within the last three months, she has really improved to where she says almost every letter and number correctly every time.

 

 

In addition to her improvements in speech, she is also becoming much more aware of her surroundings and curious about inspecting things she sees. I love to watch her mind work and see her curiosity drive her to do things she wouldn't do even six months ago. This last week, Emma went to see fireworks for the first time at the "Red, White, & Lewisville" show for the holiday. She really seemed to appreciate the experience and was only startled a couple of times when there were some louder fireworks. With the large number of people, cars, dogs, and fireworks, I was happy that she enjoyed watching all the action and was still wanting to say her ABCs and count all the way home after the show ended. She also went to the SEA LIFE Grapevine Aquarium and was delighted to watch all the fish, rays, turtles and sharks as they swam around. She was still apprehensive about touching the starfish as they were unfamiliar, but I'm sure she'll warm up to that too in time. Next we will be going back to the pool to see how she likes swimming this summer as compared to last summer. She already loves her sunglasses, so now we need to get her out so she can use them!