Preschool Here I come!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing home our tiny 5 lb 4 oz little girl from the NICU. But now look at her. She is a very bright, happy little girl who is so excited for school. Today we went for our transition meeting to begin preparing for Morgan to exit the AZEIP program and enter the Vail Inclusive Preschool. Morgan was so excited to be going to preschool today. When we pulled into the parking lot she started shouting "Mommy, preschool! Mommy, preschool!" As we entered the preschool other kids were leaving as the morning classes had just ended and Morgan stopped along the way to say hi to every kid she saw.

Today's meeting was just the first of three to begin getting ready for next school year. We basically just discussed where Morgan is at and what services she will need while at school. We also made plans for evaluations to be done and for her future meetings. It was decided that it would be best for Morgan to attend the preschool at Cienega High even though this is not considered her home base school (technically she should go to the District office school as her home school would be Acacia, or in her case Sycamore where I teach). Anyway, they decided Cienega would be best due to the playground and Morgan's wheelchair. I didn't argue with this because not only did I agree that the playground there is safer, but it is also literally around the corner from our house.

The next meeting will be in April when Morgan actually will go into a classroom to work with the teacher, speech pathologist, and other kids so they can observe how she will interact in the classroom. After that we will have an IEP meeting in May and then she will start preschool in July and will attend three mornings a week for three hours each day.

Morgan is so excited about school. I know if she could have gone today she would have in a heartbeat; she just loves being around other kids. I am sure I am going to have a much harder time than her when it is time to officially start school.

Horton to the Rescue!

So the other day during speech therapy we played the cutest game with Morgan's speech therapist, Randi. It was called You to the Rescue! You wear this adorable Horton hat and have to find clovers hidden around the house and pick them up with the end of the nose. It was such a cute game and great practice for Morgan to work on her wheelchair inside.
Morgan had so much fun with the game that I went in search of it this weekend. I was not able to find it in any stores, you have to buy it online. Well, being the teacher I am I decided why not just recreate the main objective of the game, finding objects in her wheelchair. I found some old plastic Easter eggs, Morgan's Halloween basket, and created some colored cards. We then hid the eggs around the house and made Morgan draw a color to see which egg she had to find. She had a lot of fun with this, especially since we put a piece of Reeses pieces in each egg. Of course she didn't look as cute playing this version; that elephant hat was just too cute on her.

Morgan Surprises us!

Morgan and David made it home safely from Philly late Thursday night. David didn't venture to try the back brace out on the plane (who can blame him) and because they arrived home so late and we both needed to work in the morning we weren't up for testing it out that night. So... we left it for Grandma and Grandpa to test out in the morning. I called at lunch to check-in and see how she was tolerating the brace. I was expecting to hear that she hated it and was very fussy. Instead, I got the opposite. Morgan was doing great! She hadn't complained once about the back brace. They gave her a short break for lunch and then put it back on for naptime. She took a decent nap and by the time I got there to pick her up she was still wearing it. We then left it on most of the afternoon taking it off only for her bath. I couldn't believe how great she was doing. In fact, if I asked her if she liked her brace she would say "Yes!" That night Morgan slept pretty well, waking only 3 times and when she did wake it was to complain about her knees, not the back.

Not once has she complained about the back brace. We did, however, figure out why she threw up on Thursday. On Saturday afternoon we went with Matt, Georgia, and Lucas to a Pima Community College basketball game to watch some former Cienega players play. While at the game we had Morgan in her back brace and she was wearing a long sleeve onesie and pants (It is winter). Well during the game she started getting fussy (I figured she was tired because she barely napped) and her cheeks began to get red (again, bad mom, I figured this was just because she is getting her molars). A few moments later we discovered what it was when she starting throwing up all over. We immediately ripped off the brace and stripped her down. Within minutes she was fine; she had overheated. I am glad we now know the cause, but now we are constantly worried that she will overheat again. Morgan is a hot body to begin with. We are trying to keep the house a bit cooler and keep her stripped down to the brace when at home and only putting on really light shirts when we go out. Our biggest worry is how she will survive this in the summer when it is 110 degrees outside.


Here are a few pictures so you can see Morgan's new back brace along with her KAFO's.




As you can see she is basically in a full body brace. She deals with it so well though; such a trooper!

Below are a few pictures from therapy today. I just had to post them because they were so adorable. She is doing great at PT and is surprising me each week with how well she is manuevering her wheelchair around the clinic. Today she drove right up to the window to check-in, raised herself up to say hi, and then backed up to go to the therapy department. When we arrived there she immediately went to play with the toys without even waiting for me to help guide her.

A new do!

Since birth Morgan has had a full head of hair. At first it was an unruly mess on top of her head that we tried to calm with hair clips, but it seemed to grow quickly and soon we were able to start putting in small piggies. By the time she was 18 months we had her first haircut and then it really started to grow. I was having to learn how to perfect those piggies and recently had to learn braids too. Morgan's hair had grown much longer, past the middle of her back. It was very cute, but was also starting to look a bit straggly. The back was no longer a nice straight line across and the sides were all different lengths. It also had not seemed to thicken at all, so I decided it was time for a cut. I was hoping to even it out a bit and that by trimming it her hair will hopefully grow in thicker. Below are the pictures of her outing to the hair salon and then the after shots.

The big girl sitting all on her own. She was so excited to get her haircut!

San Diego Day 3

So I am finally having a moment to sit down and blog about our last full day in San Diego. This day like all others while we were there started out bright and early. I think Morgan was up at her usual 4:30 (5:30 AZ time). We had a quick breakfast downstairs and then headed with David to the beach for a bit.

David and Morgan had a lot of fun down by the water. And it wouldn't be a trip to the beach without getting a little soaked. David was slowly walking down to get close to the water when some sand on a ledge gave way and they slipped down. I called to him to warn that a wave was coming in, so he of coursed turn to see what I wanted. By the time he realized why I was calling him it was too late, his shoe and right leg up to his knee was soaked. By that time Morgan was getting pretty chilly anyway so we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up.

David then took off with Matt and the basketball boys while Morgan and I spent some time with Georgia and her family. We headed down to Seaport Village, a great shopping area in downtown San Diego. After doing a little shopping we then headed to watch the boys play their game.
Here is Morgan and Georgia's niece, Riley, at the game. Morgan loved having other kids around to hang out with. If Riley ever dared to leave her side Morgan would start shouting "Riley! Riley!" She also kept asking for Riley to ride in our van with her so Riley could read her a book.

After the basketball game was over we headed to grab a quick lunch while David, Matt, and the boys went back to the hotel to clean-up. We were then all going to meet up down at Mission Beach and Belmont Park.
When we arrived at Belmont Park Morgan instantly spotted the carousel. She asked her Daddy to take her for a ride. While the rest of us: Matt, Georgia, Lucas, Shawna, and I watched.
We all stood there doing the typical things parents do: taking pictures and waving hi to Morgan. But then Matt decided that all of us needed to say hi to Dave too. It was so funny, I think he was a bit embarrassed as all the other families standing around started staring, but it was fun for the rest of us.

After the quick ride we then walked down the boardwalk to the beach just as the sun was setting. Morgan and David had fun together out running the waves. I wish you could have seen the smiles on her face!
Daddy and his little girl; they are best buds
David, Morgan, Matt, and Baby "Luke" aka Lucas


Once the sun set it cooled off quickly. We bundled Morgan up and headed back towards Belmont Park to walk around. Also because we wanted to get an ice cream treat.

Of course on the walk back Morgan spotted the carousel again and had noticed that there was a Giraffe on the carousel. With one "Peas Gaddy" (her initial d's still come out g's) she was able to convince David to take her on another ride.

Shortly after our ice cream treat we were beat and it was time for David and Matt to take the guys to watch a game so we split up and headed back to the hotel. As she had done all trip Morgan passed out on the ride back. I think all the fresh air and fun filled days wore her out, but you be the judge.

Disappointing News

Today David and Morgan were in Philly for a check-up with the doctor. He wanted to check on how Morgan's knee braces were going and also give Morgan a back brace to work on correcting her kyphosis (rounding of the back).

Their plane ride to Philly was uneventful, but when they arrived at the airport in Philly David discovered that the rolling cart for the carseat had broken. That left him at the plane with two bags, a pillow, a carseat, a broken rolling cart, and Morgan in her braces to carry. He asked a few people working at the airport to get him a wheelchair for Morgan and he said they all looked at him like he was speaking a foreign languague. After waiting a while for a chair to show up he gave up and flagged down one of those people who drive the go-carts. He strapped Morgan in and was able to get a ride to the bus for the rental car....well almost. For some reason the lady dropped him off about 2 football fields away from where the bus picks him up, so David had to then carry Morgan strapped in her carseat with two bags and a pillow strapped to his back all the way to the bus. He got his workout for the day.

After finally getting the rental car David called me to help navigate him to a Home Depot so he could buy a bolt to fix the broken rolling cart. They then headed to Subway to grab some dinner and to the hotel.

This morning David and Morgan headed to the hospital for their visit. When they arrived they were sent over to x-rays for an x-ray of her back. They then went to the braces clinic and had everything looked at. They made a few changes to her knee braces, like cutting back some behind the knee area and adding padding over the screws. They then had to fit the back brace. This took awhile as they kept having to trim a little, try it on, trim some more, etc... Once they thought it was right they asked David to wait for 2 hours and then come back so they could check for redness or sores and they would also x-ray her again with the brace on to make sure it was supporting her enough.

During their 2 hour wait David took Morgan to the cafeteria to get some lunch. By this time she was exhausted. He said she barely ate anything and then on their way back to the clinic she threw up everywhere. She got it all over her braces, her clothes, and even some on David. After cleaning her all up he made it back to the clinic. This is when the disappointing news came. The brace looked good, the disappointing part was the doctor said he wants her wearing it 22 hours a day!!! Can you believe that, is he crazy? I mean we couldn't even get her to tolerate her old back brace for 30 minutes! On top of that he said that she needs to continue wearing her knee braces for at least 18 hours a day!!! For 2 more months!!! When David called and told me this I was so upset! I couldn't believe we still had 2 more months of this. I have know idea how any of us are going to get sleep. Morgan is going to be so upset.

Anyway, they made it to the airport and on the plane without too many problems. They are now in the air on their way home. We are scheduled to go back for another check-up visit in March during my Spring Break.

San Diego Day 2

We started out Day 2 of our San Diego trip with a visit to Sea World. We arrived right as the park was opening because this morning we were going to be starting the day with Breakfast with Shamu! Morgan had been talking about this for weeks and was very excited to see Shamu again, and this time up close and personal.
Our table was right up next to the tank. It was awesome! They had the whole area labeled as a soak zone and warned us to keep our eyes on cameras and cell phones as they never know when the whales will make really big splashes. Our breakfast was delicious and well worth the money, but what made it even better was the show they put on once we were all eating.
All of a sudden during breakfast this is the sight we saw, Shamu jumping out of the water. It was so great. All the girls faces were priceless. They we so excited!
Look how close we were. It was so worth it! We will definitely be doing breakfast with Shamu again the next time we visit.

After breakfast was finished Morgan and I decided to split up from the rest of the group (Georgia and her family) because Morgan wanted to see Elmo and the older girls weren't into that. Morgan and I headed over to the Sesame Street part of the park. Elmo wasn't out yet so we went to a quick show at the Pet's Rule stadium. It was a really cute show where they have trained dogs and cats and pigs doing silly tricks. Morgan loved it and enjoyed dancing to the music. As soon as the show was over she started asking to go see Elmo. We headed over to the picture place and were able to meet Elmo and Zoie. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this because this Elmo wouldn't (or couldn't due to rules) hold Morgan. Since I was by myself I wasn't able to snap a picture. The Sea World employee of course took one, but it was $20 to buy it. Oh well, Morgan got what she wanted which was to say hi to Elmo. We then started walking around in the Sesame Street part and ran into Bert and Ernie. This I was able to capture.
After that Morgan was exhausted. It was about 12:00 and she had been up since about 4:30 (remember she went to bed the night before at 6:00).
After a quick nap in the stroller Morgan was refreshed and ready to go just in time to catch the Shamu show. She was very excited for this and couldn't wait to see Shamu jump.
When the show was over we were all feeling a bit hungry for a snack. Of course when at a theme park there is no better snack than a churro. I think I have this same picture from last year's trip only Morgan is a year younger. She has the same tired eyes with a huge churro in her mouth.
When our snacks were finished we headed to the aquarium and shark exhibit, both of which Morgan really liked. She could sit all day and just watch the fish swim. Shortly after that we all decided that we were exhausted and it was time to head back to the hotel. Morgan had spent the whole time at Sea World, about 6 hours, out of her braces so before we left the parking lot I put them back on. She didn't even fuss once about it; I guess the long break did her well and she was content about having to put them back on.

It was a great day and we can't wait to go back again.

So PROUD!

So I know this is out of order as I have not yet finished blogging about San Diego, but I just had to share this short story with everyone. As you all know Morgan went through 6 weeks of casting and for the past month has been in braces 20 hours a day. Through the casting she lost all muscle that was in her legs and with only 4 hours a day free from the braces it has been a very slow process to regain the muscle. As research says it takes twice as long as casted to regain muscle lost and since Morgan is still basically being casted 20 hours a day it is hard to regain the muscle. Anyway, we have spent those 4 hours free everyday working with first tolerating touch and pressure in the feet again to learning how to bear weight again. Now Morgan still has a long way to go as she still won't bear her full weight on her own, but tonight she made huge gains. She has been asking for days now to get in her walker and try walking. The last time we tried it (before our trip) she cried the whole time as she still couldn't bear enough weight to do the walker. But tonight was different. David adjusted the walker and sling seat so that she didn't have all her weight to bear and very slowly Morgan began trying to take steps. At first she could do the steps, but not move the walker but with much encouragement and of course some candy she eventually figured out how to move it forward too. She is not where we was with walking a few months ago, but tonight she made huge gains to get back there. We saw a spark in her eye tonight that we haven't seen in a while. She is so determined to learn to walk and despite the pain she kept trying. I know that with a lot of hard work she is going to get there one day. We are just so PROUD of Morgan and her determination!

San Diego Day 1

On our first full day in San Diego Morgan and I woke up early. Actually, Morgan woke up early (around 5:00am) and so therefore I had to get out of bed too. We got ready and then headed downstairs for an early breakfast. We then took off to find a grocery store, Starbucks, and the beach. Once I had a coffee in me we found a quiet spot right near the shore where we could park and we sat on the side of the van and just watched the waves come in. We didn't stay too long as it was freezing down by the water.

We then headed back to the hotel to hang out with David for a bit. The plan was then to take off with Georgia and her family and spend the day at the San Diego Zoo. Morgan was very excited to go to the zoo, she just loves watching all the animals.

After grabbing some lunch we made our way over to the zoo. When we arrived in the parking lot we found total chaos. I am not sure it if it always this way or if it was due to the fact that it was later in the day but it was crazy. There was no one from the zoo in the parking lot directing traffic and there were cars everywhere searching for spots. After driving around for a good 30 minutes we finally found a spot, put our blinker on, only to have it stolen by another car. I was so angry! It was a single guy in a little car meanwhile I had the minivan full with three kids. What a jerk! So we then spent another 30 minutes trying to find a spot. An hour later we were ready to give up when we noticed a sign that had been put out directing cars to additional parking. We followed the signs to a school parking lot and within minutes were unloading the van. Once finally in the zoo Morgan was ready to go, she had grabbed a quick nap in the van during our hour long search to park. The zoo was very crowded this day and as we were standing near the entrance trying to determine where to begin we saw the entire U of A football team arrive. They were in town for the Holiday Bowl and were off seeing the sites as well.


We were able to grab the U of A quarterback, Nick Foles, for a quick photo with the kids. After that we headed off for a bus tour of the zoo.
Here is Morgan and I on the bus tour. Below are the giraffes, Morgan's favorite part of the zoo.

After our bus tour we took off on foot to try to see some of the sites we had previewed on the tour. We walked for almost two hours and never saw any of the same sites that we had seen on the tour. All we saw were gorillas and birds. I swear if we hadn't taken the bus tour I would have thought this was the worst zoo ever. From what we saw on the tour it looked like a nice zoo, but I prefer our small little Reid Park. You can walk the entire thing in less than 2 hours and see everything. It is just the right size for a toddler.
We stayed at the zoo for a quick bite to eat, but by the time we were done the sun had set and we were all getting very cold. We decided it was time to call it a night. Georgia's Dad and sister, Shawna, kindly offered to go ahead of all of us and get the cars. They then met us right out in front of the zoo, what service. Morgan passed out on the way back to the hotel; it was only 6:00 pm. I knew that meant another early morning for me so when we arrived at the hotel I put on a movie, did some therapy, and headed to bed myself.