Year One of Triumph!

A year ago today my friend Katie was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer.   She's had a few bumps along her road to recovery but she has not let colon cancer define her or most importantly take her smile.   Here are Katie's thoughts on her journey this past year.  Continue with me to Pray in Purple! 

Eighteen Months Old

My little girl is a year and a half old! She's growing up so much and it's so adorable to see her expand her world, vocabulary, humor, and joy on a seemingly daily basis!  

In just a month not much has changed, but when you look back at the last six months SO much has changed!

New firsts for Month 18: first chipped tooth, first full day away from mommy, a new puppy, another tooth finally breaking through, her first Popsicle and more words!

Yes, Mae has had an explosion of words including: shows, Pix (Pixel), coak (coat), hep (help), cap (clap), shoe (often said 'SHOOOOES!' very excited), cheese (the food this time, not just to take a picture), eat, poop, sheesh (fish), car, Pop Pop, Brrrr (bird, which has evolved from 'Bah'), wah (water), boo/book (she alters), cook, hiiiiii (she has become far more enthused saying hello), mar/more, uh oh,  ball, rock, owww (owl), cheek, ear, eye, mouw (mouth), aff (off), cam (come), wak (walk), liiin (lion), chair, two, teat (treat), bed, nigh-nigh, doll, piggy, wee-wees (this little went wee wee wee all the way home!), hawt/hot (everything is hot even things that are cold) ... and I know there is more but that's all I've got for the moment.  :)

In the teeth department we've had quite the excitement as well.  She already was born with her front tooth fused with another one - causing a super giant front tooth that was misshapen.  One evening when both her and her brother were sick and out of sorts - Ace was already in bed trying to sleep and Mae climbed up on him - he rejected this by pushing her off the bed and thus her overly sized malformed tooth became chipped - it now has a canine tooth look to it but isn't overly sharp.  Here's hoping her adult tooth is normal up there!   Mae also this past week FINALLY had a fifth tooth break through on the bottom.  Hooray!  Her brother by 18 months already had 12 teeth including his first set of molars.   This has drastically limited Mae's ability to chew foods...

In the eating department - when she's not sick - she does pretty darn well.   She loves chicken nuggets, fries, english muffins with peanut butter, cheese sticks (often if I ask if she's hungry she asks for "cheeeeeese" which is super adorable) she loves to suck on goldfish crackers and suck off all the salt (she is her mama's daughter!) and occasionally she'll consume them.   She happily eats cookies of several variations.  Yogurt is often consumed and where we hide her liquid vitamins! :)  She enjoyed her first popsicle the other day at a BBQ and she did pretty good consuming some of it before it melted away.   Mae for the most part will eat a little bit of anything but quantities are really sparse.  So we try to entertain high fat/calorie concentrated foods.

Health wise we continue down a similar course of cold catching and continue to hope for the virus season to leave our home!   She never truly gets out of sorts whenever she is sick and is so happy in spite of it all!   She's such a sweetheart!  We're hoping that the summer months will give us a break in colds. 

Mae and her brother (and the parents) recently got a new puppy and he's tiny.  Which is good because he loves to jump on Mae and although she is tiny, he's smaller and that's good.  Mae has really warmed to him.  Loves to pet him, bring him his toys, and recently wanting to give him his 'teat' (treat) which she does very well to let the dog lick out of her hand.   It's pretty cute.  

In the play department she wants to do everything her brother does. :)  She does pretty good climbing up on things at the playground, at the lake she wants to wade in despite the consequence of going face first when the water gets too deep, and she loves to go on walks.   On her own she loves to play with her dolls, be flipped upside down by her dad, and play 'wee-wees' which she'll ask for by name while wiggling her fingers over her toes.  Yes, the timeless 'game' of 'This Little Piggy Went to Market'   :)  She is adorable and will do it to me too.   She still loves her piglet but she's not as exclusive anymore with him.  At bedtime she often wants multiple friends to hug and fall asleep with.  She loves to read books at bedtime and her favorite still remains Goodnight Gorilla.

Mae this month also finally started to let me do her hair and leave it in longer than three seconds!   If I just put a clip in on the side she'll still yank it pretty fast but pony tails of various heights and location seem to remain all the time with some varied results when she's in her car seat.

Mae is such a joy and we love her.  She loves to jump (bounce up and down) and go for walks, and she knows almost all of her 'pieces' (head, nose, etc..)  Every day she surprises us and always is smiling!   We can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings us!

Ten on Ten - July

This month marks one year that I've been participating in Ten on Ten - officially June would have marked a year, but I didn't get around to participating in June's because I was busy doing my first newborn photo shoot!   Which was sooo fun!  :)   I'll eventually blog about it.  Maybe.  

Today was a typical Tuesday.   Ace is no longer in preschool for the summer so we're doing school at home.   We got a new puppy a few weeks ago (yah I need to blog about that too!) so life keeps us busy and on our toes!  Today also in Mae's half birthday! Our little girl is 1.5 years old!  Impossible! (and of course there will be a blog about that too!)   Our days start early and time escapes me so my 10 on 10 is throughout the day as I remembered so within the 13 hours I was taking pictures, I managed 10 of those hours to get at least one shot.  :)  Not too shabby!   Happy 10 on 10 everyone!

Ace decided he was still tired so he went and climbed into our bed... he was shocked to find me photographing him.

Awake and joining the rest of the family downstairs, Ace was less than thrilled to share his blanket with his sister.

Yay our second Boon arrived (we have a LOT of stuffed animals!) Time to stuff it!

School time!  Sight word fun!

A little reading application of those newly learned sight words with some pen action!
Also I was really impressed that both kids sat in one place for over 90 minutes without needing wiggle time.

Mae Mae is 18 months old and time to take her traditional (or as this picture depicts) not so traditional photo in her chair.

Blogging World meet Pixel our little cairn terrier and tea cup (or mini) Australian Shepard mix.  More on him in another post.

It's 80 degrees!  This is so much fun!!!

Bliss: eating cantaloupe with salt in the backyard on a warm summer day... really makes me miss my dad.

Bath time after dinner!   This picture was snapped and then one 'page' was read before Ace bellowed
"Moooom, sister pooped in the tub!"   No rest for the mommy... I needed to clean the tub anyway.

To see more visit A Bit of Sunshine...

Our Graduate!

Last Day of School!  Ace decided he wanted to be a fireman...
although the day before it was a policeman.

Ace had a great first 'year' of preschool!  Yes, our time has drawn to a close on our first school experience!   He loved it!  There were many MANY theme days and he enjoyed participating in almost all of them.  

The big day arrived and it was just as big of a production as his mother's day program.  Loving Husband echoed the sentiment stated by the dad in The Incredibles about celebrating mediocrity and merely moving from one grade to another - and while yes, it's true, it's still something to be proud of.  It was his first (half) year of school completed and he is fully done with preschool (technically!)   Next year he begins Pre-K at the same school site. 

The ceremony began with them all walking in to graduation pomp and circumstance.  It was cute as they all filed in with their teacher and their borrowed hats on.  

After class pictures were taken, the hats were collected and the program of 10 songs began.   Ace was less enthused to participate in these as he was the Mother's Day program but he still enjoyed some of them.    Particularly he loved "Apples and Bananas"  song (you know the one where you change the vowels)   and especially enjoyed the props.  :)

Ace and his friend ... and other kid who I didn't get permission to put his face on the interwebs, so I won't. :)

After the program was over they received their diplomas and buckets.  Pictures were taken with his teacher and then we enjoyed some cookies and chatting with his teacher and classmates.  

 Ace will really miss his favorite friend from school. They no longer will be in the same class come the fall. Ace is moving on to Pre-K and his friend who won't start kindergarten in 2013 will remain in the preschool class for an extra year. Ultimately they'll still see each other for playdates, but it won't be the same and I know Ace is a little sad.

Mae wanted in on the picture action as well. :)

We are so proud of our boy!  It was a great first year of school for Ace.   Can't wait to see the adventures he has in the fall!

Our graduate!