Happy Family Day Baby K

Yesterday was K's Family Day-it's been a year since she officially became a member of the Jones family. Hard to believe that she was once a tiny little baby-she is now 14 months old and running, climbing, and exploring everything!

We've spent a lot of time this week looking thru our photo albums and watching the videos that we made while in the Marshall Islands. I sure do miss all the family and friends that we have there:-(

Here is a look back at that day:

My favorite pic of the girls-we were in the courtroom waiting for the Judge


Our first family pic after the adoption proceedings-this is K's birthmom

And now look at my girls:

G and K on Family Day 2010


Just cute!!!!!

The Metro Richmond Zoo

We are fortunate to be geographically located between two great areas-Washington, DC and Richmond, VA. This week I took the girls and cousin J to the Metro Richmond Zoo.

It was a great place to visit and we're already planning a return trip in the Fall. It didn't have as many animals as the National Zoo in DC but there were opportunities for the kids to feed several animals and it had a couple of rides. You can see below that the kids got to feed the giraffes and birds.

I got a little turned around on my directions coming home and it took a bit longer to get back but the kids were so worn out that they slept all the way home and I got to enjoy an iced coffee:-)


The 3 Amigos as we began our day


"Come here monkey"


Feeding the giraffes


Grammy, cousin J and G on the Skyride


K watching the Skyride


G and cousin J feeding the birds


Two cute sisters

An update on K's physical therapy

Just a little update-K had physical therapy today and the therapist is getting ready to cut us loose! We had been going every week for the past 7 months and then last month she cut us back to every other week and now she wants to see us a month from today. If all looks well, then we'll be officially done with physical therapy.

To catch everyone up-K was born with congenital torticollis. (It sounds much worse than it actually is). Congenital torticollis can appear during the last trimester of pregnancy when the space inside the womb gets pretty tight. This causes the baby to lay to one side resulting in a tightened/shortened neck muscle.

Most often this is detected because the child will hold it's head at an angle to one side. In K's case, I became concerned because it looked like she had a little flat spot on the back of her head towards her left side. Her pediatrician suggested that we get an evaluation from a PT and she was diagnosed with a mild case of congenital torticollis. In some cases the head flattening is severe enough to warrant wearing a helmet to actually reshape the head and if left untreated this can actually cause disfigurement (all from a tightened muscle).

We were fortunate that K's was not severe and that we caught it early. We've been able to work with the therapist and do exercises at home that have lengthened K's neck muscle. The really amazing part of this process has been that I've actually watched the tightness move from K's neck down her left side. There is now just a little bit of muscle tightness left in her left knee area.

As happy as I am that we are almost done with PT, I'm really going to miss our therapist, Miss Leah. Not only is she a fabulous pediatric therapist but she has also passed along hints and helps from her own parenting experience.

I took both girls to the pool today. It was K's first time in the "big pool"-she loved it! I tried unsuccessfully to get a few pics with the camera on my phone so I'll try again next time with our regular camera. You won't be disappointed-there is not much cuter than 2 little brown girls in bathing suits:-)

The end of kindergarten

Last week was G's last day of kindergarten. It seems like the year flew by. Actually, it seems that every year has flown by since we became parents. That old adage about, "if you want to watch the passage of time fly by, then watch a child grow," is certainly true.

As apprehensive as I was about G going to kindergarten, it has been a positive experience for her. She has really come into herself-she made friends, learned to read, and most importantly, had something to call her own. She has done so well with making the transition from an only child to being the big sister and I attribute some of that to going to school.

For kindergarten, we chose a school that had a half day program so that G would have time at home with the baby. Next year will be a big change for all us as she heads to first grade and to full day school.

I leave you with some pics of her end of year school picnic and her first and last day pics.


The first day


The last day


G and a friend


G and her teachers


G up at bat


and no post is complete without at least one pic of my cute little monkey face

Wow! What a year it's been.....

It's hard to believe that just one year ago we received K's referral. I remember all those feelings of anxiety because the wait for baby #2 had become so long, now those feelings have been replaced by the anxiousness that she's growing up too fast!!!! Look at this beautiful girl-then and now......


Then


Now

So many questions, so little time......

So our daily ride to school went something like this......

Why do Olivia and I share grass? (Olivia is our neighbor)

And do we share grass with the Sheridans for the same reason? (our neighbors on the other side)

Has Grammy ever hit her hand on our car? (not that I know of)

Did I ever think that this type of conversation would fill my morning ride? (most definitely not :-)

Now here is one from me-where does G come up with these questions? I can usually anticipate the "What's the weather going to be today? or What's for dinner this evening?". I must be getting old and losing my sense of imagination.

The Jones family has been busy since I last posted with parties, events, more events, and trips. We took a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge with our best friends. It was a trip of many firsts for G-first time down the big slide by herself, first time across the acorn pool by herself, and the first time that she had no hesitation about going away from us. (We stayed in the park with her the whole time but she did not show any hesitation about leaving our sides and going to have fun with her friends) This was Baby K's first time at the waterpark and she was a little hesitant but you can see from the pic below that she enjoyed splashing in the wading pool.


G and her BFFs at the waterpark


First time down the big slide by herself


Just cute!!!

G and I hosted the Mother Daughter Tea for our local FCC again this year. We had a great time! We used a fairy theme and all the girls had to pick a fairy name-G was the Jr. Hostess Fairy and K was the Jr. Asst. Hostess Fairy. Yours truly was the Hostess Fairy-complete with wings but with no pics to show-sorry!


Cutest little Jr. Asst. Hostess Fairy


G leading the Mother Daughter Memory Game


I just liked this one.......

In between family trips and events, G had her first school fieldtrip. Her class has been studying butterflies and so they made a trip to the Butterfly Pavillion at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. The parents were invited to attend and so Grammy, Aunt M, Aunt C, Baby K and myself took the VRE train from Fredericksburg, the Metro to the museum and then R picked us up in the J-bus (Jones van)to come home. We almost missed the train because Grammy had a small fender bender but that's another story.

The Butterfly Pavillion was nice. It was like a small version of the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls. It only took about 15 minutes to go thru but was well worth seeing.


G and cousin J in the Butterfly Pavillion




The gang

In addition to all these parties, events and trips I managed to catch a few pics worth mentioning. My most strong-willed child decided she was not going to take a nap and so we came downstairs and I put her in the family room while I was folding laundry. Within a matter of moments there was silence and there she was, fast asleep in the Elmo chair. I guess she had to do it her own way......



The pic below is of G at the FunRun held at her school. It was a great fundraiser-nothing to buy-no candy, nuts, fruit, wrapping paper, candles, flowers, and the list goes on. The kids collected pledges for the amount of laps they would run and G ran the entire 35 laps-we are so proud of her!

Birthday Pics

I'm really far behind on the family pics but wanted to get the pics of the girls up that I had taken at a local studio yesterday. I love these girls!!!!!