You Know What Sucks?

Having a man voice.  And a red nose that could compete with Rudolph.  And TRUCK LOADS of mucus. 

You really wanted to know about that, right? 

This week has been horrible!  When I have a voice at all, it's deep and disgusting.  When I don't have a voice I'm hacking.  Thank goodness Lillian hasn't caught this cold, or Phil.  Otherwise we would be one big pathetic household. 

Fingers crossed this is all gone by Thanksgiving and especially the Saturday after.  I have a craft show that Saturday and can't imagine anyone wanting to talk to me as I'm blowing my nose and hacking up God-knows-what into the trashcan.

On a completely unrelated note, Lillian can officially climb ALL the stairs in our house!  She climbs all the way up (closely supervised) and once she gets to where she can see the very top she squeals in delight!  It's an awfully cute site to see.  Another thing she did this weekend, yesterday actually, was stand completely independently!  She's NEVER done this before.  She was standing at her music table and when she saw Phil and I dancing along with the music she let go of the table, stood by herself, and clapped 4 times before balancing on the table again.  I was so happy Phil got to be there to see it too. 

After her annual IFSP meeting for the EI program, she's gone back down to only 2-3 therapy sessions a week instead of 5.  Let me tell you, it's like living a whole new life.  I'm amazed by how much that has freed up our schedule.  We dropped 2 whole therapy sessions and now all of the sudden we have free time!  That's never happened before.  After all of her paperwork goes through, we might be back up to 5 times a week, but for now we're enjoying the break.  I'm thankful for all the therapy she gets, and it's really helped her tremendously... but this break has given us time to do what typical families get to do, like mid-day trips to the grocery store and having lunch without feeling rushed to get a nap in before the next therapy session.

Here's a fun picture from this week.  She really enjoys getting mail!  This was from Nana wishing her a Happy Thanksgiving:

(PS - see that wallpaper in the background?  It's coming down this week :) )

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Tis the Season...

To send Christmas cards! 

I've been debating this year if we should send out Christmas cards, just hand them to family we see during the Holidays, or go all out and send them to our entire Christmas list from last year.  The more and more I get into the holiday spirit, the more motivated I am to spread the holiday cheer and send out cards to our massive list of friends and family! 

Last year we used Shutterfly to design our Christmas cards and they turned out great!  We had so many people comment on how nice they looked and tell us they placed them front and center on their refrigerator or on their holiday card tree.  It was also a great way for us to share pictures of Lillian (considering we hadn't taken her out in the 3 months she had been alive).

This year I've already planned a top secret Christmas card idea, and you better believe we'll be using Shutterfly again!  I promise once we get them sent out I'll post a picture of one here for you all to see.  I'm so excited!  (yes, little things like Christmas cards really do make my day)

Here is the link to the card we used last year if anyone is interested:

 http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards/seasonal-chic-noir-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

A link to the rest of the adorable modern Christmas cards **swoon**:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

And did you know they also have birthday invitations?  I had no idea until I started browsing the sight: 

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-invitations

And the best news yet - Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Stay tuned for the super secret Christmas design... I promise you'll love it :)

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Ladies Headbands

I know I posted a couple of pics the other day of some new headbands I'm working on.  I finally got the rest of the pictures posted to my facebook page!  Many more coming in the near future.  If anyone has any colors to recommend I'm all ears!  I think my favorite ones so far would be the red one for Christmas and the all grey petal one.

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Milestone Update!

I watched Lillian take steps today.  Let me clarify... I watched Lillian pull up on her Little Tikes easle, and as it slipped from underneath her she took steps so she wouldn't fall.  She ended up using it as a "walker" and took at least 4 steps forward pushing it in a controlled manor.

This might not sound like a big deal to a lot of people, especially considering she's 13 months and 3 weeks old, but this is the FIRST time I've ever seen her shift her weight from one foot to the other in a stepping motion without someone facilitating the movement.  That's HUGE for her. She gets it. She really gets it!  She understands that one foot goes in front of the other, and her body actually cooperated!  Knowing how she is, it's something that we should expect from now on.  She has amazing muscle memory, and once she does something by herself she seems to pick up the speed quickly (well, "slowly but determined" is a better description). 

I'm so incredibly excited to see her take steps with a real push toy now.  I know she's going to fall on her face several times while getting the hang of it, but she's a big girl.  She'll brush it off and get back up. The real test is to see if I can get it on video!


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New Additions

I've finally posted some pictures of the newest Christmas/winter clips over at Lily & Rose.  I also managed to find some ribbon that matches this dress (Lillian's Christmas dress) and need to knock out a few of those bows this week.

Have you already picked out holiday outfits?  Or am I just super prepared this year?

Also, did you notice I have a blog button?!!? (After 2 years it's about time, right?)  I also jumped on the "Top Mommy Blogs" bandwagon and listed the blog under "special needs".  Even though I don't constantly talk about Lillian's special needs, I think it's important to spread awareness. It's also important for people to see that LIFE GOES ON even when it drastically changes, and happiness continues and even grows.  You can "vote" any time by clicking the Top Mommy Blogs button, once a day.

Today I'm heading over to Michaels to buy one of these 4 ft Christmas trees. They are pre-lit and only $19.99!  We're going to put it on a table in the corner of the living room so Lillian can't pull it over on top of herself.  Also because I'm just feeling lazy this year and want a big tree without dragging one into the house (or out of a box) and decorating it.  Since it'll be on the table it should still stand about 8ft tall... perfect!



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Playing Catch Up

The past week or so has been so busy.  We had a few Halloween parties, Running for Lillian was last Sunday, Lillian has been a HORRIBLE napper this week, she had a had a sleep study that was traumatizing, trying to build inventory for Lily & Rose, etc. 

So blogging took a back seat.

First the sleep study - It was awful as usual.  Every time she has a sleep study it takes about 10 years off my life. They put leads all over her head, wrap her up like a mummy, shove a bunch of crap in her nose to monitor her breathing, and expect her to sleep.  It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen, but necessary for her to stay on growth hormone injections, so we do it.

Halloween - can you guess who we are?

Running for Lillian - What can I say?  This probably deserves a whole post in itself.  I love the girls so much for doing something so thoughtful for Lillian and the others with PWS. It warms my heart to know that Lillian has touched so many people.  We wanted so badly to be there to cheer them on!  I wish it would have been a possibility, but traveling by myself with Lillian or leaving her at home without me just wasn't an option.

Maybe we'll do it again next year?!  I hope so.


And lastly - I've started making ladies headbands!  They haven't been posted to the facebook page because I'm trying to build inventory for the next 2 shows this month, and I've already got orders placed from others.

Here are some pictures of the latest creations

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