Julia is FIVE!

  Julia turns five today!  She is my fun-loving, little stinker!  She is so caring and compassionate.  When I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up, she answered, "A helper!"  She also wants to design toys, which is right up her alley!  

  We have a tradition of going to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate birthdays.  Since Michael's busiest day of the year will ALWAYS be on her birthday, we celebrated last night.  Julia wanted the strawberry shortcake (not very short!), but the candle was placed on the S'mores cheesecake, which she happily blew out.  Yeah...this food...not usually what I eat!

   This time last year, we were very concerned about Julia.  She got really sick.  We at first thought she had some type of stomach virus, but we don't think it was that now.  She was taking nausea medication and she still vomited for an entire week.  She ended up going to the hospital and was given a battery of tests.  We still don't know what was wrong, but we were very relieved when the worst was ruled out.  Michael has a hard time talking about this time in her life because he witnessed her being put through all of the tests.  She just wasn't our spunky Julia anymore and that was hard to see.

This was early on in her illness last year.  I just can't bring myself to post the picture of her on the day she went to the hospital.

This is Julia today!  We saw the doctor for her 5 year check-up.

   Last Sunday, we were able to attend a Daughter/Mother Tea held at our church.  It was really cute and we enjoyed hanging out, just the two of us.  I'm so glad that my fun-loving girl is doing great and I thank God for her!  

Julia being shy, but still having fun, at the tea.

Miss Nadia and Her New Braces

  This last week, we got ankle braces for Nadia.  She'll be turning 2 soon and isn't walking independently yet.  She has come a long way from where she was though!

  Delayed development isn't new territory for me.  Julia didn't walk until she was 21 months old.  Some of you may remember her walking on her knees for awhile.  One time, when Julia was wearing a dress that skimmed the floor while on her knees, I overheard some women talking about her being a midget!  That was funny to hear!  

  

  For some reason, I handled Julia's delayed development better than Nadia's.  I've often wondered, how come?  Is it because I knew in my heart that Julia was capable, but was being stubborn?  Is it because she never required physical therapy?  Is it because Julia was a happy kid?  I've determined that Julia dealt with having low muscle tone too.  Julia isn't double-jointed in her legs like Nadia, but she is in her fingers.  We've since learned that both Michael and I are double-jointed and have passed it down in different ways to our daughters.

  Nadia has to work harder because of the low muscle tone in combination with her knees being double-jointed.  I've read that she has to be twice as strong as your typical kid before she can manage her knees.  So why has her development bothered me?  I believe it is because we live in a new place.  We are still meeting new people all of the time.  We made a change in church recently and are meeting even more new people.  With Julia, everyone knew her and us from the beginning and the delays just became known.  With Nadia, I have to introduce her delays to people over and over again.  I believe that having to explain your child to someone is what wears on a parent.  I don't mind questions or curiosity, I just don't like having to EXPLAIN to someone I may never see again.  

  This idea has been such a lightbulb moment for me.  I have friends and family that probably have to "explain" their child every day and it is a more serious explanation.  Nadia will walk one day and we will quickly forget these days.  For others, this will be a life-long ordeal that require much more than therapy every now and then and a pair of braces.  The invisible differences can be just as hard as the visible differences.  If you know someone that deals with this, say a pray for them.  Parenting is hard, y'all!  

  Let me show you Nadia's ankle braces.  Why the ankles?  She rolls her ankles some and braces will fix that.  The braces will align everything from ankles to knees to hips.  Once she is able to focus on only what her knees are doing, walking should come quickly.  We'll have to wean her off of the braces, but I don't anticipate that being too difficult.  So there you have it!

Aren't they cute?

           

Visiting Reunion Tower

  Michael and I surprised the girls with a trip to the Reunion Tower!  On the way to see family in Dallas on Saturday, Audrey told me how badly she wanted to eat at the restaurant that turns as you look out onto the city.  I knew Michael was going to take a day off this week to do something fun with us, so I researched to see if this would be fun for our family.  It turns out that the GeoDeck was having the Dallas Zoo come out with a few animals on exhibit on Tuesday and Thursday.  They also had face-painters and balloon artists there.  If the deck didn't impress them, surely those things would be fun!  Cloud 9 Cafe would also be open.  We decided to do lunch before going to the tower and just do dessert at the Tower.  I'm glad we did!  It was quite crowded.

Michael and Nadia waiting to get on the elevator

  The zoo animals were going to be on display at 1:00.  We got there ten minutes early and I thought we would be good to go.  There were so many people that we didn't get to the GeoDeck until 1:25.  We also had to leave behind Nadia's umbrella stroller.  That meant I had to carry Nadia, my camera and bag (which I never used since I was holding Nadia and it was so crowded), and my heavy diaper bag.  When we got off the elevator, we were overwhelmed by the craziness inside the GeoDeck, but we dealt with it.  The zoo had just a few more animals left to show and Michael and I held Audrey, Julia, and Nadia so that they could see.  We got to see a chinchilla, snake, alligator, and armadillo.

  It was pretty warm inside the GeoDeck with all of the people inside, but you could walk around outside and see the city.  The cool weather felt great!  You could look through the viewers, but they weren't very clear.

  We decided to go get dessert upstairs at Cloud 9 Cafe.  This place was already crowded and there was a birthday party also occurring there.  Michael stood in line while I walked around in circles, trying to find an empty table.  We didn't get a table until 30 minutes later, after Michael had stood in a long line to order.  We finally sat down and got to enjoy the rotating restaurant.  The girls loved sitting by the windows and then run back to the table as the table moved away from them.

Nadia is ready for some food already!

Then our dessert came!

Can you tell that they are Reunion Towers?

  The desserts were really good, but very difficult to eat with plastic forks.  The cafe really made the trip.  The girls loved it and will remember this day for a long time.  It was much more crowded than I was anticipating, but you just deal with long waits and crowds.  I really wished I could have had our stroller with us.  Nadia loves that thing and it was going to carry all of my stuff for me.  I didn't really enjoy having to carry 50 pounds for hours, but maybe I needed the workout.  We also had to deal with a broken machine that opens the gate in the parking lot.  If you go, use the one on the right side so that you won't have to ask everyone behind you to back up.  :)

  We decided to that our trip was at first overwhelming, but worth it for the fun our girls had.  We ended our day by trying out a new restaurant in Southlake called Bolo.  Oh my!  This place is really so very good!  It's like and Italian Chipotle.  They are also mindful about how they get their ingredients like Chipotle is.  You could just taste the freshness!  Michael even noted that their tea was really good.  What is a bolo?  It's Italian food in a wrap and looks like a burrito.

  Do you see the cup behind the bolo?  That's an artichoke dip that is served with the softest chips ever!  SO GOOD!  You can customize your bolo, pasta, or bowl how you like it.  If you take a picture of your food and put it on Instagram, you can get a free tiramisu for dessert!  Michael and I are so happy to have found this place and will be back often!

Trying for a Comeback!

Hello long-lost friends!  I am trying to peck my way back into the blogging world.  I feel like we may need a catch-up party.

Well, we did move to the Fort Worth side of town.  I did have a third baby girl, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about. :)  She is the reason I have not blogged.  Oh man, that girl has been my toughest child during the first two years!  Let's talk about her, shall we?

Nadia, my lovely Nadia.  She is almost two years old now.  She has only now, in the last few months, become a happy child.  She cried a lot.  Not just cry-cry, but wail-cry.  Like all the live-long day cry.  Have mercy.  She has low muscle tone and double-jointed knees which has significantly delayed her in her gross-motor skills.  The girl can grip a crayon like none other though!  She has been in therapy, which has helped.  She is so close to walking now!  She will be receiving ankle braces in a few days. I'm planning on big things afterwards!  (Shout out to the awesomeness that is Cook Childrens!  They have been amazing for all three of my kids!)

Julia has been accepted into Audrey's school for next year.  She'll be a schoolgirl!  I can't believe my babies are growing up.  Julia turns FIVE in a few weeks.  If you live in or near FW and are looking for the greatest school ever, ask me where I send my kids.  I hope to teach there when all three are attending.  

Audrey is wrapping up her first grade year.  Things have been going quite well with her in school.  She's beginning to have asthma issues almost daily the past month.  We have watched what she's eating, but it is still happening.  I'm hoping to have her see a chiropractor during spring break this week.  Praying that it can resolve her issue.

We got a dog!  Her name is Lindy.  Julia lovingly refers to her as Lin or Lindy-Lou.  She has been another crazy addition into the family.  She has a trainer come once a week.  I'm afraid she was a bit crazier than what the trainer had planned for when he gave us an estimated bid before meeting her.  She has accepted Michael as the Alpha and I'm heading up the ranks too.  The girls love her.  It took Julia two months to lose her fear of her, but now she loves being with her.  She is a Cavapoo, part King Charles Cavalier, part poodle (toy poodle in her case).

We have something fun planned for tomorrow.  Michael and I are surprising the girls with it.  I will be back with the details and pictures!