{ CHeYeNNe @ 8 MoNThs }

Growing Growing Growing!
That's mostly what CeCe has been doing this past month.  She is getting so fun!

Her most recent mile stone is learning how to CLAP.  It is the most adorable thing to see, with her huge gummy grin.

We haven't gotten her weighed lately, but I'm sure she's gaining weight.  She is so tiny, we sometimes forget she is 8 months old now. Although still little, her legs are getting so chubby.  They are so pinchable! If it didn't hurt her, I'm sure we all would pinch her chubby legs all day.

She is so close to getting in the crawling position.  Sometimes it looks like she's just going to take off! For now, she just dives for her toys. She's a tough little one.  Sometimes she takes such a dive that I'm sure she would cry from her head hitting the ground, but she doesn't.  She is just happy she has figured out a way to reach for her toys.  She goes from a sitting position, to a crawling and then rolls over to get around. 

One thing I forgot to mentioned last month...

She got her FiRsT HaiRCuT.

Her hair was so long it kept getting in her eyes. Since, I've trimmed her hair twice for the same reason.

I love the third picture! It looks like she's saying "look mom, don't I look beautiful?"

Here are some pictures we took this month:

With uncle Sam...

Bouncing on her ducky...

Medically speaking:

She is now "tolerating" her voice valve.  Today, she had it on for 2 hours.  Her occupational therapist finally convinced me that she isn't crying when she has it on.  She is just exhaling through her mouth, making a voice sound. Once in a while, she would breathe out of her nose.  With practice, she will learn to use her nose to exhale and use her mouth to make sounds.
Even when her valve isn't on, she still manages to make sounds. We are now able to see her tongue more often.  Normally her tongue sits pretty far back but because she has figured out that if she sticks it out she can get sounds through. When she does stick it out it only goes as far as the back of her bottom lip.

Here's a picture that show how far back and to the right her tongue is.  If you look at the clapping picture (above) you can see her tongue "sticking" out to her right as far as she can.

She seams to be getting the bottle thing down.  She still doesn't swallow in large quantities, but has figured out how to suck her milk out of the bottle. 

She is still loving her baby food.  She gets so excited to eat!

She also started receiving Speech and Hearing therapy.  Her therapist comes to our house and helps us learn how to maximize her hearing and speech so that she doesn't fall behind.  A huge obstacle is her voice.  We need to really get her used to her voice box so that when she has it on she can actually make the sounds that are beneficial to her speech.

{ HaPPy HaLLoWeeN ! }

This Halloween was a busy one.  We had to dress up three times.
We were all pirates except for CeCe.  We couldn't resist and bought her the cutest parrot costume.

The first time we had to dress up was for the Bayton's annual Halloween Party.  We went all out, make up, wigs and all.

I think I'm mad that they shoved me out of this picture.

The second, it was for our ward Halloween Party.  My wig had been eliminated, Drew had lost her heart eye patch and wanted lighter earrings and Grant and Frankie opted out of the make up. 

The third time around was Halloween day, Frankie opted out completely, but was replaced by Pax.  I don't think Drew even wore earrings.

Drew actually had to dress up earlier that day for her school parade, so she dressed up 4 times.

This year we decided to decorate our pumpkins as cats and bats.  They turned out pretty cool, especially because the eyes lit up.  The guys decided they wanted to be bats and Drew, CeCe and I did cats.  We all added our own personal touch by decorating the wings, faces and tails.  And for CeCe's we even added a trach. 

Overall, it was exhausting but fun Halloween!

Cheyenne - { 7 months }

I can't believe how big my baby is getting.  It's so much fun to interact with her. 
She is now SITTING and has been for about 3 weeks (all by herself that is)and for extra-long periods of time.

She loves STANDING up.  You can just see it in her cute smiley face how proud of herself she is.  I need to take a picture of it so you can see what I mean.  Grandpa always helps her practice.

She waves good-bye all the time now. Well, sometimes if you say it in English.  The trick is saying it in Spanish.  So, when you see her, if you want her to wave you have to say "Hola" or "Adios" and she'll respond with a wave back. 

She chuckles now.  It is so cute.  She has a Muttley The Dog laugh.  (Does that date me or what?!) If you don't know who he is, his laugh is more of a hizzing or hehehe sound. You can also click here to see a video of him laughing.

Eating time is an exciting time for CeCe.  As soon as I sit her on her high chair, she starts slapping the table in anticipation.  Because she can't swallow much, most of it comes out, but she still loves it.  We have decided to still feed her by mouth to keep her mouth active and taste buds going.  We have heard that a lot of kids that have G-tubes have a hard time transitioning to eating by mouth because they aren't used to the textures and flavors.  We know that she won't have to have a G-tube all her life, so when the time comes it won't be such a shock.

We have been working with an occupational therapist and lately we have been working on activating her tongue.  Her tongue is so far back, she has to learn how to move it forward so it's easier to swallow.  I have noticed lately, that she is getting better at that. 

She still hates her voice valve.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that the second we attach it to her she starts crying.  But it's not just crying, it's the look of "why are you doing this to me mom" look, which follows with a sad cry.  It breaks our hearts.  The other day, Frankie was around when I did it and he broke down in tears.  I know it's something we all have to do and it's what's best for her. We know it's what's best for her and it will help her.  I think the fact that we can actually hear her cry adds on to the emotions.  We know that the reason she cries is not because it hurts, but because it's a different sensation for her.  She is not used to air passing through her throat, not to mention the strange sound of a baby crying (her own).  I mentioned to the occupational therapist that I need to find someone to do it with her when I'm not around. Any volunteers?

On a happier note: we discovered today that she loves playing with mommy's make-up.  She sat for an hour just looking through my make-up box.  It was so fun to watch her.

We haven't gotten her weighed lately, but she's definitely gaining weight.  I know switching to formula has helped her chunk up. My arms actually get tired when I hold her.  She still pretty petite, but solid.

Enough of my blabber and more of the fun pictures of her playing with my make-up:

Guys and Gals Night Out

Separately, that is...

The Guys (Jon, Bob and Grant) went on a motorcycle trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming over a weekend. It was a pretty quick trip and although they came back with flatter rear ends (if that's possible), they had a lot of fun.

Then it was the girls turn.  We went to Park City and stayed a weekend.  We did some shopping, dancing, relaxing and even got Christian and Katie's friend Alisha to watch a scary movie...that really wasn't very scary.  It was pretty funny to watch them so scared. It was nice to have a husband that encourages me to do stuff with my friends.

{ Sharing }

A few weeks ago Drew  found a dollar out on the street while Ruby was over our house.  They both were so excited and came in to show me not only that they found the dollar, but that they shared it!