Melody, I still can't get over how early you picked up the straw. It is second nature to you thank goodness! This is what you look like on a typical morning during breakfast time. Happy go lucky!
Here is Addison with her priceless "Silly Face." Gosh, I can't seem to get a normal smile out of you these days! We don't help things by laughing! This is random, but in this pic you are eating your first bowl of Taco Soup and loved it! I was sooo excited cause it is something healthy and homemade that you will touch! I believe you were hooked on it a good 3 nights in a row.
This was the week you started Pre-k 3 and we were practicing wearing your backpack. You are totally into it and are very proud of the several ones you own!
I thought this was so funny- we have these temperature gauges in ya'lls rooms and you love to pretend it is a phone. One day I caught you having a VERY in depth conversation with Totsie on it. You were answering all kinds of questions and everything. I just sat back and enjoyed the show:)
Here you are with your teacher Mrs. Blanchard. We all LOVE her so much! Matt and I are so very pleased and couldn't have chosen a better teacher for you this year. This was the day that we met with her one on one just to let y'all meet and to talk about the injury and peanut allergy. We wanted y'all to meet in a small setting rather than the first overwhelming day of school. This way, she would be able to see your true self and actually know that you talk a TON and are super mobile! We knew that the first few days you would be very shy and probably not want to do a whole bunch and we wanted to let her see that you are very capable of holding your own!
Here we are getting your EEG done. You have been on seizure medicine ever since the injury even though you have never had a seizure. (It is just a precautionary thing). The neurologist said before we wean you off, we have to do this test to make sure you aren't having any. They like to sedate since you have to be still for 30 minutes. Of course Matt and I went against that and said we would like to try no sedation first. It is always worth a try! We were so nervous and really thought it might be a waste of time! But you came through and with alot of patience and distraction tools we were finished! The worst part was the setup. Luckily I had your hair in french pigtails that day so it was easy to get to your scalp. I have never seen so many wires in my life! First they have to clean with an alcohol pad, then put a drop of crisco like stuff on your scalp, place the electrode on top and finally secure with tape. Before they started all this mess, I could see your eyes were getting huge. You were checking out all of the equipment and gosh knows what you were imagining. I asked the lady if she could first do a few on me. They were more than happy to and you watched the whole thing. I think it helped you a little. I think me talking you through the whole thing helped the most though. I would describe every little thing they were doing but only in Addison terms. That's the beauty of being able to go back there and be with your child through this. Only YOU know what makes them tick and what makes sense to them. After they secured all electrodes, they wrapped your head really tight in this white gauze stuff. You were freaking out and as soon as I told you it was just like a washcloth at home, you were super calm. You LOVE washcloths! During the procedure, we watched lots of Dora on our laptop that we brought. You cried so much at the beginning I think you finally wore yourself out and just gave up. I of course was right there in bed with you. We were all snuggled up and cozy. (well, as cozy as a hospital can be.) We are still waiting for the results cause our Dr. is on vacation. The tech said everything looked fine to her though. We are excited to one day be done with this medicine!
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| This is only about 25% of the electrodes! |
Here is a priceless pic of Daddy. We were on our way home from Dallas getting your new braces. We wanted to get them before you started school because these are less restrictive and you can move sooo much better in them! I think you were ready to be home and being pretty vocal about it and all I could do was laugh. What else can you do?:) I don't think he found it as humorous!
Ahhh! The owl cookies. This was our very first late night school project for you and I HAD to document cause I know there will be many more to come! Your class has an owl theme and on the first "practice day" of school y'all were going to eat owl cookies. Mrs. Blanchard told us this and said we probably want to make our own since theirs would be from a bakery. SOOO, not wanting you to feel left out, I frantically searched for owl cookie cutters. Then, we searched the internet for some pics on how to decorate. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! AND even better, you never knew the difference and didn't feel left out! Now you want owl cookies all the time!
This was the first "practice day" of school. Yes, I treated it like the first real day by documenting with pictures. I just couldn't miss it. I thought you looked so precious and you were in the BEST mood. We had been talking to you about school alot over the past year and you were sooo ready to go! We had signed you up for school in February and your accident was in March. Throughout the whole recovery process, I was saying that we wouldn't send you to school this year and that we just needed to keep you home. I wanted you to get well and essentially put you in a bubble! We began to realize that wouldn't be the best thing for you. You were recovering so fast and we knew you would have a blast with the other kids! We wanted that for you and were so excited for you to make new friends and learn new things. Sooo, it was a wonderful feeling walking through those school doors knowing what had happened just six months ago. You are some kind of fighter!!!
Here's that silly face again! I seriously can't help but laugh:) I taught you how to make silly faces about 2 months ago and I guess this was the only one I could come up with. I might teach you some new ones! HA!
Ok, this was the actual First Day of school. You were wearing your sweet little frog smocked dress. I had to do the traditional yard pics. Seems like everyone has that first school pic in the yard! I couldn't get you by the pretty flowers cause the sun was sooo bright!
I will tell you that the first day was great. The "drop off" is something that every Mom dreads. Either the Mom or child always ends up crying. I dropped you off, gave you a kiss, told you I loved you and you did the same. Your eyes were big and you were soaking up every little detail. As I walked away I was watching to make sure all was well and you were perfectly fine. I believe everything went so smoothly because we had already met with your teacher and you knew who she was and all about your new classroom. I am so glad we did it that way. Totsie kept Melody so that I could drop you off by myself and give you every bit of my attention. It was just a special time. I missed you a bunch in those few hours and was at the front of the line for pickup!
This was Melody's first time to eat spaghetti. Of course you loved it! I am finding that I can put anything on your tray and you will for sure devour it! Thank you, thank you, thank you for being the wonderful eater that you are! Makes life a THOUSAND times easier!
GEAUX TIGERS! This is your new LSU cheerleader uniform which you love so very much. This was for the first game of the season and you are a big tiger fan! We have done a fantastic job of brainwashing you girls!
The pom poms are such an important accessory to you and you always walk around with it yelling, "Go Tigers!" and "Tiger Bait" and "LSU LSU!" Melody was very interested in your pom pom- I don't believe you had any intentions of sharing it with her.
Melody was ready for the game! You have PLENTY of LSU gear, thanks to your sister! I'm so glad everything has held up and is still in good shape! I LOVE that y'all get to share clothes- we save so much money that way!!
Here you are with Papa learning to play the guitar. This was your first time and you were sooo into it! It is so obvious that you have a musical ear. I LOVE that and how you start bouncing/dancing whenever you hear music or some kind of beat.
More before school shots. I thought these were so beautiful of you! They really capture who you are- especially the profile shots. I feel like "True Addison" really shines through in those. Such precious times. You are just full of wonder, curiosity, and pure joy!
At therapy they have hired a new Speech Therapist. Now you will finally have someone consistent and we are so happy with that. We have been wondering if you even need it though. Other than a little drooling on your right side (when you get tired) your speech is wonderful and is even better than it was before the injury. So, we asked the new therapist to do a full evaluation on you to see where you stand. WELL, our gut was right! You language tested at a 5 year old level! You have an awesome vocabulary and can carry on a great conversation. She said she is still scoring you on your speech and that may be your weakness right now. Sometimes when you get tired your speech slows down a bit and your words aren't as clear. If you score below your age in that category, then we will keep you in speech. You sure are doing amazing though!!!
This story is kinda sad but hilarious at the same time. Totsie was feeding Addison lunch and I was folding clothes while Melody was in the playroom. We hear you kinda fussing off and on but no big deal. Mom kept wondering if I should check on you and thought something might be wrong. I told her not to worry and that you were just being fussy and you would be ok. Well, WHOOPS! My mom radar was WAY OFF! I walked in to find you totally in the book basket. Completely stuck! You had emptied alot of books and gotten in there and couldn't seem to get out! Bless your heart. AND your crazy mama just had to document it with some pics! I think that made you cry harder but don't worry, I scooped you up right after that!
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