New Things in a New Year...

Seems Cami is in for a change this year. My girl is really picking up words left and right. She mimics our sounds and she loves to copy everything her brother does...Monkey see Monkey Do! We have to keep reminding him of that because when he climbs or jumps off something he is not suppose to, she is right behind him doing the same. Of course he thinks its hilarious, can you say T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Trouble written all over his sweet lil face...huh!

But her knew sounds are way cute, some new words this week are Bowl, Gean(green), LelloLello(yellow), hello, HOHOHO(for santa), I need, I d want(for I dont want), my mine, hmmmmm Up(for clean up) and more, all those words in just the past 2 week. She is also saying something we havent figured out yet but she'll say GoGo agee GoGo agee and points to nothing in particular pretty much everything....any ideas...LOL!


Some words shes been saying for a while: car, no, UhhhhOhhhh(when she drops something), go go, byebye, ball, awwwite(alright) mawmaw, nannie, daddy, mommy, bubba, I want, bbball(basketball)and I think she is saying NeNe for Cami because she says it when she sees a picture of herself. We do hear lots of other sounds its just lots of babble that we dont understand yet but man what a great way to start this year.
I think this year she will be able to blow out her birthday candles as well. We have been working really hard on that one and I think she has it down just not sure if she does it hard enough to get them out but hey atleast she knows what it means to blow them out. And can you believe it she will be 4 years old in one month from today! Makes me so sad seeing her grow up so fast!




We are also quickly approaching her 2 year seizure freedom mark. We think we may have seen some absence seizures in November and possibly one in her sleep too but we think it was because she was so sick. We discussed it with her Neuro last week at her appt and he thinks it was possible it was just related to her being sick. I had also just given her some cough medicine which he said could have counteracted with her Depakote said we have to be careful with some meds. But all in all he thought she looked great. He got to hear her talk for the first time when he saw her back in October she wasnt saying anything but mama and dada and she didnt even say that around him. The week after that appt she just started talking! He asked about her sleep we said its been great without anything, he was shocked that it just got better, seems once her belly issues got straightened out her sleep got better and then the talking started....ALL in one weeks time!

She also had a follow up with her GI a few weeks back and she was stopped up again so we had to do another clean out and it went well. She has been put on Murilax permantely everyday for atleast a year. She said since her bowel has been so big it has really stretched it out in there so she said it will take 6-12 months to get it back to normal size so in order for that to happen we have to keep her regular for a year. We can tell when she gets backed up because she refuses to eat and her belly gets really bloated.
Anyhow her Neuros where very pleased at her progress I got a new updated picture of them all together but its on my new camera and I dont know how to get the pics on the computer yet. They think she is doing so well that come July we will attempt the wean of her Depakote. We are very excited about that!!!! I can only imagine a life for her with no meds talk about a NEW GIRL!

She goes for her yearly MRI on the 12th checking that lesion in her cerebellum making sure its not grown in size. We've not seen any off balance issues so I think we shall see good results. Now its just keeping her healthy so we can keep the appt, cant be around anybody sick since she picks up everything so easy so thankfully they dont start back to school till Monday. Sadly she will miss her first day back but I know she will be so excited to get back on Tuesday! I know Caleb is more than excited. There is only so much you can do to keep these guys intertained for 3 weeks specially with the Holidays being over. I've been bored out of my mind, we have gotten to venture out a few days when the Lord blessed us with some gorgeous fall temps Cami got to try out her new car and Caleb took off on his bike.

But this week its been nothing but a nasty rainy mess and now the cold windy temps are back. Just send me a good snow and I'll be done with the winter time! I'll update next after her MRI but for now this is all I have, I dont think anything exciting will happen in our household the remainding of this week I think we are gonna head to a local boat show this weekend to see Spongebob and that will give them the thrill of the week! A perfect way to end their Christmas break!
Heres some more pics over the break. These where taken at Opryland Hotel in Nashville. We've been going there every Christmas since Caleb was 3 months old. The kids love it and it is always so beautifully decorated inside and out, this place is HUGE! Saying that it's huge doesn't really describe it. What does kind of help you get an understanding for how big it is is that its property encompasses 35 acres of land. Yep 35. You can get hopelessly lost in there if your not careful--and I mean lost, not disoriented.

In addition to being really big the Opryland also encompases a huge atrium-like structure full of acres and acres of tropical plants and man-made rivers and waterfalls. There are walkways and bridges and overhangs all over the place. Did I mention that the rivers are also full of fish and that you can take a boat ride? All on the inside of this place. There are night clubs in there, ball rooms, hotel rooms the list just goes on and on. Its a neat place!

Here's a few of the Huge Christmas Trees in The Hotel.



One of the beautiful Murals in the Ball room! Caleb loved that one.


This is inside our Favorite Garden, its got the Waterfall that Caleb loves. Its beautiful.





A bear and Rudolph shrubs lit up...too cute!



One of the front views of the hotel!

How beautiful is that??? My favorite shot I captured it was beautiful!



No pictures of Cami outside this year while there. It was 13 degrees on this night and me and Caleb froze our tootsies off trying to get some outside shots. Needless to say 10 minutes was all we could handle, Cami and her Daddy waited in the car and when me and Caleb got in they had us some warm hot chocolate waiting, man did it hit the spot. It was a great night out.