Letter to Rua - 12 months (One Year!!)

October 5, 2015

Dearest Rua,

My sweet little girl, how did this happen? You are one year old!! This weekend has been full of reminiscing back to one year ago. The anticipation and excitement as labor started, then me pushing through the pain, and the incredible moment when I first laid eyes on you. You were so beautiful and precious. And it's been such an incredible journey this past year as you have grown and learned and emerged as a little person with a mind of your own, and a gorgeous smile always at the ready. Rua, you have absolutely stolen our hearts.

What an exciting month this has been. Biggest news? You took your very first steps! Those hesitant, unsteady steps happened two weeks ago and now you are already steady enough to walk across a room. It's exciting and you are so proud.

You have learned how to clap this month and you just love to clap for yourself. 'If you're happy and you know it' is your favorite song right now because you can clap all through the song. You still love to wave bye and hello, all the time. Along these same lines, you finally had your first signs this month. You have a very energetic 'all done' and you can sign 'fan' and 'more' (I think). So we'll have to keep up with the signing since it seems to finally be clicking.

You now say 'da', 'ma', 'ah', 'ba', 'yah' but 'oh' is your absolute favorite. You pucker up your lips, lean your head back and say the cutest 'oh.' Love it.

You are slightly more interested in books. You will sit and let me read at least a few pages of your little board books to you. Hopefully you will start loving books because that is just about all you got for your birthday this year. :) You do love to pull all the books down from bookshelves though. Of course, who wouldn't?

You are a crazy little climber. Ever since you discovered steps and stairs a couple months ago you always make a beeline for them. But now if there is anything that has any remote possibility of acting as a step, you try to lift your little leg on top. Step stools cannot be left out, way too tempting for you. Boxes or packages are very exciting. You climbed all the way up to Abby's bed because her potty chair was left too close to her bed. That was super fun for you.

You absolutely love Abby's baby dolls, you drag one around with you all the time. Abby has gotten better about sharing or rather, tolerating you borrowing her dolls, but really we just need to get you your own. I was thinking Christmas, by maybe it should be sooner!

You love necklaces, purses, bags, backpacks - anything you can drape over your neck or carry on your arm

You are your sister's favorite person. (most of the time)

                             

                                                 

And you are one of my two favorite little people also. I love you so much. I am so grateful for this past year because you were in it.

Love,

Your Mamma

Happy Birthday Rua - One year old!

                       

My little girl had a birthday today! It's been so fun celebrating her! She sure doesn't seem like a little baby anymore. Abby had a great time helping get things ready - baking her cake, wrapping presents, planning birthday meals and what we would be doing. I think we have a resident party planner. And she didn't seem to grudge Rua the spotlight at all, she was so great about it. 

We did cake and presents yesterday so it wouldn't be rushed with bedtime after Eric got home today from work. Abby and I made a banana cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, healthier but tasty. Rua was super excited about it, but them wanted us to feed it to her on a fork and didn't dive right in. (She's been doing that lately which is funny because we never spoon-fed her)

  

                                               

                                               

Her birthday decided to be a rainy one which threw a kink in my beach day plans. So instead we had a leisurely morning with pancake waffles for breakfast (after which I promptly dropped the waffle maker on the floor and broke it, I think we've only every used it a handful of times :(

                                              

                         

Then we went to story time and played at the library, good for a raining day. And she got sung to at story time which was fun for me at least.

                                           

Rua with Jennifer, our story time lady

Went up to the roof area of the library because we just had to play in the rain

                       

Baby doll came too (Rua has tried to adpot one of Abby's babies, looks like she needs her own!)

                                                 

The rain subsided by early afternoon so we headed over to the zoo. Rua got to wear a special birthday sticker and Abby and I tried to pick all the places we thought Rua would like, meaning places where we could let her out to crawl, walk, and climb around. We had a blast.

                                              

                                              

                                             

                                             

And then we ended the night with one more round of cake lighting and singing, because why not?

Happy one year, Rua-girl!

                                             

Rua - medical update

Since the last time I posted about Rua's ectrodactyly, we've met with the orthopedic surgeon again. We were definitely curious to see Rua's xray images and hear what the doctor had to say. We had gone in previously to get the xrays done, but unfortunately we had to redo them the day of our appointment as well. Rua did not like it either time at all. It's no wonder they weren't able to get good enough pictures the first time around.

However it was definitely fascinating to see the images and see how her little bones are formed. Some of her fingers have fused bones, some are side by side bones, but with fused skin. One particularly interesting thing was that her left foot has polydactyly - an extra toe!  Or at least the bones inside for an extra toe that never emerged. This extra bone is slanted though and pushing on her big toe, which already sticks out pretty far on the side.

Rua's feet

Rua's left hand

Rua's right hand (couldn't get this picture to upload the rotated version). Her fingers are overlapping so it's hard to really see them.

Which leads to the doctor's plan of action. He suggested that we have surgery done to remove this extra bone so that it won't continue to push on her big toe and push it even further to the side. He also said another optional surgery would be to remove her little finger on her right hand. This finger comes off of one of her other two fingers on that hand. It has a bone inside but is a floppy, useless finger. He said that there is a possibility that it could get in her way as she continues to grow and use her hands. But he left that completely up to us.

We agreed on the surgery for her foot, that seemed to be a no-brainer. But that cute little finger! We haven't really decided on that yet. It doesn't seem to bother her at all now, and I hate the thought of removing any part of her.

So we went ahead and scheduled surgery for October 15. Soon, I know!  We wouldn't have done it for several months probably if we hadn't found out that she has a hernia that will need surgery to repair. This needed to be done in the next month or two and we figured that we would prefer to cut down on the general anesthesia that she has to get if possible. The surgeries will be done right after the other and will be outpatient. Recovery is supposed to be pretty easy, here's hoping.

Although these are minor surgeries and needed ones, it is still a scary thing to think of sending your child off alone to have surgery. What if something went wrong? What if she is scared when they take her away from me? What if she is in a ton of pain afterwards (they tell me it won't be too bad)?

I will be glad when Oct 15 is come and gone for sure.

Abby - story time

We have an awesome story time that we go to over on Coronado Island. It is by far the absolute best I have found. Apparently Abby thinks so too, because she has taking to having story times with her babies and animals. And it is set up exactly like the Coronado story time, complete guitar a la Mr Mike. It is just about the cutest thing I've seen her do.

Letter to Rua - 11 months

Sept 5 2015

Dearest Rua,

11 months!  The countdown to one year is on! This month milestone almost slipped by unnoticed, you keep me too busy to keep track of things very well. You are quite the busy little girl and you move so fast. It is exhausting trying to keep up with you. It's a good thing you've got an Abby to help out. When she isn't worried about you stealing her toys she is quite loving. She treats you almost like one of her baby dolls, even trying to lift you and carry you around (arms wrapped around you from behind). I learned today that she can now lift you up on things, ie the couch. Oh dear. But you eat it all up, laughing hysterically until you get hurt. Or until you reach for one of her cars and she flips out. You are starting to hold your own though, you hold on tight to things and shriek back when she tries to take things away from you. Now, if I could just get you guys to share and have no shrieking on either end.

Other than your up and down relationship with Abby, some other fun things about you at 11 months:

• You are becoming increasingly agile and balanced. You have started to have short spurts on standing on your own (like 2-3 seconds). You like to sit kneeling down on your knees. You have starting climbing things. I looked over at you today to see you sitting on top of Abby's little table. You can push Abby's shopping cart around. You like to walk holding on to my hands, and now on to just one of my hands at times. 

• You have a couple of words, or rather, word approximations that you say. The most prominent is 'Da' for Dad. You very excitedly say 'da' whenever he comes home or when he calls on the phone. Occasionally you say 'ma' for mom. The only other one I think you say is 'ba' for bye. You say this sometimes as you wave your arm. We have been doing signs, but so far none from you, unless we count the waving. 

• You are still making lots and lots of messes
• You like to put necklaces on and off. Purses too. 

• You love to eat - some favorites right now: watermelon, cheese, smoothies.

• I'm starting to wonder if you already need your own baby doll, because you sure like to give Abby's lots of love

• You like to push toy cars around
• You can throw a ball (1-2 feet) and love to have me throw them back to you.
• You absolutely love water! Bath times continue to be some of your favorite times. They are tiring for me because you are constantly standing up and I am constantly sitting you back down. You love love the beach too. You are fearless and crawl straight into the water

I still get soo many comments from people about how happy you always seem, and this is definitely true. You constantly light up with your beautiful smiles. Those smiles sure help make things easier when I am exhausted from yours and Abby's endless energy. So keep smiling.

I love you

Love, Mom