I Am Thankful For .......

(in no particular order)

1. ....finally finding something that I'm good at! I have been doing really well at school (knock on wood cuz there's still 1.5 weeks left to this semester). I have taken 5 tests over the past 2 weeks and I made it through all of them with enough energy left to order that extra-spicy Bloody Mary I was itching for. Would you believe that I got a Level 3 on my standardized pharmacology test, and scored in the 98th percentile in the NATION??!! I still can't. I love learning from every new patient I meet, I love giving injections (hee hee), I love trying to think of ways to make people's lives better, and I love coming home at night feeling like I accomplished something for myself.

2. ....the veggie burgers at the hospital cafeteria. They're just little hunks of goodness covered in cheese.

3. ....my daughter. Even though I haven't been able to spend much time with Charlotte over the past few months, I am so thankful for the brief moments we have to sit on the couch and talk about Elmo, or what she learned at school, or whether or not Santa lives across the street because our neighbor decided to put his Christmas lights up before Thanksgiving. I can be having a horribly stressful day, and if I get to hear her voice over the phone say "I love you Mommy" and "I miss you Mommy" then everything is right in the world.

4. ....my parents. They have been so amazing with helping us out by taking Charlotte for a few weekends so I can study and Brian can work. Char loves her Yia-yia and Papa and they are so good to her. I am also thankful for the too-seldom times that my mom and I get to share a cup of coffee. I'm glad that Christmas break is coming up. It's time to start some new Yia-yia/Mommy/Charlotte Christmas traditions!

5. ....losing and keeping off the last 25 pounds of baby weight I was reluctantly holding onto. Thanks to all the people who inadvertently had a hand in that - guess you are good for something :-)

6. ....my new friends at school. When experiencing so many new things it's so refreshing to have people to share it with that understand what you're going through. I love hearing about their patient's poop stories, complaining together about how we got in trouble for being late to class when we were one minute early, and having people there to make fun of me when I mispronounce all the medical jargon. I feel like I've known you gals for forever, and I mean that in a good way!

7. ....my infrequent runs. Sometimes those seem like my only moments of sanity. It's getting too cold to take Char with me anymore, and with 6:30am starts at my clinical site there's no way I'm going in the morning. I love the chances I have to put on the headphones, listen to some Backstreet Boys (Shut up!) and hit the pavement. I'm trying to recruit people to run a 1/2 marathon with me on June 13th next year. Let me know if you're interested.

8. ....Charlotte's nanny, Lauren. Man, the stars were aligned when the cosmos brought Lauren to our family!!! I am so thankful that when I leave here in the morning I know Char's going to be safe, taken care of and loved. You are amazing, Lauren!

9. ....boxed wine. Even on a fixed budget I can still enjoy some vices in life.

10. ....Brian. Even though there are many times that I would like to pop his head off like the top of a dandelion I am still thankful for him stepping up to the plate while I am at school. I could not be doing as well as I am, nor would I be able to do this program PERIOD without his help. Brian is just as exhausted as I am, yet he never complains.

11. ....my boys. No matter how short, every life makes a difference in this world. I think about Gus and Jake all the time. Their short time on this earth has taught me so much! Even though sometimes I may forget, just thinking about them reminds me of how precious life is and how we should never take anything for granted.

12. ....the fact that according to my Pathophysiology book I still have 250 days left for my boobs to get bigger naturally. After that I'm taking donations. If ever there was hope .....

13. ....my friends. I have the most amazing, intelligent, beautiful, non-judgemental, reliable, adventurous, funny, loving friends in the world. Thank you for all of your support and for cheering me on. And thank you for letting me know that I am loved.

14. ....how great my butt looks in my jeans. Seriously, I'm 30-something, and I actually feel like a MILF. And I'm proud of that! (thanks for the jeans, Sam)

15. ....the roof over my head, the air in my lungs and the food on my table. Life definitely throws you some crappy lemons sometimes, but in the grand scheme of things, I am truly blessed, and for that ....

I am thankful. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

See ya Later, Alligator!

OMG, after my nursing school orientation this past weekend I am scared out of my mind!!! If that was their intention, then they did a fantastic job. One of the current students was saying something to the effect of maybe getting to bed by 2am every night after all the reading and studying. I can't do that! I'm 30-something years old! And she doesn't have a child, spouse, cat ,dog OR a house to look after!

Classes start tomorrow and I don't know when you're going to hear from me again. I guess this is where I admit to myself that I'm gonna have to let some things slide for a bit. I think this blog falls under that category. So, for everyone that's going to have a birthday over the next 16 months (and if my calculations are correct, that should be everyone) ..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY! To everyone that is getting married, having a baby, starting a new job, or any other amazing milestone in your life in the next 1 1/2 years ..... CONGRATS! And if anything bad is happening in your life and you need someone to listen to you or to vent to then give me a call around 2am. Sounds like I'll be up.


I'll leave you with a few pics from the summer. The first 4 are from the Great Urban Race that I did with Patty back in the beginning of August. We had a blast, completed all our tasks and came in in the top 50% of over 500 groups. Next year .... NUMBER ONE! The picture of Char on the see-saw is from our weekend with Kari, Teddy and Isabella in June. Doesn't she look like such a little girl there? She's not my baby anymore (Oh, who am I kidding ... I put that one in there cuz of the cleavage shot). And the last pic is from this past weekend where Char spent some time with her Yia-Yia and Papa (my parents). As always, she had a wonderful time, and Brian and I got the chance to get things in order here before our lives change big-time.

But then again who knows .... maybe they're blowing it out of proportion and I'll have plenty of time to post on the blog. However, I do have 7 chapters to read for tomorrow and class hasn't even started yet. Guess I should get on that!

Watch Out!

Today was a monumental day for our little girl. Today Charlotte received her very own wheelchair! We're calling it her "Zippie", which is actually the make of the wheelchair, but as soon as we saw how quickly she figured out how to use it and how fast she could go, we realized it was a perfect nickname. If the weather is good we're going to take it with us to the zoo tomorrow and see how she does. To be honest, within the first few minutes she had figured out how to turn around, go forwards, backwards and even move the the armrests. If you were to put ME in a wheelchair I guarantee it would take me a few hours to even be able to make a decent left turn without injuring myself and/or an innocent bystander. How did she teach herself so fast??!!

The next lessons we will attempt to conquer are:
1. Wheelchair Etiquette 101 - where you learn that Ozzie and Bart really don't appreciate you hauling ass over their tails, and that you should say "excuse me" BEFORE you bump into someone
2. How to Handle Hills - when you weigh 23 pounds the bump in the sidewalk constitutes a hill
3. Wheelies - I don't want to be around for that one. Brian, just make sure she's wearing a helmet, ok?

Brian took a quick video of her right after we first put her in. Enjoy! (And, yes, we know that's she's missing a footrest in the video. Don't fret, that has since been correctly attached).

Day 10 of Recovery

This has been the longest, most drawn-out, most patience-testing, laziest, cuddliest, child-bondingest 10 days of my life. Odd combo, I know. Charlotte hasn't been too receptive to fluids this whole time and for the majority of the days I have been spoon-feeding her most of her liquids. The goal everyday has been 32 ounces. Ha! I laugh at the unattainability of that challenge. I think the most she's taken in has been 30 ounces. 30 spoon-fed ouncesm that is. I swear, the fluid seems to multiply when it's fed on a spoon.

Yes, I've tried the bottle, a straw cup, a regular cup, and even an eye-dropper. She doesn't want anything to do with those methods. I'm actually starting to wonder if this is where she goes off the bottle completely. Dear God, if that's the case then please have her choose the straw cup as her vessel of choice. Anything but the spoon!

I can tell she's still in a bit of pain, and the aversion to drinking reflects that. HOWEVER ..... her desire to eat 2-3 pizza crusts tonight, WITHOUT GAGGING, leads me to think that she's pulling some kind of "2-year old I'm not gonna do want I don't want to do" crap. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that she all of sudden wants to eat stuff that she couldn't eat a few weeks ago, chew it like she's been chewing all of her life, and then swallow it down with no problems. I'm just wondering what's going to be our "normal" when we get "back to normal"? Is this where she becomes like other 2-year olds and eats a normal amount of food and I can take her off the super-expensive, high-calorie formula? That would be nice.

For the 1st 3 days she was home a home nurse came by and gave Char IV fluids to help keep her hydrated. That took a lot of the pressure off of my shoulders and I didn't have to be such a nazi about pushing the water. I even got the chance to flush out her IV with some saline and heparin after the IV was done. I had so much fun doing it! Sounds like I have definitely picked the right career path. Otherwise, Charlotte and I have been reading books, playing quietly with her toys, doing lots of snuggling and lots of watching Elmo in Grouchland. I think it would be less painful for me to stick a fork in my eye than watch that movie again. However, I will probably be faced with that choice again tomorrow and will most likely go with the latter.

10 days at home with my daughter has been trying, but AMAZING. We have never snuggled, cuddled and bonded like this before. One thing that's always kind of bugged me is that I don't always feel like "mom". I'm a physical therapist, speech therapist, feeding therapist, occupational therapist, nutritionist, teacher, nurse, doctor, personal assistant, chauffeur, but not mom. These past 10 days I got to be mom. We haven't been working on anything, but her resting and getting her strength back. And that's been nice. At first when we scheduled the surgery I sarcastically thought to myself, "Oh, what a great way to end my already crappy summer". But, now as I'm only a little over a week away from starting nursing school, I realize what a great opportunity this was to spend an ungodly amount of quality time with my daughter. I sure do love that Peanut.

Post-op Recap

Charlotte had her surgery yesterday morning and everything went well, however, as was expected she was a bit of a mess afterwards. But who isn't after waking up from anaethesia? Especially if you're too young to know what the heck is going on!

She stayed in the hospital last night, and, thankfully, came home this morning. We had to share a room with another family and it was difficult to get her to sleep with all the constant chatter, lights going on and off, and all the alarms beeping. Not that any of it was anyone's fault, but it's still annoying.

She was getting IV fluids at the hospital and they left the IV in so the home nurse can come by and give her fluids if necessary. I can tell you right now it's going to be necessary. There's no reasoning with her about swallowing her juice, soup or ice cream. We managed to get a bit of broth and juice in her today, but not enough to keep her hydrated. On top of the usual, excrutiating sore throat that comes with a tonsilectomy, there's also the issue of Char's low muscle tone, which is restricting her swallowing as well. You know how when you get a bad sore throat your swallowing is much more labored and you kind of have to think about doing it? Well it's that much harder for Char since she has to think about swallowing on a normal day. But as today trudged along we started to notice that she was swallowing a little easier. Probably a combination of time, drugs, and limited energy for resistance.

Having the IV left in her arm is also posing another issue for Char. She can't crawl. She's totally immobile until they take it out on Sunday. That was tolerable today since she still didn't have any desire to do anything except watch Elmo and Patti LaBelle (they sing the ABCs together on Sesame Street - another reason why I question if she's mine, she likes gospel music. It's always funny to see people's facial expressions when she asks to watch Patti LaBelle, "Did she just say Patti LaBelle?" "Yep"). But the next couple of days might be a challenge. The IV is on her left hand and it's all wrapped up on this board thing. It might as well be a cast. Maybe I need to make it into some kind of stump-like thing that she can use kind of like a wooden leg ..... hmmmm ..... I'm thinking paper towel roll, plastic tubing, duct tape .... maybe I need to think about this a little more. Although it would be fun to see the nurse's expression when she walks in and sees that. You don't think she'd call DCFS, do you?

Surgery on Wednesday

Just a quick update to let everyone know that Char is having her adenoids and tonsils out tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. We're really hoping that this is going to help with her eating, swallowing, and breathing. I guess they don't usually do this type of procedure on kids as young as she is, but her nasal passageway was pretty compromised by the size of her nodes. She will be staying at the hospital overnight, so they can keep an eye on her and make sure she gets plenty of fluids. Then the plan is for her to come home and remain on IV fluids for 4-5 days. It's generally quite difficult to keep kids with c.p. hydrated on a regular basis, so we're taking extra precautions to make sure that's not a problem after the surgery. We will also be visited by a home nurse for a few days. Hopefully she'll (or "he" will, you never know) give us plenty of suggestions as to how to keep the IV in a kid that won't sit still. This is going to be very interesting ....

I'm hoping they have wi-fi access at the hospital tomorrow, so I'll try and post an update tomorrow night if I can.

Char's a strong girl, and I know she'll be just fine, but I can't help but be nervous with her going under general anaethesia.

Is That a Couple Bucks Burning a Hole in Your Pocket?

Or are you just happy to be reading my blog?? Well, if it's a couple bucks then maybe you'll read on to find my shameless plea for donations to the Center for Independence. This is our 2nd year of Charlotte going to the Center and as my previous posts have shown they've had a tremendous impact on her progress towards becoming an independently mobile, little girl. Each year they host a fundraiser and this year it includes a golf outing, silent auction and dinner dance. The golf outing and silent auction are going to be held on Friday, October 2nd. Brian and I are planning to attend, but to be honest I wouldn't expect anyone else to want to (although when I hear "dinner dance" I think hey ..... what a great opportunity to go out and buy a new dress for myself). However, the part where you can help is through the raffle! If anyone is interested in purchasing a raffle ticket from me here are the specs:

• Each ticket costs $100
• Only 600 tickets are sold (so that means your chances of winning are pretty good)
• 1st prize is $10,000, 2nd prize is a 2009 KIA, 3rd prize is $2500, 4th prize is $1000, and 5th prize is $500
• You don't need to be present to be a winner
• Proceeds from the raffle go towards helping families with limited income and/or limited insurance receive affordable, intensive motor training

If you, or perhaps a few people together, are interested in purchasing a raffle ticket(s) please email me at achellyer@yahoo.com and I can arrange to get one to you. It is because of the donations received by the Center that they are able to offer parents a reduced hourly rate for therapy. And it is because of these donations that we will be able to afford to continue sending Charlotte there when our insurance allotment runs out (which by my calculations for next year will be before the end of January - c'mon Obama ... let's get that new healthcare system in place).

If you would like to know of other ways that you can help out or donate to the Center please let me know! Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Walk This Way

Every day when Charlotte arrives at the Center she walks in with one of the therapists, and heads over to the potty where she "does her thing". I took some video of her walking during the first week of her summer camp back in June and then took another video this past Friday to see the difference. Here's the video I took on Friday. Maureen (her PT) hardly touched her at all. This is nothing short of amazing! Brian predicts that by this time next year she'll be zipping around the house in her walker and we'll have a hard time keeping up with her. And to keep things in perspective, note that at this time LAST year Charlotte had not even sat up by herself yet.

Received word from the wheelchair rep that her wheelchair has been ordered and should ship in the next week. Keep your fingers crossed that maybe we'll get it by the end of the month!

Look Mom! No Hands!

No one else's hands, that it! Yesterday was awesome. While walking out of her summer camp session at the Center, Charlotte walked at least 30 feet, using her walker, without anyone having to hold onto her. The only thing Gaby, her therapist, had to do was help her to advance the walker forward every now and then. She's SO CLOSE to being able to do it completely by herself! It's so amazing how much stronger Charlotte is getting and how much more determined she seems lately to do things that all the other kids are doing. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me yesterday (bad mom), so I brought it with today to show you some pics of how great Char looks when she's walking. She needed a little extra assistance today, but that's okay. We all need that sometimes.

I really feel that this new strength has a lot to do with Charlotte's new eating habits. Over the last week we've been trying to feed Charlotte the same things that we eat for dinner. If we have pasta with turkey meatballs, then Char gets the same thing (albeit on an extremely smaller scale - see the pic of her first "real" meal below). I still give her some kind of purée with the calorie powder, but I'm trying to make that a smaller portion of her meal so she wants to eat more of the GOOD STUFF. I'm sure people think I'm crazy for being so over the moon about Char's eating, but it seemed for so long that she was going to be eating nothing but soup and coconut milk yogurt for the rest of her life. I even got to order something off the menu for her the other day. Yes, ME, cheapo Mandi, bought something off the menu for Char even though I knew she would only eat 1% of the dish. Who cares? My kid's eating FOOD!

Recently, Charlotte's ducky bathtub bit the dust (i.e. he sprung a leak), and we decided that it was time to find a new way for her to take a bath. She was starting to outgrow the duck, but we didn't think she would be strong enough to keep herself above the the water line if we just let her free in the big bathtub. First we tried a modified "bath chair" by cutting the legs off of a toddler-sized plastic patio chair. That worked for a while, but it soon became very apparent that she was having problems with her feet getting caught on the bottom of the chair. I've heard from several other sources that kids with cp can get very particular about their feet, especially if their legs are affected by the condition (is it a "condition"? I don't know ... I hate trying to find words to describe stuff like that, so let's just go with "condition"). Imagine you have limited control over your legs and then there's these two crazy appendages that hang off the end - your feet. Your feet are going to get stuck under/over/in/on everything and I can imagine that would be frightening for anyone. The modified "bath chair" only lasted a few days, which means .... Charlotte has graduated to the BIG BATHTUB! I can't believe it. She's like a little fish in there and hasn't had any problems yet. Now we're wishing we would have done this a long time ago. My little girl is growing up!!

I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. I took Char over to my friend Kathy's house to watch the fireworks just down the block from her place. Last year I don't think Char really cared one way or the other about the fireworks, but this year it was all about "GREEN!", "PINK!", "WOW!". It was a great night.

Quick side note - I'm sure people may have noticed through this post that I say "we" every now and then. Just thought I'd mention that no matter what happens going forward Charlotte will always have a "we", and I would want it no other way.

And speaking of Wii, have you tried Wii? OMG! I bought one for myself a few months back and I am completely addicted to rockin' out/jammin'/whatever you call it, on Guitar Hero. If anyone wants to come over at any time for a head to head Guitar Hero-off ..... IT'S ON!

30 Cheerios

That's what I've been telling anyone who will listen to me over the past few days. Char ate 30 cheerios at breakfast on Monday. Since then she's had pasta, raspberries, blueberries, lots of avocado and many more cheerios (for those overseas that's the round oat cereal in the shape of an "O"). It's official! I've had confirmation from her feeding therapist, the speech therapist and the GI doctor that this is the change we were looking for. She's actually taking the food in her mouth, moving it around on her own, chewing it and swallowing with no problem. I can see on her face with every bite that she's so proud of herself. And her daddy and I are so proud of her, too. This has been a long road, and there's bound to be some hiccups along the way, but it's such a great feeling to report that all of Char's hard work is paying off. Tonight ..... we try lasagne. Yummmmm!


Charlotte eating more is going to result in her taking in more nutrition and eventually less need for her to be on the insanely expensive formula that we've been giving her. Per the GI doctor, we may be able to take her off by the fall if things keep changing as fast as they have been in the last week. That news made my pocketbook do a little jig of joy. That has to be the most expensive formula on the market. Check this out though .... I belong to a few user groups online made up of other families with special needs kids and sometimes people post things that they have to give away. Recently I was the lucky first responder to a post about some free Elecare
(that's the name of the expensive formula) and the people giving away a couple cases said all I had to do was pay for shipping. Well, imagine my surprise yesterday when 4 1/2 cases arrived at my door, and all it cost me was $30 for shipping. That's $800 worth of formula for only $30! That family is getting a HUGE thank you card from us. Is it true? Could my luck be changing?


On Monday, Char started her summer camp at the Center. She's going 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 weeks. It's almost like boot camp for toddlers. I've already seen her strength improve in her legs and we're only on day 4. This is a testament to how great it is for these kids to get such intensive therapy. She's still getting her individual PT, OT and Speech on the side, so that has resulted in no time for naps. Which means no naps for mommy, either. Booooo!


Char and I went to see my college friends Kari and Teddy and their daughter Isabella (6) in Syracuse, NY this past weekend. Charlotte was so excited to hang out with Isabella, and as always the Avramov family showered us with love, good company, awesome food and some great wine (the wine was for me, not Charlotte, no need to make any phone calls). And keeping with the theme of firsts here, Charlotte went to her first indoor playground at one of the local Syracuse malls and totally held her own amongst all the other kids. With Isabella's help Char also had her first experience on a see-saw. She even managed to do it all by herself a few times, sitting up straight and pushing herself up to the sky. It's so cool to see how exciting the simple things are through the eyes of your child.


Char and I flew to Syracuse. I held true to the promise I made last year that I was not going to make that drive again with a small child (or any child, for that matter). I was so nervous about flying with her by myself. The trip there was a bit stressful. I had to bring a car seat with us because Charlotte still doesn't have the core strength needed to sit in an airplane seat by herself. So, let's imagine I'm one of the last people to board a plane (no, there was no call for people needing special assistance), and I have a car seat attached to my back, a backpack on my front, Charlotte on my side and somewhere in there a cooler with her meds and formula and Grover the stuffed animal. Did anyone offer to help me? Nope. But that could have been because I hit almost every passenger in the head with the car seat as we made our way to the back of the plane. Thank god, the ride back was the total opposite. I made sure we were seated closer to the front, we boarded first and I asked for someone to help me carry all our gear. It's always good to be able to learn from those awkward moments in life.

Since coming back from Syracuse I've been doing really good. Did a lot of self-reflection there and have done quite a bit more since. Learned I need to work on myself quite a bit. Learned that I haven't always treated other people as kindly as I should have. Learned that things aren't always about me (what's that all about?). Learned that I need to do a better job of covering up my gray. I'll take care of that on Saturday morning. I'll start working on the rest Saturday afternoon.

Welcome to our New World

I think it's been about 5 months since I last posted. It's been a bit hectic around here, but I still had plenty of time to drink my boxed wine, so I guess I don't have any excuse (I'm actually enjoying a glass right now, thank you very much). So what's been going on ......

Charlotte Martina
The Center for Independence, which is where Char goes for her group PT and OT, thought it would be a good idea to increase her sessions to 3 mornings per week. My little girl is going to "school" more than some 4 year olds! And don't forget that she's still going to Child's Voice the other 2 mornings per week. But Charlotte seems a bit disappointed on the odd mornings that we don't have to go anywhere, so she must be enjoying it. The increase in therapy has made a huge difference as she is now pulling herself up to a stand more frequently and even took 10 steps all by herself in her walker not too long ago! Earlier this year I had hoped that she would be able to move around the house by herself using her walker by her 3rd birthday. That very well could be a possibility.

In April I started the process of ordering a wheelchair for Char. Since "things with wheels" aren't covered by the State Early Intervention program I'm having to go through our insurance to get the chair. God help me. I will be so pleasantly surprised if this thing gets here by the end of the summer. I try and be positive about most things in this life, but dealing with health insurance companies is not one of them. The rep from the equipment company brought over a demo of the wheelchair and OMG is it cute! It is basically the size of a doll's chair and it is going to be perfect for her for getting around in public. Now, this isn't a motorized chair, I'm talking about a wheelchair that she will have to maneuver herself with her own muscles. I've always said that I would never get any of my kids one of those stupid battery-powered mini-cars/jeeps, and I'm not going to compromise my values now. While it was difficult for me to digest at first that Char is not going to be able to walk independently as soon as I had hoped, I quickly realized how great a wheelchair is going to be for her. This will give her the independence that she so desperately longs for when we're out in public. And even when she is able to walk it will be awhile before she has the stamina to keep up with other kids. So a wheelchair is going to be great for school outings, zoo trips and even cruising down the hall at school. It will also strengthen her arms at the same time. See, it's just a great idea on so many levels. Now, if only the equipment company and the insurance company could get their butts in gear .... grrrrrr

Char's feeding issues are still there. Progress has been slow. There's progress, but it's definitely been slow. She still gets most of her calories from the special formulas and drinks that I give her. She eats three meals a day, but they consist of mainly pureed foods. We've been working on eating small bits of scrambled eggs, bananas, carrots and avocados with her lately, and she seems to be enjoying the idea of food more. Chewing is still very difficult for her and I have to remind her with every bite that she has to chew the food, and I have to talk her through moving it around her mouth. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard. Eating is always something that I thought was completely natural and thought should come so easily. But for Charlotte that's not the case. No one has completely figured out what the root of the problems are. Is it because she was on the ventilator for so long when she was in the NICU and she was fed through a tube for so many months? Does she have a total aversion to having things near her mouth? Sometimes that's true, but then you give her peanut butter and she goes to town on it. Is it because of the texture of the food? Sometimes she hates texture and sometimes she loves it. Is it because her facial muscles are so week? Partly, but there are times when she chews like a pro. But most of the time she won't. Is there something physically obstructing her esophagus or the back of her throat? Maybe. And that might be the next path I have to examine. I've kind of been putting off doing a swallow study with Charlotte, mainly because they're not always very conclusive and I hate to put her through a medical procedure if we don't have to. And what I really hate is having to make these decisions. HOWEVER .... she had the priviledge of enojying a WHOLE strawberry the other day and there's been several strawberries to follow. Char may have turned a very important corner here .... I'm just as excited as you are!

Char is still on the dairy and soy-free diet. I tried giving her some soy yogurt for a few weeks back in March, but she started throwing up more often and I had to pull the plug on that experiment. I'm still keeping my fingers-crossed that this is something that she will outgrow. Thank god for coconut milk yogurt! It even comes in chocolate flavor.

Amanda Christie (one time I had an id card that only had so much space for my name, so it came out Amanda Christ - I'll say no more)
Did I ever tell you that I got an A in Anatomy and Intro to Computers last fall? And THEN I got an A this spring in Physiology and Intro to Sociology? Those grades brought my GPA to a perfect 4.0 in my nursing prerequisites and brought me to the end of my classes at the community college. Now the real work begins, and on August 24th I will be officially starting nursing school at West Suburban College of Nursing. I turned in my application back in January only to find out that the program options had changed. Instead of having a night and weekend program that went for 20 months they made it 28 months!! I had already thought that 20 months of being away from my daughter on nights and weekends was going to be too much, but 28 months, that's just crazy! So, at that point I changed my plan and went for the 16 month fast-track program that they offer. This means that I'll be done with school in December 2010, but I'll be in school full-time during the day. And THAT means that we needed to find someone to watch Charlotte during the day for us while I'm at school and Brian's at work. That was quite an adventure in itself. Brian and I interviewed quite a lot of people, and I spoke on the phone with some real winners, but in the end we found a great nanny for Charlotte. Lauren is going to start watching Charlotte Mon-Fri the week before I start school. I thought it would be a good idea to have a few days cross-over between the two of us so that Charlotte and Lauren could get acquainted and so Lauren could get used to Charlotte's insane therapy schedule. I'm sure you'll be hearing about Lauren more when her and Charlotte start hanging out more often.

There's much more to tell about me and Char, but I need to go to bed. But know that I'm enjoying blogging again and I might just be back tomorrow to tell you about my trip to Québec City with my mom, my trip to Peru with Brian, and even going back to Kirksville for my sorority reunion in March (eek!). Now if I could just get myself to that gym again ....