Crazy Girl

My daughter is the highlight of my every day. When I picked her up yesterday, she seemed so excited to see me. She was scooting around and laughing. Then she started reaching for the fridge. She wanted her sippy.
I held off on giving it to her while at the bestie's house. But I brought her into the room with me while the bestie was changing my God son. Serenity looked over at him and just started laughing and waving. She loves being around him. At least I know if I do have another child, she won't be jealous as long at she can play with him/her. When we got home, I gave her her sippy. She drank a bit, ate a little dinner, then it was bath time. She loves bath time! She used to hate water but now, she never wants to get out. She sat quietly while I filled the tub for her. I put her in and she immediately started playing with the cup, wash cloth, and the bubbles. She started swaying back and forth making the water move. Then she started splashing the water out of the tub. I let her stay in and play til the water started to cool. When I got her out, I wrapped her in her towel and we sat and watched the water drain. The whole time she was smiling, laughing, and making her little squealing sound. Then she was off to bed. She slept peacefully last night!! YAY!!
This morning, when I got her up, her hair was crazy! It's so long and she hates when I try to put it up. She's never really liked having anyone or anything touch her head. I think that's because of all the EEG's when she was younger. For those who don't know, an EEG is where they attach like 100 wires(or leads as the Dr's call it) to your head with this sticky stuff. Then after they get them all attached, they wrap your head. The first few times they did it with her sedated so she wouldn't move or pull the leads of. The last time, about 3-4 years ago, they did it with her awake. They needed to see if her "stiffening when excited" was a seizure. She hated that. And thankfully, there was no seizure activity! F.Y.I. that "sticky stuff" is a pain to get out of hair. It took at least of week of shampooing twice a day to get it all out......

Last nite.....

So, after getting home last night, Serenity drank a whole sippy cup of chocolate milk and ate some spaghetti (her fav). I let her play for a bit. She started getting fussy and rubbing her eyes so I went ahead and put her to bed. She fell asleep quickly. It didn't last long though. I dont know if she was having night terrors, a tummy ache, or what was wrong. I don't think it was night terrors cuz she wasn't screaming. Just a little crying. She would cry for about 5 to 10 mins and fall back asleep. What was so bad, she was waking up every 30-45 mins. I would check on her and she would just look at me while crying. Kinda hard to deal with. When I reached for her she would turn away, indicating that she didn't want to be cuddled. I offered her drinks(milk, chocolate milk, apple juice, water). She turned away. I offered her a snack, maybe she was still hungry. She turned that away also. I wondered if maybe she just had gas.
When I got her up this morning she was in a better mood. The only thing I noticed that I didn't like was that somehow she managed to get her diaper off. I don't know how but she did. Guess she wanted to try to be a big girl last night. Her bed wasn't wet or anything but I'm still gonna wash everything just to make sure. And I'm thinking I need to take her to see either her pediatrician, her orthopedic surgeon, or the people that made her leg braces....

Mom's Back in Town!!!!

So my mom got into town yesterday. And I think Serenity knew. She, according to her sitter(my bestie) was extremely good yesterday and seemed excited. Even when I got there to pick her up, she was excited. We went to Kumo's. It's a Japanese steakhouse. Great food!!! Mom got to see Serenity walk (while holding my hand, of course) for the 1st time. Mom was happy. When we went inside, Serenity tried to "walk" to the bar!!! Even after we had gone past it, she would turn and was trying to go back. I think it's because of the TVs at the bar lol. So, we get to our (Hibachi) table, and Serenity is a little upset. She saw her cousin playing with a DS and she wanted to play too. Instead, I gave her my keys. She made a game out of sliding my keys across the table, dropping them on the floor, and reaching for her aunts hand to pick the keys back up. Her aunt caught on quickly and started catching the keys before they hit the floor. Serenity tried to be sneaky. She would slowly slide the keys toward the edge, and when they were close enough, she tried to throw them. Yeah, it didn't work. Her aunt would still catch them. A chef was cooking at a table nearby and Serenity was doing her high-pitch squeal thing....too cute!! By the time they had got to our table, I thought Serenity was all laughed out. But as soon as he lit the hibachi and the fire rose up, the squeals came back. She loves watching the chef's do their tricks. I'll add video to this later of the chef cooking while Serenity's laughing in the background.
After dinner, we hung out in the parking lot for a few minutes before departing. When we got home Serenity went straight to sleep. Guess she was a little worn out from all the fun.
This morning, a completely different story. Someone woke up with an attitude. When I dropped her of at the bestie's so I could go to work, she started throwing a fit. And, of course, she laid herself on her back and proceeded to headbutt the floor. Good thing it's carpet, even though I know, that still has to hurt! Hopefully she calmed down after I left for work and she has a good day.

Weekend 6/18-6/20

So this weekend was interesting. Serenity is back to eating her normal food amounts and constantly wanting to drink her chocolate milk. We spent Saturday at the bestie's house so I could do my laundry. Serenity played with the kids and the baby. She is so cute with her god brother. She loves playing with him. Then we had a few of her cousins over for the night. That was quite interesting. 4 kids. Age range 2-10(i think) lol...
I woke up Sunday morning to a very weird sound. It scared me. I could hear someone in the living room. I jumped outta bed and peeked out my door, only to discover Serenity in front of the TV pulling stuff out of the drawer of the TV stand. Little brat somehow got off her bed without making a sound and scooted into the living room. It's bad cuz her bed is not that low to the ground and I sleep wit her bedroom door and my bedroom door open so that I can hear her if she gets up. But I didn't hear a "thud" so I don't know how she got on the floor....I think I should set up a video camera in her room. I think she walks when no-one is around. I've dreamt about it a lot and she is very sneaky....I love her!

And Now...

So, we moved back to Florida. We stayed with my sister for a while. Got Serenity back in school. The schools down here are full-time, which is awesome! I appreciate how much my sister and nieces sacrificed for Serenity and me. See, Serenity is very weird when it comes to sleeping. She prefers to be alone in the room and she likes darkness. Which was kinda hard since we had her in my younger nieces bedroom. It was especially hard when she would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and headbutting the walls. Everyone lost out on sleep time. But, she loves being closer to her cousins, and her favorite aunt. BTW just to show how much she loves her aunt, when she 1st came home from the hospital, my sis was in town, and, u can even ask her, whenever she was around, Serenity would eat only for her! I don't know why, but she would choose her aunt, my sister, over me.....I think she still does sometimes lol.

For the longest time, Serenity was unlike most children. She didn't get upset when I would walk out of the room, or had to run out and she had to stay home. It wasn't until she was 4 almost 5 when she started flipping out when she couldn't see me. Now if she sees me grab my purse, phone, or keys, she starts scooting after me, reaching for me, and crying. I could just be getting something from my purse and she thinks I'm going somewhere.

We ended up moving to Cape Coral. First we moved in with a friend who is a live-in caregiver. The person she cared for was a 30ish female with Cerebral Palsy. We all thought it would be good for all of us for Serenity and me to move in. The girl with C.P. loved having Serenity around. And she would let me know what/why Serenity's actions were/meant. That was extremely helpful. She and Serenity would play together. See, the girl, her C.P was a lot worse than Serenity's. She was in a wheelchair. She could talk but it was hard to understand. She could not sit on her own and had very little control of her body. So when she and Serenity played, she was usually laying in her bed or on the floor. Serenity would pat her tummy and "tickle" her tummy. It was quite funny to watch. They would both just laugh and anyone who was there couldn't help but join in the laughter. It made my heart melt. But that didn't last too long. We had to move out.

So, I got a place not too far away. I didn't want to have to change Serenity's school again. And we both liked this school. My bestie and her kids moved in with us. Which was cool cuz Serenity would always be around other kids. Eventually I had to put her in an after-school daycare. I thought there would be some issues since she doesn't do well with change, but she did very well. All the kids at daycare would ask "why doesn't she walk" "why doesn't she talk" they're kids so it's understandable that they're curious. But they loved her anyway. They would build towers with blocks so Serenity could knock them down. One little boy would bring his PSP and sit at a table with Serenity and he would try to teach her to play. One little boy came up to me and said "when I saw Serenity, I just had to tell someone that she is beautiful" This kid was like 6 yrs old. And he just kept telling everyone how beautiful Serenity is.

Just a few months back, I got a call from her school. "Serenity took 3 steps with no support" I cried lol. Then, last month I believe, I saw her crawl for the 1st time. I was picking her up from daycare. She crawled to me. All the daycare teachers were shocked cuz they had never seen her crawl. I told them I was just as shocked since it was her 1st time. Then I found out from her school teacher that she had been crawling for a while at school. They had been working on it. The last week of school I got a call from her teacher. "Serenity took 5 unassisted steps today. Then realized she wasn't being held and dropped to the floor" Like she actually stopped walking, looked around and noticed no-one was holding her, and sat down. lol She cracks me up.

So after school got out, we moved out of Cape Coral into Fort Myers. That was a week ago today. She is still adjusting. She won't really eat. She does that when there's changes. She usually wont eat, drink, or sleep well. But she's been good on the sleeping. We had to bribe her with chocolate milk and chocolate pediasure to get her drinking. She'll only take 2-3 small bites of food rite now. Sucks but at least the pediasure is giving her what she needs. Last night she finally ate about half a normal serving of spaghetti(she loves pasta) So that's a good sign. My bestie watches her so I can work. So she spends everyday with a 3 yr old, a 2 yr old, and (my godson/her god brother), a 1 month old.

So I think we are now up-to-date. It'll probably Monday before I write another post. But that post will be about our entire weekend lol. I know I've left a lot out. It's hard to sum up the last 5 years. If I had wrote everything, I'd still be on year 2. Any questions? At this point I've been asked just about everything by someone. I take no offense to questions. I welcome them with an open mind. I know people are curious. So feel free to ask. Feel free to share my blog. Feel free to comment and follow!! <3 to everyone

Just a little bit about what Serenity does/doesn't do, thats not "normal"

She scoots. She headbutts-any and everything-when she's upset, bored, or just when she feels like it. She has actually put a hole in a wall from hitting it so hard. She rocks herself. She hits her chin with the back of her hand. She drools-a lot! She loves bouncing and jumping-but someone has to hold her, so yeah it's a good arm workout. She figured out how to bounce on her bed-and she bounces hard enough to almost get on her feet.(she bounces from a sitting position) She can't feed herself or hold her sippy. She doesn't walk but we have faith that she will. She recently started crawling but she doesn't do it much. She doesn't talk.

Some of you may think "omg!! why do you let her do those things?", "you need to talk to her Dr about that" "She shouldn't be doing that!" "that's not "normal" " etc... I've heard it all. My daughter sees a pediatrician(she's had 5 that she's seen in 5 years), a neurologist(3 that she's seen in her 5 years), a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and soon, a speech therapist. I HAVE discussed with every one of them and they have all said the same...."It's normal....for her" She has Cerebral Palsy! She's not gonna be "NORMAL" in some people's terms. But, in my terms, SHE'S PERFECT! I just wish she had less of her dad's attitude and mood swings....hahaha

Year 3 and 4

So, we moved around quite a bit. Between Oklahoma and Florida. Most of my family is in Florida. Serenity's dad's family is in Oklahoma. Which makes it a little difficult. I love how her dads family wants to be a big part of her life, since he isn't, but my family wants to be in it also. So it's been tough trying to please everyone. So we were back in Oklahoma for most of Serenity's 3rd year and part of her 4th. She started Pre-K, but only part-time. So her paternal grandparents watched her while I worked.She loves her Nana and papa very much. Sometimes, when she would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, I would call them. 2,3,4 o'clock in the morning. It didn't matter. They would hear her and tell me to bring her over. I think she had me trained. I kid you not, she cried and screamed the whole 20 min drive, but as soon as I pulled into their drive, she'd laugh!! Like she knew if she cried enough, she'd end up with them. She got me every time! It irked me.
So, the school thing. I hated that it was only part-time. She loved being there. And everyone loved her. She got some therapy sessions in class. She started standing up when they would have her in one of the special chairs. So they had to start using the "lap-belt" so she wouldn't fall when she'd stand. I remember her 1st day back at school in the fall of 09. As soon as we went into the classroom, she scooted straight for the toys. She remembered where everything was. Oh, and before I forget, the scooting....She taught herself that during the summer, when she was 3. She gets around by scooting on her butt. Cutest thing ever!! I sent a video to some of my family when she 1st started scooting. I got a call from my sister informing me that her youngest daughter said, "You should put a sponge on her butt so she can mop your floor." I laughed so hard it hurt! The things kids say.....So yeah, her teacher was shocked to see the scooting. But it just meant that maybe we were getting that much closer to the next milestone....crawling/walking.
For New Years, I decided we would take a trip to Florida to surprise my family. We made it on New Years Eve, just a few hours before midnight. We stayed for the weekend. I wanted to make sure I saw as much of my friends and family as possible in the short time we were here. Finally, it was time to go back to Oklahoma. The hardest thing I had to do in a while.
This is to fully explain why I moved back to Florida. The day we were leaving to go back to Oklahoma, Serenity threw a fit!!! And that's an understatement. As we were giving my sister and her oldest daughter hugs and saying our goodbye's, Serenity grabbed ahold of her cousin and did not want to let go. I've never seen her act like that before. My sister would take her from her daughter and hand her back to me. Serenity would scream and reach for her cousin. It was breaking us all. We all tried to stay strong and hold back our tears. But Serenity's reaction to us leaving my family only made it harder to go. I loaded her into the car and we started driving. She's still screaming and crying. She's headbutting the carseat. I was holding back my tears. I stopped at a store to get her her favorite drink, chocolate milk. She stopped crying only long enough to drink it all. She pretty much cried and slept the entire ride home.
When we made it back, I felt a piece of my heart missing. And I knew Serenity felt the same. She was acting differently since we left Florida. I knew what I had to do to make her happy. I packed up everything I could, and only told her grandparents and a few select people, that we were going back to Florida.