I thought I would have to teach my daughter about the world; turns out I have to teach the world about her. They see a girl who doesn't speak,
I see a miracle who doesn't need words.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Birthday Alex!

Ten years ago today at 11:16PM Alexandra Elizabeth Hayes entered the world.  And what a ten years it has been!!  Despite starting her day at 3AM with a seizure, I'm pretty sure she had a good birthday. Me, Aaron and my dad went to her school this morning to celebrate with cupcakes.  She was so excited when Papa walked in...



Yes, take one guess who she's looking at :)

Despite this picture, she really was excited to see her Daddy too!

 And ehh...so I was there too

Did someone just mention chocolate cupcakes?!?


Ahh, birthday's are good!

 A good-bye chocolate kiss for Daddy who had to head  back to work

But all is still good cuz Papa was still there!

She took a much needed long nap when she got home and then spent the afternoon being spoiled by Tabitha.

We ordered in pizza for dinner and Alex was happy to help Tabitha blend up her dinner...

 And then it was time for cake...more chocolate...




And some more birthday love

She loved all the attention from Zach, Jonah and Micah

Birthday love and presents from Aunt Dana...

 And then her present from Micah...

A Justin Beiber book that she promptly kissed each picture we turned to....she was hysterical!

Aaron and I even got a present for her birthday from my parents...who doesn't love presents?!!


We're very, very blessed.


I really think Alex enjoyed her day.  We are very much looking forward to celebrating again on Saturday with our family and friends.

I put together a few pictures from the last year for her.  I've said it multiple times today, but I just can't believe she's ten.  Time sure does fly. 

Happy 10th Birthday Allie Bean!!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Way to Go Zach!!!

A few posts back I posted about the project Zach did for school on Diversity and the photos he took of Alex. He came in second place!! Way to go Zach, we are all so so proud of you!!

On Sunday there was an awards celebration and he was so excited. My parents came and he thought it was so great the day was about him. My parents even bought him a card and a present :)




Does he look happy or what?!?

 
Anxiously waiting for his name to be called!
 


Receiving his certificate and award!


Of course all Alex cared about was that her beloved Papa was there :)


One Proud Daddy :)






This was the closest we came to getting a family picture

And of course, heaven forbid she take her eyes off her Papa for a picture!



Awesome job Zach - Alex is very lucky to have such a great brother that loves her the way you do. 

Friday, November 11, 2011

Funny How Things Have A Way Of Turning Around

Saturday morning at 4:30AM I woke up to Alex having a seizure.  Her neurologist really wants me to try and capture one on video so I've been sleeping with my phone next to me so I'm 'prepared'.  By the time I got to her room, tried to put the code in to unlock my phone and actually get to the camera, she was kicking the sides of her bed so hard I just threw my phone down and tried to hold her.  She cried for a long time after that one.  I calmed her down and held her and eventually we both fell back to sleep...until 6AM when she had another one - a much shorter one, but one still the same...and she never went back to sleep.  By the time we got the day started, I was not in a good mood.  I was sad.  I had tickets to take Zach to a play that night but I just could not pull myself out of my funk to go. And that made me feel worse. He still got to go, but when he left I had a real good pity party for myself and just cried and cried.  I hate that they can't figure out what's going on, I hate that we're still having issues getting her into MCV for the monitoring, I hate seeing her like that, I hate everything about it.  And it's November.  Her birthday is in two weeks.  I always get sad around her birthday.  I obviously love her more than anything and I will DO anything to make her life better, but her birthday is a time to reflect on her life.  It's a time for me as her mom to reflect on her birth and the time I was pregnant with her.  And it's a grieving process I go through every year.  I watched the video of her birth on the day of her fifth birthday and it really made me sad and that's all I think of every year.  We had no clue when we brought her home and we were so excited and happy that the road we were going to go down wasn't going to be filled with ABC's and 123's but IEP's and labels.  It wasn't going to be ruled by dancing school lessons or gymnastics but by therapy and specialist appointments every week.  We were talking to her on the video when she was getting her first bath when she was screaming and we made comments like "when you're a teenager we're not going to be able to get you out of the shower", never imagining that she'll likely never shower by herself.  This year it's a big birthday - double digits - she's going to be TEN.  We should be surprising her with Justin Beiber tickets or something as equally cool - not buying the latest Elmo. 

On Tuesday she had physical therapy and she was having her annual evaluation.  I haven't taken her to a physical therapy session in a while because the time she has therapy and the time I need to get Zach from school conflict so Tabitha's been taking her.  This Tuesday happened to be election day and there was no school so I arranged to meet Tabitha at therapy and while I stayed with Alex she would that take Zach and her son out for a fun lunch date.

20 minutes into her evaluation Shannon put her in her walker and she started getting her prepared to walk out of the therapy room and down the hallway.  Not only did Alex walk out of the room but she went down the hallway, out the front door, UP HILL, around a loop, back DOWN the hill, back into the building and back into the room she started in.  We looked at clock when we got back and Alex had been walking in her walker for a full 40-45 minutes.  And I mean walking...no two step shuffle, no tap dancing her feet, no dragging her feet, no hanging on the walker and having to have her legs facilitated to walk - she took ACTUAL STEPS....THE ENTIRE TIME!!

I was so excited the next day we put her in her walker as soon as she got off the bus - and she walked just as good...she was much more hunched over - but I figure it's like barely walking for years and then in one day running a marathon - she was S-O-R-E...but you know what?  She DID it!

I went from being totally sad, to totally elated in 4 days.  I wasn't supposed to be at her therapy session, it just happened to be a school holiday that she decided to show me what she was made of and remind me that, yes, life definitely did not turn out as we expected but she has taught me to truly appreciate the little things we mostly take for granted.  She reminded me just how much joy she truly brings me in doing "the little things"....It made me think....God's funny like that.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Fall Picture

I got Alex's Fall school picture yesterday.   If I go back and look at previous posts from school pictures before I probably say the same thing every time, but I can't believe how big she looks.  She's definitely turning into a little lady...a beautiful little lady.


Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Happy Halloween!

I started feeling human again on Sunday and wanted to do something fun with the kids.  We decided to go look for pumpkins so we could carve some for Halloween.  Let's just say pumpkins the day before Halloween were NOT easy to find!  After multiple stops, we finally got two pumpkins.

Alex had a field trip at school a few weeks before and they went and got pumpkins and when they got back to the classroom they carved a pumpkin and let the kids feel all the 'ooey gooey' stuff inside the pumpkin.  So when I sat her at the table with the pumpkin in front of her she got ALL excited and kept grabbing the pumpkin towards her like "let me at all the stuff"...it was pretty cute if I do say so myself :)





She was very patient waiting for Aaron to cut it :)



And WAS SUPER excited to finally get in there :)

Zach wanted no help!


Definitely a fun family project.

The end result!


We had a few of our friends over to Trick-Or-Treat with...

Our friend's Mesa and George's daughters...

The cute Pirate and Wednesday from the Adam's Family!


My friend Dana and her son Jonah...the funniest gym coach...ever...


Tabatha and her son Micah...with Zach...the two Ninjas...


And of course, my sweet "Groovy Girl"!









A little Halloween Love between Tabitha and Alex...




Alex's first house...Trick-Or-Treat!



And about 15 minutes after we left the house, it started raining...bummer!

Tabitha took Alex home to get her ready for bed but the boys didn't care it was raining and kept on going.

They were so funny when they got back...dumped out all of their loot and then began the "I'll trade you one...for....

I think everyone had a fun time!