A year after the spica...

So it has been over a year since Mabel's been freed from her spica cast. It was a long road, but no one would know she had a problem at all.

Last month she had her orthopedic surgeon check up. I had been pretty worried since I have been hearing her right hip popping. The doctor checked her hips and said they are both in the socket and feel stable. He told me the popping is due to her hip angle still not being right, but popping is different than clunking and he doesn't feel any clunking so that is good. He told us that right now we wait and hope that as she grows her sockets deepen and become normal. In June we'll be going back to get an x-ray and keep our figures crossed all is good!

So, life is good! Hips are in their sockets and I officially have a running toddler! I'm hopeful that in June her x-ray will show improvement - stay put hips!

At this time...

What a huge difference this year to last. This time last year we were heading to the hospital to have Mabel's hip surgery and casting. It was beyond a hard morning for us full of fear and nervousness and the unknown of caring for a spica cast. I remember exactly how I felt so scared and so unsure.

Fast forward a year. Mabel is walking and almost running and is a happy toddler. No one would ever know she spent three months in a body cast. I never could have seen this a year ago, I was just too upset, too scared. I have always been thankful that Mabel's condition of hip dysplasia is fixable, but at the time the news was so shocking and scary and the thought of the treatment seemed impossible. It has been a big year full of all the ups and downs between her surgery, casting and physical therapy, but look at where we are today! So worth it and through it all this past year she never stopped smiling!

All good...

I watch Mabel walk around the house and I can't believe the difference in the past few months. Life is normal now. We don't see a doctor for her hip until after her birthday...her second birthday! I can't believe it. When we went to the play center on Monday and I watched her walking around with other babies her age, you'd never know what she's been through with her hips. I can't even explain how that makes me feel.

So, I had been thinking about if I wanted to continue with Mabel's blog and if so how. I really want to print this out and call it a chapter in our lives so later on Mabel can see this process that she'll never remember. Maybe it will give her some insight into me as a person, not just her mother. So I think I'm ready to move on to another blog that is not hip centered - since now our lives don't revolve around Mabel's hip.

I wanted to keep this blog really centered on our hip dysplasia journey for anyone out there that needs some encouragement, so I promise to update on any hip and or mobility news on this blog, but for day to day non-hip news I started our new family blog: http://www.freetimeatfiveam.blogspot.com/

Both a sigh of relief and in some ways a little melancholy - even when moving on to better things I tend to get sentimental. As hard as the last year was, I wouldn't change one second of it - yes, even the spica cast parts! It was our story and it was perfect.

Check out our new blog!

Interview with a Mabel...

Here are a couple of videos of Mabel to share. One counting and the other her ABC's. She's a smart cookie!

Bye-Bye Roll...

The first physical evidence of Mabel's dislocated hip that we noticed last year was the asymmetrical rolls on her thigh...now finally almost exactly a year later that roll is gone! I've been waiting and waiting with baited breath for that roll to disappear, worrying that if it didn't that it meant the possibility of more treatments - but now it is gone and I can sigh a breath of relief.
Mabel is doing really great and we had a wonderful week again. I have to put up more video of her talking, her words are getting so good! We didn't do anything too exciting for the holiday weekend, just mostly stuff around the house. Saturday the first thing we did was head out and buy Zack...oh, I mean Mabel a new harmonica. Zack's...I mean Mabel's, old one kept coming apart so we needed to get a new one since Miss Mabel loves to play it. After that we checked out a kid's consignment shop - I got two brand name, brand new dresses for $12.00 total! Later on Zack's parents treated us to lunch. They got to see Mabel in full glory, including getting fussy before nap time. I have to say though we are lucky with her, she does very well in restaurants and actually likes the high chairs! It is such a treat that she can sit in the high chairs, back during the days of spica we sat her on our lap much like when she was too young for the high chair, now she gets excited when she sees "baby seat-seat" as she calls it. After Mabel's nap we headed out to spoil our dinner with ice-cream. We met up with Zack youngest sister and her boyfriend and they got to see Mabel play her harmonica. Zack's sister also treated Mabel to a stuffed cat that Mabel is now fondly calling "New Mineau" and sometimes "Little Mineau".

For our Sunday poor Zack had to work so Mabel and I visited my mother. She lives close to the beach so we decided to head down there - probably not the best idea on Labor Day weekend, but it worked out well after I freaked about my inability to parallel park (hey, Zack usually drives!). It was in the low 70's, my type of weather, but not beach going weather. Mabel didn't care as you can see from the picture. She played with her new pail and shovel that we got the day before - cute isn't it? I've been looking for something non-plastic! After the beach we found a great little play ground that Mabel loved. It was nice for my mother to really see Mabel in her playground glory. Mabel climbed the stairs, played with the steering wheels, refused to go down the slide and even would stand next to it pointing saying "No Mabel!" just in case she thought I'd ask again if she wanted to go down the slide. She also went across the "bridge" by herself. It was a little log bridge thing with a low handle. She would hold on to the handle and walk sideways across! She kept doing it over and over again. I couldn't be more proud. There was a little boy there that kept following Mabel, I guess he wanted to play with her. She didn't know what to do about that! Social interaction between one and two year-olds is pretty funny! Later on as Mabel napped I did yard work - I know fun, but it really is looking much better out there! Then Mabel surprised me by going to bed at 7:30! Yeah Mabel!

Labor day didn't exists in our home. At least for me. I decided to paint the garage doors and try to make our little garage look cuter. Mabel and Zack played and Mabel kept calling for me. I did the bulk of my work while she slept - it is hard doing stuff with a toddler standing next to you yelling "Mama done! All done!" She even pulled the nursing card! Zack was in the house with her making dinner when Mabel looked at me through the kitchen window telling me she needed to nurse. I said "Really? she said "Yeah." I went inside and sure enough she just wanted to play! Honestly it makes me happy she loves me that much. Again she fell asleep at 7:30! Nothing like having some free time after she goes to sleep...to do more stuff! Zack and I have been doing our landscaping in the cover of darkness after Mabel goes to bed at night - what the neighbors must think!

Keeping busy...

Mabel's walking is amazing - so amazing that she doesn't want to sit still! She's off around the house and sometimes she doesn't want my mother to follow her during the day! She often claims her baby doll has a dirty diaper so she can go into the other room for a baby wipe all by herself. She also has been really working on her vocabulary! My little walker is also a little talker. No one would really know it by just spending a minute with her - she needs to warm up to people, but around the house, wow! She's saying things like, "Mommy Mabel up stairs." "Baby Doll diaper dirty. Baby wipe!" "New ball down stairs." "Mommy zucchini bread, encore!" "Yummy Yummy Mabel's Tummy!" She's just putting words right together!

Yesterday Mabel and I had lots of errands to run. We had to stop at four stores all together and she did great. I remember when she was newborn through oh...eight months the thought of bringing her to the store was terrifying. I was never one of the those mothers that just brought my baby right out after birth - in my defence it was winter and she was a premie! And then once I started feeling confident that she wouldn't freak out in the store then she had to be in the spica cast and couldn't fit into the shopping cart or her stroller! Now, it is a breeze. She loves riding in the cart and pointing out the other babies. Our last stop was Target and we went down the baby doll isle (I'm a kid at heart too) plus I was scoping out clearance deals for Christmas. We walked by all those awful "baby alive" dolls that activate and start talking, crawling and playing peekaboo when we were leaving the isle and after that until we got home she kept saying "Baby Robot!" "Baby Robot Crawls!" Yes, my 20 month old has "robot" in her vocabulary thanks to Zack calling her pooh bear that sings "Robot Pooh". Now I was beyond impressed that she got the meaning for "robot" as something that is animated and then combined it with baby. Oh yeah, she talked about those robot babies all day!

Sunday we went to the Zoo in the morning. Zack and I talked about the beach, it is the end of the season but honestly neither of us felt like it. We talked about the zoo before and thought Mabel wold like it and she LOVED it! She loves to people watch so the other people there were just as interesting to her as the animals. They had a butterfly exhibit and she loved seeing the flowers and butterflies fluttering around. Then the next love the lama - she loved the lama. The lama really put on a show for her too laying down and rolling in the dirt. After that it was all "Lama encore!" She saw lots of other animals and loved them all. After that we got ice cream (hey, its the weekend!) and headed home for a terrible nap. Poor Mabel couldn't sleep after all that excitement. If you asked her about he Zoo and what she saw she'd tell you "Lama lay down." She also would tell you "Big mineau!" the big cats and "Big Bear!" She is too cute!

Saturday was fun too! We went to Mabel's first real friend birthday party. Mabel's little playmate turned one on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and they had a nice party out in their back yard. Mabel ate yummy food, played with the balloons, counted the balloons, talked about the balloons and played on the swing set and in the grass. The birthday boy needed his nap around one and Mabel was done then too! I have to say that having a summer birthday is so much more fun than a winter birthday. My birthday is in the winter and my brother's in the summer. I remember hating that growing up! He had all these great birthdays at our camp where we could swim and mine? It would snow and I couldn't have friends over or I had to go to school. I'm afraid that Mabel too will have to endure that, I just hope our next child has a winter birthday too, that way neither can feel slighted. We have decided for Mabel's sake to have her "half birthday" celebration in June so she can at least have the summer birhday experience a little bit! Man I would have loved that!

It has been a crazy week, but aren't they all? Mabel also has taken to saying her full name! First middle and last. I know I go on, but she's a genius!

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes...

My little walker needed new shoes this week. Mabel's walking has only gotten better as well as her determination to walk every where and check out EVERYTHING. Not only is she a great walker, but she also seems to have gotten taller - or at the every least she's reaching more for stuff! She's now grabbing things on tables, counters and even unrolling the toilet paper. You name it she's checking it out. I think that her new found mobility and confidence that she can do it so well has lead her to be more interested in the stuff she now sees from her walking perspective. She's an amazing little thing. Lucky for us she does listen and follow direction really well. Needless-to-say, my mother is sleeping better after chasing her all day Tuesday through Friday, but ironically Mabel isn't going to bed any earlier, in fact she seems to want to push sleep off more!

So this past weekend we decided Mabel needs new shoes. Her size fours were getting small. It makes me laugh to think in April she was only a size two. Certainly walking does encourage the feet to grow! My little mobile Mabel now measures a size 5.5! I couldn't believe it. So we got some cute little sandals and sneakers. It makes me happy seeing those feet grow, but as a Mummy I do get teary thinking of her growing so fast. She's a true toddler - but always my baby!

We had a great week and weekend. Nothing too exciting, just fun. We took a Saturday ice cream trip - who doesn't love that? We also chose some perennial flowers for Mabel's Garden in the back yard. Mabel loved walking around the nursery pointing at things and smelling flowers. Zack likes to pick a flower for Mabel when he comes home so we got some daisies and black-eyed Susans for the back walk way as well as a hydrangea. We aren't gardeners but it looks nice. Next spring Mabel will love picking the flowers! Sunday as we left a store Mabel got a scare when I fell in the parking lot caring her! I tripped over a break in the hard-top and went right down, I did all I could to protect Mabel and she didn't even touch the ground. My knees on the other hand didn't fair so well and now Mabel is quick to talk about my "boo-boo knee." Poor little thing - poor me. I'm still shaken up thinking how she could have gotten hurt! She was fine until people ran over to us, then she cried, but she seemed fine shortly after. Me? Ouch I'm sore, it hasn't been a great weekend for me since on that same foot I stubbed my toe really bad Saturday night. I'm a mess...Better me than Mabel!

Yesterday Mabel and I went again to the indoor play center. She loves it there and I'm so proud of her. Her interaction is really good, she shares and she listens. She asks "please" when she wants something and watching her explore is so much fun for me. I think the play center is a great addition to our Monday routine on rainy days. We were hoping for the park, but this was better to be honest with you. Also, the talking is still going great. "Pineapple" and "Zucchini Bread" were added this weekend not only to her vocabulary but her diet! She is just too great! Every day is an adventure!