Melaina's Magical Playland

Our town is getting an all-inclusive and fully accessible playground built. Melaina's Magical Playland was inspired by the daughter of Jeff and Andrea Cunningham. Melaina was a vibrant and spunky 3-year old who didn't let a disease like Nemaline Myopathy diminish her spirit. Unfortunately, Melaina is not with us today and won't be able to enjoy the playground, but her spirit lives on in her parents and friends and her passing did not let this mission stop Jeff and Andrea from building this playground. They are such wonderful and caring people I have ever met and commend them for taking on this mission. This playground will be a place for ALL kids to play side by side with one another. The playground broke ground earlier this year and hopes to be completed by this fall.

Unfortunately, this past weekend there was some vandals at the playground site and someone decided to damage some of the equipment. How can some people be so inconsiderate and have no respect? I hope they find who did this and have to pay the consequences.

They are still raising money to help cover budgeted expenses and now with these vandals they are having to repair equipment before it's even finished. This is a set back but this playground will still be built. Any donations are always appreciated and can be mailed to:

Melaina's Magical Playland
PO Box 211
Cape Girardeau, MO 63702

Montauk Trip

Growing up, my family went camping every year. We would travel 3 hours to Montauk State Park and go trout fishing. We created many memories and still to this day my mom and dad, brother and his family, and my sister and several other friends go camping out there every year. However, I have not been there for almost 10 years (ever since I met Travis).

The day finally came when I convinced Travis to go, with a little help from my dad. He enjoys fishing but wasn’t sure about trout fishing. It is not your typical fishing. There is different fishing line you have to use, different type of bait, etc.

Now that we have started our own family, I was hoping this may be a start of our family tradition. We went this past week. My parents, as well as my nephew came along for the fun.

I say that we camping, but we weren’t necessarily roughing it. We had a nice air-conditioned cabin, with a kitchen and even a TV. When I was younger, we always tent camped. After the heat that we have been having lately, I couldn’t image sleeping out in this heat. Let’s just say, time has changed and kids nowadays are spoiled. That goes for me too, LOL!

Overall we had a fun time. Although it may take quite a bit more convincing to get Travis to go again. I don’t know a single person that has enjoyed trout fishing on their first time. So we shall see if this becomes a tradition for our family.

 

Tyler caught 2 fish, which is one more than his dad.

One afternoon while the guys fished, my mom and I took the kids for a walk around the campgrounds. We even found a playground for the kids to swing. Of course, Tyler enjoyed swinging as he always does but Kenna still was not sure about it. Tyler even got to try out his new wheelchair (which I will post about in another post).

Kenna - 8 months old

Dear Kenna,

Well I was doing good and keeping up with your monthly birthdays, but your 8 month snuck up on me. This past month was so much fun! You are such a happy little girl. You still only have 2 teeth and you haven't quite got the crawling thing figured out yet but you are getting close. You get up on your hands and knees and do the whole rocking back and forth. So it won't be long.

I love listening to you babble and your choice of sound is still 'da'. When I talk to you, I love how you intensely watch my lips and you try to mimic them. However, you think it's funny when I say 'mama', you laugh every time. I joke and say you will say every word before you ever say mama. Time will tell. 

We have several different nicknames for you already, the first is our little cookie monster, because when you eat you make the cookie monster sound with every bite. And the other is our little monkey. You are always doing something silly, either making a silly face or balancing your toys with your feet. You like to hold your bottle, toys and whatever you can find with your feet. It's quite funny to watch until you try to hold a toy that is to big and heavy and you can't quite balance the toy with your feet and you drop it and it hits you in the head.

We have also learned that 3 hours is your time limit of being in a car. We have made two trips this past month, one to Nashville and the other to Montauk. Nashville is 4 hours away and the last hour was not fun for anyone in the car. We also went camping at Montauk State Park, which is 3 hours away and it was a much more pleasant car ride. So I guess for now we are limited on where we go. We will have to put off going to the beach awhile longer, lol!

Happy 8 months!!!

Love, Mom

2012 Hydro Family Gathering

I love that we live in the age of technology and the internet. After receiving Tyler’s diagnosis of Hydrocephalus, the internet allowed me to reach out to other family members living with this condition. 2 years ago we decided to turn our online friendship into an “In Real Life” friendship. We met 6 other families in Niagara Falls and decided that this needed to become a tradition of meeting up. So this year we decided to meet up in Nashville. Our group has grown since then and there were 16 families total that made the trip, traveling from all over the country – from Washington to Texas to Virginia. It was so good to see everybody again and met some new faces. I couldn’t ask for a better support system.

Kenna - 7 months old

Another month has passed. I feel like we are heading toward the months of a busy toddler and she is only 7 months old. Kenna seems to be constantly on the go. Rolling is still her method of getting around. But man, she is quick. She can get to one end of the room to the other in a matter of seconds. I can't imagine once she starts crawling and let alone walking. How will I ever keep up?

Kenna also got 2 teeth this past month. Her 2 bottom teeth popped through without us even knowing. Let's just hope the rest come in this easy. She is also learning to make new sounds, which makes for some funny faces.

 

 

Breaking records

Tyler had an awesome therapy day yesterday. He walked the entire length of the hallway in a Lite Gait in record time. He has walked the length of the hallway before, several times actually, and it always takes the entire therapy session (30 minutes). Yesterday he did it in 15 minutes. I am so proud of him and you can tell by the video and his expression, he is pretty proud of himself.

Sorry for the shakiness. Kenna decided she wanted to help me video tape.

From Start to Finish

Have you ever seen a house being built from the ground up, well here you go.

Isn't that amazing?

I am pretty much in love with this house. I love the open layout, the exterior, the location. Especially the location. It is so peaceful but still close to town.

Would I do anything different? Yes, but there is only so much in a pocketbook. I would have loved to do more detail on the exterior and do some type of stone with the brick. I would have loved to have a formal dining room (but really how often would we have used it); so that was one of the places we cut when we had to cut back on square footage. I would have loved to have a walk-in pantry; but I have more cabinet space than what I know what to do with. I like to call our house our affordable dream home.

I think one of my favorite rooms is the kitchen. I love everything about it. It's very functional with a lot of cabinet space. I also love that it is open to our living area, so I can still keep an eye on the kids.

 

Some other details that I appreciate:

The tile work around the fireplace  

 

The crown molding around the banister

 

The windows that bring in a lot of natural light with a beautiful view of our lake.

Tyler's room

 

I mentioned the other day that the driveway was the last big task that we needed to finish. But when you own a home you always have a to-do-list. Some other projects that are still on the list to complete are finishing the basement and finishing Tyler's accessible bathroom but those are going to have to wait just a little bit longer.

Playing in the dirt!

It's been 7 months since we moved into our house and everything was pretty much finished and move in ready with the exception of one big task. A driveway and sidewalks. Well that time finally came, no more gravel driveway. Maybe now I can finally wash my car and it stay clean for more than one day, lol!

We had the concrete poured about 3 weeks ago and the asphalt driveway about 2 weeks ago. So all we had left was the finishing touches of landscaping the yard and push a LOT of dirt around. So that was the big task this weekend. My brother-in-law, Jason, brought down his Bobcat and helped us out. And let me say it looks so much better.Jason, thank you so much for all of your help!

Some before pictures of the sidewalk and driveway

I even got the kids footprints. Yes, I know it says 2011, but I wanted to put the year that we moved into the house.

 

 Jason popping a wheelie in the Bobcat. Boys will be boys.

  

 

The kids enjoyed watching Travis and Jason work. Also thanks to Jen, my sister, for helping out with the kids and running errands with me.

The finishing touches of spreading the straw. 

Now let's hope the grass grows!

 

Check back later this week, for one more post of the house--that I have been meaning to post for the last 7 months =)

Last week of school

The last week of school is always a fun week for kids (at least in elementary). Once they hit the higher grade levels, there is testing and finals to be done. So that's not so much fun. So you might as well enjoy these younger years as much as possible.

Tyler's last day of school is Friday. This week, his class has celebrated summer birthdays, had a field trip, an ice cream party and track/field day. Let's just say they have had a lot of sweet treats.

Today was track & field day. There were 25 different stations set up with an activity at each one. You were paired up in a group of 4 and given a Bingo card. Each station was numbered and your group could decide which stations they wanted to participate in, of course trying to get a Bingo. The more Bingo's you completed, the more prizes you earned. So you wanted to try and complete as many stations in the time given. Tyler's group completed 5 Bingo's and they had a blast. Some of Tyler's favorite stations were:

• Being pulled on a sled by his team around an obstacle course
• "Running" a lap around the track (which was a good work-out for mom also)
• Riding on a 2-seater tricycle around an obstacle course
• Trying to pick up marbles with your feet in a pool of water (he pretty much just liked splashing his feet)

Tyler's Bingo group 

(Tyler, Rebekah, Riley & Nathan)

 

 Tyler splashing in the water

 Singing karaoke - a Taylor Swift song (of course, picked by the girls)

 Balancing a wet sponge on his head. He was not to fond of this and kept looking down to make it fall.

Riding on the tricycles

Kenna - 6 months old

This first year seems to be flying by. I can't believe it's been 6 months since Kenna has entered our lives. This past month has been so much fun. I think as each month passes by, I keep saying that this was my favorite month and then the next month comes along and I say no this was my favorite month. It just keeps getting better and better. I love watching her grow and watching her little mind work. I can't wait what the next months have in store. But she could slow down a little bit so we can enjoy these precious moments just a little longer.

She is still fascinated with her feet and even chews on them every now and then. And anything you give to her goes straight to her mouth.

She also loves to roll and loves her belly time. I hate to say this but she is a belly sleeper. As many times as I roll her to her back at night, there is no stopping her. She LOVES to sleep on her belly.

 

What is it about a baby's laugh that is so stickin' adorable? Kenna's laugh isn't just a little giggle, it's got a little evilness in it as well. It's also very contagious, because every time she laughs you can't help but laugh along. That goes for Tyler as well. He thinks its funny when she laughs.