Easter

So, McKinley was a lot of fun on Easter. This may sound horrible, but I didn't expect her to be because I didn't think she would get it. I still don't think she really got it, but I "hid" some plastic eggs in plain sight with treats in them so they made noise and she loved it. I would point to them and she would crawl as fast as she could to get to them. It got a little hard once she had an egg in each hand, but she LOVED it!

Here she found the toys the Easter Bunny gave her, but you can see she hasn't even noticed the eggs behind her yet.

Now she's on the hunt!

We also got her a cute little Easter dress. She would NOT let me do her hair Sunday morning, so it's a little crazy, but she's still so cute!

Progress

Today McKinley is 11 months and yes, I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up! However, today’s post is about me. You see, this is a pretty significant milestone for me as well. I’ve made it a long way in 11 months.
11 months ago today I was paralyzed (temporarily). I was in a wheel chair for a couple of months, then a walker a month or so more, followed by a crutch and by the time October came I didn’t have anything to help me walk. It was months and months of trying to be patient and going to rehab, falling down and getting back up and re-learning to balance, walk, move forward without staring at the ground and trusting the strength of my legs all the while doing my best at trying to be a mom even though I felt I just couldn’t meet her needs.
Little moments came along the way that made me feel like I was improving. Three weeks after I got home from the hospital my left leg moved about two inches and the following week my right leg did the same. When McKinley was 4 months old I stood up and held her for this first time, it lasted 10 seconds before I was too weak, but it was awesome! That was just one of the good days.
They told me I might have feeling back after a year and right now the feeling has mostly returned in my quads, but I’m still numb from the knee caps down. It’s a feeling I’ve gotten used to.
Anyway, today, 11 months later, I walk down the street and don’t have to plan each step three paces ahead. I can jog a little and I’m still working with weights to help with atrophy that exists in my legs. I have a little permanent damage in my right leg, but other muscles have taken over and compensate for those that won’t ever be the same. I can go for a walk and I’m not nervous that I’ll get too far from home and won’t be able to make it back. There are still struggles I have that I won’t go into, but mostly I’m just doing great. It’s been a LONG 11 months and I’m excited I’ve come as far as I have. Thanks for all of the support!

Daylight Savings Time

We have church at 9:00 on sundays, which disturbingly enough means we have to be up at 7:30 to be out the door on time. We woke up at 7:30 this morning thinking things were going fine. Robbie hopped on the computer to read the news and he saw the real time, that's right, we forgot about daylight savings time and it was really 8:30. Needless to say we were going to be late to church.
Since we were already going to be late I decdiced to try to win the battle against McKinley's callic and put her hair in a pony tail. The poor little lady always has hair in her eyes. The battle was long and her hair was crazier than usual. Here is a picture of the first attempt:

In the end we went with a side pony tail (80's style like when I was a kid). The callic won, that's why she has bangs, I also had to use mousse because the rest of her hair wanted to stick out sideways! Obviously my hair styles for babies need work, but she looks so happy here with her dad I couldn't help but post the pictures.

By the way because I decided to try to do her hair, we didn't get to church until sacrament meeting was mostly over. Honestly, McKinley was better this week than most, we're considering only going to church for 2 hours from now on! (not really, but don't think it isn't tempting)

4 Computers in 4 Years

I have worked at ADP for just over 4 years and have been through a few computers. I’m sure it’s more frustrating to the IT guys than me, but it sure is inconvenient. The first computer I had was a Dell PC, it was awesome for a year and a half. Then, near the end of a very busy workday and in the heat of open enrollment, it crashed. The hard drive simply gave up. They gave me a new PC the next day and I goteverything back in order the way I liked it.
This new PC, also a Dell, worked flawlessly for one year at which point they decided to give me a laptop so I could work from home if necessary. I was so excited, but I was unknowingly getting the most horrible laptop ever made!
I got my Lenovo laptop a little over a month before I went on maternity leave. My return to work is when the real trouble began. The computer suddenly just stopped shutting down. On shutdown it ALWAYS restarted. I would have to hold the button down for a minute after the restart and it would finally really shutdown. Along with that my video card went out and there was an error with my hard drive, so they had to replace it. I was beginning to think it was me. I talked to IT about everything I do on my computer, but they assured me there is nothing I could do that was causing these problems.
IT hooked me up with a new hard drive and video card, but the shutdown continued to have problems. One not so lucky day I thought I had it shutdown and it apparently wasn’t. I put it in my back pack and headed home. I tried to start it up the next morning and it was dead, windows didn’t even start. Again, my trusty IT guy, who I know on a first name bases (Dan), did some examination and found that my computer got so hot it fried my motherboard. Back to IBM the computer went.
Two weeks later it came back with a new motherboard and it even shut down, I was so excited to have a fully functioning computer, but it didn’t last long. Two hours after getting my computer back I got an error message that it was overheating and it shut itself down. Don’t worry, this time it was just the fan. They fixed the fan and I got it back again. It was amazing and it was completely functional for about a week and half.
As I sat at my computer yesterday the whole thing suddenly went black. It had apparently decided to shutdown, so I gave it a rest and started it up again. I worked some more and there appeared to be no issues. I shut it down at the end of the day and it RESTARTED! I called up Dan this morning and he came to check it out. It’s been decided that my computer is a lost cause. Hallelujah! Today I got a new laptop!

Getting So Big

McKinley is so tall now it's time for more new pajamas...AGAIN! I decided that since summer is coming I would buy her some jammies without feet. As I went out to buy them I needed the 12 month size, so I made another decision...it's time for BIG GIRL pajamas.
Big girl pajamas (as I call them) are the two piercers with no feet. So I picked up some really cute springy looking ones and put the little leggings and t-shirt on her last night. She looked so cute, but it was as if as soon as she put on the big girl pajamas she grew up. She immediately headed over to the stairs, which she rarely does and usually only to sit next to the bottom step with her arm on it like an armrest, and all of the sudden climbed up 11 stairs on her first try!

Also immediately after they were on she started crawling using her knees! She's been "crawling" without using her knees for a while now, it looks more like swimming, but you put on big girl pajamas and suddenly she crawls with her knees! of course she didn't do it consistently, she went back to crawling...scooting...crawling...scooting, but still she finally used them.

My little girl is getting so big, maybe if I go back to feetsie pajamas she'll stay little for a while longer!

Day Off

Well, I took today off because poor little MK is sick. Our sad little one got RSV. I figured today would be pretty relaxing because she's just sort of been cuddly and tired the last couple of days. So, we got up this morning and I left her in her room for a few minutes while I got ready and I came back to this:

Luckily there was only half a bag of diapers to dump! Doesn't she look apologetic though?

McKinley Went Sledding!

Last weekend we had the annual winter party at Bear Lake and I decided it would be a great time to take McKinley sledding for the first time. We bundled up and were headed out.

On the first run Robbie, McKinley and I went down together. The sled we picked was a little slow, we didn't go too far and we turned around backwards. McKinley totally loved it and started laughing. On the second run we got the tabogan and the three of us headed down again. We got some decent speed, so before the jump over the ditch Robbie and I drug our feet to stop, thinking it probably wasn't a good idea to go off a jump with little McKinley on board.

On the third run Robbie wanted to get video so McKinley and I went down alone. We got going so fast, I couldn't stop us, so we went off the jump and over the ditch! There was some nice fresh powder for a landing on the other side. Unfortunately, when we hit the soft powder it came flying up in our faces, so McKinley and I were covered. Then, we almost hit a tree and finally stopped. She wasn't too happy about the snow on her face and started crying, so that was our last run! I'm excited to take her sledding again.