My 3 Girls

I'm in love with this picture!! 

My big girls came to visit this morning. :)

Little JClaire in her blanket from home. 

She loves her green paci just like CRC did. Oh no!!

CDC looks like such a big girl holding her! It seems like I was just here in this same hospital having CDC.

This morning CDCs attitude was completely different. She loved on baby girl all morning and didn't want to leave her to go to school!

 CRC still loved holding her baby "skister" 

Well, That's Not Something You Hear Everyday..

*
I hear "Mommy, hellllllp!!!" coming from CRC , who was up stairs.

So I went running..err waddling up there as quickly as I possibly could and asked "What's the matter Carrah?!"

"Mommy, I got butter on my back." she nonchalantly replied..

..........huh? Haha.. I had made her sausage, toast, and grapes for breakfast and apparently she laid in on top of one of her pieces of toast. It was all over the back of her shirt as well as the bottom of her long hair! Ick!

I immediately ran her a bath and she was as happy as a lark. All is well again.. {wink}

Day @ the River Market w/ My Littlest Lady

{I'm loving this picture!}

The River Market is about 25 minutes away from where I live, so it's a bit out of the way, especially with gas prices as high as they are right now, but it's my favorite place to go! I love being there with the girls or by myself. It has a bunch of neat things to pass the time. There is a long "Medical Mile" walking path to walk along, a Play Ground, a Splash Pad, a huge bridge to walk across, an Ampitheater type Stage, and of course the local Market with all sorts of different foods.

CRC and I ate lunch {shown at the bottom} then walked a bit then she played in this little tunnel they had.. 

She just wanted to sit on the side and tell me "Moma, I like you.." 

Aww!

See.. {wink}

 Then she talked on the phone and looked super cute doing it..

Here she is eating her French Fries! :) She looks like such a Big Girl.

CRC Valentine/Spring Pictures

{Precious!! One of my FAVS! Definitely got an 8x10 in this!}

So, as I was scrambling to rush out the door to get CDC to school this morning, I decided to let her forego her trademark Hair Bow and just go au natural with wavy hair and all.. That is the first time she has ever ventured out into public with no hair bow! We show up to her school and I hear the talk amongst the other parents in the hall. "Be sure to turn in your form, you have to get your pictures taken today." "Come here, you have a smudge on your face. Gotta get cleaned up because you have pictures."

I can feel myself start to panic!! Pictures..what?! Then I remembered seeing that tiny piece of paper in her folder yesterday. "Spring pictures will be taken tomorrow due to increment weather conditions." Crap! I didn't even pay attention to it because of the bad notes from her teacher. Argh! The ONE day in her {almost} 5 yr old life that she leaves the house without a Bow is school picture day!! GREAT! Luckily, I dressed her very cute. I ran back out to my car after I had taken her inside to desperately search for a Bow. Thankfully, God knew I would have a panic attack if my child had to have pictures taken without a Bow and I found one wedged under some trash in the floor board. Ha! Woo Hoo, the day was saved!!

Anyway, after all of that drama, I decided I would take my littlest child, that has had not a single professional picture taken of her since her 1st birthday, to get pictures made.

We ran home, got changed, and headed to Sears. It went amazing!! I actually didn't get there until about noon, smack dab in the middle of her normal "nap time" I was terrified that she would be throwing herself down screaming. But much to my surprise, she smiled and laughed the entire time. Go CRC!!! We got super awesome pictures and I spent way too much money, of course. But, like I said I haven't gotten any made of her since October 2009!!

She was laughing hard in this one. The lady assured me they could take the glare off of her glasses. Yay!

We also decided to take a change of clothes for some impromptu Valentine's shots..

Here's my little chocolate heart!

I did, at one point, have to bribe her with a RED sucker! It matched the shoot so perfectly.

This doesn't look that much like Carrah, but she just looks so mischievous. Hehe!

And, drumroll please, my absolute FAVORITE!!!{next to the first one} Love love love my little love bug!!

And here are some I didn't order today. I can still get them online for up to a week , I think. :) Well shoot, I can't add the rest for some reason...

Wordless Wednesday - Day @ the Park w/ my Baby Girl

Pete and Re{Pete}

CDC is the girliest little girl i've ever seen. She doesn't like to get dirty or touch "yucky" stuff. She's not a fan of playing ball or many other sports instead loves to dance and play dress up. 

CRC is a tough little cookie. She's not much for being proper. She's destructive. You can usually find her climbing something or knocking something down.

Complete opposites!

However, they love to play together and very often like to do and play with the same things. So I found this picture quite funny.

CDC was sitting on the stairs like a little lady with her legs crossed. CRC looked over at her and noticed her legs and tried to do it herself. Her chunker little thighs {like her mommys} made it difficult to get them crossed and keep them that way. So I helped out. At first CDC was mad that CRC wanted to sit like her, but then she thought it was funny because CRC couldn't keep the pose going! Ha!

When Little Girls Play Dress Up

Also known as "when big sister dresses you up!"

 Sometimes you're a butterfly princess with a modern hat {wink}

and other times you're a quirky little chef, who just likes to dance.

All the while, you wonder why your momma wants to take so many pictures of you..

so you pass up the "cheese" she is begging to see for chewing on a baby doll's head.

No matter the clothes or the serious faces, you remain super cute!

Wordless Wednesday - The "say CHEESE" Attempt

Potty Training Update

So, it's been 6 days since I started vigorously training CRC and she is already almost 100% using the potty!!

I guess I should go apologize to her for saying she was going to prove more difficult than CDC. She has been SO easy! Last week, i let her run around the house all day in her panties and kept asking her if she needed to go. I bet I asked her 20x/day. But she got the hang of it and realized she got 2 M&M's every time she successfully used the potty. {We started with money in the Piggy Bank, but M's seemed to work better for her}

I do still put a diaper on her at bed time. During her naps, she stays dry, but at bed time 8:30pm-7am, she probably wets her diaper once. Not bad!!

This morning, she hollered down stairs to me "Mommy!!! Come here, hurry!!! I pee pee in Froggy Potty!!" I ran up there and sure enough, she had taken her pants and panties off and gone in the potty all by herself. Then about ten minutes later, she went poo poo in potty all by herself. She hasn't had any accidents in several days.

Go CRC!! Do your thing girl. You smart little cookie!!! I'm so proud of you! :)

Wordless Wednesday - Who Me?

{ =) }

KidISMS - CDC AND CRC

I don't have many KidISMS to share today, but I wanted to write them down before I forgot. I love looking back and seeing the silly things my girls have said to me.

CDC told me after I picked her up from school today, that she was going to be a "Cheerleader and a Dr" when she grows up. I believe that suits me fine.

Then this morning while I was trying to get CRC to help me clean up the toys she dragged out, I called "CRC..?" She said "Momma! I not talking to you..." as she kept pushing her babies round and round in their stroller. Lil turkey!!

ETA: Bwahahaha!! Had to add this.
CDC came running in the room saying "I found this hooker in my room!!!" We looked up to see what in the world she was talking about and it was a Christmas tree Ornament Hook. :)

CRCs Albinism and Eye Update

CRC waking up from her nap 1/3/2011

Notice her right eye{your left} still turning in.

Much better though, compared to the day of her surgery 3/17/2010

Miss CRC is 26months old now. Sometimes it doesn't seem like she's been here that long, other days I can't remember what it was like without her. She is such an entertaining, bright, easy going little girl. I'd have ten kids if it meant they were all exactly like her. You know, I think back to the weeks when we first brought her home and I wish I knew how smart she'd be today instead of worrying constantly about her eyes. I thought she was blind. I thought she'd never recognize me. I searched vigorously online to find a diagnosis for her symptoms, but came up short. I finally got that diagnosis when she was 4 months old. I still didn't know what to expect from my baby. Initially, I still believed she'd have learning disabilities because of her lack of vision, but I then learned that Albinism does not mean disability. It simply means lack of pigment. I finally realized my baby was just extra special!

We've been to Arkansas Children's Hospital every 6 months for the past two years. We will continue to go back until her Opthamologist says otherwise. She had surgery in March 2010 to correct her Strabismus, crossing of the eyes. It did work and she looked much  better. Her eyes were straight for a very long time. They still are when she wears her glasses, but not as much when she's not wearing her glasses{which is only when she sleeps and bathes} It started to become worrisome to me, but when we went back to ACH in November '10, her Dr. said that it is totally normal. He expects them to still turn in without her glasses because she is so far sighted, but he would only worry if they turn in with the glasses still on. That would indicate that the glasses are not strong enough. {I so hope this doesn't happen!} They are already so thick!

You'd think her lack of vision would impair so many aspects of her life, but it hasn't at all! She is so incredibly smart. It amazes me every single day. She can count to 15 without mistakes{even counted to 6 in Spanish yesterday!}, knows every single color and refers to objects by their color, knows the difference in boys and girls, and can talk in complete sentences. She speaks more clearly and more correctly at 26months than CDC does at 4.5years old! Strangers in public always ask how old she is because she speaks so well. Sometimes, I wonder if she speaks so well and remembers so many things because of her lack of vision, like maybe she depends on her other senses more since that one is lagging behind. Whatever the reason, she is such a blessing! I thought life would be so much more difficult with her when I learned of her diagnosis, but it has actually been the opposite. She makes life easier! I love my little Care Bear, Reesers, Reesy Peesy! :)

I've included pictures from the day of her surgery since I never did a blog post on it.

This was after the "loopy meds" She was so adorable!

 About to go back for surgery. She had the same surgery on both eyes. They had to perform the surgery because the left eye was in control. If he wouldn't have done the surgery, the right eye would have "died" so to speak. It would have just quit fighting to see and let the left eye take over and her right eye would never function again and be blind in that eye. She did have surgery in both eyes, though.The Dr explained it like a set of tires, you have to perform the surgery on both eyes like you have to balance both tires or it will be out of balance.

 Right after she got our of surgery. :( She had such a high fever!! The nurses told us it was probably from being bundled up in the blankets they had her in.

 The day after surgery. You can see how her eyes still look glossy.. We had to put drops in them for about a week to 10 days afterward. We could almost immediately tell a difference. So worth it!

CRC's 2nd Birthday!!

On October 21st at 11:59am, CRC turned TWO!! I can't wrap my head around it. Seems like I was just blogging that I was pregnant, then having her, then her first birthday.

Wow.. two years old. She has come such a long way since we brought her home. From not knowing if she could even see to now discovering the world. She knows all of her colors, with ease! Can count to 15 without skipping numbers. Knows her full name and loves loves loves everyone! She is such a sweet precious girl. Everone that meets her instantly loves her. At first, she is just a cutie to look at then you start to listen to her and are just amazed at everything she knows. I'm not meaning to brag, but everyone tells us the same thing. "Wow, she's only 2? I can't believe how much she talks." and you wouldn't think she could talk that well because she always has that paci in her mouth!! That's another thing.. whew! Girl is a paci baby.. err toddler, i guess now. {Sad!!} She loves her paci. Wouldn't go a minute without it, if I let her. The process of de-paci is going to be a tough one!

She's very independent and has a little temper too. She behaves very well and loves to play alone..which is nice for me every once in a while. But, if she wants something, you know she wants it!! She will definitely let you know. She knows she's the baby too. When we asked her if she was going to be the big sister she sat there in silence for a minute and then said "No! I da baby" while patting her chest. {ha!} Uh-Oh!!

We had her party on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. Everyone had a great time and it's such a nice time of the year to have an outside party. She loved opening the presents and believe me, there were a lot of them! Then she dove into the cake right after singing "Happy Birthday!" We had a Dora theme and it was aDORAble! {like that?..ha!}