Movin' on

That big ole yellow truck in our yard is officially packed to the gills with every earthly possession we own. The house is currently about 98% empty, save for a few garbage bags, some boxes that need to go in last so they can come out first, and two big ole mutts who are a little worried we might leave them behind. Poor things!

We had a lot of help on Saturday moving everything out of the house and garage. That truck filled up FAST!!We had a really fun "Bon Voyage" party at my mom's house on Sunday. It was SO cool to get together with friends one last time! Here was one of those surreal moments when three of my really good "horse friends" who I've known and shown horses with since we were little kids now all have kids of our own. It's official - we're adults! :)
Me, my aunt Jane, Violet (yes, her tongue is sticking out!) my friend Becky, my favorite boss Laura and her daughter Ashleigh.
Me n' Violet, my aunt Jane, niece Claire and my cousin Alex in the background.
My step-sister Erin, sister Leah, niece Claire and our family friend Betty.Me and Violet opening up some fun cards and gifts from the party.
The guys: my uncle Bruce, Jon's dad Rich, my step-dad Guy, Jon and my brother-in-law Joel.
Where we're headed... here is our rental house in Denver! We are really excited about living here for a while - it's in a GREAT neighborhood, we really like the layout of the house, it's got a nice fenced in backyard for the dogs, AND it's right around the corner from Uncle Mike!! Yay!! I'll finally get to see it in person on Friday. I can't wait

Wish us luck! We leave early Thursday morning for the drive out and hope to arrive Friday afternoon. Expect this blog to turn into the Denver/Violet blog for a while while we get settled in and figure out what it's like to move across the country. We're soooo excited, but we'll miss EVERYONE in Grand Rapids!!

See you in Denver, the city by the bay (Anchorman!)

Guess what Violet did??

She CRAWLED!!!!!!!!!!

I am still in shock. Up until about an hour ago she was still super fussy when she was put on her tummy. She would last about 5 minutes tops.

Then tonight I put her down and she played pretty good (one hand on me, so sweet!). Then all of a sudden she scooted backwards. YAY!! I was soo happy about that!

But then... she went FORWARD!!!! You should have heard her - she was jabbering away sooooo happy!! It is the BEST!!! Just one week post-surgery. Hallelujah!

Here she goes!



By the way, this is one of the positives about the cast - when all is said and done we will have gotten to watch Violet learn to sit up on her own 3x, learn to crawl 3x and learn to pull up on furniture 2x! Not many people can say that! And it's just as exciting every time. This crawling was AWESOME. My mom happened to be on the phone when she first did it and I probably busted out her eardrums! Sorry Mom!

It's the little things...

It's funny with this cast that it's the little things that we get so excited about.

For instance, we discovered that night that her PJ bottoms FIT over her cast! Yay!

And my sister loaned us her Little Mermaid chair which works PERFECTLY! Violet is happy that she can sit up straight (as straight as possible!) and has been watching videos and playing with her toys in the chair. It's a lifesaver!
Here are some better pictures of Violet in her "hard candy shell" (thanks Jon for that great analogy!)
"If I push hard enough, do you think I can get it off?"

I'll admit, this cast hasn't been as easy to adjust to (for Violet or her parents) as the last time around. She was getting so independent before the surgery - crawling, pulling up on the furniture, just doing her own thing. Now she's STUCK. And frustrated. I know it will get better and I've been trying hard to take it one day at a time just like I tell other spica parents, but it's hard to take your own advice!

She really gets mad when I'm holding her and wants to get down. I put her down and we get this:It's pretty heartbreaking as she just plain can't use her LEGS anymore. The longest she's lasted on her hands and knees is about 5 minutes before she gets really really mad (who wouldn't?). It pretty much stinks. From talking with other parents who have gone through this with kids around the same age, I know that every day WILL get better and soon she'll remember how to drop down and use her arms to pull herself around. But for now it's a lot of crying and frustration. *sigh*

We're hanging in there. I know it will get better. And every day that goes by is closer to getting it off. I just hope that she can figure out how to scoot around soon and I think we'll be just fine.

Thanks again for all the great e-mails, notes and phone calls over the last few weeks. We appreciate it!

Day Two!

We're on day two of our Second Spica Cast Adventure. So far, so good!

Besides spiking a fever last night (which thankfully only lasted a few minutes!) she seems to be holding her own! She had a pretty good night last night - she slept from about 9pm until 8:30am with just a couple of wake-ups to give her Tylenol. It worked out great! I think both of us needed that good nights sleep!

This morning she did great - she ate breakfast and then got to play in her amazing new FLYING PIG Spica Table! Special thanks to my friend Erin and her daughter Eliza for letting us borrow it! She shipped it all the way from Kentucky and it arrived exactly on time yesterday! She played in it for about 45 minutes this morning.
Here she is napping this afternoon. I did put her on her tummy just a few minutes ago with the help of lots of pillows and padding. Hopefully it will work as she always seems more comfy on her tummy!
This was from yesterday morning at the hospital. We're even more glad to be home!

And here is a little video I took yesterday at the hospital - it was so great to see our usual happy Letty peeking out for a few minutes!

Spica Cast, Round Two

We're survived our second round of hip surgery and the spica cast! Violet ended up having surgery early this morning (we had to be at the hospital by 5:30 am - thankfully we only live 5 minutes away!). She was out by noon and she's doing great!

The surgery seems to have been a great success. They reshaped the top of her femur just a little bit and cleared out the socket really good before they put everything back in place. It took just over 2 hours for the surgery and another hour for her to get casted.

She woke up much better this time from the anesthetic - she was just very sleepy and didn't cry very much at all. It was very sweet! Once we got back to our room I got to hold her and that made her very happy.

She slept quite a bit this afternoon, but woke up just in time for a visit from Grandma Pat who brought us lunch. She smiled and talked and seemed back to her regular self for a few minutes - it was GREAT to see her smile!

We're already liking her new cast quite a bit more than the last one. She is in a more normal position (if that's possible!) and does have a half-cast on her left leg. We are LOVING the fact that we "got a leg" and she can kick it around. I think it has helped her to not be so frustrated with not being able to move her other leg. Yay! Plus her legs are much closer together so hopefully she can fit in a few more things like her stroller and carseat without too much extra padding. It's pretty exciting!

Here we are this morning right before she went back for surgery. Good-bye little leg!
Her new cast. We're excited to see how fast she learns to crawl in this one - they did some extra padding around the bottom of each leg for us so she can race around without getting rubbed. I bet she'll figure it out FAST! Her right arm has the I.V. in it so they bandage it up so she won't pull it out. Of all the things going on with her right now, her bandaged up arm and the blood pressure cuff seem to set her off the most. Body cast, no problem! Blood pressure cuff? Noooo!!!


Hangin' out with her own baby.
How we REALLY feel about doing this again! :) Ha!
Oh, is that a SMILE I see? Oh yes! She is much more cranky than usual (who wouldn't be?) but does have amazing bouts of silliness. Tonight she had visits from her Grandma Pat, Oma Joanne, "Aunt" Becky, and Aunt Leah, Uncle Joel and her three favorite cousins. She smiled a lot at her cousins!
She is sleeping peacefully in her crib right now, so hopefully we don't have too eventful of a night.

Thanks again to everyone for so many great e-mails, positive thoughts and prayers today and through this whole thing so far! We love you all!!

jon, jesi & violet

If you found this blog searching for info on spica casts,
please visit this wonderful and incredibly helpful forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/
Also, please take a look at my Spica Cast Survival Guide, which you can download here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/files/
It's the first thing on the list.
Sending lots of good hip healing vibes your way!!

Michigan Travels

Well would you look at THAT? A big red SOLD SIGN on our house!! Put up a month to the day of listing it. Hurray!! We close on April 30 and then we're headed to DENVER! Yay!
This past weekend we decided we'd better get some last minute Michigan sightseeing under our belts. We took a trip out to the light house in Grand Haven. It was pretty windy and chilly but it was great to see the sunshine!

Jon and Violet walking down the beach...

Violet has been trying hard to figure out the phone lately.
She also discovered that an easy way to carry something from one place to another is to put it in her mouth. She had these raisin boxes in her mouth crawling around on the floor and then up on the coffee table.
Pigtails!
Watching skateboard videos with Daddy.

Violet's 2nd hip surgery will be on Tuesday, April 8. They'll be doing an open reduction where they make an incision and put her femur back into place, cleaning up the area so it STICKS! We also found out some great news about the next cast she'll be in - chances are that she'll have her left let in a half-cast that ends above her knee! I never thought I'd be EXCITED about a cast, but knowing that we'll have one of her legs out is so great!

We have so appreciated all the support from all our friends and family. Keep those prayers, good vibes and positive thoughts coming! They really have worked for Jon and I. I have come to the "zen moment" in our second spica cast adventure. I know we can do it and I'm just hoping Violet pulls though the surgery well and adapts quickly to being casted again. Let's hope for a quick 12 weeks!

We'll keep you posted on Violet's surgery and cast next week! THANKS!