Wow, I can not believe I have gone 3 months without updating! That is a record by about…2 months! I honestly don’t know where the time has gone. I guess it’s true what they say, “Time flies when you’re having fun!” We have kept ourselves busy as usual here at The Spencer Household. We’ve had so much going on I’m sure I’ll forget to tell you a thing or two. However, I have taken quite a few pictures lately, so I will let those do a lot of the talking for me. In March Steve and I took Olivia up to St. Paul for her visit to Gillette Children’s Hospital. This is where we had the evaluation with the rehabilitation doctor for Olivia’s arm. Botox was recommended for Olivia and March was our first set of scheduled injections. Olivia knew why we were going and she was a little nervous. But, we told her a bit about what to expect and also had a fun trip to Sea Life Aquarium planned at MOA. Before they gave the injections they used a needle guided by a machine (perhaps some sort of EMG) to find out exactly where they would be injecting the Botox. They gave Olivia some Nitrous Oxide and luckily, she didn’t remember much about it! Gillette After about 20mn Olivia was back to her old self. The first person she wanted was her dad (as I am standing next to her the entire time, ha!). After being smooched on and babied for awhile (which she deserved), Olivia was ready to head to the aquarium. We entered MOA and headed on our journey to the aquarium. After a little walk, we arrived. It was a bit pricey (and a lot of the attractions were closed for renovations), but Olivia really enjoyed what they had to see. The aquarium with the turtles and sharks were pretty cool. They also had a touching pool for the kids, which was kind of neat. If you want to check it out, get your tickets ahead of time on their website. It’s a lot cheaper! After a couple of days we could already see the improvement in Olivia’s arm and hand. Her arm wasn’t nearly as tight. We bumped up her therapy to 3-4 times per week and have been rolling with that ever since. Luckily, my mom comes in to work out and can bring Olivia with her to therapy since they are in the same place. Otherwise, I don’t know how we’d do it! We are fortunate our little girl is willing to work so hard. She is a fighter. Always has been. She is my hero. Olivia thinks of therapy more as play, but she does get tired or frustrated when she can’t complete a task sometimes. She loves to come in with Gram and report they are there. I do the scheduling, and enter charges, etc. so Olivia gets to come “help me work” while she waits for her therapist. We saw Dr Sinner at Gillette 6 weeks after Olivia’s first injections. Olivia’s hand and arm were still making improvements but you could see a little bit of tightness setting in. The “peak” for these injections is at 3 weeks, which we definitely saw. Dr Sinner is pregnant and will be gone in July, but she thought we could schedule the next set for mid June. If we decide things are still going well we can push it back and schedule with one of her partners. We are to see more improvements with each set and are hoping to see more supination of her left arm in the near future. At some point we will be able to spread the injections out further and do them just during growth spurts. That will be great. During our second trip to Minnesota Gram went with us. We ate at The Rainforest Café again and visited Build-A-Bear. We also went to Nickelodeon World at MOA. Here are some pics from our past trip. It’s hard to believe I now have a 4 ½ year old and an 18 mo. These kiddos are so cute and oh, so much fun! Thomas is growing into such a cute little boy. He is smart and sweet, although he definitely has an ornery streak! Livi has been enjoying preschool and continuing to be the social butterfly she is. She has her preschool graduation tomorrow night. We are so excited. I plan to surprise her with a bouquet of flowers and her Auntie Bree is flying in (Yes, this is a preschool graduation, but EVERY milestone is a miracle for us). 1st time flying a kite (Sorry, taken with a cell phone) 1st Play-Date in, I don’t know how long (too long) w/ her BFF Ellie. Notice they both have their Rapunzel Dresses on? Playing w/ Liv’s new Cinderella Castle Liv & I made our own birdfeeders out of pinecones, PB, & bird seed. Great rainy day craft. 1st trip to the park this year! Down goes Frazier! This was too funny. Liv hit pretty softly. I think she kind of made herself fall forward to get us to laugh. She’s a clown! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We did. We were Blessed with Health, Family, & Friends. Here are a few pics of the kiddos on Easter. Our 1st Town Egg Hunt together. You should have seen the handful of us crazy moms who snuck onto the field to catch these pics. We had hundreds of kids charging right at us! Tommy J at Grandma & Grandpa Ron’s Farm Bunny Cake! Liv and Aunt Lisa make one of these delicious cakes every year. We were also able to visit my Grandma B. in Clinton last month. Mom and I took the kids out to the farm for the weekend and had a blast. We went to one of my favorite parks, Eagle Point and enjoyed some QT with our Grandmas! We’ve had some great weather here in Iowa lately. Steve and I took advantage of it! The first chance we got, we took the boat out. The kids LOVE playing on the sandbar. It’s such a relaxing feeling…not having the TV or computer sure helps too. We have had a few quick photo shoots here recently. These babes are so active I can barely get them to hold still, let alone look at the camera…as for a smile, Ha ha, forget about it! Ok, so this one wasn’t part of our shoot, but I had to include it. Tom is just so cute. He looks like he belongs in there, driving my car! Hope you all enjoyed the update. You may remember me mentioning in Feb. Olivia was chosen as Survivor of The Year for The Linn Co area AHA Heart Walk! We are honored to be a part of this and can't wait to raise funds for a cause that saves lives like Olivia's. Keep an eye out over the next couple of months. If you are in Cedar Rapids you may see Olivia on a billboard, or if you watch the news or read the paper I'm sure you'll see an article or two about our miracle girl! We also have some fun fundraising activities planned! Here's a link if you haven't joined our team yet! Please join us, even if you just want to come and walk a little. It's for a great cause and a little walking never hurt anyone! http://heartwalk.kintera.org/linncounty/olivia