bone marrow donor registry

I have been reading all too much recently about friends who we have met through our blog whose children are going through or have been through treatment for leukemia. One little girl, Lois has just relapsed 2 weeks after she finished 3 years of treatment for leukemia. She now needs a bone marrow transplant. To quote her mom, "I don't know the odds that a match for Lois will be found. But I know that Lois isn't the only child in this situation right now. And it's possible that YOUR bone marrow could save the life of a child like Lois. So I encourage you to visit www.marrow.org and add yourself to the National Bone Marrow Registry."

I registered in October of last year (2009) to "be the match" and I hope someday I can donate my bone marrow to save someone's life. Please consider taking the steps to become a bone marrow donor.

jumperoo take 2

this past weekend we decided to get whitney's jumperoo out of storage and see how she did in it. i think we put it away a few months after her first birthday so it is like it is brand new to her. when we had it before she was so tiny that even at the lowest setting for the seat her legs barely touched the ground - but she still had fun in it. now that whitney is taller she can reach the floor and really "stand" and "jump". i was thinking that it would be a good way to get her to "stand" and "bear weight" on her legs (with the added bonus of keeping her from going to unroll the toilet paper or empty all of the books off of shelves, out of baskets, and in general "cause trouble") :) Here are a few videos of her in her jumperoo in June of 2009 and now in September of 2010:




+ today I had the girls dressed alike and thought we would do a mini photo shoot:

how is this comfortable?!?

our big two-year-old

Whitney had a fun birthday week! We started the week last Sunday with a birthday dinner with our families - it was a lot of fun! We also took a week-long break from appointments of any kind - no therapy appointments, no doctor apointments - just play dates :) We had two playdates at two different splash parks in town, spent her actual birthday at the zoo, went to a farm (Traders Point Creamery), went to the Indiana Dunes and spent time today with my grandma and aunt (who was in town visiting). It was a busy and fun birthday week - now Whitney is officially a two-year old! Anne especially enjoyed Whitney's birthday week -including enjoying many of Whitney's presents. It is a good thing at this point Whitney is still ok with sharing her new toys with her big sister... Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Indiana State Fair

the girls loved the bus ride to the fair!

"there's more than corn in indiana"

3 month old llama

walking toy

Another tip/idea we got from our PT is to put the ankle weight at the bottom of the push toy so that it weighs the walking toy down. This helps keep the walking toy from getting ahead of Whitney too quickly when she stands up and pushes it to try to walk. You can really tell the difference between when we have the weight at the bottom of the toy and when we don't - it definitely gets ahead of Whitney and she has a hard time keeping up when the walking toy is not weighted down. The weights we used on Whitney's ankles yesterday were one pound weights that belong to our PT. I was not able to find one pound weights but I did find some two pound weights at TJ Maxx - this is what we use on the walking toy and are starting to use at home when our PT is not here with her one pound weights. Just wanted to share the idea in case anyone else has a walking toy that gets going to quickly when your kiddo tries to walk behind it...

Up at the gym just working on my fitness

During Whitney's PT session yesterday we used one pound weights on each leg to help her with keeping her feet planted on the ground and going from sitting on the step stool to standing with the least amount of assistance possible. She is getting so close... a few times recently she has been able to stand on her own for a few seconds before she realizes she is standing and just plops down to the floor.

Broccoli!

We are not sure what they put on their broccoli at Meridian Hills - but since Anne was little she has loved it, and tonight, Whitney (who seriously DOES NOT LIKE vegetables) loved the broccoli too! Anne and Whitney were eating the broccoli like a popsicle! Whitney even tried grabbing for the plate so she could have broccoli because apparently I wasn't getting the job done quickly enough! I guess I will have to order "takeout broccoli" to get Whitney to eat her vegetables...