What Frank has been up to

Frank has been working so hard, I'm so proud of him. Mazda has noticed his hard work and skill too. They have decided to send him to all the trainings required to make him Senior Mazda Certified. So he's been gone quite a bit and will be gone quite a bit more over the next few months. About twice a month they send him out for about 4 days to whatever state the training is in at that time. He's traveling to California, New Jersey, Detroit, Kansas City and I think Virginia. I'm not sure if that's all accurate. He's going so many places it's hard for me to keep track of when and where. Even though we are so proud of him and what he's doing, Mya and I really miss him while he's gone. But we're always so happy to see him return safely to us. Mya especially misses him. Sometimes when he's gone, she'll crawl into our bedroom looking for him and when she can't find him she starts to cry. Surprisingly, a phone call to Frank fixes it (at least for a while). Mya hears her daddy's voice and immediately lights up! Frank also joins us every night via phone when I put Mya to bed and he says our bedtime prayer with us. I think his training will be over by the end of November, at least I hope it is. We'll try to keep everyone updated.

What Mya's been up to

Mya is doing so many new things I just can't believe it! She's more than mastered crawling. I mean man she is speedy! We've had to install all the fun safety stuff like cabinet and drawer locks, outlet covers, and pads for the hard sharp corners. We've also had to put up a gate at the bottom of the stairs. One of her favorite things to do is climb stairs and she is pretty good at it too. If you look away for 5 seconds she's already halfway up the stairs. She's still trying to figure out how to go back down the stairs. Her perferred method seems to be head first but we're working on that.

Mya is also standing up on her own for long periods of time. She has attempted a few times to take a step but thus far has fallen every time. But she's practicing and I'm sure walking isn't too far in the future for her.

As far as talking goes, no words yet. Just a lot of babbling and yelling. Her genetics doctor, Dr. Rope, told us that babies with DiGeorge syndrome don't tend to talk for a long time. He wouldn't be surprised if she didn't really start talking until about the age of 4. Researchers really aren't sure why this is. They understand just fine but verbal skills tend to develop later. Dr. Rope did say that sign language is a wonderful alternative for her until she starts talking. They seem to have little trouble picking up sign language, so we are currently working on signing with Mya.

Because Mya gets diaper rashes and yeast infections so often, we decided to bring out the potty a couple of months ago so she's familiar with it when she's ready to be potty trained. I have been putting her on the potty every morning when she wakes up, after every nap, right before she goes to bed, and any time she gives me her potty cues. We have about a 50% success rate right now which really isn't that bad. When she goes to the bathroom in her potty, we cheer her on. But when she doesn't, no big deal, no pressure. And her diaper rashes are getting less and less severe and the yeast infections are few now. She hasn't had one for over a month!

Sorry it's taken so long to update. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

What I've been up to

Latley I've been really busy but when I look back over the last month, I can't for the life of me figure out why. It seems I'm always going, going, going, but I can't remember where or what I was doing. How strange!
I have been trying to tap into my more creative side in the kitchen and look what I came up with! It was my first time doing anything like this and I have to say I am quite impressed with myself. I made these strawberries for a wedding. I also made about 280 other strawberries in red and purple but with no designs that were place at the reception tables. The fancy ones in the pictures were made for the head table. This may not seem like a big deal but for those of you that know me, you know I have no creative bone in my body so I am very proud of myself!
My next big project is Mya's first birthday party. We're having a luau and I'm going to attempt to decorate her cake. I'm also attempting to create some cute cupcakes and other fun treats for the guests but so far my practice attempts haven't turned out too pretty. I still have time though and practice makes perfect! And if I just don't have it in me, there's always the grocery store just down the street with an awesome bakery so I'm trying not to stress too much about it.