From the "Harts": 2008

Finally and Update (or 7)

Thanks to encouragement from this blogs #1 Fan, Melissa, I found the motivation to update the blog. You'll have to keep scrolling to see everything we have done in the past couple of months.

Henry ran his first marathon last weekend, The White Rock Marathon! Yes, he finished the entire 26.2 miles on a day with less than ideal conditions (fierce wind and warmer than usual temperatures). I am so proud (and a little jealous because my knees would never ever let me run that far) of his accomplishment. He even thinks that he wants to do it again! Henry's parents came into town to support him and I found that watching a marathon is surprisingly fun and exhilarating. It was actually really intense to stand on the side of the road with your eyes trained on hundreds of runners while trying to find your runner. We also did a lot of walking and I found that I was kind of sore the next day too (yeah, pathetic but I did walk up and down a huge hill twice and run about a quarter of a mile with Henry).

We found Henry around the 14 mile mark and he was feeling so good that he asked to run with Addison for a while. You can get a feeling for how windy it is by looking that that blanket blowing in the wind.

The finish line!

Enjoying part of Henry's post race pizza

We got Henry some bananas after the race and Addison decided to try her first banana. She ate quite a bit of it but has shown no interested in eating any more of it since then--despite me opening at least 3 more bananas for her.

Addison has developed a "cheesy smile" that she likes to use when she thinks she is being cute.

Yummy! My first doughnut hole!

Craniofacial Christmas Party

The party was held at the Southfork Ranch (about 5 miles from our house which was wonderful because it seems like very few things are close to our house) this year. Addison enjoyed making a bracelet with her grandma, sitting in a firetruck, petting a snake (grandma did not like), eating cake and cookies, coloring, and running around the dance floor like a mad woman (she would stop every 20 seconds to throw the stuffed bear they gave her on the floor and cover her mouth like she was saying "oops"). They had a raffle and about a quarter of the way through it, we realized that the ticket passer outer had given me the top half of the tickets and Grandpa the bottom half, which meant that there was NO WAY our numbers were ever going to be called. I still feel like they should have just given us a prize for their mess up!

This is Addison taking a picture with Dr. Salyer. He is not her surgeon but he is very famous in the craniofacial world and is obviously loved by his patients. He is pretty much retired now but works on some of the really big deal cases--like the ones that get you on the Discovery Channel.

Beep beep! She did not want to get down from the fire engine.

She actually touched the snake but my camera was too slow to get the shot.

Early Childhood Intervention Holiday Party

Addison gets speech and nutrition services from ECI due to her cleft. They have an annual Christmas party and aside from Santa, she had a great time. Without a doubt, her favorite thing to do at the party was to eat the sugar cookie.

They had a lot of crafts to do. Addison is modeling her elf ear hat in this picture.

Addison at Play

My mom sent Addison this cute fuzzy purple hat. I think that it is hilarious when she wants to wear it out in public but I tend to only get weird stares from others when we are out and about.

Look at all her teeth!

Before taking Addison for a ride in the bike trailer that I got for Christmas. Yes, she is wearing a pajama top with some non-matching pants. I felt kind of silly when she got out to play at the park.

Addison's new house

When my mom was here for Addison's surgery, we went to Toys R Us to look for Christmas presents for Addison. My mom let Addison open her present early, a Rose Petal Cottage! It has windows and a working door and the best part of it is that the cottage and all of the "appliances" that come with it can be collapsed into a 2x4 footprint. Addison loves to go in and out of the door during the day and uses a cloth to clean up everything in it at least once a day.

This baby "pack n play" is not part of the collection, but Addison likes to pretend that it is.

Thanksgiving and Christmas in Pasadena

We celebrated Christmas early this year when we were in Houston for Thanksgiving. What a change from last year; Addison was delighted by the presents (rather than the wrapping paper and boxes that interested her last year). She and Hannah had a lot of fun together and now that Hannah is crawling, I can't imagine the trouble they will get into next year. Grandma and Grandpa sure know how to spoil their kids and grandkids!

Thanksgiving was also a turning point for our little family. Henry and I were headed towards a breakdown due to our extreme lack of sleep (Addison would not fall asleep on her own until we put her into the car at 11pm and did not stay asleep for very long at night). Luckily, our family watched Addison in the morning while Henry and I caught up on the sleep we missed the night before. Within two days, I started to feel like a normal human being again. When we got back from Houston, we were thinking clearly enough to devise a plan to get Addison to sleep on her own again and within three days she was falling asleep on her own (at a decent time) and within six days, she slept on her own again.

Addison is signing "more" in the picture above. As in "more presents!"

Addison got a little golf set, which she loves!

Look at the delight on her face!

Addison hamming it up while playing dress up with Henry's cousin's children

Addison has a fake hotdog in her mouth and the look on her face is priceless!

Cool Hannah! You got a new drum!

Surgery :(

A week after we got back from the cruise, Addison had a surgery to repair the fistula (hole) in her palate. As most of my readers also already know, the surgery was a total failure. The hole is about 2-3 times larger than the one that we were trying to fix. Even more frustrating is that the doctor does not really know what went wrong. We will see Dr. Genecov at the end of December to find out what we will do next. In the mean time, Henry and I are adjusting to a life of food flying out of the nose!

We've really stepped up the sign language since Addison can't make most of the sounds necessary to produce words. We love the Signing Time! videos and Addison has now picked up about 35 signs (and can even put two words together). I ordered a couple of their new Baby Signing Time videos from a lady on Ebay (I save $3 after my competitive drive kicked in and I kept upping my bid) and it has now been over two weeks without seeing them. I might need to file a claim or something--shoulda just bought them from the site! I've pretty much become obsessed with the Signing Time videos and if I was rolling in dough, I'd buy her the whole set. Instead, I put myself on a wait list and a nearby city's library to rent additional DVDs.

Addison on goofy juice. She was very cuddly and funny.

Addison enjoyed her icecream diet for the two weeks proceeding surgery. She has shown no interest in icecream since her surgery though.

Cruise

We took a five day cruise out of Galveston (well, Houston due to the aftermath of the hurricane). The ship stopped in a little town called Progresso (I loved it) and Cozumel. We enjoyed getting to sit down to an entire meal without whining and I really appreciated that I did not have to cook or clean for almost an entire week. Addison stayed with Henry's parents. They sent us emails (including pictures) of Addison's days that we were able to access when we were at port, which really set our mind at ease.