So I have a question for everyone. I usually try to reply to everyone’s comments via email. But then other people don’t see the responses. Do you guys ever go back to read comments on old posts? Or do you prefer when I email back?
I know I’ve been slacking [...]

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Yesterday morning, Cybell and Catalina headed back to Chile and slowly things in the Andrew household are returnng to a routine. I’ve really missed blogging and am looking forward to getting caught up.
There’s lots going on in our world. We have a gazillion meetings that we put off from August to September [...]

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Do you see it?

But do you see it?

Can you see it now?

Yes, our little Belle is growing up! She got her ears pierced today!

Cybell couldn’t miss out on the jewelry fun, could she…

And while Belle grows and gets her bling bling, we all continue to have the blastest of blasts. We’ve been [...]

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We are still having boatloads of fun! We’ve been to Universal Studios, the Orange County Fair, all sorts of shopping, for walks at the park, swims at our pool, and more. It’s been great having our wonderful Chilean friends with us! Here are a few pics of our adventures. Now [...]

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4 years ago we were told not to expect 1 breath from you. We were told you’d be born dead and if you lived we’d experience nothing but regret and sorrow. Oh how wrong they were! I wonder how many breaths you’ve taken by now? And every one of your breaths [...]

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On the way home from Carlsbad we stopped at Downtown Disney, and Catita and Belle got their first Build-a-Bear:

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We had a blast at the beach. It was a great time for everyone. Nathan went swimming every single day in the very cold water and couldn’t have been happier. Cybell and Cata enjoyed relaxing at the beach too!

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Falling asleep in a small tent cuddled with your man, with 2 little ones gently snoring next to you, your dear friend and her beautiful daughter steps away in the RV, your dogs in a tent next to you, all lulled by the gentle ebb and flow of the ocean…priceless.

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Our friends from Chile, Cybell and Catita, are here, in LA!!! They’ll be staying with us for a month. We have lots of fun activities planned – Disneyland, LA & San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, Legoland, Santa Barbara, and much more Our adventure starts tomorrow – we will be driving down to [...]

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Nap time!

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* We had a 2nd opinion with an orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital LA. He evaluated Nathan’s back and hips. The good news – his back is perfect! No signs of scoliosis! As for his hips – not so good. The left hip is now at 40% subluxation – up by [...]

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So this blog has become a really important part of my life. Not only is it therapeutic for me and a way to organize my thoughts. It has become a way for me to meet some of the most amazing people I’ve ever encountered. Some of you have become some of my [...]

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If I had to summarize the Anat Baniel Method in one word, it would be: Comprehensive. Of all of the modalities I have encountered, I find ABM to be the most complete at addressing the complexities of children with neurological disorders.
The basic premise of ABM is based on the latest discoveries [...]

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* Some random pictures of the last few days:

* Today we had Nathan’s IEP meeting. It went well. I’ll write a dedicated post about it soon.
* I’ve decided it’s TIME to lose the pregnancy weight! I started on a low carb diet today and I went back to Hot Yoga. [...]

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I wanted to give a shoutout to a blog that I really enjoy following:
TherExtras.com
It is written by Dr. Boucher, who is a child development expert, along with many other titles which I now can’t seem to find on her blog. This is how she describes her blog:
supporting parents of children with diagnoses through information, [...]

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget why we live in LA. Today we remembered.
We spent the day at the Santa Monica beach with one of my best friends who flew from New York to meet Belle. We had a GREAT time! Nathan is 95% healed – other than a wet cough [...]

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It’s too late and I’m too tired to be cohesive so here is my late night rant:
* Nathan is much better. He is eating well. Our entire household is engaged in “Operation Fatten Nathan Up”. We make him pancakes almost every day. He’s been eating brownies. We give him food [...]

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I can’t thank everyone enough for your prayers for Nathan.
THEY WORKED!!!
This morning he woke up a different child. He had some color again, was breathing better, and was back to his usual happy self. He didn’t run any fevers today and didn’t vomit once. He gave us quite a scare yesterday.
Another testimony [...]

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We put Nathan in the crawler.

We lowered to make it more like he’s crawling than just kicking.

He looked up and saw the door, and started running towards it.

He moved with great precision and purpose and reached the door to the outside world.

Once outside he ran towards the car. Time to go daddy! He [...]

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Having a child with severe special needs is a little bit like receiving something like this:

At first you don’t even know how/where to start figuring out how to help your child.
Our puzzle contains pieces in all areas of development – sensory, cognitive, communication, physical, equipment, accessibility, medical, etc etc
I confess that [...]

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I think this is so true!
:: Worry Less, Love More ::
Perhaps you’ve been led to believe that worrying
about children goes hand in hand with loving them.
But in truth, parental love is far more powerful
*without* worry than with it.
Worries focus all your attention on what you *don’t*
want and put you in a state of *fear*. This [...]

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It’s been too long since my last confessions!
* Today I left the house and forgot to put on the pads to prevent breastmilk from leaking all over my shirt. I was a pretty sight walking around with round wet circles on the front of my shirt.
* Almost every time I pick [...]

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Nathan working with Tom, his rolfing therapist

Chubby chubby cheeks!

Greatgrandma is soo interesting!

I won’t smile…I won’t smile…I won’t smile…

Learning to play on his back by himself

I like this pillow…

But this one’s even better!

Hanging together

Sometimes you just need a hand.

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This morning I woke up and told Owen about a dream I’d had, where 2 men had been in our room looking at the fireplace. He laughed and said it was no dream. I, who normally wake up at the drop of a pin and at the slightest noise, movement, change in temperature, [...]

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* I know this will be shocking given how much I like to blab…but I’m running out of things to write about! Any ideas?
* Here are some posts that I have pending: house redecoration (final pictures), cord blood banking, infant reflexes, candida, rolfing, the ABR challenge. Any requests or ideas?
* [...]

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Life in the Andrew house is different these days… it has a fairy dust sprinkled all around it… our little tinkerbelle has flittered into our lives to bring much joy, much closure, much happiness, much peace.
But now she’s over a month old..no longer an infant… in just 4 weeks she’s become a baby…I look at [...]

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Miss Belle is starting to learn how to play with things:

Who said girls can’t wear blue?

Yes, I know the bow is a bit big, hopefully she’ll grow into it soon. The bow and bib and shoes and hand mits were made by her great grandma Celia! Isn’t she so talented?!

We’ve discovered she LOVES [...]

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I’m too tired to write…

This is Nathan when he was 3 weeks old…a little similar maybe???

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I wanted to share another adaptation that I am really happy with. I found this through an ad on facebook and decided to check it out. I am really glad!
Even though Nathan keeps his hands fisted, when he wants to hold something, he lets go. This is the dystonia – his brain [...]

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Today Belle is 11 days old. She is alseep on my chest in the ergo baby with the infant insert. I love hearing her breathing softly and feeling the warm baby breath against my heart. I love that I can move around with her tightly cuddled against me.
Talking about moving around. [...]

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Sorry it’s been quiet in Nathan and Belle land. I’ve been absorbed by and absorbing life with two gorgeous perfect angels. Not much to say other than GRATITUDE! I’m overwhelmed by it. Without further ado, here are some pictures of Nathan and Belle’s first week together:

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We had friends over for dinner tonight and had a blast. It was supposed to be a house redecorating housewarming but..unfortunately…all the furniture isn’t here yet. We’re still missing 1/2 of the TV cabinet and all of the furniture for the TV room. But everything else is in and tomorrow I’ll post [...]

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Today I turned 30 years old. I feel like I should say something profound. Instead I’ll settle for the truth.
The culmination of my 30 years in this planet is right here:

Would it sound rude if I said I’m disgustingly happy? Maybe fulfillingly happy would sound better? Incredibly happy? Thoroughly [...]

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* Nathan and Owen are on their way home right now! They finished 20 hours of intensive therapy and 10 HBOT dives. Plus they had a fantastic time hanging out together. I don’t think they missed me too much
* I had an OB appointment and Belle’s C-section is scheduled [...]

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I got an email regarding this and thought about post about it here:
This is pretty simple… Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every [...]

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We had a very quiet, calm Easter. We decided to take it easy and stay at home most of the day, doing a lot of this:

I read The Host while Nathan watched a couple of movies.
Nathan got a bit restless towards late afternoon, so we decided to eat out at a place similar to [...]

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…was a long, fun, exhausting day. We left the house at 8am and we just got back in (it’s 9 pm now)! We drove 1.5 hours to an appointment with the orthotist, who adjusted Nathans Hart Walker. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of him in it. Part of Nathans new IEP is that [...]

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Other than soggy vegetables and water logged brown rice – a whole bunch of stuff! These are the fruits of my labor this week:
* Nathan fell off his bed again last night. Just 2 days ago Owen was complaining about the bed rails I set up on his new bed. “Why [...]

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…my shopping experience at Babies-R-Us yesterday.
I went to pick up one of the last things I needed for Belle – crib bedding. I picked this one up:

I got a couple of accessories to go with it:

Then, when I was checking out, the lady asked me if I wanted a Rewards card, so I said, [...]

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* I saw the obgyn today – we set a tentative c-section date for April 28th! I have a couple of people checking the astrological significance of the dates around that time and should have final confirmation in a few days. I now start going to weekly appointments. Getting close now!
* [...]

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You’re invited to Belle’s …

Please don’t even dream of sending her anything. We are more than ready for her!

We would like to invite you in welcoming our Princess Belle to this world. With only 5 weeks to go, we are getting more excited and joyful about the arrival of Nathan’s baby sister!
Instead of [...]

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His 4 year old cousin Avery

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