go emmy go!

more smiles

emmy's smiles continue to come more frequently and more purposefully and we couldn't be happier. it's amazing how one little smile can turn your mood upside down, in a good way! and yesterday, we even witnessed her very first giggle. we haven't captured that on video yet, but in the interim, here are some smiles for your viewing pleasure.



in other news, i haven't been posting much here because Emmy's now got her very own Facebook page "An Appeal for Emmy". it started as a fundraising page for her, but has evolved into being a bit more comprehensive. it's an easy place to share photos, etc. here are a few pictures that have gone up there recently.

Emmy's first birthday "party"

I think she liked all of her presents

some playtime smiles

just looking totally adorable without even trying

and one more video of her enjoying a red balloon.

An Appeal for Emmy

With Emmy's 1st B-day just a few weeks away, we're kicking off a fundraiser for her on Facebook. Please "like" her Facebook page to keep up with the latest, donate if you can and "share" with your networks. Thank you!

An Appeal for Emmy: Emmy went without oxygen at birth. The result was a traumatic brain injury that has left her with many challenges. But we fight for her every day and we hope you will join

a new year, another therapy

we haven't had the best beginning to the new year. in fact, it's been downright awful, but starting to look up. coming back from Christmas vacation Adam started to feel a bit under the weather. this was scary because some family members had been sick at Christmas and we were scared to death of getting Emmy sick. so when Adam started showing signs, we prayed Emmy (and I) had evaded it. but Saturday morning, I woke up with a sore throat and knew it was coming on strong. and if I was getting it, I knew it would be a miracle for Emmy not to.

we had our lovely nurse Vanessa on Saturday, which isn't usually the case, but she was making up some hours since we had been gone for a week. she was closely monitoring Emmy's breathing, feeding and temperature. she seemed to be a bit crankier than normal and also seemed to be more congested.

by about noon, her breathing was getting more labored and the monitor that tells us how much oxygen she is getting was showing she was not getting enough. so we started giving her some supplemental oxygen. (we have only had the pulse-ox monitor and oxygen at home for a few weeks, but it came in handy!)

just a few hours later, she started spiking a fever. but we were managing everything ok with our mini home hospital. . .until all of a sudden, we weren't. it took only minutes for Emmy to go from good to bad. . .she couldn't get a breath and her oxygen saturation number continued to decrease even as we increased the oxygen she was getting. she started to go limp, stop crying and losing color. so we jumped into the car and drove as fast as possible to the nearest hospital. . .with no carseat and me banging on her back all the way trying to get her to breathe. thankfully, within minutes they had a team of doctors working on her and breathing life back into her.

and there we stayed to ring in the New Year and several subsequent days. we were released yesterday and are so happy to be home. she is still requiring oxygen supplementation, breathing treatments every four hours around the clock and some extra meds, but home is so much better. it's such a shame that a silly little cold can land our sweet girl a week in the hospital!

before that trip to the hospital, we started a brand new therapy (to us) that we are really excited about. it's called Cuevas Medek Exercise (CME) and Emmy will be doing sessions once a week. . .or twice a week if we can find the time and the funds! it's supposed to really help build trunk and neck strength to get Emmy closer to being able to hold her head up, sit up, etc. here are a few videos from her first session that was really more of an evaluation. we can't wait until we can go again!

the post christmas blues

we just returned from a week in Kansas with my family. it was awesome spending Emmy's first Christmas with them. it was also her first flight and she did amazing. . .no crying, no blowouts, no major issues. amazing!

she doesn't travel light, but despite lugging way too many bags and accoutrements for my liking, it was pretty smooth and easy. the loudest noise she made on the plane was a hiccup, so i can't complain about that!

we got back to LA today. . .to crystal clear blue skies and 70 degree temps. but i must confess, i'm a little down in the dumps. i always feel a little sad after the excitement of Christmas is over. and i especially feel sad after leaving my dear family so many miles behind and not knowing when i will see them again. i really wish we were closer and could share those visits more often.

Emmy flashed her evasive smile more than ever and the largest one i ever saw was delivered in response to her sweet little cousin Griffon. i think she was pretty excited to see little people that were closer to her stature.

i will leave you with these shots courtesy of my sister.

Emmy and me with my niece Jessica

A Christmas Eve prayer

Little Miss Bright Eyes

All dressed up for Christmas Eve

Adam and my nephew Griffon

it goes without saying

visiting Santa and getting the obligatory photo was a necessity. fortunately, we had the pleasure of doing this outing with our dear friends Holly and her son Maceo. we had the luck of finding the one-and-only REAL Santa too. there are, as i'm sure you are aware, many imposters out there. but we found the real one indeed. and this is the result:

and not to fret. . .Emmy has many more holiday-specific outfits to model in the plethora of photos we'll be taking over the next few weeks. so stay tuned!

So Many Activities, So Little Time

after a week in the hospital for a severe respiratory infection, emmy is home, busy and doing well. this week she tried swimming in her new therapy pool. she wears a little inflatable neck ring and can move freely in a free-standing pool of warm water. the only place it fits is in adam's oversized ultra-luxurious spa shower. let's just say i made a few errors filling it and flooded his bathroom. he was irritated and ready to ban us from further aquatherapy sessions in his room. he even went so far as to move the pool into my bathroom and squeeze it into my bathtub where it did not fit. but we worked out the kinks and although we are on probation with him, he's letting us proceed for now. how could he possibly say no to emmy?

so without further ado, here is her first session in the pool. she was sleepy and not really into it, but she tolerated it for a few minutes.


for the second session, her nurse vanessa was helping me. she was more awake, but still not too sure about the pool. it may take a few more times, but we'll stick with it. she didn't like baths at first either and now she LOVES them.


and finally, a month or so ago one of her therapists brought over a contraption called a "Little Room". the idea is to put her in there and let her move and explore, totally on her own, without any interruptions. it helps her become more aware of her body and the cause and effect of movement (ie: move my arm and a toy will move, or if i move, it's actually me making that sound).

she started out only tolerating being in the little room for a few minutes at a time and not really noticing the various dangling toys. well what do you know, on saturday i put her in and she hung out for at least 30 minutes, batting at toys, grasping beads and just in general seeming quite content.

we've been spending time in the little room each day since and i can honestly say i think she likes it! when her OT saw her in it earlier this week, she was very impressed and said our Emmy has progressed beyond "curious" and now she's "ready to play"! we like the sounds of that.
WARNING - TURN YOUR SOUND DOWN BEFORE WATCHING. SOMETHING'S WRONG AND IT'S NOT A NICE SOUND