kisses

akaiya gets a lot of kisses and she loves it. there were times when it seemed like she was trying to give us kisses back, so i decided to start trying to teach her what a kiss was. she finally started to "get it" ...a little...and would pucker her lips like she was going to give a kiss, then lose the pucker and make the little kiss sound with her tongue. it's really cute b/c sometimes she can coordinate all the movements and it's like she's giving kisses, but mostly it's two separate actions - and that's really sweet too :) well this morning she was on her mat playing and i heard the kiss sound, but she was hiding her mouth with her hand. i finally got a good look at what she was doing and realized she was kissing her hand! i don't know if she was doing it b/c i always kiss her hands, or if she was just using what was available... so now i'm going to work on getting her to blow kisses :)

mini-conference

illinois SOFT had a mini-conference this weekend. it was really great to see our old friends, and we got to meet some new ones as well. it was nice to be able to meet some people that i had talked to over the internet, but never met in person :) akaiya had a good time. she loves to be around people. there were several speakers that were really informative and tolerant of the loud kiddos ;) i'm always so appreciative that we have gatherings like this. it's wonderful to be able to bond with parents that are in the same situation as you.

fun times

akaiya went to her first south side irish parade this weekend. she seemed to like the loud horns and marching bands. her favorite part was probably watching everyone's dogs walk by. she seemed really entertained by the irish wolf hounds.

surgery

akaiya had an appointment with her opthamologist yesterday. i was unable to take her so my mother was kind enough to bring her to the doctor. we have been talking about doing surgery on her right eye for ptosis for awhile. when she was younger he put it off b/c she was so small. then when she got older he told us that b/c of her condition it would be an elective surgery. i don't know what changed his mind (maybe b/c he walked into the office and the first thing he said was "now what's going on with this droopy eyed girl?") so kaiya will be going under the knife. i have mixed feelings about the whole thing...i know that her vision is really important, and i know that this is a very minor surgery. i just don't like the idea that my baby will be in any kind of pain :( we'll probably schedule the surgery for the beginning of june. i want to let her finish out the school year first.

so close!

kaiya was hanging out on her mat today - just rolling around, giggling, and being her happy little self. one of her favorite games is to try and get into a sitting position, and when she's half-way there, she rocks back and forth. she gets attention from everyone in the room b/c we start trying to encourage her to go all the way into the sitting position. the lil princess is an attention hog so you can see why this would be a fun game for her. i looked away for a second and heard a thump. my mom was sitting next to me and said "did you see that? did you see what she did?" and i didn't (of course all the fun stuff happens when i look away...) so apparently kaiya made it all the way up - but overshot it and threw her self down the other way. still, she was sitting on her butt for a second so it counts! so of course we applauded and told her how awesome she is and all that...and she started to do it again. and made it almost all the way up. she was holding herself up with one hand and looking back and forth between my mom - like she was fishing for compliments! i went to get my camera so i could be sure and catch her sitting up for the first time, and of course as soon as i pointed it at her she shook her head no, cracked up laughing, and tipped over. ohhhh this little girl has a bad attitude ;)