Summer Days...

Summer is here! The weather is finally cooperating and Babyhawk is making her way to the great outdoors.

Enjoying the beautiful weather with Piglet:
Babyhawk was getting a little bit of work in before eating dinner outside on the patio:



The storm clouds rolled in and we had to finish up our patio dinner inside. Babyhawk's first experience with watermelon:

This is by far her favorite toy:

Babyhawk is incredibly strong!:

Bottom-less is one of her favorite states of being...:

Trying pickles for the first time. It was rough for a second...:

But, she ended up liking them just fine:

Sadly, today was her last swimming lesson for the session. Not surprising to us, her teacher again praised her talent in the water and said she was a natural! No worries though, we have signed her up again and the next session starts next week!

Have a great week!

... one more little pic

Here is Baby Jay! She got to come to the park and play after the sun cooled off a little. No watergun for her - but she sureenjoyed her little frog:

Hail to thee, our alma mater...

We headed back to the land of wheat for Babyhawk's Aunt Marli's Graduation. It was a fun trip for Babyhawk - she stayed in hotels and got to meet all of her cousins!

She met a good lookin' babe in the hotel:

Her and Grandpapa spent some quality time reading:

Before the graduation festivities, Papahawk and Mamahawk had an important visit to make:

Marli and Babyhawk looking pretty:

Marli graduated with honors and highest distinction from the College of Liberal Arts. (That's the top 3% of the college... wow!)

Enjoying the beautiful day and the beautiful campus:

We headed for the top of the hill and the campanile. Graduates walk through the bell tower and then down the hill into the stadium:

Babyhawk ran into someone very dear to her heart while on the hill:

The grad:

With her good friend Amy:
Almost the whole family (It was too hot for Baby Jay and we missed Rory, who was out of the country):

Babyhawk had so much fun with her cousins A. and K.

All the big kiddos.... kind of...

We headed to the park for a celebratory picnic:

Papahawk took Babyhawk down the slide... but only once after this burn:

The kids got waterguns!!!:

Babyhawk and her Aunt Jacqueline:

As you can see, she was very comfy with her Aunt and worn out from so much fun:

A final congrats to the graduate. We are so proud of you Marli! It was a great weekend and I am so glad we all could get together. Happy Birthday to Babyhawk's Cousin T, who is 4 on Monday! Rock Chalk!

Cupcakes and snuggles

Babyhawk doing her stretching in her cupcake PJs:

The sweetest (and most painful!) kisses:

Snuggle time:

May is Stroke Awareness Month

I have been reluctant to blog about this, but, in maybe a selfish way, I need all the help and support of all of our family and friends. For reasons I really can't explain, this is the day I have chosen to share...

We noticed that Babyhawk was not using her right hand at about 5 months old. When we approached her pediatrician regarding it, he said - let's get an MRI just to rule out a stroke. A stroke?!? I had no idea babies could have strokes. After her MRI we received the news that she had indeed suffered a stroke at sometime in utero or shortly after birth. Because of this stroke, the left side of her brain has been damaged, which was the cause of her right side weakness. On Valentine's day we received the official diagnosis of Right Side Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy. She has a very mild form of CP and most people can't tell by looking at her that anything is wrong. In fact, we have to remind folks all the time what side it is that is affected. She has no cognitive or speech delays - they tell us she is ahead of her age group in those areas... She is as smart as a tack - her right side just doesn't always cooperate with what she wants to do.

Babyhawk has been in physical and occupational therapy since the first of March. It is play therapy that she usually enjoys! Her teachers at daycare have also been a God-send, doing her stretches with her and challenging her to use her right side. We also do stretches and exercises at home every night to keep her limber and using that right side. She has made amazing strides in just a couple of months and is opening and using that right hand more and more everyday!

Right now we are working on crawling and walking --- watch out world!

.... and that explains the title of this post - May is stroke awareness month and we all need to remember that babies do have strokes. If you want more information about childhood stroke you can visit the following link. - http://www.childstrokeawareness.org/ If you are a charitable person, think about giving to the Pediatric Stroke Research Fund by going to: http://www.chasa.org/

We appreciate all of your love and support and will continue to share all of Babyhawk's successes with you here on the blog!

Happy Mother's Day...

Growing up on the good stuff...

Babyhawk had her first Potato Ole this weekend, which she definitely enjoyed!

Her Grandpapa will be so proud...

Have a great week everyone...