Teresa's hands

For those of you who don't know the issue we found with Teresa's hand, I will explain. I discovered a couple days after we brought her home that her fingers bend at the tip and knuckle at the hand, but not her middle knuckle. This is on all eight fingers. Her thumbs are fine, since they have two knuckles. You can feel there is a knuckle there, but it just does not bend. We took her to her doctor out here about it and he was stumped and has never seen this before. So, he sent us to UCLA to see a neurologist.
Today we went to Teresa's apt with the neurologist at UCLA. The doctor was very nice and gave us a lot of information to make us feel better. The original diagnosis our doctor sent us for was Cerebral Palsy. This doctor was a neurologist 1/2 the day at UCLA and then the other half of the day is the neurologist for the Cerebral Palsy dept. So, she was the perfect doctor to see.
She checked her out completely and said she has never seen this exact thing before. She has seen one or two fingers not bending, but not all eight at the middle knuckle. She explained that her reflexes, tone, and alertness are all normal for a baby her age. She shows no signs of cerebral palsy or any neurological issues. I asked her about a pinched nerve in her neck and she said that there is not one exact nerve that only controls the middle knuckle of your fingers. So, that most likely is not it. She said the best thing to do from here is to have her hands xray'd and go from there. I have her 2 month apt on Tuesday, so I will have him do that then.
So, in the end we have ruled out anything neurological, which is good news. Hopefully we can get some sort of answer soon. But until then we know she's a happy healthy baby otherwise.

a whole nights sleep

Ok, this still blows me away. I put Teresa to bed last night about 10:00. We had to get up early and when my alarm went off at 5am I opened my eyes and thought "did I feed Teresa or did I sleep through her crying???'. Well, she slept through the night last night. I got a full 7 hours sleep with Teresa home. 8 weeks old, two weeks sooner than Mary. Now we'll see what she does from now on, but it was one night at least. = )

Dinner Party

Last night we had our first dinner party. We have had people over before, but this was more of an actual dinner party. It was fun. We had my high school friends over. Normally we all go out, but since we have kids now, it makes it harder. So, we just had everyone over to our house. Kevin made a yummy lasagna and Parmesan chicken and we had others bring stuff. Everyone brought a bottle of wine and I think we went through it all.

While preparing for our little get together we find out we are not equipped for such things. We do not have nice plates, enough plates, silverware, chairs, tables, serving items, and whatever else you might need. Thank god mom and dad are close. SO, I borrowed what we needed to make it work. It all worked out in the end.

Suzanne brough her little one, Anna, and the other girl in the picture is pregnant and due in May. Mary had a ball playing with everyone and showing off her cute stuff. Teresa was cute too. She was a little over stimulated and took forever to get to go to sleep. Everyone Left about 11:30 and Teresa went down about an hour later. Mienwhile, Kevin was snoring in the other room. UGH! Eventually I got to go to bed. IT was a fun night. I love my friends. I took our my senior year book and we all went down memory lane. Kevin rolled his eyes at us, but we were having fun.

Shopping Day

Today we went shopping with Mom to the new Kohls in our valley. It was an eventful time. Mary walked and touched EVERYTHING, while Teresa slept. It was time to feed Teresa so I found a spot next to the dressing rooms with some place to sit. Mom was trying stuff on while Mary went in and out of the dressing room. Now, while Mary was opening and closing the door, mom was changing her tops. Luckily it was not a busy time and she was not showing her stuff off to anyone. So, anyway, then we went to Mary's clothes. Mom was asking her if she liked an outfit and if she wanted to try it on. Well, mom was going to do it right there in the middle fo the store, but NO, Mary wanted to go do it in the 'closet'. haha She was calling the dressing room the closet. So, ok, mom took her there. Mary would not let her in the 'closet' and closed the door on her. Then she came out and danced in her clothes. She had taken off her own clothes and put on her new clothes, the right way. It was pretty darn cute. It was hard to get her out of them and back into her own clothes.
That gives another meaning to 'coming out of the closet'. haha

My Girls

Kevin found the matching PJ's at the Disney store before Teresa arrived. The smallest size they had was 3 months. Well, she already fits in them. So, Mary and Teresa are now able to match at bed time. Mary thinks it's pretty cool. SO, we had to take a picture of the matching sisters. They are pretty adorable.
Mary is getting better, as far as having Teresa around. She still acts up here and there, but for the most part she's better. We've had some pretty good days. I get her to help me with things to make her feel special. My silverware may not be put back correctly, but she's helping.

31 on the 31st

Well, I'm officially into my 30's. I turned 31 on the 31st. I did it right too. Our Vegas trip was my birthday trip, which was fun. Yesterday, on my actual birthday, I got my house cleaned. So nice to have a clean house and I didn't have to do anything. Then mom and dad took the kids and Kevin and I met Corie for dinner at Buca De Peppos. We had a nice dinner. After dinner we then went to a wine bar for a bottle of wine. After drinking most of the bottle to myself, we went home. Corie came over too. Kevin felt the need to stop at the market on the way home for a bottle of Lemonchello. We really didn't need that. Kevin is feeling worse today than I am, but I still feel bad. We are supposed to go over to mom and dad's to watch the Super Bowl and celebrate my birthday one more time. I am not too sure if I'll be drinking today or not. Does not sound so good right now. hehe
So, being in my 30's isn't so bad so far. Life is good. I don't feel 31 though. What is 31 supposed to feel like? I still feel like I"m in my early 20's. Ok, and sometimes act like it too. It's all good. = )

Just the 2 of us

This weekend Kevin and I went to Vegas. It was just the two of us for my birthday. My birthday isn't until this Saturday, but it's also Superbowl weekend and we didn't want to go to Vegas then so we went the weekend before. We stayed at the Orleans, which is off the strip. We've stayed there before and love it. It's quiet and cheap. They have a shuttle to the strip so we can still get down there to have fun there.

We left Thursday about 12:30 and made it to state line by 3:30. One of our favorite places to eat is there in the outlet mall, so we had to stop and have dinner there. Then we were on our way to actual Vegas. Checked in and then started our fun. My goal was to have a few drinks since it's been 9 months. Well, I accomplished that. I surprisingly didn't wake up hung over.

Friday we decided to take the shuttle down to the strip and walk one way to look at casinos and such. We have not done that in a while. So we headed our way down toward the Imperial Palace, where we got married. My goal that day was to get a Mai Tai at the Mai Tai bar made by Don, our mai tai king. This place is in the Imperial Palace. We got there and it was closed. Very Sad. = ( Due to the economy not a lot of things are open in the casinos. They have really cut down. It's even a lot quieter than normal, people wise. Really Sad. Anyway, we walk around the casino and notice Don at another bar. SCORE!! We go over and get two Mai Tais from him. And yes, they are just what I was wanting. Mission complete, for now. We found out he only works util 2 and it was 11 right now. Ok, yes, it was early to be drinking Mai Tais, but it was my goal and I had a limited amount of time. Since we were there and he was only going to be there until 2, we had one more. So, now we are feeling pretty good and should go eat some lunch now. Then back to the hotel we went to continue our crazy day.

Don our Mai Tai King

Saturday I insisted we went back to the strip to see Don one more time. He was only going to be there from 6-2. The shuttle started running at 9:30. Ok, yes that's a little early for Mai Tais but it was my last day of kid freedom and I was going to have one more if it was going to kill me. And we made it and got our mai tai. We then walked the other way down the strip and ended up at the Monte Carlo. We were meeting a friend for lunch. Cyndi was a big help in our wedding at the IP (Imperial Palace). She helped us with our rooms for everyone and the pricing. We got to talking with her at that time and became friends and even invited her to our wedding. Ever since then I've kept in touch and whenever we go to Vegas we meet up with her. We met up with her and her new husband for lunch. Then they took us back to the Orleans and we gambled together for a bit. Kevin and I were so tired from the night before we had to leave them around 3 to go take a nap. We were actually going to go see a hockey game that night and needed our rest. Kevin's friend, Sal, has a friend who owns the Las Vegas Hockey team, the Wranglers. The home rink for the Wranglers is at the Orleans where we were staying. So, Chas, the owner, got us tickets. The game started at 7:30. We had to go to will call to pick them up. . Well, they were not there for us and we had to get someone to find them and such. FINALLY we got some tickets and got it. It was fun. The tickets were off to one side and most of the action was on the other side. But they were close to the ice seats. It was pretty cool just to say we were there and got in cause we 'know' the owner. haha

Sunday w were up at 6, naturally, and on the road by 8:15. We were done with Vegas and wanted to see our girls again. We did miss them, but it was a nice break while it happened. We got home in time for lunch. Mary was not too thrilled to see us. That meant no more Traci and Farah. Since Traci brought Mary to mom's house they were there when we arrived and Mary didn't really want anything to do with us. But once we drove away she was over it. It is nice to know she is happy with them and we don't have to worry about her. Teresa was happy to see us, from what we could tell. = ) But we know she is well taken care of too with grandma and grandpa. I think they were more happy to see us then Teresa was. haha Taking care of a 5 week old is tiring. But they love it.