Note: New camera won't be here for at least another month. :( In the meantime, maybe I will just buy some more accessories for it to hold me over.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Recent Happenings
I haven't written for a while now because really not much has been going on. Things have been pretty calm and laid back in the Vance household, which is sometimes nice. Kyla and I are still enjoying our days off together. This has been a great change for us and things are running so much smoother. It's nice to feel more like a Mom. I'm one of those people who feels better when I am maintaining everything or taking good care of my family. I have found that sometimes I get bored because we are usually stuck in the house, so I've been trying to explore different things lately. Because of the weather we can't go outside for too long, so I'm really anxious for summer to get here. I'm definitely not a winter person, except if there is snow on the ground. If there isn't snow, then I'm not down for being cold all the time. We did get a few snowflakes today, but just enough to tease us and that's all.
Today Greg brought home his friends son's motorcycle to fix. It was not running so he fixed it, then took it on a test drive up and down our street. I put Kyla's jacket on her and took her outside to catch a ride, but then of course was worried she would fall the whole time she was riding on the bike (which wasn't very long and was in the grass of our front yard). She loved it, lots of smiles. Dad says we will have to get her a 4-wheeler when she gets older.
Note: New camera won't be here for at least another month. :( In the meantime, maybe I will just buy some more accessories for it to hold me over.
Note: New camera won't be here for at least another month. :( In the meantime, maybe I will just buy some more accessories for it to hold me over.
Monday, January 24, 2011
ABS Community Online
For those of you who are interested, there is an online ABS community of those who have been affected by ABS. The link is: http://www.amnioticbandsyndrome.com/online-community-a-95.html
I joined this site when Kyla was born - it was where I got most of my information on ABS from, since the doctors didn't really tell us anything at all. Isn't that weird?... I was on here the other day and found a photo of two children who looked to be siblings that had the same limb amputation, both missing their right arms under their elbows. When I saw this picture I froze up and stared at the picture for a while, and then kind of started freaking out. I was at work about to leave for the day and my Husband had called and I explained to him what I had just seen and told him that the doctor's told us it couldn't happen twice. My Husband said that they didn't say that, but I specificially remember them saying it wouldn't. Anyway I walked to my car and was like still freaking out in my head, like "how could that happen, with the same amputation and twice?" The next day I decided to write the lady and asked her if she could share her story and she did, this is what she said:
Hi kyla mom, I'm still trying to figure out how to post things. We adopted our daughter 4yrs ago she was very beautiful and no one was inquiring about her and we fell in love at first site. Last year Dec. we decided to adopt again 1 rule my hubby said was Jesus has to provide for it all, and HE did :) we brought our little man home Dec 11. When we were looking at the special needs kids I asked our agency if there were in little boys missing a hand. We just laughed when we saw it was even the same hand. We knew he was our little man. Our daughter uses her foot in video games and cutting paper, there isn't anything she can't do. Except tie her shoes. So anyone with suggestion
I thought this was pretty cool and honestly I was relieved to hear they were both adopted. I love Kyla's little arm, it is so squishy and I love to rub it and squish it when she will let me, LOL, but you know, if you go to this ABS community, there is a section for Those Who Lost a Child to ABS. I've read a few of these stories and I don't really want to read more, because it's pretty tough to read them, but it can be life threatening. I was glad to hear the doctors tell us that it doesn't happen twice several months ago, so when I saw these two children I kind of freaked out, like what the heck, they told us it can't happen again. I thought it was awesome these parents gave these two children a family and the chance to become siblings, especially since they are both like each other. Of course most people will over look these children, everyone wants a perfect child, but being a parent of a special child, I think these children are more of a gift than a "perfect child." I am pretty sure most parents of special children would say the same thing.
I joined this site when Kyla was born - it was where I got most of my information on ABS from, since the doctors didn't really tell us anything at all. Isn't that weird?... I was on here the other day and found a photo of two children who looked to be siblings that had the same limb amputation, both missing their right arms under their elbows. When I saw this picture I froze up and stared at the picture for a while, and then kind of started freaking out. I was at work about to leave for the day and my Husband had called and I explained to him what I had just seen and told him that the doctor's told us it couldn't happen twice. My Husband said that they didn't say that, but I specificially remember them saying it wouldn't. Anyway I walked to my car and was like still freaking out in my head, like "how could that happen, with the same amputation and twice?" The next day I decided to write the lady and asked her if she could share her story and she did, this is what she said:
Hi kyla mom, I'm still trying to figure out how to post things. We adopted our daughter 4yrs ago she was very beautiful and no one was inquiring about her and we fell in love at first site. Last year Dec. we decided to adopt again 1 rule my hubby said was Jesus has to provide for it all, and HE did :) we brought our little man home Dec 11. When we were looking at the special needs kids I asked our agency if there were in little boys missing a hand. We just laughed when we saw it was even the same hand. We knew he was our little man. Our daughter uses her foot in video games and cutting paper, there isn't anything she can't do. Except tie her shoes. So anyone with suggestion
I thought this was pretty cool and honestly I was relieved to hear they were both adopted. I love Kyla's little arm, it is so squishy and I love to rub it and squish it when she will let me, LOL, but you know, if you go to this ABS community, there is a section for Those Who Lost a Child to ABS. I've read a few of these stories and I don't really want to read more, because it's pretty tough to read them, but it can be life threatening. I was glad to hear the doctors tell us that it doesn't happen twice several months ago, so when I saw these two children I kind of freaked out, like what the heck, they told us it can't happen again. I thought it was awesome these parents gave these two children a family and the chance to become siblings, especially since they are both like each other. Of course most people will over look these children, everyone wants a perfect child, but being a parent of a special child, I think these children are more of a gift than a "perfect child." I am pretty sure most parents of special children would say the same thing.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Picky Eater Learns New Words
Yesterday Miss Kyla Rae learned how to say "no." She uses it in the right context and doesn't say it mean, but sort of sweet...drags on the o at the end, like "nooooo," in her little baby voice; like "Mom, nooo I don't want to eat that, I've got a voice now." Today she learned how to say "ball." She was playing with a ball, held it up high to me and her Dad and said "ball." She doesn't quiet say it as good as no though, she has the ba down, but not so much the l at the end. Hopefully this is making sense. It does to me. :)
We are still struggling with getting Kyla to eat big people foods. It's a texture thing for her and the fact that she is cutting molars right now doesn't help. Kyla has been in sort of an in between stage where she is starting to not want to eat babyfood anymore, but then also doesn't want to eat big people food either. She has to eat, so I (and her babysitter) are forced to struggle to feed her babyfood. Somehow Kyla accidentally DVRd a portion of a Blues Clues episode that she loves and she will eat for that, so usually every feeding I turn on that episode and she gobbles down. Kyla also wants to start feeding herself, which is fine with me but the problem is that she doesn't know how to work a spoon! She doesn't hold it right so most of the babyfood ends up all over her or down her bib/clothes and only a tiny bit gets into her mouth. It is a little difficult for me to sit back and watch her try to feed herself because I want to help her and show her how to hold the spoon right but she doesn't want me to. It's also hard to watch her make such a mess of herself, but I guess that's part of learning how to do things. This girl definitely wants to be independent, which is a blessing given her circumstances. I gave her banana babyfood and a spoon the other night and just let her go for it. She mostly treated it like it was a body paint and used the spoon to sort of paint it on her little arm and rub it around. LOL. She was a mess by the time I decided that learning time was over. Kids are not easy, and I have never really been around kids, so I have no clue what I'm doing really, I just try to figure it out a long the way. Greg was scared to even deal with her after this was over and wasn't sure how to even go about cleaning her up. He said I am the Mama and that type of stuff is just built into me (his way of getting out of the cleanup). It really wasn't that bad, took a wet washcloth to her a couple times, rinsed it out and then threw her in the tub! Tonight Kyla amazingly ate some of a meal I made last night, like a roast chicken spaghetti with a white sauce. The more bland, the better for her. Now that I'm a parent I guess I am experiencing some of the troubles my parents went through with me. I used to fall asleep at the dinner table when I was little because my parents wouldn't let me leave until I had finished my meal. I decided that instead of eating it I would just fall asleep there and then I wouldn't have to eat it at all. I also remember putting meat (red meat like steak and pork chops, which I still to this day will hardly eat...definitely no steak and maybe every once in a while pork chops are OK) into my napkin and feeding it to my dog under the table. HAHA.
Oh! I guess I didn't describe the picture above. I was trying to think of a way that Kyla could learn how to use a spoon better, so I decided to give her a tiny bit of chocolate pudding since it's pretty thick and stays on a spoon good. She did really well at first and liked the chocolate and then decided to ditch the spoon and just get down to business and lick the inside of the cup. Gotta love kids.
We are still struggling with getting Kyla to eat big people foods. It's a texture thing for her and the fact that she is cutting molars right now doesn't help. Kyla has been in sort of an in between stage where she is starting to not want to eat babyfood anymore, but then also doesn't want to eat big people food either. She has to eat, so I (and her babysitter) are forced to struggle to feed her babyfood. Somehow Kyla accidentally DVRd a portion of a Blues Clues episode that she loves and she will eat for that, so usually every feeding I turn on that episode and she gobbles down. Kyla also wants to start feeding herself, which is fine with me but the problem is that she doesn't know how to work a spoon! She doesn't hold it right so most of the babyfood ends up all over her or down her bib/clothes and only a tiny bit gets into her mouth. It is a little difficult for me to sit back and watch her try to feed herself because I want to help her and show her how to hold the spoon right but she doesn't want me to. It's also hard to watch her make such a mess of herself, but I guess that's part of learning how to do things. This girl definitely wants to be independent, which is a blessing given her circumstances. I gave her banana babyfood and a spoon the other night and just let her go for it. She mostly treated it like it was a body paint and used the spoon to sort of paint it on her little arm and rub it around. LOL. She was a mess by the time I decided that learning time was over. Kids are not easy, and I have never really been around kids, so I have no clue what I'm doing really, I just try to figure it out a long the way. Greg was scared to even deal with her after this was over and wasn't sure how to even go about cleaning her up. He said I am the Mama and that type of stuff is just built into me (his way of getting out of the cleanup). It really wasn't that bad, took a wet washcloth to her a couple times, rinsed it out and then threw her in the tub! Tonight Kyla amazingly ate some of a meal I made last night, like a roast chicken spaghetti with a white sauce. The more bland, the better for her. Now that I'm a parent I guess I am experiencing some of the troubles my parents went through with me. I used to fall asleep at the dinner table when I was little because my parents wouldn't let me leave until I had finished my meal. I decided that instead of eating it I would just fall asleep there and then I wouldn't have to eat it at all. I also remember putting meat (red meat like steak and pork chops, which I still to this day will hardly eat...definitely no steak and maybe every once in a while pork chops are OK) into my napkin and feeding it to my dog under the table. HAHA.
Oh! I guess I didn't describe the picture above. I was trying to think of a way that Kyla could learn how to use a spoon better, so I decided to give her a tiny bit of chocolate pudding since it's pretty thick and stays on a spoon good. She did really well at first and liked the chocolate and then decided to ditch the spoon and just get down to business and lick the inside of the cup. Gotta love kids.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
New Connections
This week I was lucky enough to make some new connections with two individuals who have similar limb deficiencies like Kyla's. I received an email from a gal who said she had ran across my blog while searching for information on the Born Different show. Here is her initial email (hopefully she doesn't mind me posting this - I thought this would be neat for Kyla to read later on):
B
This is part of the reason why I do this. I was so excited to receive this email and am looking forward to following her blog. As a Mother of a child who has a limb deficiency, hearing how there is nothing she cannot do gives me tons of hope. I think sometimes I find myself worried about how things will work themselves out in the future or how my daughter will fit in, in all of the things that she will want to do, such as school, sports or dance type stuff, etc. This lady wrote her first blog post I believe the day after she contacted me and talked about how she was the first in her Kindergarten class to learn how to tie her shoes, the fastest typist in junior high, and runner up in her prom, which is awesome! Makes me very happy to hear stories like this and I am so glad she emailed me. I also had another person contact me on Facebook (after reading a post I had made several months ago on Kelly Knox's page) who has a limb deficiency similar to Kyla's, and she lives in Costa Rica. I have not communicated with her much because I'm not sure how fluent she is in English, but it is really nice to have others out there to relate with and talk with.
Hi Amber. I happened upon your blog while I was looking up the Born Different 2 schedule to post to my Facebook. Your daughter is adorable by the way. I was affected by ABS as well, being born with my lower right limb missing and 3 fingers on my left hand. I am 25 years old and still have found nothing I cannot do (besides maybe juggle, but I still try..lol). Granted, I do many things different, I do everything. I have always amazed everyone around me. So funny you have posted the same things I post regarding others with congenital deficiencies. Such as the one arm model and Nick V. Love him!! So inspirational.
I would love to keep following your blog and you have inspired me to start my blog back up. Everyone says I need to write a book...there's so many people that need to be educated. Thanks for your blog, your daughter will definitely appreciate it later in life. So excited for tonight's show. Hope to stay in touch.
This is part of the reason why I do this. I was so excited to receive this email and am looking forward to following her blog. As a Mother of a child who has a limb deficiency, hearing how there is nothing she cannot do gives me tons of hope. I think sometimes I find myself worried about how things will work themselves out in the future or how my daughter will fit in, in all of the things that she will want to do, such as school, sports or dance type stuff, etc. This lady wrote her first blog post I believe the day after she contacted me and talked about how she was the first in her Kindergarten class to learn how to tie her shoes, the fastest typist in junior high, and runner up in her prom, which is awesome! Makes me very happy to hear stories like this and I am so glad she emailed me. I also had another person contact me on Facebook (after reading a post I had made several months ago on Kelly Knox's page) who has a limb deficiency similar to Kyla's, and she lives in Costa Rica. I have not communicated with her much because I'm not sure how fluent she is in English, but it is really nice to have others out there to relate with and talk with.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Ahh... Just Patiently Waiting...
Sooo, my lens arrived yesterday along with my lens hood and filter. Now I just need my CAMERA! Man this is tough waiting for it to come.... I have been wanting this baby for a looonnnng time now. Only thing that stopped me is the fact that it is about 1100 just for the camera body. Add my lens and hood and filter to the top and you get about a 1300 investment. Now for me personally, that's a lot of money to spend on something electronic. Let me give you some background on why I want this so bad:
1) I realize that precious time is ticking away and I want to be able to capture what I see with my eyes today years later (and not with some crappy point and shoot camera that gives you no detail). I look at my babies tiny little fingers, the little creases in them and how pudgy they are and I see that hand getting bigger and skinnier by the minute! Makes me sad. :( I tell Ky all the time that I would have 5 of her if I could. Not another one (right now), but just her all over again, multiplied by 5. Ugh she is so sweet sometimes it is sickening!
2) I think professinal photographers rates are ridic. I realize camera equipment is super expensive, but come on... you pay for that after doing a handful of shoots and then you're just making profit. No one has 200 to spend every couple months to capture their kids growing up. Or at least I don't.
3) I can avoid the awkwardness that I have encountered in the past. So last time I took Kyla to get photos I went to Penny's, and it was a young girl working who did not have much experience shooting babies. She had no clue what she was doing and I took her by myself and I felt like she froze up as soon as she saw her arm. Just had no clue what to do. I gave her a little bit of time to try to figure it out and then looked at her photos and they were horrible and I walked out purchasing nothing. She even told me "you don't have to buy any," like in this nice little voice. LOL. I don't want to put Kyla in situations where people don't know her and treat her like something is wrong with her, especially now that she is getting older and is going to start understanding more - either verbally or by watching people's reactions.
I call my Dad every couple days to see if it has arrived, but it hasn't. Nikon needs to get on the ball and start shipping these out! Until then, I will wait. I've got patience like crazy now that I'm a Mom...I can wait a few more weeks.
1) I realize that precious time is ticking away and I want to be able to capture what I see with my eyes today years later (and not with some crappy point and shoot camera that gives you no detail). I look at my babies tiny little fingers, the little creases in them and how pudgy they are and I see that hand getting bigger and skinnier by the minute! Makes me sad. :( I tell Ky all the time that I would have 5 of her if I could. Not another one (right now), but just her all over again, multiplied by 5. Ugh she is so sweet sometimes it is sickening!
2) I think professinal photographers rates are ridic. I realize camera equipment is super expensive, but come on... you pay for that after doing a handful of shoots and then you're just making profit. No one has 200 to spend every couple months to capture their kids growing up. Or at least I don't.
3) I can avoid the awkwardness that I have encountered in the past. So last time I took Kyla to get photos I went to Penny's, and it was a young girl working who did not have much experience shooting babies. She had no clue what she was doing and I took her by myself and I felt like she froze up as soon as she saw her arm. Just had no clue what to do. I gave her a little bit of time to try to figure it out and then looked at her photos and they were horrible and I walked out purchasing nothing. She even told me "you don't have to buy any," like in this nice little voice. LOL. I don't want to put Kyla in situations where people don't know her and treat her like something is wrong with her, especially now that she is getting older and is going to start understanding more - either verbally or by watching people's reactions.
I call my Dad every couple days to see if it has arrived, but it hasn't. Nikon needs to get on the ball and start shipping these out! Until then, I will wait. I've got patience like crazy now that I'm a Mom...I can wait a few more weeks.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Born Different 2 Airs Tonight!
E! channel (for me it's channel 114) is airing Born Different 2 tonight at 7 PM and again at 10 PM. It's about people who were...born different. :) I'm definately going to watch and I already have my DVR set to record it. I love these shows because I like to see how older people who were born with differences function in today's world. I wish I could get these shows and post them on this blog, but not sure if I can - I will look into it more once I get some time. These people are very inspiring so I hope anyone who is interested will watch.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Today
This post is mainly for you Linda. Here is a photo of Kyla I took today - since you asked for one. It's not the best, but it's something.
I have not really been into Facebook lately, too much drama and only irritates me so I decided to just post on here. There are a couple reasons why but they have to do with my Niece's father and her Step-Mom and some other person. For some odd reason people have decided that they can be really mean to each other, because people talk online, where it's apparently OK to be mean but of course nobody would ever act that way in person. Stupid. So ya, just not into it for the past month or so... I won't go into too many details of the drama with my Niece. Her Step-Mom has all of a sudden decided that she is going to try to become like a naughty lingerie model or something (this is stating it nicely - I would actually describe it to be worse than this, but I won't) and has posted these photos of her "naughty" shoot all over FB and then did another photo shoot just a few days ago but this time with another girl who is hardly clothed. Not classy especially when during the first photo shoot my Niece was told to go to her bedroom while it was taking place and then told my Sister when she came to pick her up that evening that she had to stay in her bedroom for a long time because they were taking "naked pictures." Having a real hard time keeping my mouth shut on this one. Oh wait...oops....I guess I didn't since I'm writing all about it on my blog. :P Not sure what this world is coming to, people only seem to think about themselves lately. Not about their 5 year old daughter who is stuck in her room and knows exactly what is going on. HELLO! Wake up people. Side note here: Why would you post lingerie pictures of yourself online when you are married? Psychologically I'm pretty sure this is a self-esteem issue. Those kind of pictures should only be for one person and that person is your Husband! I'm getting a bit tired of people just doing whatever while children are subjected to crap. It seems to only be getting worse and worse, in general as a society. People have just reached a whole new level of selfishness or mindlessness that is not good.
Anyway, here is my baby doll today, she was wild and crazy and missed her first nap, which is always fun for me. The idea of the terrible twos coming in a few months is starting to scare me. LOL. Oh, and we apparently learned a new word yesterday - Poop. I asked Ky, "did you poop?" And her response - "POOP" (then shakes head yes). Cracked me up. I'm ready for bed, have work tomorrow and still need to put the clean sheets on the bed! Everyone have a good night.
I have not really been into Facebook lately, too much drama and only irritates me so I decided to just post on here. There are a couple reasons why but they have to do with my Niece's father and her Step-Mom and some other person. For some odd reason people have decided that they can be really mean to each other, because people talk online, where it's apparently OK to be mean but of course nobody would ever act that way in person. Stupid. So ya, just not into it for the past month or so... I won't go into too many details of the drama with my Niece. Her Step-Mom has all of a sudden decided that she is going to try to become like a naughty lingerie model or something (this is stating it nicely - I would actually describe it to be worse than this, but I won't) and has posted these photos of her "naughty" shoot all over FB and then did another photo shoot just a few days ago but this time with another girl who is hardly clothed. Not classy especially when during the first photo shoot my Niece was told to go to her bedroom while it was taking place and then told my Sister when she came to pick her up that evening that she had to stay in her bedroom for a long time because they were taking "naked pictures." Having a real hard time keeping my mouth shut on this one. Oh wait...oops....I guess I didn't since I'm writing all about it on my blog. :P Not sure what this world is coming to, people only seem to think about themselves lately. Not about their 5 year old daughter who is stuck in her room and knows exactly what is going on. HELLO! Wake up people. Side note here: Why would you post lingerie pictures of yourself online when you are married? Psychologically I'm pretty sure this is a self-esteem issue. Those kind of pictures should only be for one person and that person is your Husband! I'm getting a bit tired of people just doing whatever while children are subjected to crap. It seems to only be getting worse and worse, in general as a society. People have just reached a whole new level of selfishness or mindlessness that is not good.
Anyway, here is my baby doll today, she was wild and crazy and missed her first nap, which is always fun for me. The idea of the terrible twos coming in a few months is starting to scare me. LOL. Oh, and we apparently learned a new word yesterday - Poop. I asked Ky, "did you poop?" And her response - "POOP" (then shakes head yes). Cracked me up. I'm ready for bed, have work tomorrow and still need to put the clean sheets on the bed! Everyone have a good night.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Kyla Rae - The Story Behind the Name
When I was younger my parents told me what they were originally going to name me but how that changed and the reasons why I was given the name I was. I always thought it was neat to hear the story of how I got my name, Amber Dawn. Turns out that since I was born around 4 AM, the sun was just starting to rise and the color of the sky was Amber and it was Dawn. I want to remember how Kyla's name came about. In the beginning of my pregnancy, I was pretty sure I was going to have a boy, so I had like 15 good boy names - I could have picked any of them and they would've been awesome. But then of course we found out we were having a girl and I had like no girl names - I tried thinking of them, but none would come to mind. After I found out we were having a girl, I was forced to find a name I liked and that we could agree on. It took me a while but one day at work I went to MSN.com and was reading under entertainment to see what drama was going on with the celebrities. So back in 2009 I think Vince Vaughn had just gotten engaged to a lady named Kyla Weber. The story was under the entertainment section so I read it and remembered thinking "oh, that's pretty...I like that." So I wrote it down to talk to my Husband about later. Turns out he liked it too but then there is the task of trying to find the middle name. When I was 14 or so I was watching Jerry Springer after school (I know great show to be watching) and there was a girl on whose name was Rae Leigh. I loved the name and always said that I was going to name my daughter that. Well I offered up the suggestion to my Husband but really, it no longer sounded that great to me either and he wasn't fond of it himself. So I took the Rae and added it to Kyla (because we thought it sounded good) and that is how Kyla Rae came about. I think it's a beautiful name, but everyone calls her Kayla, even members of our own family! I don't get why people call her Kayla, there is no A.... it's KY-la. I attached a photo of Kyla Weber, the lady I took the name from. Kind of fun to see. I like to think that a name sort of guides a person to turn out a certain way. Kyla is sweet and pretty, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll be a sweet and good girl her whole life. :)
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