My Insane Kid

Last night when I was giving Ky a bath I asked Greg to bring my camera in to me and I took these pics.  These photos describe my kid - insane.  HA, j/k, although she can be pretty crazy sometimes.  She was yelling loud while splashing like crazy and covering me in water and the entire bathroom, all while staring at her New Jersey Devils ducky.  The last picture is a little scary but makes me laugh. 

 

Nubbins!

This is the best picture I could get of Kyla's nubbins.  Not that detailed, but it'll work.  You can see that on the little nubbins she has three tiny bumps.  These are just soft cartlidge feeling things that are on the end of the limb.  She also has dimpling on the very end and one other bump close to the dimpling (indent at end of limb).  When Kyla was born and I held her and looked at her for the first time, I looked at her little arm while laying in my hospital bed and was just checking it out...of course it was a surprise to me and I wanted to look at everything on my baby.  I noticed that one of the nubbins had a tiny little nail attached to it and it was super small, looking at it from the eye you could barely see it, but when I felt her nubbins I could feel the nail sticking out.  One of the three tiny bumps on the nubbins looks very similiar to a finger nail, you can see at the end what looks like a nail bed and was where her nail was coming from.  I pulled the finger nail off and Kyla didn't even notice so it didn't hurt her at all.  Several months later when she was probably 4 months or so it grew back, so I pulled it off again and it hasn't grown back since.  To me, the fact that she has three bumps on the nubbins and one indent and one little bump right next to the indent makes me think that this is what would've been her hand and five fingers - 3 tiny bumps on the nubbins, one dimpling (possibly thumb) and one tiny bump next to the dimpling (4th finger).  I'm not positive but the fact that one bump grew a nail twice and has what looks to be a nail bed on it, makes me about 90% sure.  This to me is weird considering that they say ABS is caused by a band that simply amputates the entire limb.  So if it completely amputates, then why is there nubbins?  As far as I know, nubbins are present on everyone who was born with a limb amputation.  The two other little girls that we met up in Seattle both have nubbins but from what I can remember they were less noticeable than Kyla's are.  Kyla's stick out a little more.  I know Kyla has feeling in her nubbins because she typically puts herself to sleep by rubbing them against the corner of her blanket.  The doctors told us that at some point Kyla may choose to have them removed, because they might get caught up on things (they thought it might be an issue once she started crawling - that they would get rubbed on the carpet/floor and would become raw, but that was never an issue).  Kyla did what we called the "tripod shuffle" (this was her Daddy's word for it) and never used her little arm to crawl, she used her legs and her one hand and scooted on her butt; basically digging her heels into the floor, putting her one hand down on the carpet and scooting; and she was FAST too, I remember running around in circles around her when she first started crawling and she was trying to catch me and laughing hysterically at the same time.  I can tell you, Kyla's little arm has not slowed her down at all....there is honestly nothing I can think of other than her getting something sticky stuck to her hand where she kind of for a second has to think about how she is going to get it off.  At some point Kyla may decide that for visual purposes only she might want to have them removed and if she is old enough to make an informed decision about that and she has no use for them, then of course we will support her in that decision.  From what I have read it sounds like ABS usually happens before the 18th week of gestation, so because of this I am curious if the limb actually tries to re-grow what part was amputated.  Since 18 weeks is approximately the1st trimester, the baby is still growing and developing for 6 more months.  A lady I work with said that she had gone to Lincoln City, Oregon for vacation and saw a lady in a gift shop with a complete limb amputation and she said she was flipping through clothes like crazy, just like a normal person would, but using her little arm and then she asked me what the things are on the end of the arm, so I explained nubbins to her.  I have never posted on them, so I thought I would discuss them here.   

Today we were outside working on the house and Kyla was out playing in the sun.  We also had a birthday party to attend at a bowling alley and Kyla had fun, her first time "bowling" or just pushing the ball down the lane.  After she pushed the ball she wanted to try to chase after it and then also kept pointing to the pins and wanted to go get those as well.  There were a lot of kids there and she was wishing she could bowl and like they were.  She wanted the "ball."  She kept saying "ball, ball."  :)  She passed out in the car on the way home.  I took a picture of her but the room was dark and I had to put it in manual focus and so it somewhat blurry, still I love her sweet face.

 

Ha.  I love Kyla's expression here.  Yo Gabba Gabba had just come on t.v. and it's one of her favorite shows.  

I downloaded Photoshop tonight, doing a trial thing but I have NO CLUE how to use it.  I hate not knowing a computer program because I am pretty decent at most of them (it's sort of my job), but this, I just don't even know where to start.  Bummer.....  Not sure what to do, maybe I'll see if I can find tutorials or something online or last resort - take a class.  Although I'm pretty much done with taking classes since having Ky.  I'm so not wanting to do school anymore.  We'llll....  see.

One of my Mother-in-Law's is one of the head volunteers at POPP (Pet Over Population) and she has asked me to take photos of a large group of puppies they are getting soon that will be up for adoption - to put on their website and that type thing.  I'm excited for that, should be fun and good practice for me.  Both our doggies were adopted and they make the best pets, there is something about adopted dogs, they seem a lot more loyal and grateful to have a good home.  I've had the bought from a pet store dogs, I've had the took from a litter of puppies dogs and I've had the adopted dogs, and I can say by far, adopted dogs are the best. 

P.S.  I'm working on writing a blog about nubbins (the little nubby thing on the end of Kyla's little arm, and everyone else who was born with a limb amputation) but Kyla won't sit still long enough for me to take a photo of them.  Some people have asked me about them before, so I thought I would add information on that here.  Check back for it soon.

Project

I did a project earlier today and then after that decided to take some new photos of myself.  Just more playing around and figuring out how to work my camera.  I know that's all I've been talking about lately but this thing is like just so easy to use and is just plain awesome.  So I tried out my auto timer and used my manual focus settings so that AF wouldn't screw it up.  Part time stay at home Mom's like to feel like they can still be pretty when we want too!!!  LOL.  In between cooking, cleaning and grocery store trips, changing dirty diapers, etc. we like to know that if we take a little bit of time we're still looking pretty good.  :)   :)

Oh BTW, this would've been a heck of a lot easier and wouldn't have cut the top of my head off had I have had a tripod.  That is the next thing on the list to purchase. 

Photos from Today

 Today we took Kyla and the dogs out to my old stomping grounds - Benton City!  We went close to the Yakima River.  I like driving out there every once in a while.  I took photos of my Hubby and Kyla and Greg snapped a couple of me as well.  Was fun to just play around.  Kyla is such an adventurer that it is hard to keep her still long enough to get pictures and when you do try to keep her still she throws a fit!  This photo of me I played around with the colors/saturation, but man, I really am not enjoying getting old.  I have wrinkles, and coming up soon I'll be 28.  Crazy how fast time goes.  I'm trying to grow my hair out long so that I can just start doing it curly/wavy and let it be natural...my poor hair has seen the blow dryer and flat iron every single day since about the age of 14 or 15.  Ugh, really not good for it....and I'm tired of the whole process to get just somewhat OK looking hair.  Anyways, I love the detail in the photos and it isn't even hard!!!  I mean this is my second time taking the camera out and I've never shot with a DSLR before.  I'm anxious to learn how to do neat things with it, it has a ton of capabilities and the manual is about an inch thick.  Not sure when a busy Mama to a 1 year old is supposed to find the time to read something like that, but I'll work on it. 

How Kyla feels about being held still to take pictures.  Not good!  She has such an attitude sometimes - wonder where she gets it from?

NIKON is HERE!

Check it!!  My first good (I think) photo taken with my NEW NIKON!!!!  Yay!!!  So happy to get it from my Dad earlier today.  I am not even sure if my settings are right on it yet or not.  Pretty decent eh?  :)  I seem to love portrait shots, they are just my favorite for some reason - could be because i am never anywhere with a decent background.  This weekend I plan to take this little chicky out to some nature type places and see how I do.

P.S.  My baby is so pretty, curly fro hair and all!

Hello To My Readers

Today has been one heck of a day!  I wanted to ask that all of my readers become my Followers.  Yeah, that's right...you people that follow my blog but might not want to seem creepy following it because you don't know me?  Well it's not creepy, this is part of the reason why I do the blog, to meet others.  So you people or persons from Malaysia and Russia who hit my blog on a regular basis, follow me!  It'll make my day and keep me motivated.  And boy do I need something to make my day a little better right about now. 

So much drama lately.  My life is really usually not like this, but for some odd reason everything just blew up today and it blew up good.  This little Mama finally got tired of always trying to keep the peace and I blew!  errr.....  :( 

Mama's Goals

Today is Superbowl Sunday and I have been neglecting my blog lately.  Sorry, but nothing has been going on. 

I mentioned in last week's blog about how I am trying to get into a few new things to keep busy and productive on my days off.  With going part time at work, I knew I was going to have to start doing a few things differently to counteract not bringing home as much money per week as I had been, so I've been cooking a lot more at home and have been coming home for lunch even on the days I work.  Living at my Dad's this past summer, I was so busy that I had no time at all to grocery shop or cook, so now fast food just sounds nasty.  Which is good since it's so bad and not to mention so expensive.  When I make meals I try to make more than we will eat in one sitting so that we have leftovers and it is saving so much money (which I love).  The weird thing is a lot of times meals taste better the next day (the food develops more flavor, like marinating meat - this is true, I am a Food Network junkie - it's like one of the two TV channels that I watch, besides Kyla's cartoons channels).  I'm also starting to get into couponing.  There is a blog that I follow called Happy Money Saver (it's on my blogger profile or whatever it's called if you are interested in checking it out).  A lady who lives in the same town as me started this blog and I found it after I had my daughter.  Women I work with told me about it, because I was always telling them how much I wished I could be home more; they all thought I was going to quit (which on several occasions I came very close to quitting), so they told me if you ever do quit, try couponing to save money.  They showed me the blog and gave me tips and tricks but I never really got into it.  Now that I've got two days off/week, I'm trying to get back into it more because who doesn't want to save money?  My goals for our family is to sometime not too long from now purchase another duplex property so that we have no house payment at all, since we live in one side of our duplex (we'd still have house payments, but our rent would cover both payments, plus we'd have a little bit of income each month).  I want to get completely out of debt (like everything, cars, boat, and the one credit card that we have a balance on).  Like I've stated before, kids are expensive, (mainly daycare, not the kids themselves).....more than one kid is even more expensive, if you get what I'm saying.  Also, I do want to send Kyla to a private school once she hits that age.  Not because I want to be overly protective of her, but because I'm not so sure I want her in public school (even though I went to public school myself), and private school is also expensive, so I'm trying to get us ready for this.  Currently I spend about $80/week on groceries for a family of 3 and that doesn't include dog food and most beauty products.  Personally I'd rather spend money on vacations (Lord knows we don't take enough of these), clothes (I love clothes but the past few years I find it hard for me to spend money on myself, so I've definately cut back compared to what I used to spend on myself), date nights (Lord also knows we don't have enough of these, LOL.  I'm too attached to my baby still, she still has yet to spend the night at anyone else's house but mine!) and fun family activities (like a hockey game or something).  I've also been wanting to get a little bit of a stock pile of food together anyway, ever since we had Kyla because I worry about if something were to happen like a natural disaster or something crazy, we need to make sure we have food at our house to keep us going for a while and couponing is about stock piling when you find a really good deal on something you would normally purchase.  The one thing I've found since I've started getting into this is I'm totally unorganized, so tonight I purchased a pre-made coupon organizing binder that will make it much easier and less time consuming.  It's funny when I was younger and saw women using coupons at the store I used to kind of feel bad for them like "oh that's kind of sad, they must not have much money."  LOL... That might be the truth, but more than likely they have more money than a lot of people because they are smart with their money.  I don't plan to get crazy or anything, like I'm still picky about the stuff I buy and the brands I buy.  I'm not going to buy like cheap products just because they are cheap, they still need to taste good or be quality items.  Whole milk for instance needs to be a certain brand that doesn't have hormones in it, because I don't like to give my baby the cheap milk that has hormones; you get my drift.  Another goal that I've had for a few years now is to learn how to knit!  A few years ago I put on a silent auction at my work for something; it was for some charity thing but I can't even remember what exactly it was for now, but anyway, a lady I worked with knitted the prettiest/cutest baby stuff I had ever seen and ever since then I've been wanting to learn.  I tried to learn by purchasing a kit online and teaching myself, but that didn't work, ha!  So now my goal is to take classes at a local knit shop.  My Dad has been dating a gal who apparently knows how to knit, so maybe if they continue to date and I meet her at some point, I'll have her help me.  We'll see.

Oh, and good news, my camera shipped last week.  I am so excited.  That's another one of my goals, to learn how to use that thing and be able to take pretty decent photos.  I've already got my Sister and Niece arranged to be my models as soon as I get it.  Of course Kyla will be my favorite model, I'm sure.

Two fun photos (one taken this morning, this was Kyla's "project" using Klennex, yep babies with one hand are capable of mass destruction; usually her target is the living room, but this morning it was the tissue box.  The other photo I took after I left a Super Bowl party early so that my baby could take a much needed nap; this is her completely asleep!  Who falls asleep like that?  Babies do.