Poll Closed

This past week, I had a poll posted on the right.

Should I Change My Blog Background?

55% Yes
44% No

It's almost even.

I decided to keep the current background but update the banner.

Stinky from Head to Toe

Who would have thought, that such a cute little girl could be....

so stinky from head...

to toe.

Cayman has always had sweaty feet. When they sweat, they stink.

For the people who think it's impossible for a baby to have stinky feet, I let them smell Cayman's.

Her head sweats in her helmet, making her head smell too. Every time I would take her helmet off I would get a whiff of a familiar aroma that I just could not place what it was. For days I sniffed Cayman's head trying to figure it out what she smelled like. Then one day it hit me....vinegar.

So Cayman's head smells like vinegar, and her feet smell like feet. She's stinky from her head to her toes, except for everything in between.

Next On My List

My To-Do list is winding down:

• unpack boxes--check
• Cayman's birthday party--check
• Doctor appointments in Ann Arbor--check, check, and check!

With so many schedule fillers behind us I now I have the time to focus on decorating Cayman's room! Whaahooo!!

I have measured, taped, drawn, and googled. I am all set!

Bring on the paint brushes!

There Once was a Very Long Story

It has been awhile since I've blogged any long, random stories. Yesterday's blog entry was a short story. Let's change it up a bit and go for a long, drawn-out, detailed story today, shall we?

Yesterday is just the perfect day to start with.

Cayman had a full schedule of doctor appointments in Ann Arbor. I was thinking how nice it is that these busy days do not occur as often as they use to. Daddy was able to get the day off work to join us.

Not far into the start of our early morning, I realized how out of practice I am at getting everyone and myself around for an all day trip to Ann Arbor.

{Cayman had to eat her shoe for breakfast, while Mommy ran around.}

I did manage to remember everything that we would need for the day. However, we did not leave as scheduled, making us arrive to Cayman's first appointment 20 minutes late. That is a bummer start to a back to back appointment filled day.

Oh well! Nothing we can't deal with!

The Doctor's office was very understanding and forgiving of our tardiness, especially upon the realization that we traveled 2 hour to get there.

Cayman's first appointment was with the Ophthalmologist. Even though this was the first time she has seen the eye doctor since the NICU, we found ourselves in a familiar situation--

waiting.

So what does one do while waiting to hear your blessed name be called?

For starters, I learned how to spell Ophthalmologist.

Seriously, does anyone really know how to spell that word?

After spelling it out in my head until it was committed to memory, I came to the thought that it could lose a few letters. Drop one of the "H's" and maybe one less "L" and that would be perfect!

So once you have the spelling for Ophthalmologist figured out, what else can a person do?

I then watched two little girls {about the age of 5} flirt with Mike. They were playing in the fun house that had windows overlooking the waiting room. The girls would climb up to the highest level and knock on the window until Mike smiled and waved. They would return the wave and dash away from the window giggling. That was the unchanging routine of the girls for the the next several minutes until one of them came down out of the fun house and talked to Mike. Only one or two sentences is all she spoke and away she went, back into the fun house.

Obviously, the girls must have thought, once inside the house, no one in the waiting room would be able to hear their girly chatter.

The first little girl said to her friend, "I talked to that boy out there."

"That's not a boy, that's a guy!"

"You should go talk to him too!"

"No Way!"

"Because you're scared."

"I'm not scared. I'm just shy."

Once the fun of that wore off, Mike showed Cayman the fish tank. She stared but showed no expression. She was completely unamused by the fish swimming by. I guess we will not be working hard at winning her a fish at the carnival this year!

By this time, I am being completely occupied by a little boy with dilated pupils who is mistaking Cayman's baby blanket draped over the diaper bag, for containing a baby inside of it. He sits down next to me and we chat for a little bit. Apparently he becomes comfortable and decides to swing his legs up over the side of the chair so his feet are now dangling onto me.

His mom says, "Sorry, he must feel he knows you and he's settling in."

I smile, and pat his feet, and then realize his mom is not planning on unlocking me from the embrace of her son's feet. Timid me, sits there trying to figure out what to do with these feet that are sticking over into my territory. I look at Mike hoping he will rescue me from this predicament. Mike smiles at me and winks.

A wink? That's it?! That's cute, but that's not going to help me out very much!

Finally Mike stands up and passes Cayman to me!! Yes!! The perfect window of opportunity to remove myself from this situation. Mike proceeds to tell me he is going to find a restroom and he'll be back soon. When he returned he had with him snacks for me from the vending machine.

Total redemption for not helping me out with the dilated pupil boy's feet.

While sitting there, enjoying my snack, the little girl from the fun house returns. She takes the seat next to me. Thankfully she kept her feet to herself. She was quite pleasant to be with. She talked and sang us her ABC's.

"Cayman Stamm!"

Finally!! Our name was being called!! Of course, everyone always pronounces it wrong. The "a" has a short "o" sound. It's like "Stomp, but without the "p".
We received the best news that we were hoping to hear from the Ophthalmologist. His words regarding Cayman's eyes were:

"Minimal problems."

He did a thorough exam of Cayman's eyes which included dilating her pupils, viewing the front and backs of her eyes, and measuring the light reflection through many lenses that told him how clear her vision is.

He confirmed her Iris Colobomas as well as her Retina Colobomas. The Iris Colobomas do not pose any threat to her vision. It's the Retina ones we have been concerned about. Anytime dealing with defects in the back of the eye, vision problems are more likely to occur. However, it does not affect Cayman's central vision. We were happy to hear that! She sees and tracks objects at a normal distance for her age. The type of defect in the back of Cayman's eyes only effects her peripheral vision above her head. It's like she has an extra blind spot. At birthday parties she will not need to be blind-folded when playing a game of hit-the-pinata.

The only other issue the doctor brought to our attention was Cayman's eyes, only at times, tend to slightly cross. She uses both eyes evenly, so right now it's not a problem, but if one eye begins to get stronger than the other {which is what lazy-eye is} he would want to address that issue.

We walked out of the Ophthalmologist office feeling very happy with the overall report.

Onward to her next appointment:

CT scan of Cayman's head.

On our way to radiology, we walked passed a hospital volunteer who gave Mike a hard time for wearing Ohio State clothes to Michigan. Then it was my turn to harass him because I had told him to change clothes before we left. The original Buckeye sweatshirt he had on that morning appeared a bit over-worn, and to which I added that I did not think wearing Buckeye clothes from head to toe was the best choice anyways. In Mike's defense, he did change clothes but only into a better looking Buckeye sweatshirts {he has a closet full of them}. This is Mike's usual daily ensemble he wears so I guess it did not register with me what he was wearing until the hospital volunteer was friendlily harassing him.

At the Radiology department, the receptionist remembered Cayman from the many times she has been there before. She marveled at how well she is doing. That was a proud moment for us.

The wait was not long for Cayman's CT scan. Her Neurosurgeon had ordered the scan to be done without sedation in the hopes that Cayman would be cooperative and not need to be put through any extra procedures. I was a bit nervous about it and have been praying all week she would hold real still during the scan. I let Mike stay in the radiology room with Cayman. I knew he would do a great job of distracting Cayman and help her feel at ease, while I paced the floor outside the room.

It was a success! She did not hold perfectly still, but it was just enough for them to piece the clear pictures together. Cayman was very interested in the red light beam on the CT scan. In the past, as an infant, she stared at the traveling light in amazement, but was so little that usually swaddling and padded cushions were able to contain her. But now she's bigger and stronger, so when the red light traveled across her she moved her head in its direction to keep looking at it. The technician instructed Mike to hold musical, lighted toys in front of Cayman so her eyes would be fixed on something else other than the moving red light.

Once the scan was complete we went straight to the Neurosurgeon's office, of course, walking passed the hospital volunteer again and hearing a few more remarks about Mike's clothes.

This appointment was not typical of the time of day and week for the Neurosurgeon's office hours. We were told to stop by the clinic anyways, once the scan was done, and the nurse would page Dr. Maher. He was doing us a favor by squeezing us into his schedule so we would not have to make the trip up again.

When we arrived at the clinic, the receptionist told us that Dr. Maher was in the O.R. She said she would call the O.R. and check the status of the operation. Perhaps he would be finished soon. I was very impressed by how well everyone worked to accomidate us. We were not being pushy or demanding. It seemed almost self-ish to ask for Dr. Maher to see Cayman as soon as he got out of the O.R. The receptionist insisted it was not a problem as long as we would not mind waiting.

Sure, why not! Waiting builds character, right?

While waiting on Dr. Maher, we met with the financial coordinator that is just down the hall from the Neurosurgeon's clinic. This past week, we had received a rather large, unexpected hospital bill in my name from when Cayman was born. We thought it might be a mistake because we had my bills paid in full last year. Turns out, it's a lump sum that the insurance decided to unpay, after already paying it. I didn't know they could even do that! Apparently, the insurance company reviewed our policy and saw they had over paid our bills. It was a legitimate bill *pouty face*. Oh well, I will write the check, send it off, and not dwell.

We returned to the Neurosurgeon's office and were called back to a room almost immediately. Dr. Maher was out of surgery and was on his way up. While waiting in the check-up room, Mike pointed out to me the particular over sized chair he was sitting on. He thought it was made by a company that he use to work for.

I encouraged him to get down on his knees and look underneath of it for the company's logo {what was that I said about waiting builds character?}.

Mike had his own method though; he flipped the chair on its back and examined it that way.

Yeah, because that's way more innocent.

Just as he has the chair turned onto it's back, the nurse opens the door completely catching Mike in his silly search. The nurse tells us she needs to move us to another room. It was hilarious! She acted like she did not even notice the flipped over chair, so Mike went about his business, looked for the logo {which was not there, all that effort for nothing}, and then flipped the chair back over. I suppose the curiosity finally set in and the nurse asked, "What are you doing?"

Teasing Mike, I chimed in, "Yeah Mike, what are you doing?!" LOL!

For the rest of the time, we behaved while waiting for Dr. Maher to arrive. It had been over 3 months since we saw him last. It was nice to see him again. We have so much adoration and respect for this man. He's simply wonderful!

He reviewed the CT scan results and showed us the pictures from last June and the ones just done that day. What a beautiful site it was to see thicker brain tissue!! I wish I had the scans to share with you. I know you would feel excited too if you saw them! We did not have time yesterday to get to the records room and obtain them for ourselves. That is on my To-Do list now.

The scan also revealed that Cayman's skull bones have not prematurely fused together which is a risk when the bones overlap like they do in her head. This is great news!

When we were finished at the Neurosurgeon's office, we headed to the next appointment, which is the one I had been waiting for all day!!! We visited little Sofi and her mom Krissy, in the hospital! Krissy and I have been following each other's blogs {in her case, carepage} for months now. Yesterday was the first we met each other in person! We could only stay and visit for a short time, as we needed to make Cayman's next and last appointment of the day which was for her helmet!

At the Orthotics office, we discovered that the scheduler made a mistake and put Cayman's appointment down for next Thursday when it was suppose to be yesterday's Thursday. The clinician was very flexible and squeezed us in anyways. He tightened Cayman's helmet, looked things over, didn't see much of a difference with the bony ridge in her forehead, but thought maybe things felt smoother towards the back of her head. Not seeing significant changes yet does not necessarily mean the helmet is not helping, it just might be taking a little longer.

We stepped out of that last appointment feeling total freedom to enjoy the rest of our day together, which by then it was 5 p.m. and we were starving!! We ate at our favorite sushi restaurant! Mike and I tried it with raw fish this time {we liked it!}. I can eat that now since I am finished pumping *applause*. My goal was to make it one year pumping for Cayman and I did! I have to say how much easier a packed-filled day, like yesterday, is when I do not need to worry about that tedious task.

On our way out of Ann Arbor, we drove passed a red and gray house that is on the street just over from the Michigan stadium...we thought that was funny enough we had to get a picture!We did a little shopping, arrived home, I put Cayman to bed, and then snuggled up on the couch with my dearest husband.

Phew!

The End.

One Upon a Time...

there was a prefect little girl, who fed herself and then went right to sleep.

The End.

Tooth Buds

With a total of 4 teeth now, Cayman no longer has an edentulous smile. If you look close you can see her little tooth buds.She tolerates teething well. Only at times she might be a little crabby but mostly there is a whole lot of happiness.


Cayman's teething regime is:

Chew on everything, and that includes your own arm...
and teething tablets.
{Thank you my blog commenters for suggesting them awhile back. They work great!}

One Year Pictures

Finally, I got around to scanning Cayman's one year pictures.

Enjoy.

4 Generations

{Mike's side}

{my side}

The Birthday Celebration

On Saturday we hosted an open house party in honor of Cayman's 1st birthday! We enjoyed having our home filled with friends and family joining us to celebrate her precious life!

The picture in my last post was not my dining room.

This was my dining room decorated for the party. We constructed tissue paper pom-poms balls, compliments of Martha Stewart, and strung them above the round banquet table. I gift wrapped the china cabinet doors and finished them off with a bow.

We decorated in yellow and pink flowers.

Grandma Cindy baked dozens and dozens of mini cupcakes with a homemade marshmallow frosting.

There was lots of delicious food.

The vegetable arrangement was a garden theme.

The fireplace mantle was brightened with a collage of Cayman's one year photos {which I will post soon. I have not forgotten}.

Scrapbooks of Cayman's first year were passed around.

Cayman was dressed in her party best. {We gave her a nice break from her helmet for the afternoon. Isn't her hair just beautiful?}. Cayman...

cuddled,

visited,

had her picture taken over 200 times,

ate cake,

played,

and partied til she dropped.

It was a fun day had by all!!

Today I Will...

• be cleaning
• baking
• decorating

all in preparation for Cayman's birthday party tomorrow!!

Welcome Home Stamm Family, Welcome Home

I know I wrote once that I was not sure if our house exactly suited me, but I was wrong! This house is perfect! Every day I love it more and more! It is comfortable and spacious. The large windows draw in so much natural light and that makes me smile everyday!

The layout of the house is ideal for my everyday tasks. It has simplified my life in so many ways.

2008 left us drained and begging God for simplicity. Not quite a year ago I bought a wooden sign that says "SIMPLIFY". It adorned the fireplace mantle in our apartment and now it sits on the shelf above our family room doorway. It has been a goal for our family, one that we could not have accomplished without God's help, and with much delight I can say my life feels simplified.

I am at the height of my enjoyment planning, organizing, and decorating!

Oh how wrong I was to think this house was not 100% perfect for me. How typical of God to take me to a place that is far better than I could have imagined for myself.

Another strong example of that is my life as a mother. I think pretty much my whole life my greatest dream was to be a wife, then to become a mom.

My heart broke when we found out Cayman's diagnosis when I was 20 weeks pregnant. I felt like I had fallen flat on my back and I was desperately trying to get my breath back.

I felt like my dream of motherhood was being taken away from me before I even had the chance to experience it.

I prayed like never before that Cayman would live, and she did! While I delighted in her thriving life, my heart was still broken to learn her damaged brain could severely compromise her in life. The word "vegetable" was spoken. Now, a year later, Cayman is far from a vegetable. She laughs, rolls, plays, sits, eats, smiles, babbles...she is precious!!

My dream of motherhood was not crushed. True it has not been as I drempt it would be. In many ways I am convinced it's even better!

It's actually a complicated subject to try and explain. My wish is not for Cayman to be handicap. I wish for her to enjoy all the wonderful things life has to offer . I wish for her to know love, devotion, and compassion.

A thought I have been pondering since we learned her diagnosis is, "Will Cayman be able to live life to the fullest?" My understanding of what that means has changed over the coarse of this past year. I am now convinced, "Yes, she will!" and I am completely humbled to realize that she is helping me live to the fullest too. I have learned so much in such a short time about life, happiness, and blessings. The things that I once counted as gains are nothing compared to the simple everyday miracles I experience now.

In our family room we have this picture hanging.

This quote has become a life motto to our family.

I look at it often and ask myself, which way am I living?

Perhaps, in that single poetic quote, holds the secret to living and experiencing life to its fullest.

The Bunny, the Bunny, Whoa I Love the Bunny

12 Months Old!

Bunny Collage

My favorite page in Cayman's baby book is this bunny collage. Starting at 2 months of age, I took her picture every month laying on this ginormous bunny, except for the 5th month. I guess I forgot to do it that month. It happens!

There is just one more picture I need to get printed, the 12th month, and the first year's collage is complete!

Playing in her very own room for the first time!

In my last post, I wrote about how big Cayman looks. In this picture, I have to say she looks so tiny sitting in the middle of her room.

Back Online

I usually keep each post to a single subject but since I have been offline for a week and there are so many fun things I could write about, I think I will just allow this post to jump around a bit.

Our move into our house last Saturday went great, and we have enjoyed each day getting further and further settled in. If there are any house project updates I will post them on my other blog Just Five More Minutes.

Moving onto my favorite subject updates...Cayman!

I will start with yesterday's exciting event!!

Completely by herself, Cayman picked her bottle up, stuck it in her mouth, and fed herself. It was such a cute site to see! I did not know she was capable and she did it so well as if she has always been doing it!

Now get this, when Cayman is in our arms she has always refused to hold her bottle which is why I was completely shocked to see Cayman pick it up by herself.

She knows how to work her people. Just like a little princess, she has servants.

Oh no!!! It's empty!!!

Cayman is making some slow, but sure progress in physical therapy. She seems to really like her new therapist, Miss Jody and responds well to her. The goals we are working toward is sitting unsupported, standing supported, and putting pressure through her hands.

Doesn't she look so big?

Once we have our scanner up and running I will post Cayman's one year pictures we had the photographer take.