Daniella's Dance Recital

This morning was Daniella's dance recital. She told me all morning "It's my recital day! It's my recital day!". The group dances were choreographed so that some children stood still, or made poses while others danced around. It made our no flash photos turn out really neat.

As promised, I videotaped the dances Daniella was in for grandparents. Here is the "Parrot Dance" I've been hearing so much about. Daniella is the first dancer to enter from the left. She is in the blue costume. The dancer on the far right in the line is following the teacher, so you can tell what they were supposed to be doing. I always watched this dancer in class from the window to see what the teacher was doing because she was the best imitator since she practices yoga with her Mom. Daniella seemed to match the beat well even though she did not do much of what the teacher showed her. She preferred dancing around the other dancers to following the teachers movements.

You can tell in this picture that she was a parrot. She danced more like a parrot than a ballerina, but it was cute.

In this dance, "The Bug Dance", Daniella was the first blue dancer to enter. She ran over to the far left flower.

However, as you will hear another dancer mention, she was supposed to be at the far right flower.

At the end, she was the first dancer in her class to run out for a bow. Each time her group went on stage, she was one of the first to run out.

A little curtsy!

Awesome Cousin Part 2

I finally got around to taking more pictures of the hat Brittany made for James.

I also wanted to take pictures of him sitting since he is able to sit independently now.
Notice all the drool in these photos. This is normal. His shirts are often soaked. Dani was the same way at this age though. I have pictures of her sitting with drool dripping.


I love showing off these big blue eyes!
He loves catching the braids with his feet.Though not the best expression, I wanted to show off his rolls since he has grown a lot lately.

Isn't My Cousin Awesome!

My cousin, Brittany, makes adorable hats for kids. She is such a sweetheart! She made one for James and sent it off to us. I still need to take pictures in better lighting, but here are some of my favorites from tonight.

I love the big eyes!

He enjoyed this photo shoot as much as I did.

Loves to chew on his hands!

What's up?

James is scheduled to have neurosurgery in March and this hat will be helpful to hide the massive scar he's going to have right after surgery. It is also helpful in creating an extra barrier to his new hearing aid. Luckily he hasn't tried to pull his hearing aid off yet, but someday soon he might.

At the table

James is now sitting, though I have yet to get a good picture of him doing it. He sits upright on my lap without any extra support and sits on the floor for a few seconds before he has to lean on one of his hands. We now invite him to join us at the dinner table. He doesn't seem ready for solids yet, but he sure loves playing at the table with his big sister. He drops the Tupperware bowl and she picks it up for him...

Now that I think about it, that might not be the best game for him to play when there is actual food.

Dressing

This morning we rushed to get ready to take Dad to work and so Dani had more say in what she was going to wear.

She "had" to wear the tiger shirt from uncle Jeff and she really wanted her skirt. So I added the leggings and sweater to keep her warm. She then picked out her red sparkle shoes. Colors don't really match, but Oh well.

As I put her sweater on her and buttoned it up she complained that she wanted it "like Belle's" with only one button. I don't remember this from the movie, but I complied.

As she passed by her Dad he patted her head and she quickly ran away from him. "I don't want him to mess up my hair". I guess she likes having bed head.

Here is the final outcome....

Just imagine a bright red drink mustache and you have my daughter this morning.

Chilling with Dad

Doctor Appointments

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy with doctor appointments. ENT follow up clinic, another MRI and a CT scan, craniofacial clinic, audiology clinic and plastic surgery follow up clinic, have kept me busy. I've been blessed to have good Visiting Teachers from my church who watch Dani on the LONG 3 hr plus appointments.

Our last Audiology appointment we arrived early and James woke up and was very excited to meet the ladies at the front desk. He made three new friends. He was smiling, cooing and doing everything he could to get their attention and they just adored it.

He really enjoyed the two pretty audiologists who did his hearing test. I was thrilled he showed off his communication skills by talking and responding. When he heard speech and thought one of the audiologists was talking to him, he responded right away. He even responded to quieter sounds than he has for his previous tests. He completely ignored the frequency specific sounds, but when he heard a voice through the speaker he looked to see who was talking to him.

When we walked out, one of the ladies at the desk stopped me to give her "little friend" a gift. This is SUCH a cute little bear! The receptionists thought it was funny that it was practically the same size as James. James loves it too.