JodySimmer.com

Jacy had an MRI this morning... For the past couple of weeks she has been complaining that her legs are going numb. This is especially scary because of her tethered cord. Instead of her spinal cord "floating" in the spinal column, the end of it attached its self to the scar tissue from the Spina Bifida repair that was done in utero. This means that when she grows taller her cord is stretching. As it stretches tighter and tighter it can start to cause serious problems, such as loss of leg function, movement, and strength. Numbness can be one of the first symptoms that the cord is stretching too much. Too check it, it requires an MRI of the spine, which for Jacy, means full sedation. We have done this many times before, but this time there were some complications. She wasn't breathing very well once she was sedated and it was necessary for them to put in a breathing tube. The tube was removed shortly after the MRI scan, which was about 40 minutes long, but she continues to ...

It is so hard to believe, but Jake turned ONE on October 2nd! He is in such a fun stage right now. He is becoming much more vocal. He is WALKING everywhere and even climbing up on things that he shouldn't be! One of his favorite things to do is play in the toilet water when we aren't looking! He is a very busy little boy and keeps us on our toes! It is so fun to watch him growing up and being so curious and adventerous. He loves to explore! His birthday started off with the exciting transfer from the infant car seat to the forward facing toddler carseat... now he gets to see where we are going instead of seeing where we have already been! On wednesday I stayed up all night (until 1am) making cupcakes to celebrate his birthday. They were deocrated like lion and elephant heads! He got to take them to daycare to share with his friends and we also had some for our party that night. Jake LOVED his cupcakes!!! He dug right in and got caupcake everywhere! This weekend Daddy took the k...

Jacy and her friends played beauty shop which resulted in a real haircut =) She got about 3 inches cut off of the left side of her hair. It was time to have a "rescue" cut. She now has a VERY cute hair cut that flips out. She looks like such a grown up little girl now! Next, Jake got his very first haircut!!! He did great, and now has a cute little spikey haircut!

We started September off with a quick day trip to the Christopher Creek cabin to hang out with Pardner and Grandma Greta. The weather was so beautiful! We enjoyed sitting out on the back porch. Jacy and Pardner took a walk to the creek to throw some rocks into the COLD water. They had a great time! Since the weather here in the valley wasn't cooling down any Jay decided to put up the pool in the backyard. The kids loved swimming in the afternoons! Jay has also started to teach Jake about the chores that he will be helping with as he gets older. Now, on Saturday mornings they get up and go mow the lawn together! =) In mid September my very brave mother invited me and the kids on a road trip to Colorado Springs for a Kent family reunion. Brave Brave Brave! We really had a great time! We drove to Show Low on Thursday night and were loading and hitting the road for Colorado on Friday morning at 5:00am. It took us just over 14 hours to get there. There were lots of potty stops for Jacy....

Today was Jacy’s first day of pre-school. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be sad or not, but how could I be when I saw the excitement in her eyes. She couldn’t wait to leave the house this morning with her new backpack! She even got up a little early this morning so that she could draw a picture for her new teacher, Miss Tiffany! Last Friday we had an open-house to meet the teacher and to show Jacy her classroom. I know Jacy is ready for school because as we were getting ready to leave for the open-house she said to me, “Um, Mom… You don’t need to take me. I will just take the bus!” My response back to her… “The bus will come soon enough… don’t rush me!” =) She was pretty sad when she figured out that I would actually be taking her to and from school instead of her taking a bus. Jacy loves to be with friends and meet new people. On our way to school she said, “Mom, I think there are going to be new friends at school!” As we pulled up, Jacy hopped out of the car, waved at me, said “BYE...

A couple of weeks ago I let some of my friends motivate me to paint my bedroom. They kept telling me how easy and fun it is. Jessica, Kayci, and Kim... You lie! Here is my painting story... Jessica gave me a gallon of really pretty chocolate brown paint from her personal paint supply. I knew that 1 gallon wasn't going to be enough for my room so before I ever started I went to Home Depot to have them color match me a 2nd gallon. On Saturday morning Jay packed up the kids and took them to the McCormick Train Park in Scottsdale so that I could have the day to paint in peace. Well, I let the painting begin!!! Thinking that I was being logical I decided to paint around the room as high as I could reach and then put the extender rod on the roller and paint around the top of the room. I got all the way around the bottom and the top of 1 wall when it was time to open up the new can of paint that I had previously color matched. As you can see.. THE COLORS DIDN'T MATCH AT ALL! I looked ...

Jake took his first step tonight...that we actually caught on video! He has been staring to let go of things and balance on his own for a little while...he is going to be running around here in no time!!! He also got his two front top teeth over this past weekend. He is growing up soo fast!!!