I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but OCTOBER? Time seriously flies. I still read all of your updates though!

We are doing really pretty well. It's been a tough, tough year, but things are definitely looking up. :) Here's a quick rundown of the Oliver household...

December Isabella turned 1! We had a wonderful little birthday party for her in Arizona.
 

January we went to Philadelphia to have her 12 month evaluation for the MOMS trial (Management of Myelomeningocele Study) that she's in. It was great to see so many friends and get away for a week! Here's Isabella with her friend, Ethan, at the babysitter's so the parents could get some uninterrupted dinner and a movie!



Right before our Philly trip we found out that I had a miscarriage, so when we got back I had a D&C and my mom flew in from Denver to help out with Isabella. It was a really rough time and the doctor didn't do it properly, so I had a lot of physical issues and then ended up having a second D&C at the end of March. Fun times.

Also in January Rahul started having some major problems at work with his employees. Long, long story but he ended up getting a formal complaint filed against him which was definitely not the highlight of our month either. He has been working really hard to be above all of the crap going on and the higher ups really do see it and now they're getting frustrated at his employees' pettiness/laziness/backbiting. So, at least Rahul isn't on the hotseat anymore.

We also headed to Arizona in January for Superbowl weekend. Boy was that a disappointment! Fun to see friends and family though. :)

February was pretty quiet (from what I can remember).

March was busy, busy! We went to Denver to stay with my parents and celebrated out 2nd anniversary while we were there and went shopping, had sushi, went bowling, and saw a movie. It was such a fun night! My parents had just moved into a new house and still had their aparment, so we stayed the night there and in the morning were able to use the jacuzzi. So much fun.


The weekend after we got home we headed down to San Diego to meet up with Rahul's brother and SIL who were driving in from Phoenix. We stayed at my grandparent's house and spent Saturday at Sea World. Love that place! This picture is of Rahul and Romit with Isabella. She wasn't feeling well this day and looks sick/sleepy in all of her pictures.


Then at the beginning of April we decided to spend the day at the beach. It's only half an hour away, why not? :)




And last, but not least, Isabella has been doing really well at physical therapy (she gets it twice a week but we're going to 3 times a week next week). Check this out!!!

We're officially residents of Yorba Linda, California! I've been here a little more than 2 weeks now and love the area we're in. Our apartment is within walking distance of the church we're visiting, the public library, the grocery store, the Coffee Bean, Joann's, a donut shop, Papa John's, and so many other places. It's also next to some beautiful neighborhoods that I love walking with Isabella through. With no traffic Rahul's commute to Downey is about half an hour but can be as long as an hour and fifteen minutes during rush hour.

Isabella is now 10 months old and is such a blessing! She is a little behind in some of her gross motor skills due to muscle weakness (standing, crawling, etc) but she scoots around the room either on her bottom, by rolling, or a backwards army craw. We're looking forward to getting established at one of the local Children's Hospitals but are having a hard time deciding between LA or Orange County. They both have their benefits and draw-backs. We found a great pediatrician though, so that makes things easier.

Okey dokey, on to the pictures!!!

So, I just read through Johanna's latest Xanga post and got inspired to write. And to include information that's NOT all about Isabella (although I'll have to slide some of that in there too. )

This past week was a great trial ... the in-laws were visiting. My FIL snores unbelievably loud, so we had them sleep in our room while Rahul and I camped out on the guest bed in Isabella's room. It's hard scaling down to a Full when you're used to a Queen! Overall they are just hard to please though. Rahul's mom called after they got home yesterday and was complaining/commenting on my attitude or lack of warmth, or something. Rahul had to explain to her how rude they had been and how it had hurt my feelings to have them complain about my cooking, not eat meals because it was "American", etc. After this trip Rahul doesn't even want to move back near them. It was highly irritating having them here, but they had a great time with the baby and that made it worth it. Every time they come I think we're starting over, we've all grown, and it's going to be different! Uh, nope. Ok, off this rant...

While they were here we did a few fun things like visiting Little India in Queens, NY (again. We go every time they're in town). We also went to the Longwood Gardens. I'll post a few pictures of that. It was really beautiful but we chose pretty much the hottest day of the week to walk around there. We also went to the beach about 2 weeks ago, so I'll throw in a few pictures of that too!

Tonight we're going to dinner with 7th and 8th graders and their parents from church. We seem to have problems with transition faithful Awana kids into the Jr High program. Their parents just don't seem as interested in bringing them once they're out of elementary school. So the dinner tonight is an attempt to show them what the next year will be like and encourage them to keep coming. Rahul and I recently decided to help out with Jr High and we're pretty nervous to see what's in store for us. :)

Ok, it's Isabella update time. We saw all of her specialists last week at CHOP and here's a rundown of them all:
Pediatrician: She looks great but her head circumference is still worrysome and she wanted us to see the Neurologist.
Neurologist: She looks the same as the last time I saw her in May ... We're not going to put a shunt in yet, just keep doing what you're doing.
Physical Therapist: She looks fantastic! Her butt muscles and calf muscles are paralyzed but her hamstrings are really strong and compensating for the lack of useable muscles elsewhere. PT thinks she'll walk, run, jump, and do all other little kiddie things with the help of some ankle braces. PTL!!!
Opthamologist: Her eyesight is fine ... why did you come see me? (b/c the idiotic pediatrician though we needed to) Come back in 2 years.
Urologist: He retested her bladder function and pressure with Isabella's 3rd videourodynamic test. We are currently cathing her ever 4 hours, but her bladder is holding more than it should for her age/size so we're down to ever 3 hours now. The medication is helping keep her bladder from contracting, however, which keeps the pressure low and that's a very good thing. We know she can't use it like normal, so we're doing everything possible to prevent any damage to the kidneys/bladder/etc.
Orthopedist: We were supposed to see him but he was so swamped with appointments that he never made it to see us and we got tired of waiting. It was also throwing off our other appointments sitting around for him. So the PT said not to worry about it and we could see him next time we were there (in 3 months).

So how's that for a busy day! Isabella was amazingly good through all of those appointments and no good nap. I think I was crankier than her after being at the hospital that long.

Alright, on to pictures!