Happy New Year!!

Wow... Can you believe 2009 is here? So, here it is on our doorstep making it's sweet entrance. What will it bring us?

I've got a couple of predictions/hopes/dreams/resolutions for what 2009 will bring to the Hannon's:

1. Audrey's foot will become corrected in the first part of the year
   
2. We'll see Audrey's doctors less and less after her 1st birthday
3. Audrey will start to sit up and crawl by the time her birthday rolls around :)
   
4. Audrey will say Dada for the first time by my birthday (April)!!! :)
   
5. Shawn and I will finally stop putting off home improvement/repairs in 2009 (yeah right!)
   
6. I will get all of Audrey's medical files/needs organized (keep dreaming!)
7. Audrey will say Mama by Christmas!!! :)
8. Shawn and I will start splitting the Doctor's appointments up!!
   
9. Audrey will begin eating more solids throughout the day and will learn how to feed herself!!
10. Audrey will find her feet early this year too!!
11. We won't have plaster dust/remnants in our house for the rest of 2009 when her casts come off (hopefully) this month!
    
12. We will continue to be a happy and supportive family!!

Now... what you've really been waiting for!!!

She's getting so good at pushing herself up!!

What do you have there Audrey Sue?

Who's looking at you kid?

My favorite face!!

Working on something extremely urgent and important, Hold please...

She pulls out her pacifier all day long and has learned how to put it back in, or chew on another part!

Also, Audrey had an appointment with her Neurologist, Dr. Elterman, today. I really, really like him because he asks me if I understand what he's talking about and explains everything to me!!! We've seen him twice. The first time was before her surgery and now after... He has seen a huge difference. Last time we saw him, she was irritable and extremely tired but this time, she spent the majority of our appointment talking, laughing and smiling at him. Also, we got some wonderful news/opinions from Dr. Elterman. Audrey had an "episode" in his office, an episode means a seizure and her eyes went a-rolling around - she's too young for an attitude. We talked about it at great length and his gut feeling is that she's not having seizures or these episodes are not seizure activity. He thinks this because when she was having an "episode", I said Audrey's name and got her attention and then she stopped. He said that if she was having seizures, we would not be able to get her to come out of it. So, we decided that we would gradually take her off her Keppra over the next month and see if these "episodes" come back worse and if I'm not able to get her to come out of it, we'll go back in, have another EEG done and he'll determine what's going on then.
He thinks she does not have the capability to gaze upward due to the pressure her Hydrocephalus was putting on the quadrageminal plate (I believe this is what he was referring to)n the brain. That pressure permanently damaged her ability to gaze upward. He had her track her toys several times to come up with this opinion. I'm going to work with her as much as I can to see if we can get her to gaze upward... I'm still not 100% convinced that she can't gaze up... she looks up at us all the time!!! But the good news is, she may not be having seizures!!!

Also, her shoes arrived today in the mail. They are beautiful! Hopefully, we'll get a clearer idea of when they will be on her feet after our appointment on Monday. I'm so excited!!!