New Year Brings New Adventures

Hello everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, we sure did. We are very blessed to have such a great family who is always here for us and of coarse Maddie got so many great toys and outfits for Christmas. In November of 2011 Maddie got her Rifton Walker which is teaching her how to walk and move her legs to loosen up to become more mobile. YAY! She is progressing great with her walker, each week I take it to her therapy session on Tuesday and we work with her on moving in it by herself and learning to trust herself with movement because that's a huge part of her learning how to walk. She is standing great now, not by herself, but we are getting there. Our biggest challenge is getting her to stop throwing her head back which causes her to lose her balance. Throwing her head back is a game to her and I love that she is playing but it's a BAD habit we are trying to break. She is so much more focused now on people and things and is even playing and engaging in toys a bit, she has her favorites of coarse, anything that makes noise. :-) She is so precious and is trying so hard to talk, so will, and it will be worth the wait I know. She is eating stage 3 food now right out of the jar without choking, which is AWESOME!! I'm so proud of her. She is progressing a little more every day and her seizures are light now and only upset her if she drops her head quickly. She is sleeping all night now and staying awake all day with only a short nap, which is also helping her to progress and learn. We thank you all so much for you thoughts and prayers, and please continue to pray that the seizures stop completely with time.

Maddie first time EVER laughing!!!

My happy baby kicking and playing while waiting on her Doctor at Children's Hospital

Maddie at the park 1-7-2012

War Eagle!!!

Maddie loves her Walker

Maddie first time EVER at the beach Gulf Shores  10-2011

My baby is growing up

Happy girl

She has started sticking her tongue out

I was tickling her belly

Maddie's hair after her nap...lol

Love that smile

She was Dorthy for Halloween 2011

I love that grin

Trying to talk

Fall Fun 2011

Hello everyone, I know it's been awhile so here goes some new things going on at the Smith household. Maddie has started with a new Physical Therapist and she is great and high speed. Maddie is sitting up on her knees now and playing some, of course with someone standing by for when she gets tired. We are working on her standing and getting the walking movement started because she will get her gate trainer/walker soon...yay!! She is doing better with her seizure activity. She is still having head drops but they are not anything like the seizures she was having. These are much less intense but we are still praying that all of this seizure activity stops soon. Maddie is progressing slowly but surely. She still isn't talking but she communicates in her own way when she smiles at me while we are playing. She is eating baby food better now, so thats awesome, and she will now drink more juice. Over all everything is good and we are just blessed to have such a sweet precious baby girl. I love this time of year so we are doing more things outside to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Maddie just had her first trip to the beach recently and loved it. It was a much needed vacation for Jason and myself as well. Anyway that's all for now. I will post more soon. Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. :-)

Maddie, Haley and Hayden being silly

Her new Jam Jams(pj's) that the sweet ladies at granddaddys work got her

Maddie riding a pony for the first time

Maddie playing with her new ball!

Maddie's EEG June 2011

Maddie riding in a wagon at Children's Hospital, Birmingham AL

Maddie's EEG in June 2011, she was not happy

Every day is a blessing

Maddie is doing so much better now. Her seizures have gone to what we call drop attacks, she drops her head quickly and looses her balance but even these are fading away day by day. God is Great!! She is progressing more every day and we are so very proud of her. She is so strong and such a motivation to me and anyone that meets her. She is eating food with a spoon three times a day, and drinking lots of juice. We are still working on getting her to drink plain water, and believe you me she knows the difference, smart girl. She now holds her arms up to be picked up and of course it works 'cause she is so cute and I can't resist, ha ha what can I say, I know she is spoiled. I waited a long time for her to use those arms and reach for me and it warms my heart every time she does. She is learning how to hold her bottle (which is a HUGE milestone) and I am tickled with joy. We are in the process of getting her a gate trainer, which will teach her to walk, but as for now we are just taking things day by day, one blessing at a time. She smiles all the time and is just the best baby, she is such a joy and I truly am blessed to be at home with her, she is my little companion, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Anyway, that's all for now, enjoy the photos below of some of her recent milestones. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! :-)

Learning to hold her bottle..YEAH MADDIE!!

Eating Danino yogurt (Strawberry/Banana)..yummy

Holding her Elmo, she is playing with toys more

Reaching for Daddy to pick up!

Just being cute

Maddie and our cat Marvin, she pets him and jabbers at him, he is a good therapy tool for her.

Where hope grows, Miracles will blossom!

Hello everyone, above is a video we recorded tonight of my sweet baby Maddie playing her keyboard. She is progressing more and more each day, and this was so awesome and I am so proud of her we wanted to share our joy with everyone else. She is having what we call head drops daily and we have no clue as to what may be causing these episodes or if they are anything to be concerned about. She recently had an 48 hour EEG that we hope will tell us if they are seizures or if they are even neurological. I will update as soon as we know something but I had to share this awesome video. Maddie is more alert, more playful and just generally happier since we have her off of Depakote, it may work for some, but is wasn't the medicine for her. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, we love you and God bless!

Today is a new path of Hope and Faith

"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow."

Hello everyone, I know it's been awhile but we have had a rocky couple of weeks. We got Maddie's MRI back and her Neurologist said that her brain had shrank since the MRI last year. So I asked him if that could be from the medication, oh of coarse not he said, (cause they are getting paid to push these meds), but from the research I have done it very well could be the cause. Anyway, we got her off that cercain medication and she has had a few day of withdrawals from it. Monday was the worst of it, she was restless, irritable, and all I could do was hold my sweet baby while she cried out and I just cried with her. Now, good news, she is a different baby without that medicine. She is smiling all the time, trying to talk, using her hands, kicking her legs and MAY take one nap during the day compared to sleeping all day. I am so excited and soo very proud of her. She is eating now without choaking, she is eating stage 3 foods without any problem, she is a different baby. I think it helped to get her off of those meds but all the prayers is what brought us to this point today. God is wonderful and HE has a plan for each and every one of us. She is starting to roll over now, and we are working on crawling. Thank you ALL for your love and support.