Small Strides

Over the last few weeks the babies have had 2 goals set by us parents, walking for Zach and potty training for Bella. It has been a slow process, but both are making small strides to reach the end goal. Zach is now taking 3 steps toward me (as of tonight). He's been doing 2 steps for the last 5 days, so with this extra step I am hoping that walking is soon to follow. Bella Boo went potty in the big potty for the first (and only) time on Sunday afternoon. She told Chris "potty daddy" and he rushed her over where she did her business. Unfortunately it hasn't happened again, but we keep reinforcing what the potty is and that going in the diaper is yucky. We actually have a plan to do a 3 day boot camp over the weekend for potty training (thank you Amanda for the awesome guide book!).

June has been a busy month for us with Juno, mine and Chris' birthday, father's day, and Chris making a trip with Bella to Oklahoma. We hope all you dads out there had a blessed day with tons of love poured over you. As for birthdays, being another year older is a scary thought but allows us to understand the great accomplishments we have in our lives along with the fortune of love that fills our hearts. I feel supremely blessed to have such an amazing husband, precious children, incredible mother, loving in-laws, and many other family and friends that are so important and special to me.

I mentioned in our last post that I had made contact with Hand to Hold. I had the privilege of meeting with Kelli Kelley, the founder, a couple of weeks ago to determine the best way to approach and introduce Hand to Hold to the Houston area. I have done some research on contacts for our area and will continue to develop that database. Once we have a good distribution list, we can submit literature on the appropriate organizations. It will take me a bit of time, but I'm hoping over the next couple of months we will have made good progress in Houston. Please visit Hand to Hold's latest newsletter online if you have a few minutes:

http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/703400/27dd103d7d/ARCHIVE

Now on to what everyone really wants to see PICTURES...






At Relay for Life

Hand to Hold

Hello blog family! As many of you may remember, when we first moved back to Houston, I began applying to volunteer at Texas Children's Hospital. Since the middle of February I have had the privilege of being a baby holder in their level 2 NICU. One of my goals with being a volunteer there was building a rapport with the Family Centered Care group that handles NICU family support. Luckily I was able to meet the director of that group who was upfront with me saying that Chris and I would not be able to work with their support group because we had not had our child go through their NICU. Understandable on a certain level. The director was super nice and actually pointed me in a different direction. She said there was a fabulous organization that was making great headway in the area of NICU support based in Austin. I went to the Hand to Hold website (www.handtohold.org) and instantly became quite impressed by what their founder Kelli Kelly and her team have created. After perusing for about an hour, I put together an email to find out what Hand to Hold is doing in Houston, if anything. It turns out Hand to Hold has not made it to Houston but they are looking to go nationwide. I had the pleasure of speaking with Kelli on the phone a couple of days ago to discuss bringing Hand to Hold to Houston. So to all our preemie family and supporters in the Houston area...I may be calling on you for interest and help on how to bring Houston an organization dedicated to reaching out to families to cope with the emotional, psychological and organizational stress that comes with being a NICU parent and/or family member. Hand to Hold covers the basis of every bit of support a family needs, whether it be as a resource guide, advice on how to work with staff, what do you do as a parent of a preemie once you leave the NICU, and much more. So if you have a minute, please check out Hand to Hold's website.

Now on to the Delange munchkins...

Zach is doing fabulous, although cutting 2 teeth that are giving him fits. Chris took him to the doctor this past week for a 9 month check up where he weighed 24lbs and was 29.5in long. Dr Romina was very pleased with the way he looks as well as his motor skills. The teachers at daycare say it is so cute the way he bear crawls everywhere.

Bella is still acting out. Gigi got a taste of it last weekend when we visited for the long weekend. She was quite amazed at the level of defiance by our precious angel. Hopefully by the time Nana and Papi come to visit next month she won't be as bad.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend back in New Braunfels. I got to hang out with my best friend and mom at a Aaron Watson/Gary Allan concert Friday night. Then Saturday, Chris, the kids and I had a very nice lunch visit with my former boss in Seguin...thanks Kyle & Jo for having us over! Then Chris and I were able to have a date night Saturday and catch a movie. Sunday we all took turns napping before we made the drive back home. Monday we spent the day getting Bella's room ready for her to move back in. She's been in our room ever since she came home from the hospital in April. She's had some good and bad nights. Please pray that her sleeplessness improves and her asthma symptoms remain subsided.

Here are the latest pictures of the precious babes:

Bella and Zach dancing with Daddy to the Michael Jackson Wii game