Chad and Courtney

Ella is absolutely without a doubt the sweetest little baby I have ever met. She is just happy and content most of the time. Ella is a bit physically delayed. She began "scooting" (I'll post a video at the end) at around 15 months. It was her only mode of getting around for about another month. Around 16 months, she learned to crawl, but still prefers the scooting most of the time. She is now 17 months old, and just started pulling herself up to standing with the help of the couch two days ago and thinks she is hot stuff every time she does it! Ella cannot stand or walk on her own, and has only gotten herself from her back to a sitting position a handful of times. (I'm a little nervous for nursery next month! I feel like she can't fend for herself much with all those kids running around!)
Anyway, we are hoping that she is just slow to learn these things and that in another couple of months, maybe she'll start walking. On the other hand, we've begun to wonder about the strength in her legs or if her hips may be out of place or something. We have talked to our dr. and he is concerned as well. He said we may be looking at physical therapy. (we have an apt in about 3 weeks)
Today, I had a guy from Kids on the Move come and give her an evaluation. It is a group that helps disabled or delayed kids under 3. They have nurses, physical therapists, and other specialists that come out to your home and help the child and the whole family really. They want the parents to be really involved, and of course we want to be. He decided that yes, she is delayed, so she does qualify for this program. I have heard only good things about them, apparently they are fantastic! The physical therapist will be out in the next week or two and we'll get started and hopefully get some info as to why things are going so slowly. We are very optimistic and know that one of these days she'll be running circles around us and we'll never know she took so long to get there.




Not the best video, but it's what I had...

So Chad is into all kinds of activities that include pain... hockey, paintball, and airsoft wars. He claims they are fun, but all I can think is, ouch! He must be a masochist of some sort.;) We went to Idaho for the 4th, and while we were there, Chad organized an airsoft war with his brothers, brothers-in law, and cousins. I think there were 10 guys in all. They went out to the "junk yard" (a small spot of land at the farm where they could hit anything and it wouldn't matter) and had wars all afternoon. The funniest game was Aliens. Think sardines, whoever the 'aliens' joins their team. It was sweltering hot outside, but they didn't care and of course they all came back to show us their 'war wounds', they all had a few tiny welts. It was fun to watch, but I think I lasted about 20 min til I had to retreat back to the cool house!

BJ and Ryan, the two 'aliens'



Brandon, Blake, and Chad looking for the opposing team






Look at the grin on Chad's face, do you think he's enjoying pointing a loaded "gun" at his wife?