We ARE alive!

Hi everyone,

Yes it has been forever since my last post. Sheri and Makenna have made it home from California, then Colorado. So I have a few photos to put up.

This is Austyn, 'Kenna and Ally. They are cousins that live in Colorado.

This is Alyx, another cousin in Colorado, and Makenna wearing her cap like every other "minimum wage" wanna-be in the USA. (If she could only get a job or be a "gang-banger", she is IN!)

I will try and be more regular with posts. I am trying to keep this about Makenna and as many realize...sometimes nothing changes for months and months....So I guess it is based on my ability to craft a story? Clyde

No news is good news?

Sorry I haven't posted a new blog page in a while. It is not because things are going bad here, just the opposite. Makenna has been very healthy and happy. Sheri, Makenna and Sheri's parents went to California to visit one her sisters and watch her nephew graduate from high school, way to go BRIAN! I have been working 10 hour days on the job and spending my evenings tearing up some carpet, linoleum, vct tile and spongy sub floor to install new flooring in our dining room. So my hands have been too sore to type and my arms too tired to hold them to the keyboard. And yes, I am a whiner.
Kristy, a regular reader, my first "lurker" and a colleague from one of my other "side jobs" made the comment today that she was going to quit checking my blog because I am getting lazy, then tonight I got an email from Daan wondering if everything is OK with the family: so I had to write something. Things are good. I hope to post some photos of the girls trip when they get home in a week. But I really have little to share other than I am tired and the "warm fuzzies (money)" from all my work hasn't kicked in yet. I really get chatty after receiving a check for a completed job. I haven't finished anything in 3 weeks. I just keep struggling to keep all the bowling balls I am juggling in the air. (But it could be worse. I could have used the metaphor of running chain saws in my juggling.) The work is going good also. Just big jobs, taking a lot of energy. But I really appreciate people checking in and wondering if I am still alive. Thanks, Clyde

New Viewer

I must acknowledge a new guest to my blog. He left a comment so he gets recognized. Thanks Ray. Ray is my brother and a little known fact, believe it or not, is we are twins. Obviously if you see us together you kinda figure it out. Ray is 4 minutes older than me and a little taller, I just happen to be standing on the sidewalk (so I look taller). Clyde is on the left, with the cap on. This photo was from August 2006. We had been scuba diving/spear fishing.

Dann wrote this to me, "Your brother Ray wrote a message in Puk's guestbook!!!
Soooooo kind of him!! He must be very proud of his little niece!" I know Makenna really likes Ray and his wife Laura, and vise-versa. But I don't know how proud he is...he hasn't bought her a pony or anything that special yet.

Time for Some Nudity!

No mater how well you think you can explain tube feeding, or a button to a lay person they always seem surprised when they see it. "Oh", many will say, "it actually goes right into her stomach?" Or something equally profound. Same with Makenna's feet. Her toes have looked like this since birth. I kept hoping she would grow and the feet would morph into something more normal. So she will probably never be a shoe model. Since this has turned in to anomalies 101 I want to add the uneven shoulders are ever present...scoliosis. A view from her back would show a large muscle/bone mass on her right side and a "skinny" left side. Her legs are uneven too (I tailor all her pants and never get them correct). But yeah, she sits great. She does not get in the sitting position by herself but she used to get herself out of this sitting position. It was never graceful and she won't do it anymore. Enough head bumps? Or more loss of ability to turn and put a hand back to help support/lower herself? She will sit until tired of it and throw a fit now to be allowed to roll. I suspect a lot of it is "learned helplessness" a document I will put on the website in the future. But I take most of the blame for that.

Makenna and Mataya

Sheri is sharing a very fascinating story with the girls. Mataya, like most kids, was very fascinated with Makenna and the Kid Kart. She is the daughter of my niece, Marlo.

Photo's

Saturday, May 10th, my niece graduated from high school. Way to go Sarah!!!
We went to the reception and I got some good photos which I want to share. Makenna made a new friend! Emily was so good with 'Kenna they became fast friends.

This was after they all changed cloths and ran/rode until tired. Of course the kid riding isn't as tired as the rest.

It was also my mom's birthday, Happy Birthday, MOM!! She is always trying to get a good photo of Makenna. She has taken most of the good ones...but statistically the number is still low.

In case you don't believe what I say here is a photo of Makenna saying: "Get that camera out of my face!" She was really happy, laughing and smiling at the crowd and auctioneer then she turned to look at me and held this look til I put the camera down. The look changed so fast I couldn't get a smiling photo. And it changed just as fast when I put the camera down. But I like this photo. I get this look a lot. She doesn't think I am very funny, very often either. Clyde