Happy Birthday

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for us. Last weekend was beautiful and we had a wonderful time playing outside in the backyard together. The girls play well together despite the difference in age. McKenzie is very sweet and gentle to Olivia. McKenzie had fun pushing Olivia in the swing last weekend. It was fun to watch them both laugh and play.

Last week Olivia was taken to the doctor for a fever. Although the fever was nothing, they did finally listen to me about how she turns her head to the right so much. I've always found it weird how she can turn her head to the right almost 180 degrees and learned very young how to roll over in order to always lay on her right. She can turn to the left but obviously favors the right. Turns out she has torticollis and plagiocephally. That means a muscle in her neck is tight which is causing her to turn to the right and it has caused her to always tilt her head. Because of this, we were not able to have her lay on different sides of her head and now she has a flat head. She has started physical therapy to help with her neck and she sees her doctor tomorrow to find out if they want to put her in a helmet to reshape her skull. She'll be the cutest baby ever to wear a helmet!

Today is my birthday. We got to get up at 5am this morning to get McKenzie to her second ice skating competition. She wasn't feeling real well on the way there but once we got there and she saw everyone, she perked up. She had a hard time though remembering her routine. It could have been the distraction from the entire family waving. She got out there and did her best and she loved having so many people there to watch her. She just lit up when she saw everyone watching her.

She got second place in the basic 1 event. Unfortunately it wasn't very fair. Her competition was in basic 3 so McKenzie didn't have a chance. She didn't care though. When I told her she got second, she asked, "what's second?" I told her that it means that you get to stand on the number 2 for pictures. She was so excited. She ran up there and stood proud while she was given her silver metal. I just love it! We are so proud of her for going out there! Thank you to everyone that came out to watch her. I can tell that it means the world to her.

McKenzie's First Ice Skating Competition

Olivia stole McKenzie's flowers

McKenzie waiting to see what she won

Grandpa Bob, McKenzie and Grandpa Randy (and the back of Olivia's head)

Our first place champion!

McKenzie was more excited about the flowers I think!

McKenzie had her very first ice skating competition this morning. She did wonderful. We were a little worried because when we first walked in and got her ice skates on, she seemed a bit overwhelmed by all of the people and she clung to my leg. When her name was called for her practice ice time, she looked at me and said, I don't want to go out there alone. Luckily her coach was right there and took her hand and lead her down to the ice. She did great during practice but I could tell she was a bit nervous.

Everything was going great until the event started. Her coach had her head out before the National Anthem was sang. She had to call McKenzie back off the ice and she is so sensitive and looked like she thought she was in trouble. I thought it was going to be over from there and she'd come off the side crying. She didn't though. I was very impressed. After the Anthem, they called her out. She went to the ice, took her stance and did her routine. It lasted a whole 30 seconds and she was done.

McKenzie won first place in the Snowplow Sam Compulsory event! Although, she didn't have anyone to compete against. The one other girl dropped out. They told me though that McKenzie cannot win by default. It's against the rules so she had to skate against the "books". I guess that means she had to skate against the standard and see where she would place. According to "the books" she took first place!

We are so proud of her. Not for winning, of course, but for putting in all that work and getting out there in front of everyone on her own and doing her routine. It was so fun to watch her. She's just so grown up now. She had a wonderful time and she's asked us to sign her up for the next competition on March 29th!!