some reasons to celebrate...smiley dimples and golden birthdays

hi=)

you are so cute. your sweet cheeks are filling out again and you're slowly gaining some weight back. sometimes hospitals aren't such a bad thing, huh? i think we've convinced daddy of this finally.

your next surgery is tentatively set for may 13. that will be the reanastamosis (that's a super fancy word for putting your intestines back together) and hopefully after that all will go well and you'll go home with just your trach and vent and g-tube. we've opted to keep you in the hospital until then. lots of reasons...but basically we don't have consistent nursing care at home and you going home on tpn and lipids means a lot more work plus frequent lab draws to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again. daddy and i agree that it might be a little too much right now considering i am still working full-time and planning to start school again mid-may and daddy is finishing one semester and getting ready to start another semester with clients at a new site, etc, etc...the three of us are actually able to enjoy each other more if it's somebody else's priority to take care of your gadgets. at first (for about 1.5 seconds) i felt a little guilty about all that-that we were choosing to keep you in the hospital and that meant you couldn't be in your own home and couldn't take walks with us and couldn't even get outside or look at a tree for another month...and then i realized that this way the two people who love you the most can just simply play with you and read books and sing songs and make silly faces and play peek-a-boo with your blanket and make lionel the lion shake and kiss your sweet nose. you love these things. so yes we quickly came to the conclusion that you being in the hospital did actually seem best for all three of us. i can still see you every day-i basically am just commuting from charlottesville to work 3 nights a week, and daddy has to be in richmond monday and tuesday but one of us is with you every day and night. i can't stand the thought of you being in that hospital room by yourself.

you've returned to your happy self. flirting like mad with every male who walks into your room, showing off that beautiful smile and sweet dimples up by your eyes. out of control, little lady. i kinda love it though. you're making the most fun noises-blowing raspberries still but now some other noise too i can't quite figure out. i sat there staring at your lips today while you did it trying to see what exactly you're doing. no luck so far. but it's super cute. like you're clicking in some african dialect. it's great, watching you figure out what your mouth can do. and you're back to wanting your pacifier all the time-and being perfectly pleased if we'll simply put it in your mouth for you. what was it exactly that made you hate that so much the last few weeks? i guess just general irritability as you became super scary dehydrated. i'd be grumpy too.

mommy's birthday was monday. everybody kept saying "oh i'm so sorry you have to be in the hospital for your birthday!" but it was actually pretty great. at the end of the day i sat back thinking how surprised i was that it was such a happy day and i felt so full of joy. God was very sweet to give me that. daddy was in richmond all day so we couldn't see him, but auntie shelly was still in town for most of the day so there was much fun to be had. i finally got to start sleeping in the same room as you sunday night when you finally were transferred out of the picu. so monday morning shelly brought me breakfast and we ate it by your bed and chatted with you a bit. then you fell asleep and shelly and i went walking through uva's campus. (it was a GORGEOUS day!!!!! a katie day for sure!!! do you remember what katie days are?? it's when the sky is perfectly blue-which makes it my favorite color-with no clouds anywhere) then we got tons of ice cream from the freshen's stand (reese's pieces microblast-i don't know why i think we'll want to know these details one day) and brought it back up to your room and ate it. and then we played a mad game of hang-man on your dry-erase board. answers such as free willy, bankhead bounce, papua new guinea, funky cold medina...we thought we were hilarious. you had a sweet nurse carrie who was actually the roommate of one of your nicu nurses taylor (taylor named your little elephant trunks) and carrie i think found us a little amusing. she caught me dancing like a fool when i didn't think any strangers could see me. you'll probably go through a phase at some point where you think your mama and her friends are embarassing. and then you'll get over it and join us. so then auntie shelly had to go back to chicago and it was just you and me. we read books and played and you gave me lots of sweet smiles and tried to chew on my green "uva children's hospital parent" bracelet. for some reason i love when you do that. and then lots of doctors filtered in and out all afternoon and we made plans for what we're gonna do with my little cutie. at one point dr rodgers left and then came back 5 minutes later singing happy birthday and trying to get you to join in with him. it was very cute. and then the whole pediatric surgery team came in saying happy birthday. and throughout the day lots of our favorite nicu friends came by wishing mommy happy birthday and bringing her pretty flowers. you fell asleep around 7 and i went to eat with my sweet friend kate. we ate outside on a balcony and it was still beautiful outside and that is pretty close to heaven for mommy. we got ice cream AGAIN which is an absolute necessity for birthdays. then i came back to your room and you were still sleeping like a little angel. so i decided to go to sleep too. earliest i've gone to bed in over 8 months;). all this to say: i felt very special and got to spend my golden birthday (i turned 27 on the 27th) with my favorite girl. it was a great day=)

so we're camped out in room 7146 for a few weeks. it's not so bad=)

love you sweet baby.

mommy