She finally did it!!

I was so happy to see Penny put herself in a sitting position all by herself today!!! She is such an amazing baby and everyday she shows me something new that blows me away. She lays down on the ground and puts herself onto her hands and knees, which is funny because she doesn't crawl that way. She still slinks along on her belly. Then she sits back on her butt putting hersef in a folded in half position and then she pushes her back straight up. What a cutie!!!

Everybody say Hi to Dillon

Penny had a date last night with her friend Dillon. She kept trying to steal his glasses. I felt bad for him until later on when he was shrieking with delight, he scared Penny to tears. Other than that they had a really good time, I think. And I had a good time with Mel, Dillon's mother. Sometime we will need to leave the babies at home and go out without them.

4th of July

Happy July 4! I can remember 6 years ago today it was about 106 degrees and I was 40 weeks pregnant with my son Nathaniel. My due date for him was the 4th of July, and I was so miserable. It was a Thursday and it was hot. I had been working at TGI Fridays but I took my last day on June 26. Not because I was uncomfortable running around, (my feet were more swollen with Penny then with Nathaniel) but because my very close friend, Irene had come up from Arizona just to witness the birth of my son and she wanted to get in early so that she wouldn't miss it. On July 4, I am sure Scott was working at the Outback that night and I was at my parents' house enjoying some cookout food. It wasn't until Saturday morning that I went into labor with him. I feel as though it was yesterday. I can't get over the fact that my little boy is soon to be 6 years old. Where does the time go. And on that note, I have a birthday this month too. I am turning 29. . . for the first time! yeesh!

Today we are going to see Matt, this is Scott's step-father. He moved into his new place on May 31 and I am ashamed to say we have not seen it and I still don' t know where he lives. We have been very busy watching my friend's child and best friend of Nathaniel, Tanner. Penny and Nathaniel are being watched by Tanner's mother Angela during the day, and we are watching Tanner in the evenings. Anyway, I am very excited to se his new place today and have a 4th of July cookout!

Penny is doing well as always. I swear she gained another 12lbs this week. She is scooting all over the place. Sometimes her belly is off the ground for a few seconds. I hope she is learning that the crawling works a little better with the belly off the ground. She still refuses to say "mama." I am trying not to get too frustrated. Maybe she thinks that we are both a "Dada, " I don't know. The speech therapist is impressed with her vocal talents, however.

Her friend Dillon is coming over tomorrow night to have a party while Nathaniel and Tanner go to the fireworks with Scott. Girls like to party!!!

Heart Link I discovered

I never realized that the Little Hearts Website linked you to a John Hopkins tutorial website that gives really great visual information on all the different kinds of heart defects. I finally understand what an overiding aorta means when reading the information on Tetrolgy of Fallot.

All in a day's hard work

Penny is executing her military crawl with such perfection; I am afraid she will be recruited anyday. She is so funny, she will get on her elbows, belly, and legs and with one arm in front of the other, and some help from her hind quarters she inches along the floor. I don't believe her belly gets a millimeter off the floor, but it certainly gets her around very effeciently. She can transverse our living area in a matter of moments. :) I just love her so much. Her PT is very proud of the progress she is making. She has been pulling her self to a standing position for awhile now (maybe a month) but she needs to be in a sitting position first and to my knowledge she has not figured out how to get into a sitting position.

She is doing very well with mealtimes too. I like to give her an opportunity to feed herself with a spoon often. Scott doesn't approve because of the mess, but how else is she supposed to learn? She likes sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly and grilled cheese being the only two she has tried. She also likes Gerber graduates ravioli. She will scarf that stuff man! She likes ice cream and yogurt. A whole world of possibilities opened up just a few weeks ago when she turned 1.

I am still working with her to say "mama" she just doesn't want to. After I say it a few times, she starts to respond with "blah!" Oh well, she will get there when she is ready. . .

Wow!

Looking back through some pictures that are now almost a year old. How different things are. This photo was taken while Penny had the BT shunt. Maybe the photo shoot was stressing her out.

I totally forgot cake pictures

And considering how much work I did on these I most certainly want to share. . .

Birthday Pictures

The weather held up. I was afraid that there would be more rain, but it all worked out. It only rained for about 90 seconds or so. :) And, even though her teeth were bothering her. Penny made it through the day. I hope she had a good time because I sure did.


Here she is eating peanut butter and jelly for the first time. I gave her a 1/4 piece and she scarfed it. I had to give her another piece. I am so proud of my little 1 year old.
I finally got a quasi smile out of this kid. She really makes me work for it.
PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS TOY AWAY FROM ME. I WANT TO PLAY MOMMY!
Here is Penny with Nathaniel of course, and her friend Dillon that came to play! She was so happy to meet him finally. Can you see that this girl is giving me attitude already because she does not want her picture taken again.
Typical!! She is trying to have a meaningful conversation with her companion and I bet he isn't even listening. MEN!

What a busy Weekend

Pictures from the Little Hearts picnic!
My little girl was quite happy to be held by her mommy. Even though she was teething something terrible!

Yesterday we went to the Little Hearts picnic and we had a fabulous time. We ran into some familiar faces from the Pediatric Cardiology Group right here in Hartford. The boys played. Penny just enjoyed the sun and the wind and the walks. We had such a good time, we cannot wait to go next year.

This was a great opportunity to meet other parents and children with congenital heart defects. There is just so much support out there you know! I saw many many children with HLHS, which still blows my mind considering what a tough road that journey must be. We ran into quite a few children with TOF as well and I got to speak with a few mothers.

Have a Good Night's sleep

Penelope had her Birthday on Thursday. She finally made it to 1 year! Unfortunately though, her teeth are making her miserable. I swear she is cutting six at once. Poor baby. So it seems that she has had a fever since Thursday afternoon that we have been treating with Tylenol. She has no other symptons and her 12 month check up is this Tuesday so I am not that worried. Her last dose today was at 11:30 and she still seems fine.

She had her first Birthday party today and we worked hard to over stimulate her. :) She also had her first taste of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She is so good at chewing that I thought I would see what she would make of it and she did wonderful! She liked it so much I gave her 2 pieces. The rest of the meal was a juice box and strawberries, followed by a pint sized birthday cake for the birthday princess. She went to town on the frosting. Her lips were stained blue for quite a while. She also did very well unwrapping her gifts. Thank you to all that came and shared our good time. Thank you all too for the gifts. She has a lot of new stuff to explore and clothes to keep her looking on the edge of high fashion.

I'll be posting pictures soon.

Tomorrow, we are off to the Little Hearts Picnic!

Penny Photo Shoot

I Consider Myself Very Blessed

So I traveled to Walmart on Saturday, with both the children, to pick up some things for her party next week and I had an interesting experience. I am quite used to receiving compliments on how cute Penny is and Saturday was no different. By the time I got to the check out line, we had received our fourth compliment by the cashier. She first asked how old Penny is and I replied that she was turning 1 next week. Then of course she told me how beautiful she is. In the year that I have had Penny I have NEVER returned a compliment with "You know, she has Down syndrome." I always smile and thank the person and move on. I mean, what's the point and who cares, right? For some reason, though, this exact statement came out of my mouth this time. I didn't even know where it came from. The cashier looked at me with sad eyes and said, "I know, I had a daughter with Down syndrome." Then, this woman that was not even older than myself told me that she had a daughter with Down syndrome who had stenosis of (not the trachea) some component of the airway and it was not repairable. When she was only 11 months she passed away because she could not get air into her lungs. We agreed our children had strong but sweet personalities, then the woman stated that God has blessed her. We then commanded each other to have a great holiday weekend and I left feeling a little melancholy.

Truly, Penny, CONGRATULATIONS on turning 1 year!

Penny is almost 1 year!!

I apologize for not posting in a while. I really wanted to get on there on Mother's day to wish all the wonderful mothers out there a spectacular day, but that didn't happen. There is a lot to tell. On May 9, Penny had a check up with the cardiologist. She was 20 and 1/2 lbs! Unbelievable right? The best news we got was during the ultrasound. You may recall that her last echo cardiogram revealed that her left branch pulmonary artery was very narrow. If it did not get better then some sort of surgical intervention would have been necessary. However, on her check up it was discovered that her left grew to be almost the same size as her right artery. Yay!!!! I was so elated to get such good news as was my mother who went with us and my husband. He was so worried that the doctor was going to find something wrong with her and have her whisked back to the hospital! I am so happy. We don't have to go back to see her until November. Another concern I had was that if Penny would need to be scheduled sooner than 5 years old for her next surgery since clearly, she has been growing so quickly. Well, that does not seem to be a concern for Penelope's cardiologist. She said that if Penny is growing well we should take that as a good sign. Also, the conduit (donor artery) that was placed in Penny's chest is so big that the cardiologist suspects it will last her until she is 6 maybe even 8. This is of course as long as she does not lay down a lot of calcium as the years go on.

Another thing that has been going on is our transition to different foods. I really wanted to keep her off wheat until she was a year, but I figured we are close enough. I gave her buckwheat pancakes this weekend and a graham cracker. She loved it. She also tried strawberries. Yum-O!

Lastly, the thing that has kept us most busy, is that I went up to visit my good friend on May 10 who just had a baby on April 27, and my car broke down in MA en route. Luckily, I was able to get a rental car fairly quickly and I resumed my trip. But my car is still in Tewksbury. I need to really make a decision on what I will do with it was recommended that we didn't fix it. I loved that car. It was an AWD 98 Subaru. I see other cars just like it all around and it makes me a tiny bit sad. Scott and I purchased another vehicle this weekend so it is all working out, but it just was unexpected, you know?

Well, I wish I could say that I plan to post again before Penny's big day, but I don't know that I will realistically be able to. Oh, in case I haven't mentioned it before, Penny is getting her 2 top center teeth right now, they are pretty established, but then tonight I found that she is getting 2 top bicuspid (maybe?) teeth as well. She is a teething monster! Good night!

Thank you for being a baby!

"So Much Time and So little to Do. . . "

Penelope will be 11 months old tomorrow. Sheesh how this year has raced by. I know that I may be little biased because she is my daughter, but she is the cutest, smartest baby I know! I am still in awe at how well she drinks from a straw. Scott went out and bought her sippy cups last week, but I explained how the speech therapist would disapprove and that she needs a cup with a straw to work those oral muscles. So, the great man that he is, he went back to the store undeterred and bought her a sippy cup that has a stiff straw that goes right to the bottom of the cup. Mind you, this is not a bendy straw. It is completely vertical. She took one excitable look at it and placed her mouth around the straw and began to drink. I admit, sometimes she drops the cup and then tries to drink out of the handle, or the bottom, or the rim, but mostly, she gets right on the straw on her own and goes to town. I think sooner rather than later I would like to cut her down to 2 bottles a day, one at bedtime and one when she wakes up and is the most hungry. But for now, my 20 lb, 11 month old monster can eat or drink as she pleases.

We have also been experimenting with the kind of food that she eats. She loves baby Gershwin pickles of all things. She also loved the vegetable beef that I made for her in batches to freeze. I am debating whether or not to make more, we are giving her table scraps more and more. . .

Her last PT visit on Thursday went super as well like usual. We are working on her stepping by guiding her to walk all over the place. She does seem a little more interested in cruising, but she forgets a lot that she has a left foot! Her right foot goes up and down like a reflex, but her left leg likes to stay put. She flat out refuses to be put in any position that would coax her into crawling. She is very happy rolling around "thank you very much"

Oh and Scott is convinced she says "Mama." I'd like to say I believe him. She is so cute with the "dada" and the "Baba" it is about time I get some play too!

I am sure this looks familiar to some

I will never understand, but appearantly this is comfortable for Penny, so this is how she sleeps! Oh, and it looks like she is getting her top two teeth. Her right one has just cut the surface and the left one is very white under her gums.

Penny's 1st day at the Park

We took Penny to the park when her big brother was going to meet his friend last Saturday. We put her on this rocking dinosaur. I wonder if she thought I was going to let go!
Smile!! It is beautiful out and she is having fun with the family!
"OK, why did they leave me on this blue thing anyway!"

In her big girl Highchair

Penny has learned how to use her pincer grasp!! She doesn't use it often, I don't know if she has realized that it is much more effective than raking, but maybe she is thinking about it here in this photo!

Penny is a Big Girl Now!

Penny has definately gotten into the posing for camera mood! She is such a little ham.
"Look at how well I can sit up Mommy!"
"Look Ma! No hands!"

Easter Pictures

She is our little princess. We love her so much!!!