Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Posing at her new backyard swingset


Lucy is 4 years old today!

I cannot believe how fast the past 4 years have gone.  Jason and I are beyond thrilled with the progress that Lucy has made in the past year.  She went to preschool and made "friends" on her own, her eating continues to improve, she only needed 1 esophagus dilatation, (she had one RIGHT before she turned 3, and then just one in December!), she's got a TON of spunk and loves to laugh.

We celebrated with family and friends with a backyard BBQ and (of course) Ice Cream cake on Saturday afternoon.  Lucy was THRILLED that daddy and Grandpa got her backyard swingset done in time for her and her friends to play on it at her party.  Today, on her actual birthday, we started with pancakes shaped like the number "4," a trip to Como Zoo, Finding Dory at the Movie Theater, a Chick-Fil-A picnic at the park and finally complete exhaustion, haha!  It's fun to be 4, that is for sure!

Can't wait to see what the next year brings for our sweet little Lucy!


Ice Cream Cake!

Wearing one of her new dresses from Grandma J. to church
New lab coat - now she can really get into the role of playing with all her medical supplies!
Riding a turtle at the zoo (that is the one animal she told us she wanted to see - a turtle!)

Riding the Train at Como Town

Finding Dory at the Movie Theater!

Happy Father's Day!



Happy (belated) Father's Day to Lucy's awesome dad.

Jason and I don't spend too much time reflecting on the journey we've been on with Lucy, but it's been rough at times, as you well know.  Together we have weathered each rough patch and I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else by my side.

Love you, Jason!

A few of my favorite pics of them together:

Holding Lucy in the NICU

A loving gaze to her daddy on his birthday

Comfort after an out-patient surgery

Backpackin' at the Baltimore Aquarium

Dressing up for Halloween together

Sunday, June 12, 2016

School's Out for the Summer!

First day of preschool vs. Last day of preschool
Well, we are all very excited for summer around here...hot weather, kiddie pools, popsicles, Lucy's birthday, a new baby and all sorts of fun, fun things!

Since she was just in 3-year old preschool, she didn't technically graduate yet, so she got to pose with the "1 more year" frame :)
We've already been celebrating the nice weather and end of preschool doing some fun things like the Vehicle Fair at Lucy's school - some of Lucy's favorites were the school bus, the Fire Truck, the Garbage truck and the Coborn's Delivery truck, as well as the Bouncy Bus (a converted school bus that now houses an indoor gym!)  Jason had his last overnight out of town trip before the baby comes, so Lucy and I went to the Library and Dunn Brothers for treats and she even convinced me to walk to the FAR part with her one day to do some yoga, haha!

Asking the fireman a million questions about all those valves and buttons.
Hopping out of the fire truck at the vehicle fair
We've had 2 doctor visits in the last month; the first a follow-up to the follow-up from her hospital stay in March.  She's doing great - no obvious long-term complications and we discovered she is 80% percentile for height and 50% for weight - she's really getting big, if you remember that back at her 12 month check-up she was in the 10th percentile for height!!

The second doctor visit was with cardiology, to check her VSD (hole in her heart) and verify the surgery she had on her double aortic arch is still looking good.  For that visit, she had to have an Echogram, so lying very still and having an ultrasound machine check her heart from various positions.  She did great...just a little sad at the beginning before she realized there would be "no ouchies."  She's such a little charmer that she got some special lead stickers to take home for her dollies to add to her medical kit (which is really quite impressive for a 3-year old...she has some legit medical gear in there).  Overall, her heart looks good - nothing new there, so we are just on the books for annual follow-up.  With this condition, there is always the possibility that she would need a repair because of an infection that develops or a leak that develops in the aortic valve.  However, that is not currently the case, so we just have her monitored by cardiology consistently.

Hope you are all enjoying the first sweet, sweet days of summer!



Yoga in the park


Treats and Dunn Brothers

Since we don't have a dog, Lucy has to fetch us the Sunday paper, hahaha!