Miss Talkative

"stick" = sticker
At our gym, they ask us to label our diaper bags with those sticker name tags that everyone is so fond of for reunions and conferences. When we got home, Hope pulled it off of the diaper bag, put it on her shirt, patted it and proudly said, "stick!"

Recent Pics

Elmo's World

While we were in Disney, my mom introduced Hope to Sesame street. Hope fell in love with Elmo. We've seen Sesame Street before, but not on a schedule. While I do much "by the seat of my pants", my mom -- enviably -- does almost everything in a routine. I sense that her stay here with Hope was no different. Within days of our return, I was changing Hope's diaper, and began to sing the Elmo's World theme song, "La, la, la-la", and Hope finished, "Eh-oh wirrl".

When we found out about her diagnosis in utero, I totally geeked out and was reading all these scholarly articles about TGA kids and their prognoses and outcomes. Several studies pointed out high correlation between kids who'd been on heart-lung bypass machine and a difficultly in speech and/or language development. Given her level of verbal expression and understanding, I think she's going to be fine. We don't read to her as much as we vowed to after reading that article, but we do talk to her almost all the time; describing diapering, dressing, eating, cooking, laundering, playing, etc. I think she's going to be fine -- in the speech department, anyway.

At 14 months:
Her sixth tooth just broke through, and the seventh is not far behind. She enjoys coloring, singing, and dancing. As I write this, she's sitting next to me making funny noises with her mouth. She sings the ABC song -- it's far from perfect, but certain segments are right on. She says MORE and PLEASE using sign language. Says "CHEEEESE" whenever the camera comes out. And, oh yeah, LOVES to climb. I often have to put the kitchen chairs down on the floor sideways or upside down so that she won't climb up on the kitchen table. One night, while making dinner and chopping vegetables, I turned around to find her on top of the table, sitting inches from the edge. Scary! She climbs the ladder on our swingset, and goes down the slide by herself. She has her brother's sense of adventure, which he likely got from his dad.

Emerging Personality

Yesterday, I was having great fun with Hope at lunch. We were playing a little game, apparently started by Nonna, where after every bite of yogurt Hope bites down on the plastic/rubber spoon and won't release it. Of course, she has a smile on her face and this is all in good natured fun.

We recently returned from Disney. Mon and I took the two older kids, while my Nonna and PopPop kept Hope here at our house. Leading up to our departure, Mon and I started to feel these pangs of guilt about leaving Hope at home. We started reading these forums on Disney's website about strategies for taking one year olds (and younger). Even our first days on the monorail, we'd see these families with little tiny babies, and we'd start to think we should have brought Hope. But we soon realized that, while we did miss her, we were able to enjoy do so much more of the parks without her. We were able to stay out later, do rides together instead of taking turns. It was nice. The bitter part (of the ubiquitous "bittersweet") was that upon our arrival home, Hope acted almost as if she forgot who we were. She would cling to Nonna, and acted a bit shy toward Monica and me. I kind of expected this as I received a similar treatment on my return home from my two ski trips this year, when Nonna also came to help out with the kids. But I don't think Mon was ready for this.

Stopping Traffic

Literally! yesterday, as we were leaving Shane's piano lesson, a car begins to slow next to ours as I am getting the kids into the car. The driver is an older woman, likely late fities/early sixties. I'm thinking she's going to ask for directions. With the window down, she says, "What a beautiful baby!" And drives off. I try to yell, "Thank you!" but am so stunned, something more like, "Eh errr uhh ank you." comes out.

In more mundance news, Hope is fascinated with light switches. Whenever we walk past one, she says, "Ssseh. Ssseh. Ssseh." And wants to flip it. If it's up she pushes it down, if it's down she pushes it up.

Ninja Girl

Hope found Mon's nunchuks (foam covered) from way back when, which were previously found by Shane and left strewn about. See the album for all her fun

Growing

Hope has four teeth now. Two up and two beneath. (Can you name the band?) She is also saying some "words"; Mama, Dada, down (deh-deh-deh), bottle (ba-bul), ball (ba ba ba). She sometimes calls Shane (Say) and Olivia (dih-dee-uh or lil-lee-uh).

Sorry To Keep You Hanging

Hope's sedated echo looked good. Heart function and size were totally normal. We also just got back the results from the development psychologist who tested her as part of the feeding study -- again, totally normal.

Thanks for caring!

Back at CHOP

Today we are back at CHOP -- don't worry -- for a sedated echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart). Part of normal care for TGA kids at one year old. Hope's cardiologist has been performing non-sedated echos in a satellite office about every two months, but as she becomes more active it becomes harder and harder to get good pictures of her little heart. As we sit here in the waiting room, it just feels natural to write. It totally brings me back to our experience just over a year ago. I even ran into another family who was here at the same time that we were. Small world.

Yesterday, we had a speech therapist out to the house to evaluate Hope's speech and cognitive development. Hope was awesome. That's not just me talking either. I know I'm more than a little biased, but both the speech therapist and the developmental psychologist -- who saw her on Wednesday as part of the feeding study -- were really impressed with her and her abilities. It's easy, especially in these really busy weeks to get into a funk and to forget how truly blessed we are -- knock on wood, for as I type this I'm afraid I'll jinx her echo results. But every day with her and our other children is such a blessing.

Now, if I can just enlighten the boy to this same way of thinking. Blessings!

Its Official, She's Toddlin'

Hope is now walking the length of entire rooms. She's been taking steps on her own for a few weeks now. Many times it's been at the request of Mom and Dad, who are dying to see her pass certain milestones, especially given her unique and auspicious start. But about a week ago, we were all trying to get out the door, and about halfway through admonishing Shane for not having his shoes on, he shouts out, "Look, Look! She's gonna walk!" And sure enough, she ended up taking about 7 steps. It's been touch and go since then, she was just diagnosed with bilateral (both sides) ear infection which I think messed with her balance. It's actually funny since Liv had a very similar deal at around the same time. But now she's back to it. Liv had a palydate today, and when the other little girl's mom came to pick her up, Hope was in total show-off mode. She was walking through entire rooms. She's a toddler.