More Pleased to Meet You!

As Hope gets out and about more and more, she is able to meet more and more relatives. Most recently she had the pleasure of meeting my brother, her uncle Scott. Yesterday, she got to meet more of Mon's siblings and their families. Sorry, no pics. Given the size of Mon's family this could take years!

Alarmist?

Not too long ago, we had a visit with our pediatrician. At that visit, everything went really well. However, our pediatrician told us that if she could have her way she would want no one under 12 to touch Hope for the next 2 years, but she would be happy with the next one year. She told us to instruct Shane and Liv to kiss Hope on her feet and the back of her head where germs were less likely to find their way into her nose and mouth. She recommended that we get some mosquito netting that attaches to her car seat and stroller to help keep dirty hands and kissing lips from invading her space. Her concern, and I totally understand it, is that with Hope's cardiac history, she is more likely to have some sort of respiratory distress if she were to get a respiratory infection. I understand the concern, and we'll do our best to follow her recommendations, especially around hand washing, but, hey, I don't think she needs to be kept in a bubble.

The other day I had Liv and Hope at the park, and of course I'd forgotten her mosquito netting, and just about every little girl in the park (and a few boys) kept following us around trying to touch Hope. Normally, with the netting this is not a problem, the netting is just opaque enough that one doesn't really see Hope without knowing she's in there or looking really hard. Regardless, this one girl about 4 or 5 years old was just about to touch her and I asked her not to. Despite my efforts to explain Hope's situation, this little girl was obviously disappointed to not be able to touch the baby. She walked off dejected. Later, I saw her on one of the climbing toys. She very matter of factly told me that I was not allowed to play on the climber. I was too big. Tit for tat? I think so. I guess we're even now.

Nice to Meet You!

Hope finally got to meet her Great-Grandmother today! Hope had skipped Easter at Nonna and Pop-Pop's, which would have been a great chance for the oldest and youngest of our clan to meet, because we were still a bit nervous to take her out into large crowds during cold and flu season. Regardless, Grandma was very proud to show her off around the community where she lives. Hope and Olivia were both very, very well behaved. It was a great visit that seemed to fly by all too quickly.

Long Time

Well, it's been a long time since I've updated this and I've been getting a little bit of good natured ribbing about it. People really seem to have enjoyed reading my drivel and following Hope's progress. Hope is doing great! Thanks again -- I hope people aren't getting sick of me saying that, but we really are appreciative of all the love and support we've gotten/been getting throughout this process. At her most recent cardiologist appointment, the cardiologist gave a very positive report indicating that it should be normal pediatrician stuff from this point. Did you hear me knocking on wood? Yeah, yeah, superstition = false religion, yada, yada, I'm still knocking. But back to Hope, she's really developing into a little person. I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing that transition -- the one of little pooper/eater/sleeper into a real live person. Hope is now smiling and laughing and even trying to talk. When you give the chance to respond after a question or just about any old thing you say, it's so cool to watch her trying to respond. There is such energy in her efforts to form her little mouth and tongue into some shape that she thinks might make a sound similar to the one's we're making.

Tonight, we took the three kids for some long overdue portraits. We used this guy who was one of the respiratory therapists we met during Hope's stay at the hospital. He did a great job -- look for a new album in the right nav very soon.

Oh, and speaking of long time, Hope has slept for seven hour stretches for two nights in a row now. Despite my previous stance on the matter, sleep is good.