Catch-up

That was quite the blogging hiatus, whew! I hope I can get back to keeping better track of things, as it's so very important to document. We've had a crazy year, one filled with love, learning, hurt, but a whole lot of happiness too. Collin turned 6, Jacob turned 5, and Cora turned 2. I'll work on posts for them, and some of my favorite memories this year. For now, I leave you with some of my favorite pictures that a dear friend took of my littles.

Photo Dump

As this is for posterity's sake, here we go:

We had a fun but windy day at the splash pad (which ended up in the loss of Cora's darling blanket my sister made for her), Jacob had oral surgery and was not happy about it (understandably), silly Suzie being Suzie (and taking after her mom!) Aunt Shayli kissing a fish for good luck, and the whole whopping three photos I got from the 4th of July.

Cora's Surgery and Ten Months

So back in February. I noticed that Cora's eyes were starting to cross, mostly when she got sleepy.

It continued to get worse, moving to all the time, and after chatting with another pediatrician and then my sister about it (my nephew's eyes also cross) I decided to talk with our pediatrician about it. At Collin's well child visit, which coincided with Cora's Synergis shot, I talked with the doctor and we decided that it would be best for her to see the specialist. After a month's wait, we went up (the appointment was almost 3 hours long total) the doctor decided we would start with 8 hours of patching, as her right eye at that time had no vision in it. We also scheduled surgery for the next month, and so for 2 weeks we patched every day, for 8 waking hours. At the 2 week visit, the doctor congratulated us on diligently patching as she now had vision back in her right eye. June 6th was surgery day, and it was hard. Primary Children's brings back a lot of bitter-sweet memories for us, and I think we both lost it a bit when we handed over a sleeping Cora to the anesthesiologist's arms, as we made the walk we had walked with Ryker a few too many times, and also Jacob. The surgery was about an hour, and we were allowed back pretty promptly, where we found our tired and "hangry" little girl guzzling down some glucose water. 

We had to stay for about 3 1/2 hours after she got out, as there were a few breathing complications after she was extubated, and she needed a little help getting the bronchioles to expand a bit more. But we were exhausted at the day's end, as Mike so lovingly documented for our posterity. 

She will still need to have more surgeries, but she looks pretty dang good. 

This top picture was taken this last week, and the bottom two were taken the week of her surgery, so you can see the difference between what she was experiencing to the amazing work they were able to do for her. We will have glasses in the next little while (it could be a few months, it could be a few years) but we are in some excellent hands as far as her care goes.

This sweet girl also turned 10 months this last week, which is just crazy. She still sleeps solidly through the night, takes 3 or so naps a day, and began backwards crawling today, so I give her the next two weeks to be doing frontward crawling or some solid army crawling at least. She is the most talkative little girl, just babbling and babbling, and her whole 3 word repertoire is "mama", "dada", and "baba". She signed "mama" for me this last week, and I could not have been happier. Collin was an early talker, but she seems to have him beat. It's like she just has so much to say and cannot wait until she can tell you about it.

These were a bunch of pictures I took that needed a little bit of sharing. Cora has been loving eating real foods, which is made a bit easier with the emergence of her two bottom teeth (which are just so cute!) As long as she is not tired or hungry, she is one happy baby (most especially while being held or being played with). 

Collin graduated from Pre-school, and it was such a fun little party/celebration.

They dressed up as princesses and princes, and pirates, and Collin chose to be a king pirate, so he made a crown with pirate decorations. Go figure. 

This gal above is the student that was assigned to be over Collin and work with him (each student is assigned a preschooler) which is awesome because she is also our favorite hostess at our favorite family restaurant.

My Mom and my sister Amelia came with us, and we had a pretty good time.

Collin has such a fun friend that lives across the street from us, and that also was in his class. They loved going each day.

And all the excitement tired this little princess right out. 

And to pay homage to those darling chubby thighs that I LOVE to squish on. She may be a tiny but the girl has some yummy little thighs!

That about wraps up this post, look forward to some more as I catch up on our life.

Cora's Baby Blessing

I have looked forward to the day we would bless our babies. It is something I dreamed of, as soon as we found out we were pregnant with Lilly. We have the sad misfortune of having had to bless both Lilly and Ryker in the hospital, something that is tender but not something I would like to repeat. Because Cora was so early, we decided to hopefully save her (and some other darling cousins) a nasty winter case of RSV or the flu, and so we blessed her in May. We blessed her in a dress I bought right after Lilly passed, and it was so pretty on her, but was taken off as soon as we got home, as dupioni silk is less then forgiving, plus, Cora was much more comfortable in a short cotton dress. 

It was as close to perfect of a day as possible (despite a headband malfunction and Mike getting hurt falling down the stairs). We were surrounded by our darling family, and it was just so special to see Mike hold our darling baby girl and give her a beautiful name and blessing. 

I am never the best at making sure pictures are taken, but we did a couple at the end, and I am so glad we did. Cora is so very loved I thank Heavenly Father every day for our beautiful little miracles.

My in-laws are not pictured here (they had already left), but these are my parents. They made me the person I am today, and I am so very grateful to them. I am grateful too that my in-laws raised such a wonderful son that can bless our family and be a worthy priesthood holder.  

^^^This is the gorgeous dress. I will have to take a picture of it in detail because it is just so pretty.

Cora, we love you and are so grateful you are a darling part of our family.