6 Weeks Home!

It's hard to believe that Alina has only been home 6 weeks. It feels like she's always been with us! On the 26th she turned 18 months. Since we missed her turning 1, we had a little birthday party for her. Sorry no pictures to post. I have tons of new ones, but something is wrong with the USB port on our computer. Anyway, I thought I'd give you a little update on how she is doing. The speech therapist in me can't help but comment on her speech and language...which is coming along beautifully I might add. She says or signs (mostly signs) almost 10 words (ice cream, milk, please, thank you, sit, uh-oh, mama). She understands almost 15 words (cracker, kiss, baby, ice cream, milk, please, no, sit, mama, dada, sissy, uh-oh, pray). And that with one of her ear drums completely occluded with wax! In 6 weeks she has gone from barely walking to walking steadily, climbing stairs and almost running. She eats practically anything you set in front of her and has gained 2.5 pounds! We can no longer see her ribs sticking out which is a huge comfort. She seems to know that she is part of the family and loves to cuddle. Last night at church she picked out daddy from a crowd of people and ran to him...and she could only see him from behind. I thought that was pretty amazing. The whole sibling thing is coming along, albeit slowly. Alina definitely does not like Meagan sitting on my lap and tries to grab onto her clothes to pull her off. And Meagan is constantly trying to be the little mommy and hold Alina like a "tiny baby." I feel like a broken record all day with the two of them, "Meagan, leave her alone!" Alina is going to be my strong-willed child. When Meagan was this age and I told her "no" she would melt into sobbing and tears. The other day, Alina was messing with one of my house plants. I told her "no" and she looked at me straight on, her eyes full of determination and smacked that leaf as hard as she could!

Medically, she seems to be doing well. We are waiting on the results of an echo-cardiogram she had earlier this week to check on a little heart murmur the doctor heard at her last appointment. On August 20th, we see the craniofacial team at Riley (plastic surgeon, pediatric dentist, ENT, etc.) It is literally an all day thing. Hopefully from that appointment we will schedule surgery to do a number of procedures on her nose and mouth. They try to do everything at the same time which means more pain, but only one time to undergo general anesthesia.

I go back to work on Monday. I'll be working a Monday, Wednesday, Saturday schedule which I am very excited about. I just hired a fabulous babysitter for the two days that Chris and I can't be with the girls. During the interview, Alina walked right into her arms and that never happens! She has a 5 year old of her own and used to be a special education teacher. Anyway, I'll let you know how things go that first day. We have left Alina only twice so far...once for 20 minutes and once for an hour. Luckily Chris will be dropping her off so I won't be walking into work a total basket case!