A Day of Thanksgiving

Our first official Thanksgiving with all of the girls!! It certainly is a day of "thanksgiving," especially when we look back to where we were last year. At that time, we had just brought Lila Grace home and Adeline was beginning her last real "fight for life" in the NICU. Not happy times. It feels like years ago. I can't believe that Adeline hasn't been home a year yet.



This year was quite a different story. We spent the majority of the day at home as a family. We were able to watch Adeline crawl up on all fours for the first time (instead of her preferred commando style), make pumpkin bread and relax. This evening was spent at our good friend Charlotte's house. We celebrated the girls' road home from the NICU and the joy they have brought into our lives over the past year. How nice it was to sit around a table with the girls intead of sitting around their isolettes in the hospital.

Not only is it Thanksgiving, it is also supposed to be the girls' 1st birthday. If you look at them as 12 month olds you would not think twice about their development. Of course they are small, and yes, Adeline is still commando crawling, but there is nothing that says these girls don't fall into the range of "normal" 12 month old development. I recognize that they are 15 months old and eventually they must conform to their actual age expectations, but for now, I am happy to see them evolving from babyhood to toddler-hood as all one year olds do.

To mark their "unofficial 1st birthday," we took the girls to go see Santa (against the advice of our pulmonologist). We thought going before Thanksgiving would decrease the chance of catching some nasty virus. To our surprise, we weren't the only ones chatting it up with Santa the day before Thanksgiving. Savannah was proud to hand Santa a letter from her teacher stating that Savannah had been a very good girl this year. After realizing she wasn't getting his lap all to herself, she climbed on up and helped Santa hold the babies while everyone looked at the camera and tried to smile. Try, being the operative word.




There is so much to be thankful for this year. I felt like the world was crashing down on us last year and today I feel nothing but blessed. I can't express in words how much I love these girls. They are my joy, my delight and the root of my happiness. It has been a fight to get to this place but I feel an overwhelming sense of peace. Maybe it is Miss Adeline rubbing off on me. She has plenty enough serenity and inner strength to go around.

We thank our friends, families and those who didn't know us yet felt compelled to pray for us, for your steadfast prayers and support over the last year and a half.

Making Progress

It is hard to believe how far the girls have come. One year ago, they were both still hospitalized on varying forms of support. Today, Adeline is commando crawling and Lila Grace is up and walking.

Adeline has come very far these past two weeks. She is now taking things in and out of containers, looking for dropped objects from her high chair and mimicking various sounds. She likes to play the "shake your head no game" with her sisters at the dinner table and "see how much water you can splash out of the tub" during bath time. While most of these activities create more mess, take more time and seem to gang up on the single parent (when all three girls are shaking their heads no and not eating), I celebrate them! It is positive yardage. Adeline is also closer to pulling herself up to stand and working on a hands and knee crawl. She is 16 pounds, and 26 3/4 inches long. Yes, that is remarkably small but considering where she started, it gigantic growth.

Miss Lila Grace. . . Has any baby gone from tripping over their own feet to walking so quickly? Just a few days ago she was working on mastering 10 steps and now she pops up unassisted and walks in and out of rooms. Not only is she steady on her feet, she walks over toys, dodges her sisters and bends down to pick something up without missing a step. Instead of tipping toys over, she is working on tipping barstools, chairs and any large object she can manage to turn over. Often, Savannah is running ahead of her and sit on whatever she has her eye on which is met with much screaming. Oh, the joy of siblings!! Lila is just starting to say a few words. She says her own version of Uh-Oh, Elmo, and hello. She is weighing in at just under 19 pounds and is 28 inches long - just barely on the charts.

Time. . .Where does it go?

Now that we are just a few short weeks from Thanksgiving, I decided to take time out of my busy day (cleaning for our open house) and make pumpkin bread with my BIG girl. Although this activity ran the risk of going poorly (as I was trying to clean and not create a mess) I am proud to say that I let my child's need for experimentation override my need for cleanliness. Not only did Savannah get a great kick out of labeling which ingredients were dry and and which ones were wet she also identified the "soft" and "scratchy" ones. Yes, that means hands in the flour!! She takes everything in and wants to make sure and miss nothing.


We had a great time. She was very proud of the three loaves we cranked out in an hour's time. I was very proud of my oldest girl. How sweet, sincere and intelligent she is. How did this little girl turn into such a Mommy's Helper? I look forward to the day when all three of my girls are up at the island and baking with me. Until then, I will continue to try and take time out of my busy in order to give Savannah the time and attention she is due.

Halloweein 2007

Hope everyone had a great night trick-or-treating. We had a full day and were able to enjoy taking all three girls out and about this Halloween. Lila Grace and Adeline were Scaredy Cats and Savannah was a beautiful witch. The girls hung out in their stroller while big sister filled her treat bag with candy. Yes, it is harder to divide yourself between three kids during days like this but we were undeniably happy that we didn't have to make the long drive into the NICU this year.

Here is a peak at how our last couple of days played out.