Lots to tell

Last week Emma had a very important visit - she went to the First Presbyterian Healing Service to meet, in person, another one of her "families." After we learned of Emma's diagnosis last year, we began visiting the Healing Service at the invitation of some friends of ours who are members at First Pres. Over the following months, these prayer ministers prayed and loved and loved and prayed over our baby girl! So we finally had an opportunity to bring Emma to meet these loved ones. But first...

We were getting Emma dressed to go, and Russell was putting Emma's tights on her. He got this far



and said, "I just can't do this to her." Men. Please. Welcome to our world.

Anyway, when we did make it to the Healing Service, Emma really enjoyed meeting everyone after the service was over. She was a little hyper, which was just funny. So it was hard to get a good picture of her at the front of the chapel, especially since her mouth falls open in amazement as soon as a camera goes up.





We have no idea why, but Emma has started holding her arms up in the air when she eats. Imagine if we all did some sort of arm workout as we ate (besides the act of bringing food to our mouths!).



Emma had a few tests done on Thursday at the Shriner's Hospital and at the regular hospital to check on her bladder and kidneys. Her bladder is just a little small, but there's really no change since the last time they did this test. Her kidneys look fine, too. They're culturing her urine to make sure that her bladder infection is gone - hopefully it is, but even if it's totally gone, we'll still give her an antibiotic every day in case her bladder doesn't fully empty on its own. If it doesn't empty, it can allow bacteria to grow. As far as what to do about this later...we'll worry about it later. In the meantime, all we can do is give her an antibiotic, and that's what we're doing. Done with that topic.

Our nephew, Mason, turned the big 3 on Friday, and his birthday party was Saturday afternoon. He really enjoyed his tractor party, and Emma tried to enjoy it. She slept on the way there and on the way back but never REALLY got a good nap in. So she spent all of Mason's party wavering between sleepy and happy. Being outside generally makes her happy...so it also kept her awake. As a result, she slept for 12 glorious hours Saturday night. Here are a few shots of her loving on her sweet ZeeZee:







And here is a pitiful, stop-taking-pictures-of-me-and-let-me-sleep look Emma was giving me in the car on the way home before we both fell asleep.



After sleeping so well on Saturday night, Emma didn't sleep so well last night. She was very upset for a while Sunday evening, and she woke up a couple times during the night crying, almost like she was in pain. A new tooth perhaps? She drools all the time anyway, so that's not a good gauge...she was chewing on her burp cloths pretty intensely yesterday...I hope that's all it is.