Back to reality!

Well, Russell and are back in the real world, and we hit the ground running.  The instant I set foot in the airport in Charlotte, I thought to myself, Oh, I have to call and cancel therapy for tomorrow because Emma has her nine-month checkup.  It was also kind of sobering to go back to the REAL real world of therapy, doctors, choking, and surgery.  But of course, the moment we saw that first smile from Emma, all that nasty reality faded into the background of our blessed reality.

Emma is now drifting towards the average in terms of her weight and height: 27 inches long (45th percentile) and 20 lbs, 2 oz (71st percentile).  Still a little short and fat, but cuter than ever!

We got a phone call last week that Emma's glasses were in, but when we went to pick them up at JERVEY EYE GROUP (you'll see why I'm plugging them in a second), the frames just seemed too big for her face.  The sweet optician (is this the word I'm looking for?) decided that she just couldn't send our sweet Emma home with those glasses when she thought she could do better.  So they're ordering her another pair.  They could have easily sent us home with that pair, but they just didn't quite fit right.   I have to say that I got kind of upset when I saw Emma with her glasses.  I know I'm biased, but my daughter is beautiful.  Pictures just don't do her justice.  Her eyes are big and blue, and her long eyelashes make women jealous.  But when I saw her in those glasses, I didn't see HER anymore - I saw the glasses.  I didn't think something so trivial as glasses would upset me, but with all of Emma's health problems, I could at least look at her and say, "And she's still so beautiful."  Maybe that's vain of me, but I'm telling you right now: there isn't a mother of a child with special needs out there who doesn't want SOMETHING about their child to be average...normal...run-of-the-mill.  For me, that was Emma's beauty (and perfect eyesight - oh, the things we take for granted!).  The glasses just seem to detract from her natural beauty, and now I know that strangers' comments will no longer be, "Oh, how beautiful...her eyes are gorgeous!...I would die for those eyelashes!" - they will be, "Oh, her glasses are so cute!...I didn't know they made them that small!...How do they know her prescription?"  Yes, she will still be beautiful, but now there's one more thing that's different and stands out.  Again, I know it's vain of me to feel this way, but after all we've been through, it's been such a comfort to know that Emma at least APPEARS to be a regular little girl.

Ok, moving on!  While Russell and I were in New York, my parents kept Emma for 2 nights, and Russell's parents kept her for 3 nights.  Yes, there were days, too, but it's the nights that are important here - out of those 5 nights, Emma slept in the bed with a grandmother for 4 of them.  So we're now having a bit of an issue with sleeping in her crib.  I have just recently won a battle of the wills in the last couple of hours - Emma couldn't even finish her bottle, she was so sleepy, but she cried and cried and cried and cried and cried and cried the second that her body hit the crib mattress.  The more she fought, the more determined I became to get her back into napping and sleeping through the night in her crib.  (Notice that I'm making this statement on only my first full day back from vacation - we'll see where I stand in about 10 days.)

While we were in New York, Emma visited Santa, and I shoplifted this picture from my mother-in-law's camera:

And here are the joys of trying to take a picture with 3-year-old and 9-month-old grandchildren.

Ok, this has nothing to do with Emma, but if you want to be entertained, please share our front row seats with the talented ladies who play The BIG Piano at FAO Schwarz (yes, the one in BIG with Tom Hanks).

And some anonymous New York pics:

A great, great woman

I have some sad news to share - Russell's sweet, precious Grandma died Sunday morning around 3 am.  She had been suffering from Alzheimer's for a few years, but it had not gotten severe.  She was diagnosed with lymphoma in the early fall of 2010, and she began chemo treatments.  At that point, she largely stopped eating, even after they stopped the chemo.  Between the cancer, chemo, and Alzheimer's, she just couldn't do it anymore.  Even when she had to be reminded that she had cancer, she took it with dignity and pleasantness.  Grandma was one of the kindest, most precious people I have ever met.  One of my grandmothers passed away when I was in 5th grade, and the other one has had dementia for over a decade...so Russell's Grandma became my Grandma, too.  And what a blessing that has been.

Russell's grandfather, who we call Papa, is having a very difficult time, so please keep him in your prayers.  The wonderful thing about the timing of Grandma's passing is that she finally got herself a little girl.  As I've mentioned in this blog sometime before, Grandma had 2 sons, 5 grandsons, and 1 great-grandson...until Emma arrived.  For a while there, Emma even had strawberry blonde hair, and the only person in our family with red hair was Grandma.  Grandma was very much aware that she finally had a little girl, and she was also aware that they shared that red hair, even if for only a little while.  You should all know that our earthly world has lost a treasure, but heaven was just made more glorious with her arrival there.

If you're wondering what bedhead looks like...

This is it:

A two-for-one deal

Isn't that what we're bombarded by this holiday season?  Deals?  Well, you're in luck - two blogs for the price of one.

Russell and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary next Friday night, December 17th.  We had discussed going on a big trip for our 5th, but we didn't want to lock ourselves into plane tickets when Emma's health has been so up-in-the-air.  So we settled on Savannah.  I've really been looking forward to going there at Christmastime.  The plan was for us to leave next Wednesday morning, the 15th.  I was done with the blog tonight when Russell walked in and said, "I have some bad news.  It looks like I'm going to have to work a few hours next Wednesday morning, so we won't be able to leave for Savannah right when we planned.  Hopefully this will make up for it."  He laid this down in front of me:

I said, "It's an apple," thinking, "If you think that's going to make up for working on our vacation, you've got another thing coming."  His reply was, "It's big."

WE'RE GOING TO NEW YORK!

You should know that New York City is my favorite place ever.  (Boston is a close 2nd, but NYC holds my heart.)  You should also know that Christmas is my favorite time of year - I can't get enough.  Combine the 2, and what do you get?  My 4th trip to New York at Christmastime.  There is absolutely nothing like NYC at Christmas, and there's REALLY nothing like New York with Russell.

I have the best husband ever.

Something tells me she won't be a doctor

So the other day I was very sneezy and blowing my nose a lot in the morning, as I am and do every morning. I was doing all this in front of Emma, who was sitting in her Bumbo seat. She thought it was so hilarious that she almost choked herself laughing so hard. I started faking the sneezes and blowing my nose, and this is how Emma responded to someone suffering from allergies (or something resembling allergies):

Back to this allergies thing - I've never in my life had seasonal allergies or been allergic to anything else. But for the first half of each and every day, I waste a ridiculous amount of time sneezing and blowing my nose. The only explanation I can come up with is that a baby changes everything.  The allergy thing was finally verified by a bookkeeper today - she also began having allergy problems after children.  Oh, the things we do for our kids...

A quick update on some things that people still ask me about from time to time - Emma's incision has totally healed.  She has a pretty large scar on her back, and most people tell me it looks better than they thought it would.  I think they're just being nice when they say that because I personally think the scar is pretty big, but I appreciate people being nice.  Emma's diaper rash is gone now, thank the LORD.  We had some very bad days with a raw hiney.  Her shunt is functioning normally, and people tell me she's got a lot of hair for a baby, so you don't really see the valve on her head at all.

Emma's sweet Aunt Ally sent her some Christmas longjohns, and here's her first appearance in them:

Merry Christmas, and may God bless you this season.  Just don't forget His original Christmas blessing all those years ago...

Happy Holidays!

Let's get one thing straight: Christmas is about Christ, so I don't replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays;" however, since I haven't blogged since before Thanksgiving, "Happy Holidays" is in order!

Thanksgiving with our families was great. Emma loved on everyone, and everyone loved on her. She thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with my sister - the two of them really bonded. And of course, Anissa brought Emma a special little early Christmas gift:



Emma enjoyed sorting through the Black Friday sale papers with Mama Jane:



She also is looking forward to spending the Christmas holidays in all her Christmas clothes. I'm pretty sure she has enough holiday-wear for every day until Christmas. This is her mini-Santa outfit for starters:





My mom, my sister, and I went to the Gaffney outlets on Thursday night and shopped all night. It wasn't NEARLY as busy as last year. Emma and her daddy had some great quality time together Thursday night and Friday. I was naturally exhausted on Friday, and, lucky for me, the only time that Russell wasn't home was during Emma's long nap. So I shopped all night and morning and napped with Emma during the afternoon - beautiful.

Emma has been sleeping much better at night and has started babbling a little, too. Instead of long, drawn-out, monotone sounds, she's moving her mouth and tongue and varying the pitch of her voice. It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

Our little girl went for her third ophthalmologist visit this week, and the doctor informed us that Emma is still farsighted...and it still has nothing to do with spina bifida. The time has now come for glasses - her eyes still cross sometimes, usually just one eye at a time, and the glasses will eventually help that. We had to order them this week, and, unfortunately, they're kinda plain. I was interested in thinner, metal frames but had hoped to at least get them in pink or purple...no luck - it was either bronze or silver. Silver it is, and they'll be here by Christmas. Emma tried on the floor models, but I use the word "tried" loosely. They were barely on her face for 5 seconds before she was pulling on them. Insurance will only cover the kind that has side pieces that wrap around her ears. I know that sounds weird, but it doesn't look bad. One problem, though, is the frames will be a tad bit long on the sides, but she can't go smaller because of the lens size she needs. We'll just see how all this works out.

One very interesting thing the doctor told us is that nearsightedness never goes away; however, children actually CAN grow out of farsightedness. Can, NOT will...so we'll pray for these glasses to correct Emma's farsightedness. You may be wondering how the doctor knows how to prescribe Emma's glasses. He explained it to us like this: at a shoe store, the salespeople have instruments to measure feet; the pediatric ophthalmologist has instruments to measure how light is refracted through infants' eyes. Easy enough, if you're a pediatric ophthalmologist.

Yesterday Emma spent all day (and I mean, ALL DAY) shopping at the Holiday Fair here in Greenville with Nan, Mama Jan, and Aunt Eva (my mom and 2 of her neighbors). Apparently, Emma had the time of her life. From what I understand, Emma wasn't as interested in the people as she was in the "stuff" and the environment. So she is being trained early for a career as a buyer/personal shopper or an interior designer. Fine with me, as long as she's happy. And boy was she happy yesterday. During Emma's whole day of shopping, she only napped for about 10 minutes.

I didn't get a single present wrapped over the Thanksgiving holiday, but my husband has really stepped up to the plate this year with decorating. I was wondering how I would get it all accomplished with a child who is slightly more needy and cranky in the evening when I actually have time to decorate, but Russell morphed into the holiday version of Superman. So now I CAN focus on wrapping gifts and giving Emma lots of scrap paper to play with (see Black Friday ad pictures above again).