5-12

And a good day was had by all!  Jonathan got to come home last night instead of this morning which made for a full day of good times.  My mom and dad came in town and spent the morning with Penny.  Jonathan, Lydia, and I spent the morning with his parents doing some cool Chinese traditions we do every year about this time.  Then we all came together for lunch (except for Penny, she was too busy getting her milk scan) at our house.  Jonathan and I went up to see Penny ourselves and had a wonderful time hanging out with her, and now we're in the process of having a nice quiet evening at home.  It's actually not quiet because Jonathan is practicing, but it is a nice evening anyway.

Both my parents, and Jonathan and I noticed how good Penny looked today.  We're really not sure what it was but she just looked like a happy healthy baby.  She had her milk scan today and we should have the results of that soon.  We're pretty confident that it will show that she does not need the reflux repair.  Sadly she'll be radioactive again (or is that cool...I forget) for 24 hours so Lydia can't go see her until tomorrow evening, but don't worry, I'm posting pictures from yesterday when they were together so you'll still get your cute quotient in!  Tentatively, Penny will be having her hernia and g-tube surgeries together on Monday.  It's estimated to take about 2 and a half hours (but if she had to have the reflux repair it would be 5 hours and that would just be too long for her) and then the goal is to get her off the vent, healed up, back on home oxygen and headed home!  Nobody will give me a time frame of how long that will take but I think it'll be at least a couple more weeks.  I'd rather be pleasantly surprised then to have to stay any longer than I think we will.  It's just been way too long already.  The best part is that we can tell now that Penelope really is doing better.  I feel confident in her strength and in her ability to handle this surgery. I also feel confident in our decision to give her a g-tube so that she can gain the weight she needs to be able to fight all the harder as she tries to grow out of her BPD (lung disease).

Lydia has been having alot of firsts.  She heard her first bagpipes today!  We were at Elmwood cemetery (see aforementioned Chinese tradition) and there was a guy there practicing his bagpipes!  I guess he figured the people at the cemetery were less likely to complain than the people in his neighborhood.  He was dead right.  This is the part where I'm tempted to go on a long rambling pun-filled rant but I won't.  You're welcome.  Anyway, Lydia had an eye appointment and her eyes continue to grow appropriately.  In fact, she just keeps growing all over!  I've forgotten to weigh her every night before or after her bath because I'm either afraid she'll pee on the scale before her bath or that she'll get hypothermia if I don't dress her quickly after her bath.  I think she's dang near 12 pounds.  She's quickly growing out of alot of the cute clothes we have!   Little booger.  Doesn't she know that all the showers are over and that her clothes will get decidedly less cute when I'm responsible for picking them out and paying for them?! I guess she didn't get the memo.  Good thing she has a cute face, so when her mama dresses her funny she can still make some friends.

Specific Prayer

• Penelope's upcoming surgery and her preparation for that
• Lydia's continued growth and good health
• Jonathan's safe travels

"Uh, are you sure this big thing is safe?" -Penelope

"They're not fooling anybody by putting this little kid's head higher than mine...my arm is bigger around than her neck!" -Lydia