I AM KNIT TOGETHER: Expanding family

I've been feeling sorry for Jonathan lately. The poor guy is surrounded by estrogen all the time so I thought that he deserved a little dude friend.

This is Brutus. He is a male betta fish. He started his life as a Chu mostly as a joke. He had a perfectly adequate little plastic 2 gallon aquarium with the cheapest food and dechlorinator. Jonathan was very appreciative and the girls really enjoyed watching him. In fact, while I was at work on Thursday, Mah Mah was keeping Lydia for us. She knew that Lydia loved watching Brutus so she set them up facing eachother. Brutus on the counter and Lydia in her high chair. Lydia loved watching him so much that she decided that she wanted to watch him closer, so she waited until Mah Mah wasnt looking, stretched as far as she could, grabbed the aquarium and pulled it toward her. This, naturally, didn't go as she had most likely planned. Brutus ended up on the floor, the rocks ended up on Lydia's highchair tray, and the water ended up everywhere. Meanwhile, Penelope was working on filling and overfilling her diaper to create a mess of her own. Laura and Kim (Penny's nurse) handled everything beautifully and no long term harm was done to any of the living beings in the house. Kims socks took a hit as she ran into the wet kitchen, but they recovered.

Fortunately, the Chu family happened to have a spare 5 gallon fish tank and Brutus soon moved into his new deluxe condo. He also needed a filter and a light and a heater and better food and live plants....so my little $20 joke has now turned into a much more expensive member of the family. I would say that I was irritated by this but that would be untrue. I really enjoy having Brutus around and Lydia loves to watch him too.

Little Miss Penny had a really big day today. We had an ophthalmology appointment this morning at 9 and a g-tube clinic appointment after that and we didn't get home until 4:30! It was a long day but it was full of nothing but good news. Penny's eyes look great! She does have astigmatism in both eyes which may end up meaning that she will need glasses but how cute would she be in glasses!? For now her doctor is very pleased with her development

At her g-tube clinic appointment she was weighed and measured and now is in the 5th percentile for height and in the 10th percentile for weight! That's up from the 3rd and 5th respectively in October. She's now 26 inches and 16 lbs. She was pretty impressive all around. We will begin transitioning her over to a toddler formula rather than the neonatal one she is on now. She can't go on whole milk like Lydia is because she's not getting a balanced diet by the food she is eating. Because of this, what she is drinking has to be nutritionally complete. More and more everyday she is putting foods in her mouth and allowing foods to be put up to her mouth and even in her mouth occasionally. More and more she's getting stronger, bolder, and more alert. It's really remarkable. Really, all of her nurses remark on it. Almost every one of them has said "every time I work she's doing something new!" Her new things this week are nodding yes and waving hello and bye bye. It's so beyond adorable. But are you surprised?

Penny wearing some prunes

It the waiting room munching on a Cheezit that she stole from me

Waiting on the doctor and trying out her new Nuk toothbrush

Yesterday, Lydia and I made a little trip over to Methodist Germantown hospital to visit with a friend and while we were there we stopped by the NICU. It was the first time I had been in since Lydia went to LeBonheur and it was really emotional for me. Just seeing the scrub in sink brought back all of those feelings of fear and hope. It was pretty great to bring one of my one year old daughters in there and realize that my fear had been rational but so had my hope.