We love Spring!

We are loving the Spring here in Chusville!  We spend so much time outside whether it's in our back yard or front yard or walking or zooing or botanical gardening....it's so great!  Lydia now knows what the word "go" means and if we say it she repeats it excitedly and heads her happy little butt toward the door.  She also emphatically repeats "down", "more", "daddy", and "peeka peeka peeka" but not the "boo" part.  Penny loves to get out and about too.  It takes her a minute to warm up but once she feel comfortable she's waving at everyone and making silly faces to get people to laugh.  It's pretty adorable.  Then again, I am a rather biased judge of their adorableness.  The only issues we have been running in to is that sometimes Penny has a hard time with certain stimuli.  Mostly rushing water sounds like fountains or even the faucet in the bathtub.  We are working with the developmental therapist as well as all of her team from the Lebonheur early intervention team to help her learn to cope.  We have already had a big victory though in that she had started not sleeping well at all.  For 2 weeks she had not had a single good night's sleep or good daytime naps.  We did a little research and found that babies in her situation very often have low melatonin levels which make it difficult for them to rest well.  We got an order for some supplements and she's had excellent night's sleep and improved napping every since! 

I have to admit there is a part of me that is afraid that this will develop into something on the autism spectrum.  I realize that on the grand scale of things that could happen as a result of all of her experiences, that autism or sensory integration issues are not the worst.  I guess she's just been doing so well that I let myself dare to hope that after she got off of the ventilator that it would be smooth "typical" sailing.  That very well may be the case.  But it very well may not be and we need to be prepared to go down either road.  You would think we more than anyone would know that God's plans for us no matter how difficult are always better for us than our own.  We have learned to trust Him for every little thing, but that's the catch...you still have to trust Him with each and every little thing and sometimes there are things you would rather not let go of.  Ah life.

On a more positive note...ironically every time the conversation at work turns negative or gossipy I have become known for saying "hey lets talk about puppies!"....well now it's true!  I get to talk about puppies! Really just one.  Her name is illy - rhymes with silly and it's the name of a favorite espresso roaster of Jonathan's - and she is PRECIOUS! We loaded the girls (both girls, Vennie the Vent and his whole posse, and Kim the super-nurse) up last week and went up to Nashville to meet her and we all just fell madly in love with her.  She went that day to a wonderful lady's house also known as "Heidi's Camp Doodle" for basic puppy potty/leash/manners training for a few weeks.  We will get to see her again this weekend at our Memphis Areas Doodle Owners Group (MADOG) but she will be going back with her fabulous breeder Teri to Nashville for a couple more weeks of "Camp Doodle."  I am so anxious to get my hands on her and to love the fur right off of her but I'm sure that whole experience would be much less stressful if we wait until she's got the whole potty training thing down pat.  What a blessing to get a puppy who's already potty trained! I don't want to cheat myself out of that blessing simply because puppies are hard to resist! Ah life.

We are all loving having Jonathan home.  It's definitely an adjustment for us all to get used to our new schedule, but thanks to some wise advise from our favorite pastor Larry Ray, we are figuring it out.  We actually made a chore chart for the two of us to follow (not the babies...it's a little early for that) and so far it's going really well.  By so far I mean...yesterday was our first day!

Ok, babies are starting to wake up.....and by babies I mean very active mobile toddlers....so I need to get these pictures added so I can go take some more! Ah life.

 "I do NOT like the way this grass feels!" -P

"I wonder what this grass tastes like?" -L

 "ooooooooooooooo.....aaaaaaaa....yodeler went yodeling on a mountaintop high..." -L

 "haha Lydia...I love that song!" -P

 "See ya" -L

 chillin with Ms Akeyvia

 First Kroger shushi (that's right....that's how we say it around here) experience

Neither one loved it....they have very discriminating taste

 pondering the meaning of life

 We went to drop off get well cards for Lynnlee (she had hip surgery and is in a body cast for 3 months! but otherwise is doing very well) and we borrowed her swing

We definitely need a swingset!

 Getting ready to go to Nashville...Penny slept through bath, trach care, and getting dressed...even getting pigtails put in!

 This only lasted about 20 minutes

Penny and Illy hit it off immediately

 bunch of posers

 "Ok Penny...if you jump, I'm going with you!" -I

 Mrs Kim might be as excited about Illy as Penny is!

 cute break!

 Hanging out with YaYa at the zoo...see Penny...we told you pandas say "nom nom nom"

 "fish fish!"

 Random front yard family picture that turned out excellently

 " oooo daddy...a little to the left....yea that's the spot!" -P

forced hugs!

 Easter family photo for the grandparents

 "if you're gonna put me in a box, just make sure my sister is with me too!" -P

 morning sister snuggles

Just in case you were starting to think that the girls always smile....mostly no.  We just only post the smiley pictures