Jackson

Last week was quite a wonderful week!! Piper had a follow-up appointment with the Infectious Disease team last Tuesday and they were extremely pleased with her healing. That is, NO MORE DOCTORS!! Woo Hoo! It's hard to believe it's been over a month since we were terrified for our little girl, camped out in the hospital and going on zero sleep. God has remained faithful and shown His great works in Piper, for sure.

Two weeks ago in school, Layla showed up and started writing words. Amazing! She wrote "Hi" and "Tall." We haven't taught her to spell/write words yet and neither have her teachers - she just figured it out by herself - so COOL! She's also been excelling with patterns - in amazing ways. We are so proud of her and are working to make sure she's in the right place academically. Every night when we read books we pick a couple words and teach her to sound them out. She's acing it!

Piper showed off in school last week herself - turns out she knows her colors! They were picking up at the end of the day and the teacher decided to ask her to put the green block away and she did! Then it was blue and yellow and she nailed them first try each time :)

We are so proud of our girls!

I took yesterday to have some 1:1 time with Layla while Piper napped. We went to the mall to pick up a couple things we needed and it just happened that Santa was there. She wanted to talk to him and while she won't tell us what she talked to him about, we have a feeling it involves princesses (fortunately, Santa is a "loud talker"). I'll post a pic of her with Santa later tonight (hopefully). We all went out for dinner last night and Piper's meal was mostly chips and a big bowl of salsa. We kept waiting for her to feel the hot and start crying, but that never happened and she kept going back for more!

In the middle of all this wonderful and fun stuff - perhaps the most exciting news is the addition of a pet chinchilla to our family!! Layla is the proud "mama" and named him "Jackson." He's four years old and very sweet. Layla is, of course, the foremost expert on all things chinchilla and Jackson now, so if anyone has any questions, she will be offering advice.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving this week. We will be staying in Nashville this year - had hoped to make it back to Iowa; but, we'll have to make that trip later :(

This year we are especially thankful for our health and the health of our children. God continues to remind me how faithful He is and how His plan shows itself. It's so easy to get caught up in our own plans and solutions; but, when it comes down to it, God is right there all the time and I need to just let go of all else.

Love,
KB

All Done

yeah - so I'm a little behind. Needless to say, with all the other things in our life, adding to the list (i.e. blogging) wasn't in the plan. BUT - it turns out lots of you are continuing to visit the site.

That said, I have been super tardy in posting a health update on the girls.

Piper had two follow-up visits last week - one with Infectious Disease and one with the Orthopedic Surgeon. Both were excellent and we stopped her antibiotic on Thursday at the direction of the Surgeon (he was, and is, heading up her care). We've all been sleeping much better since- that includes Piper. She has an additional follow-up with Infectious Disease next week and I'm anxious to ask them LOTS of questions about future risk. Bacteria like this is known to colonize in the muscles creating an increased risk of recurrence in the future from something as simple as the common cold.

Layla finished her antibiotic without incident and was back to herself quickly.

Mom ended up on antibiotics about 10 days after Piper was discharged - I suppose it all just caught up with me. BUT - better now! The latest is both girls have pink eye; but, it's SO minor an "illness" that we'll take it!! :)PHEW! Banking on a much healthier 2012!!!

Everyone enjoyed Halloween immensely and Layla was very proud of herself for (eventually) being courageous enough to go up to houses and knock all by herself...with a proud momma watching from the curb. She had a great time and everyone loved her costume, which meant a lot to her - she told me, "MOM - everyone really likes my costume!" Mommy win!