Our Week

We went to the eye doctor this week.  Jessi is walking the path that her Mama and Daddy took.  Dr. Steed said in six months to a year she’ll be picking out some glasses too!  Sammi’s rapid sprint to blindness to slowly down (thankfully!)  She is currently 20/850.  Becca has got to do Vision Therapy.  He said college is going to kill her if she doesn’t take the time and work on her convergence issues.  Fun times!

 

 

Therapy shots

We had lots of friends over this week.

Dogs – how we love them and how they are driving us crazy!  Poor Patches – she has become Joy’s playmate.  Joy adores her.  She swings her, carries her everywhere, and even insists on bathing her!  But those crazy puppies are starting to dig – ugh!  It’s a good thing they are so cute.  Funny thing, turns out our Hershey (the runt) is really smart.  Our beautiful Husky not as much! :)

The wildlife in our corner of suburbia: With all of this rain, there have been lots of frogs!

This was really cool!  A Luna moth – very exciting!  Did you know they only live as adult moths for a week?  And we got to see one!  They are huge!

Bec and Sam went to a Personal Progress Party this week.  They got points for each thing they wore that started with the letter “p.”  Joy wanted to be like them, of course.  She kept asking me for more “stuff.”  They were so cute!

Lovin’ on Alex

Alex has so many different faces.  He LOVES having his clothes changed or having diaper changed – he just laughs and laughs!

Joy and Bella signing “I love you”

Cardiology visit – we had an 8:50 appointment.  It was on one of the days of terrible rain, we left at 7AM, and just barely made it.  But running around at 6:50AM trying to load the car with all of Bella’s equipment, the girls wanted to know if they could come.  In my stressed out frenzy, I said yes.  This blurry picture is what we looked like – our crazy large group!  They were really good for the many hours we were there.  One of the crazy things was we didn’t all fit into an elevator together – so there was a lot of “I’ll meet you on the ---- floor.”  I even told the girls the wrong floor once.  Oh well, we all survived!  This is how we normally split up: Sammi and Joy, Jessi and Alex, me and Bella.

This summer these two have become buddies, beautiful to watch!  Alex being evaluated by the PT.  This week we did our third post placement visit.  Just two more!  We talked about how he doesn’t like to make eye contact.  The lady doing our visits isn’t a social worker, she’s a marriage and family therapist.  So she’s working from that perceptive.  She feels the eye contact is a trust issue. She reminded us that he’s had a lot of loss in his life and been through a lot of trauma (with his medical issues as well).  How it made my heart sad!  His PTs, working from a medical model, feel the lack of eye contact is lack of muscle control in the head and neck.  Lots to think about.

At one point this week I looked at a picture I have on Bella’s dresser.  It is in a frame that says Sisters.  Inside is the picture I recently took of Joy and Bella on the trampoline.  Behind that picture on the dresser is a picture I have of Bella’s family in the NICU.  Her mother is holding her.  Her father is holding Bella’s older sister.  And I pondered how we can take a child from one family and insert them into another.  Even when this happens as infants, there is loss.  Are we doing enough to help these three little people in our lives deal with their loss and know they are loved and safe here in our home?  More pondering.

Playing outside

Culinary events this week:

Bone broth for Alex (it’s a part of a diet I’m trying to follow to introduce solids to babies, we’ll see how it goes), Bec and Sammi made Strawberry Jam, and Drying the basil (our garden is going crazy with mature herbs, time to start the harvest)

Tons of videos this week.  I had a few on the camera that hadn’t been cleared out yet.  Enjoy!

 

Alex being quiet and content