True, I’m a day late posting this, but there just wasn’t time yesterday, and I needed to gather my thoughts anyhow.

Yesterday, Cutie turned one.  It’s been a wild ride and I found her birthday to be bittersweet.  I had to keep my focus on NOW, because whenever I think about her birth I want to cry.   Both because her birth was so scary and stressful, but also because of how far she’s come.  She spent her first 5 weeks in the NICU, and I worried that she wasn’t ever going to be able to eat at all, and that she’d never bond with me.  But God is good.  She’s a healthy, happy sweet baby.  She can eat, she’s active and extremely mobile, and she definitely knows her Mama.

So here is a tribute in photo’s of Cutie’s first year.

The first time I got to hold her.

1 month old

2 months old - Baptism

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months -- Happy Birthday!

We jumped into our Russia study!  

We read A Symphony of Whales (what a neat book!)

We started The Night Journey (Annie is loving it, but the twins aren’t sure yet–it might be a little over their heads)

We also started reading SovieTrek  (so far it’s a huge hit–my kids love the idea of bike riding across an entire country or continent)

Annie is reading Angel on the Square .

Here’s a few pics of our Russia Map/Poster

Dinoboy drew a Beluga whale to go on the map for A Symphony of Whales

Annie is now officially a Girl Scout.  She had her first service project this week helping at the local food pantry, sorting food and discarding expired stuff.  She is so excited.  

We took Cutie to the children’s hospital for follow up’s with neurology (no real problems there but they want to see her in 6 months anyways–hopefully that will be the last time!) and hematology.  Hematology was much more interesting.  It seems that her Thalassemia, which we new was rare, is so rare that she is in fact the first ever case.  They’re even going to name it after her.  Thankfully it’s mild enough that we don’t need to worry now, but it looks like we’ll be back every 3 months to have her blood checked.   I’ve also set up an appt. for her to be evaluated by early intervention to see if she needs any speech therapy.  And of course, she said mama for the first time immediately after.  I figure, if she suddenly begins babbling/talking over the next month, I can always cancel the appt., Murphy’s Law and all.

Also, Cutie has suddenly started eating real food, and keeping it down.  It would seem that she’s finally learned to swallow without gagging.  Now if I could get her to eat something other than banana, we’d be in business.

Yesterday we finally got a chance to go to the library, and I was  psyched to see several copies of Carpe Demon available for check out.  It’s apparently the book of the month.  I had heard about it months ago at The Homeschool Library and it’s been on my to-read list ever since.  Basically the idea is what would happen if Buffy the Vampire Slayer grew up, and  became a soccer mom?   I’m only a third of the way through, but it’s really good!  

Phew…February got off to a busy start, and I don’t think it intends to let up anytime soon.

This morning we took Cutie for her 9 month physical (though she’s actually 10 months-somehow we ended up scheduling it a month late).  She’s growing very well–she’s 17lbs and 27 inches now!  Considering her start (5 weeks in the NICU with feeding issues)–that’s awesome.  But the ped was concerned that she’s still gagging and vomiting with solids and still isn’t babbling or making any sounds besides squeals, coos and “happy growly sounds.”  So she said she’d send a referral for early intervention.  She said it could take weeks to months to go through, but they called me this afternoon to set up the appointment.  Yay!  And they come to my house so we don’t have to drag all 4 kids out for the evaluation. Double yay!

The exhausting part of my day was phone tag with the Children’s hospital (where Cutie has a follow up with both neurology and hematology next week).  Oh my goodness.  I had been trying to get through to hematology for months to set up the appt.  All we had to do was have some lab work done to see if her Thalassemia is going to continue to be a problem.  But for whatever reason, we just couldn’t seem to get anything set up.  They kept saying they’d call back and never did.  I called again today and was told, again, they’d call me back.   Finally the doctor called to see what was going on.  Voila!  Appointment scheduled.  

I think I spent a record amount of time on the phone today–and I really don’t like talking on the phone. And in the middle of all that phone tag, I managed to actually accomplish some school work with the kids. I’m totally exhausted and just want to curl up with a book and some tea and hide.  Unfortunately my family is expecting dinner tonight, and I have a mountain of paper work to start working on for the early intervention visit next week, not to mention a house to clean before anyone can come for the evaluation.  Sigh…maybe once they’re all in bed I can finally have my calgon moment?

A few months ago, I hung a toddler rosary over Cutie’s bed.  I figured since she wasn’t old enough to use it yet, it would serve to decorate her space.  Then  yesterday, just after I put her down for her nap, I heard a lot of banging and knocking coming from her room.  I peeked in the room and found her pulling down the rosary.  I hung it back on the wall and laid her back down.  

When I went to check on her a few hours later, she was still sleeping, with the rosary clutched in her chubby little hand.  I of course ran for the camera, but when I got back, she was wide awake.  I took a picture anyways of course.

That night when I put her down for bed, she grabbed her rosary and went right to sleep.  Same thing at nap time this morning.  

I’ve always thought she was a special baby–I wonder what plans God has in store for her?