Lourdes gives my life perspective

Today I'm thankful for...

My appreciation for life

Spending a great day with Lourdes

Playing with Hamilton

Getting to clean the garage (not everyone even has one)

I can't stop thinking about how far Lourdes has come in her short 5 months of life? It still amazing to think that just 10 years ago Lourdes' probability to have an normal healthy life when being born 3.5 months earlier then planned, would be much lower then it is today. She is growing and developing better then we could have expected for a full term baby. Today Lulu and I met at the neonatal pulmonary doctors office to access Lourdes' growth and development. She's the wonder child. Can you believe that she weighs 12 pds, and is in the 75 percentile for her adjusted age (even though Lourdes is actually 5.1 months old, her due date was September 1 and her adjusted age is 2.1 months). The doctor made an observation that completely summed up Lourdes' progress, "if I didn't already know that this little girl wasn't born at 26 weeks, I would have any idea why she is here today?" How that's more then we could have hoped for this appointment. Another building block for the Molina -Wilkerson family.

I spent most of the rest of the day caring for Lourdes and playing with Hamilton. I so cherish these father/daughter times, and while Hamilton took his afternoon nap, Lourdes and I alternated between feeding, snuggling, and changing her diaper. She wanted to be awake for much of our sharing time. As Lourdes laid in my lap, I was mesmerized by how she likes to reach her arms up to the sky and roll those tiny hands into fists. I would play with her toes and see if I can get her to smile for me? We play tuppie, tuppie (rubbing noses together) and I talk to her as if she knows exactly what I'm saying? Each day I learn something new from her. Today Lourdes lets out a Elmo like cackle as I tickle her belly, and she squeals with delight as make raspberries with my mouth. I find it difficult to put her down in the bassinet or the baby swing. I know that our time together will come to an end with Mommy returns home with the other boys (or Hamilton wakes from his nap), but for now Lourdes and I are the only people in the whole universe.