Today I'm thankful for...
Being around upbeat people
Having a (mostly) pain free lower back and left leg
Spending quality time with Lulu during treatments
Lourdes growing up so healthy and happy
The baby girl, Lourdes Elizabeth, has really changed in the last two or so weeks. We have had grandma Nellie here to help while Lulu is gone to San Francisco, and grandma has been spoiling the wonder child (just as grandmas are suppose to do). When I took Lourdes to the doctor last week she weighted almost 20 pounds. (as you can imagine she has rolls of fat all over her body, and looks like a pint sized sumo wrestler). She's so round that one day when I placed her onto the floor for her daily "belly" exercises that I could swear that I thought she bounced? That round face is so pretty, and she uses it to nuzzle your face as she coos into your ear. And when those big earth sized blue eyes stare up at you, it melts your heart to think just 9 months earlier this girl was born at 2 pounds and 13 weeks early. If Lourdes isn't being held (which isn't often) she loves to take rides in her swing. She has a swinging chair that rocks back and forth to music, and she will talk about her day as she rides the chair from side to side. We feed her baby food that comes in a small jar. Everything from peas and carrots, to apple sauce. Lourdes hasn't learned to be selective in her dietary habit yet, and most all we have tried to feed her she was agreeable too. I thank her for coming into my life almost daily, and make a effort to spent as much time as possible with her (which has been hard when grandma is hogging her most of the time).
For Valentine's Day I put together a hard-back picture book of Lourdes' first six months in our life's. I thought what a better present to show my love then to spend my time cutting and pasting photos with captions to highlight Lourdes' accomplishments to this point. I didn't count on the task bringing me the joy it has? Looking through the photos of Lourdes during her three month stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit at Saint Mary's hospital, or the first time I got to hold her frail preemie body, and when I have shaved my head for Lulu. All the memories came flooding back to me during the week that I secretly planned out the book and worked on putting it together for Lulu. What is that saying, "It's a labor of love?" Though I'm not sure that I felt that this was laborious at all? I couldn't have gotten a better Valentine's gift then getting to indulge myself into this project, and then see the joy that it delivered when Lulu got to open the case that contained the book during our Valentines dinner. I knew that this book would be a hit, so I ordered one for grandma Nellie too. She cried when I gave her a copy. I could see that the emotions of all that has happened this last year returned, and it was so intense that she felt the need to cry? I know that this book will bring happiness to a number of people for years to come!
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