Most Valuable Employee

Zoe and I want to congratulate Paul for being the Most Valuable Employee of the Year at his company! We attended his annual Christmas party last night and he was recognized and awarded for being the Most Valuable Employee. He was also nominated for Engineer of the Year.

We recognize and appreciate how hard you work for us and we're glad to see you recognized for what you do at work too! We love you and think you're always the Most Valuable Employee! Congratulations!

Zoe's New Friend

Zoe has recently become enthralled with Tigger. She never expressed any interest in the Pooh movies that I once rented, although I think she did watch Pooh on TV one Saturday morning recently with Paul. Maybe that's what triggered it...she adores her Daddy and loves to be with him. Whenever she gets a chance to talk on the phone she talks about her Daddy. "See my DaDa"..."DaDa at work"...or whatever else she happened to do with her "DaDa". She also constantly asks where he is during the day.
Back to the story after that rabbit trail...because Zoe never watches Pooh, I had no idea she knew who Tigger was. But we went to Blockbuster recently and as we were walking along, Zoe grabbed a Tigger movie off the shelf. At first I was going to make her put it back, but she seemed so excited about her movie that I decided to rent it for her.
We came home and I gave her the option of which movie she wanted to see. Tigger was her first pick. Her "DaDa" got nostalgic when Zoe started watching Tigger. That happened to be his favorite character growing up and his Mom saved the Tigger he had as a child. It sat in our attic until just the right moment when Paul decided to dig it out for Zoe. At first she said "WOW" with great big eyes and a cute little smile. Then for a while it was "Eww, Yuck". I let it air out for a few days and Zoe decided that Tigger was ok after all. She found one of her shirts and Tigger was soon wearing it. Then Tigger needed to wear a diaper. He also needed it changed when Zoe needed hers changed. Tigger got his face/eyes washed, has "eaten" Zoe's food and "drank" her juice. She even mentioned Tigger in her sleep. I don't know how long this phase will last, but Tigger is the only DVD Zoe wants to watch during her TV time. I guess we'll see how long this phase will last, but in the meantime here is a cute snapshot I managed to capture.

2 Year Pictures

Once again I tried to get Zoe's pics taken and once again she cried through most of the session. Thankfully my Mom went along and she got Zoe to laugh, especially since the photographer kept acting like she just wanted to get it over with and get us out of there. Maybe the fact that she was training 3 new people on their new digital system had something to do with it. Here are the results.

Zoe's Party Pictures

Happy Birthday Zoe

Zoe's birthday was Tuesday and she is now 2 years old. Its been such a fun year watching her learn so many new skills and start talking. She uses complete sentences/phrases and tries to say her ABC's and numbers although it is more jabber than the actual letter or number yet. Her play is becoming more imaginative and its so amusing to watch some of the activities she comes up with. She loves Ben (the dog) and at night she will look to see if he is in the bedroom with her. And he is becoming very fat from all the extra food and snacks she shares with him. Its hard to believe my little girl is 2, but its such fun watching her grow.
We had a party for Zoe on Saturday evening. She loves Curious George (at least she did until she discovered Caillou), so we had a monkey-themed party. I am very fortunate to have a sister who loves decorating cakes and I took advantage of her skills. She came up with a monkey-shaped cake. We had pizza (one of Zoe's favorites), veggies & dip, a fruit dip w/peanut butter in it (great monkey snack), and cake & ice cream (Zoe can tolerate dairy occasionally now).
Paul was able to take Monday and Tuesday off this week. We took Zoe to the Virginia Aquarium on Monday and down to Northwest River Park on Tuesday. She loved both because she was able to be outside a lot. The Virginia Aquarium is under renovation, so they have an exhibit where the kids can play with toy construction equipment. Zoe thought it was great! At the park on Tuesday no one was there, so Zoe had the whole playground to herself.
Having Zoe was one of the greatest joys for us! We love you Zoe and can't wait to see what all you have learned by next year! Happy Birthday!

Summer Fun

Zoe's Surgery

Zoe came through her eye surgery with flying colors. The doctor said it went exactly as he hoped and there were no problems with the anesthesia. The nursing staff at CHKD were wonderful. They gave Zoe a sedative to start getting her drowsy while we were still with her so she wouldn't get upset when we left. It made it much easier to get her changed into hospital clothes and check her vital signs. And when the anesthesia nurse carried her into surgery she didn't even cry.
Her surgery was about 1.5 hours and we allowed to be there while she woke up. She was a little unsteady the day of the surgery, so we kept her quiet (she slept most of the day), but she was back to normal the next day.
At her follow-up visit, the doctor was very pleased with the results. Not only were we able to reduce the strength of her glasses, she is already starting to focus with both eyes. Before her surgery, she had the strongest prescription possible, her eyes still crossed even with glasses, and she only used one eye to focus with.
Praise God that this surgery was a success and there were no complications. Thanks also to all of you who prayed for us that day. God answered those prayers and we felt His presence there with us. We are very thankful and truly blessed!

Pictures

I took Zoe for her 18 mo. pictures recently (she was 19 mo. until we actually had them taken). She is starting to get scared about it and cried through the whole session. I believe she thinks she's at the doctor. The photographer was wonderful though and she managed to get a few pictures of her smiling. I don't think it helped that I tried doing two outfits, but here are the results!

Happy Mother's Day

Before I was a Mom
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew how much I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Someone sent me this via email and I thought it was rather fitting for Mother's Day. Being a mom is so rewarding and one of the greatest blessings from God. I'm so thankful we've been blessed with Zoe and I have the privilege of being a mom! Happy Mother's Day!

Growing Up Too Fast

I haven't had a lot of time for blogging lately (posting or commenting), but I did want to post an updated picture of Zoe. Its hard to believe she's 19 mos. old. I'm sure I'm a little bit partial because she's my kid, but I think this is one of the sweetest pictures.
Everything is pretty much the same as far as her reflux. She's still unable to tolerate dairy or soy and is on the highest possible dosage of a new medication. And she's still almost off the growth charts because she's so tiny, but at least she keeps slowly gaining and hasn't stopped thriving (she's in the 5th percentile for weight). Praise God between the medication and a bland diet (for the most part), she is doing better and actually has been sleeping through the night. We were able to cancel her endoscopy for now at least (I did not relish the idea of having to give her anesthesia).
Also, her right eye has shown improvement with her glasses, so we were able to hold off on eye surgery and hopefully she won't need it ever. The Ophthalmologist was very surprised the glasses worked, but it was confirmation to me Who is really in control. God has graciously answered our prayers concerning Zoe and so wondrously provided for us and we are so thankful!