Happy Fall

Happy Fall! Aside from spending the last two weeks in the hospital with Miss Maia, who is now doing very well, we have been really busy...

Trying on our Halloween costumes for Grandma...

While visiting Great-Grandma in Arizona...

Playing lots of games...

Swinging at the park ("Mom, I'm Flyyyyyyyying!")

And swinging some more...

Hey, I even convinced Aunt Alli to swing with me!

Tired of swing pictures yet? Ok....

We also went to trunk-or-treat

We gave away a lot of candy but didn't take any home...maybe next year.

It was hot and we didn't want to wear our hats. But we were cute anyway.

How hard is it to get one baby to look at the camera? Not very.

How hard is it to get two babies to look at the camera? Very.

Happy Fall!

Recovery

Miss Maia had surgery today to untether her spine. It went well. It has been really hard on me to watch her be in so much pain today, she cries in a way I have never heard before. But, they seem to have gotten it under control, and she is sleeping. She whimpers a little bit here and there in her sleep though. Poor little thing. I am staying at the hospital with her and hardly slept the night before the surgery so I should be tired, but find myself inclined to stay up an stare at her instead of sleeping. She is such a little trooper. So is JD, who is being so good playing at home with Grandma all day while the rest of us are spending our time in the PICU once again.

There are some unknowns about whether she will need further treatments in the future, and some of the potential effects of her problem. But for now, I just want to talk about how elated we are that the surgery went well, what a relief it is to have it behind us, and how blessed we are to be in the hands of great doctors at an amazing children's hospital. And that we think she is absolutely perfect, no matter what happens with her spine. We have found a lot of comfort in the support and love of friends and family on this long day.

Best Time of Day

When I look back on the first six months, this will be my best memory. We walk to the park and swing at least once a day, often twice. Sometimes we are still in our pajamas and sometimes we actually make it into real clothes before we go, depending on the day. They love it, I love it, and it is always the best moment of the day.

Food

We love food....JD & Maia are trying to hold their own bottles (i.e. milk gets everywhere now). And, we are trying solids....



















So far they both like carrots, peas, mushrooms, onion, spinach, edamame, yogurt, oatmeal, rice cereal, scrambled eggs, and corn. (I know some of those foods are on the list of things not to give 5 month olds, but we've been careful, neither side of the family has any food allergies, and so far we've had no problems with any of it.) Yes, they do actually swallow some of it. Half in, half all over the place. :-) Sometimes they are super messy (which is usually when I like to take pictures) and sometimes they do an impeccable job of getting everything in their mouth. We just set up the highchairs in the kitchen today. Until now we were just feeding them in their little rocker chairs, but it is getting too messy. We need to be over tile instead of carpet and the highchairs are meant to get messy. :-)