Sunday, March 18, 2012

Weight Check!

March 1, 2012  we stopped by the doctor's office for a weight check.

Naomi now weighs 27 pounds, up 2 pounds from her weight taken on February 13, 2012!

Hannah now weighs 26.5 pounds, up 2.5 pounds from her weight on February 13, 2012!

I'm sure much of this from becoming re-hydrated. The girls are both already looking so much better and we can see that they are filling in nicely.

We finished the medication for the intestinal parasites, and the new checks came back clear!!!

Happy Birthday, Little Princess

March 2, 2012

Today Naomi celebrated her 8th birthday.  But today is the first birthday she celebrated outside of the orphanage with her new family.

We started off the day with color sprinkles on our morning cereal....
Every Princess should start her birthday with color sprinkles on her cereal!
We sang Happy Birthday countless times throughout the day....  which were always greeted with her sweet little smiles.

We wanted to celebrate at IHOP for a pancake dinner, but our plans were delayed to do a flat tire on mom's van. So mom whipped up some pancakes at home.  A couple days later we celebrated with cake at Grandma's house!
Not sure I know this song, yet...
Brother and Sister are showing her how to blow out the candles.  There's so much to learn about this birthday thing...
Happy Birthday, Sweet Naomi! You are celebrated today and everyday.  May you have many more celebrations to come!  We love you so much!!!

How's Your Heart?

February 28, 2012

I took the girls to visit the cardiologist to have their hearts checked.  If you don't know... heart defects are very common for children with Down syndrome.  There can be a wide array of defect and conditions - from holes in between the heart chambers  to valve defects, and other related conditions. Some kids require extensive surgery, others may need other procedures, some need nothing.

We met the doctor and then had an echo-cardiogram for each of them. It's basically like a sonogram of the heart and they look at everything.  They look at the walls of the heart, the dividing wall, all the chambers, the valves, from top to bottom and then some. They are able to check the directions of blood flow through the valves.  It's really fascinating to watch on their monitor.

 Naomi was the best and laid so quietly and smiled most of the entire time.  Hannah did well for most of it, but got restless toward the end.

I am EXTREMELY HAPPY to report that the doctor found ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with either of their hearts!!!  So we don't have to go back for anymore visits or follow up. Praise God for great news!

First Haircut - First McDonald's!

February 15, 2012

We ventured out for a couple of errands and stopped by our favorite little hair salon to get a haircuts and tidy up the little orphanage bobs.  Their bangs were way down in their eyes.  But the ladies at Great Cuts did a fantastic job!
Hannah is checking out the hair dryer.

Naomi with her fixed up new "do"!

Afterward, J & S were begging to go to McDonald's (which is right next door to the salon).  I was hesitant since it can be pretty loud in there and the girls are still getting used to all the action in their new world.  But we were all getting hungry, so we took a chance.
I want those fries!
This was fun!
It was a stretch, but it was fun to watch Hannah enjoy her very first cheeseburger Happy Meal. Naomi still doesn't eat very hard or chewy foods, so she had the yogurt parfait and a banana for lunch.  They did really well.

They didn't get out and explore the indoor playground, yet.  We'll catch all those new germs soon enough. No need to hurry...

(By the time I'm actually posting this entry I realize just how fast their hair is growing now and I'll need to take them back for new trims very, very soon!)