12/18/05

Sniff sniff.... Where has the time gone??? Our little girl is a year old!!! This has been the best year ever, despite the setbacks we faced early on.

This past month has been a blur. First of all, I'm happy to report that the gasping noise that Vivien was/is making is due to some flapping in the cartilege in her vocal chords. The ENT assures us that she will grow out of it. Of course, we had to put her through an uncomfortable scoping (the she had to be awake for) to find all of this out. It is now water under the bridge.

Vivien celebrated her first Thanksgiving this year at MommyJan's house. We had a wonderful time and ate delicious food. Vivien played with her cousin, Catherine, and had a great time.

On 12/4, we went to a holiday party at Medical City for the families of CHD kids. It was a lot of fun! The best part was that we got to have Vivien's picture taken with Dr. Mendeloff and also Dr. Campine (who was her anesthesiologist in both of her surgeries). She saw Santa and he gave her a teddy bear. We made a little frame out of popsicle sticks for the picture with Santa. There was a caricature artist who drew her, but sadly, she looked like a little boy in the pic. I guess I shouldn't have dressed her in a blue sweater (with sparkles and mauve stripes) and blue jeans! Oh well, it's a keepsake for sure. All in all, it was a nice event.

Our families came from Florida and Houston to see our special girl for her birthday. We had a wonderful time with our closest friends and family. Vivien enjoyed eating her little cupcake, but it will be a long time before she can have that much sugar again!!! As we sang "Happy Birthday" to her, Jim and I both fought off the tears. We are so proud of our girl!

It was nice to have my family here. We always have such a great time with them. This time, Jimmy was able to help Jim with some much needed repairs on our house. Jimmy taught Jim a lot and it was great bonding for them. Of course, we girls spent most of the time shopping and preparing for the big day. We also took in the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. That was one of the neatest things I've ever seen.

Good Day on Fox 4 also announced her 1st Birthday and showed a picture of her. That was really cool!

I put my family on a plane this morning, and tomorrow it is back to our regular lives. Vivien has her one year check-up tomorrow which will entail shots, and then her monthly Synagis injections are on Tuesday. Poor baby girl!

Next weekend, on Christmas Day, Jim and I will be heading to Medical City to bring food and goodies to the heart families and the staff that have to spend Christmas Day there. Due to the new HIPAA laws, we cannot go and directly speak with any of the families, but they will be notified that we are there if they would like to approach us. I hope we are able to provide some hope to families facing what we were facing this time last year.

This has been the most amazing year, and we have grown so much as people and as a family. It is so fantastic to have a child. It has literally changed our lives.