Day +303: No appointments this week

I'm not sure how it happened, but Day +300 slipped by us without our noticing. We did pause briefly to think about the 9-month milestone on January 29. Ten months will be coming up soon, but I'm not sure whether it would be on the 28th or the 1st. This was a big week, because Mina Brigitta did not go to the doctor, even though it had been two weeks since her last appointment. She's gone to monthly appointments now, so she's not scheduled to go this week either. I was just thinking I can't remember the last time she went a full week without a single appointment. There may have been one that I missed, but this week we barely even thought about the doctor. We're still tapering the Cellcept, which is her last immuno-suppressive drug, and it still seems to be fine. Her skin is very dry, but it's not rashy and she certainly hasn't lost any of her appetite. So far so good. Would be nice to get her off the immuno-suppressants.

We're having lots of fun these days. There's been a musical explosion around our house with the Music Together class and CD. We listen to that CD over and over. The downside of getting your kids into their own music is that they don't want to listen to yours anymore. This morning Keri had on classical music, and Mina threw a screaming, crying fit because she didn't want to listen to it. She finally got over it, and she's such a sweetheart, after a while she told me a couple of times, "I yike dis music now". Isaac sings "Trot Old Joe" all the time, and when he sings "Whoa, Joe!" he holds the note on the "Joe" for like five seconds. He just loves being sung to, and if you stop before he's ready, he says "Mo!". I went to their class on Monday for the first time, and it was a hoot. Mina mostly sat on my lap, except when the teacher came with the box of instruments. Then she let out a shriek that I thought was going to break the windows and dove into the pile of instruments and kids to get a drum for me. Isaac just kind of stands there and stares at the teacher while she sings. But I noticed that over time he kept getting closer and closer to the teacher, until about halfway through he was standing right in front of her not taking his eyes off her.

Mina must have reached some developmental milestone, because the other day while we were reading a book she started asking me the name sof all the characters in the picture. I forget what the book was, but there were a lot of characters in the picture and I had to make up names for each one of them. And remember them. Then the other day she decided that the new waah baby was named "Bubba". I suggested "Waah Bubba", thinking I was being very clever. But no, the doll's name is just Bubba. This is the first time she's given a doll a name, other than Waah Baby and Home Baby which are descriptive and not abstract.

Isaac is talking more and more. He says all kinds of words now: "shoe", "socks", "yes", "no", "more", "hello", "bye-bye", and lots of others. He's also very good at mimicking what you say. One new word we're not quite so happy about is "cookie". This morning he was saying it over and over again, not believing us that there weren't any cookies in the house. He and his sister really love each other, it's pretty amazing. She's always loved giving him hugs (usually too rough), but lately he comes up and gives her hugs and kisses too. They do have their moments of course. Another new word of his is "scus-zoo" when you're in his way. Not exactly sure where he got that one from. But the other day Sissy was in his way when he was walking down the hallway, so he said "scus-zoo" and gave her a good shove. Sissy probably had that one coming after all the times she's shoved him down.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been praying for Lily Claire Foster. She was discharged to the Ronald McDonald House on Saturday at Day +78. She's had a seemingly endless string of serious complications including bacterial sepsis, Grade IV GHVD, an infection with the adenovirus and pneumonia, but she seems to be firmly on the road to recovery now. She must be one tough little girl.