All the better to hear you with....

Avery had tubes put in her ears today. Seeing her in that all too familiar little yellow hospital gown with her little tiny ankle ID bracelet was almost too much to bear. I went through all the what-ifs and turned it over to God and prayed. Then I asked her big brother to watch over her since we couldn't be in there with her. After what seemed like an eternity in the waiting room, but was probably only a half hour, we were called back to recovery. The nurse told us to follow the screaming, and there she was, mad as all get out and SO thirsty. No amount of comforting would sooth her, until we walked out into the sunshine, and then it turned off like a light switch.

She took a really long nap today, 4 hours. When she woke up, I fed her until I thought she would burst. An hour later she was ready for round 2. I think she ate more than I did today!! She played long and hard after dinner and is sleeping peacefully in her crib. It is a relief that it is all over.

One of the great things about today was that now that she can hear so much better, she has been more vocal than normal. I hope it lasts. She was singing and dancing and talking up a storm after dinner. I couldn't help all the smiling. It was a perfect end to a not so perfect day. I am so proud of her. She is one tough little cookie.

Tomorrow she will be ONE. It is so hard to believe. Time goes so fast. I look back over the past year and realize how truly blessed I am and have been in my life. To be loved by 2 amazing kids and my amazing husband...I am rich beyond words.

WHOA!

You know it was a great nap, when after more than 3 hours you wake up with hair like this!!!!

Happy Halloweenie

I had forgotten how much fun Halloween is. Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays with Kadin. I thought about him a lot as the day went on. I wondered what he would want to be this year. There were lots of power rangers. There was a really cool Indiana Jones that came around.

For Trick-or-Treating, we went to Tom and Debbie’s house to sit with them and let Avery trick or treat in their neighborhood. Avery’s costume was so cute. She got many compliments on it!! When I saw it, I just knew it was perfect.

All and all it was a pretty successful night. We had been experiencing bad weather all day, and I was in the middle of a phase II exercise at work. The end of the exercise was called at noon and the bad weather cleared out just in time for trick or treating!! It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

That's Mr. Simmons to you!

We LOVE Guitar Hero in this house. And by WE, of course I mean Avery and Billy. I love ot watch Avery dance around while her Daddy plays. Then, I happened to come across the COOLEST toy ever at WalMart and had to get it.

Avery Gets to rock out with her Daddy now! Which has made for some cute photo ops.

So now, you can call me Shannon (as in Tweed)...Lucky for Billy, I am all natural and have never posed for Playboy!! How did he ever got so lucky?

NUMBER 1

JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD.....

Talofa Lava

The Samoan Princess had her shcool pictures today. She looked so cute when I dropped her off. I left a change of clothes for her teachers to change her after her pictures, but when Billy picked her up this afternoon, she was still wearing her dress...And amazingly it was still clean.

So I took a gazillion pictures of her running around the house in her weee little puletasi. My cute toot.

Avery Ceratops

Aunt Sonia has been here visiting all week. She just came home from Afghanistan where she spent a year driving convoy all over the country. We are so proud of her.

We have always suspected Avery of being a little "boy crazy" but it was confirmed this week, when all week, Avery would have NOTHING to do with Aunt Sonia. We initially attributed the aversion to separation anxiety, however, our good friend Dan, from Florida was also in town this week and when we met him for dinner on Thursday, you would have thought Avery had known him her whole life the way she was laughing and playing and hugging on him. Poor Aunt Sonia. She came all this way to meet Avery, and Avery would have none of it. We have all decided that Avery will in all liklihood, not have a favorite Aunt, but a favorite uncle...or two or three. And we will probably have to chain her to the bedroom wall until she's 25. She is such a mess. I am pretty sure she would have nothing to do with me either, if I wasn't her momma.