What does April snow bring?

We sit inside on another snowy evening - and its not an April fool's joke! We got home just before it really started to blow and have spent a nice night in.

Myla and her dad had their weekly day together and played a lot. She is really into putting things in and taking them out again - shape sorters are the toy of the week. And talking! She'll tell you a whole story in das and las and doys. And sometimes, she'll laugh at the end of it, which is so sweet to hear. Myla has also been practicing her coloring skills today. She started doing it with a pen and so Johnny got some crayons. She didn't like the blue one so much, but had a great time with the red one. She tried coloring on everything. Luckily she doesn't put a lot of pressure on it yet.

I think the most amazing thing to me was to watch her hold it. She tried really hard to hold it like we do with our pens when we write. It was kind of fun to see her try and figure it out - the crayon would slip and she would try a different hold. I even tried to color with my whole fist around the crayon to show her, but she knows better. You could see the wheels turning.

And now, to put an end to all the speculation... Our framily the Tessems did this for their three kids. (Yes Jeff, I occasionally scroll to the bottom of your blog to see what you have hiding there.) We thought it was a fun idea and so we tried it. You asked, who does Myla look like? See for yourself...

Now you will be able to sleep tonight huh?

Don't you love Colorado!?

Wednesday, the three of us took advantage of the sunshine and John's day off and took Haley for a walk on the bike path. And then Thursday, it did this.
A good 9 or 10 inches. It took us all winter to get some good spring moisture. Needless to say, we had an early day and all managed to get home safely. And what did we do with our extra time together? Play of course!

Myla has developed quite the feisty personality lately. If we take her away from something that she's not done with - she throws a fit! If she could walk, she would stomp her feet and yell at us. So we try not to do it too much if we can help it. She loves to go outside and walk around and point at things. And she'll walk around holding our hands, sometimes really fast. She loves to play chase, as long as you are chasing her, and you can see her peek over her shoulder to see where you are.

What are John and I up to? Packing mostly, but we have managed a few fun things lately. For Christmas, Aimee, Scott, John and I got gift cards to go indoor skydiving. That was awesome! We each had two minute flights and all did pretty good I think. I tried to get some video up here, but I can't edit it down and you don't want to have to watch all the kids that went before us. Just believe me, it was really cool. Basically, we're just having fun with our girl. But she's so cute, can you blame us!?

Finished at last!

Tonight all three of us were swinging on the deck. That's right, it's finished, minus a few touch ups here and there but we put the bench and table and swing on it. Myla just about fell off the swing trying to stand up on it while we were moving but mom, with her cat-like reflexes, caught her right away. Feels good to have something like that accomplished even though it took almost a year to complete. (Ten months and two weeks, but who's counting!?)

We had great weather today and decided to take advantage of it with a good long walk along the canal with the dog and little Myla in her stroller eating snacks while rocking her sunglasses. We've got tulips starting to push through and grass greening up a little bit here and there, at least where the grass didn't die last summer. It would be nice to have a lawn for Myla to play on if we're still in this house. We're getting a lot of things packed up and consolidated to start showing our place hopefully soon, but I guess we'll see.

Myla is saying little things like imitating the dog, the cat and a duck. And she's started this cute little thing where she blows her nose. She'll do it with with just about anything- a dryer sheet, napkin, baby-doll's sock. She is such a joy!

The tin man has left the building

Sorry we've kind of left you hanging for a day. Her fever broke Tuesday night and she had a restful night sleep. Her heart rate and breathing slowed down immensely. Myla went home on Wednesday afternoon, tin man in tow. Not a huge deal, we've been there before, but its a whole new ball game when little one is mobile. She wasted no time in pulling out all her toys when she got here and even took time to mess with the animals. The oxygen only impeded her movements once - when she wanted to get to the front door to look out. Even then, she just pulled it right off her face. John said it was pretty amazing, she didn't seem to disturb the grips, but there was the oxygen tubing on one end of the room, and there was Myla on the other.

Since we've been home, Myla has been actually taking naps and her appetite is almost back to normal. She's been sleeping well and even though we still have to clear her nose sometimes, she sounds much better. We had a check in with the doctor today where they did a room air challenge. She was at 96% when we checked in with the oxygen still on and was 94% when they checked her 30 minutes later with no oxygen. And so we are once again tubing free! Wahoo! The doctor thought she sounded good and was well on her way. So bring on back the 70 degree days - we are ready for the playground!

The latest

Myla had a good a night as can be expected in a hospital. She got a good round of suctioning around midnight and slept for a good four or five hours. Her breathing rate has gone down - she's around 40 breaths per minute instead of the 70 she was when they checked her in. Her heart rate is down - its holding in the 150s when she's awake, and they like it around 120-130 so we're getting there. Her oxygen is down - 1/4 of a liter instead of the 3/4 they had her on when we got here. So things are looking up, but we'll be here for at least another night. And she's had some moments of Myla-esque time where she's played with us and eaten some good snacks. Her fluids are still going down good so that's another plus. They would rather err on the side of caution than send us home and she need to come back in the middle of the night. Thank you doctors!

We are also holding up okay. They do not make place for big people to sleep comfortably in a little person's hospital. Still, we made due and probably slept a little better here than we would have at home worrying about her. And its all highway so we can make a trip pretty quick. Not our ideal way to spend these 70 degree days, but we'll have plenty more of those. We'll keep you posted!

March came in...

Like a lion for us and our trooper Myla. I sit here in the family lounge at the new Children's Hospital. Seems our bug caught a bug that really put her down. Okay, some kids have it much worse because they didn't get RSV shots or flu shots. But still. Myla is here, in a hospital, once again. I'll give you the quick run down. She has "broncholitis" which for an adult would be a really bad cold that you couldn't shake for a couple of weeks but for Myla, with her history, has caused a visit from our old friend the tin man. We are currently in a wait and see kind of mode because there isn't much you can you can do but keep giving her fluids and a little oxygen boost. She is doing pretty good at the fluid part all on her own - yeah! We aren't sure how long we are going to be here but hope that we can activate that prayer circle once again to send her lots of love and good vibes. We'll update you as soon as we can.

Loves to you

Our little Myla - scratch that. Our BIG Myla is doing so many new things! For starters, teeth numbers 5 and 6 finally popped through, one on top and one on bottom. Have to keep things even, you know. She's discovered that she can point with those fingers and that when the hands come together, they can clap. She also blows kisses, but she has to be in the mood to do that. She's just changed so much lately - in her appearance and her skills. She really is so big!

You should see the stuff she does at her babysitter/nanny's house! She made a bean bag into a slide, she puts the shapes in her shape-sorter and she nicely puts her cup back on the ledge instead of throwing it on the floor. The other day, I got her to stand on her own two feet for a good amount of time. She wasn't so happy about it, kind of whimpered like she was scared. But she's never liked wobbling. Really, I can't tell you everything she does now because this post would be so long!

Synagis shot #4 is on Wednesday so we will do another official weigh in. They're really good at getting both legs at once so it doesn't hurt twice, but she still doesn't like it. Neither does John. But she still hasn't really gotten sick (knock on wood) and we would like to keep it that way. But before that, I get Monday off to play with her and I can't wait. Zoo? Aquarium? Children's Museum? The possibilities are endless!