Two strollers, but no kids in them...
This just made me laugh cause everywhere we went, we brought the party!
This guy is AWESOME with the girls, especially Em. It is so cute and I LOVE the fact that I can just sit back and chill out knowing that she is being watched after by someone who loves her.
K growling...
He was killing me this day...he has been camera shy for a while and all the sudden, he was posing and being adorable. :)
There's our little African!
Ok, so the reality is that we found a little park in the zoo and most of our time was spent there. They had a hill made of AstroTurf and someone had brought several cardboard boxes for sliding. I call this "sledding - California style". They had a blast!
Emmy is so adventurous! Her spirit always makes me smile and laugh. She is too tiny to do all the things the big kids are doing but she will NOT be left behind. I think she might have gone down more than anyone else...laughing and smiling the entire way.
Ok, so we couldn't handle it forever!! The kids can't have ALL the fun. Pretty soon, we were all joining in on the fun. :-)
I know this is blurry but it was so sad and funny I had to include it. These two got going so fast that they were giggling and laughing...until they turned sideways and hit the bottom of the hill, when they toppled over each other and onto poor Em.
You can't really see her wound here at all, but that light red outline of her glasses became a nice reddish purple a couple days later and qualifies Em for her first 'real' boo boo. In our family, scrapped knees and bruises don't generally count as real boo boos. If you recall, we invited K to the family the first time she fell and slit her lip open with enough blood to require a bath. We will have to count this as Em's first 'black eye' (not totally) but definitely her first true boo boo. Now we are all a real family!! :-)
Playing doctor at the boy's house...even Em needs surgery! Oh, I almost forgot, she calls the boys, "boui (boy)!". :) She knows who they are if you ask but doesn't say their names. This time around, she said, "Ya-Ya" when we asked her to. Y was thrilled that she said his name!
Back at Mo's house, the guys hung a lot of shelves and curtain rods...and Em made her first attempt to help out. I believe she is telling Poppy what he needs to do.
She is also starting to play...she was curled up inside this box, pretending to sleep but once I got the camera, she stuck her feet out. Silly girl!
Nana bought the boys some bows and arrows and this was the attempt to shoot them at a giant, clear window with people on the other side.
Showing off his socks...
It was a jolly time...that was for Mo, my British sis-in-law. :)
Well, for those faithfully praying for Em and this MRI coming up today, we ended up cancelling it. I believe your prayers were for us and not so much Em. Prayers that we would listen to the still small voice that is the Holy Spirit. As the date got closer and closer, both M and I got more and more uncomfortable about doing the MRI right now.
We could not justify the risk to Emily and putting her under general anesthesia to take a look at her brain. For one thing, last time, she had seizure like activity after being sedated. Secondly, we know we will see brain scarring (guaranteed from her early birth) and there is still the possibility that the results will be inconclusive. In our minds, until we can talk further with her neurologist and get specifics, this MRI can wait a year or two until we can explain it to her and have her just sit still rather than get 'put under'.
Obviously if her neurologist insists on it now, we will reschedule but for now, we need to protect Emily. Thankfully, she is also popping her eye-teeth through and has had a runny nose which has given her a cough and some chest congestion, so we were able to call and just cancel due to an upper respiratory infection (for which the anesthesiologist would have cancelled the MRI anyway). I feel great relief at this decision and just want to thank you for continuing to lift us up in prayer as we make these kind of decisions for our little girl. It is hard when you get two rational decision makers learning to just listen to that 'gut' instinct and believe it is correct, but we are learning that the Holy Spirit tells us what we need to know...it is just a matter of whether we choose to hear it or not...and then it is a GIANT step to trust it!
I hope you all have a wonderful day! God Bless!!
