Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

I couldn't resist dressing Harper in red pants & a green shirt this morning.  I know, it looks kinda hoosier, but tis the season!

We found Santa in Bria's closet last night. Harper loves him.  She slept with him last night & woke up bright & early (5:45am) with him next to her.  Her & Santa had a fine conversation about Christmas for about a half hour, just enough time for me to get ready for work.

Who needs an alarm clock when we have Harper!

Had to add these pictures of Santa. 

She loves feeding Santa

Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday!

Daddy & his girls!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!



Gift Wrapping

 

Over the weekend I wrapped a ton of presents.  Harper was quite the Santa's helper.  She was helping me cut the ribbon.

Notice all of the little pieces laying on the floor. 

Yes, she has scissors in her hand under my complete supervision.

Bria & Harper doing the splits

Not too bad for a 2yr old

Harper & big sister

She's learning how to pose for the camera now



This Christmas will be a blast with our little girl....

I know there are alot of friends & family reading the blog, don't be shy....leave a comment,  I'd love to hear from you!

Let me know what you think of the blog.  I'm still learning as I go, lots of fun stuff you can do with a blog.  I'm not very computer saavy, so it takes me a bit longer.

Please excuse the messy blog....I'm giving it a makeover!

Breakfast with Santa





Here comes Santa....

  

Oh, he's big & scary.....

 Ava & Julian loved Santa....

 After breakfast, the kids made a cookie.

 Harper's cookie was full of sprinkles.

We're still working on getting her to smile for the camera, she's trying to say cheese in this picture.

Bria loved breakfatst with Santa....

Next year, Santa will be Harper's best friend.

3 months.....

It's been 3 months (and 3 days) since we've been a family of four.  It's been quite a journey & we still can't believe it's only been 3 months since Harper's been in our lives!   The time has gone by so quick & we can barely remember how slow paced our life was before Harper. 
We love her to pieces, & can't imagine our life with out her. 

Three months ago, we saw this scared little girl that we knew from a handful of pictures & reports.

And then we were a family of four.....

This was taken at the White Swan Hotel in China 1 week later.  She looks so different even after a week.

Over the course of 3 months, she became a US citizen

First manicure

First time meeting some of her family.

 First time in a car seat.

 First time meeting Kolton.

 New friends!

 First dog feeding.

 First time playing outside with the hose.

First Mizzou football game!

Happy 2nd birthday!

First home project with Grandpa OB.

First bath with her cousin.

 First hayride

First Halloween.

First parade with Kolton.

First Thanksgiving & first time meeting Grandma Roxy!

Although we weren't able to celebrate & be there for alot of Harper's first milestones, we're enjoying all of the new memories we're creating & loving every minute.
She is completing her first week of daycare this week.  She's seems to love it!  Her teachers say she enjoys serving lunch & pouring her own milk.  She's also using more words & trying to say more. I don't know if it's a combination of her making a full recovery from her surgery & being around other kids, but she's a totally different kid now.  She's smiling when we wakes up, has more confidence & is happy all evening.  The meltdowns have decreased drastically.  We definately had some growing pains in the last month. 

I know it's been a while since I last blogged.  Life's been crazy but things are 100% better with our little nugget. I'm back to work full time & Harper started daycare today.  The night terrors finally stopped exactly 2 weeks post-op! Harper is back to normal with her fiery personality.  Her language is really exploding.  She can say quite a few words clearly, but most of her words are unrecognizable to others.  Of course, we know that she's yelling at Baxter :)

Harper celebrated her first Thanksgiving & met more family members, including her Grandma & Great Granny! 

We attempted a visit with Santa this past weekend.  We didn't even get close to him, she wanted nothing to do with that guy with a white beard.   Maybe next year.....

I barely have any new photos of Harper, she wasn't very photogenic the last few weeks.  I know alot of my family members (Susan) are dying to see new pics, I promise to post some soon. 

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to all!  We had alot to be thankful for this year!

Harper is still having night terrors, we're 11 days post-op.  Will this ever get better?  Her terrors are happening less frequent, 3-4 terrors per night spaced every 2 hrs.  She's also waking up at the crack of dawn, between 5-5:30am.  This little girl needs more rest.  

Next week, I go back to work.  I've enjoyed my time off with Harper, but I'm ready to get back into a routine.  These last few months have been great, we've been blessed with perfect weather making it easy to get up & go to the park, take a walk, play outside etc.  Now, the weather is turning rainy, gloomy & cold. There's only so much you can do inside.  I think Harper will love going to daycare & establishing a routine.

The good thing is, I love my job, love my hours & love where I work.  It'd be depressing to go back to a job that you absolutely hate.  

Peek-a-boo!

Sleeping Issues

We are almost 1 week post-op & Harper's sleeping cycle has gone down hill. We went from sleeping 10 hours straight to having night terrors every hour!

What is a night terror?

A night terror is a sleep disruption that seems similar to a nightmare, but with a far more dramatic presentation.

Night terrors happen during deep non-REM sleep. Unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is not technically a dream, but more like a sudden reaction of fear that happens during the transition from one sleep phase to another.

Some things that cause night terrors are:

Stressful life events

Fever

Sleep deprivation

Medications that affect the central nervous system (the brain)

When she is having a night terror, her eyes are closed but she is crying, kicking her arms & legs & rolling all over the bed. It will last from 1-5 minutes.  We don't comfort her, this tends to make it worse.

Harper's mouth anatomy has completely changed as well, so breathing & swallowing are difficult for her which is traumatic for a 2 year old. 

 We'll get through this, but it's been rough.

Post-Op

This was taken around 6am before the surgery.

What a trooper! 

 Here she is gowned up with her new Elmo slippers.  Funny, because she doesn't even know who Elmo is but likes him!

 My poor baby, this was the day she was discharged from the hospital.  Her face & lips are puffy.  She was not a happy camper.

 We finally put some clean clothes on her. She was ready to go, standing in the doorway of the room with her shoes on!  These are the arm restraints which go over her elbows so they don't bend.  I think some people think she's in a straight jacket, no just elbow pads.

Home sweet home....notice all of the drool on her bib & her 2 tiny pony tails!

These past few days have been rough.  On top of the surgery, she also has a runny nose & is congested.  She doesn't feel good, I don't think she's in pain, I think the cold is kicking her butt.  She is not sleeping well at night with the congestion & the arm restraints.  She wakes up every 1-2 hours crying which is very unusual for her.

Today was slightly better, she's acting more like herself, so we're hoping she has a restful night. 

Surgery Update

Just a quick post to update everyone on the surgery.  We got to the hospital @ 6am (yes, we were a bit late), they gave her an oral sedative to relax her & they took  her back around 7:20.  She had tubes put in her ears first, the ENT doc said she had thick fluid in her ears which he suctioned out.  Now she'll be able to hear better!

We were notified @ 11:15 that the doc was finished reparing her palate.  No surprises, straight forward palate surgery....thank God!! We finally got to see Harper @ 12:15 in her room. Her face is swollen, her poor tongue is stitched to the side of her mouth & when she cries, there's blood that comes out of her nose (which is normal).   I'll be honest....she looks rough, it just breaks my heart. I couldn't help but get teary-eyed. 

Thankfully, Aunt Manda is her nurse today & was the first person she saw when she woke up.  Manda said she recognized her & reached up to be held.

Harper is not a happy camper, she does not like her arms restrained, doesn't like the tongue stitch & is in alot of pain.  They gave her more pain meds a while ago & she's sleeping soundly. 

She already drank 4 oz of apple juice which is a huge step for recovery.

I'm hoping the worst is over.   

I'm sending a huge thank you to everyone for their support & prayers.  It's comforting to know how many people love & care about her.

Halloween

Harper loved her first Halloween.  She was lucky enough to trick-or-treat twice!  Once on Saturday with some cousins, some she just met, & again on Halloween with another cousin.

She was a pink poodle.

 She wasn't exactly sure what to make of the costume.  In the wagon are three, 2 year olds, minnie mouse, a poodle & a cow girl!  After Harper saw the other kids wearing their costumes, she decided she would put just the top of hers on.

 AAWW, look at that adorable doggie!

 Mimi with Tori & Harper.  Tori just celebrated her 2nd birthday!

 Halloween evening, she put the entire costume on.....Thanks Aunt Christa!

 Poodle & Spiderman (Kolton)

 I love Daddy & Mommy!

 Double trouble going around the neighborhood.

We also got to see Cael play football this weekend.  Harper finally let Aunt P hold her....

Tuesday Harper is having surgery on her cleft palate.  We need to be at the hospital at 5:45am, surgery is scheduled for 7:15am.  She will stay one night & hopefully will be discharged on Wednesday.

Please keep us in your prayers....pray for the doctors, nurses & all of the staff involved in her surgery.

Pray for our little girl to have a smooth recovery.  She's a trooper & a survivor, she's been through alot in her short life.  We're hoping this will be the last big bump in the road for her.

I'll try to update as soon as I can.