Rest in Peace Little Sam

One of the ladies on my online preemie message board just lost one of her sons. She had twins, Sebastian and Samuel, at 27 weeks in January. Sebastian has been home for a while now and is doing really well, but Sam has had one complication after another and stayed in the hospital. He was such a fighter, always beating the odds and overcoming the most dire situations. We all thought he was going to pull through. Today he lost his battle. He was five months old.

John and I have been following Sam’s mom’s blog and we are both very sad right now, and also very thankful for our little Fiona and how well she is doing. Here is a picture of her from today:

 

Please keep Sam’s family, and especially his mom Sandi, in your thoughts. Her blog is From a Speck.….

Happy Birthday to Me!

Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes!

Last year I wanted to go to the zoo for my birthday, but because Fiona was in the hospital and I had to pump every 2-3 hours, we did not go. Instead I went to visit her twice (as usual) and ate a little bit of ice cream cake. That was about it. It was a pretty depressing birthday. This year, John took the day off and we had a pleasant little family day. Fiona slept all night so we felt reasonably well rested. We started with a short trip to our favorite little coffee shop and then went to the hospital to give the NICU Fiona’s birthday presents (Keurig coffee maker and k-cups, and preemie clothes for the babies). We saw some nurses and the occupational therapist and it was a nice little reunion.

We got to the zoo around 1pm and ate lunch:

Fiona on the grass:

She didn’t want to crawl to us. It took us a while to figure out that the grass was wet. Poor baby!

These trees are directly above the bathrooms and you can tell by all the bird poop on the ground underneath. I guess the birds think that it is their bathroom too.

A condor smelling its own armpit?

John and Fiona feeding the giraffe and the giraffe blowing kisses:

Fiona always looks so tiny next to John and he always looks so large:

Fiona looking unhappy for some reason:

We found a bouncing trunk and John put Fiona on it. Another little girl joined us but I did not take a photo of her because we don’t know her. She was almost 3 and was very interested in Fiona, especially because of a certain princess in a movie about a large green ogre.

Look closely, this penguin is wearing a boot. His name is Lucky and he was born with a foot condition and surgery was too risky, so they made a shoe for him.

This bird learned the feeding times at the penguin house and arrived just in time, hoping to catch a morsel.

 

Fiona playing on a bench:

 

 

The snow leopard was asleep, cuddling its tail:

 

Various monkeys:

 

My own little monkey:

After Fiona went to bed, John and I went out to dinner. Every restaurant we went to was closed, so we wound up at Cafe Fiore, which is always good.

Here we are:

John gave me a 16 gigabyte IPod Nano so I don’t have to keep deleting songs whenever I want to add more like I do with my old IPod. It’s very small and very cool. I can’t wait to use it! My mom made me a pecan pie and gave me a pair of earrings and a cookie jar.

All in all it was a really nice day and I can’t believe how old I am now!

The Big Barbecue

Well, it’s over. And it was awesome! John and I bought a barbecue a week ago and used it on Saturday the 18th. We spent the day before scrubbing the house and making the yard look nice. Ironically, it was one year after my baby shower, but this time Fiona was with me, crawling around and generally being her cute self. Lots of my mom friends came with their babies, but not their husbands for some reason. My family was there too. We made hamburgers and hot dogs, coleslaw, salad, fruit, chips, soda, beer, water, and a really yummy cake that is still in the fridge because I grossly over estimated the number of guests we would have. Fiona got all sorts of cool new toys and clothes, and even I got a few things. All in all it was a wonderful day. Here are some photos of the day.

Our yard before the guests arrived:

Uncle Richard sleeping in the living room:

The cake:

Some of it was already eaten when I took the photo.

Some of my mom friends:

My dear dear friend Krista, who lives in Germany but is visiting her mother right now, drove up with her daughter Sophie. They stayed the night and Sophie and Fiona had a great time playing and bathing together.

We moved Chinch into the living room so he wouldn’t keep Krista and Sophie awake at night, and he decided to cry out at 4:45am and keep John and me awake instead. During the day, we moved him outside. Sophie and Fiona were fascinated by him.

We ate breakfast outside, on our newly cleaned patio:

Fiona in a box:

Sophie hopped in the box, so John decided to put Fiona in one too.

John and Fiona in the hammock:

 

Exploring a pot in the front yard:

Then Fiona decided to pull Sophie’s hair. Sophie was very patient and did not get upset.

Sophie playing store with the water bottles:

It was a busy but fun filled weekend. I’m a little sad it’s over, but also glad. Having a party is stressful. I prefer to be a guest at other people’s parties than to have one myself. I think next year we will just have a small family gathering.

To end, some photos of my “A Year of Fiona” display, the only decorations I made. It is a line of photographs. The first was taken June 3, 2010 and the last June 3, 2011. It’s been quite the year.