Wow are we lucky

Halleluja that we have won the health insurance lottery. Everyone should get to have a positive reaction when they open a hospital bill.

Artsy fartsy eggs

Mimi and I made some ukranian easter eggs. I haven't done this since I was about 12. Who knew an easter activity could be so zen.

Bike shopping

Not for us, but with antie Kim. Of course Sophie really likes the kids bikes.

Spring time!

Since the weather is oh so nice, we spent the morning planting some carrots and arugala. I think sophie just really wanted to play with the worms I uncovered, but she does look quite happy.

11 years!

It is hard to believe, but today is our 11th wedding anniversary. Nana and pop pop watched the little bugger this afternoon so we could take a break from potty training and have a lunch date, very nice. Let's hope she goes to sleep soon, so I can have glass of wine before I fall asleep...I guess romance will have to wait til our 15th or 20th anniversary!

Fruit frenzy

Aunt Marilyn and uncle Gary sent us a wonderful fruit flower basket and a little bear with an ice pack and bandaid. Sophie L O V E D the gift and proceded to chow down on the chocolate covered strawberries, demolishing two at a time. THANK YOU!!!

Going for a walk

Sophie is much better today with her eyes opening up a lot. She is acting much like her self today. We decided to take her for a walk, however she wouldn't let us go without taking her dragonfly balloon that was left by the balloon faries.

My hair is hiding, silly hair

That is sophie's comment du jour. She is soing much better today. Her appitite and swelling still have a ways to go, but nothing serious is happening. Except wanting to climb on stuff...

We are home!

Thank goodness. Sophie' eyes are swollen shut but somehow she can see. She is already trying to climb on chairs and play with the dog. Unbeleiveable considering she had a 7 hour surgery and a blood transfusion 24 hours ago!

The balloon fairy stopped by for a good welcome home surprise. Thanks auntie e$ !

It's morning!!!!

We made it. Sophie was very quiet through the nite, watching madagascar about 28x in a row. She tolerates pain really well, and amazingly is only taking infant's tylenol. We had a scare in the night when her iv leaked, luckily I noticed it before it became too serious. Her blood levels are ok and she only needed one transfusion.

She is swollen and sore, but the exciting part is they removed 90% of the nevis. We'll have 1 more round of 2 expanders in about three months. So now we just have to rest and heal. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and positive thoughts!

Surgical report

Heather and I woke up, oh about 5 am this morning, and had to be here at 6ish. It has been a long morning with Sophie being in surgery from roughly 7:30 until 1:30. Quite a long surgery.

The report from the surgeon is that he was able to get most of the nevus, with just a spot left by her eye on her temple. She is resting now, and it is odd to see her without the big expander on her cheek.

Word is, we'll have to do one more round of expanders. This will get the rest of the nevus, and correct her hairline. Hopefully that round will not be in for 6 months.

More reports as we get them.

Update

She is tolerating the surgery well so far, a couple of hours in. Expanders are out, surgey will go til 2 this afternoon.

In surgery

Sophie is in the ER. Nothing to report yet. Updates and blog posts will be slow as the wifi doesn't work with my phone, and data signals are blocked on the surgical floors. Nothing will likely be posted here until post op, but I will be tweeting the updates as I hear em. Feel free to follow me at erockpgh on twitter.

More as I hear it.

On our way to cleveland

Sophie fell asleep easting goldfish crackers, so she'll be ready to tear up the hotel room. One lesson this process is teaching me is that I hate not having a choice. But I figured that out when I was a kid and you all know I am a control freak. Whee!

on a lighter note

Next week is like my own personal 2012. The earth will shake, the great gourd may rain down ashes from the sky, and I'm not sure how it will all work out, but I intend to survive. In addition to Monday's surgery I have a monstrously huge, increadibly public event I am in charge of for work on Thursday.

The fact that I am a working mom and indeed juggling all those things you hear women complain about before you are actually in the situation yourself manifested itself in a hugely amusing way yesterday. I was in the middle of a long list of business calls I had to make while on my 'day off' with Sophie. As I was smooth talking an important person in my industry, Sophie climbs next to me at the dining room table. No biggie, she loves to be close to mom.

She was running around butt nekked because I am ready for her to be potty trained...well, she isn't quite as ready as I. I didn't notice what she was doing until she yelled, "mom, I pooped!" about 8" from me and the open phone line. Ahhhh....how to gloss over that? I apologized for the unprofessional turn the call had taken, got off the phone and proceeded to bleach my antique golden teak chair I had shipped from Thailand. Let's hope teak is as indestructible as they say!

Shameless request for prayers

The expanders  are coming out Monday, in Cleveland.  We are hoping for a miracle, that the doctor will be able to remove the nevis, and we won't need another round of expanders. It is on her left scalp and temple area.  We would appreciate your prayers.

Mamma would like this

She picked this out for me while shopping with mimi. I think mimi would like that more than me!

Grab those rosaries!

We are T minus 5 days to the big surgery where Sophie's tissue expanders will be removed. This is a shameless request to you all to fire up the prayer chains, break out the rosaries and say those novenas!

Cheers!