Bring a tissue!

Kristi I hope you don't mind but I'm still tearing up thinking about this & just had to pass it along.

This is amazing!

Videos

I have quite a few videos that have been waiting patiently to be posted. So here are 2 that are from before her surgery... which really isn't all that long ago... not quite 2 months! :)

We made Gingerbread Cookies & she was so helpful.


Sometimes Payton is more talkative when the camera is out. So when she is talkative I keep the camera going so this one is a little long.

Pay attention to how she says Frosty the Snowman in the very beginning. I love it! Frosty So-Bad.

More to come soon.

Payton loves being outside but hates wearing hats, but not this day. She wore it all morning, or at least until we were actually outside. She then decided that the hat was getting in the way. Since I figured that would happen I took pictures before we left. She is holding a ball that she got from a member of our ward & it is so cool. It has glitter inside & works similar to a snow globe but it bounces. She loves it! Thanks again Tervets!

And a friend from my parents ward got her that adhorable scarf, thanks Cynthia. She loves it & as you can tell in the picture below, she likes to cradle it like she's holding it & it's not attached to the scarf.

And below is the picture I referred to yesterday, plus a little bit of a scary smile. I am so excited how it looks. Every time her shirt comes off her arms go out, away from her body as if it were sensitive. Yet when her shirt is on it magically heals! Yeah she's entitled but I'm just curious how much longer she will be so... so... intense.

Just Yooking, no touch!

This is what Payton tells me all the time... Not touch momma, just yooking. As was expected she is very aware of what others around her are doing especially if those actions may leed to touching of any kind. And she only is extra careful when her shirt is off... when her shirt is on she will pat her chest & say 'no touching'. The pat isn't soft so I know it's just a mental thing now & not because it actually hurts.

You can see that the top of her incision is BEAUTIFUL!!! Or at least I think so. The dark line is just dried blood that is under the layer of glue that they put on after surgery. Actually it is completely off now but Donald has my camera down at the parade route (Rose Parade) & I wasn't going to wait any longer to post on here.

It took a long time for her xrays to start to clear up. There is still some fluid in her lungs but it is going away, even if it is slowly. She is doing okay with taking her medicine. Some days are better than others. We are still on a lot of diuretics so she is peeing out of her diaper like crazy, which means a lot of laundry but oh well...

We had a scare last week... we discovered that her coumidin levels were dangerously high & we had to be sure that she didn't hurt herself or fall or anything until they came down. For those of you familiar with the blood thinner, they want her to be between 2-3 & her INR level was 5! So we didn't give her the dose for 3 days & retested the morning we were going to restart & she was 2.5 so we started it up again at 1/2 of the dose we were giving her. I was so upset (that is a major understatment! I have not gotten that mad to the put of upset stomach & shaking since high school) & to avoid going to a 'bad place' I will just say that I am glad it was caught before anything major happened. Because our strict instructions were to keep her on a "soft couch & have her watch movies all day" we did not give her the bike we got her for christmas. If she is still going to get it then it won't be for a while..... that is still up in the air. She will need to be on this drug for 6 months to 1 year. So maybe next year....

She is also on a LOW FAT diet so what that means for our cheese loving, cheese with every meal, will eat nothing but cheese for a meal sometimes is.... yeah you guessed it NO CHEESE! We did find some low fat (which has been defined for us as less that 3 grams of fat per serving) cheese at Whole Foods but it is $8 for a block a little bigger than the size of a deck of cards. She also can't have anything with Butter, Oil & the worst is NO FRENCH FRIES. I don't think you understand the gravity of this. I could get her to do anything for french fries! Anything! Oh well. We will survive... somehow.

Let's see what else. She is talking up a storm & I will be posting some videos very soon. I love that she is talking & am loving getting to know her in a whole new way. Thanks for checking up on her & I'll keep the updates coming!

I promise to try to be better...

Or at least that is my goal for blogging.... First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This month has been crazy as many of you know. Payton is doing well but has required A LOT of one on one supervision/playtime (the reasons I will go into later).

So Payton turned 3 on the 16th. Because she had just been home a few days we had just family. Unfortunately my mom wore her out (by making her laugh for about 10 to 15 minutes) that she slept thru dinner & didn't have any cake.
She did wake up in time to open presents but I didn't take any pictures. So the pics below are from the next morning... by the way I LOVE HER BEAD HEAD!!!

It was all about Littlest Pet Shop this year for her birthday!

Also Donald's new boss sent her a gift basket.
She loved everything in it. Especially the bear which she is cuddling with below. Thanks Merrill Lynch people! Payton loved it....

& she was the most spoiled birthday girl there ever was... & she lived happily ever after.