Our daughter - uncooperative? stubborn? No way.....

The other morning I decided it was time to get some holiday pictures of Helaina for our photo Christmas card we want to send out this year. I got her all dressed up in one of the pretty satin outfits we bought in China, did her hair with a red bow (which she hated and constantly tugged at), and attempted to pose her in front of the Christmas tree. Later that day when I told Jim that I took about 50 pictures and only got 5 possibilities, he couldn't believe it. After dinner that night he said "Why don't we put a different outfit on her and try again for a few more shots." Great, as I said to myself "now you'll see". I did her hair with a barette, put on another holiday outfit and said to Jim "go ahead, pose her, get her to smile and stand still for the count of 5". She would stand still for a second, then run or make a funny face, or sit down, or sing and clap, or even growl. He'd say "Helaina, just stand still for one more picture then we'll have ice cream, or watch the Backyardigans, or ..........." She accepted no bribes. Then Jim decided to stand her in front of the tree, quickly run back beside me and do funny things to get her to laugh. The only thing that accomplished was to get me laughing so hard that I couldn't hold the camera still. I laughed even harder when he decided to try and put the antler ears on her that she got from Santa at the mall. The photo below is the result with Helaina ripping them off her head almost immediately!

I'll post more pictures from the "photo shoots" after we mail out the Christmas card. Yes, we finally selected 2 photos for the card, and we're very pleased with the way it came out!

Our little angel, exhausted after the first 50 pictures of the day!

A little play time outside on the swingset on a sunny, cold afternoon.

Nothing is more fun than when big brother Josh plays too.

Decorating the tree was a success. Only problem was that Helaina would hang every ornament she picked out in the exact same spot on the exact same branch!

While we were preoccupied with the tree we noticed that Helaina was unusually quiet. I turned around and found her stringing some decorative beads around her neck

Beautiful result. They look especially nice with her camo shirt!

Surgery completed! Helaina's back to normal, except for the puffy lip!

Tuesday, Nov. 25 is done and over with, thank goodness! Helaina did very well with her surgery. It was relatively short (2 hrs 45 minutes) and she looked a lot better in the recovery room than she did with her palate surgery - her screaming was the same though! Her upper lip was swollen quite a bit and she had the "usual" surgery remnants (dried blood, yellow solution and surgical tape stuck to her face), but she looked good. She did a lot of moaning, whining and fussing throughout the day and she was not pleased with all the heart monitor leads, the pulse ox wire and of course the iv, but she did sleep very well through the night - waking up about 5 or 6 times but going right back to sleep usually. In the morning I told her that if she drank something, we could go home. She turned her head away from me at first, but I told her we could fill the pink "bucket" with water and suds and play in it if she drank. She decided that was worth it and had some water - yippee! Throughout the morning and early afternoon she had chicken broth, popsicles, lemon ice, jello, soda and flavored water. At 12:30 we told the nurse everything that Helaina drank & ate and to "get us out of here". It took forever to be discharged because there were so many patients going home on Wednesday (who wants to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving). I made the HUGE mistake of taking Helaina's sneakers out of the bag and getting her clothes ready. BIG mistake. As soon as she saw the sneakers she got very excited and there was no stopping her. She was ready to get dressed and hit the road, iv and all! We finally put the sneakers on her to try and quiet her, but no such luck. We eventually blew out of the hospital a little after 2:00 and were home in no time. We had a quick dinner, plopped down on the couch, and all 3 of us were asleep on the couch before 7:00pm. The ringing phone woke us up - total exhaustion! Helaina slept through the night, happy to be in her own crib, and woke up on Thanksgiving in a pretty good mood. Her pain was managed with just tylenol and her oral antibiotic was slurpped down with no problem this time because we mixed it with Hershey's strawberry syrup - a tip from the pharmacist. It worked wonderfully. She took the medicine twice a day for 7 days with not one complaint. She also let me do the ear drops and nasal spray without too much squirming either. Ahhhh!

Waiting, waiting for the surgery. Helaina's memory is amazing. Her palate surgery was 6 months ago but as soon as the nurse came into the room with the gown to change into, Helaina started wimpering then crying. She knew what was coming!

Temporarily distracted with some Dora dominos.

Poor baby. A few hours after surgery in our room. This is how Helaina and I spent much of the next 24 hours.

Resting with her favorite pillow from home, and then playing with a bucket of soapy water while watching cartoons!

That is one fat lip ... and it's still swollen today.

Having some lemon ice and a popsicle.

That lemon ice is mighty tastey and refreshing after a day of nothing to eat or drink.

"Moray, pllleeeez!"

Funny sock story: Helaina hates socks. There is a constant struggle at home to keep socks on her. She will pull them off, we will put them back on. 10 minutes later she's barefoot again "Helaina, where are your socks?" Her reply: "I dun no." It's really a power struggle. In the hospital recovery room, the nurse put one of these red slipper sox on Helaina's right foot to keep her from pulling the pulse ox wire off her toe. In all her pain and crying, Helaina pointed to the other sock and wanted it on her other foot. They stayed on the entire time we were in the hospital. She wouldn't let us take them off! We brought them home with us. Now we'll have to see if she wears them at home as much as in the hospital!

Wearing her new snowman jammies from Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike. Helaina has to wear footed jammies to bed because even in her sleep she's active - she kicks off all blankets!

It's way too soon for this again, however.....

Here's a picture of Helaina taken 2 days after her surgery this past May. Unfortunately, she has another date with her surgeon tomorrow. Helaina needs a little repair work done in her mouth and none of us are very excited about it. We knew after the first consultation with her surgeon that she would need more than one surgery - we were just hoping it wouldn't be this soon. The good thing is that it will be a shorter surgery this time (2 to 3 hours instead of 5-1/2 like the last one), she should have less pain afterward, and only one night in the hospital. "As long as she's drinking she can go home the next day" - that's what the surgeon said and we're holding him to it! We DON'T want to celebrate Thanksgiving in the hospital, and I'm prepared to do just about anything to get our stubborn daughter to drink by the next day! Say a little prayer for our gal on Tuesday.


Daddy's home from work this week so we took Helaina out this morning to play in the snow for the first time. We bundled her up in her new snowsuit and boots and set her free! "Hey Helaina, want to go down the snowy slide in your slippery snowsuit?" That's all she had to hear and those little legs went running toward the swingset! She whipped down that slide so fast that she went flying off the end of it and landed on her butt - which she thought was great. Again, again, again & again.

Shoveling off the playhouse area of the swingset.

Her rosey cheeks matched her snowsuit.

Filling her little dumptruck with snow.

Even the cold weather won't keep a gal who just got her license off the street!

Helaina needs some guidance in the street because it's hard to steer with mittens on!

When we were done outside Helaina collapsed onto the floor and pretended to be asleep. Playing in the snow is hard work.

I know this will be an embarassing photo when she gets older, but it is so darn cute. She absolutely loves her new pink boots and had to wear them while going potty this morning. Helaina and her panda were busy watching Curious George.

Yup, I'm another year older - and it's a big number this year! It's ok, though, because I've got my daughter by my side. We celebrated yesterday and it gave the family a chance to see Helaina before her surgery. My thoughtful hubby ordered my birthday cake with "happy birthday" written in Chinese. It also had raspberry filling - my favorite. How sweet.

The Strong Museum of Play - Wow!

On Monday we headed down the Thruway to Rochester for our first visit the Strong Museum of Play. Wow, amazing, fantastic. It's a huge unbelievable place with exhibits, hands-on activities, activity rooms, books, arts & crafts galore, computers, interactive displays, slides, a train, a carousel, theaters & costumes to playt in, multi-level climbing boats and planes - you name it, they have it. Helaina had 4-1/2 hours of exhausting fun (Daddy and Momma were exhausted too). The only time her little legs stopped moving was when we took a lunch break. She was in overdrive the entire time. I took lots of pictures (or tried to), but Helaina didn't stand still in any one place for very long. I ended up deleting lots of pictures because she was just a blurr in them! The kid-sized Wegmans grocery store and the Sesame Street exhibit were my favorites.

There was an entire Wegmans grocery store for kids. You picked up the child-size grocery cart and could select 5 (play) items from the child-size store. There were departments just like in the real store - produce, bakery, meats, and shelves lined with (empty) packages of Wegman's products. Jim and I were amazed at how realistic everything was. There were even aprons the kids could put on while "working" in the departments. The aprons had "produce manger" or "meat department manager" printed on them. So funny.

Helaina didn't want any meat or fish, but she did toss a donut into her cart from the bakery. The girl has her priorities.

Weighing her loaf of bread.

Helaina shopped like a pro. That's because she's in Wegmans almost daily with me!

At the checkout. Is this too funny or what? She knew just what to do and started pounding on those keys.

Getting ready to scan her 5 items.

After scanning each item she put them back in her grocery cart then she pushed it through the store again to "restock" the shelves. We wanted to go through the store again on our way out because it was so much fun, but we were too exhausted.

Since Helaina was under age 4 someone had to ride the train with her. You can see that Jim contorted his body to fit into the train. After the ride was over the woman operator asked Helaina if she enjoyed the ride. Helaina said "tank you", showed the woman 2 thumbs up and then gave her a high five! It was so cute, and I was SO annoyed because I had already turned off and put away the video recorder.


There were several huge fish tanks that were beautiful.


This was my favorite exhibit in Sesame Street and we couldn't get Helaina to cooperate, as you can see! You could select the character you wanted to appear with on the screen, so we chose Elmo, and you appeared on the screen next to the character who would talk and inter-act with you. You can see Jim and Helaina are in the screen with Elmo. Thought she'd love this but Helaina was focused on getting to something else that caught her attention - obviously!

Helaina loves Snuffy because he's an elephant.

Sleeping in Elmo's bed and watching Mr. Noodle.

Playing Elmo's piano, and the history of some Elmo toys.

This was cool. As you sat on the steps on Sesame Street, there was a TV hanging from the ceiling in front of you so you could see yourself. Note me taking the picture of us on the TV screen!

Couldn't get Helaina to stand still long enough for a picture with Big Bird, Zoe and Elmo, but Daddy would.

The count says "bwaa haa haa haa", as Helaina would say.


Ahh, time to sit down for a lunch break. Helaina's choice was Taco Bell. She likes the taco chips and cheese because dunking is one of her favorite activities. She loves the cheese sauce - note the spoon in the cheese sauce cup!


The Berenstein Bears activity room was great. Trying to get her to stand between the family of bears for a photo - no luck, and "cooking" eggs in the play kitchen.

Helaina loved playing with the money at the fruit stand. She also enjoyed using the tools in the workshop.

The staircase in this picture was painted on the wall, part of the mural. It looked so real, though, that Helaina actually tried to climb it!

Brushing the gigantic teeth together. Helaina ran into this display, picked up the toothbrush and started to put it to her mouth. Jim and I both screamed "no!" loudly and simultaneously. This place was a germ-fest with the hundreds of kids in there. There were actually bottles of hand sanitizer placed throughout the museum for the visitors to use!

Helaina likes Curious George and we watch it on TV. It amuses her that the monkey always gets into mischief - I think she can relate to that! Her favorite words while watching that show are "uh oh".

Giving George a hug!


As soon as Helaina woke up Monday morning she headed for her tiny play stove. Thought she looked adorable sitting there in her footed jammies "cooking". This stove was Joshua's when he was little - I'm glad that I'm a packrat and saved so many of the toys from his childhood!