Mei Mei's cupcake

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Meigan turned from baby to toddler today! I can't believe it's been a year already! We had a fun garden themed party at which Mei Mei's friends planted flowers in "Meigan's Garden" in the back yard. She enjoyed her first cupcake and left the party early for an overdue nap. We had a nice barbecue in the evening with Granny and Grandpa and Grandma.
We are so greatful for every day with our beautiful girl. She is so happy and fun and independent. Her curiosity leads her on new adventures every day. She is a blessing and a joy. Thank you God for Meigan Elaine!

We love to read!

The kids love their books. Jacob is moving toward chapter books- he's reading a Magic Tree House book in this clip. Keilani knows about 6 letters and some of their sounds, but she likes to "read" books too- she has three or four books memorized. She's reading Eric Carl's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" in her video.

Big steps for Mei Mei

Meigan has been working on walking more and more every day. Her record is 15 steps.

In and Out and then a pop. . .

Keilani's surgery went well this morning. We woke up at 4:50 so we could get ready and have a sip of juice before the 5am cut-off. Keilani snuggled with Grandma until we left at 5:30. We went into admitting where Keilani and her Snuggly Pup got wristbands.
We were whizzed right in to pre-op where Keilani got dressed in her surgery pajamas and was given a small cup of Versed to help her relax. She DID NOT want to drink it. She spit some out and then I had to give her the choice to drink it or be held down and forced to drink it. She finally chose to drink it (big sigh of relief for mommy). The medicine made her really loopy and happy. She waved a princess wave to mommy and said "Bye Mom!"
We were sent back to the waiting room and tried not worry. After not too long the surgeon came to us and said, "She's done. Come on back." Everything had gone prefectly. Keilani was sleeping peacefully. She woke up after a while without tears. The nurse was amazed that she didn't try to pull anything off. She whispered to me a bit. And after a bit she was eating a popsicle and chugging juice.
She recovered so well the sent us right home!
All was well at home and Kei Kei was pepping up and even playing outside a bit, though she was bearing a bit of an attitude about everything. But, hey she has some reason to be a bit cranky!
Then came the call for naptime. She was not having it at all. I picked her up and she started to flail around when we heard a sudden "pop." The sound was kind of like a shirt button popping loose, but louder. My stomach sank a bit. I looked at Keilani and asked her, "What was that?" She started crying "It didn't pop, it didn't pop." I asked her if it was her stomach and she wouldn't answer. I told her it was very important and to tell me. She nodded. At this point my stomach sank all the way to the floor. She could tell. She was crying and I started calling for Jeff. So, we hurried to the car and headed toward the ER. By halfway there, she was calm. At that point I started second guessing. Was it just her back cracking or her sternum popping? We knew we had to play it safe and go in. The surgeon met us in the ER room. He said he'd be suprised if the inner stitch broke, but even if it did, there wasn't anything to do about it now. (It wouldn't really cause much internal bleeding). He said worst case scenario would be that the stitch did break and the tissue could come back out the hole, but most likely scar tissue will build up blocking the 1mm opening and preventing that.
So, there's a small possibility that we just went through surgery and then undid it. But prayerfully, her tummy bump is fixed.
And regardless, our sweetie is Okay!

Just can't be mad at that face!

Check out Keilani's latest trouble- playfoam in the hair! This was after a week of coloring on the walls and lipsticking the carpet. Today's infraction had it's own natural consequence of getting the foam out of the hair. She was crying just talking about it.