Cramming it all into one post

I'm a little slow getting to our Thanksgiving post and Livi's appointment this week. I think I needed to rest from the week of cooking, eating, birthday party and guests. Thanksgiving was great. My brother and his wife and my mother joined us for the Holiday. I think I am a gourmet chef so I spent quite a bit of time on menu planning. We went non-traditional but still really good and memorable.



Aria's 4th Birthday was the 25th and we celebrated on the 28th, the day after Thanksgiving. I still can't believe she is 4 years old. That seems like such a milestone to me. She's not a toddler anymore. Where is the time going? She had so much fun. She had been talking about her birthday since Miles's birthday in September. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance Liviana's blog with our family blog but I have thrown in some birthday party pictures also. Liviana is wearing a dress I bought for Aria when she was livi's age and never got to wear. It fit perfectly with our pink and brown theme.



Liviana had an appointment on Monday. It was a delayed appointment (or early, however you look at it) because her pediatrician was on maternity leave (her 6th child!). At 10.5 months she weighed 18.5lbs. and is 28inches long. She is a petite looking little lady but doing so well. She was around 40% on her weight and 50% on her height. She thought she looked great and was very impressed that she kept waving "Hi", is standing by herself, has amazing fine motor skills (she puts caps on water bottles and puts legos together) and is so perfectly "normal". She will have her next appointment around her 1st birthday which is right around the corner.



Brad has his repeat CT Scan early tomorrow morning. They rescheduled his appointment at the lung cancer clinic for the 18th which means he would have to wait that long to get the results. We have "connections" though and we will be getting the results Friday at the latest. I'm worried if they still show the mass on the lung that the holiday will cause a delay in a biopsy being done. I am certainly going to push for everything to be done quickly. We really can't keep waiting with so many questions.



I really cannot believe that it is a year later and Liviana is almost a year old. I remember this time last year like it was yesterday. I swear the kids watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer just yesterday, I swear I was big as a house and consumed with fear for Liviana's future. I swear I just gave birth to her yesterday and watched as she was intubated and taken to NICU. This has been the fastest year of my life and one filled with so much joy and love. We have grown so much this year and despite the stress and challenges brought to us we are better for all of it. We can be thankful for all we have and then some.



There are other CDH babies celebrating their 1st birthdays now also. I remember their arrivals and am so thrilled to see how far they have come. Emerson turned 1 today and Cadenne turns 1 on Saturday. Happy Birthday little ladies! You have added much to the world and many gray hairs to your parent's heads.

I will update after we get Brad's CT results. Please hope for positive results. I hope everyone is doing well, staying warm and staying loved.