Birmingham!

Sorry for the hiatus! Now that Emmie is rolling from one end of the house and grunting her orders, time seems to slip away and I'm not sure exactly where it all goes. We are doing great and Emmie is growing and changing every day. I'm sure that I am a bit biased, but she truly is a fabulous and good-natured baby. She's very engaging and people stop us everywhere to play with her and tell her how beautiful she is. Her little personality is so funny and it's amazing what a true sense of humor she has at such a young age. I must say I've never watched a baby develop and it's really neat to see the new facets of her personality that emerge each day. Liz and I consider ourselves very blessed to have this precious soul in our lives.

We went to Birmingham last weekend to visit family and friends. It was so fun being back in the 'ham. I miss some of my fave old restaurants so we tried to hit as many as possible. I was really glad to have a fantastic dinner at Little Savannah with Lauren, Jim, and Liz. Nonie, Aunt Marsha, and Nicolas babysat Emmie so we could catch up with Jim and Lauren. Dinner was great and the company was even better. While in B'ham, Emmie finally got to meet her Aunt Holly and Casey (2 thumbs up Holly). Other than that, we hung out with Nonie, Pops, Aunt Marsha, Nicolas and the Hughey clan. Emmie had a blast with Nicolas, Emma, Fletcher and Campbell. She is fascinated by other children. You can just see on her face that she's trying to figure out how to run around and play like they do.

Birmingham was great. There are certainly things that we miss especially family, friends, and restaurants. Funny, we live in one of the best cities for food, but we still long for dinner at Bottega and margaritas at Sol y Luna. Time was too short there and there was so many people we wanted to see especially the Finch clan but we all had a bit of a cold and didn't want to spread our germs. We'll catch them next trip. Thanks to all of our Birmingham peeps for such a great trip! We love and miss you all!

Emmie's first Halloween!

This is a public admission that EVERYONE was right about buying Emmie a costume. I am so glad we listened to you all! Thanks for talking i.e. bullying us into buying a costume. She really was the cutest butterfly ever; however, she hated her antennas and wanted the costume off of her head. Thanks to the Hutchinson's for inviting us out to Timbuktu and showing us how to trick or treat West Bank style. The hotdogs and s'mores were delightful and I especially appreciated the flat screen tv in the bushes so I could watch the Saints game! Who Dat!

Back in NOLA

We are back home in NOLA. Emmie is a little cranky (who could blame her), but she is doing great. The post cath lung scan was improved and her cardiologist was very pleased with the results. Thanks for all of your support!

Post cath

We are back in the recovery room with Emmie and she's doing pretty well. She has to get a little blood (pretty normal after a cath) and has had a fever so they are watching her closely. She had a fever after her last cath as well so that's not too surprising. They just want to make sure she's not having a reaction to the blood. No other signs of that though. We'll keep you posted......

Amy

Back in Bean town!

I'm flying!

We left for Boston Wednesday afternoon. Emmie did great on the flight and charmed everyone around her. The flight, however, was a disaster. We made it to Baltimore in time to sprint to our connecting flight and then after rolling away from the gate, we had to sit on the tarmac for almost 2 hours while thunderstorms cleared the East coast. Apparently all of the flights in the Northeast were grounded. We finally made it to Boston and to the hotel around 1:30 am. Emmie was a little champ- though a very sleepy one. She couldn't figure out why we were waking her up at 1 am. We finally got to sleep around 2 and then the fire alarm (a talking one) went off around 3:30. We were so sleepy and confused. Liz was telling me to turn off the alarm. I thought someone was talking to me from the ceiling. Truly surreal! The alarm (ours) then went off at 6 and we were off to Children's for 6 hours of preop. Everyone was pleased with her weight gain and np's and fellows saw her name on the schedule and all stopped in for a quick hello. It was great to see everyone!

Nonie flew in because she just couldn't stand it. She was in Baltimore working and it was a short flight. We went to dinner last night and then went to bed early.

We had to check in at 9 and the cath started about 11. It's almost finished and Emmie did great! We just spoke to Dr. Marx and he was extremely pleased. They were able to dilate her pulmonary artery and he said he thought it looked great. They will do a lung scan this afternoon to see how much more blood flow there is to the left lung after the dilitation. They didn't have to place a stent and all of her ventricular pressures were fabulous! This is so much better than her last cath and we are thrilled! We should be able to see her shortly. She'll have to spend the night tonight and then back to the hotel in the morning. We'll be back in NOLA in time for the Saints game on Sunday.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Amy, Liz, and Emmie

Quick visit with Aunt Marsha and cousin Nicolas

G-daddy is so proud of his Tigers- HAHAHA!

Who Dat on the bottom.....

and War Eagle on top!

Note Emmie's new BFF now that she's eating people food!

Wants to do it herself even at this age! I think we are in trouble!

It seems like our lives are so much busier now that Emmie is around, but in reality we spend a lot more time at home. However, she spends a lot of time instructing us on her proper care and feeding. She has started to eat people food and is dying to crawl. Her favorite foods are baby yogurt and strawberry snoballs. She just knows she would like her mom's chocolate cake and doesn't understand why we think she should eat her sweet potatoes and peas. She has also found a new BFF in Ella (who previously denied her existence). Ella thinks Emmie is a lot more interesting with food all over her body and the surrounding area.

Marsha and Nicolas came to NOLA this weekend for a short visit. We were so glad to see them and tried to make them miss their plane. We would like to just keep them here. It was a great weekend spending time with family, meeting new friends and cheering our Auburn Tigers to victory. I wish I had taped Nicolas' touchdown dances so I could post them for all to enjoy. The boy definitely has moves that would break my back. My father is a huge ALabama fan so pardon the sarcasm under the first photo.

We are heading back to Boston on Wednesday for Emmie's heart cath. This was planned since her surgery so no surprises we hope. They want to balloon her left pulmonary artery and hopefully increase the blood flow to her left lung. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers and hope it's very successful. I'll keep everyone posted of how she's doing.

Cheers,

Amy

Happy 6 months birthday!

Emmie's first meal at Commander's Palace

Yummy, Gumbo!

Emmie turns 6 months today and we celebrated with brunch at Commander's Palace. We took my dad, MIriam, and grandmother and everyone loved it including Dutchie! Brunch was fabulous as always and Emmie was an angel. She tried her first garlic bread, gumbo, cochon de lait, and bread pudding souffle. We made her wait to try the milk punch and mimosa until she's at least a year old. Emmie especially loved the jazz band who played her several sweet songs. She agreed we could spend every birthday and any other day at Commander's. hope you all enjoy the pictures. It's been the most fantastic 6 months (minus a few bumps) and we look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with Emmie.

On a separate note, Angel, if you're reading, know we are thinking of you and remembering Lawson and his beautiful short life. I was lucky to have known him.

Amy

More pictures from Emmie's first Saints game! Who Dat!

Thanks Vanessa B for the pictures inside the dome.

Life is Good

Save our coast!

Cute Who Dats!

Thanks and love you Nonie!

Ducky, are you listening to me?

It's hard to believe that she's now 4 weeks post-op. She's really doing great. We keep waiting for something bad to happen, but so far so good. My mom (thanks!) came and stayed for a week because we were nervous about going back to work. Thankfully, everything has been uneventful. Her incision looks great and she's gaining weight at a record pace (at least for her)! She now weighs 16 lbs 4 oz! She has gained almost a pound in one week. She's clearly eating like she's never been fed before, but as everyone knows from the 2o gallons of breast milk in our freezer, that's not true! She is so much more active and you can tell she feels so much better. Everyone warned us that she might lose milestones after her surgery, but Emmie has once again proven everyone wrong. Not only did she not lose anything, but she's now able to sit unsupported! Only problem is, she's very curious and when she wants to go somewhere, she does- head first.

Emmie went to her first Saints game! She was a cute little Who Dat in her new dress. She thought the game was fabulous and was actually better at following the game than Liz. Emmie clearly already has a deep appreciation and knowledge of football. We've been working diligently on this! We are now working on the words to Who Dat and the Auburn fight song. I am predicting her first words will be Who Dat or War Eagle!

Amy

Random pictures from Boston and first days home

Saying bye and thanks to our sweet NP Marcy

Thanks Laura!

Thanks Liz!

ready to blow this joint!

Emmie's first boat ride

Emmie liked the big bed at the hotel much better than the

zoo cage at the hospital! And so did her moms!!!

She liked the view from the hotel

Hanging with mommy back in NOLA!

trying out her high chair

Hard to believe she's big enough for this!

We have enjoyed our first full day back in NOLA. We went to our usual breakfast place and then to the farmer's market- our usual Saturday routine! We then ate lunch at Anna, Rajiv, Shalin, and Seine's house and caught up with them. We stopped by Hansen's for a snoball and are now relaxing at home. It's so good to get back to being normal. Emmie is doing great and it's been so good seeing all of our friends. Sorry again for the lack of pictures last week, but I hope this makes up for my laziness. She's so pink!

ag