Happy Valentine's Day!

The King of the Castle Returns!

We're THRILLED to have Matt home and get back to our little piece of "normal" over here. We had a great time during our "princess week" but are glad that King Daddy is home. We missed him and are so happy to be together again. It was a little hard to get Elizabeth to look at the camera, they were both so fixated on their Polly Pocket dolls...a sweet treat Daddy brought home from his adventures to Target in San Mateo...he he he....

A Little Sunshine

What's better than a glass of OJ? A dose of my girls in the morning! They've been playing "summer" lately...stripping down and "swimming" in the basement. Much of this was without my consent, while I thought they were quietly playing so I could make dinner...sigh. Well, I decided to embrace the fun and yesterday we went all out...swimsuits, inner tubes, flip flops and beach towels. We took turns jumping into the water (the yoga mat) and had a grand time.

 

Matt's dad's (7 hr!) surgery went well and if they had a bed for him on the ward, he'd be out of the ICU by now, so that's encouraging. The surgeons believe they got both the tumors out with the remainder of the pancreas and now it's just time to recover, adjust to his new life as a diabetic and stay cancer-free! We're passing the time during Matt's absence slowly...but things are going really well! We're hunkered down at home and all in all, having a really great time. Sweet friends have delivered a few groceries and necessities and stopped by to chat, and tomorrow (shhh, don't tell the girls!) we're meeting friends at an indoor pool for some open swim time. That will be a highlight of our week for sure.

We've also been doing a little preschool here and there. Elizabeth has started spelling Ruby's name so I cut out the letters in play dough and she figured out how to arrange them with only verbal
prompts from me about what direction the letters went. She's a smart cookie!

The Peterson Family at its Best

I've been wanting to post the following video since we got home...it just makes me happy to watch it and remember how much fun we have together.

This is why we move heaven and earth to spend Christmas with our families.

We just love them! Matt and I are totally delighted with our families of origin and then feel doubly blessed that we married in to such great families-in-law. And as you can tell from this video, we're a goofy bunch doing what we do best...eating and singing.

Elizabeth's follow-up

This fun picture of Matt with the girls was taken on our Christmas trip to CA by the fabulous Corrie Sands.

 

Elizabeth continues to recover well from her surgical adventure last week. We're pleased that her hearing is much improved and to clarify in response to some questions, the varicose veins in her esophagus were a mixture of many that looked "really good" and one that needed to be cauterized twice to decrease the risk of bleeding. So she still has varices, but they're stable and the treatment seems to be working. The incision made to close her g-tube site and remove the protruding gastric tissue was successful, but after 7 days under the bandage, we looked at it Sunday evening and were concerned that it might be starting to become infected. As a result, we saw the surgical folks on Monday. Apparently fistula closures are notorious for growing infections so they were glad to be getting an early jump on it and gave us special antimicrobial dressing and prescribed 7 days of nasty tasting, and REALLY expensive antibiotics. To keep track, this is her 7th antibiotic in 45 days...her poor GI tract must be completely confused.

 

On a side note, our peanut is a CHAMP at taking horrible tasting food/medicine. Her very first "milk" was a broken down formula for post-heart surgery kiddos that literally smelled and tasted like wet moldy trash...it was disgusting. Yet she grew to love it and even preferred it over breast milk for a while after we could finally introduce her to "the good stuff". She's taken liquid iron supplements on and off and that's like swallowing pennies, she takes penicillin every day, and that's notorious for making kids gag and now, the surgical nurse told us that most kids can't even get this current antibiotic down...and the only thing that sometimes works is blending it with Hershey's chocolate syrup. Well, she has to take more than a teaspoon 3 times a day, so rather than increase the volume of that torturous stuff, we gave it a shot and just gave it to her straight, without any flavoring...and she didn't even bat an eyelash! She was completely unfazed. Amazing.

 

After just three doses of antibiotics and 24 hours under the special dressing, the site looks improved and we're hopeful that we avoided a mini-crisis. We're especially grateful because Matt's on a plane now to fly to CA for his Dad's cancer surgery and will be gone until late Sunday evening. We'd definitely appreciate your prayers for an uneventful week and a successful surgery for Grandpa Harms.