Day 90 - First tooth!

Sophie’s first tooth has made its appearance – the bottom right tooth.  She is four months earlier than Jessica was at cutting her first tooth and has started with a different tooth to Jessica too as the bottom left was the first to appear when Jessica was ten months old.  Sophie has been a little more unsettled although has mostly been her usual happy self – it was watching her using a breadstick a bit like a teething ring that made me check and notice that a tooth had broken through the gum.  No more letting her gnaw on my fingers now!

Day 57 - Happy heart day, Jessica

Today is one of Jessica’s heart days – it is two years today since she had her last open-heart surgery, the Glenn procedure.  It is amazing to look at her today and see how far she has come – we have been so very blessed.  Her recovery from her Glenn was quite rocky as she had parainfluenza and a wound infection after her surgery, but since then she has gone from strength to strength.  She will still need another big operation, the Fontan procedure, at some stage but the cardiology team are hopeful that it will not need to happen this year.

Day 21 - Transitions

Today sees the start of several transitions for my babies due to the arrival of several parcels.  Jessica’s new booster seat means that she is now a big girl and can sit at the table whilst her highchair has been put away until Sophie is ready to start weaning in a few weeks’ time.  Sophie’s cot bed has also arrived as she is getting too big for her Moses basket and so she will be moving into her big cot in the next couple of days.  Plus the attachment for the buggy has arrived to convert it to a double.

Sophie's stage and TV debut

Sophie made her stage debut in today’s concert being rocked by Mummy for her solo ‘Hush You, My Baby’ (and also accompanied Mummy on stage for the group numbers too!) She was underwhelmed by her first stage appearance – in fact she slept through the entire concert! Then in the evening, she made her TV debut too as she appeared on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ being cuddled by the celebrity dancer Sophie Ellis-Bextor at the Downing Steet children’s Christmas party (and even got a mention too!). We were inundated with text messages from excited friends and family members who had spotted her.

Happy heart day

It is two years today since Jessica had her second major open-heart surgery. Today we have been putting on a concert to help fundraise for the paediatric intensive care unit where she was treated and we managed to raise £376 which was great. We are so very thankful to all the medical team who have looked after Jessica – without all the wonderful care she has received, she wouldn’t be here today. Watching her today and seeing our beautiful brave little girl running around and dancing on stage is such a huge blessing and we thank God every day for her.

First painting

My little girl painted her first ever picture today which I was very excited about. We go to a stay and play group every now and then on a Thursday morning and they have various toys out and there’s always a sand pit and a painting table. Up until this morning, Jessica has shown absolutely no interest in the paint at all but today she headed straight for it and I only just managed to get a paint apron on her before she started getting her clothes covered! It was lovely to see her exploring how to use a paintbrush.