Eat, girl eat!

I'm getting excited for Valentine's Day.  Not so much for the cards, treats and my Valentine (although these are all great) but I'm missing the Christmas decorations in my house and I want to put some color back in here!  I just came across this tutorial for Valentine's decoration (or you could use it for another holiday, ect.). anyhoo, check it out here.  A friend, Beth, heart attacks her house covering the living spaces with cut out hearts.  I love seeing those hearts all over!  I want to make a wreath to put up, but I'm not sure yet what I want it to look like.  Fun stuff, I need to get cracking!

When I was a little girl, on Valentine's Day evening, we'd get a knock at the front door and when we'd open it there would just be a valentine card to one of us kids from "Tom Thumb" or "Mother Goose" or something like that.  It would continue til all of us received one.  My grandma Christensen lived with us, well in a cottage in our back yard, and she would give us those Valentines.   It was fun and once I caught a glimpse of her running around the house, and that was fun to see. :) 

On a different note, Avery just got switched to a continuous nighttime feed through her g-tube so she gets most of her daily intake at night.  Now, while she's up during the day, she'll get hungry and want to eat orally.  So far, she does seem to be more focused on food!  I'm hopeful that this will help her to eat.  Cross your fingers!  The only lament is I have to get up during the night to add more food to the feeding bag.  The first few nights were rough because she kept waking up and wanted to play with the machine.  Now she's sleeping through it.  Another bonus is she doesn't spit up!!!  She was spitting up (and sometimes it was a lot) if she cried hard shortly after being fed- gravity bag.  Now she can cry and I'm not reaching for a bag or a "chum bucket", not that she was crying a lot, but dear Avery can be sensitive.  So, lots of positives in this arrangement.  2010 is a promising year. :)  I know we're blessed and I don't want to appear ungrateful or insensitive to others.  We have much to be grateful for, and we are! 

Avery is going to have her last planned heart surgery this spring.  We don't have a date yet, but I'm hoping it'll be around the beginning of April.  I'm hopeful that her recovery will be quicker than the last two.  Avery is doing well, she is full of energy and stays busy!  You can't really tell she needs surgery right now, but when she's sick or cries a lot, she gets pale and a little blue around the mouth.  After the next surgery, that won't be the case!!  She will be pink (they tell us).  I'm almost excited for this surgery, it means we're done- well, okay not really, but done having UofM surgery stays!  knock on wood.  I don't want to jinx myself.  When I think about being with Avery up at the hospital my stomach gets in knots.  I have my thoughts/concerns with Avery, but all around you, there are other situations more/less critical and just as anxious.  I've seen parents have to leave without their little ones and that makes it hard to be casual or cheerful when you don't know what kind of day your fellow hall mates are having.

Well, all you can do is be positive and sympathetic (that's not the word I want to use, but I can't think of the one I want right now).

So I know I've made some grammatical errors here in this post, but that's how I think.  Here's to Valentine wreath making and happy days ahead!