Well, it’s official. Ramona is about 40lbs of cute in a 20lb bag. She’s so big and chunky she barely fits on our scale now!

We’re home from Vermont and had a great time. Andy’s brother, Toby, and his wife, Bekah, generously agreed to let me and Mona invade their house for the weekend. They have an adorable new baby, Phare (that’s FAIR-uh for those of you keeping score at home), and a sweet 11 year old boy named Noah. Ramona flew well, we had lots of time for napping and shopping, and we had lots of mommy-Mona time. It was pretty special. I missed my boys like crazy, but they had fun too. They went to the zoo, the beach and the park. Simon was so worn out by his Papa fun time that he slept until 7:30 every morning that I was gone.

I had a little more alone time than I’m used to over the weekend and found myself getting very sad all of the sudden. I think normally I use the chaos in my life to beat back the fear and worry that encroaches so easily in my quiet times. But that was good too, I guess. Gave me a chance to acknowledge the anxiety I deal with on a daily basis.

Speaking of which, Ramona’s cardiology appointment has been pushed up from middle of October to this Friday. This is because of a curious leaning behavior Ramona has developed over the last couple of weeks. She turns her head and leans way over so her head is almost touching the ground, stays like that for a few seconds, then pops back up. At first I thought that she was just trying to see what was under the couch. There is some concern that she is doing this in an attempt to shunt the blood differently between her ventricles and improve her oxygenation. Not sure what this would mean if it were the case but they’d like to do an echo and make sure everything looks okay still. Hopefully this will be nothing, or close to nothing. Please pray that she will not require surgery again soon.

Some great news. She is now drinking enough by mouth that we are considering eliminating one of her five pump feedings. She has downed as much as 2 oz. in a sitting this past week and yesterday she drank 3.5 oz total! We are hopeful that she will be able at some point to drink the entire 30 oz. she gets every day, that would mean no more tube!

Here are a few shots of Mona, her new cousin, and the three ladies. Love to all of you, Jane.

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