Doctors, doctors and flowers

So on Monday Norah went back to Shriner's for a post surgery follow-up. The nurse removed her bandages for the first time in 10 days. Her poor arm and hand were so dry and shriveled from being covered but her fingers looked great.

Norah was so amazed when her hand was free she just kept flipping them back and forth and staring and wiggling them all.

"Wow, a hand!!! Dad are you seeing this?"
"OMG, my THUMB!!!!"
She was soooooooo happy. She started grinning from ear to ear and clapping excitedly. She smiled at the doctor and nurses and cheesed.
Clapping and more clapping.

Her hands finally made the smacking noise she was missing so much.


Dr. Strecker gave her the A-OK and we don't have to go back for another 6 weeks. We will continue doing daily bandage changes until the scabs have healed and then we get to start on the lovely scar massage. The next surgery we were going to have on her left hand was going to be in early September but since we are going to FL in October we don't want any chance of infection that would keep her from swimming so we have agreed to postpone until early November when we are back.

"Amazing!"

Then nurse Lauren came in and showed us how to do the daily bandage changes. Norah was sooooo pissed that we bandaged her hand back up and she was no longer free. She has been doing really well this week with the changes though and practically launches her hand into the peroxide water dip. She is such a good girl.
Oh yeah, and here we go again with the table eating again.
Daddy was the recipient of this nasty look. It is good to know it is not just for me. =)

Tuesday we had our second post placement visit with our social worker and all went well. We are getting excited about starting our second adoption shortly. We will write more about that later. Then on Thursday Norah had a well visit appointment with her pediatrician. She had 4 more shots and was a real trooper. She now weighs 18 lbs 8 oz (20th percentile) and is 28 in tall (35th percentile). She will soon be transitioning to milk and sippy cups. She is right on track developmentally. Everyday we are amazed by how big she is getting and the things she is doing. She is cruising so well now and tripoding on the floor, trying to stand on her own. She will probably be walking in a month. It is just crazy. I don't want my baby to grow up!

Bed head.
Saturday we had a birthday party for a co-worker's daughter. Norah was cheesing it up again before we left. The funniest part of this cheese was that she was doing it so over the top that she kept opening her eyes just the tiniest bit to see if we were paying attention.

Norah saying hi to her day care buddy, Dylan. She tried to steal his bink 5 seconds later.
Riding the carousel. Barn was very upset at how much interest she showed in the pole as opposed to the rest of the ride. After all, it is daddy's job to keep his girl off that pole!


She also got her first taste of a chocolate cupcake (sans icing). At first she just made a funny face and slowly chewed and then leaned in and attacked it.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm.
What cupcake?
Then on the way out I wanted to get some pics of her in the sun but again, she hates the sun and she was overtired by that point. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get "the" picture. You know the one but she was sweaty and starting to pass out and daddy was done too.

A pretty butterfly. There were a ton of them and lots of different kinds, possibly escapees from the butterfly house.
This week Norah starts back to daycare after 2.5 weeks. We are hoping that she will re-adjust quickly and accept her new teachers as her old one left while she was out. And most importantly, we hope she will SLEEP there. She has been so good about napping for the last few weeks while she was here with us. No one wants a cranky baby!