Enter the Crucible . . .

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3: 5-6


Well it is August. There are two months out of the year that scare me to death. March and August. You see over 90% of our family have birthdays in these two months. They bother me more that Christmas. Since we are in August, I will only cover this months birthdays.

Moving from the beginning to the end, we start with my mother's Birthday on the 5th. Then mine on the 7th (thank you for the happy birthday comment, I swear I heard it). On the 13th is my mother-in-laws. On August 23rd is both my father and my step-niece. On the 26th is my cousin Cohen (it will be his first birthday). Add to this a cousin and an old friend who have birthdays on the 1st. Another old friend of Tara's on the 5th (yes the same day as my mother). Yet another old friend of mine who has a birthday on the 6th (she is exactly 365 days younger than I am). And finally, another old friend of Tara's is on the 27th (she and her husband just had their first child a couple of weeks before Laura). Yes, I am well aware that I have forgotten some people. For those of you I did not mention, please accept my apologies, and post your birthday in the blog comments section. All of this is just off of the top of my head.

Now add in the following events. First we have 3 E.C.I. appointments this month (one was today and went very well). Today we had to take Laura to have an ultra sound on her hips. Because she was breech there is a chance that she could have hip dysplasia (kind of makes it sound like Laura is an elderly dog). This is compounded by the fact that Down's kids sometimes have hip dysplasia as well. We will get those results next week. Tomorrow my aunt and cousin come into town to celebrate my mother's and my birthday with us for the weekend. This will be the first time they will get to see Laura since she made her break for the real world. I have warned her that she will have many pictures taken of her. Unlike her mommy and daddy she likes to be the center of attention, so hopefully it will go well. I am thinking of instituting a rule for the weekend that says if you are holding Laura when she messes her diaper, then you have been chosen to change her.

Monday, Tara has a routine Doctor's appointment. Tuesday, Laura has a two month check up and shots with Dr. Pielop. Wednesday, Laura has a cardiologist appointment. Thursday, Tara goes back to work, and E.C.I. will check in on Laura.

I will be so glad when September gets here. Maybe we will be able to get some rest. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Wait it is after midnight here, so it is my birthday. That means I am looking forward to today. Is it me, or does that sound a little weird. We are going to go see G.I. Joe. I expect it to be cheesy, but Rey Park is in it as Snake Eyes so I have hope. If anyone is trying to figure out where they know his name, he played Darth Maul in Star Wars: Phantom Menace. I still think that they should not have killed off Maul until Anikin could do it in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. That battle would have been awesome. If any of you Star Wars junkies out their want to know what I would have done with the prequels to include his character let me know, and I will post it here. He also played Toad in the first X-Men movie. He is also a multi time Martial Arts World Champion.

Over all Laura is doing well. She is approaching ten pounds. She is just getting bigger and bigger. I told my step-mother the other day that one morning not to long ago I swear she grew over night. That is impressive since we get her up to feed her at least three times between 11 pm and 8 am everyday. Our E.C.I. therapist is concerned that Laura is laboring in her breathing and asked us to speak to our cardiologist about it. She is already on Lasiks, and I suspect that the doctors will up her medication. Otherwise she is doing very well.

Laura has had a big week already and the month is just getting started. I am hoping to be able to post again Sunday and let everyone know how we are surviving.