Happy Valentine's Day. Thinking of you, Grandpa Don, as it would have been your 83rd birthday. I miss you so much; I tell Dalia about you all of the time. Dalia wished everyone "Happy Valentine's Day" for a few days. "Smooch?" she says. BaBa came over with a beautiful watercolor card, some flowers, and a cupcake for Dalia.
She got through the 2 weeks of "liquids" after surgery (apple sauce, yogurt, hummus, ice cream, soup, soup, soup) just fine. Dr. Laub says she is healing well. We've had 2 post-op visits - he is very happy with her speech, her pronunciation. She is still having some food come out her nose....I have asked about this many times. Dr. Laub says, "we can accept this." He says it is likely that there is a tiny hole in her hard palate but as long as her speech is developing, we should not worry. The hole can be fixed later when Dalia will have her bone grafts and other work done for her teeth and jaw and bone structure. So - rejoicing for now, knowing there will be more later.
In this picture, Dalia is wearing a beautiful rain coat sent to us by Liz and daughter Lily in MN. She still prefers the diaper-only look, plus bathing suit, and/or rain coat. Her snow suit has come in handy, as I just throw it on her body over her diaper, throw on her snow boots and it looks like she's dressed. Many of the other kids at day care also go through the day gradually stripping... But - Dalia is always wearing her clothes when I pick her up.
She says some really funny things, very observant. The week after her surgery, she was watching me get dressed. I put on a white button up blouse. I don't usually wear shirts like this. So, she looked at me, seriously, "Mama, what you doing?"
I said, "Honey, I'm getting dressed."
"Mama, you a doctor?"
The phrase "I no like" is used often. "I no like you leave", "I no like empty bottle," "I no like shirt." She also is wanting to "snuggle" - -"Mama, want to snuggle?" Last week, at nap time, the entire daycare had finally quieted down, all the kids were about to fall asleep, and Dalia turned to her teacher, and said loudly, "Howdy, want to snuggle?"
Another funny thing she said a while back: She tried on some sneakers that belong to her classmate. The sneakers are sparkly and light up. She put them on, turned to her teacher, Hayley, and said, "Hayley, say 'Lookin' good, Dalia!:' "
She will stay at Playlab over the summer, 3 days/week. Her best friend, Bella, will also be there. On Friday, Bella walked up to the door, Dalia was already inside. Dalia went running up to the door, smiling and squealing -- Bella ran up to the door and through it, smiling and squealing, and the two girls hugged. They are exactly the same height - Bella is sandy blonde hair, hazel eyes, a cute little chunkster who wears Carhartt overalls some days.
Dalia loves books. THANK YOU all for giving her books as gifts -- we read them over and over. She reads a lot of Dr. Seuss with Tal - great repetition and rhyming.
Thank goodness for Ilsley Library (in Middlebury). I check out about 10 books at a time... find the ones she loves. And DVDs. "Mama, watch Looney Tunes?"
Recently, her favorites are:
any of the Olivia books
anything by Ezra Jack Keats ("The Snowy Day")
Froggy Plays Soccer
Curious George
and Mama also loves anything by Rosemary Wells, e.g. Yoko (we have 2 Yoko books), "Carry Me", "Emily's first 100 days of School," etc. I know there are many more that we have yet to discover! If anyone has any of these books in their collection and would like to hand them down to us... we would LOVE it!
I am making a habit of buying some of the books that we've read that we love, like "City Dog, Country Frog." Highly recommended for children and adults alike.
We are off to Atlanta next Thursday to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ginger and Ralph. Yea!
