WHO'S A SUPER-CUTIE?

So Grandma Patty left on Friday. Boo hoo hoo! We all miss her. In addition to cleaning house, feeding us (pets and plants included), and generally being cheery, she was "right there" to take care of Vanessa.

Grandma Patty was dedicated to teaching Vanny how to grasp. Two favorite classrooms are The Machine - formerly known as The Play Station - and The Arch. The Machine has rattles, voices, and animal noises, and Milo is petrified whenever Van gets into it. She especially likes to be in it barefoot, so she can feel every little detail down below, and she often flexes her impressively developed abdominal muscles to bring her body into the pike position. As for The Arch, Van not only grasps the toys, she gets her feet up there to bat at those hanging toys with her monkey toes. This morning Alley Cat peed on The Arch not once but twice. "Message received," Alley.

Grandma also read a book to Little Miss Vanessa every day, and supervised the purchase of her first high chair, rice cereal, and baby food. Daddio gave her a first taste of solid food today - pears.

Between chores, my mother kept asking about giving the baby a bath. Nessa has had three official baths... two with us and one with Auntie Anne. There was so much screaming and crying that I've resorted to damp-mopping her each day instead. This is not consistent with my mother's understanding of clean, apparently, since she made me ask our pediatrician how often the baby should be bathed and whether or not we should use soap.

What? So I am, as Maribeth says, a bit European when it comes to bathing.

Today Jack put both Nessers and mama into the bathtub. Instead of using the plastic molded infant tub perched on the counter in the bathroom, we made use of our 1978 soaking tub in the master bath. It was a hot day here so Daddy poured luke-warm water gently over baby Vannerkins like a waterfall while I held her. She didn't cry, she didn't scream: she liked it. It was delightful! Sorry, no photos of this, but here is the end result - can you hear the Monkey screeches?

Later we went to the pier to get shrimp tacos, watch the surfers, then finished up with ice cream cones. What a wonderful day - just the kind Grandma Patty loves!

MONKEY SCREECHES

On April 22nd, Little Miss Vanessa turned 4 months old. Of course Daddio and I are also celebrating the anniversary of her transfer and growth commencement.

I can't help thinking this week that my life is perfect. Well, I'm not perfect - still chubby, house is a mess, not applying for the Supermom of the Year Award - but the life I have is pretty close to nirvanna. With these thoughts come some worry that the proverbial Other Shoe may drop. The very good news is, however, I did have a CA125 test done last week and it came back at 6.0 which suggests optimum health for a new mama in remission. Thank you, God!

Vanny-kins continues to dazzle us with her rapid ascent along a rather steep learning curve. In terms of language, she is currently testing (and mastering) the scream. Not a screaming cry or a screech of delight, mind you; more of a monkey screech. My translation is: "I haven't learned English yet, DARN IT, so I can't explain myself. Arrrrgggghhh!"

For her four month birthday we got her what we call a play station. I can't remember what the official name of this drool-proof contraption is, but it basically keeps her upright in one place and lets her use her arms, legs, fingers and monkey toes without fear of getting into much trouble. She grabs and bats at things with all the finesse of a little Frankenstein, and Grandma Patty taught her how to press the button that starts the music. Nessa loves music!

Around the house there are still four fur- and feather-babies who have fallen into rank behind the little princess. See Milo beg for Alpha's attention in a most convincing manner.

Our eldest, Alley, is 14 years old and is clearly not going to celebrate too many more birthdays. She still eats, drinks, jumps, walks and meows like she always has, but she's skinny and rickety enough that I say, "Oh you're still alive!" every morning I see her. Her preferred spot is lying on the carpet underneath the baby's swing.

Max doesn't mind Vanessa as long as she stays out of his designated spot on the couch between 10 PM and 8 AM and someone appears with wet food morning and night. Chica the bird is definitely getting the short end of the branch in terms of our attention, but, in the end, we think she is the one who taught Van to communicate with a screech.

HAPPY TRANSFER DAY!

April 18th was the anniversary of our frozen tot's thaw. Today is the one year anniversary of her thaw!

I didn't have a blog up and running a year ago, but if I did have, I would probably have noted the five estrogen patches all over my hips, the shots Daddio was plugging me with, the extreme sleepiness all that estrogen caused, and the elation we were feeling with the transfer. Well, okay, I was feeling groggy elation while Daddio was a bundle of nerves. He's always the rational one.

I've been keeping a slip of paper in my day planner - the note I wrote when our nurse Elizabeth called on thaw day with the news. It reads,

2 not progressing well
3 progressing well

My reaction? "Okay!" It never occurred to me this frozen embryo transfer would not work. Elizabeth sounded guarded. Jack, the rational one, was sweating bullets.

Later, our embryologist Klaus called with more news about the number of cells each embyro has and its overall state of health. My note reads:

2 cell - no fragments
3 cell - fragments
5 cell - fragments

Klaus went on to explain the fragments were shards of air that occur after a freeze and thaw. He said he'd work on those embryos to remove the fragments, kind of like performing plastic surgery on an embryo. Fragments did not mean the embryo was in trouble. He did say they wanted to see the 2 cell embryo "catch up" on its development. "It should be an 8- or 10-cell embryo by the time we need to transfer," he said.

So I phoned my mother and Auntie Anne and said, "Please pray for the little embryo with 2 cells! It needs some extra encouragement." In the end, that little 2-celler took off like popcorn, surpassed the other two (one of whom didn't end up progressing) and is most likely the kazillion-celled infant we hold in our arms and call Vanessa.

Auntie Anne left last weekend and we realized it had been a year and a half since we'd last seen each other. So much happened during that time.

Grandma Patty is still here for another week. She helped me cross several things off my to-do list on Monday, which catapulted me from feeling like I couldn't accomplish a solitary thing in the morning, to feeling like I'd scaled mountains by the evening. Thank you, Mom!

Nessa had her 4 month check up with the pediatrician on Friday. She's doing great! She weighs 16 lbs. 10 oz. and is 25.5 inches tall/long. She's in the 90th percentile of height, 94th percentile of weight, and 95th percentile of head circumference. Her hair is definitely strawberry blonde - still trying to figure out if it will be curly or straight. She did have a few more vaccinations, which she does not particularly enjoy, and was told she can start solid food any time between now and her 6 month check up.


This week she's been grabbing her toys, yanking on the strings of our sweatshirts, and is laughing like a fiend. She woke up me, Daddio and Milo the other night laughing in her sleep. What on earth was she dreaming about?



Our baby kitten continues to coo at us, her mobiles, the dark beams in the ceiling, and all the nice folks on the television. In the mother's group this week we had all 9 babies down on the floor, stripped to their diapers, getting body massages. Vanessa couldn't keep her eyes (and hands) off the boy babies next to her. She's clearly a socialite in the making.

SHE LOVES TO LAUGH!

So Van's very first "Ha!" happened five weeks ago. Then later came her first screech. Last Saturday, I came to get her in her swing and she laughed again. But this week, Auntie Anne appeared. Well! Auntie had Nessers on the Magic Ball and when Mama accidentally rattled a vitamin bottle, HA HA HA HA! Nessa could not stop laughing. In fact, she got the whole room going, kind of like the wave. She had such a rousing good time we had time to video tape, snap photos and call her dad's cell phone to record it. So entertaining!

She is definitely a Morning Person. Oh yes: she still wakes up all grins and giggles and continues to demonstrate her budding gift for gab. She is enunciating something... along the lines of OHHH and OWWW and occasionally ARRRR. Not sure what it all means, but she's intent on it.

Auntie Anne is either a magnificent motivator or else has great timing, because in addition to laughter and early speech Van is grabbing toys that Auntie is holding out for her. Go, baby, go!

Vanessa took Auntie Anne and Grandma Patty down to the Pacific ocean for a look-see a few times this week. She's proud of being a California girl.

HAPPY EASTER!

Many relatives arrived to celebrate Vanessa's very first Easter, as well as the 2nd anniversary of Milo's adoption. Just one year ago this month Vanessa and her four frozen siblings were brought out of cyropreservation.

Grandma Patty flew in last night from Vermont, anxious to see her little Sweetsie Pie for the first time since she was only 3 weeks old. She brought with her Auntie Anne, who admitted to me last week, "Vanessa is a gift to the whole family. It's like she belongs to all of us."

Her coworkers at the Connecticut oncology center have been following Vanessa's story for the past year, since Anne first started her job, and they insisted she take vacation to come visit.

Granny Ernie drove down from Santa Cruz first thing this morning with Nessa's eldest cousin, Krista. They are old pros with entertaining our wee infant daughter. Krista is Granny first grandchild and Vanny is her latest.

Daddio arrived at 1:30 AM from being away at Texas. Mama had been home alone with baby for four days and nights. It was so great to have a few more sets of arms around!

Today Auntie Anne held up Vanessa's Baby Einstein clock and she reached for it over and over (with her right paw). This is the first time she's grabbed for something! Granny grabbed Jack's baby book and noted Van is "way ahead" of him in terms of grabbing. You should have seen him grin at that.

Over brunch we thanked God for our little baby miracle and our good health, and remembered those who are not with us. We continue to marvel at God's decision to both keep me alive and grow us a tiny, healthy daughter.