Long time, no post.

Our sweet girl is doing just great. She's still sporting her fancy nose stents, which are causing her a lot of discomfort at night. She's having trouble breathing and wakes herself up several times each night snoring (which means we are ALL up several times). Saturday night was about the worst of it. Her nose was so full of gunk she literally could not breathe at all except through her mouth. I had my first "icky mommy moment", which I will not describe in detail, so as not to completely gross out everyone. Suffice it to say it involved a long pair of tweezers. Sunday night was far quieter at our house as a result of my (and Nora's) bravery.

Lucky for us, we have the best friends in the world. Since Nora's surgery, our friends have made dinner for us every night! It's been great, and some of the best food I've had in several months. Plus it's just been fun to see everyone, especially for Nora. She hears the "knock-knock-knock" and runs to the front door. She says "hi!" in her friendliest, Julie McCoy cruise director voice and ushers our guests into the dining room. Then she shows them her latest tricks (imitating mommy's gestures, writing busily on her tablet, tapping on her M&M calculator). On Monday, she was writhing around on the floor, whining heavily about some terrible injustice perpetrated against her by her parents when our friend, Becky, showed up with yummy pizza. Nora stood right up, opened the door and was the picture of cheerfulness and pefect behavior for the rest of the night.

It's a terrible shame we don't have a 6-year-old, just for Nora's entertainment. She is so bored with us sometimes. Then again, today Daddy introduced her to i-tunes and it turns out she loves Van Morrison--she sang and danced and "oooo-ooooed" to "Brown Eyed Girl" and then asked for "more" in her sweetest little voice. You have never seen a prouder daddy.

Monday the nose stents come out and that'll be it for cleft care for several years (phew). Nora now knows the word "doctor" and says it almost perfectly :-( I'm just grateful that all of her doctors are highly talented as well as personable. Most importantly, they adore Nora, so she doesn't mind seeing them...that much.

I'll try to post pictures on Monday.