Smiles!!!!

I'm an extremely happy dad (yes, this is David).  At lunch today as I was holding Rachel she smiled at me while she was awake!  And not just once but a bunch of times, in that "i'm just learning how to use my smile muscles" hesitant kind of way.  We've seen her smile in her sleep before but never consciously like this.

I've been glowing ever since.  It is one thing to have a baby whom one loves.  It feels like another to have this baby consciously respond to you, to be granted a heart-stopping baby grin in response to your affection.  It's a great start to our holidays!

Speaking of which, to kick off our holidays together we took Ethan and Abigail to see Toy Story 3 in the theatre and then went out to eat at Peter's Drive In.  The kids were hardly able to watch the movie and keep their hearts beating and lungs breathing at the same time, they were so engrossed.  We had a great time!

Shalom,
David and Kendra, Rachel and Abigail and Ethan

ps - (This is Kendra now) This evening Rachel lifted both her arms above her head and yawned.  It was so priceless!! Also, we have started adding a bit of rice cereal to her milk to thicken it. (along with prune juice for constipation) The rice cereal seems to lessen her reflux and it slows down the flow so that she doesn't gag as much.  Saturday night to Sunday morning we were actually quite concerned because she was only able to drink 20 mls the whole night!! (lots of gagging) and slept about one hour.  So far it seems to be helping.  We'll see...Her eyelashes are also super long.  A nurse from the Cardiac ward said she has noticed that cardiac babies seem to have long lashes.