Five Things Friday

5 Things That Have Made Me Smile In the Last Week

1. I just found out this morning that I'm going to see Bon Jovi with a friend of mine from High School on 7/24 at Gillette Stadium out in Western Massachusetts...I more than smiled, I did a little happy dance.
2. Tomorrow is my father-in-law's birthday and we'll be heading to Maine on Sunday to celebrate and visit with the family. It's been a few months since we've made the trek, so it'll be nice to see everyone. The girls are great car travelers too...especially if they know there are some Dunkin Donut's Munchkins involved.
3. It took me about a week, but I finally finished watching 1985's "Live Aid" concert. The entire concert (both from Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philly) was on 4-DVD's. For those of you who don't know me, I am a HUGE 80's music fan, so I was in my element the entire time. (Thank you to Paul for letting me borrow it).
4. I have officially lost 25 lbs since January 9th...never thought it would be possible, but being married to someone like Jeremy and having two little cuties under my roof, they're all the motivation I need to keep going.
5. It's been at least 4 weeks since we have added any food starch to Sarah's sippy cups. Sarah was born with an abnormally shaped epiglottis ("Laryngomalacia") where she aspirates fluids into her lungs. When she was a month old, Sarah had a "Supraglottoplasty" performed on her where she was required to have a nasal gastric (NG) tube inserted down her throat about about a month. After Sarah had the NG tube removed when she was about 2 1/2 months old, we were told that we could remedy the situation by adding a couple tablespoons of baby rice cereal to her bottles. We started adding food starch to Sarah's sippy cups when she was about 5 or 6 months old. If we thicken her liquids, there's no problem...it's plain liquids is what she would aspirate on. Now, we have actually eliminated adding the food starch to the sippys and pretty soon will attempt to start reducing the amount of rice we put in Sarah's bottles. I've also stopped making baby food/puree too now that Sarah is eating more solid foods. We're so very excited about this new milestone. Sarah will continue to be an outgoing patient at Boston Children's Hospital until further notice. She won't have to go until September 25th for a check up. Jeremy and I were told back when Sarah was first diagnosed back in January 2009 that Sarah will eventually grow out of this, so we're hoping this is the beginning of the end of Sarah's trips to Children's Hospital.

It's the small things that make me smile and get me through the day...