Emmeline feeds the dog.

Emme's first haircut

Emme got her first haircut last weekend. They only charged me $5 for a trim because there was so little to come off, but she now looks more like a cute little girl and less like someone with a mullet.  It'll be a long time until I can put in true ponytails or pigtails, but we're also not at the point where I have to deal with barrettes to keep hair out of her eyes.  Despite the minuscule amount of hair that came off, she was very proud of having had her very first haircut!

Three hours at the zoo

Surgery #4

Emmeline had her fourth surgery on her congenital nevi at the beginning of November.  She's almost completely healed from it now, with a bandage on the lower half of her leg and one on her shoulder, where a small nevus was taken out.  Our surgery was a bit later this time, so I didn't have to wake her up early.  She fortunately made it the few hours to surgery without fussing about food or drink and instead played around the waiting room.  She checked out the fish in the tank, we read some books I'd taken (including a new one, Little Blue Dump Truck), and she carried around the infectious disease stuffed microbes Wes brought home from the CDC is her cute little purse.  (When her surgeon was completing the pre-surgical checklist, she asked, "Any exposure to infectious disease?" she laughed and said, "Well, I guess she's been playing with MRSA and the flu and...".)

They carried her off to surgery just before 9am, and this was the first time she cried when they did so.  She'd been shy of the nurses and anesthesiologists all morning, as though she knew what was coming.  She was out in about three hours, and we were home in about three and a half.  She was pretty upset when we got back to the PACU -- just couldn't get comfortable and wanted her IV out.  The PACU charge nurse knew Wes, which may have led to her discharging us pretty quickly.

I took her home and had her sitting on the couch with a sippy cup and some Cheerios by the time my mom got there.  She took a short nap in the afternoon and was sore but consolable.  On Tuesday she would sit by herself and play with toys but wouldn't move around at all.  On Wednesday we went to the library in the morning with Oliver for story hour, and she was starting to move a little bit.  She wouldn't put weight on her healing leg (which was casted) until Thursday or Friday, when she started pulling up, and by Sunday she was walking -- then running -- on her cast, which made it easier to return to daycare on Monday.

We successfully made it 10 days with no back (stinky Emme!) before we saw Dr. Chester for a follow-up.  She took the cast off, and we were able to just start wrapping it.  It looks like it's healing well -- no infection (surgery #2) or gaping wounds (surgery #3) this time.  The surgeon thought we might be able to get by with just one more after this go-round, another graft, but we're skeptical with such a significant band left that it's possible.  Regardless, we probably won't do anything until next fall again, which means she'll have time to just play and run.  Still, we're getting closed to being done with surgeries!

A trip to Sapphire, North Carolina

Make like a tree

Trains at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens