It's a wonderful life... and it's mine!

My life seems so full now that I have a digital camera to document every little happening! Where oh where to begin...

Last Sunday, Hannah, Belle, and Asher went swimming at our friends' house. The Normands LOVE my kids, and they let them stay all afternoon. Jeff and I actually got a nap. I take that back. I got a nap, and Jeff cleaned out the garage. Hey - it's not my fault that the man does not know how to prioritize. Faith took a bunch of great pictures, and this is one of my favorites. She took it with her cell phone, so it's kind of small, but it is oh so cute!

When I bought Asher his little pool, I bought a couple of beach balls for the girls. (A word to the wise: A $1.50 beach ball lasts exactly 12 hours.) Here are Bethany and Asher peeping at each other through the beach ball.

Saturday afternoon, Asher took a pretty good nap. Here's what I found when I went in to check on him: two little feet sticking out through the prison-like bars. Sometimes when I come in, he's playing his tiny little harmonica and dragging his little tin cup along the bars...

I always get cute pictures of him with his dad.

I started to wonder... if anything ever happens to me, will there be any evidence that I ever really existed?! How will they ever show Asher what his mom looked like?! So, I asked Jeff to get some pictures of Asher with me. It SEEMED like a good idea at the time...

See how excited I look?

By this point - MANY pictures later - we had resorted to letting him shake a box of Nerds to keep him happy. Of course, Dad needed his own box of Nerds to shake. He was saying things like, "Nope." "Arrrrgh!!!" "Well, that was a good one...of HIM." "That was terrible." "I can't do this."

Yes, this IS a terrible picture of me, but look at Asher's cute little face. (If anything DOES happen to me, don't let Jeff use this picture to show Asher what his mom looked like.)

So, here's the final shot. Notice the resigned look on my face. Also notice what great entertainment the Nerds STILL are!

On Wednesday, Jeff took Asher to see the endocrinologist. Dr. Khateeb was thrilled with Asher's growth and said he is at the top of the "regular" growth chart. There is a different chart for kids with Down syndrome because they usually grow more slowly. Evidently, Asher didn't get the memo. He weighed 20 lbs! Look at my little man!

He had to have some blood work done and didn't even flinch when the nurse drew the blood. Of course, she and Asher were completely enamored with each other. She has a niece with Down syndrome, so she always makes a big fuss over Asher. We LOVE her.

Here he is being a big boy and showing Hannah his arm.

We will get the results in a few days. She just wants to make sure he is taking the correct dose of his thyroid medicine. By the way, Dr. Young (his cardiologist) said that he is 95% certain that Asher will NOT have to have heart surgery to fix the VSD (hole in his heart). The two smaller holes appear to have closed up on their own. God is good!!

About Ziva, my new foster child... She was dropped by a 10 year-old boy in Shreveport, and his dad wanted to have her put to sleep rather than fix her broken leg. The vet up there said no, so the [evil] dad said for him to find her a home. She had been in his clinic for a month post-surgery when I met her, and now here she is. I thought she was going to have the leg amputated, which would make her fit right in at the Kenimer house; however, Dr. Craig "re-fixed" her leg this past Monday by putting in a tiny little plate held in place by four 2mm screws. As in, the screws are two millimeters long. Unbelievable. I would let that man fix MY leg.

Ziva weighs 2.5 pounds and is freakishly small and fragile. She's a happy little girl, though, and she IS named after an Israeli Mossad assassin. (She needed a powerful name, and "Paris" just wasn't cuttin' it for me.)

Are you diggin' my green corduroy couch from 1977? I remember the day my mom had that delivered from the furniture store. You know you wish you had a groovy couch like mine.

Have a wonderful Friday, couch-coveters!! (Not "covers". "Coveters" as in you covet my couch. You know, it really loses something when I have to explain it to you...) Bye!