"When is Our Tooth Fairy Going to Retire?"

Yes, these were the words I recently heard from Teresa. Aidan lost his first two teeth about a month ago and has been waiting patiently ever since for the Tooth Fairy to arrive.  Thankfully, Aidan Andrew has a little bit of his uncle Andy in him, whom he is named after. He's a cool cat and is rarely demanding. With this personality, and being number five of seven, he sometimes just does a lot of waiting, without complaining. It doesn't help the matter that he lost the first tooth and swallowed the second.  And of course life has been extremely busy for his Tooth Fairies, and for our family in general, with Erin's heart surgery. But Teresa has a point. This Tooth Fairy needs to either get the job done, or pass the job onto somebody else. I think Aidan will be writing a note to this incompetent Tooth Fairy today and his patient waiting will be rewarded!

Here's Aidan with his new teeth already coming in...



And speaking of Erin's heart surgery, she continues to heal very well. Her scar is already almost healed, and she's sleeping less and has more energy in general. She's just a happier kid. One thing she has started doing more and more is laughing. It has taken us by surprise; she'll just have a good belly laugh, out of the blue, for no apparent reason. I think she's just letting us know that she feels so much better! We are also making slow but steady progress in the eating department. She no longer cries at the sight of her bottle, but this retraining could take some time. The cardiologist explained to us that before Erin's heart repair, Erin's feeding sessions were the equivalent of walking a brisk five mile hike. As you can imagine, asking her to do that several times a day has built up a very negative association with eating. It was just too much work. Having the ng tube helped a lot, but now we have to work on making eating a positive experience again. So, we sing to her and make her very comfortable while she's eating, with lots of praise.  It is working. Although she's still only taking up to 1 1/2 oz per feeding, more importantly, she's enjoying it for the most part now. We stop at the first sign of distress. I'm hoping that in another couple of weeks, and once she's off her heart meds, we'll see even more improvements. We'd still appreciate any prayers for this intention!

Here's Grandma McKillen, holding Erin before she went home. Both grandmothers were an incredible help while we were in the hospital. Thank you both!!