Posting through text because I can't gain access to wireless in my wonderful Comfort Inn hotel room. Things good with training but being away from Liliana is even harder than I expected. I woke up with a start at 6 this morning in a half sleep state thinking I needed to pick out liliana's outfit. When I realized that I was in a hotel room in Iowa I experienced this strange sense of sadness, lonliness and loss. I am not sure why loss but I was overcome with that emotion. I am still dealing with miscarriage emotions and found out today that my hormone levels are still not at zero. They are at 2. Uggh. This is dragging on too long. So is this post. Not easy to do through text so I will say goodnight now.

I know I know

I owe you all (my five readers) a really good post! But tonight is not the night. I will be in Iowa all week for training so I imagine I will be very reflective AND have the time to post- a perfect recipe. I did want to document the amazing leaps and bounds that occurred just this evening. Liliana said "BYE" not "buh bye" in a baby way but "BYE!" in a very adult, clear, accentuated way! Then, ten minutes later while reading her to bed, I pointed at the baby wearing a diaper. I asked what the baby was wearing (because I am always encouraging her to speak even though I don't expect an answer) and she, as clear as day, said "diaper". Chris and I looked at each other in shock and amazement, high fived each other and then high fived Liliana. She loves to high five and high ten. All that positive reinforcement has got to lead to more words. Which it did because then she identified the baby's eye when asked. Screw the speech therapist. I am calling next week to tell them to close our file.
BYE! More from the town of Muscatine.

Whose your Mama?

Today marks the day that Liliana finally said mama! She may have started a couple of days ago but today it was clear she was referring to moi! Go baby go! I should also add that she is starting to add some other words to her vocabulary but they are all versions of her original word for "ball" which sounds like "bah". That is her word for "bath" and "belle"(the dog next door). "Basketball" is "bah bah bah". She also says "boo boo" in reference to her scab on her ankle and the freckle on my ankle. She clearly likes the letter "b". In typical toddler fashion, "no" is also very popular. Finally, the girls that watch her at the gym daycare are so in love with her. They say she smells like cookies.
Pictures and video of Liliana playing a mean harmonica coming soon...

Questionable Chromosomes

Well unfortunately the geneticist was unable to grow anything from the sample the doc sent over. So the genetic make up of my last little peanut will remain a mystery. However, since the doctor said the head had a protrusion and didn't look right, that is enough for me to know it was a chromosomal issue. I was just sort of hoping to know something more specific like "trisomy" for example. Somewhere I read that the chance of having 3 missed miscarriages is 1%. I can't find that article again and now I keep reading that the statistics get worse the greater the number. However, I do have a healthy child and I think that improves my chances. So I am feeling somewhat more optimistic but I do think we will wait a few months before trying again instead of jumping in right away like last time.