Baby Pictures!

Here is Leigh looking like someone in a Jacques Cousteau documentary.

Sticking her tongue out at her nurse.

And looking like a regular chubby-cheeked baby!

Then we had to put the NIPPV back on but at least we know there's a little girl underneath it all.

Most of the family unit went strawberry picking over the weekend. Leigh was attending to hospital business and was excused.

Small people have an advantage picking the low-lying fruits.

SHV and Janine observing from afar.

Super asian power squat +

full diaper +

mud!

First teeter-totter

Visiting sister Leigh for the first time.
DHV was very gentle, but wanted to touch ALL the babies.
Buh-bye, baby sister.

DHV update

While sister LRV continues to slowly improve in the NICU, DHV is holding his own at home.

Uncle Arthur paid us an impromptu visit while filming a new show for MTV! Here he demonstrates how cousins Elsie and Ida play by pushing DHV down a hill.

The family went for a short hike at Sleeping Giant. Janine just threw her tiny purse over her shoulder and set the pace. Nothing seems to faze her, except German losses in Euro 2008.

They don´t call it ¨sticky rice¨ for nothing, son.

Phillies pride, muumuu style, on Cross-Campus.

I´m sure Maya Lin had this in mind.

I wasn´t drinking any water!

Thinking about sister LRV; or,
trying to remember where he put his balls.

Lee Vining is a town in California. We appropriated their spirit store for our own T-shirts.

Extubation!

Leigh started her second round of steroids on Monday and we're happy to report that they removed her breathing tube this morning. Her fancy new breathing apparatus is known as NIPPV (Nasal Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation) and with it she's one step closer to breathing on her own.

That's the world's tiniest paci sitting by Leigh's head. Hopefully now that the tube is out she'll enjoy it even more. She can also make noise when she cries now - the nurse has already heard her but SHV will have to wait as LRV was sound asleep during today's visit.

In other news Leigh is a whopping 3 lbs 1 oz now and is on full breast milk feeds. Grow Leigh grow!!

Little Clothes!

Leigh's nurse got bored the other night and decided to finally dress our girl up in some of the teeny, tiny clothes SHV had bought her. She also made us some hand prints and tied little pink bows on everything she could (witness the pillow in the background).


As for Leigh, she started feeds again this weekend. They're small but it's a start. At 2 lbs 12 oz she's got a lot of growing to do!

Reunion weekend

HusbandKV's 10th college reunion was this weekend. Although we live just 5 minutes from the party, DKV laid low/super stealth. Some friends did sneak past our defences, like Nick, seen here trying to steal DHV's fire truck.

This one, coincidentally "june098", is a re-inenactment.

Here's Steph Park Zwicker.
Gaping maw must be an asian thing.

Counting buttons!

Luring Dr. Anu Narla with cheap jewelry, fancy cars, and a bare chest.

Dr. Rhee after learning that the

Redskins did not, in fact, go 19-0 last year.

Ear protection is fundamental.

Recovery

Leigh´s surgery went off without difficulty. Her incision is on her side, under her armpit.

DHV enjoying his new booster seat.

Safety first when using sidewalk chalk.

A Call to Prayer

No one in this house is a big church-goer, but I'm not above asking the faithful out there for some help. Leigh appears to have dodged the necrotizing enterocolitis, but had her PDA re-discovered yesterday. We meet with the cardiac surgeons this morning, with surgery on slate for this afternoon. There seem to be a whole lot of bullets to dodge to get from this . . . . . . to a girl version of this . . . . . . and DadKV is, quite frankly, getting tired of all the shooting.

Kangaroo-ing!

Things are looking up here in New Haven. Leigh has been stable enough to do some out-of-incubator cuddling, and she may start back on breast milk Wednesday.

Getting positioned is a flurry of activity.

Her eyes are open more and more.

She also moved up a diaper size -
look how far it comes up her back.

Tough older brother practicing for a MMA posedown.

Touch a Truck

DHV's first touch-a-truck. He was a bit overwhelmed at first, being surrounded by all manner of fire apparatus, ambulances, law enforcement vehicles, construction equipment, and hundreds of wandering children, but he warmed up.

Gaping maw appears to run in the family.

"There's another truck over there!"

"I want more vroom vroom!"

Testing out another steering wheel.

DHV is one cool cat.

Partially naked baby!

Naked baby devours watermelon.

Improving?

The word from Yale Children's is that Leigh's NEC is improving, so we get to hold her again! Cross your fingers that her intestines don't do any backsliding.

Plastic umbilical cord.

Eyes opening!

Happy to get our mitts on her again.

Her fancy new central line.

DHV flying with JS.