good news!

Happy Valentines day (a day later) but still filled with love!

We went to the eye dr. this morning and while the visit was traumatic due to the non existent bedside manner of the dr. & his staff, the prognosis might be really good!

He thinks that Natanya's eyes are improving significantly with the patching that there is an outside possibility that after another 3 weeks of patching we may be able to

avoid the surgery. It was such a rushed visit that we still need to do a bit of research to fully understand the situation but the good news is that no matter what, her eyes are improving! That's where we'll focus our attention!

Jono left to begin his tour with John Popper & the Duskray Troubadours tonight. He'll be away for a month initially and then back for a month and then back on the road for about another month. It's kind of tough for our little family but it's exciting too. The single "Something Sweet" is already getting airplay and I'm optimistically anticipating huge success for the record which will come out on March 1st.

Natanya is becoming more and more coordinated and dextrous by the minute. She's loving blocks (mostly to chew on still) but is getting better and better with the small motor skills. She's pretty confident with the sitting up at this point and is rolling all the way over again and again with ease. She really would love to be crawling/walking/moving and occasionally gets frustrated with the things she knows are possible but that she can't quite do yet. She just gets happier and happier and brighter and brighter.

I'm finally getting some creative urges and have actually started a couple of projects. I'm getting used to the 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there schedule and amazingly I don't get annoyed when time is up and Natanya wants to play.

Overall I'd say the bliss continues to grow. It still amazes me!

Please visualize healing eyes and #1 hits !!!!

Valentines greetings

Gearing up for Valentine's day!

Never before have I known such pure sweetness and un-fractured love. Natanya's emotional response to things is really very inspirational to me. Very basic and very honest and completely based on the present moment at all times. She's a girl like me who seems to feel deeply and fully and dramatically about things and is totally expressive from the look on her face to the sound of her voice to the way she moves her body... Her smiles are full hearted and her tears are gigantic.

Mostly she's happy. She's become a great flirt (wonder where that comes from?!) and easily wins hearts at every turn.

So this year as I cut out little hearts and lengths of lace, my thoughts of love are inspired. I am trying to live and love like a child. Without fears. Without weight. With wonder and with joy!

And it's easy to do when I think of all of you; my dear, sweet, thoughtful, generous friends and family.

It's full of love

this heart of mine

so wont you be

my valentine?!

HAPPY, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY AND A HAPPY YEAR OF ENORMOUS LOVIN'

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

quick update with more to follow...

I've gotten three update requests in the last day and a half, an indication that I'm slacking!

So here's a copy of an email I sent out about 3 weeks ago:

There's alot going on here these days.

Jono came back from Italy & was very pleased that Natanya not only knew who he was but greeted him with a big, sweet smile in the middle of the night!

Natanya turned 6 months old! She's growing so quickly that every day is a new and exciting event... It's hard to even give examples because she's just very subtly growing up.

We had an appointment with an eye specialist in Albuquerque last Thursday who diagnosed her little crossed eye as being a particular type of "strabismus". It is a brain, eye communication issue which we will be able to fix with 3 weeks of putting an eye patch on her for two hours a day and then ultimately an operation on the muscles of both eyes. Needless to say, while we are very thankful that it's something that can be treated , Jono and I are going through a bit of an emotional tumbling-time. The surgery itself should only last for about 15 minutes or so and the recovery time should be between 3-6 hours. Our biggest concern is the anesthesia though when I am able to separate my head from my heart I'm able to reason my way through hysteria! Natanya is doing great and she's handling her eye patch in the mornings really well. The worst part for her seems to be when we put it on and even more when we pull it off. It's like a giant band aid so it hurts a little.

On a more exciting note, she had her first solid food on her birthday. We gave her a little taste of banana which she loved! The next day we gave her quite a bit more than on day one and she seemed to have a bit of a tummy ache throughout the day so on day three we gave her less again... So we're officially on to solids! Next is sweet potato.

Also, she's beginning to really show preferences for things. For example, she'll choose specific toys from her toy box or reach towards an object or a place or a person that she wants to touch (instead of just using her voice to communicate). She's becoming more and more responsive to games like "this little piggy" and "peek-a-boo". She can sit up but prefers to stand and will sometimes make her body completely rigid if you try to sit her down . She just gets more and more smiley and giggly and cuddly and adorable and as much as I expressed love for her in the last update, the love has continued to grow and grow and grow... I don't know how but it seems to be an endless spring.

She and Jono recorded their first song the other morning. He took the melody from one of her commonly used phrases and started to sing and play and she joined right in.

Time for some rest before our little one declares it's morning!

a more current post to come, i promise!