Michigan Visit

Avery and I went to Michigan to visit my family while Daddy was in South Africa for the World Cup. It's crazy how fast the time flew with 4 little ones running around.

We visited Great Grandma Cook.


We went to the zoo. This is on the tram to Africa.


We fed the giraffe's, there were even baby's this year. Check out Marina's face!

Avery doing some light reading about her baby sister.

Cousin Marina picking out clothes and helping Avery get dressed, funny they look awfully similar!

Ice cream cone at the blue cow, otherwise known as Sherman Dairy.

Sorry Clara, you can not have my ice cream cone!

The ice cream was yummy, thanks Grandma!


I'm sure there is an engineer in there somewhere!

Who knew buckets full of water could be so much fun!


We even got to see Ethan and Marina's last t-ball game of the season. Cool trophy's!

Guess what? It's time to celebrate, I'm almost 2!

The girl's at the party.

We played pin the flower on the stem. The big kids insisted on making this game after playing pin the tail on the donkey at Abigail's birthday party the day before.

There was even a game of ring around the rosie, Avery didn't quite get the falling down part.

Presents are so much fun this year, I wonder what's in here?!

Me, Avery and Aunt Tonya. Photo credit goes to Ethan, good job buddy.

Bubbe's visit, Southport and US Mother's Day

Catching up from the end of May and beginning of June...by Avery.

Bubbe came to visit and took me to Southport while Mommy and Daddy went away on a motorcycle tour.

Getting ready for the drive to Southport.

Uncle Harold, Aunt Pauline, Sophie, me and Lesley.

Feeding the ducks with Bubbe.

On the fun rides.

My special seat at Uncle Eddie's house.

I even went to Rozario's birthday party!

Having fun with Uncle Eddie before his drive back to Southport.

Then we flew to Atlanta for Mother's Day weekend. Our trip should have overlapped with Daddy's work trip but his trip was canceled so it was only Mommy and me.

Mother's Day brunch.

Me and Pop Pop

Lauri, Uncle Marc and me.

Uncle Marc got me this awesome bubble machine, I love it!

And he took me on fun rides in my Radio Flyer wagon, I think momma has her eyes closed at this point.

I know Bubbe has a great photo of her and I at brunch but I don't have it, maybe she will email it to Mommy so I can include it.

Mommy tells me we were supposed to visit Austin as well but our trip changed and we needed to get home.

20 Weeks

We had our 20 week ultrasound this week. I'm happy to report that the results could not have been better. She was positioned spine up so we weren't lucky enough to get a good profile pic of her. She is growing normally and is above the 50th percentile for all but 1 measurement. The fluid is still present on the back of her head/neck/back but we didn't get a good view of that either because of her position.

A few weeks ago we requested a transfer to another hospital. My midwife apologized for the treatment we have received thus far. She said she knew we were not happy, that the consultant has horrible bedside manner and that she is happy she is retiring next year. Wow, in my opinion that says a lot about the hospital!

We requested a transfer to St. Thomas's hospital where we had the heart ultrasound. We were very impressed with their staff and facility and thought they would be a better fit for us and hopefully better care all around. We found out late last week that our request was denied. They are full around the weeks of my due date. We talked with my midwife about other options. There is only one other hospital in London for heart surgery immediately following birth, if she needed it. It is a children's hospital so baby would be transfered there no matter what hospital I deliver at, if necessary. So basically we can choose another hospital to transfer to that really doesn't have any better accreditation and hope that we get better care or we can choose a new consultant (doctor) at the Royal Free Hospital, where we currently are.

I know treatment would be completely different and so much better in the US but at this point, given our options, we have decided to stay at the Royal Free and go under the care of a new consultant. At least my midwife makes making appointments very easy. She feels sorry for us so she lets me schedule appointments on days and times that work for us. I briefly met the new consultant on Thursday. That was an experience. It was the first time I have been in the regular antenatal area. There were over 40 pregnant women sitting into two rows of chairs lining the hallway waiting area. There were no extra chairs and as soon as one person got up another would sit down. I have no idea how many consultants or midwives they were waiting to see. I could hear several people say they had been waiting a long time. My midwife went back and asked the consultant to squeeze me in. Sorry other pregnant mommies that had been waiting forever! The consultant seemed fine, what else can I say after a five minute meeting. We discussed my delivery with Avery and how those concerns could affect my delivery with new baby girl. We didn't really discuss much about DS.

In a month we have the next heart scan and meet with a pediatrician. We don't really have many options with the pediatrician either. They don't have any that specialize in DS so our midwife will assign us to the most senior pediatrician at the hospital. I don't have the highest expectations, just maybe they will surprise me.

On a more fun note. Baby girl has become really active! For about the last 5 days she has been moving around like crazy. I don't remember Avery being this active at 20 weeks.

Thats all for now. Major milestones in a month.

Albuferia, Portugal

Earlier this year Josh and I swore we would plan ahead for the bank holiday weekends but with all that we've had going on we've done a poor job. We made the last minute decision to go to Albuferia, Portugal for some sun, sand and maybe a short break from reality over the weekend. I found a package deal on EasyJet.com. After a hectic morning getting packed up and out of the house and less than a three hour flight we found ourselves here.


Avery loved the beach, she squealed with delight any time we came near the water. She loved playing in the sand and walking down to the water to fill up her bucket and watering can.

We spent our afternoons at the pool. They had a nice kids pool that was only as deep at Avery's chest but we also spent some time swimming in the big pool. We even managed to capture a few video clips of Avery swimming underwater.



Sunday evening we took a small 'train' from our hotel to New Town and to Old Town.

Moo! Moo! Mooooo!

The food in Albuferia definitely catered toward the English, although we heard many different languages spoken. One strange thing we learned was that every restaurant served the exact same food. I'm not exaggerating either, every place had the same exact options. It could be called a steakhouse, a fish place or Italian, expensive or a little less, they all served the same thing. Here is Sunday's dinner.

No mom, I will not smile.

Do we really need to return to cold rainy London?

Little Photographer

Avery has mastered finding my camera, turning it on and snapping photos around the house. I found this self portrait in the numerous other photos.



Who me?

Avery just started making advances in her speech. She is trying to new words and sounds and some words may actually be understandable by people other than Josh and I. She loves playing in her kitchen. She dries her hair with a toy hair dryer and snatches my makeup bag to copy me when I am getting ready. She loves animals and identifies them by the sounds they make. She is finally not constantly hungry. Unfortunately she is a very early riser no matter how early or late she goes to bed. Only one month to go before she turns 2!