Marisa's surgery

Earlier this year Marisa was having trouble sleeping. We saw the tell tale signs that she was not having restful nighttime sleep during the day. Just like Elena, she was snoring and falling asleep at odd times during the day and many times a day despite sleeping on a schedule and having naps. Her ENT recommended the removal of her enlarged tonsils and said she would remove the adenoids if she noticed they were enlarged during the surgery. It turned out that Marisa's adenoids were enlarged, so both were were removed. The surgery went really well. Marisa was a trooper and was immediately ready for the popsicles and ice cream we promised after her surgery. She rarely complained, ate normally and healed quickly. Much to our surprise she didn't need the pain medication as often as it was prescribed. However, our biggest struggle came at home and at school drop off once Marisa was healthy. She suddenly developed separation anxiety and didn't want to be away from me. We struggled to drop her off at the church nursery, at her preschool and at speech therapy. It became clear to me that the surgery was somewhat traumatic for her and caused her a lot of anxiety to be away from family. Well, I've since cut back on some of these stressors and she is back to herself already. We recently went on a long trip (more on that on a later post) and dropped the girls off with my in laws for 5 days. Marisa was apprehensive about going but I figured out that the more I talked about the trip the more comfortable she became. Marisa's stay with her Grandma F and Aunts and cousins was flawless, and I am so relieved she is back to herself again...and sleeping too.

I love this picture! I will never forget the sheer joy Marisa expressed when I told her we were going home the morning after her surgery. This was her face, she was so happy yet so overwhelmed with emotion that she was crying too.

and here's one I took tonight...sleeping soundly

A busy May

May was fun-filled and busy with lots of end of the school year stuff. We attended Elena's Kindergarten graduation, a couple of flamenco recitals, a Girl Scout semester end celebration and a few other things in between. As I back track through pictures of all that we did I realize exactly why I fell behind in blogging. It was a busy month!! Oh yea don't let me forget there was a surgery for Marisa at the end of May too; how could I forget that? I'll try to make a mental note of how busy May is now so that next year I don't add anything extra to that month. Yeah right!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunset Valley Art Festival and The Biscuit Brothers

Sunset Valley is the small neighboring town near our neighborhood. They held an art festival which was amazingly kid friendly. The girls enjoyed an awesome performance by the Biscuit Brothers, painted pots, planted flowers, and assembled a toy car all for free!! We will definitely keep this festival in our calendar for next year.

Ballet Austin

The girls took a workshop with Ballet Austin apprentices. They enjoyed watching excerpts from the Romeo and Juliet ballet and then performing a version of it themselves. Notice Elena's ballet slippers;those were my slippers when I took ballet!!