Day 16 - Remembering Lilly - October and November 2011

This is my 16th post in a 17 post series summarizing each of Lilly's 17 months of life.  To learn more details about Lilly's daily life, just click the appropriate month and year of my Blog Archive on the right side.

Ooops!  I miscalculated how many days it would take to me to cover Lilly's 17 months.  I guess I forgot to count her first 4 weeks as a day.  So today's post covers two months.
 

October 4, 2011 - November 3, 2011

Sneaky Lilly in her knitted Mary Janes

At 15 months, Lilly weighed 13 lbs. and was 26.5 inches.  This put her in the 3rd percentile for her age.  She was accepted for heart surgery and scheduled for early November.  I continued to introduce new foods to her, feeding them to her through her g-tube.  She did great.

Frank has 2 weeks off work every October and we took advantage of that time, and the cooler temperatures to go on numerous outings.  I'm so glad we did - Lilly enjoyed them and I love that we created more memories with her and have fun photos.  Here are some pictures from those trips (all in N.C.):

inside the old schoolhouse in Fuquay-Varina

2nd year at the pumpkin patch!

Crowder Park

Asheboro Zoo

snoozin' in Bath

Just a few more fave photos from the month:

some T-18 kids have wacky cowlicks - Lilly included!

 

November 4 - December 3, 2011

Lilly celebrated turning 16 months by having open heart (VSD) surgery at Wolfson's Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.  She had a large hole in the lower chamber of her heart and another one in the upper chamber.  The holes were patched. She did great overall, and was only in the hospital 9 days.  All the doctors and nurses were so pleased with Lilly and enjoyed her.  We will always be so thankful to them!  Here are a few pictures from that hospital stay:

Lilly's incision was actually glued shut! It healed rapidly.

snoozin' with Hank the caterpillar

 Driving back home to North Carolina:

 I took this picture of Lilly and used it to make thank you cards to send to each of her many doctors:

We had Lilly with us for a second Thanksgiving:

One more to close out Lilly's 16th month:

". . . Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” - Nehemiah 8:10