Flash Cards

Marsi is getting so much better at learning her letters.  It is so much fun to watch her learn.  As a teacher, this is fascinating to me.

Big girl

I have been toying with the thought of transferring Marsi into a big girl bed for a while.  She woke up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago because she had thrown all of her binks out and she was sad.  So, today I did a test run to see if she might be ready for a big girl bed.  She loved it.  She loves to be able to run around the room and jump on the bed I set up.  She even fell asleep on the bed when all was said and done. So, Endrit and I decided that this Saturday, we are heading to Denver and getting her a twin bed with a railing.  She is growing up so fast.

At night, it was a little more of a fight.  She fought sleep for a long time.  But, we survived and she fell asleep.  She will get used to it and it will be perfect.

Debts

Something that both Endrit and I agree on is to get and stay out of debt.  We are very lucky that I was able to pay my student loans of really quickly.  Endrit graduated 1.5 years ago (right before Marsi was born) and today, he called the loan holder, got the payoff amount, and made the final payment on his student loans!

It is so nice to have that debt paid off.  Next debt payoff will be in a few months when we finish paying Endrit's parents for our car.  Then, it will only be our house payments.  It is SO nice!

Now we will be able to pay cash for our iPads at the beginning of next month :)

3T

Marsi now wears 3T clothing for the most part.  She is just a big girl!  This means most of her Sunday dresses do not fit her anymore.  I went shopping this morning and absolutely fell in love with this dress combo! 

Hair!

Marsi was born with an AWESOME head of hair.

It hasn't ever changed from being awesome.

I love how it curls when it is wet.

And now a picture from today.  So cute, so long.

Shoes

Marsi is infatuated with shoes here lately.    She is getting really good at putting on her own shoes...if they are velcro.  Mostly she just steps on the heels of them like this.

She also loves to put on Mommy's shoes

Her 18 month picture :)

She is so adorable.  I love her.

Dear Marsi,

(this is a little late, I thought I posted this already, but I didn't!)

(March 26, 2013)

A year ago you had surgery to fix your heart.  You were 5 months and 2 days old.  We had only found out about your condition a few weeks earlier.  We had to go in for pre-op procedures  blood work and "tagging"   the day before surgery.  That happened to be a Sunday.  The Sunday your cousin was getting blessed.  It was really hard to put on a brave face at such a wonderful celebration for another miracle child, but I wanted it to be about her and her parents and not the sadness I was facing thinking about the next day.

That night I hugged you so close.  I cried. It wasn't going to be a long, hard, open heart surgery, but it might as well have been.  No parent should understand the pain and fear a parent goes through to have surgery on their baby's heart...or any surgery.

You were the first surgery of the day, and for that I was grateful.  You had to fast for the surgery and I didn't want you to be miserable for too long.  

You did so well.  You got a little sad, but you were smiling and looking everywhere.  All of the nurses loved you.  I am so glad that I was able to talk to the doctor and the anesthesiologist for a while before surgery.  The hardest thing I have ever had to do was hand you over to the anesthesiologist and wait on the other side of the double doors.  Luckily, you loved him and smiled as he took you away.

Now, a year later you are still so much fun.  And so smart.  Daddy has been working on letters and numbers with you and you LOVE it.  You go around to anything with letters and numbers trying to identify all of them.  Your favorite show is "The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That" and was very excited to meet the cat at the library.

You are getting so good at feeding yourself with utensils too!

You LOVE Clifford...enough that we had to buy another one for the wash days :)

You are my special miracle.  I love you so much.