"I love Daddy."

I went into Iris's room the other morning when she announced that she was awake with a cry/wail. I got right up next to her and said, "Did you have a good sleep?" She stretched and looked at me with a big smile and said, "I love Daddy." 

The feeling is pretty mutual. Evan is happy to tell people that playing with Iris is the highligh of his day and the other evening Iris was showing Evan her favorite book. Evan said, "Is that your favorite book? Well, do you know what my favorite thing is, Iris? My favorite thing is you!" 

Iris is one of the most affectionate little people I've ever met - she loves to hug the kids and adults in her daycare classroom and at the church nursery. And when we leave for work she does multiple hugs and kisses with both of us. We certainly encourage it, while also trying to get her to understand that sometimes people don't want hugs or kisses. 

Tomorrow morning (check-in at 6:30am!) she has her second brain MRI, the first having been in January of this year. I bought a couple gas masks that smell like buble gum for us to practice with. I expect the putting her to sleep part of it to be fully awful, as it was last time. 

For every procedure that requires anesthesia I wonder if she'll have a stroke while she's under. It is clear that the likelihood of her experiencing a stroke increases as she gets older and there's almost not a day that goes by that the thought doesn't cross my mind and I wish, "please don't let it be today." I think about it more in the summer when it's hot because being dehydrated can increase the risk of stroke, too. 

We will get the results of the MRI on Tuesday of next week when we meet with the neurologist again. 

mother's day road trip

We decided to take a road trip over Mother's Day weekend to Farmington, NM, to meet my mom and brother for a reunion at the school where she used to teach. The trip was exhausting for us, and I'm not sure we would have chosen to make the trip, except that it was Mother's Day weekend.

I had forgotten how huge the US is, having not undertaken a road trip recently. The land is tremendous and all the larger when there is a two-year-old in the car with you. After trying various arrangements, we discovered that it was most successful for me to ride in back with Iris and let Evan do all the driving. I also admit to letting Iris play on her computer for far too long.

Trying to stave off boredom in the car

I'm glad we had the excuse to travel this way through Colorado and New Mexico, though, because I can't imagine when else we would have decided to make a trip in this direction. Having a child with special medical needs has really cramped our traveling style. We brought her oxygen concentrator with us and she had to wear oxygen over the really high passes. Luckily, she didn't need it during the day anywhere we went. Or, perhaps better said, none of us could tolerate the idea of her being leashed with her oxygen cord for just the whiff she would need.

In any case, I can't adequately describe how incredible the land is. We drove through the most incredible mountain scenes over and over again and then found our way to the New Mexico plains. All breathtaking.

We had snow on the drive back north. 

Mesas by Farmington

For all the road trips I've taken, I don't think I've ever felt anxiety about being out in the middle of nowhere. I had a strange sensation of worry about what would happen if we had some medical emergency.

We met Mom and Mike in Farmington, and Iris got a chance to ride on Uncle Mike's skateboard, which was probably the highlight of the trip for her.

Sally remembers 1968

Moms and kids

By the end of the weekend we were exhausted and ready to be home. We also decided to wait to attempt another road trip for a while. The good news is that we think Iris doesn't need oxygen on planes anymore, so we can fly relatively easily.