Not Enough Hours in the Day

Where did we leave off?   Oh yes...we left off with Kalista's birthday weekend getaway.  Sorry for the delay. We know that all of you have been waiting for the anticipated birthday party pictures.  There are just not enough hours to get to the blogging.

So yes...back to where we left off.  The next following weekend we took a mini trip to Dana Point/San Juan Capistrano for Jen's birthday weekend trip.  We had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and beaches.  We also took Bella with us since the hotel allowed animals.  Bella had a blast!!!  She exuded the spoiled princess vibe all weekend.

 We enjoyed a clam baked style dinner from The Boiling Crab...Yum!

This Squirrel cake was courtesy of Chubby Cakes in Westminster

Kalista has become an expert in the sport of bubble blowing. Whenever she sees a bubble wand or bubble container, she goes into bubble mind mode.  She can't enough of her assortment of bubble wands that were left over from her birthday party.

Grandma Susan came to visit right after Grandma Evelyn left...literally on the same day.  It was nice having some extra hands around the house for two weeks between the two visitors.

  

We made a few trips to the zoo with Grandma's new annual pass.  Kalista loves wearing sunglasses and has a tendency to borrow them from others.

Kalista's official birthday party was postponed to June for many reasons, but it finally happened.  It was Yo Gabba Gabba themed and she loved her cake until we lit the candles.  She bursted into tears for some reason.  Maybe she thought we were trying to torch her new friends....eek...that would freak me out.

The party was a success!  We had a fabulous turnout and the weather was just right for the park.  Kalista's little friends had a blast on the jungle gyms of various size. We had some relatives that flew into town just for the weekend to celebrate it with us.  Thank you for the trip down here!!!

Kalista says "THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR COMING TO MY PARTY AND FOR ALL MY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!!".  She wasn't into opening gifts at first, but when she saw what was all wrapped up....it was worth all the work.

We had a mini photo shoot for Project: Father's Day.  With the idea from her teacher, we borrowed this little outfit from her school and took a bunch of photos to frame for Matt's special day.

 HAPPY DADA DAY !!!

Kalista learned to say : Happy - Dada -Dee (Happy Father's Day) and Owl - Juice ( I Love You).  It sounds much cuter when she says it.

We all mustered up some energy to get to the SD County Fair this year since all three of us have been fighting off this cold of various extent.  Along our stroll past livestock, we met this HUGE cow.  MOO! It doesn't seem so big from this picture, but it was very large. We tried out the bacon wrapped turkey leg this year and it was pretty good.  We didn't try anything exotic this year...no deep fried trix or coco pebbles.

We hope this summer will bring some fun times and memories for all of you!!

It's Homecoming Day!

WE'RE COMING HOME!!!

Car seat challenge with her tummy shield

We started our morning with our car seat challenge. We just had to make sure that Kalista can hold her oxygen saturation for the duration that she's harnessed into the seat itself and to see how she would tolerate her tummy shield. She wasn't too fond of the car seat at first, but didn't mind after sitting in it for the required 30 minutes.

Kalista reflecting on all her time in the NICU

When we look back, it seemed like it was only a few days ago that we entered the NICU....but we all know that wasn't the case. Those 3 1/2 months were probably the hardest 3 1/2 months of our lives, but now that Kalista is finally home...it was worth the wait. We really don't even know where to start in thanking everyone at Rady Children's NICU for all the love and support that they have extended to us. In the time of our stay, Kalista has surely built a good size fan club. How can anyone resist that smile....right?

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OUR THANK YOU SECTION:

We would love to thank our primary nurses for their healing hands...Tawny, Kristen, Anna and Marilyn. They have been with Kalista for many weeks, months and even from the very first day she was born. We believe they spent more time with Kalista than their own children sometimes. We cannot thank you enough for everything that you have done for us!

We can't forget our non-primary nurses! We thank you for all that you have done in taking care of our little girl. Let us see if we can make a list of who we have been blessed to work with: Emily, Rose, Linda, Janet, Diana, Tabitha, all the Sarahs/Saras, all the Jennifers, Micaela, Shareen, Lauren, Rachel, Rachelle, Erika, Tamyra, Jack, Suzanne, Heather, Rosa, Jaime, Lindsay, Penny, Mary, Michelle, Amanda, Nate, Tammi, Jackie, Tracy, Amber, MaryAnne, Denise, Dionne, Eleata, Sam, Rosa, Catherine, Lynn, Susan, Marsha, Bryan, Laura, Valerie, Raquel, Nancy, Vicky, Ken, Meg, Gina, all the Amys, Mia, Jill and Jaime. Sorry if I left anyone out or didn't spell your name right...our brains a little over saturated at the moment.

Thank you to all our NNPs: Barbara (at least her hair is thicker than before =) ), Kylee, Natasha, Stephanie, Angela, Stacie, Kim, Carol, Tammy, April.

Thank you to our team of neonatalogists: Dr. DeLaRosa, Dr. Lane, Dr. Wong, Dr. Speziale, Dr. Sutner, Dr. Evans, Dr. Knight.

Thank you Dr. Saenz for your miracle hands in repairing Kalista's omphalocele. We know our journey is not over yet...but we are so much closer.

Thank you Casi, Anne and Adriana for working with Kalista in OT.

Thank you Ruth for giving milking advice because you are our "breast" friend.

Thank you Karen and Linda for making Kalista's PT enjoyable.

Thank you to all of the BAs that have greeted us at the window, given us bottles and labels for the milk factory, buzzed us in and out of the NICU and for working hard behind the scenes.

And lastly, to Jennifer, our social worker, who has held our hand and given us support through all of this, we thank you from the bottom our our hearts.

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We were officially discharged and left Rady's with smiles and joyful tears a little after 1 pm and headed home to begin our new life adventure. This is only the beginning for Kalista Lam!

Kalista's first time out in the real world