Happy 4th of July!!!

Ok, so the post is a bit late to celebrate our Nation’s independence. Oh well, better late than never, right.

Thursday my wonderful office closed at 1:00pm, so I was able to head home early for the 3 day weekend. Unfortunately, closing early meant that we had to take Ella to get some more blood drawn. This time it was for regular testing that a lot of kids get, but that didn’t make us feel any better about it. The last time in Cincinnati it was torture and Ella screamed the entire time. This time, they brought in the veteran blood guy and he had to pull out the big guns for Ella. They have this cool red light that they put under the baby’s hand and wrist to see exactly where the veins are. This way they only have to stick the kid once. So he did the red light, which distracted Ella enough that she only slightly squealed during the initial prick. Then she was so interested in the blood being drawn that she didn’t really cry the rest of the time. Joe and I kept singing songs to her and I think that helped too. We were so glad when the blood draw was done and thank heavens there wasn’t any skin trauma in the process. Ella was a champ!

We got her blood drawn at Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC, so we were also able to see June, the wound care nurse who took care of Ella while she was there. June did a great job not only caring for Ella’s wounds when she was born, but she trained Joe and me on how to handle things once we got home. She was one of the few who had actually worked with EB kids before, so she knew the disease and exactly how to handle it. We also got to see Sharon, our Social Worker while we were in the NICU. Sharon was a wonderful advocate for Ella and was very good about getting us answers we needed. It was great seeing both of these women again.

The 4th was a wonderfully relaxing day. We didn’t do anything or go anywhere besides running a few errands. Joe did go to the store and bought us a couple of lobsters for dinner. Ella kept calling them doggies and laughing. She’d never seen anything quite like that before. They might have been funny to her but they tasted great to us!

Saturday was another relaxing day. It started off with Joe reading the Declaration of Independence to us (it was a day late but just as meaningful). Unfortunately Ella wasn’t willing to sit still and listen. While her lack of interest frustrated Joe, he is hopeful that next year she’ll be more enthused. In the afternoon we had a cookout with one of Joe’s law school friends, Colleen, and went swimming in her pool. Surprisingly Ella fell asleep on the way home, wet bandages and all.

Sunday Ella wore her special 4th of July outfit from Grammy Janet (pictures will come soon). As a treat we took Ella to Barnes and Noble and got her a special puppy book that has fur you can actually feel. After that we took her to PetSmart to see real doggies. They have a play room for the dogs with a glass wall so people can look in and see them playing. Ella stood at the glass wall with her hands and face pressed against it and she laughed the entire time! One of the dogs kept coming over to her and licking the glass, which of course sent Ella into a giggle fest! She had such a great time watching the doggies. When she’s older and we have a bigger house we will definitely have to get this girl a dog!