Baby

Hello and happy Saturday! What do you have going on today? We’re going to be working on our back patio renovation project with my sister and brother-in-law. Can’t wait to see them!

I’ve got six things on my mind today.

1. Affordable Books. Our library is still closed due to COVID and we’ve been re-reading all our books, going to our neighborhood Little Free Library, and “splurging” on books under $4.

Three we’ve recently been into around the Zottola household are Mouse Paint, Biscuit Loves the Park, and The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. Mouse Paint has been perfect for teaching Sadie colors and it’s adorable. What are you currently reading?

2. Gardening. Our sad little cucumber plants gave us another cucumber! Oh, and we’ve been harvesting lots of squash and a few cherry tomatoes.

3. Park Days. We attended our church’s weekly Youth Summer Days at a local park on Friday and had a blast with our church family. I brought Niva along and she soaked up all the attention she could get from the kids.

4. Meeting Isaiah. Our friends from church had their second baby on Monday and brought him to the Youth Summer Days on Friday. I soaked in all the newborn snuggles I could get with sweet Isaiah ❤

I totally forgot just how tiny newborns are. It’s wild! I loved studying his little toes, feet, fingers, and eyes when he opened them up for a second!

5. Cousin Sleepover. My sister offered to take Sadie home with her after the Youth Summer Days so her daughter and Sadie could have a little impromptu cousin sleepover! I didn’t have anything packed, but it was no biggie because Sadie and Caroline are so close in age that they can share clothes and diapers. I absolutely love being in the same stage of life as my sister!

The girls fell asleep on the drive home and Hannah sent me this snapshot once she arrived at her house and it melted my heart.

6. Sadie’s Eye. About a month ago, I noticed Sadie’s left eye looked glazed over and teary all the time. It didn’t seem like a big deal because it wasn’t bothering her, but it just didn’t seem right. I called our ophthalmologist and brought her in on Thursday to have it looked at.

I feel like I could write a whole post on getting a toddler to cooperate during an eye exam (LOL), but I digress. She was diagnosed with a nasolacrimal duct obstruction. We have to massage her eye each day and try to put antibiotic drops in her eye to prevent infection. If that doesn’t get rid of the obstruction, we’ll have to do something a bit more invasive, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

In the meantime, does anyone have tips for putting eyedrops in a toddler’s eye?!

Whew, we had quite the day earlier this week. It started out completely normal… until we had an ambulance at our house.

Sadie was hanging out with me in our bathroom and fell backwards and hit her head. She falls all the time, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. She cried pretty hard, so I picked her up and snuggled her in my arms until she stopped.

About a minute or two later, I looked at her and she had blood coming out of her mouth. It was on her hand, her shirt, shorts, and face. I tried to check in her mouth to see where the blood was coming from but couldn’t find anything. I started freaking out and decided to call 911 because I wasn’t sure if she had a concussion or why she would be bleeding from her mouth after falling backwards.

The 911 dispatcher told me to call back if Sadie became unconscious and said an ambulance was on its way. Within a few minutes, we had a team of paramedics checking Sadie out and asking about what happened. They had me try and open her mouth and inside her upper lip we found a cut. I have never been more relieved for my child to be cut in my life!

The paramedics offered to take Sadie to the local children’s hospital but I declined since we had figured out she was bleeding from the cut in her mouth and not from a head injury, lol.

Sadie was playing on the kitchen floor while Jimmy and I were eating dinner that night and she stood up and took her first steps.

What a roller coaster of a day. I went from worrying that Sadie had a concussion to witnessing her first steps just hours later. If I’ve learned anything about parenting, it’s that the highs are higher and the lows are lower.

I would do anything to never have Sadie experience hurt–physically or emotionally. At the same time, I know that’s not realistic in this world and the trials of life develop our character. The lows of parenthood are tough. The highs, though? Wow. It’s amazing to watch this little being that God has blessed us with. We see her grow, learn, and develop right before our eyes and there’s nothing like it.

Just like God develops the character of our children through tough times, He develops their parents right along with ’em through all the highs and lows ❤

Living My Full Life

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