[ibnsgirl]

Ouch, PM! That's rough. You and your family are in our prayers.

Congratz, Dennis, on the job front! I can totally understand your wife's worries about being a part-time single parent. I don't know how parents in that situation all of the time do it. I'm even somewhat apprehensive about a little little two-week trip Tony has to take.

As for life with Lucy:
She has started to add "da-da" and "ma-ma" to her string of babble! Very cute! Interestingly, when she is happy and in a good mood, her babble is full of da-das, whereas when she is unhappy/tired/hungry/othwise needs something, then all she says is ma-moms. Who knew?

On a different note, Tony is going to have his hands full next week. Next Monday, I go in for thyroid surgery, which will require a 23 hour stay in the hospital afterward. To say the least, no one is looking forward to it.

As background, the right side of my thyroid inexplicably started retaining fluid when I was about 4 months pregnant. Of course, the doctors didn't want to mess with it then, but not removing it meant that it has had to be drained several (painful) times. Even though the fluid build-up slowed dramatically after Lucy was born, leaving it alone really isn't an option, as it effects my ability to swallow. Assuming all goes well and the pathology report comes back clean, then all I should expect is a sore neck and a raspy voice for a few days.

So anyway, we finally are on track to deal with that. I'm not exactly sure when they will allow visitors, but in any case, it will mark the longest time Lucy and I will be away from each other. For Tony it means that he will have full-time baby duty. As long as everyone can refrain from getting her too wound-up, it shouldn't be horribly bad. Still, we are all looking forward to its being over.