Its been a long long time.......

It has been way too long; I have been quite a slacker about keeping up with what started as a recollection of Corina's life so that I can show it to her when she grows up. But now, I just realized that over 1 year of her 2.5 years has not been recorded. I will try to make a short synopsis of what life has shown us during the past year and a half.

End of 2009 .- Disney World, Ambulance, Hospital, WPW, Galapagos Islands.....

At the end of October we got invited to go visit the Mouse!!! Cori's first trip to Disney World. She didn't care much about the characters, it actually scared her to realize they were alive and not just sitting still. She didn't care about the rides much either; although I was trying to have her on a strict schedule of doing all the rides I thought she would like. Her favorite attraction was playing at the Pooh Playground in The Magic Kingdom. She might have been a bit too young for Disney but we had a great time anyway.
A few weeks ago (over a year after the trip) she listened in the Radio to Its a Small World and she suddenly said "Mommy this is Mickey Mouse song".... now I am starting to believe in Disney's subliminal power to captivate kids.

On November 17th, 2009 one of my biggest fears as a parent came a bit too close for comfort; Cori had to be rushed to the ER and I received that dreaded call at work. First I was told she had choked, then we thought it was seizure due to fever (she had a fever of 102.8) and lastly we were told she had suffered a cardiac syncope because she has WPW. While the Drs. keep telling us WPW is a common and benign heart condition that causes arrhythmia and very very rarely a syncope; just the idea of my little one having it was extremely scary. They kept us in the hospital for 3 days to see if she had any arrhythmia which she never did and sent us home with a prescription of Beta Blockers to keep her heart from speeding up too fast. I was relieved to know it is something that can be controlled with medication but devastated by the idea of having her on Beta Blockers for the rest of her life; especially considering she had never had even an antibiotic at that time.
As the days went by I became more comfortable with the idea of the medication and life went back to normal. I realized how weak I was and how much I admire parents of kids with serious diseases, including my own parents, since it was not easy for me to deal with a non serious, common type of diagnosis.
Life returned to normal after a few weeks and things I thought I would never be able to do again became normal. Cori returned to her routine of spending mornings at the park; we took trips to both Birmingham and Quito as we have planned and we even went to the Galapagos Islands for New Years. What one cardiologist has told me that it was never going to happen again started to sink in and become a reality.
Cori was getting cuter by the day. Her vocabulary kept expanding and she started to be quite a socialite. She was quite the entertainer both at the Christmas Eve party at my Grandfather's house and at the Galapagos cruise ship; dancing and singing all around. She was becoming so much fun to be around

2010
The new year started great. We greeted 2010 at one of the most amazing places on Earth, The Galapagos Islands. On New Year's day we spent part of the day on a beautiful white sand beach and we even got to see a sea turtle nesting its eggs. It was awesome!! I will never be able to thank my parents enough for that trip and for putting up with staying on board the ship for most of the trip taking care of Cori. Cori was way to young and not allowed to be off the ship.
Life was back to normal and we had gotten used to give Cori her heart medicine three times a day. We went to visit the Alabama Grandparents for Easter and to celebrate Aunt Emily's engagement; it was a great time and Cori enjoyed herself a lot with Granny J and Granddaddy Mackey; and had a blast looking for Easter Eggs.
A week after we had come back however she had another fainting episode at the park. I got a call from Melida (her wonderful nanny) as I was walking out of the bathroom with a positive pregnancy test. I just remember telling Dave that Cori had fainted and running as fast as I could to the park. Thanks to God and to the wonderful Staff at the KBCC that were there to help her out until the rescue came; she was fine by the time we got there and again we rushed her to the hospital thinking that the thing Drs. had said will never happen again did happened again. However, when we got there the cardiologist let us know that it was not her heart, her EKG came out normal and since she was running a fever it seemed that when her heart does speed up it happens to behave more normal than when she has a normal heart beat. This was good news, really good news since it meant 1.) weaning her off the medicine; 2) Although she does have WPW it was not showing any signs of concern so even an ablation (surgery) at the age of 5 was not necessary at the moment. While at the ER however she had another episode of losing consciousness and shaking; it was the first time I was around for that and it was extremely scary; it felt like it lasted for ever and that the ER staff was not doing anything (they actually were doing a lot); Cori had just had a seizure. Since we arrived with a cardiac diagnosis to the ER no one realized she was running a high fever and apparently what had happened @ the park earlier, and also what had happened back in November were not cardiac syncope but Febrile Fits/Seizure. These are extremely scary but harmless episodes; you just need to 1. Monitor every fever closely and keep the child comfortable and away from choking during a seizure; it is easier said than done. The first time I experienced one with Cori I did everything wrong in spite of having read over and over what I was supposed to do. Although I really hope she won't have more seizures and I have become quite neurotic about giving her fever reducing medicine whenever her temperature slightly goes above 98; I think that if it does happens I will be more calm and better prepared. Both Dave and I had them growing up so the gene pool is not on our favor when it comes to febrile fits.

As I briefly mentioned before I got pregnant with Peanut #2. It was a rough start for my little Peanut since the first week after I found out she was completely ignored; but starting on week #6 she started reminding me she was there with Morning Sickness. After 6 weeks of dry nausea and just not enjoying food I started to enjoy my 2nd pregnancy.
During the summer we took a trip to Ecuador, New York for my work and Birmingham for a weekend. Cori loved the mass transportation system in NY, she really enjoyed riding the subway and Dave became quite a pro in dealing with Subway, Stroller and Toddler throughout the city.
We also found out we were having another baby girl and we decided to name her Lola.