It’s hard to believe that 35 weeks ago our little girl was only 2lbs and living in an incubator surrounded by tubes and wire. We’re delighted that God has blessed us with a beautiful, healthy baby girl. She brings us so much joy. Both Josh and I are enjoying our play-times with Becca each day. Becca loves bouncing around and flying high in the air. Being a preemie must have made her tough, because Becca seems to love roughhousing. I guess she’ll be prepared for any brothers the Lord may send her.

I don’t often think about the stress surrounding Becca’s birth, but this past week I saw what the “high stress” did to my eyes. Since my work medical insurance runs out in August, we’re taking full advantage of any health-related paid appointments. I had an eye check-up last Thursday and after looking into my eyes, the doctor told me I have “retina vascular changes due to high stress.”  Knowing I had recently had a baby, he asked if I had experienced stress related to her early birth. For those who are interested, the picture on the left shows the veins in my retina. Normal veins are typically strong and straight. The doctor told me that “high stress” causes these veins to become weakened, making them squiggly. The changes my retina has experienced are not a major concern right now; the doctor just wanted to take a picture for future reference. On another note – my insurance also allowed for me to get new glass…you’ll have to wait until next week to see what we chose.

Last Thursday we went to an outdoor showing of “How to Train Your Dragon.” UTA shows free outdoor movies every Thursday night about a block from our apartment. The weather was great – it cooled off and there was a lovely breeze during the movie. Josh enjoyed the free popcorn UTA provided and I enjoyed the butter-free popcorn Josh made for me to eat! Friday night we visited two parks in the area. Arlington has tons of parks, and I found out that three of their parks have equipment for water play. I was excited about going and playing in the water….and then it rained. We still went to two of the parks to check out their equipment and enjoyed walking in the rain. (Doesn’t Becca do a great job taking pictures of us?)

Sunday night we have John and Shawn Lutz over for dinner, and Tuesday night we had dinner with the Bentons (Matt Benton was a classmate of Josh). the Bentons are lending us a play gym for Becca. So far she seems to like her new toy! My dairy-free, soy-free diet is going well. We haven’t seen any significant changes with Becca yet, but we’re hoping to see improvement in the next few weeks. I’d appreciate any suggestions for dairy-free/soy-free recipes.