Mended Hearts

A year ago a friend of mine gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  Her name was Cora.
I am wearing pink today to celebrate Cora's short life.
Cora only lived a few short days.
She had an undiagnosed heart defect and died unexpectedly in her mother's arms.
It is possible that her congenital heart defect (CHD) could have been diagnosed had she had a simple non-invasive pulse oximetry test before she went home from the hospital.
If you are pregnant, please ask for a pulse ox test for your baby.

And now, it's time to celebrate Cora.

I am going to start with kissing and hugging my kids.
Listening to them, and cherishing.

Then I am going to do something else. I am taking a few grocery bags full of groceries to the local food pantry to help out others, because that's what Cora does. She saves lives, and she helps people.

Want to celebrate Cora with me?

Save a Life-
Donate Blood
Join the Bone Marrow Donor Registry
Remind your pregnant friends to request the Pulse Ox test before leaving the hospital

Help Someone-
Donate to a charity
Volunteer in a local soup kitchen
Donate toys to a children's hospital
Donate your time
Perform Random Acts of Kindness

Happy Birthday, Cora.
It's been a year, and we're all so proud of you.

My Hero(ine)

Yesterday started out pretty normal.  Mongoosine fought the heat off by lazing around the house until the pool opened, and then gave her customary half question half statement "Pool?" accompanied by eyes darting toward the door, right before her feet followed pursuit.  It helped that a friend had just shown up on the porch.

I hollered "Sunscreen!" after her as she was dashing off the porch, waving a hand holding said sunscreen toward me as she and her friend rushed down the sidewalk toward the pool in that huddled way that girls do when they have secrets to share.  

I smiled, sighed, and went back to doing my mom-stuff, figuring she'd probably come home around 3:30 for adult swim, so I was somewhat surprised when at 2:14 a drippy wet daughter of mine was standing at the door asking if she and her friend could take snacks to the park.

I heard my husband ask why they'd left the pool.

"Pool's closed."

I admit, my eavesdropping mommy-sense kicked in.

I'll spare you the tween speak two word answers through which the rest of the story unfolded and sum it up.

Basically, my daughter made them close the pool. That picture up there? That's of the fire department draining the pool in the most summer-fun way they could think of.  They eventually got tired of doing it that way and got a few fire hoses to spray at ground level so no one had to hold anything.

Mongoosine had a lot of fun dancing in the spray while I verified her story with the pool managers.

Snapdragon even enjoyed the mist at the edge of the spray.

WHAT HAPPENED. (I'm sure she'll correct me and that I have the story ENTIRELY wrong - insert eye roll)

While swimming in the shallow end with her friends, doing underwater stunts like handstands and sitting on the floor of the pool, Mongoosine noticed something tickled her feet.  Upon further sub-aquatic investigation, she discovered the source of the "tickle" was a crack that was creating suction and pulling water through it.  Upon even closer examination she discovered a crack perhaps a foot long, and straight.  No, it was NOT shaped like this.  

She checked.  Twice.

Alas, it was merely a very normal not-two-moments-in-time-which-never-should-have-touched-creating-a-crack-in-the-universe run of the mill kind of crack.  But, she decided that it did have quite a bit of suction for a crack in the pool, especially in the shallow end where the not-so-great swimmers swim.  Therefore, she told a lifeguard. 

And the lifeguards had to get everyone out of the pool so they could investigate the boring normal not-Doctor-call-worthy crack in the bottom of the pool.  The crack was deemed a safety hazard, the pool was closed, and immediately drained.

The fire department had the pool drained in about 2 hours while the pool manager called the swimming lessons kids to cancel their morning lessons.  

Mongoosine was sad that she wouldn't get to swim for a few days while they fixed the pool.

Empty pool. *sigh*

See here the people working in the far away pool as the sun began to sink low?  Well, they did their job and did it well. Spouse tells me there is a patch welded into the bottom of the pool now, a bit over a foot square.  I didn't have a chance to see it because my sundown they were already refilling the pool.  Much to my surprise, it reopened at 1:00 this afternoon, right on schedule.  I imagine my little heroine who had the bravery to report a problem will be back soaking up the sun and splashing in the pool as soon as she finishes her leisurely lunch.

I'm proud of her. I don't know if I'd have said anything when I was her age.  I'm proud that she has the confidence to say something when she sees something she doesn't think is right.  I'm proud that she has ability to recognize an unrecognized problem.  

I'm just proud of her.  She's my hero.

Cora's Day

Today, Cora is four months old, and in her memory, Snapdragon is pinking it up, even if he's a boy.

Why do we wear pink on the 30th of each month in memory of Cora? Because we're helping Cora save lives.

You can read Cora's Story on my friend Kristine's blog, and then, in honor of Cora, put on some pink, and do something nice for someone else. I haven't found our good deed for the day just yet, but we're working on it.

Most importantly, let your children and loved ones know how much they mean to you. Take a few extra minutes out to play a game or go for a walk with the ones you love, and if you know a new mother to be, please let her know that many congenital heart defects can be detected with a non-invasive, simple, and painless pulse oximetry test.

Help Cora save lives, and make the world a better place for those living in it.

Giving

My twitter friend @RockerByeBaby has adopted two families for Christmas through WishUponAHero, and we're chipping in over here. You can read about that here. Why? Because giving is an essential part of humanity, and I feel blessed to be able to help moms in need.

So if you want to make someone's holiday truly blessed, you can get in touch with Amber, or check out WishUponAHero and adopt a family of your own.

Happy holidays.

In case you were wondering.... WINNERS!

The winner of the cloth LLL Nursing Pads, generously being given by A Mother's Boutique, is Jaime! You can follow her on twitter at @thelightsgodown. I'm so happy for her!

And after a lot of time determining just which direction I was going and how I was counting the numbers on the silly faces, the winner of my 100+ followers surprise giveaway is..... Nikki! Better known to some of you as @CubsMamma

You can check her out at It's a Cub's World & We Just Live in It

In the not so distant future, you can bet I'll be posting just what I sent, because lets face it, we all like to know stuff, right?

I couldn't be happier about Nikki winning. She makes me smile, and laugh, and get teary eyed, and is a constant motivator to snuggle my nursling just a little tighter and cuter, even if I'm secretly jealous of her and her baby makin' ways.

So go check out her blog, and follow her or something, she is pretty darn cool, you know.

Winners will be notified shortly and will have 72 hours to contact me with their shipping info.

Thank you all for entering, following, and rocking in general.

*hugs*

Spreading the Blessed

Today I was blessed with a random act of kindness. I'm not going into details about it just yet, because it is just too precious to spoil, but it's infectious and like any good Typhoid Mary, I just have to spread it.
At first I planned to write about how we encounter too few of these shinig moments where people we might not even really know step forward to do something nice, not because it's expected, but because they want to, or even more amazing, when we do it ourselves, but then I realized it's a lot more common than one might think. Whether it's @KeepEmCookin throwing an impromptu baby shower for a bedrest mom who's own baby shower didn't manage to happen, or the guy who waits an extra thirty seconds before leaving the resturant so that he can hold the door for the harried mother and her four kids piling out of the car in the rain, random acts of kindness are everywhere. I think we're all just too busy to notice them, or have some of them so deeply ingrained in our personalities, that we don't even realize that we're performing them when we let one slip out our mouths or hands, passed our mental tally machine that tells us whether or not we were "good" today.
That's one of the things I love about people. We have the capacity to do good in so many ways, and for some people, it becomes a part of who they are and they don't even have to think about it in order to be the act of kindness that tips the scales of someone else's day from mediocre to truly blessed.
That said, the blessed only feels good, really truly down to your toes good, the kind of good that permeates your whole self and makes you positively glow inside and out, if it's a shared kind of blessed. So this is where I let you all know that right this moment I feel blessed, and I intend to share it. Yes, thanking the people who make me feel blessed through the little things they do and the big ones too, yes, that's important and of course I'm going to do it, but it's not enough. So I intend to spread the love. Not quite sure just how yet. Maybe I'll get off my bottom and donate my skinny clothes that I certainly won't need for a few years to a shelter. Gods know they're not doing me any good. Maybe I'll finish that quilt I started for an online friend and *actually mail it.* I don't know at this moment, but the blessings, I will be a spreadin'.
Have you spread some blessed today?