Levine Cardiac Kids Christmas Party

On December 6th, our "heart" group, Levine Cardiac Kids, had their first Christmas party! It is always neat to see all of our special kids together. There were families with babies in CVRU and NICU who came to it also. It was a blessing to meet them and hear their stories. I hope that seeing many of our kids who are older and have had all their surgeries was an encouragment to them.

The highlight of the night was that many of the Sanger cardiologists came and even Dr. Watts (Lydia's surgeon) got to come! He's always so busy, so it was very special to have him there, even for a short time. Lydia is so funny because she get's so excited to see Dr. Watts and then she just doesn't know what to say to him. It's cute. =)

The kids also got a visit from "Santa Claus", which was actually a nurse that took care of Lydia a long time ago. Caleb was terrified of Santa at first. But when Santa gave him a candy cane he warmed up to him. Amazing what a little candy will do! He even ran up to him, gave him a quick squeeze on the leg and then dashed back to us. He had the whole room laughing.

Lydia's cardiologist Dr. Bensky was able to be there and Lydia really enjoyed seeing him somewhere outside of the office. =) Dr. Bensky just adores Lydia. It's really sweet how much Lydia likes him too. Afterall, he's been her doctor since before she was born! I was 25 weeks along when we met Dr. Bensky and he started taking care of her. I hope he never moves or retires! =)

Some people from Child Life came and did crafts with the children during the party. They were there for three hours! All of the kids had such a fun time. I must say, the Child Life ladies are just amazing. They have such a passion to help children and to make every day a good day for a child who is in the hospital. They were all such a blessing whenever Lydia has been in the hospital for anything!

Here's Lydia playing around with a balloon. She knew that she could not touch it because it's latex. =)

Here's Lydia and "Santa". It was funny because our kids were just like, "Santa who?"

Awwww....Lydia and Dr. Bensky.

Lydia at the craft table with her favorite instrument....scissors!!

Here's Caleb riding on the front of the wagon. He was pretending that it was his motorcycle. Can you tell that he is obsessed with anything that goes? Don't you love the reindeer antler hat that he made? It's so cute!

Caleb was helping Mrs. Susan pull the wagon to put all the craft stuff away. (He didn't make it very far...the wagon was a little heavy!) Mrs. Susan is the director of Child Life at the hospital. She is a very sweet lady. You can only see her legs in the picture though. Caleb just adored her and followed her around like a puppy most of the night.