One of the very selfish fears I had after Hannah’s diagnosis was that she wouldn’t look anything like me or Pete, that the 47th chromosome would overpower the other 46.

Then I saw her blue eyes.

My whole family and most of Pete’s family have blue eyes, but Hannah’s eyes take the family genes to a new level.

Those little orbs are the brightest and bluest of all. For weeks I stared at them trying to figure out if she had Brushfield spots (small white spots around the iris that are common with Down syndrome) or if they just naturally twinkled. As long as they keep sparkling it doesn’t matter why.

Hannah is the light of my life, and that light shines through the windows to her soul. With those eyes she can speak a thousand words. Surprise. Delight. Exasperation. Exhaustion. Love. She’ll drown you with love in those pools of blue.

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We had quite a busy morning yesterday. Hannah woke up around 3 am because she couldn’t breathe well through the lingering stuffiness from her cold. As I rocked her back to sleep, Gamy barged in the nursery and started scratching her face like crazy. The jingling of her collar woke Hannah up a little and I shooed Gamy back in our bedroom, where she kept scratching and jingling. Finally we turned on the light and saw the source of the itch. Her whole face was swollen – her eyes almost shut and jowls blown up like a balloon.

Pete had to drive 15 minutes to find a 24 hour CVS to buy Benadryl. It definitely helped but we set up a vet appointment anyway. The vet said it was most likely caused by a spider bite, gave Gamy a steroid shot, and sent us home with a few prednisone. Big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for taking Gamy to the vet and watching her all day! The pup seems much better now, even though her eyes and nose are still red and her left jowl is saggy. Her energy level is back to normal and there has been no more scratching.