My little dark beauty

Poor little Layla had 6 needles stuck in her at the doctor's today. She screamed like a banshee and I had to hold her down. (If you are wondering like I was what the heck a banshee is, check this out.) Five minutes later, she was laughing. Her ear infections are almost gone, and as per an earlier post, her stool tests were negative for parasites. Her pediatrician thinks she is doing very well, despite her enormously huge belly (which my sister and I had diagnosed as a sign of Kwashiorkor but which he said is just a result of her being malnourished in the past since she doesn't display any other symptoms of Kwashiorkor). She gained 1 pound and 11 ounces in a little over two weeks, which puts her on the scale. We have to go back to the doctor to have her PPD test read, then to the hospital for a chest x-ray and to have blood drawn (more needles!) for the many lab tests that the doctor has ordered to check her out. We are moving along!

Tonight she fell asleep by 8:15 (and peacefully!) and I fully expect her to sleep for 12 hours plus!

I took a ton of pictures of my dark beauty tonight, here are a few of my favorites. She literally takes my breath away sometimes! Incidentally, the name Layla has African origins and means "dark beauty" according to this site.




I've also started a dropshots account on which I've posted pictures of my trip to Ethiopia (most are of Mekdelawit) and all the pictures of Layla I have since then. The free account includes 500 pictures; I've already uploaded 256!

I hope you enjoyed all the links in this post. More on the trip and comments on Ethiopia later.