Roller skating queens

This morning we went (we meaning Riley, Bree and myself) to our friend's house. Heidi is a saint and lets everyone come over to her house on Wednesday mornings to play. It is so great seeing 8 kids running around a house together screeching with joy and happiness. Did I mention that I am JEALOUS of her driveway? It is long, and the perfect playing area. Park a car at the end of the driveway, and the kids run wild! Everyone brings some of their outside play toys, and we all share. Riley had found Zoie's (Heidi's daughter) roller skates and wanted to try them out. I was expecting her to get on her feet and immediately freak out.  She didn't. She rocked thos roller skates! I had to hold her hand, but she loved it. She went down the driveway, then back up and wanted to be done. As I took them off of Riley, Bree wanted to wear them.

I was expecting the same thing out of Bree (freaking out), especially since they didn't fit her well at all. She LOVED them. While I was holding both of her hands, she skated down the driveway and back as well. It is quite a workout, and I didn't want her to get too tired and risk a massive meltdown so I decided that was enough. She melted down when I took them off.

I think that Santa may just have a pair of roller skates in his bag for our family this year.

Letters from Santa

Wanted to share this with you. A NICU parent support group is helping Santa with his mail this year! They do ask for a donation per letter, but it is going to a good cause to help support critically ill infants, preemies, and their families. Here's the link to the Santa page: http://www.nicupsdonations.org/2010.asp

This is not from the NICU that Bree came from, but from one that her 'preemie friend' Robbie came from. I read the blog his mom writes (http://fertilehope.blogspot.com/), and I email with her occasionally to talk about their eating, PT, etc etc because they struggle with the same stuff.

Please share this with whoever you think may be able to use it, or want to use it. Thanks!

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

Christmas

A few of the grandparents and family members have asked what the girls want for Christmas. I put together a small list to give everyone ideas...Hope this helps!

Either girl:

Yookidoo Flow and Fill Spout (bath toy)

Lace and Trace Pets

Tinkertoys

Lincoln Logs

Princess Fairy Jumbo Coloring Pad

Bree:

Baby Alive Sips and Cuddles

Mrs. Potato Head Silly Suitcase (great for speech and OT)

Deluxe Latches Boards (Great for OT)

Riley:

Magnetic dress up dolls

Hi Ho Cherry-O

Little Mommy Scrub a Dub Dub Doll

Chutes and Ladders

Blessed

I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband who appreciates me, and shows it. I have a 3 year old little girl who is more excited about my birthday than I was. I have a 2 year old sweet girl that amazes me daily that she is here with us and has such a sweet personality. And I also have a 21.5 week little man fetus who loves to show his appreciation by kicking me at all odd hours of the night and morning.

Yesterday was a day of realizing how lucky and blessed I truly am. Over 100 people wished me a happy birthday on facebook. (okay so 103 to be exact...it's just cooler to say 'over 100'). My best friend Ashley sent me a beautiful frame with a saying on it that is perfect and fits our family wonderfully. I can't wait to find the perfect pictures to put in it and hang it. My mom sent me a gift card for Olive Garden (yum!) along with a box of goodies for the girls. Riley picked out a candle for me. Riley: "I think it is a stinky candle mommy, but you like it." I do love it and think she is crazy for not liking a pumpkin candle. Bree isn't quite old enough to grasp the whole "birthday" thing, but seeing her stab her piece of cake to take a bite and the whole piece coming up when she picked up her fork cracked me up. She tried to put the whole piece in her mouth at once. It was too cute.

I am so blessed and loved that I feel like my heart is going to explode. It was the best birthday I have had in a good couple of years. What a great way to ring in my 25th birthday. I am blessed.

Pain

Most people would never think of the sensation of feeling pain to be a blessing, or a good thing. However, once again, Bree has enlightened me to a whole new world of things I never thought I would be dealing with, or I even thought about.

 We have known since Bree was little that she has a VERY high pain tolerance.

Here's some examples: She could have IV's put in, or blood draws done without flinching. She would simply just look at the person doing them. And once she learned to walk she could take a very hard tumble or a bump without crying or fussing. She would simply say "Oh."

Now the girls do go to preschool two days a week right now, and recently Bree has been bit three times in the past week. The first two happened on Tuesday and the teachers were able to see it happen. There were incident reports to fill out and sign. The teachers commented that Bree didn't seem to be bothered by the bites. They said that most children scream and cry when it happens and then they are really grumpy and whiny for the rest of the day. They said 5 minutes after Bree got bit she was perfectly fine. One of the bites wasn't too bad, but she had one on the back of her upper left arm that is still bruised even today (4 days after it happened). When we showed up on Thursday to pick her up from preschool Bree had a bright red bite mark on her left forearm. The teacher had no idea. She had not fussed or expressed discomfort at all.

Another incident was when we went to go get her out of her crib from nap. We have been told to be giving her choices and making her shake her head 'yes' or 'no' in order to have her start communicating more instead of us automatically doing things for her. So I asked her "do you want to get up from nap? Yes? or No?" She tilted her chin up, and brought it back down, but ended up bringing it back down right onto her crib. I could hear her teeth clack together and it sounded painful. I even drew in a breath and grimaced, expecting crying. She didn't even flinch or change facial expressions. Didn't phase her one bit.

These are just a few examples, and there are many many more. We are going to make an appointment with her pediatrician this next week because I am beginning to think that this is a problem. We used to think that she was just a tough kid, but it is to the point that it is almost hazardous to her health. She's going to be the kid who tells me her arm feels funny, and it is going to end up being broken.

I never thought I would have to tell my child that even though it doesn't hurt her it's not okay for someone to bite her, and that she needs to tell her teacher.

Are there any other preemies out there that seem to have unusually high pain tolerances that is a problem?

Anatomy ultrasound

So my ultrasound looked great! Derrick is still a "he", they were just double checking since they had to do an ultrasound anyways. Everything looks great, his heart, lungs, brain, bladder and stomach are all correctly formed. They could not get a good picture of his spine because of his position so they will not "clear" him yet as being medically sound. So I have another ultrasound in two weeks to check his spine.




So here's my weirdo things I kept track of. :) I am technically 19 weeks and 4 days.



His head circumference was measuring 19 weeks and 0 days. (both Riley and Bree have head circumferences that are labeled as "small" or on the lower end of the percentages)



His belly circumference was 20 weeks and 0 days.



His femur bone measured at 19 week and 5 days.



So all in all he seems well. I am excited to get to see him again in two weeks, but am still a little worried that they weren't able to get the correct measurements today.

Family update

I feel like I am always doing small little updates here and there but never sneak in a good quality post. So here goes!

Riley is doing great things and has grown up a lot in the past few weeks. Yesterday she helped me pick up the living room and I didn't have to prompt her to specifically pick up anything. She picked up things and put them away without being told. I don't know if any other parents out there find that amazing, but I was blown away. Normally my children have to be told "pick up this block...now pick up this one. Now pick up the doll...etc..."

She also spent last Thursday in the three year old room as a test run. For those of you who are unaware (which is probably most of you), the preschool she attends does not allow any pull ups or diapers in the three year old room. You must go on the potty. Riley lasted through naptime (gasp!) without a pull up on, and didn't have an accident at all! Now our only problem to overcome is Riley's insistence that she only goes potty at school. We're working on it.

Bree is becoming more vocal everyday. A very large part of it is still just noises and grunts and whining, but the fact that she is being vocal and not staying  silent. She has learned to bring us the television remote which saying "Gab-buh? Gab-buh?" for Yo Gabba Gabba. It is one of the first things she has ever requested vocally. I find it hard not to give in most of the time. She will say "Day-doo" (thank you) on her own if you hand her something, but it you specifically request for her to say it she will only use the sign language sign. She says "Buuuu" for book and will sign it as well. She is a tricky kid to figure out. She will say words verbally for only about a week or so, and then she seems to 'forget' the word. She seems to stick to 3 -5 words that she says regularly.

Her eating is going backwards for some reason. Adam and I can't seem to figure it out, but we are continuing to offer her food to eat, then tubing her so that she continues to get her calories. I guess I need to just look at the positive and realize that it has been the longest she has eaten well, and we need to follow her cues. It can be frustrating.

She is seeking out different things to walk on. We have been told by her physical therapist that it is not common for low tone, unstable kids to want to walk on new surfaces, but we know that Bree is not always the 'norm'. She wants to walk on the rocks where ever we are (which there are rocks everywhere here!), She tries to step up on the curbs and wants to do everything that Riley does and can do. It makes me immensely proud to see her wanting to follow Riley so much, but sometimes it breaks my heart that she can't do it because of muscle strength and stability sometimes.

Derrick is growing fast! I cannot believe that in about 4 months I will be holding a cute, snuggle little boy in my arms.I am now feeling him move every day, usually multiple times a day. He moves a little bit when I first wake up, then again around 1 pm, and then again in the evening. Today he was kicking hard enough to where I could physically see it if I watched my belly. I don't remember the girls kicking this hard this early so I am guessing we have a rough and tumble little boy on the way! On Thursday I have an anatomy scan for Derrick, where they will double check to make sure he is still a he, and to make sure his heart, brain, kidneys and all other organs check out okay. I am very nervous that all will be okay. I have learned to never take anything for granted, even a healthy child.

I am doing okay. I still struggle with morning sickness, and have days where I can do a whole bunch of things, and then days where I get winded just cleaning off a counter. However, my brain now feels like it is capable of having complex thoughts. I have come out of the fog!! I feel more like talking with others, and getting out of the house to see friends.  I am trying to think out and figure out how we are going to do the bedroom situation with all three kids. I could go on and on about it, but I will spare you the details. I think I am wayyyy overthinking it. Oh well. It will all work out.

Adam is super husband and has really been helping me out. He rocks with the girls, and isn't afraid of hesitant to step up and make dinner, dump garbage, do dishes, or pick up the living room. One of these days I am going to insist that he go out with his friends and let go! Have some fun.

Whew! My fingers are a bit sore, and I am hungry. Now to go stare at the refrigerator and think that there is nothing to eat. Ha!

Feeling productive

I love the feeling of accomplishment when things are completed and done. So far today I have done dishes (not usually my job), had therapy for Bree, taken Bree to get her g tube changed (thanks Anneke!), taken out dinner to defrost, called about our Fisher Price Rainforest Pack and Play recall,  and called and applied for Long Term Care for Bree.

Today is the first day in a while that I have not had a migraine and I am so thankful to feeling up to do doing stuff. I think I am going to try and tackle Bree's clothes this afternoon after they wake up from nap. Woo hoo!

Things I need to do...soon.

Call about consolidating my student loans.

Call about our recalled Fisher Price Rainforest Pack and Play.

Clean our Bree's three drawer bin that is in her closet so that I can put the clothes we have for Derrick in them. (thanks Gavin!)

Go through Bree and Riley's drawers. Bree has grown out of 18 month clothes and into 24 month (hand me downs coming your way Grace!), and Riley has grown out of 3T shirts and into 4T shirts. She has also grown out of 2T pants and into 3T pants. For some reason Riley has always been different on her pant and shirt sizes, while Bree is the same for both.

For some weird reason (we'll blame it on nesting) I really want to clean and scrub my kitchen cabinets. It doesn't really NEED to be done, I just feel the need to do it.

Now I am hoping that writing this down will hold me accountable for doing these things. If it works you guys will be seeing more of what I need to do. Whatever works, right?

Things I never thought I would be saying as a Mom.

I have very many of these sayings, but I always forget to post them when they happen because there are only one or two in a day that I come across. Yesterday we had two.

"We don't pet people"

and

"Get that fork out of your ear"

Riley wouldn't stop petting a friends kid on the head. (sorry Jenn!) It was freaking Mady out, and Riley just wouldn't understand that she didn't like it. However, once they left Riley told me "We don't pet people Mommy, not Baby Mady. She's a people."

At dinner Bree was given a fork to eat her grilled cheese sandwich and tater tots (it's a sensory thing...sometimes she's rather not touch it). However, when I looked up two of the four tines were halfway in her ear prompting me to inform her that's not what we do with forks.

I wonder what pearls of wisdom I will get to pass onto my kids today.

What a weekend!

We are home-bodies. We like to stay home, to play in the backyard, watch movies and just be lazy. That's what we have done today. However, yesterday is another story.

We had planned on going to the park on Saturday and taking the girls 2 and 3 year old pictures. (coming soon!) When you live in Arizona that means you better get to the park early to beat the heat. So we went to the park about 830, took pictures, walked around and played on the playground. Then we ran some errands that needed to be done like paying rent, and going shopping to Target and Walmart. We even shared a pretzel and soda at Target (my favorite!).

On the way home we got a call from Anneke offering for us to go with them to a Hope Kids carnival with them. We jumped on the chance to go do something fun with friends! We ran home, dropped off our groceries, and met up with the Marchese family. We had a good time at the carnival and even met up with Andrea and her family. Riley seems to have developed her first crush on Owen, telling me that he was cute and wanting to go say hi to him. Of course she acted shy once we went over to him, but when we split up from them she had wanted to know where the "cute boy went".  We'll have to get together with them soon!

It was dreadfully hot, but worth the fun. Both girls got a "face" painting (Riley wanted hers on her leg), and they got to go down an inflatable slide with their Daddy. We learned that Riley likes cotton candy, and Bree does not at all. It was a great event and I need to look into our family joining Hope Kids. I'm pretty sure Bree meets the criteria for joining, but had never considered it a possibility prior to this.

We took the long way home in hopes that both girls would nap, but oddly enough only Riley napped. Bree was content yelling and hollering the whole way home. We stopped to get Adam's hair cut on the way home, and that was another 45 minutes. We finally made it home at 430 and we were spent! Both girls were kinda naughty for the rest of the night from being so tired so we decided to stay home today.

Home sweet home.

Baby kicks

Adam was able to feel Derrick kick twice tonight for the first time. Amazing. Made my night. :)

Three year old check up

So last year at her two year old check up she was 3rd percentile in weight and 95th in height. (I don't remember her actual height or weight) They were concerned about her weight and suggested us giving her instant breakfast with her milk, possibly mixing in oil in her diet (all stuff we do with Bree).




This year she was 30 pounds and 37 inches tall. Which places her at 45 percentile for her weight (yay!) and 50 percentile for her height. The doctor was pleased and said she is evening out with her growth, which is what she was hoping for.



I was surprised that a bit of the visit was the doctor asking Riley questions. (What's your name? Are you a boy or a girl? Is Daddy a boy or a girl? Favorite color?) I am so used to being asked the questions it was a change. I will say I was proud when Riley was asked if I was a boy or a girl she said Mommy is a good girl!

3 and 24

These are two numbers that are very important to our family this weekend.

Yesterday our first baby girl turned three years old. She went from this:

to this big beautiful (little) girl:

She is a sweet, opinionated, determined little girl who has a kind heart. She loves her sister, and will tell me she already loves Baby Derrick. She is a wonderful big sister and I can't wait to see her grow in the coming years.

Speaking of our family, we happen to have a pretty awesome guy in our family that we love very much. In fact, it is his birthday today and he is satisfied with hanging out at home and watching football. Adam is the best husband I could ask for. He is very loving, and is not afraid to express his affection for me or for his kids (do you know how weird it is to say "kids" and not "girls"??). He tells me everyday that I am beautiful, he compliments the girls and is far more patient with them than I am. He truly balances me out. He is more of a relaxed laid back guy, and it has rubbed off on me in the past few years, which I think it just what I needed. Happy 24th Babe!

Potty success!

Riley has had two successful times that she has peed in the potty today! Most kids want a piece of candy, a cookie, or some sort of sweet as a treat for a reward. My child wants her Grandma to push her on the swing. Honestly, I will do whatever it takes to get her potty trained.

Heck I think I am having wishful thinking but maybe...MAYBE we can get Bree potty trained too by the time Derrick comes. :)

Boy oh boy!

I tried to post an ultrasound picture on here from my phone, but it didn't work. I can just tell you what was on it....little boy parts! Woo hooooooooo!!! We couldn't be happier! My heart just about burst with happiness when those little parts came up on the screen.

His name will be Derrick Jason. Adam and I just really like the name Derrick. It is a very strong name. The middle name of Jason is after Adam's brother who's name is Jason. His brother is a wonderful man who would do anything for his family and friends. I hope that Derrick grows up to be like his namesake...it would make me so proud.

He will born at 36-37 weeks so he'll be born anywhere from February 6th to the 20th. We can't wait to hold our baby boy in our arms. Now onto looking for the perfect coming home outfit...

Oh no! My teeth are all gone!

We have a picture up on the refrigerator of when Riley had turned one year old. (Our friend Carrie Fay took it!) Riley has a big cheesy grin on her face and she was so happy and giggling the time the picture was taken. However, Riley only had her two bottom teeth when she turned one an din the picture you can see that quite clearly.

Tonight when I was putting away dinner Riley was laying on her stomach looking at the pictures that were on the fridge. (Don't ask why she was laying on her stomach...I have no idea).  She saw the picture of herself when she was little and she exclaimed "MAMA!!! Oh no! My teeth are all gone!!!" I just busted up laughing and told her "I don't know, where'd they go?" She Said "I don't know Mama...I just don't know!" I just chuckled at her. She cracks me up.

She proceeded to carry around the picture for the next ten minutes looking at it and muttering to herself about her teeth.

Tasting

Bree has been into 'tasting' new things. This is FANTABULOUS! It is one step closer to her wanting to eat. So far in the past few days we've successfully tried peanut butter toast, peaches, a bean burrito from Taco Bell, a hard taco from Taco Bell, peach yogurt, mac and cheese, ritz cracker, hamburger patty, chocolate teddy grahams, and few other things I can't remember. So far the most successful has been the peach yogurt, and the bean burrito.

I am so stoked for her new willingness and I really hope it continues. Fingers are crossed and hopes are up!

In which I talk to (about) my sister.

I don't remember which blog it was I was reading (actually I do now, it was Pioneer Woman), but she said that when blogging you should act like you are talking to your sister. Now, my sister lives in Oregon and growing up I only saw her every other weekend. We have the same Dad, but different Moms...but she is my sister and that is all that matters. She is younger than me (she's 18) and we are both in different seasons of life. She is just starting college (ohhh I remember those days!), and has very busy days between friends, college, and trying to find a job.

I wish that we both had more time to talk to one another. However, every time I seem to get on the phone my children have this unrelenting urge to run around screaming, climb on counters or beat each other with baby dolls. So when we do talk it is mostly me hollering at the kids to "not do such and such" or "what are you THINKING?".  If we ever do get to talk uninterrupted we do talk well with one another. We can talk about just about anything. Like how much we love our Grandma's marshmallow/kix/ricekrispie/whitechocolate cookies, or her updating me on how our little brother's love life is going, or me telling her about the crazy things the girls have been doing.

So, since we don't get to talk very often, I will heed Pioneer Woman's advice and act as though I am telling my sister about the latest news with our family. So forgive me if I seem to rattle on forever...or tell about little random tidbits of information that don't seem to matter.