Airplanes and Toddler Shadows

Bob has been working hard on restoring a wonderful WWII era biplane for about the last year. He has some wonderful friends that actually flew these planes during the war and have become experts at restoring these glorious birds. Bob has finally come to the point that the new fabric on the wings has been applied and is being stitched on. The photo to the right is our plane before we purchased it, and before the landing incident the previous owner had. Our hope is to return this plane to top condition, be able to use it as a "business card" for our aircraft refinishing business, and apply the proceeds from the sale towards an addition on our house or the purchase of a new home.

Bob usually works 6-7 days a week between his paramedic career, our shop, and his restoration project so our time with him is fairly limited. I'm glad he's not working the 80-90 hour weeks for months on end again! He's great about getting up with me and the girls in the morning for our breakfast/playtime and usually gets home after they've gone to bed since our morning routine pushes the start time of his work day back. I also bring the girls to see him at the fire station for a little extra daddy time every couple of weeks. On the Sundays that he isn't scheduled as a medic we usually attend religious services with his family and spend the afternoons at our niece and nephew's farm house.

Since Bob got someone to cover the first half of his 24 hour shift, he was able to to get some time in today working on the Stearman. Before heading to the station the girls and I got a little extra playtime with daddy and we were able to eat dinner together!

Bob and I have been wanting to take a walk with the kids for quite a while but the mosquitoes in our neighborhood don't allow us much outside time. The lake across the street is beautiful to look at, but the bugs are a bit much... Anyway, we had that golden window to play outside today and it was wonderful! Part of me wishes I had brought the camera but just enjoying the moment was more important. As we walked down the street our shadows in front of us were so long! The girls realized which were theirs and had a blast waving and dancing watching themselves. It would have been great if we had been able to get a shot of our shadows while holding the girls' hands. It was just another perfect moment in time as a family! Fall in Wisconsin begins early and there were already leaves for us to crunch in. Addy and Katie both seemed to enjoy the leaves. With all of the trees in our yard, they'll have plenty to play in during the coming weeks! I hope that by then Katie won't be running away from the sticks anymore... :)

So much for a short post!

We're still alive!!

There have been a lot of changes in our family since the last post. Many have been very positive and a few have been pretty difficult for us.

The little girls (definitely no longer babies) are now almost 14 months old! They're talking, walking, running, affectionate and thriving in all ways imaginable. Their sleeping habits have improved greatly since we rearranged our sleeping situation so that Katie and Addy have their own room. With Katie's episodes of apnea that required her to be hospitalized when she was three weeks old and our fear of SIDS, we weren't ready to have the girls sleep on their own until this June. To our delight and surprise the girls decided to finally sleep through the night consistently beginning the very first night they were on their own in their room.

Our little ones sleep 11-13 hrs every night and take two two hour naps most days and manage to do well enough on the days that we can't be home for both of those naps. I hope they continue this pattern for quite a while! It really helps be be able to get things done around the house :)

We just returned home from a weekend away with my parents that was absolutely wonderful! My dad has a very kind friend that lets us use her family's weekend house near the Wisconsin Dells (only an hour from us) for our much needed mini-vacations. Bob, Colie, the girls and I took my mom with us on Friday night and my dad joined us on Saturday afternoon. We were pleased to be able to give my dad a little overnight break from caring for my mom. Although mom in her lats 50s, her Alzheimer's has been progressing more quickly than expected, especially since her accident this June that left her with a broken elbow that required surgery. With my dad's heavy work load leaves him struggling to balance her care, job responsibilities (far more demanding than just 9-5 type work), household chores and management, and his own well being. You can guess what falls to the end of his priority list!

Mom LOVES to spend time with our family and the girls light up when she is around. Katie even has a special laugh that is reserved just for Grandma's silly antics! Most of our weekend was spent watching movies, laughing at the babies exploring their new environment, and just plain relaxing. On Sunday afternoon we headed into the cute downtown area of the Dells and hit all the candy and fudge shops. Katie and Addy loved the brightly colored, busy scenery. I wish we had brought a camera to capture their amazement as their big sister showed them some of her most favorite places it the world! The adults came home refreshed and relaxed! Monday was a recovery day for the little girls since their nap schedule was out the window for the weekend, but they took it all in stride!

The biggest change in our household has been Nicole's move to her mother's house. This is not what Bob and I feel is a great situation but Nicole's explosive rage, sneakiness, and general disruption to our family dynamic could not be tolerated any longer. We started to feel that the little girls could possibly have been in some physical danger due to her escalating rages, certain past incidents and Nicole eventually pushing me. We have worked very hard to seek mental help for Nicole. Our latest attempt was met with an adolescent psychiatrist that was eventually put on leave from his position at the clinic due to not meeting his responsibilities to his patients and will only be allowed to return to the clinic when certain conditions are met. We had spent 4 months desperately trying to get the help our family needed when we had to start all over again with another doctor. As we progress with this new doctor, we will continually evaluate our living arrangements, but for the time this is the best solution that we have.

After more than two months of Nicole's mother refusing to allow us to contact her or have any visitation, we have been working toward spending more time together as a family. So far things are going fairly well, and this weekend was especially nice.

Another sad note is that a close friend of Bob's was diagnosed with lung cancer, then days later the doctors found that the cancer had migrated to his bones. We pray for his health and healing and would appreciate this friend being remembered in your prayers.

Whew! Looong update as usual! Not that the stress level in our house has decreased some, I hope to be able to update more often! I have more photos that I'll get to adding soon.

I'm off....

To see Las Vegas! My dad's conference has him there for 6 days and because of my mom's advancing Alzheimer's she can't stay home alone or be unattended in an unfamiliar place. So I get to tag along to all the events at night and play during the day. I'm emotionally conflicted about about leaving Bob and the kids for so long, but I'm SO excited about getting some real sleep for the first time in almost a year!

Getting the house ready and everything that I need to take with has been a long process this week. It hasn't left me much time for anything else :) Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time (like three hours!) at the mall helping pick out new clothes for my mom. Her disease leaves her unable to make decisions when there are lots of choices and confusion. So off to Ann Taylor we went for the dress and Penney's for the new bra and hose. I never thought I'd telling my mom what underwear to buy! We had great success at both stores and Mom feels like a princess since she has such beautiful new things!

I'll update more later this week or when I get back, but that's the news form Verona!

Yes, We're Still Alive!

We've all recovered from the ick! Our biggest news is that Katie has been crawling for the last 4+ weeks and has mastered the escape from the living room and found EVERYTHING she isn't supposed to have. Her toys are no longer interesting... I've had to bring back the baby jail (porta crib) so that I can begin to get something done during the day when she's awake. The exersaucer and doorway jumper are great fun but our peditrician told us that we should only have her in them for a maximum of 20 minutes per day to avoid hip problems. We stretch that a
Finding a gate for between the living room and kitchen was a huge challenge. The choices were either spend $150+ for a nice looking gate to fit the 73" opening, or order a cheapie from the evil known as WalMart for $45. Grr... I ordered from WalMart... The gates should be available for pick up between 4/7 and 4/13. Until them I spend the majority of my day redirecting Katie back to her toys and away from all the fun and wonderful things that are all over the rest of the house!

We've started a few finger foods over the last couple of weeks. Katie LOVES to feed herself and try anything new while Addy would rather feed what's on her tray to Magnus. His doggie nose has led him to the wonderful land known as "under the high chair." As soon as he hears the trays rattle he's right there to find the bits on the floor! Daddy made pancakes (w/ out syrup!) last weekend and we've also had the standard kid breakfast of Cheerios and bananas. I learned a cool trick for little ones learning to eat slippery finger foods. We crush up the Cheerios and roll the banana pieces in them so the girls can actually eat them instead of chasing them around the tray!

Katie's weight gain has slowed enough to make the peditrician a little worried so we've modified her feeding schedule and will have her weight checked again in about a week. I'd love for the girls to both drop their night feedings but we can't do that for Katie until her weight has increased enough to satisfy the peditrician. Addy has decided in the last couple of weeks that she likes taking a paci. At night most of the time now I can "plug her in" and she goes back to sleep. There are still nights though where they are both up twice, and that is a killer. Someone will ask who got up when or how many times and I honestly can't answer. At times I literally cannot see straight and my balance is off kilter. When we were working on reducing Katie's night feedings I would get out of bed and take her to the living room, track how long she was nursing then work on reducing the duration over a few nights. Then the kids got sick... Now that I have such a tough time at night I just take them to bed, nurse them and put them back in their beds when they are done feeding or after we've both slept a little while. Since their cribs are still in our room is is just a matter of walking a couple of feet to get them. The girls do NOT spend entire nights in our bed. I don't sleep well when they are with us because I'm so worried about the dangers of cosleeping and I'm really sore from not moving at all. I know it is a great solution for some families but I just can't do it all night. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can get back to a more normal schedule! Getting up four times a night has to end!!

A couple of weeks ago the weather was in the high 60s so we took the kids to the park for the first time. The first one is Addy and Grandpa Geoff, next are Katie and me (the girls LOVE giving kisses now!!), then the girls snuggling on their first swing ride!

The eyes are good... the ears, not so much!

Katie was given a very through exam at the UW Children's eye clinic on Monday afternoon. After about two hours there they gave us the all clear. We were told that sometimes there is an appearance of a lazy eye due to the width of the bridge of the nose and the eye creases that babies can have at this age. I know what I saw, her eye was truly crossed towards the center. The doctor also said that she wanted to see Katie again in six months for a follow up. I don't feel like I can argue much with the doctor at this point so we'll monitor Katie and call back if we have another episode. I'll also take photos to help bolster our case.

As if that weren't enough for the poor girl, we found out yesterday at urgent care that she has a double ear infection from the drainage of her cold backing up into her ears. Ammoxicillan twice a day for the next ten days should clear this up. When Katie's temp was 101.7 yesterday morning so I emailed our pediatrician to see if we should be doing anything besides giving baby Motrin. Dr. M's reply advised us to make an appointment ASAP. When the nurse called Katie back at the urgent care clinic, Addy was the one that was red-faced and crying so the nurse assumed that she was Katie. The silly nurse looked at me as I had three heads when I told her which baby was which. Like I don't know my own kids.... Addy had a very mild temp in the morning but spiked a 101.6 while we were at the clinic so she needed to be seen too. The nurse then informed me that Dr. L. would not look at Addy and we should to go back out to registration desk after Katie's appointment to make one for Addy. The wonderfully kind Dr. L. told the nurse just to take Addy's info and "make it work." Yay!! No waiting around for us!! It turns out when I checked the girls' medical charts online this morning the nurse just put Addy's visit at a 7 pm slot in the computer instead of the 4:30 visit we actually had. Addy's ears, lungs, and throat looked fine so the suspicion is that she has a cold on top of teething. I'll spare the details on what's in her diaper but with the kind of crying/whining she is doing along with not opening her mouth for me are all pretty good signs. Baby Motrin is a wonderful gift and has helped her a lot too.

Bob finally got a Z-Pack from our PA so I hope he'll be feeling better soon as well. Colie is slowly beginning to clear up and HATES swallowing pills. We'll wait on the Z-Pack for her. On Saturday "Aunt" Lauren and "Uncle" Marcus are hosting a dinner for 15+ at their house and we are all really wanting to make it. This event has already been rescheduled due to illnesses and Great Gramma Rio will be able to be there this time. I hope we can go!

Last night I slept from 10 pm until 1am then from 2am until 6am! That is the best night's sleep I've had since before the girls got sick almost two weeks ago. Yahoo!!

Multiples for my Multiples!!

The girls have really taken to a couple of lovies lately so I went to Target to get back-ups in case we loose one. We now have three baby dolls, two bears, and their original stuffed animal with a blanket attached. We had to take the blanket lovies away since Katie would sleep with it completely covering her face and Addy would do it on occasion too. The girls LOVE seeing all their special treasures at once, they get so excited that they don't know what to do with themselves! There is a whole series of these photos on our Flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/buzzell
I'm trying to find a cute way to display them, maybe a collage frame to hang on the wall? I'm not sure yet so any ideas would be great!

Tomorrow we'll be seeing a pediatric ophthalmologist to try to figure out why Katie was having trouble with her left eye. When she woke up from her nap it was wandering towards her nose and seems to have done it a few other times since but not as severely. I'm so happy that we are getting tomorrow since I was first scheduled for the end of May and told that I should be grateful that it wasn't June or July for out appointment. We were told to expect to be there for about two hours since her eyes need to be dilated. Poor girl! Too bad there isn't a way to find out what is going on without doing this to her.

The babies are definitely getting over their colds. Katie still has a way to go but the congestion has turned into more of a runny nose and Addy is still just a bit stuffed up. Addy was over the worst of her ick in about 36 hours and Katie is still not eating as well as she normally does a week after she first got sick. Bob is still feeling awful, he's worse now than he was on Monday. I convinced him that if by tomorrow he isn't any better he should at least call the doctor's office to be sure that he doesn't need antibiotics. I'd hate for this ick to ping pong around the house and have the kids get sick again!

I'll update sometime after we get back from our appointment tomorrow.

P.S. Thanks to "Aunt" Lauren for babysitting Colie while Bob and I take the little ones to the doctor's office!

And then there was one...

I'm the last person not sick (yet) in the house! Bob woke up yesterday and there was no mention of even trying to go to the hanger so I knew he was in bad shape. He sat on the couch drinking tea and chicken broth and actually watching bad daytime TV. So far today he has not made any movements toward work so I suspect that he'll be taking it easy today too. Cole went to school yesterday but called home twice and told us this morning that if we let her stay home today she would have all her make-up homework from Monday done before she goes back tomorrow. That from a kid who'll do anything to avoid homework! Addy woke up at 1:45 this morning snorting and coughing the same way Katie did on Saturday night. I knew last night when she wasn't very interested in her sweet potatoes that she was going to be hit with the plague too. As she played last night before bed she was in GREAT spirits so I thought that maaaaybe she would escape this. I guess that's out the window! The vaporizer has helped some though not enough to give the babies a great night's sleep.

The formula experiment seems to be working. Neither Katie nor Addy wanted to eat until almost 5 this morning! That doesn't mean that I got to sleep all night .... When I got up with Addy to attempt to suction her nose she decided that she would return the favor by spraying the saline drops back in my face! I guess I deserved it, it is so miserable to have that done. Both babies needed some comforting to get back to sleep and Bob asked for some nighttime cold medicine after laying in bed unable to sleep for two hours. He can not stand anything mint flavored and the only medicine we had for his symptoms was a mint flavored liquid. One time of too much peppermint schnapps as a teenager still haunts him today!

When Katie got up from her last nap of the day yesterday her eyes weren't tracking together. Her left eye was wandering towards her nose consistently for at least half an hour. We called the urgent care clinic to see if we needed to bring her in and they had us make an appointment with our peditrician for this morning. I'm glad that we can get seen quickly for this and see if there is anything else we can do for the girls' colds. Don't get me started on why infants' cough and cold meds have been pulled from the markets.... Why can't parents take responsibility to read before dosing their kids to keep them safe?!?

Addy's latest trick is making slurping noises in the wood floors, this explains the pools of drool that I have found over the last few days! We heard her doing it last night and couldn't believe it! I'm glad that I got a steam mop for the floors. I'll have to see if I need to start washing the floors more than twice a week now with all the scooting and making out going on :) Katie managed to work her self across the living room today and looked pretty surprised when she ended up under the swing! She even was able to get a little forward motion going yesterday!

TTFN! I'll post an update after we get back from Dr. M's office.