Twins, A Teen & Other Buzzell Family Adventures

Airplanes and Toddler Shadows

2009-09-06T00:34:00.000-05:00

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!!

2009-09-03T21:56:00.005-05:00

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....

2009-04-05T08:11:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-03-31T20:02:00.006-05:00

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!

2009-02-25T11:46:00.000-06:00

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!!

2009-02-22T11:22:00.004-06:00

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...

2009-02-18T08:23:00.002-06:00

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.

Colie has the plague too!

2009-02-16T22:01:00.002-06:00

Last night was much better than most of the nights we've had the last couple of weeks even though Katie was still pretty congested. I slept on an incline on the couch with Katie on my chest for a couple of hours to help her cold drain a little better but neither baby wanted to eat until 5 this morning!! We've been struggling with nighttime sleep for a few weeks so I was very surprised that we made it from their 7:30 bed time until 5 for another feeding. Grandpa Geoff was kind enough to make a Walgreen's run for Pedialyte, Puffs, and a Vick's plug in last night. It was a good thing now that we have two sickies in the house. Cole said that she felt sore yesterday afternoon after coming home from working at our hanger and we figured that she just wasn't used to the manual labor ;) This morning she deemed herself too sick for school and stayed home. I'll spare you the details but she sounded awful. When she finally got up at one this afternoon she decided that nothing in the house sounded good so I was off to Target to get pizza and garlic bread at her request . I managed to find a pizza with a whole wheat crust so she at least got something a little healthier than the usual. While I was there I found a warm mist vaporizer for our bedroom since the cool mist one we have overwhelms the tiny room that we're in. The Vick's plug in was a great help last night and was passed to Colie for tonight to see if that helps clear up her chest/head cold. I was able to get home with the new vaporizer in time for the babies' afternoon nap and was pleasantly surprised to see how much it helped Katie and didn't leave the carpet soaked and a haze in the room. Cole seems to be doing a lot better this evening so she'll be back in school tomorrow. I just hope that since Grandma Lynn, Lauren, and Uncle Scott have all had this head/chest cold that we don't pass it back and forth!

One of the reasons that I think that Katie and Addy slept better is that I gave them formula for their last feeding just before bed. Some of the reading I've done suggests that sleep patterns are not influenced by what a baby is fed but I disagree. When the girls get into a poor night sleep pattern I tend not to eat and drink as I should, then I think that my milk quality dips to some degree. Then we get deeper and deeper into this nasty cycle. There have been a couple of other times that I have substituted formula for the last feed and we've had the same result as last night. As I mentioned we've been struggling for the last few weeks and getting three hours of sleep in a row (as I did last night) has been a luxury. Bob's sister Kathy has been wonderful helping out with the kids, especially after my most recent surgery. Last Friday she came over again so I could nap! Until that afternoon I had not had two hours of sleep for more days that I can remember and I was at the end of my rope. Thank goodness we have so much family in town. My hope is that after a few more good nights I'll begin reducing the amount of formula in the girls' bottles and increase the amount of pumped milk. If all goes well we'll be able to go back to nursing before bed, if that sends us on a back slide again I'll make the switch back to formula. I have added a second meal of solids for the day hoping not to have to use formula but that hasn't seemed to make as much of a difference as I had hoped. Those little girls always keep me on my toes!

Poor Katie finally gets some sleep!

2009-02-15T17:00:00.003-06:00

We're lucky this is only the second time that either of the girls have been truly sick with a cold instead of a passing icky nose which has been a little more frequent. Bob and I were able to go to bed at 10:30 and the babies first woke us up at 11:45 then off and on until about 2:00 when Katie was so hysterical I finally gave in and brought her into bed with us. I was hoping that when she calmed down she would go back to sleep but that was a lost cause pretty quickly. She was really congested so I held her on an incline on my chest thinking that being more upright would help her congestion drain so she would feel better. She was so miserable that I brought her out into the living room to put saline drops in her nose so I could suction out the goo. I HATE doing that to her, it is such a fight and makes her so much more unhappy than she already is. Now that all the cough and cold meds are off the market for kids there isn't much else I can do for her besides use the humidifier. The girls are usually good about taking 2 two hour naps per day but little Kate has only slept for an hour this morning and about 30 minutes now. We have the girls nap in their cribs as a rule but I figured that the swing was a better choice for Katie today. Eating has also been pretty hard on her today too, the gagging and choking are tough to work through. I hope this passes soon!

I didn't forget that I had started this project....

2009-02-10T09:48:00.005-06:00

We have had so many exciting things happen since our last post! Both girls have started solids, they haven't met a food they don't like! We began introducing new food slowly since I have food allergies and were fearful that they would too. The only food they don't seem to tolerate well is sweet potatoes so we'll wait a few weeks and try again. Grandpa filled their stockings with Gerber Organics jar food (among other wonderful things) so we just stayed with the organics as we tried new foods. I decided to try making their food instead of using jars and it has been working out so well! I think the homemade tastes so much better! Before giving the girls a new food I try it to see how close it tastes to the real thing and most are pretty good, but not quite there. The squash, sweet potatoes and green beans seem to be the worst offenders. After mashing bananas for the babies and having it quickly rejected (over and over and over) we'll stick to the jars for those as well as peaches and carrots. I can't find good peaches around here this time of year and the frozen are waaay too tart and carrots can have really high nitrate levels so it is best to leave it to Gerber to figure out which are the good ones :)

Christmas was a blast this year! The girls loves to play with the paper and ribbons, of course, and I had a great time opening all the cute things for the babies. My dad decided it was time for paybacks and each of the girls got a LOUD toy as their main gift! The light up drum set and musical elephant train are a blast and I love that they have off buttons. We received books from almost everyone and we are so appreciative. Both girls love to read but Katie would prefer to snack on them more than anything! Uncle Drew was encouraging Katie to eat during the Super Bowl by telling her that her dinner tastes like books!

The babies are now what you would consider mobile..... especially Katie. The baby proofing is underway. Addie likes to roll back and forth, do baby " push ups" and is fairly content with whatever is in front of her. I'm convinced that if Addy were the only baby, our safety measures would be minimal and we'd be in the clear. Miss Katie on the other hand rolls to the wood floor and quickly pushes backwards all over the living room looking for everything that she is NOT supposed to have. Handling anything gently is not an option. Katie is fascinated with pounding on anything she can get her hands (or feet) on... including her sister.

On New Year's eve we moved the girls to their own cribs after Katie did a 180 in the shared crib and kicked Addy in the face many times. We felt horrible for Addy since we didn't run in as soon as she began whining. Usually we give them a few minutes to self soothe and in this case I wish we hadn't. In this case sharing was not the loving thing to do ;) Thanks to Tom and Jenny for the loan of their wonderful crib! It is so nice for each of the girls to have their own space.

Both girls are getting a lot better at sitting but Katie is a little more interested in trying. Crawling is not far off for either baby, both are working harder at it every day!

Nicole was taking guitar lessons for a few weeks but has decided she did not want to continue. She is very talented but is not so interested in learning the folk songs that her instructor wanted to teach. For now she is volunteering at the Verona Public Library after school one day per week. We've struggled with her in many ways in the last few weeks. She seems a little more willing to own up to her mistakes since our latest "event" but we have a long way to go with her. I hope working in the library will be a positive influence in her life. Earlier this school year she wanted a paying job but decided that if more people volunteer at the library that it might be open more. She has had many frustrating days since the library is open for limited hours. We're so glad that she has chosen the volunteer work over the paying job, because of this positive decision (which have been lacking on her part lately) we are willing to help her with a few more extras to make up for not having a paycheck.

We'll see how long it is until I get back to this again!!

A Snow Day!

2008-12-09T17:02:00.004-06:00

I figured today is as good as any to start keeping track of our family adventures! I am not a funny, clever or even good writer but I want to be able to remember the day to day details of our family life and share with family and friends who are interested.

We knew yesterday that a big snow storm was on the way and hoped that schools would be closed for the day. Much to our pleasure, when I got up this morning and checked the news, schools and medical clinics were in fact closed!!! When I went into Cole's room to let her know she could go back to sleep, she decided to get up and have some of the cake that we made last night and play with Addy for a while first. Colie's attitude had leaned strongly towards the teen stereotype since she was what we called "eleven-teen" but much to our surprise over the last few weeks she has had a much sunnier disposition. We had a greatly enjoyed our cake and had a good time until she went back into her room an hour later. These little moments have been so wonderful!

Addy and Katie LOVE spending time with their big sis and were clearly thrilled that she spent such a large of her day with them. At almost 5 months, smiles burst out on their little faces when she walks into the room! There are special songs Cole sings to them and the favor is returned with excited coos and arms waving happily. The most recent novelty has been the doorway jumper. We have ours hanging between the kitchen and living room so the girls have a good view of all that is going on around them. I put Addy in it first on Saturday afternoon and she knew right away what she should do. Katie took a little longer to figure it out but now has just as much fun. Colie loves to sit on the floor next to the sister in the jumper to give her a little push creating a swinging ride as well as talk with her and more singing. The little girls have a blast moving around as they please and seem quite proud of themselves. The big sis even offered to watch Katie play in the jumper while I went downstairs to switch the laundry!

We'll see what tomorrow will bring, Colie has an orthodontist appointment in the morning and I hope that the roads will be cleared of the forecasted 9 inches of snow!!