Some Christmas Videos and More

Sorry I forgot these. Something is wrong with Youtube so I had to go in myself and change the darn code. I still have more to download!

Our Second Christmas

Christmas Eve


Christmas Evan on a table- (a good look at his thumb!)


Meli's cute dress- and on her toes (cringe)


Christmas Morning- our Olympic view!


Toys are coming out of her head!


Christmas Dinner (without Thomas)


I didn't think that the kids would understand the whole Santa thing. I mean, it's only their second Christmas. Wrong! They know who he is and have pointed him out the past couple of weeks. They helped me make cookies for him yesterday and we put them in front of fireplace.

We have been taking our time today opening presents. Evan is a little emotional when it comes to Thomas. He carries around his Thomas train and wants to do everything with him (eat, sleep, walk, etc.). When we try to get him to open another present, he starts whining to be left alone. "Mom, I just want to play with Thomas, Percy, and Toby, jeez!!"

We have a lot of pictures and movies. I will put a couple movies, with more to come. For more pics, click HERE to see them on our photobucket album.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Santa Train

On Saturday we took a train through the woods of Point Defiance in Tacoma. Santa hopped on the train and visited with all the boys and girls. John and I even got a candy cane!

The kids wanted nothing to do with the lap of Santa Claus, but they were happy to be near him and tell him hello. Well, they weren't happy to be that near him. But from four feet away they loved saying, "Bye Santa!"

Breakfast of Champions

I don't feed them mini-chocolate donuts that often anymore. Maybe once a week. I tell them that donuts and milk will make them big and strong. Hey, that's what the doc claims, so if I feel like being lazy and not making eggs or pancakes (toaster kind, duh), I don't have to feel bad. They are prescribed.

They are also the breakfast of John Belushi, winner of decathalons. Enjoy big and strong Meli, as well as my favorite SNL commercial of all time.

Who needs 4 fingers!

Yesterday was a very hard day for me. I took Evan back to Children's to get his cast off. We were in a "cast room" with a lot of other kids and Evan was terrified of the commotion. And of course we were not treated in a timely fashion. They must be immune to the sound of a small child screaming. Finally, Dr. Hanel's resident came and took the cast off...

And then Evan and I saw it. The new hand. At first I was amazed at how much his finger now looked like a thumb. It was a thumb. And then the reality of it hit me. Three fingers, a thumb, and a lot of gruesome clumps and puffiness. I would have been OK, but I was immediately left alone with the responsibility of holding his hand steady while he thrashed around screaming. We waited for the doc to show up and I silently cried. The tears streamed down my face and I could do nothing, with one hand around his body and the other holding his hand. I am so thankful for the mother that came to bring me tissues and kind words.

I want to say that it's not fair. Not fair that I have to go through this and other mothers will never know, understand, or care what it's like to have a child with problems. But I stop myself in mid-thought every time. Because there are always other children who are worse off and I should thank my lucky stars. The next bed over from us was a newborn preemie with casts on her legs/arms. How horrible.

And in true Evan style, as soon as I took him out of that room, he ran up and down the hall while his splint was being made. Laughing and running, in no pain, and not caring about his hand at all. He was not upset about his hand. He just wanted out of that room. He was all smiles and is still smiling. All day today he has been looking at his hand and saying, "Hand!". We think maybe he thought he didn't have one anymore, since it was hidden in the cast.

The next weeks will be challenging for me, mostly because the healing of his wounds is freaking me out. But I think over time, when the swelling subsides and the wounds heal, Evan will have one heck of a hand. Tonight in the bath he folded his fingers down and we could see that he will be able to perfectly hold a stick. His old thumb was angled wrong and he would never be able to hold a stick with it. So we are happy, excited, scared, cautious, etc. Taking it one day at a time.

He will now wear a splint for three weeks except for baths. Then only at night. I will post better pics of his hand soon. Now if only Meli would stay healthy. This morning I took her in 'cause she has had high fevers and started holding her belly and she had to have a catheter to test her urine. Can I get a break over here!!

I forgot I had a blog!

It's been over a week since I posted and I didn't even think to post anything in that time. It has been crazy around here, of course because I have two almost two year olds with new antics and attitudes, but also because they both have had random fevers this week. And Evan is still hurting once in awhile.

The language around here is amazing (I won't mention the bad words that Amelia has been caught saying). Amelia talks CONSTANTLY and in full sentences. She likes to narrate for me. For example, last night I brought her upstairs to take a bath. She said, "Going up the stairs, take a bath. Yay a bath! Oh no, turn on the light. Get the water runnin!". Evan says two or three words together, like, "brush teeth" and drink juice please".

They both know all of their ABC's. In order and out of order by sight. They can count to 13 in order. Amelia is a little better at that. I wish I could take credit for this, but they really did it all on their own. I'm just going with the flow!

Amelia is in the beginning stages of potty training. She loves the potty. At first she would just sit there and say all done so she could wipe. My sister told me to give her a book and it worked the first time! So if Amelia remembers, she will tell me, "Mommy, pee" or the other and I will run her in there in and voila! Gotta be quick, though! Evan could really care less about the whole thing. (I can't believe I am talking about pee, but, hey, it's my blog!)

Here is a video from last week of already doing amazing things (it's a little dark)!

One Week Later

Evan is still doing great. He refuses to let me do anything, include feed him. Here is a video on how he eats. Yes, they LOVE french fried onions, which are 2g of fat per tblsp!

The second video is Meli talking in her little language. She's looking at a toy catalog.

Wow, a better day than we expected

Sorry for the late updating, I have had my hands full- Even with my mom and John helping today.

Evan's surgery went as good as it could possibly go. Dr. Hanel told us that there are two arteries that are supposed to be located in the thumb. Many kids with a non-functioning thumb have only one. Well, Evan had two! This means that he will get great use out of his new thumb and should recover and start to use it quickly. He also had a lot of great "open" nerves, at least I think that is what he called them. It means his brain should rewire the new thumb ASAP! The hard cast will be off in three weeks. Then if all goes as planned, he will wear a splint all of the time (except baths) for another three. Then only at night. That means he can use his new thumb in 6 weeks!! Evan is extremely resourceful in using what he was given, so I think we will start to see him try to use it immediately, if all goes well.

He was still a little out of it this morning from the Tylenol + codeine, so I was amazed when I came downstairs from my nap. He was in his high chair coloring with his small hand! I couldn't believe it! He also takes chips into his small hand and uses the cast to help push his hand to his mouth. I tell ya, he amazes me every second. Then tonight he was playing with a Melissa and Doug wooden puzzle with his little arm and feet! 24 hours of no use with the right arm and he's compensated already. Imagine what he will do in 6 weeks.

We are just so proud of him and he is just such a complete joy. This little person who teaches everyone he meets that you can do anything with what you are given, and he's all ours :) .


Markers


Meli and Baby Ebby with a cast, too!


Signed Cast

Evan is home and in pain. The next few days will be hard. Surgery went really well and he should use his new thumb in 6 weeks. Details when I get on my PC.

Big Day

pre-op pic. should hear update soon. the surgery is 4.5 hours total. an agonizing wait for us.

Would you like some McNugget with that dip?

Countdown to Pollicization

In 4 days I get to see my mom and have a fun day. That night I will pack Evan's froggy bit-bit blankey, Mickey Mouse, and boy baby doll into his backback and give him his last sips of liquid until after the surgery. In 5 days (Nov. 17th), I will be waiting and waiting at Seattle Children's Hospital while Evan is having his complicated little surgery. I will probably be in the cafeteria shoving my face with french silk pie and espresso to make the pain go away. (Yes, I already checked and they DO have french silk pie and espresso.) I did the same thing with Krispy Kreme donuts when Evan was having his heart surgery.

I'm hoping that I get to be with him when they put him under. I was told at the pre-op appointment that I probably would be. He's so emotional and is latched onto me a lot. I hope I am there when he wakes up. He's going to be in a lot of pain. The pain meds might make him sick. It will take a few days to figure all that out.

He will be in a cast, then a splint for quite some time and will only be able to use his little arm. As long as he isn't feeling bad, we are going to go back to school the week after Thanksgiving. He's my little social man and I think it will be good for him.

Well, wish us luck and I will update on the 17th after it is all over!

Crossing Over

No, I'm not talking John Edwards. It's time for another cartoon (parental discretion advised)! This time I will depict the pedestrian walking pattern I like to call "crossing over". This occurs when a single pedestrian walks towards you on your left (normal traffic pattern), but as they get closer to you they begin gravitating towards you. You stare in shock that someone would, for no reason, walk straight toward you and force you to move out of their way. This used to happen to me all of the time without the double stroller. It was irritating. But do it to a lady pushing a double stroller?

When we left for vacation, we were carrying all kinds of stuff while pushing the stroller. In the corridor from the parking garage to the airport, we were walking all the way on the right and there was one single person walking toward us all the way on the left. He began crossing over. John couldn't believe it. He acknowledged that I talk about this situation all the time, but never saw it to this extent for himself. We decided to play chicken. And, of course, we lost!

Here is how it went down while pushing a double stroller with a car seat strapped onto it, and carrying an additional carseat, two diaper bags, food for the kids, and pulling a Xlarge suitcase.




And of course: here is what we wanted to do!

Happy Halloween

The kids are excited about Halloween. We have been watching all of the Halloween cartoons this week and carved pumpkins. Amelia insisted on a kitty pumpkin. I thought they would be too young to care about trick or treating, but they love their costumes, love showing them off, love their pumpkin buckets, and they somehow figured out that candy would be involved. Yesterday I said the word "trick or treating" and Amelia shouted "Candy!" So yes, we are going, but only to a few of the neighbors.

Click here to see the rest of our fall and Halloween pictures. I'm sure there will be more pics taken tonight!

The Two's: Terrible or Terrific?

The past week has been challenging. Evan and Amelia are in the process of perfecting their 'tudes and fighting skillz. Amelia likes to steal whatever toy Evan has, pull him by the arm, and push him down. But don't feel sorry for Evan, he will quietly sneak up on Amelia and sit on her so she cannot escape.

As we speak, they are both standing on top of their little play table. The word "down" makes them giggle.

They both know what time-out is and will tell me "time-out" after I've told them a few times to stop being bad and they don't.

But with the bad comes good. The best. They are so full of life, talking, saying the alphabet, counting, telling me what they want to watch on TV. This morning Amelia started counting like The Count. Two, ah, ah, ah. They are so much fun.

Yesterday they told me they wanted to see the elephants and tigers, so we stopped by the zoo in Tacoma quick after some errands (we have a membership), just for a half hour to see the elephants and tigers, which are right next to each other (very small zoo). Evan tried to eat a goat pellet. Amelia now says "meercats". Two peacocks followed us to the van and ate crumbs off of the van floor. On the way home I watched Evan in the mirror balance Pringles on his head. What a great day!

Here are a couple of videos that I absolutely love. I got them new slippers and baby dolls. Evan has a boy baby doll because when I showed it to him in the store, he kissed it. How could I not?

Pooh!

I got lots of pictures of them hugging characters, but I'm glad that during the chaos I remembered to take a video. Unfortunately, I have none of Evan. They both gave hugs and high fives to Elmo, Mickey, Tigger, and Pooh. (Elmo pic to come because we had to buy the picture. Disney rocks.)

Seaworld Videos

Well, I haven't had time to upload all the videos, but here are a couple. Please ignore the annoying mom in the background. The audience was in tears over the beauty of the Shamu show. I was in tears 'cause I felt sorry for those poor orcas in captivity. I guess that subject is for another blog!

I've been busy- I had to take the kids to pre-school today, take the ferry to Seattle to take Evan to Children's for his pre-op exam, then drive back because the ferry times didn't work out. Then I fed the kids dinner and took them out on a "nighttime" walk (6pm) to see the 'hoods Halloween decorations and play with the plastic spiders on our porch. Time for bed!

I should note that the kids still talk about Shamu everyday, as well as the sharks they saw. We bought Amelia a stuffed Shamu and Evan a stuffed shark (not real ones) and they insist on bringing them with everywhere we go.

California was...Awesome!

We're back from yet another adventure. I can't tell you how tired I am! If my eyes get any puffier, I'm going to have to get me some Hershey bars and graham crackers and eat them.

The kids absolutely loved meeting, hugging, and giving Hi-5's to Elmo, Mickey, Pooh, and Tigger. They loved all of the rides. Dumbo, the teacups, and of course, "It's a small world, after all, it's a small world after all,...etc, etc, repeat, repeat.)

Here are most of our pictures from the vacation.

I will get the movies up very soon!

Evan reading map at Disney

Mission Beach, San Diego

just hangin'- mission bay park

turtle huggies- mission bay park

Sea World

New Message

waiting for the rental car- 3pm, no nap yet

It's A Beautiful Morning!

The mornings here have been beautiful. Next week rain is forecast every day, so it's a good thing we are going on vacation to Southern California! I'm glad I figured out how to post pictures from my phone to the blog, so I can update you on all the fun they are having! Hopefully we will hit Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and Disneyland. That is, if we aren't completely exhausted. The main goal is family time, anyway, since the kids couldn't do summertime fun with Daddy.

4 hospital visits, 3 different hospitals, 2 crazy parents, and a partridge in a pear tree...

Wow, I am getting lazy with my postings. Excuse: we have been quite busy carting around the kids to different appointments and hospitals. Yes, three different hospitals in 9 days. Yes, 4 different hospital visits. And yes, both children needed medical attention!

A quick blurb about Amelia before we start in with an Evan update. She fell on a pebble at her hairline on her forehead and required what we thought would be one or two stitches. John took her in to the Naval hospital and they put a staple in to close the little gap. They said glue would not work on that spot of her head. When we went to Seattle Children's for Evan, both the surgeons we saw simultaneously exclaimed, "Is that a STAPLE?" "In a BABY??" I was kind of miffed that maybe the military was just being, well, militairy-ish on my baby's head. But it she only whined a little while they put it in and didn't even flinch when they took it out this week, so what is the big deal? I'll go with that Army doc on Grey's Anatomy any day.

On to Evan. We went see the hand surgeon at Seattle Children's last Thursday and he was very adamant about giving Evan a thumb. Of course he deserves a thumb, so we nodded our heads and scheduled the surgery. It's so hard to come to terms with the decision we know we needed to make. He does things Amelia can't even do, but it's only because he is so calm and methodical about doing little tasks. He loves to figure things out. But in the near future, he will need a thumb to use tools and do everyday tasks. Yes, he we could let him figure everything out and he would do just fine in life, but if we have the power to give him a thumb, shouldn't we? I know this is a 360 degree turn from a previous post where I said we would let him be. Everyday it becomes more obvious that he is trying to use his forefinger as a thumb, so we are going to go with the flow of what he is already trying to do. Hopefully everything will work out for the best! Of course we could always change our mind again, we have until November 17th.

For a little background on the surgery, here is an article about Dr. Hanel at Seattle Children's Hospital creating a thumb. The writer is horrible and it reads like a novel, but you can get an idea of how great this surgeon is supposed to be.

Here is a thumb pollicization video from Scottish Rite in Dallas, but it is just the intro. You can still get an idea of what the hand will look like afterward.

And here is a graphic.

And here are some recent cute pics to make your day. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the staple in her head! We also have a cardiology appointment tomorrow, so I will update soon on that!

New Kitchen VS The Box It Came In

Which is more fun? Maybe when they are done with the kitchen in a few days I will drag the box back in!

V

Within the past couple of weeks, I have frequented a couple of the local malls. The usual problems I have with the double stroller and mall pedestrians occurred (of course) time and again. You know, walking towards me, jumping out in front of me, etc. It was not until I drove over to the giant mall just south of Seattle that I experienced a new pattern. Bigger mall, jerkier people, I guess. I like to call this pattern the "V". Here is how it goes: As I approach slow moving people who are walking side by side, I make a decision to try to go around them (yes, everyone tends to walk slower than me pushing a huge honking stroller!). As I start to come around the side, they break apart while walking forward, creating a "V" shape. The "V" becomes larger as I try harder to go around them. When I finally give up and am forced to move behind them again, they close the "V", so I'm looking at butts again. In case you are having a hard time visualizing this, I create an animation to help you out.

Here is a stick figure animation of the "V" pattern:



Here is a stick figure animation of what I want to do:

Foofa!

Unfortunately, Amelia's favorite Yo Gabba Gabba character Foofa went on a special mission and went MIA. (I bought them figurines of all the characters.) So I went on a special mission to Target and got them each a Yo Gabba Gabba doll. Here is a short video for your entertainment.

Fun With Cousins

I've been meaning to post these because they are so cute. And because my nieces Ailey and Genevieve look at pictures on the blog daily! Shout out to my girls ;)



Evan is heavy, says Ailey!

The Downward Spiral

No, Trent Reznor is not coming over to clean my house. But I would let anybody clean it right now, including a crazy, pierced guy who probably smells like my house. Right now I don't have the time or energy to clean the house the way it needs to be clean and it is driving me nuts. The walls are closing in on me. Of course, I could stop writing this blog post and clean. You are thinking that, right?? Sure I can "fake clean" by vacuuming and spot scrubbing liquid, hard cheese off the floor, but I'm finding it hard to bleach the counters, clean windows, dust, get out cobwebs, etc. So much so, I decided to call Merry Maids. It will cost a little more than I wanted and I would prefer to pay for Mommy and me gymnastics. I'm counting down the hours and minutes until John walks through the door, or more accurately jumps into the mini-van. I can't wait to start a real life and be able to be a family and -yes- CLEAN!!

Big Boy Haircut

I took Evan to a place where they sit in an airplane, car, etc, to get his haircut. They say the longer you wait to get them off of your lap, the harder it is. Well, he did better than he does when he's on my lap! Amelia was the one screaming and acting up. In between shavers and scissor snips, I had to feed her Raisinettes to shut her up. Always multi-tasking...

He even has man-product now to spike up his bangs!

Gross!!

I added canola oil to their Mac-n-cheese. They loved it. So much they put it all over them.

Half and Half = Fat Babies. Maybe.

So we just got back from the big weigh-in. Amelia only gained a couple of ounces (18 lbs) and Evan lost a few (below 20 lbs again). It's been over a month of non-stop eating. They are just so active I think they burn it right off. The doc said no juice or water and I cheated and did give them those things. It has just been so hot and Evan has one kidney and has been doing great, so why risk anything, though the doc said it was fine. Oh well. I will try it her way (mostly). I have also been instructed to put half and half or cream into their milk. And I have to put Velveeta on everything. I know it sounds crazy and a lot of people say they are fine, but they are severely underweight now. If they don't gain in 1 month, we have to do blood work. I don't want to put them through it, so I'm going to get serious with the fat. Adding fat to a fattening diet. I wish I could give them some of mine. I should mention that they grew an inch, so I think that is quite an accomplishment.

Anyway, here are some more eating pics from WI, where they ate and ate and ate and then ran up and down the hill everyday.

"I've seen some things, man... And some stuff!"

Green shamrock cookies at Irish Fest


Kitties like corn, too.

Here is a video (from my phone, turn down the volume) that shows how crazy it is with them and how fast they are. Notice in the beginning that Evan is way in the background. He took advantage of the situation and knew that I was busy with Amelia. Stinker.

mobile test

trying to set up blogging ';on the fly';. i'm so high tech!

In WI- it's all about the food!

The number one tourist attraction in Wisconsin is food. Or maybe it's beer. Since the kids couldn't enjoy a WI micro-brew, they concentrated on trying lots of new foods. They tried kringle (a Racine, WI Danish delicacy), cyclops (a Kenosha, WI chocolate/buttercream donut delicacy), cheese (of the non-curd and curd varieties), fried cauliflower, corn on the cob, cream puffs, and much more I'm sure. If these kids didn't gain weight in WI, I give up. Here are a few of my favorite food videos.

We're Baack...

Wow, it has been a long time! It was hard while on vacation to get online to post stuff. I can't believe how busy we were. The first week was a little slow and then, BAM!, everyday we did something- the beach, in the water, the farm, festivals, and so on, and so on. I didn't take quite as many pics as I would have liked, but still got some good ones. I will post them over the next few days.

On another note, travelling with infant/toddler twins alone is not something I recommend. But if you have to do it, here a few helpful hints:

1) DO NOT FLY AIRTRAN!. The flight to Milwaukee was such a nightmare, I still don't want to speak of it. Horrible flight attendants. The only help I had was from passengers. And I was practically in tears. After calling customer relations, they set up gate assistance for me. (Not really.) The flight back was soooo much better. Mostly because my mom parked and came in until we went through security. But I think the flight attendants were nicer. And willing to lift a carseat for me, which the other flight attendants said was "not a requirement of their jobs." So gate assistance was called, but because they wanted to get the plane loaded the Milwaukee flight attendants just said "screw it" and did it themselves. They didn't buckle the car seat in, though, I had to set two 19 month olds down on seats and tell them to "stay" (yeah, right) while I buckled it in. What, do tell, would happen if you had two little babies??

2) If you have to fly Airtran, call customer relations and put up a big stink.

3) No matter the airline, make sure to call customer relations first, that way when the ticket people or flight attendants start giving attitude you start screaming about customer relations.

4) Keep your chin up and buck up. Nothing you can do, so just get through it, it will all be over in a few hours.

5) Oh, and no matter the cost (well, maybe), try to get a flight when they usually go to bed. Mine go to bed at 8, so they were sleeping on the flight home. However, the flight to WI was past their bedtime, so they stayed up with all the excitement, then got really cranky when they couldn't sleep yet. FLIGHT TO WI VERY BAD.

Cream Puff Season

Well, we have been in Kenosha/Racine for almost a week and I'm glad we left early. We got out of the PNW heat and it's fair season in WI!!

So far we have it only one fair (oh, yes, there will be more) and the kids loved it. I loved the cheese curds, Evan loved the chickens, and Amelia loved the cream puffs. Here is a pic and a cream puff video for your enjoyment:

Amelia Videos

We are leaving for 3 weeks in Kenosha soon and I wanted to post some videos of Miss Amelia. Don't worry, I plan to post vacation stuff while we're gone.

It has been hard to get that "perfect video", so forget it, here's what I've got! You have to listen close on the Piggy video so you can hear her piggy noise (piggy sniffles).

See You Soon!!

I am not going to write something sappy like last time. He won't be gone for as long (still too long for me), and I've got a busy schedule!!

We are up to 4 times a week for therapy and preschool because we added pool therapy again. I am also busy getting things together to go back to Kenosha, WI for 2 weeks. I'm sure the whole "flying alone with 18 month old twins in the middle of the night" situation will warrant a nice blog post.

Anyway, here are pics of the USS Pennsylvania leaving yesterday morning. What a beautiful day for pictures it was. I know it's not baby related, but a few of my readers like my grandpa might enjoy seeing them. And by the way, I took a tour last week of the boat and it is NOT big inside despite being 512 ft long. Most of the sub is filled with unmentionables. What a bunch of metal in there!