Medders Family

A Hug

2012-02-27T13:27:00.002-08:00

I gave Callie a hug today, and this was her response.

"You're squeezing me like a blood pressure cuff."

I laughed.

"What? You really are."

Think she has been to the doctor enough in her four years of life?

It finally happened

2012-02-14T20:59:00.000-08:00

The little miss started preschool today.

A little less than a month ago, Callie had her (belated) four year checkup. Jason and I had started discussing the possibility of preschool in the fall but we wanted to get the doctor's thoughts. Her first thought was "Why wait until fall?" She really encouraged us to go ahead and start Callie in school now. So, we took her advise, discussed it quite a bit and today Callie had her first day.

She is going two days a week for a few hours and she absolutely loves it. The preschool she attends is across town, so we went big and Callie rides the bus there. I think that might be her most favorite part. She was outside flagging and waving the bus down this morning. We have come a long way from the days when she would vomit any time we would put her in her carseat.

The preschool teacher that has been coming to our home met Callie at the front door of the school and took some pictures for us. Callie made friends (though a kid named Wyatt is the only one she can remember), she played in the gym, ate a cookie, or "part of a cookie," and read some books. Sounds like fun to me.

I was emotional this morning but so very thankful for a healthy girl who can now go to preschool. Part of our decision to send her to school is realizing that we have about maxed out on the "school environment" we can give her at home. She can learn her numbers, alphabet and colors here at home, but she really needs the social environment. I can now see how her life is different from spending the first 2 and a half years secluded from the world around her. She now needs to spread her little wings and learn to interact with others and listen to a teacher. It was so fun to see how excited she is about her new experience and I am thankful it is one she was ready for.

When we first started talking with her about preschool, she had three requests. 1. She wanted to take Wyatt's thermos to school. (She doesn't actually do this since she is there for such a short period of time). 2. We sew a backpack. (Boy, did we sew! Callie and I think it is the best backpack in the entire world. We looked at all the pink fabric in the store before Callie finally decided what she wanted. And once she made her choice, there was no going back. She picked out the material and told me what was to be the inside and what was to be the outside. I gave her other little creative options/ideas during the sewing but she did not like any of them. She wanted it simple and her way. The result is a cute, lightweight backpack that can carry her treasures to and from school). 3. I help her with her homework. (She still doesn't understand that she won't be having homework. One of her first statements today was "Mom, I think I am going to need some help with my homework tonight."

So that is our latest big news. And followup from last week. The steroid helped Sadie tremendously. She still has a cold but is not having trouble breathing. Callie is quite healthy, for now. Watson got sicker over the weekend but seems to be doing better now. And Wyatt now has a wonderful bright orange cast.

Callie excited for her first day of preschool.

Showing off the fancy backpack that her mother made for her (out of material chosen by Callie).

Wyatt sporting his new orange cast.

Oh, What a Day

2012-02-06T21:03:00.001-08:00

Sadie has croup.

I knew this yesterday when I kept her home from church. It was confirmed today when I took her to the doctor for a dose of oral steroids.

While caring for Sadie, the doctor heard Callie cough. She wasn't impressed. Though Callie does not have croup yet, given her history of crummy lungs, she is now on three days of steroids.

Watson has a cold. He wasn't sick enough to warrant any drugs but we are keeping our eye on him.

While at school today, Wyatt fell. He broke his arm.

It is 11:00 PM. I just showered for the day. Impressive.

We're doing fine...just busy.

2012-02-04T18:13:00.001-08:00

Keeping up with the blog seems to be getting more difficult to do. I dunno, maybe it's because we have four kids, all age six and under. By the time everyone gets bathed, dressed, fed, and off to work, school, therapy, errands, activities, etc., it seems like it's time to go to bed and do it all again tomorrow. Life's busy, but we're having fun.

Here's an update on the kiddos, in age order (oldest to youngest), based on what everyone did today.

Wyatt went with Jason to Monster Jam. It had been a few years since Wyatt went to see the monster trucks, so he was glad to go again. Jason and Wyatt rode their bikes to the Fargodome (on February 4 - what an awesome winter we're having!) and enjoyed the show. Wyatt particularly liked Megatron (or whatever the cheesy, car-eating, flame-throwing, robot-dinosaur-monster thing is called these days).

Callie enjoyed the fact that Kelli has been in a sewing mood recently. Kelli's made lots of stuff over the past few days, because she obviously has plenty of time to sit in front of a sewing machine. She made Callie a backpack that she can use when she eventually starts preschool. She also made Callie the skirt that she's proudly trying on in the photo below. Callie's coming down with a cold, so she also spent a lot of her day just resting and wiping snot from under her nose.
Sadie enjoyed her day just playing and eating. That girl will eat anything that's placed in front of her, at any time. She's the polar opposite of her tube-fed older sister. Below is a picture of what her hair looks like each morning. She twirls her hair each evening when she's going to sleep, or if she wakes up during the night. Some days are worse than others, but we typically have to struggle each morning with a couple of small dreadlocks that may or may not require scissors to remove.
Watson is still as cute as ever. He smiles a lot, and he enjoys "talking." Lots of cooing and giggling make him a ton of fun to be around. It's hard to believe he's been with us for almost four months now. Watson's growing - he's at the tenth percentile for height and the thirty-third for weight. He's such a blessing!
I mentioned earlier that we've had an awesome winter, with regard to weather. The past couple of days, we've had "hoar frost." You'll have to look it up online to get an official definition. I just know it looks awesome and turns everything into a winter wonderland. Snow on trees looks cool, but hoar frost covers all the branch surfaces - not just the top - so everything gets a frosted look to it. Here's a shot looking north on our street.

Anyway, we're all just peachy. We're looking into some options for Callie to have some more aggressive feeding therapy, so we'll probably offer an update when we know more about that. At some point in her life, she'll need to put the feeding pump away, so hopefully attending an intensive feeding therapy program somewhere will aid in that process. More on that in the coming weeks...

What a Trip!

2012-01-03T17:39:00.001-08:00

We're back from a long (but great!) trip to Alabama. Here's a quick recap:

On Thursday before Christmas, we loaded up Jason, Kelli, Wyatt, Callie, Sadie, Watson, and the dog in the Excursion and hit the road at 2:00 PM. We drove through the night Thursday and most of the day Friday, stopping only to feed someone, let someone use the bathroom, or fill the tank. Other than that, it was just us and the road. Although rather stinky when we arrived 26 hours after leaving, we were glad to have had safe travels.

We stayed with Moms and Pops in Trussville. Jason's brother and sister-in-law, Stephen and Lauren, got there the next day, so Moms and Pops were glad to have everyone at the house for Christmas. It was great to see Stephen and Lauren; we don't get to do that often since they live in Florida.

On Christmas day, Moms picked up her parents from the retirement home in Cook Springs and brought them to the house. It was fun seeing four generations together in the same place, and Great Grandmother and Great Granddaddy Glaze got a kick out of all the little ones running around. Sadie squealed and got excited about everything, whether the gift was for her or not. Watson just sat quietly and took it all in.

The day after Christmas, we drove to Anniston to see Pops' side of the family - aunts, uncles, cousins, and other extended family. We spent the afternoon there and had a grand old time.

Kelli took a shotgun and harvested some mistletoe. I don't know how others do it, but that's the way it's done in Alabama. Shoot some squirrel shot at the mistletoe and it just comes tumbling to the ground to be gathered. Lots easier than trying to climb the tree.

Funny thing is, Uncle Mike has a donkey (named Jack - guess what his last name is!) that decided the mistletoe Kelli was holding would make a nice snack. Kelli couldn't turn her back on Jack or her prized "kill" would start missing a few leaves here and there.
Uncle Mike's brother stopped by in the Rat Rod he's been working on. As you can see, it's awfully ugly, but that's the point. The saw blades across the front are just clipped on for now. He hasn't welded them in place yet, because he's still experimenting with where exactly they should be.
Jason's cousin Wesley has an S10 pickup that's on the quick side. Wide tires in the back, Chevy 350 under the hood - it'll get you there in a hurry. He took the kids on a ride down the driveway and back (it's a long driveway) and took Jason out for a spin. To call it loud would be an understatement. To call is slow would be a downright lie.

The day after Anniston trip, we loaded up and drove to Northport, outside Tuscaloosa, to see Papa's side of the family. Kelli's uncles and aunts and cousins were there, and it made for quite a crowd. They're all big Alabama football fans, so you can be they'll be tuning in to the national championship game in the next few days. Here's the whole gang on the steps.

As usual, we had a great time visiting with everyone. Papa's brothers are a hoot! We had traditional Christmas fare - hot wings, Chick-fil-A nuggets, ribs, potato salad, baked beans, and fried pickles. Oh yeah - and enough dessert to feed a village. No, make that two villages. We all ate way too much.

Though we would have loved to stay longer, we loaded the Excursion again and drove to Montgomery to see Kelli's sister and her husband. We mainly just hung out, though we did make one journey downtown to see the big Christmas tree at the capitol building. Here we all are (well, most of us) in front of the tree.
We did get pulled over on the highway between Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. It was night time and the driver (Jason) let our land yacht drift a little too far across the center line. The officer approached the Excursion, and with his flashlight shining in the window, he saw booster set, car seat, car seat, car seat, wife, father-in-law, driver. After about the second car seat, he must've determined we were no threat. He just checked Jason's license and insurance, made sure we were okay, and sent us on our way. Later, Papa said he probably pulled us over because he'd never met anyone from North Dakota. Apparently, not many folks from the upper-midwest drive through Podunk, Alabama (not the real town name).

After a couple of days in Montgomery, it was back to Trussville. We participated in all the fun stuff at Moms and Pops house - riding the zip line, riding the battery powered jeep, going on hay rides, playing with marshmallow guns, going on four wheeler rides, sitting around bonfires, shooting Wyatt's new BB gun (Christmas present), making s'mores, and mixing kids and fireworks. Sadie was a big fan of the sparklers.
There were lots of other tons-of-fun things we did, too, but space and time are both short. Suffice it to say, it was a GREAT trip to Alabama.

On New Year's Day, we loaded up (again) in the Excursion and headed back to Fargo. We made better time on the way back - only twenty-FIVE hours instead of twenty-SIX. We couldn't have asked for the kids to be any better, though. They're some real troopers (and road warriors). The final total was 3287 miles. We'll probably not drive anywhere else for a while... :)

Early Christmas

2011-12-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

Mom: "Callie, would it be fun to have Christmas early and open up presents tomorrow?"

Callie: "Um, I don't want to."

Well, there you have it. A child who is not excited about opening gifts.

Family Update

2011-11-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well, now that we're all settling into a better routine with a new member of the family, hopefully some time will be available to keep up with the blog on a more regular basis. Of course, you shouldn't hold your breath...

Here's a quick overview of everyone in our household:

Since the weather's been so nice (no permanent snow yet), Jason's had lots of time to get the house ready for winter. All the leaves are out of the yard, the lawnmower and the snowblower have changed positions in the garage, and the downstairs windows have a little extra insulation around them. Today, he even got the garage cleaned up so that when it does become time to crank the snowblower, he's got plenty of room to maneuver it out into the driveway. Hopefully, it's a few more weeks (months?) until we get to that point, but at least things are already set to go. Jason also watched some football this weekend - real football (SEC) - so he enjoyed that.

Kelli has spent lots of time putting up Christmas decorations. Because we're cheap, our budget for new decorations is zero. However, that doesn't mean we don't have some snazzy new stuff this year. Back during Fargo's cleanup week (last May), we found a lot of garland, lights, and wreaths that someone had put on the curb as trash. After sorting through it, Kelli discovered it was actually in good shape. Really good shape. (Still haven't figured out why it was being tossed, other than the owner just got tired of it.) The result is that now we've got "new" garland around our door (with lights!), a couple of new wreaths (with bows and balls) on the door and fence, and a small lighted tree (tasteful - not tacky) on the front porch. Cheap? Yes. But seriously - it really looks nice.

Wyatt enjoyed his time off school for Thanksgiving. With the nice weather, he and Jason spent quite a bit of time playing football in the yard. Well, it probably wasn't actually football that was being played - at least not in the sense that anyone else would understand the rules - but it was played with a football, so maybe that counts. Wyatt's at the age where it's fun to make up new rules or change the rules as the game progresses to increase his odds of winning. If you're a Calvin and Hobbes fan, you could think of it as Calvin Ball. Regardless, it was good exercise for father and son, and a good bonding experience. And the nice weather made it all the more enjoyable.

Callie asks each day (several times) if it's Christmas. Nope, it isn't Christmas. We've still got a month or so. How about now? Is it Christmas now? Nope. Hasn't changed from ten minutes ago. Is tomorrow Christmas? Nope. It's in a month. Is Christmas next week? No. A month. When is Christmas? December. Is it December? No. Not yet. When will it be December? In a few days. Then will it be Christmas? Not until the end of December. Will it be Christmas tonight? You get the picture...

Sadie has greatly improved her climbing skills, though her parents do not necessarily approve. Just the other day, when Jason was alone with all four children while Kelli ran some errands, he walked into the kitchen to find Sadie sitting cross legged in the middle of the kitchen table (stark naked, no less), helping herself to a beverage left from supper. Just because food appears to be out of her reach on the counter doesn't mean that it's actually in a space she cannot get to. She's quite resourceful, and if food's involved, can climb to great lengths to get it. We discovered she's able to access the apple bowl. We also discovered she prefers to take only a bite or two from one apple before moving on to the next.

Watson has begun to smile. They're still pretty few and far between, but at least we're beginning to see some. He really is adjusting well, and he's usually very content. He gets a little testy if he asks for food and doesn't get it in approximately half a second, but other than that, he's pretty mild mannered. It's fun to watch him be a bit more interactive now as he gets older. He's still tiny, of course, but that makes for some great snuggle time. We sure do love that little guy!

So that's the world of the Medders family.

A Quick Update

2011-11-16T18:31:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since our last update, but life is very busy as we try to find our new normal with four kids.

Here are some pictures from what has happened in the last month.

Jason and Callie celebrated birthdays. We had a combined party on Halloween.

This little girl has come a long way in four years. She had a really great time opening presents and being sung to.

Before the birthday celebrations, we took the kids trick or treating. Sadie thought it was great fun. She couldn't eat the candy fast enough. I love this picture of Sadie and Grandpops.

Wyatt adores his baby brother. He was very excited that Watson received an outfit that matched one of his shirts. When Wyatt wears his shirt, he always asks me to dress Watson in his outfit so they will look alike. Oh, and Wyatt lost his first tooth!

Watson was being serious before bedtime.

We went on our yearly hunting trip - with all four kids and two grandparents in tow. We had a great time. I was able to shoot this beautiful buck.

Miss Sadie loves the outdoors. We have had some wonderful fall days where the kids can still play outside. I love that it was mid-November before we had our first snowfall.

So there is a super-speedy overview of the last few weeks. I want to have time to post more about each of the kids but I just need to figure out a time to do that. We are all doing well though and Watson seems to be settling right in as a "Medders."

2011-10-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

We are home and in the process of learning our new normal. I have not yet figured out how to have 4 children. My biggest accomplishment of the day was walking to school. Wyatt walked, Callie and Sadie rode in the wagon and Watson was in the sling attached to me. It worked nicely. It probably will continue to work nicely until there is ice on the ground. Then I will have to rethink my plan.

I have come to realize I am intimidated by having four kids. I don't know when I will get the nerve to go anywhere (besides walking to school) with all of them. Me versus 4 children. Oh my, I would be incredibly outnumbered. Miss Sadiebug is my wild card right now. She is learning that she now has to walk more because I can't carry her as much. That is giving her more freedom to explore her surroundings and ignore her mother. She is fiesty and I am trying to figure out how to reign that in while also understanding she has had to give up her "baby" status to become a "big sister." Most of the time she loves doting on Watson but if I think she is being a little too helpful, an earsplitting tantrum is soon to follow, thus my fears about taking her out in public.

We have been back in Fargo for a week now and are working on new routines. Jason was off all last week so it was incredibly convenient to have an extra set of hands. Now that I am solo during the day, I am finding it little more difficult. To help with bonding, we try to hold Watson as much as possible. I haven't quite figured out how to multitask while doing that. I am also a little under the weather so that is not helping my ability to be topnotch. Hopefully with each passing day I will start to feel better and I will learn how to be a more proficient mother of four.

We think Watson is adjusting to our family wonderfully. I had expected a fussy, unsettled baby but he is neither of those. He loves to snuggle and be held and sleeps wonderfully well during daylight hours or when he is sleeping right next to us. We are still working on the sleeping at night part, though. He also likes to eat. Every three hours. Around the clock. No matter how much we try to feed the little guy, it will only tide him over for three hours.

Watson had his first pediatrician visit here in Fargo and it went wonderfully. She thought he looked and sounded great and he is growing nicely. Must be the 3 hour feedings. He is fighting a cold right now thanks to the helpfulness of his younger sisters. We all got sick on our way back and Callie and Sadie just can't stay away from him so they passed their cold on to him. I will be glad when we are all healthy again.

Bathtime.

Hanging out in Mommy's lap.

Welcome to Our Family

2011-10-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we were able to welcome the newest member of our family, Watson Howard Medders. He is a beautiful baby and we are loving every minute with him. Wyatt, Callie and Sadie are doing amazingly well. We have not been cleared to come home with him yet(waiting on paperwork to clear) but hopefully that will happen soon. We are excited to get back to Fargo to our new normal.

Adoption Day

2011-10-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 11 at 9 AM is the big day when we will be meeting our new little guy and filling out the necessary papers to bring him home with us. Please pray it will be a wonderful, joyful day as we meet our new guy we will continue to have a peace that he is to be the newest member of our family.

The kids are very excited about the new brother they get to meet tomorrow, and Jason's parents have joined us for support and to help with the three oldest children.

My nerves and emotions are all over the place but I do feel a peace and believe this decision for us to be the parents was reached with a lot of thought and prayer.

Thank you for your continued love, support, encouragement and prayers.

Adoption Update

2011-10-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

We have a boy!!!!!! It has been a whirlwind few days, since receiving the call late Wednesday afternoon. Now it is Saturday afternoon and we are getting ready to drive across the country to pick up Baby Boy Medders. It has been amazing how God has worked out the smallest of details for this trip.

The entire family is thrilled. Wyatt is so used to having sisters, he keeps referring to the baby as a "her." Callie doesn't see any sense in packing and getting everything ready - she thinks we should have left yesterday! Sadie, of course, isn't old enough to know what's going on. It'll probably be a bit of a shock to her when a new baby is part of the family, but we think she will come around though.

Please pray for safe travels and for everything to go smoothly. We are planning to meet our new fella Tuesday morning.

Update

2011-09-28T09:24:00.001-07:00

We found out that we were not chosen as the "forever family" for the little boy we have been praying about. We were really hoping that it was the child God had for us. We are very thankful, though, that he has a forever home and we can pray that he grows up in a loving, Christ-centered home. So for now, we continue to pray and wait, excited to see what God his in store.

Adoption Update 2

2011-09-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

We did not hear news from the placement meeting that took place yesterday. So we keep waiting and praying.

Adoption Update

2011-09-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, Jason and I have had the opportunity to pray about and for babies and children needing "forever homes." Some were children we didn't feel we could successfully parent. Others have been children we felt we could parent, but who were chosen for different homes. I don't know how anyone could go through adoption without knowing that God is in control. We know without a doubt that we are following God's will for our family in pursuing adoption. As we have waited for the child for our family, we have received sign after sign that we are being obedient to God's calling. It has been a very exciting few months.

Right now there is one little fella, in particular, that we are being considered for. Some of the circumstances surrounding this case are what we had in mind and some are not. In the overall scheme of things, the factors that are different are not a big deal. Without going into any detail, because I don't feel that it is appropriate at this time, there will be a meeting on Friday, September 23, where a family will hopefully be chosen for this child. Jason and I have a peace about the situation and would be thrilled if we are chosen as the forever parents. And if not, we will know that it is not God's will and our child is still out there.

We would love prayers for the committee that will be making the decision. I would like for it to be a unanimous decision where everyone involved believes the correct choice is made. Thanks so much for thinking of us, and for praying for this child and the committee.

Sleep Study Update

2011-09-17T11:28:00.001-07:00

Callie's sleep study appointments went really well. We first met with a doctor specializing in pediatric sleep disorders. I really liked him. He listened and he understood. We didn't get many answers but we did learn that Callie's nighttime headbutting is not really that uncommon. According to the doctor, children typically awaken between 6-10 times at night and most roll over and go back to sleep. Then there are some, like Callie, who start headbutting. It has nothing to do with her prematurity. Premature children do as well as those who are born full term. Researchers have not been able to figure out why some children do it. It is very annoying to the rest of the family but it is not annoying to Callie. It is just how she puts herself back to sleep. He told us to keep our box fan on so the rest of the family can sleep and as quickly as it all started, she will one day grow out of it and stop. It may be two years from now and it may be 10 years. That's not exactly what we wanted to hear but we will take it. He did mention medication that might could help her sleep, but Jason and I don't want to go that route.

Given Callie's complex medical history he did think it was worth completing the sleep study just to make sure there were no more issues surrounding her difficulty sleeping. Jason had the privilege of staying with Callie overnight at the sleep clinic, and they had a pretty good night. Callie had so many electrodes and stickers and straps stuck to her that she had trouble hitting her head but the doctor said they captured a few good episodes. Like he suspected, all of her vitals were great through the night and the headbutting mainly occurs during her transitional sleep. There is nothing we can do about but it was nice to hear that there is nothing concerning about it.

Prayer Request

2011-09-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

We will be traveling to St. Paul tomorrow to meet with a behavioral sleep specialist and to have a sleep study done on Callie. Please pray that we 1. have a safe trip and 2. find out either what is keeping Callie from sleeping or be given some resources to help her with her headbutting and grunting.

Jason will be staying in town with Sadie and I will be at the hospital with Callie. For once I am hoping she has a really crummy night of sleep so they can observe it is she does all night long besides sleeping.

First Day of First Grade

2011-08-25T18:51:00.001-07:00

Today was Wyatt's first day of school. He said he was a little nervous, but we couldn't tell. It is amazing how much he has changed from kindergarten to first grade.

This was his first day of kindergarten.

And this is his first day of first grade. He went from little boy to young man in the blink of an eye.

Last year he got teary as soon as he sat down but not this year. He couldn't wait for us to leave so he could get to coloring.

Wyatt was all smiles at the end of the day. He loves his teacher and loved everything about his day, especially playing outside. I suppose some things will never change. He is thrilled that he will have science this year and thinks it will be his favorite subject. His teacher read books today and he got to read a book on his own. He didn't get to eat much of his lunch because "the kindergarteners took too long." He is ready to go back tomorrow. I hope this year is as wonderful as K-5 was.

Retro Vintage

2011-08-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

While rummaging through my old belongings at my parent's house, I came across a little treasure. I found the most fantastic outfit that my grandmother, Snook, made for me a very long time ago. I wore it and then my dolls wore it. It now fits my little life-sized doll, so she had to wear it, polyester and all. To make it even more hip, I dressed Sadie in the shoes I made and the matching hairband that I tried my hand at. I thought she pulled off the look stunningly.

Just don't mind that it came unsnapped while I was trying to get some pictures. Or that Callie is playing with the cell phone in the bottom of the picture. Or that there is a really huge box fan in the background. If those things bother you, then please let my husband know that I need a camera that is capable of blurring all those things out!

Not What I Had in Mind

2011-08-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I packed up our inflatable pool. We played with it for a while but then the kids seemed to lose interest and we had to change the water every few days, so I was tired of fooling with it. The past couple of days have been kind of toasty, and Wyatt really wanted to play in the pool again. Today, trying to be a "fun mom," I re-inflated the pool. Then on my hands and knees with towels and cleaner, I cleaned the dried-on gunk off the bottom of sides of the pool. Once filled with water, the pool looked so shiny and inviting.

I should have known the kids would have a completely different idea of fun. My first sign of trouble should have been when they threw the bucket in the water. Wyatt, the brainchild of the day's events, then oversaw the making of clay. Oh joy.

Here they are at work. Wyatt was in charge of procuring the dirt. Callie's task was filling the purple bucket with fresh, clean, crisp, cool pool water, so she is running off to get said water. Sadie was in charge of guarding the mixing station.

Once there was water and dirt, the mixing began. In the back of Callie's tricycle.

Sadie took a break long enough to pose for a picture. This was prior to tasting the clay.

Wyatt was busy but he generously let me take a picture. Callie, on the other hand, got bored and started playing on the swing and wouldn't cooperate for a picture.

The clay turned into a wonderful mud pie that Wyatt was very proud of.

Wyatt even let Sadie work on it with her stick.

It wasn't what I had in mind but they had fun. And no, I did not let them rinse off in the pool. They had to be clean before getting in the pool. Maybe I didn't earn the maximum number of "cool mom" points today. Oh well.

Just Because

2011-08-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

Just because purple doesn't go with everything, I decided the little miss needed some pink shoes as well. And as a bonus, they match the shirt I previously decorated.

I really need to stop sewing and start cleaning my house. Cleaning just isn't quite as much fun, though.

Crafting

2011-08-15T20:41:00.001-07:00

Crafting is fun. The problem is, I don't seem to have much time to sit down and craft. The past few days I have been on a sewing kick, so I have gotten quite a bit done. My not-so-fun projects were tightening the elastic on four pairs of Wyatt's school shorts and one pair of Callie's pants. To balance out the much needed clothes repairs, I tried out some new ideas and am quite pleased with the results.

First off, I made Callie a new bow for her hair. I originally pictured the flower as part of a headband, but I am not successful at keeping those in Callie's hair. So I thought I would try it on a barrette. It looks cute but I am not sure how practical it is going to be. When I snap the barrette, I keep losing beads. Oh well. It didn't take much time and was fun to try. I am sure I can find another way to decorate with it.

Secondly, I had a cute shirt for Miss Sadie but it had two holes right in the front. Using an idea I saw at a crafting fair, I embellished the shirt with scraps of material and successfully covered the holes. I am really excited about Sadie being able to wear it soon.

The shirt before

The shirt after

My biggest project came from Sadie's need for shoes. Jason and I aren't huge fans of shoes for our children, especially before they start walking. Sadie has spent most of her life barefoot. She is finally starting to walk a little, mainly while pushing toys. Two times last week she cut open her big toe while playing outside. So I decided she might need the protection of shoes. My most favorite shoe for little kids is Robeez. Wyatt had a few pairs but Callie was never able to wear them due to her braces so I don't have any girl shoes. I also don't particularly care for the price of the shoes. So I used my Googling skills and found a pattern to make shoes. And once again, using material scraps, I made Sadie some shoes. I am quite excited about them and am already thinking of some different material combinations to try. Sadie might go from not owning any shoes to owning a pair for each day of the month!

Sadie Rose

2011-08-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Sadie, our little Norwegian. Jason and I are still trying to figure out her blond hair and blue eyes. I guess if you live in the Midwest long enough, you start having Midwestern babies.

Sadie is 98% pure sweetness and 2% pure rotten. She loves to be entertained by Wyatt, and she loves to push all of Callie's buttons. My hope is that one day they will get along. Callie is taller but Sadie almost weighs as much as her older sister. Sadie enjoys wrestling with Callie and if Callie makes her mad, she doesn't hesitate to retaliate.

Sadie is generally happy from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed. She loves to eat. She loves to scream. She is, by far, the loudest of my children, and quite possibly, the loudest child I have ever heard. I really think she could shatter a glass. Screaming is her way of letting us know she is not happy with her current situation and I still am not sure how to deal with that. Sadie is stubborn when it comes to walking. She will take a few steps but then drops to crawling. She talks up a storm but in her own language. She has an infectious laugh. She adores animals. She gets so excited when she sees a cat or dog or even a picture of animals.

Sadie waiting for breakfast with her baby doll.

We had a friend take some pictures of us yesterday, and I love the ones of Sadie. She was a lot of fun to photograph.

Thanks for Praying

2011-07-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Callie. She is doing much better. On Friday we were extremely close to taking Callie to the hospital to be admitted, but after a long nap she seemed to be perking up a little. She has continued to improve and seems to be doing quite well now. So far she is tolerating her feedings really well. We have stepped back a little in regards to her feedings. We were blending her formula from "real food" but for the past month she had really been struggling with keeping her food down. We have gone back to store bought formula but it seems to be working for her. She is wearing her feeding pump in a backpack and is getting small feedings all throughout the day. Our goal is to keep the food down and see if we can get her weight back up. In the few days she was sick, she lost one pound. That's not much for the average person but it is a lot if you only weigh 23 pounds to begin with.

So thanks for praying. The little girl is on the mend.

Almost Finished!

2011-07-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

We are (finally) almost finished with our wood floor refinishing project. It hasn't been particularly difficult, but we have had a hard time finding time to work on it. Once I was ready for the last step of sealing the wood, the weather turned ridiculously southern. We have had 90 degree weather with unusually high humidity levels and heat indexes in the 110's. I figured the drying time might be a little too long with that kind of work conditions. So last night it finally started cooling down and drying off, so Jason and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to seal the floor. I am thrilled with how it looks. I still have to wait to replace furniture and replace the baseboards, but I thought I could give you a look at some before and after pictures.

This is the surprise I found under the carpet. I had already sanded off the stenciled red rocking horses. Jason just knew I needed to sand it as best as I could and seal it with the rest of the floor. I was stubborn, and with the help of my dad, pulled up the boards while Jason was at work.

I found another surprise when the white board came up, there was no subflooring in that one area. I got to create my own. Yippee!
And because I had plenty of flooring leftover, I thought I should tackled this eyesore as well. Who doesn't like a cracked piece of plywood patched with plaster for a floor? Jason was equally irritated that I removed this board.
Here is my patchwork. I really had fun doing it and was quite pleased with how it turned out.

This it the other hole I tackled. I think it is more aesthetically pleasing.

And here are pictures mid-sealing the floor. I am still happy with my choice to replace the boards.

I think the flooring looks better here.

And finally... the (almost) finished product.

A floor I am completely thrilled with. And would you believe, the husband now understands why I wanted the carpet gone and now sees what I saw all along!

And now for my two other random thoughts for the night.

1. I really thought I had blogged about Miss Sadie on my last post. I had an entire write up about her but, unfortunately, as a few people pointed about, the words must have just stayed in my head. Oops. I am trying to get a few more pictures together of my little Norwegian beauty and then I will write about her.

2. It is a good thing we finished the floor early this morning because my day was consumed with Callie.

She came down with a GI bug and is one sick little girl. We were able to see her GI doctor today (I called yesterday. If we didn't take this appointment, he could see her the end of August. I do believe God was involved in that). Jason and I believe she was very close to needing to be hospitalized for dehydration but this afternoon she finally started keeping fluids in. Between the fluids and sleeping all day, she was a totally different little girl this evening, which was a huge relief. Thanks to my mom for keeping the kids for a while, Jason and I were even able to go on a date tonight just to have a bit of a break. Callie's GI issues have become very time-consuming and frustrating. Add a virus to "normal" vomiting, and a mommy can very easily be worn out. So please pray for Callie to quickly rebound so we can move ahead with plans to figure out how to help her keep food down and grow.

2011-07-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

I might win the award most inconsistent blogger ever.

Summer is in full swing. Wyatt is handling his time at home relatively well. He would much rather be at school than home with his mom. We are trying to work on some schoolwork this summer, so he will be ready when school is back in session. We can both only handle it in small amounts, though. The poor boy has a mental block when it comes to numbers and it is driving this mother crazy. I didn't know the "teens" could be so hard. Wyatt is playing t-ball this summer and loves it. It is my first experience with any kind of organized sport, so it is new for me as well. Wyatt most enjoys batting and is working on being more proficient with catching the ball.

Callie is still...Callie. We have started running into more issues with feeding and sleeping so we had an appointment to talk it over with the doctor. Callie is getting taller - she is now in the 5th percentile for her age! Her weight is still lagging behind. She is stuck at 23 pounds. Rather than using formula, we are blending "real" food to put in her tube. She gets over 335 calories per cup (that's a lot) but we are having a difficult time keeping all of her food down. She is back to only tolerating small feedings which is very frustrating.

She had an upper GI last week just to make sure that everything is functioning as it should. I don't know the results from that yet. In addition to not keeping all of her food down, Callie is not sleeping well. This is a problem because when she doesn't sleep well, she is highly emotional. When she is highly emotional, she doesn't keep her food down. For her, crying usually involves vomiting. So it is a cyclical pattern we get into that stinks. Right now we don't have any answers so we keep working on sleep and cleaning up puke.

Speaking of cleaning up puke, I was tired of having carpet in our preschool room/office. Between three kids, a dog, lots of puke and french doors that lead to a backyard filled with jet black dirt, it was next to impossible to keep white carpet clean. So while Jason was at work, I pulled it up. I had done a little research to know that there was hardwood underneath so I just helped expose the old floor. I should have figured there would be a surprise underneath.

It wasn't too terrible, but a section 5" x 92" that had plywood (part of it stenciled with rocking horses) rather than oak slats like the rest of the room, was not exactly what I had in mind for my hardwood floor. So in all my free time (when I am not blogging, ha!) I have been sanding the floor (with the help of my dad and father-in-law) and now I am working on replacing the offending boards. I'm having fun doing it but I am getting to the point where I am ready for it to be over so I can put my house back together. Since my husband thinks I am crazy for tackling this project (and a few more I have not mentioned), I am just playing the "nesting" card. I figure since all we can do in regards to the adoption is wait and pray, I might as well start nesting. And since in my previous nesting experiences, I was quite large, I could not accomplish such large tasks.

So that's about all I have time for tonight. I need to go sand a floor!

Last Day of School and Garage Sale

2011-06-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

May 26 was Wyatt's last day of kindergarten. He LOVED everything about school this year - his classroom, his classmates, his teacher - everything. He was actually sad that it was over. With no prompting from us, he made his teacher a thank you note. On cardboard. With a magic marker. It's cute because it's heartfelt.

Here he is with Mrs. Pederson, his teacher this year, on his last day.
On Saturday of last week, we had a garage sale as a fundraiser for our upcoming adoption. (And no, right now there are no big updates about the adoption process. We have finished our home study and have our family profile books out at several locations. For now, we're just waiting to be matched with a child.)

To say that God had his hand in the garage sale would be an understatement. I have NEVER experienced anything like it!

Due to the generosity of several friends and coworkers, we had a plethora of quality items to offer. (A sincere thanks to Bill, Rian, Karla, Shirley, Becky, Casey, Gretchen, and Mary) We also cleaned out a lot of items from our own home, and had collected a large number of items curbside during Fargo's recent Clean Up Week. We put a LOT of work into organizing, pricing appropriately, setting up, etc. We worked several hours at night for several days in preparation.

On Saturday, we were scheduled to start at 8:00 AM. Our first customers started coming just before 7:00. Until after 1:30, there was never a time that we were without visitors, and even late in the afternoon, we still had a steady stream. Early on in the day, I even had people waiting in line to check out.

There's a lot of "testimony" that could be shared, and lots of great stories about those who stopped by, but allow me to sum it up this way:

We set a low-end profit goal that we thought would be great to meet.

We set a high-end goal that we would've been quite happy to meet.

We set a "hallelujah" goal that would have only been possible with divine intervention.

When we tallied at the end of the day, our hallelujah goal was exceeded by 20%.

God is good!

Thank you SO MUCH for those of you who supported us in our garage sale! We still have a LONG way to go to secure all the funding needed for adoption, but Saturday's sale DEFINITELY helped us get closer.

Below is a photo taken partway into the morning, when several things had already been paid for and carried off. We had planned to take several photos throughout the day, but were so busy that we didn't have much time to take snapshots. It was a good problem to have, for sure.

Park Rapids and Fargo Marathon

2011-05-30T08:12:00.001-07:00

A few weekends ago, we went with Papa and Granna to Park Rapids. They were going for the whole week (time share), but we just went to hang out for the weekend. Park Rapids is a lakes region community a few miles east of Fargo/Moorhead. They have a quaint little historic downtown area, where we had milkshakes at the local soda fountain. It was Sadie's first chocolate shake, and as you can see, she thought it was fantastic.

We spent an afternoon in Itasca State Park. Itasca is home to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Behind us in the picture below is Lake Itasca, from which the mighty Mississippi begins its flow toward the Gulf of Mexico.

No trip to the lakes would be complete without a stop at Zorbaz. A pizza and Mexican place, Zorbaz has a few locations throughout the region. We stopped at Zhateau Zorbaz for some fried pickles and macho nachos. The sign outside this one makes it look as though it's a bit upscale, but anyone who has ever eaten at Zorbaz can assure you it's anything but.

The next weekend was the Fargo Marathon. On Thursday night, Wyatt and I ran the one mile kids run. One mile is a long way for a newly-turned six year old. He got a shirt and a medal for participating, and overall did a good job. Unlike many of his peers, he did a pretty good job pacing himself. There were a lot of six years olds who took off like jackrabbits for the first two hundred yards, only to crash and burn after the first half mile or so.
On Friday night was the 5K, which was pretty fun, too. I ran (jogged) that one alone. Kelli was going to do it with me, but the race filled up before we got her registered. Maybe next year.

Saturday was the marathon. By no means did I set any land speed records, but it sure was fun. More like a 26.2 mile fun run than a competition, I ate brownies and other treats along the way, stopped to visit with folks, and even carried Callie with me for a short jaunt. It made for a good time.

Plan for the Day

2011-04-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

Callie: "Mom, what are we going to do today?"

Me: "Well, we are going to wash some clothes, clean your room, blend you some food and eat lunch."

Callie: "Then what are we going to do? Adopt a baby?"

Well, sweet girl, it is not quite that easy. We are not able to adopt a baby today. For now we wait.

What a Fantastic Weekend!

2011-04-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

We've had an absolutely wonderful weekend! Actually, we've had a great week and a half or so, with Jason's parents in town for Sadie's birthday, Wyatt's birthday, and Easter. It's been one full day after another, and the kids are sure to sleep for hours on end now that Moms and Pops are back in Alabama. (The kids tend to stay up late and wake up early while they're here. Wonder why?)

Wyatt's birthday was on Saturday, so we celebrated all day long. It started with a trip to Sandy's Donuts. The grownups chose rather sophisiticated fried dough, such as dark-chocolate glazed ones or crullers, but Wyatt selected a giant Easter basket monstrosity. An enormous creme filled, frosted thing, with grass, a Peep, chocolate eggs, and a licorice handle made a highly non-nutritious breakfast for the boy. Good thing birthdays only come once per year. Here he is posing with his breakfast delicacy.

We went to Papa and Grannas for the afternoon and grilled out. Wyatt asked for a lemon birthday cake with Peeps on top. Kelli obliged. When he saw it late that afternoon, he was rather pleased.

Like Sadie's birthday, we as parents didn't really go overboard with gifts. Although we didn't recycle gifts like we did with Sadie, we did get him a set of Nerf dart guns that he (and his father!) like a lot. By the time grandparents, aunts, uncles, and an assortment of other family members added their wrapped items, he made quite a haul. Thankfully, they're mostly educational toys (except for the one from his parents - go figure). Here is he concentrating on trying out his new art kit. He couldn't decide whether to wear a traditional birthday party hat or his birthday "crown" he got at school, so he went for both.

Later that afternoon, we also spent some time dying eggs for Easter. If you've not tried to dye eggs with a six year old, a three year old, a one year old, and a dog, all wanting to help at once, you should give it a try some time.

This morning we got up and, although we don't typically dress up for church, we got a little extra spiffy. Wyatt and Jason received matching homemade bowties, so they dressed alike this morning. The sun was quite bright this morning, so it was difficult for the kids to look toward the camera. Right behind us is a new Ohio Buckeye that was set out on our boulevard to replace the Elm that had to be cut down last year. We thought it would be fun to get a family picture in front of the tree each year to see how it and our family grow. Here's the first. Stay tuned over the next several years to see the rest. :)

Wyatt was pretty happy to have a tie like his dad typically wears. It took a little while to get it tied this morning, but we're not a clip-on tie kind of family, you know.

Callie, Sadie, and Wyatt at Papa and Granna's this afternoon.

Callie in her Easter dress.

This afternoon may have been the prettiest day we've had so far this spring. One week ago, this was the scene in our back yard as Jason and Pops pulled up a hedge row.

Compare that to today, with Papa and Wyatt having a Nerf gun war in Papa and Granna's back yard. It was a beautiful, beautiful day!

1st Birthday

2011-04-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

Miss Sadie Rose celebrated her first birthday last week. We had a fantastic family celebration, complete with a shrimp boil for her birthday dinner. She didn't partake in it but also didn't seem to mind watching us eat it. Sadie's first cake was homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing. She didn't eat much but had a GREAT time playing in it. Sadie received many fun gifts (some were "pre-owned" by her siblings but she doesn't know the difference). We are excited about seeing Little Miss Personality blossom even more her second year of life!

Family Circus!

2011-04-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true that it often feels like a circus in our family, with an almost-six year old, a three year old, an almost-one year old, and planning to adopt another in the coming months. However, last Sunday we actually went to the Circus. Papa and Granna were kind enough to offer us four tickets, so Kelli and I took Wyatt and Callie, while Granna hung out with Sadie.

Many of you know that our church meets at the Fargodome. We utilize the conference room upstairs and the meeting spaces downstairs. (Even though the church is growing significantly, we're not quite to the size yet that we need all the coliseum seating in the main arena.) The main arena of the Fargodome often hosts large events like Monster Trucks or the El Zagel Shrine Circus. This can sometimes be confusing for kids. We went to church as usual, ran home and ate lunch, and returned to the Fargodome for the 1 PM circus. Although excited to return to church, Callie kept asking why we were going back to church instead of going to the circus as promised. It wasn't until we walked past the escalators (the ones we ride upstairs on Sunday morning) and into the arena that it started to all make more sense for her.

Getting there early, we got some pretty good seats near the center ring. Here I am with the kids, waiting on the show to start.

Prior to the show, folks had an opportunity to see some of the animals - up close and personal. Wyatt decided he thought it would be cool to ride the elephant. That's him sitting in the front seat below.

They didn't go very far, of course - just around in a circle a couple of times. For Wyatt, though, you'd have thought he rode clear across the African plains.

Callie thought the elephants were a bit much. The ponies, however, seemed to really draw her interest. So I took her down to try her hand at riding while I walked around in a circle a half dozen times with all the other parents holding their children in the saddle.

The circus itself was quite entertaining. It had all the typical circus attractions - tight rope walkers, a human cannonball, tigers jumping through hoops, and clowns that always came across as a bit more creepy than funny.

Kelli and I got cracked up at the tiger trainer. He was in a cage with the tigers and had to move all the equipment around each time before the tigers would do their tricks. So he spent most of his time hooking and unhooking ladders and replacing ramps and moving pedestals and what not, and very little time actually letting the tigers do their thing. In fact, when he set up the ring of fire for them to jump through, he pulled a bic lighter out of his pocket and had to strike it about seventeen times to get it to light. Kelli and I decided he needed a leggy blonde in a rediculous sequined outfit to be his assistant. Well, maybe I decided that and Kelli just frowned when I told her. Either way, he needed some help.

We did get a sweet treat to share - a giant serving of cotton candy. It was about the size of Callie, but she didn't care for it. I think the texture threw her for a loop. Wyatt, however, would've eaten the entire thing if we'd have let him.

When we got home and asked them to tell Granna about the circus, Callie's most vivid memory was that the elephant pooped a lot. I guess the showman on the high wire wearing a shiny vest and no shirt just didn't do it for her.

I've got to hand it to her though, "pooped a lot" is not an exaggeration. It makes perfect sense that an elephant would poop a pile about the size of a Volkswagen, but until you see it in real life, I don't think you can really appreciate it.

And once again, I am back...

2011-03-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

We are really still here. It has just been a crazy, full couple of months for our family. Jason and I have been quite busy with doing fun responsible adult stuff in our free time - the kind of stuff that requires stacks and stacks of paperwork. But I think we are almost finished with that. The kids have been doing well.

Wyatt is still enjoying kindergarten and is becoming quite the reader. He seems to now enjoy reading, which I was afraid he wasn't going to do.

Callie is still thriving. She just started her second session of parent/child gymnastics which she loves. I was hoping we could graduate to a non-parent-involved class, but she is still learning about social interactions and listening and following directions so we will take it slow and I will be right there to help her along. Since she is the smallest kid in the class no one knows she is the oldest! Gymnastics has been great for her to work on her gross motor skills and strenghten her muscles.

Callie is still making small gains in eating. We still have speech therapy twice a week and she is slowly becoming more consistent with foods she will eat. She really enjoys crackers and baked veggie chips. She can now drink a measurable amount of liquid (imagine a medicine cup with water). So we are getting there.

Sadie is still our happy, laid back child. Although lately she has started finding her temper - particularly when it comes to removing non-edible items from her mouth. Boy, does that ever set her off. She might be my child with the biggest tantrums. It should be interesting.

A couple of weeks ago was quite fun with every member of the family being sick. And no one had the same thing. That was festive. I was sick but moms can never really get sick so I guess my illness doesn't count. Wyatt had some yucky sounding lung crud with a cough but thankfully, he was still able to go to school. Sadie sounded like she had croup for a little while but quickly recovered and then just had a snotty nose. Jason and Callie had to up the ante though. Jason decided it would be fun to bring a stomach bug into our house and then strep throat after that. Thankfully, he gave in and saw a doctor and managed to not pass it on to anyone else in the house.

Callie had a really crummy day (while I was dealing with Jason) but could not tell me anything that was bothering her. We went through every part of the body and she promised everything felt fine. After five days of non-stop whining, one night of a fever, blood leaking from her ear, and two doctors, we discovered she had an ear infection with a ruptured eardrum. I don't know why doctor #1 didn't catch that on day 2 when I specifically asked about it, but he didn't. Thankfully, her pediatrician was able to identify the cause of all of her irratibility. It was a very eye-opening experience for me, though. It made me remember that also Callie might seem "normal" to the rest of the world, she still has issues that make her distinctly different. I believe that due to her early start on life, she doesn't feel and/or process pain like most everyone else. That is why I knew something was bothering her but she could not tell us what it was or how bad it hurt. I only had a few pieces of the puzzle to try to put it all together and her doctor helped with that so we could figure out what was going on. Hopefully as Callie becomes more proficient with words, she can better describe what she is feeling, especially when she doesn't feel well.

So that pretty much sums up our last many weeks except for one other bit of news. Jason and I have just had our homestudy approved to adopt a child.

Adoption is something Jason has brought up since we have been together, but I have never really been on board with the idea. In the last few months through Jason's prompting, it is something we started to seriously consider and pray about. It was very definately a matter of seeking God's will for our lives and our family. It is quite possible that I was very hesitant to the idea, mainly due to the roller coaster ride I know the process can be. I have already been on an emotionally/mentally/spiritually/physically draining ride with Callie and the girls and I wasn't really eager to do that again, though in a different way. However, time after time, prayer after prayer, God showed us individually, in very clear ways that adoption was in His plan for us.

Jason makes fun of me and tells people I was just like Gideon throwing out the fleece multiple times and changing the rules just to see how God would respond. And just like Gideon, God made his intentions very clear. (If you're not familiar with that story, you can find it in the book of Judges in the Bible.) It came to the point where for our family, refusing to adopt would be a sin. It would be saying "no" to God and what he was calling us to. So, in faith, we are proceeding with the process of domestic infant adoption.

We have a wonderful Christian agency we are working with, and we have almost completed everything required before our family profiles can be sent to other agencies to be matched with a birthmom and baby. I think the hours spent on paperwork, adoption training, and the homestudy were nothing compared to what is going to happen now. I feel like I am strapping on my seatbelt and preparing to ride a wild and crazy roller coaster that I know nothing about.

That is pretty much what I have to share for now. We really didn't know at what point to share this news. I opted for after the baby is placed in our home, but Jason thought that might be a little late! In some ways we are sharing it for some of the same reasons we started blogging with the girls. We need prayers. We don't know what is going to happen or how long the process will take. That is all in God's hands. But we firmly believe that this is what God wants for our family and we would love for those of you who still check up on us to once again pray us through this life-changing decision for our family. I still have moments of terror where I wonder how it is all going to work out - both in the immediate future and longterm, but those are the times I have to remind myself that God is in control and He knows what is best for our family. With Callie and the girls, I shared very intense, very personal feelings for everyone to see. We will probably not be doing much of that with this situation. There might be times when we ask for specific prayers but with adoption, there are more people involved and we don't feel it is right to post all details for everyone to see. We hope you are understanding about that. Also, we don't know how long the process from here on out will take, because it is out of our hands. If we don't say much it is probably because we don't know much.

So that summarizes my novel for the evening. If I got in the habit of writing more often, I wouldn't have to arrange my posts in chapters. In all my free time, I should probably work on that. Thanks for sticking with this until the end and thanks for still caring about us and our lives. Oh, and I might let Jason share more about his thoughts and his side of the story later. It will probably be less wordy.

The Belt

2011-03-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who offered tips on how to keep the little girl's pants up. I did some internet research and found a belt I wanted to buy. Then I came across an even better belt, one I thought I could replicate. So with items I already had on hand, Velcro and grosgrain ribbon, I fashioned Callie's new belt. It is working wonderfully. It holds her pants up and doesn't require her to unfasten anything before using the potty. The only down side is the pants have to have belt loops.

And, just for the fun of it, Callie is wearing a her first piece of 3T clothing - the shirt. It might be a little big still but she is well over 3, and I was tired of 18 and 24 month clothes.

Potty Training Success

2011-02-18T11:47:00.001-08:00

I am happy to announce that 32 stickers and 3 accidents later, Callie is potty trained! It was actually a relatively easy process. I definitely think she was ready. She is very excited to be a big girl and wear big girl undies. The only problem now is that she has the new name "Miss No-Bum-At-All." She is wearing 24 month jeans with adjustable elastic pulled as tight as it will go and her pants still fall down. Actually, her training pants fall down, too. So now I need to figure out a way to gather all of her pants so they won't fall down. I have also given some thought to making her tiny belts. Since she still needs assistance to use the potty anyway, I thought belts might be an option.

Bah Humbug

2011-02-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

I don't do Valentine's Day.**Thankfully my husband is not a fan either. Unfortunately this year, Wyatt is in school and is having a valentine's party. That means we had to give in and acknowledge the day with, ugh, valentines. After perusing the isles for appropriate cards, we settled on a 27 pack of animal valentines. Perfect. There are 23 kids in his class so there would not be many leftover. Jason was also quite happy that were made in the USA. When it came time to sign the cards, I opened up my box of 27 and was promptly disappointed to find that they didn't include envelopes. It was just the cards. And the cards were barely larger than a postage stamp. They were larger when I was little. And my box of 27? Yep, it had a total of 18 cards. Lovely. Now what to do? Well, even though this was a few days ago and I had time to go back to the store to return them, I wasn't in the mood. So I improvised. I decided to make his cards using materials I had around the house. Yippee! No need to buy anything. So I used my friend Google to find a few ideas and settled on butterflies. Wyatt did a fantastic job signing his name and thinks they are the best cards ever. And I am pretty happy to use up a bag of dum-dums that have been sitting around since the late '80's and a bunch a brightly colored paper that I never use. I am pretty happy with the outcome of our cards this year.

** If anyone would like to convince me that this day is worth celebrating, I will gladly accept balloons, flowers, chocolate, diamonds and anything else that might change my mind.

Weekend Plans

2011-02-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

My weekend plans include this child wearing these clothes, a bunch of stickers, and hopefully, a very patient mommy. Sound like fun?

Except for church on Sunday, we don't have anywhere to go until Thursday. If she doesn't potty train by then, she isn't ready. Hopefully we won't need until Thursday. Monday, at the latest, would be grand! I am kind of envious of people who can bribe their kids with candy to use the potty. My g-tube fed princess doesn't fall for such shenanigans. Thankfully, she has become interested in stickers so she gets to put stickers on her potty chart. Now our only problem is figuring out how to get my petite-sized friend on the toilet. She's so short, she needs a step ladder to climb up.

Another month already!

2011-02-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

Time flies.

I told Kelli that we should probably update the blog since it's been a while. I logged in and realized it's been a month already since the last post. Time moves in a hurry.

Here's what we've done over the past four weeks or so.

Kelli and took a birthday/Christmas/anniversary trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul. It was nothing fancy by any means - two nights at a hotel (Priceline!) and a lot of just hanging out sans children. But it sure was fun.

While there, we got to see A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. It was a great show - very entertaining. It took place at the historic Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. Here's Kelli standing out front. Fancy place, huh?

And here's a shot of Garrison Keillor himself, with his trademark red tie and red shoes.

While in St. Paul, we also got some candy from Candyland. In case you can't read the sign, it's been famous since 1932. Homemade gumballs, jawbreakers, gummis, suckers, sours... I felt like a kid in a, well, candy store.

Prior to the show, we wanted a meal. Being on a tight budget, someone had suggested Mickey's Diner as an option. When we walked by, I knew we had to go in. It was very cramped inside, and crowded. The food, however, was cheap, greasy, and DELICIOUS! I noticed the cook had a metal kettle on the griddle and he'd pour out of it to grease the griddle prior to putting food down. I assumed it was some cooking oil. He also had a GIANT pile of hash browns that he'd dump a little of the oil into once in a while. It was only later that I discovered he was refilling the kettle - with giant spoonfuls of LARD! One hundred percent, pure lard. No wonder those hashbrowns were so good!

The next weekend, Kelli started helping Wyatt dig out igloo of sorts in the front yard. Here he is in the early stages, having dug in a bit from the sidewalk. Later on, I helped him with the tunnel so that it went about ten feet back into the pile of snow, then turned to the right and came out in the driveway. Now it's a popular hangout for the kids on the block.

My parents came to visit about a week and a half ago. We had a good visit. They ended up staying an extra day because of the bad weather that cut across much of the midwest. It was nice having them around. The kids love to play with them, and vice versa. They'll be coming back for Sadie's birthday, and Wyatt's. In the mean time, we've been munching on gifts they brought us from Alabama. It's things you can't get in Fargo - Golden Flake cheese curls and butter cookies - the ones with the holes in them that we'd stick on our fingers during vacation Bible school. If you're from Birmingham, you're nodding your head right now. If you're from Fargo, you're probably scratching yours. Those are good cookies, I tell you.

Earlier tonight, Wyatt wanted to help make supper. Kelli had made him an apron that she gave him for Christmas, so he had to wear it.

He helped butter the bread.

Here's a tip:

If you let your five year old butter the bread before you heat it in the oven, you'll have PLENTY of butter! In fact, you might even have to wring out each slice before you put it on your plate. If nothing else, the boy is thorough. He covered every square inch of the bread. Every. Square. Inch. Paula Deen would be proud. Maybe he's practicing to be a cook at Mickey's Diner...

Callie

2011-01-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

Callie has been doing really well since her surgery. She never showed any sign of pain after the procedure. I gave her tylenol for the first few days just to keep any possible pain at bay, but when we asked if anything hurt, she always told us "no." I don't really understand how my child can have something cut out of her throat and never exhibit any form of discomfort.

Callie's sleeping has markedly improved. I hoped that when she started getting a good night's sleep she would stop headbutting, but that is not the case. I think she headbutts less and for shorter periods of time but it is still incredibly annoying when she does it.

(If you didn't know about Callie's headbutting, it's something she does almost every night. It's a self-stimulation thing that's possibly related to her having been a micropreemie. Some other kids do it too, but it occurs more often in preemies. It doesn't do any harm, but sure irritates everyone within earshot. She bangs her head repeatedly for several minutes on the mattress and grunts loudly while doing so. How that actually helps her fall asleep, I have no idea. Maybe it just helps her wear herself out so she's more tired. Anyway, it's something she's done for a long time and should eventually outgrow. At least it's getting better)

We have once again put Callie and Sadie in a room together. It is going very well. We have had a few instances where the girls had a screaming competition to see who could be louder and endure longer. (Sadie is definitely louder but Callie has more endurance). For the most part, though, they sleep peacefully and seem to enjoy being in a room together. Sadie can now reposition without waking Callie and Callie can puke without waking Sadie.

Callie has done better with keeping food down since her surgery. She no longer gags and vomits every time she cries. In fact, we have noticed it is more difficult for her to gag herself on purpose. Aside from all the water and juice she drank the day of surgery, she hasn't really improved in that area. She will still drink small amounts but can easily get choked if she swallows too much. Now that Sadie is feeding herself beginner foods, Callie is more interested in trying to do the same thing. She can eat a handful of puffs or easily dissolved finger foods and she will often take Sadie's if she doesn't have any for herself.

Callie recently tested out of her verbal goals for speech therapy so we are now working twice a week with a therapist on eating. Somehow we will get through to Callie that eating can be fun and pleasurable and I still think that one day she will get it. On Friday I watched her from an observation window at therapy and she was happy trying to munch on puffs and pretzels. When the therapist worked with her on chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, bbq sauce and french dressing, it was incredibly interesting to see how uncomfortable and uneasy it made Callie to try to even touch those foods.

Now that Callie is 3, we have moved her up to her new Sunday School class and she absolutely loves it. She sings, does crafts, has a story time, and plays games. There is more structure than her previous room and she is really doing well. It is still all new to her and she is pretty cautious with it all but she enjoys going and is in a great mood when we pick her up.

Callie's verbal language continues to explode and she keeps us laughing a lot. The other day Wyatt did something to make her cry and Sadie found it amusing. Callie looked at Sadie and said, "Stop laughing Sadie-bug. It's not funny. Stop laughing." ("Sadie-bug" is our occasional nickname for Sadie. It seems to be Callie's permanent name for her sister.) During bathtime, Sadie is fascinated with Callie's mic-key button. I often hear, "No, Sadie-bug. Leave my mic-key button alone. Mommy, Sadie-bug's grabbing my button." She is my little informant who will let me know when Sadie is eating paper or playing in the dog bowl or when Wyatt is doing something he shouldn't.

Christmas

2011-01-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful ending to 2010 and a great start to 2011.

All three kids were a blast this Christmas. Wyatt enjoyed opening presents for himself and his sisters, Callie yelled and squealed with every gift and Sadie tried to eat all the wrapping paper she could.

We were very low key with gifts for the kids this year, but by the time they recieved presents from two sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and assorted other family members and friends, they had stacks of presents to open.

Some of Wyatt's gifts were a train table, guitar/drum/keyboard lessons, a litebrite and a construction kit where he can saw and hammer and build with pretend wood.

Callie's gifts were more therapy related. She is now the proud owner of a therapy trampoline, a child sized medicine ball, and an assortment of chewy toys (associated with speech therapy). She also received a doll and gymnastics lessons.

Sadie would have been fine if we had just given her boxes and paper and bows but she did get a few new toys and clothes.

Christmas day we decided to make the jump and move Callie to a big girl bed. Callie has been sleeping much better since her surgery and we knew at some point we needed to do it. We were a little nervous about how it would go, though. We had been talking about it for a while and Callie watched as we converted her crib into a toddler bed. When bedtime came we tried it out and Callie did WONDERFULLY. She climbed in bed and stayed there all night long. We were amazed when she stayed in bed the next morning and waited for us to come get her up. Jason and I were expecting her to try to escape and pull out her feeding tube in the process but she didn't. Callie seems to like her new bed and continues to do well each night. Now if we could just keep her from grunting loudly in the middle of the night and waking up her sister...

Prayers Answered!

2010-12-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

Guess who is at home in her own bed and sleeping soundly? Callie was discharged from the hospital this evening. Just in time to go home, get a dose of tylenol, take a bath and go to bed. It was the quickest and most peaceful she has ever been while falling asleep. The day was amazing. She had a great time playing before surgery. She acted like she owned the hospital. She did well during surgery. It only lasted about 20 minutes and everything went as planned. The doctor told us that once he removed the tonsils he realized how large they were, and they were huge, especially for someone Callie's size. Once I could be with her in recovery, she did nicely. (She was a little spitfire giving two nurses a doozy of a time before I arrived). Once back in her room, it looked like Santa had visited. Callie had a new blanket, a tub toy and a new baby doll. That was quite a surprise. I think it is one of the perks of having a December surgery.

At 11 AM she received her first dose of heavy duty pain meds and it did not have the desired effect with Callie. It kept the pain at bay, of course, but instead of making her drowsy so she could get some rest, it made her goofy/hyper/restless and generally very very funny. I was exhausted, having to keep her in bed and attached to her pulse oximeter and IV. After that dose wore off, we switched to plain tylenol and that is all she has had. She has not complained of anything hurting. She has played, sung, talked, and been in a great mood all day. And most wonderfully, she has been drinking from a cup since surgery. She has been really thirsty and drank more today than I have ever seen her drink. It only totaled a couple of ounces over the course of the entire day, but that's still an improvement for her.

This evening we asked about the possibility of changing our plans and going home, rather than staying the night as originally planned. I didn't think the medical staff would go for it but everyone involved in her care thought it was a fine idea. It probably helps that we are only 5 blocks from the hospital. So we came home and Callie went to sleep. The only problem is I can't hear Callie breathing/snoring from the door like I always have. I have to go into her room, place my hand on her chest or under her nose to make sure she is breathing. Oh well, I think I can adjust.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers today. Please keep them coming. I figure her pain will eventually get worse, but it would be incredible if she sailed right through the rest of her recovery.

Here are a few snapshots of Callie today:

When she first got up early this morning, she decided she really wanted to wear her tutu. Not sure why. Maybe she thought it matched her pajamas.

Daddy stretched out in bed next to her to watch cartoons while waiting for the nurses to get everything set up.

Once she got changed into her hospital clothes, we took a walk down the hall. Next to the nurse's station are some whimsical decorations that Callie liked.

She enjoyed hanging out under the big tree and playing with Frosty the Snowman (not part of the normal decor, of course, but still a hit). Until she actually went back for surgery, she thought the hospital was a grand place to be.

Surgery for Callie (again)

2010-12-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

Callie will be admitted to the hospital at 6:15 tomorrow morning (December 15) to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. She will stay overnight for observation and hopefully we will be back home Thursday.

This is, by far, Callie's easiest surgery from a medical standpoint, but this is the first surgery where she has some realization of what is going on. Childlife specialists will be working with her and we have prepared her as well as we know how. She can tell you she is going to the hospital to have the doctor take out her tonsils (which she will then show you) and then she is going to watch movies. I think she is actually pretty excited about it. We will have to see what she thinks tomorrow.

We were in Minneapolis today for her NICU follow-up visit. It went really well. Callie was given some OT/PT tests and she worked really hard. She scored at her age level or a little above in every category. The doctor was thrilled with how great she is doing. We talked a little about the need of taking Callie to a feeding clinic in the next year. For now, we are going to keep working with her and see what difference, if any, this surgery makes.

Thanks for checking on us and if you could remember to pray for Callie tomorrow and for the next few days, that would be fantastic.

Callie Medical Update

2010-12-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

Callie had her three year appointment last month and it went well. Callie is still tiny but is growing and is proportional. The doctor was quite supportive of our new plan to try Callie on blenderized food as her formula. I plan to blog on that later. While she was examining Callie, I asked her to look at Callie's tonsils because I thought they were quite large. The doctor was quite surprised with how large they are and referred us to an ENT to see what he thought. He too, thought Callie's tonsils are quite large and in her case, too large. He didn't even need a tongue depresser to see them clearly. And when she gags, they actually touch. The doctor asked if Callie sleeps well (never), if she snores (very loudly, all the time), and he already knew about her gagging issues when she cries and coughs. He thought it would make sense for Callie to have her tonsils removed. So, next week, that is what we will be doing.

On Monday evening we will head to Minneapolis for Callie's annual NICU followup appointment. She will have some OT/PT evaluations and then we will meet with one of her NICU doctors. I figure our topic of the day will be Callie's lack of eating and the possibility of doing an intensive feeding program with her. Then Tuesday we will head back home and surgery will be here in Fargo on Wednesday. This will be her first, and hopefully last, surgery in Fargo but I feel very comfortable with the doctor performing the procedure. He know's Callie's history and is going to take every precaution necessary. We will actually be spending the night in the hospital so they can watch her carefully to make sure she does well after surgery.

This is Callie's first surgery where she actually understands some of what is going on. We have watched a pre-op DVD multiple times to try to help get her ready and we talk about what is going to happen. I still figure there might be some freaking out on surgery day. Three is a difficult age to reason with.

Though we aren't excited about yet another surgery, we are hopeful that this procedure will help Callie. She is a horrible sleeper and hardly ever sleeps soundly. We are hoping that once her tonsils are removed, an unobstructed airway will help her fall into a deeper, more peaceful snore-free sleep. When Callie gets upset and cries, she often gags and depending on when she last ate, will throw up. It would be absolutely wonderful if the gagging was a result of the large tonsils and this behavior would cease after surgery. That would really help me in my daily struggle of trying to keep massive amounts of food in Callie's body.

One of the good things we have in our favor for this surgery is Callie's Mic-Key button. Kids often don't want to eat and drink after surgery so dehydration can be an issue. Luckily, we will be able to feed Callie and keep her well hydrated.

Happy Day, Callie

2010-12-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

I waited so long to write about Callie's birthday because I was hoping to have some pictures to post of it. But out of my two photographers for the night, there are not really any good pictures of Callie's special day, so I will have to paint verbal pictures for you.

Callie was quite excited about turning 3. Her slogan for the day was "Happy Day, Callie!" It was never "birthday." She loved telling herself "Happy Day." Her one request for her day was balloons. Callie is really not up-to-date on her cartoon characters and animated creatures but she does know who Elmo is, so her theme for the day was Elmo. I decorated with one Elmo balloon and quite a few other balloons and streamers and Elmo plates and napkins. Callie's face glowed when she saw all the balloons and decorations just for her special day.

We had a great family party. We knew Callie wouldn't care to eat her cake so I made Jason's favorite cake since I neglected his birthday. Callie loved being sung to and requested that we sing to her multiple times. She had a little help from her brother blowing out the candles and then she surprised us all by licking icing off the candles.

Callie received a mound of gifts. From toys to cds to books to clothes, Callie thoroughly enjoyed opening all of her presents. It was the most involved she has been with her birthday. I am thinking Christmas this year is going to be a lot of fun!

Play Clothes

2010-11-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

Today after Callie was dressed for the day, she sat down to play. Then she looked up at me and said, "Shoes off." I told her it was fine, she could take her shoes off. After she accomplished that, she said, "Socks off." She proceeded to remove her socks and leg warmers. Then she stood up and said "Dress off" and immediately started unsnapping her dress. There was no point in stopping her, but I was curious as to why she needed to now remove her dress, so I asked. Her response? "I play better." Well, there you have it, folks. The correct way to play for the day is in a diaper and t-shirt.

**Should I also mention the sky was dropping 11.5" of snow while she was happily undressing?

The Forgotten Birthday

2010-11-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

I originally had grand plans for Jason's and Callie's birthday. Since they are only a few days apart, it was going to be one large party. And since Jason was going to be 33 and Callie was turning 3, it was going to be very convenient for decorating (add one three for Jason, remove it for Callie). The only problem was I ran out of time, and Jason got the raw end of the deal. I don't think he really minded, though. Jason's birthday is on Halloween so we spent the morning at church and the afternoon at Trunk-n-Treat handing out candy to over 1500 kids and the evening handing out raisins and Scarrots to neighbors. I actually forgot it was Jason's birthday until we were going to sleep that night. Oops. We had a small party the next day so I at least acknowledged his special day. I did make up for it by getting Jason a scope for his rifle - just in time for deer season.

And just in case you are wondering what Scarrots are, here's a picture. They're baby carrots, packaged to look like Halloween candy. Nothing's scarier than vegetables on Halloween! And yes, we really did hand these out. I am anti-halloween and anti-candy. What's funny is kids thought they were junk food so they were the first to go. I admit, there were probably a few disappointed kids but maybe there were some happy parents. I wonder if we will have any trick or treaters next year...

6 Months

2010-11-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Right after returning from Alabama, we had Sadie's 6 month doctor's appointment. Compared to Callie, we think Sadie is HUGE. Unlike her sister, she has fat rolls and dimples in all the right places. Sadie is perfectly proportional but the doctor thinks she is going to be petite. Sadie weighed 14 pounds 9.2 ounces which is in the 17th percentile. She was 24 3/4" tall which is in the 13th percentile. Others might consider Sadie small, but we think of her as "pleasantly plump." As far as development goes, everything seems right on track with the little girl.

Now that I am writing this, Sadie just turned 7 months old. She is still our laid back, happy little friend. She loves to smile and laugh. She is a good little sitter and even though she is not crawling, she is quite mobile. I remember months of months of Callie sitting in the same place, but not Sadie. She will roll and squirm and move until she finds what she wants. It is really fun to watch.

We have also started solid foods with Sadie. I held off as long as possible but when she started waking up in the middle of the night hungry, I realized she needed something besides milk. I think since we waited later before starting solid foods, she had time to watch us eat. It was amazing how quickly she took to eating and can do so without making a huge mess. We are still in the experimental stage, but we haven't found anything she does not like. Tonight we fed her apple and sweet potato yogurt and that might be her most favorite food to date. She ate the entire 4 ounce containter and wanted more. It is really fun to feed a child who enjoys eating.

We are still here...

2010-11-12T06:23:00.001-08:00

We really are here and are fine and dandy. We just had to hit the ground running upon returning from Alabama and we really have not slowed down. I am thinking we have to make it a few more days and then it will get a little easier. I have a lot to update and I thought about cramming it all in one post but I really wanted to take my time and focus on a few of the things that have been happening around here. So that is what I plan to do. But you will have to wait a little while longer. It's the second week of deer season and I am off to see if I can get my first buck.... I'll be back soon, though.

Travel Down South

2010-10-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I (Jason) found the camera. Thought I'd upload several photos of our trip to the Heart of Dixie. (That's Alabama, for all our friends from the Upper Midwest.)

We left on a Wednesday afternoon after Wyatt got out of school. I drove, Kelli rode shotgun, Sadie, Callie, and Granna took the middle seat. Papa was in the back seat with Wyatt, and Shika was in the back with the luggage. Things were a bit snug, but we all fit.

Driving through the night, we made it to Nashville, Tennessee Thursday afternoon. We ate a late lunch at Chick-fil-a (yum!) with Papa's brothers, and then went to Uncle Carl's house. Friday was a day of resting. We mostly just hung out and visited, and the kids got to go to a park for a while. Our friends Snotter (Scott) and Vanessa (who's great with child) drove over from Chattanooga for a quick visit, and my parents drove up from Birmingham to spend the night.

Here's our family with Snotter and Vanessa.

Then, on Saturday, I ran my first ultramarathon. I'd never run 50 miles in one day before, but I did then. Kelli, the kids, my parents, Uncle Carl, Aunt Suzie, and their daughter Elizabeth spent the better portion of the day driving all over Nashville to see me at aid stations. What great support! It took a little less than 12 hours, but I felt really good when I finished.

Wyatt got to run the last 100 yards or so with me, so he was pretty excited about it.

Here we are crossing the finish line together.

After supper, a shower, and supper again, we hit the road to Birmingham, Alabama. We all slept late on Sunday. That's a lie. I slept late. Everyone else got up on time. Sunday afternoon we went to the thriving metropolis of Ohatchee, Alabama for a Medders get-together. We saw aunts, uncles, and a thousand cousins. The Medders clan make for a big bunch of folks, you know.

On Monday, we went to Montgomery to see Kelli's sister and her husband. While there, we ate lunch at a little place called Pizza Perfect. If you've never eaten at Pizza Perfect (it's part of Montgomery "culture," so you probably should, you know) just imagine a low-cost pizza buffet in a filthy building. Seriously. The building was filthy. I felt like K-Mart would've been a cleaner environment to consume approximately 73 slices of pizza. It was tasty, though.

Also, we caught a possum while in Montgomery.

Here I am taking a self-portrait while holding it's tail. Don't ask me why. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.

And here, I've got the possum on a pitch fork. That's just how cool life is in Alabama. You can stand on your sister-in-law's back porch with a possom on a pitch fork, and nobody even thinks anything of it. :)

After a couple of days in Montgomery, we returned to Birmingham (and got to change a flat tire on the way - yippee!). We spent an afternoon at Aunt Sandy's house. What's it like at Granna's sister's? Imagine opening a Southern Living magazine and stepping inside. That's life at Aunt Sandy's.

We made our way back to the hilltop where I grew up. My parents have turned the place into a carnival of sorts for the grandkids.

We tended the honeybees. Wyatt got the only almost-full-body coverage. The rest of us could only cover our heads and hope for the best.

We played with sparklers.

We rode a zip line.

We went on a hayride.

We rode a battery powered jeep.

And we laughed and laughed.

The trip back took an eternity, but it was worth it. All in all, it was a great trip!

Catching Up

2010-10-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a great trip down South. We got to see parents, grandparents, siblings, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, and assorted friends. It was quite the adventure - Jason, Kelli, Wyatt, Callie, Sadie, Papa, Granna, and Shika the dog all piled into one vehicle, along with enough luggage for a 10 day trip. And just think - it's only 1300 miles. One way.

As soon as we find the camera, we'll get some pictures and narratives uploaded. There's some good stuff to share. Unfortunately, our photos are currently lost in the abyss that is our stack of items to unpack. Since the camera is still in hiding, here are some non-related photos from a few weeks ago that never got uploaded:

We use cloth diapers - the Bum Genius brand. We're big fans. They were all hanging on the clothes line in the back yard a couple of weeks ago, and we thought it would make a cute picture. The diapers come in all different colors, and really are quite simple to maintain. If you ever want to hear a sales pitch for them, just let Kelli know. Bum Genius should hire her as a marketing person with as much as she promotes them.

Just a quick photo with Jason and his favorite two- (almost three-) year old. She's come a long way since November 2007.

And even though we're obviously biased, we still think Sadie is the cutest baby in the world.

Yep, she's pretty stinkin' cute...

Oh my...

2010-10-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

My son ate a rock today. At school. During naptime. One minute it was in his shoe. The next minute it was in his stomach. Supposedly, all the other details are a bit blurry. The only explanation I could get was "I didn't mean to swallow it." Hopefully the GI issues he is currently experiencing will keep him from ever magically getting a rock in his stomach again.

Weekend Project

2010-09-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Jason thought it would be fun if I blogged about things I do when I am not pulling out my child's tummy tube or cloroxing school lockers. I really enjoy crafts - mainly those involving material.

This weekend I had a chance to refinish some chairs. I have been wanting a new chair to put Callie's booster seat on, and I thought a matching chair for Sadie's seat would nice. A week ago we were leaving our house and noticed that our neighbor had 4 chairs on her lawn with a sign reading "FREE - Please take all 4." So I did.

Using leftover paint from a previous project, material remaining from the kitchen curtains I sewed and less than $5 worth of materials from the hardware store, I made the chairs quite functional for our house.

This is one of the chairs right off the neighbor's lawn.

It was a little worn from years of use.

Here is a finished chair with a fresh coat of paint, new foam, new material and a few extra screws to make it more sturdy. What you might not be able to tell is there is also vinyl covering the new material. Not the most aesthetically pleasing thing, but highly practical considering two little girls are going to be learning to eat in these chairs.

Callie looked at the chairs and said, "I like. Eat." I guess that works for me.

What a Day!

2010-09-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Well, I had one of those days this week. Like Alexander, I was pretty convinced that Australia was the place to be, rather than Fargo, ND.

We started the morning by walking Wyatt to school and then getting home to get Callie and Sadie fed and dressed for the day. We drove to speech therapy and due to massive amounts of construction around town, I tried a new route. Bad idea. It was a stretch of road where if you were stopped at one stoplight, you would be stopped at all the stoplights. Even though I left home in plenty of time to get to therapy, we arrived right when the session was supposed to be starting. I went to get Callie out of her carseat and she puked. Thankfully it was mainly on her jacket, which I just took off. During Callie's session, while I was talking to another therapist, Sadie decided to spit up. Lovely, considering this is the child who hardly ever spits up. At least in true Sadie form she laughed after she did it.

After Callie's session, she told me she wanted to be fed. Since she hardly ever tells us this, I most definitely agreed to feed her on the way home by way of her feeding tube. I had the feeding pump sitting beside me for the drive home and everything was going well until a UPS driver tried to pull over on top of me. Scary. I had to stop the feeding early because air got in the line and it the pump quits working and alarms when there is air present. We arrived home and as soon as I took Callie out of her carseat she started crying. It took me a second to realize why. My child was losing massive amounts of milk out of her stomach. I looked back up at the carseat and yes, sure enough, dangling from her feeding tube was her Mic-Key button. Oh wonderful. Apparently it IS possible to jerk that thing right out of her stomach.

I didn't panic because I have changed out her button numerous times after the old one wears out, but this was clearly not a "scheduled" change. I was little ticked with myself. I grabbed Callie and put pressure over the hole in her stomach to try to keep some of the milk in and to keep air out. I grabbed the no-longer-in-her-stomach button, then tried to gather my thoughts to figure out what to do next. You see, Sadie was still contentedly sitting in her carseat and I needed two hands to get her out. Unfortunately, my hands were kind of full at the moment. So, I went next door and got our neighbor to see if she could watch Sadie while I replaced Callie's feeding tube. She and her grandson came to help and I took Callie inside to replace the button.

I was a little frazzled and for some reason did not have everything I needed in one place so it took a few trips up and down the stairs to get all the supplies needed. Once I had everything, the button refused to go in. Callie was stressed and had tensed up her stomach muscles which made it practically impossible to replace the button. I couldn't get her to relax, but at this time I hear Sadie outside screaming like I have never heard her scream before. Nice. I run downstairs and outside only to realize Sadie, "Little Miss Happy Pants" has stranger anxiety. What a wonderful way to find out. But I still can't get her because I have to get the hole in Callie's stomach plugged up.

So I call my mom, the RN, to see what options I have. One is the emergency room, but I really don't like that one. The other is to try to get Callie to relax so the button will go in. My mom gets on the phone with Callie and she relaxes and within a few seconds, the button is in. So now I can go rescue Sadie. As soon as I take her from the neighbor, Sadie laughs. It took me a while to settle down but both girls went down for naps pretty easily.

So after a couple of hours of down time, we walk to get Wyatt. I pick him up and he is wearing short sleeves. When he goes to get his long-sleeved shirt out of his backpack, little twigs start falling on the floor. I just assume he picked them up while outside playing until there I notice a piece of his shirt is matted around a larger twig. I then realize this twig is actually a grape vine. So Wyatt and I engage in the following conversation.

Me: Wyatt, where did the grape stem come from?
Wyatt: Snack time.
Me: Did you not eat the snack I packed for you?
Wyatt: Yes ma'am, I did.
Me: But, Wyatt, I didn't pack you grapes.
Wyatt: Yes ma'am you did. Remember? Like the first or maybe the second day of school.
Me: Wyatt, you did NOT eat those grapes today, did you?
Wyatt: No, ma'am.
Me: Well, where did you get them from?
Wyatt: My locker.
Me: Wyatt, do you have more food in your locker?
Wyatt: Yes ma'am.
Me: Wyatt, show me your locker.

At this point he takes me to his locker and pulls out the blanket he uses for rest time. Sure enough, there on the bottom of his locker, is a handful of smushed, moldy, wrinkled grapes, a moldy half of an apple, and an open baggy of stale trail mix. Wyatt's teacher thankfully had a clorox wipe I could use to clean his locker and we had a lovely discussion on how moldly food can make us very sick and we never store leftover food in our locker.

Wyatt's excuse for the stash of food? "Mom, you've been packing me too much food." Well, then Son please bring it home so I can see I am packing you too much.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful but bedtime could not come soon enough this day.

Catching Up

2010-09-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update, but we've done several fun things in that time span, and Kelli's been pretty busy, so I thought I (Jason) would take a few minutes and be the blog updater-person for a bit. Here's a quick rundown of the highlights:

On August 29, Fargo hosted "Streets Alive." It was a citywide opportunity for families to walk, jog, ride bikes, rollerskate, propel wheelchairs, or otherwise commute throughout the city sans automobile. Five miles of main streets were blocked off throughout Fargo and Moorhead. Since Sadie was too small for the bike trailer, we let Wyatt be the only one to ride his bike while the rest of us walked. (Sadie's not AWOL; she's stretched out in the back of the double stroller in the photo.)

Along the route, there were a variety of stations to learn more about health, wellness, and physical activity. Wyatt gave the art of hula hooping a try.

He decided that it looked much easier than it really was.

It was a gorgeous afternoon, and we all enjoyed walking/biking/strollering around town together. There were hundreds of people out and about that day.

My parents came to town last week, and we spent lots of quality time together. Kelli decided that she wanted to make some homemade marshmallows, so we gave that a go. They made a HUGE, STICKY mess, but once they got into the pan and sat for a few hours, they actually turned out quite nice. The only problem is that they were so tasty, we ate them all before snapping a photo. Trust me, though - topped with a little toasted coconut and dipped in some semisweet chocolate, they were amazing.

Amazing, yes. But also very sticky and messy to clean up...

We also took advantage of the weather with Moms and Pops and went for a long walk last weekend. Passing by the playground, we had to stop and let Wyatt and Callie check out every swing and slide in the area.

Then, on Labor Day, we partied hard with a good old fashioned shrimp boil - potatoes, fresh corn, onions, sausage, and shrimp all cooked together in a big pot and dumped on a table covered with newspaper. It was delightful!

A lot of goodness packed into the past two weeks, if I do say so myself.

Prayer

2010-08-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Callie decided to bless our food for us tonight.

She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands and said "God, boo" while uncovering her face.

It was priceless!

1st Day of Kindergarten

2010-08-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Wyatt had his first day of kindergarten yesterday. It was a huge day for him and possibly an even bigger day for me. Besides my time spent on bedrest and with Callie in the hospital, I have been with this little guy every day for the past five years. Wyatt was THRILLED to be starting school, and even though it was bittersweet for me, I was very excited for him.

I think it is in the How to Be a Parent handbook, that you must get a picture of your kindergartener on the front porch on the first day of school.

It is a much better smile in this picture.

Jason was able to go into work a little later, so he was able to walk with us. I love that we have neighborhood schools, so we only have a short walk to school.

Wyatt gets a locker. He initially just stuffed everything in the locker, so we had to remind him that he needs to unpack his backpack first.

Wow, he is grown up.

Not the best facial expression, but here he is settled in his desk and ready to work. I tried to get him to use crayons but he insisted on using markers...until his teacher came by and told him it was a crayon day.

Wyatt had a great day at school, and I survived. I was a little teary after I left since his parting words were "I'm not so sure about this." He was joyful when I picked him up, though. He described his day as "fun" and his teacher as "a lot of fun." He enjoyed eating lunch in the lunchroom (he told me I packed too much food), he had a rest time (though he did not sleep) and he got to play on the playground (but he didn't get to play for a really long time because lunch took so long). He told me that he would love to go back.

Wyatt's prayer last night was "Thank you God that I can go to school now."

The boy was up at 6:45 this morning ready for the day. School doesn't start until 8:40. I was not ready for the day. He was a little timid this morning but ended up having another great day. Hopefully his passion for school will last for a while!

The Boy, the Girl and the Babe

2010-08-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Boy.

Yesterday he decided it would be a great idea to make a pair of headphones. He proceeded to make said pair of headphones, except he called them "earmuffs." He even proceeded to make up a song including the lyrics "I am listening to earmuffs, listening to earmuffs, listening to earmuffs." We informed him that it made no sense that he was listening to earmuffs but he really didn't care what we thought and continued with his song. Well, during the time he was making his headphones and singing his song, I refused to be amused. His sisters thought it was perfectly delightful and both were squealing but I played the serious mom role. You see, my son made his lovely earmuff/headphones with Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty. It is similar to silly putty but is much stickier and becomes even more sticky as you play with it because your body heat warms it and makes it very pliable. Well, the boy decided to stick a blob to his left ear, string it across the top of his head and then stick the remaining blob in his right ear. Well, because I was serious mom, I did not take a picture of th headphones intact, but I did take a picture of the aftermath. Wyatt had a lovely time with his earmuffs and his song but when it was time to remove his creation, there was a slight problem. His body heat had melted the goo to his ears and hair. Jason tried first to help the boy out, but to no avail. When he came to get my help, I had to get a couple of pictures before helping him out. And yes, he is completely Thinking Putty free, now.

The Girl.

It all started with an "Uh-oh. Mom, Callie is chewing on something that she shouldn't be but I don't know what it is." What is it you ask?

A Sharpie lid. Lovely. Considering the pen part of the Sharpie was not attached. So we started questioning the little girl. "Callie, where is the marker?" silence. "Callie, the marker. What did you do with it?" silence. "Callie what else did you write on?" With this, she looks down at her body, and lets out an "Uh-oh."

Yep. There was a tell-tale black mark on her hand. "Callie, besides your hand, what else did you color on?" silence. Well, Wyatt and I decided we were not making any progress with the girl so we decided to search the immediate area for the marker and anything else Callie might have colored on. A few seconds later we found this.

A Sadie diaper with now a lovely sharpie drawing on it. After about five more minutes of searching we came up empty handed. No more drawings (a good thing) and no sharpie (a not-so good thing). I am happy to report a few days later I found a dried out sharpie under the breakfast nook in our kitchen. What could have been quite disasterous ended up being relatively funny, al beit, nervewracking at the time.

The Babe.

Sadie is not doing anything particulary funny these days but we are stil completely smitten with her. She is the happiest, most joyful baby I have ever met. She is a lot of fun to be around.

Minneapolis

2010-08-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

We started out our week with a family trip to Minneapolis for a pulmonology visit for Callie. We arrived in town a little early so we could catch up with our NICU friends. Sunday afternoon we were able to spend a few hours with a precious family whose son was born a few days before Callie at 23 weeks. He is doing wonderfully now and we had a wonderful time watching the kids interact while the grownups did 6 months worth of catching up. Wyatt's observation for the visit was "Mom, that was pretty neat that Samuel could talk. How did he know how to do that?" So we got to explain that technically his sister should be talking like that and one day she will. Sunday evening we had a lovely dinner with one of Callie's primary nurses. Callie showed off her new skills and just showed off in general.

Monday we met with Callie's pulmonologist. He was genuinely thrilled with how well Callie is doing. He told us that Callie has had one of the rougher courses he has seen in his 15 years but that she is doing remarkable. It was really neat to see a doctor's face light up with pleasure over how Callie is doing. Since Callie has not been sick since coming off oxygen, we still don't know how her lungs will handle a respiratory sickness but we are hopeful she will get through it just fine. Since she is doing well, we don't have to see the pulmonologist again for a year! That sure beats the days when we were making monthly trips to Minneapolis.

It seems this summer Callie has hit a growth spurt. If you take a "normal child" growth chart, Callie is now on it for length. But when I say on it, I mean barely and I think only if you make your circle large enough when charting. Due to her increased tallness, we now have to catch up with weight. She has been around the 25% for weight to length ratio but that has fallen off and is no longer on the charts. Callie is still around 20 pounds even though she is getting massive amounts of calories each day. The doctor isn't worried about it, but wants us to keep an eye on it. Callie can still frustrate us with her feedings. It has been a chore to get 200 mL in her at one time, and as I wrote this, 3 1/2 month old Sadie just downed 270 mL right before bedtime. So it remains a challenge to feed Callie all the calories and volume she needs. So we will keep pushing and see how she does and try to get some more fat on the girl.

What Happens When

2010-07-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

What happens when there is a chubby little girl who nurses all day and then decides she only wants a bottle before going to bed at night? Well, the daddy gets the job of giving the bottle.

What happens when that daddy has had a busy day and is extremely tired? Well, he falls asleep while giving the nightly bottle.

And what does the chubby little girl do when her daddy falls asleep? Well, she falls asleep, too. After all, the bottle is no longer in her mouth thanks to the daddy who has fallen asleep on the job.

And what about the mommy who has the daddy and the chubby little girl who have both fallen asleep? Well, she gets to get up at 2 AM to nurse the chubby little girl who normally sleeps through the night because she never finished her nightly bottle.

The River

2010-07-30T10:39:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite summer places is Buffalo River State Park. It is only about 30 minutes from the Fargo-Moorhead area, and the kids have a great time there. In the past, I would go by myself with the kids but now that we have added a third child to the mix, I am not comfortable with that kid to parent ratio. Plus, the boy swims as well as a rock and Callie is fearless in the water. From year to year Jason forgets how much fun it is, so every summer I have to do a lot of convincing to get him there. A few weeks ago, after much convincing, Jason gave in and we spent a few hours at the river. And not surprisingly, Jason realized that it still is fun.

Callie working hard.

Wyatt taking a break long enough for a picture.

Sadie's idea of workng hard.

It was a pretty hot day, so Sadie is sleeping on a blanket covered ice pack.

Not a bad deal

2010-07-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Fargo summer activities is the Downtown Street Fair. It is a three day fair where vendors from all over come to showcase their handiwork. It includes a large supply of tiedye, yard art crafted from metal and barbed-wire, purses and jewelry galore, handpainted canvases and about anything else you could ever imagine.

It is during this time that that the Fargo Forum (our newspaper) holds a three day scavenger hunt for a hidden token. There is a clue in the paper each morning that will lead you to a token hidden somewhere along the street fair. Jason and I are always up for a good scavenger hunt but we have never been successful at this one. This year Jason was in charge of the hunting while I stayed at home with the kids. He did call me to read the clue so I could give my opinion on where it might be. On Thursday, the first day of the fair, Jason got up quite early, skipped his morning run and went searching for the token. And ten minutes later, it paid off...

Jason found the token. I suppose it might be worth mentioning, each of the three tokens is worth $500. Not a bad trade-off for skipping a morning run!

Fourth of July...a little late

2010-07-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July. We went to church in the morning and then spent the afternoon with some friends and their children. We ended the day with watching fireworks on television and outside at Granna and Papa's. I somehow missed getting any pictures of the boy but there are some fun ones of the girls in their patriotic dresses.

Callie loves to hold Sadie.

Sadie is not too sure about it, though.

A kiss for the little sister.

A beautiful girl.

Nothing says 4th of July like wearing a stocking cap (toboggan for you southerners) while watching fireworks.

She's Two

2010-07-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Callie is UNDENIABLY two years old. That's about all I can say about her fashion sense during our shopping trip the other day.

It was the first time she has ever kept glasses on for more than two seconds. And she wore them the entire outing. Lovely.

Oops

2010-07-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

So I came to the realization yesterday that just because I have written many blogs mentally (complete with pictures), it probably doesn't count. So my goal for the week is to sit down and actually type out some of my mental posts, just not tonight. I am really, really tired.

Dedication Sunday

2010-06-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we had the wonderful privilege of dedicating Callie and Sadie. Due to all of Callie's medical issues in the past, we had to wait a couple of years before we were able to do so, but it was a great celebration to bring her, along with her little sister, to publically present before God.

Callie and Sadie Medders Dedication from Prairie Heights Community Church on Vimeo.

Summer Stories

2010-06-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have a few things in mind to write about but for now my time to write is short. Just so you know we are still around and doing well, I will leave you with some Wyatt comments from the past few days.

We are well into summer here in Fargo and the weather has been quite lovely - in the 70's and 80's. The other morning Wyatt came downstairs dressed for his day, in shorts and longsleeves. I told him that he would probably get hot in long sleeves and he told me not to worry because he had short sleeves on too so he would be fine.

Wyatt somehow got a circular scratch above his right eyebrow which he was pretty excited about. He said, "Mom, I look like I am from China now! You know how those people from China have dots on their forehead?"

At least he pays attention (somewhat) to his "People of the World" book. I guess we just need to differentiate a little better between China and India.

The Boy

2010-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

I just asked Wyatt to clean everything off the floor of his room - toys, pajamas, dirty clothes, etc. The end result was not what I expected.

The part that gets me is he was not doing this for spite. He just thought it was a creative way to do what I asked him. He was kind of sad he wasn't able to pick up the heavy furniture as well.

Pictures

2010-06-10T19:39:00.001-07:00

We took the kids for some photos recently. That was quite the adventure. Wyatt was well behaved and did just fine. Sadie was her usual laid back self and was quite content no matter how she was posed. She wasn't much for smiles, but she never got sad or fussy. Callie, on the other hand, was a wild child. She didn't want to be in the same room as the camera equipment, let alone sit still or cooperate in any way, and she was sure to let her feelings about the subject be known. Fortunately, the photographers were very patient and we ended up with some nice shots.

Sadie was the first child to ever use this basket. She liked it.

Still just hanging out in the basket.

Our one picture of all three kids together - each doing their own thing.

"Ta" made a surprise appearance at the photo shoot. Callie didn't care for the rocking chair but Ta enjoyed rocking.

Once we told Callie she could dance, she decided pictures would be fun. This is my absolute favorite picture. Even though I can't see Callie's face very well, it just captures the essence of Callie. It also just reminds me of the other girls, though I am not quite sure why.

This is the handsome 5 year old, looking older than five.

Girl with the Green Thumb

2010-06-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a green thumb. I really do. Especially since most of the homeowners on our block have been blessed with the ability to have immaculate lawns and landscaped flower beds. I, however, do not have either of the above. But I also have three children who are pretty time consuming, so that is my excuse for now. Instead of pulling weeds and picking flowers and tending to my yard, I referee children who are pulling ears (seriously, not sure why they do this) and picking on each other. But this weekend, I finally decided that something needed to be done to our front yard to make it a little more appealing. So I purchased about every shade-loving plant I could find and attempted to make some kind of appealing flower planting arrangement. But wouldn't you know, as I was working hard to figure out what to do, I realized that Callie might be my child with the green thumb, as long as it involves wearing planters for hats, relocating dirt to various and sundry places and playing with any worms you might come across in the process.

Trying on the hat.

Hat fits, now we work. Move dirt from one location to another.

Move more dirt.

Find a worm to play with, and life is good!

Breakfast on the Farm

2010-06-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the morning at Breakfast on the Farm. This required us to get up at 6:10 AM to head out to the country for a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and strawberries. I was not thrilled with the incredibly early wakeup time and wasn't sure how the kids would do. But they did surprisingly well. Callie was thrilled to be going somewhere and Wyatt was pretty excited about going to a farm. Sadie was her usual laid back self and slept until late morning.

The breakfast was held at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, MN. It was a beautiful drive to get there and there was so much to see and do once we were there. Wyatt participated in the kid's pedal tractor pull. He won a terrific door prize. We were able to see many steam tractors, old engines, and a variety of farm animals. The two older kids had a great time (as did their parents). I suppose next year I will be reminding myself of how much fun it is when I have a hard time rolling out of bed in the wee hours of the morning.

Oh, for something fun, I am including a picture of our breakfast last year so you can see how Callie has changed in one year. It is absolutely amazing!

Wyatt pedaling hard.

He didn't get a trophy, but he won a door prize - a die cast metal Ford 8N tractor with a flare box wagon.

Our family - Jason, Kelli, Wyatt, Callie, Sadie, (and Shika the dog) - and an Allis Chalmers WD45 tractor (the first Allis Chalmers tractor available with power steering, you know)

2010 - we've come a long way in a year

Breakfast on the Farm 2009.

The Boy

2010-06-03T12:48:00.001-07:00

Wyatt: Mom, my houseshoes are FREEZING!

Me: Wyatt, why are your houseshoes freezing?

Wyatt: Because I had them in the fridge!! My feet feel good now!

Do you think I should have explained that on 80 degree days, we could just take off our fleece slippers instead of placing them in the fridge to cool off before we wear them?

Brave or Insane?

2010-06-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

Brave or insane? People couldn't figure out which of these we were when we told them we were going camping for the weekend. In a tent. With all three kids. And a dog. To be honest, I didn't know how it was going to turn out but we love camping so we thought we would give it a shot. Since Minnesota and its 10,000 lakes is right next door, we had plenty of options to choose from that kept us close to home just in case things went sour.

Things did not go sour, though. We had an incredibly great time. All three children were wonderful. Our campsite was about 75 feet from a playground so Wyatt had plenty to do. Callie would wander down to the playground then come up to see us and play with some toys and then wander around some more. Sadie just hung out and was content wherever we were - in the tent, out of the tent, in her stroller, or on a blanket on the lake shore.

Early on we did realize that we would have to keep a very close eye on Callie when we realized she wandered across the street to see how other campers were doing. She also managed to quickly climb a picnic table without us noticing. We caught her proudly standing on the top singing to herself.

The weather was beautiful and we spent our days by the lake, fishing and playing in the sand. We also took a walk into town for a visit to the candy shop. Both kids were able to pick out one piece of candy. Wyatt enjoyed his much more than Callie, but at least she tried.

The kids played so hard during the day that nighttime was not a problem. They slept as well as they do at home.

So all in all, our first camping trip was a success and we hope to do it many more times this summer.

Helping put up the tent.

My little southern girl - white dress and a dump truck!

She got some dirt on her hand and couldn't figure out how to get it off. She problem-solved by using her white dress as a napkin!

Callie working hard with the wagon.

Sadie being charming as ever.

Callie's sleeping accomodations. She actually loves the pack n play.

The man, the dog, the fish.

Callie wasn't much for the lake, but she thoroughly enjoyed standing in a pail of water.

Wyatt devoured his lollipop.

Callie liked her candy best with the wrapper still on.

Icecream

2010-06-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

What is summer without a visit from the icecream truck, even if the truck used to be an ambulance? Wyatt was thrilled about buying icecream and Callie wasn't sure what to think. She did taste a little of a popsicle, so I was pleased with that.

Faces

2010-05-21T09:45:00.001-07:00

These are some of the many faces of Callie.

Another Run

2010-05-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Wyatt had so much fun with his first run, that he asked if he could race again sometime. This weekend is the Fargo Marathon - complete with a 1/2 mile and 1 mile kid's run. We weren't sure if he would be up to running the full mile, and we didn't want it to be so hard that he got discouraged, so we entered Wyatt in the 1/2 mile. He and his dad ran together and they had a really good time. Wyatt did wonderfully. I think next year it will be the full mile for him.

Miss Sadie had fun waiting with Papa for the race to start.

Easter

2010-05-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter this year. We were able to all go to church, even though we had to take Callie in the service with us. She did surprising well for a talkative toddler. Then we spent the afternoon with grandparents. We don't have any wonderful Easter pictures. Callie was not in the mood for pictures and informed us of this. She frowned for most pictures and shook her head "no" when we asked if we could get a picture. There really wasn't any way to reason with her so we finally gave up. But here are a few pictures of our day and finally some pictures of Callie.

First Run

2010-05-12T18:04:00.001-07:00

Jason is quite the runner Well, after having surgery the end of March for a torn meniscus he is becoming quite the runner, again. Anyway, now that Wyatt is five and enjoys running with Jason and the dog, we decided to sign Wyatt up for his first kid's run. A couple of weeks ago, Wyatt competed in a fun run and then Wyatt and Callie rode in the stroller while Jason completed his first 5K in a while. Wyatt was on top of the world with his run. He thought he did wonderfully and though he was tired towards the end, the people cheering him on gave him the energy he needed to finish strong. We are proud of him and hope to have him run a few more times this summer. And if you ask Wyatt, he will let you know he ran a "marathon" and he beat his dad! Look how hard he's concentrating in the photo!

Boy's Birthday

2010-05-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

Since I have mentioned the girls, I should probably mention Mr. Wyatt. Wyatt turned 5 a few days after Sadie's birth and was thrilled that his birthday was Sadie's first party to attend. Since Sadie had just been born, we decided to have a small, family party. Wyatt didn't seem to mind. He was able to pick out the decorations (Cars plates and napkins) and balloons (pink, teal, red, and yellow) and the cake (lemon). I didn't really know how to make a fun lemon birthday cake, and a few days before his birthday, he decided he wanted a lemon dumptruck cake. The dumptruck theme had been performed before for his second birthday. It was a chocolate cake so it worked well. But a lemon dumptruck? With the help of Granna, we improvised and I was very please with the results. It was a lemon-raspberry cake, complete with a functioning dumptruck! Wyatt had a great day and received some pretty neat gifts.

New Member

2010-05-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Our most exciting news is our newest member of our family - Sadie Rose Medders. Sadie was born April 14, 2010 weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches long. She was the largest Medders baby to date. She is also the only full-term baby we have had. She was born 2 days before her due date. Callie and Wyatt are doing great with the new baby. Wyatt loves holding Sadie and talking to her and just touching her. He is really excited about when she can play with him. Callie is doing much better than Jason and I thought she would. We have seen no signs of jealously - just pure delight with her little sister. She loves pointing out Sadie's eyes, mouth, nose, hands, and feet. We are constantly reminding her to keep her fingers out of the baby's eyes and mouth. Sadie is very laid back which is such a blessing. She can sleep right through the chaos of our house. She is also very snuggly which is a lot of fun since Callie never was. As far as baby's go, she is a very easy baby. I am just trying to get adjusted to having three kids and balance my time with each of them and still keep up with the daily function of our house. Needless to say, the household part is really suffering these days. It is much more fun to play than to clean!

Our Blogging Start

2010-05-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

We originally started blogging in July 2007 right after we found out we were pregnant with naturally conceived, identical quadruplets. I had mixed feelings about blogging but we ultimately decided that through our blog we could keep family and friends updated with correct information and we also hoped that through our experiences, we would bring glory to God as he worked in our lives through the pregnancy.

The pregnancy went well for a while and then around 18 weeks we found out two of the girls were experiencing twin to twin transfusion. In an effort to correct this, we flew to Providence, Rhode Island for a laser ablation surgery. This was the first time the surgery had been performed on identical quadruplets, anywhere in the world. From a medical standpoint, the surgery was a success, but our Baby Girl A was so sick when the surgery was performed, she was not able to recover and died in utero the night of the surgery. Before we left Rhode Island for Minneapolis, Minnesota, Baby Girl D looked to be recovering. I was stable when we arrived in Minnesota so I began bedrest in a hotel adjoining the hospital where I was to deliver. A week and a half into my stay, I experienced complications so I was admitted to the hospital at 23 weeks. I was given the steroid shots to help the lung development of the girls and spent my days lying in bed praying that the girls could stay inside longer and we wouldn't have any more problems. At 24 6/7 weeks, for some unknown reason, I began having contractions that would not stop and the decision was made for the girls to be born. On November 4, 2007 the four sweetest little girls were born. Annika Peace, who died in utero, was born weighing 4 ounces. Daily Providence was born weighing 8 ounces. She was too small to survive but I had the incredible blessing of holding her and singing to her and praying for her as she died. Callie Ranelle weighed 1 pound and Berkley Claire weighed 1 pound 4 ounces. Three days after her birth, Berkley went to join her sisters in heaven.

Callie spent the first 209 days of her life in the NICU. While there, she underwent 8 surgeries and experienced a number of setbacks. She came home on May 30, 2008 dependent on a feeding tube and oxygen and needing occupational, physical and speech therapy two days a week, as well as in-home nurses. Due to her medical fragility, we were not able to expose Callie to germs, so her life has been pretty much secluded to the walls of our house and hospitals and clinics for doctors' appointments. Now that it is May 2010, Callie is finally stable enough to begin experiencing the world, and the germs that come with it. Our goal this summer, as odd as it may sound, is for Callie to experience a cold or two and see how her body is able to handle it. We are also hoping that now that she is able to be around people, her social skills will flourish as she interacts with others (who aren't familiar with Callie-talk).

Callie still has a few medical concerns (e.g. she is fed only by tube and takes nothing by mouth) but she is MUCH improved from where she was. So much so that it will be fun to focus the blog on a few other, more "normal" things for a change.

We are Back

2010-05-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new site!
After taking a break from blogging we have realized that there are still many people who are curious as to how Callie is doing and would really like us to blog more. After two and a half years of mainly blogging about medical issues, I am ready for a change. We thought it would be good to start fresh - thus the new website. (Plus we were having issues with the formatting of the old site and I wasn't smart enough to know how to fix them).
The goal of this new site is to be more fun and upbeat and involve more than just a focus on Callie. I suppose I should start with how our blogging came to be in case there are new readers, so that will probably be mostly about Callie. Our "old stuff" will remain at meddersfamily.googlepages.com, so people can see how far we, especially Callie, have come. But we won't be updating anything there again.
So thank you to everyone who has e-mailed and asked how we are doing and I hope you enjoy our new site.