Prayer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!