And once again, I am back...

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.