Darwin has 2 Mommies

Little artist

2012-01-25T18:57:00.001-05:00

The older E gets the more fun she is. Her grandparents got her an easel for Christmas and she has been loving painting. It is so nice to have an activity to fill the evenings and long afternoons all winter long.

Preschool hell

2012-01-21T12:33:00.001-05:00

So the time has to pick a school for Ella. It sucks. We love her family daycare and they truly have become just that, family. Ella loves it there and she is loved there. Which makes finding a new school for her all the more difficult. So I have been untying the decision off for months now but now it is time I have to figure this put. We have three schools on the list right now. Really 2 but I am keeping options open. School 1 is my first choice. It is a Montessori school and my mom was a Montessori teacher. I love the teaching method and I think Ella would do awesome there. The school is beautiful I mean Montessori school by nature are pretty. The wood materials, the cloth napkins, the cups hanging on a hook. I can picture her on may with the pink tower. Only one problem.....the money. Sweet jesus the money. It is totally out of the question without financial aid. I mean it is $3000 more a year for just the 8-3 program. Forget the after and before care I would need. That brings the grand total up to close to 8 grand more a year. So without financial aid or a lottery win Ella much to my mother's dismay will not be Montessori educated. The financial aid and admissions application are comical though. There is a whole page for ella's financial information. The do not seem to have a spot to record the contents of her pink piggy bank but there is a spot to record the contents of her trust fund. It seems as if a trust fund should eliminate you from financial aid but that is just me. There is also a page to record the homes you own...there are three blanks available my guess is that if you own three properties you should be screened out at that point. Well at least we will look good financially. I think the admissions director also mentioned that they REALLY encourage diversity at the school. I hope they have not filled their lesbian preemie teacher/social worker quota and bring us on board.
That brings us to options two and three. One really doesn't work without crazy scheduling stress. They don't own until 8. This is a problem if I need to do drop off since school starts at 8:50. At this point I am assuming that Shazam will have a job at one of the hospitals and will not be available ditto do drop off. While this school is the cheapest the stress of figuring out a morning nanny to take her to school and the added expense does not make sense to me. Option three is in the middle price wise and I liked the space much much better than option 2. Pretty much I think we will plunk down our non refundable deposit for option 3 and see what happens with Montessori taking pity on us. The admissions director said they can't do a full ride but they can come close so here is hoping. Now I need to go and write about how Ella likes to spend her leisure time and what our educational goals are for Ella. Are there two year olds that have non leisure time? I am pretty sure Ella's life is leisure time.

Happy 2012 Good Bye 2011

2012-01-01T23:45:00.000-05:00

2011 was another great year for our family. Busy as Shazam worked hard on her masters, Super Sammy G worked her tail off and Little E grew and grew! Little E is hardly the same child she was a year ago. She was still a 21lb baby last January and now she is all toddler and tipping the scales at 28 lbs. I was a bad blogger but really I think I was just overwhelmed trying to get through the day to day that I just didn't have the energy to do much more than keep us clothed and fed on a daily basis. Some days I didn't even do a good thing at that. So here is 2011 in review.

January

We started 2011 watching Auntie Beth run in the Millennium mile in NH. She did great!

Happy spectator

Auntie Beth doing great!

Hung out around the house and considered career options.

Little E discovered that she loved her puppy Darwin's bed. Who needs fancy pott.ery barn chairs!

Mid month we had an epic snow storm and little E had her first experience with some real snow!

E in a snowbank

Loving the snow!

Sledding

Enjoying a ride from Mommy

Happy snow family!

Amah and Gumpy (Grandma and Grampa G) bought her an awesome table. She loves it and eats, plays and draws at it daily.

Snack time

Cheering on the Pats!

At E's 18 month appointment we found out that she had lost weight (not good for a growing toddler) so we started project chubby cheeks to fatten up little E. She got to enjoy milk with cream added, butter in everything and lots of ICECREAM!

I think she likes it!

E you have a little something on your face!

February
February started a little rough with E's first real injury (ouch) from a fall onto the storage cubes.

Nice cut above her right eye.

She was still in love with her dog bed.

E made her first cupcakes for Mommy's Birthday

The chef

Hey Mommy why is my cupcake so small compared to you?

E wasn't feeling great that night and ended up in the ER with breathing issues. We now are a proud owner of a nebulizer. She was a real trouper with her treatments and was on the mend soon. Her lungs seem to be her only holdover from her prematurity.

Being a good sport about her breathing treatments.

March
We started taking trips to the local farm. The snow was still on the ground but E loved stomping in the puddles and seeing the animals

Splash

Exploring the Barn

Ella started really loving some of her new toys. Cutting fruit is still a popular game.

The chef

Looking cute in Mommy's hat

With Easter on the way E got her first tast of a marshmellow peep.

Mimi Ella and the peep=yum

She got her portrait taken for Easter with a real live bunny!

Ella and some eggs

Ella and the bunny! Her dress even matched

April
Ella's funny little personality is in full swing. Why she was in the sock bin with Kermit I have no idea but she was having a good time.

With the weather improving we spent alot of time as a family hanging our at the local historical site.

Ella wants to climb just like Mommy

Chickens watch out

Mommy and E in a tree!

We also returned to the farm where the lambs were starting to be born.

Love Chickens

New lambs so cute!

Trying to prevent E from jumping into the pig pen

E weighs in as a piglet!

ride um cowgirl

E went to her first Boston Marathon to cheer on a friend. We are lucky that the marathon goes right through our town.

Waiting for Kathleen

Mommy and her awesome sign

Run Kathleen (in center with black skirt and shirt)

E was really excited to get her Easter basket and was totally into her first egg hunt.

Easter Bunny E

Finding some Eggs

More Eggs

At the end of the month we made it to another Sheep Sheering festival with my parents. Lots of fun.

Traditional sheering. The sheep just lay there.

Shazam and my mom

Ahma Gumpy and E.

May
We started the month with our annual March of dimes walk. We almost made it through the whole thing without thunder and lightning. I am counting on a sunny beautiful day this year. We were joined this year by our fav nicu nurse, her husband, my parents, and both Shazam and my best friends. They all humored me and wore the crazy bee hats I found so that we could be team Bumble Bee!

Mama and E

A little over 20 lbs above her birth weight

Ready to walk

Shazam and her bff courtney

Ahma Gumpy and E

Family picture after the walk and during the rain

As the weather warmed up E hit the pool.

E also got a little daring and started climbing things for fun.

E also started spring training making her Mommy and Uncle Jeff proud.

She's got quite an arm!

Home Run

Batting Practice with Uncle Jeff

The wacky muscian

We took our first trip as a family to the Aquarium. E loved it espesially the tide pool. She loved getting her hands of the animals. The penguins and seals were also a big hit.

What is in there???

Cool!

Mama Ella and the Sea Anemones

June
We were back to the farm again. This time we got to meet a chicken and see the piglets that had been born! E also sported pig tails for the first time.

Mommy and E walking to the farm yard

I love you chicken!

Piglets

Hanging out at home

Doing some work with mommy

Wearing a Nightgown for the first time

Painting the back stoop with water

Showing off my mad utensil skills

We also attended E's cousin's dance recital. We thought E would last about one act but she sat for the entire first act. She loved it!

E with her cousins

We also squeezed in strawberry picking at the end of the month. She ate more than she put in the bucket though.

July
July was probably the busiest month we had all year. We packed in friend's, 4th of July, E's Birthday and the beging of a vacation.

We started the month with a playdate at the park with a friend

E with J

Fourth of July weekend started at the lake and ended up at Great Mimi and Great Buba's party in NH. E had a great time. She loved the parade.

Buba, E and Mimi

E had a Pinwheel 2nd birthday party in NH at Mimi and Buba's. It was a blast. I recycled decorations from E's 1st birthday party and they turned out really well. E had a great time with the sprinkler, bounce house and cake!

We spent some hot days at the local spray park were E loved running through the water (the child has no fear).

We moved from our 2 bedroom apartment to a larger and nicer 3 bedroom apartment at the end of the month. It was a great change and E now has her own bathroom and we have room to spread out a bit.

E likes her new tub!

Mommy and E having some cereal in our new breakfast nook

Our new town has a town pool so we were frequent visitors to the kiddy pool after we moved.

E loving the water

Warming up!

August

We started out the month with a vacation to P-town for family week. E loved the ocean and the pool and we had a great time with friend old and new.

Sea Weed Girl

Making sand castles

Swimming

We really enjoyed the family week festivities and had a blast in the preschool playtime in the park every morning and even marched in the parade!

Shaving Cream fun

Our rocking sign

View from the parade

When we returned home from vacation it was back to the farm to check on our animals.

Hello Goat

Big Girl

Mama and E

We made it to the pool almost every day!

We went to the zoo! E's favorite part was the petting area. She spent a lot of time kissing the goats.

Mama and E checking out a tortoise

I love you goat!

Goats rock

She also spent some time working on her Kramer hair!

September
September brought our awesome summer to an end. We all returned to school and back to the grind.
E enjoyed arts and crafts in the breakfast nook.

October
We made it to E's first country fair. She loved it and had a wonderful day. She fed the chickens, saw a giant pumpkin, rode her first pony and carousel. It was a awesome day.

E gets her love of Chickens from her Mommy

Loving the Pony

Checking out the goats

On the carrousel

Back on the Pony since it was so fun!

We enjoyed a very mild mid October and E and Mama did a photoshoot at the local historical society.

E was a ladybug for her first trick or treating. She was a natural and ran up to each house for her treats!

Mommy and E

Checking out her loot

Enjoying her treats

November
We had more fall fun with E's cousins.

love the fall

The cousins

We spent Thanksgiving in VT with my extended family. This will be out last holiday at the farm as my uncle is selling it. It was bitter sweet for us all.

December
E's drawings started to really take shape this month with pictures of people

portrait of Mama

We had lots of holiday cheer from picking a tree and triming it to building a gingerbread house. E was really into the spirit and spent her time talking about Santa and hugging her tree.

Picking the perfect tree

Trimming is serious business

Waiting for Santa

Putting out cookies for Santa

Santa Came!

Enjoying her toys

Opening presents

Mimi and E

Mama and E enjoying their Christmas Breakfast

2011 was a really tough year. Balancing school, work, parenting and marriage has been really tough. We are all looking forward to Shazam finishing graduate school in May. Who knows what 2012 will bring us. What ever it is I look forward to sharing it with my great family!

Mommy and E...they make everything worth it!

Blogging on the go

2011-12-29T17:03:00.001-05:00

My new years resolution is to blog at least one time per week. I just got my iPhone so perhaps I will blog on the go and actually do it! Crossing fingers. I am going to work on my year in review
Post. I missed doing it last year and really enjoyed doing it two years ago. . Perhaps I should do two years in review. See ya soon.

2011-12-12T22:44:00.002-05:00

Happy holidays from our family to yours!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Current Events

2011-10-16T22:06:00.003-04:00

I think I am going to end up flip flopping between current and past events so that I am not perpetually behind.

Today I took Little E to a historical house (well really the grounds). It is super pretty there and they have sheep and chickens that we can go and check out. I ended up taking some pictures of the girl. I am pretty proud of some of the shots. I used to take tons of pictures of my friends kids but somehow I never set out to take so good shots of E. So today was the day. It was beautiful in the 60s and sunny. Here are some of my favorites.

Birthday

2011-10-14T08:40:00.003-04:00

E's Birthday was one of the highlights of the summer. I can't believe that E is two already (although by the temper tantrums I would say not so hard to imagine). We had her party at Mimi and Bubba's house in NH. The weather was great and I think everyone had a wonderful time. The theme was pinwheels and I am proud to say I repurposed a lot of the decorations from Ella's owl themed 1st birthday. We borrowed a friends bouncy house and had a sprinkler for entertainment. A nice lunch and some cake and we were good to go.

some pinwheel decorations (I made them all!)

I took the owl off her sign and put a pinwheel on. How green am I!!

Party favors of Balls and Pinwheels.

Another repurposed decoration. The Letters are from last years banner. I made the pennants out of scrapbook paper and added some pinwheels and put it back on the ribbon.

The tent with decorations!

Street sign.

Ella's pinwheel outfit I ordered off etsy. She looked so cute!

Yummy Pinwheel Cake!

The family!

Enjoying the spinkler!

Bounce!!!!

My girl loves her some cake!!!! She ate the whole piece and wanted more!

Summer Recap???

2011-10-10T20:19:00.000-04:00

Tons has happened since last I blogged...like a whole season. Geez I really need to get back into this. Since the only way I think I will remember anything is if I write it in the blog. Poor E will wonder what the heck happened her second year of life. Only 17 posts in 2011 so far. Whoops. Really E stuff happened I promise.

We had a great summer with lots going on including moving and a nice vacation to P-town. It was nice to be together as a family although I would not recommend leaving for vacation one week after moving. The week going into the move was really hard. The move was really hard. The week following the move was hard and the week after coming home from vacation...hard. But we are mostly moved into the new place which is great. We spent the remaining weeks of the summer playing at the pool and getting used to the new place.

I must say it was bitter sweet moving from our old apartment. I mean it was beyond time as we had outgrown it a long time ago but it was Shazam and my first apartment together. We got engaged, married, pregnant and brought a baby home there. There were so many memories tied their. It just seems strange that we don't live there anymore.

The new place is great though. Lots of room and tons of storage. We have so many closets it is great. I really love the layout and the kitchen is works very nicely. I am enjoying having a gas stove again after 5 years.

We are back to the grind here with Shazam in her second year of grad school an me back to teaching 6th grade. E is in daycare 4 days per week this year and I am doing drop off 3 days per week as well as pick up every day. I am a very tired woman by the time the end of the week comes around. Shazam is loving her internship at The Brigham and while is hard work ( she is on the gynecological oncology service) she is learning a ton and it will also be very good on her resume. School for me is going very well. I had tons of changes with my team this year but it is going really well. It is nice to teach something for the second time around. We also have really nice kids this year which is a total bonus.

Little E is doing great. She still is a little mini but has been gaining weight and now is 27lbs according to our home scale. She is wearing 2T tops and 12-18 month pants. The child has the stumpiest legs and a very long torso. She is enjoying art projects at home and I love getting projects together for her.

She is talking so much more these days (although it is often hard to understand her) and is coming up with more and more multi word phrases. Her favorite right now is "That's cool." She is two and is filled with tantrums over the smallest things but is also filled with so much joy. She loves to dance and sing. She is enjoying books with real plots which is such a nice change from the books with one word and pictures on a page. I am happy to report that some of her favorites are some of mine as well. My sister got her Crictor at some point last year and she finally loving it.

She is also a fan of More Spaghetti I say.

I love that she asks for books and our nightly reading sessions are such a nice way to wind down the day.

My goal is to write the blog two to three times per week. I think I will have to do a bit of a photo dump to highlight the summer at some point. I really need to find a way to document our time together as a family. Until next time...

I am a ridiculously bad blogger

2011-07-15T15:08:00.000-04:00

I totally fell off the 30 day challenge wagon but June is never a good time for me to start a project. I am always so tired at the end of the year. I have been on vacation for about 3 weeks now and am feeling recharged so back to the blog I go. We are deep into getting ready for the move. Boxes are piling up around the apartment and with one week to go I really have to get a move on. Shazam is over at the new apartment painting the living and dining room. It is turning out well although it is a little bluer and less grey than I expected. I guess we are in a blue faze since Little E's room will also be blue. We bought a new rug for the living room and the study and picked up a nice desk on craigslist. Shazam's study should be a nice little retreat. I really can't wait to have more room to work with. I mean our dinning room is currently our only place to eat, our office, and play area. We have a table and chairs, credenza, china cabinet, bench, computer desk, cat climber, and wing chair in there. I can't wait to send all the non dining items to their new homes! There is still so much to do but it is going to be worth it. I was in our bedroom and Shazam was in the living room and with me yelling she hardly heard me! This is going to be nice for when one of us gets up with Little E in the morning and lets the other sleep in. Currently it doesn't really matter who gets up because with the layout of our apartment once E is up it is impossible to sleep. The kid is loud! Last night we tried to eat at the new apartment but all E wanted to do was run around and with wet paint around we had to bail and finish eating at home. No worries we will have tons of time to eat at the new place in the future. Well the little lady is awake so I must run. I need to catch you all up on E's 2 year appointment and birthday party. I will do that over the next few days.

Little E's Big Girl Room

2011-06-13T21:42:00.000-04:00

Now that we are moving I have begun to think about changing things up and giving E a big girl room. I love E's nursery and was very happy with our choices but in some ways that room never developed into what I dreamed it to be. I never really had the intimate moments I imagined in the room. Most of my dreams of quietly nursing a newborn Little E were lost in the months following her birth. Even when she was home we just never spent much time in there.

Since we were team green we have a very gender neutral room of browns and light green with an elephant theme. It is super cute but I want a little girls room. I love the color combination of light blue and red. I just love the idea of a tranquil pretty light blue room. So I started looking for bedding. Since E is not close to leaving her crib (I would keep her there forever if I could) and it converts into a toddler bed I started looking for some cute toddler bedding. I must say it is very lacking. Most of it was cheap character crap from places like Ta.rget. I found several sets I liked at a place called babybedding dot com. The sets are not too expensive and they have some cute modern patterns. Last week I was hot to trot on the following patterns.

While I think the patterns are cute they just were not what I was looking for. Obviously I liked the bird patterns. The first one seemed too busy. The second had a solid black back on the comforter that I didn't love. The third seemed like it might be too baby and cutsie. So off to Etsy I went. I found loads of places that make custom bedding for babies and toddles but many are soooooo expensive. Also I just couldn't find any fabrics that I loved. I did find that the 2nd fabric came in different colors and went searching for a blue version of the Starling pattern. I found it but it was more purple than I liked. This lead to that which eventually led to.....

Sherbet P.ips

Oh how I love thee she.rbet pips

The whole collection is super cute and I love that it is girly but not overly so. So now I have to find someone to make some bedding. I think it will be so cute.

Moving on up

2011-06-12T21:12:00.000-04:00

Shazam and I have been in the same apartment for four years. It was great when we first moved in with each other. While the outside of the house was not in the best condition the inside was fine and had plenty of room for us. Over the past few years our family has grown and we have grown out of the space of our two bedroom apartment. Not only are do we need more space in out current place but our land lords have done nothing to keep the place up. The roof is literally falling off. Our neighborhood isn't great and our dog was killed in the road outside our apartment. Those factors added to the fact that we share a house with twenty somethings has made us ready to move. When our land lord told us our rent would be going up $100/month we really wanted to leave but knew it wasn't in the cards. We would never be able to swing the money for a bigger place in a better location. Rents for 2-3 bedrooms in the next town over where we wanted to move were out of our price range at this point. So we told out land lord that we would be staying put she told us she would mail us a new lease. But then a great opportunity came our way. The math teacher on my team owns a two family and his second floor apartment became available. It is a 3 bedroom plus a study and two bathrooms for only $100 more than our new rent. The apartment is not perfect but there were so many more pros than cons. So we took it and we will be be moving at the end of July. We are beyond excited and are so looking forward to more space and a fresh start. So I am trying to wrap up the school year, find a mover, and start to pack and purge. We are looking at paint colors and figuring out what we need for the new place. I can not wait until we are in our new place.

Freedom???

2011-06-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

Tonight is the first night since Little E came home from the hospital that we will be baby free. Gulp. I am cureently home alone since Shazam is dropping Little E off at Mimi and Bubba's house for the night. We are going to a party tonight and needed a baby sitter. Since we will be headed up to NH tomorrow for a our nephew's birthday party we decided this would be a great time to let E have some time with her grandparents and for Shazam and I to have some alone time. It just is strange. I miss her already. I am worried she will wake up and need me. I worry I will wake up and need her. I am sure there will be some tears tonight lets hope they are just mine.

Need a smile?

2011-06-09T20:48:00.000-04:00

This made me laugh out loud. If you need to a lift watch. If you don't like the f word don't.

Day 7-what it doesn't go 2, 7???

2011-06-08T06:53:00.001-04:00

Where the heck have I been? I want to blog but life keeps getting in my way. Pretty much this darn job is really cutting into my blogging time. Since miss E decided to wake up early and it is just 6 am I have a little time to do a little catch up. So starting with 7 lets see how much I can catch up until I have to get ready for work.

Day 7 – What’s your favorite thing to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? If you have children, what are their favorites?

Ok so this is kind of a mean post for me since we just started we.ight watchers yesterday. I should write that my favorite thing to eat for breakfast is a no fat yogurt, fruit and some water. Lunch would be a green salad and grilled chicken and some water. Lunch grilled chicken, grilled veggies and some water. But what I really want....

Breakfast- I actually hate breakfast. I rarely eat before 11 am but my dw loves breakfast so we do go out (used to go out) for breakfast. When we do I love to get pancakes with a side of bacon. I actually crumble the bacon on top of the pancakes. A sweet and salty masterpiece. I really think that they should offer bacon bits as an option in your pancakes. I mean really if you can put all sorts of sweet things in pancakes why not the savory. One day I am going to actually ask them to do this. I could start a new craze.

Lunch-An Italian sub with everything (including hots), toasted. Yum. There have been two times in my life I could not have an italian sub. The first was when I was living in N.C. for the life of me I could not find a decent one. It was one of the reasons I had to move back home. Seriously it made me so homesick every time I had a crappy italian sub. I would have my mom have one in the car when she picked up at the airport. The second italian sub free time was when I was pregnant with Little E. We joked that the first thing I wanted when I gave birth to the baby was an italian sub. That was all the "push" present (which I think is so stupid by the way-the reward for childbirth...the holding your god dam baby). Anyway things did not go as planned and I was neither in the mood or healthy enough to have my italian sub after little E was born. I actually refused to eat one until she came home from the hospital. It just seemed wrong to celebrate her birth fully until she was home.

Dinner-I would say anything italian. I love pasta (boy does ww suck right now). My favorite place to get pasta from is Comella's. It is so yummy. I get Grandpa's Mess. Which is a whole mess of different pasta's red sauce, cheese, meatballs and italian sausage. Yum Yum Yum.

So now that I am starving....I will go take a shower and eat some non fat greek yogurt and think of how much better I will look and feel when we get to family week in p-town the first week in august. Anyone else going to be there? I would love to meet up.

Day3 Guilty Pleasures

2011-06-03T20:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry to all my vegetarian and healthy readers. I love me a quarter pounder with cheese!

I don't think I could have gotten through E's nicu time without lifetime movies. I watch so many when I got up to pump and couldn't fall back to sleep. Truth be told though...I loved them long before the nicu. I love the waste an afternoon watching slutty ladies, murderers and kidnappers.

Day 2 blog of the day 2

2011-06-02T21:50:00.002-04:00

Wow I am on a roll today. I am actually completing day 2 on day 2! Thanks for checking in. I am glad to see that my hiatus did not cause me to lose all my readers.

Day 2 -Describe your high school self. What extracurricular activities, if any, did you participate in during high school?

This was me at 14 in Europe. I was such a brat. My sister and mother also look like they are having a delightful time don't they! The scariest part that is was during the first few days of the trip. I can only imagine some of the pictures that were captured towards the end of our two week adventure. Please remind me of this picture when Shazam and I decide that a European vacation is a great idea when Little E is 14.

This picture really isn't a true reflection of who I was in high school but I certainly had my moments. I was actually pretty happy in high school. I wasn't part of the popular crew but I had a core of great friends. I was a gymnast and most of my non school time was taken up by practice and competitions in both my Y team and my high school team. I often went from one practice to another. I was in phenomenal shape and ate about 6 meals per day. I was an average to above average student and pretty much the same type of gymnast. I didn't mind not being the star. I work really hard for my B grades and was diagnosed with a learning disability in the 11th grade. This really made a difference for me and made so many of my struggles make sense. Once I more fully understood how my brain worked it was amazing how much easier school was. It made senior year and college so much more productive and successful. High School was not the best years of my life but it was fun. I don't miss being a teenager but I think I came through pretty unscathed.

Since you have not seen any photos of Little Miss E I will leave you with a few recent shots.

I am back

2011-06-02T08:22:00.000-04:00

So I took a blogging vacation. Not because I didn't have anything to say but because perhaps I had too much. I decided I was going to blog starting on the first of June. Perhaps doing the blog challenge so many of us are doing but last night I was overwhelmed with watching the serious thunder storms and tornado warnings on the tv. So I am a day late on the first blog challenge and this blog really says nothing about how we are all doing. I promise I will let you all in on the exciting and not so exciting adventures our family has been on for the last 2.5 months.

Day 1 – Provide a picture of the space where you normally blog

Well since I have not blogged in so long I thought instead of the cute pictures everyone else had up I would leave a blank spot. I am currently in my classroom. Should I be working yes but instead I am getting back on my blog wagon. I wonder if there is anyone still reading. I would love a quick comment that I am not writing to the wind.

See ya later today for day 2.

Signs of Spring

2011-03-16T21:17:00.000-04:00

It has been a long, cold, snow filled winter here in the north east and I am ready for spring. Mostly I am ready for weather were Little E can play outside. March is always a tricky month around here. I always think we should have turned a corner in the weather department and ma always disappointed when it is still crappy. Some signs that the nice weather will return have been sighted. First the snow melted and we saw our lawn and the curbs for the first time in months! Then we had a few days above 40 degrees! Followed by seeing a flock of Robins singing out side of school! Unfortunately this was trailed closely by my allergies. Although I am not enjoying feeling stuffed up and loosing my voice. We have been taking advantage of the warm temperatures and getting outside. Last weekend we took E to Drumlin farm to walk around and see the animals. It was great., E loved it. She was entranced by the chickens and kept running back to see the pigs and cows. I think what she really enjoyed most though was being able to run free and splash in the puddles. We had a great time and I am so glad we have a membership so we can go back as much as we want this summer. I have a feeling E will be spending a lot of time with these animals this summer. I also figured out that my parenting might be a bit different than other parents. While most of the parents spent their time trying to steer their kids away from the puddles I was actively encouraging E to get right in and get muddy. Spring in New England...Mud and Snow piles...with the hope that flowers will follow!

What a week!

2011-03-11T09:54:00.000-05:00

Nothing big has happened but geez am I glad to have this week over. The kids are taking a quiz right now so I have a minute to blog. So what made this week crazy?

Shazam is in the middle of mid term papers so is working her butt off at the library all the time.
Shazam is sick and feels like poo.
Ella is teething.
Work for me is hell.
Shazam had a very important interview for her 2nd year internship.
Shazam hates interviews.
I had no time this week to get anything done at work because as I mentioned above work is hell.

The good news is that Shazam is making some progress on the papers and she got the internship!!! This is great news. She really wanted a hospital placement and she got one at The Brigham. Not only will this look great on the resume but the program seems really awesome and it seems she will get great experience and the support that seems to be lacking at her current placement. There are some drawbacks to this placement like the fact that she will need to take public transportation and that I will most likely need to to daycare drop off really early before school and then get to school just as the day starts. Not ideal but we will make it work and it will put Shazam in a good place for interviewing for a job next year.

On top of teaching a new grade level with curriculum I have never taught but our team this year is "special" we have lots of special needs and the mean girls. Our days have been filled with meetings with kids, with parents, with other teachers and counselors this week. I swear this is the only time this week I have sat at my desk. At night I have been trying to write quizzes and planning my days. I just can't seem to catch up. I was going to go to Maine and visit my cousin this weekend but the weather is going to suck and I really don't want to be trapped in a small non baby proofed house in the rain and sleet all weekend so I am rescheduling. My mom may still go up. If she doesn't I think I may be traveling to her house so I can have help with E since Shazam will be at the library all weekend. As much as it will stink to be separated it will be nice for Shazam to have some peace away from E and her crazy activity.

As for E I hope some teeth pop up soon her hands are in her mouth all the time. Other than that she is well healed from her lung issues and off all the meds. Which is good since they made her a crazy person. The only thing we are still dealing with on that front is that the radiologist who read E's chest x-ray noted that she was osteopenic. What this means we are still trying to figure out. When she was at the doctor last week we had lots of blood drawn she wanted to look at her Vitamin D, calcium, phosphate and some other things. All tests came back normal which is a good sign. The doctor spoke with a pediatric radiologist at Children's who thought this might be because it was not a pediatric radiologist reading the xray. She has a call into the pediatric endocrinologist to see what our next steps are. One probable cause is her prematurity. It seems that bones calcify in the third trimester which E missed most of so it would make sense that her bones would be not as calcified and dense. What this means we don't know yet. It may be that her bones are typical of a 20 month old 30 weeker. It may be that all she needs is some calcium and vitamin D supplements. It may means she needs to see the endocrinologist to figure it out. The doctor is on top of it so I am just waiting to see what the deal is and not freaking out (which I am not and I am very proud of!) Oh prematurity you are a gift that seems to keep on giving! So now I need to run and figure out if I can send one of my classes to another lunch period since we have a class split by lunch and a quiz which does not mix well. It is always something.

Early Intervention Evaluation

2011-02-28T20:37:00.000-05:00

The short story is that she doesn't qualify. She needed to be at a 14 month level in at least one category and her lowest score was 16 months. So yeah!

Here is the breakdown she is 19 months actual right now. Her last evaluation was at 14 months actual I will
put last evaluation in (green)
Fine motor-20 months (13 months)
She did very well and they were impressed with her grasp with a crayon. Only did a 2 block tower vs a 3 block tower.

Cognition/problem solving- 18 months (14 months)
She still didn't do the bloody 9 cubes in a cup task but I still want to see them put 9 cubes in the cup. She put as many in the cup until it was filled then took some out and started again. I don't get it...but I digress. She also had a lot of trouble concentrating perhaps I shouldn't have given her a dose of pretnisone 30 minutes before the eval (whoops).

Expressive language- 18 months (15 months)
She still doesn't have a ton of words but it is up and seems to be increasing daily. She scored where she did because she was repeating sounds very well. The SP said that this skill was key to increasing her vocabulary and since she was doing such a great job with it she was not worried about her low vocab.

Receptive Language-16 months (15 months)
This was a surprise to me. She seems to understand everything we say (doesn't do what we say but she is 19 months). Anyway she didn't point to the pictures when the asked where is the ball ect. She also had trouble concentrating during this part of the eval. which the SP feels she would have done better at if she wasn't all hyped up on pretnisone. This was also her area of least growth so I will be working on this with her.

Social Emotional-26 months (19 months)
All I have to say is that we are in trouble with this one. She is was a ham for the evaluators and was on their laps giving kisses the whole time.

Self care-19 months (14 months)
I always think this is funny what should she be doing be getting ready to move into her own apartment?

Gross Motor- 18 months (11 months)
The pt was impressed in her improvement since she had a huge leap since her eval in the fall. She was at 11 months last time so a 9 month jump in about 6 months. Go E!

I am very happy with her progress and glad she doesn't need therapy although I am sure it would help her catch up more quickly although I am sure she will. When I looked back at her evaluation at 8 months she was delayed in all areas except social emotional. Her lowest area was her receptive language where she scored only at 5 months so this area seems to where she struggles and where we should work with her. So good news this week. Up two pounds and developing well. Yeah for good evaluations!

Sick Sunday

2011-02-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

Well we made an all time record for health this winter with a nice 2 almost 3 week span of a healthy E. Alas all good things must come to an end. Two weeks ago I went to pick E up at daycare and a pack n play was drying out in the yard. Not a good sign. Well it turns out two kids had gone home because of vomiting. Another two cam down with it the next day. So we were on puke watch last weekend. I was really looking forward to puke fest for my vacation. Thankfully we had no vomit but her gastro system didn't get out unscathed and E started having problems on the other end on Sunday...at my mil's. She seemed fine on Monday in the am but the afternoon it was back. I stepped up her probiotics and it was gone by Tuesday! We had a nice week together but on Thursday afternoon her nose started to run. So I knew we were back on the sick wagon. Friday she was ok and Shazam and I went out to dinner for her birthday. Yum. Friday night E was pretty restless and woke many times which is unusual for her. Saturday was busy with tutoring and errands in the morning. By the time I got her home in the afternoon I could tell she was tired and didn't feel great. I tried to put her down but she would sleep for 5 min and then wake up crying. Finally after 45 min I gave up and go her up. She was labored in her breathing so I kept a close eye on her. When Shazam came home from lunch with a friend she was retracting a little and grunting when she breathed. I was really hoping to avoid the ER on Shazam's birthday so we gave her a bath and lubed her up with some vics but by 10 with no sleep to be had by little E and very pronounced wheezing that we would be ER bound. So into the night we went. She was very unhappy when we got there and threw a hissy in triage. Her O2 was satting at 90 and she had nasal flaring and definite retractions. When you show up with a preemie who is having trouble breathing you get pretty fast service and we were in a room less than a half hour of checking in. We started blow by oxygen while we waited for the doctor. The nurse observed her breathing and let me know that a respiratory therapist would be over to give a breathing treatment. The doctor came in and checked on her confirmed that she needed a breathing treatment. She got one breathing treatment and was still wheezing and her oxygen sats were 92-94 so off to a chest x-ray we went. I think triage and the x-ray were the worst part of the visit. We had to pin her down for two xrays and poor little E was pretty upset by the end of it. On top of feeling like crap, she had not napped all day and by that time it was about 12 am. The x-ray was clear so she had another treatment and a dose of oral pretnisone which did the trick and we got to go home. We are now the proud owners of our own nebulizer. We have been doing treatments every 4-6 hours and other than some wheezing this morning around 10 she has been breathing really well. Still a little short of breath but not in respiratory distress (no grunting, retractions or fast breathing). She also is on an oral dose of pretnisone once a day. We will check in with her doctor tomorrow to see when she wants to see us in the office and will continue the nebulizer every 6 hours for the next 4 days and the pretnisone for another 2 hopefully by then she will be all set and we can pack the nebulizer away for a long time. Although it is a pain to do the treatments E has been a trooper and while some kids hate the treatments E actually seems to enjoy them. At one point tonight she had the whole tube in her mouth. I am not going to let her know that she is supposed to hate them. Here she is huffing on her elephant trunk as I call it.

18 month update at 19 months

2011-02-23T17:25:00.000-05:00

Well it practically took until 19 months to get her 18 month appointment because of snow. We had to change the appointment twice. Argh. Anyway I wouldn't say it was our most stellar appointment. I knew it wasn't going to go great so at least I was prepared. Generally E is doing ok. She was healthy for the appointment which considering she has been pretty much sick almost the whole winter and fall is saying something. My major concerns were her lack of growth and her slow language development.

So Ella's weight. it went down which as you all know is not the direction a growing baby's weight should go. She was about 22 lbs at 15 months. She was 21 at her 18 month appointment which really was 18.5 months. Obviously she should have gained weight. She has been following a curve at about the 15th percentile for her actual age which is pretty amazing since she was well bellow the average for 30 weekers at birth. That is until this visit. She is now at bellow the 5th. The fact that she dropped is the problem really not that she is in the 5th. So the doctor put us on a high fat high calorie diet to pack the weight on. So now we are putting cream in her milk (which she loves by the way) and butter in just about everything. I think it is working and we go back in for a weight check in a few weeks. How we will get her to drink regular milk after this I will never know. I also have had to be very careful not to pack on the pounds along with Ella. I think that has been limited in its success.

As for the speech E had about 6 words at the time of her visit. Mama, Ma, Bye Bye, Uh Oh, namina (banana), didi (dog)and apple. Our doctor wanted to see her using 15-20 words so back to early intervention we go. We just had our intake interview yesterday and the team will come out and evaluate her on Monday. In the couple of weeks since she saw the doctor she has pick up some more words which has been nice but still not where she needs to be. I spoke with the speech pathologist at school and she said that she should be using 30 words by now at almost 20 months. So we will see if she qualifies for services. I think she is doing pretty well in her other areas. When we last were evaluated at about 14 months she was not walking so she was at 11 months for gross motor. Now she is walking up a storm so I am interested in what she should be doing now. Her fine motor has come along so far and she is really into coloring and doing puzzles. I do need to keep a good list this week for all her words. In addition to the words like up and bun bun that she has pick up we also realized that she is also speaking spanish. So some of the words we thought were babble are actually words. They speak Spanish at daycare so it is not surprising that she has picked some of them up. So now her additional vocabulary is more (with the sign) and mas, pero, manzana, kitty, meow and up. She also howls like a wolf and whoos like an owl. I will have the low down next week as well as if we qualify for services. I hear great things about speech therapy so if we need it I am ready to get going.

Ten Things Tuesday

2011-02-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the absence. So much going on and not enough time to blog. I think part of my problem is that I don't have a structure to my posts. I keep trying to think of what to write and then never doing it. So I am going to try some repeating posts to see if I can get back on track. So here goes my 10 things Tuesday.

1. We finally got to go visit the NICU yesterday it was nice to see our favorite nurses. It is nice to see that they remember us and miss us.

2. It is vacation week I am so happy.

3. Little E seems to be gaining weight again which means our high fat high calorie is working. (more on that in another post).

4. Early Intervention is coming today so that we can get Little E back in. She is not doing well with language acquisition. (more on that in another post).

5. E took two naps today...how nice. She is actually still sleeping.

6. I am going shopping tomorrow. I am so excited.

7. Now that we have set up the EI evaluation E seems to be talking more. Still delayed but perhaps now that she is walking full time she has time to get some words.

8. I am actually interested in seeing how E tests in all her areas. I both hate and love EI evaluations. I love seeing what she has progressed in. I hate that it points out where she is still behind.

9. I did out Federal taxes an Shazam got her refund today so I should get mine soon. Now I have to do our state taxes. It pisses me off that we have to do them twice.

10. I hear the little lady so I guess it is a good thing that I am on ten. See you tomorrow...hopefully.

Wordless Wednesday-Snow Day

2011-01-12T16:18:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

I am very behind on my end of the year wrap up post but I am hoping that I can get it done while my parents are here this afternoon. I hope that you get all you dream of this year. Love to you all. Super Sammy G, Shazam and Little E!

And The Winner Is

2010-12-29T10:22:00.001-05:00

Thanks to all responded wanting the flash cards. The winner of the card set is Anofferingofhope picked at random from Little E's brio block box. Please email us at darwinsmommies at g mail dot com and let us know where to send them. For all of you who didn't win email us and I will send the file your way! In the past few days E has really been enjoying her cards and picked up the B card and said Bee yesterday. I know my child is a genius!

Crafty Christmas

2010-12-26T16:08:00.000-05:00

Well now that the holiday is complete I can post pictures of all our handiwork. I must say that I was pretty busy this year making gifts big and small for people. I am still in love with felt and I think that things turned out pretty well.

My first projects were for my secret Santa from my preemie message board. I made a felted wool wreath ornament for the mom and a stocking toy for her daughter.

I decided to branch out with my felt crafts and felt some sweaters from good will. I went and picked up three wool sweaters (a red one, a grey one and a red and grey fair isle) and washed them in hot water and dried them on high. This causes the sweater to shrink and the wool fibers to link together. Once this is done you can cut the sweaters and the fabric does not fray. It is pretty cool.To make the wreath you cut out about 60-70 1.5 inch square pieces of felted sweater and use a needle and thread to string them together. After they are all strung you pull the two ends together to make a circle tie it off and attach a bow. It is super easy and they turn out really nice. I made two with just one arm of each sweater. I ended up giving felt to my mother and still have tons left over.

I went back to my felt roots for the stocking toy creating something like my cornucopia with a Christmas theme. I found patterns for a stocking online and modified it for my use. I then made a few small toys to put in the stocking. Some I found patterns on and others I designed myself (I bet you can tell which ones!) I think it is pretty cute. I hope that little L enjoyed playing with it.

Shazam and I also worked on some gifts for Little E. We designed a set of ABC flash cards for E. I made them in power point using clip art and we had them printed at the local copy shop four slides to a page and then each card was laminated. They are really cute and E loves playing with them. She keeps handing me the cards to tell her what the picture is.

Due to a snafu with the copy shop we actually got four sets of them (thankfully they only made me pay for one!) If you are interested in receiving one as a little gift from Darwin's mommies make a comment on the post and I will pick someone at random. If you would like the ppt file to print your own let me know.

We decided to go for it and make a felt farm set from a pattern I bought from Etsy. Of course I procrastinated and we made the whole thing the week before Christmas. We ended up not making the fence that was in the design but I think it is just fine. It took 3-4 hour work sessions each night last week for Shazam and I to finish the set. We finished around 10 pm on Christmas Eve. It was worth it though. It turned out great.

This was one of those times that I was glad I am married to someone who is crafty and can sew. I must say that not only did we finish the project we didn't bicker at all which tends to happen when we are trying to finish a project of some kind. Shazam and my minds work in very different ways and this can cause some conflict when we need to complete a task. Anyway Little E spent some time playing with her farm before we went off to our family celebrations and I am sure it will get lots of attention if the weeks to come. Little E is super sick today and hasn't been playing with much today. Poor little girl is a stuffy mess...again.

5 days and oh so much to do!

2010-12-19T21:23:00.002-05:00

I am so far behind on my crafting/christmas tasks. I don't know what I was thinking. We have 5 nights (including Christmas Eve) to finish the Barn. I have cut out all the pieces of the pattern (which are many). Now we have to cut out all the felt and cardboard and sew, sew and sew. Thank goodness Shazam is done with her sememster and her field placement. I need her to be working on this during the daylight hours while E is at daycare. I have even considered employing some child labor at school with some of my for crafty students. On top of the farm we still need to finish picking up E's stocking gifts, get stocking gifts for my Mother, Father, and get gifts for my neice and nephews. Shazam will be having a busy week.

I have so much to blog about. Like the fact that E has started to walk! I also need to blog about the other craft projects that I have completed for this holiday season. But just have not had time. If only I didn't have to work and could craft full time!

Well I have to go work on my farm. Hope all is well with you all.

It is begining to look a little bit like Christmas!

2010-12-06T20:00:00.009-05:00

Sunday we were all finally feeling better enough to go for an outing. I hadn't left the house since Thursday morning so I was very happy to get out of the house. A local farm was having a Christmas open house so we headed over in the afternoon after Shazam got back from the library. The open house was nice and held in their greenhouses so it was super pretty with a forest of poinsettias and wonderful light. I got some great eggnog and gingerbread and then we traumatized E by having her sit with Santa. Our normally social baby hates Santa. I know this is normal but E likes everyone and willingly goes with new people all the time. She was smiling and making friends the whole time we were there until she spotted Santa. It went downhill pretty quickly. We scooped her up and went and got a tree. Perhaps next year she will get the Santa gift connection and cut the dude some slack!

At home we broke out the decorations and put the tree up. E wasn't very excited about the tree but was into the lights. I think we did a pretty good job picking out a pretty tree. We have not had one in two years and I love coming home to a house smelling of Christmas tree. So far we have been able to distract E from pulling all the ornaments off the tree by providing her with a basket of plastic ornaments under the tree. We will see how long that lasts. I may be posting next week with pictures of our tree hanging out in the back yard!

A Real Post

2010-12-05T21:49:00.005-05:00

So now that I am feeling human again here is what has been happening the past few weeks.

Thanksgiving weekend was spent for the most part away from the Internet at the farm my father grew up on in VT/NY (it is right on the border). Since it is such a long drive we decided to leave Wednesday night and stay overnight in Woodstock. We tried to stay at a couple of the inns we have stayed at before but we found out that most of the inns don't take kids! I know they probably break up the romantic moments and all but boy did it put a little crimp in our plans. So we ended up having to tough it out at The Woodstock Inn. I was afraid TWI was going to be stuffy but was pleasantly surprised by the modern decor and the wonderful food. Oh you Rockefellers you know how to do it up. After check in we popped in a few shops and picked up some odds and ends. We didn't make it to our favorite art gallery which is probably best for our bank accounts as I saw some new Sabra Fields in the window and we have a "problem" passing them by. We had a nice dinner at the inn's restaurant and then headed up to our room where we tucked Little E in her pack and play behind the wing back chairs. We watched tv on the computer in our fluffy bed and drifted off to a lovely sleep. We would have woken rested and in fabulous moods if the little lady decided to sleep through the night. Little E had a cold and seemed to be cutting all 4 of her molars at once. No fun. Little E was up for the day at 5 am and I felt it was my duty not to let my child wake up the entire inn so down to the lobby we went. I kind of wish I had brought my camera because the front desk had a bell to call for service the size of a large dinner plate. It was awesome! Little E had some breakfast and explored the first floor of the hotel. We played some chess in the Library, looked in the window of the gift shop, and played on the couches around the fireplace. It hadn't been lit for the day and the hearth had been swept clean from the day before but it was still kicking out heat. It is pretty amazing and they stoke it with 4 foot logs. We greeted the NYtimes delivery man and generally had a nice time even though it was really early. I must say I was very happy to see the nice woman come set up the coffee in the library. After coffee with the other early risers I returned to our room got E bundled up and in the becco for a quick trip around the sleepy town. We had a nice time looking into the shops and saying hi to the many dogs that were out for their morning constitutional. I spent the rest of my time in Woodstock eating (breakfast and lunch) and napping. We reluctantly got back in the car and drove to the farm. I would have loved to stay longer but family called. All in all it was a nice visit. Most of the VT family had not met Ella yet so it was a nice coming out for her. We had a great meal and E did really well for being in a house with about 20 strangers picking her up and passing her around. We had planned on staying over only one night but an ice storm held us up and we stayed until Saturday. We drove to Shazam's parent's house were we had a nice visit with my bil, bil's girlfriend, nephew and ils. We left Sunday but not without leaving the gift of bad colds with both grandparents and her Aunt. Little E's cold is on the mend but I fear that the NH crew is still fighting its effects.

If you are thinking that is wasn't very nice of Little E to make one side of the family sick and not the other stay tuned. I think the in laws lucked out in this whole episode.

Santa Fail

2010-12-05T17:36:00.002-05:00

So I owe you a real post sometime in the near future but we have all been struck down with the stomach bug from hell and have not been up to blogging, consuming solid foods, or sitting upright in a few days. We did feel well enough to go and get a tree today at a local farm. They had santa and free eggnog so I thought what the heck why don't we get a photo of Little E and Jolly Old St Nick. Well all did not go as planned. The most friendly child on the planet freaked the heck out. We may be starting therapy next week.

They are in!

2010-12-02T11:37:00.001-05:00

Our pro photos are in and well of course I think E looks super cute! Check them out!

http://www.strutphotography.com/Ella/

Hi My Name is Super Sammy G...

2010-11-21T09:46:00.003-05:00

and I have a felt addiction.

All I want to do is felt crafts, look up things about felt crafting, buy felt, and craft some more.

Last night I made a cute felt wreath ornament made out of felted wool sweaters. It came out great and will be making more since a sweater make a lot of pieces and one wreath only used less than one sleeve of each of the three sweaters I bought at the thrift store. As soon as I finish the final touches I will post a picture.

Next up is a gift for my secret Santa! I will post more once my secret Santa receives her gift since I don't know if she is a reader or not.

Finally I found two patterns for felt farm toys that Shazam and I are going to make as one of Little E's Christmas presents. I can't decide which one I like best.

I think I am going with this one from My Dear Kids

I like that it is portable and the barn is usable. But I like that this one by Buggabugs opens up to give a play space.

I think I may modify the first one to include a play area. Which one do you like best?

Whoops

2010-11-20T05:51:00.004-05:00

I totally forgot to post for the last 2 days. As I start this post it is 5:45am on Sat. Little E decided to get up at 5 am today. Fabulous. She didn't drink much milk before going to bed last night so woke up hungry. I was hoping that she would go back to sleep in bed with us after her milk. No luck. So now I am up watching Yo Gabba Gabba before dawn.

Wait this just in. Little just crawled to her room. I picked her up and put her in her crib and she seems to be going back to sleep! Of to my own bed again. I will post more later.

The Whole Story

2010-11-17T19:46:00.004-05:00

This is a picture of me holding Little E for the first time. I think I have shared this picture before. It was the day after she was born. Take away the CPAP helping her breath and the IVs and you have the typical picture of a new mom the day after the birth of her baby, so so tired but so so very happy. I have told you the facts of her birth. Her very low birth weight, her respiratory distress, her problems keeping her heart rate and respiration rate up, her pda, her reflux, her blood transfusions. Oddly, through it all I have felt this need to protect my readers. While I was honest with you about what was happening with Little E in the last 16 months I never really told the real story.

So here is a piece of the real story.

This is the picture Shazam took before the smiling one. This is the real story of when I first held Little E. The real story is that I was terrified to hold her, I was afraid of her, of hurting her, of disconnecting her tubes and wires, I was afraid she would die in my arms. The real story is that it took two nurses to position Little E in my arms. The real story is that I cried the entire time I held her. The real story is that Shazam wiped my tears away and I smiled for a moment as the picture was taken. That smile told only part of the story, I was so so happy, but that is not the whole story because really I was more sad than anything else. After the shutter closed the tears began to flow again. It was weeks before I didn't shake before holding Little E and months before I didn't fear Little E dying in my arms.

Today I share this story because it is Prematurity Awareness Day. 1 in 8 babies are born too soon. Which means that my story it the story of 1 in 8 mothers. The real story is that even one mother experiencing motherhood in the NICU is one to many. Please join the fight and fight for Preemies but also the mothers who weep when they hold their babies for the first time.

I am not alone in this fight. This is my story but please hear the voices of mothers who have a story of their own to tell.

http://fertilehope.blogspot.com/

http://braggingabouttheboys.blogspot.com/2010/11/this-is-reality-of-prematurity.html

http://taylo2babies.blogspot.com/2010/11/today-is-national-prematurity-awareness.html#comments

http://ivoryandjamie.blogspot.com/2010/11/blogging-for-preemies.html

http://www.beckyandstephangorny.blogspot.com/

http://kmehmen.blogspot.com/2010/11/prematurity-awareness-day.html

http://www.herringbones.blogspot.com/

http://benandrhondawerner.blogspot.com/2010/11/prematurity-awareness-day.html

http://thegoodlife-honfamily.blogspot.com/2010/11/prematurity-awareness-blogging-for.html

http://mckate.blogspot.com/

http://hopingforhunter.blogspot.com/

http://robbieandmartha.blogspot.com/2010/11/prematurity-awareness-day.html

http://karenandstu.blogspot.com/

Blogging for Preemies?

2010-11-17T06:07:00.003-05:00

Today is prematurity awareness day. I will be blogging later about how prematurity has affected my families life. Will you be blogging for preemies too? I encourage you to post even though you may not be a preemie parent yourself. Write about Little E if you would like. I I would like to link as many of these posts together so if you are blogging for preemies please comment with a link to the post so I can add you to my later post. I wish we didn't need to have a prematurity awareness day but until the day that no baby is born too soon Shazam, Little E and I will join with the March of Dimes in the fight for our littlest fighters.

Crafty

2010-11-15T19:49:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago at Little E's doctor's appointment I spotted a project in a magazine that I thought would be fun to do. I am limited in skills but I thought that I could handle a felt cornucopia. I found the pattern online, bought my felt, and set to work. After a couple of evenings of work I finished E's Thanksgiving cornucopia toy. I ended up making the cornucopia and 11 fruits and veggies. Here are some shot of my handy work.

Finished Cornucopia

Close up of the filled cornucopia

Veggies and Fruits

The Back of the Cornucopia

Veggie Close up

My thoughts are that she can play with it while we are waiting for dinner. She loves to take stuff in and out of containers so I think she will have fun moving her vegetables and fruits in and out of the cornucopia. I also think it will be fun teaching E her fruits and veggies with her new toy. I must say I am pretty impressed with my work and can't wait to give it to Little E on Thanksgiving.

I have a few more craft projects in the works for the upcoming holiday season and am excited to get started on my next project. I would like to make E another Thanksgiving toy. We are going to VT for the holiday to the farm my father grew up on. I was thinking of making a felt farm story board/quiet book but have yet to find a pattern that I like or have the skill to make. I would like to do a modified version of the farm below. I would want to have felt animals though.

The other project that I would like to start is an advent calendar like this one.

So does anyone have any craft projects this holiday season? Links to help me with my farm project?

Better

2010-11-14T20:25:00.002-05:00

Little E's fever finally broke on Friday night, her gastro issues have resolved for the most part and it seems that we are on the mend. Other than sleeping horribly for the last few nights and an awful diaper rash she seems to be much better. Little E is generally a great sleeper. Our night time routine is that we put E in her pajamas, give her bun bun, pop in her paci, kiss her good night and put her in the crib between 6:30 and 7 pm. She usually flips on to her tummy and we don't hear from her again until 7-7:30 am. I forget how great this is until E does not go down well or stay down. The last few night E has been up several times a night hysterically crying. This is very unusual for her. She is generally a happy baby and easily soothed. So when E was waking up and could not be soothed it was very upsetting for all involved. We knew it wasn't her ears (checked by the doctor) so we assumed that her poor little tummy was still bothering her or her bum hurt. We are pretty sure it was neither of these things since she woke up to four molars starting to peek through her gums. Poor little dear has been in pain from teething. I feel stupid for not checking that out but in my defense E has been so slow to get teeth it just hasn't been on my radar. At 16 months E has only four teeth. So in just a few days it seems E is doubling her teeth! No wonder she has been a bit punky. So here is the strange thing. From what I can tell it seems that she is getting her first molars. Which according to doctor google seems to be the third set of teeth to come in. She has her top and bottom incisors but has not cut her lateral incisors. I know it is not totally out of the norm to get teeth out of order but I think she is going to look like a jack o lantern with her strange gaps between her teeth.

She has already woken up once tonight. Let's hope she gets these teeth in sooner rather than later. She is a sad sack when they are coming in. Anyone else have a baby get teeth in a strange order and in spurts?

When you are sliding into first...

2010-11-11T19:35:00.002-05:00

Yup that has been my day. Little E has had a fever since Monday night and she started having some serious diarrhea today. She got up with a normal temperature at 7:15 but it was down hill from there. By 8 am while I was on the phone with the doctor's office it was 103. Some tyle.nol brought it right down and the doctor thinks it is a stomach bug. The fever was back after her afternoon nap and was 103.8 rectally and a little over 104 in her ear. This afternoon she was a cranky mess. The fever came down again with more meds but she had about 6 poopy diapers today. I have added probiotics to her milk and we took it pretty easy with food tonight. I hope we are on the tail end of this yucky virus. My mom is coming tomorrow to take care of Little E while I go to work and Shazam has class. This is the second time this week that she has helped us out. We really need to do something for her since we would not be able to do this without her. Here is hoping that Little E is back to her happy one poop a day self soon.

Christmas Cards

2010-11-11T13:20:00.011-05:00

So now that I have gotten a teaser picture from the photographer I am on to my next project...holiday cards. We use a shutterfly site to share pictures of Little E with family and friends and it has worked out well. I have been searching through their holiday card selection for a few weeks now trying to figure out what would work well for us this year. They have tons of choices and I am very impressed with the inclusion of both folded stationary cards and flat stationary cards into the collection. When we used them a few years ago for our cards we ordered the standard photo cards but I like the option of the higher end type of cards. One of the other great things is that since all our pictures are on shutterfly it is so easy to make a card!

I have found some really cute cards and here are my favorites. There is a nice selection of modern and whimscal designs which I prefer but there is someting for everyone I think. Click on the images to find out more!

In addition I am in love with the new desk calendars. I have a feeling the grandparents will be getting one in their stockings!

So go over to shuttefly and check it out and if you are a blogger you can get 50 free Holiday cards by blogging about shutterfly follow the link below to find out how!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Now I am off to figure out what the perfect design is. So many pictures to choose from!

Teaser

2010-11-11T12:14:00.003-05:00

Our photographer just posted a teaser picture for me. Since I was having some trouble waiting for our pictures. Now I just want to see more! I have a feeling I will be purchasing quite a few of these. Gosh my kid is cute...not that I am biased!

Small

2010-11-10T11:18:00.004-05:00

When Little E was born she was small. I think you all know that by now but unless you actually saw her right after birth I think it is pretty near impossible to understand. I wish that I took pictures of E with a common object when she was little but I just didn't think to do it at the time. So I googled 2lb 5oz to see what images came up. This is what I found.

So my baby weighed exactly 2 bags of cheerios. That is small.

sick...again

2010-11-08T20:44:00.002-05:00

So Little E had another fever tonight. Just 101.2 but still a fever. She was lethargic and pretty much laid on my lap all evening. I hate to see her sick. I hate it more when it is some random fever and malaise. I can deal with snot but the not knowing what is going on just plain sucks. My mom is coming tomorrow to take care of E. I feel bad but I just can't take off work anymore. It just is not a job that I can call in sick to. Well I can but it just stinks. Anyway we are so lucky that my mom can come and help us out...again. We are pretty much on an every other week sick cycle. I am sure that we will get through this one too but sick cranky clingy girl is not who I like to hang out with.

I am kind of wondering if she is getting teeth. I mean she is bound to get another few at some point. Have I mentioned that she will be 15 months old in 2 days and has 4 teeth? It looks like the eye teeth on the bottom are coming in. I know some kids run a low fever and have stomach upset when they teeth. E has pooped more than usual today (not really diarrhea but not normal either) and her poor bum is all red. I am rooting for those darn teeth I really don't want another virus.

I am braced for a difficult night with lots of up and down. I gave her some mot.rin for the fever and it went right down. Now let's hope she sleeps it off and wakes up to some new teeth. She will look like a little vampire though since she will have a space between her middle two bottom teeth and her little eye teeth (fangs). Is this normal to get teeth in a strange order and not next to one another?

Talent

2010-11-07T20:12:00.004-05:00

We have started letting Little E explore her artistic side of late. Her medium of choice right now is finger paint but crayons are a close second. She also enjoys a bit of mixed media.

Little E is also practicing using utensils when she eats. I think she is almost ready for a fancy restaurant what do you think?

I am pretty sure she has some talent. What can I say I am one proud mama!

A Quicky!

2010-11-05T22:33:00.002-04:00

So I am off to bed soon but I wanted to post something quickly.

When a woman gives birth to a baby one of her first mommy moments many times is feeding your new baby. We all know that breast is best of course but things are a bit more complicated when your baby is several floors away in the nicu. Studies have found that breast milk for preemies is even more important than it is for a term baby. Hours after Little E's birth a nurse wheeled in a breast pump and taught me how to use it. It would be a few days before Little E would get her first taste of milk delivered to her on a q-tip. Over the next few days E was introduced to more and more milk one ml at a time through her feeding tube. I was strongly encouraged to pump so that I could provide food for my tiny little baby. In some ways it became my mission as it was really the only way I could "mother" my baby. I could hold Ella only for a short amount of time every day and contact was limited to her care times every 3 hours. The only way during this time that I could feel connected to her between these brief moments was when I was pumping. I think is some ways pumping and my ability to make food for Little E defined me as her mother even after we were discharged from the nicu. I pumped for almost 12 months and while I would not change my decision to keep pumping I will tell you that it was hard. I mean really hard, I mean so unbelievably hard. I would never have been able to do it without the encouragement from the lactation consultants and nurses in the nicu. For that and so many other things I am thankful.

In honor of prematurity awareness month Medela is giving $5000 in pumping supplies and education to the nicu who has the highest votes in thier virtual milk drive. So please go and vote for Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston MA zip 02115 in Little E's honor and give the best start to a preemie born too soon and let a new preemie mom feel like a mom when almost all her roles as a mom have been put on hold.

http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/preemie-awareness-month-program

2010-11-04T11:57:00.002-04:00

Wordle

Have you seen this site? It is pretty cool. Just pop your blog in and it comes up with a cool word art piece from your posts.

http://www.wordle.net/

Day 2

2010-11-03T22:09:00.002-04:00

See I made it back for another post...I am so proud.

So as you can see I changed the blog around a bit (unless you are reading via google reader). How do you like the new Fall theme? I guess that means come the end of this month I will have to switch it up again though. What do you think about the little check boxes after each post? I guess you can tell me by clicking!

Today we had our professional photo shoot. It was great as usual. Our photographer is so fabulous. I really do love her. She has such good energy and umm she is pretty easy on the eyes! It was a cold morning here in New England and we woke to the first hard frost on the ground. But we are hardy Newglanders so off we went to take our pictures in a park. Good thing there is photo shop because I think she may need to fix poor Little E's red nose! I have been wanting professional photos done pretty much since we got the pictures from the last photo shoot back. I have been really pushing for it since E's first birthday though. I was all hot on the idea but it just seemed like too much of an expense at the time. Last years photos were taken around the same time and it was interesting how different this session was. Little E was a trooper and was in a very good mood for about an hour. Not bad for being outside in the upper 30s. I am going to guess that we have some really great shots and am looking forward to seeing them. We were told it will be three weeks to get our edited images. I am dying to see at least one. I may start bugging her for a teaser to hold me over.

Since I didn't post a Halloween picture yet here is my little kitty!

Halloween Recap

2010-11-02T20:56:00.002-04:00

We had a great time celebrating Halloween this year. While E still doesn't really get it I think she enjoyed wearing her costume and "carving" a pumpkin. Friday her daycare celebrated the holiday with wearing costumes for the day and a party for the families at night. We are really lucky with the daycare we found and I know that Anjelica, her mother Violetta and the other daycare providers really love E and that she is well cared for. The party was really fun and a great time to get to know some of the other families at daycare. Anjelica and Violetta cooked up a Chilean feast and it was so cute to see all the kids at the table eating away enjoying each other's company. I must say it is really funny to see E sitting at a table like a big kid.

Sunday we carved a pumpkin. I planned on Shazam, E and I carving all three pumpkins that I purchased but I found out that my dear wife doesn't like carving pumpkins and finds the inside of the pumpkin gross. So E and I carved one pumpkin and called it a day. Ella wore her costume, we snapped some photos and that was pretty much our Halloween celebration. I had her in her costume to hand out candy for the trick or treaters but... she melted down and went to bed before the first ones showed up at our doorstep. Our sneaky little girl did try to steal some candy out of the bowl however before going to bed.

Tomorrow I am taking a personal day so that we can take our family pictures. It is going to be a little nippy but I am hoping that we get some good shots. Our wedding photographer is taking the pictures and we love her work so I am sure we will get some great photos. She came to our apartment shortly after E came home from the hospital last year and we love the photos she took. In fact she took some pictures of Darwin that day that I absolutely love. I need to go and get our outfits ready for tomorrow.

See I did my 2 posts and now I am caught up! Go me!

Oh goodness I already failed!

2010-11-02T10:08:00.002-04:00

Ok so I have a good excuse. I was planning on blogging last night to start Blogging month but then....Our crazy cat brought a live mouse into the house and all hell broke loose. Shazam and I screamed like little girls and managed to scare the mouse into hiding but not much else. We had a few "sightings" of Squeaker but did not manage to catch and remove him/her. We left the back door that leads to the basement open and we are hoping that Squeaker made it back down stairs. The cat who started the whole thing was really not all that much help and I think thought Shazam and I were playing with the mouse too so would find it, bandy it around and then let it go again. Poor mouse! Anyway that is why I didn't blog last night. I will blog again tonight to make up for my failure...Let's see what happens

Roseola

2010-10-26T20:34:00.002-04:00

Well we finally know what was causing the fevers. Roseola. It was my thought since she had a high fever an no other symptoms. Well this morning she woke up covered in the tell tale rash. I have never been so thankful to see a rash in my life. Little E is still not back to her super happy self but she is certainly on the mend. I stayed home with her today and she took a super long morning and afternoon nap. Pretty much she slept all morning, ate lunch and went back down for a nap. She was up for a total of an hour between the naps. She slept horribly on Sat, Sun and Mon night so I have a feeling she is playing a bit of catch up. Shazam is home with her tomorrow so Thursday we should be ready to go to daycare. Fingers crossed. While she is feeling better she looks a little rough around the edges right now with a rash all over her face, chest and back. I am so glad that we had to reschedule our family photo shoot to next week. Splotchy rash is not what we are looking for on the holiday card.

On a final note we have a new badge on the left. On November 17th we will be blogging for Preemies. I want to encourage all our readers to take the time to blog for babies on November 17th as well. Whether you have a preemie or not on November 17th take the time to remember the thousands of babies born too soon every year.

Sick

2010-10-24T19:20:00.002-04:00

Little E woke up Friday morning with a 102 temperature. I had already gone to work and Shazam had a class and midterm to had in that morning. Normally I would have thrown some sub plans together and headed home but we were going on a field trip so that would have been very difficult to deal with. Fortunately my mom was able to drive to us and take care of Ella. We took her to the doctor Friday afternoon. I was almost hoping that it was her ears since she had no other symptoms. Fortunately and unfortunately her ears were clear. The doctor seemed to think it was viral and sent us home with instructions to keep her comfortable with tyl.enlol and mot.rin. We does Little E every 4 hours alternating the two drugs and it only dropped her fever to about 101 with it always spiking to 103-104 when at the end of a dose. She ended up sleeping with us for most the night friday and was a sleepy cranky mess all day Saturday. She ate very little but we were to keep her hydrated. She went down at about 7 pm but woke at 10 pm with a fever of 105. We gave her a sponge bath gave her some motr.in and called the on call doctor. It took 2 more pages to get him to call back. I was not pleased. It wasn't a doctor from our practice but I will still be letting our doctor know that there was a problem. Anyway, with the mo.trin and the bath Little E's temp dropped down to 101. The bath dropped it from the frightening 105 to 102. By the time I spoke with the doctor it was 101 so he thought it would be ok to wait to go to the ER until the morning. When Little E woke Sunday morning she had no temp! So Shazam and I decided to wait and see what happened before spending our day at the ER. Little E was still feeling pretty crappy and by mid morning was refusing all food and most liquids. She was pretty irritable so even though she wasn't febrile I gave her a dose of mo.trin at about 1 pm and put her down for a nap. She woke about 30 minutes later with a fever of 101.5. She was now pretty listless and was just laying in my lap crying, so we decided to take her in. We got to the ER at about 2 pm and by then her temp was 103. They gave her a dose of tyl.enol in triage and we were taken back to the pediatric ER about 20 min after we walked in the door. The ER was packed by the way but they got us back in record time. The doctor saw us within 5 minutes of being in a room. When she examined Little E there was a child life specialist with her blowing bubbles singing songs and giving us toys. The doctor was shocked to hear that Little E was a 30 weeker and told us that she would have never guessed that she was a preemie. She look actually shocked that she weighed 2lb 5 ozs at birth! Anyway the doctor felt that it was either a virus, a UTI, or a reaction to her MMR shot that she had 10 days ago. To rule out infection she wanted a blood count and a blood culture done. The nurse, the child life specialist, and a lab tech all came to our room to help with the blood draw. The c.l.s. explained that they would be putting an iv in when they drew the blood so that it would be in if they needed to give iv antibiotics. They were really great at explaining what they were going to do ect. they were very concerned about how Shazam and I were feeling about the blood draw and IV. I reminded them that Little E had been in the nicu for 69 days and that we had seen plenty of IVs placed in Ella and that a blood draw was not a big deal to us. While I don't like to see Little E in pain and she certainly didn't like the poke she handled it like she always does with some tears but she holds still and waits for it to be over. When they were preparing to put the IV in I could see the nurse examining Little E's hand taking note of the numerous scars from the ivs Little E had placed in the first months of her life. The nurse was great and got the iv in with one stick. With the blood draw done we were told we would have results in 45 minutes. The C.L.S. set us up with a dvd and Little E fell asleep on Shazam's chest. The great news is that her blood count came back normal. The bad news is we still don't know what is going on. So we were sent home to wait and see what happens. Her fever was gone when she went to bed tonight. I need to check her in a bit to see if it has gone up again. I am hoping we don't have a repeat of last night. None of us got much sleep and are feeling it today. My mom is coming to watch E tomorrow and I am hoping that she wakes up fever free, feeling like her spunky self and back to daycare on Tuesday.

Oct 14 Ella using walker.mov

2010-10-24T11:15:00.001-04:00

Click here to view this video

Fall Fun!

2010-10-18T20:50:00.008-04:00

Fall in New England is my favorite. There is so much to do and the weather is cool and crisp but the sun is still bright. I love wearing a warm fleece and doing fun things outside. Last year Shazam, Ella and I took a trip apple picking. She was just home from the hospital and a little squeak of a thing.

This year we have been apple picking and to a pumpkin patch. Boy are things different this year! The apple picking was very quick as we didn't want that many apples and it doesn't take long to pick a half a peck. But it was a nice day and we enjoyed our time in the orchard with my mil, sil and niece. Two weekends ago we went off to find a pumpkin for E. We went to a local farm and unfortunately it was very disappointing. First off they wanted us to pay $14 each to go in a have the opportunity to pick apples and pumpkins. That was not going to happen and we convinced the person at the booth that we just wanted to pick a pumpkin and not see the rest of the stuff (rides and petting zoo). Once at the pumpkin patch it was horrible. There were no good pumpkins, in fact many of them were rotten. We ended up posing E by some pumpkins and leaving. I will pick her up a pumpkin at the store and be done with it. I did get some nice pictures so I guess it was ok. This weekend we were up in NH for Great Bubba (great grandpa) and Mimi (mil's birthday). It was fun to see the family and the weather was great. I got some nice shots of E and her cousins enjoying the fall weather.

Ok so you all deserve an update!

2010-09-28T19:26:00.003-04:00

So I really have not updated what we have been up to in so long. Pretty much it is work, play, eat sleep around here. Not really all that fun but we have been having some fun in between the boring day to day life.

Our highlight of late is we went apple picking a few weeks ago. It was fun and I think E enjoyed it. We only picked a peck but have been enjoying apples and apple treats since then. Little E is a freak about apples and loves eating them. If I peel one she will hold a whole apple in her hands and munch away. It is very cute!

Ella is off pretty much all purees and on table food now. I must say that this makes life soooooo much easier. It also makes going out to eat much better. Since E is entertained eating her own meal we can eat together and have an enjoyable time for the most part. While I am still struggling with what on earth to feed her I have found some really yummy items that little E really enjoys. I have not done very many product endorsements here but I think these items are good options for busy working moms trying to feed a hungry toddler when I get home from work.

Little E just loves the Dr Praeger's broccoli pancakes and the California veggie pockets. Just throw them in the toaster oven for a few minutes and a yummy healthy vegetarian option is ready.

In other news Little E has been sick on and off for the past month. Darn you daycare! She has been home for the past 2 days with an ear infection. Just the latest in the sickness that Typhoid Mary has brought home with her. She came home from daycare on Friday with a fever and had it all weekend. She had no other symptoms though. When it didn't go away on Monday I took her into the doctor. Well Little E had an ear infection in one ear and is now on antibiotics. Poor little bumble bee! She was home today with my mom and will be home tomorrow with Shazam. Hopefully she will be back to daycare on Thursday where she can pick up another sickness! We are really happy with the daycare we just wish we could keep her in her little protected bubble for a little longer.

Ella is growing like a weed and while she hasn't really gained any weight since her 12 month appointment (according to her weight yesterday at the doctor) 21lbs she definitely is getting taller. I am looking forward to seeing how tall she is at her 15 month appointment in a few weeks.

The other big news is that Little E has been discharged from Early Intervention. She had an evaluation last week and she did not have the necessary 2 month delay in any area. It was interesting to see how far she has come since her last eval. We have our last appointment with our home visitor tomorrow and we all will be sad to say goodbye. We should get all her results tomorrow and I will have a more complete update on all of Ella's sub-group scores.

Well I must run an tune into glee!

Goodbye Sweet Friend

2010-09-14T21:46:00.002-04:00

I have been absent from blogging for about a month now. This absence is partly due to the big life changes over here at Darwin's mommies. In the last three weeks Little E started daycare, I went back to school to teach a new grade (6th), and Shazam started grad school for her master's in social work. To say that we have been busy would be and understatement. I have loads to blog about but there hasn't been much time around here to think about a post let alone actually write one.

Truthfully though the reason why I have not logged on and posted is that I knew I would have to write the post I am about to write and I just wasn't ready to do it. About three weeks ago our spunky puppy and name sake was hit by a car and killed. He got out of a door that was left ajar and was hit. It was terrible. I found him in the road outside our apartment and knew from far away that he was gone. Darwin would have been 12 in another month. I got him at an animal rescue when he was 8 months old. I got a beagle because I wanted to name him Darwin (I am that much of a geek). He was a naughty puppy and drove us all crazy. He was still driving us crazy 11 years later. He was smart but used it, as I used to say, for evil. He ate all sorts of things he shouldn't have over the years. Amazingly only getting really sick from things in his later years. Goat dog's stomach just wasn't what it used to be.

Darwin was a true friend to me through some really rough times. I had him from age 26-37 and so many things changed for me in that decade plus, but Darwin always remained by my side. He was the one living thing that saw me almost every day for that entire decade. He slept for years under the covers with me (until he was ousted by Sue a few years ago). He was the my greeter every time I came home and took a nap after school on the couch with me every afternoon. I cried many tears onto his soft ears.

For a while in my early 30s I was kind of lost. My friends all were couples and I just couldn't figure out where I fit in. I was just starting to figure out that I was gay and didn't quite know what to do with that either. It was during this time in my life that all I pretty much had was my Woobie dog. We drove to the white mountains to hike, camped on the farm in VT and snow shooed in the conservation land around home. He was more than just a dog to me he was a true friend.

Darwin was with me through the tough times, went on Shazam and my second date, loved Shazam even though he knew he was replaced a bit by her. This last year had been rough for the hound who was just finally accepting the new "puppy" into the pack. Ella's early arrival and the chaos that followed stressed my old friend a bit. But over time he was warming to Ella and her constant attention. He particularly enjoyed Ella's treats that she dropped off the high chair. Ella's first word was DiDi and for a few days crawled around the house looking for her DiDi calling his name. Now she sees his picture and says DiDi. It is sad to know that she won't remember having a dog but we will tell her all about her big brother and how much he loved her.

It is quiet around here without Darwin to let us know when the mail arrives or when it is time to eat. To say that I miss him just doesn't do it. I kind of feel like I am missing part of myself. Before I had Sue I had Darwin, before I had Ella I had Darwin. My family just feels a little incomplete without him here.

I can say confidently that I don't know if I would have made it through the last decade without him and while I know I will, I don't really know how I will get through the next decade with him gone.

I picture him asleep curled up like a cinnamon roll on a cloud in dog heaven eating as many chicken wings he can find hidden in the clouds. I hope I get the chance to see him again and kiss his soft head and scratch his favorite spot on his chest. I miss you my sweet woobie. You will always have two mommies that love you so very much.

Award

2010-08-11T13:06:00.002-04:00

So I woke up to a blog award! How nice to have the first thing I read this morning be compliments from my friend E over at Our Growing Family. I have gotten to know E over the last few years while we were both planning our weddings and it has been great being along for the ride with through the ups and the downs of both our lives. One of the things I really love about E is that she is up for anything. Mention that you want to meet up for dinner and she will jump in the car and drive over an hour to meet you. My only wish is that her family lived just a bit closer so we could see each other more! Go on over and check her blog out it is worth the read.

Now on to my honorees. I belong to two "special" interest groups as I am both a lesbian mom and a preemie mom. So my google reader list is a funny mix of blogs on both these topics. So I think I will choose a blog from both sides of my blogging family.

So my first honoree is a blog I just started reading. We actually met the author with her partner and son in p-town when we helped them out of bind. She is a great writer and I have enjoyed reading through her post archives and getting to know her over the past few weeks. I find it so interesting to read about other gay families and how it "works" for them. So go and check out the blog Out With Mommy. You will see my cute family and our friend Sandy featured in the top post!

Secondly if there is one thing I learned this year is that no one understands what Shazam and I have been through this past year like other preemie moms. I don't know what I would do without these moms who have laughed, cried, bitched, celebrated and morned with these women over the last year. I feel so lucky to have a group of women to travel this road with. One of these women Trish not only writes a great blog but also started a wonderful message board for all her preemie friends. She tells it like it is, is smart, and is dang funny to boot. She has been through the ringer but has a great attitude and is always there to help another preemie mom out. Her blog Fertile Hope really gives you a glimpse into a preemie mom's world. It shows you the joy but it also shows how having a preemie really changes you. It is not over when you baby comes home from the NICU and everything isn't normal even when your baby is chubby toddler. I am so thankful to have Trish to show me that even though it is not how we planned it kind of is an honor to be a preemie mom. Trish had pre-eclampsia/hellp too so she knows just how scary that can be. She wrote this post a few months ago and I couldn't agree with her more.

So ladies, now for the rules….post the award on your blog, link back to the person that gave it to you, and give it to whomever you want to, as long as they are beautiful!

I am working on a Family Week re-cap. Hopefully it will be up soon.

McDreamy

2010-07-29T14:31:00.004-04:00

So remember last year around this time I made this post where I recapped Ella's birth and I talked about how my surgeons were really cute? Well lets just say I had a little bit of a crush on the doctors who did my c-section. I really thought the attending was good looking and the residents were not all that bad either. After Ella was born and taken to the nicu while the residents were completing my c-section I had a pretty funny exchange with them.

me: So who is McDreamy and who is Mc Steamy?

mcdreamy: I don't know but I am your mc-vitamin d deficiency I have not seen the outside in a while. (although I thought she was pretty dreamy!)

We laughed and we cracked a few jokes which I guess might seem strange but I decided if they could chat and make jokes then the surgery was going well. I often looked for my McDreamy while we were in the hospital but I didn't see her again. My case was a little tricky so I got the cheif resident who was so not dreamy!

Well fast forward to last week. Shazam and I were watching one of our favorite shows Boston Med and all of a sudden a voice I would never forget came out of the tv and I looked up to see my McDreamy right there on my tv! Yes there she was. Dr Kelly Wright in all her cuteness! My McDreamy! I am happy to report that she is indeed wicked cute and I still have good tastes in chicks when I am sick and all drugged up. Oh and our gaydar was right, both Shazam and I thought she might be gay but we also thought that it was just our wishful thinking. But no she is gay I don't know why that makes me feel better but it makes me happy that the doctors in the room were comfortable with out family. Kind of makes sense why she laughed so hard when the anesthesiologist told me she was going to go find my husband after I was prepped for the section and I told her she would be looking for a while since I had a wife. So if you want to see my McDreamy tune in tonight at 10pm on ABC as she will be in this weeks episode.

Recap-Birthday,EEG, and Summer Fun

2010-07-29T13:38:00.005-04:00

The birthday party went over without a hitch. Well the weather could have been better but it wasn't raining during the party and people were still able to go for rides on the boat and go swimming. Worst case scenario would have been we were all squished in the house in the rain. So while the sun was not shining it was still pretty fun. I didn't take enough pictures and I wish I had but oh well. We had fun, we smashed cake and Little E turned ONE!

The week after her birthday we went for her 12 month check up. All was great and she weighed in at 20lb 4oz and was 27.5 inches long. She is doing great and it was crazy to find out that she has gained almost 18lbs in one year!

The next day we headed out to Children's Hospital for her 24 hour eeg. It took a while to get up to the floor where we were staying and were further delayed waiting for our room to be opened up. She did great with the set up again and charmed the socks off the women who hooked her up. She was attached to the wall by a long cord and had a little bag to hold the eeg box. She was not phased at all with having 25 leads covered with a long sock thing attached to her head and played happily. She slept ok and I ended up having to get in the crib and sleep with her for much of the night. She had several episodes before she went to bed so they were able to review the eeg in the morning right after rounds and we were released by 11 am. So our 24 hour eeg ended up being more of a 15 hour eeg which was awesome. The best news was that she showed no seizure activity. They described it as non-epileptic head nods, a name I think they may have made up in the hallway before coming in. Anyway they are not concerned at all and the episodes are now rare where we see a few a day but nothing like the 25 or more we were seeing a month ago. Yeah for no seizures!

We have been busy the last few weeks enjoying the summer and have gone swimming in pools, took our first boat ride on the lake, explored the splash park, and other wise where summer slackers. Our little family is definitely enjoying our last (and only) summer with us all at home with no school or work!

We are off to P-town tomorrow for a week. Although we are stopping at Children's for an allergy appointment to rule out (we hope) a legume allergy. Doesn't everyone start their vacation at Children's hospital???? Our doctor wanted us to be tested before trying legumes again. So fingers crossed that peanut butter sandwitches will be in our future. It will stink if it ends up that Little E's hive reation to peas at 7 months is really a peanut allergy like we fear.

How It Should Have Been

2010-07-12T09:15:00.003-04:00

Saturday night after the cake was put away and the the last of the guests had left Little E woke up crying. It had been a long day with nothing that counted as a true afternoon nap and it was hot in her room. To settle her back down I laid down on the bed with her for a quick snuggle. She drifted in and out of sleep often turning her head into mine so close our faces touched. Shazam joined us and we lay in the bed together with Little E snuggled between us. We whispered about the day and kissed our dear daughter's head, and face and hands. We admired the amazing creature that is our daughter. Every once and a while her eyes would flutter open and she would smile at us. At some point I realized this is how it should have been. This is what our first night should have been like. This is what I morn. A year ago we should have been snuggled in a hospital bed with Little E between us in awe of her perfection. I didn't get it our first night but I did 365 nights later. I still miss that first night but somehow after all we have been through our time together on her birthday eve may be more precious.

I am back

2010-07-08T13:29:00.008-04:00

Hi People

So I think coming back in a weeks time is not great but better so I am proud of myself. We had a great 4th weekend and we had a wonderful time at the parade and all the festivities. Little E did great and was a trooper. She missed her naps on a couple of days and took it like a champ. Not a crank or whine the whole time. She even slept and Mimi and Bubba's with not one problem. Last year on the fourth I was pregnant and this year I have an almost year old child. It is still hard to get my head around that!

July 4th 2009 July 4th 2010

Our Yankee Doodle!

This week we have been busy getting ready for E's birthday party. Today we worked on favor bags as well as picking up some last minute things. Shazam is out right now getting the helium tank and some other assorted items. Tonight we run to BJ's for the perishable food. Tomorrow we drop the dog at his dog camp, pick up the cake and head up to the lake. The weather forecast is ok. With possible scattered thunder showers. I am hoping for the best and we will make due with what ever weather comes our way. We have about 33 people on the guest list and a house that is not so big so let's hope we don't have too much trouble with the weather. As I mentioned before I went a little crazy with etsy purchases and I think that it all came out so well. Here is a little preview of our stuff.

Invite Favor Bag

Party Sign Birthday Banner

Photo Banner

Today is also an anniversary of sorts. Today marks the day I got sick and went to the hospital. Today was the beginning of the end. I am glad I have distractions from being stressed out about it. But still my mind wanders to those last few blissful hours before I learned the hard way that sometime bad things happen to good people. I started therapy yesterday and that really helped and I think it will be very good for me to process all that went on in my pregnancy, birth and all the rest! E has been doing great which is helping me deal with the emotion of these next few days. She has her 24 hour eeg scheduled for next week, but I will tackle that when after the party.

Wow it has been a while.

2010-07-01T10:16:00.003-04:00

So the theme seems to be, I don't blog, I apologize for not blogging enough, I don't blog and then I apologize for not blogging enough. School is finally over and I was hoping that things would calm down here but things have been crazy and well I have been a bit crazy. No excuse but there it is.

I have been having a really hard time of late. I think I have a touch of post tramatic stress disorder. I say this with a smile on my face since how the heck do you just a touch of that. Anyway, a few weeks ago E started doing this strange thing with her head where she would bob it down. It was really quick, she didn't seem to even notice she was doing it. She could be in mid crawl, sitting and playing or even standing while holding on to something. It actually started a few months ago when she was eating. She would be sitting in her high chair and would do a shiver like thing and bob her head down. It seemed to happen when she was eating something cold it happened so infrequently that we felt it was just a freak thing. Well she started doing it about 25 times a day about 2 weeks ago and I freaked out. Both Shazam and I were very worried but I completly lost it. E of course was her happy self just bobbing her head alot. We made an appointment with her pedi and caught her doing it on video. The pedi was stumped so she started calling neurologists. She was having some trouble getting call backs and they were all booking into the end of July. I was starting to think it might be easier to go to med school and become a neurologist myself. We happened to have lunch with our neonatologist friend who observed the episodes on Friday. She called our pedi and within an hour of her call E had an appointment at Children's Hospital for an eeg and neuro consult on the following Monday. I don't know how it all went down but I am so glad people made things happen.

Monday we went in for the EEG which was not as bad as I thought it might be. I had to pin E down on a bed for about an hour so that the tech could attatch the 20 odd electrodes to her head and face. She cried for a little while but was comforted with a binky and her bunny, bun bun. I think she kind of gave up after a while and knew she was not going to get up so she just laid there and let it happen. I also think she might have liked how it felt to have her hair played with and the feeling of the air that they used to dry the glue. After she was all set up I had to get her to sleep. I didn't know if it was going to happen but I did get her down so that they could record her sleeping. After that we went upstairs to neurology and met with a nurse practitioner and a neurologist. The good news is that they did not see the brain activity that is seen with infantile spasms which was the biggest concern. She didn't have any episodes during the EEG (thanks e!) but we were told that babies with infantile spasms show abnormal brain activity between seizures so the fact that her EEG was normal is a very good indication. They did not think she needed additional imaging (mri or catscan) but she does need to do a 24 hour EEG. She will be admited to the hospital for this. The good news is that we will be able to stay with her during this. So instead of having to leave my beautiful baby in the hospital again we will be able to be with her while she undergoes this test. I hate that she will have to go through this but we need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. The neurologist thinks she is having benign myclonus of infancy. Pretty much they don't know what causes them and they go away by age 2 or 3. I hope that is the case. It is going to be very difficult to get our very active 12 month old to keep the eeg leads on her head for 24 hours but I have faith that the people at Children's will know a few tricks.

I think the upcoming anniversay of E's birth and this new health problem has brought up the trama of last summer and has made it clear that I need to process and deal with everything that happened. I know I have tremendous guilt about being the cause of E's prematurity and feel like all that she went through and is going through is my fault. Pretty much I feel like a terrible mom to have put E through all this. I have an appointment with my therapist next week and will be working through all of this and I hope to find to peace and can move on. I also have an appointment to start taking my meds again. I think the two of these things will really help. I have more to say on this but have to run. Hopefully I will have some good news to report soon!

11 Months

2010-06-13T21:41:00.003-04:00

I can't believe E is now 11 months old. She is doing so well and has come so far. We have to wait until her 12 month appointment to know how much she weighs but I would guess she is about 20 lbs. We switched her to her convertible car seat a few weeks ago (rear facing of course) and it has been so nice not struggling with the infant seat. She looks like such a big girl in her new seat. She is now crawling all over the place and with great speed. We have taken to barricading her into the living room with storage bins. I know a little low class but we just have not had time to get a gate. The bins actually work quite well and we can put toys on top for E to play with. Additionally Darwin can jump over so we are not constantly getting up to open the gate for him. Ella has mastered pulling to a stand and starting to cruise a little bit. She spends much of her day pulling to a stand, sitting down, and then pulling back up. She is very funny when she goes down and very carefully looks to see what she is doing before lowering herself down. She is babbling more and more these days and is definitely repeating her consonant sounds. Just today she was saying mamama. Not that she was saying it with purpose but it was nice to to hear as she tends to babble dadadada a lot. This week she learned to clap (finally!) which is good since I was getting a bit worried about her lack of clapping and waving. Still waiting for the wave but I think she is getting close.

I am anxiously counting down the last days of school. Just 5.5 days with kids left! I was smart and the kids are doing presentations Monday-Wednesday this week leaving just Thursday for a wrap up activity, Friday a field trip, and Monday graduation. I can't wait to have my summer to spend with my family! I have secured a part time consulting job for the summer which will require me to work 20 hrs/week from home. I am very excited about this as the money will be great to have saved when Shazam goes back to school.

Shazam mentioned in the last post that we have started planning Little E's first birthday party. I must admit that I am going a little crazy about planning the details of this festivity. We are having a pink owl theme and I have found a shop on etsy to make some party items to coordinate with our invites. I am pretty sure that it will be pretty cute. I know that some people think that having an elaborate birthday party for a one year old is stupid and the rational side of me agrees, but for me this party is much more than a first birthday party. For me I am reclaiming the day. I can confidently say that July 10th 2009 was one of the worst days of my life. It was also the best day of my life. I have never been so scared and so sick in my entire life. Shazam and I have tried to put on a brave face about the events of the day and put a positive spin as we told the story of Ella's birth but in reality things were bad. I would say they were just about as bad as they get. I was on a morphine drip to control the epigastric pain I was experiencing (a pain that was so severe they thought my liver had ruptured), I was on a mag drip to keep me from having a seizure, the lights were off so that my nervous system was not stimulated, my blood pressure was so high they thought I was going to have a stroke, my kidneys shut down, as did my liver. Little E was in equally tough shape. She was small and measuring weeks behind her 30 weeks gestation. While she did cry when she was born she scored a 2 on the apgar. She was intubated and not breathing on her own. Ella was born at 1 pm and quickly whisked to the nicu. Shazam and I would not see her again until after 8 pm when they wheeled me in on a gurney. I spent the first night as a mother weeping in Shazam's arms as I was bombarded with the sounds other people's babies crying in the adjacent rooms. As July 10th approaches I am relieving those terrifying days in the hospital before her birth and the 69 days of terror that we lived through after she was born. It all is still very fresh and still very raw for me. It is my hope that by concentrating on E's party I can fill July 10th 2010 with some beautiful memories that will perhaps help soften the not so pretty ones that I live with now. So if I think ordering cute birthday banners will help me feel better that gosh darn it all I will do it. I personally think I deserve it!

Well That Is Embarrassing

2010-06-04T09:41:00.007-04:00

Wow. I'm embarrassed by my blog slacking personally and just in general. I have no good excuse except that being a mom has kind of swallowed me up a bit. I guess that's why moms make reference to "losing themselves" a bit. I'm totally consumed with Little E, diapers, laundry, etc.. To say I'm looking forward to SSG being done school in a couple weeks is an understatement and I will probably regret this later, but I am looking forward to school starting in September. I don't really consider myself on overly extroverted, social person but damn to I crave adult interactions.

I also don't want to come off like I am complaining that I've had the opportunity to stay home for a bit. I think I've done a pretty good job considering I don't think I am a natural at this. Little E is thriving and a super-happy baby. She will be 11 months old next week (what?!), she is probably around 20 pounds, she's doing a great job eating, she crawls like a champ, she pulls to standing, NEVER stops moving all day long, babbles all day long, and now has two teeth! I find it unreal that we are starting to plan her birthday party.

On the mommies front, I think we are fairing well. We are enjoying our time with her and E makes us laugh all the time. We are especially functioning better because E sleeps from about 7:00 to 7:30 on a regular basis. It's heaven and dammit we deserve it! This sleeping thing only happened around mid-April so it was a long haul or at least it felt like it. SSG is so ready for school to be over. I know juggling parenthood and working full-time has been no easy task. She really has handled it like a champ. I really admire her for that. Beyond being home with the girl I have over the past couple months tried to pick up some projects here and there to earn a little cash. I am in the middle of an interior paint job right now and have 3 jobs after that. I feel like I'm running myself a little ragged with lots of working on weekends and in the evening but it needs to be done. It's how I feel I can contribute financially. It makes me feel good which I need as the fact of unemployment for over a year now really weighs on me.

So last Saturday we took the ferry to Provincetown to spend the day there. We have friends that have a place there on the beach so it was great to see them, walk around, introduce E to the beach, and also nice to have a home base. We had a great time but holy crap was it exhausting. The ferry each way is an hour and a half...it was a looong hour and a half. E wants to move allll the time so it's exhausting. Add that we sad across from this pretentious jackass that went on about the private schools he sent his kids to, the huge house he had, and how successful he is. I wish I had a picture of his face when I said I was going to school to get my masters in social work. He didn't get it and to have a job where you didn't make tons of money just didn't compute. God I hate people like him. Anyway, like I said we had a great day and E was pretty good considering she only slept like 30 minutes the whole day. Here are some shots from our day!

We have a tooth!

2010-05-12T21:46:00.003-04:00

Little E turned 10 months old on Monday and today her first tooth is just pushing out from her gums. She was extra cranky this past weekend waking up multiple times in the night and not able to get herself back to sleep. I was beginning to think that she was going to be the toothless wonder forever.

Little E also learned two new tricks last week. She finally figured out how to get from the crawl position to sitting. I must say it is very strange to find her in her crib sitting up and waiting for me to pick her up. Little E also pulled herself up to standing by herself for the first time. She is really making progress with her gross motor skills these past few weeks. She is a crawling freak of late. She still mostly army crawls but throws in a few real "steps" crawling off her belly.

Little E has a new favorite food. She loves pasta. Little E has been doing better and better with table foods. She now eats puffs and yogurt drops like a pro. She also did quite well with cooked carrots. We also introduced a sippy cup with a straw this week and she loves it. She happily sips away on her water. It is the cutest thing.

Well not much else going on here. I will try to get a shot of the tooth when it really makes its appearance in the next few days.

Mother's Day and March for Babies

2010-05-09T20:37:00.014-04:00

Today was our first Mother's Day as Moms. It was a wonderful day. It started with waking up with Little E in bed with us (well it really started at about 3am with Little E waking up screaming due to a tooth we think is coming in). It was so amazing to look over and see both my baby and my wife with me. We snuggled for a while and then we got up. Little E gave Mommy her card and Little E gave Mama her card and her present. It seems that Little E and Mommy broke the rules and bought a gift for Mama. My wife is too nice to me. After drinking coffee and feeding Little E some breakfast we got ready to go to brunch at one of my favorite restaurants. It was super yummy and Little E did great and was very well behaved in the restaurant. A few mimosas later and I was one very happy Mama. We spent the rest of the day doing some shopping at the local mall and finished off our day with taking Little E to the grocery store for the first time. I know that may seem crazy that 1. I am excited enough about this to blog about it and 2. I spent part of my first mother's day doing it. But as a preemie mom simple things like going to grocery store with my baby mean so much to me. When Little E was first born I didn't know if Little E would ever be well enough to come home from the hospital, forget healthy enough to go to the grocery store. Then when Little E finally did come home, RSV season and the lock down that it causes kept us from doing so many of those normal mommy baby things that I had so looked forward to before I had Little E. Being able to take Little E into the grocery store is a step in healing for me. It is normal, it is a tiny step in reclaiming some of motherhood that I lost when Little E was born prematurely. All in all it was a perfect mother's day. It was spent with both my girls and it was all I could have ever dreamed of.

Yesterday we did the March of Dimes March for Babies. It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad that we walked. Team Bumble Bee raised $1723! The weather was terrible all morning right up to the start of the walk. It cleared as the walk was beginning and we walked mostly rain free except for a few showers. While it would have been amazing to walk in the sun it was still beautiful and so inspiring to see all the people who showed up in the rain to help prevent premature birth and birth defects. My best friend, her daughter, my parents, Shazam's best friend, and one of Little E's doctors walked with us. Little E slept through the entire walk and was fabulous the whole time. She was also snug as a bug in a rug in her snazzy stroller rain cover. Yet another reason to love the quinny.

One of the most heartbreaking parts of of the day were the families walking for babies who died. We walked behind one of those families and spent many moments in our 3 mile walk thinking about how that could have been us. How, for what ever reason, we were the lucky parents who got to bring their baby home and be able to experience the blessing of watching them grow. It is so easy sometimes to get caught up with all the things I missed out on, walking behind that family reminded me of all that I have.

I am looking forward to the walk next year and have already started fundraising. I have decided that I am going to save all the dimes we get in change for the entire year. We already have a jar where we collect our change and I just added another jar for the dimes. I think it will be a great way of keeping the work of the March of Dimes in my mind throughout the year. I also think it will be a wonderful way to introduce charity and giving to Little E when she is old enough. I hope some day Little E will be bringing her own jar of dimes to the walk.

Whether you carry them in your arms or in your heart happy Mother's day to all the Moms out there.

Go Team Bumble Bee

2010-05-02T21:53:00.002-04:00

Next weekend our family and friends will be walking to save babies like Ella, born too soon. You can help us reach our goal by sponsoring us on our walk. Team Bumble bee has raised $855 of our $1000 goal.

Ella is the happy and healthy 9 month old she is today because of research funded by the March of Dimes.
It is easy to forget that Ella was ever sick, but she started her life stuggling to breath. She spent her first night of life intubated and recieving life saving surfactant instead of in her mothers' arms.

I know that times are tough for everyone but every little donation helps. Perhaps you would like to donate $10.40 one penny for every gram of Ella's birth weight or $18.04 for her current weight of 18lbs 4 oz.

Just the Facts

2010-04-23T18:10:00.002-04:00

We are back from a great doctors appointment and all is well with Little E. We just had her EI eval so we just breezed by her developmental milestone stuff. She is behind in most areas but not by much. The exception of expressive language but we know that already. She is healthy as a horse and charmed the pants off the doctor. She weighed in at 18lbs 4oz (the 31st percentile), is 26.5 inches long (the 20th percentile), and her head circumference is 18.5 cm (my baby has a big noggin at 60th percentile). She had to get one shot and barely cried just a little yelp and then nothing. It is always great to get a good check up. In 9 months Little E has gained almost 16 pounds, pretty impressive for a baby who for the first few months we measured her growth in grams. Good thing we just ordered the convertible car seat...her bucket only goes to 20 lbs!

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS There is a great deal on amaz.on for the Britax Boulevard. The moonstone pattern is 21% off with an additional 15% off at checkout! If you are in the market for a great seat I would check it out!

Fun

2010-04-22T21:51:00.007-04:00

This week has been so much fun. It makes me so excited about my summer vacation and weeks of spending all day everyday with my girl! We have been so busy with exciting adventures every day, it has been heaven.

The big news of the week is that Little E has moved into her own room. We decided to move her prior to the official end of RSV season (May 1st) so that we could sleep train her and transition her to her crib while I didn't have to go into work. It has gone so well! The first night she was up about 6 times but she was able to be soothed back to sleep without having to pick her up or bring her back to our room. The next nights she has either slept throughout he night or has woken up once or twice and put herself back to sleep. While I miss having my bumble bee right next to me in bed I know all of us are sleeping better. E is even napping better and has been in a super mood all week. Because of this we have been able to follow through on all the exciting things we had planned.

Saturday we left the house early for NH to pick up Mimi (Shazam's mom) and continue on to Great Mimi (Big E) and Great Buba's house. We had not been since my last vacation and it was great to see them enjoying Little E and all her cuteness. She played on the floor, smiled, and showed them all her new tricks. She was happy and sociable the whole time. We returned to Shazam's parents in the afternoon and stayed through dinner. E was able to sleep during all our drives so she was very well rested.

We had planned on going for a visit to the NICU on Monday but since the Boston Marathon was being run straight through our route to the hospital we decided to go on Sunday. It was a great visit. Our primary nurse Traci was there and it is always great to see her. I swear E totally recognizes her voice and went right to her and was all smiles. While some people find it really stressful to go back and visit the nicu I have the totally opposite reaction. I love going. I feel so connected to the place that made it possible to be a mom, which saved Little E's life, the place we became a family. It also helps remind me of how lucky we are to have our wonderful Little E strong and growing with us.

While we were waiting for Traci to come out to the waiting room Little E started making eyes at a group in the waiting room. They were surprised to hear that she was a NICU graduate. They were shocked to hear that E was a 30 weeker and only weighed 2 pounds 5 ounces at birth. The group was there to visit their 32 week grandchildren/nieces that were born that weekend. They all had that fresh to the NICU glaze on their faces. It felt good to be able to see some relief on their faces to see that those tiny (3 and 4 pound babies) that they were peering at in plastic boxes would hopefully grow and become chubby healthy babies like Little E. When E was in the hospital I can't tell you how many times I looked at the before and after photo collages hanging on the walls of the nicu. It gave me hope on even the darkest days that those babies made it and so would E. I hope seeing Little E helped that family like the photo collages helped me.

Monday we took a walk to our favorite coffee shop and grabbed lunch and iced lattes. Little E loved watching the people come in and out and I think she smiled and flirted with every person who passed her by.

Wednesday I got my hair cut and colored. I have not colored my hair since my wedding and have only gotten 2 haircuts since E was born. It was so nice to be pampered and I do say I look pretty cute too.

Today we took Little E to her playgroup. She had one moment where she was a little unsure of being there and stuck her bottom lip out momentarily but she settled in quite well and played with the toys and had a good time. She loved the music part as usual and was very vocal. It was so great to put faces to the names that Shazam talks about every week.

After playgroup we went for a quick bite to eat and E did wonderfully. She is really liking sitting in a high chair and checking out everything around her. It doesn't hurt to supply her with puffs either.

Tomorrow Grammie is coming to watch Little E and Shazam and I are going to get pedicures. I am so excited about this as my feet need some pampering. With my new hair and my new toes I will be all set for summer. Later in in the day Little E has her 9 month doctors appointment. I can not wait to see how much the little porker weighs. Saturday we are going to the sheep sheering festival that is happening in town. Sunday wraps up my vacation with a birthday party for a friend's child.

I am sad to see my vacation ending but I am looking forward to getting back to work. Only 35 more school days until summer vacation begins. The sooner I get back the sooner it will be Little E, Shazam, and Super Sammy G back together for the whole summer! Since we totally missed last summer while Little E was in the hospital I am so looking forward to 4th of July celebrations, P-town, and the Lake!

Vacation!!!

2010-04-16T21:51:00.002-04:00

Two years ago today Shazam and I were on a plane sipping champagne on the way to our honeymoon in Curacao. We frolicked in the sun, saw the sights, ate yummy food, sipped on fruity mixed drinks, relaxed and had dreamed of getting pregnant and start our family.

Last year we were on a plane on our way to Puerto Rico for our babymoon! We frolicked in the sun, saw the sights, ate fancy resort food, sipped on fruity mixed drinks (well at least Shazam did), relaxed and dreamed about how our lives would change with the birth of our first child.

This year we are staying home. It is supposed to rain on and off all week and only reach the low 60s on our warmest day, we had pasta and sauce for dinner with a glass of milk, our days of relaxing are over, but our dreams have come true in our wonderful Little E!

Seems to me that the next 9 days will be the best April vacation that I have ever had! We have lots of little adventures planned and some appointments scheduled so our week is pretty booked. Tomorrow we are off the Great Mimi and Great Buba's house for a visit. Monday we are going to go to the hospital for a visit with our favorite NICU nurses. Thursday I have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored. Friday Little E has her 9 month doctor's appointment. Nothing special, nothing tropical, but I am looking forward to every wonderful minute with my Little E!

Two Years!

2010-04-12T20:20:00.004-04:00

Today is our second anniversary. This last year together has truly shown me that Shazam is my soul mate and that I couldn't ask for a better wife, best friend, and partner. We have been through the best of times and the worst this past year. Pregnancy, job loss, premature birth, and parenting and I we have come out the other side with our relationship stronger than ever. Last year we celebrated our anniversary with a fancy romantic dinner this year it was a table for three with shift eating and a high chair. It was the best. I have everything I have ever wanted my wife and my daughter. There are no words to really express how much I love Shazam. She is my world. Here is to many more years of being a family. Kisses my love.

Busy Saturday

2010-04-11T17:31:00.002-04:00

What was going to be a chill Saturday actually turned into a crazy Saturday. A good Saturday but busy. We did have a lazy morning but we decided to go to the mall mainly to hit the Hannah. Anderson store. If you are not familiar with their clothes you should be! The clothes are adorable and we love a pair of pjs that were handed down to us that we wanted to get a couple more. This was also a significant trip because it was actually our first trip to a mall with E. I know it sounds nuts but when it's RSV season, you have a preemie, and your pediatrician tells you to avoid places with a lot of people/germs well you just don't go to malls. So we had a nice afternoon strolling around the mall and then we hit Babies. R Us on the way home because we needed diapers and a few other things. We went home, fed E, and put E down for a nap because we had such a busy afternoon.

The day didn't actually end there. SSG and I must have been feeling a bit cocky and felt like we could push it a bit because we decided we really wanted to go out to eat to celebrate E's 9-month milestone. Plus, truth be told, SSG really wanted lobster. The poor woman didn't get to have one last summer because well E arrived early. Just as a side-note SSG LOVES lobster and she can rip one apart and devour in the most efficient way. It's disturbing and impressive at the same time. So we went to this casual-type place that is very well known for it's seafood. We packed up the girl and off we went. The food was great though SSG and I didn't actually eat together. While one was eating the other one was basically walking E around. One thing about Little E. She NEVER stops moving which is scary considering she's not officially crawling (though she drags her body around so who needs crawling?) or walking. She is one squirmy kid and just wants to move. It was fine and you just deal with it. As I said "It is what it is". We had a great time, E didn't have a meltdown, and overall it was a great day.

At one point SSG and I decided that we should just consider it our 2nd Anniversary dinner as well. We had planned on going out just the two of us but it's an expense that we just can't take on right now. I just found out today I have exhausted my unemployment and may be able to get an extension come May 15th. Great. My stress level has shot up today. Thanks to Congress like taking a freakin break and going on their big, expensive vacations benefits are kind of on hold. I'm not quite sure how it's going to work out but I do know there won't be any lobster any time soon.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Speech

2010-04-09T10:45:00.004-04:00

We decided to stay in EI. I was just not ready to give it up. I guess I am still a bit worried about E falling further behind in speach and in the areas she was scoring at 7 months at. I guess I would rather be safe than sorry and not let things fall through the cracks. I am going to talk with the speech path at work to see if she has any ideas about boosting her expressive language. Any insight you guys may have is welcome.

We have a pretty laid back weekend planned. A friend is coming over tonight for dinner and a visit. Sat I will probably go to yoga and do some errands. Ella turns 9 months tomorrow. How the hell is that possible. Seems like tomorrow it will be a year. Where the hell did my baby go???? Sunday we have no plans but I am thinking of asking my parents to come and watch Ella so we can get pedis! Monday is our aniversary so watch out for some mush of a post.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm Back

2010-04-05T20:37:00.009-04:00

It has been a busy few weeks here and I have been so neglecting the blog. Sorry dear readers. Little E has been keeping us pretty busy and the job is kicking my ass. In the past weeks when ever I am not playing with little E I am pretty much in a sleep deprived stupor not able to blog or carry on an adult conversation for that matter.

Little E is still sleeping like crap ok that may be a bit of an over dramatization but she is still getting up at least one time each night and often will not settle back down until we put her in bed with us. I know that we could probably get her back down in the pack n play but at 4 am I am willing to go anything just to get back to sleep. Truth be told I also enjoy getting to snuggle up with her for a few hours. I got gypped out of 2.5 months of snuggle time and am still trying to make up for it. Our doctor wanted us to wait until the end of RSV season before moving her out of our room and I am happy to report that we only have a little over 3 weeks left. I am thinking of asking at her 9 month appointment if we can move her during my April vacation that is coming up. I think it will be better to make the transition when I don't have to go to work the next morning. I have a feeling that we all will sleep better when she is in her crib.

Last week E had her Early Intervention evaluation. I was really nervous about how E would do. Since she had been having some really bad stranger anxiety we were a little worried about how she would do with the evaluators. E did fantastic though and was her charming cute self with the two women who did the eval. We have not gotten the written report yet but we did get her scores and there were no real surprises in how Little E did. For the most part she scored at 7 months which is a one month delay ( I can't remember all the categories and will post the details when we get the report). She scored at 6 months (2 month delay)in expressive language since she isn't making consonant sounds. Excitedly she scored at 9 months (one month ahead) in two categories one was receptive language (I can't remember the other one). The evaluators also needed to check on one of the tests for gross motor since she was not putting her arm out when they tried to push her over from a sitting position which may put her at 6 months for gross motor. Over all I am really pleased with E's progress. She is scoring between her actual and adjusted age which is pretty awesome for a 30 weeker at this point. She seems to be closing the the gap which makes me very happy.

What all this means is that she still qualifies for E.I. since you need a delay of 2 months in one category (for E it is expressive language and possibly gross motor). We need to decide whether or not to keep having services though since they don't do speech therapy on 9 month olds. Since we don't get any other therapies (pt or ot) we would just continue with our weekly visits with our E.I. case worker. Although we love her we just don't know if it is worth our time or hers. One question we need answered is if they will automatically re evaluate her in 6 months if we don't accept services at this time. I would really like to see her get another eval to make sure she is still progressing and catching up.

I am pretty amazed at how fast E has been able to hit some of her milestones. Our case worker about a month ago said that she really wanted to see E sitting by herself by the end of 8 months and as of last week she is really sitting all by herself. She is so steady now that I have no problem letting her sit and play with her toys for long periods of time without worrying about her tipping over. She is even getting smoother at getting from sitting to her belly. She still is doing a bit of a face plant but it is getting much better. She is also rocking so much on her hands and knees, she looks like she is getting ready to take off in a full crawl soon. She has been pulling herself around in an army crawl for a while now and if she really wants to get going she can move pretty fast.

This weekend was wonderful weather and since I had Friday off we had a busy three days. We went to the zoo on Friday, hung out in Davis Sq in Sommerville on Sat, and celebrated Easter with my family on Sunday. We are slowly trying to get E out of her isolation and back into the real world. I don't think our RSV hibernation did good things for E's social development. Since she will be going to daycare in September we need her socialized so we are all not traumatized by the experience. I will leave you with some pictures of Ella on her adventures.

Perfect Day

2010-03-21T20:36:00.005-04:00

This weekend brought more unseasonably warm weather with Saturday boasting temperatures in the low 70s. It was a wonderful way to welcome the first day of Spring. I had yoga in the morning and Shazam and Little E went with me. She was in great spirits and was back to her cute smiling self with my yoga teacher, classmates, and the staff at the store where the class is held. Shazam and Little E visited for a little while and took a nice walk in the sunshine while I bent myself like a pretzel.

After Ella's nap in the afternoon we went over to a park near our house for Little E's first try on the swing. She loved it! We spent about an hour swinging, playing on a blanket and trying out the slide. We then returned home and grilled our supper. Ella was exhausted and fell asleep during her evening bottle. I could not have planned out a more perfect day. There is really nothing more that I need than my family, a sunny day, and a swing.

I should be working...

2010-03-19T09:13:00.002-04:00

but instead I will be writing a blog post. I have a free period right now and I should be going through papers and correcting or planning or something but I decided that I would blog instead.

The weather here has been so great this week little E has been getting out and about so much. Shazam has been walking with her to a coffee shop in the mornings to get a latte which I think they both have been enjoying. We have taken several walks as a family when I get home from work and it has been great. Last night we walked up the street for pizza. It was so yummy and E did great while we ate our pizza and drank out beers. It is so nice to be able to get out of the apartment and see something other than the four walls that have been caging us all in for RSV season. We still have about a month and a half left but have started to enlarge E's world as we think she needs some more socialization and enrichment. It is a constant balance of trying to keep her safe from germs and at the same time help her grow socially and emotionally.

This week has been a prime example of how sheltered Little E really is. Little E had a doctors appointment for her RSV shot on Wednesday so we decided that it would be an excellent opportunity to have her stop by school for a few minutes and meet some people. She was in a great mood when she got there but as soon as people started to get near her she flipped out. Screaming at the top of her lungs and was inconsolable. It was awful. I was so excited for people to meet my girl and she was a miserable mess the whole time. We ended up having to leave. We then stopped at a toy store while trying to kill some time before her appointment and the woman in the toy store said hi to her and she once again flipped out. Same thing happened at the doctors. It was her nap time but still Little E seems to be taking stranger danger to a new level. We also think she may be teething (god I hope so) since she has been pretty irritable lately. We will see.

So we will be trying to broaden Little E's world in the hopes that she will start to be more comfortable with new people and places. Here playgroup will start next week. I hope it goes well for both Little E and Shazam.

Little E has been really improving this week on her physical skills. At the start of the week she couldn't really push her belly off the floor to get into a crawl position. We have been working on this with her and now she does it all the time. In the last 48 hours she even started rocking back and forth on her knees it looks like she will be taking off into a crawl any minute. I guess we need to start that baby proofing project this weekend.

On the food front Little E has been doing really well. She has liked everything we have given her so far with the exception of squash and has not shown any more allergy signs with new food. We have yet to try anything green again. Which I know we must do but it really would mean that I need to make it since most of the green store bought has peas in it or another legume. My plan had been to make all the food but I just have not gotten my act together on this. Perhaps Sunday while it is raining I can whip up a batch of something. I think I really need to do this anyway since I was looking at the ingredients of many of the stage 2 meals and they all have garbanzo flour (another legume) in them. Little E also has been having puffs and seems to be doing really well with them. She can't get them into her mouth very well but opens up like a baby bird for them if I put them in her mouth. EI wants her working on her pincher skills so we need to offer them more but solid food kind of makes me nervous. She still has zero teeth and I am afraid she will choke.

We found out that we got into the daycare that we wanted. It is a little farther away from my school than I may have wanted but I don't think it will be too much of a problem. Hopefully Shazam will have a schedule that allows for her to do much of the drop off. Our plan is to hopefully have Shazam take one of her courses at night so that Little E will only need to be in daycare 4 days/week. We really felt great about this provider and I am really happy that there will be another two mom family there. Also the fact that she had a 30 week preemie herself makes me feel like so at ease with her. Yeah for that being decided. While I am a little bummed that we will have to pay for 2 days per week in the summer I have a feeling that I will enjoy the days that I can go grocery shopping and get things done around the house without a 2 year old on my heels.

Well So Much For That

2010-03-16T11:35:00.004-04:00

I think SSG talked about blogging every day and it looks like there hasn't been a blog in a week. Oops. So much for that plan! I have a few minutes while E is napping and before Early Intervention comes so thought I would start an entry and give some updates.

DAYCARE: No word yet on whether we got that spot at the daycare we really loved. We heard from the friend that recommended her that the daycare provider called her and it seemed to our friend that we were in. We were excited and relieved but we've heard nothing. SSG called the provider yesterday and she didn't indicate that we were in. So I'm confused and worried that we're not in which means we need to keep searching. This sucks. The whole thing sucks quite frankly. It sucks that we need to even send her and it sucks that we have to come up with like $14,000 a year to pay for it.

DARWIN: A little over a week ago our beagle, Darwin, ate the inside of a wet diaper. Somehow baby urine was appealing. That dog is like a freakin goat. He'll eat anything. In fact here are a few examples of what he's eaten in the past:

- socks

- baskets

- a can of oats

- thyroid medication

Ok so back to the diaper. We noticed he was "passing" the diaper (yes it's as gross as you imagine) but after a few days of diarrhea and his appetite decreasing, we decided we needed to get him checked out. We were afraid of a blockage and honestly more afraid of the expense of all of it. I got an appointment last Thursday at 12:30 which is really convenient with SSG at work, me without a car, and E with me. It was a clusterfuck. SSG had to leave work and get coverage and SSG's mom had to come to watch E. We took Darwin, dropped him off, and had to kill time in the area waiting to hear from the vet. We ended up staying there all afternoon only to have them say the diaper is most likely not a problem but the bump on his neck that appeared about a month ago may be...or not. Basically she was like it could be a hematoma or it's worse but again no real diagnosis. So $750 later we took him home with medication, special food, and he's fine. Bastard has like 9 lives and is killing us financially. We love him but we were prepared to put him down if the thing on his neck was like terminal cancer. Sorry we're not people who can pay for like rounds of chemo. We love him dearly but for us it's not something we would do. Hell I'm happy when we can pay for groceries for the week.

GRAD SCHOOL: No word yet on this in terms of me officially accepting somewhere. I had to contact BC because I got in but need my financial aid package before I can make that decision. I was told it's not going out until like early April. I'm a bit baffled by this because my deadline for acceptance was like March 23rd. Do people really make that kind of big decision without knowing the financials? Anyway I got an extension for like mid-April so I'm hoping to have a decision made and have it be over with.

LITTLE E: E has been doing really well and is for the most part a typical 8 month old. She's very active and often very vocal. She's able to move around really well on the floor dragging herself around. She's trying to put together the crawling thing. She can get her butt off the ground, sometimes tucks her knees under her, and just recently shows glimpses of getting that butt and belly off the ground in a crawl position. She's really enjoying her solids...minus squash. She reeeally didn't like squash and personally I don't blame her. E and I have taken a couple of long walks which we really both enjoy. I also just agreed to do like a mommy and me group for an hour on Thursdays starting next week. I know it will be good for E but for me personally I know it will be tough to go because I am very uncomfortable meeting new people. I'm not outgoing like SSG is and I won't have her there as comfort. Once school is out I really want SSG and E to do some sort of mommy and me group, perhaps a yoga mommy and me. We'll have to start looking.

Anyway that's pretty much it from here! Just plugging along.

The Rotation

2010-03-09T16:53:00.002-05:00

On a message board I frequent someone mentioned today that they need some new recipes since they are bored with their usual fare so I thought I would post some of our favorite recipes/dinners to change things up a little from the same old update on Ella post. We have a few dishes which we eat a lot of and I refer to them as dinners that are "in the rotation". Some are more interesting than others of course but I thought I would share a few of our standbys.

1. Chicken Caesar-Ok this sounds fancy but really it is chicken breast with Caesar dressing parm cheese and bread crumbs baked at 350. It is simple but does dress up the old baked chicken breast.

2. Chicken Mexicano!- Yup another way to make baked chicken sound cool. Same old chicken breast with salsa baked at 350. I throw on some grated cheddar for the last few minutes.

3. Lemon Tarragon Chicken- This is much more time intensive but I really have not met a person who doesn't like this meal. My mom always makes this when she is bringing someone a dish in crisis (death or sickness) or celebration (birth). It is yummy. The family I nannied for had me make it every week for them. I'll give you the readers digest version (I don't know where my mom got this recipe and I just kind of wing it on the amounts of things. I will check to see if I can get an actual recipe for it.). Anyway cut chicken breast in bite sized pieces and dredge in flour. Fry in olive oil and remove from pan when golden brown. Set aside. Turn down the heat and add 2 tbsp of butter to the pan. Next add one chicken bouillon cube and about 1/2 cup of water stir until cube is dissolved. Add 1/4 of lemon juice and about 2 tbsp of dried tarragon. Simmer until it is reduced to a thick sauce. Add the chicken back in and simmer for a few minutes stirring to cover chicken with the sauce. Serve over rice.

4. Olympic Orzo- This is a modified dish from the Moosewood Cooks at Home cookbook . We first had it when we watched the summer Olympics in Athens and added feta as a topping to go with the Greek them. I double the tomatoes and other veggies.
2 quarts water
2 cloves garlic -- minced
1 onion -- chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 carrots -- diced
1 red or green bell pepper -- chopped
1 cup orzo
1 zucchini -- diced
1 tablespoon fresh minced mint (1 tsp dried)
1 tablespoon fresh minced dill (1 tsp dried)
1/2 teaspoon fresh marjoram (sprinkling of dried)
5 artichoke hearts (14 oz can) -- drained and chopped
2 cups cannellini beans (15 oz can) -- rinsed & drained
1 14.5 oz can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
red wine vinegar
Bring the water to a boil in a large covered pot.
While the water heats, saute the garlic and onions in 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat.
Add carrots and bell pepper.

When the water boils, add the orzo, return to a boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes, until al dente.

Dice the zucchini and stir it into the skillet of vegetables.
Add the mint, dill, and marjoram.
Add the artichoke hearts and gently stir the beans and the stewed tomatoes.
Simmer for several minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the pasta is al dente, drain and stir in the remaining tablespoon of oil.
When the beans and vegetables are hot, add the orzo.
Season with salt & pepper to taste.

So what are your standbys? I would love to throw a few more items into the rotation!

The Daycare Saga Continues

2010-03-08T21:16:00.002-05:00

Thanks so much for letting me know you are all still here! It felt good to know I am not talking to myself. A couple of you mentioned not commenting as much since you started using reader. I think I am totally guilty of this as well and am going to make more of an effort to comment on the blogs I go read.

Today brought 2 more daycare visits and I am happy to report they went better than the fiasco of Friday. I visited a daycare after school today on my way home and the Shazam Little E and I went to another tonight.

The first daycare was a family daycare just up the street from the gross one we saw on Friday. It was super clean, and very spacious. It had a huge playroom and a kitchen area. It pretty much was the entire first floor of the house. They also had there own very nice playground. The daycare was a little larger than the ones we have seen before and could have a total of 10 children there. There were 2 full time providers and the owner. It was very nice and they all seemed to care about the kids. There was also a separate room for the kids to take a nap. It was very structured. I liked it but it seemed more like a center than a family daycare. This is probably because the woman who ran the daycare passed away this fall and her husband has kept the business going and has hired two woman to take care of the kids. He is very involved and I really liked him but I just didn't get the same connection I have from some of the other family daycares. It is just around the corner from home but is the most expensive we have seen and he did not seem very flexiable with hours (we want 4 days/week)

The second place was really great. It is about 10 minutes from home and was recomended by a friend. Her daughter went there and loved it. Both Shazam and I can totally see why. The door was answered by a very cute teenager who introduced herself and lead us upstairs. The provider was on the phone when we got there so the husband waited with us and both the daughter and husband smiled and cooed at Ella. The provider was so nice we chatted in her emaculate living room and she went over the details of the kids days. She was wonderful. When we mentioned that Ella was a preemie she told us her daughter was born 10 weeks early too. This made me feel so comfortable and she asked about early intervention and told us that they could come and do her services while Ella was at the daycare. How great is that. She took us down to the daycare area and it was so clean and wonderful. The toys and play area it was great. The room opens right out to the fenced back yard. The woman is Chillean so the program is billingual which I also think is wonderful. She then showed us the pictures of all the families at the daycare and there was another 2 mom family. I was over the moon. The only glitch is that another family came today and she is mailing the contract to both of us. I don't know how she will decide who gets the spot. I am hoping that our friend whom the provider seemed to love can put in a good word for us.

Hopefully we will have this daycare problem resolved soon and I will not have to stress about this anymore.

Bueller?? Bueller??

2010-03-05T22:07:00.003-05:00

Is anyone out there? The last couple of posts have gotten no comments. I am starting to wonder if anyone is still out there. I kind of feel like we may have bored out readers and they have left us. Even if we have lost our readers I think I will keep writing since this has become such a great record of the first months of E's life and the journey to making her. I know I lurk on several blogs and never comment so I guess I will be writing for my lurkers (if I have any for now!)

Today we went looking for daycare/school options for E for next year. Ugh let's just say I am totally hating this process espesially since we did this last year as well. Before E was born prematurly we had researched daycare options for E and had found a great home daycare that was right by my school and about 1.5 miles from home. It was great. The woman is a vegetarian and only served organic foods. Her house was great and had a wonderful layout. Another teacher at school used her and she also did a teacher's schedule so that we could drop off at 7:30 and pick up at 3:30 and didn't charge for the summers. It really could not be better. Oh and did I mention that the price was great? However since E was a preemie, the doctors and nurses didn't want E exposed to germs this first RSV season and pretty much told us not to put her in daycare (or take her out of the house for that matter) for the first year. Plus Shazam was out of work so we decided the best plan for our family would be to give up her spot in the awesome daycare and keep her home. I think it was the best decsion for our family and I don't regret it. Unfortunaltly when I called the daycare to see if there was a spot for E, there was no room for her. I am beyond bummed out about this. I then called the daycare that we had tried to get E into last year (but there was no room then) and got the same story, no room. I put a message out on the school email and got several recommendations. After I called several I found that there was very few spots available for a 14 month old in the area that do teacher's hours. I made appointments to visit two options today. Let's just say that they were on opposite ends of the spectrum.

This morning started with visiting a local Montessori school. I was excited to find in my research that they have a toddler program (which is pretty rare) and that they would take E even though she would not be 15 months at the beginging of the school year. I know that Montessori is not for everyone but my mom is a retired Montessori teacher and I went to a Montessori school from age 3-6...we are Montessori people. I fully expected to love the school and I did. It was beautiful. The wooden chairs, the pretty plates, the cute little toddlers playing, it was wonderful. How could you not love cute little kids sitting at a mini table serving themselves freshly chopped papaya and avacado? What I don't love is the price. Ugh the price. They do offer financial aid but since we are late in applying I don't think we will get any. I would so love for E to go to this school and we are going to put our application in but I don't think it is really going to happen right now. Not with Shazam not working, unemployment eventually running out, and Shazam attending grad school in September. Perhaps when E is three she can start the primary program but I can always dream of E around that wooden table in her little chair munching on papaya right? It will be more realistic when we are both in full-time jobs.

Our second stop of the day was a home daycare. I had high hopes. The woman was cheery and nice on the phone. I pictured the family daycare that I we had enrolled E in before. It could not be farther from that. It was in a basement, it smelled horribly musty, it was dirty, the toys were old and grungy, there was a tv, it was crowded, there was an electrical outlet covered with duct tape, and the toys were stored in old cardboard boxes. The woman was very nice but there is no way we will be sending E there.

This visit sent me into such a tizzy that I needed fried food and wine to get me out of it. So back to the drawing board I went.

We now have an appointment Monday to see two other home daycares. Both are recommended by people we trust so this should have a better chance to be a better fit. I sure hope so, since the stress of where E will be going next year is stressing Shazam and I out.

Playing Is Hard!

2010-03-03T21:06:00.005-05:00

Little E is really playing independently more and more lately. She is quite content to play on her mat with her toys or play with the toys on her jumper for long periods of time these days. She is quite inquisitive and spends lots of time just looking at her books or the tags on her toys. She is moving around quite a bit and her early intervention case worker was impressed to see her spinning around on her tummy to reach for things. Darwin on the other hand is not so impressed since Little E seems to be most motivated to move towards her puppy. She loves grabbing his fur. It is quite cute and I think Darwin is very surprised that this furless cat thing we brought home is now moving. All her reaching, spinning and playing seems to be tiring the poor little girl our since this is what Shazam found the other morning.

Little E is also going better sleeping at night. We tried to have her cry it out when she wakes up at night the past two nights and it has gone well. The first night it took her about 5 mininutes to fall back to sleep the two times she woke up. Last night I had to get up and put her pacifier back in once but she only woke briefly two other times and only cried for a few minute. She is also napping in her crib both in the morning and the evening!!! I don't want to jinx us but we may have turned a corner.

Little E is doing really well with her high chair and is really enjoying sitting in it while we cook dinner. She likes to play with her toys and study her books and it is so nice to hang out as a family.

Finally the great news of the week is that Shazam got into B.C. Which means that she got into her two top graduate schools. She still has not decided where she will be going yet but Little E and I could not be prouder. Yeah Shazam!

March of Dimes Walk

2010-03-01T22:11:00.004-05:00

This year Little E, Shazam and I will be doing the Walk for Babies to raise money for the March of Dimes. We are inviting all our friends and family to join us on our walk as a part of Team Bumble Bee. The walk is May 8th in Boston along the Charles River. It should be a great day and just another way to celebrate how far Little E has come over the last few months. I can say without a doubt that Little E would not be here with us without the work that the March of Dimes does. The research funded by the March of Dimes is literally the reason Ella is alive we are one of the lucky families. One that got to take a beautiful baby home from the NICU other families are not that lucky. The money raised on our walk will go to making happy endings for more babies and families. If you are able to join us on our walk we would love to have you with us. If you are unable to walk with us, please consider making a donation to Team Bumble Bee if you are able. To join our team or to make a donation please follow the link below or visit our team page.

Eat, Sleep, and Roll!

2010-02-28T21:40:00.006-05:00

I have been so busy with work and trying to spend my non-working time with E. I have found that being a working mom is hard and I can see that being a stay at home mom is hard too. What I really have noticed is that when we both were home this parenting thing was so much easier. Oh where is my long lost trust fund when I need it. I am going to try and blog every day this month. I found that I got into a good grove in November when we blogged every day I would love to get that grove back. Another reason to blog more in March is that it is such a long month. I have no days off from school and the weather in March is always crappy which makes it seem to last forever. Maybe blogging will make March less of a drag.

Since I haven't blogged in a while I thought I would cover the basics.

Eat
After our fail on our first try with rice cereal we took a month off from solids. When E turned 7 months old a few weeks ago we decided to start again. This time we started with sweet potatoes. They were a huge success as were carrots.

Since the orange veggies were such a success I decided to try Ella's first green veggie, peas. To my surprise E really loved them and ate about and ounce. She then got a little cranky and I noticed a red patch on her neck. I decided to stop the peas and check to see if there was any other spots on her body. When I took her top off her poor little tummy chest and back. I called the doctor and by the time I got a call back about 30 minutes later the hives were gone. She told us to have benedryl on hand and not to eat peas until at least 9 months if not 1 year. It seems the little bumble bee is allergic to peas. What really sucks about this is that peas are legumes and that a pea allergy could indicate an allergy to other legumes. Namely peanuts! We are really hoping that she grows out of this and that E is not sitting at the peanut free table alone at school. The girl has two mommies she doesn't need to be the peanut girl too!

After our pea adventure we tried bananas, pears and oatmeal. She is a fan of all three but is a big fan of the pears and wouldn't eat the oatmeal until we mixed in bananas. The stuff smelled like cardboard so I don't really blame her. After our four days of oatmeal I think we will be moving onto squash and then avocado. E is really getting the hang of eating her solids and is enjoying sitting in her high chair. She started to have 2 solids per day yesterday and is doing really well.

Sleep
Oh how I wish E was doing as well at sleeping as she is at eating. We have gotten her to go down very easily at about 8-8:30 every night. The past few nights I have just put her in her pack-n-play in our bedroom and she went right to sleep. Her trend has been to wake at about 12-1 and I had been nursing her. Early intervention wanted us to try to wean her off of this feeding session because actually she doesn't need it. She has slept through the night before and really it's just for comfort. So last night we didn't feed her during the night but she was still up at 1, 3 and 5. Each time needing to be picked up and put back to sleep. I finally ended up putting her in bed with me at 5 as I just needed to sleep and knew she would sleep if she was with me. I am reading ferber's new book on my kindle right now and I think some sleep training is in E's future. I really need her to sleep through the night as it is very hard to teach 13 year olds on a couple of hours of sleep. I'll keep you posted on this one.

Roll
Since I hit the other major baby topics I thought I would touch on E's physical development. E is a roller. She loves to roll from her back to her tummy and will play for a good amount of time on her belly. She does a good deal of kicking and reaching and spins all the way around on her belly. She really wants to move and sticks her little bum in the air and tries to inchworm/snowplow her way across the floor. I would say she moves a little bit but is getting frustrated in her lack of mobility. She seems to have all the pieces but can't seem to do them all at the same time. We will see if that changes in the next few weeks. E is not sitting up on her own yet but we are working on it and can sit for short periods of time independently. She also loves to stand with help and her new trick is bouncing. She seems to be hitting all her milestones at about her adjusted age but I think she is closing the gap and is getting closer to her actual age.

Well this working mom needs to go to sleep so she can get up and tend to the little bumblebee in the wee hours of the morning.

mommy and me

2010-02-27T12:22:00.001-05:00

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