Big "roars"

I have been finding my "voice" lately. Sometimes I try really hard to talk and it comes out very loud and surprises mom and dad. Seriously, I yell sometimes. This week at playgroup we were singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and the teacher was showing us a lion and "roaring" like a lion... so I dug down deep inside my throat and tried for that roaring sound too... ROOOOAAAARR! Right along with everyone else singing. Mommy was so happy.

Playgroup was also fun because mommy sat me right in the middle of a bin of dry oatmeal. Lots and lots of dry oatmeal. Enough for me to dig shovels into, fill a bucket, dump on mommy's clothes and eat!

And speaking of eating.... snack was mashed potatoes and gravy. Two bowls were my snack. Mmmmm. I am so glad I wasn't sick anymore so I could go to playgroup this week!

Today is Wednesday and Daddy is taking me to feeding therapy at Connections. We will post more later on my new zvibe which is a cat/mouse and my chewy surgical tubing.

Praise

This has been an entire week of babies at home sick. Today is the eigth day. I read a quote that said it's easy to praise God for the roses but much harder to praise him for the thorns (and if you do the math, there are alot more thorns). So, here are my praises to Him for this week's experience: thank you for baby vapor bath, and while we are talking about baths.... thank you that Tommy can still be bathed in an infant bath along side Liam (it helps his floppy'ness'), thank you for infant tylenol, infant advil, and the ability to develop a spreadsheet to track when each baby should be given which one (we rotate advil and tylenol, never given together, but it seems to help this week), thank you for the peacefulness of two sleeping babies so I could get a HUGE plate at Thanksgiving dinner, thank you for dishwashers with an option of sterlilize for baby bottles, thank you for barf bowls (yes, Hannah was sick this week too), and carpet steamcleaners, thank you for disposable diapers (I haveNEVER seen a virus with this much poopy), thank you for coffee which is the absolute only thing keeping me upright, thank you for baby monitors because it amplifies twins crying in the night to the point that everyone in the house suddenly wakes up and asks if you can quiet them to sleep, thank you for the swiffer mop (this virus makes Liam spit up and the kitchen floor is his favorite marking spot), lots of thankfulness for pedialyte, thank you for the ability to place the babies in a jogging stroller and get out of the house each day...... thank you for Colin, Hannah, Nate, Tommy and Liam; they are my roses.

The bug continues....

We were home sick yesterday with Daddy and now today we are home today with Mommy. Our sickness bug continues. Runny noses, lots of poopy, and she calls us "cling ons". (she says it with a smile though).

Here are pictures we took a week ago for our upcoming first birthday. Mommy wants to thank Grandma Dorothy for helping with the impossible task of getting professional photos for us. Enjoy our pictures!

Pumpkin pie

Today started off with a walk. I said good bye to my daddy (who went to the Seahawks game)and hello to my stroller! And mommy was really happy when she got to walk with neighbors Nora and Kim and talk like an adult for awhile. The sunrise was earlier in the week. You can see Mt Baker to the left.

Then we were off to Aunt Debbie's house to visit. I spit up on her carpet (mom I told you I couldn't drink that much!). Auntie got to change one of my worse diapers, oops. We got to take home some fun toys from my cousins (they were outgrown but look like a lot of fun!).

Last stop was the grocery store to pick up pumpkin pie ingredients. I love pumpkin pie. Mom is making 4 of them to take to Thanksgiving. She won't make them until Wednesday but we stopped and picked up the stuff.....mmmmm I can't wait. Hannah took a picture of us.

I wasn't happy because I got the cart seat and brother had the fun spot.

Occuptional Therapy

At OT today Tommy sat in a beanbag chair and oh my was he comfy! This beanbag chair provided lots of support for him so that he could grab at the strand of beads that our therapist dangled above and to the sides. Tommy can sit just fine and plays with toys within his reach. But in this beanbag chair, his arms went everywhere! He tugged, pulled, grabbed and even played a bit of hide/seek with the strand of beads. All because he felt that his body was well supported. Needless to say, mommy is heading to the store tonight for a beanbag chair!

I love you!

Mommy told me she loved me this morning with barium speckles still on my face after the swallow study. It went well and we were successful with nectar 'plus

Mommy told Hannah she loved her. My big sister's eyes were welled up with tears about a disappointment and my mommy hugged her and said how much she loved her.

Mommy told grandpa Bill she loved him. Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill celebrated their 40th anniversary.

Mommy told her mother in-law (grandma Dorothy) and her mom (grandma Sue) she loved them. Unless it's a surgery or a holiday we don't get to see our grandma's together and it was a treat!

Mommy told Pam F she loved her. She loves Pam and Gary, Jay, Stephanie, Jordan and most importantly Chelsey Ebert. We love them. She prays for peace in these final months together as Chelsey has fought an amazing battle with Osteo Sarcoma. We love Chelsey!

Mommy told Nate she loved him today. See, he didn't shower..... nor brush his teeth today. Mommy hugged that stinky 12 year old boy and just loves him.

Mommy would have told Daddy she loved him, but after the big windstorm, daddy is still repairing downed lines.

Mommy told Liam she loved him as he *finally* fell asleep at 9:30pm. His eyes as dark as black ink.

Keeping up with Tommy

The week started off with developmental play group on Monday. Lots of songs during circle time, including one that asked "what do you say in the morning?". Mommy said I say "mamamamama" and as soon as all the nice people sang that.... my face was soooo happy. They were singing my favorite tune! I played with scratchy things like a loofa sponge. I didn't mind it until mommy rubbed it on my arm, no thanks mom! During snacktime I ate two bowls of mandarin oranges. Liam sat next to me and he ate lots too. Then H. let us play with whipping cream, oh my that was fun in my mouth, on my brother, on my mom..... hey mom let's do that again at home.
Tuesday was occupational therapy where I showed off my sitting for a few minutes. Mommy was excited, I was excited and E our therpaist was really into it too. So she had me sit on a ball to strengthen the muscles in my lower back and hip so I can learn to go from a sitting position to a side lying or onto my belly. Nate and Hannah came to watch.









Wednesday was feeding therapy w/ M. at Connections. She helped mommy prepare for our swallow study coming up on Monday. And she gave me a tube (skinny and long but thicker around than my old ng tube) to bite and suck on. Oh boy, that reminded me of holding my ng tube and I loved it. M. put purees on it and I sucked them clean! And I swung that tube high and low.

Today is an 'at home day' as I have a fever and so does Liam. The virus finally made it's way to our house. Mommy put a pot of coffee on and has no expectations to do anything else but cuddle us (and get this post done). Here are two sleepy babies after an appt this week.

That's it?

Yesterday's surgery follow-up appointment at Children's was the shortest appointment ever. 30 mins including weigh in! Almost four hours round trip drive for 30 mins. Mommy's not complaining though as the appt reassured her that the extra skin growing around the BARD could be resolved thru an ointment. It's called granulation, although mommy like's Shari's explanation of 'cauliflower skin' as that's more of what it looks like. It's skin along with blood vessels trying to push the foreign plastic object out. So, mommy now has a steroid ointment to apply to all those skin flaps. Thank you Grandma Sue for helping out at the appt. Liam liked visiting with you!

Halloween

I wanted to tell you about my Halloween, so mommy is going to try to type the story as I coo about it. First, mommy went to work today so Liam and I went to Promise to be with our friends

(we love it there). Then when mommy came to pick us up she said something about trick or treating downtown Bellingham. No rain, no wind, mommy was getting us out for some fresh air! We visited her friends at her old job; Linda and Cindy were glad to see us! Then we visited her friends at her job at the Health Dept, they loved seeing us too! On the way back to the van, my younger brother fell asleep in the stroller.... I didn't miss a thing though, lots of kids were everywhere downtown and can I tell you how much I love 'light sabers' now?

When we got home mommy let me and Liam play with some toys while she did that boring chore of folding laundry. Then.... a knock at our door! Since we live out in the county mommy doesn't get many drop by visitors so she is always kinda leary.... it was our neighbors the Weisenhorns dressed up as mobsters. "fresh from a heist". I loved their mommy's outfit because she had long eyelashes! The W family made our evening.

Daddy and mommy let us eat cupcakes after dinner. Then mommy showed us these weird pumpkin things and wanted us to put our nice dry hands into the cold messy insides of them. Excuse me, no thank you!

What in the world is that?

Liam and I had a great Halloween!