Two Little Gutt Girls

Noman

2012-02-07T13:52:00.001-06:00

Last year, we had so much snow, so early we were practically snowed in most of the fall, all winter and into the spring. We didn’t see the girls’ Cozy Coupe car until the end of April. This year, we haven’t had more than two inches of snowfall in over two months. It’s been warm(er) and snowless for the most part. While I can’t complain about the weather, a few more inches of snow would be fun. We’ve got sledding and forts to work on with hot chocolate to follow…still waiting. However, last week, we had another warm streak, so Lily and I got snow pants, boots, coats, hats and mittens on. After two minutes outside, Lily had her mittens off. They were totally getting in the way of her shoveling.

It was perfect snowball/snowman rolling snow. Because our front yard is about 6 feet by 10 feet (no joke) I was able to make a snowman approximately the same height as Lily. It was somewhat difficult because Lily was busy shoveling snow from one pile to another and then was trying to chip away at the snowman’s base with her shovel. Lily has a love/hate relationship with our “noman” – she loves to look out the window to see him, loves to wave to him from the car, does not like to stand anywhere near it. We even attempted to play catch with it, but anytime her ball landed near it, she would very cautiously approach and stretch her arm to its limit so as not to get any closer, all why keeping her eye on this roly-poly guy.

We took a little ride around the yard and the neighbor’s yard in the sled. Played around the backyard, took some time on the swings and now Lily is loving being outside playing. Now, if only we could get some more snow to play in before spring.

Insurance by the Numbers

2012-02-07T13:04:00.001-06:00

A couple of months ago, Loran and I discussed changing our medical plan to one with a higher deductible and lower monthly payment. Our reasoning was that we didn’t have anything “big” coming up – you know, like birth. However, we decided ultimately that we were happy with our plan and what it provided for so we kept it as is. Good thing, with nothing “big” on the horizon, it’s only the first week of February and we’ve already blown through our deductible and are now paying mere pennies for the rest that’s rolling in. And the roll just started…received the hospital bill, and even having to pay the deductible, insurance covered the majority of it.

Here’s where we are by the numbers:

Number of..

Infected ears: 3

Pink eyes: 2

Ambulance rides: 1

Hospital stays: 1

Urgent care/Minute Clinic: 3

Pediatrician visits: 2

Bladder infections: 1

Pharmacy visits: 4

Speeding tickets: 1 (first ever!)

X-rays: 1

Nebulizer treatments: 5

It’s really a wonder we still have insurance, since this has all happened in the last three weeks. So the newest in Gutt family medical Bingo is a UTI for Ella. Check your boards if you’re playing at home. And of course, these things happen on a Friday night after the office has closed, extra bonus fun: Loran was leaving for Europe the following day. Ella had some pain and other symptoms that lead me to believe she was getting a UTI. I really feel for her, since those are SO PAINFUL! And of course, because it hurt, she didn’t want to use the bathroom, which makes things worse. Where adults can rationalize the price of the pain in order to prevent further complications, children will always opt for the pain-free option because forethought is not exactly their strong suit. Off we went to Urgent Care with dinner left in the oven, half baked and Loran guiding me via phone to the nearest, open clinic. Once we got there, Ella was charming as ever, as we caught it quite early so she wasn’t having many problems. Unfortunately, one of her redeeming qualities as a child is her stubborn streak. While beneficial in some cases, not so beneficial when you’re trying to convince a four year old to use the bathroom so the doctor can get a sample to confirm what she has, make a treatment plan and relieve the pressure inside so she doesn’t end up with a kidney infection. The nurses were supplying an endless apple juice bar and yet, Ella hung on. Having not gone for 12 hours or so, she wasn’t going to budge. We had two options: catheter or bring the supplies home to try.

Once home, we did get enough for a sample, which Loran sped toward the Urgent Care which closed at 10, it was 9:45. He hung out for the results and Ella and I worked on getting her to empty her bladder. A warm bath with permission to go in the tub was the winner. I tried chemistry/basic art with Ella and put blue food coloring in the water so we could see what color it would change. I found that idea brilliant, while Ella was intrigued, she wasn’t going to fall for my rouse. The poor girl was falling asleep on the toilet, so off to bed she went. The rapid test came up negative, but I think we got it so early. We’re waiting to find out about the three day test. Ella started antibiotics and she’s recovering quite nicely. The pain is subsiding and her personality is through the roof with happiness.

While we haven’t had the best run with health this month, I’m quite thankful that we have such great access to doctors, diagnostics and treatments. The fact that we can get medical treatment within a few miles of our house at any time of the day or night is so fortunate. It’s never pleasant to go through illness or watch the little ones we love get poked and prodded but at least we can also have the pleasure of seeing them perk up and heal from what can be or lead to serious conditions in other parts of the world. And I’m definitely thankful for health insurance. I can see how many families are one medical crisis away from financial ruin. You can’t plan for the exact storm that you will face, but you can prepare for a storm. In the end, it’s worth it, when you need it. (Of course, Loran also thinks I should lose my wedding set at some point to make insuring it worth it…I’m not quite sure he’s as sentimental as I am. There’s no way I want my insurance to be worth it! For a lot of things, really…just nice to know it’s there!)

It Continues

2012-02-02T14:53:00.001-06:00

Within 12 hours, in which she slept 11 of those, we experienced two more stripping events. Wonder how long I have until this starts to happen in public, like at church. At least it’s winter and while she may end up cold, there are a few more layers for her to power through.

Frustration by something while she was playing.

Frustration because I was spending time helping Ella dress while she stayed in her crib for THREE minutes.

Be My Forty Valentines

2012-02-02T14:05:00.001-06:00

Last year, I had a box of Valentine cards for Ella to give out. All she had to do was “sign” her name. By sign, I gave her a marker and she scribbled all over it.

This year I found a homemade Valentine idea online so we gathered the supplies, printed some materials and set out to make Valentine cards. I wanted to get an early start since it took Ella a couple of weeks last year to scribble her name on 23 cards, I figured it might take us awhile to create the 42 Valentines required for this year’s haul. And that’s just children…Garden of Hope’s enrollment is booming and now Ella goes to her special ed program through the district. So many friends, so little time!

Last weekend Ella and I set off to create some cards after dinner. The girl was rocking! Over the course of one evening and part of the next day, she has nearly finished all of her cards! All I’ve had to do is cut out her photos and peel sticker backs, otherwise, she’s been putting them all together! It’s been so fun to watch her motivation and hard work. Signing her name is still a scribble, this year she spells out each letter as she scribbles or write’s a line “E-L-L-A” also big because previously she’s always spelled out her name as “E-L-A”. She’s enjoying using my special purple pen. I think the Valentines are so motivating for her because there are several tasks involved in making each one, so when she needs a break from one aspect, she starts working on another. Less than two weeks to go – the Valentine card machine rolls on!

Daddy’s Bowling Birthday

2012-02-01T16:57:00.001-06:00

Loran celebrated, as he calculated, 8.3% more birthday because on that day, he flew to Southern California for work so gained some extra birthday with the switch to Pacific Time. Since I was sick and he was traveling, we waited to celebrate his birthday Friday evening when he was home.

He was originally supposed to take the redeye home as Thursday became Friday with a layover in Seattle, arriving in Minneapolis around 5:30 am. Not fun. However, Thursday evening as we were talking before bed, he called me from the airport (I could even hear the airport noises behind him) and I, of course, assumed it was the Los Angeles International Airport where he was supposed to be. Our conversation was close to wrapping up at 10pm and I was going to head to bed. As we were talking, I was standing near the front door putting my wallet in my purse when I thought I saw a face outside the door to the porch. I thought/hoped it was my own reflection, so I tried to replicate it to put my mind at ease and took a few steps back to where I’d been standing and then walked by the door again thinking I’d see my own reflection in the porch door’s window. My heart nearly jumped out of my body when the door started to OPEN! I said a quick prayer that it was our rent check being dropped off or my aunt or uncle from across the street. However, it was better, it was Loran! He was able to catch an earlier, direct flight and was home! The airport noise was from MSP – not LAX!

The girls were so excited to celebrate Loran’s birthday. It helps that they were still riding the high from their own birthday party the weekend prior. They worked together to make him a card. Lillian did most of the work, dictating what I draw, and where on the card and then coloring it. Ella added some of her own flair so she could get her named signed on it. They both loved decorating the gift with their dotters and had been practicing singing “Happy Birthday” for ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ months.

Lillian picked out the pink bowling set for Daddy’s gift. I gave him some Dante books he’d had his eye on which weren’t quite as thrilling to the girls. Our party was now a bowling party!

After dessert, came the big bowling tournament. Such excitement. Turns out, the girls don’t care how the pins are set up. Don’t care who rolls the ball. The only thing that matters is the CRASH at the end. The ball doesn’t even have to touch the pins, most times, the ball was rolled and the roller ran ahead of it in order to knock the pins down before the ball got there. Or, the “helper” standing near the pins would dive to knock over the pins.

The bowling party was a blast. There was so much laughter from everyone, big smiles and lots of fierce competition to knock the pins down (any way possible). We joked that we didn’t even need bumpers, even if our ball went wayward across the house, the crew always made sure we got strikes. That was a nice bonus, as bowling in an old house means you have to really take in account the slope of the floor in order to get your ball remotely close to the pins.

This Might Be a Problem

2012-02-01T15:09:00.001-06:00

I’m noticing a little trend with Lillian, at first I didn’t think anything of it…

Like many children, when left in her crib a little too long after waking, we would walk in to find Lily stripped down. *Most* of the time, her diaper stays on – thankfully!

But now, I’m noticing that when she’s stuck in a situation, her instinct is to strip. The other night, she got herself up on the window seat for the first time, but then couldn’t get down. From the kitchen, I could hear her little plea for “heeeewp!” Which grew louder once Ella got down from the seat, further leaving her stuck without entertainment. I was within sight and it took me maybe a minute before I stopped what I was doing to rescue her. I turn around to find her topless. I’ve seen it time and time again now, she starts gets stuck, either physically or mentally and suddenly, she’s tugging on an article of clothing to lose some layers.

Oh Lillian, I hope this is just a phase and we won’t get calls from her middle school that she couldn’t figure out a word problem and is suddenly without pants.

Shut Up!

2012-01-30T11:19:00.001-06:00

We had an awesome weekend with Ella. I’m really loving age four. Maybe because I used to teach that age, so I have a pretty good handle of what makes those four year olds tick: routine, potty humor, snacks.

Birthday celebration for Loran, Valentine making, restaurant lunch, even swimming lessons – all great! I was starting to think that we’d really turned the corner with Ella. She was moving from having the brain of a psychotic toddler to a delightful child.

Then, she was getting ready for bed Sunday night. After using the potty, I was reminding her to wash her hands before brushing her teeth. I got the requisite “why?” which I explained hygiene in simple preschool terms: potty germs in your mouth. I hear this muffled little whisper that sounds like something she has never said before, but sounds like what I think it is. I innocently ask her what she said, to which I get a loud, “shut up!” complete with glaring eyes. Ohhhh….

Gotta nip this in the bud. I grabbed her little hand and marched her right upstairs. It was a classic “Do not pass go, do not collect $200” moment. As we were headed upstairs at a clipped pace, I calmly told her that those were naughty words and our family does not tell people to shut up. She was brought into her room where Loran was reading Lillian a bedtime story, and promptly scolded her upon hearing what she’d said. She was tucked in and put to bed without the usual stories and cuddling. She knew, this was serious stuff.

I don’t think she’ll be throwing the old “shut up” around. But, if we let this fly, it’s like a gateway into worse sayings. So we’re trying to lay the foundation now so when she’s a teenager we have some legs to stand on. I just didn’t think we’d be getting the teenage attitude quite yet!

Of course, punishment comes back to me. Putting her to bed so quickly resulted in forgetting to put a night diaper on her. So…I get to strip her bed this morning. However, she was all sunshine and friendliness this morning, so lesson learned!

A Rootin’ Tootin’ Good Time

2012-01-26T15:07:00.001-06:00

Given the girls’ love of all things Toy Story, I thought it would be fun to have a combined birthday party for them this year, rather than two separate parties. It seemed easiest to just split the difference between their two birthdays and have the party mid-January. Less stress than trying to throw a party right before Christmas and then recreating the same party with a different theme two months later. The doctor gave us the okay to have the party, given Lillian’s hospitalization a few days prior. I tried to keep the party prep low stress, but was feeling some stress having lost two of my prep days to the hospital and another half a day to pink eye and prescription acquisition. But, by Friday evening, we were ready for Saturday’s party!

There was a Toy Story/cowgirl theme. The girls had Toy Story shirts (from the boy’s department) which a girlied up with coordinating tutu/legging bottoms. And, I found some amazing little pink cowgirl boots on clearance for each girl. Giddy-up! We invited everyone to our ranch for a lunch fit for a cowpoke: chili and cornbread and instead of cake, I’d made Jessie’s Cowgirl Hat Cookies!

The girls were busy taking in the decorations over breakfast (Lily in Toy Story pajamas!)

The party was great. Loran and I were able to just stand back and watch the two cowgirls party it up. We didn’t have to worry about taking care of them, feeding them, cleaning them, etc. They were content to mingle on their own and work the crowd.

The girls received amazing gifts and have been so busy since their party trying everything out. We have a little baby nursery set up in our living room, they’ve been using their new cleaning implements non-stop and when they need a break, I can find them curled up on a couch reading or building. And really, since their party, it’s felt like a birthday everyday, as they’ve been decorating pretend cupcakes for Loran and I and singing “Happy Birthday”. In fact, the party decorations are still up, as Loran’s birthday was Wednesday. He left for a business trip that day, so we’re on hold before we can celebrate him upon his return on Friday.

My favorite moment of the party, right after I’d helped Lillian blow out her candles, Ella reached over, put her hand on Lillian’s shoulder and said in the cheeriest Ella voice, “Happy Birthday Lillian!” It was a little heart melting.

I wasn’t entirely sure how the dual party would go. Ella’s at the age where she could have been a little put out to share the spotlight with her sister. However, they both seemed to love celebrating together. As the party planner, I really enjoyed pooling our resources into one party rather than two, worrying about the weather for one winter party rather than two and cooking for one party theme rather than two. This party sharing may become a trend at our house. They can share their big party with family and/or friends and do something special with just Mom and Dad for their actual birthday. Next year, we might have to think about a friend party since they’ll both be at school together…wow!

Happy birthdays Ella and Lillian! You have a friend in me! Yee-haw!

We’re Taking Her By Ambulance…

2012-01-23T09:42:00.000-06:00

Those words hit you hard.

Monday, Lillian had been diagnosed with a double ear infection after having a small cold all week. She was on a pretty strong antibiotic – Omnicef. In fact, by Tuesday, she seemed to be doing pretty well. Didn’t need pain medication, drinking milk, low appetite but no fever.

Wednesday, I woke Lillian and Ella up for school and Lil was pretty sluggish. I’m usually in awe of Lillian’s morning spunk. I can walk in their room and say my usual, “Good morning ladies!” as I open the curtains and Lily will go from sleeping sprawled on her tummy to standing up with a giant smile ready to roll in about two seconds. It’s amazing. Wednesday she just laid there, nodding off again. After dressing Ella, and retrieving Lillian I knew immediately she was feverish. I told Loran I was going to bring her into the pediatrician’s office. I figured since we hadn’t seen them on Monday, we could find out if her antibiotic was appropriate for her or needed different dosing, etc. Loran offered to bring Ella to school and I called the pediatrician. Our doctor could see us in the afternoon but I really wanted to get the ball rolling sooner. I asked if there was an earlier appointment with any doctor. Luckily, they had a 9:30 appointment so Lily and I snuggled for awhile, had some milk and she fell asleep again before I bundled her up to get ready to go. As we were leaving I made the executive decision not to lock the house. I had my feverish little lump in my arms and figured I’d be back in an hour.

Once at the doctor, Lillian had a 103.5 temp and was breathing really fast and hard. She was falling asleep on my lap as we waited for the doctor and the nurse gave her ibuprofen right away. We waited a few minutes for the doctor who knew right away Lily wasn’t doing well. They didn’t even check her ears, they immediately were assessing her breathing. Her chest sounded tight and there was a crackle on the right side, they hooked her up to a pulse/oxygen monitor and the numbers weren’t good. They decided to give her a nebulizer treatment right there after calling Children’s Hospital in St. Paul for advice. I didn’t realize at the time that they were calling Children’s to let them know that Lillian was on the way. As she received the neb treatment, which she didn’t fight at all, they told me that they were going to send her to Children’s Hospital, and we’d be going by ambulance, which had already been called. Lillian was in respiratory distress. I broke down crying, Lillian lay in my arms, a little lump breathing hard – it was surreal. I called Loran, who thankfully was able to answer at work, and told him, (sobbing) “They’re taking Lillian by ambulance to Children’s in St. Paul.” He immediately replied, “I’ll meet you there.” and hung up. The pediatrician and nurse were amazing, very comforting. The nurse asked if I needed anything from my car, helped me pack my purse and gave me some water. The pediatrician was explaining why they were sending her, what the numbers on the pulse/O2 meter meant and what they should be for my presumably non-smoking, non-obese daughter. She was registering in the high 80s/low 90s for oxygen and she should have been 98-99%. For Lillian’s discomfort, she was paid in stickers. She left the office clutching four big stickers – a true sign of bravery.

Paramedics arrived almost immediately. It was eerie to see that big red ambulance sitting outside the exam room window, knowing it was for us. They did a little paperwork, got the details and off we went. Lillian did not want to be strapped down on the gurney, so they suggested we put her in a built in car seat they had in one of the seats, it meant that I couldn’t sit by her. She cried as I strapped her in, I was happy to see some fight in her. The paramedics didn’t want to see her crying, but I assured them that I had strapped a screaming, healthy Lillian into a car seat many times. This wasn’t anything to be worried about. They gave her a stuffed puppy to hold and keep, that simple act meant the world to Lillian. Someone knew, when that puppy boarded the ambulance that the little girl who would eventually receive it in her time of need was not only an animal lover, but a puppy lover. She was quiet on the ride and received another neb treatment, without fighting it. I left sobbing phone calls for my parents, and answered questions for the paramedic about our address, insurance, etc. They asked if it was my first ambulance ride, which it was. I told them I was happy to be sitting up and not strapped to the gurney. I hope it’s my last ambulance ride too.

Once at Children’s, we got the behind the scenes tour of the ER through the ambulance entry. It’s not nearly as cheerful and friendly as the front doors we’d used previous. Loran had beat us there by fifteen minutes and he was a welcome sight to see. Lillian was immediately hooked up to monitors, we saw a nurse who took her vitals and the doctor shortly after. Lily got an IV so she could receive fluids and was administered a high dose of antibiotics (basically her ten day course of Omnicef in a couple of hours) which she took like a champ. Not a whimper. However, she eerily seemed to go somewhere else during this procedure. I was looking her right in the eyes, but she seemed to be looking past me. Blinking, breathing, but not really present. It was awful. They also did a test for RSV where they stuck a tube up her nose hooked up to a syringe of saline, they shot some saline in her nose and then sucked it and some other junk out. She was completely present for that test, and angry. Then we took her to radiology for a chest x-ray. Puppy and blankie were along for the ride. They had to strap her down with big Velcro straps so she wouldn’t move for the x-ray. She was pretty anchored down, but that’s when my baby showed them whose boss. Lillian started busting through the restraints – like the Incredible Hulk – baby style! They even remarked that they hadn’t seen a 23 month old with such strength, especially since she’s so tiny. Yeah! Fight ‘em Lil!!

At first, they thought she had pneumonia based on her x-ray, but that was eventually ruled out. She did test positive for RSV and later her diagnosis was bronchiolitis caused by RSV (different from bronchitis). While RSV is very common, and most people have had it by the age of 2. In children and adults it presents itself as a common cold. In small babies it can be deadly. Lillian is luckily not a small baby, however, bronchiolitis which is also very common is also a major cause of morbidity in children according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. We’ll file that fact under “Things I’m Glad I Didn’t Know at the Time”.

After five hours in the ER, Lillian was moved upstairs to a room where she would spend the night to be monitored. Time in the ER is a strange thing. If you had to wait five hours at an airport gate, in the dentist’s waiting room…really anything, it would seem like an eternity. In the ER, there is no time. Sure, there was that giant clock in the room ticking away, but time didn’t seem to exist. Five hours didn’t seem long, didn’t seem short. It just was what it was. We were just there. It was an odd sensation. Lillian was monitored, checked, given milk and crackers. Our friend Jakey brought lunch for Loran and I. We received calls from family, from pastors at church, emails, my Facebook was erupting with support. It was almost overwhelming to see everyone’s love, prayers and support. It’s so comforting to know that when bad things happen, there truly is a village of people who stand behind you, love you and pray for you when you really need it. On days when I feel lonely, I’ll think of those people, and know…not lonely, they’re there. My parents met Ella off the bus – and here’s another God-thing. I hadn’t locked the door. I always lock the door. They were able to meet Ella off the bus, go in and take care of her until my aunt came to stay with her overnight.

I felt I was all cried out, until I saw my baby on that giant gurney being wheeled through the halls, machines trailing behind her, moving up to the fourth floor. That choked me up. The reality of staying in the hospital with your little baby, dressed in a hospital gown, curled up clutching her blanket and puppy. That is heartbreaking.

Once on the fourth floor, our nurse James made us feel right at home. He gave us toothpaste and toothbrushes, linens, pillows and helped us get settled in. Took great care of Lillian and was just kind as can be as he got her set up in her hospital crib. We settled in, ordered Lillian some food and waited. Then, her food arrived and as it was set down on the table, we heard this little voice say, “Ohhhh….fooooood!” some of the first, non-pleading, words we’d heard from Lillian all day. She started eating cut up grapes like it was her job. Sampled some cheese, some peas, a noodle or two. It wasn’t a lot, but it was more than she’d had in a couple of days. With that, she had a little more energy. Loran was able to play with her a little, blowing raspberries on her tummy. We were hearing giggles, seeing smiles. She still looked horrible, but her personality was returning a bit.

As bedtime neared, Loran ran home to tuck Ella in and pack bags for us. He thought of everything we could possibly need, including books, snacks, phone cords, Ducky, a sleeping mat for the fold-out couch – everything, we were set! We decided to swap the crib out for a hospital bed so I could sleep in the bed cuddling Lillian. That seemed to work better as she was NOT going to lay in that crib once her spunk was returning a little. And, Loran and I on the little pull-out couch would have been comical to say the least. Before bed, Lillian got another once-over, received a neb treatment and pain meds. She was curled up next to me and fell asleep pretty easily. Not that I received much sleep, with a sweaty little Lillian hogging most of the bed, nurses coming in every two hours to check her stats and IV and then me keeping an eye on her O2 levels. She set the alarm off a few times overnight. All but one time were because she had moved, kinked the wire or kicked off the monitor that was on her toe. One time she twisted the lead, but even when fixed, her O2 levels weren’t going up. That one time, I did have to give her Oxygen until it leveled off in the upper 90s. She refused to wear the oxygen mask. It even looked like a penguin! The nasal cannula was a definite NO! So the best we could do was have a hose emitting oxygen and try to place it near her head and under her nose if she really needed it, like the one time. However, Lillian’s stats were doing great, she was hanging out at 97/98%.

Once the morning came, Loran headed out to get Ella off to school. Lillian awoke and was still looking pretty sick, but had a bit more personality. I ordered her breakfast, which took forever to arrive. When Loran came back, he stayed with Lillian while I went to get my own breakfast in the cafeteria. I was so groggy, I couldn’t even find the cafeteria, even though it was well marked. Nurses had to give me directions, and I still went the wrong way, which they corrected. Yikes. When I got back, Lillian was plowing through a box of raisins we’d gotten from the family room. Once her food arrived, she ate alright and was talking, playing with puppy and Loran and watching PBS shows. Her nurse said to be discharged, she had to keep her O2 levels above 92% on room air for four consecutive hours, including sleep –which she’d done overnight. She had to be taking in/eliminating a proper amount – check. The respiratory therapist came in to administer her neb treatment and this time, she didn’t sit back and take in that refreshing medicated mist from her dinosaur mask. No, this time she fought. She arched, rolled, screamed and kicked. We had to hold her down to get the treatment done. Another great sign! The doctor came in during rounds around 11, checked her, and said she was okay to go home! Hooray! We had to keep her from groups like daycare, church nursery, etc. for a few days until she seemed back to normal (however, they said she’d still have the runny nose and cough and that was okay). She did not need the rest of her originally prescribed antibiotic, and just keep her hydrated. With that news, Lillian’s nurse came and freed her of her various wires and tubes. For the first time in over 24 hours, Lillian was able to walk around, and off the bed! A lump no more. She got out of bed and started dancing around, hopping and showing off for anyone who would look. She was free of her wires, changed from her purple hospital gown and into some footie pajamas and ready to roll! Her eyes still looked sick, but she was on the mend. She then sat on the floor and started spinning in circles on her butt – breakdance style. Really hamming it up.

Eighteen hours prior, she arrived on the floor a pathetic, feverish lump. She was then strolling out under her own power, with a few little struts, wiggles and dance moves thrown in for good measure. Hard to believe it was the same child.

Once in the car, she really started to shine. Talkative as can be. Once home, she was a wild woman. Jumping around, running around, playing, climbing, eating lunch with us. Happy as can be. It was delightful. Ella seemed relieved when she got off the bus to see mom, dad and Lillian home. However, one of the first words out of Ella’s mouth when I met her at the door after Loran got her off the bus, “Wow! Mom! You have blue under your eyes!” Umm…thanks for pointing out my complete lack of sleep.

Another sign of recovery, in between jumping off of everything, Lillian went into mommy-mode and covered Loran in blankets. She’s our little mommy. She was also trying to feed Loran from her food tray in the hospital.

That night, after putting the girls to bed early, we were quick to follow and it was hard to sleep, despite being desperately tired. The night prior, I could just look at a screen and get a number to tell me how my baby was doing. Now I had to rely back on my own senses. However, she had a great night, no scares and slept perfectly fine. And was once again, Little Miss Sunshine upon waking.

Ella, however, was another story. While all smiles and giggles, her eyes were pasted shut. Loran stayed home with Lily while I took Ella into the pediatrician’s office. Ella was diagnosed with viral pink eye, not the super contagious bacterial pink eye. She got her pink eye from wiping her runny nose into her eyes. Gross. She left with a prescription for eye drops and the okay to go to school. As we were leaving, the doctor who’d initially seen Lily stopped me to talk and see how she was. I was happy to report good news and she was telling me that they had a meeting to see if they should have done anything differently. They and I agree that Lillian went downhill in the office, they said I brought her in at the perfect time, any later, and they’re not sure it would have been the same outcome. Frightening. I’d like to chalk it up to another God-thing.

Ella and I set off to Target to get her drops, waited the 20 minutes for it to be filled only to return to the counter to find out they were out. Off to another Target, wait another half hour for it and then get the pleasure of trying to put drops in a squirmy four year old’s eyes in the car. But, we did it! I dropped her off at school a mere 2.5 hours after the start…

I’m happy to say, that as of Sunday when I wrote this, Ella has clear eyes, Lillian is about 99% normal. She’s lost the cough, the runny nose remains, her breathing is steady and most important, the twinkle is back in her eye.

After all of that, I have to say huge thanks to the White Bear Lake Fire Department, our pediatrician's office and everyone we worked with at Children’s Hospital. Once again, they were amazing…Saturday’s mail even brought a card, addressed to Lillian, wishing her well, signed by each nurse that was in charge of Lillian’s care. Seriously…amazing.

And as I read more about RSV and bronchiolitis, and think of the “what ifs”, I can’t help but truly thank God for His timing in all of this, for the people He put in our lives and for being able to really appreciate my spunky little girl and see her healed and happy once again.

(And yes, we may have spread RSV to our friends in the South…so sorry, that is not Minnesota nice.)

Lillian says, sorry D’s for being a carrier monkey.

Southern Belles

2012-01-22T20:48:00.001-06:00

Loran: “What do frequent fliers do?”

Ella: “Frequent fliers keep their feet flat.”

Doing our part to promote airline civility. Friday the 13th (dun dun dun) we embarked to North Carolina to visit our friends, the Dieffenbachs, our BFFs from our time in Connecticut. Ours is the kind of friendship where upon seeing each other for the first time in three years, we seem to pick up right where we left off, as if we’d been hanging out the previous weekend.

Ella took her twenty-somethingith flight. Lily was on her third (we’ve totally slacked with her). Loran cashed in his gold status to get our bags checked for free, priority boarding and sent his wife up to first class for the trip to Charlotte. Seriously, prince among men. I keep peeking back from my perch in 1A to see how it was going. Lillian was on the aisle and in my sightline, so I had to keep ducking back so she wouldn’t see me and cause a ruckus. Probably utilizing air marshals. The first guy in coach kept looking at me strange because he was also directly in my sightline and probably thought I was playing peek-a-boo with him. Both girls and Loran did great, the girls even fell asleep through landing, which was somewhat hard and bumpy. I also had a nice flight. By nice, I mean exquisite. My side of the plane only had one seat per row. So, it was just me, rocking out to my tunes, reading “Parents” magazine, eating my airline provided lunch of mandarin chicken salad, breadsticks, fresh fruit (my favorite fruits too! No cantaloupe or muskmelon!) and a peanut butter brownie. Aside from being unable to initially figure out how to open the bathroom door (an actual door knob that you turn rather than just pushing the door open like in coach), I think I blended in well.

We were greeted at the Dieffenbach compound by Dillon and Matthew (3 3/4) and then headed out to pick up Zachary (almost 6) from school. We started to catch up with Dillon as he prepared dinner. The two girls and two boys got acquainted. Last time we were there, Zachary called Ella – “Baby Ella”, Matthew couldn’t move and Lillian didn’t exist. What a change! The house was a-rockin’, Amy was on her way home, the wine was opened and dinner was coming together.

The night was pretty low-key. Dinner, catching up and early bedtimes for all. The girls slept well in their little guest room after Zachary read all of us a bedtime story.

The next morning, we were greeted with breakfast and were off to the zoo. The guys had the little girls in one car and the ladies had the little boys in the other. One car was quiet and calm, the other was a little chaotic. Halfway through, at a rest stop, the chaotic car got a little chat from their father and the rest of the ride was smooth sailing. We stopped for some good old Southern BBQ before heading to the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina.

Note the southern kids in hats and gloves…everyone kept apologizing for the cold weather (upper 40s). It was 9 degrees at our house.

Lily’s first carousel ride!

Lillian made fast friends with Dillon and was eager to join their family.

Seemed the older children preferred the rides we brought for the younger ones and the younger ones liked being free range.

The zoo had a kangaroo exhibit that you could walk through and be among the kangaroos. Only one was hopping around, the rest were laying around like cats, sunning themselves.

We took a little snack/restroom break. Amy handing out graham crackers reminded me of feeding pigeons.

We took the tram out to the gardens. Ella ate a spare cheeseburger we had in our backpack…Lillian again dissed our family so she could hang out with Dillon.

The gardens were gorgeous, even in January. I had to pinch myself that it was indeed the middle of January, the fountains were on, there were flowers growing and some green foliage. The kids burned off some extra energy running down the hill and then dancing in the amphitheater.

After a full day at the zoo, we set off toward home. The girls were completely out a few minutes after leaving the zoo which was nice since the drive was 1.5 hours.

Once back in the suburbs of Charlotte, we attempted dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Upon hearing there was a two hour wait, we gathered our ornery, hungry children and did the next best thing – Costco run! Amy and I got the children some food to hold them over from the café while the men gathered meat, wine and cheese. Once home, the guys grilled up some great steaks and shrimp and we feasted. And because they were steaks from Costco, we feasted on that same food the next night. So delicious! Another night with the children in bed, catching up and having great conversation. Perfect in my book!

Sunday we were up and our children, now feeling right at home, were downstairs eating breakfast by the time we got down there. We got everyone cleaned, dressed and in the cars to enjoy church together, just like old times in Connecticut. Minus, the children. After church we all caravanned to Uptown Charlotte (there is no downtown) for lunch and a visit to Discovery Place Museum. The line was out the door. So, being the big shots we are, we moved to the will call line, brandishing our laminated Duluth Children’s Museum passes – with science museum reciprocity and kind of jumped the line. Or at least got in the shorter line that was inside the museum…you know, because it was so cold and everything.

The children had a great time in the museum. Luckily we had man on man coverage as each child went a separate direction with a parent following behind. After thoroughly terrorizing the main floor, we moved to the lower floor where they again went in four different directions. Once we reassembled the troops, after much searching for one another, we were all tired and ready to go – Dillon categorized his temperament at that point as nuclear. I think we were all getting there. It was fun, but busy.

Lillian loved this contraption which shot a tennis ball into the air.

The building are was naturally a hit, even when the woman building the giant tower toppled it.

We had originally planned to have a sitter come so the adults could go out and hear a friend’s band play at a club. But, now that we’re so old, we all decided that a night in with leftovers and comfy clothes was in order. As we were chatting around the table, we all started to smell a strangely familiar, yet clean smell. It was out of context, so I was having a hard time placing it. Had I been in the laundry room, I would have immediately placed that smell as – BLEACH! We all ran from the table searching for the bleach and the child in question. Thankfully, Lillian was already in bed. We found Matthew, with Ella hovering nearby in the living room with an open bottle of bleach, CLEANING their sofa. The adults went into triage mode. Amy had Matthew and was stripping him down, smelling his breath and cleaning him off, I removed Ella from the scene and the guys started in on the couch. Cushions stripped, and put in the wash. Thankfully, the children were okay but we weren’t so sure the couch would be. There was some lecturing about the dos and don’ts of cleaning, some timeouts and a few prayers put forth to the sofa gods. Despite Matthew’s clothes being bleached, the bottoms of my and others socks being bleached, the sofa was okay. I don’t know how that worked out, but it did.

Monday morning, our day of departure, the Ds were working from home. Lillian woke up sad, tugging on her ear and crying, “Eaaaaar! Fiiiix iiiittt!” Dillon and Zach escorted us to Urgent Care where Lillian was diagnosed with a double ear infection by Doctor Better (no kidding)…four hours before our flight. On our way back, we got Lillian’s prescription and Chick-fil-A for the group. Ella sent me in with an order for a cheese burger. Apparently, being from the North, I didn’t realize that the name indicated they only sold chicken. Stupid Unioners. Lillian perked up a bit with ibuprofen and lunch and we were off to the airport. Loran called ahead to decline any upgrades (a first for the gentleman at Delta manning that call) and we all piled into out row as a family. Lillian was doing alright on take-off, huge relief. She was super cranky though. She hadn’t received the memo that frequent fliers keep their feet flat. The more I tried to keep her feet off the seat, the worse she kicked. Eventually, she fell asleep. No problems with landing either – yippee! We did it! We flew 939 miles with a toddler with a double ear infection!

Two frightening things: Ella with a drum set and Lillian with a double ear infection before a flight.

Despite the ear infection scare, we had a great trip. We’ll have to make sure we see the Dieffenbachs sooner than three years from now. Both girls did their part to charm Dillon and Amy – even while sick. I only wish we could see them every weekend like we used to. Great friends can be hard to find, but there is no way we’ll be letting them go. Miles may separate us, but we’re friends to the end.

Breaking News!

2012-01-12T23:25:00.001-06:00

There are two things that keep Lillian from joining Garden of Hope. Her age and her ability to use the restroom. I can’t do much to help with the age thing, but I figured once spring/summer rolled around we’d hit the potty training hard. By hard, I figured I’d throw her in undies, let her roam around until it finally clicks.

My plan may have radically changed in typical Lillian style. Yesterday, she shut herself in the bathroom. Usually this would mean that some illegal hand washing was about to take place, with copious amounts of hand soap achieved by cracking open the lid of the soap dispenser. I peeked in and found a pantsless Lily. I asked if she needed to use the potty and she said yes. Usually, she will only sit on the toilet with a bare bottom for about .39 seconds. This time, I tried to prop her up on the big toilet and she happily sat there. Ella read her books and sang to her. In between potty attempts, I got the potty seat out of storage. It was pretty cold, but the little trooper sat on it and actually used the potty! We were very excited. Even Ella cheered.

Happy with our accomplishments, we celebrated with some M&Ms. and the girls went off to play. About an hour later, Lily came up to me while I was making dinner to say, “Go potty!” so we went to the bathroom and she hopped right up and used the toilet, again!

This morning, we were getting ready for school and as I was blow drying my hair, Lily approached me. Usually while the hair dryer is on, the girls avoid the bathroom because it’s too loud. Lily just marched in, put her potty seat on the toilet and placed her foot stool in place. I asked her if she wanted to use the potty and helped her out, and she went. Again.

Unbelievable.

The rest of the day wasn’t very successful. She tried several times without success, but was very happy to try. We did have a setback at nap when she removed her pants and training pant, then stepped in the mess with a bare foot. And what was once a child who didn’t know how to remove her diaper, she’s learned how…which meant I had a bare-bottomed nearly two year old tooling around the house several times today. Yikes!

Not sure where this will lead, but it’s a step in the right direction. If we had the weekend free, I would attempt the underwear boot camp method. But, since we’ll be visiting friends out of town, it is probably best to not throw our toddler into underwear while we are houseguests elsewhere…it only seems like the right thing to do.

Back on the Ducky

2012-01-12T22:52:00.001-06:00

Lillian has never been a great sleeper. I wouldn’t even classify her as a good sleeper. However, the last few months have been awful. I’d happily go back to the days where she slept through the night, but would cry in her sleep. Those were the good days. As of late, she’d gotten into some horrible nighttime habits. Six out of seven nights in the week, she would wake up somewhere between 12:30 and 2:30 am. She would then cry/scream/holler for “momma!” Loran would attempt to calm her, but that would only get her more worked up. She only wanted me. How flattering. Then, once I’d intervene, she wanted the same things: milk, get wrapped up in her ducky blanket and rock. Every. Single. Night. Sometimes it would take an hour or more to get her settled back down.

Somehow, when you have a newborn, not sleeping is doable. However, once you have a child who can sleep through the night, those middle of the night wakings are just brutal. Especially when it happens night after night.

We tried the cry-it-out method. Not only is that just heartbreaking, it doesn’t work for Lillian. She gets more worked up, to the point of utter hysterics. It is then even more difficult to calm her down and get her to sleep. We tried bringing her to bed with us. Try as she does, she can’t get comfy, can’t quite calm down and ends up getting a little hyper. Usually we suffer with her for an hour or more thrashing around, and when she starts to climb on us to play, we toss her back in the crib. I had just resigned myself to the idea that I would have to respond to her each night, and eventually those nights would space out and become a thing of the past. However, it’s been hard.

Then, I was thinking about it. She started to get up every night right around the time the pacifiers went away. She then took her pacifier love and formed new sleep crutches that she didn’t need before: milk, “swaddling” and rocking. Initially, we’d chalked up her behavior to teething. But we’ve been banking on these two year molars to come through based on her behavior now for almost three months, and there is yet to be a molar to make an appearance. Hmm…perhaps, the pacifier is the key. Loran was traveling when I shared my theory, but upon discussion, it seemed that bringing back Ducky, with strict provisions seemed worth a shot.

When the pacifiers initially went away, it was easy. We sent them to Chelsey in Chicago because she “needed them”. Lily was happy to help out. When she asked for Ducky, we could just tell her that Chelsey needed them. Easy enough. But, little did I know, this would make reintroduction easy. It didn’t look like we were caving and she was winning after protesting long enough, simply put, I told her Chelsey was done with Ducky and sent it back.

I tucked it in my back pocket at bedtime. It seems she has x-ray vision because she knew I had it, even before I think she’d seen it. Clairvoyant baby. I gave it to her and told her Chelsey was done with it. She immediately started running around the room saying “Tank-ewe Che-sy!” I explained the rule that Ducky would stay in the crib and I didn’t unpack any of the other pacifiers, just Ducky. To seal the deal, I left a cup of water in her bed so if she truly was thirsty, we could default to water and not milk. However, I did not hear from her that night. In fact, when I checked on her at nearly midnight, she was curled in a little ball, hugging Ducky, not even sucking on the pacifier.

Thank You Chelsey!

I wasn’t about to let one night of sleepy bliss seal the deal. For all I knew, it was her one night of the week when she sleeps. However, now that we’re a week into introducing Ducky back into our bedtime, I have not visited Lily once in the middle of the night. A whole week of sleeping through the night. A couple of times she’s cried in her sleep, like old times, but settled herself within a few seconds.

We love Ducky. I didn’t realize how tired I was.

Wisconsin or Bust!

2012-01-12T19:04:00.001-06:00

With one more Christmas to celebrate, we loaded up a rented van loaded with Gutts, bags, snacks and a DVD player and drove East to Shawano. We spent the evening with Grandpa Gutt and Ruth and the girls definitely didn’t disappoint in the entertainment category. They were little angels, especially after we got a nap into Lily. I was worried about the fun little breakables around the house, but both girls were very cautious and respectful to Grandpa and Grandma Gutt’s things. We had dinner catered in which was delicious. Lillian (shocking) wouldn’t eat, so I had to do my part and help clean her plate. Lily had her sights set on the raspberry dessert. We distracted both girls during dinner with Sesame Street clips on Loran’s tablet.

We gave all of the grandparents a photo book highlighting the girls in 2011. Needless to say, it was Ella’s favorite gift. She would hop from lap to lap with the book to show whomever would have her all of the photos of herself and Lillian.

The girls received princess books with skirts and wands. They were then set for the night…

This marked the end of our Christmas celebrations, Lillian took that kind of hard.

We stayed at a nearby hotel to lessen the burden on Grandpa and Grandma. Because Lillian isn’t a great sleeper and the girls are pretty busy, it was just easier to have a space where they could be their wacky selves. The girls really got a kick out of staying at a hotel with a room near Nana, Papa and Nathan. The next morning, we took them swimming. I will say the pool was “refreshing” – but the girls had a great time splashing around for a few minutes, finally when Lily was shivering uncontrollably, we decided to pull the parent card and get the out of the pool. We then sat on the stairs of the “hot pool” and let them sit on our legs to warm up a bit. Ella was talking and talking about swimming. Hopefully she’ll have the same happy thoughts when her swimming lessons start at the Y this month!

Once swimming was complete and everyone was showered up, we met the family at Perkins. We were joined by Papa Dan’s sister and family – Bonnie, Larry and their two boys. It was fun to visit with them as we haven’t seen them since Loran and my wedding – 8 1/2 years ago! The boys have grown considerably! :) Of course, so has the size of our little family!

After brunch, we were back in the van, heading West. We were on our way to Merrill to celebrate Loran’s cousin’s September wedding. David and Katie are located in Oregon and had a small wedding with close family, but the party was held December 30th in their hometown. We checked into our hotel beforehand where upon opening the door to our room, we were met with a blast of hot hot air. The heat had been left on high. We opened some windows, cranked the air conditioning and hoped for the best. Thankfully, it worked out and cooled off. We eventually turned the heat back on around 5 am! Nana, Papa and Nathan were across the hall, so the girls wandered over there for awhile. Loran and I took that time to run to Piggly Wiggly (best name ever) to buy some milk for Lil. It was like a date! Once everyone was refreshed, we were off to Marla and Mike’s house where the family was gathering before the festivities. Nathan took off with the cousins to the party to help set up and Ella was very worried that we’d lost Nathan. She was very excited to be reunited with him later at the party.

At the party, Loran showed the girls how to play skee-ball and the children had made up a game using the white pool ball on the pool table. They loved playing together. Ella was really excited to dance. While we were eating dinner, I told her we would dance once there was music. Well, as we were eating, the music started. Ella’s eyes got huge, her head snapped in my direction and she said, “MOM! Music, we can dance!!” So, I kept my word and out to the “dance floor” we went. Ella and I boogied down, but then she set her sights on a better dance partner. Daddy? No. Her prized dance partner was Nathan. She only wanted to dance with Uncle Nathan. As he said, it was like any other dancing he’s done, dragged on the dance floor by some girl! When Adele came on, I thought Ella might burst. Her absolute favorite artist.

It was a great night celebrating Katie and David and catching up with all of the cousins. The girls could just run around and mingle with family and there was little to worry about. Except, Lillian always keeps it interesting. I’d gone off with Ella to the restroom and Lily didn’t want to see me go, we snuck off, but Lily was quick to notice my absence. While in the bathroom helping Ella, I heard the bathroom stall door rattle and as I turned my head, I saw Lillian sliding under the door, slip and slide style. She popped up once in the stall and said “hi!” We laughed at her funny/somewhat disgusting move. I helped the girls (especially Lily) wash their hands as Nana and Aunt Beba rushed into the bathroom looking for Lil’ Lil. Such a little rascal.

As much as the girls wanted to stay, we decided to let Carter have his wish and be the last kid standing. Out we went, back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Both girls fell asleep easily after dancing the night away.

The next morning, we all reassembled at Marla and Mike’s house for brunch. There were children running around everywhere along with cousins, aunts and uncles. It was great! As I alluded before, I don’t have many cousins my age (just one), and to be married into a family that has many cousins my age is just a dream! There are lots of small children, which means built-in playmates. And having family in the same life stages as us is just wonderful. Peers! As fun as it was to grow up always getting to sit at the adult table, it’s a nice change to have some cousins my age.

It was fun to see everyone and celebrate Christmas and weddings, but the girls seemed pretty happy to get back to their own beds and be around their own stuff. We had lobster tails and champagne to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The girls had fish sticks and milk. Loran and I tried to stay up until midnight. That was a loss, so we made it to New York’s countdown and were fast asleep by midnight central time. Oh well, that’s how we roll now.

Lily Crocker wishes you a Happy New Year!

Boxing Day

2012-01-12T14:16:00.001-06:00

After some new toy time and a nap, we put the newly clean Christmas dresses on – anytime they get to wear tights is reason for excitement to Ella, who then passes the excitement onto Lillian. Yay! Beautiful dresses! We were off to Fort Awesome for a Gutt Family Christmas.

Lillian was not in the mood for family photos. Luckily, Nathan is an expert photographer.

Lillian regaled us with more music before gift opening. The girls had a great time opening gifts and helping others open theirs, passing out gifts and just supervising the process to make sure we were doing it correctly. Ella did a great job at dinner and Lillian didn’t throw quite as much rice around, but she did work on her snow globe techniques.

Loran got his high school diploma! Merry Christmas!

The girls kept Nathan busy playing and reading with them. Ella, especially, is pretty infatuated with Uncle Nathan.

After the festivities, we headed over to the Beavens house for the annual Woman You Made Too Much Damn Food Day. It took the girls a few minutes to get comfortable. Once they warmed up, they were the life of the party. They made fast friends with our friend Josh, who seemed to relate to their level quite easily. They loved playing with Josh, when he’d sit down, they’d cuddle up next to him.

I think the girls would agree that when Daddy picked Nathan and Loran to be his co-best men in our wedding, he definitely picked the best men (besides Daddy of course)!

As we were leaving, there were only a few familiar faces left. Ella was sure to give Ma and Pa Beavens a hug, Josh and Mikey too, but then she looked around the room at the remaining faces and despite the fact that she (and we) didn’t know them, she went from person to person around the room and gave them all a hug. It as quite unexpected and quite cute on Ella’s part. In her young age, she knows that WYMTMDF day is a time to come together as friends at the same time, same place, same day – count on it!

Merry Christmas Day

2012-01-11T15:52:00.001-06:00

‘Twas the morning of Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except two pajama’d girls, two rested parents, two cats, a bird and a fish. Christmas morning, Loran and I got up at the crack of dawn so we could be dressed and ready for stockings and getting the girls ready and to Grandma’s house in the morning. In other indications that our children are still just getting into the Christmas spirit at their young age, we had to wake them up that morning to see what Santa had brought.

A Veggie Tales manger! It sings “Away in a Manger” - did I mention, it SINGS. IT SINGS!!! (but they love it)

A little relaxation after the chaos of stockings. Shockingly, the devastation around the room at once fit into four small stockings.

Once the dust had settled from stockings, we got the girls dressed in their cute Christmas dresses and went to my grandma and grandpa’s house to celebrate with the family. Everyone was assembled from near and far that morning for food, conversation, gifts, some more food, fun and laughter. Aunt Dottie started a game with the girls called “Super Girl” where she flew them around. Shockingly, Super Girl was a hit! Super Girls were flown through the house by Dot, Chelsey, Grandpa, and anyone else with arms and strength. Lillian regaled us with music on the organ. Such a strange instrument.

And of course, Lillian wants that gift out of the box, because that box is too tempting not to play in!

Uncle Mike had a flight to catch and the family disbanded for the day. We were then off to my other set of grandparent’s house - over the river and through the woods. The girls napped a bit in the car and despite our efforts, we couldn’t get Lillian to nap in her pack and play at Grandma’s. That meant the toddler bomb was ticking.

I only got one photo the entire night, but it was a keeper with Ella showing photos to her Great Grandpa Dean.

We’d missed dinner with the family but they’d saved games and dessert for us. I opted out of the dice game and played with Lillian in another room. I figured she’d probably eat the dice and rampage the gifts. Ella played with my mom and cleaned up. She was pretty proud of her haul. We spent time coloring and reading books and the girls made good friends with whomever won the giant container of cheese balls. Lillian especially was two-fisting the cheesy goodness. We only stayed a couple of hours because we knew the girls had had a busy day and were exhausted. I was a little bummed to have only been able to chat with my cousin for a little bit. She’s the only cousin I have who is my age – almost exactly. We’re only five days apart! She has three boys and is the only family member I can commiserate with about diapers, night waking, BPA in bottles, pedophiles, technology, Elmo, pacifiers, loud toys, preschool and everything else the modern mother has been forced to worry about through the overzealous media. (Free Range, baby!) But, she of anyone, can understand the no-nap, making an exit while things are still pretty scenario we found ourselves in.

The girls fell asleep easily and Loran and I settled in to watch A Christmas Story. We didn’t even make it through. It was definitely a “Merry Christmas to all, and to all…a good night.” Zzzz…

Grandma Santa?

2012-01-10T21:27:00.001-06:00

Christmas Eve we enjoyed church with my family. Ella was thrilled to go to church at a new campus. She loved it. After church, we headed to my parent’s house for our traditional family Christmas and Chinese food. Ella tucked into her Chinese food like a champ and Lily didn’t let the lack of snow get her down, she showered the dining room with white rice for added holiday effect. Once we were done eating, we read The Night Before Christmas. Or attempted to. The girls were too hyped up to focus on a reading a storybook. But who should show up in the backyard? Santa! We invited him in, and Ella studied Santa intently. Perhaps it was the eye makeup, or perhaps it was the fact that Grandma was napping upstairs, but Ella looked Santa square in his jolly old face and asked, “Grandma Santa?”

Once Santa cleared out, the present opening began. Once again, the girls did great taking turns and watching others. They were very excited to open a quilt made by Chelsey that is a giant hop scotch board. It’s kept them busy. Once the gifts were opened, the wrapping paper cleaned up, we gathered up our sleepy little girls and made our way towards home.

Earlier that day, our Elf on the Shelf, Jingle Bells had taken off towards the North Pole. A certain four year old family member was a little nervous about this departure, as she had been a bit ornery before he left. Suddenly he was gone and Ella hadn’t left a good last impression. But, thankfully, they’re behavior had earned them a spot on the good list and Santa was on his way. Jingle Bells had left behind a new pair of pajamas in everyone’s bed! We all crawled into our new pjs and drifted off to sleep, excited for the Christmas’s that had been and the Christmas celebrations to come, Santa’s arrival and family to be seen. Someday, they’ll be old enough to stay awake long enough to leave our cookies for Santa. But for now, we’ll settle for tucking our sleepy little girls into their beds.

Our Little Family Christmas

2012-01-06T20:31:00.001-06:00

We’re very fortunate to live near the majority of our extended family. That provides us with the opportunity to celebrate Christmas many times with many people and not have to travel through airports, train stations or sit in the car for hours on end. The only major drawback to that scenario is that we have to shoehorn our little family Christmas celebration in wherever we can. This year, we fit it into December 23rd, between regular house maintenance/errands and our volunteer shift at church. After both girls were rested and fed, Christmas commenced!

First we attempted a cute Christmas photo with both girls in front of the tree. But in every family, there’s someone who makes odd faces or gestures either on purpose or because that’s just the way they look. We have Lillian – our little clown. Several photos in which she looks like she has to go to the bathroom, but we did get a few good ones eventually.

This year, there was no hesitation in the gift opening. Both girls did an extraordinary job of waiting their turn and watching others open without getting antsy or overly greedy. Sometimes they were a little too dainty with opening, peeling off small pieces of paper at a time. It became an exercise in patience for an excited mommy and daddy!

So many great gifts and the favorites were the boxes (of course) and ribbon dancers (ribbons attached to a stick).

Loran threatened to purchase Lillian a drum set, and while he didn’t hold true to that promise, thankfully – he did come through with a Rock and Roll Elmo. Both girls vacillated between excited/intrigued/mortified/mystified/curious/apprehensive with Elmo’s performance. He’s a lot to take in, and uses the phrase “yeah baby!” a few too many times for me – but the girls enjoy dancing to his tunes.

While they were very content to watch others open their gifts, they were ecstatic to be asked to help open other’s gifts. Even large gifts didn’t stop Lillian, she just climbed them.

Everyone received something to take care of this year, Ella has her doll Rebecca, Lillian got a baby and Loran got a beer making kit!

After opening gifts and spending some time playing, we were off to church to volunteer for our shift in nursery. 25 services this year in two days across five campuses. By the start, there had already been 25,000 RSVPs – more than the total attendance of last year’s services. We were prepared for the mayhem that only many toddlers at the 6pm service can bring. Thankfully, we ‘only’ had twelve toddlers to take care of (one was Lillian) and four adults. Totally manageable with the help of bubbles, goldfish crackers and lots of toys and fun. Once church was over and all of the children had been reunited with their families, we were able to have dinner at church that people had provided for the volunteers. That was a nice addition and added to our family’s Christmas celebration.

It doesn’t matter when you shoehorn in your family Christmas, as long as you celebrate with the spirit of love and keep Jesus in your heart, it will always be memorable and special no matter the date or time of day. I love our little Gutt family!

And for extra Christmas flare – this month was the first that Ella remembered the memory verse from church. Every month they get a card with the verse to practice. She remembered this just through church attendance because we’d misplaced her card for most of the month and only started practicing when we found the card right before Christmas. But Ella now knows Luke 2:11…

“It was a miracle! Today your Savior is born, He is Christ the Lord!”

Happy Birthday Ella!

2011-12-23T19:37:00.000-06:00

It’s hard to not be sentimental on the day of your baby’s birth. Tucking in a three year old and waking up a four year old. At 2:32 am, Ella entered the world and took her first breath, on one hand, four years have flown by, on the other, it feels as if Ella has been with us forever. It’s hard to remember life without her sparkling personality and big blue eyes. Life must have been pretty boring, and quiet, and clean.

Tucking in the three year old

This year, we decided to try something new. Rather than have the big birthday party, then celebrate Christmas a few days later with everyone, we thought we would try to make Ella’s day extra special and do something with just her and Mom and Dad. In addition to her special activity, it was also a school day – both schools.

When I woke up my now four year old, she was all smiles and one of the first proclamations she made was - “When I am old, I’m going to wear beautiful dresses every day and every night.” I like that. And why wait until you’re old, we outfitted Ella in a nice purple dress and striped tights. She was ready to do her birthday right. In fact, I made breakfast a little celebration. I’d read of traditions where parents make pancakes in the shape of their child’s age. That seemed like a lot of work and we don’t really have time to whip up pancakes before school, but arm me with some scissors and a toaster waffle and behold – waffles fit for a four year old!

We celebrated Ella at Garden of Hope, along with special guests Grandma and Grandpa. Last year, Ella had been quiet and a bit timid during her birthday celebration. This year, that was not the case. Her chest was literally puffed out, she strutted around like a proud little peacock. Ella was truly savoring her birthday celebration and the attention bestowed upon her. She was all smiles and giggles. It was a great celebration!

Showing off the board all about Ella

We read Ella Sets the Stage – our Ella loved it.

After that celebration, we whisked her away to a birthday lunch at the restaurant of her choice – Old McDonalds. Both girls enjoyed a Happy Meal before we had to get Ella back to the Garden of Hope parking lot so the bus could pick her up and drive her 100 yards to her next birthday celebration. Ella was so excited, we were invited onto the bus to see it before it took off. She was armed with birthday treats for her afternoon celebration and the party continued at her other school!

The gang’s ready to celebrate, complete with handmade party hats.

Once off the bus in the afternoon, we dropped Lillian off with Nana and took off to the Mall of America – specifically, the American Girl store. Ella was all eyes. We had 5:30 dinner reservations at the bistro. Since we didn’t yet have a doll, we were able to borrow one from their collection so Ella would have a friend to dine with. She chose a boy and we named him Sam. Ella received a birthday sticker, and this meant that every staff member was then obligated to stop Ella, wish her a happy birthday and chat. What impressed me, was the sincerity in which every person approached Ella and talked to her and wished her a happy birthday. The food at the bistro was quite good. It was fun to have a fancy dining experience that was still catering to their younger clientele, so we couldn’t be blamed for ruining someone else’s fancy night out. Ella was really into the conversation starters at the table, while we asked her a few, she took the rest of the cards and started asking us questions. Could she read them? No. Were her questions actually relevant and well thought out? Yes. We were so impressed by our four year old!

Sam was a good dining buddy

Ella surprised us and ordered her own food, then proceeded to devour it all.

Ella and the conversation cards. She was later treated to a sugar cookie with flaming whipped cream on the side while being serenaded with the birthday song!

After our fancy dinner and conversation, we set off to buy a doll that looked like Ella. This process involved several trips up and down the escalator, much to Ella’s dismay, but we worked through it. She was like a little pinball, bouncing from one doll display to another. Playing with the accessories, studying each doll. She rounded a corner and found a display for a Native American doll that had large horses. She was convinced, that was the doll for her, because it had horses, that doll naturally looked just like her…once we moved past the horse obsession we were back on the hunt. While American Girl has an amazing assortment of dolls, they do not feature any dolls that have pale skin, brown hair and blue eyes (no freckles). We were encouraged to check out the historical dolls. We finally settled on Rebecca – a Jewish girl from 1914 New York with long curly hair. You know, just like Ella…However, Ella loves Rebecca – and we’re working on teaching her how to care for Rebecca’s fancy curls. Right now, she wears a lot of pony tails, like most of my naturally curly haired friends.

Ella and Rebecca meet

On our way out, we attempted to walk Ella through the amusement park (when I was a kid, it was Camp Snoopy and it’s been rebranded twice, so it might be Nickelodeon Universe, but I wouldn’t bet money on it – it will always be Camp Snoopy to me.) However, the amusement park atmosphere proved to be too stimulating for Ella, who laid down in the middle of a path and refused to move. We peeled her off the sidewalk and retreated towards our car.

That evening, we tucked in a very tired, very happy little girl. I have to say it was a wonderful day and it’s safe to say, Loran and I enjoyed it almost as much as Ella, if not more. While we’re both in shock that we have a four year old, especially given the fact that *we* haven’t aged four years, but having a four year old has been pretty amazing so far. It was hard to let go of the baby gear, but this little girl phase is really growing on me! What a year it’s been, what a year it will be! We love you, Ella!

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell…Barf…

2011-12-22T15:47:00.001-06:00

It was the night I’d been waiting for…Ella’s school’s Christmas program. For there is nothing better than a preschool program. At any moment, you can typically see a nose picker, a few facing the wrong direction, some refusing to sing, someone waving at their family and if you’re lucky, some child will randomly fall and quickly spring back up as if nothing happened. Of course, there is the adorability factor of those sweet little voices singing, all decked out in their holiday finest, eyes sparkling and families beaming. LOVE IT! Ella has been singing her songs for weeks, which we hadn’t really heard last year. But this year with her ever-expanding vocabulary, we have been serenaded, getting a preview. We heard such holiday classics as, “Frosty the snowman was a jolly, happy SNOW. With a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of COLD…” So close, so very close. I had a sneak preview the Monday prior when I volunteered in the office. I mostly saw the back of Ella’s head, as she stared adoringly at the two older boys behind her, but there was a little singing thrown in there.

Moments before the incident, but the show goes on!

This year, we were really rocking it. We were fed, Ella was dressed in her finest and we were on time. Seats were found, cameras were in the ready. I stepped up to get some pre-performance photos and I brought Lillian with me, knowing how she gets anxious when I leave her. We were snapping some photos, watching the kids and as usual, Lily was gnawing on her fist. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Lillian erupts and throw up, everywhere, all over me, the camera, herself, the floor. I waved Loran down and he cleaned the floor and camera while I ducked in the bathroom trying to avoid the lined up children and prevent a chain reaction to clean myself and Lily. The entire time, Lily was her happy self. We finished up and had been outside of the restroom a few minutes when she blew again! This time, I was running to the bathroom as one of the singers was exiting the bathroom, he saw this vomiting child coming at him and his eyes got huge and he turned the other way and ran! At this point, the carpet is a mess and one of the performers is traumatized. Loran took over Lily patrol, and we took all of the playground towels and I headed in to try to record the performance so he could see it later. But, of course, the batteries in the video camera were dead. Murphy’s Law was strong that night. So there I stood, covered in gross, smelling worse, dead camera and trying to smile. It was terrible and not at all what I’d planned. Lily got sick several more times that evening and by bedtime was done and slept through the night, thankfully. She was almost normal the next day and totally normal the day after.

Ella did well in her concert and another parent has offered to let us copy their DVD. Best of all, Ella hasn’t come down with Lily’s bug which leads me to believe it was probably something she touched and then licked off of her hand. She does, after all, play in the toilet like it’s her job – when she can get away with it. I was a bit under the weather on Sunday, which caused me to miss out on going with the family to the Y to see Santa and his reindeer. But, I think mine was more stress and dehydration and I wasn’t heaving-ho like Lillian. According to Loran, the Y was nuts and I didn’t miss out on much.

The morning after, Lillian and I did the walk of shame, steered clear of the wet and professionally cleaned carpet, and returned the now clean playground towels.

Winter Wonderland – check.

2011-12-12T15:07:00.001-06:00

It was the perfect weekend to enjoy all things Christmassy – all with the comfort of above freezing temperatures. Saturday we gussied up the girls and headed downtown to visit Santa. The first Santa photo with Ella as a nearly one year old was adorable to the max, it was then a steady decline in the following years. This year was definitely a wild card. Ella is old enough to really dig Santa and is getting over overreacting being around new people. Lillian on the other hand is just getting into that age of scariness and cries for nearly an hour when I leave her with Loran, her father…How would she react to being plopped into the lap of a bearded, red-suited stranger? Ella and I talked quite a bit about Santa. I didn’t show her the prior photos because I didn’t want to frighten her. I explained that she would only have to sit on his lap briefly and she didn’t even have to talk to him. This resonated with her because throughout the morning she kept whispering to herself, “I don’t have to talk to Santa”.

Both girls waited in line so patiently as it meandered through the paint store. Ella kept asking “where’s Santa?” she actually seemed to be looking forward to seeing him. The line moved pretty quickly and soon, it was our turn. There were a few mentions of Santa being scary, however, remember this is coming from the girl who thinks soup and pillows are scary. Once up in the lap, I could tell they were both hanging on by a thread. Ella immediately went into her defense pose, hands all over her face, typically looking like she’s about to pick her nose at any moment. Lillian also went for comfort and jammed her entire fist into her mouth and started gnawing. The photographer asked Ella to put her hands down and Santa had to hold down Lily’s hands. So, while there were no tears, it did look a bit like a hostage situation. Santa looked pleasant. Someday, we’ll have that picturesque photo with Santa, but until then, I continue to cherish my awkward Santa photos. Just a refresher – click here for the other awkward photos and here for the first year.

After the Santa visit, we went outside to experience the horse-drawn carriage ride. Both girls loved seeing the two horses and we enjoyed our ten minute journey through town. It was peaceful to hear the clip-clop of the hooves, smell that barnyard smell…

After the ride, we walked down the street to the bakery for a cookie break. Ella was drawn immediately to the bright yellow smiley face, while fluorescent, didn’t boast two inches of frosting.

Sunday was even warmer, so we grabbed the sleds and headed to the local hill. I’ve dreamed of the day the two girls would be able to both go sledding. And they were both able to walk up the hill by themselves! Bonus! Both loved sledding. Ella was a little more cautious about going down the hill. She preferred going with Daddy because he was also a little more cautious going down the hill. Whereas Lily and Mommy enjoyed going a little faster. Although I did get Ella to go down the steep part of the hill rather than the gradual slope we had been using. She whimpered the entire way down and wasn’t as impressed with our speed or distance as I was. She didn’t cry, but wasn’t super excited to repeat going down the steep side. Lillian was all smiles. This is going to be a good winter for sledding…provided we get some more snow (it’s currently raining).

We’re really knocking things off the winter to-do list!

Santa – check!

Horse drawn carriage ride – check!

Sledding – check!

Tree up – check. Random fevers – check. Elf on the Shelf – check. Cookie exchange – check. Shovel – check. Children’s Story Time at the Fillebrown – check. Reading Christmas stories and watching Christmas movies – check and check. Singing Christmas songs like it’s our job – check. Driving around to look at light displays – check. And it’s only December 12th! (Happy Birthday Uncle Nathan!)

Trying out the new child-sized shovel.

Time outside leads to cuddle time inside reading Christmas stories!

Mommy read Christmas stories to children around the tree at the Fillebrown House for the historical society.

Lily came down with an unexplained high fever the weekend prior. The day it spiked, she was pretty happy and not going to let a 101.7 fever keep her from being stylish. It landed her in urgent care on Saturday morning. Luckily, a bad looking throat, but clear ears and negative strep test. After a long nap, she woke up drenched in sweat and fever free! Whew! However, throughout the ordeal, she managed to accessorize.

Tree has been up and decorated, and redecorated and decorated again since Thanksgiving weekend! Our family’s presents are wrapped, slowly getting the extended family gifts done!

Her eyes are closed for effect, not just blinking. My little drama girl.

And the biggest news of the holiday season – Lillian has a stocking this year!! Because it took me 11 months to complete Ella’s stocking (and I worked on it in the hospital upon her birth and she still didn’t get it until she was 10 months old!), I thought ahead with Lillian’s and purchased her kit three months prior to her birth to give myself 13 months before her first Christmas to work on it. Smart thinking. Lillian did not have her stocking for her first Christmas. Santa was still good to her and filled her makeshift stocking by process of elimination. But, this would be Lillian’s big year. I really started working on it in September and suffered many ups and downs with it. The biggest downer was when curious little Lil spilled a bowl of sequins and beads. Watching hundreds of those beads and sequins go airborne was rather stress inducing. We both cried. Some (me) more than others (Lily). But I powered on and finished her stocking Thanksgiving weekend. She seemed to truly appreciate it, or at least realized at her now advanced age that she should put on a good how of appreciation lest I end up in some sort of asylum giving my self a soothing straitjacketed hug. Either way, she likes her stocking and it is done! DONE! If we never have another child in our family, it will be because I don’t think I can do another stocking. That, or I should start now, and I’m not sure the wound of the prior one is healed enough.

And what fun is a long blog entry without a little treat for making it to the end. This, is why we have insurance. Lillian – future stunt woman.

Do you think she did this move on accident? I assure you, she didn’t. This is a standard move on her part. Ella won’t even attempt this. Someday, Lily will stand at an open plane door and do the same jump. Maybe I’ll go with!

The Big Museum!

2011-12-08T14:48:00.001-06:00

Tuesday was the museum we’d all been waiting for. Loran visited this one quite a bit as a child and was excited to share it with the ladies in his life. It was a grey, rainy day – perfect for visiting the city and the Museum of Science and Industry – the largest museum in Western Hemisphere! Amazing. While we hadn’t been expecting the number of field trips that would be there, we did see quite a bit of the museum. We had to tear (sarcasm) Chelsey out of the genetics exhibit, but we did like seeing the chicks hatching and the genetically engineered mice. The Christmas Around the World exhibits and displays throughout were beautiful. The girls loved the circus exhibit, pushing the buttons in the 80s era electricity exhibit, Ella loved the U-505 submarine – and the idea that it would go underwater. She was especially enthused to use the restroom located in the U-boat exhibit – the submarine potty, as she called it. And of course, they really went nuts in the children’s area. Extra bonus, Loran found free street parking almost across the street from the museum! Only awkward moment – when attempting to pay for our lunch, one of the girls (I’m forgetting which one from the stress of the immediate situation) spilled the container of grapes and cheese I’d selected for them. Grapes were rolling everywhere and while the staff was very friendly and efficient about clean up, they did very graciously point out that my child was eating grapes off the floor. Yes, much like a pigeon in Central Park, I may have well have tossed some popcorn on the sidewalk. My girl attacked those floor grapes with vengeance. Other than some squirming in the backpack by Lillian and the spilled grapes, the girls did a great job at the big museum.

Loran in front of a model of his home-away-from-home – Seattle.

Operator Lillian.

Working on assembling the human body, the the organs wouldn’t stay in.

Lillian’s job was to bring balls to Ella who would insert them in the vacuum tube where they were whisked to the other side of the exhibit, eventually making their way back towards Lillian.

Extra extra bonus – we bought a museum membership for our family a month back that includes both children’s and science museums from one of those daily deal sites. We (including Chelsey) got into every museum for free. Membership easily paid for.

The following morning, we departed our hotel on the corporate campus of Mc Donald’s bound for Chelsey’s house. We’d been smart and brought our car topper since we knew we’d have more to bring home. Only problem, we weren’t equipped correctly on our luggage rack to hold the bag. So…we managed to cram it all in, plus Chelsey and her bag without sacrificing too much of our wiggle room, and probably helped our gas mileage and we were homeward bound. We made a few stops and Chelsey endured the viewing of Toy Story 1 – five times. I did have other movies, but neither girl complained to watched their beloved Woody and Buzz over and over. We arrived at my parent’s house to a warm meal of chili and other goodies. And Chelsey and I ventured out to Cub Foods, the night before Thanksgiving, to buy the last minute perishables I’d promised to bring (dumb on my part) to Thanksgiving. Surprising, the grocery store was on the ball at 8 pm and had every lane open. The trip was not the bloodbath I’d expected, but rather jovial and easy. The girls were happy to be in their own beds that night, our cats were happy to see us again and we awoke rested and ready to eat – Thanksgiving style!

As with previous years, the annual “Oh You Turkey Coloring Contest” sponsored by the Star Tribune gauntlet was thrown down between Ella and Chelsey. While the trash talk was less, the coloring was fierce. For a few minutes, then the girls chased one another around in circles until they tired, gorged themselves in cranberries and played festively the rest of the day.

This year, we are quite thankful for our wonderful family, our caring friends, our healthy, happy and smart girls and all of the wonders afforded us in our great nation, and those who serve faithfully to keep us safe and free.

Museum Tour ‘11

2011-12-08T13:57:00.001-06:00

Monday before Thanksgiving, we were off to a Children’s museum near Chelsey’s house. Too add to the fun of the museum, we had a chance to spend time with some friends – including a friend Ella’s age, Spiro! Spiro and Ella have the same birthday. I met his mom online, which sounds a lot creepier than it really was. We were both part of a group of people on babycenter who were expecting their first baby in December of ‘07. A group of us, broke off and formed our own private group, a little smaller, with fewer trolls and more openness. From this, friendships have been formed that still run strong, through additional babies, moves, health troubles, spouse troubles, new jobs, etc. The birthday buddies were cute together and we definitely tired out the three little kids and a baby. Not to mention three parents and an aunt.

‘07 First Time December Mommies and their December 20th Babies!

The life-sized lightbrite! I think I need one of those in our house – so neat!

Ella and Spiro were busy in the train area!

Lily wasn’t too sure about crawling through this mirrored tunnel – she would cautiously enter and then go full speed, ejecting herself out of the other end forcefully, once into my knee so she had a big red bump on her cheeck. She was totally into this truck and would strong-arm the kids in this pretend truck, even big kids. She showed them who was boss/driver.

It’s not a children’s museum without plenty of chances to get drenched.

We learned one important lesson, and a good one at that. While we were playing, over the intercom comes an announcement for “Christy Gutt, please come to the entrance.” I did a quick survey and I knew where both girls were, so I knew they weren’t creating havoc elsewhere. Lillian stayed with Chesley and I went downstairs with Ella to investigate. And there, we found Loran and had to claim him as ours. Apparently, they don’t let adults into the children’s museum alone, you need to be with a child. I have to say, that while I’d never heard of that rule as I don’t frequent children’s museums solo, I’m pretty happy creepy guys can’t go hang out and watch children.

That evening, Loran and I were treated to babysitting by Chelsey so we could go on a date. We found a sushi restaurant that was excellent and the girls participated in a Chelsey’s closet inspired fashion show. They had a blast. Once we returned, we continued to practice Ella’s hide-and-seek skills. She’s slowly coming along. We have discovered that she can’t really “find” people who are hiding right in front of her, and when she’s hiding, as soon as she hears “ready or not, here I come!” she will pop out of her hiding spot immediately.

Vogue. Strike a pose.

Baby Beluga, Fish, Turtles and Soldier Field.

2011-12-01T14:01:00.001-06:00

Sunday morning we had a fun filled day planned at Shedd Aquarium – the only problem…those pesky Bears were playing across the street. Those pesky Bears fans had jacked up parking at the Aquarium to $48. Not a problem, we parked in the lush suburb of Oak Brook and took the train in. That was thrilling for the small people in our party. Ella was giddy!

Near the aquarium, we met our good friends Andrew and Lillian (from our Connecticut days!) nearby for brunch. We had a great meal, that may or may not have persuaded them to have children based on which child they were focused on. The one who sat nicely, and tore into her pancakes like a wild (mannered) dog – Ella… or… Lillian who wouldn’t eat her food and only maintained civility by watching Sesame Street clips on Loran’s Blackberry while mowing down some generic goldfish crackers.

The girls loved the aquarium. So much to see, so many fun displays. Lillian was a little overly tired and we’d forgotten her carrier and didn’t have a stroller. She really focused in on pushing the buttons that made frog sounds. We made our way to the dolphin show and Lillian was passed out in my lap before the show started. Thankfully. We were all able to enjoy the show, which included previews of their holiday show so the animals would be able to adjust to the lights, music and effects. We saw the dolphins, a sea lion and beluga whales – it was great! Lily slept through most of it and more and awoke a new child. Ella decided the beluga whales were frightening above water where she could hear them but once we went where we could see them underwater, both girls found them amazing.

This place is exhausting Mom!

A touch pond! Take two small children, just add water – instant bliss!

Wow! This place even has elevator rides!

What’s funny is that there were at least four toddlers laying face down on this area of floor, amongst the crowds. It must have been an understood place of toddler submission to tiredness.

As we wrapped up our excursion, the Bears game had just started and the bus we had planned on taking to the train wasn’t running its usual route so we amped up the mass transit fun and all piled into a taxi. You’d think we’d taken a limo by the girls’ reaction. Big eyes, bigger smiles – a thrilling five blocks – life through the eyes of a child is always more fun! The train ride was pretty mellow and both girls plus Chelsey were asleep on the way back to Chelsey’s.

Another family dinner around Chelsey’s table, more fun, more goofiness and then Chelsey got the girls settled on the couch to watch a little Peter Pan. Once back to our hotel room, night three of getting the girls to bed was a lot easier.

Out of the Baby Cage

2011-11-30T16:08:00.001-06:00

The week before Thanksgiving, we piled in our jam packed car and headed out Chicago-bound. We left after Ella’s school day and stopped in Tomah for a good old Wisconsin fish fry dinner at Ed Thompson’s Tee Pee Supper Club. It was perfectly busy and loud for two little girls who were ready for a stretch break. And, a buffet. Bonus! Despite the somewhat awkward name, the food was delicious and the people were so friendly. As someone who doesn’t really like fish, I really liked my first fish fry buffet! To add to the fun, there was a Neil Diamond impersonator performing, apparently in from Las Vegas. We passed the show as we were leaving. If I had to guess, I would say he may be visiting from Las Vegas, New Mexico…because he didn’t seem to be Sin City material.

We spent the night in Madison. Our room was perfect as the bed was separated by a wall from the sitting area where Ella slept on the pull-out couch and Lillian in her pack and play right next to Ella. Ella thought her bed was amazing. Quieting the two little travelers wasn’t easy. There was a lot of giggling and goofing off, you’d think they’d never been roommates before. As it was nearing the late hour of 11:00pm, Loran and I were in bed reading and I could tell Ella was out of her bed, but smart enough to stay near her bed where we wouldn’t have a visual on her. I asked her to get back into bed and I could hear her hustle back into bed. Her roommate wasn’t quite as sneaky. Lillian suddenly comes strutting into our part of the room, like it was totally no big deal that she was up, out of her crib. Her little chest was puffed out, she was pretty proud of herself. We were in shock and awe. After a couple of escapes, I laid in bed with Ella while she fell asleep and Lillian stayed in bed as long as I was there, not daring to climb out, eventually falling asleep. We were awoken to the sound of vitamin/ibuprofen bottles being shaken in the morning. We jumped out of bed to find the “girl’s room” empty to find two footie jammied girls playing jam band in the bathroom. Could this have been the start of a thrilling family vacation full of escapes in hotel rooms?

On our way towards Chicago, we stopped at a Children’s Museum in Rockford. The girls had a great time playing, Ella may have found a calling as a pizza delivery girl or cow milker.

We checked into our hotel in Glen Ellyn mid-afternoon and our room had a floor to ceiling window overlooking the main road. The girls found this to be amazing. Some people love to overlook mountains or the ocean, but small children are easily amused by overlooking the city bus route. They also were busy watching cars trying to find Aunt Chelsey. Ella narrated the search, “Is that Chelsey? Nope, that’s a red truck. Is that Chelsey? No, that’s a black car.” But Chelsey was not to be found in the form of a car, or even transformer. We stopped to pick up a giant pizza and salad and made our way to Chelsey’s house for dinner. It was great. Ella stood on the top step into the apartment like she had before on our first visit, took in the view and once again exclaimed, “It’s beautiful!” Then the two quickly remembered where the exercise balls were, the wooden giraffe and elephant and they were in heaven playing at Aunt Chelsey’s and eating pizza with the family.

Later than night, there was some trouble settling down. However, because Lily’s bed was not directly next to Ella’s bed, Lily lacked a landing pad, and she’s no dummy. She stayed in her bed, not risking life and limb for the freedom of a hotel room.

So you’re saying that gold Honda Civic isn’t Aunt Chelsey?

Football Rivalry?

2011-11-16T11:10:00.001-06:00

Monday night football featured the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Despite our address, our family are Packer backers. To add to the festivities, I brought out my old cheese head, thinking the girls would get a kick out of it.

Ella, took to it immediately. Despite it being heavy and way too big for her head, she wore it around with a smile.

Lily, liked the hat concept, however when she put it on the floor with the head hole facing up, she found a new use for it. Lily took one look at it sitting on the floor and declared, “Ohh! A potty!” and sat right now. (fully clothed)

Because we’re experiencing the ages where the youngest is becoming interested in potties and the oldest finds anything involving potties or bodily function to be hilarious, there’s a lot of potty (literal) talk in our house. The other day, Ella was sorting out how dogs poop outside, cats poop in a box and people use the toilet. She is really stuck on this, and revisits it often with much laughter. Yesterday, we’d received a large box via UPS. Upon seeing this large, open box her eyes became huge. I figured, like Lily had earlier, she was seeing the possibilities for fun crawling in/out/around this box. Nope, the first thing she said was, “Oh WOW! A huge box! Can I poop in it?” I tell her, “No, you aren’t a cat.” She then says, “Yeah, but I can meow.” Heh…heh…heh…preschool potty humor. Gotta love it.

Life With Girls

2011-11-11T16:28:00.001-06:00

If you could have been a fly on the wall this morning, you would have seen Ella descend the stairs, run to the table and exclaim, “Whoohoo! Chex cereal!” complete with first pump. You may have even thought, hey, that’s a great reaction to Chex, a pretty quality cereal. Upon further inspection, you’d have noticed that she was really pumped up because her bowl contained Boo Berry. Oh yeah, blue milk cereal. Ella just calls all of her cereal Chex. Not quite as impressive on the mom front, but sure is funny.

We’ve hit a few milestones in our house. Lillian, who has always been obsessed with shoes, successfully put her shoes on (the wrong feet) and that’s how we wore them. There was much pride! She’s been practicing with everyone else’s shoes. It’s kind of a slam dunk when she tries adult sized shoes, but looks mighty cute.

Ella drew her first person, unassisted. If you look closely, you can see the head, with two eyes and a smile (and a random line placed later) and it has arms and legs protruding from its giant head. LOVE IT!! I love little kid drawings! How can you not smile?

Loran was away on a one day business trip to Boston and I decided it was time…time for both girls to partake in baking. Yes, I made chocolate chip cookies with a one and three year old. Ella was busy scooping flour into our measuring cup while Lily and I measured and poured other ingredients. They both watched wide eyed as I mixed it and were happy to taste-test our creation. We did have one small problem when I accidently forgot to set the timer on one batch and then proceeded to put the girls to bed. And while I can get them into bed pretty quickly, this wasn’t one of those instances. I got their pjs on, we brushed teeth, made our way upstairs, read a story and both girls got tucked in. Then the requisite starting of the CD player and illumination of Twilight Turtle and Ladybug…only when I was coming down the stairs and smelled the burning did I hustle and realize my slight problem…They’re just a bit crispy.

Ella is starting to really retain what happens in her life, and then is able to relate it to other stories that she sees on television or in books. At one of her schools, she learned about the Three Billy Goats Gruff and she has been regaling us with the story over and over. She even was directing me, as we both acted out the story. Today, at her other school, she learned a song about elephants and we’ve been having a lot of giggles erupt as she sings it.

We’re also getting into dress up, even more than ever. I switched out toys today and brought out some dress up apparel and baby care gear. They’ve been so busy, I probably wouldn’t even see them if they didn’t need help with outfit changes!

Meet Princess Ella….

…and her apparently socially awkward sister, Lillian the Duchess of Pampers.

Raising Our Spirited Child

2011-11-02T19:20:00.001-05:00

A few years ago, I would visit my grandparents for lunch and they would watch baby Ella play on the floor so quiet and content. There were jokes that my next child would be a wild boy. In my head, I named him Peter and pictured him swinging from the curtains. Well, they got it half right – I have a wild child, a girl named Lillian!

This just happened out of no where. Within the last week, pants are becoming optional.

Our neighbor classifies her as a “helper bee” – the kind of person who loves to care for everyone and everything. It means our house will eventually become a repository for squirrels with popsicle stick splints on their legs, dragonflies with missing wings, stray cats, baby birds and eventually bad boyfriends who she thinks she can fix. Yay. Such a caring heart in such a little girl.

I always explain her this way: she’s not naughty, but she’s very busy. Very curious and gets into a lot, but not out of a place of malice. It’s rare that she’s outright naughty for the sake of being naughty – and yes, she may have squished a peanut butter cup into the wall today (totally naughty) but she is almost two…

Lillian is just busy, sassy and a class clown. Always on the move, not content to just sit and read books. She needs to DO, SEE, EXPERIENCE! She’s busy climbing on and over everything, figuring out how things work, opening, closing, hiding objects, falling off of things, bouncing off of things, escaping, disappearing, spilling, chasing. She’s just one giant verb.

People who see me during the day must assume I’m extremely sleep deprived. I get 7-8 hours of sleep nightly, yet a few hours with Lily and being on my toes constantly and I have that haze of a new parent. I lack a certain spunk and energy as of late. I’m just worn out by Lillian’s spirit. Thankfully, she’s a happy girl, so others are happy to spend time with her in church nursery, ECFE and MOPS. I do often hear about how busy she is in those classes, but so happy. And thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who cares about my sanity. Granted, Lillian has half of his DNA, so this spirit may have come from him… This last weekend, he took both girls to the children’s museum to give me some rest from Lillian. She’d already made me cry twice on Sunday. Once when she spilled an entire container of seed beads and sequins that will hopefully someday be on her Christmas stocking that I’ve been toiling over for over a year. Maybe this Christmas it will be ready for her, however, seeing all of those sequins and beads fly through the air was the moment that put me over the edge. The self hug of a straitjacket seemed welcoming. But, three childless hours were calming enough for me to regroup and form smiles again. When they returned (with dinner!) I was able to enjoy my wild curly girl the rest of the night – despite the fact that she (and Ella) thoroughly drenched me during bath time (even though I was across the (8 foot) bathroom) and later found our carbon monoxide detector crammed full of cat food! I’m going to assume she wasn’t maliciously trying to make the detector useless and then vent the car exhaust into the house as we slept but rather saw a hole and, conveniently, saw the dish of cat food next to it with morsels that would fit in the hole. I know it was Lillian because she’s the only one who is obsessed with being near the cat dish. (Typically, we find bloated cat food in the cat’s water). So despite trying my patience and cat-like reflexes, she also has the ability to make me laugh to the point of tears. She’s easily the funniest person in our house. From her facial expressions to her timing, once she can speak, we’re in big trouble!

Apparently, our town is overrun by spirited children, as evidenced by the wear on the copy of Raising Your Spirited Child that I checked out from the library. It claims to be “a guide for parents whose child is more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent and energetic.” They’ve got our number! Let the learning begin.

That’s Scary

2011-11-02T16:44:00.001-05:00

Ella’s in a little “That’s Scary!” phase. I wasn’t sure how she’d do with the whole spooky Halloween thing. The other day, she told me her soup was scary. Shoes – scary. Chairs – scary. Pajamas – scary. Lillian – scary. Needless to say, an entire holiday centered around scary could really shake things up. However, we used the days leading up to celebrate Halloween and fall and all it had to offer and focus on the fun.

Our day by day spookiness recap:

Thursday – Lillian had her ECFE class and the children were able to dress up in their costumes. The dinosaur was very excited to be able to leave the house in all of her carnivorous glory. Luckily, despite her ability to ferociously growl, she did not chomp down her mouse, Elmo or monkey classmates. However, Buzz Lightyear was in the house, so there was some back-up. Later that night, the early childhood program threw a Halloween party. I would classify it as partially organized chaos. It was slightly overwhelming and the girls were a little nervous throughout. But, they were happy to do the various stations, see their favorite classroom assistant, Connie and were very amicable to leaving. Once home, we watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” which they watched with mild interest.

Friday – Loran and I ran the Scare in White Bear 5K. The girls rode along in the Burley. This year, it was moved to the evening rather than early morning. Tiki torches lined the path and people were all decked out in costumes and glow sticks. We had a great time, the girls enjoyed the ride (Ella fell asleep). Loran and I ran it together – despite the fact that Loran hardly runs and usually runs one 5K per year, and I trained for a 5K all summer, running twice a week – he was hard to keep up with. I definitely ran faster because of him (and he was pushing the stroller) and at the end, as we reached the finish line, he reached for my hand and we held hands as we crossed. Our official race times are: Loran 35:29 and Christy 35:31 (remember we crossed the line at the same time) My clock had us in at 35.05 and says we ran 3.29 miles, but whatevs.

Saturday – we took a hiatus on Halloween.

Sunday – the carving of the pumpkin! This was Lily’s first carving experience because last year she’d already gone to bed. It was Ella’s first time being brave enough to touch the pumpkin guts. Both loved picking out the seeds and attempting to scoop with the spoon. Lillian made a few poor choices with her spoon and making contact with people’s heads. Otherwise, it was a good experience.

Hand down the diaper is our newest party trick.

Monday – the big day! Ella had a Halloween party at school where they created Halloween Brew. Ella was in charge of supplying snake eyes (peanuts). The girls tore into the Halloween brew within minutes of being home from school like raccoons in a bag of garbage. The living room floor was a mosaic of salty and savory goodness, but the little Hoovers eventually got it all sucked up as the day wore on. I made a Halloween themed lunch featuring a Jack-o-lantern quesadilla, cottage cheese brains and ants on a log. And milk decorated with a pumpkin straw. Thankfully, the straws can be retired for the next 358 days. The week they were out was quite the test of my patience and the splattering power of milk.

As the big candy hour neared, excitement was flowing. Grandma and Grandpa came over for pizza and trick or treating. We quickly found out that trick or treaters are sparse on this end of the neighborhood. Since we moved just after Halloween, this was our first Halloween here. Despite only moving six blocks, we went from having over a hundred trick or treaters to two. TWO. Guess what number I’d prepared for? A HUNDRED. Four bags of candy and 20 mini Play-Dohs were ready to go. Our TWO trick or treaters got six Play-Dohs. However, this lack of competition meant that of the eight houses we went to, the girls came home with roughly three pounds of candy.

Ella was pretty apprehensive of going to houses in the night to knock on the door to beg for good. Lily had zero qualms over this crazy tradition. She was first up the stairs, knocking on the door and standing with her bucket ready. When the doors opened, Lily was overly eager to get her candy and tried to weasel her way into each house. We started with familiar neighbors and Great Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rob’s house so there was less pressure to perform. But of course, we were spending too much time talking and they were jumping at the bit to gather more metallically wrapped sugar. Each house we went to, fully aware that Ella and Lillian’s arrival to the neighborhood doubled the number of trick or treaters they had to cover, was still more than generous with their candy. Everyone held out the baskets and told them to “take as much as you want” – and while Ella meekly took a couple of pieces Lillian would hold their eye contact while she scooped piece by piece into her bucket as fast as possible.

Once home, Loran and I were eagerly awaiting the ring of our doorbell and the girls were playing. Within minutes, Ella was passed out on the floor and Lily was not close to crashing. That is when our trick or treaters came, which woke Ella so they were able to both experience passing out candy to two children their age, thus completing the Halloween experience. Ella was more than happy to go to bed. Lillian needed some extra rocking and cuddling. It was bringing back flashbacks of last Halloween when I watched the sunrise of November 1st after being up with Lillian all night when she got an ear infection. Luckily, it wasn’t a repeat and she eventually settled in. The great part of this age, they’re getting big enough to understand the fun of going house to house and getting candy while dressed up – BUT – they quickly forget about that candy once it is out of site. I sent a gallon sized bag of candy to work with Loran and yet, I have been consuming fun sized candy bars on my own at an alarming rate.

One of these girls in asleep, the other is quite the comic.

Curly Girl’s First Haircut

2011-10-24T16:22:00.000-05:00

Back to reality, Monday morning, we were the first customers at 9am at Kid’s Hair. Lillian was very excited for her haircut. She kept pointing to her hair, saying “hair” and insisted she carry her pumpkin bucket with her – a girl’s gotta accessorize.

It became quite clear that Lillian did not actually know what a haircut was. She was all smiles until she was placed in the chair and strapped in. Why strapped? Because otherwise, Lillian would have thrown herself to the floor at a desperate attempt to escape the sheers. Those straps work well. She had Sesame Street on the television (that the other stylist tried desperately to turn on as fast as humanly possible) and I held her hand/held her down for the bangs – yet the entire time, she screamed at the top of her little lungs, “HELP!!” It was kind of funny. I was even prepared with the real camera, but couldn’t let go of her long enough to get it, but had my phone in my pocket, so these images will have to capture the four minutes that was Lillian’s first haircut.

Thankfully, the stylists at Kid’s Hair are amazing, patient and best of all – FAST and accurate. I wouldn’t trust myself with a scissors around Lillian’s squirming, writhing, screaming body – heck, I can’t even cut my own bangs straight (the few times I’ve attempted) yet despite the carnage, she emerges with straight bangs.

The reward for her haircut – her first sucker. Apparently, she was born with the inherent knowledge of how to eat a sucker. She did, however, give me pieces of mushy stick during our following shopping trip. Not one stick. I slowly, over the course of the trip, received sucker stick parts, from the inside of her mouth as she’d eventually fish them out. Because as all moms know, your hands become the receptacle for spit out food/objects, garbage and vomit. The glamour of motherhood is almost too much, I should stop listing all of the perks before others rush out to have more babies.

In the end, we’ve cleaned up the curls a bit – but don’t worry, the curl remains! I had the stylist give her bangs. Despite always saying I’d never saddle my child with bangs, I think Lillian’s curly/wavy/double cow-lick hair works well with bangs. I can’t get her to keep her ponytail/palm trees in, barrettes, clips or headbands in and she’s always trying to get the hair out of her face. She looks much better and a little less wacky.

I have my little envelope of keepsake, first haircut hair that the salon sent me home with. I didn’t get choked up or teary like I did with Ella’s first cut (in my defense, I was highly pregnant at the time). It’s still bittersweet to get that first cut, but I’ve already unsealed the envelope to admire those golden brown curls. Lillian’s baby hair! awwww!

Mommy Escapes!

2011-10-24T13:48:00.001-05:00

I spent a blissful four days away from home with my girlfriends in a “little log cabin” in the middle of the woods where we scrapbooked, solved the world’s problems, took butt-busting (hilly) walks, ate heartily, befriended a cat and hot tubbed under clear starry skies. It’s really just what I needed. I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with life, the change of seasons and the prospect of heading into the holidays, birthdays and cold. I came home feeling quite refreshed and a lot less stressed, ready to tackle more and with a brighter outlook towards life.

It’s quite amazing how relaxing it can be to be surrounded by paper and tools to then spend an hour crafting an owl out of said paper and tools. Cathartic and cute. A winning combination. Scrapbooking is my Prozac.

It’s easier to go when I know the girls are with their amazing daddy. Loran kept them busy with museum visits, the circus, shopping, leaf raking and then cleaning up their chaos. He even thinks of small details, like putting his business card in Lillian’s jacket pocket at the science museum, because she’s hard to keep track of. Smart man. I arrived home to a very clean house, with candles lit and two clean children in dresses and a tired, but happy husband. Loran assures me that they had a great, easy weekend. I’ve found a few signs that there was some trouble here and there, but overall, everyone’s still alive and with all God-given parts and happy, so I’d call it a success. Both girls were in bed and sleeping by 7:15, if that’s any indication on the amount of fun they had. They were very excited to see me, which made reentry into real-life a lot easier.

The “shack” the 15 of us called home.

Just catching up with the girls when I got home was fun. It seems like they grew over the weekend! Ella was so talkative and descriptive in what she was telling me. Lillian was far more expressive, with new words and phrases. I loved it! Even funnier, Loran taught Ella to say, “Sorry North America!” every time she passes gas. She finds this hilarious, and it was pretty funny. Perhaps not the “excuse me” I’d been going for, but it got us all rolling with laughter. You’d think she’d eaten a can of beans for lunch given the frequency the phrase was uttered. Luckily, no beans, just hilarity.

I’m happy to home with my loving family, but getting away was just what I needed. Every once in a while, a mommy just needs a break, a chance to regroup before she loses her marbles. All of my marbles are back in the jar…at least for today.

Panem et Circenses (Guest Post by Daddy!)

2011-10-21T13:12:00.001-05:00

In the waning days of the Roman Republic, before the rise of the Empire and the Caesars, politicians often attempted to appeal to the general population by the free public provision of bread, grain and other foodstuffs, as well as the increasingly-regular provision of entertainment, such as gladiator shows, in the capital at Rome and other major cities.

Taking a page from my own lengthy and expensive education, I figured that if provision of bread and circuses was effective two thousand years ago to pacify a generally illiterate population who were energetic and often teetered on the edge of rebellion, why reinvent the wheel? I thought it time to embark on our 4-day weekend plan, while I’m in charge of our girls during Christy’s scrapbooking retreat, as a full exposition of bread and circuses time.

We started Thursday morning with a trip to the recently expanded Wiesman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, which is showing, among other things, the installation Sympathies, which appears to my untrained-in-modern-art eye to be a large pile of metal shavings (as well as metal shavings nailed to the wall) with the phrase “Caution: Metal has sharp edges.” There are no photos of Lillian, as I spent most of our time at this installation peeling her back from jumping into said pile.

After this, it was bread time, a trip to Smashburger, which might be Ella’s favorite restaurant. Smashburger is a fairly new chain in town, so when a very tall guy came in for the first time and asked Ella, before ordering, “Is Smashburger a good place to eat?” Ella was able to come back with “Smashburger is good to eat because Smashburger is great, and Smashburger starts with a big red S.” This seemed to convince this visitor, who ordered. Looks like she may have a future in marketing.

Today was the actual circus. Perhaps timed with Minnesota Education Association Weekend, a random school holiday that exists only in Minnesota, the Zurhah Shrine Circus was in town. I have a bit of a moral challenge with circuses, but the girls seemed to be at a good age to go (defined as the fact that they like large animals and beautiful dresses and gymnastics and further defined by the fact that Lillian is still under 2, and thus is free, and tickets are buy-one-get-one free, so Ella went free with me. $21 to the circus and $15 to Ticketmaster/Target Center later, we were on our way.)

We arrived early for the ability to go onto the floor and see the animals up close. Ella and Lillian really liked the elephants – there were 4 female and 1 male elephants who, when not being pressed into carrying people on top of themselves, were really quite personable to small girls. The performers also mingled about and were genuinely quite nice to our girls.

We took our seats and sang the national anthem, but then the lights went out and Ella was a little nervous. We made it through the 7 tigers, an aerial gymnast and 5 elephants, but at the clown show in the dark with just a spotlight, Ella lost it. She took full advantage of Target Center’s acoustics to scream her lungs out, so we beat a hasty retreat for the exit. After she was calmed down a little, we went back to watch from the balcony, but at the first loud music, Ella was done. We headed back to the car just as intermission started, which only seems fair, given the buy-one-get-one free tickets.

We are now back home for lunch before heading to St. Paul to the Science Museum. I have made stir fry for the girls for lunch and they are hand-feeding me some of their pita chips, so I think they’re catching onto the whole bread and circuses thing. In fact, now that we’re about 33% into this plan, I’m thinking this bread and circus thing could handle for some of these 99 percenters. Maybe I’ll head back downtown with a bag of mini donuts and some glow wands and see if we can smooth this whole thing over. I’m predicting success.

Bye Bye Duckie, Ucka and Pacifiers

2011-10-20T18:23:00.000-05:00

Sunday evening we just decided, on a whim almost, that Lillian was done with pacifiers. So that was that. Lillian blissfully took her bath, unaware that her world was about to be shaken upside down. Or perhaps, I was fully aware and therefore blowing it completely out of proportion and maybe shedding more tears than needed over the situation. It *could* be that I was having a hard time parting with one of the last grasps of babyhood we had left. The baby clothes and gear has all been sold or donated in the last few weeks (I purchased a new couch with the money!) and I’m feeling a little sad. Now, to get rid of pacifiers? Could she handle it? Could *I* handle it?? But, as Loran points out, she’s tall enough to play middle school basketball, it was time.

I grabbed a box and found as many pacifiers as I could, including beloved Ducky. Lillian had to put each one in the box. I thought she’d have a hard time parting with Ducky, but he went in easily. The one we had trouble with, was the pink one. Ironically, the one pacifier she has refused her entire small life. Her green ones are for babies age 0-3mo. The pink one is for the older crowd. It’s firmer and slightly larger. She has only accepted the newborn pacifiers. But suddenly, she needed that pink one and didn’t want to give it up. So, I brought out the big guns – M&Ms. Yes, you can get a small child to do almost anything with the promise of some M&Ms. I showed her the candy coated goodness and without blinking, the pink pacifier joined its comrades in the box. We sealed the box and addressed it to Aunt Chelsey and as far as Lillian knows, her box of pacifiers are now in Chicago with Chelsey.

That night, we had some crying for Ducky, but not much. And subsequent naps and bedtimes have had a few cries for the Ducky, but not many. She hasn’t even asked for it during the day, which is surprising because in the last couple of months she’d become quite the pacifier junky. So that chapter of our lives is over. No more searching for Ducky or a Soothie that is able to roll to record lengths out of our grasp. No more giving Lillian a hair/crumb covered pacifier out of my purse with a twinge of guilt. No more baby…*tear*

And to make matters worse, I was able to get all of Lillian’s hair into this adorable little ponytail, further proving to me that she’s no longer a baby. (But still *my* baby.)

Goin’ to the Farm

2011-10-20T10:52:00.001-05:00

The Sunday that Loran was gone, aka Morning of the Mouse, we planned to go to a family farm near my parents’ house for the ultimate in autumn experiences – farm in fall. You know, animals, pumpkins, corn stalks and tractor rides.

We arrived at Eveland Family Farm during the Vikings game and during most reasonable naptimes for children. It was perfect. Not busy at all and the setting was just right for experiencing the farm. Except for that not-so-fallish 85 degree thing going on.

We took a tractor ride around the cow pasture that Ella thought was amazing. It was slightly dusty from the lack of rain but the girls found the bumps to be phenomenal. Ella was all giggles and smiles. Lillian was ready to jump off during the last quarter of the ride.

We went to the animal barns to visit the livestock. They’re a very friendly bunch of animals and the girls were beyond excited to pet the goats, miniature horses, donkeys, pigs and more. Despite both girls being sweaty, thirsty and covered in a glaze of dust – they really didn’t want to leave their new farm friends.

First, we overlooked this giant pig sleeping right next to us. But we found that when you gently pushed on his head, he oinked like a toy, he became quite amusing.

One of the goats pushed Lily against the fence, I don’t think it realized she was next to it. No harm, but Lillian sprouted a giant pout that was record worthy. She didn’t hold a grudge long, she and the goats were best of friends shortly after.

On our way out, we stopped by the pumpkins so Lillian could inspect each and everyone for quality and “count” them. Ella was about done and ready for her water bottle in the car.

Our farm trip was just perfect. It was the right size for our attention span and the animals were great. The weather was a little wonky, but it was better than wearing parkas. That evening, we left Grandma and Grandpa’s house with happy memories, full tummies and a Barbie car (Note to Aunt Chelsey: we have your Barbie car, Woody, Buzz and a giraffe are currently tooling around in it). Not a bad day.

This little bear fell asleep on the couch and I made the mistake of waking her for dinner. This little bear went to bed shortly after this photo was taken.

Punkinmania and Japan

2011-10-19T20:11:00.001-05:00

I’ve run out of catchy titles for our annual trip to Punkinmania. One thing that you can never count on, the weather. A few years ago we had snow. Last year was quite mild. This year, it was in the upper 70s. It was like Punkinmania in Florida! This year, with two big walkers, we were able to really whoop it up. Though we did have the reality of Loran leaving for Japan only a few hours away hanging over our heads. But as long as we had him, we were going to cram in as much family fun as possible.

Loran took Ella and Lillian into the fire truck and I brought Ella through the ambulance. Ella was very interested in the ambulance, and Lillian freaked out over it and would not enter.

The girls picked their pumpkin swiftly and then both picked a gourd.

This year we tried our hand at the games. Ella went straight for bean bag toss. She dutifully stood at the line and lobbed her bag towards the board. Lillian was no rube. She walked right up to the board and chucked her bag in the hole. Despite breaking all of the rules. Or, the only rule, Lillian was rewarded with more tickets than Ella’s consolidation one ticket. Ella then tried her hand at fishing and caught a bag of candy. We then cashed their tickets in for some beautiful skeleton necklaces.

A couple of hours later, we were blazing a trail for the airport to drop Loran off for his 11 hour flight to Tokyo. Our first night went well. We stopped at Target on our way home and picked up a new Veggies Tales movie about listening and obeying, popped up some popcorn and learned some valuable lessons about listening to your parents.

As with most trips, there is always some sort of problem. Vomit, house malfunction, dead car battery…something typically happens. It’s just a matter of what and when. This one hit right away on Sunday. We got up leisurely and were enjoying some family time before heading to the farm. When I was downstairs getting ready, I kept smelling something foul. Ironically, the closer I got to the cat’s litter box, the better it smelled. That’s how bad it was. Wouldn’t you know, there was a mouse in one of our traps. However, from my vantage point, I wasn’t entirely sure it was a mouse. Perhaps larger? And it wasn’t a traditional mouse trap, so I had no idea how this one worked. I had to go regroup and figure out how I was going to handle this situation. The longer I thought about the creature downstairs, the larger it got. Suddenly, it was definitely a rat. Awhile later, a squirrel and within minutes, it was clearly an opossum. But, Facebook saved me again…I’d posted a “woe is me” type entry about my predicament and my uncle called to see if I wanted the mouse removed. It turned out to just be a mouse. After the mouse was removed, I was doing some extra cleaning and found a FULL sippy cup under a dresser in the basement, of unknown age. The milk was solid. Needless to say, our basement smells much better now. That was the only problem of the Japan trip. The funny came after we’d picked Loran up and he was home that evening. I went downstairs and heard Ella run across the house saying, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” she halted in the kitchen and said, “Mommy? OH NO! Mommy went to Japan!!” Apparently having Daddy go to Japan resonated with her.

Tater Tot Hot Dish – Crockpot Style!

2011-10-14T17:44:00.001-05:00

I’ve had some requests for this recipe. It’s a great cool weather dish, easy to make and mighty tasty. Don’t tell my mom, who tried to convince me to eat Tater Tot Hot Dish my entire childhood, mostly unsuccessfully – but now I like it. A lot. The girls? It’s hit or miss.

32 oz. bag frozen tots

1 lb ground beef, browned

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 -14 1/2 oz. cans green beans, drained (I use frozen)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 T. dried onions

1/4 c. milk

1. line bottom of slow cooker with frozen tater tots

2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over potatoes

3. Cover. Cook on High 3 hours.

Note: sprinkle individual servings with your choice of grated cheese.

Chef Lillian only uses the finest ingredients

Lily’s ABCs

2011-10-13T14:20:00.001-05:00

Lillian is very interested in the alphabet. She’s been playing with her ABC blocks and most of the blocks are “Bs” in her little world, but she loves “naming” the letters. She points out letters everywhere, it’s pretty fun. She’s come up with two little songs that she sings, “ABC Meeeeee” and “Happy Tooooooo!”

Leaf Walk

2011-10-13T14:14:00.001-05:00

Ella had a Friday off of school last week for conferences. In the morning, we met with her teachers to get our Ella report. We have a little girl who likes to watch everyone in the class. We have to figure out how to get her to focus better because when the teacher’s try to present to her one-on-one, she is easily distracted by any warm body that walks by. I’m not sure how to work on that since we don’t have the large group dynamic at home so there are less distractions around her. But, we’re starting to do a few more projects that require her to do a few steps and we’re getting better at the game Memory. She’s really into I Spy when we’re out and about, so that requires her to scan and focus on an object. We’ll get there. Of course, I took it harder than I probably should have. It’s hard to not project way ahead into her future and start to worry about middle school conferences. But, I have to focus on what we’re doing now and not worry about the future. The now builds our future.

Loran celebrated her conference by stopping at the donut shop and treated us all to donuts. It was nice to have that morning time together without the typical rush of everyone vacating the house. While we enjoying our donuts, Ella was showing quite the interest in Loran’s coffee. He asked if she wanted some and she eagerly accepted his offer. She grabbed that cup of cooled coffee and took a giant gulp. The look on her face was amazingly hilarious! She couldn’t bring herself to swallow and the coffee came dribbling out of the corners of her mouth. It may be awhile before she tries to hit the hard stuff again.

Once Loran had left to work, we took a trip to Costco, one of Ella’s favorite places – she likes to be in charge of the membership card and show it to the employee at the door. They really disliked sitting side by side in the giant cart a few months ago, but now, they do pretty well. I usually have to break up a small cat fight, but it’s tolerable. I even got some encouragement when trying to lift 43 pounds of cat litter into the cart, Ella yells out, “Yeah Mommy! Use your muscles!!” The cutest part happens each trip when we enter the produce section. Ella reminds me that it was there that Lillian first said “banana” – months ago it happened, but that really resonated with Ella, that Lillian made that connection between actual bananas and then said the word, flawlessly. It’s nice to see Ella’s pride in her little sister’s accomplishments. They’re now becoming my little helpers and love to bring our groceries into the house. Piece by piece, they drag the items into the front porch and from the porch it comes piece by piece into the kitchen. They spilled a clamshell of 20 apples all over the porch but the girls found each renegade apple and they all made it to the kitchen.

Once we were home, I decided to push my luck with their good moods and impeding lunch time and take them on a nature walk. It wasn’t a strenuous walk, rather we walked across the street, up my aunt and uncle’s driveway, through their yard along the lake and back up our street. Total mileage covered, approximately .01 miles. Time it took, approximately 30 minutes. We had to stop and inspect leaves, rocks and crabapples. We collected some treasures along the way in our bag for some future art. But the happy girls were falling apart and there were a few temper tantrums and both took turns needing to be scooped off the asphalt when they’d laid down and decided not to move. There is a certain level of frustration in knowing you’re trying to do something fun and somewhat educational with your children, starting out feeling like Mom of the Year and eventually you’re dragging two crabby, crying, boneless bodies down the street with a sack full of dead leaves. Don’t you realize we’re making memories, dangit!?

Surrounded by beautiful leaves and Ella would find the brown, crumbly leaves with holes in them and bring them to me to show me how beautiful they are! We did manage to get some colorful ones too, amongst our group of brown beauties.

Once everyone was fed and spirits lifted, the smallest contingent was down for a nap, Ella and I set out to make some beautiful art. I dusted off my inner preschool teacher, shaved some crayons, dug out the wax paper and plugged in my school iron. Ella artfully arranged the leaves on the paper and loved sprinkling the shavings on the paper. She was very careful and deliberate, something she usually isn’t. We’re growing! She was worried the iron would be loud (this is how often she sees an iron being used) and relieved when it wasn’t. She watched carefully as I covered her art with paper and ironed it. When I uncovered her art, she wasn’t sure what to make of what we’d just done, until I held it up to the window. Then, her face lit up and it was “beautiful!” We made two more with our remaining leaves and crayon shavings. Ella helped me hang them up and was excited to show Lillian upon waking. Lily responded with a very excited “WOW!” which meant a lot to Ella.

Lily’s First Day of School

2011-10-11T09:44:00.001-05:00

Lily missed her first official day of school, and the second week too. But the third week was a charm and she officially had her first day of school! We’re in the same class as her buddy Andrew and we have the same teacher that Ella had at that age. Lily was very excited to be back, now with even more climbing skills and faster than ever!

Last day of Lily’s summer, first day of school!

This is the first class I’ve taken with her in which we separate. She’s an old hand at this, between church nursery and MOPS. I was very proud of her, she’s one of the only little ones who isn’t having separation anxiety when we got to our parenting classes. As with anything, that could change, but we’ll savor it while we can. Of course, it’s a little depressing that she doesn’t seem to care or notice when I leave, the welcome back I get is well worth it and proves to me that while she’s okay with me leaving, she’s even happier when I return. I love seeing her little smiling face run across the room while she screams, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”

Of course, as with the beginning of the school year, we all got the third week of school cold. Lily was hit the hardest. It was a little odd to see Miss Spunk with a little less pep in her step. She’s rebounding now.

A Bus! Ride it?

2011-10-10T22:05:00.001-05:00

After our travels, Ella got to embark on her own big adventure. This adventure was completely hers, without us. As far as she knew. Ella went on her first school bus ride. This year, Ella will continue her Special Ed services but in the afternoon. Now the bus picks her up and drops her off at home! It’s thrilling for both of us. She’s been eagerly anticipating this bus ride for weeks. Every single day she would ask me if she could ride the bus. Suddenly, it was the day before her first ride and we still didn’t know the bus numbers, or when the bus would be picking up or dropping her off. I was on the phone with the bus office and they said they’d call me back. Then it’s 4:30 and I still hadn’t heard anything. I left a somewhat frantic message with her Special Ed teacher/case manager and finally after 5, we got the call and then needed a second call because she gets picked up at two different places. I felt a little pushy, but I had to tell myself that I was just being an advocate for my child. It must be generally difficult for Minnesotans to be advocates for their special needs children, what, with all the passive aggressiveness and all. Finally, the big day arrived and Ella met me at the top of the stairs that morning excited as can be. When I dropped her off at her Montessori school, like usual, she nearly burst into tears. “The bus! I missed the bus!” The poor girl didn’t understand that her bus ride would be after her regular day at school.

Her first bus ride was the perfect ease into the world of bussing, she eats lunch at school and then the bus picks her up and drives her across the parking lot to the school where her services are. Her first bus ride was less than a minute long. However, it was her FIRST BUS RIDE! This milestone could not go unnoted. There is a chance that I drove to the school, parked far away and snapped some photos of the first ride with my zoom lens. I have to admit, while I was a little teary watching my baby get on that big bus and then get off the big bus a few seconds later, I also felt like a creeper who should have been sitting in a van without windows, snapping photos of small children. But, I’m not a creeper. My vehicle, while large, is full of windows. And I was snapping photos of my own child. See, not creepy. Just overzealous.

Leaving one school, arriving at the other! She and one other rider made it!

The bus driver told me that Ella did not want to let go of her teacher’s hand upon getting on the bus. Once on the bus, she clutched the aid’s hand and was then worried about getting off the bus. A few hours later, I eagerly awaited the busses arrival at home. As it made its way down the street, I was bursting with excitement. Ella was unbuckled and I saw her bounding down the aisle. She stopped at the top of the stairs, turned to the driver and said loud as can be, “Bye bus!” and then turned around to look at me and yelled, “MOM! I rode the bus!” then she bounded down the stairs and waved as the bus pulled away. Day one of bussing was highly successful!

Here she comes! They didn’t lose her!

Her next ride was two days later. Excitement, excitement, excitement. This day is a little different. I pick Ella up at school, rush her home and have a half hour to get her fed, complete a bathroom trip, shoes, backpack, bus. I was ready! I had pre-made her lunch and was ready to go! Unfortunately, we were also experiencing awful wind, which had knocked out the power in that area of town. Ella’s preschool class had been finishing their day in the dark at pick up. We were in the midst of lunch and pre-bus excitement when I got the call that school was cancelled due to the power outage. Sadness.

We have completed two weeks of bussing, three total days of riding. The excitement of riding has brought a new change to our routines, in order to avoid answering the question, “A bus! Ride it?” every single day, multiple times a day, we had to devise a calendar. Last year, Ella had a pretty easy schedule and this year, every day is different, so I printed out where she goes, day by day. It hangs on a clipboard on the fridge. This has been a major positive to our days. The first morning we had it, Ella consulted it no less than a dozen times. The next day, when she was home for her lunch break before the bus came, more consultation. The addition of the calendar has made her much calmer and happier. She knows what to expect with her days. And, I used some fine 3M laminating sheets so I’m able to add words and drawings with a dry erase marker when we have additions to our schedule – like PUNKINMANIA! (more on that later). Yes, I’m patting my own back. Every once in awhile, I do feel like Mom of the Year. Most of the time, the girls do something to put me in my place, like vomit down my back, so I take the victories when I can.

So, truth be told, this first bus ride was really hard on me. There was a certain level of fear in knowing that my baby. My THREE year old baby was getting on a big bus. I was nervous that they wouldn’t know who she was. I know that’s a little irrational and I personally filled out all of the forms that go with her on the bus, so I knew they wouldn’t lose her, but the mommy part of my brain couldn’t get that. To top it off, she’s only three and doesn’t know her address (does know her street!) and most of the time, has been introducing herself as Sam (another child in her class). So, I’m not entirely confident she could get back home if left to her own devices. I did make sure her name and address were tucked in her backpack. Logic and motherhood don’t always flow together. Did I need to cry as much as I did? No. Did that stop me? No. Did it help that everywhere I went that morning while she was at Montessori, I kept seeing the bus that was going to pick her up and take her on her first ride? NO! It’s like when you buy a Honda Accord and suddenly you notice that everyone seems to be driving a Honda Accord. For me, it was bus 58. That bus is all over the place!

Yeehaw?

2011-10-09T22:45:00.000-05:00

This girl loves horses and riding. Or at least, deep down behind that facade of hating life she does...I personally like the smiles she forces for the camera. Yet, she talks about this ride all the time like it was the greatest thing she's experienced. Go figure.

Breezy Point Living

2011-10-06T16:08:00.001-05:00

When I was a young girl, my parents purchased a time share week at Breezy Point resort in Northern Minnesota. Or, “Up North” as we Minnesotans call it. A non-descript location that everyone understands the meaning of. Cabins, lake, trees, loons, deer, fishing, golf, etc. Almost every fall, in the third week of September to be exact, my family would pack up whichever vehicle we were currently putting through the paces at that life stage: Omni, Datsun, Cutlass Ciera, Voyager mini van…and we’d venture north for our week of gazing at colors, golf, swimming, hot tubing, going to cute little towns for shopping, boating (mostly with disastrous results), trips to Itasca, etc. I have tons of memories at this place and despite only spending one week a year there, it feels very comforting to me. My parents have been trading their week quite a bit in the last decade so our Breezy trips have been far and few between.

We went back the year Loran and I started dating. I was so excited to show him “my Breezy” on his first trip back to Minnesota after his move. Granted, my parents wouldn’t even let us share the pull-out couch. I had to sleep on the living room floor, he got the couch bed and my sister and her BFF got an entire bedroom. Our second trip to Breezy was five years ago. We went up for a long weekend, there was no Ella and Chelsey was off at her first year of college. This year, we made our triumphant return. Loran and I shared our bedroom with our children! CHILDREN. Last time, no child. Singular. This time children, as in more than one! That was weird. A room I used to share with my baby sister in a pack and play and later in bed with me, was now inhabited by my own child in a pack and play, another on the floor and my husband in bed with me. It’s somewhat magical to share a place of your childhood with your own children.

We left Tuesday afternoon after Ella’s school day and arrived in the evening. My parents and grandparents were there and when you add two little Gutt girls to the mix, things get louder and more exciting immediately. We got everyone settled, unpacked, fed and burned some energy, bedtime went smoothly, despite being a new place, and we all slept well. Wednesday was a grey, rainy day. Loran had to run to town to pick up his toiletries because someone who shall remain nameless ~~Lillian~~ moved/hid his toiletry bag while we were packing the car. We had a nice day of playing, Loran and I took a walk, but by dinner, we could tell Ella was feeling a little off. She lacked the sparkle in her eye and she just wasn’t herself. Lily was thankfully, plenty herself with sparkle to spare. Eventually, as all good Ella stories go, there was vomit. I was holding her when it happened, but most of it went over my shoulder and onto the coffee table for maximum splatter. The room cleared, people were gagging and my mom the nurse and grandpa with a stomach of steel stepped up. I cleaned up and comforted Ella, who wasn’t entirely sure of what had just happened. Once again, she told me her mouth dripped. We got everyone situated, changed, cleaned and content. Ella seemed happier and started eating crackers and juice. But, she then lost that loving feeling and heaved all over again. Luckily, that would be the last of the night and she had a great sleep overnight.

The next morning, she was still a little sluggish, but had a little more pep in her step. Enough that she found it funny to mimic throwing up in a bowl for practice. Her dripping bowl, as she called it. We figured she should get out of the house so we signed her up for arts and crafts hour at the rec center. Ella was the only participant and we she chose a birdhouse to paint. The birdhouse painting must have had some healing qualities because we dragged her nearly lifeless body in there and we left with a jumping, giggling, vivacious girl. It was fun to watch Ella paint. Little tongue sticking out and with additional strokes, under her breath, she’d exclaim, “Oh! That’s beautiful!” I only wish we could bottle/pause the love of self-creation and not become bitter towards our creativity and cut our ability down. I want Ella to always see the beauty in her work…sappy aside. We took the long way back to our unit and enjoyed some time at the park before lunch and nap time. After nap, we took a drive to the nearby town of Nisswa – the greatest, cutest little town with some crazy kitschy stores and turtle races in the summer! Best part, hands-down, is the coin operated horse in front of the Totem Pole. Ten cents a ride for nearly a minute of fun! Wouldn’t you know, we used all of our dimes for tolls in Chicago. We found one and Ella got to ride. She wasn’t so sure of this, but warmed up, we walked around town a bit and stopped at the horse for some sitting fun because we were out of coins when a woman gave us two dimes. In turn, we gave her a quarter but I still feel some guilt for earlier pointing out to Loran the fine, fine mullet her preschooler was sporting. Karma… After dinner, we all went swimming and there was quite a bit of splashing and fun, the girls loved it and grandma got thoroughly splashed!

When Loran and I were dating, we took a photo on a certain rock and we’ve retaken it every time we’ve gone back. This attempt was less than successful…but still cute!

Riding “Bullseye”

Lillian was very stealthily trying to crawl onto this paddleboat, so coy…

Friday we’d originally planned to go to Itasca, but later decided the six total hours in the car probably wasn’t worth the excitement of seeing Minnesota’s tallest white pine or crossing the Mississippi on stepping stones – at least for the girls. We’ll go when they can appreciate being able to long jump the river. Instead, we went to the Northland Arboretum. Located behind a mall, movie theater and partially on a landfill…it was actually quite peaceful and beautiful. We enjoyed the trails, met a very friendly volunteer and put up with a very crabby Ella. We made a couple of stops along the way and our day later included giving Ella a nice product made by Fleet, twice. Without any luck. Sigh. My parents left for home a night early and we were left, just the four of us with an evening of fun. After dinner, we took a nice long walk. The girls picked and blew every dandelion head they could find. There should be a nice crop of yellow flowers come spring after all of the “wish wand” blowing that was done, we spent more time at the park, walked back after blowing more wish wands and peeked at some sunfish from the dock. It was then time for pajamas and a family viewing of Toy Story 3 with popcorn.

This is funny because Lily decided to walk backwards, so Loran copied her. She shuffled backwards for yards and yards…Ella had no time for such silliness.

Saturday we were up, packed and out by 9:45. We stopped in St. Cloud for lunch and then walked through campus a bit where I was able to replace my college sweatshirt that I’d spilled melted butter on and we were then on our way home. Once home, Ella found this quite comforting and was back to being regular minutes after arriving home. Ahhh, the joys of parenthood. Family vacations are nothing like what you picture they’ll be like before you have your own family. Suddenly, you come to realize why your mom was so psychotic leading up to family vacations and the term “vacation” should really be thrown completely out the window. Can’t say I find it incredibly relaxing to have two episodes of vomit, two child enemas and everything that goes along with that. And, despite the lack of Lily stories, she was there. She did run into the table edge with her forehead, she did enjoy the park and swimming, but she was just her normal, spunky self. And for that, we’re thankful!

When I was young, I spent a lot of time at the Marina. The guy who worked in the shack here used to let me help him scoop bait and fuel boats, I took my job very seriously at the Marina!

Second attempt at the rock photo!

Chicago and Chelsey

2011-10-03T11:03:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago, Loran happened to have a meeting in Chicago. It just so happens that my sister, the beloved Aunt Chelsey had just moved to Chicago to begin grad school. While Loran could have jet-setted his way to Chicago via MSP, probably been bumped up to first class with his status and enjoyed all of the perks that affords for the 45 minute flight, he instead suggested we take a family road trip!

We rented a car, borrowed a DVD player, packed the car and set off for the windy city. Despite various map programs saying it would take us 6.5 hours to get there, it did not take us 6.5 hours. It was, however, the first road trip we’ve taken with Ella in underwear, so there were extra stops – and no troubles. And only as we approached our dinner destination where we’d agreed to meet Chelsey did our tire pressure light come on. Despite the long drive, the girls did great with their movies, snacks and potty breaks.

We had dinner with Chelsey at Red Robin, while being known for their child-friendly atmosphere, didn’t have changing tables in the restroom. Fail. Did have good food and a television inlaid in the floor which Lillian had to do somersaults on. The tire needed a few stops for air and we were running short on toll money. We had a God moment when approaching an unmanned toll booth and we didn’t have 50c when I felt I needed to move some brochures around under the coin tray where we’d put all of our allotted toll money. Lo and behold, in the dark, with the tire light on and two sleepy children, there were two shiny quarters. We were able to get to our hotel and get everyone settled quite easily. Bedtime was a breeze and a good night was had by all.

Loran refilled the tire and was off to his meetings. Once he returned, we packed up and headed toward O’Hare to fix our car situation. Turns out, there was a big old nail in the tire. Thankfully, the tire didn’t blow out while we were on the freeway in the middle of Wisconsin, surrounded by big trucks. Once the new car was secured, we were on our way to our new hotel and to see Chelsey’s new digs. The girls loved her apartment. Upon entering, Ella stood on the landing and exclaimed, “Wow, it’s beautiful!” Awhile later, after the girls had rearranged her decor, we were on our way into Chicago proper for dinner with some old friends.

Dinner was fun, low key and a great time to catch up with friends we’d met during our time in Connecticut. The girls were slightly/very afraid of their adorable small dogs. But eventually, everyone warmed up to one another. We did have to end the night when bedtimes became increasingly evident in the behavior of our little ones.

The next morning, we took Chelsey out for breakfast. The girls had M&M pancakes, which seems like a brilliant idea for little people who need extra calories. Only then you realize that while M&Ms don’t melt in your hand, but DO melt on hot pancakes – and your children are now covered in techno-colored, chocolaty goodness and trying to paw you - perhaps it wasn’t the best choice. After breakfast, we toured Chelsey’s new campus, which was gorgeous and had her back in time for delivery of her new couch. By in time, I mean we had her back in time for the annoying delivery window, which usually means your delivery will come at the end if not after the delivery window. Chelsey and I waited for the couch and chatted while Loran brought the girls to the nearby children’s museum.

Chelsey at Midwestern

I might need a giant life-size light bright!

Loran and the girls explore the Children’s Museum, meanwhile, back at the ranch, Chelsey starts decorating after her couch arrives!

The couch came, we decorated. Loran and the girls came back with lunch fixin’s, we feasted. The girls wrestled and got crazy and once the energy was expelled, we got ready to set out on our journey back home. I caught Ella crouched in Chelsey’s room, talking to two decorative animals that Chelsey has saying, “Bye guys! I will see you later, I have to go home now.” It was stinking adorable.

We made a stop in Muskego, WI outside of Milwaukee to visit Loran’s boyhood home. It was so fun to see and see what I can only assume was a lot of change given the new construction all over. We stopped at his old neighbor’s house and walked with them past Loran’s old house. It was fun to see the girls playing in the cul-de-sac where he once played with his brother and buddies. The visit didn’t last too long, we had progress to make towards home and the setting sun. A brief Arby’s/pajama stop and we powered through, arriving home right around midnight. All tires intact. It was a short, whirlwind visit, but fun nonetheless!

Feed My Starving Children

2011-09-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I had a birthday. I celebrated 32 rides around the sun – a personal record for me! For months, I’ve known what I’d wanted to do for my birthday and Loran made it happen. I’d had it on my heart that I really wanted to have my birthday party at Feed My Starving Children. And while the name seems somewhat bleak, their mission is amazing. I’d first participated in a food packing event through our church when Lillian was one week old. It really struck a chord with me and I’ve wanted to do it again. Loran organized a group to go and I was joined by fabulous friends and family and a few other groups who were eager to pack meals.

Basically, your group forms an assembly line with everyone having a job. Together you work to fill bags with measured quantities of chicken, veggies, soy and rice. The bags are weighed and sealed and boxed up. The boxes are then shipped around the globe to help feed starving and malnourished children. Some are close to death and within weeks of receiving this vitamin packed, specially formulated food ,are brought back from the brink with amazing results. Amazingly, FMSC has an amazing delivery success rate, having only lost two shipments in 20 years. Astonishing really, considering they are delivering food to some hard to reach areas in Africa, Haiti and recently Somali. Each box receives a prayer before it is shipped off – the best shipping insurance out there.

In the hour and a half of packing, our group alone packaged 17 boxes. Each box contains 36 meal pouches and each pouch feeds six. That’s 3,672 meals. As a whole, the entire shift packed up 115 boxes! Even better, that is enough to feed 69 children for an entire year! That’s a birthday I can be proud of. Thanks to everyone who came, packed, hauled boxes, donated and everyone who couldn’t come but still donated money. Shockingly, our grocery bill for the session was $5961.61. Every donation counts.

At the end of the session, our numbers were broken down, we were able to sample the prepared food (it’s quite good) and unbeknownst to me, they had the people who were there celebrating birthdays come up and introduce themselves along with what birthday they were celebrating. So there were three of us total. A ten year old girl, and eight year old girl and a 32 year old girl! It was the perfect mix of humbling/embarrassing. I was even in my party dress, because I always like to spiff myself up for my birthday celebration and I like to show the world that I can feed over 3,000 children while wearing a dress. Superwoman.

Afterwards, in an almost awkward juxtaposition when you consider what we’d just been doing, we all went out for Mexican food. We had great conversation, giant cervesa, and a very confused server.

Seriously, a great birthday!

Any party involving hairnets, is awesome.

Rites of Passage

2011-09-26T13:33:00.001-05:00

Very early in the school year, Ella was able to experience one of her rites of passage at her school. She took home the “take home folder” for the first time. Last year, we never saw a take home folder. She was busy as a bee in the classroom, but didn’t have any work to bring home. However, not a few days into the new year and out she bounded from the door with the biggest smile on her face. It was actually my birthday, and quite possibly one of the best gifts was seeing the look of accomplishment to be holding that plastic folder containing her project. Ella had made a rubbing and was so excited to show off her art to Loran and I. Additionally, Lily and I were fresh from a run to Target where I’d purchased a Toy Story Jessie doll (for my birthday – combined with Woody, the girls are highly entertained and happy, so really, it is for me) and had the doll waiting in Ella’s car seat for her. I glanced in the rearview mirror on the ride home to see her hugging the folder in one arm and Jessie in the other and the goofiest, happiest, most content grin I’ve ever seen on her face. It was great!

Love Unconditionally

2011-09-13T19:52:00.000-05:00

For as much as I write about Lily being a little stinker/troublemaker/handful, she has a quality that I wish everyone could learn. Lillian is a lover. And she is persistent. Put those two qualities together and watch out world – especially Ella! Lily loves Ella to pieces. And she shows it, constantly. Despite how Ella treats her, she doesn’t give up. Her heart is huge and she’s willing to go the extra mile to please Ella.

Ella has lived a life without Lily, but Lily does not know a life without Ella. These two complexities show. Ella loves playing with Lily, but doesn’t always want to share with her, or play with her for that matter. They love laughing together, but Ella’s more sensitive to Lily’s sense of humor. She doesn’t find all of Lily’s joking around or physical humor funny. Sometimes there is fighting that escalates into both girls swinging at one another, with shrieks and tears and a little, red-faced, fired-up Lillian. But, that is a rarity.

Lily will often reach to Ella’s hand to hold it. Ella usually looks at her like she’s crazy, but when Ella finally reciprocates, you can see Lillian’s heart soar through the roof. If I give Lily two of anything: cookie, crackers, pieces of cheese, she will immediately stop and find Ella to give her one, unprompted. She tries to help Ella put her shoes on. Carries her backpack and lunch bag for her. Busses Ella’s dishes to the sink. Ella doesn’t expect or ask for any of this from Lily. I could go on and on how Lillian shows Ella grace daily. Lillian even wants so badly to share her toothbrush with Ella. Sometimes Ella will actually trade with her…and we have to remind her that she doesn’t have to share everything…

I love Lily’s spirit towards Ella. She loves when it’s difficult. She persists despite having her loving gestures turned away. When her feelings are hurt, she takes a moment to regroup, and she’s back in the game with a smile and big heart. I wish we could all find it in our hearts to treat everyone that way. Love the unlovable, those who challenge us, those who need love but don’t show it. Because even if you aren’t successful at every attempt, you may find that one day, that difficult person will reciprocate and metaphorically reach for your hand. Persist. Give to others with a smile and a gracious heart, expecting nothing in return. Love unconditionally.

We grown-ups often thing we have everything all figured out. Yet, look at the world and you’ll see this isn’t the case. Perhaps we need to look down. Actually look down to the little ones in our lives. The people who we find to be so simple. They know how to live with a heart like Jesus’ own. They love unconditionally. They love when it’s hard. They are persistent and generous – in their own ways. We tend to overlook them, see ourselves as superior to them (we can use the bathroom on our own, after all), but when it call comes down to it, don’t we all wish we could fall asleep at night, cozy, loved and without a care in the world?

Thanks for helping me see love in a new light, Lillian.

Happy 19 months.

I’m Hurt.

2011-09-13T17:18:00.001-05:00

Thursday was a little less typical than most. Loran was working from home to avoid spreading the cold that Lily has been gracious enough to share with all of us. Some of Ella’s special ed team were coming to visit shortly after lunch and Ella was on day two of mornings at school. We’re slowly getting into the swing of the school routine, and I’m trying to incorporate some new things into our days. Mostly into my routines.

After lunch, the girls had gone outside to play while I cleaned up before the meeting. The girls are drawn to these candle holders we have in the gardens, which are basically metal sticks that hold a small glass votive holder. They really like the sticks. It seems that children are born with the knowledge of how to sword fight, regardless of what you do or don’t expose them to. After breaking up a few sword fighting sessions, the girls were playing “nicely” and I was sweeping. This is where it stops being mundane.

Ella walks in the house and very calmly and sweetly comes up to me to tell me, “I’m hurt.” Sure enough, both of her hands are covered in/dripping blood. And there’s a little trail of blood through the kitchen and on the screen door. So I very calmly escort her to the kitchen and grab paper towels and start the sink running. There was blood all over, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I had an idea of the general area so I was putting pressure on her “wounds” until I could further assess the situation and see if she was missing a finger, needing stitches…when Lily walks in.

Also, totally calm, also with bloodied hands. Ahhhh!? I wasn’t sure if this was Lily’s blood or Ella’s blood on Lily’s hands. Where were they bleeding from?! I grabbed my phone and called Loran (who was upstairs), he was on a conference call, but came downstairs. When he saw the small triage unit that I’d set up in our kitchen, he threw his phone down (on speaker, and mute) and started attending to casualties while the meeting carried on, unaware of the scene unfolding – ah, technology.

Once everyone was wiped down, rinsed off and assessed, it turns out that Lily had two small cuts on her hand and Ella had one small, but deeper cut on her finger. That’s it. Neither girl cried and both only needed the smallest bandages (Nexcare) we had. And Lily, immediately started gnawing hers off. Apparently she needs one of those cones that post surgery dogs have to wear. Ella’s injury, on the other hand (no pun intended), rendered her ~~finger~~ ~~hand~~ entire arm useless. One cut on her middle finger, bandaged with care, and she walked around for the better part of the hour with her arm sticking out perpendicular to her body, playing with her toys one-handed.

I quickly cleaned up the blood-letting before our guests arrived. You know, those teachers who spend extra time and attention on the more vulnerable of our youth. Those mandated reporters. The ones who would have a hard time believing so much blood could come from such small cuts, by the way…where’s Lily? (napping) The blood was cleaned up, the boxes of bandages and gauze haphazardly strewn all over and the bloodied paper towels were picked up. I went out to investigate to see if I could find the weapon of mass destruction. Sure enough, a candle holder. Looks as though one of the girls (Lily – she’s got quite the arm) threw it against some landscaping bricks and broke it. Then I’m sure the sparkly, green glass was too enticing for small little girls who are infatuated with shiny, sparkly, jeweled things to not touch this newfound treasure. As for the lack of tears? We can only assume they realized that they weren’t supposed to be playing with these things, given the lecture they’d received not three minutes prior on NOT TOUCHING THOSE THINGS, so they possibly knew they had been naughty.

The teachers did ask why Ella was treating her arm so oddly. I explained the story and everyone laughed and I told Ella she could use her arm. And just like that, she did. All better. After the meeting, I went out with a box and packed away every candle holder, candle holder stick and anything remotely whimsical from our gardens. Someday, I’ll have pretty things. Someday…until then, neon plastic rules my world.

I didn’t take any photos of the incident, nor are the wounds even large enough to photo, but here’s a funny picture of one of the possible suspects. Pardon the fuzzy surveillance tape. She’s a quick mover.

Prime suspect #1: white female, approximately three feet tall, slender. Whispy brown hair, blue eyes. Pants sagging down, not speaking comprehendible English. Large snake tattoo on neck.

Sophomore Year of Preschool

2011-09-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

It was the night before back to school. After a long Labor Day weekend, we were tucking into some hot, homemade chili for dinner to complement the chill in the air. Lily was actually taking a bonus nap because of a cold she had woken up with so the three of us were enjoying some conversation. We were just chit-chatting when Ella, out of the blue, boldly announces, “I’m not going to college.” We both stopped, stared at her and laughed. It really was quite funny. I asked her what her plans were if she didn’t go to college, to which she calmly replied, “I’m going to a different kind of school.” Whatever Ella, just don’t expect to live in my basement when you’re 40.

Enjoying the last lazy day of summer break

The subject of back to school has actually been a touchy one with Ella. When we have talked about it, she has been adamant in telling me she was going to cry when she went back. She was extra cranky about it last night. On a typical day, I could dress Ella in a sack and she probably wouldn’t care. Last night, we set out to pick out her back to school outfit and I was showered with shouts of, “No! I don’t like it! New one!” Over and over. She was just grumpy. Luckily, Ella and Croupy McGee were in bed by 8 and not heard from until the morning…at least that we’d care to acknowledge (Lily still randomly cries at night for a minute before passing out again).

The next morning, both girls woke on their own and were happy as can be. Ella seemed excited to go to school and after many photos, we were in the car and very giddy for school. Ella eagerly waited outside for the younger friends to finish their session and was happy to walk in and see her teachers, friends and get back into the routine. Once she found her new spot for her shoes and jacket, she was off!

Because they phase-in, Ella’s first day of school was only 55 minutes. Lily and I saw this as the perfect time to run home and pack some snacks and drinks for our afterschool adventure. When we arrived home, Lily asked, “Where’s Ella?” it actually sounds like “Ah, Ehwa?” but paired with the shrugged shoulders and open hands, I knew exactly what she meant. When I told her Ella was at school, TEARS and TANTRUM. Lily laid in front of the door screaming until I finally peeled her off the floor and gave her a cup of milk and held her while I packed our snack. A couple of fruit leathers later, Lily was happy and we were off to pick up her beloved Ella.

Ella emerged from school very happy and excited about her day. She was very chatty in the car and even told me about parts of her day. This is a new thing, and I savored it!

We were then off to our annual first day of school trip to the zoo. I’ve found it’s quite possibly the best day of the year to go. You have the whole place to yourself, the weather is usually perfect and only a few attractions are closed down for the season. This year, more seemed to be open because we were able to get some lunch, pose by some statues and see a few more animals than prior years. In fact, the animals were more active rather than their typical heat induced coma. A good time was had by all.

Both girls fell asleep on the way home and Lily, thankfully, transferred to her crib (pack and play – I’m actually painting her crib white) and napped a couple more hours. Ella cozied onto the couch for quiet time with a Veggie Tales movie with a giant smile on her face. Life is good when you’re an Ella. I think Ella is back to enjoying school, and possibly higher education. Only time will tell.

Sayonara Summer

2011-09-07T08:51:00.000-05:00

I’m not going to lie, we had a great summer. Hot, sweaty, full of action and just the right amount of rainy days. We loved it. On Thursday, September 1st, we hit 90 for probably the last time of the year. And we said goodbye to summer the best way we knew how…sprinkler!

Despite the warm, humid day…there are some signs that autumn is closing in.

And yes, we did go to the post office earlier in the day, and that is a Priority Mail sticker on Ella. Very coveted, I might add, and very stuck to her dress.