Nina’s Symmetry

As we mentioned elsewhere, there is a three step process to checking out Nina’s neck issues, and one of them involves checking to make sure she doesn’t have any skull issues. We’d noted that she has a flat spot, so this was important to us as well. It is pretty simple the way this happens… weak neck makes it so that her head is comfortable in one position. Despite our best efforts (when we figured out what was up) her skull, like any others in that situation, developed a flat spot.

So. We went to a… uh… skullologist… Melissa will have to help me remember what the real name is, but upon measuring of her skull, they determined that she was one of those “maaaaybe??” situations. To clarify, we have our choice, she can have a helmet now, or we wait a month and see how she does on her own. We decided on the latter, as she has been doing better and better with both her neck (to the point that when we get done with this three step process, I think her neck will no longer be an issue, just her skull) AND her skull, and the opportunities to lay her on her belly or her side, or sit her up have become much more plentiful. So we’ll give her a month and if she gets better on her own, we should be all set. If not? Helmet for 3 months.

(Wow, this is poorly written… I’ll need to fix this up later.)

Quotable Ian

About a month ago:
“I press the popcorn button the buh-mote.” (The remote has a button with a DVD and popcorn on it for “play DVD.” He knows his way around on the remote enough to start a movie, and to start the next episode of Dora.)

Ian’s three, and I realize that’s young, but I guess I’ve still been using this phrase regularly enough with him that he shot it back at me last week: “How many times I hafta tell you?”

I threw something across the room and Ian used a raspy voice to say “Now you’ll NEVER find it!!!” (This is a line from “Swiper the Fox” on Dora the Explorer.)

I’ve also got a fun little quote he said when he woke up this May 25th, but it basically isn’t suitable for a family blog. Well, alright if you’re still reading then you must not care, here’s a clue: Suffice to say some of his plumbing wasn’t being cooperative in the aiming department due to a gravity-defying issue. “It won’t go down!”

Here’s another one that might be considered less family-friendly. File this under “he meant what he said.” Melissa walked around the corner to find Ian holding on to his diaper. “I went poop.” She checked him out, he was fine, and clean. Off to daycare he went. A couple hours later my co-worker and friend Brandon showed up for work at the Rockford office (Melissa and I’s house) and when he went to use our facilities, he found that Ian had in fact left him a present in the potty, without flushing. I’m still incredibly proud of him for being so good about the potty. He’s been brilliant!

Nina had her 5 month cardiologist appointment on the 26th… Melissa beat me to the punch on writing down how it went, so I’m going to take advantage of her handiwork and copy/paste that update here:

Nina had her regularly scheduled cardiology appointment today. This visit included the standard EKG and check-up by the physician, but also a repeat echocardiogram to see if any progress (i.e. improvements) have been made with regards to the holes. I am so proud (and humbly thankful) to report that the two small holes in the wall separating the lower chambers of Nina’s heart have closed! This is such incredibly good news and an answer to many prayers. Praises to God! The large hole between the upper chambers remains, and unless God intervenes with a miracle it is not likely to close on its own. However, because the lower holes have closed, our cardiologist was very encouraged and said that the surgery wouldn’t need to occur until spring or summer of next year. He is also very pleased with how well Nina is gaining weight… he even commented that she’s pudgy. 🙂 Nina’s weight today was 13 pounds 14 ounces, so she is now just over twice her birth weight. Amazing. And the final piece of good news from the cardiologist is that our next appointment isn’t until October. That seems so far away and such a nice change of pace from the frequency we’ve been used to!

Other Updates
Nina is still recovering from her cold that started last week. We are almost through the 10 day antibiotic cycle and she is sleeping much better, however, she is still very congested. Nina also woke up on Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. and vomited repeatedly for two hours. I was worried that she was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, but thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case. I think she must have just swallowed so much mucus overnight that it made her sick. Once she got all the nasty stuff out of her system she seemed fine. She nursed well the rest of the day without any more throwing up and has been fine ever since. Hoping all the cold/sickness is almost out of her system.

Final Nina update is that we still haven’t heard anything regarding scheduling for her neck therapy. I’ve followed up twice, but the office is still working on the paperwork. Hopefully we’ll be able to get things moving here shortly.

Finally, I just want to say thanks again to everyone who has been following Nina’s journey on this CarePage, for all the messages and words of encouragements we have received, and especially for all of the prayers that have been lifted on behalf of our entire family. We are so blessed to have such an incredible and far-reaching support network. Thank You!

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14

For I am the Lord, who heals you. Exodus 15:26

Glorify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. Psalm 34:3

May the Fourth Be with You

Sorry about that title. Are you over it? Good.

We kept Nina out of daycare this week, her temperature hit the magic number and we had to pick her up… She seems to be doing much better now, although she’s still up crying enough to cause Mommy some sleepless nights.

Those of you keeping score on Ian’s potty progress will be pleased to note that the accidents he had on Monday and Tuesday of last week were the only two… we’ve been getting those daily sheets from daycare and the potty section has just said “He did GREAT!” three days in a row.

I’ve got a good bike follow-up video to show you someday… in it I just say “we’re pedaling, we’re pedaling… STOP!” and Ian hits the brakes on his bike. As a parent I can say that perhaps this is one of the most important things I’ve taught him so far.

And now more pics from way back on the 4th of May…

*Play it again, Ian.* See this image larger.

Nina dreams about signaling to a truck driver that he should blow his horn. See this image larger.

Yup, that’s Ian. See this image larger.

Cute bathtime pics ahead: *eeep Daddy! Let me cover up first!* See this image larger.

New favorite pic of Nina, right here. I see some Audrey Hepburn in that one. See this image larger.

Deer + headlights. See this image larger.

Did this kid just successfully use the potty again? Probably not the day this was taken… but not long afterwards. See this image larger.

May Flowers

So Ian’s accident-free streak lasted a little over a week. He woke up Monday morning in a big puddle, and Tuesday after I asked him three times if he needed to go (met with a “no!”) he suddenly said “I’m PEEING!” And I discovered I can still move pretty quickly. I won the race against my opponents “gravity” and “wicking.” But anyway, back to the topic at hand… A week of no accidents after only really being at it for a few days, I figure that’s pretty awesome! Even on those days where he has had an accident, it has been ONE accident… that means somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 successes for that day. Go kiddo!

Nina now has a cold, and has been taken to the doctor by Melissa. She already seems to be doing a little better, but we’ll see. Nothing too big to worry about yet, we’re keeping a careful eye on her.

And that’s pretty much the news, let’s see some pics!

May 3rd, and Mommy has brought Nina to the dinner table so she can see what’s going on. And what is going on? Well, it turns out we’re a bunch of goofballs, more or less. See this image larger.

Melissa and I have both started noticing Nina’s appreciation for solid food. She hasn’t had any yet, but she keeps looking at it with a great deal of desire. Might be time to start her on it… soon. See this image larger.

Beauty rest! (You’ll want to click on this link to make this image big -> ) See this image larger.

April turns to May…

Here’s a quick run of photos to catch us up.

April 29th, best family in the whole wide world! See this image larger.

May 1st, tummy time! See this image larger.

Remember this old toy? See this image larger.

Nina’s toy now! (niiice shot Mommy, you folks might want to click on the link to see this one bigger.) See this image larger.

Still May 1st, Boppy time! See this image larger.

She’s already practicing her “who me?” face with the batting eyelashes. Aaaaand I’m already falling for it. See this image larger.

May 2nd, pretty much the last sticker to go on the potty chart, if not THE last sticker. See this image larger.

Loooove this picture. Truly a proud and happy boy, with good reason to feel that way. Probably the last picture taken of Ian in diapers, but who knows. Worth a closer look if you feel like clicking this link -> See this image larger.

Grin! See this image larger.

Happy smiles for five minutes… See this image larger.

…followed by “Does he EVER stop talking?” or perhaps “Ever heard of a BREATH MINT?” I dunno, you decide. See this image larger.

More to come shortly…

Did you all know that May 4th is unofficially Star Wars day? Didn’t know that? People say “May the Fourth be with you.” Sadly I’m not kidding.

Potty Training Awesomeness Continues…

Before the successes of last week, there was a turning point in Ian. I think our little man has had to watch attention get lavished over Nina… being born, getting sick and being in the hospital, the coddling of grandparents, feeding off of Mommy. I can’t be absolutely sure, but I thought I heard it on the way to daycare one morning.

Daddy – You know what happens next week kiddo, right?

Ian – No.

Daddy – Nina goes to school with you buddy. She’ll be in her own classroom, but she’ll start going to school too.

Ian – Nina goes to school with me?

Daddy -Yup she’ll be in her own class, but same school, down the hall. You know where the babies are down the hallway? That’s where she’ll be. And Mommy or Daddy will drop you both off when we go to work.

Ian – Oooo.

In that “Oooo” was this odd sound of relief mixed with understanding. I can’t possibly imitate it, but I swear I could hear “My parents aren’t shipping me away for days at a time so they can hang out with Nina after all!!!” While he’s still a challenging three year old from time to time, his attitude did seem to get a lot better once he had this understanding. It seems like those stretches where he’s an angel have gotten longer. His patience a little better.

So that week he was showing signs of an approaching milestone, but we still had no idea what the heck was going on the morning Nina officially went to daycare, when he asked for big-boy underwear. I told you about his successes that week: Wednesday 1 success, Thursday no successes, Friday two successes, Saturday success all day, Sunday 1 accident, and then, literally NO accidents since Sunday the 9th, some 4 days ago. We’ve had diapers on him at night, but he has yet to wet or soil them. He just wakes up in the morning and has to go.

On Wednesday I helped Melissa drop off the kids because I really wanted to see what everybody’s reaction would be. Last they had known he’d had two meager successes. While they weren’t as excited as I thought they’d be, Ian proved that he has what it takes by marching to the potty that very moment, and afterwards bumping Melissa out of the way and washing his hands. When Melissa picked him up that day he went potty again – he ran off over to their little porta-potty thing, he peed, emptied the bowl in the toilet, then rinsed it in the sink, and put it back. The caregiver there looked surprised about the rinsing part and said “we don’t train them to do that…” She wasn’t mad, she was wondering where Ian learned this part of the process. (I think that might be my fault, but let’s not dwell on it, the important thing is he was following a process.) After another successful day at school, Ian came home, and went potty – we hopped in Melissa’s car and had a celebratory dinner… which was followed by another activity and another… the whole time I’m wondering if Ian would make it home. He did just fine. It is now 11:30pm, and about an hour ago Ian actually got up out of bed twice, asking to go potty. Neither of these were false alarms. As the caregiver at daycare said “Night and day difference.”

I’d be ignorant to say that Ian is this amazing new child that behaves perfectly all the time. He’s not. But I’d be just as ignorant if I said I failed to see a difference in him. His smile is a little more confident. He is proud, and happy that we are proud. See this image larger.

Show ‘Em Nina!

This video was taken on the 23rd, so technically the day before Ian’s bike video. This video is much shorter and obviously contains a lot less dialog, but it is still packed with 300% of the US RDA for cuteness! So click already and behold as Nina flops from belly-to-back!

Click here to watch the video. This is a tiny 3.5MB file, so everybody should be able to click with no problems.

More pics tomorrow, I promise!

Bicycle

Melissa and I talked about it, and decided it would be ok to buy Ian his first bicycle. (The purchase, assembly and first ride all took place on April 24th.) To me this is one of my greatest treats – an honor I’m very happy to have been given. I’ve got the whole story on video at this link:

Click here to watch the video. It is about 10 MB, so fairly substantial, sorry. Turn your volume up, he’s pretty quiet at the beginning.

Looking forward to his first ride on this thing! (Although I guess I missed out on his first true experience, he rode Kaylee’s bike in Ohio over Easter while I stayed home and worked.) See this image larger.

Alright alright, we’ll go out, hang on, let me get my cameras. See this image larger.

Seems to get this part pretty well… looks like it is maybe a hair too big for him, but he’ll grow into it shortly. See this image larger.

Give us some indication if you’re enjoying this, kiddo. 😉 See this image larger.

Later in the week I took him up to the top of the hill where all home development has stopped, and smooth empty streets are only traversed by bikes and walkers. He had fun and actually got away from me a few times — we learned to brake that day, but not before he went into the grass a couple times. See this image larger.

Unbelievable

Ok so here’s a quick rundown of the scoreboard… On Wednesday we started Ian on big boy underwear per his request. He had one success that day. Thursday he had no successes. On Friday, when we picked Ian up from daycare they had good news for us — Ian had gone potty twice successfully amidst a series of accidents. Saturday Ian went seven for seven with no accidents. Sunday Ian had one accident but otherwise had a day full of success. Today has been nothing but success, and just moments ago the unbelievable part happened.

It is Monday and a practice run for me taking care of the kids alone (Melissa’s here, but mostly observing.) Well Melissa was kind enough to let me take a potty break of my own. She asked Ian if he needed to go to the bathroom, and he said yes… They went to the lower floor bathroom, and Ian began just playing with his toys. Eventually Mommy said “well, if you’re just going to play, Mommy has to go back, but if you need anything call for me.” She heard Ian talking to himself a little later and went to check up on him TO FIND HIM ALREADY ON THE POTTY, PANTS AROUND HIS ANKLES, GOING NUMBER TWO… ALL BY HIMSELF!!! So Tuesday he was in diapers and six days later he’s taking care of business solo. Unbelievable.

EDIT – Tuesday morning (the 11th) we woke up to Ian pounding on his door and saying “Mommy! Mommy I need to use the potty!” He woke up dry again! (We ARE putting him in diapers at night, but I’m guessing even those nights are numbered.)

Grandma Sue’s April 2010 Visit

On April 17th, Grandma Sue arrived at the Grand Rapids airport, met by Ian and I at the gate. It was a lovely visit that I myself still feel a little bad about, because I had to pay attention to a very important deadline, and missed out on much of Grandma Sue’s stay. In the same way that I’ve been missing out on bits and pieces of everything, really. Thus I don’t have as many pics of Grandma Sue with the kids as I would have liked, but these things happen. As you can tell, I only recently surfaced from all that work, so that lasted far beyond the deadline during her stay. Anyway, here’s a glimpse into some of the fun while she was hanging out in Rockford.

Can Nina lift her head during belly time? Well, we’ve already seen that she does alright, right? See this image larger.

And sometimes she does spectacular. (Look at this one bigger, if you can…) See this image larger.

It helps to have Coach Ian on hand. See this image larger.

She’s like “take… the flippin’… pic…ture….*gasp gasp*” See this image larger.

Somewhere along the way, Nina got attached to this little doll… it isn’t quite as much of a necessity as a zooey/pacifier but she’s got a smile for that dolly just about every time. See this image larger.

She’s still doing great on weight-gain/eating. If she looks a little pudgy here, we couldn’t be happier. See this image larger.

The sleeping beauties. Are these not the most innocent of cherubs? The answer to that is “While they’re sleeping, absolutely.” 😉 This one’s worth a closer look as well… See this image larger.

Grandma Sue talks to Uncle Chris via Xbox 360; what you see before you is how my sibling and I communicate the most these days, via game. Which is awesome! See this image larger.

Now is a great time to mention that Grandma Sue put in some serious hours with Ian and Nina. She worked very hard to give us time to do the things that have been piling up. Ian looks pretty happy about it too, doesn’t he? 🙂 See this image larger.

Grandma Sue and the grandkids. See this image larger.

Hi ladies! Thanks again for visiting Grandma Sue, and lending a hand… it was a very nice visit! See this image larger.

EDIT – I’m putting together a video or two for the next couple of entries, so there might be a day or two of delay before the next entry.

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