ian – Page 41 – Out Of Their Minds Design

All Smiles, Part I

I wouldn’t say we’re breaking into spontaneous musical numbers over here or anything, but wow is it nice to not be in the hospital or in the middle of an emergency at the moment. I’m knocking on wood. These are the smiles I mentioned earlier with Nina, and the rest of my wonderful family.

February 27th, Ian grabs one of Mommy’s fries while pretending to pose for a picture. (Not really.) See this image larger.

February 28th, Nina peeks from her car seat to say hello.See this image larger.

March 2nd, She’s as sweet as a strawberry! See this image larger.

March 3rd. This is the day I first thought I was seeing full-face smiles. See this image larger.

See, you can see it in the corners of her eyes! See this image larger.

Always good to have some pictures of people NOT looking at the camera as well, I always say. See this image larger.

Adorable! See this image larger.

Compare the “Adorable!” shot above to this “old” picture of Ian when he was very close to the same age. (Almost exact.) See this image larger.

I know, I know… cute, right? Wait’ll you see tomorrow. 🙂

Just stuff

Wanted to let you know the update on everything in general.

Nina is doing well and boy oh boy you should see her smile when she wants to. Today marks the first time I ever saw her smile go all the way up to her eyes, and it was quite a sight to see. Melissa has probably seen this before, but I have not. The smiles were the simple result of Mommy saying hi and smiling down at her.

I let Ian watch a kid’s show last night that involved showing cartoon germs. A character dropped a sandwich on the ground and then another character showed him how it was now dirty. I thought this would actually be a good thing for him to know, and this show is made for kids of all ages, but its effect on Ian was frankly horrifying. He freaked out: he cried, was scared, and asked to go to bed early, saying periodically that he did not like the “wiggly worms.” I feel like the worst parent on earth.

Seth has stopped eating food laced with the medication he is supposed to be taking, to the point that I’ve just started giving him his normal food and had to stop giving him the medication. I know this sounds like some form of abuse, but if you were ever around during the attempts to medicate him, you’d know better. It ain’t pretty. If it is a pill, it ends up on the floor. If it is a liquid it ends up on you. And as I said, if it is in his food, he apparently is fine going on a hunger strike until the situation improves.

We’ve had about three sets of people through the house, and no offers.

The Warrior Returns

Finally, February 24th rolled around, and it was time for our girls to come home.

Aboard a chariot of light, as if on a downy white cloud fashioned into a vehicle, our Valkyries did arrive, weary from their travels, but elated by their incredible gas mileage.See this image larger.

And there’s our Warrior. See this image larger.

No tubes, no medication prescribed… in fact, oddly enough, she was even cleared “to go back to daycare.” But we’re just thrilled to have everybody home. (Well, almost everybody. Seth was still at the animal hospital at this point.) See this image larger.

*You, with the dexterity and the arm strength! Lift me!*See this image larger.

*Free at last!* See this image larger.

Welcome home, ladies. Please stay a good long while. See this image larger.

The heroes welcome had been hastily gathered, only moments before their arrival! See this image larger.

But we did not leave out a Golden Star of Courage, bestowed on Ian for bravery in the face of a week mostly without Mommy. (This shot was taken in the complete dark, Melissa found him like this, clutching the string like a life-line — I bounced the flash off the ceiling so it looks like room lighting, but like I said, it was the middle of the night.) See this image larger.

Sleep well, princess. The only poking or prodding you’ll receive this night is to change a stinky diaper. And that’s the way it ought to be. See this image larger.

A special bonus for your patience, as well as for your prayers and your kind thoughts… A short video available by clicking here.

Nina vs RSV

This was one crazy chunk of time, so much so that it is hard to put into words for me. It was also crazy busy because I was doing a lot of work and things around the house while Melissa stayed at the hospital. She also found the energy to keep a “Care Page” updated throughout her stay with Nina at the Devos Children’s Hospital. Which is awesome, I’m very thankful she did this.

Here are some pictures of Nina’s 12 (I think it was 12….) day hospital stay…

February 14th, 2010 – Can you hear that? That’s the sound of hearts breaking… See this image larger.

…and a whole bunch of people praying. Thank you all for being with us.See this image larger.

Does she look like a fighter? Well, she is. See this image larger.

While I’ll say that a lot of people end up a little disappointed on Valentine’s Day, I can pretty much guarantee you that yours should get better from here on out, little one. See this image larger.

Feburary 19th 2010 — Grandma Marcia and Grampa Dave swoop in to save our sanity yet again. As you can see, by this time Nina was also on oxygen. See this image larger.

Pretty much every night, Ian, Melissa and I ate together in the hospital cafeteria. It was one of those times when you realize that this is simply the best you can do to keep the family together. It was also one of those times when you say “Hey why don’t we eat here more often?” They had a killer salad bar. Two bucks and change for an apple juice seemed a little expensive, but whatever… the important part was it worked. We had our family moment every night. See this image larger.

With a mask on, Ian could visit Nina. Our daycare was brilliant about letting us send Ian in extra days, which was very helpful — but he was also being exposed to new germs… so the mask was a necessity. See this image larger.

Speaking of daycare, I saw this in the hallway and thought it was a great shot. This was above Ian’s boots so everybody would know whose were whose. See this image larger.

Grampa Dave enjoys holding Nina, and we weren’t shy about letting him, although probably as not as much as he’d wanted to… I kept him busy helping me move stuff from our house to a storage facility. What, you don’t think we have time to sell our house on top of all this other stuff going on? Sure, why not? (All kidding aside, if I had had time to focus on anything I was going to break down… I ended up overloading myself on purpose so that I couldn’t focus on any one thing. It worked great, but so much happened that I’ve forgotten a lot of things. So if you helped us during this time of need and I forgot to say thank you, I blame it on this. And thank you. 🙂 ) See this image larger.

February 21st 2010 – I love my beautiful, beautiful family — including the little girl in the bed back there. See this image larger.

Of all the pictures we have of her, this one hurts me the most, and I’m not sure why. Part of it is the framing, and the cold hospital surroundings… and she looks small, and hooked up to far too many things. I think it might also just be that it is a daughter in her father’s arms, as normal a photo as can be — but the situation is so far away from normal. See this image larger.

What follows is everything Melissa wrote on the Care Page that I moved over here to the blog. If you kept up with her Care Page, it is going to be the exact same stuff over again. If you didn’t well, here’s all of it in one handy page. (If you’re wondering why I would do such a thing, this text is kept in a database and can be searched. It’ll be nice to be able to reference later in a search-able way.) Just click on the link below to open it up.

Iantermission

Currently:
Latest report on Nina is that she’s doing well… they’ve taken her off of oxygen, and they took her off the IV last night. So really that’s pretty awesome right there. In fact I just got a text from Melissa that says, literally “Nina doing awesome!” I can only hope that means she’s coming home soon.

I woke up this morning to the sound of the cat peeing in my laundry basket. Now I know what you’re thinking, and it may involve a cat and some goal posts, I’m not sure. But understand, Seth has been a trooper this whole time, dealing with Ian chasing him around, ANOTHER baby, and signs that we’re packing up stuff. For most cats, that’s pee-worthy right there. And while it turns out that Seth made a mess all over the house just because of his condition, where he focused his mess was in my laundry basket (mostly empty) and the basement floor. I believe that the laundry basket was actually his attempt to notify me that there is an issue. Good Kitty.

Sooooo yeah, Seth is currently at the animal hospital and they’re keeping him there overnight. They said he’s been calm. If you know Seth… that is to say, judging by the way Seth usually behaves at the animal hospital or vet, we’re pretty sure this means that there’s something seriously wrong.

Melissa came home long enough to help me with a few things around the house for Thursday’s showing, and deal with the cat situation. It was great having Melissa home, if only for a few hours.

Earlier this month:
Last entry took us through the first week in February, through pictures.

February 7th, 2010 – Ian goes grocery shopping, and ends up in dreamland. See this image larger.

February 8th, 2010 – I started boxing up some things for whenever we sell the house and move… the stuffed animals you see before you are some real classics; they used to be mine. Little Chip (the beaver that I desperately wanted to be a chipmunk, thus, it was) on the left, Pooh (a non-pooh-bear bear… this one had a music maker inside of it until what we will only refer to as “The Washing Machine Incident” – I’m looking at you, Mom. Uh huh. 😉 ) on the right. See this image larger.

Is Ian excited about the move? Well, apparently so! See this image larger.

Now is a great time to remind myself, Melissa, and grandparents – Ian would like pictures taken with his grandparents too.

January into February

Currently:
Ian has fallen asleep on the way home from the hospital absolutely every night. I’ve started getting a little smarter about it now… for example tonight I brought his toothbrush and toothpaste to the cafeteria at the hospital… because you aren’t going to brush those teeth if he falls asleep on the way home, believe you me. I also enjoy this little game that I play by handing him a couple of matchbox cars just as we’re leaving the hospital. About halfway home I hear “kathunk…. kathunk” and I know he’s out like a light.

I’ve got a couple days to work really hard on the house before the first potential buyers take a tour. So easy to get your hopes up. But if it DID sell, what would we do then? We’d have 60 days or so to try and find a house while Melissa is staying mostly at the hospital? Eeeek. It is funny, in a way it was nice to have this around as a side project to get my mind off of Nina’s state now and again… but if it actually bears fruit, well… now what?

Melissa looks like she’s doing well, and I’m very proud of her. It sounds like Nina’s doing pretty well tonight — there again I could get my hopes up, but I’ve trained myself not to. If you feel like you’re talking to a zombie when I’m on the phone it is because I’m trying not to “feel” anything.

And now set the wayback machine for the end of January…
After Nina was born I spent a whole lot of time worrying about her, praying for her… and that hasn’t let up much at all… but the images in this entry represent a time when I started finally thinking, over a month after she was born, that she was strong. And don’t get me wrong, she’s being stronger than an olympic weight-lifter over at the hospital at this very minute, I don’t mean it like that. But during late January/early February there was more of a sense confidence that I felt for her, and a sort of defiance from her. Maybe I don’t even need to say this. Look at the first picture, (and look at it as big as it’ll go…) and tell me what you see. I see “Ready now, world.”

January 26, 2010 – Somebody is ready for her next fight, and that’s good, because it is a doozy, little girl. This is my favorite picture of Nina so far by a long shot. See this image larger.

And this is probably my second-favorite. I know she’s just cutting loose with a yawn, but I automatically pretend that she’s roaring for the lion. See this image larger.

February 2-4th, 2010 – Hey, did you happen to see the most long-torsoed girl in the world? And if you did, was she cryyyyin, cryyyyyin? See this image larger.

Perhaps she’ll be a runner. See this image larger.

Perhaps she’ll be a motorcycle mama. See this image larger.

Perhaps a flamingo dancer. See this image larger.

Perhaps a fashion model. (Look at that smile!) See this image larger.

A few more from around that same time:

*Oh you can bring the camera closer than that, Daddy.* See this image larger.

*I’m ready for my close-up, bring it closer.* See this image larger.

*Closer!* See this image larger.

*TOO CLOSE.* See this image larger.

The Rest of January, Part II

Currently:
Nina’s on day 9 of her stay at the hospital. I admit things are getting a bit trickier around here. I heard Ian’s cries from the monitor last night, and ran upstairs to find him out of his bed, and sitting in a chair, rolled up in a ball. He’s getting more and more insistent that he does not want to go to daycare, the fits starting when I tell him today is a “school” day instead of during his arrival. This morning he even refused to eat his cereal bars at first — that sounds a little something like this. “No. I don’t WANNA eat cereal bars. NOM. NOM NOM NOM. NOM NOM NOM NOM.” Please include Ian in your prayers, Nina’s not the only one that needs strength to make it through this.

It is almost funny how many people have an RSV story when you explain what’s going on in your life… I went to Qdoba yesterday evening with Ian, and ended up talking to the guy behind the counter about the virus. Out of sympathy for the overall situation, he gave Ian a cookie. The man behind the counter’s son was in the hospital for 11 days. I keep hearing numbers sort of around there, but these children usually aren’t as young as Nina, or they don’t have a heart issue like Nina’s. I talked to a nurse in the elevator at the hospital and she confirmed that a great many of the kids in the children’s hospital are there for that exact reason. It’s a serious virus.

On the way to the hospital I got to experience a rare defining moment in Ian’s toddlerhood. I pointed at something outside of the car and asked Ian what the letters said. He didn’t know but could identify the letters. I started pointing out a few more things and I could see and hear him lighting up like a lightbulb. Letters and Numbers. Are. Everywhere. I said “See? On that roadsign and on each car?” and he started pointing them out… I wasn’t sure if he was just humoring me or what until I heard him say “There’s a bug and it has a W and a G!!!” He was referring to the passing sign for a place that sells buffalo “WINGS” and has a corporate logo with a winged buffalo on it. I’m not saying he learned to read before my eyes, but I think he was seeing that perhaps the reason he’s learning these shapes and sounds is because all of the various places where they are displayed are trying to communicate with him — almost like the first time he figured out that a voice on the other end of the phone is a real person.

I got to hold Nina for a bit yesterday and she was quiet and content… looked around and coughed from time to time, but otherwise seemed alright. If she could talk, it looks to me like she’d mostly be saying “Ouch” after her coughs, and that’s about it, choosing silence over straining her voice.

More on Nina’s story to come shortly, I’ll be copying/pasting Melissa’s entries from Nina’s Care Page right into this blog, with a few pictures that we’ve taken along the way.

Here’s more from January…

January 24th — Grampa Dave and Grandma Marcia show up to help us celebrate Ian’s birthday. Check out that cool gift wrapping! Almost good enough to eat! See this image larger.

Wow does she look tiny in this shot! See this image larger.

*Guess which hand has a penny in it, Grandma Marcia, go on, guess!* See this image larger.

She’s thinking about a nap. See this image larger.

First attempt at telepathically summoning Mommy’s breast milk. See this image larger.

Such cute little hands… (The penny was in this hand, Grandma.) See this image larger.

January 26th — Mommy took this shot and I love it. Watching Ian’s imagination unfold is a real treat! See this image larger.

January 28th — Nina tries to explain that every little thing is gunna be alright. See this image larger.

January 29th — Seth finds a good place to get some warmth, as does Nina, and Mommy. If you look hard enough, you’ll probably discover that Nina is feeding, so if you’re offended by that, don’t look so hard. See this image larger.

And that was January!

The Rest of January, Part I

January 19th, and the princess sleeps. See this image larger.

January 20th — Ian’s first ride in his new car seat. This one doesn’t have a 5-point restraining system, just a normal seat belt, more or less. Despite the face he’s making here, he’s very happy with it! See this image larger.

January 20th — What a cute little noggin. See this image larger.

January 21st — Our little boy turns 3. How is that even possible? We get frustrated from time to time, but Ian is still absolute magic to us. See this image larger.

January 24th — Nina, looks like a little boxer with those fists… little did we know she was going to need to be a bit of a prize-fighter in the weeks to come… but she can do it, we believe in her! See this image larger.

January 24th — Advertising on air-bags, let it be known that Ian came up with it first! See this image larger.

More soon.

Kunzes Ahoy, Part III

Don’t worry Connor, that’s pretty much her way of saying “hello!” See this image larger.

I sort of see an older married couple when I look at these pictures. Kaylee – *Oh, this is my favorite catalog.* Ian – *Oh God not this again.* See this image larger.

Kaylee – *Oh, lookit, Scooby Doo videos are on sale again!* Ian – *Videos, why is it always videos.* See this image larger.

Kaylee – *These drapes would look fabulous in the den.* Ian – *I need a drink.* See this image larger.

They had a lot of fun together, it is neat to have them so close in age. See this image larger.

Later that day (yep, this is still the 17th, Melissa Schoenborn and Levi showed up for awhile, and gave Ian a neat bug toy! Thank you! See this image larger.

Uncle D wanted a picture of a silly face, and Connor delivered! See this image larger.

And that’s pretty much it! See this image larger.

Just trying to get smiles, which is your favorite shot? See this image larger.

I think this one is mine! See this image larger.

This one worked well too! See this image larger.

This one, well, we can’t have all the pictures of them straight on, I guess, right? See this image larger.

Nina wishes her aunt a safe trip the next day… See this image larger.

Ian soberly realizes that his cousins will have to go home. We had a great time, thanks for visiting and sharing birthdays with us! See this image larger.

Kunzes Ahoy, Part III

The 17th had yet more fun in store, but the rest took place indoors. See this image larger.

We had a few birthdays to celebrate, for one thing! Check out the cool birthday cake that Connor helped make for himself and Ian! See this image larger.

And Kaylee got her own special cake, just because… See this image larger.

As in, just because she said so! (I’m kidding) See this image larger.

For about a week he kept talking about birthday cake. I can’t imagine why! See this image larger.

“Hmmmm….” See this image larger.

He’s showing us that he’s three… note two fingers on one hand, and one on the other. See this image larger.

And then tearing into the gifts! (Love this action shot… his hand is literally flinging the torn paper behind him, right at the camera.) See this image larger.

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