Duncan has a stupid human trick

Duncan's new thing is to put the binki in his mouth. No... not just the nipple, he's been doing that for a while, the WHOLE thing. I am not sure if it's a food thing (get in my belly!) or if it's because he can talk with it in, or if he just wants to chew on it. Regardless, he does it all the time now. It looks like he has some sort of dental apparatus in!

We went up to Midway last weekend for a little vacation. Matthew got a couple of rooms at the Zermott on a discount from his work. It was very nice actually. I say that now that I have recovered from the sleep deprevation. We just stayed up late to play games. And you know, kids just sleep oh-so-well away from home.

Duncan got his first haircut on Sunday courtesy of Aunt Jill. It looks so much better! I swear you don't know how bad it is until it's fixed. It was hanging over his collar, looking a little Friar Tuck, and he had this circle patch that was long and thick. It would stick straight up on the top of his head. He did very well during the cut, course she's very fast, but I am sure Ami's homemade ice cream helped a bit too!

Matthew leaves to go globe trotting for two weeks on Sunday! Ack!


Seriously, look at this outfit!


Almost every night I have to convince Matthew that she needs to be put in bed! This is why!


Big eyes!


Big smile!


One of our many pictures of Duncan's stupid human trick!

Meanwhile, this video thing is kind of fun,so here are a few more...




I love her look at this end of this, she kind of looks away like "you're so silly!"

Baby's got a new pair of shoes!

Dylan has such tiny feet that we only have two pair of shoes that fit her, one pair of white sandals and another off-white fancy satin ballerina slipper. Nothing practical. Melissa was off shopping and she found some pink satin preemie shoes that actually kind of fit! The elastic will at least hug them on and they will match a lot of things, besides, Aunt Kristen keeps saying, a girl's got to have options!

The ugly booties and a surprise gift

Duncan didn't sleep very well last night and I am blaming that tooth that I didn't want in the first place! He woke up around 12 or so and Matthew had him until like 2:30 in the morning. He just didn't want to be put down. I don't think it's ears or sinus because I have been poking and prodding with no tears but I guess we will see how tonight goes. Cross your fingers for us!

When the babies were born my mom bought them booties. When she gave them to us she didn't expect them to ever wear them because apparently they were much cuter online then they were when they arrived. It's been a while but Duncan is finally almost fitting into his so I slipped them on. They are surprising cute! Pictures below to prove it! Dylan will fit into hers next winter!

Also this morning there was a surprise knock at the door, I looked and saw the mailman driving away. Medical supplies? Noo... Summons? Noo... Both a possibility (just kidding... kinda...) There was a box, from Wyoming! Not addressed to me, it was for Dylan and Duncan but since they can't read I thought I would open it myself. There were two of the cutest homemade bears from Aunt Nancy and Uncle Pat. There are so soft! When I showed them to the babies, Dylan just kept reaching out and touching hers. She's really into soft things right now, blankets and such so they are perfect!


This picture makes our house look like some sort of Toy Land, it's understandable that Charlotte likes us!



In case you needed a close-up of this adorable face.

Maybe next year...



They are both posing!

And she leans in for a kiss.

This is what we were doing when the door bell rang, this is what we are usually doing...

Dylan thinks Duncan is sooooo funny. He just reached out to touch her hand and she smiled BIG.

Just another day

Duncan has another tooth! I found it this morning! I thought he was doing just fine with the one tooth that he had. He managed to bite off just enough Cheeto at a time to eat. (He can thank the Aunts for that yummy introduction!) He also has figured out how to drink out of a straw, we usually don't get fountain drinks here unless we go out to eat but I was able to teach him with a Capri Sun and then I put a straw in a Gatorade and he did it. I can't say that we should hand him any RED drinks with a straw at this time but clear liquids will come out of the front of the shirt nicely.

Dylan is doing great, like nothing ever happened. She's off of all of the pain medicine today and is just her normal happy self. We just wait for those nasty stitches to dissolve and then follow up with the doctor at the Spina Bifida clinic in a couple of weeks. Hopefully we can sneak into the plastic surgeon on that day too to schedule her Cranioplasty. It looks like that will be in 6-8 weeks.

Shannon, Tracy and Charlotte came over on Saturday night to hang out. Charlotte likes our house because it's plum full of toys for around her age and they are all brand new to her! She just pulls them out of the basket one at a time and we just throw them back in at the end of the night. She loves this bouncer that we got from Shane and Traci because it has sides, so the just climbs right in and jumps and jumps. Those things are suprisingly stable! She's a minute over 17 pounds but walking around everywhere. Yes, that means that Duncan's a bit bigger then her, but about the same height. It's pretty cute.

For some reason all the pictures I took that night are fuzzy... boo... but here are a few anyway!





This was right before the tackle, Charlotte went in for a love and they both went crashing down, no tears though!


Also - I posted a cute (but dark) video of Matthew playing with Dylan on Youtube. He has his PJs on, but it's super fun.

She's doing great!

She was so happy to see us this morning she greeted me with a huge smile and then turned to Matthew with the same greeting. It was fabulous!

They took her off the big time pain medicine and pulled out the IV which was starting to go bad anyway. Right now she is getting the lower dose of Lortab and Motrin and she seems to be doing well. Of course, she has a really high pain tolerance so I certainly hope she's just not messing with us.

We also know she's back to herself because when she was doped up she actually ate, and now she's back to only taking a little bit. Little stinker!

Jessica and Steve came up to see us yesterday and brought up a really soft big Care Bear they has little sparkles in it's eyes and a silver plated nose and bum heart. Jessica's goal is that Dylan associate hospitals with gifts and not pain so she's spoiling her a little. We can't complain about that!

We also have met with a few other people that kids also have some challenges that I have met through volunteering at the NICU or through other Birth Defect places which was kind of nice actually. One woman's son just happened to actually be sick in the hospital and the other just had an appointment at Primary's so they came to visit.

She's untethered!

She is doing as well as can be expected I guess. You can tell she is in a lot of pain and then she has that hoarse voice from the intubation, I hate that! She's whining quite a bit too but they have her on some heavy meds today so as long as we all can hang in there!

The surgery went well, no suprises. Some nerves went through the sacral mass which almost went to the cord but not quite(that's good!). They cut around the nerves so they think all will be okay but we will see what damage has already been done. Also the scaring was below the cord so the hope is that it won't re-attach like they do sometimes.

Anyway, thanks again for the thoughts and prayers, thank goodness this surgery is over! Just makes me dread that cranioplasty even more though.

Surgery day tomorrow!

The Anderson family is coming over tonight to give her a pre-surgery blessing so that will be nice.

She is the first surgery tomorrow, she should go in around 8:30 or so. It's a three hour surgery so we won't know much until she's out. I will try to update this when I am home!

Lots of pictures

We had so much fun with little Abbi at our house! Course, I don't think I could have done it without Beth here to help me. Riding herd on three babies, and two aren't quite mobile! We went swimming on Thursday at Kristen's and Abbi had so much fun playing in the water, she was just floating around loving every minute of it. When we got her out and dressed we filled a sippy with milk and I had her sit in Duncan's car seat and she passed out! She was exhausted so I put her in the car in her car seat and met Shane to drop her off so she didn't have to wake up to get out. We unhooked it from my car, hooked it in his and he was off!

On Friday we walked down to the pond to feed the ducks and Abbi was more interested in the bread then the ducks! So a bite for the ducks and a bite for Abbi, a bite for the ducks... It was fun though. They ducks get to within a foot of you for food and there are like 50 of them so every once and a while I would have to call Mushi out from behind the stroller and they would waddle away for a minute. I think they have those "Don't feed the ducks" signs everywhere because they are afraid of people losing a finger, or a hand, or a small child... I am telling you, they were aggressive.

Dylan slept through both days which prompted Beth to say "Poor Dylan, she misses all of the activities..." Which was cute of her to say. She really does miss the action, not sure why, she'd just rather dream then loose a finger I guess.

My mom sat for us last night when we went to Tepenyaki for Suzie's graduation dinner. That was fun for us, not so fun for her when Duncan wouldn't go to bed. Boy was he tired for us when we got home though. It wasn't very busy, probably because people were watching the Olympic opening ceremony? We don't know... it was nice. There were 17 of us so we had two tables next to each other.

Tonight we ran over to the NICU reunion and saw our favorite nurse Patty which was so exciting! Finally we got to see her again. We kept trying to plan lunch but it wasn't so easy with two tiny ones. Now that the babies are older we need to set something up. She was so great! And I am not just saying that because she reads this blog (shout out to Patty! *wave*). . I think Dylan even remembers her because (once she woke up...) she greeted Patty with a huge bug catcher. I can't wait to go to dinner or something to catch up.

The reunion was more fun then we thought it was going to be (is that bad to say?) We actually saw some parents we knew with babies in there at the same time. I wish we had more time to mingle but I saw most of the people that we wanted to. I had to send the family home and work the fish pond for an hour which was fun, and crazy... it was like a kid's carnival.

We also saw Dylan's Physical Therapist who decided to gallivant around France and Spain for a couple of weeks. We are used to seeing her weekly but she has this month off because of her trip and Dylan's surgery.

Anyway... Fun fun... More fun then surgery week next week! Boo! Stay tuned I will update here with any new news!


Missing the action...

All dressed up for the reunion... her toenails were purple too!

This was a purple binky but I changed it to blue in PhotoShop so Aunt Ami wouldn't call him a sissy!

He reads!

Excuuuuse me? Quiet please!

Boo!

Visitors today

We had visitors today! The Nelsons came to visit us and brought Duncan and I a slurpee! We would have shared with Dylan but she's just plum not interested. I am sure some day she will have the love for the banana/coke slurpee but it's just not yet. They also brought some yummy cookies that I just shouldn't have in the house. I swear, I have no self control... I ate a few, then a few more and am just taking a small break until after dinner. They are oatmeal, does that count?

Yesterday I cooked up some zucchini bread which turned out very well if I do say so myself. The girls all seemed to agree today. Of course, I did sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon on the slather of butter, that little combo will make any thing taste great!

Darn it, I should have taken some pictures too! Bummer!

Pictures

Yesterday we went out to a photographer's house to have the Anderson family picture taken. That was interesting for sure... Two babies, during nap time and/or food time, not at home = cry faces. So we will see how everything turns out. The group picture was done an hour later then expected (see, it's not just my dear husband who runs late people! It's genetic!) so Duncan was throwing a fit during it. It's a good thing that I have mad PhotoShop skills because I think I will have to use them. Turn that frown upside down! Oh well!

We wouldn't normally do that on a Sunday but there are now... 37 people (I think?) and that's the only day that many people can get together so this photographer spent half his day with us. From what I hear he is actually going to just hand LouAnn the disk so we can get them printed where ever we want... suweeet. That will be so much less money then having them printed through a studio! Hello Costco 50 cent 5x7s! Not all that small though, for a family that big you have to get a huge one like the one we have in our entry way or else you can't see any one's faces!

For my little family Duncan was just fascinated with Dylan, he just kept looking at her so Dave tried as hard as he could to get him to look up but in the end I heard his wife say that they only got like 3 good ones. Oh well, I guess you can't expect much with kids that young. Hopefully they will be half decent though. I am sure they will be fine but I still thank goodness it will be another several years before the next family photo adventure! Seriously sisters, get pregnant so we have more excuses not to go!

After the pictures we went up to the cabin and were there until 6-ish? Dylan finally passed out but Duncan was just slap happy tired. He slept all night without a peep (which is great, we got a little out of the habit with the new tooth and sinus infection!) and they are both sleeping right now which is allowing me to cook some yummy zucchini bread and catch up on laundry.

Matthew's going out of town again tomorrow, I guess it's back to New York? just for two days though but still boo! I am just kind of dreading his September trip to London and India that's coming up so I think I can handle these short two day-ers! in September the kids and I will just spend all day in jammies, from jammies to jammies!

He is off all week next week for Dylan's surgery though so that will be nice. One of us can always be at the hospital with her. I just can't help thinking that that poor little girl doesn't even know what's coming. Bah!

I have Abbi Thursday and Friday so I am looking forward to that fun business! Beth's going to be here on Thursday and on Friday I think we can come up with some fun adventure to keep things moving.

Oh, I hear a happy but awake baby!