Kayley's Story

She is at it Again!

2012-02-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

Kayley is back to her stylist ways. The good news is she doesn't have scissors. The other day I walked into the living room to see Andy in Kayley's salon. She was combing his hair with her brush. She said he didn't need a haircut. Whew!

Meanwhile, Andy has his own styling fun with Kayley. He loves to spike her hair, which is NOT GROWING AT ALL! She usually comes downstairs after her baths looking like this:

Daddy's Little Helper??

2012-02-02T20:41:00.000-06:00

This may not be what Andy had in mind when Drew got a little carpenter toolbelt set for his bithday. Kayely fell in love with it. Yes, it has a real hammer. Yes, this is the girl that cut her own hair when she was left alone with scissors. Yes, we are aware she could do some real damage if she is out of our sight!

Winter Fun

2012-01-29T12:32:00.000-06:00

The weekend of Drew's birthday was the first time it snowed this year. We have been very lucky! Or unlucky if you ask our kids. They have been itching to get their snow gear on and play outside in the snow. It finally happened and Andy took them right out to sled and build a snowman. I think the three of them were out there for almost 1 1/2 hours. I watched from the comfort of our house, but I did go outside long enough to take a couple of pictures. :-)

Unfortunately for the snowman, the weather warmed up the next day and melted the snowman. Drew and Kayley were a little disappointed as you can imagine!

Birthday Round Two

2012-01-27T21:52:00.000-06:00

Drew has been to many birthday parties for his friends, but has never had a friend birthday party himself. We decided to let him do it this year. He had a joint birthday party with his best friend Sam who turned 5 on January 10th. The boys chose to have their birthday party at Rainbow Play Systems and they loved it! Rainbow makes the playsets for your backyard. They have a big showroom here with playsets on display and they rent the showroom out for birthday parties. Perfect for winter birthdays!

Cake

Birthday boys

Kayley enjoying cake and ice cream

Amelia came all the way from Davenport for the party!

Blurry picture of the play area

Happy Birthday, Drew!!

2012-01-17T21:12:00.000-06:00

I still can't believe my little boy is FIVE! Time needs to slow down just a little! He had a great birthday. My parents, my brother and Andy's dad all made the trip to Peoria to help him celebrate and he was thrilled they were all here. He was very excited for his Cars ice cream cake "just like JD's" as he told us over and over again! It probably is no surprise he picked Mickie's for his birthday dinner. He likes pizza, but he loves the games at that place.

January??

2012-01-14T21:27:00.000-06:00

This post was meant for a few days ago, but things have been hectic around here and I just didn't get around to it. I was going to post these pictures and remark about how the kids are having a great time playing outside on the Gator my brother bought them and that we are having great weather for January and how we haven't had any snow.

And now we are under 4+ inches of snow.

2012 Looks to be an Exciting Year

2012-01-07T17:31:00.006-06:00

If New Year's Day is any indication of what 2012 has in store for us, I am not sure I am ready for it, but I guess I have no choice. The day started off well enough. The kids got up, ate breakfast, played with toys. Just before lunch, Drew asked Andy if they could kick field goals and Andy said sure. I kind of raised my eyebrow, but didn't say anything because I was sure Andy wouldn't actually let him kick a real football in the house. Next thing I know, I hear a loud crash in the kitchen. Drew kicked a ball from our living room into the kitchen and it landed on the counter and knocked a Christmas candy dish (a very unique one I might add) onto the floor breaking it into a million pieces. Drew stopped in his tracks and looked at me. Andy did too. I looked at Andy and smiled and said something to the effect of, "I'm going to kill you." Drew heard me say that and got really upset and he told me to apologize to Andy and that it is not a nice thing to say to someone. Of course, he is right and that is not a nice thing to say, but he is 4 and didn't understand that I wasn't actually going to harm my husband (even though I may have wanted to). Next thing I know, I am "apologizing" to a laughing Andy. Andy then went to the kitchen and cleaned up the huge mess. I haven't observed any field goal kicking since.

There is rarely a dull moment in our life with Kayley. That child has been through a lot in her 3 1/2 years and in return she has put us to the test whenever she gets the chance. Her preschool teachers told me at her conference that she could benefit from practicing her cutting skills at home because she isn't grasping the concept of cutting out shapes. Santa brought her and Drew a pair of safety scissors. They spent most of the weekend sitting at the kitchen table cutting up scrap paper. She didn't want to cut out the shapes I had drawn at first and said she couldn't, but once I showed her how to do it, she caught on quickly. Later in the afternoon the kids wanted to watch a cartoon, but we had a football game on so the kids went to our room to watch the cartoon. They have done this a number of times. Usually, they lay in our bed and watch the show. Occasionally, we will hear Kayley running around our room in my heels, but that is the extent of anything they have done. Until New Year's Day.

I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready and Andy carried Kayley into the kitchen and stood by the table. She was super quiet and he kind of had a smirk on his face. I kind of glanced at them, but then went back to what I was doing. Andy then asked Kayley to tell me what she did. She didn't say anything, but she smiled. I looked up quickly and asked what she did, but I didn't notice at first. Then Drew said, "She cut her hair!" Andy started laughing and I walked over from the stove towards the table and stopped dead in my tracks. It was both funny and absolutely heartbreaking. We have been working SO long to grow her hair out and get it all even. Her hair grows so incredibly slow.

Kayley was very proud of her haircut and Andy complimented her and told her he loves her mullet. She said she was just trying to get the snarls out. Well, she succeeded. I couldn't get mad at her because it was already done, but I did calmly try to explain to her that Mommy and Kayley go to the hair salon only to get our hair cut and we don't try to do it at home. She said ok and that she won't do it again. I don't exactly believe her.

She gave herself very short bangs and took a
chunk out of the side while she was at it

Like my new bangs?

I took her to the salon earlier this week. The stylist recommended against a pixie cut because it is really hard to maintain and awkward to grow out, which is what I would want to do. She basically said there is nothing she could do about the bangs Kayley cut, but she could try to frame the rest of her face so the big chunk she cut out of the side of her hair would blend better.

At the salon

I decided to buy a headband to try to cover up the super short bangs as much as we could.

Not so bad as long as she leaves it in

Not so good when she takes it off

Merry Christmas!!

2012-01-01T22:17:00.000-06:00

The kids woke up bright and early Christmas morning and were very eager to see what Santa brought them. Drew decided to get dressed for opening presents while Kayley opted for her pjs most of the day!

Barbie sing-along toy

Tractor and wagon from Grandpa Mark

Basketball hoop

I try to start them young!

Opening her Barbie corvette

Cars bedspread!

Trying to figure out who the present is for

After the kids opened their presents we got ready for the Thiel Christmas. Andy's dad and his brother Mitch came on Christmas Eve. Matt, Kim and JD came Christmas evening. Chris, Jenny, Macie and Noah came on the 26th. We had a great time as always and the kids had a lot of fun. We got the kids a babysitter and went to Andy's bar, The Pour House, on the night of the 26th to celebrate Kim's big birthday! We had our Thiel Christmas on the 27th and everyone went home on the 28th. The kids were so sad to see their cousins leave and have asked me about 4 or 5 times when they are coming back to visit!

Here is a video of Kayley singing "Jingle Bells" (her version of it). Anytime anyone would interrupt her with "Merry Christmas" she went right back to "jingle bells" chorus.

Here is our nephew Noah playing with cousin JD's new toy and LOVING it! This is too cute!

And a few more pictures from Christmas:

The next Taylor Swift?

Macie's Barbie jet from Uncle Mitch!

Getting ready for a cousin picture

Macie, Noah and Drew are happy. JD is trying to fake happy.
Kayley is mad and really wants her hair dryer.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

2011-12-23T19:59:00.000-06:00

We have been busy doing all the things you do before Christmas. I can't believe Christmas is in just two days. Where did the month of December go?!

We took the kids to see Santa last Sunday. They decided to go up together and bring their lists with them. Drew was concerned he would forget to tell Santa everything he wanted so he wanted to bring his list with him.

Kayley didn't say anything. She just showed Santa her list!

Posing for a free picture after I declined to
pay for the official picture with Santa

The kids and I made sugar cookies today. Kayley lasted about 7 minutes, but Drew hung with me almost the entire time. He is definitely Mommy's little helper.

Hard at work

Also hard at work

He might have stuck is finger in the frosting a time or two

She hates baking as much as I do!

Or maybe she is crying because I told
her to stop eating all the cookies

And we ended the day with a gingerbread house. Neither lasted long at this activity so we rushed through it to be finished. That may be our first and last gingerbread house!

Our masterpiece!

Iowa Basketball...in Peoria

2011-12-22T16:07:00.000-06:00

The Iowa Women's Basketball team played Bradley last Saturday night so Andy and I took the kids to the game. Bradley was trying to promote the game so tickets were only $1 each and it worked because they had record attendance. I think there were more Iowa fans than Bradley fans. We do travel well! Unfortuntely, Bradley's 3 point shooters were on fire and Iowa was flat. Bradley beat Iowa. We ended up leaving shortly after the beginning of the second half. The kids were getting restless and the game wasn't that fun to watch at that point!

Christmas Program at Preschool

2011-12-20T20:05:00.000-06:00

Drew and Kayley had their Christmas programs at preschool on Friday. Overall, I think they had a great time.

Last year, Kayley cried as soon as she saw me, ran over to me and refused to take part in anything. This year, she smiled proudly and stood with her class and sang until the boy next to her touched her leg. Between songs, she told on him to her teacher for everyone to hear. Then he pushed her leg a little harder and she burst into tears and ran to her teacher and sat with her teacher for the rest of the program. Little bit of drama from that girl.

Things looked up when Santa made a visit. She went up and got her present, but didn't want to get too close. Santa brought her a princess book of stories and we have been reading it over and over and over!

Getting ready to sing "Jingle Bells"

Safely on Ms. Collette's lap

Santa reading the Threes class a Christmas story

Getting her present

Last year, Drew came and stood with us while the rest of his class sang. He wanted nothing to do with it. Notice the theme with our kids?! This year he was so excited to sing for us! He had a great time.

Santa brought him a book on space. He recently learned about space at school and is constantly telling us everything he knows about space. He wasn't as into his book as Kayley was hers. He seemed to already know most of what was in it. We read it once and he hasn't asked for it since. I hope Santa has better luck with the rest of Christmas!

Angels getting ready for the program

Listening to Santa read a Christmas story

Blurry picture with Santa

I have tried for two days to post the videos of Drew singing, but they won't load. I'll have to get my IT guy to help me out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T11:50:00.000-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend with my family. We have been spoiled by having Mom here for two weeks. Mom came a week early when Kayley got meningitis to help watch her the week after she was discharged from the hospital. She has cooked for us, played nonstop with the kids, gave the kids their baths and put them to bed pretty much every night. And she put up our Christmas tree while I did the other decorations. Thank you, Mom!!

Mom and I took the kids to see "Happy Feet Two" last weekend. The kids still are not very into movies. They loved eating the popcorn and candy, but that was about it. They seemed bored and kept asking when we were going to leave. But, after we got home from the movie, they talked nonstop about little Erik and how much they liked the movie. Not sure what to make of that. I think they were just happy to be home!

Dad came on Tuesday and Matt came on Wednesday. Andy and I took Matt and Dad to The Pour House Wednesday after dinner. Dad and I came home early. Matt and Andy did not. :-) We had a great Thanksgiving dinner that was cooked by Mom with some help from me. (She has it down to a science. If you help too much, you just get in the way!)

On Friday, we went to The Pour House for lunch and to watch the Iowa game. All I have to say about that is that the food was good. Friday night we went to Mickey's in Dunlap for pizza. Andy saw some regulars from The Pour House at Mickey's so he had to chat with them and give them a little bit of a hard time about drinking at another establishment!

I haven't had our camera out once in the last few weeks so I had to steal all of these pictures from Mom!

Maybe one will be a future Picasso? Too bad we
have not let them actually use the paint yet!

Princess Kayley

I have my paper. I really want to paint.

Eating her breakfast and wearing
Drew's White Sox hat.

Trying on Grandpa's glasses

My turn

Waiting for our table at Mickey's

Drew frosted and sprinkled the cupcakes!

Stealing Toys from School

2011-11-16T22:02:00.000-06:00

Kayley is feeling much better and going back to school tomorrow for half a day. I decided we should address the fact that she stole toys from school last week before she goes back tomorrow.

After Kayley threw up all over herself last week, Andy did a load of her laundry. I folded the clothes when I got home from work. This is what I found in the pockets of three pairs of her jeans and her coat:

Tonight before we put her to bed, I attempted to have a talk with her about stealing from school. As you will see, Kayley isn't all that interested in having a talk (or listening to me), but she does confess. :-) Because we were taping it, I let it drag on to see what all she would say. Maybe if I would have taken it a little more seriously, she would have too. Maybe.

Meningitis

2011-11-13T20:36:00.003-06:00

If you are like me, meningitis is something you have heard of, you know it is bad, you know neck pain is a sign of it and that is all you know about it. Until this weekend.

Kayley came home from daycare on Wednesday night not feeling well and when we asked her what hurt, she kind of pointed to the back of her head and we thought maybe she had fallen down and hit her head, but we didn't see any bumps. She was also running a low-grade fever. We put her to bed and she woke up once during the night and just seemed generally uncomfortable, but nothing terrible.

Her fever was over 101 on Thursday morning when Andy got her up. She came into our room when I was getting ready and just looked miserable so I put her up on the counter and asked her again what hurt. She pointed to the back of her head and again I looked for some sign of a fall. Then she said that wasn't where it hurt and she pointed more clearly to her neck. Now, if you know me, I have a slight tendency to think the worst. I went from relief that she doesn't have a brain tumor to fear that she had meningitis! I mentioned meningitis to Andy and he kind of shook his head. Andy stayed home with her and I called the pediatrician as soon as they opened. They wanted her to come in because she was having the neck pain. Unfortunately for Andy, she started throwing up right as they were leaving for the appointment. The pediatrician couldn't rule out meningitis and to call back on Friday morning with an update, but if the neck pain got worse, we should take her to the ER immediately. The thing that is hard is that she is THREE. You aren't sure if what she is telling you is true! If you ask if it hurts worse, she says yes. Five minutes later if you ask if it is getting better, she says yes.

She continued vomiting on Thursday, through the night and Friday morning. She continued to complain that her neck hurt and also said her head hurt. I called the pediatrician and they said to take her to the ER because she was likely dehydrated from all of the vomiting and they wanted her seen because of the neck pain.

Friday morning

I have to say, when you show up at the ER with a bad allergic reaction (Drew last year) or apparent meningitis, you get right in. We never sat down. The nurses and doctors were really nice, but they had a terrible time getting an IV going because she was so dehydrated. It took 4 tries. I thought Kayley was going to explode she was so mad. They tried to distract her and they also tried to involve her by asking if she wanted to hold the different instruments. Her response? Screaming, "No! I don't want to hold that!" I can't blame her. They tried, but she was miserable and having nothing to do with it!

Sitting with Daddy in the ER waiting for x-rays

I am going to forget all of the tests that they ran, but they wanted to rule out everything they could before they did a spinal tap to check for meningitis. She had a chest x-ray, soft tissue x-ray of her neck, swab of her throat for strep throat, etc. We were all hoping it was strep throat because nobody wanted to have to do the spinal tap. All came back negative.

That left the spinal tap. They wanted to try without sedation. I thought they were crazy. Three nurses tried to hold her down and it was a joke. They got her on her side and in the fetal position, but she immediately straightened her legs out of that position. That plan was quickly abandoned. They explained that they were going to use "conscious sedation." I think it was called ketamine. The doctor warned me that she would act strangely and appear to look past me, etc. Because she was still going to be awake, I asked whether it would be enough to make her stay still and the doctor smiled and said they use this drug to amputate limbs on the battlefield. I smiled back and said I guess it should be good enough! They also brought in extra doctors and nurses and certain life saving equipment because they are using sedation and they have to be prepared in case she would have a bad reaction. I would not have wanted to know what my blood pressure was at that moment! Andy had left to pick up Drew from daycare so it was just me with her.

The doctors were right on with how she acted. No parent should have to watch their child like that. I am sure it is safer than knocking them out, but I almost would have preferred for her to be sleeping. She just stared off into space and said, "Mommy" a few times in a very pained voiced, but never moved. She started to come out of it within 10 minutes and she said the strangest things. She talked about how the doctor didn't listen to her because he took her pillow. She said she was going to tell him to listen to her next time. The nurse and I laughed, but it was still a little unsettling to hear her so out of it. She also said that I had two eyes. The nurse laughed and said they see double for awhile. They also gave her something to dry up her saliva and she kept forcing coughs. It was very strange. I was very happy when she appeared to be back to normal after about 30 minutes!

An hour later the initial results were back. The results are somewhat confusing because they test two things - the white blood cell count was consistent with viral meningitis or early stages of bacterial meningitis and the other thing was consistent with bacterial meningitis or early stages of viral meningitis. Basically, it means her results were consistent with early onset of either viral or bacterial meningitis. The doctors felt very strongly that it was viral, but out of precaution they started antibiotics and admitted her. Her ER doctor told us he would be shocked if it turned out to be bacterial because she seemed doing too well for it to be bacterial (this was the sickest I have ever seen her so I can't imagine seeing anyone with bacterial meningitis). Also, she had what appeared at the time to be an allergic reaction to the ketamine so they wanted to treat that and watch it. Later, they attributed the rash to the meningitis because it cleared up too fast for an allergic reaction.

She was in the hospital Friday night and Saturday night and was released this afternoon. The biggest thing when she was in the hospital was getting all the fluids. That seemed to help with her neck pain and the headache she developed. The headache was either directly from the meningitis or a nice little side effect of the spinal tap. The doctor said some people develop chronic headaches after a spinal tap. I sure hope she isn't one of them! She also twitched constantly while she slept. We pointed it out to the doctor and he said we should watch her for seizures, but the twitching is nothing concerning considering that the fluid around her brain was inflamed. She slept for over 4 hours when we got home and I noticed she was still twitching. The doctor said that may continue for awhile.

Saturday afternoon. "I want to go home" was
what she said whenever anyone talked to her.

Today after the doctor told her she can go home!

Discharged!

First stoplight after we left the hospital!
She might have passed out from being overheated...
it was cold when we went to the ER on Friday,
but 70s today when we left and I didn't
realize it until we got outside!

We are happy to be home and relieved she appears to be on the mend. The doctor said she will take awhile to get back to normal. The biggest thing we have noticed since she has been home is that she is really unsteady on her feet. She walks like a drunken sailor. I assume that is related to the fact that she hasn't walked at all since Friday?

I'm pretty sure we will never get this child back to a doctor. She was slightly traumatized when she had to stay in the hospital after having her tonsils and adenoids out. I am pretty sure the four attempts at an IV, the first attempt at a spinal tap without sedation, and all of the blood draws might have sent her over the edge! She has been through way more than most kids her age and I think she deserves a break! She is a tough one though!

Kayley, Kayley, Kayley

2011-11-09T23:05:00.000-06:00

Kayley tests us every chance she gets. Bedtime is no exception. She usually gets out of bed 2 or 3 times after we put her to bed. It used to be that she would get up and get some toys and get back in her bed or she would go out into the hallway and make some noise to let us know she is up and then we would go up and tell her to get back in bed. The other night when we heard her moving around upstairs, Andy went up there to find her painting her fingernails in her room. He calmly helped her wash it off and put her back to bed and told her to stay in bed. She said she would. We knew better. He waited a few minutes and went back up. Apparently, she needed to go potty this time and had a little bit of trouble getting her PJs back on:

Grandpa = Bowling!

2011-11-06T20:32:00.000-06:00

When Grandpa comes to town, we go bowling! Andy's dad came to Peoria Friday night and met Andy and the kids out while I was hosting a jewelry party at our house. If you know me very well at all, you are wondering why I would host a jewelry party! Me too! Actually, we had a great time! However, I wish I would have picked a different day for the party because I was gone earlier in the week on a trip to Alabama for work and I didn't have much time to prepare, but it worked out in the end. Andy and his dad attempted to take the kids bowling, but all of the lanes were full so they took them to Jillian's instead. All Drew could talk about when they got home was that we were going bowling on Saturday since they didn't get to go on Friday.

I took the kids to a birthday party Saturday afternoon and they had their first opportunity for face painting. They weren't sure if they wanted to do it, but after watching a few other kids, they were ready. Kayley couldn't make up her mind. She wanted a bunny, then the dog, then batman and finally a unicorn. When she climbed into the chair, she said she wanted to be spiderman. No idea where that came from, but spiderman it was! Pink spidergirl with glitter really! Drew hopped up into the chair and also asked for spiderman after previously saying he wanted batman. :-)

Kayley had a meltdown at the birthday party and it started
to smear. When I told her what was happening, she cried harder!

We attempted bowling again on Saturday night and were able to get a couple of lanes. Andy bowls in the Caterpillar bowling league and his dad has been bowling in a league for years so they had some healthy competition and the kids were very excited as you will see.

Kayley carrying an 8lb ball and showing off her bowling style:

Drew bowling and Andy not letting me take a video of him bowling:

Trick or Treat!

2011-10-31T20:51:00.000-05:00

What a difference a year makes! Last year, Drew refused to put his costume on for school and was the ONLY kid in the preschool who didn't wear a costume during the parade. This year, he wanted to sleep in his costume the night before because he was so excited. Last year, Kayley burst into tears the second she saw me during the parade and cried the rest of the party because she didn't want me to leave. This year, as she walked by, she had a big smile on her face and waved at Andy and me. When I went to her room for her party, she was happy as can be. No tears even when I told her I had to leave.

They were also more into trick or treating this year. Drew more so than Kayley. She tired out pretty quickly and didn't like being cold. Sounds like me! When we came back to our house, the kids helped me hand out candy. Drew loved it. Kayley cried at first when she saw us giving away candy. She thought that candy should be hers too. Ha!

Happy Birthday, Amelia!!

2011-10-30T18:40:00.000-05:00

Drew, Kayley and I drove to Davenport yesterday afternoon for Amelia's 4th birthday party. The kids were excited to play with Amelia and new toys and I was excited to see some of my friends from law school. Since it was so close to Halloween, it was a costume party. This is the first year that Drew and Kayley were excited to put on their costumes! Kayley's princess costume is for ages 3+, but it is too big for her. I said something about her looking like a stripper princess when one of her shoulders was exposed and of course she heard me and looked at me and said, "Stripper princess?!?! What's a stripper princess, Mommy?!" Ah, little ears are always around. You would think I would know that by now!

We had a great time and as always, Ang put on a great party!

Lightning McQueen driver and Princess Aurora

Patiently waiting for cake

Birthday Girl

Another Busy Week!

2011-10-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

I feel like we have been going non-stop again. Last Friday, we took the kids to Monkey Joe's for a birthday party. We got to see some of our friends who also have kids in Drew's class so Andy and I enjoyed ourselves too. That said, I won't be upset if I don't go to Monkey Joe's for another year or so (or maybe ever)! The kids and I spent Saturday running a lot of errands while Andy worked outside in the yard. Saturday night, we went to Washington for dinner and a bonfire with our friends Chuck and Jamie and Jeff and Amy. Drew, Sam and Brody are all in the same Pre-K class and Maia is just a year younger than Kayley so the kids play really well together.

The boys dressed up in Sam's costumes for the bonfire.
Brody, Sam, Drew and Maia

The first s'more Drew has ever eaten. Nothing
like a little peer pressure to get him to try it!

Way past their bedtime and enjoying
some late night cartoons!

I left really early Monday morning for Toronto for work and then flew home first thing Tuesday morning. So early that I was back in Peoria by 10:30am after a layover in Detroit. I went straight to Kayley's surgery follow-up appointment. The doctor said she is looking great and everything appears to be completely healed. She was just happy about the sticker he gave her. :-)

Yesterday was dentist day for the kids. When I picked the kids up from daycare on Tuesday and told them we were going to the dentist the next day, Drew said he wanted to eat healthy for dinner. He wanted pizza and an apple and said he was going to brush really good that night. :-) Last time we went to the dentist, Drew cried most of the visit while Kayley was great and sat in the chair by herself and didn't cry or whine at all. I was nervous this time for how Drew would do so on the way there I told him he could have a new monster truck if he was really good without any whining or crying. Even though I knew Kayley would do good, I told her she could have a small toy too for being good.

When we got back to the room they asked who wanted to go first. I looked at Kayley thinking she would be easier to get up in the chair. She burst into tears and Drew quickly volunteered to go first. He jumped up into the chair and sat perfectly still the entire time. No whining. No crying. Kayley, on the other hand, was trembling in my lap. The girls noticed and asked if anything with her had changed because she was so good the last time. I said no except that she had her tonsils out earlier this month. They started shaking their heads and said her reaction is very common after having tonsils out. By that time, Andy had arrived and they took her and Andy to another room. I got off easy with Drew who was happily watching a movie while they cleaned his teeth. After they were done, I was helping Drew into the car and I told him how proud I was that he was such a big boy (yes, I realize most 4 1/2 year olds are good at the dentist without bribery). He looked at me and said very matter-of-factly, "well, that is because I wanted a monster truck." I learned two things yesterday - (1) Drew is VERY easy to bribe; and (2) Drew doesn't need to be bribed next time because he is clearly capable of acting like a big boy at the dentist.

Kayley got a small toy too because I felt bad that she was so traumatized by having her tonsils removed!

Bribe toys

After all the hard work at the dentist, Andy let me have a girls night with some friends! We went to the neighborhood bar Andy and his friends own. That is probably why he was so willing to let me go out - we were bringing him business!

Fall Fun

2011-10-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

Kayley is getting better each day. She is certainly back to her sassy self and talking much more now...except with a much higher pitch in her voice! Andy's worst nightmare come true! :-) She is much smarter than we give her credit for though. She refused to eat pasta the other night because her throat hurt. I gave her ice cream instead. Later that night, I caught her eating pretzels. Every time she doesn't want to eat something she says her throat hurts because she still isn't better. Then she tries to eat some sort of snack food about 20 minutes later.

Mom left Friday afternoon and when Kayley woke up from her nap and saw me instead of Grandma, she burst into tears. Hmmm...made me feel good she loves her Grandma so much, but didn't make me feel that good as her mom!

We had a very low-key weekend for the first time in a long time, which was very nice! The kids played outside and enjoyed the fall weather. I thought it was a little chilly, but the kids had a great time. They helped Andy rake leaves and jumped into them over and over and over again!

Tylenol with Codeine is Our Friend

2011-10-09T20:23:00.000-05:00

Kayley's surgeon and the nurses warned us that days 5 and 6 following surgery are usually rough. They sure know what they are talking about! Kayley woke up pretty unhappy Saturday morning. She was back to refusing all medicine so Andy forced some tylenol with codeine down her. Within 30 minutes, we had a totally different child! And then she happily took her amoxicillin. It seems to be the roughest for her right when she gets up in the morning and right after her nap. Once the tylenol with codeine kicks in, you wouldn't even know she had surgery. Well, other than the fact that she doesn't eat.

She is down to 29.0 pounds. I think she was a little over 31 when she went into the hospital. The only thing she ate the last two days is ice cream with sprinkles. She refuses jello, popsicles, pudding, mac & cheese, potatoes, rice, etc. She did eat a little salad with ranch and goldfish tonight. Hopefully we will see some more progress tomorrow.

Kayley was VERY excited to go with Andy today to get her fish. A beta she named Nemo. Very original, I know! She named her baby, Baby so at least she didn't name the fish, Fish. :-)

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that her voice could change after her surgery. Mom, Andy and I talked about it tonight and we all agree there is definitely a higher pitch in her voice now. Not sure how we feel about that!

Taking a break while helping Dad in the yard

Picking up sticks

Drew helped too

Not happy after her nap. Refusing her
tylenol with codeine.

One hour after Andy forced it down her...I'm telling
you, it is wonderful! Eating ice cream with sprinkles!

Showing off her new fish

What a Difference a Day Makes

2011-10-06T20:43:00.000-05:00

Who is this kid?!?!

Playing in the sand (in the outfit she put together!)

Enjoying the beautiful day

Look at me taking my medicine like a big girl!

Kayley had a great day! We thought it would be another rough day when she woke up in pain at 5:30am and Andy had to pin her down to give her tylenol. She fell right back to sleep and woke up in a great mood around 8:30am. Andy poured her antibiotic into a medicine cup and walked over to her. She started whining that she didn't want it. He set it down in front of her and told her she had to take it and she could take it when she was ready. She looked at the cup and then back at him and then picked up the cup and took it like a shot! When we were really struggling with her a few days ago to take her medicine, Andy promised her a fish if she would take her medicine like a big girl. Looks like Andy is buying her a fish! They decided they will go pick out her fish tomorrow.

She drank relatively well throughout the day and even ate some food. She drank gatorade, water, white milk and a lot of chocolate milk. She also had a little bit of scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, black olives, peaches, cheese and a soft cookie (hey, whatever she wants right now). She didn't have any interest in ice cream, pudding or popsicles. On the other hand, Drew has been enjoying lots of ice cream and popsicles because every time we offered either to Kayley, he lets us know that he would like some.

I don't want to give the impression that she is completely back to normal. When her tylenol is wearing off or she is getting tired, she becomes very dramatic and whiny! She is over the top at times, but you can't get mad at her and it is pretty funny. Actually, as I think about it, she is pretty much back to normal! :-)

UPDATE: As I write this, Kayley is refusing to take her tylenol with codeine, which we give her at night to help her sleep better. It does not taste as good as regular tylenol and she is having no part of it. Guess we still have some work to do.

Kayley's Surgery

2011-10-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

Kayley was scheduled to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out on Monday because she has obstructive sleep apnea. She was in a great mood that morning and was almost excited for surgery (clearly we didn't do an adequate job explaining what was going to happen).

Kayley and Baby getting ready to leave
for the hospital to have their tonsils
and adenoids out

Like my cool hospital shirt, shorts and socks?

Right before she and Baby went back

The surgery went great. Her surgeon said her tonsils were each the size of a ping pong ball and her adenoids were half that size. Andy and I couldn't believe it. We knew she had large tonsils, but how do two ping pong balls fit in the back of her tiny mouth?! No wonder she had trouble breathing at night and no wonder she chewed her food forever! The surgeon said we should notice a huge improvement in her breathing.

Recovery has not gone as smoothly. The nurse in the recovery room gave her a lot of pain medication that knocked Kayley out for hours. Kids who had surgery after her were going home before she was even awake! We kept trying to wake her because she needed fluids in order to go home, but eventually a nurse checked her chart and explained that Kayley had a lot of pain medication and she would probably be out for another hour or two. Great. When she finally woke up, she refused to take even a sip of water. We tried EVERYTHING. Water, ice chips, juices, popsicles, ice cream, jello, milk, chocolate milk, pudding, etc. Fail, fail, fail. Eventually they had to move us from the pediatric recovery area to the adult recovery area because all of the other pediatric patients were home. The nurse wanted to admit her and called the surgeon several times, but the surgeon kept telling the nurse to "keep working with her" rather than admit her because kids do better at home. I totally understand his logic, but it is during times like this that you would like the surgeon to come into the recovery room and try to "work with her" himself! It would be one thing if she had taken even 1 or 2 of the 4 ounces she needed to take, but she refused even a sip for hours.

Right after she came out of surgery

Sleeping off all of her pain medication in Daddy's arms

After sitting in a recliner holding her for over 7 hours after her surgery, we got word that they were going to admit her. That was bittersweet. It was a relief because we knew she would get enough fluids, but I can't tell you how disappointed Andy and I were at the same time that it came to this.

Not happy to have to stay at the hospital

Tuesday was a day of working on getting Kayley to take her fluids (and her meds). She refused anything we offered. Then a hospital staff member who works with kids to take their meds and fluids asked if we would like her to try. Yes, please! She asked if Kayley liked stickers and tea parties. I said yes. She came back in with a purple cup, a small medicine cup and a ton of stickers. She talked Kayley and Baby into having a tea party with her. She had Kayley drink from a straw out of the small medicine cup and when she got to the bottom she got to make the noise you make when you are still sucking out of the straw but there is very little liquid left (you know, the super annoying noise you hear and you want to tell the person doing it that their drink is gone and to stop it!). Anyway, Kayley loved it of course and loved her sticker rewards. She got Kayley to drink a little over 6 ounces! We asked her if she would be willing to move in with us for 2 weeks! It was great that she got Kayley to drink, but the fact that we had to go to such great lengths wasn't good enough for the doctors. She needed to be able to drink with minimal bribing!

In all, we got her to drink a little over 11 ounces on Tuesday. But, it was all through tea parties with her and Baby. I have to admit, after a 1.5 hour tea party with Kayley and Baby that resulted in Kayley drinking 3 ounces, I was having serious flashbacks to Kayley's feeding aversion days. I realize other kids refuse liquids too after this surgery, but this hits a little too close to home for me and I just wonder if part of her reaction is related to her prior bottle aversion.

Right after we told it was time for her medicine

craft time...with her water and milk of course!

Stop taking my picture!

So happy Drew came to visit!

Getting ready to watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse

She was even crabbier and less cooperative this morning than yesterday if that is possible, but they decided to discharge her anyway. The hope is that she will do better at home. She has had a little bit of ice cream with sprinkles and some water since we have been home. She is not cooperative at all when it comes to her ear drops, antibiotics and tylenol. We haven't had a problem with her taking medicine since she was a baby so this is a new fun twist for us. She certainly keeps it interesting!

She found this toy today before she was
discharged. That made leaving a little harder!

We Have Pictures!!

2011-10-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

Drew's last professional picture was when he was 9 months old. We tried to get 1 year pictures. Fail. Tried again at 15 months. Fail. Then Kayley was born prematurely so the last thing on our minds was updating Drew's 1 year pictures. We tried to take Drew a few times when we took Kayley in for pictures, but he would have nothing to do with it.

Kayley never had a problem with pictures. However, she hasn't had a professional picture since her 1 year pictures. She turned 2 when I was in Peoria and Andy and the kids were still in Phoenix. Things were very hectic so her 2 year pictures never happened. She turned 3 in June. It is October. Oops.

But, our failure ended yesterday! I took the kids for pictures and it was a success! Drew was REALLY into it and loved it. Who is this kid?!

Kayley was much more timid than him so we had less to choose from of her, but at times she got really into it and loved to say cheese and show off her new cheesy smile! They took quite a few pictures of her like this:

Instead of Drew being the youngest Thiel grandchild in the pictures at Grandpa's house, he'll be the oldest again! Of course, at the rate we go with updating pictures, he'll be stuck in time at 4 years old for awhile!

Fight! Fight! Fight! for IOWA!!

2011-09-24T17:57:00.000-05:00

Andy and I met his family in Iowa City last weekend for the Iowa/Pittsburgh game. What a great weekend!

Before we left for Iowa City, we took Kayley to her pre-op appointments. She was great during her physical. Then we had to go to the hospital for bloodwork. I tried to explain that they were going to poke her arm and take a little blood, but she didn't understand. She told me no they wouldn't because she doesn't have any blood! She did great while they took her blood. She screamed, but didn't move her arm. However, she was VERY dramatic afterwards. There was a lot of crying as we walked out of the hospital and screaming that her arm hurt. The kids have been in Iowa with my parents for a week and Mom said Kayley has insisted on wearing a bandaid at all times because of her hurt arm. And she has complained that she can't do certain things (like pick up her toys I am sure) because her arm hurts so bad. If she has her way, she is going to have us waiting on her for months after this surgery!

After Kayley's bloodwork, Andy and I left for Iowa City. Thank you again to Mom for coming to watch the kids and take care of Sox! We went to the Wig and Pen when we got to Iowa City. Oh how I have missed that place!

We got up bright and early and were tailgating by 7:30am. The game was awful for 3 quarters, but the 4th quarter more than made up for it! Thankfully, we didn't leave even though we considered it. After the game, Andy showed us why he was an all state kicker by kicking field goals with honey buns. It was one of those things you had to be there to fully appreciate. :-) We hit another favorite place Saturday night - the Vine. Great weekend!

Paul (a Thiel at heart), Butch, Chris,
Andy, Mitch and Matt

The Thiel boys and girls

Brotherly love?

All I can say is, it was late.

Sox - Two Partial ACL Tears

2011-09-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

Sox had a rough week. That is an understatement. She was excited to see Andy and she jumped off the deck towards him and immediately pulled up in pain. Andy took her to the vet and they decided they needed to do an x-ray to see if she tore her ACL. If it was a complete tear, they would do surgery while she was already under for the x-ray. If it was a partial tear, they would not need to do surgery, but she would be on very restricted activity for awhile to allow the ACL to heal on its own.

A little back story - Sox had been limping and having trouble walking and jumping up into the car for awhile and we thought she was having hip issues or arthritis, etc. Neither are good.

The vet x-rayed both of her hind legs and her hips. Andy called me at work, sounding upbeat, and said he had good news and bad news. I immediately thought it was a partial tear, but no surgery. Considering our alternatives (partial or complete tear), this was good news! Turns out, she had a partial ACL tear in both of her hind legs. Because she had two, they needed to perform surgery on one to fix it and then the other could heal on its own while she was on restricted activity. I had to ask what the good news was and he said it was that her hips look good and there were no signs of arthritis. Sox had her surgery on Thursday and came home on Friday. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I am thinking now that pet insurance may have been worth looking into!

Sox has to spend most of her days for the next two weeks in her kennel. She is not loving it. When she is out of her kennel, she has to be on a leash. She has a long road ahead of her, but hopefully we can get her all healed. We usually only panic when Kayley is running. I will be a wreck when Sox starts running again!

On the Road Again

2011-09-06T22:34:00.001-05:00

We had so much fun at Okoboji a few weeks ago that we decided to go back for Labor Day weekend! The kids and I left Thursday night for Mom and Dad's. Andy had a lot of things to get done around here so it was just me and the kids. I wish Andy could have gone with us, but I put on DVDs for the kids and had full control of XM radio. It was wonderful! I listened to all of my favorite songs over and over and Andy wasn't there to get annoyed with me or switch it to baseball!

We left for Okoboji Friday morning and all rode in the Tahoe. I told Dad I needed to get gas on the way and he said we should try to make it to Pocahontas because it is about halfway. We looked at the fuel gauge and decided we had enough gas to make it to Pocahontas. You probably know where this story is going. I kept checking the fuel gauge and the mileage to Pocahontas and we always had about a 10 mile cushion. Not a huge amount, but we should have been fine. We were about 1.5 miles to 2 miles south of Pocahontas and I felt the cruise go off. The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: "Ummm, I think we just ran out of gas."
Dad: "Really? Well, don't hit the brake. Put it in neutral and lets see how far we can make it."
Mom: "WHAT?!?! Good thing I have AAA. I can't believe you ran out of gas!"
Me: "I don't have any power steering either."
Kayley: "Mom, look at the cow out my window."
Mom (looking through purse for AAA card): "No power steering?! Oh no! You need to pull over."
Dad: "You lose power steering when you run out of gas. Just keep going and don't hit the brake."
Drew: "Mom, what happened? Why did you run out of gas? Why are we going slow? Mom, did you run out of gas? Why did you run out of gas? Are we going to stop?"
Me: "I think I should put my hazard lights on since we are going so slow now."
Dad: "Yeah, that is probably a good idea."
Me: "We are going to get pretty close."
Dad: "Don't hit the brake."
Mom: "I think we are going to make it!"
Drew: "Mom, did we run out of gas? Why did we run out of gas? Are we going to walk?"
Me: Wow, we are going to get really close."
Dad (as we are coming up to Casey's in Pocahontas): "Don't hit the brake."
Me: "I have to! This is really hard to turn."
Kayley: "Can I have a snack?"
Mom: "Don't hit that truck!" (Truck was trying to turn out of Casey's).
Me: "This is really hard to turn without power steering."
Me (as we are rolling up to the pump): "I can't believe it."
Drew: "Mom, did we run out of gas? Why don't we have any gas?"
Kayley: "MOM!!! CAN I HAVE A SNACK?!"

In my defense, there is something wrong with the fuel gauge! I should have had 10 more miles! Of course, we only laugh about it now because none of us had to get out and push or walk to the gas station (AAA would have taken awhile!). It is ironic that I ran out of gas because one of my biggest pet peeves with Andy is when he drives on low fuel. I get so annoyed with that. Yes, I have heard plenty from him since this about how he has never run out of gas.

Once we got to Okoboji, we unpacked all of our stuff and enjoyed the next few days. The weather was a little cool for swimming, but Kayley and I still managed to spend some time on the waverunner. The kids spent a lot of time at Arnold's Park, mini golfing and "fishing" off the dock.

We went back to Mom and Dad's Sunday night and went to the Labor Day parade in Dayton on Monday morning. We told the kids they would get more candy if they waved. They waved. And they got a lot of candy! Drew refused to pick up some of the candy that he didn't like. I finally talked him into just picking it up and putting it in Kayley's bag. He is so picky!

They still love the roller coaster

Couldn't get him to ride in a color other than blue

Drew reeling in his "fish"

Look at my big fish, Mom!

Ready to golf

I made it!!!!!

Right before she threw her ball in the water behind her

Drew refused to take a picture with Kayley

Waving to the vehicles in the beginning of the
parade...still 5 blocks away!

Can't leave a tootsie roll on the street!

Running back to his spot

Kayley holding Sarah's dog, Louie.

Pre-K!!!

2011-08-30T22:06:00.000-05:00

Where does the time go? Drew started Pre-K last week. He is growing up SO fast! He is very proud to be in Pre-K. I had a much harder time with it than him. All I could think about was how he would be in kindergarten next year. I will be a wreck!

We went to dinner Saturday night and a 5 year old boy was waiting with his dad next to us. The boy heard Kayley and I talking about how she is going to be 4 next year and the boy jumped in and told me he was 5. I asked if he was in kindergarten and he said yes. I asked if he rode the bus to school and he proudly told me yes. Drew was hanging on every word. The next day, Drew told me he was 5 and going to go to kindergarten now with his new friend. Ha!

Drew on his first day of Pre-K

Does Andy have to pitch to him in the house?

Kayley is not as excited to be in the 3s room. The second day she told me that she was going to go back to Ms. Pam's room. I told her that Ms. Pam has a new class this year and Kayley is a big girl now and gets to be in the 3s room. She wasn't buying it. She just shook her head and told me she was going to Ms. Pam's room! Even this week she is still talking about going back to Ms. Pam's room!

Kayley's first day in the 3s

Kayley had another big change - she has grown out of the "buddy and me" class (where I go around with her) at gymnastics and now goes with the 3 year olds! She had her first class on her own tonight and after a very brief cry (during which I may have promised her ice cream if she was a big girl), she went with the teacher and had a great time. I think she waved to me 50 times during the 45 minute class - she loved it! And she may have enjoyed ice cream when she got home...

Ready for gymnastics!!

Okoboji

2011-08-24T22:07:00.001-05:00

I love Lake Okoboji! We have been going there since I was a little girl and I still love it. We met my family up at the lake this weekend. The kids didn't have school on Thursday and Friday so Mom came Wednesday night and took them back to Iowa on Thursday morning. Andy and I golfed in a tournament on Friday afternoon. (We ended up 9 under, but I should have stayed at work. I was that bad. My new clubs are clearly the problem.) We didn't leave for my parents' house until close to 8:30pm so it ended up being a late night of driving. We left for the lake Saturday morning and drove home on Tuesday morning so it was a quick trip, but lots of fun.

The kids absolutely loved Arnolds Park. They rode tke kiddie roller coaster, the boats, the fish, the dragon, the train, the log ride and the ferris wheel (good thing Grandma had several cocktails before she got on there with us...she is a little afraid of heights!). I took Kayley on her first waverunner ride and Andy took Drew on his first ride. I think I was a little more cautious with Kayley than Andy was with Drew. They came back soaked and Drew had a huge smile on his face. The biggest disappointment for Drew was the go karts. He was very disappointed when he realized he didn't get to drive. He rode with Andy and acted bored as could be. Matt and I were bored in our karts because we had to go slow (Andy and Drew's kart was MUCH slower than our single karts) so that Drew could win. The sacrifices we make for our kids! Kayley was not happy that she was too small to go.

Our view from the deck

20th time or so on the roller coaster

Kayley the gymnast

Mini golf

Searching for lost balls (he found 2)

Drew's turn

Taking a quick break at the turn

Kayley's "ride" on a go kart. She was not impressed.

Her first ice cream cone!

Drew's first ice cream cone

On our way home, we stopped in Cedar Falls so Andy and I could quickly relive our college days. We ate lunch at Peppers and went to the bookstore for some UNI apparel. Maybe its just me, but the college kids seem to be getting younger and younger!

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

2011-08-17T22:29:00.000-05:00

Andy and I took Kayley to the pediatric ENT this morning. We really liked the doctor and feel very comfortable with him. Of course, it helps that he went to medical school at Iowa! We went through her symptoms with the doctor - snoring or loud mouth breathing when she sleeps, restless sleep, apnea episodes, waking during the night - all are consistent with obstructive sleep apnea in a child her age. Then we talked about some other issues. One is that she chews her food for a REALLY long time. On more than one occasion, I have noticed that when I had her in the bath she was still chewing on a piece of steak or pork chop from dinner! The doctor explained that this is not uncommon with someone that has very large tonsils.

After we discussed all the symptoms, he examined Kayley. First, he checked her ears. She has a lot of wax build-up (she always has), but he didn't see any concerns with her ear drums. Then he looked in her nose. Then he asked her to open her mouth. When he looked in her mouth his eyes got big and he said, "Whoa, those are big!" And this is a specialist who sees kids like this all the time! He had Andy and I look in her mouth to see them. Then he showed us a chart and explained how they grade tosils by their size. A grade of 4 means the tonsils take up more than 75% of the "space" (clearly not the clinical term) in the back of the throat. Basically, to be a grade 4, the tonsils touch each other or almost touch. He then said Kayley is clearly a Grade 4. Based on his reaction to seeing them and her pediatrician's reaction when he saw them, we weren't surprised by this.

So, Kayley will be having her tonsils and adenoids removed on October 3rd. I realize this is a minor surgery in the grand scheme of things, but I am already worried about it. She had two endoscopies when she was an infant due to her feeding issues so she has already been put under general anesthesia, but I'm still worried. On the other hand, Kayley is very proud of her large tonsils and willingly shows them to anyone and everyone! She knows she is going to have them out and that she will get to eat ice cream and popsicles so she is pretty excited at this point!

On a lighter note, it has been noted that some kids' behavior problems improve after their tonsils are removed because they get more restful sleep and don't act out as much. This is an added bonus of surgery in our opinion! Ha! Any behavior problems Kayley have are likely due to her personality more than lack of restful sleep, but we can dream! :-)

Wanna see my big tonsils?

Seven Years!

2011-08-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

We actually stayed home this past weekend! Andy's dad and his uncles, Shorty and Buck, came to visit. They arrived on Friday and left Monday morning. We had a great time with them and the kids kept them entertained. They are probably enjoying some peace and quiet back in Iowa right about now!

Andy and I had our 7th wedding anniversary on Sunday. Where does the time go?! I still remember our wedding day like it was yesterday. And I remember our first date back in 1999 at the Broom Factory in Cedar Falls. 1999...that makes me feel old! I don't think the Broom Factory is even there anymore. That makes me feel old too.

I didn't take many pictures this weekend, but I did get some video of Kayley golfing. :-)

Drew, Grandpa and Kayley

Drew showing off his "handsome" shirt

Kayley wearing her shirt from our good friend,
Cyndy. So fitting for Kayley! Lets hope
she doesn't need an attorney anytime soon.

Sweetcorn Reunion

2011-08-08T21:23:00.001-05:00

We were out of town again this weekend. Go figure! This time we went to central Iowa for my family reunion on my Mom's side. We jokingly called it the Sweetcorn Reunion because it was planned for the time when the sweetcorn would be ready.

We left Wednesday after work. Driving at night used to work out really well for us because the kids would fall asleep relatively early and we would have a nice drive. Drew finally fell asleep at about 9:30pm and Kayley was still awake at 10pm I think. And she wasn't happy.

I bought new golf clubs on Tuesday night and tested them out for the first time on Thursday and Friday when we went golfing. I came to the realization that the problem may be in my golf swing and not my old clubs like I thought/hoped! Ha! I am golfing in a tournament with Andy next week. I will be heading to the driving range very soon!

Andy drove up to Le Mars on Friday after golf for his cousin's wedding. It sounded like he had a great time. I saw a few of the pictures on Facebook and Katie was a beautiful bride!

Drew and Kayley had a great time playing with my cousins' kids. I had a great time catching up with my aunts, uncles and cousins. I wish we didn't live so far apart!

Some of the kids by the corn

and in the corn

Kayley crying for no apparent reason.

She is a pro!

Liam likes his sweetcorn!

Drew faking like he is eating his sweetcorn

He was much happier when we cut it off the cob for him.
He is definitely a city kid!

Sweetcorn every night!

Each kid had a tractor to drive!

The kids had the most fun getting rides from Jan

Farmer Drew

Kayley likes to sing while she works

Drew settling for Kallie's chair after Liam refused to give
Drew his chair even though Drew tried hard to get it. "Blue is
my favorite color. You can have the pink one. Do you want
Kallie's chair, Liam?" Liam: "No." :-)

Drew loved playing bags. Please excuse the Cyclone board
and the Husker board. Neither are really welcome at our
farm, but they came anyway! Just kiding, Julie!
Kind of.

Kayley making sure she gets someone to watch
her before she takes her turn

Liam and Drew riding with Grandpa Mark

Kallie and Kayley taking their turn

Chicago Trip

2011-08-02T21:52:00.000-05:00

We planned to leave for Chicago between 9am and 9:30am Saturday morning. We got out the door at 10:15am. We only have two kids and we have turned into one of those families that is always running late! Why were we going to Chicago? Because we had tickets to see the Chicago White Sox play the Boston Red Sox of course!
Kayley finally warmed up to the idea of going to Chicago and we took some pictures while we waited for Andy to get back from dropping Sox off at her "babysitter" as the kids call it.

Considering we stopped twice on the way, we made great time and arrived in downtown Chicago in just over 2 1/2 hours. We checked in to the hotel and then headed to the train.

We stopped at a Chipotle so Andy could have lunch (was there any doubt that he would want Chipotle?) and then got back on the train and headed over to the river. Drew pointed out everything he saw. Every boat on the river, every person on every boat, every piece of garbage floating in the river, etc!

Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the game. We took the train to the ballpark and so did a lot of other people! When we got on the train, Kayley said, very loudly, "Mommy, I want to sit down. Why aren't we sitting down? I want to sit down now, Mommy." It was very much standing room only and I was holding her because she got scared standing down at my feet. She got a few laughs out of the people around us and an elderly couple offered their seats. I thought it was very nice of them, but I certainly wasn't going to take their seats. Now, the two young guys in Red Sox shirts sitting right next to us could have offered...ha!

We met Mel and Todd at the ballpark and were excited to see them. They live in Barrington and are huge White Sox fans so it works out perfectly for us! The White Sox did not win and it really wasn't a pretty game, but the kids had a great time. Drew had on a Gordon Beckham shirt with #15 on it. Whenever #15 was up to bat (whether it was Beckham or Dustin Pedroia from the Red Sox), Drew got really excited! The Red Sox fans sitting next to us thought he was cute and we tried to help Drew understand why we only wanted one of the guys wearing #15 to get a hit.

Kayley proudly showing off her Quentin shirt

Drew, Kayley and Todd checking out
the field before the game

Drew and Kayley eating Dippin' Dots for
the first time. Kayley was excited,
Drew wasn't so sure at first!

Kayley's favorite part of the night? Fireworks!

Reier's Bix Party Pre-Party

2011-07-31T21:53:00.000-05:00

Because of a little mix-up, we had to miss Tim and Angela's Bix Party on Saturday night. I was bummed so the kids and I drove to their house on Friday night after work for dinner and a pre-party playdate with Amelia and Ang. Ang is one of my best friends from law school and she and Tim only live 1 hour and 20 minutes away (one of the good things about moving back to the Midwest!) so it was an easy trip to make Friday night.

I told Ang that I would come and help her get ready for the party and the kids could entertain Amelia. Did I help her get ready? Not really. We did figure out the best place for the inflatable waterslide and got that up and going. The waterslide was a huge hit with our kids. Other than when they ate dinner, the kids spent the entire time playing on it. And instead of getting ready for the party, Ang and I sat in lawn chairs and talked while we watched the kids. One of us is a bad influence on the other...I was ready to work! :-)

I am sure the party was a huge hit because she is the best hostess I have ever seen. I'm sad we had to miss it, but we had fun at our little pre-party! When we were packing things up on Saturday morning for our trip to Chicago, Kayley asked if we were going back to Amelia and Angela's house to play. I told her no and that we were going to Chicago. She burst into tears and screamed, "I don't want to go to Chicago! I want to go to Amelia and Angela's house!" On the bright side, she had a good time the night before with Amelia!

"I dunno know"

2011-07-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

Today was favorite sports team day at daycare. We had several options for the kids. Iowa Hawkeyes, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Cubs...ha! Just kidding, Andy! Chicago WHITE SOX! We went with the Hawkeyes. I showed Kayley a football jersey and a cheerleading outfit. She picked the football jersey. Good girl!! She put on the jersey and I asked her if she knew what team it was. She looked down at her jersey, looked back up at me with a confused look and said, "I dunno know." Hmmm. We have failed thus far in making her a Hawkeye fan. We practiced saying "Iowa Hawkeyes" several times before we left for school so she was ready when she got there!

I tried to take a picture of the kids when we got home today (yes, matching jerseys...from Wal-Mart in Le Mars of all places!). Kayley was in no mood for photos. Drew, on the other hand, was more than cooperative! I should have taken him for his 4 year pictures today. Well, I guess it would be 4 1/2 year pictures at this point. Considering he is stuck in time at 9 months old for professional pictures, a few more days won't matter anyway. :-)

Winnie the Pooh

2011-07-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

The kids and I went to our first movie in the theater today. Winnie the Pooh. This was a practice run for the kids because their preschool is going to see Winnie the Pooh tomorrow. Why would I take them to the exact movie they are going to tomorrow? Because both of our kids get scared of movies. Seems crazy, I know! Last weekend, for example, Kayley was watching Finding Nemo on the portable DVD player while we were driving to Omaha. All of a sudden the burst into tears and asked to shut it off. I took the DVD player and it was the dentist scene. I told her it was just pretend and that everyone is ok. She took it back only to have the same reaction about 5 minutes later.

So, in an effort to ease any trouble for their teachers tomorrow, I spent $33 on movie tickets, soda and popcorn to take them to the same movie they will see tomorrow. And they did great! Of course, Winnie the Pooh doesn't exactly have any scary parts!

We spent the rest of today around the house because it rained off and on all day. This afternoon Kayley was naughty and got a timeout. When her timeout was over I explained to her again why she had a timeout and told her that if she said she was sorry she could get down and go play. She just stared at me. I asked her if she wanted to say sorry and go play or if she wanted to sit in the chair longer. She pointed to the chair! I asked her again if she wanted to say sorry and get down and go play and she shook her head no. This child likes to test us every step of the way! I told her fine and put her back in the chair. She sat there quietly for 5 minutes or so and then looked over at me and smiled. I asked if she wanted to get down and she shook her head yes. I asked her what she needed to say and she said sorry and happily jumped down and ran off to play.

I didn't take many pictures this week, but here are a few of Kayley vacuuming and Drew running the dust buster this morning. They still love to help me clean! I am not complaining. Hope this lasts for another 15 years or so. Ha! Maybe I better just enjoy it while it lasts.

Yeah, she is using the attachment for the carpet...

Cleaning up around Kayley's chair. Lots to clean up!

And a few pictures from Easter just because.

Kommes Family Golf Outing

2011-07-18T23:22:00.001-05:00

This weekend was the annual Kommes Golf Outing in Le Mars. This is Andy's Mom's side of the family. We left Thursday night for Mitch's house in Omaha. We like to drive at night so the kids can sleep most of the way. They were very excited for the weekend and didn't fall asleep until after 10pm so it didn't work quite as good as it has in the past!

On Friday morning we went shopping for new golf clubs for me. After 16 years with my clubs, we decided now is the time. Unfortunately, Kayley was not so cooperative and Andy had to take her out of the store kicking and screaming. Because we had to leave before we could buy anything, she ended up saving us a lot of money!

We drove up to Le Mars on Friday afternoon and went to see Andy's uncle. His assisted living facility has a soft serve ice cream machine so the kids are always excited to go visit. The kids ate their ice cream and then started getting a little wound up (perhaps from the sugar). Kayley had to be taken out to the car again. She was having a rough day! We'll just blame it on too much time in the car.

Friday night, we met Mitch, Matt and JD in Merrill for mexican food. Luckily, Kayley's mood had improved!

I watched Drew, Kayley and JD on Saturday while the boys golfed with the rest of their family. It was HOT so we decided to play in the sprinkler and with the garden hose.

Video of JD showing Kayley he is bigger and stronger:

Drew's turn:

Who hasn't taken a drink from the garden hose at some point in their life? Drew and Kayley quickly took their turn after this.

Then we headed to the golf course so the kids could practice at a real course.

Naps taken and on our way to the course!

Good form!

Our lefty

Yep, that is her backswing!

Mitch tending to Drew's blister

She looks the part!

They are supposed to be retrieving the balls the kids hit

Saturday night we went to Andy's aunt and uncle's farm for dinner. Here is a video of JD and Matt in the water balloon toss. They had a very strong water balloon!

Overall, it was a great weekend! For some reason, the drive home on Sunday seemed a little longer than it usually does, but I guess we were just tired from the weekend. :-)

4th of July

2011-07-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

Busy 4th of July weekend! Mom and Dad arrived Thursday evening. The kids were happy to see Grandma and Grandpa and excited for all the spoiling that results from their visits. I was happy to see them and excited for the break from baths and bedtime routines for me that results when Grandma is in town. :-) Andy came home Friday night and Matt arrived on Sunday.

On Saturday, we headed over to Lake Camelot to meet up with Nate, Jennie, Brenna, Cooper, Ruben and Isaac for fireworks. The homeowner's association puts on a fireworks display at the lake every year. The kids had a lot of fun playing on the beach and in the water when we got there around 7pm. I wish I would have brought their swim stuff, but didn't even think about it at that time of day. Kayley took no time at all to get her pretty dress soaking wet and full of sand. (Yeah, a dress may not have been the best idea, but she really wanted to wear it!) Then they played on they playground equipment with about 50 other kids. Drew is very cautious whenever he is put into a new situation, but Kayley jumps in head first. She was all over that playground and barely looked back to see where we were. The fireworks at Lake Camelot were really good. We were really impressed considering it was an HOA putting them on. I think Nate and Jennie's dues will be going up to cover the cost!

Eating ice to cool down before the
fireworks at Lake Camelot

The kids spent most of Sunday in their new pool. They love their new little pool. At least they will until they get older and realize they had a real pool in Phoenix!

Here are a few videos of the kids in the pool. It might be one of those things where you had to be there to fully appreciate it, but I can't watch the video of Kayley without laughing out loud. She tries so hard!

We ended up staying around our house Sunday evening. We grilled and then let off some fireworks and sparklers. Remember what I said last post about spilled milk in our future? I know my kid too well. He was more than happy to offer to help clean up his mess.

Kayley showing Uncle Matt exactly
what she thinks of him! LOL! Actually, she
is showing him her injury from the car door
incident earlier in the week.

Testing out the new pool

Look at that form! :-)

Andy testing out Drew's left handed clubs

More spilled milk...

Kayley loves bubbles!

Kayley and her "fireworks"

All week I kept hearing about how we were going to have the largest fireworks in Illinios this year (Chicago cancelled its show I think). I would smile and think, big deal. This is Peoria. They can't be that good. Oh my gosh, they were the best we have ever seen!! Seriously. And we saw some pretty good ones in Phoenix! We drove down to the riverfront around 7:15pm on Monday night. About 5 minutes from downtown I realized we forgot the chairs and the blankets. Oops. So, Andy and Dad dropped Matt, Mom, Drew, Kayley and I off and they headed back to the house.
We found a good spot and had to just stand their until Andy and Dad got back. That wasn't so fun. Kayley didn't last too long. Before they even got back she said, "I want ice cream and then I want to go home." She didn't get ice cream and she didn't get to go home, but Grandpa brought her back a snack from the house so she was content for awhile! Kayley and Drew eventually resorted to dancing to kill time before the fireworks:

Grandma and Kayley

He's got moves!

View of the crowd watching the airshow at the
Peoria riverfront before the fireworks

Just the Three of Us

2011-07-03T10:31:00.000-05:00

Andy was in Chicago all week for work so it was just me and the kids at home. And it was just my luck that I had two early morning meetings this week. That made for two very early mornings for us! It is a lot of work to get two kids up, dressed, fed, and to daycare in time to get to work for a 7:30am meeting. At least it is for me. Two parents in the morning makes that task much easier! Drew and Kayley were great about it though and enjoyed getting to eat their cereal out of a baggie on the way to school. I felt like a terrible mom, but they thought it was fun.

We ate dinner outside on the deck on Wednesday night. Drew was standing on the chair trying to open the umbrella when I was bringing out the rest of the food. I asked him to sit down before he knocked over his milk. Three seconds later, he spilled his full glass of milk. Drew, being the neat freak he is, wanted me to clean it up ASAP, but I told him I was just going to hose it down when we were done eating. What was I thinking saying that?! Drew LOVES to water anything with the garden hose so he quickly volunteered to clean up his own mess. I think we will see a lot more glasses of spilled milk in our future.

Drew cleaning up his spilled milk

Kayley trying to save her cookies from getting wet

We played some baseball while Dad was gone. The first two are of Drew hitting and the last one is Kayley hitting and Drew coaching her!

We had one minor accident this week. Drew opened the door to go into the garage one morning and Sox ran after him. I took Sox back into the house and realized I forgot her collar for the invisible fence so I put that on her. I was in the house for less than a minute. When I walked back into the garage, Drew was in the back of my vehicle standing by his seat with his door shut. Kayley's door was open. I couldn't see her, but she was crying. It took a few seconds to realize that she was around the vehicle with her finger shut in Drew's door. Drew opened the door to get her finger out and I picked her up. I scolded Drew for shutting her finger in the car. (I assumed that she came around to his side and wanted to climb in on his side, but he didn't want her to so he quickly pulled the door shut.) He immediately got upset and said he didn't do it. I took Kayley upstairs to clean her finger and get a bandaid. While we were up there, through the tears, she said, "I did it myself." What? "I wanted to shut Drew's door." Oh. Crap. We walked back down to the kitchen and out to the garage. Drew was sitting on the steps. He looked up at me with very sad looking eyes and told me again that he didn't do it. I felt terrible! I told him I knew he didn't do it and that Kayley said she did it. Stellar morning. Kayley slammed her own finger in the car door, which was awful and to make it even worse, I blamed Drew without actually knowing what happened. What is the saying about making assumptions? Yeah, lesson learned.

Here are a few more pictures from the week so far:

Drew showing off the hat he got
on his school fieldtrip

Kayley modeling an outfit she put together all on her own

Kayley showing how quickly her mood changes:

Drew grilling us some dinner

Sleep Apnea?

2011-06-25T20:23:00.000-05:00

Kayley's 3 year well check started off pretty good. Before we walked in, I showed her a sucker in my purse and told her she could have it if she was good while we were at the doctor.  She was very well behaved while we were there. :-)

Kayley weighed in at 29 lbs and she was 36.5 inches tall. Those numbers put her right at the 30th percentile. Her pediatrician was fine with those numbers because she has been on that growth curve for awhile. I was kind of surprised that she was only in the 30th percentile for height.  She seemed taller to me.  Guess not!

We talked a lot about her development and she seems to be right where she needs to be. We have always been concerned about how she is developing and learning. We are still working on some shapes and she still occasionally calls something green that is red. If you can tell these things at age 3 and 4, Drew will be our studious child and Kayley will be the one we are always after to study and get her homework done! And I don't mean that I think Kayley won't be smart, she just has lots of other things she would rather be doing!

Then we talked about potty training. He asked Kayley how potty training is going and she did her famous little smirk. She moved her head like she was going to look down at her feet and then she looked at him with her head still down and had this little grin on her face. She knows EXACTLY what she is doing! I am convinced Kayley has "accidents" on purpose. Trying to get our attention? I guess, but we give her tons of praise when she stays dry! Her accidents occur mostly at daycare. She went an entire week at Mom and Dad's and didn't have any accidents. First day back at daycare, two accidents. When you ask her about them when you pick her up, she just smiles and is very excited to show you her new shorts. She'll say something like, "Yeah, I peed in my pants. Look Mommy, my shorts have stars on them!!" We have tried almost everything with this child. She does not care. I did get her attention when I told her that it was ok that she peed in her pants, it just means she isn't ready to be a big girl yet and we would go back to diapers. Oh boy, she got upset and said she won't pee in her pants anymore.  We'll see.

Then he asked if I had any concerns. We have noticed for awhile now that Kayley either snores or breathes very loudly through her mouth when she sleeps. She slept on the floor in my parents' bedroom the week she stayed there and she was so loud that my Dad got up and slept in another room. I have noticed when I have walked into her room at night that sometimes her breathing seems irregular. She will have pauses where she isn't breathing. He looked in her mouth and remarked that she has huge tonsils. We knew that from one other time she was sick and the doctor made the comment about how large they were, but she wasn't having any problems so nobody was very concerned about it. He also asked if she is restless in her sleep and if she moves around a lot.  Kayley is never in the same position for very long. He thinks she has sleep apnea and referred us to an ENT to discuss a T&A and any other options.  We certainly don't want to put her through surgery unless we need to, but after reading about all the negative things associated with sleep apnea, we are more open to it.

I have always associated sleep apnea with adults so I came home from the pediatrician and read the materials he gave us and then went to work on google to find some more information. (Doctors have to hate that we do that!) Anyway, we looked through the symptoms of sleep apnea in children and we could check the box next to almost each one. One additional thing I didn't mention to the pediatrician because it has always been like this, is that Kayley's voice has always sounded nasally to me. I have always thought they nicked her vocal cords when they intubated her in the NICU or something. But, in my less than thorough google research, I have come across several sites that mention a nasal sounding voice as a side effect of large tonsils. That would explain a lot if it is true.

So the next step is to go to the ENT and see what he thinks. Maybe she will simply outgrow it in the next few weeks!

Here are a few pictures from a few months ago. They show her personality perfectly though.

She has got moves!

Telling me exactly what she thinks

They do everything together!

Iowa Ladies Football Academy

2011-06-20T21:52:00.001-05:00

Best day ever!! Maybe not ever (wedding and birth of two kids), but this was a lot of fun! If you are a fan of Hawkeye football and female, you need to consider participating next year! One of my best friends from law school, Mindy, and I spent from 4pm to after 9:30pm on Saturday with Kirk Ferentz, Ken O'Keefe, Marvin McNutt, Keenan Davis, Marcus Coker, Mike Daniels and the rest of the staff and many of the players. The purpose of the event was to raise money for the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. Each participant had to pay a $50 participation fee and raise $300. I thanked each of you individually, but a HUGE thank you to my family and friends who donated on my behalf! Most of you also donated to the March of Dimes for Kayley's team so your additional support for this great cause means that much more to me! The event raised $150,000 for the Children's Hospital!! Surpassed all expectations and set the bar high for next year!

So, what did we do at the Iowa Ladies Football Academy? Here was our schedule and a description of what we did:

3:45 - 5:00 Check In
4:00 - 5:00 Kinnick Experience (Kinnick Field)

Game Day Experience and Stadium Tours - We loaded busses on the side of Kinnick and simulated the ride the team takes before every home game from Cedar Rapids to Kinnick. Casey McMillan was our tour guide for the short bus ride around the stadium. He told us about the bus ride from Cedar Rapids (no talking...not even whispering (this would be very hard for me)) and the arrival in front of the stadium exactly 2 hours before kick-off. We got off the bus and were greeted by David Raih. He took us on the walk the players take into the stadium. Like the football players do, we all touched Nile Kinnick's helmet on our way in. Then we went into the Hawkeyes locker room where LeVar Woods was waiting for us. He talked to us about what it is like in the locker room on game days and we watched a short video of Coach Ferentz giving a pre-game talk (it is the opening video on www.gohawks.com). Then it was time to head out to the field. We walked out of the locker room and saw the sign each player jumps and hits on his way out to the field ("Break the Rock"). We saw the cameras used to show the players on the jumbotron while they are coming down the tunnel. Then we ran out to the field. The rest of the time until 6pm we were own our own to walk around to the various stations described below.
Quarterback Challenge - We tried to throw through targets. Mindy has a future as quarterback. I do not.
Date with a Hawk - While we hoped that we would be able to sign up for dates with the players (just kidding, Andy), this was an opportunity to get posters with the 2011 schedule signed by players and Coach Ferentz.
Tackling Takedown - This might have been the funniest one. Picture women running at full speed and tackling a dummy onto a soft landing pad. See the picture of Mindy below. Several women fell before they even got to the dummy.
Hot Hands/Pat and Go - One of the best of the Kinnick Experience! We got to run routes and catch passes from Marvin McNutt, Keenan Davis, Jordan Cotton and Brad Herman. If I weren't so slow, I could have a future as a wide receiver...I didn't drop a pass all day (nevermind that the longest pass was maybe 20 yards)! This station also included some running back action. Marcus Coker, De'Andre Johnson and Jason White taught us the 5 points of contact when carrying the football and then we took handoffs from them and they had us do touchdown celebrations. Mindy's celebrations were good...I better stick with the wide receivers.
Rules of the Game - I thought I knew a lot about football, but we learned a few things from some officials. I did not know what the blue thing is that they hold in their hands (used to signal that a fumble occurred). I also didn't know what the black band around their wrist is for (they move it to a different finger each down). And I got the number of officials wrong. I said 6 (and that was my second guess). It is 7.
Kicking Challenge - We attempted a field goal and a punt. Not trying to brag, but I could have a future as a punter. On the other hand, I will never make fun of another missed field goal. I was terrible! Andy will be disappointed to hear this. Mindy could be a kicker though - she hit the crossbar so she was very close! I didn't see her kick though - I was too busy laughing at how horrible I was.
Football Dress Up - Mindy and I didn't have time to do this one, but they had a station where you could get dressed up in full pads and uniform. We'll do it next year!

6:00 - 8:30 Clinic (Kinnick Field)

Welcome and Introductions - Coach Ferentz greeted all the ladies and introduced all of his coaches. The position coaches then introduced us to their players. The ladies were going nuts!
Swarm - After the introductions, the players and the ladies all walked back through a tunnel toward the locker room and got ready to do the swarm. We walked down the tunnel to Back In Black blaring in the stadium just like game days. Then Enter Sandman started playing and, just like for games, the jumbotrons were playing the video with the Iowa equipment semi running into opposing team's logos. Then we swarmed the field with the players. That was one of my favorite moments!
Stretching and Position Drills - We were split into 8 groups for the stetching and positioning drills. We did some of the pregame stretches and warm-ups with the players. Then we started with the position drills. Mindy and I were with the defensive backs first. Coach Parker walked us through some drills he uses with the players to teach them how to back peddle correctly and change direction quickly. Our second station was tight ends. Coach Johnson taught us some of the more common routes the tight ends at Iowa run. The third station was Coach Campbell and the wide receivers. This station was my favorite. It didn't hurt that I was catching passes from Marvin McNutt and Mindy was catching passes from Keenan Davis. And Marvin taught us the move the wide receivers do when they celebrate a good catch - they high five and then bump their hips. Marvin and I did that 3 times. What can I say, I had some good catches! :-) Then we moved on to the offensive line and Coach Morgan. Adam Gettis, Woody Orne, Markus Zusevics, James Ferentz and Casey McMillan showed us how to properly line up and get off the line quickly. Mindy played center. If you know Mindy at all, you know she would never be the center. She was quite good though! Next up were the linebackers. Coach Wilson may be my favorite coach. He is funny and we laughed through most of this station. But, we learned some important techniques too! Our 6th station was Ken O'Keefe and quarterbacks. He talked to us about the snap count (or cadence as some people call it). Then he had A.J. Derby do a snap count to test us. He wanted us to clap when it was time to get off the line. This was much harder than it sounds, but Mindy and I caught on quickly. As a group, we did not. Lots of penalties for us! Then we moved to running backs. Coach Erb had us do a fun drill where we pulled on the player's jersey and tried to make them fumble while they ran. Then on the way back they did the same to us. Mindy had Marcus Coker and I had De'Andre Johnson. We didn't make them fumble, but they didn't make us fumble either! As De'Andre and I watched Mindy and Marcus, De'Andre was impressed with Mindy and called her "feisty"! The last station was the defensive line and Coach Kaczenski. Mike Daniels showed us how to get by opponents by slapping their arm down and then pushing them with your other hand or pushing them first and then pulling your arm up through theirs. We had a lot of fun with this group!

8:30 - 9:00 Strength and Conditioning Instruction (Iowa Football Weight Room) - The last session was in the weight room with Coach Doyle. He talked to us a little bit about the program and then had C.J. Fiedorowicz bench press. He had C.J. up to about 250 pounds and some women were concerned he was going to get hurt, but Coach Doyle smiled and said this wasn't hard for C.J.! Then he had Mike Daniels do some squats. The weight room is HUGE!
9:00 - 9:30 Closing Ceremony, Awards and Drawings (The Bubble Indoor Practice Facility) - We ended the evening in the indoor practice facility. It was really cool to be in there, but I am not going to lie, it smelled like a sweaty boys' locker room! They practice hard in there! Mary Ferentz gave out awards for the top fundraisers and there was a drawing for additional prizes (one of which was a cardboard cutout of Coach Ferentz!). Mindy didn't win anything, but I won my name tag back that I dropped at some point during the event! As I mentioned above, we raised $150,000 for the Children's Hospital! Wow!

The players and coaches were very friendly and seemed to really enjoy teaching us (and I think the players enjoyed the attention!) and the volunteers put on an amazing event! The University of Iowa has always been, and continues to be, a very special place and Coach Ferentz has an outstanding group of players and coaches!

Getting ready to do the walk into the stadium

One area of the HUGE locker room

Mindy is excited to be on the field!

Just a few of our new friends
McNutt, Cotton, Herman and Davis

Mindy showing everyone how to tackle

Mindy with the running backs

Date with a Hawk - they were teasing us
with the title of this one!

Mindy and Marcus Coker

Kirk!!

Me and Coach Ferentz

A few of the players getting ready for introductions

Mindy and Marvin McNutt just
hanging out before the swarm

Coach Doyle

On our way to the weight room

Weight room

The Bubble Indoor Practice Facility

Coach Ferentz

Our swag - towel, name tag, notecards,
poncho, t-shirt, gymsack and poster

Happy Father's Day!!

2011-06-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my husband, my father-in-law and my brother's-in-law (and all the other great dads out there)! We were able to see my Dad and my father-in-law last weekend in Iowa when we were celebrating Kayley's birthday. I also had a nice chat on the phone with my Dad this morning.
Andy started his day early with a 6:30am tee time (YIKES!) and then came home to work in the yard. I spoiled him a little and picked him up Jimmy John's for lunch. :-) My Mom and the kids arrived around 1:30pm and we spent the afternoon playing with some very wound up kids. They had a great time at the farm this past week, but they were very excited to be home with all of their toys. Drew wanted to take Andy to his favorite (Drew's favorite) pizza place - Mickie's Pizzeria in Dunlap. The pizza is good, but Drew likes it because they have one of those claw games with candy in it called Candy Town. You pay a quarter and see how much candy you can get. The only reason the kids love that place! Then we came home and Andy is currently taking his turn trying to get a screaming Kayley to bed. Ah, it is good to have the kids home!

The kids spent the week in Iowa. So far I have heard that they spent hours outside in Grandma's swimming pool (inflatable pool with a water slide...little different than our pool in Phoenix!), drove the golf cart all over the farm, spent 1 1/2 hours scrubbing bugs off the front of Grandma's car, mowed with Grandma, picked up sticks with Grandpa, played pool, watered everything in sight with the garden hose...sounds like a little bit of child labor mixed in with a lot of fun!

Kayley Turns Three!!!

2011-06-13T23:33:00.000-05:00

Kayley turned 3 on June 9th. On the one hand, the NICU seems like a lifetime ago, but on the other hand, it seems like just yesterday. Kayley has come so far since that scary day 3 years ago! Thank you again to Phoenix Children's Hospital and all of the great doctors and nurses who cared for our 27 weeker! I will give an update on her development next week after her 3 year check-up. Tonight, I am focusing on my first attempt to upload videos (especially for Auntie Mo!).

Kayley got to celebrate her birthday twice - once with Andy's family over Memorial Day weekend and this past weekend with my family and Andy's dad. The fact that Kayley got two birthday cakes did not go unnoticed by Drew. He was quick to point out that he only got 1 birthday cake!

Here are a few pictures from Kayley's birthday in Omaha:

Here are a few pictures from Kayley's birthday on the farm:

Finally! A camera just like cousin JD's!

Now for a few videos. In the first video, we were encouraging the kids to get into the pool even though the water was FREEZING.

Singing Kayley Happy Birthday (please excuse the singing!). As you will see, Kayley got a little distracted!

Kayley getting ready to eat her birthday cake. She refers to her birthday cake as her "birthday" all the time. When you ask her what she wants for her birthday, her reply is that she wants candles!

After Kayley opened her gifts, she went around and gave everyone a hug. Andy was videotaping and I was trying to take pictures with the camera. I was having trouble with the camera so we kept having the kids hug and this was the result!

Bribery

2011-06-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

Before I had kids, I would watch parents bribe their child to get the child to do whatever it was the parent wanted. I remember thinking they must not be good parents. Good parents are able to tell their child to do something and the child listens. Bad parents who can't control their children resort to bribery. Then I had children. And if my prior thinking is correct, I am a bad parent. I am not above bribery. In fact, I bribed Drew yesterday and Kayley today.

Today I took Kayley to the first day of her summer session of gymnastics. She had a new teacher and I knew it was going to be rough at first because she is very shy around new people and is shy at the beginning of each class, but usually she sees the other kids participating and she joins in after warm ups (she always refuses to do warm ups). Well, she was the only one in her class today. I knew the minute we walked out onto the floor that today was going to be a challenge. She refused to do any warm up with the teacher. She sat on the floor and just looked at the teacher. Then she put her head down and looked up at the teacher with a pout on her face. So the teacher skipped warm ups and took her to the first circuit. Kayley refused to do anything in the circuit. Finally, I got her to agree to do a sommersault down the incline mat. She walked over, jumped up on the mat, looked at the teacher, looked at me and sat down at the top of the incline. She was having nothing to do with it.

I tried everything. I tried encouraging her to do the things she loves in that circuit (sommersaults, swinging on the rope). I tried telling her I was going to take her home if she didn't want to participate. I even asked her to please do it for mommy. Nothing. I can only imagine what her teacher thought of my ability to get my daughter to listen. Then in a moment of desperation, I went to what I knew would work at least once. I asked her if she wanted a tootsie roll (one of her favorites) and her eyes got wide and she smiled and said, "yeah!" So I told her that she could have a tootsie roll after class if she listened to her teacher. She went on to do every activity with a huge smile on her face and talked nonstop to her teacher as she did all of the circuits. When we got done, she gave her teacher a high five and we walked off the floor. Then she looked up at me and said, "I want my tootsie roll." Good parenting will start again tomorrow.

Drew's bribery began on Sunday. Drew has been sucking his thumb since he was 4 or 5 months old. His dentist pointed out that his stuffed animal that he sleeps with is likely a trigger. That stuffed animal was Frog. Little Frog to be exact. As you can see, Little Frog was definitely a trigger.

Drew and a very new looking Little Frog

Drew and Little Frog

Drew always held onto the Little Frog's leg with his right hand and sucked his right thumb. Every time. The dentist encouraged us to get rid of Little Frog. One day, Grandma mentioned to Drew that Little Frog was torn and not very nice anymore. Drew agreed and threw Little Frog in the garbage. We were so excited! Our problem was going to be over! But, Grandma had bought another frog for Drew a few months before, Big Frog. Drew turned right to Big Frog.

Drew and Big Frog

You can't see Big Frog very well in this picture, but he was bigger than Little Frog and it was as if Little Frog had never existed. We did limit Drew to only having Big Frog for naps and bedtime at night (Grandma and Grandpa were sometimes more lenient as you can see from the picture above). For the most part, he only sucked his thumb when he had Big Frog. We were convinced that when we got rid of Big Frog, we would be done with the thumb. We talked Drew into sending Big Frog home with Grandma to Phoenix so she could give him to a little boy or girl who didn't have any toys. Drew agreed.

Our plan backfired. He started sucking his thumb every time he was in the car, every time we read him a book, every time he watched tv, etc. We have tried encouraging him and praising him when we saw that he wasn't sucking his thumb. I told him that babies suck their thumbs, but big boys don't. He responded that he thinks big boys should suck their thumbs and babies shouldn't.

Drew went with me yesterday to buy presents for Kayley's birthday. He saw a monster truck and said he wanted it. I said no. He said he REALLY wanted it like that should change my mind. I told him I would buy the monster truck and we would leave it in the box and he could have it when he goes one week without sucking his thumb. He readily agreed. Then we got home and he begged me to open it! I didn't cave and he only has 5 more days to go until he gets it. He was very proud this morning when he got up and told me he didn't suck his thumb the night before. He did great in the car today and when I read him his books before bed. Fingers crossed this bribe works. Or can we just call it a reward for good behavior?

Drew holding his new monster truck. Still in the box.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-30T22:27:00.000-05:00

We left for Omaha Wednesday night at about 6:45pm. We left later than planned due to severe thunderstorms and tornados in the area. Thunderstorms have not bothered our kids much at all until very recently when Drew learned about them during his weather unit at school! Thanks a lot PALS! Drew was in a panic when Andy went outside at one point. Kayley is fine as long as you aren't trying to put her to bed during a storm. If she is playing, she is oblivious to the weather.

Even though we left late, driving at night was the right decision. Drew and Kayley slept most of the way and we only stopped once. On the way home today, we had to stop 4 times and it took 45 minutes longer. Night driving is best for us right now!

We had a great time in Omaha with family. While Andy and his brothers golfed, the girls met my parents and took the kids to the zoo on Friday. We spent a lot of time at the zoo when we lived in Phoenix. After going to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, I don't know that I would ever go back to the zoo in Phoenix. There is no comparison! We were there for only a couple of hours and didn't get to see that much of it, but it was amazing.

Drew and Kayley had a great time playing with their cousins and staying up late. We will see how long it takes for them to get back into a routine with rules. We stayed with Andy's brother Mitch this weekend and he told the kids he has no rules at his house and they can do what they want! At one point I overheard Drew say, "We don't normally get these in the morning." Next thing I know he is walking by me with a popsicle. It was 9:45am. Then Kayley came walking by with one. About 10 minutes later, I went out to the kitchen and found Kayley eating a cupcake Mitch had just given her. I wish I would have had my camera to catch the smirk on that girl's face!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Kayley, Drew, Macie and Noah at the zoo

Making s'mores

Kayley's first s'more

Kayley's first ever sparkler. "Fireworks" as she calls them!

Drew and Kayley

Macie

Kayley, Drew and JD

Macie, Kayley, Drew and JD

Attempt at a cousin picture. Kayley needs a nap and I had
just caused her to hit her head on the wall to make matters worse.

Noah, Macie, JD, happy Kayley, Grandpa and Drew

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2011-05-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I decided it would be a great idea to take the train up to Chicago for the day so the kids could go on a train ride. Because we were going to be in Chicago for the day, we naturally decided to go to a White Sox game, but the whole point of the trip (in my eyes anyway) was to take the kids on a train ride. I ordered the train tickets and Andy ordered the White Sox tickets. Drew was so excited for our train ride. Kayley didn't really seem to care. Andy was excited for the White Sox, but didn't care about the train ride. In fact, I could tell he didn't think it was as great of an idea as I thought it was. He said it was because he likes to drive and be in control of his own schedule, but I think it may have been because he tends to get motion sickness!

I found out on Monday that there was an "issue" with our train tickets. Turns out they were going to be doing scheduled maintenance on the track on Saturday. Why would you allow people to buy tickets (much less run a special - kids ride free) when you know you have scheduled maintenace coming up? They do have alternate transporation available I was told. A bus. Oh my gosh, Andy would go through the roof if I were to tell him we were taking a bus to Chicago! Ha! I told him no and that I would like my money refunded.

So the whole point of our trip was no longer happening, but we had the White Sox tickets so off we went in Andy's Tahoe. Drew was a little confused and kept asking when we were going to get on the train. I explained again that the train wasn't working today. He saw a few trains on the way and quickly pointed out that the trains were working.

The kids enjoyed the drive to Chicago and pointed out every airplane they saw. There were a lot. And he made sure I looked at each one! When we got close to Midway, Drew could hardly contain himself with all of the airplanes he saw!

The White Sox won and the kids got to see fireworks, which Drew loved and Kayley did not enjoy. The kids ate hot dogs, nachos and ice cream - they were in heaven. I think I was in the restroom at least 8 times. Two young kids, one of which is still potty training, means lots of trips to "go potty."

After the game, we drove downtown for dinner and a train ride. We got on the "L" and Drew was in heaven. Who needs Amtrak when you have the "L"?!

Before the game. Kayley being Kayley and refusing to look
at the camera.

Finally!

Enjoying their ice cream.

Drew on the "L"

Drew

2011-05-19T22:00:00.003-05:00

Drew has never had a blog post dedicated to him so now is the time! Drew is a sweet, sensitive soul. He has always been on the shy side and continues to be shy until he warms up to you. From what I hear about Andy as a child, like father like son! But, once he knows you, he will talk your ear off (must be another trait from Andy, not me. Ha!). He loves going to "school" and is always proud to tell you what he has learned. Right now, he likes to practice writing his letters. We work with Kayley a lot on her shapes and colors and he is always right there trying to help teach her. It is adorable to watch.

Poor kid has a little of me in him and is very particular about things and has some Type A personality traits. His toys need to be put away just right and his monster trucks need to be lined up exactly how he wants them. He and Kayley could not be more opposite. She is anything but Type A!

One other not so desirable trait from me is that he is a super picky eater. To make it worse, the older he gets, the harder it is to convince him to eat something that I am not willing to eat!

Drew generally does not like to be in trouble or disappoint us. Not to say he is never in trouble because he certainly is, but we usually only have to say something once and he'll stop. Again, could not be more opposite than Kayley! However, he is starting a new phase of talking back to us. His new favorite saying when you tell him no is, "I can do what I want to do." The first time he said it, I laughed out loud because it was so unexpected. It isn't nearly as funny anymore.

Anyone who knows Drew knows he has always been a huge Thomas fan. Trains, trains, trains! Andy took him to Monster Jam in January or February and ever since, whenever he is in the house, all he wants to do is play with his monster trucks or watch Monster Jam on the DVR. His new favorite shirt is his blue monster truck shirt in the picture. We watch it so much that I even know all of the monster trucks. He can also tell you who drives each truck. I love pretty much any sport, but I think I have to draw the line at watching monster trucks so frequently.

As much as he loves monster trucks, he prefers to play outside. He had quite the adjustment when we moved from Phoenix to Illinois!

This blog will force me to do a better job of taking pictures of the kids! In the meantime, here is one my mom took when she was here. :-) Maybe someone can tell me how to add the pictures to the bottom of the post.

It's Been Awhile

2011-05-15T21:09:00.001-05:00

Where does the time go? So much has happened since Andy's last post in 2009! I've decided to start the blog back up again for our family and friends who want to keep track of the kids. Andy wants me to make it clear that I am blogging and not him - I think he thinks I won't be as witty as he thinks he is and he doesn't want me to give him a bad name! :-)

Little Miss is coming up on her 3rd birthday! Wow, that went fast! She has come such a long way since her NICU and her feeding aversion days! Long gone are the days of refusing to eat! There are very few things she won't eat now. Everything should be eaten with ranch and ketchup, preferably mixed together. A few of her stranger loves are blue cheese dressing, lima beans, and braunschweiger (who doesn't love braunschweiger though?!). This cannot be the child that came so close to a G-tube (feeding tube in her stomach) because she refused to drink her bottle!

Kayley can be the sweetest little girl. She LOVES to take care of her babies. She is always telling them she loves them and patting their backs. She loves to cuddle and give hugs. She also loves all animals, especially dogs - she squeals with delight whenever she sees a dog. She is happy as can be . . . as long as she is getting her way.

The rest of the time she is a sassy, independent, mischievous little girl. And so stubborn - just like Daddy! :-) She loves to test us every chance she gets. You ask her to do something, she gives you a little smirk and tells you no. If you tell her again, she gets a little louder and a more forceful "no" comes out. Perhaps a little of that came from me (according to my parents anyway). She holds her own fighting with Drew and is usually the aggressor in every fight with him. Luckily, she is still shy at daycare and doesn't give them any behavior problems. Yet.

Healthwise, she is doing great. She still has some reflux, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much. Her coordination is improving. She used to fall while running and run into things, but she has really improved. We put her in gymnastics a few months ago to help her balance. She certainly has lots of confidence. She will try anything and is so proud when she attempts a new move, whether she gets it right or not!

We did have a rough winter as it was the kids' first winter in daycare. I think they both got everything a few times. On the bright side, they are building up their immunity!

Developmentally, her daycare teachers say she is right on track. Learning disabilities were the last major unknown for her and still are. So far, she seems to be doing well, but time will tell. She knows all of the main colors, but sometimes she calls something green that is red. We are still working on a few of her shapes too, but overall she is doing very well. She would sit and read books with you all day if you are willing. Her vocabulary seems to be one of her stronger areas and I think the reading has had a lot to do with that.

Next time I post, I'll give an update of our monster truck loving boy, Drew!

Kayley's 1 Year Pictures

2009-07-24T15:41:00.004-05:00

Some Videos and Pics

2009-07-21T23:36:00.005-05:00

Video: Late Night Feeding

2009-07-11T18:11:00.001-05:00

Catching Up

2009-07-10T17:05:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Luckily there isn't a whole lot to catch up on.

We celebrated Kayley's 1st birthday on June 9, 2009 (see videos). Grandma Marla made her some vegan cupcakes for the occasion. Since Kayley can't have milk protein, we were at a loss for what to give Kayley for a cake. Luckily, Megan has a friend that had the vegan cupcake recipe to share. And Kayley loved them.

Kayley last weighed in officially at her 1 year year check up on June 10. She was 18 lbs 3 oz. Again, that's not the greatest but it really doesn't seem to matter as much anymore. As long as she's eating, developing, and growing, everyone seems to be happy. Like I said above, we are limited as to what we can give Kayley because she has a milk protein allergy. Megan has spent a lot of time at Whole Foods in the vegan aisle. Luckily, the doctor approved of us giving Kayley peanut butter, strawberries, and some other things we couldn't before. So hopefully, those will provide a lot of extra calories.

While we were at the check up, the doctor noticed some dark spots on Kayley's teeth. A lot of times preemies are born with little or no tooth enamel on their baby teeth so it is extra important to take care of them. Since there were already spots, off to the dentist we went. The dentist thought Kayley's teeth looked good. She has less enamel than normal but she's seen way worse. We just need to stay ahead of it and brush Kayley's teeth a lot...her favorite. And it turns out, the dark spots were from the iron vitamin we gave Kayley. We don't give it to her any more so the spots are actually fading.

Next, Kayley took her 2nd plane ride. We went to Colorado for a family reunion on Megan's side. Kayley wasn't exactly an angel on the plane but we got through it. Megan was a little worried about the altitude's effect on Kayley's lungs (I wasn't so much), but luckily there were no issues.

I've posted 2 videos from Kayley's birthday. I have some other footage that I plan to post but didn't get it edited before press time. So, look for those in the future...

Crawling, Standing Up, Falling, Climbing, Swimming...

2009-06-01T16:16:00.002-05:00

May 6, 2009: GI Appointment
We took Kayley to her GI appointment on May 6. She weighed in at 17 lbs 9 ounces which was very good. It took her from the 5th percentile to the 10th percentile for her actual age. We, including the doctor, were all very happy with her weight. This appointment didn't take too long since we already had the endoscopy scheduled for the following Friday. The doctor just gave us an overview of what he plans to do during the endoscopy and after.

May 8, 2009: Endoscopy with Pyloric Dilation
Since the last endoscopy seemed to help with Kayley's eating, we scheduled another one to actually stretch the pylorus more. If you remember from the last endoscopy, the doctor said Kayley's opening from her esophagus to her stomach was too big and from her stomach to her intestine was too small. Well, the doctor spent more time taking a look this time and actually saw the upper opening close by itself. He said it looked a lot better this time. Hopefully Kayley is out growing that issue. The lower opening was around 8 mm...too small. The doctor stretched it to 12 mm using a balloon. The procedure took a little longer this time but we were very hopeful it would make a big difference. As for any further surgery, we're definitely putting that talk off since we had good news about the upper opening. We're hoping to get by without it.

The doctor gave us some things to watch for after the surgery. Mainly, dumping syndrome. It's when the food doesn't spend enough time in the stomach before being passed to the instestine. We were to watch for Kayley sweating and becoming lethargic after eating. Since it's been a while since the endoscopy, I can actually report the results. The procedure didn't cause an issues like dumping syndrome but it also didn't help Kayley's eating either. Her feeding stayed the same so it looks like the procedure didn't work for Kayley. There are a couple options from here. First, we can wait to see if Kayley outgrows this. She will be 1 year old soon and it's only 3 months until she's 1 year old corrected age. Can we make it that long and then take her off the bottle? The other option would be to go in and stretch the pylorus more. I guess we'll see what the doctor recommends before we start coming to conclusions.

May 11, 2009: Developmental Pediatrician
We took Kayley to the developmental pediatrician next. Kayley weighed in at 17 lbs 11 oz but that was with her clothes. Overall, the doctor was very happy with Kayley's progress. She sat, crawled, stood up, and did pretty much everything the doctor expected and more. However, we never leave these places without homework. I think that once the child passes all the tests, they start to pick at all the little things. We need to work on Kayley standing up correctly and falling correctly. So yes, we work with her to stand up and once she's up, we push her down. Just kidding...kind of.

One bad thing that the doctor did comment on was that Kayley seems to be opinionated. Great. That's exactly what we need in the house! And last, the doctor suggested that we start giving Kayley 2 foods in every bite. For instance, when we give her crackers, we should spread cream cheese on it (we're still operating under the assumption that she's allergic to milk protein so Kayley gets imitation cream cheese called tofutti). So far so good. Kayley loves tofutti and seems to like almost everything we try. That will definitely help us get past these next few months where Kayley isn't taking the bottle so well.

As for everything else, Kayley is doing very well. She is a go getter to say the least. She hates to be held and wants to be down on the floor to explore. She's gotten into a lot of trouble already. If we don't watch her closely, we'll find her standing on her little desk chair, crawling half way up the stairs, or spilling our dog's food and water. She has no fear. We've had her in the pool once already and she loved it. Looks like it's time to get her in lessons. And for a while, we weren't sure she was ever going to talk. Now, she doesn't stop. She loves to hear herself ba, ba, ba and da, da, da.

Ba Ba Ba Ba

2009-05-06T13:24:00.003-05:00

Kayley is a great sleeper but some nights she likes to stay up for some late night conversation...

You Guys Have To Come In And See This!

2009-05-01T13:36:00.000-05:00

Since the last post, there have been a lot of things going on. I'll just go ahead and get right into them.

On Friday, April 17, we took Kayley in for a modified barium swallow. This test was to determine whether Kayley can take different thicknesses of liquid without aspirating. A speech therapist and a technician watch the barium, which is fed to her from a bottle (ha), go down the esophagus and into the stomach. As you can imagine, Kayley wasn't too cooperative in drinking the barium. She doesn't drink formula...why would she drink barium??? Anyway, we did get a couple swallows down her even though she was fighting us. From this, they determined that she didn't apirate at all. That's good news. However, they labeled this as a LimitedBarium Swallow because she didn't take a lot of barium.

Also, when Kayley did suck on the bottle a couple times, it was very weak and it looked like she was just chewing on the bottle. The speech therapist told us to mention it to the other speech therapist when we go in for our feeding evaluation. We've always noticed Kayley doing this but figured most of the time it was just that she didn't want to eat because when she actually wants the formula, she can definitely get it. Anyway, it's something that we're going to watch.

On Monday, April 20, we took Kayley to her endoscopy. This is where they put Kayley to sleep and the GI doctor sticks a scope down to Kayley's stomach to see if there is anything unusual going on. If there's one thing you don't want to hear when the doctor gives you the results, its "I had to call my colleagues in to see if they've seen anything like this before!" Yep. Those were pretty much his exact words. What he found was that the opening to Kayley's stomach was larger than normal. Again, large enough that he had to call in his colleagues to see. He even said he had a hard time determining where the esophagus ended and where the stomach began. And to compound the problem, the opening from Kayley's stomach to her small intestine was smaller than normal. So when Kayley's stomach contracts to push the food down through her intestines, the food goes back up the esophagus instead since it's the path of least resistance. The doctor did say that he used the scope to stretch out bottom opening a bit to see if that helped. He said we would see almost immediate results if that were to work. Obviously this isn't good news but we are a little relieved to know what we are dealing with. Some of the options we have are:

Let it go and hope she grows out of it.
Take Kayley in for a procedure to permanently stretch the opening to her small intestine...I think this is called a pyloric balloon dilation .
Take Kayley in for a more risky surgery called a fundoplication. This is wherethey take the upper part of the stomach and wrap it around the opening to her esophagus. This would help in keeping the food from going up the esophagus. We are going to talk to some surgeons about our options with this procedure.

So, for now we have upped the cereal in Kayley's bottle to make it very thick while we await the results of the biopsy the doctor took during the procedure. Mainly, We were waiting to see if the stretching the doctor did with the scope worked out. We'll meet with the surgeons no matter what to see what they think. It's a very real possibility that Kayley will have the fundoplication if the other things don't help. We're hoping we get it resolved before we have to go that far.

Before the endoscopy, Kayley weighed 17 lbs 2 oz with her clothes on.

Next, on Thursday, April 23, we took Kayley in for a feeding evaluation. It was with the speech therapist that we saw back in December. We really liked her the first time so we were happy to be going back. The appointment was at 9 am and we were instructed not to feed Kayley beforehand. So, once we got back to our room, Megan mixed the very thick formula and I started feeding Kayley. And wouldn't you know it, she practically downed the bottle!!! Good girl Kayley, but horrible timing! There was a little bit left but she did very well. We put what was left of the formula into a sippy cup to see what Kayley would do. The therapist wants us to do this often and hopefully Kayley will ween herself off the bottle by wanting the sippy cup. The theory is that if Kayley has control, she will be more comfortable and willing to eat. Next, we moved on to the high chair for baby food. The therapist fed Kayley herself. She started with Gerber Graduate treats crushed up on Kayley's tray. She wanted to see if Kayley would get it on her hands and then bring her hands to her mouth. Kayley got the first part down no problem. She played in the crumbs but never brought them to her mouth. So, the therapist helped her out by putting some on her finger and tranferring it to Kayley's lips. Kayley was curious but not too excited. Next, the therapist moved onto the pears we brought. Kayley wanted nothing to do with them. She was "avoiding." Then, the therapist got out the green beans. They are Kayley's favorite. Kayley started eating right away. She did pretty well for about half the container and then she stopped. Then the therapist put spoonful of green beans on Kayley's tray to play in. Again, Kayley was playing but not interested in tasting. The therapist encouraged us to do the same things when we're at home. Needless to say, feeding time is a mess. The reason for doing these things is that babies go through aprocess when learning to eat...visual, tactile, smell, and then taste. Allowing Kayley to play or touch the food gets her comfortable with the visual and tactile part so that she'll be more comfortable with the smell and taste when that time comes.

So, we got a lot of homework for Kayley. The therapist also thinks Kayley is a good candidate for continuing feeding therapy. Too bad it's almost impossible to get put on the regular schedule. We're currently on the waiting list but the therapist told us off the record that Kayley may be cured by the time we get in.

At this appointment, Kayley weighed 16 lbs 10 oz. It looks like she lost weight but we really don't know because she had her clothes and diaper on last time. We do know that it wasn't a good weigh in though.

Sorry to for using this saying but I think it is appropriate for what happened next. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." After we got home from the feeding evaluation where Kayley basically downed her bottle, Kayley was an eating machine. She acted like a normal eater. She wanted her bottle, she was hungry, and when we took it away to burp her before she was done, she got mad. She has never acted like this. She would maybe do it for one or two feedings during the day but never continuously. She drank her formula very well the rest of the that day and even the next day. She was taking close to 28 oz a day during that time. We were all very cautiously optimistic. When Kayley's happy, the rest of us are happy. Too bad that was pretty much the end of it. She had 2 great eating days and then went back to her old self. How can that happen? Well, we changed 2 things in the last while that could be the explanation. We made her formula thicker so maybe it stayed down better and didn't give Kayley the painful relux. Or, maybe it was the stretchening of the stomach exit? Kayley was pooping more and actually seemed hungry. Mayber her stomach was emptying better. And maybe after a couple of days, the opening started closing up again. Or maybe she's sick of the thick formula? I personally think it's the opening. If that's the case, maybe the pyloric balloon dilation will fix the issue. Let's hope.

Next, Megan got a call from the GI doctor's nurse. The biopsy came back negative. There was no acid in the lining of Kayley's esophagus meaning that the prevacid is doing its job. That's good news. Through all of Kayley's spitting up, it doesn't appear that its harming Kayley's esophagus. The nurse also mentioned that they are worried that it may be turning behavioral. She is going to check the waiting list for us to see where Kayley is at. Hopefully they can pull some strings. Also, they want to put her on a new drug called periactin. This drug stimulates the appetite. I'm not sure how it's going to work real well if Kayley's stomach isn't emptying. But, we'll know more about that after our upcoming GI appointment. And last, the nurse said they are going to proceed with the pyloric balloon dilation.

So, our appointments continue. We have an appointment with the GI doctor on Wednesday, May 6. We'll learn more about the biopsy results, the plan going forward, and probably which surgeons we will consult with for the fundoplication. Then on Friday, May 8, we take Kayley in for the pyloric balloon dilation. She'll be put to sleep for the procedure. We'll know more about that in the coming days too. Then, on May 11, we go back to the developmental pediatrician. Hopefully with all this stuff going on, we get this resolved.

As for everything else, Kayley is doing great. Marla's blog (http://grannynannyandbuck.blogspot.com/) has a video of Kayley crawling for the first time. She's been so close for so long and finally got it. She continues to be very happy and is learning to express it more. She also loves making new sounds. Blowing through her nose is a good one.

To Eat Or Not To Eat. That Is The Question....That Kayley Knows The Answer To...NOT TO EAT!!!

2009-04-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

Forgive me...I've had writer's block. Since it has been a long time since the last update, I have a bunch of news. But, I'm going to try to keep it as short and sweet as possible. And, pictures and video will come later. I don't have anything relatively new so I'll get some soon. Until that time, Grandma Marla's blog has a lot of pics and video...http://grannynannyandbuck.blogspot.com.

Kayley is now 10 months old. She is starting to get very mobile. She spins and army crawls all over the place. She even gets up on her hands and knees. It won't be long until she's crawling. The bumbo seat is no longer used. She gets out of that in minutes. The infant seat is close to gone too. We still feed her in it most of the time but she won't just sit in it and relax. Even though she's strapped in, she still spins around and tries to grab things from the floor. She surprised me one night while I was washing her bottles. I heard her grunting a little bit and I walked over to check it out. She was completely upside down reaching for a toy that was inches away from her grasp. She really wanted it.

On March 9, Kayley had a physical therapy appointment. Everything checked out great. Kayley was doing exactly what she should've been doing at that time. Even though that was the case, we still got homework. She wasn't quite sitting up perfectly so we were given some exercises for that. We also received some handouts on how to develop her crawling. We must be doing a great job because she's caught on to that pretty quickly.

On March 16, we took Kayley in for her 9 month checkup. She weighed in at 15 lbs 15 oz. It wasn't great but the pediatrician wasn't too concerned. She suggested we should try pureeing some high calorie foods like avocado to see if we could get Kayley to take more calories in her solid foods. Well, we tried and it didn't go over too well. I'll have more on that in the next paragraph. Next, Kayley was given her shots. I don't know if it's good or bad but she handles those like nothing. She's a pro at it which means she's gotten so many that it hardly fazes her any more. Lastly, they informed us that Kayley will no longer be receiving the Synagis shot (helps with RSV). They saw a sharp decline in RSV so they declared the RSV season over. Kayley was out of house arrest!!! We promptly took ourselves out to eat for the occasion. It's been rough not being out of the house for such a long time.

Within the week after her checkup, Kayley took a bad turn with her feedings. Up until then, we were giving her the bottle and then feeding her solids with formula mixed in. She wasn't doing real great but she was eating at least. Well, she started refusing solids all together and the bottle started to decline too. Megan called the GI doctor immediately and got an appointment with the nurse practitioner. They couldn't get us in for a couple weeks. In the meantime, we stopped solids completely and continued to struggle with the bottle. We were stumped. So, we thought we'd try to make the bottle taste better by putting baby food in the bottle. We put bananas, applesauce, and pears in the bottle. It was very thick but Kayley took the bottles much better. She went from taking 11-12 oz/day (yes, that little) to 20-22 oz/day (still not very good but better). We were feeling ok but we knew something more needed to be done.

On April 1, we took Kayley to an appointment with the GI nurse practitioner. She weighed 16 lbs 2 oz. Not good. That was only a 3 oz gain in just over 2 weeks. It was not a good appointment. We came to the harsh reality that Kayley NEEDS to start eating better or she will have to have a feeding tube. The nurse practitioner came up with a feeding plan. We were to scrap the baby food in the bottle and go back to the basics...formula and cereal. The baby food actually dilutes the formula and causes Kayley to get less nutrition. In other words, less bang for the buck. And, no more rice cereal because it is constipating. Basically, the plan was to start with a new formula, Alimentum, and see how it goes. If that didn't work, we were going to move to Elecare (we thought the other formula was expensive). And, our goal was 30 oz a day!!! Megan's and my immediate reaction was, "NO WAY! That will never happen." After all, her highest total in one day to date was only 26 oz. And that probably happened once. Now we have to get 4 more ounces down her when she's eating worse?!?! We're definitely not giving up, but that's impossible. Oh well, that was our goal and that was that. We took that plan home and had to go back to see the nurse practitioner 2 weeks later for an update.

We started with Alimentum and oatmeal cereal and added the 6th feeding per day back in. She started out pretty well like she normally does. She likes to fool us. We even got up to 29.3 ounces one day. Then, back down we went. She started struggling again and she was spitting up more than before. It was very difficult to get her to eat. So, after 6 days on Alimentum, we switched to Elecare. And guess what...no miracle. She kept struggling. We were dreading our next appointment. Would we have to do a feeding tube?

Yesterday, April 9, we took Kayley back to the nurse practitioner for an update. She weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz. Heck, we were surprised she gained weight at all! The nurse practitioner and the nutritionist came into the room and asked for an update. We gave them the bad news that there was no feeding miracle. Surprisingly, no feeding tube was mentioned initially. Instead, we were to continue on the Elecare since we just switched. To help with the spitting up, we were to add more cereal. The good news was that since we were adding cereal, the calories per ounce went up so the total ounces Kayley needed to take per day went down...to 28. We only had to climb Mt. McKinley instead of Mt. Everest. The nurse practitioner also instructed us to up the doses of Reglan that we give Kayley. Kayley is a little bit bigger now so she can handle the bigger dose. Lastly, Dr. McOmber told the nurse practitioner that if it didn't get better by this visit, schedule a scope and biopsy. So, one of the next Monday's, we'll be taking Kayley in for the procedure. They will put Kayley to sleep and then stick a scope down her to check things out. They will also take a biopsy to see if anything else is going on. The visual results will be available instantaneously but the biopsy results will take a week or so. We're just happy that they are taking the next step to figure out what is wrong.

So all in all, Kayley is progressing perfecting in all areas except feeding. As as you just read, we are struggling quite a bit with that. Hopefully something positive happens with that soon. We really don't want to have a feeding tube put in even though they keep telling us it actually reduces OUR stress a bunch. We would no longer have the pressure of getting Kayley to take a certain amount. We'll just give her what she'll take and then tube feed her the rest of it. I can totally understand how that could be because every feeding normally ends with the feeder frustrated and dumbfounded. However, we still don't want the feeding tube. Poor Kayley doesn't need that discomfort too. She's already going through enough...

2009-03-06T13:27:00.000-06:00

Since the last post, Kayley started downing bottles and eating solids like the world was ending. Ok...so that statement is not quite true. Sounded good though didn't it? We're pretty much just trying anything we can at this point to see what Kayley reacts to.

We visited the GI specialist on Feb. 19. He was very happy with Kayley's solid food intake even though it limits her bottle intake. He likes the direction that we're going. We told him her average ounces a day dropped from around 23-24 ounces to 16-20 ounces. He wasn't worried about that at all. He said he was expecting us to tell him her bottle intake dropped to somewhere around 8-10 ounces. That would have been more of a problem. In the end, he said Kayley just needs to take around 70-80 calories per kilogram that she weighs. So, since she weighs just over 7 kgs, she needs just over 560 calories a day. With the solids mixed with formula and the amount she takes from a bottle, she's getting well over that. She takes anywhere from 610 to 690 calories a day. She'll be fat before we know it.

We also gave the doctor an update on how we think the medicines are working for Kayley. We told him the Prevacid seems to work but we really weren't quite sure. He said we're going to keep Kayley on it because it protects her throat by limiting the amount of acid reflux Kayley would have. We don't want the reflux to get worse and therefore cause problems with her throat. That could have very bad effects on her feeding.

Next , we told him that we didn't think the Reglan was working at all. It seemed to work the first week but then it wore off. Reglan is supposed to help the stomach move food through to the intestine. It should limit how full Kayley's stomach feels so she'll be hungrier during feeding times. It's also suppose to make it so food doesn't just sit in her stomach to be spit up later. Well, Kayley wasn't really eating well and she seemed to be spitting up quite a bit. So, the doctor told us to quit the Reglan for a while and see what happens. If it got worse, we would start Kayley back on it. If nothing happened, we'd keep her off it. Well, a week passed without giving it to her and we noticed quite a difference. Kayley was struggling to eat because she always seemed full. And, Kayley would eat solids and then have a bottle, then 4 hours later after playing and a nap, she'd spit up the solids. 4 hours is too long for the solids to be in her stomach. So, we put her back on. It didn't magically make Kayley start eating a ton better but it helped the spitting up a lot.

The last thing we discussed was how Kayley's cheeks would get very red after eating solids. This was more difficult to explain. It happened after all solids including carrots, beans, peas, etc. It's very rare to have an allergy to all those foods. Also, we checked the labels and there was no milk protein in them. We already know Kayley is allergic to that. So, the doctor said he would be surprised if it was the solids. And since Kayley's cheeks didn't get red after having just a bottle, he'd also be surprised if it was the formula. From there, it could have been the spoon, bib, or washcloth we were using while feeding solids. The conclusion, keep switching things up until we can narrow down what's causing it. We even were supposed to switch between formulas just in case...expensive, expensive, or more expensive. The 3 formula options are Nutramigen, Alimentum, and Pregestimil. They all have a different make up in proteins so switching could help. We had Kayley on Pregestimil at first and switched her to Alimentum. That didn't show any difference except I think the Alimentum smelled considerably worse. Pregestimil smells bad enough. Next, we tried Nurtramigen. That's what Kayley is currently on and it seems to help a bit.

Our next appointment with the GI specialist is May 6 so hopefully we can report a lot of progress then.

Our next appointment in general is a physical therapy evaluation this coming Monday. It was ordered by the NICU at Phoenix Children's so it seems pretty standard. In my opinion, Kayley seems like a normal baby for her corrected age so we'll see what they have to say.

Now to Kayley's weight. The last time we weighed her was at her last Synagis shot on the 24th of Feb. She came it at a whopping 15 lbs 11 oz. To me, that just shows that Kayley is getting enough to eat, but it's the struggle we have getting her to eat that's the issue.

For the last few months, we've kept Kayley on a schedule of 6 feedings per day. The first feeding started at 8:00 am and the last feeding started around 11:30 pm. They were spaced 3 hours apart. It worked fine until the last couple weeks. At the last feeding of the day, it became very hard to wake her up. She would be dead asleep and getting her to eat was almost impossible. I tried all of the tricks that we used on Drew and it still didn't work. So, we changed her feeding schedule to 5 times a day about 3.5 hours apart. Her first feeding starts at 7:30 am but her last feeding is now at 9:30 pm. So far it's working out pretty well. Her total ounces a day went down a little bit but not too bad. I'm just thankful that I get to bed before 1 am these days.

Onto Kayley sitting up. She's so close. She's a little behind schedule with it but one of these days she's going to get it. She stays up on her own for 1/2 a minute to a minute but then falls over. The couple of face plants she's done shows she's just not quite there yet but like I said, it'll be soon.

And last, Kayley is still quite happy. She's making more and more noises daily. She's noticing a lot more around her. She loves watching Sox and Drew play. She tries to grab everything. She's all over the place when we put her on the floor. I've even seen her army crawl a couple times to get to things. And unfortunately, she absolutely loves the Teletubbies. I've tried numerous time to switch her to Barney because I can handle Barney, but Teletubbies still reign. See the video to see how much she likes them.

Bringin' In The Big Guns

2009-02-24T15:56:00.000-06:00

Quick Pic Fix

2009-02-18T17:09:00.001-06:00