Random April Photos

I haven't done a random photo dump in a few months, but that's probably because life has felt a bit random overall the past few months. We're kinda settling down into something resembling a routine, so random photos are returning! :)

Nonni getting in a little more grandkid time before she left after Easter. It looks like Natalie isn't behaving since her O2 monitor is reading below 90%, but to be honest it's probably the monitor. That thing tends to go a little crazy if she moves much and she's getting very active when she is awake. So it's a nonstop battle with the mute button on that thing most days if she's not asleep...

Matt gave me such a hard time about not buying him any Cadbury eggs for Easter. I barely remembered the event for the kids and it's not like he bought me any candy! But I am willing to take feedback into consideration on our marriage at any time.

So I bought every single cadbury egg they had left at Target the next day and let the kids hide them all over the house. I think they had more fun hiding these things than they did hunting for their own. But I also knew we would lose track of where they all went, so I took photos of where we hid every single one. No need to attract any rodents into the house!

My Natalies! I haven't managed to get a great photo of the two of them together. Furry Natalie isn't the best at having kids propped up on her, so I have no idea how I am going to get a photo shoot of them until baby Natalie is able to sit up better...

Chilling out in her blanket cocoon. The therapists with the ILP suggested different ways of positioning her with blankets to keep her in "neutral" positions. Plus the blanket pushes her shoulders/arms forward where she is more likely to use them and reach for things. And she's got her Nuk massager that she likes to wave around like a sword. The speech therapist adjusted her grip to be closer to the head of the massager and Natalie stuck it right in her mouth and started trying to gnaw on it - perfect!

Side note - she is in a sea of pink! :)

So many coworkers have been bringing us food and it has been so helpful! One person brought us a bake-at-home custom pizza and bought mini-pizzas for the kids. It was so thoughtful and they had a blast putting their toppings on! 

I let Thomas borrow my phone to text Nonni and he did awesome at it. I know he's been in Kindergarten almost a whole year, but I am still blown away by his reading and writing skills! Can't wait to text him all the time when he is older!

Most mornings these days have a little bit of quiet time chilling with Natalie before our day really gets going. I think all three of my kiddos have always been in the best moods in the morning. Cherished time, for sure!

I do my best to plan her meals around appointments, but it isn't always possible. Especially when I get the appointment time wrong (twice in one month...). We made it to the appointment, but she was still finishing her milk as we were checking in. I managed to McGyver a set-up in the car and on her stroller to make it work. 

I feel like I have no clue what I am doing some days, but I'm learning!

I honestly have no idea why he was growling at me anymore. But how can I not share this face with the world??

Trying to get a cute photo of us to send to Matt and she punches me right in the face. So rude! ;)

When you find out Pluto isn't a planet anymore...

Not at all what caused this meltdown, but it was Kathryn's response when I sent her the photo and waaaaaaay more fun. Not sure why everyone isn't morally offended that Pluto got demoted, but this family certainly is. :)

When your four year old really wants you to play uno and is suspiciously carrying around his hand of cards already...

He was soooo upset when I looked at his cards. There were real tears and more collapsing on the floor (sadly, not in a rocket costume this time). But I don't know why he thought he needed to cheat, he won the first two times after I re-dealt the cards. 

This girl pretty much always has something in her mouth every time we give her food. The NICU staff said it would be important to make sure she has positive oral experiences, so we took that to mean we should try to convince her food comes through things she puts in her mouth. They even said we could dip her pacifier or chew toys in a bit of milk so she can taste it. So we're doing the best we can to keep her engaged and it seems to be working - at least she usually looks pretty happy at meal time. :)

Grandpa Comes to Town!

Since it didn't look like Natalie would be making it to Texas anytime soon (like I had planned months ago), my dad decided he could wait no longer to meet his grand-daughter and came up to visit! 

She was pretty excited to meet a new person and hung out with Grandpa at the table while Nonni and I were making breakfast. In case I have failed to mention it, that turtle is her favorite toy. I think it may have something to do with the mirror on the underside that she likes staring at, but either way, she loves it. 

Apart from playing with her turtle, her top activity these days is hanging around with her favorite people and sleeping on them. 

Grandpa was more than happy to oblige! Doesn't he just look smitten already?? She tends to have that effect on people...

Since Grandpa was in town and we had another birthday coming up, we definitely had to go to our new favorite birthday spot - Benihana's! I thought I would get Heather to take a photo of me and the boys instead of the usual selfie. Unsuprisingly, they were as uncooperative as usual...

Side note - we went for lunch so we could have one of Natalie's home-care nurses stay home with her. The hibachi show was the same, it was definitely still too much food, but the bill was almost half as much! Well I guess we learned something valuable today...! ;)

I made my dad a loaf of sourdough while he was here, hoping that months of (understandable) neglect hadn't killed my starter. Thankfully, it is a resilient bunch of yeast and the bread turned out awesome! Dad was getting a bit concerned that everyone was eating *his* bread, so I promised to bake him a loaf of his own to take home.

Baked goods from his daughters has always been one of his favorite things, so I'm glad to keep that tradition going. It's a small thank you to the man who taught me many of my kitchen skills! It was great to see you, Dad, and I can tell your grand-daughter already loves you. :)

3 Months!

Another month has flown by and everyone is doing awesome around here! Especially Natalie - she's getting bigger and stronger every day! Everyday we're getting closer to having her home longer than she was in the hospital. Woo!

Look at these three awesome kiddos! So excited to be taking photos with each other.

And no pjs this time!

(It's a miracle!)

As always, I got a great one of everyone looking at the camera with pleasant expressions on their face. And then the rest of the photos...

Haha - what is Henry doing here?? Natalie looks super intent on the camera though. :)

Though she starts to get a little concerned the longer she thinks it is in her personal space. Sorry baby, but that's pretty much life for you now. ;)

She's doing a much better job leaning on the arm of the chair, huh? I mean, she looks a little skeptical about the whole concept, but she's hanging in there!

She definitely prefers the security of her pillow though! I love how she's holding up her card and staring off into the distance. I must be boring her.

And you can see the wires that are the give-away that we still have to deal with the monitors. One of these days we will have a cordless baby... ;)

This cutie patootite! She may only be giving me a half smile, but I think you can tell she's pretty happy to be hanging out with her momma and brothers. In case it's not obvious, she's got the whole family wrapped around her tiny fingers and I think she might know it!

Happy three months, baby girl! We love you whole bunches! :)

Texas Trip

Matt and the boys headed down to Texas this week for the funeral. As much as I wanted to be there, it seemed like the better idea would be to stay home this time. We aren't quite up for that much traveling with Natalie just yet.

I was a bit worried about the boys behaving for the funeral, but I got multiple reports from family members about how great they did at the service. (They didn't really have any nice clothes, so Matt took them shopping down there to get some appropriate clothing. Don't think look like handsome young men?)

Of course, as serious as they took the occasion during the service, they are still two little boys who are a teensy bit silly and goofy. Look at these cheese-tastic smiles they were giving their Nonni! 

It's pointless to go to Texas for less than a full week, so they did get to have some fun hanging out with the family while they were there. And of course, they got to eat at all of *my* favorite spots!

Matt thought he was going to end up being the "boring" parent compared to when I take the boys to Texas and they go to all kinds of fun places. I told him to take them on an outing or two and they would be just as happy. So he ended up taking them to the Dallas Zoo and they had a blast!

Well they *were* having fun until one of the birds landed on Henry's head. Poor guy didn't want that feathered creature up there and the bird didn't care one bit. Oh well...

Other than that, I promise they had fun! I got several short video clips of them playing with their cousins and overall being little boys hanging out with their dad. (I am very concerned about the level of rough-housing I keep hearing about...!

I had plenty of free time (as much as you ever have with a baby!) while the boys were all gone, so I decided to be productive and move them into one room. We have been talking with them about combining rooms since it looks like Nonni will be up here quite a bit helping out with Natalie. Matt had talked about building them bunk beds because their current beds are both so big that they eat up the whole room.

I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a dry run with room sharing to see how it went before committing to the bed building. Here's hoping they are excited and don't flip out when they see what I've done...! 

I also had a spectacular failure with making almond brittle. You ever have one of those moments where you know something is a bad idea, but you are rushing and there is a baby crying and you do it anyway? Yep - that was me today. After making almond brittle in the microwave, I turned on the cold tap water into a super hot bowl - those cracks show thermal shock is indeed a bad thing!

Natalie didn't seem to mind the extra time with her mommy, though she definitely got more tummy time than usual since all of my time could be focused on her. She's not the biggest fan, but look how awesome she is doing today! I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact I put the popsicle on her lips to let her feel the cold/taste it and she is staring it down trying to will it to come back... ;)

Happy Easter!

Once again, this holiday snuck up on me. But since Nonni was here, Heather asked if she could cook Easter dinner* at our house. In a last minute Target visit, I decided to buy them candy and eggs to hide them in. 

Of course, I wasn't thinking clearly because Nonni being in town also meant that Nonni had come prepared to spoil them! She had already started giving them treats by the time I got breakfast on the table. So I got their easter baskets out of the closet they were stashed in and made the treats look all official!

I saw a coffee mug the other day that said "Nonni is my name and spoiling is my game!" I really should order it for my mom for Mother's Day. Pretend to be surprised if I do, Mom. ;)

At least they still seemed excited about the cinnamon rolls I made for them. I didn't waffle them because I didn't feel like cleaning up the usual mess it makes of my waffle iron, but they survived with them cooked normally.

It was finally Easter Egg Hunt time! They had to wait until after nap time to give me a chance to actually fill and hide all of the eggs I had bought. And of course Aunt Heather brought more eggs and baskets for them. I don't know why I worry about these things when clearly other people are covering it for me...

I offered to hide the eggs outside for them, but they decided that they didn't want to mess with the yard that is covered in melting snow. Whatever, it's fun to hide the eggs inside too!

Oh and you can just see the "new" changing table we got for the living room. Mom had made a comment about how it's pretty hard to change her on the floor and we have all of her medical supplies downstairs, so I thought we could look into getting a table. And that night a coworker posted on facebook that she had one she wanted to get rid of. Perfect timing and we have the best little baby corner now!

There were two sets of PJ Mask "eggs" and Henry found both of the Gecko eggs, so he made sure he gave the second one to Thomas. Such fairness!

This boy was so excited about *every* egg he found! Which is probably how Thomas ended up with more eggs, Henry was too busy doing a celebration after every one... ;)

Also, you can see the easter egg decoration on the window behind him. If you leave a seasonal craft up long enough, it comes back in season!

Look at their haul! I told you they got spoiled - two full easter baskets! Henry looks like he can barely hold up the weight!

Heather also wanted to start up the money grab tradition that our grandmother used to have. Which is basically throwing a lot of coins on the ground and you get whatever you can pick up before your sibling. The lighting in the living room is pretty awful this time of day, but Henry just looked too hysterical to not share. That kid is ready to fight for some coins!

Of course, Thomas picked up coins *way* faster than his brother because it's Thomas and he's just a bit competitive...

No idea where he gets that...!

But they were both pretty quick on the coins. I was teasing them that I have never seen them move anywhere near that fast when I tell them to pick up their Legos...

Natalie's concession to the holiday was to wear a festively colored outfit. She wasn't fazed by all the excited yells from her brother's, she was happy to just snooze on her Nonni. 

Big Natalie was pretty content to get some snoozes in too. Poor girl now needs an adjective or the boys get a little confused when Matt asks them where "Natalie" is. Furry Natalie is the other preferred adjective. ;)

Finally time to dye the Easter Eggs! I got pestered about it all morning, but I forgot to boil the eggs until today, so they needed time to cool. And I found these egg dyeing cups in the same closet I had hidden the easter baskets. So much easier than trying to find appropriately sized coffee mugs! I buy the best stuff on sale after holidays and then totally forget about it until the holiday rolls back around...!

The boys had so much fun putting these face stickers on the eggs. Hopefully they won't throw a fit about me wanting to eat their egg friends tomorrow. I'm pretty excited for some egg salad sandwiches...! :)

* We had 11 people here for Easter (including the kids) and I got virtually no photos of any of them! Thanks for coming over and spending the holiday with us, sorry the kids were the only focus of my camera. ;)

Back to Normal-ish Again

I'm not a superstitious person by any means, but it does seem like tempting fate to post an update about how life is returning to normal after a hospital stay... Oh well, guess I'm going for it anyhow!

I have been playing games with the kids for awhile, but they've really gotten into the family game night kick recently. Mostly with Uno and mostly after dinner. This little guy does not need any help, thank you very much. Henry still needs a little bit, but not much. These two are going to be little card sharks like my grandmom very soon!

I was cleaning up the bathroom before Nonni came back again and found a can of bath foam that wasn't empty. Long story short, it's empty now...! That stuff is so much fun to spray all over the place. :)

Look at all of these boy clothes we are getting rid of! Our friends are having twin boys and after the first small donation of clothes we sent them, they made the mistake of saying "Oh yeah, just send over whatever you guys want to get rid of!" We got so many girl clothes by the same method that I just don't see any reason to keep most of the boy clothes, though I did pick out a few of my favorite dino and space shirts for her. ;)

Thomas had some extra money from a field trip and has been begging me to take him to buy Legos. Well today he got a lesson in how much money Lego kits cost and that $6 won't buy much. Henry had a whopping $1 and just wanted to find *something* he could buy. Somehow we ended up on the aisle with yogurt and I pointed out they were 2 for $1. Once Henry picked out his two, Thomas decided he wanted the ones with M&M's. They were so cute picking them out and then paying for them. Thomas almost forgot to grab his change in his excitement. ;)

The boys don't have many video games they like to play yet, but the dancing game I got them for the Wii is definitely their favorite. They take turns on picking songs with minimal arguing (Thomas has the remote that is in control on the menus because Henry hasn't quite gotten the pointing at the screen down). While they both have a blast doing the dances, one of them has gotten the concept of correct "moves" down better than the other one... 

He may not follow instructions well, but he has fun anyhow. And he's not a sore loser like his momma*, so he doesn't seem to mind never winning.

*I'm working on it. I lose all the time to them when playing Uno, so I am definitely getting practice in...

Natalie seemed interested enough in watching them play that she didn't protest too much about being forced to do tummy time. It's not really her favorite activity otherwise...

The newest addition to the family tech is Natalie's Mamaroo! They had this fancy infant swing in the PICU and she loved being in it when there wasn't a family member to hold and rock her. It's got bluetooth so you can turn it on and change the pattern from across the house. So far, it's not *quite* as magical as it was in the hospital, but I am still glad we got it!

Since we have Nonni in town and since it's still a little stressful driving with Natalie and all of the monitors, I moved Henry to the far back seat with Thomas to temporarily free up the spot next to Natalie. It's a little harder to get him buckled in back there since I have to get in the minivan to fasten the belts. So I was trying my best to see if he could at least unbuckle himself. 

To give him credit, he tried very hard! He can get the top buckle undone, but he's just not strong enough to release the lower buckles. Thomas can get it when he is in the car, but alas, he was not on this errand we ran the other day. Anyhow, I thought he was being super cute when I was asking him to try harder and he was wagging his finger at me and saying "I can't do it!"

2 Months!

Once again, we made it home from the hospital just in time to do the monthly photo shoot! The boys were super excited to take photos again, though they were both pretty insistent that they get to wear their pjs this time. 

Thomas actually went and changed into non-pjs just for photos last month, but he wasn't interested this month. And Henry wore the *exact* same pjs last month... Sigh.

Her clothes kinda look like fluffy pjs though, so we'll just go with it being the theme this month. ;)

Once again, I really only got one decent photo with all three of them looking at the camera, but I like this one because Henry looks so excited!

Doesn't she look sooooo cute in this fluffy pink zebra outfit? And in case it's not obvious from the fact she's not looking directly *at* the camera, this girl has discovered ceiling fans and she loves looking at them.

See what I mean? Such amazement in those eyes! Speaking of her eyes - just like Henry, she seems to also have gotten her daddy's blue eyes. Nonni think she looks like me as a baby, but I'll have to go dig out some baby photos to compare. 

This kid may not be cooperative on outfit changes, but he was definitely happy to help me get the camera set up for photos. And he even smiled normally! He seems to love making faces more than smiling these days...

I swear it doesn't seem like that long ago that I was taking his two month pictures. How does time fly by so fast?? It's hard to believe this tiny little guy has turned into this crazy four year old already! 

Still has though awesome cheeks though! :)

And Back in the Hospital...

Sigh...

We were only home for two weeks! She seemed to be coming down with a cold and it didn't seem like a big deal except she had a few epic snot bubbles. Thankfully we have a fancy suction machine and I kept her nose cleared out. But after dinner, she really seemed to get worse fast. Once we couldn't get her O2 to stay above 90% (or 80% even), I packed her up and headed to the ER at 11pm.

I figured we would have to wait for awhile, but they took a look at her and sent us right back to the Pediatric ER unit. They immediately put her on oxygen and then transferred her up to the PICU. She looked so tiny and helpless in the kid's bed they had in the room. And needless to say, I am incredibly grateful we had the monitors and decided to bring her in because even in the PICU, she got worse before she got better. 

The flu and RSV tests both came back negative, but she tested positive for HRV (Human Rhinovirus) and ENT (Enterovirus). I was relieved it wasn't flu or RSV until I started googling and found out the HRV-ENT combo usually had a longer hospital stay. :(

The doctor's warned us that she would likely get worse before she got better and that day 4 would be the worst. And they were right - they ended up cutting off her feeds on day 4 because it looked like she might need to be intubated. But this girl is a fighter and managed to pull through with just the high pressure air and respiratory treatments. 

Though her IV difficulties are still present. They ended up needing to put an IV in her scalp and it looked incredibly sad. But it held like a champ! Unfortunately they needed to draw blood a few days later and opted to try the scalp again. The guy in the middle has about the same look on his face that I did. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to mind it any more than a normal blood draw (not that she liked it by any means!). 

Theresa had been super bummed that she couldn't be there for me when Natalie was in the NICU, so she planned on coming up in March to hang out with us at the house. Instead, she got to be there for us while we were in the PICU. She's such a sport about hanging out in hospitals. As long as she has chocolate cake, she's happy. Unfortunately, the hospital didn't have any...

So I got to make the fantastic box mix one again. :)

It's hard to tell from this photo, but it's Theresa holding her. Natalie loved getting in some snuggle time with her Aunt Theresa!

I know she looks a little under the weather here, but this was on the upswing!

Still surrounded by lots of equipment and still has the high-pressure oxygen support, but this is in the PICU overflow, not the main PICU. It means we are the least sick of the PICU patients. As opposed to when we came in and were pretty high on the sick list. I think my heart broke a little the first time they referred to her as "critically ill". :(

She finally got well enough to move to a normal pediatric room and got taken off of the high pressure air. She looked much more comfortable without the giant nasal cannula. She was doing much better, but she had to stop having the reflux and brady events (just like in the NICU) and start gaining weight before they would let her go home.

Apparently respiratory distress makes babies work extra hard to breathe and they end up burning more calories than they usually would. Which explains why she was losing weight until her breathing got back to normal. They tried fortifying her feeds to get her extra calories, but that made the reflux much worse. So we had to slowly up the volume of her milk to get her weight to start going back up. Poor girl just couldn't win. 

But after 48 hours off of supplemental oxygen and no more "events", she was finally cleared to go home! Our poor little girl had been in the hospital for 16 days this time. And to think, google had made me believe that 8 days was the standard and that had sounded long...

I brought in Henry's "bad guy" hat for her to wear because it honestly did feel like she was stuck in jail again. I was beyond ready to bust her out and get her home. Plus, the nurses thought she was the most adorable jail bird ever. :)

It's Good to be Home!

As the title suggests, we are so happy to have our baby girl home and not spending all of our spare time in the hospital! It's nice to wake up and just have a leisurely day at home. Nonni did have to go home the day after she got home from the hospital, but she will be back in a few weeks!

I love it when the boys pull out something from the playroom that they haven't used in awhile and the cloth smore's set from their Grannie made an appearance the other day. Henry usually just runs around wearing the fire as a hat (and looking like a psychedelic rooster), so it was awesome to see the set being used like Grannie intended. And Thomas made a "sleeping bag" out of the bean bag chairs. So creative!

As I mentioned, we got so many cute things from friends and this shark robe from my friend Kelly was one of my favorites. But it didn't occur to me until I was using it that she sent it because we both worked on a project called Sharktooth (she confirmed her logic).

So I am a little slow, but I appreciate it even more now! 

The boys have been such good helpers with their baby sister. They are top notch pacifier retrievers. This girl loves her binkies *so* much, especially while she is getting her meals!

Natalie and I went to pick Thomas up from school one day and we decided to travel light since it is so close to home. Which means we still had to bring her two monitors along, but that's it! We're starting to get the "traveling" down a little better. 

Speaking of monitors, the first night home with them was a bit chaotic. And the apnea one is so incredibly loud when it goes off - even when it's just a lead that has come loose. We have since learned to tape the leads down so we don't get an alarm going off every time we pick her up and they snag on her clothes. It's a learning process...

Thomas was hanging out with us on his day off of school and asked me to give him some blank pieces of paper. He came back with a rendering off the TV and speakers. And he's got them drawn how they look when the covers are off. I have no idea the last time the covers were off, but this kid has an amazing memory!

And the moose are back and scrounging for food! Luckily we saw this momma before I let the dogs out, they aren't the smartest when it comes to avoiding moose encounters...

She hung around long enough for me to get the zoom lens for my camera and even gave me a few good poses. So much more cooperative than usual!

Henry also thought the moose were pretty rad and kept me updated on their whereabouts for the next hour until they decided to leave. Which was good timing - the girls were definitely whining about not getting their morning potty break yet. 

Henry was hanging out with Natalie and I today and decided it was a pajama day. Since we had nowhere to be, we thought that was a great idea!

He was very insistent that he get to hold his baby sister. He actually wanted to carry her around, but I told him that holding her while sitting in a chair was the best he was going to get. He was happy with that. She's wearing his old airplane pj's - they are on of the few pairs of theirs I kept. Mostly because they have snaps and the wires are so much easier to deal with in snap-up clothes. 

I was scouring the pantry for lunch options and randomly decided to eat some sardines. I have no idea why, since I haven't eaten them in a while. But Henry was insistent he wanted some "fish" too. He swore he would eat the whole can on his own and I was super skeptical that he would even eat a single one. So I gave him a can and took a video of him eating his first one to send the expected *yuck* face to Matt.

To my utter astonishment, he loved them and pretty much ate the whole can. My picky eater won't eat meat and potatoes half the time, but he'll eat sardines?!?

I struggle to remember to pull out the fancy camera most days, but she was so alert this morning that I decided to try and get a few snaps of her looking at me. She's not quite smiling yet, but she sure is intently staring at us. :) 

Our typical Saturday morning breakfast these days! We bought a new high chair for Natalie since they are so fancy now - you can recline them back while the babies are little and they can sit at the table too! We used to sit the boys on the table in their bouncy chair, but with four of us now using the table, the space on top is limited...

And Henry wanted to be sure everyone knows he is now four. Just in case you forgot already! ;)

Matt getting in some daddy-daughter nap time. I'm not sure how he ended up with so many blankets, but it must have been a pretty awesome nap - they were both out for awhile. No judgement here, napping with her is usually the highlight of my morning (and somewhat makes up for the lack of sleep at night...!).

One Month!

I had so much fun taking monthly photos for each of the boys, that I had to start the tradition up again with Natalie. I totally forgot to order the onesie stickers in advance, but figured I had at least a month after she was born to order them. Well that month kinda went by and ordering stickers was totally forgotten amidst everything else...

Lucky for me, the monthly photos have become very mainstream and Target actually had these cute cards! We got the last set of girlie ones just in time for her to turn a month old! And just like the stickers on the first month - it's almost as big as she is! And this is probably not an approved sitting posture for a tiny baby, but she managed to not fall over long enough for me to get a photo!

Then the big brothers came to join the fun / rescue their sister from falling over. Don't they look like giants next to her?!? I could be wrong on my math, but I am pretty sure Henry is 48 months and Thomas is almost 70 months. Crazy!

They love their baby sister, but they aren't 100% sure what to do with her...

Henry sure does love giving her kisses though! This boy loves his baby sister *so* much. He makes sure to come say good morning to her every day before heading off to daycare. 

I honestly thought bows were a bit silly when my best friend bought so many for her daughter years ago, but I think I have come around to them. What a cute little accessory when they have no hair! I bet they are still adorable when she has hair too though. As much as I was convinced she could just wear her brother's clothes, I am pretty happy we got so many girl clothes from friends. She's extra adorable in all the pinks and purples! :)

Of course, babies aren't all that interested in being fashionable and it was only a matter of time before little girl was done with this thing on her head and done with her momma taking photos. Fashion is hard work, y'all...! ;)