pneumonia

I have pneumonia, so I'll be taking a break in updating to rest. more to come later....

Busy, busy, busy

Wow, we have been so busy lately. Last week I took the kids to the library as they had a local police car and fire truck there. This was big excitement for Isaac. He tells me he wants to be a police officer when he grows up. He already has big fun with his pretend handcuffs. The only rule is he cannot lock his sisters up! ;) Pictures at right with Isaac in the police car and then the kids by the fire truck.

This last weekend we had some friends out for some fun and grilling. They have kids close in age to ours, so we always have a good time. The kids caught a toad, and thought that was the greatest thing ever! I included pictures of the kids with the toad, and then Isabella getting nice and dirty with the sandbox.

Yesterday, the girls and I went with my mom to the University of MN Landscape Arboretum. I always enjoy going there and seeing the beautiful flowers each year. We had a fun time, and the girls enjoyed the stroller ride. We were definitely all tuckered out after the trip. While we were at the Arboretum, Isaac and my dad went fishing in his boat on a lake by our house. I think Isaac spent more time playing in the boat than fishing. :) Fun in the sun for all.... The picture at right is Savannah walking with nana to look at the water.

Today Savannah has speech. They are amazed at what progress she has made in 6 short months. She went from having such a severe delay to being at almost age level. I am fully expecting her to be discharged this fall. Woohooo!

We will be missing t-ball tonight. We all have head colds and sore throats and need to take it easy! We want to rest up for this weekend and also for the fourth, when we will be having some good friends of ours out for some 4th fun!!

Bella's birthday pictures!

Better late than never! Bella turned 1 on May 22, and I am finally getting some pictures up! The Sunday before her birthday we had the grandmas and grandpas here for a birthday lunch.

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She had her own cake to dig into. She really got into it!












Needless to say she LOVED her cake! After a quick bath it was on to present opening. As you can see she was more interested in her after-cake beverage than tearing open any presents. Savannah was the official "present opener."


That was ok though, because by the next day she was ready to play with all her toys!



And finally, a few pictures from her actual birthday....

Happy belated Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!! I wanted to get this up sooner, but I couldn't find the camera cord to upload pictures! I sent Todd on a goose chase to find it and of course it was right where I always keep it- I looked right over it.
We had a great Father's Day this year. This is the first year in a long time that we have had a Mother's Day and a Father's Day all together with no babies in the hospital. Father's Day morning we took Todd out for breakfast. Thats always adventurous with the girls. HA! Then we went to my parents house for lunch and swimming. After that we went to Todd's parents house and out for dinner with them.
It was a busy day, but fun! The kids gave Todd a fishing pole for Father's Day. Isaac is very excited that dad now has a pole. They are planning to go fishing tomorrow night:)

What a difference a year can make...
Father's Day 2007 (top) and Father's Day 2006 in the NICU (below)

T-ball

This year is Isaac's first time in an organized sport. He is on a t-ball team that consists of 5 and 6 year olds and is having a great time:) It's pretty funny to watch them out on the field. He usually has 1-2 games a week, and Todd is even asst coaching. Fun! I try to make it to all the games, depending on the girls' moods of course.

Bella's 1 year check-up and eye doctor visit

Bella had her 1 year check-up and shots today. She was just getting over a 4 day fever, but we decided to go ahead with the shots anyway since she was on the mend. She has been anemic in the past, but I am happy to report that her hemoglobin was at 12, which is PERFECT! :) YEAH!! The check-up was pretty good overall. Of course, we talked about her communication understanding and expression, and agreed that Early Intervention would work with her in this area. The other main area of concern was her head size. It is now off the charts, and I mean on the HIGH/LARGE end! Not only is it a bit concerning that a 28 week preemie went from having such a tiny head that was not on the charts, to a huge head that is off the charts in the other direction, but it isn't really following a curve anymore. By this I mean her own growth curve isn't really a curve anymore. Her "curve" has shot practically straight up in a line over the last several months. She said it could be a cause for concern if there is fluid building up (in her ventricles) in the brain. We will be going back in July for another head size measurement. The doctor will determine form there what to do. I have to be honest, it makes me more than a bit nervous considering all the "issues" we have had with this jerking/head movements. Todd said tonight, "maybe she has a headache." Poor kid.

After the one year check we drove across the city to the ped ophthalmologist. Of course, Bella's eye didn't turn in once the whole time she was being examined:0 Talk about frustrating. At that point he thought maybe it was psuedostrabismus, where a child looks cross eyed, but really the pupils are aligning straight. So he decided to dilate her eyes and check her refraction error. Sometimes farsightedness can be a cause for an eye turn. Turns out she is farsighted (+3 I think for all you eye buffs), but kids her age tend to be farsighted, and he didn't think she was quite farsighted enough to be causing the eye turn (although in an adult this would be pretty farsighted). SOOO, he said in most kids it is pretty obvious whether or not they have strabismus, but he said it could go either way, so we will go back in about 4 months for a recheck unless things get significantly worse before then. Good grief.

Bella was just exhausted after all her appointments, poking and prodding. We finally arrived home 6 hours later. Of course, she had a fever back, so hopefully it is just from the shots. Bella has a big birthday party to go to this weekend. Her friend Ashlyn, from the NICU, will be celebrating her 1st birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLYN!

I still haven't gotten pictures up from my Bella's birthday, but I promise to soon!

Bella's eyes and NICU follow-up

We will be heading to see the pediatric ophthalmologist this Friday AM. Bella's left eye started turning in about 2 months ago, and now its getting more noticeable. At her last appointment she was diagnosed with having a drooping right eyelid. At that time he told is to watch for her eye to turn in. He said she had all the risk factors to develop one: prematurity, drooping eyelid, and genetics (other family members who have or had one). Ironically, it is not the right eye that is turning in, its the left. When I called they said we needed to come in right away ( and not wait till her next appt in Oct). I don't think they were too happy I waited 2 months, but I wasn't actually sure that's what was going on, because it is an intermittent turn, not constant. ANYWAY, they wanted us in within a week, so we'll do that this Friday, after her 1 year check-up. Hopefully we wont need to put glasses on her yet. I cant imagine. She wont even keep a sun hat on:(

Her NICU follow-up at Children's went well. She scored at her adjusted age on motor and cognitive skills. Or course, like usual communication/language was the concern (no I don't mean talking-HA). Her overall communication ability was scored at 5-6 months old. Of course, I was crushed, but with her siblings having had speech delay, I was not surprised. She was already seen by the audiologist a few weeks back and her hearing is fine. It's just a delay that Early Intervention will work with her on more intensively this fall. They seemed pretty concerned at the Follow-up clinic, but I assured them that she is already being followed by Early Intervention. They suggested I get some sign language going with her since she hardly babbles. This may be hard since she has no comprehension of clapping, pointing or even knowing what something is if we say the word anything of the sort. Early intervention made us a book to use with her that has pictures of us and common objects. The point of it is to get her to "know" these things. Not say the word, but know what we are referring to if we say it to her. I think it will be awhile.

Mother's Day

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted! As you can imagine, it is one crazy house with 3 kids, especially with 1 and 2 year olds - still very needy, but with totally different needs and schedules.
Anyway, I wanted to post a little about Mother's Day. It was a busy, busy day/weekend. It was Mother's Day, my brother's college graduation (congrats Ben!), our wedding anniversary, and to top it all off I had my Anatomy & Physiology final on Monday! I still found time to enjoy my kids amidst all the chaos.
I want to share what Isaac brought home from preschool. It definitely gave me a few laughs:)It read:

Let me tell you a little bit about my mom...Her name is Jessica and she is 18 years old. Her favorite color is orange and she loves to eat apples. I think she weighs about 90 pounds and when she is alone, her favorite thing to do is work on the computer. I love my mom because she likes me.

At the bottom of the page was a little stick figure drawing that Isaac made of me. It is something I will keep forever!
Mother's day was busy, but great! Todd and the kids got me some beautiful roses and a large baking dish I had been wanting. We went to my parents house that day to celebrate my brother's graduation.
It was a HOT day so we were able to get some swimming in before we had to head back home so I could study for my final:( And yea, the final went great, and best of all SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!!