Up, Up, and Away

We embarked upon a little adventure over the weekend.  We took a little road trip to a hot air balloon festival.  Travis and I attended this same festival a few years back (before children)...

...and we decided to go back this year and take the girls along.  We're big hot air balloon fans around here.  In fact, our playroom has a hot air balloon theme:

Travis (a.k.a. "Crafty Dad) made those hot air balloons

We checked into a hotel and immediately placed the girls within the safe confines of the "junkyard" where they tried to one-up each other with their stellar standing skills.

Staying in a hotel is a fun adventure in and of itself.  The girls were eager to get decked out in their coordinating strawberry swimsuits and practice the skills they're learning at swimming lessons in the hotel pool. 

And if you've ever wondered about the merit of those little swim diapers, well, they're worthless:

Thanks a lot, JoJo!

After being couped up in their car seats and in that hotel room, we decided the trip to the pool should include exercise...at least for Merryn:

There are few activities that garner a bigger smile from Merryn than pushing her sister around on anything with wheels!

Which way to the pool?

There was lots of kicking, splashing, and aquatic fun.  Travis and I even raced while pushing the girls in their floats. I would have totally defeated him but I got stuck with the heavier kid ;-) It should really become an Olympic event; Michael Phelps could use a new challenge. 

On Saturday evening, we headed out to the hot air balloon festival where, sadly, the skies filled with impending doom:

Can we just take a second and talk about how beautiful this child's eyes are?

Those ominous skies meant that we didn't actually get to see any hot air balloons ascend but we enjoyed ourselves at the festival anyway.  A corn dog and a lemonade shake-up guarantee a good time, weather notwithstanding. 

On Sunday, it was time to check out of the hotel and head back home.  The girls' summoned the bell hop (Dad) and we were on our way.

Even though we didn't get what we came for, we had a fantastic weekend anyway.

We will certainly have many hot air balloon festivals in our future; hopefully some will actually include hot air balloons!

On the go!

The past couple of days, we have been on the go non-stop!  Yesterday Josie had an appointment to see an Otolaryngologist (ENT) at the children's hospital.  We were there to discuss the results from the sleep study resulting in the memorable photos featured here and here. 

When we arrived, in the spirit of our continuous effort to get Josie off the g tube, we whipped out her sippy cup and started our drinking and counting game in the waiting room.  An older gentleman sitting near us began chuckling as Josie continued counting and he asked me how old Josie was.  When I replied, "two," he said "Wow.  She is intelligent!"  His comment resonated in my ears for a second.  He didn't say "high functioning," and he didn't follow it "...for having Down syndrome."  He just said "She is intelligent."  Cool!  That little comment made my day.

You know what made Josie's day?  The fact that the nurse let her listen to her own heart with the stethoscope and then gave her a sticker!  Little did that nurse know that she made it next to impossible for the resident to listen to Josie's heart because Josie had an attitude of entitlement towards that stethoscope! 

Other hallmarks of the day included me being asked if I was lost because we stood in the hallway staring at the aquarium instead of entering the waiting room.  There was a woman coughing loudly in there.  No thanks!  I'd rather look like a lost fool wandering the halls!  And taking after her big sister, Merryn continuously removed and threw her shoes and would follow it up with an oh-so-innocent "Uh Oh!"  Yeah right, kid.  That was not an "uh oh" - that was intentional! It got real old, real fast!

The sleep study results were slightly conflicting.  The doctor suggested Josie wear a CPAP to sleep.  It was a stark contrast from what the pulmomonologist had told me just a couple of months prior, so I pushed back.  I cannot imagine trying to strap a CPAP to my child's face every night and I refuse to do that to her unless it's absolutely necessary.  So we agreed to do another sleep study before proceeding.  I can't wait!  (Insert eye roll here)

This morning we ditched the stroller and opted to take a different mode of transportation to treadmill therapy.

 Josie needs to work on  her steering and Merryn needs to work on not using her newly developing walking skills to "go rogue" every chance she gets. 

That's the update for now.  We've got fun plans this weekend which will hopefully include some cool photos so stay tuned!

Just a quick note...

...to inform readers that that word verification feature has been disabled so now comments can be left without having to go through the irritating process of deciphering the senseless combination of letter and numbers in that little box.  Thanks to Melissa for bringing this to our attention!

Aunt Leanne and the never-ending goodbye

Around 10am this morning, the wildly anticipated arrival of Mama Hop and Aunt Leanne put a smile on all of our faces.

The girls required zero warm-up period.  They were ready to jump right in and maximize the fun times with their maternal grandma and aunt.  While Merryn demonstrated her new walking abilities for Mama Hop, Josie showed Aunt Leanne her new favorite expression of affection - the Eskimo kiss!

Aunt Leanne tried to bestow some affection upon Little Miss "Banana Split with Strawberries" (Leanne's food name for Merryn) but she's harder to catch these days.

Mama Hop and Aunt Leanne were kind enough to help with our frenzied lunch time routine. 

Leanne took on the consistently challenging task of feeding Josie...

While Mama Hop braved the battle of the post-meal wipe down with Merryn.  She made it look easy.  It truly isn't.  Unless, perhaps, you've had 35 + years of experience.  Maybe in another 35 years, when I attempt to wipe down a baby after a meal, it will look less like steer wrestling and more like this:

Then it was time to begin the hour-long process of leaving.  Yes, it takes Leanne at least three attempts at saying goodbye to her beloved "rugrats" before she can actually walk out the door...sometimes more. 

I caught today's final goodbye on video.  To see the captioned version, click on the square in the lower right hand corner for the "full screen" effect.

Have no fear: Mama Hop and Aunt Leanne will be back in a couple of weeks for Merryn's first birthday celebration.

Treadmill Therapy at Home

Josie has been making great strides (pun intended) in treadmill therapy.  She graduated from using the suspended harness and now she just uses the handles to support herself.  She has also accelerated to a lighting fast 0.5mph.  Those two factors mean she is ready to start practicing her treadmill skills and abilities at home. 

Josie is fortunate to have a very handy and creative dad who is determined to provide her with the resources needed to become a successful walker.  Besides, he loves a good household project.

After a trip to Lowes to gather his supplies, he measured our little Diva to see how high to mount the handle bars:

While Dad was hard at work adapting the treadmill for Josie's use, Josie was hard at play.

However, Merryn kept a close eye on him and continuously checked his progress.  She fancies herself quite the foreman.

Hey JoJo - you need to come check this out!

Really?  Well, I suppose I could take a peek...

In a matter of hours, that fancy new contraption was ready and Josie was eager to try it out.  That is, if "eager" means stubbornly dissolving into a limp rag doll at the mere sight of the treadmill.

After a little pep talk from Dad, Josie was ready to try again...

...and while her form leaves something to be desired, she did a little bit better.

Because she is blessed with such a caring and talented Dad, she can now practice her treadmill walking everyday! 

This calls for a "happy face," don't you think?

Tune in tomorrow because everyone's favorite chromosomally enhanced Aunt is popping in for a visit! 

Operation Feeding Tube Freedom

Today was a good day.

I don't want to say too much because I don't want to jinx it, but this could soon be a part of Josie's past:

...because Little Miss JoJo is working really hard to get off the feeding tube.  And she now consumes all but 5oz of her daily calories orally!  We have been desperately seeking an effective path to G Tube independence for more than a year now and there is finally light at the end of the tunnel!  Hallelujah!!!

We took a little road trip to visit Josie's GI doctor today.  This particular trip was speeding ticket free (woo hoo!  Go me!) so that was reason alone to celebrate.

As usual, Josie tried to ditch her shoes anytime I turned my head. Here she is attempting to put them back on after her 400th lecture from mom.

 Josie was a very good girl for the hospital staff.  She was eager to discuss anatomy (by identifying her body parts), pop culture (by requesting both "Call Me" and "The Piña Colada Song") and she enjoyed exploring the functionality of the medical equipment with the resident.  I've never seen the doctor hand their medical devices to a toddler and I cringe to think of how much they probably cost, but Josie truly enjoyed the experience.

After receiving such promising news about the widely anticipated end of our g tube days, Josie and I decided to celebrate.  We paid a visit to the mall food court where she enjoyed some delicious curly fries.  We normally avoid fried foods but this was a special occasion and Josie loved it!  I loved watching my little girl consume food (and even a little bit of milk from a straw) like every other kid in that food court!

We decided to escalate the celebration by taking a little ride on the Merry-Go-Round but after further consideration, I nixed that idea so we opted to just pose for a photo by it.  Shoeless JoJo strikes again:

When we returned home, Travis asked me why we didn't actually ride the carousel.  I explained to him that I didn't know what to do with the stroller and my purse and that I didn't want anyone to steal them.  He laughed and said that Dateline isn't exactly doing exposes on the rampant rise of stroller theft at community carousels in the Midwest and that we probably would have been safe.  But hey, that's why he's the laid back one and I'm the neurotic one. 

While I'm hesitant go into further detail about Operation Feeding Tube Freedom because I don't want to speak too soon, I assure you that more information will be provided once our goal has been achieved.  As a desperate parent who spent many hours scoring the Internet for information on how to get my child off the g tube, I am happy to share any details of our journey that can possibly help someone else in our shoes so stay tuned!

Playground Predicament

This July heat has been unbearable but I hate to keep the girls' holed up indoors so we decided to rush through breakfast and head out as early as possible.

Covered with hats and smothered with sunscreen, we set out for the park.  We hoped to do a little early morning swinging but unfortunately, this is what we found:

Some little punk had thrown the swing up over the bar several times to where it was at eye-level.  Who does that?!  I'm going to go ahead and generalize here but I had a sneaking suspicion that only a member of the male persuasion would find amusement in such an endeavor.  Hoping that his Y chromosome would offer him some sort of top secret insight on how to rectify the situation (or maybe even some first-hand experience from his own little punk days), I emailed my beloved husband (because he has nothing better to do at work than to give me playground problem guidance):

Me: How does one go about getting this down?

Travis: You'd have to throw it over the top multiple times. I love you.

Me: I tried. It wasn't pretty. You would have been embarrassed :-/

Yeah, Josie isn't the only member of this household who is lacking in the gross motor department.  So we gave up and headed home.  And you know what?  We had the BEST time taking turns on our own backyard swing!



Did you hear that, little Punk?!  Your antics can't sabotage our morning.  We took those lemons and we made lemonade and it was refreshing and delicious!

...As illustrated by Josie's "happy face"!

And just as Josie inherited my gross motor prowess, she also inherited Aunt Leanne's sense of humility.  Remember this?

Cute?  Sure!  But with such a big head, I'm surprised that hat fits!

Happy Monday!

Weekend Update

Things have been pretty mundane around here with no major escapades to report on; not that we're complaining because sometimes mundane is good.  But of course a lack of adventures doesn't mean a lack of photos...

Josie has a new pose for the camera. Introducing the "happy face". In order to achieve this charming look, one must manually pull cheeks upward, forming a smile.  It's a little cheesy but it beats other faces the kid has been known to make.

We went on a family outing to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.  The girls were rolling along in the stroller and Josie kept saying "piggy...piggy...piggy!"  Suddenly I looked down and realized her pinkie toe was stuck on the outside of her sandal while her other toes were inside.  It looked quite uncomfortable!  She was trying to tell us by proclaiming "piggy!" 

We're still waiting for her new Sure Steps to come in but in the meantime she's been wearing sandals and she removes and chucks them every chance she gets!  I make her recite the mantra "Shoes on all day!" but it doesn't seem to help :-/ 

Other weekend activities included tending to our botanical responsibilities by watering the flowers.  The girls really enjoy helping to fill the watering can. 

Yes, Josie is actually licking the watering can.  Don't act like you've never been tempted to do the same.  I fight the urge  to taste that green plastic every time I water the plants.

The ferns have certainly seen better days but our begonias have really withstood this Midwest heat wave beautifully!

We saved the best for last:

Doesn't Merryn look like she's having a fantastic time helping her big sister?  It warms the heart!

Josie's Medley

We've already established that Josie LOVES singing and dancing to music. This afternoon her indecisiveness about what song she wanted to sing created quite the medley of her greatest hits. Warning: Do not watch unless you REALLY love The Piña Colada song. 

I Love Instagram!

Yeah, yeah, I know.  This new "discovery" of mine is old news for some but it's new and exciting to me so play along.  For those that don't know what Instagram is, it's a free app for your smart phone that lets you edit your photos and add neat (albeit sometimes cheesy) effects.  We've been having so much fun with it lately that I had to share...

P.S. A new "Pin It" button has been added on the right for those that love a little Pinterest! 

Gross Motor Skills and Abilities

We've been trying to overcome Josie's aversion to being upright for months and months and months.  Recently, she started experimenting with standing up.  We called it "surfing" because she would never rise above a squat and she would keep her arms extended for balance.  Josie would only do it when she thought no one was looking and she would adamantly refuse to do it if you asked her to.

Just this past weekend at YaYa and Papa's house, basking in the cheers and encouragement of a room full of people, she actually attempted to stand up several times in a row!  She was still extremely cautious, but she definitely showed signs of progress.

This morning, after a little coaxing from mom, she was on a roll!  I got out the camera to film her latest gross motor milestone.  Stay tuned until the end for a real treat:

You're never too young to poke fun at your little sister!

Visit to YaYa & Papa's House - for YaYa and other iPad users

Trip to YaYa & Papa's House

Last Friday we packed up and embarked on an adventure - a two hour plane ride with a couple of babies (yikes!).  We were headed out West to visit YaYa, Papa, Uncle Corey (Travis' brother), Aunt Sarah (Corey's wife), and Abby (the girls' beloved cousin).  The girls' Great Grandma and Great Granddad (YaYa's parents) were kind enough to meet us out there which added to the fun!

The plane ride went very smoothly.  Merryn slept and Josie rocked out to Usher.  Josie thought he sounded even better at 30,000 feet.

Josie's pulmonologist wanted her to bring a portable oxygen concentrator in case the altitude caused breathing difficulty.  I checked her oxygen saturations throughout the flight and she did great.  Unfortunately, the first night did not go so well.  Sleeping in the mountains caused Josie's O2 saturations to drop which meant we had to break out the cannula and provide her with some supplementary oxygen for the first time in a year.  As if that wasn't bad enough, our portable oxygen concentrator died at 3am!  That required a brief trip to the local children's hospital where Josie was sent home with tanks of oxygen to help her breathe while she slept.  That's why she's sporting the little brown cannula stickers in most of the photos.  Oxygen drama notwithstanding, she was a little trooper and we were very proud of her!

The girls LOVED hanging out with their six-year-old cousin, Abby.  Merryn enhanced her leg strength and perfected her walking skills pushing Abby around on a little riding toy.  Josie enjoyed perusing her new books with Abby.  We took full advantage of Abby's cuteness by taking lots of pictures of her - she's very photogenic! 

We we very fortunate to be able to spend a little time with my childhood friend, Amy, and her precious new baby, Madeleine.  Amy is the most laid-back first-time mom I've ever met as evidenced by the fact that she casually plopped her infant down in Josie's arms and walked away.  Josie wasn't really interested in cradling the newborn which resulted in this uncomfortable looking topple.  Poor Maddy!

Speaking of toppling, Merryn took her fair share of spills over the weekend.  Like most entry-level walkers, Merryn is usually sporting a battle scar or two.  When we first arrived, she had a small bruise on her forehead.  I apologized to my mother-in-law because she had hired a photographer to take family photos while we were there, and I hated for Merryn to look roughed-up in the photos.  Well, before the photographer even arrived, the bruises multiplied!  She looked like she had fallen down a flight of stairs!  As if that wasn't bad enough, Merryn lost one of her shoes so she was barefoot and bruised for the big photo shoot.

Josie took awhile to warm up to the photographer but after I retrieved her stuffed chicken and my iPhone and blared her favorite tunes, she turned on the charm.  At one point the photographer stopped shooting, turned around and said "Is she doing the sprinkler?!?"  That's our girl!

I took a grand total of 438 photos of our trip (seriously!) which left me with no choice but to create one of our famous CCE photo montages.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed our trip:

 

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