Intervention

After 13 days (yes, almost 2 full weeks), it was time...

She's not going to be happy when she wakes up,

but it was for her own good.

Farewell Sea World

When we move, of course we'll be sad to leave our friends. Of course we'll be sad to leave the beach. Of course we'll be sad to leave the nice climate. But we (OK, I) will also be sad to leave all of the amusement parks that we have frequented for the last 18 months.

I started taking the kids to Sea World when Sadie and Linus were 20 months old. For the most part they sat in the stroller but would sometimes get out to take a closer look at Shamu.

I loved going because it was a great change of scenery and a perfect way to teach the kids about different kinds of marine life.

We also started going on a regular basis with Lindsay, Dylan and Tyler. We mainly spent our time at the giant foam pit

but slowly graduated to walking with them around the polar bear exhibit, letting them run amok in the fish aquariums, and very recently having a nice lunch together at the same table.

Unfortunately, after many months of fun, the kids area closed.

We made far fewer trips to Sea World over the past several months, but recently the new Bay of Play opened. And when I say the kids are excited about their new love of Sea World, I may be understating it just a bit. When there's a huge rope climb, a giant bouncy

and water squirting out of the ground, what's not to love?

Because we love it so much, we were excited to share our enthusiasm with our friends. Just a few days ago we met up with Jessica, Ethan and Lucas for a morning of fun and adventure. We started out at the rope climb where Jessica graciously climbed ahead with the kids while I hung back and took pictures.

Then I sprinted ahead of the kids to the top of the ropes. This is where you have to climb up a steep wall, try to fit through a small tunnel, and haul yourself into a suspended room which starts the beginning of a maze of swinging bridges and other suspended rope climbs. (Are you asking yourself why in the world we would take four 2 yr olds on this horrendous gladiator challenge? We are too). After pushing up Sadie and Linus, I turned around to see Jessica trying to help her boys up this wall with other people impatiently waiting their turn in line. (I imagine this is exactly what the Hillary Step is like atop Mt. Everest). And like any mountain climber, when I see a fellow climber in trouble with twin 2 yr olds, what do I do? Grab my camera and take a picture of course.

Luckily Jessica was still talking to me after this little episode, and we walked on over the suspension bridges until we came to an area that has a suspended hammock that you can only get to through two small tunnels on either side. Being the good friend and mother that I am, I told her I would run ahead over the bridge to the other side to make sure the kids didn't escape after they went through.

Meanwhile poor Jessica had to climb through the tunnel and help each kid down, across and up the hammock.

While I took pictures.

(Yes, that's her hanging halfway out of the tunnel trying to keep our kids from plummeting to their death).

Everyone finally made it out OK, and we headed to the big slide. Again, I volunteered my services to help two of the kids down the stairs while Jessica went down the slide with the other two not realizing that it was wet with some unidentifiable substance. We (well, Jessica) really needed a break - time to hit the arcade!
20 minutes later, 3 of the 4 kids wanted to ride on the Rockin' Eel.

I'll give you two guesses who went on the ride with the kids and who sat beside Linus in the stroller taking pictures.

Nothing tops off a morning of fun like watching Shamu during lunch.
(Can you believe Jessica is still talking to me? It must be my winning smile because it certainly wasn't for helping out while we were there).

As I said before, we're really going to miss Sea World. We've had a lot of fun there over the last year and a half. I highly recommend taking your 2 yr olds to the new Bay of Play.

Just make sure you bring Jessica along too.

Just enough cooks in the kitchen

Back when the kids were smaller (even as recently as a month ago) it was nearly impossible to try to cook in the kitchen with them around. Actually, it was hard just to get a glass of ice water without two kids pulling on my legs and wanting to inspect each and every item in the freezer. But, in the past month or so, we all have been pretty productive in the kitchen. Now I'm not saying that I'm whipping up gourmet meals with the kids or anything, but we've been able to make up batches of banana bread, cookies and pasta sauce. (Not necessarily all together).

(Can't help but notice Sadie's bracelet, right? Yes, we're on day 5 and she is still showing it off).

A typical afternoon now involves them on the counter helping to dump ingredients into various bowls or pots. And this is met with much fanfare:
"I poured the milk-y into the bowl-y, but I got some on my foot-y!"

(Did anyone else's kids wake up one morning determined to put a "y" on the end of every noun?)

This new independence in the kitchen has been a joy for the most part. But, there have been a few downsides such as their ability to open the refrigerator door.

To take out the jug of milk.

And anything else that looks remotely interesting.

Without my knowledge.

When they get to the point that they can pour themselves some milk without spilling and then put everything back when they're done I'll be a happy camper. Until then I just hope I don't walk into the kitchen and see all of my condiments sitting on the floor - because you know how I am about my condiments.

After mixing up something for dinner, we all (try to) sit down at the table to eat.

(Sadie's still proud of her bracelet in case you didn't notice the first time).

Lucky for the dogs, the kids won't even eat what we've made these days since they are boycotting anything except drinkable yogurt.

And that is a typical mealtime at our house: kids cook, kids don't eat, dogs clean up the mess. What do people without dogs do at their house? Clean up the mess themselves?

Suckers.

NICU little grad picnic

This weekend we attended our third Little Grad picnic sponsored by the UCSD NICU. All of the "sicker" preemies are invited to this annual get-together at the bay put on by the medical staff. And it's not just limited to the preemies recently released from the hospital, but anyone who has gone through the NICU. I actually met someone who was born at 26 weeks gestation 16 years ago and who is now a star student, an active member of the Boy Scouts, and over 6 feet tall. (There's hope for Linus yet!) His dad said they have attended every year and are still amazed at how far they've come. Isn't that great?

Of course it's wonderful to see the doctors and nurses who took care of the kids during their first 2-3 months of life like Dr Mannino who is the head of the NICU.

(and who coincidentally is from Chicago so we had a nice chat).

We also ran into Martha who is in charge of the NICU follow-up program from which the kids were discharged only a few weeks ago.


And no picnic is complete without seeing our preemie friends (who you can read about here and here).

I love the fact that all of the kids are doing so well and have come such a long way in their short life. (Pictured here are kids who were born at 26, 27 and 29 weeks gestation). And the icing on the cake was that we were all able to sit down and actually have a meal together...OK, so it was a very messy meal, but a meal nonetheless. I never thought that would be possible. See, these kids prove me wrong again and again.

But if you ask Sadie and Linus, the biggest hit of the picnic by far was the bouncy slide.

I'm not joking when I say the kids were on it for almost an hour before we dragged them away to eat lunch. And right after lunch they were asking to go back. I wonder if they sell these things at Costco? It even trumped the ambulance that was in the parking lot and the police helicopter that circled above us who welcomed all of the preemies. (And that's saying something).

As a matter of fact, Sadie had such a good time that she still refuses to take off her "Toddler Fun Bracelet" even a day and a half later.


It was bittersweet to leave the picnic. It's definitely sad to know that we wouldn't be attending another one. But after such terrific appointments from all of the kids' specialists, this seemed like a perfect ending to our "preemie phase" and a perfect transition into the next phase of our lives - hopefully a phase without more surgeries and health issues, which I wish for all of our friends.

2008 Olympics

Seeing as the Olympics are only a few weeks away, the kids have been hard at work practicing for the main event - gymnastics. We're expecting a call from Bela Karolyi any day now.

Young talent or a disaster in the making?

You decide.

The "eyes" have it

There are many scary complications of preemies, such as NEC, but another prevalent one is Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). Basically, this means that the blood vessels in the eye are blocked before reaching the retina resulting in vision problems including detached retinas and blindness.

When the kids were in the NICU, they were checked by a pediatric ophthalmologist every week to determine the growth of the blood vessels in their eyes. This meant that on Thursday mornings their eyes were dilated and by Thursday afternoon we knew how much we should worry about blindness and potential surgery or if we could breathe again...at least until the next week.

These eye exams continued after the kids came home from the hospital. The first year we had them every 3 months, which was terrible. Imagine me taking two (hopefully) sleeping babies to the doctors where they were then rudely awakened to someone shoving drops in their eyes. Hysterical crying ensues during the several hour wait while their eyes dilated. Then they had bright lights shone into their faces from all angles to determine how good their vision was. All in all, not the greatest way to spend 4 hours for any of us. Every exam came back OK, but we knew we weren't out of the woods yet as their eyes still hadn't fully developed.

Once they turned one we were going twice a year. Since birth, Sadie had a problem with "pooling" in her eyes because of a blocked tear duct. She was constantly teary and her eyes were a little goopy from a lack of drainage. We were hoping that it would resolve itself as she grew older, but eventually surgery (yes, another one!) was discussed to solve the problem. But, finally statistics were in our favor. By the time our follow-up appointment arrived after she reached a year old, the tear duct had opened up and no more goopy eye. She still wasn't in the clear in terms of their vision, but we were getting closer. And we dodged another surgery!

At about the same time, we learned that Linus had a small optic nerve which could be indicative of vision problems (including eventual blindness), or a disease called Septo Optic Dysplasia meaning there could be other underlying problems like poor brain function and an abnormal pituitary gland. We brought him in for a more in-depth vision exam to determine how good or bad his vision actually was. If you thought, as I did, that there was no way you could determine whether or not a one year old had 20/20 vision, then you are mistaken. Of course it depends on how cooperative the examinee is, but it is really pretty interesting. They cover up each eye and show them huge boards with half covered in solid gray and half in dark gray and white stripes. The first board has very wide stripes which get smaller and smaller with each subsequent board. Eventually they get small enough together that the two halves are indistinguishable. Well, you then have the problem that a one year old isn't going to let you know if they can tell which side is striped, but apparently every child automatically glances toward the side with the stripes. Pretty neat, huh? Lucky for us, Linus was very cooperative and was deemed to be in the normal range. Phew! Dodged a bullet, but not completely in the clear yet either.

Once they turned two we were told we would have annual appointments until, well, forever. Again, they dilated their eyes, they checked for ROP, they checked Sadie's tear duct, they checked Linus' vision/optic nerve, and everything seemed good so far. No longer was ROP an issue because their vessels had formed properly - YEAH! But, the shape of their eyes indicated that they would need glasses, probably sooner rather than later. We may have to increase the frequency of our appointments. Ugh! It's always something.

Our last appointment was this week with the same ophthalmologist who had been following them since they were first born. I was expecting her to tell us that it was about time to fit them for glasses. Or that Linus' optic nerve was now an issue. Or that something was wrong. Instead, it was the best appointment ever.

First off, it lasted about 30 minutes instead of 4 hours. Both kids completed a real vision test (they used pictures instead of letters), which they passed with flying colors - 20/20 vision if you can believe that! Then their eyes were dilated and it was determined that their eyes had pretty much finished their major growth and their shape was perfect! Not only no ROP and good vision, but now a strong possibility that they won't need glasses. Ever! Yes, these are the same kids who were in danger of vision problems and even blindness, then potentially brain and hormone abnormalities, then assured they would have to wear glasses as children. But they have proven everyone wrong with their eagle eyes! Once we move, we'll have another appointment in a year with an ophthalmologist there, but we anticipate that may be the last one unless we suspect any other problems.

We were told that preemies are usually caught up to full term kids by the age of 3. Especially after how well all of our follow-up appointments have gone with each of the specialists, I firmly believe that Sadie and Linus have finally reached that milestone.

Happy Anniversary

Is it bad that as I was going to bed tonight I realized that today(?) is our wedding anniversary?

Is it even worse that neither Brian nor I can remember if it is actually today or tomorrow?

At least I can remember that we are/will be married for 7 years...So, Happy 7th Anniversary, sweetie. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father. Thank you for understanding my complete lack of awareness of holidays. Thank you for turning your Jeep into the kids' future bedroom furniture.

I think we're doing pretty good for two senile people who wouldn't know if it was Valentine's Day even if Cupid shot us both in the butt.

I love you.

another tear jerker

After Jens last post earlier this week I thought I would give our readers a little break before I tugged again at your heartstrings... Two months shy of our 20th year together the Jeep and I sadly parted ways this week. I looked long and hard and found a great new home for it (actually the first guy who looked at it bought it.). But regardless, I am quite certain that its new life will be full of fresh paint and sparkly spark plugs. Shortly after the jeep drove away Jen asked "What else do we need to sell?" To which I replied: "what else do you want me to sell...MY SOUL!?"

Well at least the kids got one ride around the block before it went away.




Linus is a heck of a driver.