Mother's Day... May 11th

For those men who do not have calenders which will remind them, Mother's Day is May 11th... which is a week from Sunday! Go buy your mothers some flowers, and your wives a nice gift from their wish list on Amazon...

Mommy has needs...


In other news, its still cold here... we all have SEVERE cabin fever. The terrible twos are in full force, and Livi refuses to eat just about every single night. Toast which she calls "breakfast", "crackers" (but she actually means cookies) and "strawburries" are the only acceptable foods. Taylor the food monster prefers "puffs", unflavored puffed popcorn, but will shovel anything and everything into his little mouth. Most of it he eventually chews and swallows, but this depends upon his skill at said food. He did pretty well with steak this evening... YES I said STEAK... At almost three weeks past nasty stomach illness, see vomit village and buckets of vomit in our archives, he is still down a full pound, but not for lack of trying. I truly believe that he spends all of his calories trying to dissolve the he** out of undissolvable foods! Consequently, he also spends around eight hours of the day happily stuffing his face at the table. While I am super stoked to be reporting his continued interest in solid "table" foods, I will be very happy when some day we can have a normal meal... by this I mean, a meal in which all four of us consume the same foods in a reasonable amount of time... yes I think 3 hours per meal is a bit over kill when we are talking about one course!

I have also decided that "toddler" beds, are a big marketing farce as no kid actually wants to sleep in their "big" beds. Ours, and just about every other kid we know, has decided to x the old toddler bed for really "BIG" kid beds... two twins now inhabit what I still refer to as "the nursery", however inappropriate the term has become.

"Outside" and "Shovel" are terms we hear daily now, after spending a splendid warm weekend outdoors just two weeks ago! This unfortunate freeze has broken both of their little hearts... all Livi wants is her "wings". However fun the swings are, I am not sure that social services will understand my explaining the ensuing frostbite... "mam, all I wanted to do was give her wings!"

With that, remember to buy gifts for your wives and mothers... May 11th! ;)

March for Babies 2008 Pictures

Setting up in the morning.


The Pavilion/Theater from the top of the hill.


Setting up the grill.


The radio station arrives.


More than one...


If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning...


They said the biggest team was going to be 15, I count 31.


The walk begins.


My lovely wife and the March of Dimes event manager.


The hot dogs were good.


The first of the walkers retuning to the pavilion.


Hurry up! It's fricking cold.




"You come here often?"


Dogs march too.


Cheater!


These bike buggies were everywhere.




Picking up bottles after the walk.


Cheering them home.


My wife does not like her picture taken, but I think she is cute.


One of the little reasons we are doing this.


The mini golf course set up.


See you next year!

March for Babies

After working so hard for the past six months to plan the Fox Valley annual March of Dimes fund raising walk, this year debuting as "March for Babies" (formerly Walk America). I think I should at the very least put one last plug on our blog. Yes, this is one of things that have occupied my precious blog time...

Anyway, March for Babies 2008, will take place this Saturday in the Fox Valley. Team Stanis unfortunately has shrunk this year, to merely Jon and I :( We have officially collected only $55 this year... Last year we had seven members and collected $540.

Well, needless to say, we have a ton of catching up to do between now, and well... Thursday morning when funds are due...

So, If you would be so inclined, my March for Babies page is located here... please pledge for our babies who benefited greatly from the research funded by the March of Dimes, and who you come here to read about. Your pledge can be as little as $1 or as much as you would like.

Also pledge for all the other babies like ours born early after complicated pregnancies, and for all healthy babies... because the research funded by March of Dimes directly impacts ALL pregnancies. And visit Grant's Mom, who, like us, also "Marches" for many reasons!

When I started supporting the March of Dimes as my charity of choice, I struggled with one question, Why this charity, and not one of the thousands of other charities out there? I think donating time and money to any charity is important, our family benefited in so many ways by this particular charity, that I can't imagine being so involved in another one at this point. So if not our charity of choice, please pick at least one to donate a little piece of your hard earned cash to... I know it can be hard to give a little back, there is always something else it could go to, but every little penny counts!

Thanks in advance to all who choose to support Team Stanis, and a special thank you to those of you who already have! Your pennies make a difference... impatiently, patiently waiting for our little nephew "Q"...

I am getting really good at this linking business... ;)

Vomit Village or Poopy Palace?

These days are so hard to tell... one day we're all about vomit, then next four is all about poop! Yeah, not nice clean formed ones that stay in the diapers, but the big STINKY wet ones that mush out from all sides... And they never happen during the day time...nope night is the best time to get watery diarrhea. That way, we can squirm around in it making sure that it does leak out all sides, rub some on the bed, the carpet, the stuffed friends, even dribble some chunks out the back end...

Oh yeah, fun times at the Stanis house of keep me the H-E ** out of there!"

Surprise

Sunday was Jon's mother's 60th birthday. To celebrate, we conjured up a fake seminar and asked her to babysit for us. We told her that our regular sitter was out of town, which was a total lie since she agreed to sit for us while we took K out to dinner. My brother in laws and their spouses made plans to arrive on Friday night. So Saturday morning when K arrived to "babysit" she was greeted with a huge surprise. She was very happy and very surprised. I can't think of a better gift.

We had a really great weekend. The kids were able to spend time with their uncles and their Grandma (although that is not unusual, she tries to come for dinner at least weekly) They also got to spend some time with their Aunt Sonja, Aunt Melissa though, wasn't able to make the trip. So we talked with her online for a little bit. It was sad when everyone left, but a little time together is better than none at all.

Thanks everyone for helping us make this big surprise such a success!

Sun

Doesn't it feel like just a few days ago I was blogging about a sunny 63 degree day?

Hmmm, oh that's because I did blog about a sunny warm day just a few days ago...

What the H is up with this weather???

I wanted to post a picture of the enormous snowflakes that are falling outside our window, but I can't seem to capture one... Yesterday morning we woke up to snow cover, and if it keeps on, we'll see more today. I don't see how anyone's tulips are going to survive this.

Development

So over the past two years Jon and I have become something near experts on abnormal child development. Today marks the twins official due date, and the day in which their age, adjusted for prematurity, would be 2. Most text books and developmental guides suggest that by the age of 2, premature children will have "caught up" developmentally speaking. Personally, I have a lot of issues with the term "caught up", but I read some where (you will have to forgive my poor memory, cause I can't remember the initial source) that its not so much that preemies "catch up" but that by the age of 2 human development actually slows down a great deal. A good example of this is clothing sizes. Clothing for infants can be purchased using a scale of newborn, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 12 months (9-12), 18 months (12-18) and 24 months (18-24). Suddenly, at 24 months, or two years, sizes change to 2T, 3T, 4T etc. This being because kids stop growing as fast as they did during the first years of their life. Can you imagine how big we all would be if our weights multiplied by 12 every two years?

Anyway, so when the kids turned two, on their real birthday (Dec 30), the doctors and therapists suddenly stop adjusting for prematurity... meaning that they sort of suddenly become three months older. This little change causes big rifts in their "developmental progress" since it looks like they just plummeted off the developmental cliff. So as I am sitting hear today, realizing that this would be their second birthday if Taylor had chosen to wait and come when he was supposed to, well I am noticing that they really are doing quite well.

Since January, Taylor has made remarkable progress. Standing independently, walking, taking on the stairs, picking up objects while trying to stand independently, eating, crackers, purees, chunky purees, macaroni and cheese!!! There are not words to express how much teritory we've crossed in a very short period of time. Taylor's words are coming along, and although he doesn't always come up with the right word for the situation, he can usually communicate his need/desire. Taylor will spend hours sitting on the floor playing an appliance cord. They are his favorite. He likes to plug them into his toys and pretend. He also likes to take things apart... like our remote controls for the TV or his food grinder. He is really into stacking toys, and mixing "stuff".

Livi has made her own progress too, she has become very expressive. She repeats absolutely everything. She has shown an acute interest in the TV, which some would argue is bad, but we let her watch some PBS kids everyday, and well, she is starting to show signs of understanding the alphabet and counting. She is beginning to learn her colors and shapes, and communicates some of her desires so clearly that I struggle to remember how it was before. She can run now and is working on getting herself up on all the big furniture in the house. Livi loves to color in her coloring books. She even tries to color in the shapes. Of course her coloring is just a bunch of curvy scribbles, but the majority are massed inside the shapes in the books. Where do they learn this stuff? She likes to sing and dance, and really likes Elmo (not the tickle me one though) and COOKIE monster. She likes her hair to put up in a "pony" or at least a "ret" meaning barret, and she hates having her head wet.

I love to watch them play together. Sometimes they sit at their art table next to each other, and although I have no clue what they are saying, I could just listen all day. I love it when they push each other in their wagon or walk together. Even just standing together peering out the window at our neighborhood "irdies" (birds) For a few moments most days, our life actually feels " normal".

Anniversary

Yesterday was my parent's 29th Wedding anniversary.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about Daddy, and especially now, as the year anniversary of his death looms near.

I am not really sure how or when Daddy and I became so close, but I knew that his leaving this world would not be easy for me. Jon and I actually talked about that a lot during the last years of his life, and though I often asked what I would do when he was gone, neither of us had any answers to this question. Nearly a year later, I still don't have an answer to that question. I guess I may never have that.

Lots of things remind me of Dad, some make me cry, some actually make me laugh, but most just simply remind me that he was here. And on his anniversary, I am remembering how he always got mom plants. Poinsettias at Christmas and Easter Lilly near their anniversary.

Just because we can't forget, I think Mom's table needs some lillies this year too.

Happy Spring

So we all woke up feeling much better this morning. The kids ate like little piggies...which is good since they haven't eaten much in last few days.

Yesterday I was really depressed that the weather was SOOOOO super nice, and I was stuck in house feeling like crap... so today, I am so going to make up for it. 63 degrees is calling my name, we are head outdoors!

Buckets of Vomit

It all started on Tuesday, when Alivya, who had a great morning, woke up from her nap vomiting everything that she had eaten that day. She had a pretty healthy breakfast too, so it was REALLY GROSS! Luckily, it all happened before Tanya left for the day. We cleaned her up in the bath, then Tanya took care of the grossness that lay in the bed... Thanks Tanya!!!

Livi went on to vomit several times that evening, and laid around lazily for several hours until bed. Tuesday was a better day, until around 11:20pm, when she began vomiting again. We all thought that she was a little backed up in the poo poo department, so Jon went to Walgreens to get some Glycerin. We gave her the meds, and in an hour or so, she pooped! Poor thing she was a little backed up, but that turned out not to be her whole problem. Wednesday when pretty good, and we thought things were getting better. Thursday they had their last Synagis injection to prevent RSV. Yeah, unfortunately, Livi ended up vomiting yet again. We decided to call the Pediatrician's office, and they said there was a GI bug going around. If she was not better by Saturday, we should call back.

So Friday had been going really well. No vomiting, that is until we were finishing up painting at Tanya's. Taylor started vomiting, and didn't stop for at least an hour. We put the kids to bed and decided to order carry out. It was fine going in... but it really sucked coming back out an hour later. I spent all night vomiting. Jon was such a trooper though, between me and Taylor, he kept everything under control, and waited behind me as I attempted to bring up all my in-erds. He got up with Taylor at 6 this morning, who was screaming "APPLESAUCE" in his bedroom. Me, well I was still vomiting, stomach acid... nasty stuff.

I called my mom at 7:20am when I realized that we were in no position to handle our kids under the conditions... which only got worse as Taylor vomited, then Alivya, and then, Daddy.

My poor mom just kept saying, "I better not be next..."


Prior to our sudden onset of nasty GI illness... I was going to post about Alivya's anniversary, which happens to be today. On this day two years ago, we made our final
trip to Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee, where we walked past the new jungle themed mural for the last time, carrying our tiny 5 pound baby girl in her enormous infant car seat. Her little eyes, still immature from her untimely birth, rolled around in her eye sockets, she still took only 2 ounces of formula per feeding. She came home with no monitors, no oxygen, special extremely expensive formula (that could not be found locally), and on many meds... but was very healthy.




From the infirmary... Wishing no one else,

Buckets of Vomit!