Happy Birthday Baylee

Today was Baylee's 10th birthday. Nana and Papa were here to celebrate with us. We had fun playing games and swimming. Happy Birthday Baylee, we all love you so much. It really does only seem like yesterday since you were born.

Baylee's A Blogger Now

Come over, check out and bookmark this amazing new blogger. Baylee has started her own culinary blog. She was inspired by her cousin Emily to get it started. Hope you all enjoy following her journey through recipes, cooking and nutrition.
www.10cherriesontop.blogspot.com

It's My Town "Star Wars"

Last week Jeff took Riley to the "Star Wars It's My Town" Dodger game. They had lots of fun together.

Haircuts

I love my Lorelei

"I love my Lorelei".... Those are the words Asher says many times a day. He is so in love with her. It's a wonderful thing to see.

hiking

Today Asher, Lorelei and I went on a hike with our parent ed class. It was a bit more than I planned for but we had a really great time in the local mountains. It is just a little harder when you have one strapped to the front of you and one holding on to your hand. It felt really great to get outdoors even with all my allergies. Today was hot again. The weather has been really strange. Changing from hot to cold daily. I am ready for summer. The picture here of Lorelei is one that Riley took. He is a great photographer.

How Preemie Moms are Chosen

How Preemie Moms Are Chosen
(Adapted from Erma Bombeck)


Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?
Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments
for propagation with great care and deliberation.
As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.
"Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter.
Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint ... give her Gerard.
He's used to profanity."
Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie."
The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."
"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter?
That would be cruel." "But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.
"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.
I watched her today.
She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother.
You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own.
She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."
"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect.
She has just the right amount of selfishness."
The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"
God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive.
Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect.
She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied.
She will never take for granted a spoken word.
She will never consider a step ordinary.
When her child says 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it.
I will permit her to see clearly the things I see – ignorance, cruelty, prejudice – and allow her to rise above them.
She will never be alone.
I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."
"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air.
God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day Mom.
Wish we weren't so far apart so we could spend the day together. Thank you for all you do for everyone. You are so special to my kids and myself. Hope you have a wonderful day today. We love you so much and can't wait to see you again.

A few new pictures

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted any new pictures. The problem is that I haven't been taking any. It is not like when you have one baby and all you do is take pictures all day. And if there does happen to be any down time, I rarely get up and grab my camera. But with all these cute smiles and faces I really need to catch up.

Smiles

Lorelei is now all smiles. At four 1/2 months (two 1/2 months adjusted age) she is finally smiling. It was well worth the wait because she is just so cute. Check out the dimple!!!

Spring Break Part 2

Here we are at Lego Land and the new Aquarium they have there. The kids had the best time. I guess they didn't mind the madhouse crowds for spring break. I on the other hand could have done without all the lines and people, but it turned out to be a pretty fun day. I love the picture of Asher with the Lion Fish. They seemed to like him as much as he liked them.

Happy Easter

Spring Break Part 1

Here are a couple pictures of us at Quail Botanical Gardens near San Diego. If you ever get the chance to, make sure you go there. They just added a new childrens garden. The kids had the best time there. They also have an amazing tree house but we didn't get to play on it that day because they were doing some repairs on it.

Lorelei update: She had her four month appointment yesterday (two months adjusted). Everything went great. She is growing so much. She is now 11lbs 14oz. That is over three times her birth weight. She is actually getting really chubby. I never had a chubby baby or a baby with rolls on their legs, but now I do. I didn't expect my one preemie to be the big one. We are all so happy about how well she is doing. She is also sleeping through the night. She can do about 8-10 hours. That is great for me. We have to work out some details with the insurance company so she can get a pneumogram and see if she is having any more apnea that isn't showing up on our monitors. When all that is clear she can be off her monitor at night. I thought the monitor would be sort of a pain but I actually kind of like it now. It takes the worry off of wondering if they are breathing especially for a preemie who you are use to seeing on monitors. But it will also be nice not to have to worry about hooking her all up at night. I will post our pictures of Lego Land during my next "break".

Thank you Nana and Papa

Easter Past

I was looking back at some old pictures of the kids from about 5 years ago. I can't believe how much they have grown. Here are some cute ones from an Easter past.

New Pictures

Here are a couple new pics of Lorelei. Not much extra time to write so just enjoy the pictures.

3 months old

Lorelei is now 3 months old. She has been doing great despite the horrible cough she got last week. Since she is a preemie we ended up going to the doctor twice and having a chest x ray done at the hospital. It ended up that there is no infection so that is great. When I took her to the hospital for the x ray it was just Asher and I. So during the x ray I had to hold her sitting up to take the picture so Asher had to go in the other room with the tech who was this young guy who said to me that he felt weird carrying my car seat because he has no children yet. Anyways, of course when it came time for Asher to follow him, there was no way in this world he or I was going to convince him to go. So I told the guy it was OK to just grab him, we had no other choice. Asher started screaming and the tech had to carry him back like that to push the button. I felt so bad for this guy because I knew it made him feel really awkward. The whole thing was pretty funny in the end. I think it made the tech really nervous because he ended up marking the left side of the chest the right and my doctor called me to say that she could have an abnormality of the heart in which it is located in the wrong side of the chest. I wasn't home and he just left a message for me to call back about something with the x ray. By the time I got the message they had already sent for her prior x rays from the nicu (she has had well over 20 now) and they were able to compare and realized the mistake. Thank god, we really don't need anything else right now.
So back to Lorelei being 3 months. She is still just like a newborn since her adjusted age is just 4 weeks. She has yet to really smile at us although I see it coming soon. She is now 10 lbs 1 oz. She is getting so big. She is a great eater and a pretty good sleeper. I have been able to put her down a lot more now. I try to get her to sleep in her cradle when we first go to bed and she will stay there about 3 hours then she starts grunting and wiggling and I bring her into bed to nurse and she ends up staying there until morning.
The end of last month grandma was here with us. It was so nice to have her here. The kids had so much fun playing games and reading books with her. I loved having someone to stay up with me again and all the help with the dishes, laundry, driving, etc. etc.. Thank you Sharron for all your help, we hope to see you soon