Avery and Emerson got a visit from the Paci Fairy this weekend and I am happy to say that they have given up their pacifiers and it could not have been easier! I came up with the idea of the Paci Fairy while at work Friday afternoon. I thought it would take a few days of Justin and me talking about it with the girls before we could implement it successfully. Well I was wrong…it literally took five minutes! I brought the idea up to the girls just before they were going to bed Friday evening. It was so preliminary that I hadn’t even discussed it with Justin yet. I told them big girls don’t use paci’s and asked them if they wanted to be big girls and give their paci’s away to the little babies. They said yes right away so we went with it. We immediately grabbed a zip lock baggie and took turns placing their pacifiers in it. We sealed it tight and then all walked to the front door where we placed the bag outside for the Paci Fairy to come get during the middle of the night. The girls said they wanted the Paci Fairy to bring them balloons…something that the Paci Fairy could easily handle I’m sure. The girls went to bed with no problem and slept through the night no problem. They were excited when they woke up to see that the Paci Fairy had not only brought them each a balloon, but also play-doh. The girls each asked for their pacifiers a few times over the weekend, but once they were reminded that they gave them away to the Paci Fairy, they were fine! Seriously, I am still amazed at how easy it was! I’m hoping potty training is this easy!
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Avery Meets Dr. Hertle
This past Sunday Justin and I drove to Ohio to take Avery to see Dr. Hertle. I think we always kind of knew at some point that was in her plan, but it always seemed so far away and it is hard to believe that the appointment has already come and gone. We left on Sunday right after lunch…just me, Justin, and Avery…so sort of like a vacation in a sense being that we only had one kid…lol! The drive to Ohio was only 5 ½ hours…for some reason I had thought it was much longer than that. The drive was absolutely beautiful, especially the first 3 hours. I had actually never driven those roads before so I was probably expecting normal highway conditions but for the most part it was a two lane not heavily traveled road through mountains and picturesque scenery that looked like it came straight out of a book. We could not have picked a better day of the year or a time to do the drive. I truly mean that as even the drive back was not nearly as gorgeous as the drive there as MANY of the trees had already begun to lose their leaves. The fall foliage coupled with the natural scenery was just breathtaking. Justin was driving and I know he wanted nothing more than to be able to take pictures of it ALL! Sadly, we didn’t take a picture of anything.
We started talking to Avery about the appointment a few days prior and she understood that she was going to see Dr. Ellis’s friend Dr. Hertle and he was going to look at her eyes. (It is just so crazy how much kids understand from an early age especially when it comes to a medical condition.) The appointment itself went well. We were there for about 3 ½ hours. We first met with a nurse, and then Dr. Hertle for the initial consultation. Avery then had three types of testing done. The first was done by the nurse and Avery was presented with white cardboard slides that had zebra stripes on them with increasing degree of difficulty in identifying the striped zebra lines. They did the test three times…once with both eyes open, and once with each eye patched. It was determined that with contacts and using both eyes, Avery’s vision is actually not that much worse than the average child her age. When utilizing one eye at a time, her vision further decreased, but that is typical for any child when one eye is covered. The second test was an Eye Movement Recording (EMR). This was interesting as Avery was supposed to sit still for this as she looked at images on a screen (Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, etc.) While she cooperated, she was a 2 year old cooperating and kept moving her head, but the doctor said he got what he needed…hopefully he really did. The third test was a Visual Evoked Response (VER) which electrodes were attached to Avery’s head as she watched a red dot on the screen. The red dot was covered by spiders on a stick that Justin had to use to entertain Avery to keep her eyes focused on the red dot. We made up every story we could think of with the spiders…they went to the park, to the grocery store, to the park again…it was quite comical…it kept Avery’s attention though and that was all that matters. Even when we got back home, Avery was still talking about the test and the button (electrode) and the spiders (red dot cover up).
After those tests were performed, Avery’s eyes were dilated and she was further examined by Dr. Hertle. Dr. Hertle basically confirmed a lot of what we already knew but we probably needed to hear again by him. With regards to her diagnosis, he feels that the small eyes alone were enough to cause the nystagmus as the first few months of a child’s life are crucial in visual development and with a lot of the components of her eyes just being a little smaller (optic nerve, cornea, retina, pupils, etc.) she didn’t have the “camera” that she needed to develop normal eyesight. He further said she would have likely developed the nystagmus even without the cataracts just as a result of the small eyes. He said that her eyes basically stopped developing at 6/7 months in the womb. He felt that her care to date has been great and that she has been seen by some of the top doctors in the country. He said that her eye sight will continue to improve even into her teens and her nystagmus will become less noticeable and the physical appearance of her eyes will likely get a little bigger as well. With regards to the next step, he does feel that she will benefit from surgery; surgery to correct the strabismus, but also the nystagmus and the null point (those would be improved…not necessarily corrected.) Previous doctors have also told us that the nystagmus surgery can be done as part of the strabismus surgery by cutting additional muscles. Dr. Hertle has been the first person to suggest that Avery does have a null point. He feels that her constant head down, lid down position is in part due to light sensitivity but more so due to the fact that when her head is in that position her eyes move less in that position….thus her null point. Dr. Hertle suggests operating on the null point as well although he was up front that the measurements for the null point portion of the surgery are small, medium, and large and because it isn’t exact as well as the fact that children’s null points can change during child hood, he said 20% of children will require a second surgery. (Personally I think the statistics are even higher than that based on the persons that Justin met at the ANN Conference this summer). Dr. Hertle said the important piece was getting Avery to see him to have the tests run so he can determine the type of nystagmus. He said he would happily do the surgery, but also happily work with another doctor who could perform the surgery. He would just want a follow up again at his office at some point so he could redo the tests to determine the results of the procedures. Dr. Hertle also said that he would suggest surgery sooner than later but sooner could be anytime within the next 9 months.
Avery was very well behaved not only at the appointment but all weekend. She did great in the car and each way slept for 2-3 hours and the remaining time was content to hold her blankie, her baby, her paci (yes, I know I need to take that away soon), sing, and talk to Mommy and Daddy. She was constantly on the move in the hotel room and we had to keep reminding her to stop dragging her blankie on the floor. We let her jump on the bed as part of the hotel experience (she only fell off once and to be precise she wasn’t jumping at that time). She even went to bed without any pushback despite the fact that she was in a pack n play and Justin and I were right there in the room. The second night we even rewarded her with ice cream for being so well behaved at the doctor appointment.
The visit to Dr. Hertle was well worth it. I think we are leaning towards Dr. Repka doing the surgery and probably sometime this spring. We need to get some things squared away at home first and think more about the surgery and further questions to make sure we are fully prepared and educated. But I don’t think we feel too rushed to do that and I also don’t feel overwhelmed about the outcome of the appointment. It was further validation that Avery’s condition is random and not genetic in the sense that Justin and I passed it down to here. Furthermore, Dr. Hertle said Avery’s chances of passing it along to her children are even less…for example 1 in 25,000. And the truth is we don’t need any doctor to tell us Avery is going to be okay. A lot has changed since Avery was 3 months…at 3 months we were wondering if the cataract surgery was truly successful….at 6 months we were wondering if Avery could see….and at 2 years and 3 months, Avery has proven that not only can she see, but also that she is independent, smart, competent, loving, and quite the comedian.
Halloween Chefs
This year I had wanted the girls to be princesses for Halloween since they had received princess dress up costumes as a gift for their second birthday. While they love princesses, they don’t like putting on the princess outfits for some reason. I tried and tried but after several failed attempts, I realized they would have to go as something else. We even went out to Target one night and searched the Halloween costume aisle. The girls refused to try anything on. They have some sort of tag fetish and refuse to try anything on if it has a tag! We left the store with plastic pumpkins (which they loved) and a Mama that was wondering what in the heck I could have them dress up as that they would actually wear. I knew it had to be something they were into….thus the idea came that they were going to be chefs as they LOVE cooking and their play kitchen. Even when I prepare food in the kitchen these days, they immediately pull a chair right up so they can watch. So I bought two chef outfits online and they were the cutest little chefs in town.
Neither one of them were into taking pictures.
They finally sat still so Justin could snap a few and they put on their best cheese face.
We had been rehearsing the whole knocking, trick or treat, receiving candy and saying thank you process for a few weeks and the girls actually remembered it and lasted for a lot more houses than I thought they would. They were a little frightened at times due to some of the scarier house props and Avery wanted to be carried for the most part, but overall they did quite well and really enjoyed trick or treating. 
Harper dressed up in a Halloween onesie.
She stayed home and gave out candy with Grandma and Grandpa while Mommy and Daddy took Avery and Emerson out trick or treating. When we got home we put her in a pea in the pod outfit (yes, the same one the girls wore and without the hat as I couldn’t find it).
I was able to get Emerson to sit down with Harper for a picture. I was trying to get Avery in the picture as well; however, she has a mind of her own and had her costume off before we could even snap the picture.
We all had a great time and are already looking forward to dressing up and going trick or treating again next year!
Pumpkin Carving
On the Monday before Halloween, we decided to carve the pumpkin to get the girls in the Halloween spirit. It was late already that evening since Justin worked late but he said it wouldn’t take long and he was right. The girls were already dressed in clothes that I didn’t care about getting messed up (you’ll see why as I remind you it is October still) so preparation took only a minute. Justin’s job was to carve while mine was to take pictures…easy enough! The girls were very much into it!
Not only did they watch, but they even helped out some, especially Avery.
At first Harper just slept through it all.
But when she woke up and saw all the joy in Daddy’s face, she just wanted to be a part of it and wasn’t afraid to let us know.
Maybe next year Harper:) The final result was pretty simple but turned out great. In fact, Harper the pumpkin next year will likely look much the same as Mommy and Daddy’s artistic ability is quite limited.
While the girls enjoyed the pumpkin carving, once the light was turned off and the pumpkin became a jack-o-lantern, the experience took a little bit of a turn in the wrong direction.
So we put the light back on and had to gain the girls trust that the jack-o-lantern was still the same old pumpkin they had just helped carve. In fact, we even ended up naming our pumpkin….Puma. The girls happily said good night to Puma and when they woke up in the morning the first thing they wanted to see was Puma.
Maybe Tomorrow
The girls speak in full sentences now. It amazes me what comes out of their mouths these days. They now have the ability to tell me what they want, and what they don’t want for that matter, when it comes to anything and everything. They tell me what they want to eat or what they don’t want or when they want more of something or when they are finished eating. They tell me when they want their diaper changed or when they don’t want it changed which generally is opposite of what nature has really called for. They tell me when they don’t feel like getting dressed (one minute or two minutes is a common response) and Avery often tells me what she wants to wear (no, not that, this one, I like this one). They also tell me no and to go away when they don’t want to be bothered with something such as getting in their car seat.
Their ability to express their wants and needs is wonderful and amazing but can also be less than desirable sometimes as well. The saying that cracks me up the most probably because they both use if so much is “maybe tomorrow”. Children obviously pick up on sayings from their parents and I guess Justin and I did use that phrase some in response to them. But they both use it a TON. (Hopefully we don’t use it that much). It is funny though because they both use it in slightly different ways. Avery generally uses it in a way that most people use it….if something doesn’t occur today, then maybe it will occur tomorrow. For example, I might be leaving to the store. Avery might say Mommy going to Giant and I would respond, no I’m actually going to a clothing store. Avery would respond back and say, “maybe tomorrow”. Emerson on the other hand adds emotion to her phrase much of the time. For example, if I say Emerson can I have a hug and a kiss and she isn’t in the mood, she will quickly say “No.”. Immediately she will realize that her response wasn’t nice, so she will say ‘mabye tomorrow’ with a little sad face.
The truth is I love the phrase. I grin every time I hear one of them say it. It fits. Maybe tomorrow we will go to the park, maybe tomorrow we will eat chicken nuggets, maybe tomorrow we will go to the store, maybe tomorrow we will feel like giving extra hugs. Maybe tomorrow is not a promise, just the understanding that something is not today and the thought that it may be tomorrow gives us something to look forward. And as we anticipate what may be tomorrow, we are thankful for our blessings today.
My Time With Harper
My time with Harper is coming to an end. This is my last week at home with her. I’m sad about it but I know that we have had a good 11 weeks together. She has been such a good baby since her arrival in EVERY aspect. She has been efficient at nursing since the first moment she latched on at the hospital and her sleeping patterns have been excellent since the first night in the hospital as well. She rarely cries…only if she gets VERY hungry (which doesn’t happen often) or if she gets very constipated (which also does not happen very often). She is just a happy little baby who loves being spoken to and smiled at. So while I am not looking forward to going back to work (primarily because of the administrative BS that occurred as a result of being on disability at the time of the split), I can say that I feel like Harper and I had a lot of quality time together during our 11 weeks together. Ana still worked her regular 3 ½ day week schedule while I was on maternity leave, so for much of the week Avery and Emerson had their special time bonding with Ana, while I truly did get to focus on Harper. Harper and I went for a lot of walks mostly in the stroller, a few with her in the Baby Bjorn, and a few with her watching me on the treadmill. We ran errands to the grocery store, to the drug store, to buy clothes, and many other odds and ends. We spent a lot of time nursing and cuddling and even took a few awesome naps together. And of course we did spend some time with Avery, Emerson, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, and friends which was pretty awesome too.
My time with Harper was much different than with the girls. With the girls, I think it was more about survival. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed them but there wasn’t a lot of time those first few months for me to really just sit, relax, and enjoy them all at the same time. With Harper, not only was the difference that she was 1 baby verses 2 babies, but also she was so easy to care for. A feeding took no more than 20 minutes maximum with the average feeding being 10 minutes. She goes to sleep unassisted and only one night to date have I had to get out of bed multiple time in response to her weak little cry. At night when she wakes she is slow to come out of her full sleep so she is quiet and wakes no one in the house. After she nurses for 10 minutes she falls back asleep right away. There is even no middle of the night diaper changing making the night time routine that much easier. When her sisters are throwing tantrums, wanting attention or just requiring basic parental duties, Harper patiently waits for her sisters to have their turn until Mommy or Daddy have a free hand.
And here we are at 11 weeks and two days old to be exact, one week until I go back to work. In preparation for my return to work and coming up with a schedule, the day she turned 11 weeks we put her in her own crib in her own room. (Until then she had been sleeping in a pack n play in our room). It was much later than when we put the girls in their crib but Harper was so good and only waking up once a night (and not waking Justin when she woke) that it wasn’t a big deal to keep her in our room that long. Even as I sit here in bed after putting the girls to sleep, Harper lay on her boppy pillow cooing and smiling as her daddy and I both work separately on our laptops. And as her content little body starts dozing, I start to tear up thinking about how great our time was together. I have no regrets about how any of our days were spent and I wouldn’t change a thing these past 2 ½ months. Baby Harper, Mommy loves you so much. You are the perfect addition to our family!
Just Because!
Cox’s Farm Fall Festival
Justin took the day off of work yesterday so we could take the girls to the Cox’s Farm Fall Festival. We wanted to take them on a weekday so that it would be less of a crowd and cheaper admission. As it turned out while admission was cheaper, it was probably busier than some weekends due to a bunch of Maryland daycare centers having field trips there. It was Grandma’s day of the week to watch the girls so she came with us to join in the fun. What a difference a year makes! Last year, while we had a great time, I found myself thinking that Avery and Emerson would really be able to enjoy the festival more next year and that they did indeed! It was a beautiful sunny day; temperature was perfect in the high 60’s….almost identical to the weather we had last year.
We packed as much as we could into three hours before the girls were exhausted and it was time for us to call it a day. We started slow to ease the girls into it by climbing on some hay. Next stop was some kid’s show. We arrived towards the end but I think he (the performer) was rapping (to some extent) some kids songs. All I know was that I was wanting to get my groove on and Emerson was getting her groove on. We only stayed for a few minutes but long enough to snap a few pictures with Daddy before moving on to the slides.
As I was waiting for Grandma and Daddy to come down the slide with the girls I couldn’t help but laugh at this goat who kept getting in this position.
Oh and by the way, in case you are wondering where Harper was, this is how she spent much of the afternoon (except when I was on the slide…she was then lucky enough to hang out in her stroller).
Throughout the afternoon we went on three different slides. All three adults took turns throughout the afternoon with each girl.
Emerson was brave enough to even try a slide herself a few times….
…which ultimately left Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma going down the slide alone on that particular turn.
We also went on the hayride, which we did not do last year. WOW, was I impressed! I was thinking it would be a five minute ride through some cornfields with some scarecrows. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I swear the ride had to have been over 15 minutes and we saw EVERYTHING! We went through haunted houses, water, a town with a jail and general store, saw zoo animals, aliens, cartoon characters, disney characters, and MUCH MORE! Avery sat with Daddy and overall enjoyed the ride with the exception of the haunted house.
Emerson sat with Mommy. She cried at first…then finally stopped but only to stay lying down buried in Mommy’s lap with her eyes closed for the entire ride. (Not certain what Daddy was actually trying to capture here…LOL!)
We had more success this year at taking our pictures in the staged frames.
We even found the perfect one for all three girls to be in together.
And we found the Kid Only (Little Kid) Zone that we somehow missed last year. The girls had a fun time playing on the train, driving the tractor, and catching the bubbles.
Harper just watched it all…
And on the way out, we all picked out our pumpkin and tried for that family of five picture. It took a few snaps but we got some okay ones.
I look at these pictures and still can’t believe I am lucky enough to call each of them mine. I love my family and truly am blessed! We all had a fun time and look forward to going to this event again next year!
October Heat
This past weekend was so hot out it felt more like August than October. It felt like we should be in the pool, not the pumpkin patch, but I am not complaining. I love extending the summer wardrobe for as long as I can!
We started the weekend early by going up to New Jersey for the day to visit Gigi and Papa Mac. Justin couldn’t take off work, plus it would have been a very tight fit in the car with an additional person, so my parents and I took the girls. Besides the difficulty the girls gave us getting into their carseats on the way home, they were very well behaved. Avery and Emerson were talking up a storm, especially with Gigi. Gigi had just come home from the rehab center a few days prior so we went to her house first and then went to visit Papa Mac afterwards at the rehab center. Here is baby Harper meeting Gigi and Papa Mac for the first time.
Saturday morning we went up to good old Church Street in Vienna for Octoberfest. We do what we do best at festivals and walked up the block past all the booths, but truly interested in none of them. After a quick walk by past the food booths and the beer tent, we settled in the green area for some music and snacks.
It was so hot and my mommy PA (Parental Assessment) was low as I forgot sunscreen and a hat for Harper so we didn’t stay too long. Next stop was Chick Fila for lunch. These girls especially Avery are apparently chicken nugget connoisseurs because Avery wouldn’t touch them just from the smell and Emerson barely ate two small ones. Wendy’s clearly is the chicken nugget of choice. Anyway, after lunch we went to a pumpkin patch in Reston and despite the sweltering August like weather had a great time.
Sunday evening before dinner we walked up to Wolftrap playground where the girls and Justin and I had a great time playing. I’m finally starting to get my energy back and it feels awesome. I even moved up to pushing the double stroller and even ran some on the way home. (I was selective about what streets I ran on because I didn’t want to many drivers passing bye to have to see so much jiggle jangle:)) This really is huge because I haven’t really done much down and dirty playing with the girls to date. I got pregnant with Harper before the girls were really running around all that much outside and while I was pregnant I was only feeling good to keep up with them during the second trimester, so I finally feel like I am back! Anyway, here are some pictures of the girls having a good time.
And once again the weekend came to an end. Fortunately this lucky mama has 4 more weeks at home before returning back to work!
Broken
Two weeks ago Justin and I were in the car with the girls. Avery was in the middle row and for some reason when we were at a stop light she told Justin and I her eyes were “broken.” We questioned if she really said what we thought we just heard so we asked her to repeat it and sure enough we heard her correctly. It was like a knife in our chests but I really didn’t think Avery meant what she said. I think she had a patch on at the time so part of me chalked it up to something regarding the patch or her eye being itchy but I certainly didn’t think she equated it to her eyes not working correctly. While Avery hasn’t said her eyes are broken since, fast forward two weeks to tonight. Justin was putting on Emerson’s “special sleeping shoes” for the third night in a row, and as he was strapping them, she said, “my feet broken”. WOW….talk about not only a knife in the chest yet again, but also this time reality that girls are smarter than we were giving them credit. Emerson then proceeded to point to her eyes, then Avery, and say contacts. The girls absolutely know that contacts and patching are Avery’s special thing and that the sleeping shoes are Emerson’s special things and they both actually seem to enjoy their “special thing”…granted Emerson’s is relatively new and the first night was awful but has gotten a little better each day. So Justin and I were really taken back when we realized that the girls also associated each of their “special things” with being broken :(. These are the moments that make being a parent tough!