Insect Week

This week Charlie and Lily learned about insects. We read The Very Busy Spider and The Very Quiet Cricket and sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "The Ants Go Marching." Pop-Pop made us an Itsy Bitsy Spider video as well...I need to get it from Joe and see about posting it! We looked for bugs outside (we found a lot of gnats - ick!) and tried to learn the names of some different kinds of bugs. Charlie and Lily also played with pasta "worms." I boiled some thin spaghetti for them to touch and play with. Both of them currently have an aversion to the texture of pasta, so this activity was also aiming to work on overcoming that.

Lily didn't mind the feel of the pasta too much. And she enjoyed bringing it to Pop-Pop strand by strand. :)
Charlie was not a big fan. As soon as the "worms" started sticking to his hands he was over it!

For art we made colorful caterpillars. Charlie and Lily are doing a great job with their colors and can name and identify several. Purple and green are their favorites!

Lily has been in rare form recently. Talking up a storm and completely asserting herself. Here she is distracting Charlie as he was trying to finish his lunch (I don't think he minded though!).

And a shot of what it usually looks like when I try to eat breakfast in the mornings. Little mooches!

Just relax...and help!

This post is for a brave fellow mom who I know from an online community, Jen of the blog Maybe If You Just Relax.

Like me, Jen is an infertility veteran. It took 3 years for Jen to get her successful IVF cycle that ended with the birth of her daughter Olivia on Valentine's Day 2009. Last year, she again went through treatments to add to her family and wound up pregnant with identical twin girls. She had a rough pregnancy where there were concerns about her Baby B while her Baby A thrived in utero. She ended up in the hospital towards the end, and received steroid shots with a planned c-section 48 hours later. The night before her c-section Jen and her husband received the devastating news that they had lost their precious Baby A. On December 30, 2010, beautiful baby Evelyn was born still and her sister Ainsley was equally beautiful but small and mighty and taken straight to the NICU.

Ainsley has proven to be a fighter. She has been in the NICU since the day she was born. She has been through multiple surgeries including one on her spine, her heart, g-tube surgery and most recently a traecheotomy. Her main issues seem to be eating and growing, and it may be months until she is home. In the meantime, her family has been adjusting to a new kind of normal, including work, spending time with Olivia and traveling back and forth to the NICU to be with Ainsley. A local group of moms had gotten together and organized help for her family as much as they can. They have done meal delivery, collected money for gas and grocery gift cards, paid for their parking at the hospital (their hospital does not offer free parking for NICU parents, even after 5 months of multiple trips a day!), etc. As a small group they've done what we can but now are now asking bloggers to reach out to the online community in a plea for help for this deserving family.

Friends of Jen and her family are asking for monetary donations and are also asking for raffle items for a "Reverse Raffle" event to be held in Jen's home town on July 23. All proceeds will benefit Jen's family, and donations of items and services would be greatly appreciated!

CLICK HERE for event details and how you can help!

Mother's Day

Yesterday I celebrated a wonderful second Mother's Day. I am incredibly lucky to have a wonderful husband who always goes above and beyond on every holiday to make sure I have the most special day possible, and yesterday was no exception. The day started with a little present opening.

"Don't forget this card, Mommy! It's great!" Then Lily helped me open the quesadilla maker that I asked for. She even brought over her maracca for a little Mexican flair - ole! My other gift was a beautiful photo book called "Why We Love Our Mommy, Part II" (I recieved the original book last Mother's Day). It was full of pictures of me with Charlie and Lily plus a wonderful poem/story inside. So sweet!

"There's Lily, and there's Lily, and there's Lily..." After opening my presents I went to the gym, and when I got home Charlie and Lily were wearing these awesome shirts that Joe made for them. How great are these?
(I'm having problems with the picture of the back of Charlie's shirt, but I'll try to get one up soon.)

Joe even made a shirt for me too! The three of us wore our shirts all day and looked mighty fine, if I do say so myself.Later in the afternoon we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner (thanks for cooking, John and Bec, and for hosting, Anne!), then to Aunt Jill's for dessert with Crackers and Nana. Charlie and Lily helped me make these flower pots as gifts, and Joe got the beautiful flowers to put in them. I must say, these pots are sporting Charlie and Lily's best hand prints ever. I think they're finally catching on to all my little art projects ;)
All in all, it was a wonderful day. I am so thankful that I am able to celebrate Mother's Day as a mom, and am thankful that I have such an incredible husband who did so much to make it a special day. I'm also grateful for my own wonderful mother, who is also my best friend; my fantastic mother-in-law, who treats me like her own daughter; and my Nana, who has always been there for me. Love you all!

"Why We Love Our Mommy: Part 2"

Click here to view this photo book larger

Weather and 1, 2, 3

We've had so much going on recently that I haven't had a chance to post about our last few lessons, so I wanted to catch up! A few weeks ago (4, maybe?!?!) we did weather week. We sang, "Mr. Golden Sun" and read the Sesame Street Book of Seasons. We also charted the weather for the week. Charlie and Lily really enjoyed putting the weather symbols on the chart each day.
For art, we made storm clouds. It was during this project that I learned that Charlie and Lily do NOT like things stuck to their hands, and glue and cotton balls together makes for lot of hand sticking.
After weather week we took two weeks off for Easter and our own little spring break. This week we were back in action, focusing on the numbers 1, 2, and 3. I created this little number game that I discovered on one of my very favorite blogs, No Time for Flash Cards. I wrote the numbers 1, 2 and 3 on several pieces of paper, folded the papers and put them into leftover plastic Easter eggs. Charlie and Lily then opened the eggs, unfolded the paper and then we talked about which number they had found. They both really liked this game, and Lily especially loved unfolding the paper. For art, we attempted a number garden, but it sort of turned into a mess. But we tried! We also sang "Mr. Alligator," which just may be one of Charlie and Lily's new favorite songs.
And now here's a glimpse at what else Charlie and Lily have been up to. Lily has been enjoying doing my hair for me. She likes to climb up on the couch to brush and play with my hair.

"Oh Mommy. You really must do something about these split ends!"

In fact, anything that involves climbing on the couches is a LOT of fun.

Good thing they're cute!

Charlie and Lily also like to color, but the activity usually evolves quickly into crayon-eating and coloring book-tearing.

Then there's this. I have no idea what this is either!
div>And anything involving stuff on people's heads, even hoods, is really, really funny.

So that's what our little Super Babies have been up recently ;)

Thank you to our friend

We don't know who you are and therefore have no way of contacting you, so I'm posting this here on the blog in hopes that you're a reader. Thank you so much for the generous gifts you've been sending us in the mail. I just received the Mother's Day card - your kindness and generosity is overwhelming and we are incredibly appreciative. You are an amazing person, whoever you are!

March for Babies 2011

On Saturday we participated in the 2011 March for Babies. We were lucky to have a beautiful day for the walk, as opposed to last year's pouring rain, and even more lucky to have so many of our wonderful friends and family with us. As you can see from the photo above, Team Three Cheers for Babies was well represented!

Charlie and Lily wore special shirts in honor of the day. If you can't quite see, the shirts say, "You're Looking at a Miracle."

Our team wore the same shirts as last year - we liked them too much to change them!

Enjoying the sunshine before things kicked off.
As this year's ambassador family, Joe, Charlie, Lily and I kicked off the walk. I gave a speech to all the attendees, sharing our story and letting everyone know just why the March of Dimes is such an important organization. (My speech is at the end of the post, if you'd like to read it.)
After the speech, we hopped in our special golf cart and led everyone to the walk route.
Once out of the golf cart, Charlie and Lily still got to cruise in style. Armed with lots of snacks and drinks, Charlie and Lily made it through the entire 5K walk with no complaints. We got them out as we approached the finish line and they walked to the end with us. Lily was clapping and cheering for herself as she got her "I Did It!" sticker, and Charlie was grinning like crazy.
After the walk everyone enjoyed dancing to the DJ and jumping in the bounce house. We even had an impromptu baby picnic for lunch. Charlie spent most of this little "picnic" walking around and mooching eveyone else's lunch. It was his own little buffet.
We had a wonderful time, but all that walking sure was exhausting ;)
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us at the walk, and to everyone who donated to our team. I'm waiting for a final fundraising report from the walk coordinator, but right now I'm showing that we've raised $4,931 for the March of Dimes. Our goal was $5,000 and I'm hoping we hit it. If you'd like to donate, there's still time - just VISIT OUR TEAM PAGE.

Finally, as promised, here is the speech I gave before the walk:

Every parent hopes that they will never need the services of the March of Dimes. But speaking as parents who did need their services, we’re here this morning to tell you just how important the March of Dimes really is.

When we found out that we were expecting triplets, we knew that there was a very good chance they would arrive early. We decided to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, but even we weren’t prepared for them to arrive as early as they did. The pregnancy was a difficult one from the start. I required surgery at just 9 weeks pregnant, then needed another procedure when I was 21 weeks along in an attempt to stop impending pre-term labor. At 24 weeks my water broke, and I was admitted to the hospital in an attempt to keep the babies in as long as possible. The doctors did everything they could and held off labor for 9 days, but still the babies arrived 15 weeks early.

I wish I could say that the birth of my children was the happiest day of my life, but it wasn’t. It was the most terrifying. The c-section was rushed and panicked. The room was full of NICU doctors and nurses waiting to care for the babies. We had no idea if they would even be born alive. As each baby was delivered there was no joyful cry of, “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy!” just “Here’s Baby A/B/C” as the doctor immediately handed my newborns off to the NICU staff. I never even got to see them in the delivery room. I remember lying on the table and all I could see was the team of doctors working on my daughter Lily, standing over her pumping air into her lungs to make her breathe. It seemed as if they worked on her forever and I was terrified that she wasn’t going to make it.

All three babies did survive delivery though and were whisked to the NICU. Our son, Charles Ferdinand (Charlie) weighed in at 1 lb 13 oz and was 13” long. Annaleigh Lucy was 1 lb 9 oz and 13 ¼” long and Lily Kevynn weighed 1 lb 8 oz and was 13 ½” long. I was finally able to see them a few hours after delivery, when my bed was wheeled into the NICU. I remember a nurse putting Lily’s tiny foot in my hand. They were by far the smallest babies I had ever seen, each not much larger than a can of soda.

The entire NICU stay was filled with scary moments, unsure hours and close calls. It was always one step forward, two steps back. In the beginning, all three babies would have countless episodes where they would stop breathing, or their heart rates would suddenly drop. There is really nothing scarier than hearing alarms sound and watching your child turn blue as nurses rush to their side to try to make them breathe again. The babies required the assistance of a ventilator to help them breathe, and feeding tubes so that they could eat. They were treated for unclosed vessels in their hearts, and Charlie developed a case of MRSA, an infection of the skin and blood, which forced him into isolation for his entire NICU stay.

Annaleigh was our strongest baby and our toughest fighter. At just 2 weeks old she underwent surgery to remove an obstruction in her bowel, and came through it unfazed .We were certain that she would be the first of our three babies to come home – she was even the first baby to be able to breathe all on her own - but the universe had other plans. On August 21, 2009 Annaleigh was diagnosed with Necrotizing Enterocolitis, a gastrointestinal disease that every preemie parent fears, as it is often fatal. This proved to be the case for our Annaleigh, because though they tried there was nothing the doctors could do to help her. Annaleigh died in my arms the very next day after her diagnosis, after having lived just 8 weeks and never leaving the hospital.

Charlie and Lily, however, began to thrive and after 95 and 99 days in the NICU and against all odds, they finally came home. And they’ve never looked back. Today Charlie and Lily are happy, healthy, energetic toddlers.

We are lucky that our story has a happy ending. We wish it were happier – we wish that we had all three of our children standing here with us today. We miss Annaleigh with all our hearts every day. But still, we are one of the lucky families. The fact that our son and daughter are alive today is a true miracle. One of the things that strikes us most about this walk is the number of miracles in this park today. Did you ever think you’d actually see a miracle? Look around – there are dozens of them standing right here. And they are here thanks in large part to the work done by the March of Dimes.

The March of Dimes has made huge strides in the fight against prematurity, but there is still so much work to be done. One day, no family will have to go through what ours did. No baby will have to go through what ours did, and no baby will lose the fight the way that our Annaleigh did. Thank you for being here today to join the fight against prematurity and support the March of Dimes.