Claire's Birthday Weekend

I know this is way overdue, but work and packing just take up my time these days. So I wanted to write about our fun weekend for Claire's birthday. I had taken Friday the 20th off of work, and we went to the Rainforest Cafe for an early dinner. We had taken both Curtis and Lauren there for their first birthday's, but we weren't able to go last year for Claire's first birthday, so we made it this year. Curtis and Claire loved it, but Lauren was petrified...she hid under the table the whole time. (We were by the gorillas and she didn't want any part of it!) I ended up feeding her under the table. (You would've thought we were feeding a dog!) Claire had a blast and enjoyed having "Happy Birthday" sung to her.

On Saturday (which was her birthday), we went to Como Town and Como Zoo for our PBS station's Family Fun Day. We have never been there before and the zoo is free, so it was a no brainer. Unfortunately it rained that day, but let up enough to head over there. The rain let up for about an hour, then it started pouring and we had thunder and lightening. We ended up hanging out in the animal buildings until the rain let up. Then we ate lunch outside under the overhangs (the kids thought it was fun and had a blast!) Around 1 p.m. the rain finally let up and we went to Como Town to ride some rides. The kids had so much fun...they still talk about it! We do have to go back when the weather is better to see the animals in their habitats and ride more rides without being soaked. So here are some pictures of our wild birthday weekend.

Here is Claire's birthday cake. I originally wanted a Tinkerbell cake, since Claire loves Tinkerbell, but Target has discontinued the cake I wanted, so Hello Kitty was the next best thing. I think it fit her personality very well.

The pony cart ride at Como Town.

Claire had so much fun, even though she didn't want to sit with her brother.

The girls thought is was cool to drive Curtis around.

This is a Moray eel that was right next to our table at The Rainforest Cafe. I've never seen an eel that big before.

Claire is digging in to her volcano cake. She wasn't waiting for anyone!

2 Years

My dear Claire, I can't believe we celebrated your second birthday yesterday! These last two years have gone by so fast and you have grown so much! It just seems like yesterday you went breech at the last minute and gave us a good scare, only to turn the right way a week and a half later. I wonder what you thought as we were calling you by the boy name we picked out, since you tricked us into thinking you were a boy. You have definitely kept us on our toes! Once you were born, the nurses scared us into thinking that you were going to have trouble walking because of the dimple on your bottom, but you proved them wrong and walked at 10 months! You've done just about everything early: got your first tooth at 4 months, crawled at 7 months, and your vocabulary amazes us (you are giving Curtis a run for his money). Just this morning, you counted to 15, what!?! You know your shapes and quite a bit of the colors. You are so sure of yourself and have an amazing sense of humor. I love it when you make us laugh! You also have this cute lisp that adds to your charm. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you, my sweet little Claire Bear!

Another Prayer Request

I have another prayer request. Two months ago, my mom broke her foot and was in a special boot for 6 weeks. She fell out of bed one night trying to roll over with the boot on and her leg swelled up. The doctors thought that it was just from the boot being on all the time and figured it would stop once the boot was off. Well, the swelling was still there after the boot came off and the doctor suspected a blod clot, but couldn't find anything and my mom wasn't having any pain. Well, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound since the swelling wasn't going away. My mom had her ultrasound on Friday. As soon as she walked in the door, the phone was ringing and it was her doctor telling her that she had a big blood clot in her knee "that was like a giant black cloud" and to get to the hospital right away. So my mom spent Friday night and part of the day on Saturday in the hospital having bloodwork done and keeping an eye on the clot. She has to be on Coumadin and she has to inject herself with Heparin twice a day until Friday to speed up the Coumadin. She was fine Sunday, but had a really bad day yesterday with lots of leg pain that made her ill. She is taking the next few days off of work and sees the doctor on Friday. I will keep you posted on what the doctor says. I am very worried and it hurts that I can't be there with her. Please pray that the clot would dissolve and that it wouldn't break apart and float to places that it shouldn't. Thank you.

Updates

Once again, it's been too long since I last posted. Work keeps me very busy and with packing, I just don't have a lot of spare time, so I will be updating you on what's been going on in our lives. First, I want to let you know that my cousin's wife Arinda, had her follow up ultrasound and they found the baby's stomach right away! What a relief and mommy and baby are doing well. My mom broke her foot and was out of work for six weeks. She was finally able to return to work last week. I'm busy with work and trying to play with the kids as much as I can, so they know that I still love them. I hate going to work in the morning because the kids will ask, "Mommy, why do you have to go to work? Why can't Daddy go to work?" It's very hard. The best part of the day is when I come home and the kids mob me at the door with hugs and kisses! Hmmm, I wonder if they missed me! :) Kevin is still unemployed and the North Carolina move is still moving forward, but Kevin will probably have to find a full time job until this company can start paying salaries. I can always get a job out there, but I'd rather not. Curtis is doing well in school and is counting down the days to when he will be a first grader! I can't believe he only has two months of school left. This year has gone by fast. He has taken up an interest in guitars, since Kevin has been working on guitars. Lauren is now completely potty trained, which she did herself. She also hasn't had any bleeding since January. I know this is kind of gross, but her bowel movements have changed and she is doing bigger stools, so we are very hopeful that whatever was causing the bleeding has corrected itself. Only time will tell. She is looking forward to starting preschool in the fall, and has taken an interest in ice skating and soccer. Claire will be two next month, can you believe it! She is getting three of her two year molars, and she hasn't been a happy camper :( She has an extensive vocabulary and even tries to boss Curtis and Lauren around! She has taken an interest in potty training. She loves to tell us when she is wet and will ask to sit on the toilet, but that's all she does. It seems like that's all we've done the last few years is potty train. We should be experts by now, hahaha! I will do a whole post on the awesome concert that I took Kevin to for his birthday, so until then, be blessed!

Prayer Request

Please pray for my cousin's wife, Arinda. She is pregnant with a baby girl and just had an ultrasound done. The doctor told her that they were unable to detect the baby's stomach, so she has to redo the ultrasound in three weeks. What a very anxious time for them. Can you please lift them and the baby up in prayer. Thanks.

Name That Photo

I figured that I would start off the new year with something fun. So here is a picture of Claire and Natalee Feldman (Jon & Ali's daughter) from our photo shoot in October. This is one of my favorites and there is so much that could be captioned so leave your comments. I can't wait to hear what you come up with!

Another Long Day

Today we spent all morning at Children's Hospital St. Paul doing more testing and following up with the gastroenterologist. I was very nervous about today. I wanted to find out what is causing the bleeding and prolapse, but also scared to find out and this time it was just Lauren and I since Curtis is back in school. I did cry a little on the way there, but once we arrived, it was game time. Lauren had her sweat test first and she did very well. She cried a little because the charges going through the electrodes hurt towards the end.

Here are the electrodes that she had on both arms.

This is the bracelet that measured the sweat. She had to wear these for 30 minutes.

Here are both arms with the bracelets bandaged up so that she wouldn't pull them off. Thankfully, she was able to play in the waiting room for the half hour that they were on her arms.

Giving Snoopy a hug after getting the bracelets off.

Here she is going through the kid door at Dr. Goldman's office. I love the little door and Lauren thought it was the coolest! Dr. Goldman told us that her bloodwork is normal, so no deficiencies. Since Lauren hasn't had any bleeding and prolapse in three weeks, Dr. Goldman told us that she doesn't need to come back unless she has more bleeding. If she does have bleeding, we need to call the office right away and they will order the scope to check for polyps. We also had another xray done to see if the stone has been flushed out of her appendix. Dr. Goldman will call us with the results of the xray and the sweat test. I did ask her what the next step would be if the stone was still in Lauren's appendix and she said that there isn't anything that they can do because she is too little to have her appendix removed. She said that we will have to be vigilant because she is going to be more prone to appendicitis. She also said that they can do surgery through her belly button, but we will get there when we get there. So we still don't know what is causing her bleeding, so we just watch and wait for now. Thank you all for praying for our sweet little girl.