April 2, 2012

It's been three weeks since our last post and we've certainly kept ourselves busy in the interim.  Every weekend has involved some kind of event or activity to assist in our attempts to wear Charlotte out and perhaps make bedtime less of an ordeal. It hasn't worked.

First up was St Patrick's Day at the Minnesota Children's Museum and the Irish parade through downtown St Paul with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Tim.

A troupe of Irish dancers at the MCM.

Hard at work.

About half the time spent in the water area was spent activating the hand dryer.

St Patrick Day parade in short sleeves and the that's all she wrote for winter.

The Minnesota road racing scene traditionally kicks of with The Human Race along Summit Avenue. Last year Charlotte was bundled for maximum warmth. This year not so much. Although fine weather for spectators cost Dad 30 seconds versus last year.

"Look! I'm at one of Dad's races and I'm not freezing!"

"Go Runners!"

This year Grandma and Grandpa Russell gave us a membership to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for Christmas. We took Grandma and Grandpa Distad out there with us to celebrate the early Spring.

This past weekend we traveled to Madison so I could run a race and we could visit with family and friends living in the area.

Learning the do's and don'ts with regards to geese.

We were able to catch the Hoenisch's for dinner Friday night before they left town the next day. Calvin and Charlotte

March 2012

March 2010

Saturday was race day and cold again! The race was at Vilas Park in Madison where, fortunately for Charlotte, there was a free zoo! As I was running laps through the UW Arboretum, Katie and Charlotte ducked in and out to visit the different animals and activities.

After the race we returned for a full visit of the zoo with my cousin Matt and his family. Matt and his wife Anne came visit us while we were stationed at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. After the zoo we all went out for dinner. Charlotte enjoyed meeting their son Owen, but she may have had nefarious intentions depending on her understanding on the different parts of speech, namely the preposition "with." "I want to eat Owen" she told us as we drove to the restaurant.

"Which jungle beast could we take in fight?"

Our hotel on Friday night was a little sketchy; not bad, but there were some definite red flags. We switched hotels for Saturday night so we Charlotte could get some "pool-time." She enjoyed the much more subdued atmosphere of the hotel pool over the chaos of the Shoreview waterpark we went to last time. It was hard to get her to leave in fact.

"Splashing allows me to use up my destructive energy without actually breaking anything."

Sunday we got breakfast at the Original Pancake House and then used our reciprocal museum membership to visit the Madison Children's Museum.

Water is universal.

The Paint Wall.

Madison landmark from the roof of the Children's Museum.

While Charlotte's eating has progressed by leaps and bounds, her weight gain has trickled off. We're not sure why, but we don't seem to worry about it too much. I don't know if we'll ever get over the excitement of watching her eat a full plate of Kung Pao noodles with tofu. It's still such a foreign concept to us that she is eating. We just keep plugging away at increasing the volume and consistency of her meals and hope for the best. A tube-free birthday in August remains our goal.

March 13, 2012

Happy Spring! We've been loving the beautiful weather and hope the "Winter That Wasn't" is over.

Since our last post Charlotte got to see her surgeon one last time (we hope). He gave her a new Mic-Key button which we found out last night is defective. The extension tube doesn't lock so it came out and pumped formula all over her and her bed in the middle of the night. We have an extra button so we'll probably need to put it in this week.

After that appointment Patrick and Charlotte met with a dietician. The dietician gave us ideas of how to increase Charlotte's calorie intake. Basically, Patrick and I cannot eat with her because the dietician suggested using whipping cream to make mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs and adding butter and oil to things. She also affirmed that ice cream is great (Charlotte loves it) and encouraged us to introduce more vegetables to her diet because we can add cheese to them (as opposed to fruit which is low in calories).

I took her to see the speech therapist this week and we decided to see her every other month instead of monthly. Charlotte's doing so well with eating that there's no reason to see her that regularly. In fact, starting tomorrow we are reducing Charlotte's tube feeds from 3 cans down to 2 cans. We e-mailed Charlotte's pediatrician and asked her to look at Charlotte's growth charts using he measurements from her visit with another doctor for an ear infection a week a go. She responded in under 24 hours and said Charlotte's growth looks great and 2 cans is reasonable. The plan is to give her two cans from 7-10 p.m. and then her time to get hungry will increase.

Time for photos...

Play-doh has been a favorite past time lately.

We got her trike out this weekend and she had a great time. Her feet just touch the pedals, and she's working on the leverage needed to propel herself forward. For now, mom and dad get to push.

The sandbox was primed and ready for sandcastle building.

Charlotte got a big girl bed this weekend! We have retired her crib and on Sunday night she slept in a twin bed for the first time. It was quite momentous because although it took 3+ hours to coax her to sleep (the idea of the new bed was exciting but bed time was a bit scary), she slept through the night, in her own bed, for the first time in about a year. I was almost alarmed when I woke up and she wasn't next to me.

Last night of course she woke up when her tube disconnected because she was all wet, but hopefully tonight she'll sleep soundly. Sweet dreams!

February 29, 2012

Thank goodness for a leap year! Without it we would have missed an entire month of blogging. We've had a great month. Here are a few highlights...

Charlotte helped with some Valentine's Day baking for my and Patrick's offices. Her interest in what we do in the kitchen has increased and she regularly asks to use our little kitchen ladder to see what's going on.

Charlotte has been under the weather a couple times this month. Around the middle of the month she was so tired that she laid on these pillows or snuggled with me on the couch for an entire afternoon. We watched two movies from start to finish - so I knew she was in need of major down time.

Then last weekend our friends Andy and Robin from Madison were visiting the Twin Cities and while we enjoyed breakfast with them Charlotte was just not herself. She cried and complained that her ear hurt. While Patrick stayed at breakfast I took Charlotte to the Minute Clinic at CVS and they confirmed she had an ear infection. Within an hour she had been seen, we paid a co-pay $10 less than our regular visits, her prescription was filled, and we were home. Amazing.

The unseasonably warm February weather inspired a trip to a park in Kasson, MN while Charlotte and I visited my parents. The swings were a bit more popular, and we could tell that she is pretty fearless now (well, with an exception to the tube slides - those are pretty scary).

We finally got a snow fall! Or was it a slush fall? In any case, Patrick helped Charlotte build her first snow man. Here she is putting the nose into their snow man.

Dress up has become a popular past time. She loves tu-tus (you can see one poking out under the shirt).

Her eating has been going very well! Tonight we had spaghetti and she carbo-loaded.

And she appeared to enjoy it!

We made it to the speech therapist again this month and we're going to keep doing what we're doing. Based on our weight checks at home Charlotte has maintained her weight and even gained an ounce or two with only 3 cans of formula. Our daily goal is that she eats at least 250 calories, and she makes it most days. Next week we get to meet with a dietician to learn about ways we can increase the calories she is getting.

January 29, 2012

We've had a fun week with lots of playing. Charlotte has discovered how fun dress up can be (above) and Patrick discovered that he can fit inside of her tent AKA peapod (below).

AND, the absolute mostest bestest thing in the world - she eats! Generally when daycare calls it means she's sick and we have to pick her up. Not so this week. Twice we got wonderful news that she had eaten most (half of a ham and cheese wrap) or all (spanish rice and ground beef) of her lunch and they were uncertain about starting her mid-day feed. We decided to give her half of her feed immediately after such a full lunch and then we finish it up in the evening so that she still gets a full 3 cans a day.

Her favorite foods include: pudding, goldfish crackers, breakfast sausage links, and hummus (by the spoonful). She has eaten other things as well, but these are the ones she really scarfed down. Here's some photographic evidence:

Chocolate pudding is good. Need we say more?

Forget nutrition, Charlotte even got her first taste of a McDonalds cheeseburger this weekend.

A can of formula equates to 250 calories, so our goal each day was for Charlotte to take in at least 250 calories. We thought she had done this, so were surprised and disappointed when she weighed in at 23 lbs 10 oz yesterday (down from 24 lbs 1 oz the week prior). Then, we decided it must be water weight because she's not getting the fluid from her formula. We added extra water to her feeds today and tonight she weighed in at 24 lbs 2 oz! I'll take it.

We plan to e-mail her pediatrician tonight and find out how much water we should be giving her now that she's getting 3 cans per day. The Human Nutrition class I took for a liberal education requirement did not prepare me for this situation! :)

We're hopeful that this is one giant leap toward a tube free Charlotte. By her third birthday perhaps?

In other exciting news, Patrick and I got to go on a date Saturday night. Grandpa and Grandma Russell baby sat Charlotte and she loved it. She got to stay up late, show how high she can jump, read her new book (Tickler Monster), and in general be adored. We also loved the opportunity to try a new-to-us restaurant in Uptown (and feel cool that we were going out to eat in Uptown).

January 22, 2012

Charlotte has been grazing on food all day. We didn't track calories, but here is a list of foods that passed her previously impenetrable lips: goldfish crackers, greek yogurt, chocolate pudding, bread, twinkie, shredded turkey, broccoli, water, and pineapple juice.

The quantity varied for each food but we're more that pleased with her Day 1 performance. She loved the turkey we had for dinner and after eating a fair amount got a bit excited, put too much in her mouth, gagged, and vomited most of her dinner. This resulted in a new first for mom: cleaning vomit with chunks of food in it. I thought I'd be more grossed out than I was...I guess when it's your own kid it's just not that bad. In fact, I sort of enjoyed it - seeing real food in her vomit, that is.

January 21, 2012

Charlotte's foolish parents are embarking on a test of her eating skills. Starting tonight we're reducing her overnight feed from 2 cans to 1 to see if she eats more as a result. Tonight she weighed 24 lbs 1 oz, so we'll compare again in a week.

This past Monday we took her in for her monthly appointment with the speech (feeding) therapist and she did pretty well. We're focusing on teaching her to chew with her back teeth and to use her tongue to move food around in her mouth. The latest strategy is a game: she chews on her straw and then we cheer for the bite marks she makes. We're most likely jumping the gun with our test but she's been a relatively good eater this week. She ate 4 slices of mandarin orange at daycare, this morning she ate about a quarter of a hamburger bun, and at dinner tonight she chewed on a french fry and ate a fork-full of mustard (num!).

We've had a fun couple of weeks! We celebrated Christmas with our extended families the first weekend in January, saw Elmo Makes Music with Aunt Kelly last weekend, and spent this afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Distad at Sea Life.

Here's Charlotte getting excited to see Elmo Makes Music - Live! This was a great Christmas gift from Aunt Kelly and Uncle Tim. She was enthralled, only breaking her concentration to clap after each song (and occasionally during). Thanks Kelly and Tim!

Here's a shot of Charlotte and Kelly pre-show. I had the pleasure of attending with them and it was a ton of fun. There was a lot going on, so it was hard (read impossible) to get Charlotte to look at the camera.

January 5, 2012

Happy New Year! We celebrated Noon Years Eve at Como Zoo and here are a few photos from the event.

Patrick made Charlotte her New Year's Eve hat. Version 1 (above) was quickly improved.

Version 2 was an original for the event. Good job Daddy!

After a countdown to Noon these beach balls fell on the crowd. Very fun! This is as close as I ever want to get to New Years Eve in Time Square; it was packed.

Charlotte was excited to get a lion beach ball even though it was purchased at the gift shop. Patrick caught a beach ball right after they were dropped but I thought it was more fun to throw the balls in the air...and it was until they had all been grabbed for keeps.

Since the New Year Charlotte has been battling illness - a fever, lots of coughing and vomiting, wheezing, and exhaustion have disqualified her from daycare for a bit. Conveniently we had already scheduled an appointment for yesterday with her pediatrician to have her g-tube site looked at because she continues to complain of pain. For the tube we have another medication that will help the stomach lining heal - we're hoping it's just irritation. If we don't see improvement by next week the next step will be an ultrasound.

For her other symptoms she was diagnosed with probably having RSV. She received monthly shots to prevent RSV for the last two winters, but now she's too old for the shots (at least to have insurance cover the very costly shots). Hopefully nebulizer and rest will help her get back on her feet - literally as she wants to lay around almost all day - very soon.

The worst of yesterday's appointment was her chest x-ray. If you haven't had the privilege of watching a toddler receive a chest x-ray here's a blog with a picture of what happens: http://matthewrachelstarch.blogspot.com/2011/03/pigg-o-stat.html - not only was Charlotte immobilized in a similar torture device, she also had a piece of black velcro wrapped around the plastic walls which just happened to be at her eye level, preventing her from seeing anything thereby increasing her fear. I've never heard her scream quite like that and was relieved when it only lasted a minute. There has got to be a better way...

Here's to hoping our family soon returns to our normal school/daycare and work routines!