July 28, 2012

We had a pretty exciting week, which you may have gathered from our previous post. At Monday's speech therapy appointment Charlotte's therapist said she was doing well and didn't need any additional therapy (woohoo!). This made us even more confident going into her 3-year well-child appointment on Wednesday with the goal of having her tube removed.

She gained about 4 oz from her previous appointment (however, this time they weighed her with her clothes on), but our pediatrician agreed that it was time to remove the tube because she has not lost weight.

Here she is showing off her tube one last time!

And Dr. Borman-Shoap removing the saline from the Mic-key button...

Ta-da! Just a teeny tiny hole that is already closed up. Charlotte was pretty mellow throughout this process while Patrick and I were elated. Once the initial excitement wore off I was surprised to find that I felt a little sad. Her tube was a part of her and it's hard to let go of something that we considered special about her (I might be insane, right?!?!). This morning she broke my heart when she was touching her healing scar and said she wanted her tube back. Obviously this is a great step for her future, and we're all excited. It is a transition, though, and one we welcome.

She will be 3 on August 10, but her 3-year well-child appointment stats are:
Weight: 24lbs 12oz (3rd percentile)
Height: 35.75" (6th percentile)

We met a little girl at a b-day party on Friday who is 16 months and already wearing 3T clothes. She's in the 99th percentile for her weight. It was fun to see the spectrum and hard to imagine Charlotte outgrowing her 2T clothes. Her waist is tiny, but she does keep growing taller. I noticed yesterday that one of her dresses was getting scandalously short. :)

Speaking of yesterday, we had a great day with Grandma and Grandpa Distad. We traveled down south to check out the Olmsted County Fair and just visit.

Grandma Distad has flowers as big as Charlotte's head! I love love love this photo.

The fair was a blast! Here is a photo of Charlotte "milking" a plastic cow. The fair had a great petting zoo, Charlotte really enjoyed all of the animal barns, and they even had their own version of the Miracle of Life barn we've seen at the State Fair. Only this Miracle of Life barn was not nearly as full as the State Fair barn and we actually got close to the animals.

Charlotte pet a newborn piglet and duckling, saw a baby chick hatching, and also saw a very newly born calf.

Thanks to Grandpa Distad she also discovered a love of mini-donuts. I think she ate 5-6 of them!

She enjoyed her first corn-on-the-cob at lunch and dinner yesterday! Here she is trying to pose with her corn (and wondering why her mother thinks mealtime is a photo op).

Charlotte is a toddler, which means she can be described as independent, free-willed, impatient, and easily frustrated. She is also incredibly sweet. As we were leaving Grandma and Grandpa's last night Charlotte said "Goodbye Grandma and Grandpa! Thank you for sharing your home with us!" - so, so adorable and unprompted. 

Charlotte Is G-Tube Free!

Today Charlotte's pediatrician removed her G-Tube. Adios!

July 21, 2012

We got home today from a great trip to the Itasca Biological Station in Itasca State Park. Each year the first-year students in the College of Biological Sciences at the UofM (where I work) spend a few days at the biological station studying biology, enjoying the park, and getting to know one another. I am lucky enough to get to go up for one session and bring along my family. Patrick and Charlotte spend much of the time on their own while I'm sitting in on modules (I learned all sorts of cool biology-related things) but we squeezed in time for some family fun!

Charlotte was very excited to put on a life jacket. She insisted upon wearing it and was frustrated she had to take it off to go to the bathroom. Prior to this photo Charlotte got to go fishing for the first time! She caught a little fish that Patrick threw back. A faculty member was fishing with his kids and they offered to let Charlotte give it a try - very nice!

The life jacket was for our canoe trip. Here's Patrick putting the canoe into Lake Itasca. Neither of us have canoed in a very, very long time so it was perhaps not the fastest or most efficient canoe trip. However, I define success as staying afloat and we did not tip over! Success!

Of course we had to visit the headwaters of the Mississippi, just a short distance away. Charlotte was not shy about putting her feet (and then her whole body) into the Mississippi.

Water is for splashing. Especially the water of the mighty Mississippi River (which doesn't seem so mighty at the headwaters).

Taking a break from splashing with Dad. Take note of the water bottle in Patrick's hands. It's the Dora water bottle that we bought Charlotte as incentive for going BM in the toilet. I was very excited to come back to our cabin late one morning to see Charlotte drinking out of her Dora water bottle and then Patrick was kind enough to show me the photo he'd taken of her BM in the toilet. What a Dad. We have not seen a repeat of BM in the toilet, but we're excited that she has done it once!

Walking across the Mississippi River!

Our last night at Itasca! Charlotte roasted a marshmallow with Patrick. She enjoyed more than one s'more while at Itasca. Notice the fabulous shirts! These are the traditional Nature of Life shirts that are to be worn with pride. It was very nice of the NOL staff to give shirts to Charlotte and Patrick this year.

As a result we were able to take this adorable family photo in our cabin. Charlotte was a trooper over the past few days, staying up until after 10 p.m. each night! Today we got home around noon and we all slept for at least 1.5 hours. It's good to be home and, despite being surrounded by a pile of laundry to fold, feeling refreshed!