Snow Day

We have spent the bulk of our winter with no snow. Pretty odd for Minneapolis. Last night it snowed and snowed and we woke up to the perfect snowman making coating.

Books

Celia has been spending a good deal of time with a pile of books lately. Maybe she will be a bookworm like her brother Noah.

Healthy

Last Tuesday Celia had surgery for ear tubes. It was a long contemplated and hard decision to make. We know it is a routine procedure but it is still surgery and the biggest decision regarding our kids that we have ever had to make. She had 6 ear infections in 5 months, started to have antibiotic resistance and mild hearing loss from the persistent fluid in her ears. She also had not slept well in 6 months, lost some weight and overall was sick or on medication all the time. After meeting with the ENT we had decided to wait a month, wait and see. We took her off dairy, to the chiropractor, gave homeopathic ear drops, practiced craniosacral massage with no good results. A week after going off meds she had another infection. It seemed like the writing was on the wall. Shawn and I decided she really did need the surgery.

The procedure was scheduled for a week later. Yikes! I wasn't expecting that quick. I was super scared about the anesthesia, so much so that I contemplated canceling on many occasions. Shawn is Mr. Cool and never really worries about anything. I spent time talking with friends whose kids had gone through anesthesia so I would know exactly what to expect. Thankfully I woke up Monday with a sense of peace about it and we went into Tuesday feeling good.

We were the first case of the morning and check in and getting ready were the most time consuming. I requested to go back during anesthesia even though the anesthesiologist really didn't want me to. She said, "If you must" and I said, "Yes, I must." The procedure is very quick, 10-15 minutes. The team brought her to us after bawling her little head off and she did that for 1 hour and 51 minutes. It was exhausting and a little scary but part of me was just relieved to hear her cry. She was fussy on and off for the rest of the day but by Wednesday we were back in business.

There are already little things about her that have changed for the better like getting into her car seat. She used to cry every time and now she doesn't. Same with taking medicine. I wonder if it just hurt her to lie down. She is also sleeping for longer stretches at night, eating better and taking more and more steps. After the surgery I cried happy tears of relief and now I think we are on the road to her being healthy. Hooray!

Mood booster

We are having a delightfully mild winter. The kind of winter where Shawn and I have said to each other many times, "We could actually stay here if the winter was always like this." Today our house had a case of the grouchies so we bundled up, it is still 37 degrees, and headed for a walk. We walked to the coffee shop nearby and I treated the boys to hot chocolates. An hour and a half later we got home everyone was happier. Yay sunlight!

Singing

Micah got a microphone in his Valentine mailbox. He calls it a "Micahphone." This photo is terrible but I was absolutely cracking up at his get up. Superhero cape, firefighter hat, microphone all the while yelling into the microphone, "she's real fine my 409." Not a chance I was asking him to move out of the blaring sun to get a better picture.

11 months

We got these pictures taken right before bed last night. Celia has fun when her brothers are sleeping and she gets the place to herself.

Don't mind her - she's just jumping on the trampoline.

A bit small

This what happens when I'm cleaning and the boys raid the coat closet. That is Micah's snow suit when he was a baby.