Summer Days

I am LOVING having these few weeks to spend with Cris and the girls. Yes, things have been kind of crazy with the move. Yes, we did go several days without showering due to the lack of hot water. Yes, we have no furniture and have been sleeping on a futon. But we are spending 24/7 as a little family and it is fantastic.

These fun days are coming to an end; however. Today I had to put my uniform back on and sign in to my new unit. I was expecting to spend the whole day in-processing, but for some crazy reason I don't actually have to start in-processing until Friday, so I got the rest of today and all of tomorrow as free days! whoo-hooo!

Don't get me wrong, I am excited to be back to work, and finally practicing as an official, out-of-residency OB/GYN, but nothing compares to getting to spend this time with the girls.

I had to include this rather random picture of Nova's hair. Anyone who knows me well may know that i sometimes go several days without brushing my hair. I prefer to call my hair "fine", although a more correct term would probably be "stringy." From the time i was very little if i didn't brush my hair I would get a giant dreadlock in the back. I am afraid Little Nova may be doomed to this same fate. When she wakes up in the morning she has a giant dreadlock mass on the back of her head that is really hard to brush through. Poor Baby. This evening we headed down to one of the community parks to listen to some live bluegrass and check out the farmer's market. It was super fun, in spite of the downpour. It has literally rained Every Single Day since we moved to Colorado. It's sunny in the morning, and by the time afternoon rolls around there is a giant downpour. We got to enjoy the park for about an hour before the downpour today. There was an awesome, huge fountain, and the girls splashed around in there for quite some time. We were, of course, the unprepared parents once again. Our kids were the ones playing in their non-swim diapers and t-shirts, while all the other little kids parents had brought swimsuits and even towels. oh well, they had a blast in spite of their diapers retaining at least 2 liters of fountain water. Next time we will be ready with swim diapers and towels.

Juneau threw a giant almost-2-year-old fit the entire ride home. Something about Apple Juice. i think she was just really tired, because she fell asleep as soon as we walked through the door.

so, more fun times tomorrow, then friday the in-processing starts.

Happy 1st Annual Bug Day!

Today marks One Year. One year of watching Juneau develop from a quiet, scared 10 month old baby into a running/jumping/giggling almost 2 year old. One year of snuggling with a little girl who adores her mom, dad and baby sister. One year of being amazed at this beautiful, smart, funny little girl that we are lucky enough to call our daughter. One year of loving her more than we ever thought humanly possible.
We had a perfect family day today. The girls have been waking up at 6:30 now that we live in Colorado (their Hawaii wake-up time was 5:30, so we have gotten 1 extra hour of sleep out of the time change!)

They spent a while playing their new favorite activity (courtesy of Aunt Bets)...Stickers! Every day they ask "Play Stickers?" And then they proceed to stick stickers all over their hands, arms, faces, necks, and cheeks. I found one stuck on Nova's butt the other day when i was changing her diaper.

After stickers we headed outside to find the new toy motorcycles Cris got for the girls. The new motorcycles are a direct result of a purchase i made last week, when i bought them these old beat up tricycles at the flea market. The girls are just too small for the tricycles, but they LOVE those things. The second their eyes open in the morning they start asking to ride those bikes (well, first juneau asks to watch "shows" and when we say no, then she asks for the bikes). There have been many tears shed this week from falling off those tricycles, so when we found these little motorcycles that are actually designed for one year olds we decided to go ahead and buy them and hide the trikes until next summer.

After motorcycles, we had a "Bug Hunt". I found a bunch of little toy bugs at the dollar store, and hid them around the patio. The girls had a blast collecting the bugs. Juneau wasn't too sure about it at first. She stared at this plastic fly for quite some time before she decided it was a toy and then the hunt was on.

Nova was in on the action and collected quite a few bugs herself.

I know it looks like Juneau is eating the bug in this picture, but she is actually kissing it. She kissed every single bug as she took them out of the cup to look at them.

After the bug hunt we ate lunch, and then dessert was of course Dirt Pudding.

There's nothing like chocolate pudding, cool whip, and oreos in a cup to make 2 little girls ridiculously happy.

Then more motorcycle time.

After lunch we headed over to the "spray ground" which is a very nice area in the nearby community park with tons of water fountains and little sprayers. The girls participated, but weren't overly thrilled with it. It was very crowded with several day care and summer camp kids playing, and they were much bigger than the girls, so i think it was just a little overwhelming. Still fun, but they may need a few more visits before they feel comfortable.

Finally we headed over to "The Little Gym" for a trial class. There were a ton of little gymnastics type activities, and the girls had a blast playing on the equipment and running around with the other kids.

When we got home we hooked up the DVD player and watched Juneau's adoption video. Juneau LOVED watching the video on our new TV. She had a running commentary of the whole thing. Most of the time she thought the pictures of her as a baby were pictures of Nova. Any time she sees a baby or baby picture she says "sis-sis?" it's funny that she thinks of Nova as a little baby even though they are so close in age. She definately identifies herself as the Big Girl of the family. Anyway, it was awesome to hold and snuggle Juneau while we watched the story of the events one year ago that brought her into our family.

It's been an awesome first year together, Juneau. We love you, little Bug.

Roughing It

We moved into our new house on Saturday. We had electricity and water, but that's about it. No TV, no Internet, No hot water (which would have really come in handy following Nova choking on a chip then vomiting partially digested formula all over both of us), and 1 sole futon.


Life has progressively gotten better, and as of this evening we have hot water, internet and TV! We also bought an air matress after we quickly discovered that Me, Cris, the Flopmeister (juneau), Nova, and Summit don't all fit on a full sized futon.


It's actually kind of fun to have this huge, empty house. juneau spends about a cumulative 60 minutes running through the house yelling "run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run". We also have an actual back yard, complete with Nova's favorite toy ever - decorative rocks. She entertains herself making various collections of rocks for quite a while every day.
It's funny how giant a normal house feels after spending the last 4 years in 1200 square feet with 3 adults, 2 babies, and 2 dogs.

I have to play major catch up with some pictures. they are rather scattered and out of order, but it's the best i've got right now :)

We are currently doing our laundry in a laundromat, and one day last week when we ran out of clean clothes i bought J and Nova these matching dresses at Target. So cute!

Juneau's ridiculous get-up on the day we visited Royal Gorge. These sunglasses were actually a great find for her. She is very intolerant of sun in her eyes, and will say "Sun Eyes, Sun Eyes" about a hundred times. we found these sunglasses with a stretchy velcro strap, and she loves them.

Nova insisted on carrying these bags up the elevator after shopping at Target. Heavy, Heavy, Heavy

The Roseola (at least the presumed Roseola, as diagnosed by an Ob/GYN).

A typical Nova face. I also keep forgetting to mention Nova's hilarious habit of raising her voice about 3 octaves when she wants to talk. Her babbling is in a normal range, but as soon as she wants to actually say something it comes out in this super high pitched little squeak.

We made a trip to Royal Gorge last week. It was super fun-Aside from getting stuck on top of the mountain in an absolute downpour complete with thunder and lightning. The rest was fun though, and we can't wait to go back on a sunny day.

At Royal Gorge by the Hawaii Flag

Daddy and Juneau "O-H". Now if only Nova can learn "I-O"

Nova's first attempt at the double pig tail look. I think she pulled it off pretty well!

You may remember this inflatable. Nova and this little guy bonded at the beach this summer when she refused to let sand touch her. Now she loves this thing, and uses it as a lounge chair.

Nova getting a free ride at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We LOVE this zoo! It is actually built into the side of the mountain and it is super cool.

Nova showing off her tan-line

Cutie-girls

Juneau balancing on the giant mushroom at the zoo

The coolest part of the zoo is definately the Giraffes! There are a ton of giraffes, and you can walk right up to them and feed them crackers. Juneau was fearless, and fed this guy about 10 crackers. Nova enjoyed watching the other kids (and grown ups!), but wasn't too keen on the actual feeding, and kept dropping her cracker as soon as she saw the giant purple tongue coming at her.

i think juneau must be pointing to an airplane. She loves airplanes.

after watching the carousel about 5 times, we finally let J and Nova take a ride. As you can see, it was a highlight of the day.

Watching the carousel before their ride.

And this Picture of J-bug on a bug is to remind you to check in tomorrow for pictures from our First Annual Bug Day! Tomorrow is the anniversary of Juneau's Giving and recieving Ceremony, and I have a fun little celebration planned. This date one year ago was an incredibly emotional and amazing day for our family, and marks the day that Juneau officially became our little June-bug forever. We are constantly in awe that somehow from a tiny little country half-way across the world, God had a perfect plan for our perfect little girl. We can't imagine our family any other way, and we are blessed to have Juneau as our daughter.

technical difficulties

we are having some annoying internet issues at our hotel. i can't upload any of the pictures that i've taken the last few days (which are super cute) hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Nova has been sick. 5 days ago she had a terrible breath holding episode with an awful seizure. it was about 3 minutes again, and this time involved her 4 limbs, but also her little face was making terrible contortions. the face thing didn't happen last time. She also did this weird teeth gnashing thing for several minutes after the seizure. it was very sad. The next day she spiked a temp to 102. we weren't sure where the fever was coming from since she didn't have any other symptoms. she had 2 days of fever, then developed a lovely rash on her stomach, which spread to her face today. I think it is Roseola. Overall the last 2 days she has been much much improved. She was in an awful mood during the fevers, but once her temp came down she started acting like her normal, adorable self. i think she is feeling much better, in spite of the rash.

Juneau has been a real trooper through everything. she never acts up for attention when Nova is having trouble. her main issue the last few days has been waking up and screaming in the middle of the night. I don't think it is night terrors, i think she just wakes up, and then instead of going back to sleep just starts screaming. She has always screamed when she wakes up (either from nap or in the morning). She hardly EVER wakes up happy. After a few minutes of screaming she will usually snap out of it, and then is cheerful and sweet, but lately the 3 a.m. episodes have lasted 30-60 minutes. I am hoping this will settle down some once we get settled in the new house.

in spite of these minor issues, we have been having some wonderful family time the last week. We have been to Royal Gorge, to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, to a splash park in downtown Colorado Springs, and spending lots of time on playgrounds and in the pool. i am very grateful to have these few weeks with the girls and Cris during the move.

hopefully i can post some cute and funny pictures from the week soon.

Twinkle Twinkle

update on my dad

Dad is doing better today. yesterday was rough, as the doctors thought he was having a postoperative heart attack. he was transferred from children's hospital (where the surgery was) to the University Heart Hospital. Although all the signs looked like a heart attack, the emergent cardiac cath showed no evidence of blockage or damage to the heart. Following the cath he improved quite a bit, and is now stable (although still in the ICU). we are hoping for a rapid recovery from this point, as based on the findings from surgery yesterday he will require a much more extensive surgery in the next few months to repair the pulmonic valve, as well as an aortic aneurysm and the aortic valve. i am hopeful for no further complications from this point, and he will hopefully be able to go home early next week.

Prayers Please

Please say a prayer for my dad.
He was one of the very first patients to undergo reparative surgery of a congenital heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot. His surgery was performed on a small group of young children by a visiting surgeon from Europe. He was one of a handful of survivors of the surgery.
He was scheduled today to have a cardiac valve replacement surgery, and has had some complications surrounding the procedure and in the postop period. It is a very scary time for our family. Please keep him in your prayers.