Summer

So we've been crazy busy here this week with outings and gatherings. The above photo was from our beach excursion earlier this week. If you want to find a beach that empty in the summer, go during the week. I have about 400 photos to sort through and edit and watermark and post and share.

Speaking of 400 photos, my little D50 was giving me some unwarranted error messages the other day. Again. It then recovered. I've been trying to decide which camera to upgrade to. It's been months and months and I'm still undecided. For now, I think I'm going to hold out and see if there are any deals to be had in December. Hopefully, my current camera will make it.

I have a few emails that I have to send out tonight and tomorrow promises to be another day of adventure. Stay tuned this upcoming week for a ton of photos! If I make it.

Little Lion and car washing

A few weeks ago, Anna and Emily helped Daddy wash his car.



Allie wasn't acting like herself and didn't want to help. We found out later that her scalp was infected due to scratching a bug bite.





Besides being all cute with "washing" the car, Emily made the funniest statement. She said, "Little Lion isn't watching me." Well, it's even more cute to see because obviously I'm too tired to type out the little story so head on over to Rich's blog to check out the video clip of my cuties. (Note that it will say that the video is disabled. Just click on the link and it will bring you to YouTube to view.)

Lake pictures

Notes, keys, and stuff:

Allie - pink ballerina tutu bathing suit
Anna - polka dot bathing suit
Emily - pink hearts bathing suit

The water may appear to be brown and muddy in some of these photos. I assure you, it was not. I'm not used to lakes but the water was clear. The brown appearance is from the sand on the bottom.













Anna with her "the paparazzi just caught me" face.









Em showing me how cold she is. (The clouds had rolled it.)







The sand. Oh, the sand. Do you know how hard it is to get sand off of and out of three toddlers?

The Life and Times of Elmo

Well, documenting Elmo's life has been a bit more difficult than you would expect it to be.

Elmo spends a good portion of his day doing this...



(Napping on the couch.)

Sometimes he is active and helps Allie play toddler tennis.



He does receive a ton of cuddles.



But isn't allowed to participate in washing the car.



(Okay, there will be a car washing post in the future.)

He usually hangs out with his mommy when he is not napping.







I wasn't able to photograph Elmo swimming in the ocean and sunbathing in the sand but here is the aftermath.



There are always unphotographed moments. Such as Elmo sitting in his high chair eating pineapple and cherry pie for breakfast. Or Elmo using the doll potty to go poo-poos, according to his mommy, who then found a potholder in the play kitchen and informed me that she was cleaning Elmo's b.u.m with it.

Elmo is very loved.

Purple!

So the weekly photo challenge this week over at I Heart Faces is purple, which is Allie's most favorite color ever. How can I not enter a photo of her?

SBA Summer Gathering

Rich and I brought the girls to a gathering hosted by our local Spina Bifida Association this weekend. We are trying to become more active with this organization for several reasons. It's a great resource for us and we are now realizing that we can be a resource to other families. In talking with a family expecting twins, one who has been diagnosed with spina bifida, it suddenly hit me all that Anna has been through.

I sometimes limit what I talk about here for a variety of reasons but I see that educating others regarding spina bifida is important. There are other families out there going through what we have been through and discussing our experience can help them. I have this post in my head but I am too tired to write it out tonight. Maybe sometime this week.

So back to the gathering. It was held at a reservation area lake. It was extremely hot out and the lake was warm. Like bath water warm. The girls had a blast. As usual. After we said hello to everyone under the pavilion and had some lunch, they stayed in the water until we needed to leave. And it's a good thing we decided to pack up when we did because it started raining and then thundering and then pouring.

At one point, Em came up to me with her hands held out and asked me to get something off of her fingers. Her fingertips had pruned!

I took a million photos. As usual. I still need to go through and edit some of them. And then watermark for internet posting. Sometime this week.

In the meantime, here's a picture of Anna, my little sweetie, looking serious at the lake.

Emily (and painting photos)

After 12 days of sticker charting, Emily has finally scored a coveted star sticker. We kind of bent the rules a tad to help her out. I didn't want her to become discouraged, which was the direction she was heading in, so when she sprinted into my room at 5:40 this morning (well, it was really 5:33 because my clock is set 7 minutes fast) I decided that she had earned that sticker.

We gave Allie one as well even though she came in a few minutes later. I suspect that she was awakened by the newspaper delivery guy, who drives like a maniac.

I carried Allie and then Emily downstairs and the three of us fell back asleep for a bit on the couch cushions. Anna is feeling much better but still exhausted. She slept in her bed until a bit after 6:00 and then slept in the big bed until Rich woke her up shortly before 9:00!

Painting pictures. Em in pink.

True or False

True or false?
I've been backstage at a Bon Jovi concert.

True or false?
I graduated magna cum laude from college.

True or false?
I haven't had my haircut since September.

True or false?
I was a cheerleader in high school.

True or false?
I hate coffee.

True or false?
I have one of Johnny Rzeznik's smashed guitars.

True or false?
I have worked as a tax manager for one of the "Big Four" public accounting firms.

True or false?
Sometimes my favorite color is orange.

True or false?
I've driven to Michigan and back more than 20 times.

True or false?
I prefer sunsets to sunrises.

True or false?
I refuse to eat sushi.

True or false?
My beverage of choice is Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry.

True or false?
I am currently wearing size 2 pants.

True or false?
I love ice cream and cheesecake.

True or false?
I am still friends with my friends from junior high and high school.

True or false?
I passed the auditing section of the CPA exam with only two days of studying.

True or false?
I seem to collect nail polish.

True or false?
I've been told I could be a house stager.

True or false?
I love the beach.

True or false?
I know how to sew and have a sewing machine.

True or false?
I love to read but haven't picked up a book in over a year.

True or false?
I've never been on a motorcycle.

True or false?
I'm a pretty good driver.

True or false?
I'm a pretty good cook.

True or false?
I've been to Hawaii twice.

True or false?
When I was really young, I wanted to be a librarian.

True or false?
I've never been to Europe.

True or false?
I have pierced my ears with a needle.

True or false?
I stopped coloring my hair when I turned 30.

True or false?
I once worked straight through from 9:00 in the morning until 5:00 the next evening in order to finish a client's tax returns.

True or false?
All of the above statements are true.

True.

(I normally don't do posts like these but sometimes it is nice for the readers to get to know me, the mommy, author & photographer.)

(And I wasn't creative enough to come up with this. I lifted the idea after reading Brittany's blog.)

Three Toddlers + Beach = Photos

If you've never chased three toddlers around on a beach, this is what you are missing.

When your child has Spina Bifida

1. You make sure that you skip over the line in the potty training book that states that diapers are only for babies.


2. You have to make sure you stick to the cathing schedule.


3. You have to make sure that your child doesn't miss a dose of medication.


4. You are constantly watching out for signs of a shunt malfunction.


5. You are constantly watching out for signs of a urinary tract/bladder/kidney infection.

Em and Allie have been Pull-Up free for quite some time now. They basically became overnight potty trained at the same time they became day time potty trained. We had them wearing Pull-Ups at night "just in case." After a few months with only two or three wet Pull-ups (Allie being lazy), we decided to pull the plug on the Pull-Ups for several reasons.

1. The cost


2. To be green


3. I didn't want Allie and Em to become dependent or rely on them.

This is usually the time when parents celebrate but for our family, it didn't really feel complete because Anna is still wearing Pull-Ups. And will be for some time. The girls understand that there is a difference between them and we are trying to educate them the best that we can. Spina bifida is extremely difficult for three year olds to understand.

Anna doesn't fight us when we cath her (empty her bladder.) It has become part of our daily routine. But lately, she doesn't want to be cathed. She wants to go on the potty like her sisters. How do I know this? She has told me. So now whenever I say, "Come on Anna, it's time to do your peeps," she responds with, "Nooooo, there's no peeps in me."

You can imagine my shock when reading a potty training book to the girls last year and seeing the sentence "Diapers are for babies." Really? Seriously? Is that even considered PC now because I can guarantee that there's a whole bunch of people out there wearing "diapers" who are most definitely not babies.

Allie has been the most inquisitive regarding Anna's status. She asks a lot of questions. If Anna wants to wear un.die.s over her Pull-Up, she can. One day, Allie said to me, "Mommy, you forgot to take Anna's Pull-up off," when Anna was running around with un.die.s on. Allie has asked why Anna still wears a swim diaper. Then there was the night that Allie had peeped in her Pull-Up and when I asked her why, she responded with, "I went in my Pull-Up just like Anna."

On Saturday, I asked Allie to put on her sandals so that we could leave the house. She was sitting on the kitchen floor with Elmo lying in front of her. He was on his back and Allie was holding his legs up. She said, "Hold on, I'm doing Elmo's peeps." She was pretending to cath him.

We always explain to the girls that the boo-boo on Anna's back hurt her nerves and she can't feel when she has to peep or po.op.

Anna had been on a low dose of antibiotics from birth until a few months ago. Repeated testing has shown that her kidney reflux reversed on its own and she has never had a UTI. Her urologist and kidney doctor decided to stop the antibiotics because she was doing so well. We were happy with that decision because we really didn't want her to be on medication if she doesn't have to be.

Anna was acting a bit off this past weekend. Sunday night, we confirmed that she was running a low grade fever. There were too many floaties in her urine and I assumed that she had a virus and was a little dehydrated. When the situation didn't improve, she was rushed to the doctor. We received confirmation today that she does in fact have a UTI. The lab is still running tests to see how bad it is. Her pediatrician is going to confer with Anna's other doctors to discuss placing her back on a daily antibiotic.

I'm kicking myself for not picking up on what was really wrong with Anna from the get go. She's never had a UTI and the last time she had a low grade fever, we rushed her to the hospital fearing a UTI and she didn't have one. I didn't want to overreact but with Anna you have to overreact.

Her pediatrician started her on antibiotics yesterday and today, she was doing much better.

When you have a child with Spina Bifida, you are grateful for each day that she is healthy and smiling.

Emily. Faces.

I thought I enter this cute picture of Em in the weekly Trendy Treehouse photo contest.

Theme - "Faces."

Sticker Chart Results: Week One

I was going to take a picture of the sticker chart because it is kind of funny but my Speedlight is upstairs and I'm too lazy to go retrieve it, take the picture, upload it to the computer, open it in Elements to watermark it and then upload it to the internet. Whew, that was long.

Without further delay:

Allie - 6 stars
Anna - 4 stars
Emily - Special Snowflake

Allie just missed that one night because she came into our room at 5:00 AM and I wouldn't give it to her. As a prize, I picked up a ton of stickers in the $1 section at Target and she was able to pick a sheet (after receiving 5 stars.) When I arrived home from work today, she had a smiley face sticker on each foot. Beats band-aids.

Anna missed out on a night because she came in our room at 5:00 AM one morning and then last night, she was up quite a bit. Unfortunately, I don't think she is feeling well and she is definitely overtired.

And now on to Emily, my special snowflake. Em has yet to chart. She was enthusiastic about the whole thing when we started last week. Every night (except tonight) she has told us that she is going to stay in her bed so that she can get a sticker in the morning.

Friday night, Rich told Em that we would give her two stickers if she stayed in her bed. We were on our way upstairs at the time and she replied, "Okay!"

And now I must end this post because someone is crying upstairs. Do you get a sticker if you are sick and can't stay in your bed? Because I have a feeling that this is going to be Anna's situation tonight.

Success!

Anna left with Grammy on Friday night for her special overnight trip to the beach house. This left me and Rich with "twins" again. This was a bit easier for Rich but as long as Emily is around, nothing is easy for me. She likes to follow me around saying, "Hold me. Carry me. Watch tv with me." She is SUPER attached. (It is kind of cute but can be frustrating when I need to run to the bathroom or actually eat something.)

Early Saturday afternoon, we headed to Grammy's to retrieve Anna and spend the afternoon at the beach. We are in the midst of another heat wave and I'm going to go there and say that I don't mind the heat at all. After the first snowfall, I hate winter. And where we live, that's a long time of hating so when the heat rolls in, I enjoy.

Here's Allie being all cute in the van before we left for the beach.



This is her typical Elmo cuddle.



The girls had a blast at the beach, which they always do. (I didn't bring my camera because I was scheduled to photograph engagement photos for my niece later that evening and I was so paranoid that something would happen to it at the beach especially given the weather conditions.) Even Elmo went for a swim in the ocean. I couldn't believe that Allie marched into the ocean and plopped Elmo into a backstroke position.

Anna was exhausted and fell asleep on the five minute drive back to Grammy's house. Here is Rich giving her a few extra minutes of sleep.

The engagement photo shoot was a success. I can't believe how much easier it is to photograph adults! After I finished with the shoot, Rich, Grammy and Papa arrived with the girls. I thought it would be fun to have the girls run around in sundresses on the beach as the sun was setting. I remember my grandmother bringing us back to the beach after dinner and how we would run around looking for clams and sea glass. I want the girls to have some of the same experiences I had growing up.

Of course, this was the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot. Did you think I could let that go? I still haven't gone through all of those images yet but there are some really cute ones and I will post some hopefully later this week. I do have to say that it is so hard keeping them all together now. They just wanted to run around and act silly. And Anna thought it would be fun to bury Papa in the sand.

We went back to Grammy and Papa's and changed the girls into the jammies. All three drifted peacefully off to sleep listening to Baby Beluga on the drive home. {Sigh.} We were even able to carry them asleep up to their beds when we arrived home. {Sigh.}

Oh, I have to interject a funny little story about the ride home. As we were pulling off of Grammy and Papa's street, I could hear Em saying something in the back of the van (she was in the third row) but I couldn't understand what she was saying. I asked her to speak up because if we needed to pull over (potty break) we needed to do it then. All of a sudden, Allie says, "I can't understand what she's saying either." I find their little commentary to be so amusing.

Okay, so for those who have asked, here is a picture of Grammy with the girls. I am totally patting myself on the back over this photo.