Just a couple pictures and a quick update- Gretta has really been enjoying her tummy time, and is getting really good at doing "airplane" with her legs and arms off the floor. Emma Kate was all excited about doing a sort of "Matchy-matchy" day with "owie owies" (overalls) and patterned shirts, she was so happy to pick out Gretta's outfit like hers! Emma Kate has also been very good about helping make sure Gretta watches her "blue movie" (the starter video for Your Baby Can Read) nearly every day. Gretta has been laughing more and more and definitely seems very ticklish on her belly, armpits, and neck! Daddy really has a knack for getting her going! It was a really nice day out today and we enjoyed several hours outside, and Charlie got to enjoy several hours of backyard grass too- Emma Kate helped to lead him out and thought it was HILARIOUS when he snorted... she kept saying that he needed a tissue... Poor old guy, I have thought for a long time he was a little "off" neurologically, and he definitely seems more so to me since we have been back home. We're trying to get a little more weight on him since he lost so much over the winter, and he is more than happy to help keep the yard mowed... :) Emma Kate has been doing so well at night for a week or so, with no waking/crying like before, so we have finally moved her out of our room and back into her own room where she can have quiet all night, since Gretta wakes us up several times a night still. I miss having Emma Kate within arms-reach, but I know she will get much better sleep in her own room now. Gretta has been moving around so much that we finally broke down and started using the crib for her as well- she will stay in it for the first part of the night while we are still up and taking care of things, and so far it's been a big help. But she still ends up coming to bed when she is first ready to nurse... and this still varies greatly each night... We're still trying to figure out a bit of a routine, but each time we think we have it down, she goes and changes it up on us! Better leave it at that, I need to catch up on some missed sleep tonight... :)

Some dining distractions

Look who joined us for dinner. Charlie horse!

Emma Kate was especially crazy on her zebra tonight and we thought it was funny to see her curls bouncing up and down- then she thought it was funny too! She was bouncing so forcibly that she was scooting the base of her zebra a little bit across the floor!

A breath of spring- we had several nice spring-like days, and the crocus' were blooming, so we all set out for some pictures. It was a great day, but a little on the windy side, as you can tell by Emma Kate's hair...

Gretta checking out the pretty purple flowers. I think we got a similar shot with Emma Kate when she was just a baby, although Emma Kate, being a month older at this time of year, did sit up a little longer before toppling over!

Gretta was especially smiley and happy this afternoon and was enjoying some rear-end-airing-out time (aka nakey time).

This was one of the first shots, I think she was saying to herself, " what is that crazy lady doing taking pictures of me like this?" She is such a cutie, with all her little rolls and dimples!

Gretta has been enjoying a lot of time in the tie-on wrap when Emma Kate and I go outside, and she almost always gets at least one nap a day like this. Today was especially chilly, and she immediately snuggled down and fell asleep. She is so content like this, and she keeps me so warm I usually don/t need a coat!

Here's the little ewok just moments after waking up...

Gretta has been laughing a few times in the last couple of weeks, and we finally got a bit on camera! Emma Kate was shaking the bottle of ibuprofen and Gretta just thought it was hilarious! There was a lot of laughing before I could get the camera out, but we still got some! Also, note that Greg is no longer having to wear his neck brace around the clock! He gets to do 1 hour off, 1 hour on, etc. which is a nice break!!

In other news, we have been forced to take the "sink or swim" approach to Emma Kate and her nutrition/fluid intake... Tuesday morning we had the nurse out to do a cap and dressing change as well as pull blood for monitoring. I won't relive every moment of it again here, as I have sworn to get over it, but suffice it to say the catheter ended up getting blocked by a clot after sitting with blood in it for a ridiculously long time while there was fiddle-farting going on... After the nurse attempting to fix things (that obviously weren't going to fix it...) we just decided to pull it. We had weaned Emma Kate down to 1/2 the volume of fluid that she had been getting, and she has done well with it. She is tolerating the honey-thickened liquids well and we figure that she CAN drink if she needs to, so there's no clear indication that she should have any trouble staying hydrated. As her GI doc put it, maybe having to pull the PICC line was "providential" and having it in was our crutch, slowing us down and holding her back from being as normal as possible. She has done great since then, plenty of wet diapers through the day, and how wonderful it is to not have that thing in her arm!! We celebrate several times a day the fact that she has no more "toooobs and wires," no more tape or bandaids, no more wrapper wrapper (at bathtime), no more owies, and no more crying!!! Life has been great without it. We won't look back for a minute!!! It's so nice not to have to worry about hooking everything up and getting her on the pump every evening after having to do it for something like 2 months... what a breath of fresh air! Since stopping the TPN/lipids, she has lost some weight, which we all expected, but she's doing great with her eating- I have no doubt that she will settle in at some point and go back to gaining at her normal rate. I think they just had her so pumped up on calories and fat that she's getting back to her natural state still. She is eating and drinking about the same amounts as she was before surgery, which is great. Her appetite is wonderful again, and she even ate 4oz in one sitting, which was miraculous! (That was exciting before the surgery too!) We feel confident she will do great. She has been active and playful, and loves having some independence!

Greg has been doing good as well, he had some evaluations in Roanoke on Thursday and is finally able to start weaning off of the neck brace. He's doing 1 hour on, 1 hour off, etc. until he feels comfortable doing longer times. He's working on getting lined up for some PT and will hopefully get back on light duty soon. We were a little disturbed to hear that earlier this week there was another accident just a couple hundred feet from where he was hit that involved 2 fatalities as well as other significant injuries, and one of the cars with a death was from Pilot too. The nature of the accident sounds the same, with someone not noticing that the car in front of them was stopping, and they swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting the stopped car. They hit someone head on, and then somehow a third car was involved as well. There was one death at the scene, and one death in transit in the helicopter I think. It was all just too close to home, too similar to Greg's situation, and just too devastating. I still just can't believe that Greg is here and walking around...

Gretta has been so active and chatty lately... well, when I say chatty, I mean she sings a lot. To some it might sound like she's fussing, but she's happy when she does it! It's funny- it's like she's just happy about something and decides to yell about it! She has a good set of lungs on her for sure!!! She's also got the laughing bug started, and will laugh sometimes when she is tickled, or when Daddy blows raspberries on her tummy, or apparently when Emma Kate is being silly! She is drooling like crazy (making up for the fact that Emma Kate was a *dry* baby), and chewing on her hands all the time, so we got her some chew toys (no, not dog toys) and she's working on figuring them out. So far we can't see any teeth waiting to break through, but they might not be too far off! She's starting to sit up on her own too, just needing someone sitting by her to reset her if she goes too far past the tipping point, but she is so strong on her belly too- I'm sure crawling isn't too far off in the future!

The weather (except today and yesterday) has been wonderful and spring-like, and we have been outside as much as reasonably possible! It has been so rejuvenating to get outside and see all the green grass growing and the trees coming out with their buds. It looks like we should have a good season for the blueberries and fruit trees if we can avoid a late frost!!!

And yes, I have finally removed the broken lens barrier from the camera- it was leaving a black corner on all my pictures!!! Haven't tracked down replacement parts yet, so for now we just have a naked lens, but the camera still works!!!

chickens on the move...

With Pop pops help, the chickens and their coop were moved to a new place in the field. Here is Emma, mommy, and Gretta out in the fenced in area they are in now. Emma has two handfuls of grain and is going to lure them out to a shelter in the field you can barely see. Emma sure is enjoying her chicken time. She even crawled into the coop to get a closer look at how the girls and Lt. Dan live.

Emma Kate and her "carrier"

I managed to snap a picture with my phone while Greg was inside speaking with the lady from EI- Emma Kate was loving wearing her "carrier" as she calls it, and had a great time with Curious George in there!

Gretta has been doing awesome lately, she is so strong on her belly, pushes up really well, and sometimes will sort of commando crawl across the bed! She is doing a lot of squeals lately in addition to her little babbles, and it is just soooo cute! She is in desperate need of a bath, the days always seem to disappear too fast! It's first on the priority list for tomorrow after breakfast! More pictures to come too! :)

Emma's evaluation

Emma was evaluated today by Early Intervention. A program in Virginia (I guess that's all) that evaluates children to make sure they are acting and learning age appropriate behaviors. If not, then they can help with problem areas. Our biggest worry was that Emma lost ground or lost skills while she was hospitalized. From observing her and asking questions, it looks like Emma is doing well. We are going to have a follow-up with speech to look at her swallowing (remember she is still on honey thickened liquids) and the way she makes her "s" and "f" sounds. She replaces those with an "h". So for example, "shirt" is "hirt." They will also look at how she is eating. Another assessor will come who is a toddler teacher and she/he will see how Emma is doing with learning, coloring, etc. We have no reason for worry but feel like this will reinforce to us that she is doing well for her age.

Mommy wears Gretta in a wrap carrier when we do things around the house or outside. Emma likes to imitate her with her Curious George doll and today mommy used a colorful scarf to tie George to Emma. Emma was too shy for pictures since the Early Intervention lady was here but I'm sure we'll get good pics tomorrow of Emma caring for her Curious George.

Emma and her improv toys

So all the kid toys we have around the house and yard, we find that an old bike wheel and a leftover wire spool are more fun! I'm glad she can entertain herself like this. She rolled this spool down the driveway from the garage apron which you see in the picture up top and then picks it up and carries it back and does it again and again. I think she did this about 8 times. Guess this is one way to prove she is moving good air now.

The bean is back in business!

You know your farm girl is back in action when she is scooping up baby poops again! Remember, this isn't a chore of hers yet. This is voluntary! We'll go by TSC and get a kids fork for her.

Cincinnati updates

Mommy, Emma, Gretta, and our neighbor Amanda drove to Cincinnati Sunday night. The drive was long and they ended up staying at a hotel on the other side of the Ohio river from Point Pleasant (Mothman anyone?). They made it the next day and went to Emma's current favorite spot; the aquarium! Luckily, a room opened up at the Ronald McDonald House for them that night and they stayed there. Early the next morning, Emma got scoped. Dr. Rutter said she looked good and he found no granulation tissue! So no ciprodex nebulized and a return to Cinci in 3 months which will put us in prime time for a zoo visit which is a few blocks away from the Ronald McDonald House. They made it home Tuesday night and were road weary to say the least. Next time, when daddy hasn't had an accident a few days before, we'll fly to Cincinnati. We just couldn't get the name on the ticket switched this time.

On the road again

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will be on the road again... Nana is here at the house to take care of things while we are gone and to make sure Greg has someone here to help him. The girls and I will be taking our friend Amanda with us on the road Sunday evening (hopefully both girls will sleep sleep sleep in the car...) and heading back up to Cincinnati. Emma Kate will get scoped again up there and we will make sure there is no more granulation tissue (or if there is, it will be removed and well will start the nebulized ciprodex again), and to make sure everything is looking good. This will also determine how long we go until the next check, probably 2-3 months at this point before we scope her next, if all goes well. She has been doing awesome and is active as ever! She has been a great helper lately, especially with the laundry... which we seem to have an abundance of lately...

Daddy has settled back in at home, we've set him up downstairs so that he has easy access to everything without having to go up and down the stairs, although he seems relatively comfortable doing that anyway. He's up and around part of the day, and takes breaks to lay out flat several times. He seems to be getting some sleep although I don't know how restful it is at this point. He's taking muscle relaxants to help with the tight and spasming muscles, and it seems to help knock him out at night at least. He's wearing the neck brace full time, and we managed to swap it out for a more disposable one for a shower this morning, and changed the pads on his main one before putting it back on. Hopefully it will get easier with time, and we're waiting until his reassessment on the 24th with the neurosurgeon and the trauma team to see how long the brace needs to be used.

I figured I'd post some pictures before we head out of town, since I'm not sure when I'll have another chance to do it...

Emma Kate waiting in line for a diaper change... she always reminds us about Gretta's "grabbers" whenever we ask her to lay beside the baby- a few times now she's gotten her hair "grabbed" and she knows to look out for those little tight fists! And look at those high-water pants... those were the overalls that were going to be put away to grow into towards the end of the winter and into spring!!! Oh well... :)

I think this was right before the grabbers came out- Emma Kate was trying to squirm away!

Gretta was having a blast rolling around on the sofa bed this afternoon- I laid her down for a diaper change, and within minutes she had squirmed and rolled a complete 180 degrees away from me! She's quite squiggly! There were so many precious pictures I couldn't pick the best ones... so I just posted a bunch.. and these are just some of the good ones where no naked parts are showing... there were an awful lot of good ones like that! :)

Emma Kate started to lay right beside Gretta like this, but she wouldn't look up at me to match Gretta! She got all shy for a moment... :)
Emma Kate thought it was hilarious that Gretta was so kicky and squirmy... I told her that Gretta's legs were all "akimbo" and she loved it. She went to the other side of the bed to reenact the action over and over... she's got "akimbo" down pat!
Giving Gretta one of her special "kisses," all on her own I swear! :D
More "akimbo" legs...
I think Gretta is saying "strike three, you're OUTA HERE!!!"

Here's the profile when the LBR (little brow ridge) is out... It's such a cute little lump of forehead when she's interested in something!
Gretta's hair is getting so long on top, and still pretty short everywhere else... today at one point she was seriously rocking a comb-over...


Just like Mommy, Emma Kate is right fond of her "Booty." Now to teach her how to say "AAaaaaaargh!" when she eats it! :) And check out that little ringlet by her left ear- Daddy could fit a finger up inside it!

Finally a family again...

We finally got Daddy home today- we are all so thankful that he is well enough to come home! I managed to get the girls together (and get my act together) this morning, and we went to the hospital to see him. He has had so much wonderful support from the fire fighters, they have been faithfully at his side pretty much every moment. I'll let Greg clarify if he wants to, but it sounds like what happened was that he was heading down Bent Mountain going from one station to another for the rest of the shift. He was far enough down to where it goes to just two lanes, and there were two cars coming the other way. The first one was slowing down to turn into their driveway, and the car behind him didn't realize it in time. He tried to stop but obviously wasn't able to in time, and rather than rear-end the guy in front of him, he swerved into the other lane and hit Greg head-on. One of Greg's coworkers was driving further in front of Greg, and he said he saw the Camry stand up on the front end from the impact. The guy in the other car was driving on a suspended license to boot. We are so fortunate that Greg was not hurt any worse, especially with no protection in the car other than a seat belt. It's a terrifying thing to think about what could have been... He did break two ribs high up on the left side from his seatbelt, but his collarbone is intact. He has a nasty bruise/abrasion over the area from the seatbelt. He was dealing with some abdominal pain but sounds like everything has pretty much checked out ok there- he had a "cyst" on his liver but they weren't sure if it was preexisting or not. He had pain in his neck, so they kept the neck brace on him the whole time and did an MRI since the xrays didn't show any fractures. They saw "occult fractures" on the MRI, which apparently they can't really distinguish from bruising, and the two apparently are treated the same anyway. After finding that, they elected to do an MRI of the rest of his spine, and I think all that checked out ok. Other than that, he's just really sore, has some really tight muscles, and some abrasions on one knee and one hand. He's home with a neck brace and a 10 pound lifting limit, and it looks like the biggest challenge, other than trying to get him comfortable at night, will be getting him to let me do things for him! :) Sounds like he will go back in 2 weeks to be reassessed by the trauma team and the neurosurgeons to determine the next course of action.

We are so relieved to have him home again, and can not quite express how very thankful we are to all the fire and rescue workers who have so faithfully stayed with him throughout the ordeal. We are so lucky to have so many people offering help and support. It is truly wonderful and I will never be able to thank everyone enough!

When it rains, it pours.

So, word is out that Greg was in a car accident yesterday evening. Apparently he was hit head-on while driving on Bent Mountain going from one station to another. He is still in the hospital but sounds stable and is resting better with some powerful pain meds. He has a few broken ribs (likely from the seat belt) and neck pain, but sounds like he was very lucky. He had an MRI of his neck this evening and we are waiting for the results to be read hopefully in the morning. I have not gotten to see him yet, the firefighters are all sharing responsibilities staying with him while I am at home with the girls. Greg preferred it this way. We don't know how long he will be in the hospital or exactly what the healing process will entail. We are just so thankful he is going to be ok and that we have such a wonderful community of family and friends to help take care of us... again.

So, when Daddy posted the other day about making blackberry jam, he failed to mention the fact that we seem to have experienced our first true two-year-old meltdown. We had been having a great day, and the girls went down for naps no problem. Emma Kate woke up great, in a perky mood, and ready for action. When we got downstairs though, something upset her (I think it was the fact that she wanted to do something and I couldn't decipher exactly what it was fast enough...) and she just started collapsing on the floor and sobbing. It was so sad! We tried to manage through it without being completely suckered, but I'd say the "episode" lasted a good 20 minutes or so. Finally she perked up when Daddy started making the blackberry jam, and she was eager to help. She was in a good mood again and LOVING the juice coming from the food mill! She was ALL OVER it! She got the purple goodness all over her face, and as soon as I grabbed the camera and she saw I was going to take a picture again, she IMMEDIATELY started to pout and get upset again! She is usually such a ham for pictures! It was a shocker! So I quickly put the camera away and luckily she returned to her happy self again. Here's the one picture I managed to take of the sad little clown before I had to put the camera away!

And after she perked up again, I was able to sneak out the camera and take some pictures of her helping Daddy get the juices out,
And cleaning off the screening-

Some days I manage to have both girls napping simultaneously, unfortunately most of those times, Gretta wakes up about 20 minutes after I've gotten Emma Kate asleep... I think this was one of those days! I had Gretta all to myself, and we had a lot of fun! The camera wasn't cooperating very well, so the pictures either came out blurry or blanched, but the expressions were so cute!

Here's miss Gretta with Daddy today- I had a cute ones with Daddy's face in it, but neither one had his eyes fully open... :) Such a sweet little face, and it still looks like she has a mohawk, but there really is hair on the rest of her head too!
Today we realized that we had the same jammies for both of the girls and we got Emma Kate all excited about being "matchy-matchy" with baby Gretta, she was so cute! Here she is helping Gretta ride double on the zebra-
A little solo zebra action- I can remember so clearly when we were first given the zebra, we had to wait to use it for a while because her feet didn't touch the ground!!
Daddy with his two girls, all matchy-matchy! I'm pretty sure the girls were both looking at Sophie, who had just walked by...
Reading a book with the girls, Emma Kate especially likes this one for baby Gretta!
I'm having some issues with the lens cover on my camera, it doesn't want to close and it won't open quite all the way, so all the pictures have a dark corner on them. I've got to figure out how to get it fixed... it's quite annoying!!

Anyhow, the update from today is below!

Time does fly!

I posted those pictures last Tuesday and meant to get back on and do an update but never got around to it! That morning, Emma Kate had her dressing change for her PICC line, and it has always been a traumatic thing... she's had so much tape ripped off her skin in the last several months... anyway, we prepared her for it again, and soaked the bandage well before starting to pull it off. SHE DID GREAT! She still reminds us about when the bandage came off and she "didn't even cry like a baby!" She was very proud of herself, and what a relief it is for us too. We've been using Press 'n Seal around it at bath time to keep everything dry, and even that started out a little traumatic- it does stick a little bit... but we managed to get her to the point where she's completely ok with it, and we say it's just a little tickle coming off. Now hopefully we can do the same thing with her dressing changes! Oh how nice it would be to have an easy and non-traumatic dressing change every week... :)

Sleeping continues to be a little bit challenging, although we do seem to have some really good nights occasionally in addition to the really bad ones. Last night was great, only a couple of brief crying episodes, and only once did I have to even talk to her or pat her back to settle her back down. She slept all the way up to around 6:30 or so, and probably would have slept longer except that Gretta had an overflowing diaper issue and she was completely awake just before 6am with it! I tried to change her pj's and diaper silently, but even in the near pitch-black, I could see her grinning up at me like the jolly little elf she is, and she started to do her gravelly-voice talking! It's so incredibly cute, but I have a feeling it contributed to Emma Kate waking up. Who knows how long she would have slept otherwise? Speaking of sleeping, we went into town this morning and both girls were asleep on the ride home. Gretta woke up shortly before getting to the house, but Emma Kate continued to sleep. She woke up and Daddy brought her in- she was a bit upset and collapsed on the bed where I had nursed Gretta back to sleep. She fell back asleep and is STILL asleep! It's been over 2 hours now, I can't remember the last "normal" time she napped this long! She must be worn out and catching up on all her sleep!

We've been having so much fun here at the house- we're trying to get outside as much as we can, weather permitting- Emma Kate is loving getting reaquainted with all her toys around the yard and in the barn. We have to bundle Gretta up and put a hat on her, then she gets strapped onto Mommy and bundled again so pretty much all the pokes out are her eyes and nose, then we go out with Emma Kate. I try to keep her in the barn- there's her swing in there, and plenty of room to play around, plus there are "baby poo poos" as Emma Kate calls them (single road apples to the rest of us) and she loves to get them with the pitch fork! She had a blast the last couple of days playing in one of the stalls- she would get a handful of hay, take it outside, and drop it somewhere outside the stall, and say that the grass/manure/rocks/etc. underneath it were hiding! She must have done it around 15 times before she moved on to something else. Peter is loving all the attention she gives him too, she loves playing with him- he'll just be walking around, and Emma Kate will get all silly thinking that he is chasing her and she'll run around all crazy and scream- she loves it. We also made a little (well, very little) tunnel with some hay bales and got to see some mice run out from under them when we moved them- too bad Peter was looking the other way!

Gretta has been quite the little ham recently- she nearly flat-out refuses to follow the schedule that had worked out so well for a few days, so often times she's awake while Emma Kate takes her nap- it's so fun to play with her and focus on her by herself a little bit. She's so strong and makes the funniest faces! I love the little voice she's starting to use, I remember when Emma Kate started with the same thing, sort of a little growl sound, so cute! Emma Kate has been quite the little helper with her recently and loves to run get things for Gretta or speculate on what she might need when she's crying. She also loves to point out that Gretta is not happy when she is crying. I had Gretta in the Bumbo seat in the bathroom the other day, and Emma Kate literally pushed me out of the room, then (as I peeked through the door) proceeded to put a toy in Gretta's lap. Every time Gretta dropped it, Emma Kate VERY quickly picked it up and placed it right back in her lap again. It was precious. They did this for a minute or two before Gretta started to fuss a little- I stepped in and asked if Emma Kate needed my help, and she unceremoniously pushed me out the door again. After putting the toy back in Gretta's lap another 5 or 6 times, she decided she needed my help and asked me to come back in! It was so cute, I loved it! Emma Kate has also been taking really good care of her baby dolls, she nurses them, tries to put them in the carrier, and even shushes them like I do for Gretta. She was "putting her doll down for a nap" in the swing the other day and she even bent over rocking the doll like I do with Gretta before laying her down. She has been studying every move we make! It's just crazy! She's also picking up on a ton of words- the other morning I told her that Gretta DESPERATELY needed a new diaper, and immediately she was using the word desperately!

We're still holding steady on the eating and drinking front- there has been some progress recently in her interest in food, and there have been a few meals that she has fed herself a little bit without any prodding which is awesome. She's still eating tiny tiny amounts so we have to fortify her calories with a powder supplement still, but I think she'll come around soon. We're down to about the lowest caloric intake for her TPN this coming week, and if all goes well, we'll be done with it before traveling to Cincinnati on Sunday. We plan to continue supporting her with some basic fluids after that since her liquid consumption is still pretty minimal, and then we will taper off that as well. We're hoping that she'll pick up on her drinking and maintain herself like she did before the surgery!

I'll post pictures later today if I have a chance!

Blackberry Jam time!

With all the hospital time this fall and winter, we didn't get to make our blackberry jam. Today we fixed that! We pick blackberries from around our creek to make the jam. Emma had fun learning how to make the jam and liked sampling the juice as it came out of our food mill. Then, she and daddy went and fed the skins and seeds to the chickens who loved it! Here is a picture of Emma feeding them the leftovers. Mommy took some other photos of Emma eating while we worked and will post those in a little bit.

Here are a few pictures to get caught up on- Gretta has been loving the jumparoo, her feet even almost touch the floor!

Gretta was wearing this outfit the other day, and when I sat her up in the corner of the sofa, it reminded me of when I was taking pictures of Emma Kate exactly like that! I wanted to get one for comparison... I took a million, here are a few of my favorites

Here's one of Emma Kate in a similar pose to compare... hard to believe that she was SEVEN months old in this picture, where Gretta is just 4 months! Not sure why the photo came out so small... ???

Emma Kate was having fun with her puzzles and kept bending down right in front of me- all those little curls piled on top of her head were so pretty! Her hair is getting much darker now, so it just looks like little gold rings on top of a bronze base, and so shiny! She was moving so fast I had a hard time getting the exact photo I was looking for, but you get the picture!

Emma Kate discovered a whistle in her cup when she was done drinking!