e-i-e-i-oh!

Paige and I spent one of our last days of summer vacation visiting a petting zoo at Linda's!

Here she is getting up close and personal with some baby goats....is there a name for a baby goat?

This video shows her getting REALLY up close and personal with said goats. One actually jumped on my back and started eating my split ends. I'll post pictures if Linda send them.

She really like the llama...just not too close...I wonder if she had a flashback to the time she met an alpaca?

Here she is showing a cow to a baby.

She likes the "birdies" too.




She got to ride a pony....TWICE!

I can't even believe that my little baby is doing this!





Petting a "Yam"....never mind that it isn't actually a lamb....


Checking out the llama again...


getting closer......


Okay! Close enough!




The bunnies were a big hit. Anyone who knows Paige could have told you that she has a soft spot for bunnies.


Here she is wiping....ahem....God knows what...on to her shirt. I did wash her hands with the hand sanitizer, only to see her licking them a few minutes later. Sigh.


Paige spent a fair amount of time picking up the combs and brushes for the animals and putting them back in the bucket. And then walking around with the bucket.



One last hug for the "Yam"


What a fun morning, our daycare chick is the BEST!...and it wasn't even raining on our way home LINDA (giggle-snort)!

Weight Check Wednesday Update!

Every Wednesday Paige and I have an appointment to see Liz the ancillary nurse at her clinic. I've been tracking Paige's progress here. You can see that some weeks were better than others and that LAST week the news was pretty bad. You might assume that looking at her weigh this week that we would be worried. ON THE CONTRARY! Let me explain:

On August 6th we reduced her overnight feeds from 3 cans (roughly 660 mls) to 2 cans (between 400 and 550 mls a night). Why? Well, we were exhausted. For 2 months we'd been waking up EVERY SINGLE NIGHT to add that 3rd can.....in addition to the 3, 4, 5, or even more times a night we were waking up to silence warning alarms on her pump.

On August 16th we removed the tube completely. Why? Where to begin....A) see the paragraph above. B) At least once a week I would pull Paige out of bed in the morning and she would immediately vomit waves of milk all over all of us. This was scary and upsetting to her, scary and upsetting to me, and wreaking havoc on the walls, bedding, and carpet. C) Tape. The child had so much tape keeping that tube from moving and leaking. One night when I checked in on Paige she was soaked from head to toe in milk/stomach contents shivering and crying. The tape sealing the tube had failed. Every day we needed to hold her down and replace a white strip of tape over her nose, sometimes several times a day while she begged us not to. Every three or four days we needed to replace the tegaderm on Paige's cheek. This is a long, upsetting process that includes smelly adhesive remover, smellier skin-prep wipes, severely irritated baby skin, and usually crying and yelling for all parties involved. I've included a charming video of PART of this experience!




D) It is very scary to wake up and find your baby in a tangle of tubes every morning. Especially after a long night of untangling her. We could never have a babysitter put her to bed, we could never have her "sleep over" at a loved ones, we could never let her sleep in, we could never just get up and start our day without, flushing tubes and dismantling pumps, replacing tape...That stupid tube was not helping her put on much weight, was a hassle and a hazard. E) Paige's insurance only covered 90% of her "durable medical equipment" We paid dearly for every bit of tape we ripped off of her face and every drop of milk she puked up. F) Her GI doctor has diagnosed her as healthy but needing a higher calorie diet.



We have decided to give her those extra calories the old fashioned way for a while. Will the tube go back in at some point? Maybe. In the mean time we are feeding her tons of food. Grandpa Blake even taught her how to do corn on the cob!

Paige is going to see an endocrinologist at the U soon. We are not really expecting the doctor to find any major problems...its more of a "no stones left un-turned" approach, especially because we are opting out of the tube feeds for now.

So...was I thrilled when my little lady only gained 1/2 an ounce this week? YES! Truth be told, she probably lost even more weight than the 8 oz from the previous week. She managed to gain those ounces back, plus 1/2 ounce more, ON HER OWN! I was hoping that she hadn't lost much more...would've been really happy if she had maintained....1/2 ounce up is a step in the right direction!

SO....I'm very behind in my blogging. I've been just enjoying hanging out with my kiddo. You'll have to excuse me when I (eventually) post pictures of Paige at a petting zoo with NO tube and later post pictures of her running in a sprinkler WITH the tube. Her cuteness will be displayed in no particular order.

From the mouths of babes.....

Paige has always been funny, but now that she is talking a lot more, she makes us laugh harder and much more often.

A few days ago Paige was in the kitchen feeding Mag. Naturally, I was standing nearby supervising. Also...naturally...I....well...I farted. ITS NATURAL! Anyway, Paige immediately stopped what she was doing, stood up and said "OH! Mommy POOPED!" Absolutely hysterical.

A few days after that I was upstairs trying on a new bra. Yes, this is another gem from Paige that is less than flattering for me. The garment was comfy enough.....but...I was worried it may have been a little too pointy. I needed a second opinion......I got a third.

I walked out of our room and asked Mike

"Do you think this bra is too pointy?"

He walked over with Paige and gave me the once over.

"Hmmmm...its not that pointy....its fine."

While we were discussing, Paige wanted me to pick her up. I was asking Mike one more time, showing my profile etc. when Paige piped in.

She grabbed my boobs with both hands and questioned

"Elbows in there?"

Hmmm....confirmation that it was indeed, too pointy?

I don't really feel like posting anything cute tonight, but since its Weight Check Wednesday I thought I'd better at least update my friends in the blogosphere. She was 21 lbs 2.5 ounces....exactly like last week....sigh....

That being said, we cut down her feeds from 3 cans of formula (est. 750 mls) to 2 cans (est. 500 mls). I did let her primary pediatrician know, but haven't let the Docs at the U in on our little change. They told us several months ago that when kids scale back the amount of formula they get, they tend to lose some of the weight they've gained....maybe maintaining for the last week isn't as bad as it feels.....

And the winner is.......

Well, since nobody was able to correctly translate "coco chairs" into English, the big-big-prize is going to the comment that amused me the most. All of the guesses were great, but JUSTIN'S comment pointing out my child's superior intelligence really stood out. Justin, if you can flatter your college professors they way you flattered me, you will be a very successful college freshman next year!

"Coco Chairs" is actually Paigelish for "Twinkle Stars"

Every night before bed (but after her tubes have been flushed, bags have been filled and primed, pump reset, miles of tape applied to multiple apparatus, and bunny lovingly placed in Paige's hand) we turn out the lights and look up at the ceiling. There are several green glowing stars from the little kids who lived here before us. Paige cuddles into our arms and we sing a few rounds of twinkle, twinkle, little star while she sings along......with her own lyrics.

Thanks for your guesses everyone!

ANOTHER paigesuponpages contest!

I don't want to brag (yes...yes I do) about Paige's verbal skills but....

We get a lot of comments about the way she talks. She has a lot more words & phrases than I expected her to at 20 months old...random people at the grocery store, the zoo, the receptionists at the vet who BOTH have 20 month olds of their own, are all astonished when Paige talks to them, especially so clearly.

but....nobody is perfect.....

There are a few things she can't quite say 'couch' for example, always comes out 'souch'.


Each day.....every day...we hear a phrase from her that sounds NOTHING like the way it should. What she is trying to say and what she actually says are not quite what you would expect.

HERE IS THE CONTEST:

The phrase below is what Paige actually says....we want you to take a guess as to what she actually means.

Leave your answer as a comment. The first person with a the correct translation wins a goodie from Truffles&Tortes in Anoka. ALSO, the person who comes up with (in my opinion) the funniest response wins a goodie as well!

The phrase is......

"Coco Chairs!"

Good Luck! Winner to be announced Monday August 10th, submissions due Sunday at midnight!

Dogs aren't our whole lives, they make our lives whole......

Tuffy's appointment is tomorrow evening. We've been taking her on walks, feeding her people food, cuddling, playing....I'm so glad we are able to do these things for her...

Paige's appointment went great today! She is up over 4 ounces, tipping the scale at 21lbs 2.5 oz!

Finger paint

Paige discovered her affinity for finger painting this spring at daycare. We gave it another go this morning.

A boy and his dog

Ever since we started going up to the lake as a family, we could tell that Tuffy had found her heaven on earth. She has always really enjoyed the open water, chasing ducks, climbing through the shoreline rocks, chomping at fish we catch and having more laps to sit on after long adventurous days. We will have some great memories when she leaves us later this week.

We wanted Tuffy to have fun at the lake one last time so I went up with her this weekend. We had a great time and it was hard to imagine that it's our last time. (this is actually less sappy than it probably could be. She means a lot to us.)

Here we are on our way up to Sauk Centre

Almost there and the weather started looking really bad. We may not get to spend time outside right away. Tuffy looks like she knows it too.

It ended up pouring rain a few minutes after we got there but it stopped a little while later and we were able to enjoy a boat ride. Here she is with my mom.

We woke up very early on Saturday so we could get started on some adventures.

Tuffy and I took a nice long walk around the town and stopped at the park at the dam.We took one last boat ride before heading out.

By the end of our trip, Tuffy was tuckered. Here she is taking a nap on the way home.