Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Halloween is the probably the #1 day of the year to share cute pictures of your kids, and we're no different! Here are a bunch of pictures of Bea in her Halloween finery. As you can tell, she's a Minnesota Gopher cheerleader. (As a consolation to the Wisconsin fans, she still said "Go Bucky!" despite the costume.)

I originally wanted Bea to be something she could say (Dog, Bear, Horse, etc.). Matt and I scoured the city for a decent animal costume that would fit her. We finally settled on a dog costume, but when we brought it home and put Bea in it, she freaked out!! She didn't like it at all, and it scared her when we showed her the mirror. Sooooo... on to plan B. We had the cheerleader outfit at home -- so we just added the pom poms and wha-la... Halloween costume. Daddy was very, very happy.

You can click on the pictures to see them bigger (you can do that to any pic on this blog, actually).

Here is Bea beating a drum in her costume during the day care Halloween party.

The day care took the kids around the local shopping center for "Trick or Treat". There's Bea in the middle row of the buggy with her friend, Kamari. Her two best friends, Gustavo and Monroe are the pirate and vampire in the front row.


Here are the older kids at the head of the pack, heading over to the Perkins.

Here is Bea playing with one of her teachers, Miss Houng.

Here she is on Halloween night before going trick or treating.

She likes the pom poms a lot.

Here's Bea in crossing our yard to the neighbor's house. She is really too young for the candy, but she likes to put things in and out of her pumpkin bucket... and she likes the candy with crinkly-sounding wrappers best.

Here we are coming home from trick or treating in the neighborhood (this is our porch). Grandma and Grandpa were there taking pictures and helping out.

Hope you had as nice of a Halloween as we did. -- Melissa

Good News

It was announced today that one of Melissa's doctors performed the first successful Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS)at Abbott in Minneapolis. This is the syndrome that Bea and Elsa had and we flew to Cincinnati to one of four or five hospitals in the country that performed the surgery. Thankfully there are now more opportunities for parents to perform the surgery, because in most cases there are literally days from diagnosis until fatal or life altering complications typically occur. We were diagnosed on a Friday morning and spent all day and much of the weekend trying to get an appointment in time to save the girls. With the weekend it wasn't until Monday that we were able to finalize everything and we flew out on Tuesday and did tests all day Wednesday and learned the horrible news that while we were candidates for the surgery Elsa had no placenta share and was not going to make it and we had surgery on Friday, seven (short), yet the longest and most horrible days of our lives, after our first diagnosis to save Bea.

We had to pay our way to fly to Cincinnati and stay there and we were fortunate we had the means to do so. We were even more fortunate for the excellent care in Minneapolis such that we were put into a high risk pool early on and monitored for just such a complication. Without the quick diagnosis we wouldn't have Bea today, and that's unthinkable as she's become such a part of our lives that we can't imagine not having her around, and it's hard to remember what it was like before her.

Thus I'm very happy for the healthy twin boys and their parents for the opportunity they had locally and that many more families in the upper west will have an quick and affordable opportunity to help save their twins. The television station stated 50 cases of TTTS arise in Minnesota each year, and that excludes families in Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakota and further outlying states and provinces that have Minneapolis as an option.

This is post became a little harder to write then I first expected, it's harder that Bea is staying with my parents from yesterday (Thursday) until Sunday as Melissa and I are cleaning our house for an open house on Sunday. Thus I can't run up to her room and look in on her or touch her or pick her up and hold her. I don't think I'll share this blog with Melissa until after we pick Bea up on Sunday.

It also makes me think of almost every night this summer when I was sprinkling the lawn for many hours at night in an effort to keep our new sod from drying out. I had a lot of time to look up at the sky and with the very dry summer we had the stars seemed extra magnificent this summer. I would regularly look up at the stars and say hi to Elsa and tell her I miss her and I appreciated her watching over us and especially her sister. It wasn't nearly as sad as it seems and sounds as I write now, because the stars make you feel touched, special and in our case comfortable and happy.

Sometimes I stop and wonder did all that happen last year. Is there really an identical twin to Bea out there somewhere, because that's hard to comprehend. But it did happen and we're very happy for how much Elsa touched us and continues to touch us and we're just as happy for all the joy that Bea brings to us and we channel a little extra love and happiness her way. She's simply such a happy, smiley, giggly baby and she seems to be pretty good physically and mentally and I wonder if some of that is a bit of Elsa coming out through Bea. And probably some of the extra happiness Melissa and I feel these days is Elsa channeling herself to and through us. Now that's a happier thought to end the night on. Night night (as Bea can say now).

Matt

MAAAAAAAMAAAAAAA

Melissa wanted a girl, and she wanted a Mama's girl. She got her wish. MAAAAAMAAAA, not MAMA, may be Bea's favorite word. It's sometimes followed by a quick Maaama? while turning to look back at me with squinted eyebrows and a little smile, which is her way of asking "where's Mom" and suspecting and hoping that Melissa is upstairs working in her office or somewhere else near by. If I reply "upstairs" and point up she squints her eyebrows and puckers her lips for a "ooouuuu" then bolts for the stairs at lightening speed with her left arm pumping as fast as it can go. She hasn't quite figured out how to run using both arms to gain speed. It's as cute as it can get, as if a 30" inch 25 pound little person with a bundle of energy can be anything but cute, even when crying. Okay, crying at 4 am is excluded from cute.

Melissa started her first week at a new job last week and Bea started her first week of toddlers at daycare last week. It was a big week for the girls. Both put in some extra energy and are extra tired. I'm in the middle of classes this semester and well Bullet is feeling the anxiety too.

Bea's favorite game with me right now consists of me chasing her, anywhere, but specifically from the kitchen to the family room/bathroom entry way and from the bathroom entry way/family room to the corner of the kitchen. She runs as fast as she can, which is pretty fast these days, with the left arm pumping as fast as it can go and lots of giggling, and even more giggling when I catch her. Repeat. Then repeat, over and over until Daddy is tired or she gets tired and wipes out.

She's picking up on words extremely fast and we need to be very careful with what we say, and eat in front of her. Her doctor asked me if she likes to eat a little of a variety of things. I replied that Bea likes a lot of everything. Lettuce and peaches are so-so, but she eats everything else faster then we can cut it and put it on her plate. More, MORE, MOOOORRRREEEEEE!!!!! with her hands signing (sign language) the word "more" very quickly is also common in our household. Foods with spices particularly mexican/tacos and my mongolian chicken from Leann Chinn last night are favorites. Also any diary product especially cheese. Mama's girl?

Other good news is Bea is blasting up the height and weight charts from around 30% at her 15 month physical to around 60% uncorrected and 70% corrected (for her due date). Her head is stuck at the 95% percentile though. It's really hard to get through the shirts and 2 year old hats are commonly too small.

We're having a blast and are sad summer and our pleasant walks are done for a while. We'll have to find some indoor ways to burn energy.

Matt

Bea & Sadie at the Pumpkin Patch: Part 2

Happy October everyone! Bea is officially18 months old. She is also officially a toddler at daycare. She's enjoying playing with all the leaves that are falling down from the trees and is now singing to her baby dolls. Unfortunately, she hasn't been feeling super great lately -- she's had a cold and tummy aches -- but overall she is doing great.

If you've been following our blog for awhile, you might remember that last year around this time Bea and her cousin, Sadie, made their first trip to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard (see blog from September 15, 2007). Here's what they looked like then (Bea on the left, Sadie on the right):

Last year, Bea couldn't even sit up on her own. Well, recently the girls made their second trip -- what a difference a year makes! Both Bea and Sadie climbed up on the hay bale by themselves. See them below holding hands... aw... (Sadie on the left, Bea on the right):

The farm has several animals for the kids to pet -- this year the girls actually noticed them. Bea was very excited to meet a "Neigh" in real life.

Here they are partners in crime... Sadie was probably telling Bea how to get bites of hot dog and potato chips without me noticing (that came later in the day). Here's Bea in the orchard -- she really enjoys being outside and she runs pretty fast these days, so you have to keep an eye on her. Sadie and Bea sample the apples after picking them right off the trees.
Here is Aunt Renee, Sadie, Matt, Bea, and I sitting on the back of the tractor/hay ride wagon. It nearly dumped us off a couple of times on the way to and from the apple trees. Here's Matt, Bea, and I in the pumpkin patch (well, the pumpkin sales area). We took the pumpkin Bea chose here home. And, yes, we are standing in the same place we were last year.
Here's Renee and Matt on the way out with apples, pumpkins, and tired little girls in the strollers.

Well, that's all for now. Hope you are enjoying the fall. - Melissa