Slices of Life, Vol IV

(What is Slices of Life? Go here to find out.)

*When Daphne doesn't want to do what we say, she likes to run as fast as she can to her bedroom and slam her door shut. I kind of thought we had a few years before that would start.

*I have some Silly Putty that I keep in the diaper bag for Daphne to play with in the car or when we're shopping. For some reason she has a really hard time remembering what it's called so she usually calls it 'wedgie.' It is not uncommon to hear her to ask, "Mama, can I play with the wedgie?"

*Christian will not nap during the day and I have no idea what to do about it. We are struggling.

*The other day Daphne asked if we could sing one of her favorite songs. She asked, "can we sing 'Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains?'" I liked that she recited half the song just to ask if we could sing it.

*Continuing with the Christmas music theme, she also often asks if we'll sing about the shepherds seeing the angels and then going to see baby Jesus. We don't know what song she's referring to and she always seems happy when we make something up. I think she just wants there to be a song about the shepherds. Aside from baby Jesus, they seem to be her favorite of the nativity people.

*Christian lunges his body toward me when he sees me and someone else is holding him. It's nice to know he likes me.

*The other night before bed Daphne asked if we could pray for Daddy's trainee. David is an official coach at work now and takes out new hires to help them learn the ropes of the job. He is assigned his current (and first) trainee for the next couple of months. I guess Daphne is listening in on all conversations more intently than we realize, since we have never sat her down and discussed the fact that Daddy has a trainee at work.

*Daphne is big on the "I'll go this way, you go that way" game. If we're heading to her bedroom, we most certainly cannot go the same route together. She has to go "this way" and I have to go "that way." If I try to go the same way as she is going, someone throws a big fit. (Not me.)

*I taught Daphne a little game: I squeeze her hand 3 times and it means 'I love Daphne.' It's like a little hand squeezing code where I'm supposed to be able to squeeze her hand 3 times and she knows what it means without me having to say any words. I taught it to her by holding her hand and first squeezing 3 times and counting 1-2-3 with each squeeze, and then squeezing 3 more times while saying "I love Daphne." She sort of gets it; she squeezes my hand a bunch and says "1-2-3, I love mommy." Sometimes now she'll stop what she's doing, squeeze my hand while saying "1-2-3, I love mommy," then go on with what she was doing. It's the sweetest.

A Big Day

Daphne's hair has been growing steadily for 3 years now. I love her hair, but it's gotten crazy long and has been kind of a mess.

Today we went down to the cutest children's salon for her first haircut.

A first haircut is kind of a big deal and requires many photos, like of the moment you walk into the salon.


















She got to choose which vehicle chair she wanted to sit in. I was sure she would go for the airplane but she chose the cute pink car.


















Christian sat in the airplane.












I really wanted to be brave and do something short and drastic to Daphne's hair, but in the end I just couldn't do it. So the stylist just cleaned up the ends and evened out the length and fixed up Daphne's natural layers. Probably about 3 inches were cut off.

For a first haircut, the salon takes the child's picture and makes a little keepsake with the hair. Daphne's turned out really cute.


















We're thinking of waiting a few months and maybe going back to give Daph the little bob I'm thinking about. With her curly hair I want to keep her from looking like a mushroom head, but this stylist was great and I know will do a good job keeping Daphne lovely.

I don't have a great 'after' photo, but you can kind of see some of the length gone here...I think you'll be able to tell when you see her in real life:


















And just because, here's Christian trying to escape from his car seat:

Bowling Superstars

We joined up with some families from David's work for some bowling.

I don't think I've gone bowling in 10 years or so, but apparently I am very good because I got 5 strikes in two games!

Daphne is also very good. I mean, she bowled very slowly so her ball got stuck in the center of the lane a few times, but I still think she was amazing.


















Christian was mesmerized by all the action. Many of the bowling balls weighed more than he does.













We had a really good time, and I kind of hope David and I can go on another bowling outing sometime sans children. Maybe we could join a league. Get some t-shirts or something. We'll see.

Shriners Does it Again

We went back to Shriners last week for the skeletal dysplasia clinic. After having 20 (I'm not kidding) doctors looking over Daphne's x-rays from the last time we went and having basically 20 different opinions on Daphne's unique skeleton, they took a bunch more x-rays and we're going to be scheduling another MRI soon.


















Daphne isn't the only one who likes the waiting room entertainment at Shriners.

The MRI will be at Doernbecher's where there is an anesthesiologist to give her the happy sleeping drugs. She's too little to be able to hold still long enough to get good pictures taken so she has to be sleeping for the procedure. Then maybe another surgery for her feet soon? We'll see what the new x-rays and MRI say.


















Posing with her bro. They were accidentally matching with their blue/pink animal print, but I think it turned out pretty cute. I need to make them match more often.

I tell ya, I didn't like going through her surgeries/MRI back before her first birthday because it was so sad to see her uncomfortable but not understanding what was going on. Now she'll be old enough to be aware and I am just not looking forward to it. Plus now that we have Christian, David and I won't be able to just camp out that the hospital the whole time and one of us (me) will have to leave Daph and sleep at home with him.












One of the best parts about the doctor...they give good treats. She got 'praying bear' as she calls him, and a little Hello Kitty Mega Blocks set. We got her some Hello Kitty Mega Blocks as her Christmas gift, so she loves the addition to the ones she already has.

But I'm trying not to borrow trouble. Daph will probably love her hospital time, as she usually soaks up any experience where she is the center of attention. And who knows, maybe she'll get some more treats.












Cheese snacks while waiting in our room.

Cinderdaphne

I hope Daph will always be so eager to help with the housework.












Do you think she will?

Baby Christian is having a rough time so I could really use her extra hands. Poor baby wants to be held constantly and is very fussy. I wish I could help him because I miss my happy and content boy.

At least my arms are getting very good workouts. Well, as good as workouts as you can get with a 1 percentile-for-weight baby.

Christian Cuteness

Fun news from our house: while Christian still gets overwhelmed when Daphne intrudes too much into his personal bubble, if she stays a safe distance away and dances around crazy-like, he will laugh and laugh.

















I found them a sit and stand stroller (best purchase ever for toting around 2 kids) for half off in a clearance pile at Target, so now Daphne can ride facing Christian and can keep him laughing as we stroll along.

















I have been afraid that the two of them would never be friends but now I have hope.

My 3 Valentines

We've decided to keep Valentine's Day a fun family day and not make a big deal about it being a mushy, romantic kind of day. We'll do fun meals, little Valentine gifts, and whatever family activity sounds fun. This way our kids will always want to stay at home with us on Valentine's and never want to go out on dates.

(Hahaha! I just cracked myself up thinking that our kids will always want to stay home with us and never go on dates. Although we just watched Breaking Dawn Part 1, and Bella's wedding was so sweet and beautiful that I decided Daphne is never going to get married. She's going to stay home with me forever.)

We had a yummy heart pasta Valentine meal, on heart plates with heart cups.

























Even David, my #1 Valentine, had to use a heart plate and cup.












Here's my #2 Valentine, asking where our Christmas tree went. Apparently she just now noticed it was gone.












My #3 Valentine was in bed during this meal. When you have to take naps you miss a lot of the fun. But here is a cute picture of him from a few days ago when David was trying to play with him but he kept turning around to flash me big smiles. (I'm his favorite.)












Have you seen those new Friends LEGOs? They are super cute. David loves playing LEGOs, so he got Daphne a box of them for her Valentine gift. This morning there was fun playtime for all.












With this much Valentine fun at our place, you can see why our kids will never want to leave the house.

Just Some Questions

Christian slept great for 4 whole nights but he's since decided that was nonsense. As an added bonus, if he naps at all during the day it's only for 1/2 an hour at a time. Maybe he doesn't like me as much as I thought he did?

Everyday I spend the entire day cleaning the house and loving on the kids, but by the end of the day the house is a disaster and the kids are crying. Is it possible I am doing something wrong here? Does this same phenomenon happen to anyone else?

Remember this photo from September?


















Here's an updated version, although now Christian can use his eyes to tell you exactly how he feels about the situation:












Daphne is such a good big sister. Someday soon Christian will recognize that when she's sitting on his head it's actually because she loves him so.

Sometimes it Takes a Shriner

For 3 years now we've known that we could take Daphne up to Shriners for a visit. They have a skeletal dysplasia clinic that is apparently very good, plus it doesn't hurt that all their work is free.

When Daph was first born we were so overwhelmed by going to the doctor all the time that fitting in another hospital just didn't seem appealing. At her 3 year well child visit, though, her doctor brought it up again and we felt like now was as good a time as any to make our first visit.












Hello, Shriners, where have you been all our lives?! They are amazing up there. I don't want to complain about our current insurance and health care plan, because in light of everything we've done with Daphne we know we're quite blessed to have the coverage we have, but our insurance group is not very easy to work with. It's not uncommon when we're working with a doctor outside of our coverage for him or her to comment on how difficult our insurance is to work with. Even our doctors talk about it. So I'll just admit, I don't love our insurance. I don't really even like it.

We went up to Shriners on Thursday and couldn't believe how quickly and efficiently they work. The doctor saw her and wanted x-rays, so they sent us to get x-rays. We're needing some new shoes for Daphne, so after x-rays they sent us to get new shoes (no more spending 100s of dollars on her shoes). Then they scheduled our next two visits, both of them happening in the next month. I had to call them yesterday and confirm an appointment and I was on the phone for all of about 5 minutes. In comparison, I spent Monday and Tuesday trying to call our insurance to get Daphne's latest x-rays and never was able to get someone to help me, even though I talked to approximately 13 people. Did I mention that Shriners is efficient? And quick? And amazing?

As we were driving home David said, "they kind of make me want to be a Shriner."

(If you need to step away from the computer because you're nervous about a lightening bolt from Heaven in response to that comment, I understand.)

Our new family motto is 'Sometimes it Takes a Shriner.' (Another lightening bolt? Maybe.) Because when you need to get the job done, you just go to Shriners Hospital.

I'm sad they only work with sick children. I want to go there, too. (Probably another lightening bolt there because of making light of sick children. I am on a roll.)

















Shriners has the best waiting room toys. If you ever have to go there, go early just to hang out in the waiting room for awhile.

We were told we probably won't get to go to the skeletal dysplasia clinic until May, but as we have established that Shriners is amazing, we'll actually be going in two weeks.

We probably should have done all this years ago. I think it would have saved us a lot of time and energy.

Football at the Park

David has decided to take up kicking a football again because maybe someday he can be the kicker for the 49ers.

It's never too late to dream.













We have been loving the mild weather lately; perfect for walking to the park for some football practice and playing.


















Playing football is one of Daphne's most favorite things. Silly David thought he needed to have a boy to be able to play the game with.

Daph can play football with David and Christian can play My Little Ponies with me.


















Speaking of Christian, he was there too.


















Snuggled up with me, his best friend.


















I tried kicking the football once, but I nearly fell over and squished the babe. He and I went back to watching and snapping photos.