christmas celebration #2

Christmas Eve brunch at the Kenfields! It was a wonderful, relaxing morning of good food, fun gifts, and great family! Great Grandma and Grandpa Birk were able to be there with us to celebrate thanks to Aunt Marianne making the trip to D-Town to pick them up! Annika enjoyed following the dogs around - especially Birkie who is just the right size for her! (If I were to make a guess I might think she is going to be a vet based on how much she adores animals!) We had a great morning! The rest of Christmas Eve was very calm and quiet for us - which was really nice! We went to the 5pm family friendly church service, put on our Christmas PJ's, ate a fish sticks dinner and went to bed in hopes that Santa would come!

christmas celebration #1

A few pics from our Christmas celebration with the Leafs. . . it was our pizza and presents party that Bergen had been looking forward to and talking non-stop about for the past 3 weeks. It was also the same day we took our Little Miss into the ER for pneumonia so we were a little fearful depending on how that visit went what was going to happen to the party. All I knew was that Bergen was going to explode if he didn't attend some sort of pizza party that night . . . but luckily all turned out well and as 'they' say "the show went on"! We had a GREAT celebration - a perfect relaxing and fun-filled night which is what we needed after a not so great start to our day!

surprise! we're having a. . . .

Confession time: we lied.

We found out what Leaflet #3 is the day we had our ultrasound almost a month ago, but we (okay I) decided to surprise family at Christmas so we said the baby's legs were crossed. But they weren't as SHE was spread eagle. That is right. . . another baby girl!

We are thrilled to be expecting Ingrid Elise!!

We told family by wrapping a stocking with her name on it and a tag that said "It's a girl"! It took the moms/grandmas a couple seconds to process what we were telling them, but once they figured it out everyone was very surprised and excited. It will be a lot of fun for our girls to have a sister to grow up with - especially so close in age. Now we just wait until she joins the family in April!

lets make a deal

I gave Annika an english muffin for breakfast this morning and being the extremely picky eater she is, I was both shocked and thrilled to find that it was totally gone when I went back to the table! That is until I noticed something that looked suspiciously like an english muffin sticking out of an old purse of mine that Annika has taken as her own. It is the perfect size for her to carry around the house . . . and all day long she is putting things in the purse, zipping it up and then taking them out. She loves it. . . and it keeps her busy so I love it too!

It had been a while since I last cleaned the purse out of the various treasures Annika hides in there. . . and I couldn't help but laugh as I pulled the treats, toys and trinkets out this morning. The game Lets Make a Deal came to mind - you know the one where the game show host asks contestants for random things in their purses? I think Annika would have won the grand prize!

i should have knocked on wood

Saturday night I was thinking about my next blog post - it was going to be about reaching a milestone of sorts with Annika. She had surpassed the time of Bergen's onset of his reactive airway/asthma. He was just shy of 16 months when we made our first ER visit with our struggling to breathe baby boy. . . and little did we know that was just the beginning of many more trips to come. Every time Annika has had a cold I have held my breath in fear that she too will develop reactive airway. And on Saturday night I was thinking about how thankful I was that while she has fallen victim to numerous colds, we hadn't been to the ER with her.

THAT is when I should have knocked on wood.

Annika went with me to the clinic this past week as she had developed a cough and at that time her lungs sounded good. Yes, she had a cough, but air was moving through her lungs. I asked what I should look for and the doctor said "should she become lethargic or develop a fever bring her in". And Sunday morning that is exactly what happened. Our usual spit-fire of a little girl was running a temp, could barely sit on her own, and my worst fear - her breathing was shallow. My first thought - pneumonia. So in we went in for our first trip to the ER with our Little Miss.

We were able to drop Bergen off at a friends (THANK YOU JOEL AND KATE!!!!) so we could avoid Bergen coming into contact with the plethora of germs that is an ER. And we made it before the morning rush - we walked in to an empty lobby and walked out to one with standing room only.

At first Annika checked out perfect other then having her first ear infection and we thought she just had a nasty bug. But to be on the safe side (and we all know how I like to be on the safe side!) the doctor ordered a lung x-ray. Sure enough she has pneumonia. When the doctor came back to tell us, I answered so affirmatively that she asked if someone had already told us. No, it is from acutely listening to my son's every breath for the past 3 years. I could tell her lungs weren't working properly. We are treating her with a strong antibiotic and Tylenol/Motrin as needed.

Today she is back to her usual spit-fire self and while she may have made her first trip to the ER, to me she still has reached a milestone. So far no reactive airway and for that I am beyond thankful.

Going to knock on wood now.