Sunday, August 29, 2010

More camping, beaches...and failing to thrive?

Hi everyone,

The last couple weeks of summer have been just awesome. We keep putting off all the stuff we have to do around the house by saying, "summer's almost over - we have to enjoy it while we can!" It's been great, but seriously, we have to buckle down soon...after Labor Day weekend that is!

On the 18th Willow had a doctor's appointment and we found out that she's lost weight - she was at 17 pounds 8 ounces, a loss of 4 ounces over the past month. In medical terms this is called "Failure to Thrive". She's had the diagnosis before, back when we first had her home. That was when they had us feeding her every 2.5 hours around the clock. So what's causing it now? The doctor suggested we get some bloodwork done to check for any thyroid issues or celiac disease. We thought about that for a day or two and ended up asking her if we could push it off a few more weeks. Honestly, I think we just weren't trying hard enough to feed her high-calorie foods. It's kind of embarrassing to admit that - it makes us feel a little like failures as parents - but Willow is just a very picky eater, so I think, if she was on a berry kick, we let her eat too many berries and didn't try hard enough to make her eat lots of other stuff. Now, we've been trying, I mean really trying. I think, hope it is working. Willow's been eating a lot more cheese, fatty yogurt, ice cream...even turkey burgers made by Linda's friend Jess (thanks, Jess!). No, we're not raising her veg like her mom. Anyway, so we've been on a baby-feeding mission and Josh bought a bathroom scale today too, so we can weigh her. It's not as accurate as a baby scale - sure wish we had one of those.

Enough about that. "Failure to Thrive" is such a harsh term. Willow's been thriving in every other way and has had a great couple weeks. She's learning new words every day - recent additions include "bubble", "bath", "baby" and "apple" (which she says "bupple" - guess she likes B words). She still loves making motor sounds and does it when cars drive by our house, if she sees a picture of a car and also whenever she sees Daddy's motorcycle parked in the garage. We love how proud she acts when she says a new word. She also is recognizing things and places and knows what she likes: the other day we were going to the park, and as soon as it came into view she started squealing and cheering. She had a great time at the park, and then when it was time to leave she started crying. I thought that was cute.

Two weekends ago, we went camping at Sunset Bay campgound out by 5-mile point on the Lake. It was supposed to be a sunny, warm day but it wasn't. Still, we had a pretty good time. Our friends the Vendlinski's came out and ate a pie iron pizza dinner with us. Andi wrote a nice post on her blog about it - she's a much more ambitious blogger than I - so click here if you want to see her take on it and some of her photos. Here's a few of ours; I didn't get very many. (I'm feeling lazy and Andi wrote such a good post about it I figured, why duplicate effort? :))

Willow in her camp chair. Her outfit should give you a hint at the weather.
















Watching the sunset.















This weekend we got a call on Friday that our friends the Sherman's (Willow's NICU friend Ellen's parents) were up in Marquette at Lauren's grandparents' house, right on the Lake. They invited us down for a beach day on Saturday and we decided to go. It was in the upper 80s all weekend so that sounded more appealing than the county fair, which was our original plan. It ended up being a really good time and we are glad we went. It was an amazing spot and the weather was great. Willow and Ellen are old enough to really enjoy the beach now, notwithstanding a couple face-plants in the sand by Willow. Those weren't fun, and the resulting rinse-off caused some screaming. But overall she had a blast. Here's a little video of Willow and Ellen playing. It's not a great video, but seeing as how I didn't get a single decent still photo of the two of them I will put it up anyway.




Here's Ellen's sister Audrey showing Willow a "fish egg" (those tiny, clear balls that wash up on the shore - are they fish eggs? Or some sort of bug larvae? Not sure).















And Willow and I floating.





















Then today we went boating with Ruth and Chad. We finally bucked up and bought a life jacket for Willow. She hates it. Who wouldn't? Those things are so restricting for little kids. She couldn't move and her ears were all squished. She decided rather than struggle and fuss, it'd be easier to fall asleep:















The life jacket made it easy to just prop her at the front of the boat. She slept this way for a good half hour or so.















Here's Willow with Chad (future Daddy - they're due right around Willow's birthday!):
















And after boating, playing on the beach bare-bummed. :)






















I have to get to bed - it's late! I've added a new blog to my list: Tiny Teeter. Tiny Teeter's mom Tina and I grew up spending Thanksgivings together as our dads were good buddies. She lives in Hastings now - where Josh grew up and also her husband, whose name is also Josh!

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend - we're heading to Hastings to see the Jenson's and go to the State Fair!

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