Starting the Move Home

We had quite the bittersweet weekend in Sioux Falls.

We packed up our entire house to get ready for our pending move back to Plymouth, MN into our original home.  Adam is almost 3 and Annabelle is now 10 months old.  Both seem to be getting so much bigger before my eyes and I can't seem to keep up.  We are moving from Sioux Falls back to Plymouth as I have taken a transfer to the U of M residency program to be closer to home with my family during the next year which promises to be difficult.  Since Mom passed away on May 18th it seems that I have been living in denial and that everything is very surreal.  I am not even sure that I have fully grasped the depth of what is happening.  But we continue to move forward through each day at this point.

We celebrated the graduation of many of my resident friends and got to say goodbye to all of the wonderful people I have been able to call colleagues and friends these last two years.  So many of these people have been there for me and helped support my family the past two years, often times taking shifts so that I could be home with mom.  There will never be words to fully tell those people how much I appreciate their love and support.  They have such a special place in my heart. I will miss them so much and I will miss Sanford pediatric hospital with all of our incredible nurses, docs, and social workers.  I have been blessed to be surrounded by these great brilliant people.  I am sad to be leaving you all.
I am also excited for our new adventures to come back in Plymouth with finishing my 3rd year of residency at the University of Minnesota and being home to see our friends and their babies grow up in the coming years.  Hard to believe that Michael just finished his Junior year of high school and will be a Senior next year.

There were a lot of tears this weekend in both directions.  When we moved to Sioux Falls 2 years ago my mom cried and told me that she would be jumping for joy when the day came for us to come home.   I never imagined that she would not be here when it was time for us to move home.  I think I was so afraid after she was diagnosed but then immediately I focused on home and trying to keep her looking forward and fighting hard that I ignored the fear that was under it all.  Now she is gone and that fear and loss will have to surface at some time.  For example, seeing the grandma run up to her granddaughter at the playground and congratulate her on becoming a 2nd grader and telling her how proud of her she was.  It felt like a huge kick in the stomach as I knew my babies would never get to have that with their Nana.  Im sure the women at the part thought I was crazy when I burst into tears.  These days sneak up on me when I least expect it, just like this weekend.  Quite honestly, not having her here with me this weekend was the most difficult part.  She would have been awake every day at 5AM in the kitchen packing before I ever got up to start working.  She always kept us moving and she had tireless energy.  She always had the best organization of boxes and made sure every trinket was safe for the trip.  I barely knew where to start with the move without her.  I wish she were here.  I miss her smile.  I miss her voice.  I just miss my mom.  These are the days I need hugs from her.  I know she is in a better place and is no longer suffering, so really my sadness is just in selfish nature for myself.  There have been so many people checking in with me and seeing how I am doing and I appreciate their support so much.  Sometimes I still feel lost without her.  But I get up each day and keep moving forward.  It helps to have the kids and Derek around as well as Michael and Dad.    We are anxiously awaiting the return of the Johnson girls from Italy so we can spend some time with them as well.  We are getting through together.  Thank God for our amazing family and friends.  We are truly blessed.

The Holidays 2014

Well this year has been a whirlwind…and of course I have not had time to even post after Annabelle was born.  Wow, that makes me look like a terrible mom.  Yikes!
Anyway, here we are just after Christmas 2014.  Life is oh so busy but I just wanted to take a moment to be grateful for all of the amazing chaos in our lives.  Derek and I have been blessed to have the most amazing 2 children anyone could ever ask for.  We were not sure how Adam would do with a new little sister in the house but he has become the most sweet and loving big brother ever!  He kisses Annie and tells her he loves her and even asks where she is if she is not in the room with him.  He melts my heart all of the time.  Annabelle is such a smiley and cuddly little baby girl.  She doesn't fuss unless she needs something and just loves to be cuddled in, which we have needed lots of these days!  We are still living in Sioux Falls for my pediatrics residency.  That made the holidays a little complicated this year as I was scheduled to work Christmas, so we couldn't go home for our normal holiday routine.  We usually do Christmas eve at Vicky's house and then Christmas day with my parents, and then the day after with Jerry.  This year Vicky, Tracy, and Amy came down the weekend before Christmas and my parents and Michael came down on Christmas eve.  We had such a nice week of having our family around to celebrate with us.  So grateful for another year with my mom and with our amazing families!! Now back home for a week of vacation!  Can't wait!!

 

Our Week Home - Adam 11 Months

We got to spend a week back in the cities last week, which was wonderfuL!  I was lucky enough to have a week off, so we decided to go back to the cities so Derek could work from the home office while Adam and I spent time with grandma and Michael.  It was a great week! Great Grandma Johnson and Derek's uncle Mike were in town to visit, so we were able to see them and spend some time at the 3M golf tournament as well.  Adam loved great grandma G.G. because she always had goldfish or teddy grahams to give him.  He would walk around with a cracker in his mouth and then point to her every time he wanted another one!  He thought this was the best thing ever.  We also were lucky enough to spend a little time with Vicky and Tracy, as they were in town as well.  Tracy was working on her music videos, so we got to help with that a little.  Also, we saw Jason and Melissa, Russ and Krissy with Trevor and Gwen, as well as Teresa, Brian, and Nora for dinner at La Casita one night.  It is funny how much Adam watches Nora when she is around.  He is fascinated with other children!  I think it is probably time for me to get him involved in some play groups or something, since he is such a little social butterfly!

Also while we were in the Cities, Adam turned 11 months old.  I can not believe how much it seems like he has grown over the past several weeks.  He went from crawling to now walking holding on to things and he seems to have picked it up so quickly.  Now he can walk as long as he is holding one hand.  He will take 2-3 steps on his own if we trick him into thinking we are holding on to him, but he is a little too nervous to try it himself yet.  I think it will definitely be in the near future!  He now has 6 teeth - 2 on the bottom and 4 on top.  He eats anything we are eating and it is funny to watch him take little bites of his crackers and things!  He is working on his words.  Over the past few weeks he has learned a few new ones... when Journey goes outside to go potty he tells her to "Go" and then when she comes back inside he says "good girl" which really sounds more like "goo goo", but he gets the concept.  He now says Mama and Dada more distinctly without the continued rambling, and when he babbles now he does it with many different patterns and tones to his voice.  He is starting to get the inflections of different names, and is getting much clearer with his tones.  I think he will be talking much more over the next couple months.  He has gotten very good at pointing to tell us what he wants or who he wants to go to.  He is particularly good at this when there is food nearby that he wants or his bottle.

         

 

 

Overall, we had a wonderful week with our families, and as usual it went way too fast.  Now we are back in Sioux Falls and back to work, which luckily means that Adam is back to his regular sleeping through the night. Yay!

 
                   

Adam is 10 Months - Learning to Walk

We are living the crazy life these days!  Our move to Sioux Falls, SD a month ago has kept us busy, along with working 80 hour weeks in the NICU.  Unfortunately that means I have not had a lot of time to update the blog for Adam so here goes!

This week, Derek is in Canada fishing with my dad and brother.  My mom then came to Sioux Falls to hang with Adam while I am at work during this week with the plan to drive back to the cities together on Friday.  Of course, having grandma around means Adam has gotten very spoiled over the last week.  Grandma and Grandpa bought him a Thomas the Tank engine toy that he walks behind and has a "secret place" in the seat.  He thinks this is the greatest!!  We originally started letting him walk behind the lawn mower, but it would go pretty fast for him, so he would fall and then started getting scared to try.  Dad ordered him a new walk-behind toy and now the new train means he got two walk-behind toys this week!  And let me tell you....he is cruising!  He has gone from timid to speeding around the kitchen in no time flat!

 


Other new things for Adam:  He now has 5 teeth, 2 on the bottom and 3 on top.  He is a great eater and loves to have everything that we have on our plates.  He is smart enough to know when you have something that he doesn't, and he will sure scold you about it until you share.  His favorite of these items in ice cream.  If you hold ice cream in the front seat of the car and try to eat it without Adam knowing..... good luck!  He catches one glance in his mirror and he will scream until he gets some! haha great!!  He has learned to start annunciating to make works.  He makes a sound like "all done" if you ask if he is finished eating.  When grandma takes Journey outside and Adam goes along (which he always has to do or he gets mad), after she goes potty, he knows that grandma says good girl, so he will say "goo gool".   Now that he is walking, he is starting to get new shoes, which makes him think he is a big boy!! And he sleeps great through the night.... occasionally not getting up until 9 or 10!  Love that kid!  All sorts of fun.

We are missing Derek like crazy and have had a few chances to Skype with him this week, which has been great for Adam.  He runs around the house most days saying "Dadda"!  Can't wait for our week long trip home this weekend!!

Adam is 9 months Old! Trip to the Minnesota Zoo

Oh where to start.... things have been CRAZY!  Between packing the house to move to Sioux Falls next week, and getting ready to start residency, I am way behind on posting, so I will start with this week!

Adam had his 9 month appointment this week.  He is doing amazing!  He is growing right on track for weight, though his height has dropped off a little bit and he is now <5%ile for height.  It seems like he is getting tall to me, but aparently whoevere is measuring him doesn't think so!  haha!  On other notes, he is crawling around like crazy, he has 2 teeth (which he loves to brush) and is getting his 3rd tooth (according to the MD).  He still says Momma and Dadda, Titi (Tracy), Nana, and now is starting to wave and say all done "ah da".  It seems like he is starting to change so quickly these days!  He got the clearance to eat anything that we are eating now.... which makes me a little nervous, but he is glad to be eating off the table and now will scold us if he doesn't get a little of whatever we happen to be eating!

Today, as a nice break from packing up the house, we decided to go to the Minnesota Zoo!  We were joined my Tracy, Russ, Krissy, Trevor, Gwen, Michael, and my mom.  We had a blast!  Adam loved seeing the animals and he even got to feed a giraffe! I have never even gotten to do that!  He went from being fussy to just staring at the giraffe in awe!  Turns out he is definitely a zoo fan.  He loved to watch the fish!  He did get a little scared when he got sprayed with water in the dinosaur exhibit (thanks Derek!) :-) but otherwise we had a blast!  Enjoy a few of our favorite pics!