The Power of Three

Fiona had skating last night and Quinn opted to go with to watch (part of Mike's not-so-secret plan to get her interested in learning how to skate). With only one co-pilot for the night, I decided to take the dude out to run some errands. First stop was Kohl's to see if they had his missing blue camouflage mitten in their lost and found. Success!

Then we headed over to Target. Dec was adamant that we didn't need a cart and I agreed. We walked over to get the pants we needed and then to the customer service counter. There was a bit of a line, so while I waited, D wandered around the dollar aisle. He wasn't misbehaving, but I knew I would have to turn my back to him when it was my turn. And there's a discomfort in not seeing the three-year-old while in Target. 

So I called out, "D," and he turned, looked at me, and continued with what he was doing.

Then I called out, "Dec," and he simply ignored me.

"Decker." Barely perceptible head nod.

"Declan." A glance at the nice lady shopping the dollar aisle near him and no acknowledgement of me. 

"Declan George." Half turn to see how serious I really am. Nice Shopping Lady raises her eyebrows.

"Declan George Vanneste." Turns to Nice Shopping Lady and says, "That's three. Gotta go." and hustles his little self right over to me. Nice Shopping Lady bursts out laughing.

At least he knew I was serious when I got to all three names. 

Annual Clinic Update

With Fiona's birthday falling after school starts, I do my best to make her well check appointment when she doesn't have to miss school. Because of that, it was mid-October before we got in for her seven year check (thank you, MEA break). There were no surprises at her well check; she is doing great in all areas.

The only two things we really talked about was her bottom (she has a prolapsed rectum, which means a small ball of colon comes out on the regular. Mike and I are quite proficient at pushing it back in - but we have all been preparing ourselves for a surgery to fix that.) and her size. In that she's really really small. She is 42.5" tall (.3%) and 36 lbs 13 oz (.7%). Dr. H was feeling a little uncomfortable about her size and wanted us to consider visiting endocrinology - just to make sure everything is growing the right way. We decided to discuss with Dr. M when we went to spina bifida clinic and get his take on it as well.

It is both good and bad that Fiona is now more engaged in her doctor appointments. I like that we can start to teach her to take more control of her health and advocate for herself. But she was so sad when we left her well check and wanted to know why Dr. H didn't like her size. Thankfully, I was able to explain it to her in a way that made her feel better.

Fast forward to this last Tuesday and our annual trip to spina bifida clinic. It has been at the forefront of Fiona's mind for a couple weeks and she asked all.the.questions and we went over the logistics at least a dozen times. It truly helped her prepare for the day (she was such a trooper!) and she wants the know the "why" of things now, which will serve her well as she manages her health in the future.

She chose to go to school for the morning and Mike and I hustled our bottoms and raked, cut down the garden, and loaded the trailer with yard waste (winter snuck up on us!). We were both wishing we had done that when it was warmer than freezing - but we got it done. Then we headed over to school to pick up Fiona at 10:15.

We did the usual radiology battery of renal ultrasound, brain MRI, and shunt series x-ray. She's not a huge fan of the MRI, but she charmed the crap out of the x-ray techs and they were fighting over who got to work with her. Then we headed over to neurosurgery to see "Uncle" Pete. Her brain scans looked great. Everything is very stable, which is exactly what we want to hear. The MRI had reset her shunt quite significantly, so we got that fixed as well.

We looked at the time and debated trying to find something to eat, but decided to just head to clinic instead. It's not in your best interest to get out of line. Thankfully this year, I did better at packing snacks and we powered through fueled by popcorn and beef sticks.

Everything looks stable - other than her braces, which are clearly getting too small. So she got measured for new ones and is looking forward to getting those. Her rehab doctor is very pleased with how her spine, legs, hips, and ankles look. But we all (including Fiona) agreed that the braces definitely help and we should stay the course on those.

We left with referrals to pediatric surgery to get her prolapsed rectum addressed (minor surgery) and endocrinology. Dr. M and Dr. S both agreed that while they don't necessarily think there is any issue with her size, because she is in danger of falling off the growth chart, we should at least have a specialist tell us to not be alarmed. And if there is something we should address, then we will have the information we need to make good decisions for her.

It was close to 3:00 and we were all ready to be done. Mike headed to SLP for a dentist appointment and Fiona and I headed home ... via a short detour thanks to road construction. We stopped at Subway on the way and were both happy to have actual food. Bugs and I can only live on popcorn and beef sticks for so long.

Halloween 2017

Mermaid, jack-o-lantern,
and Superman

Once you've trick-or-treated at a campground, Halloween proper just pales in comparison. The days leading up to Halloween had been cold and rainy. We were thankful the rain - and wind - stopped for the big night. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't too chilly either. We bundled up and no one complained about being cold (although Fiona did forget a hat and ended up wearing Mike's).

As we have done the last couple years, we met up with Ev and Jonah and walked around with them. It's just way more fun to trick-or-treat in a group. We also left our bowl of candy out on our step so we didn't miss prime candy distribution time. This turned out to be a solid plan and most of the candy was gone when we got home. There were quite a few kids out, which was awesome to see. We have an older neighborhood - so it's exciting when we see families and kids out and about. It felt like there were more houses with lights on too.

We stayed out for 40 minutes or so, got plenty of candy [there is SO MUCH candy here], and enjoyed watching Fiona bravely lead the crew up to the "haunted house" of the neighborhood. They had a fog machine that would go off when someone rang the doorbell. So funny!

Then we headed home to catch the final wave of trick-or-treaters. I've officially lost my job as candy-hander-outer to the girls. I don't think our doorbell rang once - because they sat on the bottom stair and had the door open the second anyone's feet hit our driveway. They also sorted their candy on the stairs while they waited and happily brought me a couple Milky Ways. Such good girls!

Baker Boo

Alternate title: Learning to Camp in the Rain

Mother Nature really turned it on this fall. I’m always a huge fall fan (I think it’s my favorite season), but this year was especially beautiful - and long lasting. In fact, we still have some fall color down here. It was weird to see that with snow last Friday. [It also means that we have not finished raking yet because there are still leaves on trees. And now it's 30 degrees ...]

Anyway, in the midst of the glorious fall colors, we took our first ever fall camping trip with the Ps to really experience Baker Boo. We’ve been to Baker Boo before – but only in our infamous Vanneste day camping ways. We actually stayed overnight this time! The girls were off of school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that week, so they spent their first two days of break with Gma and Gpa N. Then Mike, Dec, and I took Friday off of work and preschool, so we packed up and headed up to the campground right after lunch. 

Friday was a perfect fall day. Some (cough ... Mike) would even say it was too hot. We got all set up while the kids ran around with the Pilcher kids, played in the leaves, peed in the woods (Dec), and generally had a good time. We enjoyed a lovely fire that night - complete with s'mores. And then the adults enjoyed the campfire after the kids all went to bed. The only not perfect thing about the day. It was SO windy!!

Saturday was not the perfect fall day. Friday's wind was the opening act for quite the line of storms that blew in overnight. Between wind and storms (and a toddler for the Ps), sleep was not amazing on Friday night. It rained  hard until almost 10am on Saturday, so we were pretty much camper bound. I did venture out to the bathroom to get a shower - and didn't even have to wait in line! The kids did okay with being stuck inside. We got out some toys and coloring supplies, Fiona did her flush and watched a show, and Mike grabbed the DVD player from his car so Q and D could also watch a show while they played.

We were all happy when the rain stopped enough that we could put on rain boots, sweatshirts, and raincoats, and venture outside! While the rain was done for the time being, it was very very muddy. Despite our best efforts, the camper floor took quite the muddy hit on Saturday. It was harder to play outside on Saturday - especially for the girls who were not into "mudfest" as much as the big boys were. But we hung in there and alternated between outside and inside time. It's an art to camp in the rain and stay entertained - and you can't do it well without practice. Or so we told ourselves.

The afternoon was saved by the fall festival at the campground. The rain had stopped and it was game on for fall fun. The kids were thrilled when we said "yes" to face painting (they don't understand that we're not against the painting. We are against spending $50 at ValleyFair for them all to get their faces painted) and they had a blast playing the "Boo Games." We let the kids run up on the little stage to pose for a picture. Dec got a little too into his superhero persona and proceed to "hulk-smash" Fiona in the gut. It was very hard to discipline him without laughing. It was SO funny ... for everyone except Fiona. But according to the subsequent training class manual, you don't hulk-smash your sisters.

There was another band of storms coming through that evening so they moved trick-or-treating from 6-7 to 5-6pm. This was a well-received move! The candy-hander-outers loved that they could see the kids' costumes - and we loved that we could actually see our kids! You have not trick-or-treated until you do it at a campground. No messing around with doorbells and candy every few feet. Kid nirvana!! We even found a site where they gave candy to the kids and shots to the adults. Brad and I took it for the team!

Quinn and Dec made it about a loop and a half before they were done, so Mike took them back to our site to hand out candy. Fiona and I continued on with the rest of the big kids and did about four loops. Right at the end of loop four, the rain started up again, so Fiona and I bailed back to the camper. We discovered the rest of our gang there with a very empty candy bowl. Apparently all our candy (and there were probably 75-100 pieces) was gone in under 15 minutes and Quinn swears she was only giving one piece per person.

The rain turned out to be just some sprinkles. So we ate a quick dinner and headed over to B loop to hang with Cheryl's family. The kids had a dance party and then we all walked over to see the evening entertainment. It was square dancing. Fiona and Tryg paired up, Quinn asked Jack to be her partner (and he happily agreed), and Dec partnered with super fun Aunt Carin. It was so fun to watch and the kids had a great time. The littles went back to the site with Mike, but Fiona stayed for one more dance with Libby. She ended up in a group one of the tallest men there, and he had to go under a bridge made with her arms. Cathy, Carin, and I died laughing!

It was very late and was a short time around the campfire before the wheels fell off. Hard. Trainwreck at site D-9! And quite honestly, at the Pilcher site as well. The evening ended with Brad, Mike, and I around the campfire. With no wind and no rain. Yay! The night went better for sleeping for all. And then we packed it up pretty early on Sunday morning. Which was good because all things needed to be de-mudded when we got home - kids, dog, camper floor ...

Family Favorites

Sometimes you need to blog about your fall camping trip and Halloween and instead, resizing photos sounds easier and you decide to share a few of the group photos from the Family Pictures Round 1 and 2 adventure. Because it's Thursday and stories that require a lot of words also require brain cells. And you are out of them.

Or you are posting family pictures by popular demand. Because you give the people what they want. It's one of those two.

**If it looks like we just picked a random spot in our yard and crammed together for a family photo, it's because we picked a random spot in our yard and crammed together for a family photo. While Round 2 went better, it was not without its excitement. In that it started raining within 5 minutes of us going outside. Coming soon to a blog near you ... really cute photos of my kids playing in the rain. Taken after group photos were cut short because of the high probability (according to short people) that they would melt in the rain. Naturally.

Mike saw - and then caught - a snake.
And the kids all tried to use me a shield.
Then the snake peed on him. And we laughed.

It looks sweet. But this is Fiona scowling
and me telling her that I need her to pull it together.