Happy Birthday!

We celebrated John's birthday this month! He just gets better with age! We are so lucky to have him in our home and lives. He is a fun daddy and a loving husband. Thanks for all you do!

Every year we either go out to dinner or John makes a special menu. This year he wanted Fillet with mashed taters, bread and garlic asparagus. Everything tasted AWESOME! (If I do say so myself).

John is anything but traditional, so we haven't had birthday cake for a few years. This year he wanted a balsamic berry parfait. It was delicious again. It was fun to spoil my man!

Halloween

Not sure how I skipped documenting Halloween! Kelsi and June decorated their pumpkins by painting this year.

John and I dressed up as the Publishers Clearinghouse winner.  We had a fun party to go to...but then June got sick right as we were ready to go...so we snapped a pic and then got into our PJs for the night (I was already there!)

June was the cutest octopus I have ever seen!



Kelsi was the scariest bat I have ever seen! Her bucket was FULL to the brim for trick-o-treating. She had a ball. I'm not sure though if she prefers to go GET candy or hand it out at the door.



Kelsi started yet another year of preschool this fall. Below is her K-4 class with her teacher Mrs. Dehlbom. She loves school!  I recently had her first parent/teacher conference and her teacher said that Kelsi can write her name better than anyone else in the class and she is the best colorer! She said that she is very happy, helpful and respectful. She comes home every week with a new bible verse memorized, new songs, she knows the pledge of allegiance and of course can read and write all of her letters. She also knows the numbers up to 100. She tries to read almost everything she sees....what are mom and dad going to do when we can't spell in front of her anymore?

 My pretty girl

 Thankfully, her teacher has not seen the crazy, picky, tantrum Kelsi that mommy gets to see at home she makes a mistake (like accidentally going out of the lines). She saves that just for her mommy.

 She really is a happy and helpful girl. She is a great big sister and I am so lucky to have her as my oldest daughter.

4 months

Miss June turned 4 months on the 22nd of this month. She is a happy little bug! She weighed in at 15 lbs 1oz. which puts her in the 85% and she is 25.5 in. long which puts her in the 93% (no surprise there!). Her head was in the 97%! HOLY COW THAT IS A BIG BRAIN! She is thinking about dropping her late afternoon nap and no longer needs to "top-off" before bed. She is growing so big! She sleeps 12.5 hours every night. 7pm to 7:30am which makes mommy and daddy very happy.

She is starting to reach for things and gets frustrated when she can't grab the thing she wants most.  She doesn't do too many tricks yet. She can roll from her tummy to back and can sit up pretty well supported. I think she is going to be an early sitter like Kelsi and hopefully a later crawler like her big sissy too! We can all hope! She is showing a lot of interest in what we are eating. Today she watched my PB&J sandwich intently and every time I put it down she would smack her lips, so I may start her on cereal soon.

June LOVES her big sister Kelsi and is just overall, a super happy girl.

We received the BEST news we could hope for this month.  Our PT who has been seeing June for Torticolis has taken back the diagnosis and her pediatrician agrees. June has NO tightness and no tilt to her head any longer.  My PT and another specialist I have been seeing suggested that I get a CT on June's skull to rule out craniosynotosis. They found it very odd that she had NO tightness or torticollis, but has some asymmetry to her head. Thankfully, the CT was normal.  It was an answer to fasting and prayer.  June has moderate positional plagiocephaly. The ratio of width to length of her head is normal, but she has a protrusion on the left side of her forehead.  We are evaluating her for a helmet.  We are meeting again after Thanksgiving to do more measurements to see if a helmet would be beneficial.  It is purely cosmetic, so insurance will not cover it. It is a pricey service, but one that I think I am on board with if needed. Nothing but the best for my little bug!

2 wheeler!

Kelsi doesn't need training wheels anymore! I'm kind of in shock since I didn't learn until I was 6. I didn't want to push her and just decided when she was ready, she would just DO it...kind of like potty training. :) John had taken her out once or twice this summer, but she was having NONE of this no training wheels business.  However, two of her gal pals recently learned how to ride, so I think that was the push she needed. John had the idea to just take off the pedals and let her "glide" around. She did that for 2 days by herself (down the driveway and down the street) and then John put the pedals back on and that was all it took! She has had one nasty fall, but after about an hour she went right back out. We are proud of her determination.

Green Bluff field trip

Kelsi's school had a field trip earlier this month to Green Bluff in Spokane. It was a perfect fall day! We started the trip with a corn maze. It hadn't rained in a few months up here, so it was VERY dusty. Pushing June's stroller wasn't the easiest! In the center of the maze was this look out tower. You can see Kelsi peering down at me!

This is Kelsi's K4 class.  She loves her teacher and all the kids in her class.  Listening to her stories are the BEST.

She was a little nervous about the train ride that took us around the farm, but she put on a brave face and loved it (of course).

This little piggy....

She also went on their little train ride. She had to watch half of her class go first before she was convinced that it would be fun. She picked some pumpkins and we called the day a success!





Kids Museum

I wish that I took more pictures, but earlier this month we went over to the Spokane childrens museum. It is one of Kelsi's most FAVORITE places on earth. I wish we could stay there all day, because she would be SO content, but sadly, we could only stay a few hours.  Kelsi spent the majority of her time in the playhouse area.  This log she is sitting on was her "bunny hole". She stashed away tons of "food".  She has the BEST imagination! I'm thinking of buying an annual pass because she just loves it there so much!

GRAPES!

I have a love for grape juice. I have never been the biggest fan, until my mother-in-law introduced me to real fresh grape juice. It is AMAZING! I canned a bunch a couple years ago and sadly finished my last can, so when my in-laws said they were headed to go get more grapes and wanted to know if I wanted any...I jumped at the chance!!! I got 25 quarts and just love it! It is super easy to do and SO worth the couple days of time to do it. Thanks Debbie and Lloyd!!

Surprise trip!

A couple months ago, one of my favorite people moved 1.5 hours away to Moscow, ID where her husband is going back to school.  It was her birthday so a few of us decided to surprise her for lunch.  Her husband was in on it, and she was VERY suprised when we all showed up at her door.  It was a quick turn around trip, but we wanted to let her know how special she is to us. Happy Birthday Month Shawnte! We love you!

Fun on the Farm

We took our annual trip down the street to the nearest pumpkin patch/farm so Kelsi could feed the animals. This time Daddy got to go with us!  It is a cute little farm where for $1 the kids get a little bag full of pre-filled zip locks with food for each animal. There are horses, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, dogs, cats, turkeys...and more! Kelsi loves feeding the horse, but is always a little hesitant!

Mama and Kelsi riding the tractor

Daddy giving the Horse some "extra" food.

Kelsi ended up dumping the goat food....it was taking too long.

Daddy and his girls (+ June's first "sit" on a pumpkin picture)

She is such a little sweetie!

We asked Kelsi after we were done, what her favorite part of the day was, and she said "feeding the cat".

4th annual "Sit on a pumpkin picture!" She is SO big!

Here she is ready to go!

3 months

Our June bug is 3 months old today. I'm still reeling a little bit on the fact that my baby is no longer a newborn. :( We have had so much going on, that it seems I am missing something!!

 June has discovered the playmat (above) and loves that little star almost as much as Kelsi did (or still does from the above picture).  We love to watch her watch the star intently and then break out into a huge smile and kick her legs.  She also loves ceiling fans and can stare at them forever if I let her.

I had to start buckling June into her bouncer since she can now wiggle her way out of it.

June also loves bath time. She wishes that they would last longer than they do. 

June still sleeps great. She is on a true baby schedule. 2 hour nap in the morning and in the afternoon and a 45 min nap in the late afternoon early evening. She goes to bed between 7-7:30 and sleeps 11-12 hours every night. We have settled into a nice routine and we couldn't be happier.

I had June screened with the Infant Toddler program to see how severe her Torticolis was.  The therapist said that there is a difference in tightness between her left and right side of neck, but not severely tight.  She thinks that June won't look to her right more out of bad habit now than not being able to.  We are just supposed to keep working on positional therapy and gentle stretching. (Making sure she tries to look to her right during awake time). If you look at the cute bath picture above, you can see her eyes looking to her right, but her head is straight on. I am taking June in for a helmet evaluation. If you look at the bouncer picture you can tell her head is rounded but it is bulging on her left side a bit and may require a few months of helmet therapy to even it out.  This has been caused by her constantly laying on her left side. Since babies heads are so soft, it has changed the shape of her head.

We love our little June bug. She is such a good and happy baby and she brings SO much joy into our lives.

So it begins...

Kelsi started her second year of preschool this week, but her first year going away to a big school. Uniforms? Really? For pre-schoolers? She does look cute though.

Kelsi was VERY excited to go to school. I on the otherhand was a bit of a wreck. She is growing up too fast.

We are so proud of our smart and happy girl.

June at 2 months

This picture shows how we feel about our 2 month check-up. WHY do they make mommy go in and hold them down while they get their shots? Total and utter betrayal is what it looks like!!

June is growing very well. She is 23inches long (75%) and 12 lbs 3oz. (80%).  She currently consistently sleeps 9 hours at night and smiles at everyone she sees.  She tries really hard to laugh...it's the cutest thing really.  She coos and sings to me or anyone that will talk to her.  She hates being on her belly and her mamas singing. She seriously hurt my feelings. Sometimes when I sing to her, she cries. WHAT??!! Total slap in the face. She loves her big sister Kelsi.  She smiles and her whole face lights up when she is around.

June also has Torticolis. It's basically when their head gets comfy in one position in utero and they just don't want to move it. She always looks to her left.  Kelsi did the same thing (but to the right).  We are just supposed to do home PT with her. Try to move her head to the other side a lot and stretch it out.  If there is improvement by her 4 month check up, all is well. If not, we need to get her to PT.

I am so thankful for our sweet June Bug. She gets cuter and sweeter every day.  I can't stop kissing and squeezing her.

Welcome to the world sweet baby June

 

June Marie Calderwood was born on 6/22 at 6:24pm.  Here is her birth story for posterity sake (just look at the pics if this sort of thing bores you). I was due on 6/23, but thankfully since I was measuring a week ahead and this was my second child, my doctor let me be induced a day early. Just like my pregnancy with Kelsi, I wasn't progressing past a "1", but instead of making me go to the hospital the night before and be monitored, my doctor gave me a Foley Catheter the day before that was supposed to get me to a 3 or 4 by the time I came in for induction the next morning.

Kelsi went to stay with Grandma/Grandpa Calderwood for the night and I started having steady contractions around midnight that were about 7-10 minutes apart. I did not sleep well. I called the hospital at 6am to make sure there was room for me, and sadly there was NOT.  However, the charge nurse told me I should be able to come in around 8 or 9am and she would call me when there was room. I hung up the phone not too disappointed, since I was still having contractions and knew I would end up in the hospital sometime that day no matter what.

I received the call from the nurse at 8am and checked into the hospital and was hooked up to the pitosin by 10am. The pitosin kicked in quick and my contractions became very strong every 3-4 minutes. By noon, I was at a 5 and got my epidural. I asked the doctor to break my water, but he said he wanted to wait.  The nurse anesthetist "goofed" on my epidural and had to do it two times.  At the time, I didn't care because I just wanted the pain to stop, but now looking back - I'm pretty upset at him for putting me through double the pain! Once it set in, I was in total relaxation. I was sending text messages, updating facebook and just "waiting". I found out the reason my doc didn't want to break my water was because he had patients at his office until 4pm. So, when he came in at 4:45pm, I was at a "7" and still feeling no pain, so he broke my water.  By 5:15, I started feeling my contractions, so I hit my bolster button (gives an extra kick to the epidural) but nothing was happening.  Another anesthetist came in and added more directly to my back, but all it did was make my right leg go completely numb. By 5:45pm I was ready to push and in agony from BACK LABOR. It was the one of the worst  pains I have ever felt in my life, second to only my first Lupus attack when I literally thought I was going to die. As I was pushing, the doc realized that my baby had her head turned to the left and she wasn't changing position. After pushing for over 30 minutes and in tears from the pain, the doc said "Let's get this baby out of here". All the nurses went into action (I mainly had my eyes closed the entire time, but opened them to see one nurse hand the doctor a package of some sort). I asked "Are you going to use forceps?" When he told me he was going to use them in order to turn her head down so I could push her out, I burst into more tears fearing the pain and worrying about my poor baby. All the nurses tried to reassure me that my doc was the best doc they had ever seen, especially with forceps. I just didn't care at that point, I just wanted the pain to stop. Once he was able to turn her head, I pushed that beautiful girl out in less than 5 minutes. She was absolutely beautiful and just perfect. She didn't have any marks from the forceps and weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long.

Kelsi and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit that evening.

 All of my loves

 Exhausted and happy that our little miracle had finally arrived.

 This picture was taken when we arrived at the hospital.

June is such a good baby. She pretty much eats, then looks around and hangs out for 45 minutes and then goes back to sleep for a few hours before she wakes up again to repeat the process. She only wakes once during the night and hopefully one day soon mommy will sleep as well as she does!

This is her first bath a few days after she was born. She looks so tiny in this picture!

Our first family picture taken before church.  We blessed June really early since my Dad was in town and I wanted him to be a part of that special event. I was exhausted and in near tears all morning, but it was worth it.

Sweet baby June wore the same blessing dress that her cousins Emma and Abby and her big sister Kelsi wore for their blessing days as well!

***WARNING!!! This next part is a little graphic...please skip if you are queasy....like my husband***

Two days after her blessing day, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling "warm". I reached down to realize that my shorts were WET. Embarrassed, I jumped up thinking I had somehow lost control of my bladder and peed my pants, but as soon as I stood up, I realized I was covered in blood. I was losing blood like crazy and clotting from marble to golf ball size constantly. I called my doctor and he said to WAIT a couple hours to see if it lightened, but that I should go to the ER if I was feeling lightheaded or if it got worse. I was pretty upset. HOW COULD IT GET ANY WORSE?? Didn't he understand that my bathroom looked like a war zone?? I've always thought that John had a tough stomach, but even he was pretty queasy at the sight. After two hours, and feeling cold, weak and dizzy from the non-stop bleeding, John took me to the ER. Thankfully, my parents were still in town for another day and they could stay with the girls.

After running some labs and an ultrasound they found that I had some retained placenta and decided they needed to do a D&C. My doctor showed up to perform the surgery at 6am and he cleaned me out.  I had my post-op appt with him this week and he kept saying that he could not believe how much blood I was losing at the time and that my hemoglobin level was very low. He said that he was very surprised when he realized just how much blood I was losing.  I am glad that I trusted myself and went into the ER when I did.

It has been over a week since my bloody scare, and physically, I feel really good. I have recovered MUCH faster than I did after having Kelsi. I am still trying to adjust to having more than one child. I haven't been the nicest Mommy to Kelsi since June has been born, but I am trying to rectify that. I can't wait to get back to my regular work-out routine and am really looking forward to June dropping her night time feeding in a few more weeks. :) She is right on track!

I am so thankful for the newest miracle that we now have in our home. I stare at her and think about how long we have waited for her to join us and just feel so blessed. I love my little family.

Swim, Bike, Run

John participated in his second Sprint Triathalon last weekend. Just like last year, this time was also decided on last minute. It was a laid back event in Plummer, ID with only about 30 competitors.  John shaved about 14 minutes off his time from last year, finishing in 1 hr. 10 minutes.  This time, the swim took place in the pool instead of the lake. John said he preferred the lake because the water in this pool was SO warm it made it hard to breathe. He completed his .5 mile swim in about just over 8 minutes.

 There he goes transitioning to the 12 mile bike ride.

 He didn't have to peel off a wetsuit this year.

 And here he is transitioning to the 5K run.

 John's favorite part about this race was that he could compete with his big sister Melanie! She also had a great time of 1 hr. 20 min!! WOOT! She was the second woman out of the water and the first back at the bike!