Quinn's 1st Haircut

Yesterday I finally had to break down and get Q a haircut. 

I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't pleased about it. 

Nor was she.

Yet for the last 10 months since her surgery, we've tried everything to grow out her hair and try to rescue the damaged portions from the month she spent flat on her back. But no amount of conditioner, detangler, or baby trims would help that large spot of dead hair grow. It had to go.

Not exactly how I envisioned my daughter's first haircut. I thought it would be when her hair was at least long enough to fit in a little ponytail instead of just barely able to slip into baby pigtails. But after talking about it for a week, I finally threw the kids in the car and took her to the salon before I could change my mind.

The lady cutting her hair? Well, let's just say I'm not a fan and really think she's in the wrong profession. I mean, if you work at a specialty KIDS hair cut place, you should probably act like you LIKE KIDS. She seemed angry. At least she didn't take it out on poor Q's hair. She actually did a good job while I held my breath and tried not to cry. Oh, and I was also busy holding down my daughter whom, to be frank, has the strength of a 5 year old. I'm not kidding. When she's mad, she is freakishly strong. 

At any rate, Q has a tiny little bob now and all of the dead pieces are gone. I wish I had taken a before picture so you could see what we were dealing with but totally forgot. Now hopefully the hair will take off and grow - and we will have that ponytail soon : ) In the meantime, I bought her 3 new bows to add to her ever-growing collection. It made me feel better about the situation and girlfriend practically pranced out of the salon with a brand new bow in her now-fresh hair and the bag from the salon secured over her shoulder. Too big for her britches perhaps. But it was pretty cute.

A few pictures:

Summer Weekend Fun

FINALLY, after Quinn and I recovered from our illnesses (lasting a good 10 days for each of us), we were able to have a wonderful summer weekend. Between house-hunting, church commitments, out of town visitors, out of town trips, and various other activities, our weekends this summer of spending just time together as a family have been few and far between. And summer has just flown by --- thankfully I might add. If you know me at all, 100 degrees and 200% humidity is not my idea of a good time. I grow tired of the endless sweating, the bad hair days, the long days of not really being able to play outside, and the all too frequent trips through the drive thru because I don't want to shut off the AC in the car. 

But there's light at the end of the tunnel. The kids start preschool in about a month (2 days a week, whoo hoo!), August is halfway over, and football season is almost here. AMEN. And until football starts, we'll just have to settle for baseball.  I am definitely not the biggest baseball fan but this past weekend we had two opportunities to hit up local games (FOR FREE!) and we actually had a ton of fun despite the oppressive heat.

Friday night was the Astros game - don't ask me who they were playing. No clue. All I know is that Matt's company had a little suite area set up for us with an open bar, tons of food, and an ice cream sundae bar. Babysitter, no kids, and the first time I had gotten really dressed in a week. And apparently we were on the "kiss cam" at some point - but we obviously were too engrossed in just hanging out that we totally missed it. I am not sad about this. I am still a little horrified that I was on a big screen at a baseball game. Me and television/video cameras do not get along and unless God himself tells me to get myself on tv, I will do all things to avoid actually being videotaped. I may have a few insecurities. Just sayin'. 

Here are a few pics - horrible quality I might add thanks to the lighting and iphones, but at least it was documented:

On Saturday, we decided to load up the kids and head to a furniture store and do a little dreaming about new things we'd like to have for the house. We were pleasantly surprised that the store had little buggies/cars for the kid - score! However, our little busiest bug (guess who?) decided after 10 minutes it was much more fun to run around the store and exclaim "Wow! Wow!" over everything. And then scream like we were kidnappers anytime we came near her to rescue her from destroying something. After about 45 minutes, furniture shopping was complete - nothing in hand but it was fun to look.

After naps for everyone (oh, how I love a Saturday afternoon nap --- and oh, how apparently I love paranthetical exclamations and explanations today), we got the kids ready for their first Sugar Land Skeeters game. The Skeeters are the minor league team in our area and this is their first season. We've been meaning to go all summer and finally got a chance when our dear friends gave us their season ticket passes for the game. We ate at a local restaurant to kick off the evening, something we just don't do very much with the kids. It's usually stress-filled trying to control two 2 year olds and turns out not to be very much fun for Matt and I who are constantly running interference while simultaneously shoving food in our mouths. Not worth the price of admission. This time though they did so well and behaved almost like little angels. And I realized how truly far we've come in the eating out business when I looked under the chairs and saw very little mess and no spills. Success!

We headed to the game after dinner and made our first stop at the team shop for the requisite t-shirt purchase. Plus of course we had to purchase some bead necklaces for our princess. We found our seats after that, and wow! The stadium is beautiful and our seats were amazing - 3rd row up. It's such a fun, family event that no one minded that our kids decided 3 minutes of sitting was about 2 minutes too long, so we chased them up and down the stairs for the next hour while people laughed (lovingly, I think) at us. I am totally counting it as a work out because the next morning my quads were actually sore. Thanks, Q. 

Our view

Sitting for a second

Diva lining up and counting her sugar packets

Not sure why the SWAT team and truck was there but they didn't look busy so we asked for a picture with them : ) 

Inside the SWAT truck - busted!

ha - ooops ; ) 

Sunday was church day as usual and I love how the kids exclaim every time we pull into the parking lot "Church, church!" I hope they always love going. More naps and then we had our final walk through of our new house - which was the first time the kids had been there. Seeing as how we don't have stairs in our house, I was happy to see they pretty carefully navigated those and had a blast exploring the rest of their new digs. I have to say for one brief cheesy moment I got really choked up seeing them sprint around the house. I hope they know while Momma certainly loves the new house for a number of reasons, I pray they will be happy here for a long while. I had the realization that they probably won't remember this current house where they spent their first 2 years, and this new place will be the house they recall from their childhood. Ohhh, memories.

All in all, it was just the perfect weekend. I know it seems fairly ordinary but sometimes we are on such a speedboat around here that we don't often have weekends like this --- where it was all about Matt & I having time together and our little family just enjoying each other with absolutely no agenda. I guess the word is peace. I feel at peace now. I feel like we are on this even keel right now in our life. Of course, I'm certain more ups and downs are coming in our life --- but for now, we certainly are living some "ups". And I'm trying to just revel in them as long as possible. Blessed would be another word. I know that word seems overused sometimes but there's no other word to describe it. I have an amazing husband who works so incredibly hard to provide for us, 2 children who delight me every day (even when they are frustrating the hell out of me!), and some really exciting opportunities that have recently come my way, both professionally and personally. We're just in a happy place right now. Thank you, God : ) 

Not that I have been posting regularly these days anyway, but I'm pretty sure this blog is about to be fairly dormant for the next few weeks as we move and get settled in our new place. Hopefully when the kids are back in school, I'll get better about catching up on my blogs - so much still to document from the summer and here comes fall!

And a couple more pics that melt me - 

Don't we all wish we could sleep like this???

My sweet girl at the doctors office for visit #2 after not improving - rosy cheeks but I love how she loves this new little tutu skirt. She would wear it everyday if I let her. There's no doubt this girl is ALL GIRL!

From our family to yours,

Someone's Preggers : )

Ha, NOOOOOOOOOOOO. Not me.  Not even close. Not anytime soon.

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting little baby Anderson in February 2013. 

I could not be more excited for them and am finally thrilled to be able to share the news after having to keep my mouth shut for the last 7 weeks or so. I hate secrets! But I feel privileged they shared the news with us so early on. Christina & Blaine, we love you guys very much and are so thrilled to be able to walk alongside you in this new chapter of your life. 

I almost want to cry every time I think about it because it's my baby brother having a baby. I feel very fortunate that we've always been very close and have grown into best friends as adults. I can tell him anything without fear of judgment, I can call him at the most random times, cry on his shoulder, laugh with him, and now we can see our families grow together. He's such a special guy and even though I think he may be scared out of his pants right now about becoming a daddy, I know he will be a great one.

 And we can't forget the momma-to-be. I feel so grateful to have Christina as my sister-in-law. We've shared some awesome memories and she is such a special person in all of our lives. She has one of the most thoughtful and generous hearts --- and her creativity is unmatched! That child is going to do the coolest craft projects, bake the best desserts and treats, and probably be a star tennis player. One thing is for sure, boy or girl, that's going to be a tall kiddo! (My brother is about a foot taller than me at 6'1 or 6'2 -- and I think Chris is right at 5'10 or so). I can't wait to find out what the little bean is! Stay tuned...

Speaking of creative, they put together this announcement to make it "facebook official". How freaking cute is this? Denver and Putty are going to quickly have their worlds rocked. They may actually have to become dogs instead of children.

Congrats again, y'all! Love you muchly. I'll try to keep my annoying sister and aunt tendencies to a minimum. Totally normal to ask Blaine or Christina every other day how she's feeling right??? 

I can see it in your eyes

I thought my post this weekend would be a quick wrap up of Q's 6 month cardiology appointment and my wrap up of the Brothers of the Sun tour which I've had tickets to for a good 5 months... but not so much. As many of you know, I get particularly anxious before any cardio work up, not because I think there's something wrong --- but heart babies are deceptive AND it just brings up a lot of the anxiety we felt about 10 months ago. Hard to believe it's been over 10 months since her initial surgery.. in some ways it feels like years. Yet, certain things can trigger memories which brings me back to those dark days in just an instant.

This has been one of those weeks. I have had a rotating fever since Sunday without really any other symptoms except a slightly runny nose and malaise. But it's been enough to just make me feel yucky, my mature word for the day. And it's still knocking me flat for the most party. At any rate, on Wednesday I started to notice a funny look in Q's eyes too and immediately went to the medicine cabinet to check on our tylenol and other assorted med supplies. 

Years and years ago when I was growing up, my mom could take one look at me and tell me I was getting sick. "Meggie, I can see it in your eyes." I would fight her tooth and nail on it and it used to annoy me to no end. And yet, usually within 24 hours I was down and out with some assorted cold or virus. So to be able to look at my kids' eyes, now I know what she saw. And dammit if she wasn't right. You can always tell.

By Thursday, fever was in full effect but no other symptoms except her eyes just looked feverish. And then by Friday morning, she had extremely puffy and red eye lids, was breaking out in hives all over her legs, elbows, knees and ankles, and just was plain miserable. Out of respect for all of the sick kids at TCH, we cancelled our cardiology appointment and headed to our pedi instead. Of course, the majority is a virus that just has to run it's course, but the eyes were pink eye. Awesome. Ever try to give an already irritated child drops three times a day? Super fun. Now we are in Lysol/hot wash mode and trying to keep Q away from brother. Thankfully, anytime she doesn't feel well, she won't let her daddy out of her sight, so the rest of us are pretty much of non-interest to her.

And can I just say Matt is super dad of the year? He has hardly put that child down for the last 48 hours. He just cuddles and snuggles without ceasing with almost endless patience. We are all so lucky.

So why I am telling you all about a virus and illness which I'm sure that many of you all have dealt with in your own families? Well, strangely enough and knock on wood, but with the exception of mild colds that barely touched Quinn, and a half case of the flu that only annoyed her for half a day, this is the first time she has truly been laid out like this. No smiles, no nothing. And THAT brings back horrible memories of the surgeries and just scares me to death. The other night as she just sat on the coach with the saddest look on her little face, I was brought back to that recovery room after the first surgery went bad where I wanted  so desperately to see any signs of hope or joy in my daughter's eyes. And there were none. 

Now, I am not trying to be overly dramatic because I know that within hopefully a couple of days, my Q will be back. And we will all breathe deeply and move on with life. But my point is this, no matter how far removed we are from those scary and angst-filled days, my mind still has not fully recovered. And sometimes I wonder if there will be a day that a beep from a machine doesn't transport me back to the CVICU in an instant, or a normal virus that so many toddlers get, doesn't bring me such anxiety. I hope one day it will all be a distant memory.

Here's hoping.

One thing I am pretty sure we can always count on, no matter how sick, Q will always fully accessorize. This morning she was outfitted in a full pink tutu, bracelet, 2 bows, 1 barrette, and an all pink wardrobe. That's my girl. Don't know where Miss Priss gets it : )

This was yesterday. If you know my daughter, sitting still is not exactly her strong suit. This is pretty amazing to watch her not move for hours. It's also pretty amazing to see the recent pony tail that has emerged. Good grief, that's been a long time coming : ) Next up, pig tails!

And how lucky are we to have this guy in our lives? Endless patience with the kids as soon as he gets home from work. Couldn't do it without you, babe.

Next post will be a better and more joyful one, I promise. Just needed to get that off my proverbial chest.

Love you all,

Word Vomit

Yes, it's been awhile since a true update. Yes, I still have a laundry list of blogs I need to put out there. Maybe by the twins 30 month birthday, I'll actually have their 24 month old birthday post up. In the meantime, although it's probably the last thing I need to do right now, I'm going to have some word vomit. Read on or not at your own risk : ) My brain is on supersonic mode these days so bear with.

A little bit about what we've been up to:

1. We FINALLY finished our 4 days a week for 4 week survival swim lessons. Wah-hoo! But now I actually kind of miss having something to get out of the house for every day, even if it was a bit stressful. But by week 2, I had it down to a science with packing, changing, and coordination - and only forgot wipes once. Unfortunately it was on the only day that Ryan decided to leave a lovely present right before his lesson.   Suh-weet. Ummm, k? Never realized how hard it was to get off a really, really dirty swim diaper without wiping you know what all over said child and myself. Yummy. And you are welcome for that visual.

2. The kids can actually survive now. I think. They can certainly turn over and float for long periods of time and then can swim a couple of yards to the steps. And the most important thing --- they actually like swimming. Once they got over the whole initial dunking part. Our swim teacher does not fool around. At any rate, for the rest of the summer, we'll continue with once a week lessons, and then perhaps go to every 2 weeks or every month once we move into fall. It's been a really good experience and I HIGHLY recommend doing a class like this. It's super intensive and they actually learn skills other than blowing bubbles. And call me selfish, but I was happy not to get into the water every day with them. 

3. Not sure where I left off last on the house stuff, but we are rocking and rolling with the process. And the mounds of paperwork that comes with it. Getting a mortgage 6 years ago compared to now is no joke. I won't climb on my soap box now (if you are a friend on FB, you saw my rant a few days ago), but every time I see an email come through from my closer, I'm pretty sure he's going to ask me to give blood or a urine sample next. It's that freaking excruciating. I wonder if they would like to know that my first job was at Old Navy when I was 16 and I also worked at Babies R Us when I was 17. Then Roly Poly from 18-22.

4. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new house --- if all goes to plan, we'll be in it by the first of September. Thankfully, most of it is move in ready, paint colors and all. We really just have to do one room for Ryan which is a lovely shade of Pepto Bismol Pink now. Not sure that goes well with the sports or trains motif I have in mind.  But we are pretty lucky that we really just need to get our furniture in and then we'll be set. Actually, way more than lucky. I feel completely and utterly blessed --- and immensely spoiled. It's hard to rectify in my mind sometimes my wants and true needs - so I end up feeling guilty. But that's for my head to sort out. Right now, I am just so thankful for a husband who works so incredibly hard for his family and has allowed us to be in this position to think about moving. 

5. Work life has been NUTS. Still working part-time for the church of course, but also have been picking up some freelancing writing gigs on the side, with the potential of more to come. I will say it's come as a surprise how challenging it has been. I mean, I love to write, so it shouldn't be that hard, right? Well, I do love to write, but it's a totally different ballgame to write other people's stories. And it's not like I was a journalism major or anything. So I've really just been relying on instinct and asking bazillions of questions (I'm sure my subjects just LOVED spending an hour on the phone with me for a 900 word article). We'll see where it goes. I haven't the faintest clue but it's been  nice to think outside the box a bit. And selfishly, it has been good for my self-esteem to remember that I am someone other than a mother and my brain can process something more than "what's for dinner?" and breaking up fights over blocks.

6. TIME. There's just not enough. I spend many a night laying my head on the pillow and thinking about what I could have done better. I should have been a better mom today. I should have been a better wife today. I should have been a better employee today. Stretched would be a word I guess. But I suppose that comes with the territory and I'm certainly not the only mom yelling it from the rooftops. Can I get an Amen? And also AMEN to preschool starting in just a little over a month. Two days a week to be able to concentrate at home without "Oh, Toodles" in the background must be what Heaven is like.

7. I have about 50 pictures on my phone that I need to dump pronto, so expect that fun little post here soon. Maybe a swim lesson or 10. Lucky you : ) One day I'll get back to my regular writing and you can be bored every few days instead of a few times a week. ha.

Happy Tuesday, y'all!

Heart & Mind Education Day at CHOP

Hello, friends!

A few times in the recent past, I have referenced www.heartwaves.org, an awesome Congenital Heart Defect advocacy, research, and informational website for parents of children with special hearts. The website and organization was started by a husband of a soccer friend of mine from LSU and I have been inspired by their passion to reach out to CHD families all across the country. Their son was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (a distant cousin to Q's disease). He is now 5 years old and is doing just awesome. 

Jared recently wrote an article about the emotions all of us heart parents go through when our worlds virtually stop for an instant when we hear those dizzying words of "your child has a problem with his/her heart". We all remember that place and time and in an instant, can be brought back to those moments of fear, questions of "why us?", the guilt, the grace, and eventually the peace of knowing you will find the best place possible to take care of your child.

Would love for all of you to take a look at this article (he says it much better than me!) and I invite each and every one of you to follow along as Jared streams video and blogs from Philadelphia's CHOP at their very special and informative "Heart and Mind Education Day" on Saturday, July 28th.

Click here for Jared's post.

 If you haven't already, visit www.heartwaves.org and subscribe to their blog or add it to your google reader. They post awesome and informative articles all the time that never fail to inspire and educate me as a heart mommy. Information is POWER!

Team Quinn Forever & Always,

Happy 4th of July - 2012

I am again way behind in posts (umm, anyone recall that the twin's actually had a birthday party and I have yet to post about it yet?). We are just running mad around here and my car shows it. The kids are in swim lessons 4 times a week for 4 weeks --- it doesn't sound all that time consuming, until you add in drive time there and back, the actual lessons, changing, etc and all of a sudden 3 hours of our day has slipped away. Oh yeah, and we closed on our house and are officially leasing back for 90 days. Which means we have about 83 days to find a new place to live which actually is proving quite challenging and time consuming as well. Throw in work, freelancing on the side (more on that later), physical therapy because I am a medical freak of nature, and other assorted duties of trying to remain a sane wife and mother, well... blogging has gone by the wayside. BUT I have these pictures from the 4th and am determined to actually post them somewhat on time. 

We spent the 4th very quietly. No big events, parties, or firework shows. Our little man is a bit sensitive to loud noises (freaks the heck out with hair dryers and vacuum cleaners) so we didn't think fireworks would go down well. And honestly, we just wanted a day OFF. I spent the morning seeing my precious new "niece" courtesy of one of my besties, our family photographer, and R&Q's "Aunt" Kendra. Love, love, love this precious new one and again amazed at God's Grace and the sheer miracle of life.

Sweet girl. I was a bundle of nerves awaiting the news of her arrival. Now I know how Kendra felt when R&Q were born. Such a special friendship we share --- can't wait to see Kenzie grow!

We were letting her rest so she could conserve energy for feeding. I know I will get to hold her many, many times in the future!

Beyond that, we had the all-american lunch of Pot Belly and laid low the rest of the afternoon. Of course, the kids were decked out in their red, white, and blue, as was I. Matt did not wear any of the patriotic colors, but had on a tshirt for a band called the National or Nationals or something like that so I guess it counts.

We did take them out for some traditional 4th of July pics and it struck me sentimental that it would be the last 4th pictures we would take in front of this house. Sweet and a bit sad. The kids were actually in good moods and for once cooperated for the camera. Making progress. Here a few shots. Hope you and yours had a wonderful and relaxing 4th!

Yup, that's my favorite. It will probably embarrass the heck out of them later in life, but oh so precious. Love that they love each other. I'll try to remember this picture when one of them is putting the other in a full nelson.