Another busy week

Random shots of the grandchildren from the week. Drew likes to explore in grandma's purse and yesterday found her reading glasses. Why do they look so cute on him and so old on me?

Kayley went for her weekly "weight watchers" weigh-in at the pediatric's office yesterday and went from 8 lbs. 12 oz. to 9 lbs. 5 oz. in just a week. While real weight watchers staff would be horrified, we were all ecstatic about her good gain in 7 days! :-) In fact, she is gaining so well that Megan does not have to take her in weekly anymore. She has been bothered by reflux at feeding time so we were all pleasantly surprised at the gain. The doctor gave her a prescription for the reflux so hopefully that will help her at bottle time to be less uncomfortable. All in all, Kayley is doing wonderfully and does not look/act like a preemie at all.

Drew continues to be lots of fun, making us all laugh with his antics and discoveries. He is talking a lot more now, stringing together short sentences that we can actually understand most of the time. I think when Grandpa arrives next week he will notice big changes in both his grandchildren in just a short absence away from them!

Don't call PETA....

Sleeping angel

The week went well. Kayley keeps growing and Drew keeps learning new words. Grandma must watch her language now when she stubs her toe or has a mishap. He listens and watches intently! :-)

Andy is taking Megan out for a belated birthday dinner and movie so I will be doing some Saturday night babysitting tonight. I am resting this afternoon watching the Hawkeye game. If they don't start playing better soon I am not going to get much quality resting done! Well, have a great week-end everyone.

Wednesday blogging......

All is going well on the babysitting front.....I had my first "solo" job last Sunday when Megan and Andy attended the Cardinal's game. It went well, I didn't panic and the grandchildren were awesome. :-) Megan and I have been kept busy this week watching them both, keeping the house in order, etc. Drew has accepted having his sister in the house. Once in awhile we might notice that he needs some attention when we are feeding Kayley but on the whole, he is doing exceptionally well welcoming his new sibling into the household. I figure that will all change when she gets more mature and starts establishing herself into the family. Then it will be every man, woman and child for themselves..........

Learning to summersault

Water boy

Drew is doing just great in the swimming pool. His daddy has taught him a lot in the past few months. Grandma is truly amazed with his talents!

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Daughter Megan has a birthday today. To celebrate, she and Andy are going to the Cardinals football game and I get to watch Drew and Kayley. I am looking forward to that! Here is a picture of Megan and Kayley now and one when Megan was a baby. Her baby picture and Kayley look an awful lot alike!

Sunday morning chuckle

In case you missed Tina Fey as Gov. Sarah Palin last night on SNL......she was dead on in her impersonation...you could swear you were looking at and hearing Sarah! Amy was good as Hillary, also. Funny stuff.

Ouch!

I took Drew out for a walk and it did not turn out all that well. He was in heaven toddling on the sidewalk but then his Nike sandals had a different thought and his face met up with the sidewalk. He was fine but looked like he had gone 9 rounds with Ali. :-( Grandma obviously felt awful but I will say by the time I left tonight he was looking way better. Ahh.....the resilience of youth. It takes me days to get rid of a simple bruise!

Back in the saddle

I started going back over to Megan and Andy's on Tuesday and have enjoyed my time with my two favorite grandkids. Kayley continues to gain around an ounce a day and is now at 8 pounds, 6 oz. Drew is as active as any 19 month old and loves to be outside. Yesterday it actually got under triple digits so he and I played outside quite a lot. It has been cool enough in the mornings now to begin taking Sox on walks in the early morning. I am still drenched when I return but Sox doesn't seem to mind and loves all the new smells along the way. Some pics from yesterday.....

Kayley's exit from the NICU

I am sure some have noticed I had not posted for several days. I was in "quarantine" at my town house so there really wasn't a lot to write about. I have been having cold/allergy symptoms and we couldn't risk giving anything to Kayley. That would not be good, obviously. But, I finally am able to visit today and the posts should be more timely from here on out! Here's a video of Kayley leaving the NICU and her first peek at her new home......

Drew finally has a sister in his house!

Now, I am not exactly sure what Drew thinks about that but life as he knew it is....over. :-) Megan and Andy got the call today that they were discharging Kayley today. All of us were overjoyed, them more than me. I am working on a scratchy throat and stuffed up which I think is either allergies or sinus but I could not take a chance that it might be a cold so I had to sit today out and let Grandpa get in on all the fun of her coming home. I cannot begin to tell you how hard that was for me but as Megan said, I will be seeing plenty of Kayley in the future. Mark flies back to Iowa in the morning so it was a blessing that he got to see her come home today before he leaves. I told Megan to take plenty of video of her leaving her "home" of three months and entering her true home so will put that up later this week. Some pics of grandpa, mom and dad tonight with them all at HOME!! All I can say is this is a grand day!!

Coming home soon?

Mark and I spent some time at the hospital with Megan yesterday and today. Her doctor won't release her home until she consistently takes 67 cc's every 3 hours. Well, today she took 70, 67 abd 70 the first three feedings. That is looking pretty good to us. We so want the little gal home!

Arizona Cardinals

Friday night Sharon, Arne, Mark and I went to the Cardinals game against the Broncos at Univ. of Phoenix Stadium. It is a beautiful structure and it is fun to watch a game there. The Cardinals looked as horrible as ever but we had a great time anyway. :-)

Sitting up

When we got back from the north country yesterday I headed downtown to the hospital for Kayley's 6 pm feeding. She did great, taking the whole bottle. The nurse and I decided to put her in a chair for some pics rather than always in her bed. She did pretty good considering she isn't even supposed to be born quite yet.

Sunday in Sedona

We left Flagstaff Sunday morning and headed back to Phoenix via Sedona and the beautiful Oak Creek Canyon and the red rocks. We stopped at Slide Rock which is usually rocking with kids and adults alike sliding down the mini-rapids on their backsides. But, yesterday signs were everywhere saying no swimming due to high bacteria in the water. We assumed that had to be connected to the vast flooding that hit that area a while back. It was still beautiful and probably much more serene without tons of people screaming and having a blast as they rode down. All in all, Mark and I had a wonderful trip north.

The most beautiful place in the U.S.

Mark and I are in Flagstaff this week-end and I took him for his very first view of my favorite place ever. The Grand Canyon.......

Sleeping beauty

Kayley continues to progress each day. Yesterday she took a full bottle/breast feeding three times in a row. She's getting there! We are all getting most anxious for the little angel to make it home.

Mark and I are off to Flagstaff this afternoon when Andy gets home. Mark has never seen the Grand Canyon so that is on the agenda tomorrow morning. Depending on when we get back from there we are also going to visit Meteor Crater and Sunset Crater Volcano Monument either late afternoon or on Sunday. It will also be wonderful to get away from the triple digits to low 80's and even in the 50's at night. My gosh, I will probably freeze to death. :-) I know we will have a great week-end and hope all of you do, too!

Lots of pictures

Not much happening out here in the lazy days of summer......I wish I could say "waning" days of summer but I heard on the weather to expect triple digits through most of September. But, they said the days of 110+ are over. Yeah! Swimming, sucking and sleeping has been the norm around here as the pictures show. Kayley is at 7 lbs, 9 oz. so that is good. Drew battled a virus over the week-end with a temperature rivaling the outdoor thermometer but is much better now.

We all totally enjoyed the sweet corn Mark hauled out here. It was simply delicious! We had Sharon and Arne over for dinner Saturday night and had a good visit with them. They brought along a DVD of The Villages in Florida where they are pretty certain to be moving to soon. I must say I hate the thought of them leaving Arizona but I guess after 30+ years of living here they are ready for a change of scenery. I will miss my hiking partner but she promised to come back once in awhile for some of those. :-) Speaking of hiking, the trail and falls (Havasupai) we hiked last April were completely flooded over the week-end and helicopters had to rescue hikers, rafters and campers from that area. Very scary. I am certainly glad we went in the spring and NOT during the monsoon season! I also cannot imagine making that grueling hike in this hot weather...

Mommy's little helper

Drew is at that age where he wants to copy everything that you do. I eagerly handed the following over to him. :-)

Waiting for Grandpa

As we await the arrival tomorrow of Grandpa and his sweet corn, thought I would post a few picks of my favorite two grandkids and their best friend. ( Kayley doesn't know yet that Sox will be her best friend...but she will!) The picture of two babies is a side-by-side of Drew when he was born and Kayley. Quite the resemblance, don't ya think?

Swimming at Terravita

Saturday we were invited to sister Sharon's home for swimming and dinner. My nephew Erik and his girls Kadin and Gracie were visiting from New Mexico so we had a great time with all of them. Andy took Drew swimming with the girls.

How's a person supposed to sleep?

I taped this a few weeks ago and just now found it. This was when Drew was in his old room, a.k.a. Kayley's "new" room.

Speaking of Kayley, she should hit SEVEN pounds either today or tomorrow. What a long, long way that little girl has progressed. We are hoping that she soon gets to come home. Her feedings are getting better each day and when she can stay awake for every one of them she will be homeward bound!

Grandpa Mark flies in this Friday with a suitcase full of Iowa sweetcorn. My taste buds are watering just thinking about his sweet corn. It is the best in the state! He is staying until after Labor Day so we have him here for a long visit. That makes grandma quite happy!

Today is the first day of school in Ogden.....my heart goes out to my old cronies there. I truly hated that first day of workshop and speeches. I think everyone knew I hated it, though. :-) Have a great year everyone!

56 seconds with Drew

Ordinary Miracle

My good friend suggested the first song in this video and I think it works perfectly for Kayley. I have put together a slide show of her great progress and changes from birth to today. This video is longer (about 5 minutes) than I usually post so you may want to let it buffer completely (i.e. go pour yourself a glass of wine) and then watch it. :-)

See ya later, Grandpa

I took Mark to the airport this morning for an early flight back to Des Moines. We had a great time while he was here and look forward to his return in less than two weeks! We visited Kayley often in the NICU, baby sat Drew and found time for ourselves, too. Sunday we went with Arne and Sharon to see Mamma Mia (the movie). If you have not seen it, you are missing out on a rousing good time, great music and a general feel great movie. I enjoyed it so much I am buying the DVD when it comes out so I can pop it in when I am in need of a pick-me-up!

Kayley is still doing great. Almost 6 1/2 pounds now. Last hurdle is drinking from the bottle/breast completely with no feeding tube helping her. She is definitely getting the hang of it and last night took 31 cc's for her daddy. She took 15 for me earlier so she is improving each feeding. I would think when she is strictly getting her nourishment from the bottle/breast she will be getting her walking papers. :-) How exciting will that be? Her room is ready and waiting for her arrival......

Grandpa's back in town

Mark flew in late yesterday afternoon. He was supposed to arrive at 4:45 and Megan was going to pick him up and the rest of us were going to meet them at the NICU. He was going to watch Drew while Megan, Andy and I went to an infant CPR Class. Well, as is very common with airlines, his flight was an hour late so Drew and I picked him up while Megan and Andy went to the class. I will take it next week. We still went to the hospital, though, so he could have his first peek at his new granddaughter. Tonight we went for her 6:00 feeding and he held her for the very first time, as you can see from the pics. Kayley hit 6 pounds yesterday, doubling her birth weight. I stole more pics from Andy's blog to show you the stark difference in her legs at 3 days as compared to yesterday. Amazing!

The big news today was that Kayley had her oxygen removed. Let's all hope she is strong enough to do it on her own. I am thinking she can!

It's like....kissing your sister

Drew came to see Kayley today. It was rather touching! Megan and I had been at the NICU since 9 am and Andy brought Drew after lunch. Drew has been saying Kayley's name for quite awhile and I show him pictures of her all the time so he has an idea just who this little person is but not quite sure what to think about her. I think he will have a lot to say about her when she gets home, especially when he finds out he is getting moved to a different room and bed and she is taking over his old stomping grounds. :-)

Let's try a bottle

The NICU is trying to teach Kayley to drink from a bottle. She is doing very well for someone who isn't even supposed to be born yet. Way to go Kayley! Email me!

Sunday morning in the NICU

Megan went down early today to visit her daughter. Grandma showed up around 11:00 to take some video and see how Kayley was doing today. She is inching ever so close to 5 pounds. My prediction is 5 pounds at Monday night's weigh-in! This is, of course, the complete opposite of the premise of the TV show "The Biggest Loser". We want Kayley to GAIN weight each weigh-in. She is doing very well in that department. She would have been voted off the TV show several days ago. :-) Email me!

Kayley's room

A visit with Kayley

Those pearly whites

Email me!

Just say "please"

Pretty in pink

Megan and I spent all of Saturday morning at the hospital visiting Kayley. Sunday I went in around 11:30 to see Megan give her a bath and then she dressed her in the cute outfit shown in the pictures. Following her bath I held her for over an hour during her noon feeding. She was very snug and sleepy while I did this. It is just sheer joy to hold her! She is up to 4 pounds, 4 ounces now. She still has the oxygen prongs in her nose but I assume they will try weaning her off of them this week perhaps. The only other thing she has to learn before she can come home is how to bottle/breast feed. She is still too young to attempt that but they may try towards the end of this week or early next week. The only thing I know for certain about her is that she is one sweet little girl. :-)