NICU Reunion

Interrupting my vacation posts here to update with some current events, too.

Last week was the NICU reunion.  We got there on the late side because we had a meeting at the girls' school first.  Luckily, the crowd had thinned by then (though the chicken fingers had thinned by then, too...).

This year's theme was Princesses and Pirates, so the girls got a wand and a crown when we got there, and then we went over for pictures.  I'm wishing I had lugged the big camera.  I like the convenience of the camera phone, but I'm kind of bummed that they seem so blurry.

What you get when you tell Emma to smile for a picture.

They had a table set up for fingernail painting.  The girls have only ever had their toes painted, so we got to the table and Emma started taking off her shoe.  Emma chose hot pink with silver sparkles.

Julie got purple with gold sparkles.  Daddy got to try to blow all their nails dry before they got them all over something.  (Emma had to have some nail polish removed from her face.)

Becca had purple with silver sparkles.  Becca is a nail biter, and she just had tiny little stubs of nails.

Emma and Julie wanted to have their faces painted.  The kids doing the face painting certainly weren't artists...

Cupcakes for dinner.

It's a tough princess life.

And our official documentation...

NICU Reunion

Last week, we went to the NICU reunion. As soon as we got there, we saw someone dressed up as a teddy bear (the NICU mascot), and the girls freaked out.

And it didn't help that, once we got inside, they saw someone dressed up as a tiger. And that freaked them out even more. (They had a tiger mascot come to visit daycare a few weeks ago, and that night at dinner, they told me that the tiger "scare me.")

Emma was so freaked out, she was shaking, and insisted on being held any time the tiger was around. Her head was constantly pivoting around, trying to keep an eye out for where the tiger was at all times.

There were a couple of activities around, and we got Becca to decorate a sugar cookie, but Julie and Emma refused to be put down. We got some food and tried to eat, but again, they were too scared. (The hats are safari hats that we got there.)

We did get to see one of our primary nurses (Debbie Jo) while we were there - she hadn't seen the girls since we left the NICU. We were yet again reminded how lucky we are to have three happy, healthy little girls with us. We didn't stay long. They wouldn't even leave Greg's side so I could take their pictures.

Julie and Becca snacked on some chicken fingers as we walked back to the car, but we had to stop on the way home for a real dinner.

We let Becca eat her icing-loaded cookie after dinner. It looks like she enjoyed it.

Big Week

It was a weird sort of week here. We had good and bad moment. We had ordinary and extraordinary things going on. And I'm just exhausted.

The girls had their last EI session with Catie on Wednesday. Completely bittersweet. I loved that they enjoyed their time with her. I loved reading someone else's report about how wonderful they are. I loved that they were getting some really dedicated one-on-one time, because as much as we try, they don't always get enough of that. But, wow, how far we've come! The girls are right on track, and it seems like every where we go lately, people keep telling me how great and healthy they look. More than anything, I want them to be healthy and happy.

And the very next day after they graduated from early intervention, we went back to the hospital for the NICU reunion. The event itself was ok - kind of crowded, not much for toddlers to do, and we had really been hoping to see some familiar faces -- but symbolically, it was huge.

Huge.

We are so very grateful for the care and attention I got while I was pregnant, and the high level of care and love the girls got in the hospital. We went through so much fear and worrying, and we couldn't have imagined everything working out so well. Don't get me wrong - life's not perfect. But there is just so much that could have gone wrong. I can't even really think about it anymore.

So after this heartwarming event where the girls were so well behaved, we went out to Moe's for dinner, and it was just one thing after another. Becca did NOT want to sit in her high chair. Julie wanted to stand in hers. Emma wanted to spin 180 degrees in hers. Julie and Emma refuse to eat anything there but chips at the moment. Lots of screaming, throwing of food and sippy cups. A sympathetic woman offered me a beer on the way out and I told her I'd be needing more than one.

Normally we'd go out to dinner on Friday, but this week we decided it would be safer to stay at home.

The girls have been sleeping better with the help of some benadryl lately. Their noses had just been running nonstop (particularly Julie - we couldn't keep up with her drip), and they were all coughing all night long. They're sounding a lot better, so we'll take our chances tonight.

This week was also our cats' 4th birthday. They got lots of treats (tuna flakes and lettuce), so it wasn't really all that much different than a normal day. But we were reminded that we are very happy to have them in our lives. I really think it's true what they say about animals, how they can help lower your stress levels. I don't blog about them much anymore, and then tend to get whatever is left of me at the very end of the day, but we love them so much. Their personalities changed so much when the girls came home. Lefty used to be our social cat, but she wants nothing to do with the girls. Dusty was our stranger-phobic cat. When the girls first came home, Dusty was afraid of everything - she'd bat at everything and back away, not sure what was going to attack her and what was safe. When we were doing all of the late late late night feedings, Dusty would come in the room with us, just to keep tabs on everything. She's kind of become a mother cat - she wants to be around all of us, but she's a little scared of the girls still. But she will come into the living room if they're their (to get pet by us) and short of the 2 scratching events within 30 minutes of each other, she keeps enough distance from the girls to evade them.