Like Mother, Like Daughter

I recently inherited all of my "stuff" from my parent's house. Lots of papers, projects, pictures and memorabilia of my younger years. I've slowly been digging through it all and found this baby picture of me in a project that I did in high school. I could hardly believe it! I sat the picture on the counter and didn't say anything and sure enough it tripped Josh up for just a second. He thought for a split second that it was Maryn but didn't figure I would put her in a dress like this (pretty 80's!). The resemblance between me and Maryn at this age is unbelievable! The hair texture and color is the same (hard to believe since my hair is so dark now!), same big dark eyes (different shape though), same nose, same face shape and similar mouth. Maryn was blessed with thicker lips and a dimple though :)

Like mother, like daughter....

Me at 12 months old



Maryn at 12 months old

Maryn's 1st Haircut

Today I took the girls to get their hair cut. It was Maryn's 1st haircut ever and Makenna needed to get freshened up for spring :) I just had the back of Maryn's hair trimmed (to lessen the mullet effect!) and Makenna got her bangs trimmed and about 2 inches cut off the back. They both look so cute and Makenna looks even older now!

Makenna was convinced that she was going to get her hair cut as short as Daddy's! She was so upset when we told her she couldn't! She is very into being just like Daddy right now and she likes to point out what they have in common. The other night Josh was tucking her in bed and she said "Daddy we have the same eyes, the same hair, the same skin and the same sweaty feet!" Couldn't deny that one!

Pictures of our darling Maryn's 1st haircut!

Before pictures...



In the process (looking a little scared!)...


After picture...


And of course the big sister's haircut

Makenna's 1st Books

A few weeks ago the girls and I took one of our regular trips to the library. This time was special though because Makenna got to pick out some beginner reader books that she could learn to read herself. She has been doing so well with all of our reading games that I figured it was time to tackle an actual book. We picked out two early reader books both from the Dick & Jane series (which is what she wanted because it's "just like the books at Poppy and Peepie's house!"). We checked out "Go, Go, Go" and "Something Funny." We started that very afternoon and she immediately took off reading. We checked out the books on Monday, practiced reading approximately 5-10 minutes each day (I don't want to push it on her or make her get sick of it) and by Friday she read straight through to page 19 for Josh! The pages have anywhere for 3 words to over 30 words on them and she is getting better every time she practices. She has now read "Go, Go, Go" in its entirety and can read "Something Funny" to page 27! She is very proud of herself and likes to point out all of her new words in other books as we're reading them to her. This has been a very fun journey for all of us and we're very proud of the progress she has made in such a short amount of time.

Makenna with the first two books she read herself!


Reading and showing the pictures just like her teacher Mrs. Sodman


She's reading!


Look at that beautiful little girl concentrate


Good job Makenna! We're so proud of you!

All Better!

Here are some pictures of little MarBear tonight after her surgery! She is sitting next to the balloons she got from all the Budkes and Fleischmanns (which she LOVES!) and we had to show off puppy in his cool new hat that he got at the hospital. She's not so sure about his hat though and kept taking it off. At least we have a picture for the memory. It's amazing how good she is feeling already and I will probably do another post soon about all the new words she has already said in the short amount of time just since her surgery. The doctor told me we would be amazed at her rapid progression in speech after the surgery but Josh and I had no clue! She was pulling out new words left and right today! Josh and I just look at each other with a huge proud smile every time we hear something out of her mouth! Obviously all the fluid in her ears was affecting her hearing (and thus her speech) and we are so thankful that it is now taken care of.

Maryn's Ear Tubes

Maryn had surgery to get tubes placed in both of her ears this morning. I am overjoyed to report to you that she is doing extremely well. Thank you God for protecting our little girl during surgery and helping to make her feel better!

We left our house at 5:45 this morning since we needed to be checked in at the hospital by 6:15. Poor little Maryn had no clue what was going on since I just pulled her out of bed and took her straight to the van. She just gave me this odd look as I was taking her outside. She was very calm and well-behaved all morning long, despite not being able to eat or drink anything. Finally about 7:15ish I think the dehydration started to set in because she repeatedly was asking for her sippy cup and then started to wipe her tongue with her hands (since it was so dry). The only other problem we had was trying to get her heart rate. The nurse tried hooking her little finger up to a machine and the machine wasn't working very fast and then Maryn was getting irate and thus making it harder for the machine to get an accurate reading. The heart rate machine involved probably 10 - 12 minutes of absolute hysterics this morning, but that was really the worst of it.

We talked to all the nurses, the anesthesiologist and the ENT before surgery this morning. Finally at 7:44 the nurse came to get Maryn. Josh and I kissed her good-bye, told her we loved her and she went without a peep. What a brave, strong little girl :) I was able to contain my tears until she left. Then we just sat there praying and nervously waiting. Luckily our wait wasn't long - the doctor was back in our room by 7:49 telling us he was all done! There was a lot of fluid in both of her ears, especially her left ear. He said that she did just great! She stayed with the nurse in the recovery room until she woke up and they brought her to us right away. Maryn was back in my arms before 8:00! Less than 15 minutes without my baby. People kept telling me that it was a fast procedure, but I had no clue this fast. I will never forget seeing her in the nurses arms when she came back - all snuggled in holding her puppy tight and puppy was wearing a surgical cap :) (which Maryn didn't like and took off as soon as she figured it out!)

She was disoriented and fussy right when she woke up (which they told us to expect). She has been a little groggy and maybe slightly off balance, but not as much as I thought she would be. She did vomit right when we got home from drinking her sippy cup too fast (she was so dehydrated it was hard to slow her down). But other than that she has been her normal, playful self. She's been running around laughing most of the morning :) She is down for a nap right now. She's so exhausted. It was a long morning for mommy and daddy, so I can't imagine how she feels. As for now all we have to do is give her some ear drops 3 times a day for a few days and then I think she should be good to go! The even more amazing part is that Josh and I can honestly already see a difference in her hearing. She is responding faster, can hear from farther away and seems to be talking more clearly already! I'm so thankful we got this taken care of when we did.

Thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers! We sincerely appreciate it!

Welcome Spring!

It's about time! Finally we get to welcome spring to Iowa! It has been one of the longest winters I can remember so we have been itching to get outside. We've been in the 70s for the past few days and it looks like we will get there again today! Yeah! The girls want to do every outdoor activity possible! Maryn loves exploring the swing set and trying to work the trike, while Makenna is all about riding her bike and playing with the neighbor kids. Maryn is following suit and has become quite an outdoors child. You even mention the word "outside" and she runs around excitedly trying to find her shoes. The only downside of this is that she screams and cries every time we make her come inside :( Not fun for mom and dad.

Here are the girls on their way to fly kites with Daddy at the park! Even more fun, they ran into their friends Summer and Aubrey at the park and got to share their kites with them!

Princess Bike

Makenna hit a big milestone in her life... she got to go to the store and pick out a new bike with Daddy this weekend! She has been talking about it all winter. I honestly don't know who was more excited though, Makenna or me and Josh! She picked out a purple princess bike, complete with princess helmet, knee pads and elbow pads :) It was so fun to be able to do that for her! Now she wants to practice, practice, practice! We were amazed at how fast she picked it up. The very first day she got the bike she was already riding up and down the sidewalks between our two neighbors' driveways! She still needs a little help with braking and steering but seems to show improvement every time she tries!

SPAGHETTI

Our girls seriously love spaghetti. It is always a hoot to watch Maryn just devour her plate of spaghetti. Tonight Maryn had three servings and Makenna had two! They just didn't want to stop! Maryn was acting like she couldn't shovel it in fast enough! I probably should make it more than I do based on how much they love it, but maybe it'd lose it's appeal if I served it too much. Actually maybe Maryn would actually start gaining more weight if I made it more often. Hmmmm??? Point to ponder. I wonder how much spaghetti Josh and I could tolerate :)

Nobody would've believed the mess Maryn made if I wouldn't have taken pictures...



Yes, it was smeared on her belly and her arms as well. I thought I was being smart by removing her top but I should've taken it a step further and removed her pants as well. We'll be lucky if those pants are ever a color other than spaghetti sauce red again :)


Yes she is using two hands to shovel it in!


Makenna asked if I would take her picture as well. Not quite as messy. At least she didn't require a bath!

ENT & Audiologist Appt.

This morning we had Maryn's appointments with the audiologist and ENT doctor. We started with testing her ear drums and a hearing test. They stuck these little probes in Maryn's ears to test the movement of her ear drums. I could tell something wasn't going right because the audiologist repeated the test numerous times in each ear. She then informed me that there was no movement in either ear drum. I, of course, had no clue what that meant so I asked if that was good or bad or what that meant. She explained to me that a healthy ear drum will move when it hears a noise and neither of hers moved at all. The machine they use is suppose to make a dramatic spike up when the ear drum moves (similar as if you were hooked up to a heart rate monitor that spikes every time your heart beats) and she showed me Maryn's results and every time she did it the result was a flat line across the bottom. My heart just dropped and I was trying to keep myself pulled together and calm at this point.

Next I held Maryn in my lap for the hearing test. We were in this very small, soundproof box of a room hooked up with all these various speakers. The woman went into a room directly across from us (we could see her through a window) and she started to speak to Maryn from the various speakers. Maryn would turn her head and look appropriately to wherever the sound was coming from, even when the noises/voices got quieter. The audiologist came out and told me that she passed her hearing test (thank you God) and that the ENT wanted to see us next to discuss her ear drum test.

So next we met with Dr. Huebsch. He took one look in her ears and without batting an eye told me that she needs tubes in both of her ears. He said that even though she has had quite a few ear infections as of late (3 in 3 1/2 months), the main thing that he is so concerned about is the fact that there is no movement in either of her ear drums and that despite the fact that she is currently on amoxycillin to help treat her ears she still had so much fluid in both ears that he couldn't even see the ear drum. He said that it is good that she can still hear but that hearing to her probably sounds like she has been in a pool all day and still has water in her ears. He said that we need to get the tubes in place so the fluid doesn't do permanent damage and so she won't continue to be in pain. Also since her hearing is currently muffled it could start to affect her speech development if we delay it much longer.

After our whirlwind of appointments, I walked out with a date for surgery and several pre-op and post-op appointments. Not what I was expecting, but I'm praising God right now that as far as we can tell her hearing isn't permanently affected and she can hear. It may not be the best hearing due to all the fluid in there, but at least she can hear. As nervous as I am for them to give her anesthetic, I realize this is the best option. I'm just so grateful right now that this is a fixable problem and we're not looking at anything more serious than this. Thank you God.

I know this must be part of God's plan... I didn't have any of my calendars with me and I think I was in such a daze from everything they were telling me that they just scheduled me for a bunch of appointments and dates without my even knowing if they would work or not. As God had it planned, Josh's schedule is completely free that day (not typical at all since it's only 3 weeks out) and my mom is scheduled to have her day off that week on that Thursday so she will be able to come down and take care of Makenna and take her to school for us. Plus all of the post-op appointments they scheduled worked as well. As a Christian I don't believe in coincidences. Obviously everything working out so well is God's way of trying to tell us that this is the right thing to do for Maryn and this is part of His plan.

As it is scheduled right now, Maryn will be having the tubes put in her ears on April 24th. Please keep her in your prayers.