Photos

Here are some quick photos of the last week or so.

Chloe wearing the green for St. Patrick's Day.

Camille and Chloe having a picnic together in the living room.

Camille was sick one day. I knew it only because she put herself down for a nap at rest time.

Caleb has been big into writing in his little notebooks these days.

Chloe holding Baby Elephant and the little doll quilt I made for her.

A sweet picture of Camille and Daddy.

Starting Over

So Rob and I took Chloe this afternoon to the children's hospital to have a renal ultrasound and a VCUG. At four months she was diagnosed with urinary reflux and since it worsened during the next year, she had a procedure done in October to correct it. Today's appointment was to check and see if the procedure worked.

The good news:
The staff at the hospital were super great. (Probably what happens because we were at a children's hospital versus a regular we-serve-everyone hospital.) Chloe did great. She didn't cry at all during the ultrasound and was super cooperative, and tolerated at least half of the VCUG well. The super great news is that the procedure worked and the reflux on her left side is completely gone.

The bad news:
She now is refluxing on the right side. We now have to follow up with a busy pediatric urology office here who sent me a letter this week saying our April 21 appointment was rescheduled for May 19. Nice. It looks like once we get in to the doctor we'll be starting all over again to fix the new reflux problem.

I think for the next round of VCUGs, I'll send Rob with Chloe and stay home. They're awful to watch and I anticipate they'll only get worse as she gets bigger. Here's hoping we never have to have one done on the other two kids - what a nightmare!

Fabric Store

We had a rainy day today so everyone had to play inside. Camille had friends over to play for a while this afternoon while Caleb was at school - we have three other kids Camille's age on our little street. It's so awesome for her to have friends to play with, especially since we don't have her in preschool. After Caleb got home from school and Chloe got up from her nap, the three Cs played Fabric Store. They raided my fabric bins for fun pieces of fabric, hung them around the living room and took turns being the customers.

Then they decided to use the fabrics as blankets while they all snuggled up for an episode of Dora the Explorer.




When they were done playing with the fabric, I made them fold it the best they could, then put it in a bag so it can be their special fabric collection. Hopefully this will keep them out of my good fabric!

DMV Satisfaction

So this morning we (finally) hit up the DMV for some new driver's licenses. They have Saturday hours so I figured that would be the easiest for us (not to mention the last day we could do it before we have to register Camille for kindergarten, for which we need a current photo ID). They are open from 8 am - 12:30 pm, so I thought we'd be really smart and get there for eight so we could be in and out. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.

Apparently half of Connecticut had that same idea, but they were smart enough not to bring their kids! Since there were two of us, I waited in line while Rob took the kids outside for a walk. He came back in when we were close to the front of the line. Then, as we sat and waited for our names to be called to take our eye exams (CT doesn't require a written or driving test, only an eye exam which took all of thirty-four seconds...they just want a lot of money!) where we read books to the kids and bribed them with leftover SweeTart hearts (nothing like candy at nine in the morning).

Fortunately the line moved pretty quickly and we were soon called back for our photos and signatures. That station was manned by the nicest DMV employee I've ever encountered. Not only did she let me re-do my signature because it was too sloppy (not that it could be anything but on those electronic touch pads...so much for the beautiful signature I've practiced for years) but she also re-did my picture a couple of times until she thought it looked decent.

Three minutes later, new licenses in hand, we were out the door. I looked at Rob's license picture first. Poor man. He'll be spending the next six years with a license picture that could almost be confused for a mug shot. Then I looked at mine. In comparison, it looks like a glamor shot. It's far from the best picture I've seen of myself, but it is certainly the best DMV photo I've ever taken.

Rob was telling me about some study he heard that was done in CT to see what could be done to increase customer satisfaction with the DMV. They tried shorter lines, and some other things I can't remember. What did the trick was allowing a retake of the license photo. People who had a decent photo apparently reported 50% greater satisfaction than those who were not allowed a retake. Or something like that. Interesting.

It may have cost us an arm and a leg, but for the next five years, I'll be sporting a fairly decent photo ID. Happy day!

New Duds

I spent the morning working on some sewing projects. In addition to my wonky pinwheel blocks that I was able to finish today, I created these.

Look who's so cute!

Modeling for the camera.

Sweet sisters.

Someone wants to be a movie star.

Glamorous.


Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get the house cleaned!

Playing at the Park

****WARNING: SUPER PICTURE OVERLOAD****

It was so gorgeous here on Friday - temperatures were in the high 50s. It was cloudy and threatened to rain that night, but compared to the 30 degree temperatures we've had here, it was so lovely. We decided to head to the park once Caleb got home from school. We discovered this great park a few miles from our house - it has this enormous sledding hill, a kid playground, a basketball court, a volleyball court, picnic areas and a little beach. The ground was all soggy and wet when we went there, which limited the number of things we could do, but we are so excited to go back and visit as spring arrives and the weather gets nicer.

Here Rob helps Chloe over a puddle.

It was so windy - just look at Chloe's pigtails!

Rob was so happy to have a "warm" day to go outside and play. I think of all of us, he's having the hardest time adjusting to the cold!

Climbing up the net.

Hanging out on the bridge.

Swinging from the monkey bars.

Chloe excited about something.

Caleb and Camille watching the geese on the pond.

Camille climbs.

And slides.

Chloe tries to climb, but doesn't get very far!

Caleb slides.

Chloe pretends to sleep.

Caleb and Camille sneak up on the ducks.

Look at them go!

What did we do???

Clowning Around

Today after church we took a drive down to New Haven to pick up some fabric a lady had for me. On the way, we passed this car with stickers on it advertising this web site: tailstheclown.com. I glanced over as we drove, and there was Tails herself, all decked out in her clown regalia. It was so unexpected - how often do you see a clown on the road? - so I did a double take. She smiled. I wanted to be sure the kids saw her, so I had Rob slow the van down so they could catch up to us. They did, and she smiled and waved at the kids. So nice!

Maybe we'll hire her as entertainment for Rob's big 3-0 birthday bash this spring! He'd totally love it, don't you think?