summer, summer, summertime (ooh, summertime)

Yes, that's right.  Tomorrow at 12:45pm it will officially be SUMMER! My girls are super excited to be closing the books on daycare, 1st and 7th grade and moving on to sweet, sweet summer. This summer will be very different from other summers with all that is going on with me and the baby, but we are going to try really hard to keep things as normal as possible.

Last weekend we kicked the season off right with a little slip-n-sliding and a little ghetto-pooling.

(Claire wouldn't try the slip-n-slide the right away...but she would run next to it and run her "good arm" throught it)

This is Ella splashing Claire in the face....

...and this is Claire getting even.

finally tried to slide....whoopsy!

I am sure some of you were wondering where Jocie was during all this summertime fun....she was right there with us....doing a whole lot of nothing :)

Cheers to a fun and memorable summer!!

hurdles

Today marks the second hurdle that I have successfully catapulted my pregnant self over (...whoa, that is not a good visual). Today I am 26 weeks along, which at one point, I wasn't even sure I would get to. First hurdle was 24 weeks (viability), then I set up 5 more hurdles down my track...but I promised myself that I would only take them one hurdle at a time. Have you ever stared down the track at a long line of hurdles before a race? I have, and it's terrifying. So, I decided I would only look at one hurdle at a time to tone down the anxiety. So far, it's working....and it allows me not to look too far in advance which has been good for my mind as well.

The further along I get, the better chance the baby has of having less complications after birth (...dah, I am sure you already knew that). One of my doctors told me that "for every one day the baby stays inside, that's two less days he will have to stay in the NICU".  And every two weeks the baby is still on board, makes an enormous difference to how well he will do on his own. 

In less than 4 weeks (when I am 30 weeks), I will be staying in a "medical apartment" (aka "assisted living", aka "old folks home", aka "only 4 channels on the TVs", aka "no wireless Internet ANYWHERE in the building"!!) down in Minneapolis. My doctors want me closer to Abbott in case I would have an emergency, which at that point would be pretty likely. So, I will stay there for two weeks, then will be admitted into the hospital at 32 weeks, then hopefully deliver on July 19th (34 weeks).

I have NEVER in all my 13 years as a mother been away from my children for that long. When you factor in recovery time (for me, not the baby), I will probably be away from my house for 5 weeks. Now again, it's even hard for me to type that, let alone try to process that.  And again, I am going to have to set up little hurdles along the way, so I take it one week, or maybe even one day at a time.

The good news is that my kids can come and visit me, and while I am in the apartment, I hope they can stay the weekends with Carl and I. But it's still going to be very hard for me....probably way harder on me then them, which is a good thing! In other Good News, I have wonderful family and friends who will be supporting me every step of the way, which I am so very thankful for.

Are you depressed yet? I kind of am :) So I will leave you with something great to think about....the Best News of all. At the end of this "medical journey" I will have a beautiful son to hold and take care of. Another Adolphson child. Another little person to love and raise. After many others' medical journeys, they may be looking forward to fewer organs, or remission, but I get to look forward to a baby, and there is nothing better than that!

Claire's first day of life...nothing feels better than this type of cuddle.

a day for moms

Mother's Day is always a day I look forward to. Let's face it...it's the only day I can call my own. I share my birthday and anniversary with Carl. And every other holiday is shared with everyone else. So selfishly, it's the only day that's all about ME.  ....and every other mother on the planet....damn it! :)

Joking aside, I really do love Mother's Day, and I was so excited to be able to share it with MY MOM this year! She was able to come and stay with us for a long weekend, which was awesome. My mom hustled down on Thursday so she could catch Ella's first grade music concert at school. She also helped out a lot with making our meals, doing our laundry, and painting Jocie's new room! ....I bet she's really glad she came :)

On Saturday night, Carl wanted to camp out with the girls.  Since Claire's still pretty young, the best place for camping is our own back yard. So Carl set up the tent and stoked up the camp fire. It was really fun to sit around a camp fire and get our smores on!

The girls were very happy to pile into the tent with Carl and I was very happy go to sleep in my nice, warm and comfortable bed. I can't say that I haven't tried....but I am just not a camper.

Today, I was so excited to wake up to scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit, doughnuts and a beautiful vase full of flowers waiting for me at the breakfast table. The food was delish! The very best part was that I didn't have to prepare it or clean it up!!

It's hard for me to believe that the next Mother's Day I celebrate, I will be a mom times 4! But for now, I will continue to enjoy the 3 I have and wait patiently for the last one to come.

never a dull moment

This past weekend was filled with...adventure.

On Friday, we were excited to have my dad and step-mom Barb come to our house to stay for the weekend. They have spent the last 6 months in Arizona, so it was really nice to be able to catch up!

On Saturday morning we took off to Eden Prairie so we could hang out at my step-sister Sarah's house.  Carl and two friends were going to be putting an egress window in our basement guest bedroom, so we could move Jocie over to that room and reclaim our family room.   Because it was such a big job, we decided to get out of their hair! I had a good time hanging out with Sarah and the kids had a good time playing with their cousins....until Claire decided to jump off the couch and fall on her arm. She was pretty upset, but we didn't see any swelling or bruising, so we thought everything would be okay.

On Sunday morning she was still favoring it - not eating with it (she fell on her right arm), not playing with it, and still saying it hurt "on the inside". So we thought we should take her into urgent care.  Well, it turns out.....she fractured it! Poor thing! She picked out a purple cast, and when the doctor was putting in on, she was singing, "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!"....how appropriate.

Once we got home, we had to pick up Ella's birthday cake, throw some swim suits and towels in a bag and head over to the Monticello Community Center for Ella's birthday party.  She invited a few school friends for a few hours of swimming fun!

Claire got to swim too....with a bread bag over her cast :)

So...just in case you got lost...here's the weekend break-down:

home renovation - cousin play date - Claire's base jumping - urgent care - Xray - casting - birthday party

Needless to say, Monday was a welcomed day. :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Happy 7th Birthday to our little Miss Ella! This weekend was very . . . busy.  I will update you soon with the many "activities" done this weekend, but for now, I will leave you with this.

Ella we love you so much and are having so much fun watching you grow up! . . . just stop doing it so fast!