New Blog Name

Help! We need a new blog name!  ElliottSquared doesn't fit our family anymore with the joyful Ruby girl......but what should we name it?

I think maybe 1 (or 2) peeps still catch up on here occasionally....leave me a comment with suggestions! 

Thanks much!

The other man in my life...

This face.
Those eyes.
Those dimples.
That smile.

This boy MELTS my heart!  He deserved a post all for himself....he is my quiet one. He is quieter around the house, though has started to really YELL above the noise when he wants something or wants attention.  He has started a phase of "look at me mom", "Mom, look at me" when attempting any new (or old) skill.
He is really outgoing however, around strangers.  He talks and shares a LOT of information while we are standing around wondering who the chatter mouth is because he is generally a bit quieter at home.
He is the sweetest, most lovingest boy. He wants his "special hugs" (which are BIG hugs), lots of kisses and still sleeps with his "big" baby, "little" baby, "yellow" baby, "blue" baby and "gramma" baby.
He can count to 10, sing the abc's, itsy bitsy spider and a few other big hits.  He likes to tell us info with a very straight face while shaking his hand at us (great non-verbal skills bud).
He loves on Ruby, is so affectionate with her. Harper.....is so/so. He loves her and gives her hugs and kisses when saying bye or night night, but most of the time they keep a safe distance.
Though when she is not around, he asks "where's Hawpo"?
He is a great listener at dance class and took skating lessons this past December.  He is standing up on the ice alone now.
He loves fire trucks, choo choo trains, cranes, airplanes and loves to "hang" things from odd angels always testing balance and dexterity.  He sees the world differently. Instead of accepting a cup for a cup or a fork for a fork...he is looking for ways to manipulate the objects to balance or stack or create something new/exciting.  Even eating bread turns into a game of "mom look, a boat".

I am in love with this boy!  He melts my heart, makes me want to squeeze him and literally is my heart.
I feel SO blessed to be his mommy!

New Years Resolution...Start Blogging again

Happy New Years! 
I am going to put "blogging" on my calendar weekly and hope that I can at least update weekly all the happenings in this crazy house.

We had a wonderful Christmas, which deserves it's own post because there are LOTS of pictures!  But for now, I wanted to say Happy New Year to all (or the 2 who may check in occassionally).  We started the New Year out by getting up early, bundling up and heading to N. Minneapolis for a 10k (6.1miles)  along the Mississippi River into St Paul.  It was a BEAUTIFUL run.....but freezing. We crossed the finish line running in 1hour 21 seconds and they announced it was -4 degrees. Burr!  Icicles were formed in eyelashes, beards and mustaches and any bits of hair that was whisping out of hats and headbands had frosted over and resembled white feathers.  Seriously, this was quite a riot!

But it was fun! My sister and I run great together.  We have the same pace and so we push each other without overdoing it.  Anyway, happy new year from these two polar queens!  LOL

Happy birthday to our Ruby girl

Miss Ruby's Surgery

August 30th my baby had her surgery.  We arrived at Children's Hospital at 6:30am and were brought back relatively quickly to get things started.  I woke Ruby up to feed her at midnight since she couldn't eat past midnight and my little girl LOVES to eat.  I was really so worried about waking her in the morning and having her be starving, and I couldn't feed her.

She did ok....I think being woken up at 6am (she usually gets up around 7:30) and then being in the car, the hospital....it was enough "new" scenery to make her forget that she was hungry.  But her surgery wasn't until 8:30am and so that "newness" wore off quickly and she was pretty crabby.  We watched movies in the room, played with toys, read books and then they brought in clothes to get her changed into for the surgery.

Around 7:45 a dear friend stopped by to give us all a hug and drop off a little surgery gift for Ruby.  That was so sweet of her (she works in the hospital and knows the surgeon too, which we felt comforted by).

8:30am they came and got us. I got suited up in scrubs, mask and hat and went in with her while they gave her some breathing gas in order to put her to sleep so they could start the IV with fluids and anesthesia.

Blake and I waited and waited and waited until 11:45 when the Dr came out and said she was in the OR recovery and everything went great. They ended up removing the bones (as planned) but were a little surprised to see the bones were connected on both feet.  The surgery basically removed the duplication of the distal phalange in both great toes.  Meaning, Ruby had two little teeny bones in the end of her big toes which made her big toes extra wide.

They removed the extra bone, which was connected, shaved off the bone and then did reconstruction on the foot to make everything look normal once healed (skin, toenail, etc).  Here are pics:

Toes before

 

 

Baby girl cuddling daddy before surgery

 

 

The afternoon of surgery at home.....she was pretty crabby and uncomfortable.

Her little toes.....all wrapped up and protected.

 

The first few days we just kept her comfortable with meds and lots of cuddles.  By Saturday, she was getting right back to normal....playing, crawling and starting to pull up on everything.  Saturday night in her crib, she pulled off her right foot bandages!  Little stinker!

 

We're chuggling along. We got back Sept 11th for a check-up and I am praying that all is healing ok, that she is pain free and that the surgeon is happy with the results.

We're so thankful for such wonderful family and friends who helped us and prayed for baby Ruby. 

Update- Hudson 2 years (the rest to come)

I must, must, must make myself take a minute here to update what is going on in our life. Our kids are just so amazingly smart and funny and FUN.....I want to make sure that I document what's happening at this particular moment.

2 Year Stats:

28lbs

35.5 Inches Tall

15.9 BMI

You are perfect in every way! You will be playing independantly and out of nowhere come over and hug me or Harper or Ruby. You love to be rough and tackle daddy. You are extremely coordinated in sports, making baskets, hitting the ball and swinging a golf club. You're so cautious! WOW! You're more comfortable watching Harper while standing on the sidelines instead of jumping in and doing the swimming, swinging or activity yourself. You're observant, part of me wonders if you watch so that when you're ready to try it....you get it right. You're so strong. You swing from the table and now recently from the barre at gymnastics and you're upper body is so strong. You're methodical and a great problem solver. You stack and pile things and get a HUGE grin and say "wow" when you get something to balance. This is so strange. It's a sippy cup, with a piece of toast balanced, then a spoon, then a stacking pile of cheerios. Hahaha.....I love it! You line up your toys ALL day long! I don't know what this means.....but it must mean something!

You are great at throwing and hitting balls lately, hitting them almost as far as daddy!

You love cho cho trains (which sound like coo coo nain) and trucks (which sound like cucks) and saying what the trucks say "wee ohh wee ohh wee ohh). You're picking up Spanish really well.....but your speech is slower to develop so we feel you get frustrated (as well as us) when trying to figure out what it is that you want.  Oddly as it seems, your spanish words are more clear than English!  And you're really good at syllabals.  So if we say "Hudson, can you say Minnesota" you will say a blurry version of Minnesota but it will have the same voice infliction as we have. 

Hudson, you are my sensitive boy.  A kiss from mommy, daddy or "Yon" when you've fallen makes it all better. Seriously!  You give toys to Harper when she's having a fit, you run and give kisses to Ruby when she's fallen down.  You woke up the other morning around 5am and not thinking, I picked you up and brought you into bed with us.  You snuggled up with me and slept like a rock for the next 3 hours. 

You are truly amazing. You're our only boy and I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO happy I get to experience having a son. You light up my life. Your smile, your eyes and those curls absolutely MELT me!

Ruby's Appt

With the Ortho team at Children's today at 3pm!  Praying we can get a plan in place...soon!  Miss thing is busy crawling (July 10th) and pulling up on furniture.....I"d like to take care of the surgery soon so that it doesn't slow her down too much.
Will update after!