tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-314841102023-06-20T08:18:54.080-05:00The Rogan Kiddos' BlogWe want to be able to share more than just pictures and videos with everyone. Hopefully this will give us a chance to tell some stories and give more insights into Perry, Ella, and Luca's lives!The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-51885819165052084612008-11-14T14:31:00.002-06:002008-11-14T14:59:27.321-06:00Been awhile...<span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">Man, I was doing so good with the blogging and then...NOTHING! Sorry to my 1-2 loyal readers ;) Here's what's going on with us...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">Perry & Ella LOVE preschool. They love to paint, they love to color, they love to play with their friends, they LOVE IT! If you ask them about school, they'll mostly just talk about "Nick". Apparently Nick is a pretty outspoken kiddo, so don't get any ideas about a boyfriend ;) Lemme see if I can name all their classmates...Nick, Alex, Sean, Diego, Yerik, Collin, Lily x 2, Paris. I feel like I'm missing a couple, but these are the ones they talk about most. "Two wiwwees". Obviously "L" is still a hard letter to pronounce. Hence poor Luca's name "Wooka" or "Wooky". And they also love Miss Sue...she is the teacher's aide. They have 3 teachers in total. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">At their parent teacher conferences, we were told that they both smile and say "uh huh" a lot and that they're great cleaner-uppers. Dave thought they were probably a teacher's delight...kids that are agreeable and help clean up...what more could you ask for?!?! :) Apparently Ella "mothers" Perry and needs to learn to let her do for herself. That being said, when we got home that day, Ella promptly told Perry "quit picking" at her chapped lips. I think I've lost my job.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">So obviously the girls are talking A LOT more. Every day I feel like I say "Where did you learn that word?" It's amazing. Such sponges. And Luca too...he says quite a bit, including some 3 word phrases like "I did it" and "I got it". He's definitely learning a lot from his sisters. The other day he was being a bit of a stinker and I told him he was going to have to go to time out if he kept behaving like that (I was joking b/c he has never been to time out) and he went over to the area where P&E sit for TO's, stayed there a few seconds, and then came over to me and said "sawwy". Awwwwwwwwwwww. :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">They are all growing. I feel like the 2T pants I just bought for P&E are already looking short on them. We go to the pediatrician for the girls' 3 year check up and Luca's 18 month check up after Thanksgiving, so we'll see how much they've all grown. My bets are that Luca is within 3 inches of the girls and within 1-2 pounds of them as well. I'll also bet that we start getting a lot more "are they triplets" comments by Luca's 2nd birthday.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">We're sad to say good-bye to the warmer weather...and the daylight hours. This is my least favorite time of year, when it gets dark at 5 PM. Blech. I suppose we'll be putting our basement to good use more often now. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">I can't remember if I mentioned it on here or not, but last February, we were told about the possibility (the very likely possibility) of us moving to NYC for Dave to work in the E&Y national headquarters for a 2 year period. We were very excited about living in the city and experiencing all it had to offer and our excitement grew and grew for about 7 months. Finally we were told that we would not be moving afterall. We're sad (me moreso than Dave, or so it seems) but we're not ruling out the possibility of spending time there down the road. I'm not fond of the idea of moving the kids around when they're in school, but I truly think that's an opportunity that cannot be passed up. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">But for now, we are here. In O'Fallon. For a few years at least ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">In vacation news, we thought we'd go skiing this year (the first year the girls could take lessons) but with Luca wanting to do EVERYTHING his big sisters do, we thought we'd better wait a year. So instead, we'll go back to "Mickey's Castle". :) We are on our way to becoming certified Disney freaks!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">Oh and one more worthy piece of information. P, E, and L have a cousin...and Dave and I have a nephew! Noel Martin was born on Perry and Ella's birthday. Speaking of babies, Ella has recently started asking for more siblings. Apparently she wants 2 babies...little sisters. We'll see...</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-62649000424603216152008-09-21T20:38:00.007-05:002008-09-22T21:33:47.158-05:00Disney Do-Overs<span style="color:#33ccff;">So, now that we're home and can look back at the week, we thought we'd make a list of things we would maybe do differently (or things we'd definitely do again) for anyone who might be planning a trip...or for ourselves if we go again in the near future. Hindsight is always 20/20, right? </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">So for future reference...</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*September in Orlando is H.O.T. The average high temperature was around 90 degrees while we were there, which is pretty consistent with their monthly average...but the humidity/heat index was terrible. I don't know if that's "normal" or if it was b/c of hurricane Ike, but it was crazy hot! Heat = tired + cranky</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Disney World in September is also fairly crowded. September is usually a slow time for them and I guess in an effort to get more people to vacation at this time, they offer a free dining plan with a booking at some point early on in the year...so many people were there taking advantage of that. Getting reservations for character meals was like pulling teeth. The lines for rides and shows weren't *too* bad, but entertaining 3 small kids for 45 minutes while you just stand there is obviously not ideal. The 10 and 20 minute ride lines quickly became our favorites...and fast passes! </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*8 days/7 nights is too much time at Disney World with 3 small kids. I think Wednesday was the day everyone "hit the wall" and it probably would have been a good idea to leave on the 6th day. The fatigue might have been the reason the kiddos all got sick, they were just worn out...as were the adults. We kept joking that we now need a vacation FROM our vacation. It's a go-go-go kind of trip and shortening it a bit would have probably helped. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Those were the 3 biggest things we would change about a future trip...time of year for weather and crowds and length of the trip. So a January trip for 5 nights sounds like a perfect solution!</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Another thing I would do before our next trip is spend some time on the Disney message boards. </span><a href="http://www.disboards.com/"><span style="color:#33ccff;">http://www.disboards.com/</span></a><span style="color:#33ccff;"> There is some serious information on there, probably more than you would ever want to know about a Mouse theme park. Since it had been so long since I'd been to Disney (2002), it was pretty overwhelming to plan our trip, and visiting this site might have helped (or overwhelmed me more, who knows?). There is a Disney for Families section and I know I'll be browsing it a lot before our next trip. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Other little things that were nuisances but I'm not sure what can be done about them...</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Bus rides. The bus ride to and from the Magic Kingdom seemed like forever. Also there wasn't a "published" bus schedule so you never knew if you had just missed a bus or if one was coming shortly. Always a mystery. The day that Dave, Perry, Ella, and I went to MK, we waited 45 minutes for a bus. And imagine carrying 2 huge bags of stuff, 3 kids, and 2 strollers on and off the bus...no small feat, even with 4 adults. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">-Now that I'm thinking back, we went to the Magic Kingdom 5 days while we were there...that's a lot of bus rides!!! Our easy walk to Epcot, short ferry ride to Hollywood Studios, and short bus ride to Animal Kingdom weren't bad at all though. And like I said above, there's really not much that can be done about this except to stay at 1 of the 3 resorts near Magic Kingdom...but then you'd have a long bus ride to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.<br />-This might be where the argument of going when your kids are older comes in...if you didn't need a diaper bag, changes of clothes, endless snacks and sippy cup refills, and strollers then the bus ride wouldn't be a bother at all ;)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Groceries. We had a nice kitchen in our villa and brought along quite a bit of food, but unfortunately the Market Place in our resort did not have many grocery options for us. We made do...but towards the end of the week, we found out that we could have gotten groceries delivered to us. Without a rental car, we could not get out and shop ourselves...so the grocery delivery would have been great. Next time!</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Changing pace here, these are the things that we will definitely do in the future...</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Advance dining reservations. For sure. No questions. We planned our trip about a month in advance and although we were able to score 3 character meals...it wasn't easy. And they weren't at ideal times nor were they are first preferences. That being said, the Ohana breakfast at the Polynesian and the princess dinner at Akershus Banquet Hall in Norway/Epcot were really good and I would certainly do them again. The breakfast at Cape May was good, but nothing to write home about ;) </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Plan to see more shows. I did not take into account that our kids would enjoy the shows as much, if not more than, the rides. Every show we saw, the kids were mesmerized. The other blog post lists the shows we saw, but there were still a few that we missed. The 3D ones are the best...even though Ella jumps every single time something flies towards her ;)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Go to a waterpark. Our kids are most likely too short to ride many things at the waterparks, but I would still like to visit one with them. I guess I should do some research as to if one is better than the other for the "preschool" crowd. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Take our own strollers. Stroller rentals in the park are around $15/day for a single and $30/day for a double. I was very glad we had our own strollers, although they always get put through the ringer when we gate check them. I do wish we had a sit n stand type stroller though. I think the girls might do well with a platform they could just jump on and off of...although they did fall asleep in their stroller a couple times and wouldn't be able to do that in a sit n stand. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Spend more time at Epcot. Probably not with the kids...but with Dave. It was really nice to be able to just walk right over from our resort. The World Showcase is pretty cool, especially if you can drink your way through the countries. We started to after our princess dinner Sunday night, but stopped short in Morocco when we got the most horrible tasting Habibi daquiris you can imagine. Blech. Steer clear of those if you go! </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Visit Universal Studios. Disney is not really known for its adventurous rides and Dave and I still appreciate them, to a certain degree. We'll admit we are getting older and the jostling effect of wooden roller coasters does not appeal to us as much as it used to, but we do still love a good thrill. I would take an afternoon/evening and go check 1 of their 2 parks out. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Use the Magical Express bus to/from the airport. It was nice not to have to claim our luggage and haul it to a taxi or deal with a rental car. We just waited a short amount of time for a bus and off we went! No carseats needed! Our luggage was brought to our room minutes after we were able to get into them. And we had the most friendly bus driver on the way back to the airport. At 6:30 AM, this guy was really workin' it for tips, but he kept us laughing :)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Stick to my kids' schedule. We have created creatures of habit/structure/routine. They <strong>need</strong> naps at 1 PM and a bedtime at 8 PM. Yes, they can skip naps, take late naps, and stay up late occasionally, but not 7 days in a row. I think by getting up a little earlier (they usually wake at 8) and getting to the parks by 9 AM, we would be able to enjoy a good 4 hours before we would need to head home for naps. And then we could head back to the parks by 5 for the rest of the evening. We maybe wouldn't have to do this every day, but I think it would help tremendously with their moods. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">*Stay on property, get park hopper passes, and do it up right! When you stay on property, you have access to the parks for extra magical hours, free transportation (bus, ferry, monorail), and you can use this super cool card (which is your room key and your park hopper pass) to charge anything and everything to your room!!! Awesome!</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">I'm sure there's much more and as soon as I publish this, I'll think of 10 more things. I'll add them in later if that happens ;) I hope this helps someone with their travel plans. And feel free to ask me any questions if you have one that was not covered here... </span><a href="mailto:amberrogan@yahoo.com"><span style="color:#33ccff;">amberrogan@yahoo.com</span></a><span style="color:#33ccff;"> </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Thanks for reading!!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-34461516055752074162008-09-21T14:29:00.005-05:002008-09-21T14:50:21.994-05:00Disney Details<span style="color:#33ccff;">We're back!<br /><br />I'm planning to make a couple different posts about our trip, but in this one I'll focus on the details of our trip. We went Saturday to Saturday, leaving St Louis on a 7 AM flight and arriving at our resort (by way of the Magical Express bus) around noon. We chose the Beach Club Villas b/c they had 1 bedroom villas with kitchens and a pretty cool pool area. We had planned on not being able to get into our rooms until 3 or 4 PM, so we packed our swimsuits in our carry ons and headed to the sand-bottom pools. Ella and Luca enjoyed the "beach" very much, but Perry still hates sand so she floated in her innertube without putting her feet on the ground ;)<br /><br />We got into our room around 3:30 PM, threw the kids in the tub to get the sand off of them, and put them down for a nap. Around 6 PM, we headed to the Magic Kingdom b/c we thought there was a parade at 8 PM and fireworks at 9 PM, but they were really at 9 and 10 PM. We stayed for the parade (and rode a couple rides while waiting) and then went home. In retrospect, we should have stayed in that night and rested since we were in the car and on our way to the airport by 5 AM that day, but what are ya gonna do?<br /><br />Sunday we had breakfast at the Polynesian with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto. We rode a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then took the monorail to the resort. All the kids enjoyed the breakfast VERY much. They absolutely adored all the characters and the girls and I marched in the "parade" too. We headed to the Magic Kingdom afterwards and were able to fit in a few rides before the crankiness set in. Instead of fighting it, we decided to go back to the room and get a quick nap in b/c Dave, the girls, and I had reservations for dinner that night. We were able to walk to Epcot from our resort, but of course our restaurant (Akershus Banquet Hall) was in Norway, which was on the opposite side of the world showcase from where we entered. After a bit of a wait in the hot sun, we were ushered in to meet Belle...and Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Ariel were circulating throughout the restaurant as well. The girls were in heaven and instantly fell in love with "Sipper Bella" (aka Cinderella). After dinner, we walked through a bit of the world showcase and then headed home. We found out that night that we could see the Epcot fireworks from our balconies...very cool!<br /><br />Monday we headed to Animal Kingdom. There isn't a whole lot to ride there, but we rode a few things and saw a very cool Nemo show and the Bug's Life 3D show. We headed back to Epcot that night (after naps) and saw the IllumiNations show at 9 PM. It started to drizzle a bit at the end and then turned into a full-on downpour on us. Fortunately, that was the only rain of the week, even though they were forecasting t-storms every day.<br /><br />Tuesday we cancelled our plans to go to the waterpark and just hung out at the pool again. We thought it was important to get good naps in this day b/c we had tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that evening from 7 PM to 12 AM. The girls dressed up as princesses, Snow White and Belle...although they both thought they were Cinderella ;) We were able to ride quite a bit that night b/c there were not many people there. Dave and I rode Space Mountain twice in about a 15 minute time period. We stayed for a 10:30 PM parade and then rode the Haunted Mansion ride (which had been closed earlier in the night) and then headed home.<br /><br />Wednesday we slept in and then took the ferry to MGM (which is now called Disney's Hollywood Studios). Kind of similar to Animal Kingdom in that there isn't much to ride, but they loved the shows. We tried to make it to a 3 PM Block Party Bash (parade) but only caught the tail end of it. This was the day that everyone pretty much hit the wall...heat exhaustion, crankiness, and fatigue caught up with all of us. We spent the evening in that night to try to rest up for the next 2 days. And unfortunately, all 3 kids caught a 24-36 hour fever/virus while we were there. Perry was sick on Tuesday/Wednesday and Ella and Luca were sick on Thursday/Friday. We think Luca's might have been teething-related, but aren't sure.<br /><br />Thursday we had breakfast at Cape May at our resort with Goofy, Minnie, and Chip. Luca missed most of it b/c he wasn't feeling well and then he spent the rest of the day sleeping in our room with Grandma and Grandpa. Dave and I took the girls back to Magic Kingdom and tried to finish up all the rides/shows we wanted to do/see. We came home around 3 PM and spent the evening in since everyone was still feeling under the weather.<br /><br />Friday we decided to skip the waterpark again and go back to Magic Kingdom. We rode the train from the front of the park to Toon Town and then did a meet and greet with Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty. The girls were so cute chatting with each of the princesses. Cinderella asked if the mice helped make P&E's dresses and the other 2 princesses asked a few questions too. Ella did most of the talking...I think Perry was too in awe to say anything. We were able to ride a few more things and then had to head home to rest. We ended up staying in again to pack up for our plane ride home the next day. We had to be packed up and down in the lobby by 6:30 AM.<br /><br />That's pretty much the gist of our trip. As far as rides and shows, here's what we did...<br /><br /><strong>Magic Kingdom:</strong><br />Tomorrowland Transit Authority<br />Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin<br />Space Mountain (not the kids)<br />Indy Speedway<br />Goofy's Barnstormer Roller Coaster<br />Snow White's Scary Adventures<br />It's A Small World<br />Dumbo the Flying Elephant<br />Peter Pan's Flight<br />The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh<br />The Haunted Mansion<br />Magic Carpets of Aladdin<br />Jungle Cruise<br />Pirates of the Caribbean<br />WDW Railroad<br /><br />Shows:<br />Mickey's PhilharMagic<br />Monsters Inc Laugh Floor<br />Enchanted Tiki Room<br /><br />Parades:<br />SpectroMagic Parade<br />Boo to You Halloween Parade<br /><br /><strong>Epcot:</strong><br />The Seas with Nemo and Friends<br />World Showcase<br /><br />IllumiNations fireworks show<br /><br /><strong>Hollywood Studios:</strong><br />Toy Story Mania<br />Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area<br /><br />Shows:<br />Voyage of the Little Mermaid<br />Muppet Vision 3D<br /><br />Parade:<br />Block Party Bash<br /><br /><strong>Animal Kingdom:</strong><br />Kilimanjaro Safari<br />TriceraTop Spin<br /><br />Shows:<br />Finding Nemo the Musical<br />It's Tough to be a Bug<br /><br />Parade:<br />Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade<br /><br /><br />Stay tuned for more posts on Disney!!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-5526408373226587762008-09-04T12:21:00.003-05:002008-09-04T12:53:36.287-05:00Weather, Disney, and Updates<span style="color:#00cccc;">Looks like Gustav, Hanna, and Ike are causing a stir in more than just the SW coastal states. Can you believe this weather (if you're in St Louis)? Low 70s/high 60s...and ALL THIS RAIN!?!? I'm not ready for summer to be over yet but the 10 day forecast only calls for highs in the mid to high 70s. Weird. </span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">I would say at least we get to escape it in a couple weeks and go to Orlando, but who knows what the weather will be like down there in the middle of all these hurricanes? Eek! </span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">Yup, like the website says, we're going to Disney World!! Grandma and Grandpa Bast will be making the trip with us. We're staying at the Beach Club Villas so we'll be a bus ride from Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, a ferry ride from MGM (or Disney/Hollywood Studios), and a walk from Epcot. We have 2 character meals planned (a breakfast at the Polynesian with Lilo, Stitch, and Mickey...and a dinner in Epcot with the princesses). The kids seem to love all the characters we've come in contact with at Worlds of Fun and Six Flags so we're assuming they'll love the Disney characters as well. </span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">We've got park hopper passes for all the days we are there and we should hit each park at least once. So far we've planned to go to Animal Kingdom, MGM, Blizzard Beach, and Typhoon Lagoon once each...probably 3-4 trips to the Magic Kingdom, and 2 trips to Epcot. Maybe we'll get to visit Downtown Disney or Universal Studios as well. It's starting to sound like one of those vacations you need a vacation from when you get home!! Hopefully the kids will make due with napping in the strollers if they're tired or early bedtimes, but we're prepared to come back to the room in the afternoons for naps if needed.</span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">In other news, P&E are doing very well at preschool. No word on if we'll get transferred to the Dardenne Prairie location anytime soon. I think Perry has already made quite the impression on one little boy...his mom told me that when we all got out of the car in the parking lot, he said "There's Perry!" Oddly enough, I don't think P&E have a clue who any of the other kids are, but I could be wrong. </span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">They are definitely talking A LOT more now. Everyone who sees them comments on how much more they are saying. But I'm starting to understand why some parents told me to be careful what I wish for. I'm glad they're talking, don't get me wrong, but is it really necessary to repeat something overandoverandoverandoverandover again?? Oy vey.</span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">Gymnastics class ended a couple weeks ago. I don't think we'll be enrolling in anything else for now. We have a credit at the rec center from the dance class that P&E got "kicked out" of so we can use that towards open swim. I might do a swim class with Luca at the Y, but probably not till later in the season. The kids seem to like going to the Y childwatch so if we do that 1-2 times/week plus P&E's preschool 2 mornings/week, I think we're covered in the activity department for now. The girls can start soccer and/or basketball when they turn 3, so we'll see!</span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">Luca is doing well...getting teeth constantly. He has his 1 year molars, but still no canines on top and no lateral incisors or canines on bottom. So I'm sure some of those are starting to make their way to the gums. He has actually bitten (that doesn't sound right...sorry to the grammar police!) me on 2 different occasions. Mommy is NOT a teether!!! He's also had some nightwakings, which are not fun when you're used to 3 kids who sleep 11+ hours through the night. But he's cute as all get out and Dave and I think he's very smart for his age. He will follow verbal instuctions pretty well, he knows P&E apart (don't ask me how), and he repeats lots of words (the 2 newest are pepper and Ella). </span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#00cccc;">Well, everyone is asleep in the Rogan house. Luca actually went down at 10 AM b/c he woke up at 6 AM, so I'm expecting him up any minute now (it's almost 1)...which is ironic b/c P&E just went to sleep. Ha!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-81474105147561769392008-08-18T14:50:00.002-05:002008-08-18T15:04:35.741-05:001st day of school<span style="color:#33ccff;">Today was P&E's first day of preschool at United Services. They did VERY well...thanks to a year at Parents Day Out. We walked in, put their backpacks in their cubbies, I took Ella to the potty (she wears panties now), and said goodbye. Perry seemed a little sad for a second...I think it was because Ella and I disappeared to the bathroom for awhile...but she cheered up again when I suggested she go color with Ella. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Their schedule for the day is as follows:<br /></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">9-9:20 - Arrival</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">9:20-9:35 - Opening (sing a song, go over the schedule for the day, etc)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">9:35-9:45 - Fitness </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">9:45-9:55 - Small group activity (centers)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">9:55-10:10 - Snack</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">10:10-10:30 - Outside time</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">10:30-10:45 - Story</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">10:45-11:35 - Activity time (trampoline and finger painting)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">11:35-11:55 - Music and movement</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">12 - Dismissal</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">What a busy day! Their teachers are Miss Patty, Miss Natalie, and Miss Sue and they send home a weekly news bulletin which explains all the activities and skills they work on for the week. Seems very nice...but we are very much hoping to be transferred to the Dardenne Prairie location for convenience. Luca and I just barely had time to run to Super Wal-Mart and drop off the groceries at home before we had to go pick them up again!</span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Tomorrow is the girls' last day of summer PDO. We had considered putting all 3 kiddos there on Tuesdays throughout the year, but decided to go with preschool instead. So this will be their last time at FBCH (First Baptist Church of Harvester). Kind of sad :( But I have no doubts that this is the right thing for them. So we'll say goodbye to Miss Jamie and Miss Anita.</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-51650078116653039542008-07-24T16:38:00.003-05:002008-07-24T18:54:41.058-05:00The busy life of a SAHM to 3 kiddos ;)<span style="color:#33ffff;">It's Thursday and I'm pooped. Seriously. Exhausted. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">It's been a very busy, exciting week for us...but I can't help but wonder if it's the anemia. One of the many *fun* things about celiac is that anemia can accompany it. I *should* be taking 1 million grams of iron/day says Dr Zafar. I *am* taking 0 grams of iron/day. I mean, c'mon...the #1 side effect of iron pills is constipation. I'm a GI patient and you want me to take something that's gonna interfere with that system?!? Yeah, not gonna happen. BUT...I'm really starting to consider it to get some energy back.</span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">Anyway, here's our busy week in rundown form...</span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">MONDAY - YMCA day. I go to Zumba aerobics class while the kids play in the child care. They absolutely love it. The girls color and do other "big kid" projects while Luca explores and plays with all sorts of new toys. When I came to pick them up this week, Luca turned the other way when he saw me b/c he wanted to keep playing. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">TUESDAY - PDO day. P&E went to PDO while Luca and I went to United Services to drop off P&E's forms for preschool enrollment and then we headed to Super Wal-Mart for grocery shopping. Doubled back to pick up P&E and headed home. I also have pilates on Tuesday nights, but as much as I dread it the entire day...I really do enjoy it. Plus our class went out for cocktails afterwards. The way I felt that night and the next morning confirmed that I am too old for mid-week partying ;)</span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">WEDNESDAY - Grandma Rogan day. Grandma came to sit with baby Luca while I took P&E to the free movie again. We saw The Bee Movie with Kelly and Jakob. Then the girls and I walked across the parking lot to Red Robin for lunch. We had a balloon incident on the way out. Let's just say, 1 floating away and 1 popped balloon later, we were on our way home. I also got the distinct pleasure of helping Aunt Angela register for her baby (due in November) that evening, which was great fun, but walking around BRU all night wore me out and I'm not even pregnant!</span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">THURSDAY - Grandma Bast day. Grandma came to sit with Luca while P&E and I were supposed to go to the Tot Swim at Wapelhorst Park in St Peters, but the weather had other ideas. With a couple phone calls to Kelly and Jakob, we changed our venue to Monkey Joe's. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"><em>Enter exhaustion.</em> </span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">TOMORROW - YMCA day again. We'll go for gymnastics class at 9:30 and then see where the day/weather takes us. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">WEEKEND - Most likely a trip to Six Flags. And then it all starts over again. :) </span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">Maybe it's not the anemia? Maybe it's just life with 3 kids?</span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">Whatever it is, I'm very thankful to be this exhausted b/c it means I have kids to love. Kids who are healthy, active, energetic, and fun. Not everyone is this lucky.</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-3819624136294986882008-07-18T22:41:00.003-05:002008-07-18T22:49:33.189-05:00Six Flags by the Numbers<span style="color:#66ffff;">Times we've been to Six Flags this summer: 3</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Routes we've taken to get there or back: 3</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Fastest route thus far: 44 to 141 to 40 - 40 minutes</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Degrees: Low 90s</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Train rides: 3 (2 little kid train rides + 1 big train ride)</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Carousel rides: 3 (2 little kid carousel rides + 1 big carousel ride)</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Rides ridden: 9</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Times we filled up our $1 refill cup: 2</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Funnel cakes eaten: 1</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Frozen lemonades eaten: 1</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Times Ella used the potty: 3</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Times Perry needed her diaper changed: 3</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Times Luca needed his diaper changed: 1</span><br /><span style="color:#66ffff;">Happy/exhausted kids: 3</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-42642160564437098932008-07-18T13:46:00.002-05:002008-07-18T13:56:01.824-05:00Gymnastics and Hemangiomas<span style="color:#33ccff;">We started gymnastics class at the Y today. It's P&E's 2nd time (we took them when I was pregnant with Luca in January/February 2007) and Luca's 1st time. They all seemed to enjoy it. P&E are much more "masterful" (if that's a word) on the equipment. I was able to snap a few pics, so look for those on the website in the next day or 2. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">After gymnastics, we had to hightail it to Creve Coeur for an appointment with a new pediatric doc for Perry's hemangioma. I called Dr. Hagan's office a few weeks ago about doing a follow up appt and the secretary said they are no longer doing pediatric plastics there, so we were referred to Dr Borschel at Children's. Luckily, they have a west county office so we didn't have to go all the way in to Children's. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">Anyway, we took in some pictures of when the hemangioma was at its worst and he took pictures of the pictures and new pictures of her hand today. He agreed that there seems to be some loose skin and discoloration still, but otherwise feels that the steroid treatments worked wonders. The solutions to the 2 "issues" though are 1) laser treatment that would require her to be under anesthesia for a few minutes with no down time and it would hopefully help the pink color to go away, and 2) surgery to remove the excess skin which would leave her in a splint for a couple weeks. </span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#33ccff;">While we don't feel either option is *neccessary*, we are definitely keeping them in mind. I'd hate for her to wish that we had done something...if it ends up bothering her down the road. And in my experience in working with kids, they do notice even the smallest things. We'll see. Nice to have options.</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-51008213121135908402008-07-16T22:47:00.002-05:002008-07-16T22:50:47.383-05:00New Look<span style="font-family:lucida grande;color:#33ffff;">Just wanted to say that I revamped our blog site. I realized it didn't include Luca in it...after almost 15 months :) And hopefully this will be the start of more frequent blogging. </span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;color:#33ffff;">AND...Ella stayed completely dry again today! I think this is the 3rd day in a row! We even had an outing today...a movie date with Kelly & Jakob and a trip to Wal-Mart/Subway. She used the public potties twice and stayed dry (with a pull up). </span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;color:#33ffff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;color:#33ffff;">Tonight I told her to try her best to keep her night time diaper dry. We'll see how it goes!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-24530641371108269782008-07-15T21:10:00.003-05:002008-07-16T22:46:09.682-05:00Ella's Potty Training Update<span style="color:#66ffff;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Ella is doing SO well with the potty training, I thought it deserved another blog entry!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So I posted last Thursday that we had one pee accident. About an hour later, we had a poo accident and I think that was the turning point that we needed. It was pretty upsetting for her but I think it helped her realize how important it is to keep her panties dry and clean. It was naptime so I put a diaper on her, but after her nap, she was very good about telling us when she needed to go potty and no more accidents. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">On Friday, we picked up where we left off but we had a small poo accident. Saturday and Sunday had one pee accident each day. But Monday and Tuesday, no accidents!!! And today, they went to PDO. I put a pull up on her but she kept it dry and she used the little toilet there 3 times! Woo hoo!! She was dry after her nap too. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Hopefully she'll keep that up for the rest of the week and we can go to panties all the time during the days! And I think we'll be able to get rid of the night time diaper soon after that.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Oh and we started using Smarties candies as a reward for pottying, but then it got to the point where she was going ALL the time to get candy...and of course Perry and Luca wanted some too ;) So we moved onto a sticker/chart reward system. Luca and I visited the dollar store today and picked up some "prizes". Good thing b/c she filled up her upstairs chart today. She picked the "red" present, which was a Strawberry Shortcake figurine. It wasn't easy explaining to Perry why Ella got a present and she didn't, but somehow, we managed. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Stay tuned!</span></span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-33591145630749725822008-07-10T11:38:00.005-05:002008-07-10T12:33:49.932-05:00Summer Summary<span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">I feel bad when I don't blog, but then I think about the fact that no one probably reads this anyway :) I promise to do better. In the meantime, here is a summary of our summer thus far:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Vacations...</span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We went to Pensacola, FL for a week with Dave's family and to Kansas City, MO for about 5 days for Dave's cousin Justin's wedding. I'm sure you all saw the pictures so there's not much to recap on those trips, except that I am SO thankful that P&E actually walked down the aisle :) Woo hoo!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We would like to take another trip sometime in August - October, but we're not sure. We priced out a week at Beaches Turks & Caicos for the low low price of $12K...uh, that's not gonna happen. Club Med is an option since they are geared towards families as well. We'll see. Of course Dave would like to go somewhere sans kiddos. Dream on hubby ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Appointments...</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">In my last blog entry I said no more appts for the girls until age 3, but then I called to check in with Perry's plastic surgeon (for her hemangioma on her hand) and they are no longer seeing hand patients, so we've been transferred to a new doc at Children's. So of course he wants to see her to do an "assessment" so to speak. Shouldn't be a big deal, I think it is healing quite nicely.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Ella's ortho appt went well. They did x-rays and had her walk around and she was such a big girl! I was so proud of her. She IS knock-kneed (and that's the medical term) but not to the point of it being a concern right now. He said it may get worse before age 3 but then she should start to *straighten* out. He does want to see her next year though to check in with us...which is good. And he said Crocs are a great shoe b/c of their supportive arches...sweet!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Luca has his 15 month appt coming up at the end of this month and we need to get him in with the pediatric GI doc to do the celiac blood test. Not that we think he has it, but they recommended all the kids be tested since I have it. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">School...</span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We got put on the waitlist at United Services but they said they don't think they'll have 2 openings before school starts...so we got recommended to the Saint Peters branch. It's a lot further than I wanted to drive, so we're not sure what we'll do. For now, P&E are still at PDO in Harvester (for the summer) and are registered for the year as well, but we'll see. They have a preschool there too, but most schools want kids to be 3 by August 1st and unfortunately, we're not. :(</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Oh and a cute story from PDO. I asked if P&E play with other kids or if they gravitate towards each other all the time and the teachers said they do a little of both. They have the kids hold hands to walk to the playground and the teachers have been making an effort to get P&E to hold other kids' hands, but on the way back in that day, Ella grabbed Perry's hand and when the teacher came over, she said "I hold Perry's hand"...and that was that :) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Activities...</span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We are now official members at the YMCA here in O'Fallon. In addition to becoming members, I signed up for an aerobics class and signed all 3 kids up for a gymnastics class. They can all go together b/c it's 12-36 months. We'll get discounts on classes for the kids now and a lot of the aerobics classes are free, along with the nursery/child watch. So maybe P&E will be back in dance class soon?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We are also season pass holders at Six Flags. After our great experience at Worlds of Fun, we thought we'd give it a whirl. It's fun, but not as kid-oriented as WoF was. Dave and I hadn't been in years so it took us awhile to get reacquainted with the park. The kids' area is very spread out too. And I forgot how hilly it is...pushing 2 strollers and 3 kids around is quite the work out. Maybe we don't need that Y membership?? LOL!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Talking...</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">The girls are talking more and more, which is great! They know lots of colors...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, black, gray, and khaki! Yup, khaki! And it is SO cute to hear them say it. Ella loves the number 2. Everything is 2. 2 trucks mommy? 2 monkeys mommy? 2. 2. 2. Of course we hear a lot of grunts, groans, and moans still too. It's a process.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Luca still mumbles "da da" all day long, but occasionally if you ask him to say things, he will repeat you. Especially "dog" and "no". And he's working on molars right now so he's a big drooly mess ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Potty training...</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Yup, we've started. Today is actually the first official day. Ella is in big girl panties. I decided Perry's not quite as ready as Ella is, so Perry is in a holding pattern right now. She'll wear pull ups occasionally and her big girl panties OVER her diaper/pull up and she'll watch Ella in the bathroom, but no potty training for her yet. Ella has gone pee on the potty about 5 out of 7 or 8 times. The other times, she says she needs to go, but really doesn't. I figured as much. We just had our first accident. It was about 5-10 minutes before I was going to have her try again and she went...in her panties, in her shorts, down her legs, in her sandals, on the carpet. Of course it couldn't be the tile or the deck. Ah well. At least the first accident is out of the way. I thought for sure she'd be upset about it which would work to our advantage, but she wasn't. So we'll give this whole thing a few more days and see how it pans out. If it turns out that she's not ready, so be it. Cuz Mommy's certainly not ready ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">I think that's about it on our end. I won't dare say that we're not exciting, b/c every minute of every day is a thrill ride. Till next time!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-424201149246731342008-05-19T15:27:00.005-05:002008-05-19T16:17:39.340-05:00So busy...As you can imagine, life with 3 mobile toddlers does not leave much time to blog. I do keep the website updated though...which I'm sure is most important to all our "fans" out there :) Anyway, quick recap of the last 3 months...<br /><br />No more major sicknesses, thank goodness! Ella had what appeared to be a 4 hour stomach bug in the middle of the night a few weeks ago and both girls ran fevers this past weekend, but other than that...pretty healthy. Knock on wood. <br /><br />Luca just had his 12 month appt and is still growing growing growing. He's thinning out though, at 97th percentile for height and only 75th percentile for weight. Still has "Albert Pujols" thighs though...big and meaty. Ha ha. <br /><br />No doctor's appts for the girls until age 3, but we do need to get them to a dentist sometime this year. Of course I'm in NO hurry to do that. Eek. Ella has an appt with an orthopedic doctor this week b/c we noticed she was standing on the insides of her feet. I don't know if she always does that or if it's something that will require shoe inserts or what? So we're going, just to be safe. <br /><br />I had a GI doc appt last week and all is well with that. My last glutening was on our vacation in Vegas. My iron is still really really low, but stubborn lady that I am...I still won't take my iron pills. Who wants to be constipated?? Not me. I have enough bowel issues, thank you very much.<br /><br />No news in the preschool/PDO department. Luca and I will be touring United Services tomorrow while P&E are at PDO, and if we like it, we'll put P&E on the waitlist for their Young 3 Preschool program for the fall. I'm sure the chances of getting 2 spots are slim to none, but we'll see. We also need to stop by the Dardenne Presbyterian Church and check out their PDO and preschool. We have spots where we are now, but it's a 20-25 minute drive which means Luca and I spend a good hour and a half to 2 hours driving back and forth every Tuesday. Not ideal.<br /><br />P&E tried a new dance class at the rec center. It's for 30 to I think 48 month olds. The difference was the price...and the very important factor of "no parents allowed in class". Yeah, you can imagine, P&E did NOT do well. I ended up going in with them for most of the 1st class and then the teacher brought them out to us after 5 minutes in the 2nd class. She said they weren't ready, which I totally agree...but in their defense, while I was in the room during the 1st class, I did not think she was very good with the kids. Probably very good at dancing...just not good with toddlers. We got a pro-rated credit towards open swim or other classes there at the rec center. Good enough.<br /><br />The verbal explosion has finally occurred. They are talking a lot...still whining a lot, but talking a lot as well. Perry says "AL-LAH, WHEREAREYOU?" all the time. They still call Luca "Uckey", poor guy. Riesy sounds like "Eesey". They say all the colors and know them *most* of the time. Occasionally we get some 2-3 word sentences and questions. It's very cool.<br /><br />Luca has turned into a toddler all of a sudden. He started walking about 2 weeks ago and is very quick. He doesn't listen to "no", just turns around and flashes a big toothy grin (6 teeth now). He eats "big boy" foods, usually what Dave and I eat, but also some "baby/toddler" foods too. Cheese crackers are his absolute favorite. He's been on milk for a month or so but still uses a bottle. He'll drink from a sippy cup, but we're not pushing it right now. <br /><br />If the weather would ever get and stay nice, we'd be outside nonstop. Our new deck was finished in late April and we couldn't be happier with it. Love it as much, if not more, than the basement. It's wonderful! For now, we can open the door and the kids go in and out as they please. I'm sure once it gets hotter, we won't be able to do that. The backyard neighbor kids love coming to play with the "babies" still. They are always amazed when P&E talk. <br /><br />Our Vegas trip was a BLAST. Loved every second of it, except the 6 or so hours I was sick. But even with that, it was a great trip. We're headed to Pensacola, FL in June (6-13) and then Kansas City, MO for a wedding June 18-22. Hoping for another trip in August/September, but we'll see. <br /><br />Have a great summer!The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-76690257391612572682008-02-25T09:42:00.002-06:002008-02-25T10:07:38.649-06:00February Follow Up<span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Hello! Well, 2008 has not proved to be a healthier year so far :( Dave brought home the flu in mid-January, then Luca and I got it about a week later. Perry had our first ever ear infection and Ella ran a fever one night and had a bit of a cough, but otherwise, the girls stayed clear of the flu. Poor Luca was too young for Tamiflu so it lingered around for him the longest...he was out of sorts for close to 2 weeks. Everyone is relatively healthy now though. Not sure which is worse, the flu or the stomach bug. At least we didn't have to clean up puke though ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">My new GI doc agreed with the celiac diagnosis and I confirmed it by accidentally having some sugar cookie with P&E at Barnes & Noble. I was nauseous almost immediately and spent the next 6 hours in a food poisoining state. Since then, I have been feeling very good though. I had a follow up with my original GI (who I will be staying with) and my iron was low again. Of course I'm not taking my supplements like I should be...whoops.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">I registered the girls for "summer school"...they will continue with their PDO class through August. We're hoping to get spots at Dardenne Presbyterian for next year. It's a similar program but will only take about 5 minutes to get to as opposed to the 25-30 it takes us to get to Harvester. They also have a preschool, so eventually P&E can do that while Luca goes to PDO. We're gonna wait awhile to start Luca. The girls were 22 months old when they started and they had each other. Luca won't be 22 months until March of 2009 and he'll be all by his lonesome. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">The girls enjoyed their dance class at the YMCA. They spent the first 2 classes pretty much just running around in circles, but towards the end of the session they were following the teacher. Ella more so than Perry. Our last class was cancelled b/c of the weather and I think we're gonna hold off on anymore dancing until they're 3 and can take it at the rec center where it's half the price. Unless we make a few trips to Great Aunt Carole's studio in Bethalto. We start swim class this Saturday anyway...so I'm sure they won't miss dance too much. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">We bought some preschool prep videos to help the girls learn their colors, numbers, and letters. During the 2nd viewing of Meet the Colors, Ella was identifying and repeating almost all of the colors. I have a feeling Perry knows them too, but was more interested in eating (we watched it during breakfast). She's my silent learner ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">They definitely have a twin language b/t the 2 of them. They are VERY verbal lately, but it's mostly "jibberish". "USE YOUR WORDS" is the most common phrase said in this house. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Luca is crawling!! He only army crawls but he can definitely get around. Perry and Ella eat breakfast and lunch in booster seats on the floor in the bonus room, so he is quite the annoyance to them when they're trying to eat. He has also interrupted craft time and puzzle time. Good thing he's so cute :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">He is also expanding his eating habits. He's eating Puffs and Cheerios (picking them up himself) and has tried and liked a few different types of baby food lately...veggie chicken, sweet potatoes and corn, a tropical mix of guava/mango/banana, and pear/raspberry. He also eats YoBaby yogurt and tried diced peaches last night. We'll probably start giving him milk in a sippy cup within the next couple weeks. Such a big boy!!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">The basement was finished up in mid-January and while we were all home with the flu, we moved most of the toys down there. It is very nice to have a place, away from the rest of the house, to keep all the toys...and the girls enjoy going down there. We still have some things in the upstairs bonus room, but it definitely looks more like a living room now instead of a playroom. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">We are going to Las Vegas at the end of March, with Grandma and Grandpa Bast. We're staying at the Signature MGM which has suites with bedrooms and kitchens...and several pools. We're hoping it's warm enough to go swimming once or twice (most the pools are heated) and maybe take a gondola ride or a trip up in the Eiffel Tower. Lots of animals to see too!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-52769867140108913932008-01-10T13:16:00.001-06:002008-01-10T13:46:02.231-06:00The neglectful blogger<span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">I cannot believe it has been nearly 3 months since I last blogged. That is unacceptable!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Since our last post, I think we had another round of the stomach bug...me included. That makes a total of FOUR times for 2007. Let's hope 2008 is a healthier year. I'm also seeing a new GI doctor to help figure out my ongoing digestive issues. He is requesting my records from my previous GI doc and had my liver enzymes re-tested...I should hear something back by tomorrow or early next week. Besides a sinus infection (me) and some runny/stuffy noses (the kids), we have been relatively healthy the last month. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">The girls had 2 weeks off of PDO for Christmas break and Dave was also off for 2 weeks. We had Christmas with both families on the 23rd and 24th and celebrated at our house on the 25th, had a delayed Rogan get together on the 31st, New Years Day at Great Grandma Teppie's, and a birthday party on the 5th. With all the events, Daddy being home, and chaos...the lack of routine has done a number on the kids. We are just starting to get back to "normal" around here...and Ella is having the most trouble with her naps and bedtime. I hear her bouncing around in her crib, talking to her dollies as I type this...about 1 hour after I laid them down for nap. Perry and Luca are both sawing logs. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">P&E are starting to talk a lot more. They are grouping words together, picking up new words, understanding what we ask or tell them...but still grunting and getting frustrated as well. 2 is a hard age. On the other hand, they are both very physically inclined and are taking their first dance class later this afternoon. Tap and ballet. They loved tapping around on the bathroom floor last night ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Luca got his first tooth on his 8 month birthday, after what seemed like months of teething. He is out of his infant carseat...we measured him at around 29 inches over Christmas break. Not sure of his weight, but I'd guess close to 25 pounds?? He's still miraculously in mostly 6-9 or 6-12 month clothing though, so he can't be *too* huge. He's been a better eater lately, although squash and banana are his favorites...not together. He has also tried a few Puffs from his sisters..and stolen a few sips out of their sippy cups. I suppose getting him off the bottles won't be as hard as it was for his sissies. Luca can roll to his left and right now, but doesn't seem to roll from his belly to back...he gets stuck and then becomes very angry! This results in some sleep issues. No crawling yet either, which surprises me. He's still very easy going, although he's had some cranky moments with the teething. I remember Perry being like that too while teething. We could never tell when Ella was teething because she was cranky all the time...LOL!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Our schedule is quickly filling up and makes me wonder what it will be like when they are all older with 3 (or perhaps 4 or 5) different classes, sports, recitals, lessons, etc. We have PDO on Tuesdays (Luca and I took a swim class in November/December on Tuesdays and Thursdays and may sign up for another one), dance class on Thursdays, and have started going to story time at the library on Fridays. The girls are registered for a Saturday swim class starting in March since January and February are Daddy's busy months. We may sign up for gymnastics at the Y again after dance class ends. Luca will be eligible at 12 months...but maybe we can sneak him in a little early since he's so big ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Not much else to report except that we are anxiously awaiting the completion of the basement and new playroom. It will be nice to de-clutter the house and move most of the toys down there, not to mention put away all our Christmas decorations :) Our bonus room (current playroom) carpet is in desperate need of a professional cleaning and we will be able to re-claim the room as a bonus/living room. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Till next time!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-40616747009937733832007-10-18T10:21:00.000-05:002007-10-18T10:59:50.574-05:00Busy Busy BusySo much going on that I never feel like I have time to sit down and adequately get all my thoughts together for the blog. I'm starting this on a Thursday morning...will be interesting to see when it finally gets published :) <br /><br />P&E had to miss PDO 2 weeks in a row due to sickness. Perry had diarrhea and Ella had a sniffly nose the first week...then Luca ended up with diarrhea too. When I got it, my first thought was that I had been glutened but when Ella got it too, we realized it was the stomach bug. So we stayed home a 2nd week. They've been back at PDO for 3 weeks now and have cried every time I drop them off. They settle down pretty easily but it's heart wrenching to see them upset. They are always very happy when I pick them up so I'm sure they're having a good time. <br /><br />By the way, if you're keeping track, this is the THIRD TIME we've had the stomach bug this year. Ugh.<br /><br />Luca is doing well. He is about 5.5 months old now and close to 20 pounds, 28 inches (according to our measurements at home). He is in the 90th percentiles for both...he's a big guy. We started giving him rice cereal once/day now (sometimes at breakfast, sometimes at dinner) because he had a few nights where he was waking up 1-2 times. We thought maybe his little belly wasn't getting full enough from the formula. Sure enough, it worked. He has gone back to sleeping through the night the last 4 nights. Yay! And he is also drinking much less formula which is a good thing.<br /><br />He's rolling over...only to the right side. He *almost* rolled to the left the other day, but didn't quite get all the way over. He's also sitting up pretty well...can sit for a few minutes before toppling over. He's a happy baby, not much seems to upset him. Hopefully that doesn't make for a difficult toddler ;) <br /><br />P&E have changed so much in the last few months. They both have grown a ton of hair, Perry's is slowly but surely filling in and growing out. They are also talking a lot more now. I made a list of the words they can say about 3 weeks ago and there were 50 words on it! Of course some of those aren't very clear (ga ga for grandma, ba for bath) but we know what they mean and that makes it easier to communicate with them. Ella has recently started saying "no" and "um hm" for yes...very cute. They are also working on using utensils with dinner and have been using "big girl" plates (Backyardigans) for awhile now. They use a spork to eat their veggies and pasta and a spoon to eat applesauce and yogurt. Ella is pretty good with it but Perry still turns it upside down right before she gets it to her mouth. They still LOVE The Backyardigans...as a matter of fact that is going to be their birthday party theme. The countdown is on...less than 3 weeks until they are 2! <br /><br />We've been to the Zoo, Grant's Farm, and Gymboree lately. We need to get to the pumpkin patch soon but this warm weather kind of puts a damper on fall activities. Maybe this weekend. <br /><br />Speaking of Halloween, we have our costumes all figured out. We originally bought P&E a scarecrow and lion costume from BRU with the hopes of finding Luca a tinman outfit. No luck. So back to the store went the scarecrow and lion in exchange for a pea pod costume for Luca. We were given princess outfits by our neighbors when the girls were born and even though the dresses are 6-12 months, they still fit the girls pretty well. So they will be princesses and Luca will be the pea. Dave doesn't know this fairy tale so he was a bit confused :) <br /><br />We're having the kitchen and laundry room floors tiled next week so we'll be without a washer/dryer and kitchen for about 3 days. Not looking forward to that, but we'll manage. Guess if we have an emergency (i.e. Luca poop explosion), we can always use the neighbors washer/dryer. <br /><br />Speaking of our neighbors, a new family moved in behind us this past January. They have 3 children...Dylan (11), Lindsay (8), and Brady (5). Our next door neighbors have 2 children...Riley (8) and Leighton (5). The 4 youngest ones have been playing with P&E out in the backyards and P&E just love the attention and playing with the "big kids". The 2 boys actually came knocking on our back door one night asking if the "babies" could come out and play. I smiled to myself thinking, "this started soon...the boys have come knocking on the door already". Another family behind us is moving so hopefully we will get some new neighbors with young kids. And hopefully they don't put a fence up. We have thought several times about fencing in our yard but having such a big open space with 4 yards to run around in is pretty nice. <br /><br />Well, it's actually still Thursday morning and I'm about to publish this post. Guess I underestimated my ability to blog ;) Till next time!The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-20872282256086390092007-09-12T07:14:00.000-05:002007-09-12T09:04:28.219-05:00Perry & Ella Go To School!<span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">I mentioned P&E going to school on the website and have gotten a lot of questions about it, so here are some answers: They are in a Parents Day Out (PDO) program at First Baptist Church of Harvester off of 94. It is every Tuesday and I drop them off at 9 AM and pick them up at 2:30 PM. We're calling it "school", but it's not a formal preschool program. Most preschools don't start until age 3 so P&E will not be old enough until August 2009 since you have to be 3 by August 1st. So we plan to do a year of PDO one day a week then move to 2 days a week next year, then they'll start preschool. They will be old for their class through school because they'll be some of the first kids turning 6 in their class. I guess that's good though since they were preemies.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We were enrolled in a Mother's Day Out (MDO) program with a new church out in Foristell (Calvary Christian Church), but 10 days before it was supposed to start, they called us to cancel it. Apparently they didn't meet some of the new building daycare codes. Silly things like not having an outdoor playground, etc. So after many phone calls and being put on the waitlist for several programs, I finally found this one. They started the week of August 27th, but we didn't get signed up unti the 29th, so P&E started a week later than most kids. Apparently the 2nd week is harder for some kids because they know what's going on and get upset when mom or dad leaves. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Dave went with me to drop them off the first day...so he could see where it was and to help me carry everything in (P&E had to bring "supplies" as well as their backpacks and lunches). We got them interested in some toys, spent some time talking with the teachers (Miss Anita and Miss Jamie), and then left. There were 2 kids there that were crying pretty bad so Perry and Ella were just staring at them. Dave and I kept peeking around the corner to see what they were doing and they were still just staring. I tell ya, it was weird to walk out of there knowing we were leaving our kiddos with strangers and wondering if they would even know who was who. What if Perry was called Ella all day long and vice versa??? Luckily Miss Jamie has teenage twin boys, so she is used to the twin thing :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">When I picked them up, all the kids were sitting on the ground, lined up against the wall. Ha! I couldn't believe P&E were just sitting there. Ella got up right away and ran over to hug me and then went over to Luca saying "baby" over and over again. Perry was still just sitting there like she was afraid to move. I'm thinking they had to tell her to sit there more than once :) She finally came over and hugged me and I picked her up and she was all smiley. I figured it had all gone okay, but when I asked the teachers, they made it sound like they had been a little upset in the beginning. They didn't say they cried and they made it sound like it was probably because of the cry-ers that they were sad. But of course P&E perked up when they went downstairs to the playground (inside, because it was hot that day). They love those slides! They eat lunch at 12 and then lay down for a nap at 12:30. The teachers said Perry laid down and went to sleep pretty well, but Ella was wandering around but she finally laid down and slept for a little bit. I'd love to be a fly on the wall there for lunch and naptime. They nap on little mats on the floor, all of the kids in one room together! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"><br />P&E didn't seem upset with me at all, but they kept saying "fishy" on the way home so I'm guessing they were hungry. I sent grapes, cheese, veggie chips, fig newtons, and fruit snacks with them for lunch (they don't warm anything up for them so we had to omit our usual chicken, meatballs, or fish). There were still 4 fig newtons and both fruit snacks left in their bags...so I guess they didn't eat much. I have a feeling that P&E probably eat better than most other toddlers their age, so they might be influenced a bit if the other kids aren't eating as much. Who knows. They also had little paintings that they did. Red was the color of the day so they painted with red. Of course their artwork is hanging on our fridge door :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">They went for their second time this week. I dropped them off by myself and it was pretty easy to get them involved with some toys and "sneak out", but there were more cry-ers this week. In the midst of all the cry-ers, Perry managed to walk out the door so I walked her back in. The mom of one of the cry-ers and I were talking in the hallway and the teachers finally shut the door so I felt it was okay to leave. I didn't realize my kids were escape artists. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">At pick up they were lined up against the wall again. Ella immediately got up and ran right past me to Luca. I see who rates highly with her! Perry got up and came to me and was all smiley again. I can tell the girls are having a good time there. The teachers just went on and on with stories about P&E so I'm sure they're getting loved on and cared for. It probably doesn't hurt that they are twins, which makes them *special*. Not that they're not each special on their own, but you know what I mean ;) <br /><br />They had some more arts and crafts...this week was a lesson about Jesus blessing the children. They rotate colors with religious lessons. It's nice that P&E are getting introduced to that. Our only issue at this point is the napping situation. They don't lay down until 12:30 and I have a feeling it's probably close to 1 by the time my 2 fall asleep and then they wake them up at 2 to change all their diapers and get them ready to go home...so it's not much of a nap at all. And P&E seemed super cranky/tired yesterday. I think I'll try to put them to bed when we get home next week and see what happens. Maybe they'll lay down for another hour or so? If not, I might start picking them up around 12:30, after lunch, and just bring them home for nap. We'll see. Hopefully it works out so they can stay the whole day. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Meanwhile, Luca is getting exhausted from all the one on one mommy attention! The first day we went to Chesterfield Mall and walked around until the stores opened. Did some shopping, came home for lunch and Luca took a short nap, and then headed out to pick up the girls. Yesterday we ran errands all over the place. And unfortunately Luca is in the convertible carseat now so I had to constantly take him out of his seat and put him back in. Poor guy. We went to Babies R Us first and then he fell asleep in the car for the 1 minute it took us to drive down to Lowes. I carried him in and he stayed asleep while we walked around and I put him back in the car to drive to Home Depot. He was still asleep when we got to Wal-Mart and we went to Bread Co for lunch. YES I BRAVED BREAD CO with my celiac disease. I had read on my message board that most of their salads and some soups are okay, so I double checked with the cashier and I was able to have their new orchard salad. Very good! Anyway, Luca fell asleep again on the way to go pick up the girls and again on the way home from getting them. Poor little sleeping guy :) When he turns 6 months, we will hopefully sign up for a swim class.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">That's all for now! Thanks for reading!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-78588052871527237552007-08-22T21:47:00.001-05:002007-08-22T22:22:39.311-05:00Goodbye Summer<span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Hello! Been awhile since I blogged. A lot going on...and summer is quickly slipping away :(</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Celiac Update:</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We went to the pediatric GI last week and she only tested P&E (Luca will be tested at 1 year). Dave took Ella in first at the lab and she was not happy about getting her blood drawn and he basically had to restrain her. So he volunteered to take Perry in as well...but she was a trooper! She didn't cry at all, except when the nurse switched vials (they needed 2 vials) and the tube clotted, so some other nurses came in the room as well. Other than that, she did great! Anyway, we found out on Monday morning that they are NEGATIVE...they do not currently have Celiac. They could still end up with it later in life, like me...but at this point, we just need to watch out for symptoms. The GI doc did not want to do DNA testing because that could lead to issues with our insurance if they do carry the genes for it. I would like to know...but I guess we'll cross that bridge IF we come to it. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">As for me, I hit the 1 month mark of living gluten-free. We celebrated with some Taco Bell :) It served double duty though because we wanted to see how sensitive I was to the gluten at this point. I didn't get sick, but my tummy was definitely upset. I'm guessing I really did have Celiac for the last 6 years that I thought I had IBS because it was the same kind of feeling that I've had all those years. My bone density screening came back fine. I'm supposed to be taking all kinds of B12, Calcium, and Iron supplements but have been slacking. My next GI appointment is October 2, so I really should get those levels back up. I hate pills. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Perry & Ella News:</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">P&E are talking up a storm lately. I wish I could list out all the words they say, but I know I'll forget some. I'll do my best...ball, fishy, sissy, da-da, ga-ga (grandma/grandpa), baby, cup, car, pretty, purple, dog, ba-ba, thank you, hi, bye, balloon (Ella says ball and Perry says something that sounds like goon), slide, seat/chair. See, I know there's more than that and I'm forgetting them. I really should write them all down...bad mommy. Oh and notice "ma-ma" is still not on the list. Oy. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Ella has returned to the nursery. On vacation, they slept pretty well together in the same room so we decided to move them back in together. They do pretty well. I think it's even helpful for Ella to see Perry lay down and go to sleep. Although sometimes you can hear quite a bit of laughter coming through the monitor. Who knows what they are up to in there. We can't quite get both cribs in the video monitor to see what's going on. Nothing but trouble, I'm sure. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Mother's Day Out (MDO) starts the Tuesday after Labor Day. P&E will be going to "school" once a week from 9 AM to 3 PM. They will get to meet and play with other kiddos their age, take art and music classes, and learn all kinds of fun things. It will also give me and Luca some good one on one time. Open House is Tuesday night (the 28th) so that should be fun. I already bought all their school supplies and added some Clorox spray and wipes in their bags as well ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">They got weighed and measured at the GI's office. Perry is 25 pounds 3 ounces (25-50th%) and 34.5 inches (75th%). Ella is 24 pounds 10 ounces (25-50th%) and 32.5 inches (25th%). We knew Perry was taller than Ella, but didn't know it was by 2 whole inches!! I'm sure those measurements aren't *exact* though. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Luca News:</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Luca is getting SO BIG! He was also weighed and measured at the appointment. He is 16 pounds 5 ounces (95th%) and 25.25 inches (90th%)!! I might think there was a mix up at the hospital if he didn't look so much like Dave...and the fact that he was the only baby while we were there! He is growing out of almost all his newborn and 0-3 month clothing already and is in a size 2 diaper, almost ready to move up to a 3. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">He is also sleeping through the night more consistently. He sleeps about 8-10 hours at night and is taking 3 naps during the day. Still not on a rigid schedule yet, but we're getting there. He also LOVES to stand. He has been bearing weight on his legs for quite some time now and will even stand on his own up against the couch for awhile. He has also rolled over twice (from back to belly). And he loves to smile, coo, and laugh. I think he's one of the happiest babies I've ever met :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Other News:</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span></strong><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">David and I had our 5 year anniversary last Friday. This also marks the 5 year anniversary of living in our house. Hard to believe it's been that long already. This will be our 6th Christmas here and our mantel went from 2 little stockings to SIX (if you count Riesy's). Wow. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Not much else going on. Trying to plan a vacation for Christmas...probably skiing. Although P&E won't be old enough for classes, like we had hoped. Maybe we'll take them tubing or sledding though. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for checking in on us!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-6501867379496251482007-07-26T15:18:00.001-05:002007-07-26T15:30:55.718-05:00Celiac Update<span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;">Hi all! Just wanted to update on the Celiac (CD) and how we've been managing. I've been gluten-free (GF) for 10 days now! It's really not as hard as I thought it would be. We've (I've) been cooking a lot more, which is probably a good thing. Healthier and cheaper. I did get a chance to go out to eat at PF Chang's yesterday because they have a GF menu. It was very nice! And so were the 2 martinis I had ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;">The labels and ingredients are still kind of tricky, but once we figure out which brands are okay, it will be much easier. Unfortunately, I've come across a lot of items that are "manufactured in the same facility as wheat products" which seems like a CYA (cover your *butt*) statement to me. My dietician said I should avoid those products, but we did use some frozen veggies that said that and I was fine. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;">My appointment with my GI doc was Monday. He had my iron, vitamins B & D, and liver enzymes tested. The iron and vitamin B are low and the liver enzymes are still elevated but have come down (still waiting on the vitamin D results). I also have to have a bone density screening done (August 8th) and am taking Viactiv calcium chews. I can't believe I need all these supplements (iron, vitamins, and calcium). And would you believe my GI doc had the nerve to tell me I'm "undernourished" and need to gain weight? Oy. Believe me, I'm NOT undernourished...but secretly, I took it as a compliment after just having had a baby less than 3 months ago ;) Sick, I know. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;">Anyway, so that's that. I'm feeling better...it's NOT the end of the world like I once thought it was. We leave for vacation on Saturday morning (BEFORE the crack of dawn) and I'm hoping to manage okay while we're there. I'm sure there will be lots of cross-contamination glutening, but hopefully it won't make me *too* sick. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;">Thanks for all the kind words, well wishes, emails, phone calls, etc. You all are fantastic! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#ff6666;">We'll update with pictures and stories when we get back! Take care!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-13333671835944816322007-07-19T13:30:00.001-05:002007-07-19T14:31:33.982-05:00Gluten-Free is the way to be (a post about me)<span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">After the colonoscopy/endoscopy on Monday, the GI was fairly certain it was Celiac Disease (CD) and the biopsies came in on Wednesday to confirm it. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">A little background on CD, if you're not familiar...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:#3366ff;"><em>Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small bowel caused by a reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. Upon exposure to gluten, the enzyme TTG modifies the protein, and the immune system cross-reacts with the bowel tissue, causing an inflammatory reaction. This leads to flattening of the lining of the small intestine, which interferes with the absorption of nutrients (</em>specifically iron, in my case, causing the anemia<em>). The only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. Long-term effects of untreated CD include lymphoma and adenocarcinoma (cancers that can develop in the intestine), osteoporosis, miscarriage and congenital malformation of the baby, and short stature.</em></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">The GI doc told us on Monday to go ahead and start the gluten-free (GF) diet. Of course I spent Monday and most of Tuesday mourning the loss of my junkfood diet. And an FYI to the population...saying "it could be worse" to someone is NOT exactly the empathy they're looking for. I know it could be worse, trust me...however, it's still a HUGE deal to me and a huge lifestyle change...so please don't minimize anyone's situation with those dreaded words. But I will admit that fortunately there are lots of resources for CD and many stores have added GF items to their shelves. So I am lucky in that respect.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">I took my first trip ever to Trader Joe's on Tuesday night but was very overwhelmed at the experience. Much to my surprise, they did not have all the GF items grouped together in one section but were spread throughout the store (like a normal grocery store). The cashier gave me a nice 5 page list of their GF foods, but it only made it harder. After about an hour (and the store is NOT that big), I left with 2 bags and $30 worth of groceries. Nothing too impressive, except a very good cashew cookie Lara Bar. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">I then visited Dierberg's on Wednesday and they are kind enough to put the GF specialty food items together in one location. VERY nice! I found GF cereals, pasta noodles, bread, tortillas, bagels, pizza, cereal bars, and lots of flours and mixes.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">Right now, we're going through tons of lists from the internet to figure out what "mainstream" foods I can still eat (i.e. Tostitos chips, Daisy sour cream, cheese, etc). We have to switch brands on some things...like Kikkoman to LaChoy soy sauce. Becoming a label reader is a new experience too. Some companies are really nice and put specific allergies (soy, milk, wheat, nuts) right on there in bold print, while others make it a bit more difficult. And unfortunately there's more than just wheat, barley, rye, and oats to look for. Malt is a no-no as well, b/c it is usually made with barley. G'bye Bartles & James wine coolers. And the most frustrating ingredient of all is "modifed food starch". My dietician told me that the FDA requires companies to specifically state if it is wheat, but I guess they don't really have to. So in MOST cases, modified food starch = corn...but not always. When in doubt, don't eat it. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">Then there's the cross-contamination issue. My dietician told me to get a new toaster (one for my GF stuff only), get rid of wooden spoons, wash hands after feeding the girls something with gluten, etc. And of course...restaurants. Sure, I can order a steak, steamed veggies, and a baked potato...but whose to say my steak didn't just get grilled where a breaded chicken once was? Unfortunately, it's virtually impossible to be 100% GF, but luckily it doesn't seem like I'm *that* sensitive to it. And there are a couple restaurants that offer GF menus...Outback and PF Changs. Guess we'll be eating there a lot!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">And I know some of you (who know me well enough) are wondering if I can still eat my beloved Taco Bell. While a taco is essentially GF (corn shell, meat, lettuce, cheese), Taco Bell's ingredient statement says that oats are used in the shells and meat. However, the tostada shells are listed as GF...as well as the rice and pintos n cheese. The chips are GF, but are fried in the same oil as other non-GF foods. And of course the cross-contamination issues. We'll be having taco/Mexican night at home a lot more now ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">So, it's a HUGE lifestyle change. I'm out of my sulking phase and into the "game" phase where I'm enjoying the challenge of figuring out what mainstream foods are still okay, how to substitute for those that are not, and tasting the GF specialty foods. And of course this has opened up a whole new group of message boards for me (I already belong to 2 mommy buddy groups, 1 toddler board, and 1 multiples board). Can we say "internet junkie"? I'm sure the excitement of this phase will wear off soon though ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">The next step is getting the kids tested since this is a genetic disease. We have an appointment with a pediatric GI on August 15th. Unfortunately if the blood test is positive, they would have to undergo an endoscopy for the official diagnosis and we're not sure we want to do that, but we'll cross that bridge IF we come to it. If you have room in your prayers, add one for Perry, Ella, and Luca to be negative on the CD test. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">I've been feeling better. Actually I was on Bentyl (for IBS) for about 2 weeks before the colonoscopy, so I hadn't been sick in awhile...but now with the GF diet, hopefully my small intestine is on its way to being repaired. They say it can be fully healed in 3-6 months in younger people (does 29 still count as "younger"?), but the GF diet is for life. I have a follow up appointment with my GI doc on Monday and I think he'll want to set up some tests to make sure I'm healing and the iron is being absorbed okay. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3366ff;">We'll update if anything changes. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-17090715406285937362007-07-13T14:26:00.000-05:002007-07-13T14:58:35.038-05:00What's new?<span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Where do I begin? </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Luca is a dream! We really have been blessed with good babies. P&E were no trouble (I remember we actually had to *wake them up* to feed them when they were newborns) and Luca is doing pretty well regulating himself (he's still on *his own* schedule). Now, the question is...is it genetics, is it environment, or is it luck? Maybe all 3? Anyway, we can only pray that #4 fits into our family as easily as Luca has. Ha ha, NO, I'm not pregnant! #4 is slated for 2009, at the earliest!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">P&E have adapted well to Luca's arrival. The first few days back at home from the hospital were a little rough, but all is well for the most part. They are both working on canines and molars right now, as well as bottom lateral incisors for Perry. Like I said in a previous blog entry, take out stock in whatever company produces Tylenol and Motrin! So the teething makes for some crabby tantrum moments, but those are un-related to Luca and his arrival. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Ella has become our "little Mommy". She loves to help...patting his back to burp him, getting his bottle and burprag, hugging and kissing on him, anything to be near him. Perry is a little more standoff-ish, but you can tell she loves him too. We can see Luca taking mental notes of all the times he gets roughed up by his sisters though. At 75th percentile in height and weight, he'll be bigger than them in no time! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">I have to share a story from our first outing with all 3 kids. We went to the furniture store to look for a new kitchen table (had to upgrade from 4 to 6 chairs) and I was pushing Luca in his stroller and Dave had the girls in the double stroller. The saleslady stopped us and asked "Are these all *your* kids?". <em>Uh, no, we found these 2 out in the parking lot.</em> Very funny! I'm sure we have lots more strange comments in our future. ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We had the verbal explosion here in the past few weeks. The girls are both picking up on so many words and trying to repeat them. It's very exciting. I feel like they can communicate with us fairly well now. "Bah" is universal for ball, bottle, and book...so that one can be a little confusing, but with context clues, it's pretty easy to figure out. "Cah" is car. "Guh" is cup. "Bay bay" is baby. "Mah" is more. "Ishy" is fishy (for our pet fish and for goldfish crackers). "Ishy" can sometimes be confused for "sissy" though. It all kind of sounds the same. "Sue" is shoe. I'm sure I'm forgetting some...but you get the gist. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">They have also mastered many body parts and know where their hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly buttons (bee bo), and toes are. And they often try to repeat those words as well..."ah" for eye and ear, "ha" for hair. They are doing very well on the steps now...going up and down by themselves. They love to jump, dance, run, climb on the couches, play with their toys, and of course get into trouble. :) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We've been going up to the pool a lot lately so they have been playing with some of the neighborhood kids in the kiddie pool. They also have cute little swimsuit tanlines (despite the slathering of SPF 50). Luca is too young for sunscreen (6 months) but he keeps cool in his stroller under an umbrella...with the occasional toe dip in the pool. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Unfortunately, right after I stopped nursing and pumping for Luca, I got sick. It's been about 5 weeks now, but a blood test has revealed that it may be Celiac Disease, an allergy or intolerance of gluten/wheat. I'm having a colonoscopy (my 2nd...yeah, I'm not even 30 and I'll have had 2 colonoscopies) on Monday, along with an endoscopy. So with the biopsy results, we'll know for sure what it is. I've had low iron for awhile now (with both pregnancies) and have finally been labeled anemic...a common symptom of CD. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">And also, we'll be heading on our first vacation with all 3 kiddos on the 28th of this month. We're going to The Atlantis in the Bahamas with my mom's family. We're looking forward to it and hope the girls enjoy themselves (with 19 pools to choose from, how could they not?). </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Hope everyone is having a good summer!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-6385432448161777262007-05-30T10:52:00.001-05:002007-06-12T10:02:48.844-05:00Better late than neverSo it's been quite awhile since I've blogged...I'm sure you can all understand why ;) Luca Matthew entered our lives on May 2nd, just one day (actually just 2 hours and 4 minutes) before his due date. The birth story on the website doesn't give much detail, so I'll give some more here. Those of you who know me know that I have a tendency to give too much detail sometimes, so feel free to skip this blog entry if birth/delivery stuff makes you go "ewww". I'll try to keep it vague though ;)<br /><br />Grandma Deb came to play with the girls for the afternoon, so I went to pick up Luca's curtains in St. Charles. I stopped at Mackers (Australian for McDonald's) for a chicken sandwich and some fries and headed down 94. I felt a pain in my stomach area (enough to bear down on the steering wheel), but attributed it to the spicy sandwich and my lovely IBS. While I was at the lady's house getting the curtains (she was telling me some awfully long story about her daughter serving in the Peace Corps and losing her arm to a crocodile in Africa somewhere), I felt another pain. Now I start thinking that perhaps these are contractions...but they are still pretty far apart. No worries.<br /><br />So I finally leave the curtain lady's house and head to Old Navy in the hopes of exchanging some shorts for P&E (they were mislabeled, so instead of size 18-24, we ended up with size 6-12). No luck. On to JCPenney's to return an extra valance from our kitchen. While I'm waiting for the incredibly dumb cashier to figure out how to do a return, I feel a few more pains. On the way out you walk right by the kids' clothing section, so of course I stopped to look at some clothes for the girls. While I'm trying to decide if I should get matching or coordinating, I have to sit down on the floor while I have some more pains. As I'm paying, the cashier asks me when I'm due, I say "tomorrow, but I think I'm having contractions right now". She looks at me as if I'm crazy and I head next door to Target. I called Dave (3 PM) and told him that I was having some pains but didn't think I was in labor, but I would call him if they got worse...so make sure to answer the phone. Shopping at Target has never been so unpleasurable in my life. I had to stop and bear down on the cart a few times.<br /><br />I head home, still convinced I am not in labor, have a conversation with MIL (mother-in-law), and she heads home. By 4:30 the pains are so bad that I call Dave. I still didn't think I was in labor, but I knew something wasn't right and I needed to be checked out (I was actually thinking...there's no way I can sit and watch American Idol tonight through these pains). I get the girls up from their nap, get them dressed, finish packing my hospital bag, and pack up some snacks/dinner for the girls. Dave gets home and changes clothes and we are off to the hospital a bit before 6. Our neighbor is outside and yells "Are you going to the hospital?". I am mortified at this point because I was POSITIVE we were going to be sent back home due to false labor. So now the whole neighborhood will know I'm the dumb girl that doesn't know real contractions from fake ones. Oy.<br /><br />We go the ER and I tell the receptionist that I think I'm in labor. She looks at me like "yeah right". I said "well, I don't look like it now, but in a few minutes I'll have a contraction and then it'll look like I'm in labor." She gets a wheelchair (totally unneccessary, but whatever) and wheels me while Dave wheels the girls in the double stroller upstairs. The nurses are sitting there twiddling their thumbs as they have only delivered 15 babies in over 2 months. They take me into the triage room and tell me to change into a robe but once they learn that Dr. Kuebel is my doctor, they decide to admit me to an L&D room. Apparently Dr. Kuebel has a reputation for not sending very pregnant women who are having contractions home...smart man.<br /><br />The nurses and receptionist from the ER have a very long conversation about if I am registered with the hospital or not (I pre-registered through the internet)...but apparently the receptionist did not check me in properly. <em>Whatever ladies, I'm in labor here, can we discuss this later?</em> The nurse checks me and says, "She's a 5, but I could stretch her to an 8". <em>Um, what? Please don't do that, there's no doctor here!</em> They start the IV and apparently you have to get 2 bags of fluids in you before they can start the epidural...nice. Mental note, don't wait so darn long to go to the hospital next time (yes, there might be a next time).<br /><br />Meanwhile, Dave is feeding the girls some snacks and the nurses are blowing up gloves as balloons and drawing faces on them for P&E to play with. Good thing we picked Progress West :) Unfortunately, I also had strep B this time around. It's normally not a big deal, they just give you 2 doses of antibiotics (penicillin I believe) before the baby is born to make sure it isn't passed to him. Well, due to the quick labor I was only given 1 dose of penicillin which meant Luca had to be checked on quite a bit that first night. For more scary details on strep b, visit <a href="http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pregnancy/prenatalhealth/1647.html">http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pregnancy/prenatalhealth/1647.html</a><br /><br />Grandma Deb and Aunt Angela are the first on the scene and take P&E out to the waiting room. Grandpa Steve and Uncle Andrew arrive next, as well as Grandma Kim and Grandpa John. Around 7:30 the epidural lady (anasthesiologist) comes in. I am ready to bow down and kiss her feet. She gets everything set up, I'm sitting on the side of the bed, and Dave is kneeling down in front of me to hold my hands (and the nurse/dr said for him not to look at the needle...no need to have a passed out husband during labor). I'm not positive of the procedure, but I do know that she has to get this needle into a pretty exact location...it cannot be too much to the right or too much to the left. The first time she stuck it in she asked if I felt anything. By this time, my left foot had gone a little numb from dangling it over the edge of the bed, so I tell her that. She decides to try again with the needle. This time I feel a shooting pain through my right leg (I've never been struck by lightning, but I imagine that's what it would feel like). So now I'm thinking that the first time, she probably had it in the right place...whoops. Not entirely my fault though since she didn't tell me how intense of a feeling it would be. So the needle comes back out and back in again, maybe about 5-6 more times. Not kidding. Each time, I have the struck by lightning feeling in one of my legs. <br /><br />Meanwhile, I'm having contractions through all of this. So every 5 minutes or so, we have to stop so I can scream/breathe my way through the contraction. After about 45 minutes, I'm yelling that I don't want the epidural anymore. The nurse looks me dead in the eye and says "Are you sure?". <em>Hell no lady, I'm not sure. I want the damn epidural, I just don't want to go through this ordeal anymore.</em> I ask the anasthesiologist how much longer she thinks it will take, just so I can get in the right mental mindset and she pretty much yells at me that my nerves are in the wrong place or something. <em>Um, hello? Did you not take anatomy in med school? I'm pretty sure everyone has the same nerves.</em> Anyway, about an hour later, at 8:30 PM, the epidural is in and I'm on my way to happy land. I push that "extra juice" button a couple times, just for good measure. <br /><br />I should also mention at this point that when we got to the hospital, the nurses paged the on call doctor from my practice. It was Dr. Snowden, the doctor who delivered the girls. Now, he did a fine job delivering them...they are healthy, happy, etc. However, the experience with him wasn't an extremely pleasurable one...our personalities don't exactly mesh. Or maybe he wasn't so happy to be called out on a Saturday night in the rain? So when I find out he'll be delivering Luca, I'm a little disappointed, but rationalize it by the fact that all 3 of my kids will have been delivered by the same doctor. When the nurse left the room, Dave and I had a discussion about whether or not to page Dr. Kuebel (he had given us his pager number at my 37 week appointment and we *should* have paged him on our way to the hospital...but because I was stubborn and didn't think I was really in labor, we didn't. I didn't want to bother him at that point since he obviously wasn't on call, but then I started thinking that I'd end up at my 6 week post partum appointment and he'd say "Why didn't you page me? I would have come". So Dave takes his cell phone and goes out into the hall and pages Dr. Kuebel. I am SOOOO happy we called him. It just made the entire experience so much better, especially after the epidural drama. <br /><br />So it's 9 PM, I'm dilated 10 cm, and Dr. Kuebel is on the scene. I warn him that I've been whiny for the last hour or so, but immediately I am in a better mood just knowing he's there. My contractions were the exact same as they were with the girls...about 3-4 minutes apart, but LONG. So we sit there twiddling our thumbs in between contractions, but I can get a good 4-5 pushes in during one. Not too much exciting stuff happening at this point. Dr. Kuebel asked if we had a name and I say "Oh God". He and the nurse say "That's an interesting name". :) We had a name of course, we had decided on Luca back in January. However, we did not have a middle name. We had 4 choices but never chose one. Paul, for my mom's dad...Jonathan, for my dad's dad...Matthew, because we liked it...and Thomas, so his initials could be LT. The nurse tells us we don't have to make a decision right away, which is comforting...but I still cannot believe that my child didn't have a middle name for the first 36 hours of his life. This is me we're talking about. I make checklists for people to take care of my kids. It's not like me to not have my child's name picked out before he is born. <br /><br />Somewhere during the pushing, Dr. Kuebel informs us that Luca is "sunny side up". I ask if that's bad for the baby and he says "No, but it'll be harder for you". <em>Great. Already this kid is causing me problems. </em>Around 9:50 I suppose, Luca is starting to make his entrance into the world. Of course the nurses and doctor tell me to look at his head coming out. <em>Uh, no thanks</em>. However, I do catch a glimpse and Mr. Luca is coming out with his arm up in the air, waving hello to everyone. Such a social boy. <br /><br />9:56 PM - Luca Matthew is born. <br /><br />The girls were placed on my chest for maybe 1 minute before being whisked off to the NICU. Luca was allowed to lay on my chest for what seemed like hours. I actually had to ask the nurses to go get him cleaned up and measured so we would know how big he was. Having a healthy full-term baby was certainly a different experience for us. <br /><br />After the doctor finishes working on me, Luca is cleaned up, we take some pictures, etc...our families come in to meet Luca. Perry and Ella are still awake at 11 PM! More pictures, "oohs" and "ahhs", and then everyone heads home around midnight. Dave and I are left alone with our new son. He actually gets to sleep in the room with us instead of down the hall in a specialized nursery with breathing tubes hooked up to his face. <br /><br />The pediatrician on call at the hospital comes in to talk to us about the strep B issues and I believe they ran some blood tests on Luca as well. Everyone was very informative and I felt like we were in great hands. <br /><br />Most of you know that I am not the crunchy/granola type of mom and I wasn't that *into* the thought of breastfeeding, however, I was willing to give it a try if Luca figured it out in the first minute or so. Of course he did! Very smart boy. That first night he ate about every 2-3 hours and slept the rest of the time. Of course I was so excited and high on adrenaline, so I sent out a mass email about Luca's arrival at 4:30 AM. Still getting made fun of for that. <br /><br />Anyway, I'm sure there is much much more I could write about...but this blog entry is already very very long and it has taken me several days to write it. So I will end it here. In all, the experience was a good one. After the girls were born I wondered how people ever had more than 1 kid...who would go through that awful experience more than once? But I realize now that their birth was tainted by many things...prematurity, high blood pressure/magnesium, the NICU. Luca's birth couldn't have been more perfect. And that's how I'll leave this blog entry. He's perfect.The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-86249884276783744012007-04-21T10:22:00.000-05:002007-04-21T11:15:44.791-05:00Pregnancy thoughts...and a bit about P&E too<span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">So, this blog is mostly about Perry & Ella, but I thought it only fair to share a bit about the pregnancy with Junior since he will soon be getting blogged about as well...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">I'm 38 weeks pregnant!</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span></strong><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Who'd have thunk it? I certainly didn't. With the early dilation issues with the girls, I thought this baby would be lucky to be a 35/36 weeker, another preemie for sure. And here we are, almost at the end. I have to say that I am quite proud of myself (and my uterus) for gestating this baby so long, with a VERY normal pregnancy. Besides a few swelling episodes in my legs when we do too much in a day (or eat too much salty Mexican food) and a bit of finger swelling (had to say goodbye to the wedding rings about a month or so ago), everything has been great. Of course I'm tired (maybe I should take those iron pills, eh?) and feel quite large...bending over to pick something up and feeling your tummy on your thighs is kind of gross...but otherwise in great condition. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">My anal retentive/control freak personality has a little bit of issue with the fact that I have no idea when Junior might arrive. I tried my hardest to plan for Tuesday, the 17th but it did not work out. We have the hospital bags packed (for the most part) and try to keep the fridge stocked with ready-to-go meals for P&E, but there are still so many unknowns. Will it happen in the middle of the night, will it happen while Dave is at work, will it happen while we're at Wal-Mart? Will my water break, will I feel the contractions, will I get sent to L&D from a doctor's appointment? Oy. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">At any rate, I am SO anxious to meet our baby boy. Anxious to see if he will resemble one of the girls or be his own little person, anxious to see what bringing home a full-term baby from the hospital is like, anxious to see how the girls will interact with him, anxious to see if the dog will pack up his belongings and leave after bringing home a 3rd baby in less than 18 months. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Our house that we once thought was SO huge, and neither one of us ever dreamed of filling up all the bedrooms while we lived here, is now busting at the seams. I cleaned 3 little bedrooms and a playroom this morning...certainly not what we would have done on a Saturday morning just 3 years ago, before babies entered our minds. But, I know neither of us would have it any other way :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Anyway, hopefully that rambling made a bit of sense. Mommy brain and pregnancy brain are bad enough separately, but combine them and you're left with mashed potatoes. Mmm, mashed potatoes sound good! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">On to P&E...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">*The stomach bug is gone. Please please please let it never return to this house ever again. I hate seeing my babies sick and I hate the smell of puke. On a good note though, Dave and I never caught it this time around, which made it a bit easier to deal with.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">*As far as teeth go, I want to say that Ella has all her central and lateral incisors and I *think* all of her 1st molars...which would be 12 teeth. Perry though, only has her top central/lateral insicors, her bottom central incisors, and one 1st molar...7 teeth. Don't quote me on that because it's really hard to get a look in their mouths, but I'm fairly sure that's right. I guess all babies really do develop differently ;)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">*Talking...eh, not so much. Both girls have reverted back to "uh oh". It gets used properly at least, but sometimes I think they purposely do things just so they can say "uh oh". For example, Ella takes a handful of graham crackers and throws them on the floor to the dog and says "uh oh". I'm pretty sure Ella says "sissy" and knows that it is Perry. When I said, "Let's go get sissy up from her nap" yesterday, Ella immediately ran to Perry's door. Perry still says "ey yah" for Ella...very cute. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">*Dancing has reached an all time high around here. ANYTHING resembling music gets both girls on their feet. Ella introduced foot stomping while watching country week on American Idol. We started recording The Backyardigans (it's on during naptime) because it's full of music and the girls LOVE it. Still big Doodlebop fans too. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">*Tantrums have started. Someone told me that "terrible 2s" actually refers to the 2nd year of life, not the age of 2...and I'd believe it. I know it has to be frustrating for them since they can't talk or tell us what's wrong. Both of them like to throw themselves down on the floor and cry...it's all for drama though. We have some future Academy Award winners on our hands. Daddy also started time-outs with the girls (standing with their arms against the wall for 10 seconds). We've come to realize that they *know* the word "no" but are testing us. We only use "no" when they are in danger (standing up on the toybox) or touching something they shouldn't (gross dirty diaper champ or toilet), so it's not like it gets overused. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#cc33cc;">Well, this has taken quite a long time to type out, so it's time for me to close. Thanks for reading through it if you made it to the end. Until next time!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-19883761787328779762007-04-02T15:58:00.000-05:002007-04-02T16:21:03.682-05:00March-In like a lion, out like a lion?<span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">So we end the month with another round of the stomach bug. Perry threw up and had a bit of diarrhea on Wednesday, ran a fever on Thursday, but was fine Friday. Then Saturday came. It was Puke Fest 2007. One right after the other, at least they took turns for the most part. Grandma and Grandpa Bast were here visiting and helped out with the cleaning and keeping the dog out of the messes. The last puke ended around 7 PM and both girls slept in on Sunday until 9 AM. They also took a 4 hour nap Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately this bug caused us to miss the opening game for the Cardinals, although it doesn't look like we missed much. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">We thought after a day of no pukes that we'd try half Lactaid and half water this morning, but it didn't sit well with Ella. Neither did lunch. Both girls are getting tired of the BRAT diet and water, but anything else will "re-activate" the bug. Dave left for work this morning not feeling well either. Looks like it might get him next. I gratefully decline a visit from the bug this time around...but I'm sure it'll find me. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">The odd thing is that we haven't even been out of the house much lately. We were at Babies R Us on Saturday, IHOP on Sunday, and had the contractor and cable guys here on Tuesday. So who is the culprit of passing us this lovely stomach bug once again? Oh and sorry in advance to anyone we might have given it to. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">The teeth monster is back in town as well. Both girls are cutting molars, which doesn't help the sickness situation. Ella constantly has her hands in her mouth and keeps chewing up food and then spitting it out. Both of them are cranky and clingy. Buy stock in Tylenol, Motrin, and Orajel because we surely help keep those companies in the green. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Still not much talking going on. We think Perry repeats "flower" when we say it to her as she's getting her diaper changed and staring up at a big purple daisy on the wall...and she definitely says "Ella". Ella still says "dog"...A LOT. I'm going to invent a machine that deciphers baby babble because I know they're saying some meaningful stuff to one another, but I just can't understand it. Some secret baby language I guess. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">They still love music and dancing. Ella has gotten more "rhythmic" lately. She spins now too, probably copied it from her big sister. She is quite the copy cat. I thought it would be the other way around, but for the most part, Ella follows her big sister around and does what she does. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Spring, April, and baseball season have arrived...and I'm still pregnant. It's kind of odd knowing I have a baby bigger than Perry and Ella were when they were born inside me. He's measuring around 5.5 pounds now. That's like a 2 month old to us! I'm hoping he comes at the end of April, but I'm guessing I don't get much say in it. His ultrasound pictures today showed some very large lips (a daddy trait) so I'm guessing he's going to favor Perry. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Well, the nappers have awoken from their slumbers and it's time to think about dinner. It's getting hard to be creative with Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast. Until next time!</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-29658680063083568242007-03-13T13:53:00.000-05:002007-03-13T14:12:38.000-05:00Is it really the middle of March already!?<span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Well, I spoke too soon on the stomach bug. Ella and I had another short round of it on Thursday night and then Perry again on Friday. But that was it. We've been bug-free for 10 days now! The girls are back on whole milk, yogurt, cheese, whatever they'll eat. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">We've added some new teeth too. Ella has her bottom molars and is working on the top 2, which caused us all to miss out on some sleep 2 nights ago. Perry is working on one of her bottom molars but hasn't been too fussy about it...knock on wood. Ella has a mouthful of teeth and Perry's top front 2 just seem to get bigger and bigger :) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Words of the week: Ella - dog, Perry - gak. Ella calls EVERYTHING a dog. We were at the park yesterday and of course the geese were dogs. When asked what a dog says, she responds with "oof". What I first mistook for "wak" is really "gak"...translation - quack. Perry will "gak" at her stuffed duck that quacks and also "gak'ed" at the geese yesterday. Both of them have mastered "da da" and definitely know that it is Dave. When they hear the garage door open in the evenings, they both yell "da da" and run to the top of the steps to wait for him. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Cartoons have become a favorite morning activity. We play for about an hour and then turn on the 'toons while we eat breakfast. We used to watch Blues Clues and The Backyardigans, but now we're on an earlier schedule so we watch The Doodlebops and Blues Clues. Mommy's favorite is Handy Manny which is on right before The Doodlebops, so occasionally we turn on the TV a bit earlier ;) The girls both love the music and "dance" in their booster seats. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Speaking of music and dancing, Perry love to spin. Makes me a bit nervous after all the puke episodes with the stomach bug, but she has only spit up a couple times so far. She spins and spins and spins, while giggling and smiliing. Occasionally she'll stop to dance a bit (which looks a lot like Irish jig dancing). Ella likes the music too, but just kind of sways back and forth...no spinning or jigging. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">We took them swimming at the rec center this past weekend and I think they were a bit overwhelmed. We hadn't been since right before their birthday...and it was also a much calmer setting when we had swim class vs. a free for all with kiddos everywhere. We played in the fountains, swam in the not-so-lazy river and pool, and played with the toys we brought. I think if we went a bit more often, they would really enjoy themselves. Not sure how much longer that maternity swimsuit will fit though ;) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc33cc;">Things change every day it seems. Always a new skill, word, favorite toy, or activity. Never a dull moment.</span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31484110.post-78524561207105614472007-03-01T10:24:00.000-06:002007-03-01T10:40:47.848-06:00The Stomach Bug Cometh<span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Oh man, I don't wish this upon anyone. Not sure where we got it, but I am not sorry to see it leave. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">We found poor Perry covered in puke Sunday morning. I heard her babbling during the middle of the night, but she went right back to sleep so we didn't check on her. After a bath and running her PJs and sheets through the washer 3 times with bleach, we thought it might have just been a fluke. But then she puked up her breakfast. Back into the bath and now we had stinky smelling carpet in the playroom. We put her on Pedialyte and water and stuck with bland foods and after one more puke in the afternoon, she was done. No fever, no crankiness.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">24 hours later, Dave came home from work feeling ill. He was physically sick for about 6 hours, but that's all the time he was allowed because Ella got sick that night too. The smell was wafting out of the guest bedroom (where she was sleeping while we worked on Junior's nursery) and sure enough, she was covered in puke but asleep. What is it with these girls? They don't mind sleeping in vomit? A bath and more cleaning...then more puking and another bath. She puked a couple more times that night and was running a small fever the next morning. Pedialyte and water for her too. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Dave stayed home from work Tuesday because he felt achy and had a fever and the chills, but the girls were in relatively good spirits. However, that night after dinner, Ella threw up again. FYI - baking soda works wonders on getting the puke smell out of carpet. At this point, I knew it was just a matter of time before it got me too. I disinfected all the girls' toys that night and woke up around 4 AM with a sour stomach. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Dave stayed home again Wednesday to take care of the girls while I was sick. Not only the many trips to the bathroom, but the fever and achiness really took a toll on me. My fever broke around 10:30 PM and I am feeling better today. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#993399;">Dave is back at work and we are hoping that's the last we'll see of the stomach bug. Luckily it was short-lived in each of us and kind of took us 1 by 1 instead of all at the same time. </span>The Roganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12615559774437634440noreply@blogger.com0