Oxenford Girls Health Update

I'm not sure where to begin this post... Do I start with the post-birthday recap or the double ear infection that landed us in the ER or the broken elbow and purple cast that landed us back in the ER? Or. do I just start with the pink eye??? Hmmm... decisions decisions.

Well, let's start with the cast.... This past Saturday night Jim and I were thrilled to be getting a date night when DeeRee offered to come over and watch the girls for us. We had a lovely dinner and were on our way home (well, actually I was on the front porch about to walk in the door) when we got the phone call. It was a slightly panicked call that Sophie had fallen and was holding her arm and seemed to be in a lot of pain. We finally got her to sleep but she had a horrible night waking up a lot until I could get some more advil in her. When she did wake up the next morning, she went downhill fast and by 8:30am we were headed to the ER. So apparently she had fallen trying to get out of bed to go to the potty. And when she fell, she landed on her elbow. Hard. Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, where my awesome step-sister Maria works, and is right down the street from us, was so amazing!! They took her back right away and everyone was so good and so sweet. They helped her calm down immensely and once the Xrays were over, Sophie was almost back to her old self. Then we went down to CHOP on Monday and the docs there decided it would be best if shegot a cast. So, a purple cast was put on our sweet girl and she handled it all so well. Well, except for the part where we had to take her band aid off before they put the cast on. That, THAT, was apparently the last straw for her. We are hopeful that she'll get the cast off early and thankful that she wasn't in much pain or discomfort once the splint and the cast were on and protecting that sweet little elbow.

Now, back track a few days to Wednesday night and Emmy and I in that very same hospital. Poor Em was fighting a bad cold with lots of really icky looking snot (sorry) coming out of her nose and I remember thinking, this is going to turn into an ear infection. But she was acting mostly fine all day and perked up with a little advil and distraction of playing with her sister. However, when we went to lay her down for the night she was in agony and was screaming her head off. Just like last time. SO, a phone call to my amazing step-sister later and the wheels were in motion to get us into Mercy Fitzgerald so a doc could just take a quick look at her and maybe get her a script for an antibiotic. It was truly amazing how quickly we were in and out of that hospital. All I can say is my step sister Maria is truly loved because we got the royal treatment there not once but twice last week! So, thank you Maria!!

And let's see... today Sophie woke up with full blown pink eye and her entire right eye shut. We had gotten drops last night she was already one half day into some medicine for it and with any luck it won't get too bad on us.

Other than that, things are completely normal. Emily is talking and communicating more and more. She now says Stinky ("gin-ky") and is starting to be heard saying lots of other words, too. She walks up to you and points and screams for things like Cheetos and water. Thanks again, Daddy for introducing our girls to that beloved snack food, Cheetos.

We hope you all are doing well. We are wishing we could go to cousin Ben's wedding in California soon and see the rest of the MacDougall and Schrank clan but air travel with the girls is just not in our cards this summer. Congratulations Ben and Pam!!

Birthday recap

Hello Family and Friends!

If you are reading this, it means that you successfully were added to the access list and logged on to the site in it's new "safer" mode. After a recent potentially strange comment from someone I didn't know I decided to go ahead and restrict access to this blog from now on for the safety of our girls. I hope you all understand. If you have friends or colleagues who you would like to give access so you can do some virtual bragging, please just go ahead and send me their emails and I'll be more than happy to add them to the access list, ok?

Anyway, on to happier topics... Emily's 1st Birthday BlowOut was an amazing success. Aside from the disappointment that Grandnma and Grandpa MacDougall weren't able to make the trip up for it as they had originally hoped, it was a great time had by all - especially Miss Emily Anne "Birthday Girl" herself. Check out this grin:



We had a massive birthday bash complete with catered delicious BBQ from Famous Dave's. We had a moonbounce for the big kids (and especially big sister, Sophie), we had friends and family, we had beautiful (though slightly hot and sticky) weather after literally an entire week of monsoon-like conditions. It was grand! And of course, Emily had her first taste of cake (chocolate cake no less!) and LOVED IT!

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate our sweet little Emily Anne's milestone 1st birthday with us!! We love you! xoxo

Happy 1 Year Birthday Sweet Emily Anne

One year ago on this day, our hearts swelled yet again, opened wide and filled with love for little Emily Anne.

She was born very early in the morning and very quickly. We barely made it to the birth center in time. The mid wife seemed to be caught off guard when she saw how far along Jen was. Only twenty minutes after we arrived, Emily was born.

Jen, as usual, did an amazing job. I felt slightly more capable helping her then I did when Sophie was born.

Like Emily's birth, her first year has felt as equally speedy. It only seems like yesterday when she was a newborn. She's now toddling around the house. Learning to talk and gesture and generally just enjoying her world.

She is one of the funniest babies I've ever known. She frequently tries to make people laugh by making funny nosies or moving her body in some silly way.

She's got a fiery temper and a strong will too. She balances it out with a genuine sweetness that will melt your heart. If she gives you a hug, you'll know what I mean.

I am convinced that Emily is my father born again. She looks like him and so far, their personalities seem to be almost identical. When Jen was still breast-feeding Emily she said it was it was like she was breastfeeding a tiny version of her father in law.

We've already decided that Em will be our last child. Em's first birthday is intensely bittersweet because of this. She is the last 1 year old I will Father. Her nightly feedings are that much more precious now. Nurturing her as baby, providing for her and comforting her, helping her ease into a night’s sleep (hopefully). Before we know it, she won't need us to feed her, hold her and be close with her at bedtime. She probably doesn’t need it even now, yet we do it.

Jen and I have been incredibly lucky. We've be blessed to given the opportunity to raise two smart, sweet girls. I cannot imagine our life any different than it is now. Nor would I want to. My heart pours love for my girls and my wife. Our little family feels just right.

Emily, I am so proud and grateful to be your Daddy. I hope I can do right by you. My only words of advice are the following:

Stay sweet, stay fiery, stay funny, stay curious. Make mistakes. Apologize when feelings are hurt. Treat everyone as you would want to be treated. Explore the world. Listen to lots of different music. Enjoy art. Eat your dinner. Plant a garden. Brush your teeth. Thank people profusely. Say “please” frequently. Stand up for yourself and others. Work hard at what you love. Hug your big sister. Never take love, family or friends for granted.

I love you little Emily Anne. Have a wonderful first birthday.

Love,
Daddy - xoxo

Catching up

Ok, so yes... the family blog is suffering a bit, isn't it? Between me being back at work for two days a week and all the activities of Easter and Mother's Day and all the sickness with Daddy checking himself into the hospital on the night before Easter (he's fine thank goodness) and GGMom giving us all a scare (she was in the hospital for almost a week from Easter Sunday till the following Saturday) and then Emily getting the head cold and then Sophie getting the stomach bug, there just hasn't been a lot of time for blog updates, I will admit. But in honor of Emily's upcoming first birthday I'm going to really try and be better about updates, ok? I promise!!

So here goes: the whirlwind re-cap in photos of the last few weeks:

Hayride to Bunnyland

Well, on Thursday we took the annual Hayride to Bunnyland trip. This time, we had DeeRee and Nevyn and Nevyn's Nana Barbara (and of course, Mommy and Emily) along with us, too! We had a lovely time and Sophie and Nevyn got to run around the playground while Emily got excited by looking at some chickens with DeeRee. After all that and some lunch (that almost went terribly terribly wrong as most events that have to do with eating in our family seem to be going these days) we finally hopped in the tractor and took off for Bunnyland. Everyone was excited but here is what Sophie's comment was, "We're taking the hayride to go to get jellybeans!!" And as I was waiting in line with her and we were watching all the other kids disembark from the previous tractor, Sophie's eyed up every single kid's goodie bag and would say "Oh see is eating a lollipop!" or "he got jellybeans!." Truly, the bunny was lost on her. She thought he was ok of course. But her eyes REALLY lit up when the young girl that preceded the bunny came over with the bags of easter candy for each kid. Sigh. My how things have changed since that first year when I took her and I was literally in tears riding in the tractor with her because she stood up and pointed at the Bunny and was so happy and excited. Those were the days when she had never had a jellybean before. Ahh... the innocence and halcyon days of 1 year old. Which (nice segue, huh?) is what we're enjoying with Emily right now. She turned 11 months old on Thursday and she is truly such a joy to be around (mostly). She is learning words (such as clock, dada, cat, car, and more) and says "hi" and waves like nobody's business. We still can't get her to say or identify "mommy" yet and in fact, when Jim asked her recently where "mommy" was she pointed to DeeRee. So... um, ahem. I'm TRYING not to take this *too* personally. What a difference compared to my little mommy's girl (Sophie). But overall Emily is "a happy little critter" as her DeeRee says. She really is sweet and funny and learning so much. It's such a delight to watch her little triumphs of learning new tricks (like coloring!) and watching her mind process and store new words and information (like the baby sign for "milk" which she now does). She still smells to high heaven like a wet smelly cheez-it from the disgusting sensitive belly formula she drinks. But though smelly, she is so totally cute that you almost forget (almost) how smelly she can be.

Overall, life is good. Sophie is having some challenges with eating lately. She has become extremely picky and very high maintenance with her eating. All she wants is juice, which of course we moderate, but I'm starting to think she still gets too much. And of course, she loves her candy. I guess the weekend of Easter is a bad time to start a no sugar diet for her but I'm thinking that pretty soon we really might try it and see if it helps clear up some of her food weirdness of late. And we're now starting to think about Emily's first birthday party which of course we are greeting with such mixed emotions as we realize that our (very likey to be last) little baby is growing up so fast.

The Girlies

Another much more interesting video, I hope

Ok so Jim/James said that basically those videos I just posted really are pretty boring. And though they are of my children and I could smile at them doing even the most mundane and boring things, this video is probably muuuccchh better...
http://gallery.me.com/joxenford#100075/IMG_1524