Bible Days

Vivien goes to mothers day out at a Baptist church. They have something called Bible Days where the children dress up like people or animals from the Bible. I didn't want Vivien to dress up as the same women of the Bible that all of her other classmates would inevitably be dressed as (Mary and Mrs. Noah--what was her name, anyway???). I decided I would convince her to dress like one of her stuffed animals, then they could be two animals for Noah's ark. Easier said than done.

Our choices: rabbit, bear, lion, dog, cat, gorilla, and meerkat. I didn't even bring up the meerkat, because I had no idea how I would create this costume. Vivien decided late last night that she was afraid of something about each of the suggested animals. We have the perfect pair of bunny ears for her to wear, but she's afraid of them. She's afraid of a lion's roar and a dog's bark. What? I tried to explain that just because she dressed as one, didn't mean she would hear the sounds. I think she was just trying to mess with me.

I finally convinced her to be a bear. I said goodnight to her and went off to contemplate this costume. I thought I would make some ears out of brown construction paper and a headband. Wouldn't you know that I have ever color of construction paper except brown?!? Luckily, the bottom of the construction pad was a hard brown stock. I ripped it off and cut it into ovals, then hot glued them to a headband. I knew it would make her mad, but I didn't have much of a choice.

This morning I dressed her in whatever brown she had (not much) with a black turtleneck to keep her warm. I made up her face a little bit. I think it turned out so cute. I feel bad for her that I'm not nearly as creative of a mom as my mom was when I was growing up.

Silas Digby is 8 months old!

I can't believe our precious boy is already 8-months-old. It makes me want to cry! He is so cute. He's looking less like a baby and more like a little boy lately when we compare pics from a couple of months ago. He is so handsome with beautiful blue eyes and luscious lashes. He is a happy baby. When we take his pictures he immediately smiles and poses. He is almost crawling. He takes a couple of "steps" but then goes flat on his belly when he reaches his destination. He still doesn't have teeth. Vivien didn't get any until 10 months, but his gums have been so swollen lately. We'll see. He claps. He gives high fives. He studies our mouths when we talk and tries to mimic the movements of our mouths. He's still not a great sleeper, but he has gotten a little better. We give solids a shot every now and then, but he's still not ready. So I continue to be his only nourishment source, which is fine by me. He loves his sister and squeals and bounces with excitement when Daddy gets home. He has taken on the nickname, Little Buddy. We love you Little Buddy. You make our family feel so complete.

Dog Park and the Pre-Crawl

We took Speedy and Cantrell to the dog park on Sunday. Those two old dogs only cared about running back to the exit when we took their leashes off. There is a separate fenced area for dogs under 30 lbs., but Speedy just hung out by the fence near Cantrell.

We finally decided to just bring Speedy into the big part and just keep him on the leash. There were other small dogs in there too. Sadly, a couple of owners found it amusing to watch their small dogs get harassed by the larger dogs. Cantrell was not bothered by any dogs unless she was on her leash.

Since our 8-year-old dogs do not know how to play fetch, Vivien found another dog to play with.

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As usual when she doesn't want to leave a place, she threw a screaming crying fit in which causes everyone to stare at us. We usually just walk on and ignore this behavior. I felt like I needed to capture one of these fits. After I turned the camera off, she screamed at me to turn around and not look at her. Jim says she has his temper.

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This guy has been rocking back and forth for weeks. He's so close. He can move backward fine and he can push himself around in a circle. We finally got him to inch a bit forward. This was a bit difficult for Vivien as we ran to get the camera and were excited. She was really acting up to try to get attention. I had a talk with her to let her know that she can have our attention, but sometimes her brother gets to have some of his own special moments too. When she calmed down, she decided to brainstorm on documenting Silas's milestones (she pretended to write them down). You can sort of hear her in the background talking about it. Now that he is doing more, she is finally starting to fight for attention. But she still loves him so much. She got mad at me for calling him a slobberface. She told me that wasn't nice. What a sweet big sister.

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Please Help Us Get This Passed

On behalf of Vivien or any other child you may know burdened with congenital heart defects, please consider taking the time to send a letter to your senators and representatives asking them to back this. You can use the template below. There are instructions on how to find your senators and representatives. On the part that says to insert why you care, only put a few sentences about what you have observed knowing a child with congenital heart defects or knowing the struggles the parent of a CHD kid goes through. This really would mean the world to us and every family touched by congenital heart defects.

When you go to your senator/reps' websites, you can copy and paste the whole letter into the little box they provide. They don't allow attachments. Just select something like "health" or "health care" from their drop down menu.

Thanks,
Beth

**********

On March 17th, the Congenital Heart Futures Act (Bill S. 621 in the Senate and HR 1570 in the House) was introduced to Congress! In the Senate, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois led the charge joined by Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi. In the House, the bill's lead co-sponsors were Representative Zach Space of Ohio and Representative Gus Bilirakis of Florida. We are thrilled that this groundbreaking piece of legislation has already received bipartisan support.

So what's next? Like any piece of legislation, the Congenital Heart Futures Act has to get majority support in both the House and Senate in order to be passed. Please email your Senators and Congressman today to ask them to become a co-sponsor of this legislation. It just takes a minute - here's how you do it:

1. Go to http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov to look up
your representatives and their email address.

2. Draft your email - Here is a template to get you started.

Dear [Lawmaker name here]

I am writing to ask for your help in making a brighter future for
all those born with heart defects. Yesterday the Congenital Heart
Futures Act, legislation calling for research, surveillance, and
education in congenital heart disease, was introduced in the
Senate by Senators Durbin and Cochran and in the House by
Representatives Bilirakis and Space. I am writing to ask you to
co-sponsor these bills (S. 621 and H.R. 1570) and help all those
born with heart defects live longer, healthier lives.

Congenital heart disease is this country’s number one birth defect
and kills twice as many children as childhood cancer. Although
many children now undergo successful heart repair, most will
require special life-long care and face high risks of developing
additional heart problems. But up until now there has been
virtually no federal investment to address the research and
education needs of the 1.8 million Americans now living with
congenital heart disease.

[Insert 2-3 sentences saying why you care]

To sign on as a co-sponsor of the bill, House Members should
contact Dan Farmer with Rep. Space at (202) 225-6265 to discuss
support of H.R. 1570. Senators should contact Sara Singleton with
Senator Durbin at (202) 224-2152 re: S. 621.

Thank you in advance for your help in securing a future for all
those living with congenital heart disease.

Sincerely,

[name]
[full mailing address]
[email]

3. Make your letter personal to you. The template has a place to add
two or three sentences (more is NOT better in this case!) about
why this legislation matters to you personally, and offers some
samples to help get you started.

4. Send your email. Be sure to include your full mailing address as
well as your email address. Don't use US mail, since thanks to the
anthrax scare it now takes many weeks for mail to arrive in Congress.

Other things from this month

Here are some other things we've been up to. Some of this is from before our camping trip.

As a kid, my least favorite chore was pulling weeds. I swore that as an adult, I would never pull weeds. And I have held to that. Luckily, Jim doesn't mind yard work and he has a little helper.

Silas, as usual, supervises

We had a bunch of rain last week, so Vivien suited up and played in the mud.

Today, a gym in Allen had preschool open gym. The kids could play on most of the equipment there. Vivien's favorite things were the long trampoline that she could run on and jump off into the mats, as well as, the foam pit that she could swing on a rope over.

Obviously, my camera picked up all of the chalk dust particles that we could not see.

Here's just one of these two hanging out.

Spring Break Camping Trip

We joined a group of friends on a camping trip to Turner Falls in Davis, OK. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from here. We left early Saturday morning in a caravan of mini-vans and SUVs. Some left on Sunday. Some stayed until today. We left yesterday since Jim had to work today.

Here we are packed to the gills. There was no more room for anything.

Poor Vivien got hit with some carsickness after playing with her Leapster in the car. Luckily, I had a plastic bag handy when she started looking queasy. Silas has gotten better in the car around town, but he is no fan of the road trip.

We got to the site, and Jim put the tent up. His boss loaned us a bunch of equipment. We were so grateful for that.

After we settled in, we headed off to see the castle and the falls. We drove to the castle, as the roads are really steep and a tough walk. My friend, Amba, braved the walk. She is my hero.

Sebastian and Vivien climbed up the first set of steps towards the castle. There were lots of sets of steps. We finally got to one set that snaked up the mountain. They were small steps with no rails. Jim wouldn't go because of his aversion to heights. I started to take Vivien, but got really dizzy and wanted to head back down. She got very upset and started to pitch a fit. I was trying to explain to her how dangerous it was for us to be up there with me feeling dizzy. She offered to go alone. Yeah right.

Here is the main fall. It's a swimming hole, but it was too cold for swimming.

We hiked a small trail. Here I am feeding Silas, while sitting with my friend, Cheryl.

Vivien climbing a rock with Anuschka's son, Aidan.

Silas passed out on the walk back. I had to tie my flannel around the back of him so his head would stop hanging backward.

We went to a little cave in the mountain. It had two entrances. One, you had to crawl on your belly to get into. The other was a steep slope that you had to ease your way down. I took Vivien into this one and left our guys in the car.

Vivien and Sebastian leaving the cave. I asked Cheryl to take a picture of Vivien and me in the cave, but Vivien refused and took off. She was making me nervous because she didn't have much fear at those heights and was not listening to me when I was trying to hold on to her.

Back at the site, Anuschka gave the kids paint. They painted the trees.

This is what our little community looked like the first night. The two tents on the right left the next day. Unfortunately, there was a burn ban, so we couldn't take advantage of the fire pit.

Sebastian took this picture of Vivien. He is quite the photographer. Those two were pretty inseparable for much of the trip.

Vivien's get-up cracked me up so much that I had to take a picture of this. I love how her flashlight is in her pocket and one pant leg is up. Sebastian is helping her roast marshmallows.

The temperature was in the low 40s overnight and we felt every bit of that. Silas was nice and toasty, but the rest of use were like ice cubes. None of us really slept well. As a result, we heard all of the raccoons coming all night looking for food. We also heard a pack of coyotes or wolves howling very close.

Here is how Silas slept.

Vivien is wearing two pairs of pajamas (one thermal) and two pairs of socks. I slept in my jacket with the hood on.

Sebastian, Vivien, and Yossarian enjoying breakfast in the cold.

Amba and I went to the showers while the guys took the kids to play at a playground. Then we hung out at the playground for a bit. Here are my kids attacking me.

Sebastian and Vivien were doing some research in nature books.

Smores time

Silas tried to go for a drive

Yummy camping breakfast.

Jim held onto Juniper and Silas while Amba and Chad got ready for our last walk. They stayed on another night, so they moved their camp to a more quiet area since the one we were in got infiltrated with loud spring breakers.

Vivien passed out nearly the entire way home.