family

  • 28 Days Later

    Four weeks ago, we welcomed Layla into this world. It was painful, scary, wonderful, and she blessed us with her first breaths immediately. She still resides at Children’s Mercy Hospital where we spend our days with her. We’ve had so many ups and downs during her stay here – I wanted to document the experience…

  • Grip Strength

    The days here at the hospital seem to follow a pretty consistent up and down roller coaster pattern, and today has been one of those days. It started out great, with an update from Layla’s nurse that she had made good progress eating from the bottle overnight with minimal puking. Poor girl is trying to learn to…

  • Calm Before the Storm

    May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. –Nelson Mandela My countdown app says “4” days till Layla. And unless she makes an early appearance on her own, we are on the books at Children’s Mercy to get labor started this Monday morning, November 2nd. I spent my last day of work in the…

  • Off Kilter

    Our week did not get off to the start I expected. On Saturday, Skyler broke her glasses. I think those lasted a whole month. I also think they are fixable. Looks like the tiny screw fell out so if we can take them back and get a new screw, they’ll be back in business. How…

  • Flipside

    I’ve complained enough about Skyler’s age and antics lately, so here’s one about how amazing, adorable, and funny she is. These are the things I relish in the moment and cling to the memories of when she’s on one of her rampages. I love how she likes to hop everywhere she goes. I think she…

  • Bringing Out the Worst

    The thing I struggle with the most about parenting is that my child can really bring out the worst in me, and I can’t stand the ugliness that she somehow finds a way to draw up from deep inside. I’ve never been much of an angry person, or had much of a temper, but when…

  • Mini-update

    1) We haven’t made it to the glasses shop to buy Skyler glasses yet. It’s been a crazy busy week for both Ronnie and I, and after two doctor appointments for Skyler last week, we just haven’t had time to take off. I hope Target Optical is open on Saturday, because that is when I…

  • Spring Flings

    Skyler’s behavior at this age is about as predictable and consistent as Spring in Kansas. We have perfectly mild, smile-inducing sunny afternoons, followed by 60 mph winds, hail, and thunder. Tears fall like rain during scattered showers, where the sunshine of laughter breaks through the clouds suddenly and then disappears as quickly as it came.…

  • Things I am…

    …amazed at the things Skyler is learning in preschool. This week is “shapes,” so I naturally thought this will be a breeze for her since she’s known circles, squares, triangles, and even octagons forever now. But as of today, the four shapes they’ve covered this week are ellipse, diamond, pentagon, and octagon. She also came…

  • Weekend Update

    I hate getting behind on here. Every day that goes by that I haven’t updated about certain things adds to the stress of having to write one long, boring blog post. And so then I keep avoiding it and the problem spirals deeper. We are anxiously awaiting Spring! Last week we had that little tease…