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The Pestilent Pea with a Skinned Up Knee

Anna had a rough day.

I went in to her room this morning to find her sitting up, staring at me with those beautiful blue eyes with long, dark lashes… and gunk. Lots and lots of gunk, along with a bright red right eye. Pink eye has struck our house again, for the fourth time in as many months, and this one has started out looking much worse than the others. Thanks to our awesome doctor, we had an extra bottle of prescription eye drops on hand, and Anna should be free of pink eye – or at least not as contagious – by tomorrow morning.

But that wasn’t the end of trauma for our Sweetest Pea today. Around lunchtime she was playing in the “basik” – translated into the modern American English “basket,” for which the technical term is “laundry basket.” How she managed to get in it without it tipping over is beyond me, but when she tried to get out, she did indeed tip and caught both hands on something (I’m still not really sure what). This led to a few tears and a bleeding knuckle, which I didn’t even notice until a few minutes later. She was a very brave girl and didn’t cry at all while we cleaned it and put her first-ever band-aid on the scrape. I don’t know that she cared that the band-aid had a picture on it of the Little Mermaid, but it made me feel nice!

Finally, we went on a nice long family walk this evening and when we got back, Anna was walking to the house when she fell on the sidewalk and… you guessed it… scraped up her knee. We have been surprised it hadn’t happened yet, as she falls over a lot and seems to really enjoy running up and down our sidewalk, but this was her first skinned knee. (20 months and one skinned knee? I’ll take it!) Not too terrible, but definitely a decent scrape. This actually didn’t bother her too much at all until her evil mother decided to use an alcohol swab on it, and the rest of the evening she would randomly burst into tears and say, “Knees! Knees! Anna sad!” It was really quite adorable (but also heartbreaking, of course).

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit easier on her. Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more like she’s got my klutzy genes.

Two girls out for a walk (push?). You can kind of see Anna’s weepy eye and the band-aid on her hand.
“Knee! Knee! Uh oh! Owies!”

May 14, 2012 | Categories: Anna, BY SARA | Leave A Comment »

Happy Due Date, Josephine

Today is Josie’s due date, which makes her exactly five weeks old. I know there are a lot of families who have children born much earlier than 35 weeks, but it is still a fun milestone for us to reach! She should be just over six pounds now (we have our final weekly weigh-in tomorrow morning) and is doing really well.

We’ve started on our monthly photo for Josephine, so here she is with a sock monkey – name still TBD. I’ll throw in a few other photos from the last few weeks as well.

Josie, one month old

 

Sisters (for more sisterly cuteness, see the video in our previous post!)

 

Our little lady bug

 

May 9, 2012 | Categories: BY SARA, Josephine | Leave A Comment »

Anna and Josie: The Premiere!

Anna has welcomed Josephine into our family by giving kisses and snuggles, but she had not been interested in holding her… at least until yesterday. She held her a few times and we managed to get some recorded:

In case you’re wondering, yes, Anna does say “Josie,” although you would never know it by the sound of it unless you’re her parents. And if you’re curious, at the beginning of the video Anna points to my hand and says “uh oh,” which is her way of telling the story that Josie spit up on herself and then on my hand. Anna likes telling stories, and a lot of them now involve the baby, which we enjoy! Time will tell if her sister will follow in her (very talkative and entertaining) footsteps.

May 7, 2012 | Categories: Anna, BY SARA, Josephine | 6 Comments »

Our Tiny World

My sister-in-law and I were talking a few days ago about our first children. She mentioned that when your first kid is born, your whole world shrinks down until it just includes you, your spouse, and your child. Well, I’m here to say that the same is true of Josie’s arrival, although it has not been nearly as stressful. Sara and I both feel much more sure of ourselves, and we are enjoying our time at home together. Little Josephine is already weighing in at 4 pounds, 9 ounces, gaining 1-2 ounces a day. She is a good eater and it’s a real joy watching Anna get to know her. (She likes watching her get changed, enjoys shaking her bottles, and pointing out her body parts.)

It will be hard to go back to work on Thursday. Until then, I’m enjoying every moment spent in our tiny world.

Mom walking her youngest to the house. 
So tiny! 
Our happy family at home.
Story time with Daddy.

April 17, 2012 | Categories: Anna, BY JOHN, BY SARA, Josephine | 4 Comments »

Josie is Coming Home!

Just a quick note to say the doctors have cleared Josephine to come home! Our family will be together again this afternoon. Very happy.

April 14, 2012 | Categories: BY JOHN, Josephine | Leave A Comment »

Tea Time in Anna’s Wagon

Very ladylike!
The less formal pose.

April 11, 2012 | Categories: BY JOHN | 2 Comments »

A Whirlwind Few Days

As I write this, Josephine is now about 100 hours old and doing pretty well, all things considered. She was under UV lights for a while to stave off jaundice, a nice little gift from two parents with bloodtype O+ and the fine Minnesota climate. She was taken out from under the lights and the isolation chamber this morning. This means she is still hanging out in the special care nursery because of her feeding tube, but she’s now in a bassinet at least.

Yesterday I busted Sara out of the hospital where she’s boarding and took her to lunch at Great Waters in downtown St. Paul; it was nice to have a burger and just be a couple for an hour or two in the middle of all that’s going on. Then today we had Easter at our house with grandmas and grandpas from both sides of the family and Sara’s sisters. Again Sara got to take a few hours off to help Anna hunt for Easter eggs.

It’s hard to say what the near future will bring for our family. Josie is five weeks premature and needs to learn how to eat properly. Once her suck reflex has fully kicked in, we will be able to take her home. If you are reading this, please say a prayer for our family, and especially for little Josie that she grows strong quickly so our family can all be home together. Also please ask Josie’s patron saints, Joseph and Mary, to pray for her too!

It’s been a difficult past few days for me as a dad; I want nothing more than to have all my girls home with me. But we are connected by love, prayers, and the support of our wonderful family and friends, and I can’t ask for much more than that.

And now, some photos:

Some skin-to-skin time with Daddy.
A smile for Mommy!
Super futuristic Josie basks in the UV glow.
Meanwhile, a little girl in her Easter best hunts for eggs!

 (If you made it this far, you get one last story.)

Last night I had given Anna a bath and was putting her PJs on in her room. She kept asking for a song, but after I started each one of her favorites, she shouted, “All done!” Confused, I asked her, “What song do you want?” at which point she began saying “Night night” in a deep voice and following it up with “Picka picka!” (her version of birdies tweeting.)

I eventually deduced that she wanted me to sing “Goodnight Ladies” from The Music Man, which you can watch here. This evolved into me exchanging the word “Anna” for “ladies.” Then she shouted out, “Baby! Baby!” So I sang “Goodnight, Baby…” and she began to wiggle, grin, and clap.

What a sweet big sister. I was a proud poppa last night.

April 8, 2012 | Categories: Anna, BY JOHN, John's Family, Josephine, New baby, Sara's Family | Leave A Comment »

Welcome Josephine!

We are happy to announce the birth of Josephine Immaculata Rogers, who came into the world at 5:31 PM on Wednesday, April 4, 2011. She weighs 4 pounds, 0.75 ounces and measures 17 inches. Right now Josie is in the special care nursery and is taking food primarily through a tube, but she is doing great in all other respects. We are excited to talk to the neonatal doctor and see how she is progressing by tomorrow evening.

Sara was amazing in labor–relaxing through each contraction, and facing the pain with determination and bravery. She is a wonderful mom who deserves all the credit in the world for persevering through another difficult pregnancy.

The only hiccup is I got pink eye, and so I have had to stay out of the special care nursery since this morning. It’s terrible and I hate it, but I should be able to go in starting at noon on Friday and spend some quality time with my little munchkin dooder.

Please continue to pray for Josie, as she is 35 weeks old and has some catching up to do! And now, some pictures…

5 minutes after birth.

Getting ready for a feeding tube.

One happy family!

Saying her first night time prayers with Daddy.

With thankful hearts,
John, Sara, Anna, and Josie

April 5, 2012 | Categories: BY JOHN, John's Family, New baby, Sara's Family | 4 Comments »

Zoo Visits!

I was on Spring Break this past week, which meant lots of fun time with one of my three favorite girls, Anna. On Thursday Sara, Anna, Baby Girl, and I headed to the Como Zoo together. We were expecting to get a nice parking spot near the entrance 15 minutes after the doors opened, but we had forgotten that pretty much every schoolkid in St. Paul is also on vacation right now, so the zoo was a madhouse of strollers, kids, and parents. Yay! We still had a lot of fun, however.

Anna really enjoyed checking out the monkies (“mong”), fish (“fich”), penguins (“la la,” which means “waddle, waddle”), lions (“rawr!”), and giraffes (she is silent and points to her neck). Her favorite animal by far is the mighty polar bear. And Como Zoo has a new polar bear exhibit, which is quite impressive. When we arrived inside, one of the bears was swimming in his pool right next to the glassed-in viewing area. He was trying to get a red ball out of a floating barrel, and he kept pushing up against the glass, diving underwater, nudging the barrel, and coming back up for air again. Anna was just giggling in delight watching all of this:

Very excited about the polar bears. 
Funny bears!

For months after her last visit in November, Anna would tell everyone she met about bears including how they jump and eat snow, which is what she observed back then.  Now whenever anyone asks her about animals, she shouts out “Bear!” and then says “baw, baw!” (ball), followed by “pash!” (splash). It’s quite cute.

She also visited the Minnesota Zoo yesterday with Baba and Ming (Grandpa and Grandma R). She enjoyed herself very much as she got to hug a bear statue and dress up in a bee costume.

Watching her learn and grow is a treat. I love every minute!

Snuggles!
Bzzzzz.

March 18, 2012 | Categories: Anna, BY JOHN, Day trips | 1 Comment »

The Crimes of Sciurus Carolinensis

Two weeks ago, we left the house on a bright Friday afternoon with Auntie Beth and Grandma Sherry to head to our regular ultrasound appointment for Baby Girl #2. The sun was shining, the wind was mild, and Anna’s grey friends were happily gnawing at our  bonafide Cands Products Squirrelog ™. We nodded pleasantly at them, they nodded back, and then we were in the car and on our way to the ultrasound. (All went well, by the way.)

Afterwards, we stopped for a drink at the Cherokee Tavern, the local watering hole, before picking Anna up from our friend Taryn–the Sweetest Pea was taking a nap, so we wanted to kill a bit of time. (I ordered Alaskan Brewing Black IPA, Sara had a Shirley Temple.) At 4 P.M., with Sweet Pea in the backseat, we arrived home. And then we saw it–or rather, we didn’t see it. The  bonafide Cands Products Squirrelog ™ was…gone. It’s hard to even type it. Yes, those thieving squirrel b******s had, during our absence, donned ski masks, picked up wire cutters, hopped into their 1/8 scale pickup, drove it onto our deck, cut the bonafide Cands Products Squirrelog ™ off of its chain, loaded it  into their truck, and absconded with the goods. No way it could have been a one-squirrel job. The thing was the size of a baseball on Friday afternoon, when the world was pure and we were friends with the rodents in the back yard. A whole furry clan must have planned it for weeks–no, months.

Now when Anna toddles to the glass door in the dining room, clicks sadly, and makes the sign for “more, please!” I don’t say anything about the squirrels. I don’t know what to say. “Your gray friends betrayed you, Sweetest Pea” just seems too cruel. She’s so young, and it’s better we keep the truth from her…until I find a way to get revenge, that is. Then I can tell her the whole story.

The scene of the crime.

February 20, 2012 | Categories: Anna, BY JOHN | Leave A Comment »

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