All You Need is Love

I've always been kind of indifferent about Valentine's Day. I didn't love it or hate it, it was just a day. When I was a kid I enjoyed getting a special gift from my dad every year... usually my favorite candy in a tin (right up my alley!). Then in college I would always wait in anticipation for a care package from my mom. I spent my first 22 Valentine's Days without a special someone, and while I was never terribly bothered by that, it still wasn't exactly fun, and my parents knew how to soften the blow by letting me know that I was loved on February 14th, regardless of my relationship status. Then I met my special someone, and Valentine's Day lost it's power. Erich does a fabulous job of showing me how much he cares for me all the time. Neither one of us has ever really put much stock in this one particular day. We do exchange cards every year, but that's about it (I guess Hallmark wins after all). So like I said, I don't hate Valentine's Day but I've never really been crazy about it either. Until this year. Suddenly I see Valentine's Day as a way to love on my kids and teach them to love on others. Avery made a special craft that we sent to the grandparents and yesterday we made cookies to be delivered to a friend of a friend who is in the middle of a lengthy hospital stay (Erich was able to deliver them today because he is a patient at the hospital where Erich works). This morning we also delivered a plate of cookies to the school crossing guard who was standing out in the cold and snow on the corner down the street. I got a couple of small gifts for the girls (just like Dad always did for me) and for the first time ever I decorated for the holiday, making some pink and red decorations to add a little cheer around the house (thank you pinterest!). Avery, Norah, and I all wore pink and red today too. It was a fun day and I definitely felt the love as we celebrated in our own special way. Happy Valentine's Day to you, may you always remember how much you are loved, on February 14th and every day.

Avery working on her heart sun catchers for Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa

Proud to show off the finished product!

My Valentine's girls showing off their pink outfits and their special gifts (heart suckers and a book for Avery, a book for Norah)

Avery insisted on reading Norah's new book to her. She showed her all the pictures and then said, "you better read it mom, these words are too big". That made me chuckle. At 2 years old, Avery can't read any words yet, big or small.

Our little lovebug

Avery opening Valentine's Day cards from Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa.

Sister Love

Our girls, just hanging around the house. I love watching them together.

Avery joining in the fun on Norah's play gym (Norah's head is actually very small compared to Avery's. Must just be the angle of the picture)

Probably the first of many secrets to be shared between these two sisters

Avery loves to play her Lucky Ducks game. Lately she's been playing it with Norah. She follows all the rules, taking Norah's turn for her. It's pretty cute and Norah of course likes playing with the ducks!

N is for Norah

Some recent pictures of our sweet baby Norah:

Our baby girl is bursting with personality. She's almost 4 months old and it's hard to believe how fast time is flying by. Now that she's feeling better she has plenty of smiles and giggles to offer. She rolled over once or twice a few weeks ago, but doesn't seem to be in much of a rush to go anywhere and that's just fine with me. She enjoys sitting up in her bumbo seat, is starting to hold and play with her toys, and has her first tooth poking through. She was sleeping through the night, but ever since her hospital stay her sleeping habits have regressed and now she's up no less than 3 or 4 times a night. This makes me very sad (and tired), but I know it won't last forever. Avery can make her laugh more than anyone and we love watching them together. The other day I asked Avery if she remembers life before Norah was in our family and she looked at me with a completely blank stare, clearly she had no idea what I was talking about. I understood exactly how she felt.

Potty Day

A while back Avery started showing all the signs that she was more than capable of potty training, but whenever we talked to her about it we were met with reluctance and stubbornness. "I will not go in the potty, I just want my diaper!" was the response from our almost 3 year old beauty. Avery thrives on routine and consistency. She does not like change. She wants to do things in the exact same way, eat the exact same foods, put her toys in the exact same places... every single day. We realized that she might never get to the point that she was going to embrace the idea of changing things up in the potty department, so we set a date on the calendar to declare "Potty Day" and decided we were just going to have to step up, be the parents, and let her know that this is how it is going to be. You wear underwear, you pee in the potty, and you don't get a choice anymore. We didn't see any other way to go about it. We braced ourselves for a battle. On Potty Day Eve, we got the house all ready... set up the bathroom, laid towels out over the furniture, got the carpet cleaner and disinfectant spray set out, and hung up a sticker chart for a reward system. The next morning when Avery woke up and I walked into her room happily exclaiming, "It's Potty Day! Are you excited?!". She burst into tears and went on and on about how she doesn't like Potty Day, she doesn't want to use the potty, and she just wants her diapers. I felt for the sweet girl, I really did, but it was too late to turn back now. I had to follow through. So downstairs we went and I wrestled her into her big girl princess underwear, showed her the brand new potty seat, and gave her a cup of juice to drink. Followed by another cup. And another cup. We were going to make this happen! Finally after a couple of hours passed, she gave me that wide eyed "uh oh" look and we RAN to the bathroom... success! That was it. All it took was that one time. Once she got past the initial fear of the unknown and figured out exactly how all this works, she never looked back. By the end of the day she was taking herself to the bathroom without even telling me that she needed to go, just like she'd been doing this for years. No big deal. At the end of the day I packed up the towels and household cleaners... It's been over a week and I haven't needed them yet. When it comes to parenting, I've always viewed potty training as the first really big hurdle... the first true test of your sanity. I feel like I just cheated on the test. It shouldn't have been this easy, but I'm certainly not complaining. Take notes, Norah!!

We had a sticker chart for Avery. Every time she went to the potty successfully she got a sticker and once she earned 5 stickers she would get a special prize. Based on her attitude leading up to the big day, we honestly expected it to take several days for her to fill her chart. We hoped it would offer a little motivation for her. She had it filled before dinner on the first day. She sure showed us.

Our big girl posing with her big girl present (thanks for supplying the gift Nana! She loves it!). We are so proud of her!

The tough stuff

This blog originally started as a way to keep our long distance family and friends updated on the happenings in our life as our family grew from 2 to 3, and then to 4 with the addition of Norah. Over time my motivation for updating the blog has changed. While I'm still happy to know that the people we love check in here on a regular basis, I've got to be honest... this isn't really about them anymore. It's a gift for our kids. I haven't filled out baby books for the girls (gasp!) and I'm not a scrapbooker. In fact, I'm embarrassed to say that almost 5 years worth of family photos haven't made it into albums yet (they are in a box... somewhere). This blog has become my way of documenting our life so that someday our children can look back and see our favorite photos, read about our holiday traditions, remember the major milestones along with the candid everyday moments, and most importantly so that they can have a glimpse into my heart as their momma and know all that they mean to me (it goes without saying that Erich's heart is echoed in all of this as well, I just happen to be the one doing the writing).

I would love to keep every memory recorded here light hearted, fun, and happy so that when Avery and Norah (and any other future Piland children) look back on these journal entries, they can remember the beautiful! wonderful! perfect! upbringing they had. That would be great, except for the fact that life isn't always beautiful, wonderful, and perfect. Sometimes hard things happen. And I need to write about those too. While we want our kids to see God in the fun, joy, and laughter that we experience on a regular basis, we hope they can see Him most of all in the rare tough moments that we encounter as a family. We know that our hope is in Christ, on good days and bad. And we are so thankful for that truth.

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Now, to share about one of those tough moments...

Ever since Christmas it seems like someone in our house has been sick. I got the stomach flu followed by a nasty cold. At the same time, Erich got bronchitis. Norah caught my cold and came down with a double ear infection. Just as Norah was getting better from that, Avery got the sniffles. Within a few days of Avery's cold Norah seemed to get one again. That poor baby was sick in one form or another for most of January. This last cold seemed different though. I took her to the pediatrician's office 3 times in a two week period. Each time the diagnosis was the same... "It's just a common cold. You are going to have to wait it out." She gradually got worse and worse and the stuffy nose turned into a raspy cough. The raspy cough turned into wheezing. And one scary Friday night around 8:30pm the wheezing suddenly turned into respiratory distress. Looking back, it's only by the grace of God that Erich and I stayed as calm as we did. Our 3 month old baby was struggling to breathe and gasping for air. It was the most frightening moment of my entire life. In hindsight, we both agree now that we probably should have called 911, but I think we knew it was an emergency and we just wanted to spring into action and do the quickest thing to get her to the hospital. In our minds that meant driving her there. We agreed that Erich would stay home with Avery (who was already in bed) and I would take Norah to the hospital. We thought that made the most sense because I'm nursing (turned out to be a moot point. The poor girl couldn't eat anything for more than 24 hours because she was so sick).

I have never prayed harder or driven faster than I did that night. Erich told me later that he was on his knees at home the entire time we were in the car. Thank you, Jesus, He kept Norah breathing the whole time and protected us from harm as I drove like a crazy person to get to the hospital quickly. Once we arrived and I ran up to the intake desk in the ER, they could see that Norah was struggling and they moved us ahead of everyone else in line and immediately got her hooked up to oxygen. They deep suctioned her (stuck a tube down her nose and into her lungs to suck out all the junk) and although she hated that (who wouldn't?), it gave her almost instant relief. Seeing her breathe easily again helped ME breathe easily again. After a chest x-ray and a sputum culture, her diagnosis was bronchiolitis and RSV. We were admitted to Toledo Children's Hospital and told we'd most likely be there for a few days. Norah was stable, but she was a sick little girl. That first night was rough... she had to have an IV put in (traumatic!), she had breathing treatments every 4 hours and had to be deep suctioned frequently (every hour or two). Thankfully by Saturday morning she seemed to be doing much better. Erich was able to come join us (thanks for coming up to stay with Avery, Mom!) and Norah was able to sleep off and on all day. By Sunday she was doing so much better that they let us go home! It was much sooner than anyone predicted we'd be leaving and while we were a little nervous, we were mostly grateful to get home. Norah had to continue breathing treatments at home and still had to be suctioned often, but she was breathing easily and smiling again... I missed that smile.

We were welcomed home by Avery who woke up Sunday morning a snotty mess and with almost no voice. Yep, Avery caught RSV from Norah (thankfully it's not nearly as serious in toddlers as it is in babies). We made a trip to the doctor and came home with a prescription for breathing treatments for Avery too. At least we already had the nebulizer! For the next week our house looked like a little mini medical clinic and we basically shut ourselves off from the outside world to keep the girls from spreading their germs or catching anyone else's. It was a crazy, stressful, bumpy ride. Thankfully, as they say, "this too shall pass"... and it has. I think we can finally declare everyone in our house 100% healthy. The nebulizer and humidifier have been packed up and the antibiotics have been finished.

While I never want to experience anything like that again, I can also acknowledge that it could have been much much worse. Friday night was frightening, but once we got to the hospital things turned around quickly and we knew Norah was going to be just fine. We are beyond grateful to have two healthy, happy girls again and we praise God that we felt His tight grasp on our family the entire time. Our marriage has been made stronger than ever and our hearts have been refocused onto what's the most important. And THAT is why I want our kids to hear about the tough moments. In some ways, they are some of the best moments.

Sick baby Norah with a tired but relieved Momma

Cuddles with Daddy

Avery wasn't the hugest fan of the breathing treatments (yes, she's wearing a bathing suit in January. It's our last resort when all of the dress up tutus are in the wash)

She loved the all you can eat popsicles and orange sherbet, though!

Real men wear babies

I am a HUGE fan of the baby wrap. It's essentially just a really long piece of fabric that you wrap around your torso in a fancy way and it enables you to carry your baby, hands free. I didn't own one with Avery, although I now wish I had (I don't think I knew they existed at that point). I'm thankful to have my Sleepy Wrap (that's the brand name) this time around with Norah. She spends time in it several days a week. If she's fussy, it almost certainly calms her down (it's kind of like being swaddled and held at the same time - two things she loves!). And it makes life much easier while chasing a 2 year old around! It has gotten plenty of use at the library and gymnastics, allowing me to carry Norah and still interact and play with Avery. Plus, it makes me feel like a little bit of a hippie mom and I like that. :) Erich has seen me wear Norah around the house many times and has marveled at the calming power the wrap has on her. He's never considered using it though, as I'm pretty sure he doesn't think it's a very "macho" thing to do. One day I was running out the door for an appointment while Erich stayed home with the girls. Norah was fussy, Avery needed to eat, and in exasperation Erich said, "Okay, put that wrap thing on me!". Before I headed out, I got Daddy and Norah situated with the carrier (which made her a happy girl) and I couldn't help but snap a couple of pictures... since I'll most likely never see this sight again. Thankfully Erich was a good sport and smiled for the camera!