Fun at the Park

Here are a couple pics from our visit to Mafield Park. We met Mimi and Papa there for family pics. Jenna was a real trooper. She was not feeling well throughout the day but did well regardless. She found a light that she LOVED and just could not get enough of. Blake loved going through the leaves and following the peacocks. More pics to come but here are a couple.

Finally some new pics....

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jvFOYnX6yUZI9IrU_aB45w?feat=directlink

March of Dimes Ambassador 2011 Family Nomination Update

Here is the email we received from the MOD Executive Director.

Kim and Jason,

Hello, my name is Susie Carr and I am the Executive Director for the Austin Division of the March of Dimes. I wanted to take a moment to Thank You for applying to be the 2011 Ambassador Family for Austin. Your story is very compelling and I thank you for sharing it with us.

Our volunteer committee has reviewed all of the applications and have selected another family to serve in 2011. I would like you both to know that it was a very difficult decision and a very close vote. With that said, I would very much like you to consider applying again for the 2012 Ambassador. I truly feel that you would be great representatives for the March of Dimes.

Thank you both again, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Susie Carr
Executive Director

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason and I are so happy to have been nominated and truly feel honored. Furthermore, the fact that we are being considered for this "honor" again for 2012 is pretty exciting. We look forward to this year's MOD events, spreading awareness and continuing to share our story in hopes to give others hope.

Fight for Preemies // Bloggers Unite

Fight for Preemies // Bloggers Unite

November is National Prematurity Awareness Month~My Article Re:Prematurity Awareness

November certainly is a very special month as it marks the start of the holiday season. Furthermore, it marks another very special time of the year. Novemner is National Prematurity Awareness Month. In an attempt to help spread awareness, I have included an article that I recently wrote. I hope you may take away a bit of otherwise unknown information, a bit of inspiration and a desire to join us in speading awareness.

I recently wrote this article to share with my fellow AMOM (Austin Moms of Multiples) friends and now would like to share it with all of you, Jenna and Blake's great supporters.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month-Please Wear Purple on November 17th.
Well ladies, here we are in November already. With November marking the start of a soon-to-be holiday season, November also marks a time of awareness, reflection, celebration, and rememberance.

Being a member of this wonderful group, we have all been touched and effected by prematurity in one way or another. Some of us have had a family member, co-worker, friend, or relative who has given birth prematurely. Some of us has had nieces, nephews, or cousins born prematurely. Moreover, many of us have helped support fellow members as they've struggled through challenging NICU journeys. And still, there are others of us who know that journey all too well as we watched our own children be born so small, so fragile.

Prematurity effects almost everyone at sometime in their lives. According to the March of Dimes, each week in Austin, 65 babies are born premature. One in seven babies are born premature in Texas. Furthermore, on average, 26 babies are born each week with a birth defect in Austin.

Thankfully with the help of the March of Dimes, more and more babies are born healthy. Those who are born premature are provided the medical attention to better help them conquer prematurity and fight against threatening long term effects.

By raising awareness, we too can make a difference. In an attempt to share my support in this endeavor I thought I would pass along some ideas that I have found from various resources....ways that each of us can help raise awareness. ~Share your story on the online NICU support forums.
~Share your story in pictures of your baby's journey and growth through the NICU. Make an album that you can share with others to help them become aware of the challenges that take place in the NICU. ~Blog about Prematurity Month or about your own experience with Prematurity. ~Email friends/family about Prematurity Month
~Honor a child by creating a virtual band in honor or memory of a child, an organization or baby on-the-way. ~Visit http://marchofdimes.com/prematurity/index_advocacy.asp to find more ways to help fight for preemies ~Wear purple (or a purple ribbon) on November 17th, National Prematurity Awareness Day.

Perhaps the easiest thing we can do to help raise awareness is simply to share....share your experience, your thoughts, your passion for helping all babies be born healthy.

Please join me on November 17th and add a little (or a lot) color purple to your attire. Let's join in raising awareness and in honor of so many of our smallest of heroes.

Thanks for listening.....

I received an email from the MOD family team coordinator. It stated that The March of Dimes is currently holding a "NICU Necessities Campaign". They are collecting donations (preemie hats, socks, and clothes, rocking chairs or gliders, disposable cameras, blankets, restuarant gift cards, swaddle blankets, Zakys, bouncers, journals and pens) for families in the NICU and will be making a delivery on November 17th. For more info, feel free to email Stasia Vance, the family team coordinator at SVance@marchofdimes.com or feel free to email me as well.

Sort, Sort, Sort...Stack, Stack, Stack

Blake is REALLY into sorting things these days. He can almost always be found with two of the same object (or at least similar), one in each hand....or if there are several of the same toy, he is trying his best carry them all at the same time. He is so funny, he tries to carry as many things at once as he can, using his little fingers to try and pick up just one more. The other day I heard him and Jenna giggling in the playroom. After a few minutes I peeked around the corner to find them in the middle of probably 100 wet wipes. They had found the wet wipe bag, opened it and were taking turns taking them hand over hand. When I went in to collect them, Blake had beat me to it. He had fistfulls of wipes in each hand and was bending over using his clinched fists and belly to try and pick each and every last wipe up. He then marched around the playroom and was talking up a storm. I only wish I knew his language-haha.

Jenna never ceases to amaze me, the way she finds THE smallest switch, button, or knob on just about everything and digs her little finger in to turn them. She notices the smallest and finest details on toys, in books, on clothing, furniture, anything and studies them intently. She has a real knack for details. She also knows how to turn the small switches on her toys that changes the play modes and volume (the ones that are intended for parents to turn down if desired). She has favorite modes on each of her toys that she wastes no time in coming behind you and letting you know by turning them to what she likes. She has pretty strong fine motor skills for her age, definitely one of her strengths. One thing has always been certain, she knows what she likes and does a great job of letting us know as well. She is very strong willed and independent and at the same time loves to sit in our laps for plenty of snuggle time. She still has a very silly side. She loves to be tickled and loves to just be silly. I've said it before and I say it again, she has THE best laugh. Jason and I are so excited that Jenna is very much her own litle gal and is pretty darn comfortable with letting others know exactly what that means. We think her personality will serve her very well later in life...perhaps quite challenging for us for the first 18 years. LOL

Today Blake did something that really amazed me. I brought out a wooden box that had red, yellow, blue and green blocks in it. I emptied it along side a pile of various other similar blocks. Blake hasn't ever seen these colored blocks before. He came over and started placing the red, yellow, blue and green ones in the box. He then grabbed a natural wood colored one and put it in, looked back at it as it lay there and reaches back in and takes it out. He proceeded to put the last green block in. Out of the entire pile of various blocks, he distinguished the four colors that "belonged" in the box. He then sorted the others into their own piles. When I look around the house and playroom I am constantly finding tidy little piles of objects, all nicely sorted. Two sippy cups sitting perfectly aligned on the window seal, four weeble wobbles standing proudly in line on the train table, two pretend phones sitting on a large foam block. When I give them snack in the playroom, I usually put cereal or crackers in small bowls and hand one to each. Blake walks over to Jenna's bowl and stacks his inside Jenna's and they sit there together sharing snack. Sometimes he dumps the cereal and cracker mix on the floor and puts the crackers together and then the cereal together. Jenna is usually really very patient with his insistance of "order". He has also been enjoying stacking blocks. He is able to stack about seven high of the large nesting blocks we have. The largest is pretty big and then each one gets gradually smaller. We have watched him work through some frustration and learning that some blocks are too small to have large ones stacked on top and that the block's open side cannot face upwards if he wants to stack others rahter than "nest" them. He seems to be getting a better understanding of these concepts as he is planning his stacks more accurately. We have a few VERY small wooden blocks. I found him today stacking them three high! These blocks are small enough to fit in his hand and when he closes his hand you can barely tell he is holding them. His hand-eye coordination is really picking up!

Proud mama signing off for now.
~The space on the site we use for posting pics on the blog is full. I am working on finding an alternative so that I can post somem LONG overdue current pics. Stay tuned.....

Ren Fest & Halloween

Well, this year was our 2nd Renaissance Festival Camp-Out with the kids. I have to admit, this year it was pretty challenging. Poor Jenna was not feeling well the entire trip. In fact, due to tummy issues, she was VERY uncomfortable and VERY irritable (understandably so). The whole week before she suffered from some tummy discomfort so hadn't slept well. The only thing that made her comfortable was to sleep in daddy' arms while we were walking around at the festival. Jason held her for over two hours as she slept in his arms. When he tried to put he in the stroller the pressure on her stomach was just too much so being THE best daddy ever, he held her as she slept. I pushed Blake around in the stroller. He LOVED to people watch. The festival was pretty packed with people so there was MUCH to see. We found an area that was off the beaten path a bit and let Blake walk around. We are teaching him that he needs to hold mommy or daddy's hand when out somewhere. This was only the 2nd time we've been out and have tried to teach this to him. He did really really well. Grandma bought them a monkey backpack that has a long tail that mom or dad can hold onto. While I am not a fan of the "kid leashes" , this thing is cute and for me is different. I plan to use it merely as a back up system. I insisted that Blake hold my hand while we walked around and I just put the end of the tail in my pocket as a backup way to stay connected. Sometimes he would hold one end of the tail and I would hold the other, he thought that was funny. While Jenna peacefully slept, Blake and I walked and walked and walked. Back at the campsite, they did well. Jenna enjoyed spending a lot of time in Uncle Duane and Choichi Kim's trailor, hangin out with the big kids. Blake enjoyed it too but found gathering and sorting things outside much more fun. All four of us slept in the queen bed in the trailor, which was a first. The kids have never slept with us in the same bed. Jenna was not feeling well still so tossed and turned. Blake woke a few times, sat up and looked around confused, then plopped back down. All and all the trip was a good one but was a lot of work. Jenna is at a stage where she still likes to crawl around and Blake likes to runa round so lots of time was spent making sure Jenna wasn't crawling into the fire or out os site while also making sure Blake wasn't running into the fire-haha.

We left Sunday (Halloween) and headed back home. We were all really tired from the fest. Jenna was still not feeling well. We did manage to go trick or treating to about four neighbors' houses. Blake was dressed up as Dracula, slicked back hair and all. Jenna was dressed up as Snow White, and what a little beauty! We let them play in the yard a bit while trick or treaters came by. Jenna decided it was time for bed but Blake was still working on sorting the candy from our treat bowl for the trick or treaters. He was also amazed by the fog machine we had in the front yard and blinking monster feet lights.

Jenna finally got some relief on Monday. She is back to herself and I am so glad to see her smile and hear her giggle again. While sitting on my lap the other day we were looking at a book with a cow on the front. She was touching and pointing at the cow's google eyes. I said, "Eyes" and she turned around with a huge smile and gently touched my eyes. I LOVE seeing her make these connections. I am so proud of her. And of Blake.