A New Blog

I've started a new and different blog and will no longer be updating this one. To continue keeping up to date on me and the girls go to www.TwoPlusMeIsThree.blogspot.com

Elise had her first day of preschol yesterday! She is going Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons at Challenger Preschool. It is in the same building as the elementary school and also where we have done ECFE for the past year. She is very familiar with the building and the teachers and has been VERY excited about school.

Challenger is a newer school and does not have the hooks or coat closet in the classrooms like some of the older schools do. Instead, Elise has a locker!

Elise with Teacher Mandy

Last Gasp of Summer?

September will be here next week and we have finally, this week, had some "summery" weather.

Elise was digging for worms, one of her favorite activities (that and looking for bugs)...

She's got a worm in her hands here. Normally she doesn't wear gloves, she is more than comfortable handling the little critters.

Anja was coloring everything with sidewalk chalk, including every step...

She couldn't wait to cook the sweet corn and had to eat some raw...

I had no idea raw sweet corn was so juicy. What a mess! But she loved it!

Elise Medical Update II

Yesterday I finally talked to Elise's doctor and got the results of her labs from last week. The cause of the kidney stone is excessive phosphorus in her system. That could come from a couple things: diet (though she doesn't drink the most common cause...cola soda), or the bladder infections she's had (I don't know exactly how it works, but the bladder infections can cause increased levels of phosphorus which lead to the kidney stone). Beyond the cause of the kidney stone, the doctor couldn't tell me anything concrete. Processed foods (hot dogs, chicken nuggets, etc.) have high levels of phosphorus, so we will try to cut those out as much as possible. We will continue pushing fluids.

Medically, we will monitor the kidney stone. Elise will have an ultrasound of her kidneys every month to see if the stone has grown or has moved. If it is growing or moving into her urinary tract, it will have to be gotten rid of (either remove it surgically or "blast" it into tiny pieces which are then passed with the urine). If she has any pain we are to bring her in right away as this may be a symptom of the stone "migrating."

Anja's First Haircut

Little Anja had her first haircut this week (she is 22 months). It was really long in the front. If she would keep a barrette in, it wouldn't be a problem. But she won't, and it was just hanging down in her eyes. So we took a trip to see our friend Becky at her shop. Anja did amazingly well. She got right up on the seat and sat stock still the whole time! I was really surprised. I thought I might have to hold her on my lap, but she was a very independent, self-assured little girl!

Anja before her haircut

Our friend Becky with Anja and the finished product

Elise Medical Update

Since April Elise has had recurring bladder infections. I think we've been to the clinic about once a week since April. The admissions clerk knows us by name. Last week I took her in and they did an ultrasound and x-ray of her kidneys, bladder and urinary tract to see if there is something that is not working right. They found that she has a kidney stone. The kidney stone may or may not be causing the bladder infections. It could be causing a blockage which leads to the urine getting backed up and that leads to infection. Or, the kidney stone and bladder infections could be unrelated. Regardless, the first thing to be done is deal with the kidney stone. The first step in doing that is to find out what caused it. To do that, we collected all of Elise's urine for 24 hours (many thanks to our daycare provider, Nicole, who aided in that process) and during that same 24 hour period Elise had her blood drawn (a terrible experience...it took two nurses and myself to hold her down while and third nurse drew the blood). To find out what caused the kidney stone, they will test the blood and urine for lots of different levels of things, then compare the levels of those things in her blood to those in her urine and that is supposed to tell them what is causing the stone to develop. I'm hoping we will know something by Friday!

July

Although our pace has slowed now, the beginning of July kept us pretty busy...

We watched an Independence Day parade. Of course, Elise is a veteran parade spectator and has practice running after the goodies that are thrown from the floats. She collected quite a bag of loot.

This was Anja's first parade. It took her all of 2 seconds to figure out how to RUN out and pick up stuff from the parade route. Most of the time it was candy, but sometimes she was distracted by the garbage. Hard to explain to a 21 month old that picking up some things from the ground is ok, but but some are not.

Soccer ended this month. Elise had a good time running around. Of course I think she shows incredible natural ability :)

We took a weekend to visit friends, seeing lots of people by being at a different house each day. We have great friends who are willing to host us!

July always brings the fair to town. Our favorite thing at the fair is the animals.

Steamboat Springs Part II

In the last few days of our vacation in Steamboat we walked to Fish Creek Falls, took another stroll around downtown, and listened to the string quartet in the Botanical Garden.

The whole Roden clan gathered for a family photo...

One of my favorite things we did in Steamboat was visiting Fish Creek Falls. We walked through the woods to see the falls from above and below...

Strolling through downtown...

One afternoon we went to the Botanical Gardens to listen to a string quartet. Beautiful setting...

Steamboat Springs Part I

We left Minnesota June 18th, destined for a gathering of the Roden clan in Steamboat Springs, CO. This is the first time Jason's mom, dad, siblings and their kids have been able to do a vacation where everyone can make it (very hard to coordinate the lives of that many people!). So we have here: Jason's mom and dad, seven kids and six significant others, 13 grandkids. I think that toals 28 people. There was one night where the pool was full and when I looked around realized it was just our people in the pool! We filled it up!

Steamboat Springs is beautiful, in a valley between some low mountains, with the town spreading up the mountainsides. There is a river running through town, and everything is really green and beautiful.

We've been spending a lot of time in the pool at the resort...

Cousin Jordan & Anja

Jason, Anja, Elise

Cousin Sawyer and Anja

We've also taken in the botanical garden (we went there for a large group family picture then stayed to play around)... gone for walks along the river and wandered around downtown.

Jason, Elise and a bunch of cousins go on a "snake hunt"

Cousin Renner and Anja

Cousins Renner and Jordan are about the same age as Anja. One day their moms and I took the little ones for a walk along the river.

We have walked around downtown. Kind of a cross between a historical "old west" town and an upscale/artsy boutique area. Every shirt I liked seemed to be at least $100. On this day Elise stayed behind while Anja and I strolled around.

Cities Visit

The girls and I were in the Cities last weekend to visit friends. Special thanks to Russ, Heather & Grayson; Nancy, Phil, Faith & Graham; Rick, Kris, Morgan & Sam for hosting us.

We were lucky enough to enjoy a playdate with friends...

Elise and Anja had a great time riding in Grayson's car...

We visited the science museum. Since Elise LOVES dinosaurs, I wanted to give her the chance to see some real fossils, not just pictures in a book. She really liked the dinosaurs...

We played out in the "Big Backyard" at the museum...

But Elise and Anja both enjoyed the human body exhibits the best. Lots of germs and viruses to look at, "patients" to diagnose...

And on a cold, rainy day we visited the Como Park Conservatory. Elise was disappointed we didn't see any "real" animals. Fish were the best substitute, and they were popular. Elise was VERY disappointed I didn't allow her to touch the fish.