Sometimes it is hard to wait until Sunday!

Greetings!

At church this past week one of the readings was Psalm 138. One line from the reading summed up our past 18 months (and more): "When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted." Everything hasn't always been smooth sailing or easy but we have always felt strong and stouthearted (This is a great word--we should really use it more often) because of our faith, our family, and our friends.

We had our pre operation meeting with our gi specialist on Friday. He wanted to see Elsa again prior to her surgery on Tuesday. It had been seven weeks since he had seen her and he wanted to see how she had been.

At our last appointment she had weighed in at 17 pounds, 7 ounces. She had two colds and wasn't eating much. We had prayed and talked a lot about it and decided that the g-tube was the best way to ensure her short term and long term health. A funny thing happened in the ensuing weeks. Elsa started to eat a little bit more. She finally got a couple of molars and seemed more comfortable with eating. She visibly started to look bigger.

Back in the doctor's room, Elsa was placed on the scale. We hoped she just gained a little. The scale stopped and displayed a metric measurement. We have become rusty in our conversion of metric to standard so the number meant little to us as the nurse read it off. Back in our prime, we would convert the number automatically and shout it out. She then hit the convert button and announced that Elsa weighed nineteen pounds 6.4 ounces. The nurse entered the information on the computer and showed us that Elsa was on the chart for weight to height ratio! This was monumental and we rejoiced with a happy dance, exploding fist pounds, and whoops (and two of the people in the room were screaming but I think Elsa and Jonas were hungry). The doctor simply said, "this is amazing" and put us back on the monthly check in and canceled her surgery.

While we may need to revisit the g-tube in future months if Elsa's weight does not continue to go up we were very happy that she doesn't' have to spend three days in the hospital during our beautiful summer!

Pictures: family photo; making cookies with grandma; first boat trip for Elsa and Jonas.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & ELSA (she's so big I had to use all caps) & JONAS (he's big too)

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed...

Greetings!
A good week for doctors' visits, playing in the backyard, and visiting the zoo! Jonas and Elsa had a couple of doctor visits this past week that all went very well. Elsa saw the feeding specialist (a weekly ritual) and put on her best ever eating performance. The specialist was impressed with her chewing and how she was moving the food around in her mouth. Jonas had a visit with the dietitian. We were very nervous about his weight gain over the past seven weeks because he had been sick and had (has) been teething forever. We were hoping that he actually didn't lose weight. The nurse put him on the scale and lo and behold...Jonas is in the 21 pound club!

To celebrate these accomplishments, and to enjoy the 1.2 days a year of sun we receive in the northwest, we went from mary bridge to the zoo! We have been to the zoo before but this day was magical! Polar bears were 'play' fighting next to our viewing window while Dan continually checked for any cracking in the window. A walrus would swim laps and then head directly for Jonas and Elsa and brush up against the window and open his eye as he floated by. Two new twin snow leopards, a boy and a girl no less--how cool is that?, played with their mom. Wow--cool stuff at the zoo!

This week we have our pre surgery consult for Elsa. We attended a training class last week for g-tube care and feel as ready as we can be. We are hoping that after the initial discomfort goes away that Elsa returns to being the bundle of energy that she has been the past several months. We are praying for a quick recovery and lots of growing!

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Beach Days and lots of Play!

Greetings!

We spent the rainy June planning what we would do if the summer ever arrived. One of the things that we wanted to do was to take the kids to the beach. The lowest tides of the year occurred this past week and we jumped on the opportunity and went down to a beach on the puget sound. Jonas and Elsa were a little unsure of the whole endeavor but rallied when we all went to Steamers (a local seafood restaurant adjacent to the beach). They each loved french fries! Add that to the list.

On our evening walks, Jonas and Elsa love to run in the backyard for a bit before we get into the stroller. Our backyard is on a slope and we have discovered that they have very distinctive strengths in their walking. Elsa will walk across the angled hill with no problem and only slows down when she has to either go up or down the hill. Jonas, on the other hand, will run, tumble, jump down and up the hill but then tentatively side-steps when he walks across. Elsa loves pine-cones and Jonas always has to have a stick.

One of the traditions that we have in the house is an evening dance session. We have the movie "Mamma Mia" saved on our tivo. The final closing credits involve two songs performed by the cast. Jonas and Elsa love this and request it by shaking their hips. So once, twice, sometimes even three times a day, we have a family dance off in the living room. Lots of fun!

We met with the eye specialist this past week and are planning on surgery in October for Elsa. She needs to be fully recovered from the g-tube operation in august and so that left October for the two cataracts.

Pictures: (Elsa and her monkeys; beach!; beach!; beach!; soccer practice) Videos: Elsa making monkey sounds; Elsa and Jonas on the giraffe.

God Bless,

Mari, Dan, Elsa & Jonas

Summer Days! (Who would of thought it could hit 90 in washington?)

Greetings!

A hot week is officially in the books. We had temps of the mid to upper 90's this week. Elsa and Jonas played in our one air conditioned room as we tried to maintain spirits during the heat storm. We also tried out an inflatable pool in our back yard--Jonas loved it and Elsa is still warming up to it (pardon the pun).

Elsa and Jonas both had some success this week with....soup!?! Who would have thought that warm soup would be a hit during the sweltering week we have just had. We will take it though! While I type this, Elsa is currently throwing soup everywhere as if to say, "I saw what you typed and I do not agree."

We had a great 4th of July. The adults were the only ones who couldn't sleep through the fireworks.

Jonas and Elsa are learning all sorts of things this past week. They are really good with the difference between "my nose" and "your nose". Little victories and big victories are all good in our house. They also were very interested with Dan's fort building in the living room. That is, until they discovered that it was even more fun to destroy the fort while Dan was in it. Elsa led the charge and within a minute Jonas was also taking running leaps at the blanket roof of the fort and laughing as it crashed down. Clearly we need to work on making the forts more structurally sound.

Pictures: Elsa & Jonas playing piano with Grandma Jeanne; fort destruction completed; jump rope; the pool. Videos: Jonas in the pool; operation fort destruction in progress.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Everyone is feeling great...Summer (and the rain) is here!

Greetings!

This week has been a little anti-climatic. We were geared up emotionally for a surgery on Thursday and then got a last minute reprieve because of Elsa's cold. By Thursday, Elsa was feeling a bit better and the coughing and throwing up had almost all nearly passed. On Friday, Elsa decided to get Dan once in the morning and once in the afternoon just to keep him on his toes.

Jonas has been a great little brother this past week. He has done a great job of keeping spirits up around the house. His favorite hobbies currently include pushing a giraffe toy around the house and dancing to the closing credits of Mamma Mia. His dance moves currently include the hip sway and the arm wave. We will continue to work with him to increase his collection of move. Jonas is now drinking whole milk and pedia-sure (vanilla) on a regular basis. This is a transition as he is getting ready to move away from the bottle to whole milk.

Elsa has had a great late week with her eating. She is taking the occasional pedia-sure but still mostly takes nutramigen. She discovered on Thursday that she likes broccoli cheese soup. She slurps up spoon after spoon until she grabs the spoon and waves it like a flag and then throws it in a random direction.

Both kids now run! They love being outside and playing! We are having a lot of fun!

Pictures: (Jonas and Elsa wearing their Cancun souvenirs of fish hats and turtle shirts (Congrats to Tim and Tonia for their recent wedding in beautiful and slightly stormy:) Cancun!); Elsa saying "I don't know?). Videos: Kissing videos of Elsa and Jonas. Jonas playing guitar--Dan with bedhead.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Postponed

Greetings!
Just a quick update about Elsa and her surgery. She came down with a cold over the past weekend. Her temp got pretty high and she was really congested. With that in mind, the doctors recommended a postponement until next month for her surgery. We will post a longer update on the weekend. Thanks for the prayers and notes of support leading up to her surgery!
God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas