A spoonful of sugar...

Greetings!  This has been a long week of recovery!  All continues to go well for Jonas and Elsa but we have all been just a little tired of getting better.  Jonas has had a hard time coming back from his surgery but he is getting better each day.  Elsa is wearing a patch to help her healing process for the next couple of weeks and loves the zebra and flower patches!  We are slowly returning to our routine. 

Jonas has discovered that he does not like medicine.  He is firm in his vocal and physical resistance to taking any sort of medicine.  We feel a little guilty but we have taken to half truths and misleading to get him to take his medicine to help offset the pain from his surgery.  He is a fighter! 

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Tooth Fairy

Greetings!  It is such a part of the weekend ritual to update the blog that it was a noticeable omission this past weekend!  We knew that Jonas had his surgery coming up and wanted to wait until that was done and dusted to give a quick update.  Yesterday, Jonas had his tonsils, adenoids, and one front tooth taken out at the hospital.  He stayed overnight and was tired and a little cranky after the surgery.  The doctor and the dentist that performed the surgery thought it went great and think it will be a slow and steady recovery for him over the next two weeks. 

Elsa was a trooper too and was asking how Jonas was doing and when he would be home.  He will be home later today ready to rest and eat Popsicles! 

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Feeling better all the time!

Greetings!  After almost a month of all of us feeling under the weather, we are all feeling better!  We had some fun this weekend with yet another late winter snow storm!  We spent the weekend playing, singing, and having a great time!  The movie clips are of the Lysne band and the Lysne basketball team!  The song Henrietta's Hair is a family favorite by a children's musician, Justin Roberts, that Dan is trying to learn the words to...in the video we just focus on the chorus and the hand moves.  The second song is "Run baby run"--quite a fun one that we saw performed by Caspar Babypants last summer!  Then...the dunk fest begins...In tribute to March Madness, Elsa and Jonas have been hooping it up!  On a side note, one of the doctors from the NICU was a Duke graduate and as a result Dan has picked Duke every year to win the tournament.  His bracket has been busted:)

A couple of busy weeks ahead with some surgeries and lots of recovery time for everyone!  We hope and trust that all the surgeries go quick and that recovery time is a minimum for Jonas and Elsa!

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Resting up again!

Greetings!  We just can't stop the runny noses and coughs!  Jonas and Elsa had another week of not feeling great.  Mari and Dan were down for the count too!  By the end of the week, we have gone through enough tissue to justify our costco membership fee. 

We had a mix of hail and snow today!  It added some excitement as we watched the pea sized hail pelt our house and deck!  Jonas and Elsa thought we might get to go out and walk on it but we opted to wait until the snow started falling to venture out. 

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Resting up.

Greetings! 
It seems that the past couple of months we go to school for the week, catch a cold, and then spend the weekend resting up.  This week, Elsa started feeling bad on Friday.  By Saturday, everyone was a little under the weather.  Now we are taking it easy and hoping that everyone is feeling better by Monday.

A short update due to short energy! 
God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Report Cards are in!

Greetings! 
We had our first parent teacher conference this week.  We were both very nervous to hear about our kids because we know our kids are amazing yet we don't really know how they are all the time at school.  The report is in and Elsa and Jonas are doing very good indeed! 

Elsa and Jonas are both learning so much and it was great to hear about all the things that they can do!  They have learned a ton about colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and social interaction skills.  Their teacher had no worries about them and said they were both ready to move on to the pre-school room next year.  Congrats to Jonas and Elsa.  The teacher singled out Jonas for having a lot of empathy towards others in his class and singled out Elsa for her love of singing and her big belly laughs during games. 

We are always encouraging imaginative play at home...lots of blanket monsters, building elaborate forts to fend off lions, cooking up feasts in the play kitchen...the video is of Jonas playing a game he created with the vehicles on the table.  Enjoy!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Splish Splash

Greetings!
A week of not feeling good.  Ugh.  Jonas and Elsa stayed home from school this week because of a bug that caught up with them and all of us.  They did start to feel a little better towards the end of the week and were able to make it to really important doctor visits. 

Jonas has a new dentist that won him over with not one, but two, hot wheels cars on his first visit!  She graciously agreed to work with his ear nose and throat doctor to do both procedures at the same time at Mary Bridge.  Great news!

Elsa revisited her favorite eye doctor!  He gave her a big bird toy last year and she still remembers that every time we go.  She is also going to have surgery in the upcoming months to tighten an eye muscle.  We are so blessed to have wonderful doctors and dentists always working with us on decisions about Elsa and Jonas.

The rains have been going non-stop this week and as such we had to jump at the opportunity to splish and splash in puddles!  We have been doing a lot inside too.  Cookies!!!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas