Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Uncategorized category.
October 2009
Padavic life: Mom’s volunteering at the hospital, speaking at city hall, and working. Dad is working his butt off. Girls are making us laugh non-stop. There is nothing they can’t say now, which is scary!!! Both girls can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from beginning to end! They have amazing personalities!!! We adore them!!!
End of a great summer! 09/19/09
We finished off the summer with a bang – actually, it was far more relaxing than a bang 
We went with the girls up to Michigan for 5 days to stay with Mike’s parents at their summer house in Spring Lake. Relaxing would a huge understatement – Sharon and I basically sat on the porch after the girls went down, reading, chatting, sipping wine, it was fabulous (thanks Padavics!) while the boys fished. Took the girls to the beach and they adored it, screaming “Water!” the entire time. No fear of swimming in these gals. Our friend Angie came up with her son, Gus, too, and it was the first time we all got to meet eachother’s kids. Eva was totally smitten with him, and said every 5 minutes or so “Hi Gus!” She kissed him a lot too – she’s going to be trouble, Mike’s keeping an eye on her
Hopefully our next post will be photos from our trip to Miami (going to a friend’s wedding – Woo-hoo!) Work has picked up for both of us so that’s a really good thing. Oh, and in typical Kristen fashion, the Arlington Heights Police Dept. has asked me to speak at the next town board meeting in support of an ordinance designed to limit alcohol sales to homeless people. How did they find me? All the letters I’ve written complaining to them since we’ve moved here – I’m just like Chuck, if you’re unhappy, write a letter!
Lastly, as I was typing this, Grace just climbed out of her crib – I heard her playing in her room on the floor !!! We are so totally screwed.
Eva
Eva and Mommy
Eva
Eva
Eva
Grace and Grandma
Grace
Shoes!!!
So, this is one of Eva and Grace’s favorite words “shoes!!!” they yell it with much fervor whereever they go – they almost attacked another mom at the playground today b/c she had flip-flops on with painted toenails – it was so exciting for them! They’ve both got almost 100 words in their vocabulary now – yes, we sat down and wrote them out, not to drill them, mind you, but to put in their baby book – baby’s first 100! They talk a mile a minute, all day long. No sentences, just identifying everything and telling me they want “raisins” or a “cracker” or “juice”, etc. Very bossy little ladies!
Grace had her first trip to the ER. Eva smashed her hand in the hinge side of the door, but she’s fine, no broken bones, but it looked pretty messy. They also had their evaluation for Early Intervention (state run therapy for preemies), and they are really only slightly behind in fine motor skills, so we were just given some tools to help them with this, and routine therapy isn’t necessary at this time. Grace is tippy-toe walking, and they want us to try to get her down on “flat fleet” more often, so we’ll work on that – but all in all, good news for us. The girls impressed the therapists with their enthusiasm and repetive use of “hi” and “hello” about 100 times during the 1.5 hour evaluation! At one point Grace the Occupational Therapist’s purse and put it on her arm and said “bye-bye” – one of their favorite things to do.
I’m afraid Grace got Chuck’s sad Polish eyes…it’s ok, I do too!
Typical Saturday afternoon, daddy laying on the floor, legs up, playing Eva’s toy.
Padavic Family – August 7, 2009
Summer is flying by…spent the last 2 weeks sick, both girls and mommy, bad colds and horrible coughs. Eva and Mom may be developing allergies/asthma – we just sound like we have the plague and we’re both up all night coughing for weeks!
Mommy is barely working at all (just not much to do at work), which is good (to be with girls) and bad ($). We’re praying that things pick up in September. Mike is working a ton, his company is doing well (considering) and they just love him (can you blame them?)
I am getting involved in Family Advisory Committee at the Lutheran General Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where the girls lived for the first 5 weeks of their lives. I feel like I have found my calling, as cheesy as that may sound. It’s going to be a lot of work to get them to implement my projects, but after meeting with and talking online with literally hundreds of moms that have been through this experience and/or volunteer themselves at their hospitals, I know that it’s worth it. Parents have so much to offer in helping both the hospital staff and other parents in dealing with the NICU experience. Some people walk back through the doors of the NICU and feel traumatized, I feel embraced by hope. I want other moms to feel the same way. We have been so blessed that the girls are doing as well as they are. It may sound cliche, but a day doesn’t go by when I don’t thank God for giving me healthy girls with BIG attitudes – that’s all I ever wanted
Eva is really such a sweetie. Freely giving kisses to parents and granparents, sometimes big wet ones, sometimes she just blows them across the room. She’s very independent and enjoys playing alone, or just sitting in her crib chatting until someone gets her – very much so daddy’s disposition. Grace is very vocal about her likes and dislikes. She talks all day long, half of the words I understand, the other half is just a flurry of “yum-yum”, “toes”, “bunny”, and so on. She has long conversations with me that I don’t quite understand yet, but I can tell, just like mommy, she has a lot to say! They play with eachother a lot now, and although sometimes bite eachothers’ fingers for fun (which I don’t get, someone always ends up crying) they really adore eachother. Sisters are just the best. Lastly, they are the friendliest girls in the world, from the moment we get them in their cribs, they greet us with “HI!!!” and if we go for a walk, enter the room, etc., anytime they see us or any other human, they wave and say ‘Hi!!!” At the doctor’s office last week , you’d have thought they were superstars, saying hi to every kid, nurse, and doctor that walked by! Life is good - I have the most wonderful family and friends in the entire world. Colds and cash flow aside, we have a truly blessed life, and I couldn’t ask for anything more :)
BBQ – the See-and-Say sort of says it all
June 27
Pool day is here – between the backyard baby pool and the pool at rec. park, the girls are spending a lot of time in the water and loving it!
Update: June 9, 2009
I’ve been working less this summer, and spending more time with the gals. They are full on toddlers now. Almost all of their teeth are in, which is just weird. They have enormous appetites, they’re like vultures, so if you have food and they’re near, just hide!!! To give an example, I caught Eva chewing on some mortar she pried loose from the fireplace brick the other day…awesome. I think they are the absolute opposite of they typical preemie. Thank God!
They say and do really funny things…some examples:
1. Eva says “No, no, no” as she climbs on the tv console. I think she is just repeating what we say to her!
2. Grace dances during anything – tv commercials, etc., and gets her little feet moving to the beat. She will have her father’s dance moves.
3. They both “cruise” the dining area after eating, looking for food that they didn’t want to eat during dinner, but once it’s been on the floor, watch out!!
4. Eva is naughty. In the absolute cutest way. Today she grabbed a piece of paper she knew she shouldn’t off of the counter. she looked at me, then looked at Grace, and started running through the house, waving the piece of paper! As I grabbed her, she started waving it further away from me!
5. They love getting their teeth brushed, I have no idea why, but I know this will end. They scream “Ahhhh” and open their mouths wide when they are done getting pj’s on, and they cry when we take them away.
6. They are totally uncontrollable outdoors, but have a funny “comfort” zone – they will run around in circles, screaming, but only on the pavement or in the grass – rarely do they transverse ground materials
7. When Eva wakes up, she whispers, as if she’s telling you a very terrible dream she had, or a story about Grace that she doesn’t want her to hear. And it always starts with “doe-doe-doe doe-do…”
8. Eva has been known to whisper at Grace in the middle of the night while Grace is screaming her head off, as if to say “they’re not coming, sister, please be quiet so i can get some sleep.” And it has worked successfully several times.
9. Grace puts her “phone” (hand, toy, actual toy phone) to her ear the moment the phone rings and says “hiiiilooooo”. She is very social.
10. Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. They’ve got head and toes, but shoulders and knees apparently haven’t made it yet.
Doesn’t Grace look like she’s saying “oh my God, mom, we’re just rolling around in our diapers, leave us alone, you are so lame!!!”
Summer!
My girls play together all day long. They laugh, they cuddle, they tease, they kick, it’s just like what I remember with Robin, but even stronger, b/c they have been together since day 1. Our house is small, but they literally are RARELY further than 2 feet apart from eachother at any moment during the day. One runs into the kitchen, the other one follows, it’s just amazing. Sisters are pretty special, and I am so happy they have that!!!
Some recent photos of the girls…
Could Eva Bea be any cooler? Her look just says “really, what do you want, I don’t have time for this”
WHeras Grace is like “wow, I could eat these!!!”
Yeah, we walk, we talk, we’re generally awesome!!!
Life with the Ladies 05/11/09 – 15 months old
We are a busy family – I think I did 6 loads of laundry today, and that was after I worked 10 hours! But these little broads (and I mean broads) are full of energy, life, and vigor and make it all worth it. They are both walking now, sometimes at speeds that make us a little scard, b/c we can’t just “block” them anymore. They talk constantly. On Friday, Eva said to my mom “ba-ba gra-a” which we’re pretty sure was “bye-bye grandma.” That same night, we gave Grace the book “I Love you, Good Night” and said “let’s read this book” and she looked at it and said “I la ooo” – We were like, she is the smartest girl ever!!! Ha, it’s so funny how being mom you get so proud over things that are so silly to most people. I guess, we really realize that the kinds of bullets they dodged developmentally are hard for most people to comprehend. Most babies born at 30 weeks don’t begin to verbalize even single words until 18 months to 2 years, let alone walk before 2 years old. Many have countless problems throughout life. I don’t know why we’ve been given so much, so many blessings, but we have been, and I promise not to take it for granted. I guess it being Mother’s Day and all makes me even sappier and more thankful.
So they’re doing great, making us laugh a lot, etc. We did some really fun gardening this weekend and are looking forward to a fun summer(I’m going to be home 4 days a week, which will be nice in some ways…)
Changing overnight…04/22/09
So, I think this photo says it all – Easter 2008 and 2009 – there’s only a 20 POUND difference in their size! I remember us being so excited last year b/c they had actually hit 4 pounds by Easter, and had been home from the NICU for 2 weeks!!! To understand scale, they were already a month old in this photo, just hitting 4 pounds!! Wow! Now, we can’t get the food away from them. Don’t even thinkg about having a sandwich or snacking on some popcorn when they’re in the room – they will stalk you, crawl on you and literally put their fingers in your mouth to get at some. Eva ”cruises” after meals for food that has fallen onto the floor – these are not dogs, these are humans, I’m pretty sure. Easter was mellow, went to Grandma Dee-Dee’s and Grandpa Chuck’s, had a nice meal of many pounds of Polish Sausage, all different kinds, potatoes, ham, etc. Girls had a really rough week with teething, and a cold. Grace has developed a very “Kristen” personality lately – she has been crying a ton when she is mad. I mean a ton. and she is easily distracted, too. She’s super happy, but super passionate. Oh dear, what have we done!!! Eva is just pleased to RUN around the house (crawling no more) and jump on furniture, etc. Looking forward to a long summer!!
Bluebird
So, for the past few months, the girls have fallen in love with a book I bought them at Borders, on one of our afternoon “field trips” just to get out of the house. Right after we do baths, and they’re snug in their pj’s, we say “who wants to read Bluebird?” and they both start going “Blueba, Blueba…” It’s so sweet. Well, like typical me, I have been embellishing the story – it’s about a bird building his nest, and whenever he sings a song, I whistle a little tune. So today, I was reading to my genius daughter Eva, and I said, “and then, Bluebird sang a song” and she started whistling!! Not even mimicking me, just did it on her own! It was very exciting for us! So now, she can whistle, say “blueba” and say “hoo-hoo” for the Owl. How proud can two parents be????!!! On a Grace note, she has started to walk almost exclusively now, which is very exciting. and, the Easter Bunny comes in the morning, bearing peeps and chocolate! happy Easter!!
