Happy Anniversary!

Beautiful,

It's hard to believe that seven years have gone by so quickly. Thank you. I can honestly say they have been the seven best years of my life. And taking this brief moment to look back the one thing I am most certain of is that I am thankful I get to spend the rest of my life with you.

On that warm Chattanooga summer day seven years ago when you said I do (not I will, but I do...I loved you all the more for caring about the difference) I knew you were the best gift God had given me, but now I know just how little I understood the truth of that statement. I knew you were compassionate, but I had yet to experience the full range of that compassion; I knew you were smart, but I had yet to live with your quiet, humble wisdom; I knew you loved me, but had yet to see how steadfast your love was, even when I am a jerk; I knew you were strong, but had yet to walk through tragedy with you; I knew I didn't want to live life without you, but hadn't realized I really hadn't been living life until I met you. You have given me far more than I could ever hope to give you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Happy Anniversary.

Love,

your band of hus

2+1=3

We've been asked a couple of times now what the girls think of Hannah Kate. Well, maybe more than a couple of times at this point. The problem here is that the very people who have been asking this question are likely the very readers this blog retains. At this point in time they have all been given a blow for blow answer making this blog entry entirely superfluous...and yet I am going to write it anyway, and hopefully you will follow along, if for no other reason than...the pictures.

For weeks now we have been working on prepping the girls about the immanent arrival of their "baby sissy." They know what babies are. They knew Hannah Kate was going to be their baby sissy, and they knew that baby sissy was in mommy's tummy. They also knew that mommy was going to the doctor and he was going to be taking Hannah Kate out of mommy's tummy so we could bring her home and let her sleep in her crib and play with her toys and...well, you get the idea. For a while I spent some time totally mesmerized by how well they took all of this. They didn't seem phased at all by the idea that there was a baby in mommy's tummy and soon she would be coming home to live with us. My mom's a lamaze teacher, I grew up with this notion, talking and learning about it, and I have to admit that whenever I would watch Hannah Kate rub her arm across the inside of her womb I would think...yep...totally weird. It seemed like the very idea should blow their little 2 and a half year old minds. And yet...never phased.

Of course, the more I thought about it the more I realized, there's really no good reason why they should be amazed. Their world is full of crazy impossibilities that we tell them are reality every day. Hey look at that metal box, it's different then other metal boxes in that if you get in it it will take you some place else. This metal box over here flies in the sky, and this one shows magic pictures. So sure, why not, babies live in mommy's tummies and then get taken out.

Wednesday was too hectic to try and add the little beautifuls into the mix, so we waited until Thursday to have Nana bring them up. Evidently they were good and ready to see us by Thursday. Thursday morning at 4 in the morning Emma Jane woke up screaming for mommy. She whined and begged to see us (along with Parker) all morning until they arrived. When they got here we could hear them squealing with delight the whole way down the hall. Parker came bounding in. So excited I am pretty sure she actually did pee her pants. She just started giggling madly, running around the room, unsure of whether to stop and stay with mommy, daddy, or baby sissy. I think she spent the entirety of that trip and every subsequent trip to the hospital, giggling.

Parker couldn't be happier with the situation. As I am writing this blog I am now sitting at home, and the sheer joy has yet to dissipate. Parker has always been a little high on life, and right now it couldn't be better. Mommy and daddy are home and they have brought a baby with them. What could be better? Oh, Nana is still here? Oh yeah, life is a amazing.

Emma Jane's attitude on the other hand has proven to be...a little different

As I mentioned, Emma Jane was the one who woke up at 4 in the morning screaming for mommy, you could hear her in the hall calling out for mommy, you would think she would come running in and bounce right into Mary Jane's lap. You would be wrong. Instead Emma Jane refused to acknowledge Mary Jane at all. She gave her the cold...cold..."arcticly" cold shoulder. She wouldn't give her a hug, or a kiss, she barely acknowledged me, and any time we asked her anything she would scream and cry and say "No, Nana do it." You wouldn't think someone so small could rip your heart out, and cut it into little pieces so easily, but she can. When it comes to Hannah Kate, Emma Jane was a extremely excited to see her and to hold her. (Not as excited as Parker, but frankly, I don't think anyone could ever be as excited as she was/is). When things started to get a little crowded in the room and I took Parker and Emma Jane out for a walk the first thing Emma Jane did when the door closed was to start crying for mommy, so I know she cares, but Emma Jane was determined to punish us, especially Mary Jane. And she did.

Friday's visit was better and worse. Parker was the same screw ball high energy this is wonderful bundle of joy. Emma Jane was warmer to Mary Jane, but significantly meaner to me. I guess she decided to pick on the guy who hadn't been sliced into, and I guess that's fair. Although....I miss my Emma Jane. Daddy's little girl decided not to be daddy's little girl on Friday or Saturday (as mentioned above we are home today--more about that later--and she is being a bit better today).

All that said, we're pretty happy with how well they seem to be handling the change thus far. It is clear they are both excited about Hannah Kate.

Hannah Kate, on the other hand, seems pretty bored with the girls. She just slept through all of it.

The adventure continues

Okay, I will admit this was a long time coming. I meant to do another post last night, but baby things kept us busy. But anywho here we are now. For those of you who have yet to hear the story, I will warn you...there isn't much to tell, but, as is usual for me, I'm going to make it take significantly longer than it needs to.

In some ways things started Tuesday night. Mary Jane was having more contractions than usual, and both of us began to wonder if we would show up to our c-section appointment in labor.

And sure enough we showed up the next morning and found she was having a suspiciously large number of contractions. The nurses getting Mary Jane checked in looked at the monitor and asked whether we wanted to try and have this baby the good ole fashioned way. Our answer? Ummmm maybe?

The decision didn't stay in our hands for long. They quickly did a check and found she wasn't dilated at all. So with enough time for a quick picture it was off to the operating room.

The doctors took Mary Jane in first to give her her epidural. This left Jason all gowned up and chomping at the bit waiting to get in. A feeling he remembered all too well from two and a half years ago, when Parker and Emma Jane were ripped untimely from their mother's womb. Fortunately while Hannah Kate was about to be ripped from her mother's womb it was not in an untimely fashion. And while Jason was once again impatiently waiting outside the door to the OR room his expression was less :( and more:

Twenty long minutes later, Jason was brought into the OR where found a bunch of doctors, nurses, PA's and what not, huddling around his wife's body holding sharp instruments and getting ready to cut open his wife. While this had clearly been the plan for months now, there was still something surreal about this fact, and the fact that he was going to just ignore this and have a seat next to her face as though this were a normal part of life.

From there things happened rather quickly, or at least they seemed to to the person who was not strapped to a table, numbed from the stomach down, and being sliced into by friendly-yet faceless medical professionals. For all the people strapped to a table, arms splayed to their side, it can be assumed things were happening at a significantly slower rate. Basically, Jason and Mary Jane were living in two different time lines.

However you count the seconds the time eventually came when Hannah Kate arrived. Faithful readers have already seen the very first picture of her (and some of them even complained about it...ahem...Liz....cough, cough) so here is a second, less goopey, yet still authentically "just born" picture of her.

Okay, maybe only slightly less goopy. She still looks like a dusky zombie baby, in search of brains in this picture, but hey...this is what modern tech has given us, the ability to share everything...even the things people really don't want shared. You think this is bad, just wait till you see the pictures of the placenta.

There are no pictures of the placenta

Give me some credit here

Crimeny.

On a side note, Parker and Emma Jane have become big fans of seeing pictures, and when they came in asked to see some. When Parker saw the above picture she informed me someone needed to "clean the paint off Hannah Kate."

Drama:

We wouldn't be us if we didn't include some drama into the whole experience, but I will go ahead and tell you now the drama was all much ado about nothing. Some of you have asked about my initial text, the one that just said "She is here, details to follow" and still others have seen some cell-phone pictures that appear to include wires and what not. Due to this I have been hit with a number of question regarding health and wellness of baby. She is fine. So what's the story there? Well, you asked, but as I have already said, it's much ado about nothing.

When Hannah Kate was born she was retracting a bit when breathing, which, for those of you medically ignorant people out there who, along with me, require a bit of translation, just means that she was having a little more trouble breathing than they would like. She was doing the breathing just fine, but her sides would go in a bit much and her nostrils would flare, and her sats were a weeee (and I mean a tiny) bit lower than they would like. Turns out this happens a lot for bigger babies after c-sections. They don't get the benefit of having all the liquid squeezed out of them durning the birthing process. It usually takes them a little longer to get it all up and be happy campers. To be on the safe side they like to bring such babies down to the NICU for observation for a couple of hours. And that is exactly what happened to Hannah Kate. Jason following her out of the OR in an isolate, while Mary Jane was wheeled away in a separate direction was an annoyingly familiar scenario, but there was never any real worries or danger.

Perhaps the scariest moment came when Jason realized they would be wheeling that isolate right by the waiting room where Nana, Granny, and Paw Paw were all waiting. He actually stopped the doctors and said, um...can we go a different direction here, because if we walk by the waiting room with this isolate you're going to have three more patients in this hospital. They laughed for a moment, but he said, "no really, this family has a long, distinguished, rich history of visits to the NICU and I don't think they can handle the sight of one more." Jason was astonished to find they in fact really did not have another route, and so he ran into the waiting room and told them how completely okay everything was...he's pretty sure they only pretended to believe him, but it was nice of them to pretend. Thankfully their hearts pretended too, and all collectively decided not to arrest.

Once in the NICU Jason got to help clean "the paint" off Hannah Kate, eventually Nana came back, and they all just generally hung out. Things were so low key that one of the nurses took the time to snap this picture of Jason making silly faces at Hannah Kate. He felt she should learn about silly faces first thing, especially as she seemed so adept at making them. As you can see, the nurse in the background was thrilled with this behavior as well.

All told Hannah Kate was only down there for an hour-hour and a half. And it wasn't long until she was back in the room with Mary Jane looking like this:

Which is pretty much how she looks now, only she's a whole bunch more orangey, which is still not a big deal and something we'll talk about in a later post. For now it is time to wrap things up.

But wait you say, what about Parker and Emma Jane? Have they met Hannah Kate? Do they like her? Have they thrown any spectacular temper tantrums? Are they being cute as buttons? What about more pictures of Hannah Kate? What about visitors? What about that orangeyness?

All this can be saved for future posts, and can be considered reasons to come back soon. (very soon, as someone has already begun loading pictures to the computer and is likely to begin working on another post while mommy and baby nap)

Blessings,

Thank you for your prayers,

Jason, Mary Jane, Parker, Emma Jane, Hannah Kate Broge

Hannah Kate Exits the Womb!!

I love this picture.

I am going to keep this brief for now. Hannah Kate is here, and in case you are living under a rock and haven't heard, here are the stats:

8lbs 12.7 ounces

21 inches long

born at 1:55 PM

Mom and baby are Healthy!!!

Yes, that's right...7 pounds more than the girls weighed when they were born. Let's think about this for a moment. If you quadrupled Parker's weight when she was born you still wouldn't be as big as Hannah Kate. If you added Parker and Emma Jane's weight together and then doubled it you would still be nearly two pounds less than Hannah Kate. This girl is a giant.

It's awesome.

I won't bore you with long stories and details now. Just a quick couple of pictures and some stats. Come back tomorrow and I will give more pictures and a longwinded story...if you like that sort of thing.

God is good. He has blessed a greatly, we give Him thanks and praise.

Blessings,

Jason, Mary Jane, Parker, Emma Jane, AND HANNAH KATE

T Minus 2 and Counting: or How 4 Ear Infections, 2 Cases of Strep Throat and a Whole lot of Medicine Can change your Day

So this is it, or, that is, this is almost it. The week "of".... On Wednesday the doctors are going in after Hannah Kate, cause at this point in time she is showing absolutely NO signs of coming on her own. The girl is holed up in there like the last spoonful of peanut butter clinging to the sides of the jar. Seriously, have you ever tried to get all the peanut butter out of the jar before throwing away. I mean ALL the peanut butter. Impossible. They design those containers to be so deep, and so wide, with such a narrow opening that it is not possible to get it all. You just end up cramming your hand uncomfortably in there and getting it all peanut buttery, and then you take it out and find that all you have to show for it is a sandwich with not enough peanut butter on it and a sticky hand that you don't have time to clean well enough before rushing out the door and off to work, then you spend the rest of the day wondering why everything smells like peanut butter. All this is to say....she doesn't seem to want to come out at all.

We have a theory about this. It is a simple theory. It goes like this. Hannah Kate has ears, and with those ears she hears...everything and she thinks...that place is loud. I think I'll stay in here, where it's warm, and muffled.

Whatever the reason, she's still in there and all indications are the doctors are going to have to go in and pull her out. Which while the same as last time is amazingly different at the same time.

In all seriousness, we're pretty excited. We feel incredibly blessed to be here. That said it's also kind of surreal. We keep waiting for it to sink in that we are less than 48 hours from the C-section.

As it drew a bit closer we (read Mary Jane) suddenly realized that we were running out of days where it would just be the four of us (Mary Jane, Jason, Parker, and Emma Jane). In fact today (Monday) is it. The last one. So we set up these grandiose plans that I would come home from work early and we would go do a bunch of fun stuff with the girls and make the most of it.

Little did we know that today would start a couple hours early with the girls (who have been oozing snot for almost a week--and I mean oozing...the stuff has been coming out of their nose, their mouth and their eyes....ick) crying and complaining their ears hurt. So we spent the wee hours of the morning bonding...the four of us....on the couch...watching the monkey show while they sobbed pathetic sad tears half mixed with snot until the doctor's office opened and we could get them in for an appointment. Luckily we got one pretty much first thing this morning. And do you know what? We must be pretty good parents, because our kids got a 10 out of 10 on their ear exams. Which is to say that on a scale of 1-10 she said their ear infections were a 10. All four little beautiful ears were full of...welll...you get the idea.

After that Jason headed to work and Mary Jane headed over to the doctor's office for a last check before Wednesday's fun adventure. Mary Jane has been sick the last few days as well and as she related her symptoms the doctor he decided, almost on a whim, to do a strep test and guess what...she has strep. Then she mentioned to him that Jason has had a sore throat for a couple of weeks and has had strep throat a bunch this last year and the doctor, in his ever friendly manner, suggested that Jason needed to get his hiney (hiny? hinney? how do you spell hiney?) over to a doctor's office and get a strep test. Soooo rather than get home real early to begin the family shenanigans Jason stopped at a Walgreens Clinic place thing and wouldn't you know it...he has strep throat too.

By the time Jason got home Mary Jane had despaired of us doing any of our fun adventure activities, so Jason ignored her and packed the fam in the car anyway. They headed to Oberweis where they proceeded to stuff themselves with milkshakes.

Once hopped up on sugar and able to ignore the extreme fatigue caused by their various illnesses they hopped back into the car and went to a playground, where, because Jason and Mary Jane are wise parents, they spun their girls around on a merry-go-round. (clearly nothing bad can happen when two sick two year olds are filled with milk shakes and spun on a merry-go-round....please don't call DFS).

Fun was had by all. We then came home, took baths, ate a late dinner, read books, said prayers, sang songs, gave squeezes, kisses, eskimos, butterflies and a blessing (don't even pretend to skip any one of those) said goodnight and then Mary Jane and Jason proceeded to clean the house. Why did they clean the house you ask? Well, obviously because family is coming into town to help out tomorrow and it is important we get all the work done before they get here.

Anyway. Baby coming real real soon (as the girls might say). While I will be the first to admit that we haven't always been prompt with the updates, I think it is safe to say we will have something to say in the very near future, so feel free to head on back.

(oops...gotta go, Parker is coughing right now)

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone again (sort of...lasts 12 days you know). Hard to believe. This was the girls' third Christmas and I can now say that each Christmas has been better than the one before (a trend I am hoping to keep up for the next umpteen years).

We began the season by taking our last pre-Hannah Kate trip. We headed to Chattanooga the week before Christmas which was particularly exciting with a new niece to see. Mark and Teela's daughter Lily was born on November 1 and this was the first time we got to see her. The girls were excited by the new baby but getting her confused with this "baby sissy" person they've been hearing a lot about. All in all it was a fun trip.

We came home on Christmas Eve and met my parents here in St. Louis. They had been up in Wisconsin visiting my sister (who also just had a baby --October 31) and then came down to spend this week with us. Again, a good time was had by all.

Mary Jane even worked up the courage to make cookies with the girls

To say they loved it would be the understatement of a lifetime. I think it's safe to say "decorating" was their favorite part. I use the term "decorating" somewhat loosely here. What I mean is that Mary Jane put frosting on all the cookies and the girls licked all the cookies while they put equal amounts of sprinkles on the floor, and themselves, somehow magically missing the cookies.....messy yes, fun yes, edible?...ehhh

Saying "cheese"

Here's a picture of the girls with their baby cousin. They took to her really fast which gives us hope for the upcoming arrival this March.

It took the girls a while to get into the whole unwrapping thing but this is the first year where they clearly got it. Emma Jane in particular really took off. She got to the point where she just started tearing into gifts regardless of where they were or who they were for.

The girls also got their first tricycles...they loooooooove them

They also really love ornaments...especially when they are hung on low branches...and can be gotten off. We eventually gave up on trying to stop them from taking ornaments off the tree and just got out the hot glue gun and glued all our ornaments to the tree. No really. Do you have any idea how bad melting fake tree limbs smell? Pretty bad. We aren't going to get that stink out of our house till next Christmas. Oh well...good excuse to buy new ornaments.

(you do know I'm joking right....Mary Jane thinks you might not...but I think you're smarter than that)

P: Yes, I need sleep...but this book is just too good to put down

P: They may be magnets...but they sure look like cookies....I wonder....

So...huh.....the words are blue down here. Guess they are just sad all the fun is over. Don't worry words...there is more fun coming, 2011 is just days away and we have all sorts of crazy good times planned for you...you will get to talk about a whole other child...a girl by the way...I'll let you guess the name.

Merry Christmas

Shocking News!!!

Sorry...things have been so hectic I haven't had a chance to write this yet, but...


a moment of silence please








wait for it








wait










I said silence








As of tomorrow morning Mary Jane will not just be a board certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, she will be a PRACTICING Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She starts the first of her TWO new jobs tomorrow.


Blessings Mary Jane...we love you :)

200th extravaganza or Happy Belated Birthday

This post should have gone out a few days ago. Friday was Mary Jane's birthday. Alas, she had to work on Friday, still it was an improvement on a year ago when we were waiting for Emma Jane to have her surgery. It is amazing what a difference a year makes. Over this past year Mary Jane has shown something I knew would be true the day I met her...she is an amazing mother. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to best explain this, what kind of flowery words would best help you understand how lucky the girls and I are to have Mary Jane as our mother and wife, but I found there just aren't the words. Finally I decided to go with the old adage...a picture is worth a thousand words (so this is going to be a whole bunch of words)

Mary Jane...I love you. Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Beautifuls

To God be the glory, great things He has done!!

Hard to believe it has been a year...but it has. Decided to try something a little different for a birthday post. Hope you like (hope it works).

We had a big party for the girls yesterday. When I say big...I mean got a little out of control big. But a good time was had by all (at least I think everyone had a good time...did you have a good time? I had a good time, Mary Jane had a good time, the girls had a good time...we hope you did too. We took a ton of pictures, more than I could possibly upload, so I decided to try and collage them together in a little video, so people could see the little beautifulls smashing themselves into their cake.

Actually, these are only a small portion of the pictures, and there is actual video footage from the party, hopefully I will get a chance to post some of that later.

In the meantime, enjoy.

Odd sorts of anniversaries

So, it has been a year, a year since Mary Jane woke me up at three in the morning because her water had broken. And thus began the adventure. For those of you who might not remember the details, or for those of you who might somehow not know them you can go here to go back and reminisce.

Strangely enough the girls decided to celebrate this particularly strange anniversary in their own way. Mary Jane woke up at 3 AM, because, well because some part of her brain was acutely aware of that fact that one year ago exactly began the scariest time of her life. Me, being the sensitive guy I am, was snoring blissfully away. Men and women are just different that way. (Although I must admit that while writing this, sitting in the living room with Mary Jane and Emily, while they are watching a chick flick that I am trying to ignore, and right now there is a scene where the couple had a miscarriage and i will admit to you (but please keep this private...I really don't want this to get around) that I am a little more emotionally moved then I would expect, and watching them grieve and cry is bringing back vivid memories of stepping out of the hospital room at 4 in the morning calling my parents, Mary Jane's parents, and Emily and Paul (who were getting ready to take a train into town for very different reasons) and trying to keep it together enough emotionally to get the sentences out....maybe...just maybe men and women are not so different about these emotions. They both have them, but they experience these emotions differently, they handle them differently, and they have different triggers...but I digress)

Anyway, the girls decided to celebrate the anniversary their own special way. As Mary Jane got up to get out of bed Parker started screaming bloody murder, which scared the dickens out of Emma Jane, who decided to join the chorus. So...much like a year ago I was woken suddenly out of a deep sleep and found myself running into another room. And much like a year ago this marked the end of any sleep Mary Jane or I got for the rest of the day, and much like a year ago it was all Parker's fault (the stinker simply would not go back to sleep)

But unlike a year ago,

I had two beautiful, healthy, cute beyond words, baby girls to hold and comfort.

Unlike a year ago, I shed no tears, because there was no concern they would die.

And unlike a year ago it was easy to see the hand of God in all that He had provided for us, last year we knew it was there, we walked in faith, but this year we look back and thank Him for His mercy.

As I finish this post, getting ready to get them up for the nightly feed, I am overwhelmed by how blessed we have been. All the uncertainties, all the questions, we were asking one year ago, were answered by mercifully. Thanks be to God.

Land of the Cleves Part I: The airport

Since we are naturally gluttin' for punishment, we decided to continue are streak of traveling while we can (AKA before classes start). And since it had been more than two years since we had made it to my home (Cleveland) we decided a trip to Cleveland was in order. Unfortunately we quickly came to the realization that driving all the way to Cleveland was just plain out for the girls. So we flew. Yes we braved an airplane. We were pretty nervous about it, but the girls did really well. It's a short flight and just when they were starting to get antsy we arrived.

most uncomfortable rocking chair ever!

"I'm supposed to be napping"

"I want to be napping"

Actually, the only negative thing about the whole plane experience was the boarding process. All my life I have watched as those with special needs or wee little babes get to preboard while the rest of us shlubs dutifully wait our turn. Often I have looked on with envy thinking, if only, if only I didn't have to fight for a spot in line, just to get a seat, if only I could leisurely board the plane with the special blue boarding pass and the status of being known as a "preboarder"

All too frequently over the years I have seen other, undeserving, people try and worm their way into the preboard group. But I have just patiently waited, for I knew a day would come, a day when I would have a wee one and the coveted blue boarding pass would finally be mine. But alas it was not to be, because while I have multiple wee ones the aviation industry no longer cares about my boarding plight. Our "special status" comes after the preboards, and after the the first group of 60 people...then...we can board. Curses! Foiled in my life long ambition. Turns out I am going to need to be in a wheel chair or on oxygen to get the coveted blue boarding pass....and here's the thing. While I looked forward with eager anticipation to the day when I would have wee ones, I do not look forward to a day when I am in a wheel chair and on oxygen.

Oh well, considering that was the only thing to go wrong getting there, I am sure you can tell, it went smoothly. Thanks be to God!

teeth

Mary Jane pointed out that there hasn't been any official announcement concerning the enamel growths occurring in our daughters' mouths.
So here is....they have teeth.

Okay...the pictures aren't great...but you will just have to believe me...there are teeth. Parker has two bottom front teeth, Emma Jane has one

As requested...some pictures (and some news worth noting...too us)

Soooooo......while we have a lot to say and a lot is going on there is little time to actually say it. Sorry for the hiatus. Another longer post will be coming in the next couple of days, but here are some pictures to hold you over for now.



As you can see...they've learned to love food!!! They are still not fans of the bottles but boy do they like stuffing their faces with solids. We have high hopes that once we finally get through the bottle stage things will be better with eating.

But the really exciting thing came yesterday. We just got back in town (more about that in the next post) and evidently it was a very formative trip because both the girls just decided to stand up!

Emma Jane was sitting in her crib while Mary Jane was changing Parker's diaper and she just grabbed the side of the crib and pulled herself up.

Not to be out done, Parker immediately did the same thing when we put her down in the crib. Since then they have gotten up a few times. It's pretty exciting stuff. (yes...standing up is exciting...I promise...)