Cherry Hill

This year my kids and I discovered this magical place named Cherry Hill. These are some pictures from our first visit last month. (PS I didn't get any pictures of Stuart. I think he was too busy playing under that fountain in the background most of the day.)


Little girls were loving on our baby. Isn't it funny how small children love babies. I think they feel good around babies; they reminds them how big and capable they are. Liza doesn't mind the extra attention--I think it has something to do with the previous 12 weeks of conditioning with two four year olds approximately 2" from her face.

Our Stuart

He's a delightful creature to have around. He has his moments, like we all do, and occasionally, he'll tell me he is just having a very bad day. However, usually you can count on him being a happy, helpful, loving, creative, sensitive, busy, intuitive, curious, compassionate, and delightfully silly little boy. he's easy to have around.

The other day I caught him a grass hopper which he lovingly named Hoppy. About 20 minutes later he came out and declared that Hoppy was loose in the house and he couldn't find him. I'm not sure what Hoppy eats when he's loose in the house but we found him 2.5 weeks later alive and kicking. Thankfully, upon finding him, Stuart was happy to humanely release him back to the wild.

He collects sticks and rocks and arranges them on my front porch.

He comes up every morning to snuggle in bed with Ryan and I for a few minutes.

Lately he's been quick to tell me thank you and that he loves me. The other day, when I made him a cold drink with ice he sincerely exclaimed, "Thanks Mom! You're the best Mom ever."

When I returned to him after being gone all day so I (with my baby sidekick) could take Alison to the hospital he said, "Oh Mom. I had so much fun playing I forgot to miss you." He's certainly growing up and while I miss the littler boy who didn't want to go to preschool because, "but I just wike staywing home wif you," I see glimpses of the person he could grow into and it makes me smile. Love my Stuart.

Sisters

Summer Break

These pictures were taken today. Liza Moonpie will be three months old at the end of the week. It really is going too fast. I think she looks so much like Stuart and often am reminded of an expression of his when watching her--only girly and dark.News: This summer I've banished my computer, partly because it doesn't work right now and partly because I want to spend more time hanging out with the most important people in the world. This is wonderful news for my kids but bad news for my blog. I'm still taking pictures and while I hope to occasionally (a weekly post would be nice) get on to share, plan on things being somewhat quiet until the fall.

Love, Aurelie

Princess Attitude

Liza's Blessing Day

Smiles

Okay, not a smile, but cute still.

Eliza Claire

Age: 6 weeks

Likes: Washing her hair, milk, swinging, diaper changes, and ceiling fans

Dislikes: Pictures, burping, being swaddled, and church

Undecided: Pacifyers, George, and sleep

Special talents: Smiling (avoiding smiling for the camera) and sucking on her fingers

Eliza will be blessed on June 6th at 9:00 am. Email me at apahnke@gmail.com if you are interested in coming and need directions to our church building.

Preschool

Stuart and Alison finished their first year of preschool today. They had wonderful teachers and friends. We're going to miss it during the upcoming summer.

Alison and her teachers, Miss Sandi and Miss Rochelle.

Stuart wasn't interested in taking a picture with his teachers.

Yellow Submarine Preschool from Aurelie Pahnke on Vimeo.

Stuart is a boy who likes to be well-prepared.

Sunday Naps

We arrived to church a little late. I got to sit for 5 minutes and then spent the next 2.5 hours with a baby that was screaming and WILL. NOT. NURSE. TO. SLEEP. or bounce to sleep, rock to sleep, or be walked to sleep. She prefers screaming to sleep which doesn't work that well in public settings. (I'm serious.)

By the time I left church I was beat so Liza-Lu and I took a nap. When I woke up I found a package of diapers laid lovingly by me and Eliza. Upon questioning the twins I found that their dad was also asleep and that he had allowed them take their nap inside their forts set up in the family room.

Haha.

In trying to figure out where the mystery package of diapers came from I discovered that during their hours of self-parenting somebody had come to the door and gifted the package of diapers. I didn't hear the door or the conversation, but I'm sure our guest wondered where the duo's parents were. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Crazy Mama: Stuart and Alison, who brought the diapers?
Stuart: I don't know.
Alison: I don't know.
Crazy Mama: Have you ever seen that person before?
Alison: Yeah.
Stuart: Probably.
Crazy Mama: Do they go to our church?
Stuart: Yeah (Alison is uninterested in our conversation at this point.)
Crazy Mama: Old or not old?
Stuart: Umm, I think not old probably because they are still in the package.
Crazy Mama: Not the diapers, the person.
Stuart: Oh. I don't know.

Thank you secret diaper bearing guest. Come again. Most of the time we don't leave Stuart and Alison in charge.

Little Liza-boo

I've had some requests for new pictures and I have to agree. I've thought in the past that people never put enough pictures of new babies up. So I asked the subject in question about maybe taking some pictures today.

She thought about it. And decided that she would rather have her favorite chauffeur pick her up followed by a nice calming relax in her favorite armchair.

Hey, why is that camera still out!?

Even Stuart Thinks She's Pretty Cute

I wrote this entry in December but didn't ever post it--I noticed today it was still a draft.

Happy uh, er, Spring?

Going Backwards

We've missed blogging some big events over the last 6 months. Alison and Stuart turned four in September. We had a party and a dinner. Later that week, I called Ryan from Sam's Club crying over my hot dog because I realized that the combination of all the tiniest things that had bothered me about Alison in days before was something serious. We went home and celebrated the first day of Fall at the Falliday Kickoff Party. I had been crying most of the day but intuition told me there probably wasn't a simple answer and I wanted to have a normal evening together as a family and eat with friends before we began what was then unknown. Ryan and I made arrangements for Stuart to stay at the party and then sleep the night and took Alison to the emergency room. That was the last day of normal as we knew it.

Over the next week, they tested and poked Alison until they were able to tell us she had two chronic autoimmune diseases, the combination extremely rare in children, Myasthenia Gravis and Hypothyroidism. Our journey adjusting to a new normal began. I remember when her doctors told us that daily medication every 4 hours, blood product infusions at the hospital, and managing an altered immune system would become normal and I thought. YOU. SURELY. MUST. BE. INSANE.

It has been over 6 months now. I feel like we've been half breathing for a while, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and yet here we are. We have a new baby. Alison started dance classes. Stuart and Alison turned 4 and a half. They both learned how to skip. Stuart goes to gymnastics. Christmas came. Easter came. We planted tulips and they even bloomed.

Alison also takes medication every day, many times a day. She is admitted every month to Primary Children's Medical Center for therapy and has her own pediatric neurologist and pediatric endocrinologist. And miraculously life has become normal--most of the time. (I'm not sure it will ever seem normal explaining to her why her body isn't like Stuart's and that it won't ever be, watching a four year old try to be brave getting IV's placed, or comforting her when she falls or struggles. And when my amniotic fluid sprouted a leak during Alison's 8 hour infusion at PCH the day before my due date signaling the onset of labor--normal was most certainly not how I was classifying the situation.)

Going through pictures of their party 6 months ago I remembered that the first symptoms I noticed were during those celebrations. Alison wasn't exuberant. She had lost her typical facial expressions and she had a difficult time blowing out her candles. We had a combined Princess/Pirate party with their friends, complete with treasure hunts, swabbing the deck, a plank that extended from a boat over crocodile infested waters, princess games and many wee friends and family. My friend Rachel helped me even though we were both horribly nauseous being in the depths of the first trimester woes. One of our revelers lost her lunch at the kid party and Rachel and I were both completely crippled trying to clean it up, comfort our wee friend, and suppress the inner puke ourselves. I don't know if I ever properly thanked her for her help--I was pretty busy vowing to never throw another party ever ever again. Besides missing a lot of blogging opportunities, I have a lot of thanking to catch up on from the last 6 months. We've been so blessed by the generosity and love and service from others.

(Katie and Hank, you made the birthday post. Look how small George is!)

Baby Liza Can't Handle Her Drink

One of my favorite things in the nursery is the pint-sized rocking chair. When we moved the big rocking chair up and put the furniture in the room, Alison dragged her rocking chair from downstairs and set it in the room. It stayed there for 4 months while we waited for Eliza. Now, Stuart and Alison accompany me when I'm nursing. They recognize (and quite appreciate) that they suddenly have a captive audience every 3 hours or so during the day. Stuart came up yesterday, plopped in the chair, started rocking and said, "Mom. I have to talk to you about something." Over the next 10 minutes he proceeded to tell me the plot-line of a dinosaur movie Ryan had brought home and watched with Stu and Ali. This morning Alison was showing off all her dance moves while we listened to pandora radio.

Dancing Queen

Alison has been taking a creative dance class this year. She loves going, telling me about what she learned, and dancing around the house. For convenience, we've scheduled her hospital admittance for IVIg therapy on Thursdays after dance class because PCH is across the street and my girlfriend can take Stuart for the day. The last time we were doing her IVIg she said, "Mothder. Dance days are my favorite days of the week and I don't want to come for my medicine on dance days ever again because it ruins my favorite day." She has a point and we rescheduled at Primary Children's for Wednesdays. Now that it is getting warm enough, she's taken to dancing outside on the lawn where there is more room.

Speaking of PCH and IVIg, the last time we were there we brought Stuart. They were both in the hospital bed awaiting Alison's IV start. The nurse came in and was talking to Stuart.

Nurse: What is your name?

Stuart: Stuart

Nurse: How old are you?

Stuart: I'm four.

Nurse: Oh. You are four too. Are you twins?

Stuart: Yeah. We hatch-ed on the same day.