Mi Co with S & S

Susan and I took our kids out to eat at Mi Cocina tonight since the daddy's were gone. I just love Southlake Town Square. It's so quaint and close to where we live and the kids love running around the pavilion and fountain.

Au Pair Party

We had a going away party for Schlomit this weekend. She is moving back to Israel after being here nearly two years. We're very sad to see her go.

(Schlomit, Rachel, Mari)

Drying

Mari and Maddie letting their nails dry while looking out the window . . .

Puddles

Free and easy entertainment.

Baby Arnold #2 is a . . .

GIRL!! Caroline Olivia Arnold entered this world on March 17th at 8:43 am. She weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 20.5 inches long. She has red hair and an attitude just like her momma!

I took Madelyn up to the hospital to visit them with me. She did such a good job holding Miss Caroline - she's such a big girl . . .

Momma and baby girl are doing very well!
Congratulations, Arnolds, on another beautiful baby girl. :)

Spring Break Potty Training

I had decided that the best time to potty train Marek would be over spring break. We started over this past weekend and he did such a great job! It will be a long week but we will persevere!

Madelyn's Tummy

Madelyn had been having some tummy issues over the last year or so. She would complain once in a while about her belly hurting - at first I figured it was lactose intolerance like her daddy. I cut out all dairy for a week or more and it didn't help. It got even worse over the last few months to the point that she was vomitting and waking up from the pain. :( My poor baby. There's nothing worse than seeing your child in pain.

We had her procedure yesterday. It was an emotional rollercoaster.

Here she is answering questions for the doctor. I must say that the doctors, nurses, staff, etc at Cook Children's Hospital are AMAZING. They were so great with our princess.

They put a movie on for her, gave her a Princess book to read . . . Gave her bubbles to blow . . .
We decided to give her this oral medicine that would help her "forget" that they took her away from us. It was difficult watching the drugs set in. They took her back and the procedure consisted of them put a probe into her esophagus and stomach and taking pictures then they inserted a pH probe in through her nose and down her throat and esophagus into her stomach. This was taped to her cheek with this special tape so that it wouldn't move AT ALL. The probe was about the size of a large spaghetti noodle. When she woke up from the anesthesia - she didn't react well to it. At all. We were horrified. This was not our girl. She was screaming and crying - telling Tom and I she didn't love us. It took us and every nurse in the room to hold her down. The biggest risk was her pulling the probe out of her nose (or moving it at all) and she kept trying to do this. The nurse explained to me stearnly that if she pulled it out of her nose, they would need to re-insert it while she was awake and we didn't want that to happen. Her extreme meltdown lasted for about 30 minutes (which is a long time) but it felt like an eternity. It was horrendous. Tommy doesn't handle things like this very well, bless his heart. We had to send him out to the hallway so that we could settle Madelyn down.

After the major meltdown, we packed our poor little princess into the "hospital wagon" and wheeled her downstairs. . .

She looks so sad. :( Breaks my heart.

I let her do whatever she wanted. The pH probe in her esophagus was there to measure the pH levels in her tummy. It was connected to a computer. I had to push a button when she stood up, layed down, ate, complained, etc. We had to keep it in overnight to be removed at 7:00 am. It had to be in for at least 20 hours.

She played some wii . . .

Nana and Papa came over and gave her some sympathy gifts. A puzzle and a princess cupcake. She couldn't eat this but we saved it for today!

My sweet girl.

As much as I was not looking forward to going to the doctor for the procedure, I was even more stressed about the next morning. I (yes - me) had to pull the pH probe out of her nose (with special instructions) when she woke up. I carefully removed the tape and gave it one swift pull (standing behind her and pulling it forward). It was all done. I put it into a baggie as instructed and Tommy ran it back to the hospital for them to download the data. I had slept with Madelyn the entire night to make sure everything was ok. I hardly slept at all. My little baby.

She was so excited the next day to eat her cupcake from Nana and Papa! She got to enjoy it after school that day.

She's such a sweetheart - she shared it with her brother.

BJ are so sweet - they sent a Sleeping Beauty Princess Cookie Boquet. So very thoughtful - thank you BJ for always thinking of my babies.

Madelyn was so excited and again shared with her brother.

I pray all is well and we NEVER have to do this again.

OG

Great Grandma Zieminski (momzee) got all of us (Zieminskis) gift cards to the Olive Garden for Christmas. We were all finally able to get together to use them in March! The kids were so very well behaved through the entire dinner!

Mads and I before dinner. . .

The whole clan at dinner . . .

Tom, Mari and I. :)

All the cousins (Posts, Whisenants, Oleys)

Thanks, Momzee, for the great gift cards! We LOVED our dinner and were so glad that we were able to use them all together.

Wii Have Arrived

We finally joined the rest of the 21st century by getting a Wii. It was "my" early birthday present. :) We were very surprised to find that Sams Club had the Wii system and Best Buy had Rock Band. Mimi and Dziadek were in town and BJ (Brian and Jessica) came over.

Marek climbing on his best buddy, Uncle Brian.

Jessica with Alamo (Alameaux) and Marek.

The kids warming up Rock Band for us.

Dziadek and Marek cooking dinner. . .