The Tale of Two Preemies: Puppy+Christmas+Remodel=Insanity

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Puppy+Christmas+Remodel=Insanity

Don't get a puppy at Christmas time. It started off all fine and dandy, but Angus is growing daily. He is much more playful now, which means chewing. He loves shoes, socks, ornaments, anything and everything on the floor. "Angus, NO!" is heard often in our house. He's fun, and Cole loves him, so I guess we're stuck. Anyway, who wouldn't love that face?

This week our goal was to get our mudroom remodel completed. Pat ripped out the closet and we got our new cabinets in. It only took us about 3 days, and that's including some plumbing issues and cabinet problems. Turns out our plumber does not believe in shut offs. That should have been an easy fix, but he apparently also does not believe in standard sizes. A nicked pipe and three trips to the hardware store later we got the water problems solved. Then it was time to install the cabinet and new sink. Did you know that kitchen cabinets are deeper than bathroom cabinets. We did not, which led to trimming our stainless steel sink down so it would fit. Then the new cabinet is taller than the last one which meant cutting part of the new counter top off. I was not happy. We very specifically told them we wanted standard height, not counter height, but we didn't have time to wait so it's installed. The next screw up we discovered was that they ordered the wrong size counter for our bench. It's too short. Pat wanted to just trim the edge so it would fit, if they would knock off some of the cost. I said no way. That's their second screw up, they are fixing that one. For crying out loud, we only ordered 4 cabinets and they messed up 2 of them. That's not a good record in my book. It does look nice though, except for the mess...

We need to get a new medicine cabinet, hence the boxes of drugs on the bench. The boys are enjoying the new sink. If you ever need to get a kid to wash his hands more often, put in a new sink.

Christmas recap to come, I promise!

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Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.