The Tale of Two Preemies: The County Fair, Part 1

Sunday, August 4, 2013

The County Fair, Part 1

We enrolled Cole in 4-H this year. He was a Cloverbud, which is essentially learning years. They can take whatever they want to the fair, perfect or not and get a participation ribbon. Cole brought 3 projects. He brought some cucumbers, which he was pretty "meh" about. I made him put together a photo book about our trip up north and actually made him hand write captions for the photos, cuz I'm mean like that. He did fairly well about talking to the judge with the book, once he got into it. His favorite project was this:

Farmall 450 tractor hood

He refinished the tractor hood with very little help. He is very proud of it. He got a lot of comments about it the day we brought it in too.

He also showed 2 calves. This is Renae, we borrowed her from a friend so we wouldn't have to keep an animal at the fair all week.

He also brought his calf, Rocket, for the Cloverbud pet show. He was the only Cloverbud to participate, but he worked hard to get Rocket ready for the fair. It was good for him to put the work in himself and see what it takes to get an animal ready.

Tate got to bring a couple of projects too and help bring Rocket into the arena. They had a lot of fun, but it was an incredibly busy week. If the fair wasn't enough, they also had VBS at church this last week.

My sister mentioned that she thought we weren't going to have Cole show an animal. Stay tuned for my response! :)

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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.