the king of burgers

bear sling

maddie and the man that fixed her broken heart

nurse

Since Maddie has been home, things have been very different for Elliott. For one, I am now somewhat unavailable to fulfill his every whim periodically throughout the day while I am breastfeeding her. For a few days, he was quite upset about this, but after awhile, when I would just explain to him, "Mama's going to nurse Maddie now," he'd be cool with it. The other day, while we were playing, he crawled up on the couch with Bear, grabbed the boppy, wrapped it around himself and tucked Bear inside, all while repeatedly chanting, "nurse." He then laid back and relaxed with a look on his face as though he were thinking, "finally a moment of peace and quiet." Since then, we've gotten other hints of how he's picked up on our parenting skills. Sometimes, while "nursing" bear, he will sit bear upright, pat him on the back all while saying, "burp." We've also caught him holding bear over his shoulder and bouncing while walking, just like we do to calm down Maddie.

Here's a video of Elliott "nursing" his doll and giving it quite a leg workout at the same time.

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Side note: When Maddie first came home and Elliott saw me nursing her, I think it really hit him hard that our relationship was now different. For a few days, he was actually really stand-offish with me, which was incredibly heartbreaking. I knew that someday he would go through a phase where he hated me, I just thought it would be a little closer to middle school age. However, one day I picked him up in a cradle hold, sat down with him on the couch and said, "nurse" repeatedly, while smothering him with kisses. After that we were cool again.

hi maddie!

This video starts out with Elliott staring at himself while I had the lcd on the video camera facing him. When I move the camera so its taping Maddie, he then remembers that she exists.

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it takes a village...

Maddie & I

Great Uncle Chung & Maddie

Aunt Viv with Elliott

Aunt Katie with Elliott

Grandpa Weix with Elliott & cousin Sofia

Elliott & Sofia

Grandpa & Elliott (& Bear)

Grandma Weix & Maddie

Katie & Maddie

Great Grandma Wang & Maddie

Dan & Elliott

Uncle Jeff, Elliott & Aunt Viv

Uncle Jeff & Maddie

Grandma & Grandpa Weix with Elliott & Maddie

Grandma Wu & Maddie

our little groundhog

Maddie was born on February 2nd, Groundhog's Day. We should've known that something was up when she refused to come out (even with a c-section), thus predicting several more weeks of hospital stay (and a few snow storms as well). All in all though, she recovered fairly quickly. We were in Peoria for 16 days. Things seemed to move in spurts - at first very slowly and then very quickly and then slowly again. At first, it seemed like the doctors were being very cautious in removing different meds, monitors, and lines. And then we went back to Champaign for my doctor's appointment. And then we were snowed in for a few days. And then when we came back, Maddie was off of everything except for a feeding tube, one line in her heart, and a few monitors. The feeding tube was taken out the next day so that we could really work on breastfeeding (which went surprisingly well). And then things got slow again to the point where I was ready to pull her last line myself and get us the heck out of there. Maddie was finally discharged on Sunday, February 18th, 10 days post-op which is really really quick actually. Since then, she's been under house arrest. With it being the flu season, her being a newborn, AND the fact that she is recovering from major heart surgery, the doctors say we can't risk taking her out and getting her sick because her little heart might not be able to handle all that. This coupled with the fact that I'm recovering from surgery and am not supposed to carry around Elliott - who gets major cabin fever - has made for some pretty interesting juggling acts. Not to mention Dan finishing up a paper this past week and working all kinds of crazy hours to get it done. All I can say is, thank goodness for extended family. Anyways, everyone here is doing great and we're just trying to figure out how to handle our new life now and questioning how on earth we thought just having one child used to be so hard. We also already have some hilarious stories (and video) of the antics of these two little crazies that I hope to share with you soon. Once again, thank you all for your e-mails, phone calls, prayers, and thoughts. Here's a pic of Maddie and her super cool scar. I know all you other babies out there are jealous.

time for a fresh start

Whenever Elliott has a bad couple of nights in a row, be it due to teething or a cold, I like to change his bedsheets in the hopes of having a fresh start once again. Now that Maddie is home and well on the road to recovery, I felt it was time to change the look of our blog. Not that it will help her in any way, but at least it makes me feel a little better.