Fight For Preemies: Prematurity Awareness Day

Today is National Prematurity Awareness Day. I know we don't normally blog about anything other than our little family, but I decided to make an exception for this cause.

I don't think anyone ever expects to have a premature baby, let alone two at a time! We were very fortunate to be living in a bigger(ish) city when the boys were born a little more than a month early, at 35 weeks 5 days, with access to state of the art facilities for premature babies. Although we had a relatively "uncomplicated" two-week stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), not all babies do. We met a little girl who was celebrating her first birthday within the walls of the NICU, having never left the hospital.

Our family is only one of many, many families who have benefited from the March of Dimes' years of research and education on prematurity. We have two beautiful, healthy, crazy, active, almost TWO-year-old boys to show for it. We are blessed.

Today over 400 Bloggers are participating in Bloggers Unite Fight for Preemies to raise awareness of the 20 million babies who are born prematurely each year. You can learn how to help fight against premature birth here.

5th Birthday: The Prequel

Last weekend, we headed up to MN for some deer hunting (Chris) and relaxing at Grammie's (the rest of us). For the third year (I think?), we also had a family birthday party for Miss Ellie. No birthday in the Eiesland family would be complete without a birthday wall sign, handcrafted by Grammie. We just never knew growing up what our sign would say -- Grammie busted out sayings like "It's heaven, Ben is 7," "Peachy keen, Carrie's 13," and "How great, Nate is 8!"


It goes without saying that Ellie wanted pink cupcakes, so we whipped up a batch and got creative with the stand (two plates and an upside-down bowl) as I had forgotten my beloved cupcake stand at home. For any of you not familiar with my stand, it is a much-ridiculed purchase I made when Ellie turned two. Chris could not believe I spent $12.99 on something so trivial. But let me tell you, I have gotten my money's worth out of that thing, and then some! I have lent it to friends for their kids' parties, and it has been used no less than 10 times. So there.



Alex provided the mood music.

Ellie spent some time with Uncles Tom and Scott, discussing the merits of Rapunzel Barbie vs. Ariel. I think these two learned more about Barbies than they ever wanted or needed to know that night.

The birthday girl blowing out her candle. We had a great time celebrating with lots of family -- thanks Grammie, Grandma & Grandpa Eiesland, Uncle Scott & Aunt Doreen, Uncle Tom & Aunt Julie, Grandma Studer, and Sarah & Chad for partying with us!

Trick or Treat!

The Studer family hit the streets of Huron on Halloween in search of candy. Before the actual night of Halloween, however, we stopped by Chris's office on Friday for a dress rehearsal. I think Chris is the only employee at Farmers Union with small children, so we hit the jackpot when it came to candy!

We got out the costumes a day early, in hopes that the boys would get used to their hats and not put up too big of a stink when it was go time. Well, it must have worked because they both wore their hats the entire time we trick or treated! Also, it was in the 40's, so I suppose any bit of warmth helped. At least it wasn't snowing!

Maguire and I having a chat about maximizing his cuteness in order to score the most candy. For those of you who've known me since my Bemidji State University days, yes that is the same sweatshirt I stole freshman year from Scott Erickson and "forgot" to return. 13 years ago. Ahem.

For some reason, Ellie wanted a little hairspray for her Ariel 'do, although I had a hard time distinguishing it from her everyday hairstyle. Must be the seashell headband.

Hard to believe that our die-hard Little Mermaid fan made it to her 5th Halloween before she actually dressed up as Ariel!

Alex the dragon -- he roared on command, walked all over people's grass and flowers, and tried to knock on doors at even the dark houses. He was pretty into the trick-or-treating.

Maguire the puppy dog -- barked on command, loved knocking on doors, and just kept on taking candy from bowls as long as the person kept holding the bowl out (I swear at the end of the night he had twice the candy of the other two!)

They had a blast! This was the first year we haven't celebrated with our friends the Lawrences in Sioux Falls. Although we missed spending Halloween with them, it was a lot of fun to walk from house to house in our new neighborhood.

Maguire, double-dipping from someone's candy bowl. Seriously, Chris and I would be introducing ourselves to a new neighbor and Maguire just kept grabbing candy from their bucket.

Somehow, the almost 5 year old ended up getting carried while the two little boys walked the whole time. Doesn't quite seem right, but they didn't seem to mind.

Maguire also loved to shut people's doors for them. Sometimes the person would still be talking or saying goodbye, and he'd just start pushing their door closed like, "Thank you, that will be all for tonight. Let's move on."

We had a great time trick-or-treating, the boys did so good without the stroller. Ellie was the one who called it quits and decided to go home and pass out candy. I think the boys could have kept trolling for treats all night.

Girls' Night Out: Imagination Movers Live Edition

Ellie and I hit the big city of Sioux Falls last Friday night to see the Imagination Movers Live show. Now, if you have no idea who the Movers are, you may just want to skip past this post. It involves children's music and grown men dancing around in matching jumpsuits, so consider yourself forewarned. Imagination Movers is a show on Playhouse Disney, and we have long said that if they ever went on tour and came to Sioux Falls, we'd go. We've got two cd's by the Movers, and it's catchy stuff. So catchy that I unfortunately find myself singing songs like "What's In Your Fridge?" and "Please and Thank You" all day long. Anyway, we had some delicious dinner at Famous Dave's before the show (I miss Sioux Falls!) and headed off to the show. Added to the pictures is a little commentary from Ellie.

Ellie: We're going to Imagination Movers and I like them so much.




Ellie: The show is almost beginning. We are just loving it. Some of the people even dressed up like the Movers. It was funny.

Ellie: We love the Movers. This is a picture of them onstage.

Ellie: They were really funny and they sang all of my favorite songs. Mover Scott with the glasses on his head is my favorite.

Ellie: This is Mover Scott and Mover Rich.

We had a great girls night and can't wait to see the Movers the next time they come back to Sioux Falls!

Cage Match, Anyone?

After the boys wake up from their much-needed afternoon nap, it's sometimes fun to plop them both in the same crib and watch the ensuing wrestling and funny interactions.

Hey, when the weather gets cold around here, we get desperate for things to do. Don't judge us.

A Father's Worst Nightmare

Alright...maybe "Worst Nightmare" is a little dramatic, but it's never easy to hear your son say "I wanna Barbie!" Which is what he says in this little video if you couldn't completely understand it. Maguire the other day just belted that out after his big sister was playing with her Barbies at the kitchen table. Carrie says she didn't do anything to encourage the phrase. Except for the fact that after they were crying and pointing to the Barbies, Carrie asked, "Do you want a Barbie?" That's when he said it. Then of course she tried to coax it out of him all day because she thought it was funny. I get home from work that afternoon and Carrie says, "Maguire, say, 'I want a Barbie!" And of course he obliged.

Because the boys have an older sister, I guess it was inevitable that they would play with some girl toys. But for one of them (who is just starting to put two and three words together by the way) to put together four words and say, "I want a Barbie," is a little unsettling to say the least. Why couldn't it have been, "I want a G.I. Joe" or something a little more manly like, "I wanna BB gun!" But no. My son apparently wants a Barbie. But I guess it could be worse. He could be saying, "I want an earring..." or "I hate you, Dad." Those phrases will come soon enough I suppose. So for now I guess I should just shrug it off and laugh. I even have to admit it is a little funny. But if Alex starts saying it I may change my mind...

More Moments from MN

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

Here are a few more glimpses of our time in MN in August:

We went as a family (Chris was back here in Huron working for a few days) to the fire hall and returned Dad's gear. A pretty heavy task, as you can imagine, but thank goodness for all of the kids. The firefighters working that day let us climb all over the trucks (as they do every time we are there) and take all sorts of pictures. One of them even pulled me aside and told me to bring my kids back anytime we're in town, which of course made me cry a little. Alex and Maguire never went to the fire station with Papa, unless you count this trip back in November 2007 (see belly):

The four-wheeler provided some good stress relief for everyone:

Nate & Lissa

Ben & Ryan (and Laney!)

Chris & Ellie

We spent lots of time being eaten alive by mosquitoes in the backyard, playing on lots of fun toys thoughtfully provided by friends.

Uncle Nate & his Mini-Me

Grammie & her girls




Ellie & Lorna got along so, so well and had lots of fun dressing up in their matchy-match dress-up clothes.





Alex, lovin' the kid-sized dump truck



And we would be remiss to not mention Nate & Alissa's dog, Doug, who also joined us at the Eiesland compound for our time there. This dog has the patience of a saint. Any dog who goes from living alone (well, with two adults) to a house with 7 adults and 4 children for nearly 3 weeks and hardly bats an eye is a winner in my book -- and that is saying a lot, because I am NOT a dog person. Doug worked hard to earn his keep as chief floor-cleaner, scapegoat, dress-up mannequin, grief counselor, and general life of the party.