Yeah...it's been awhile I know!

Well that New Years resolution to update the blog regularly worked out about as well as a fat girl making it to the gym after January 12th. 

So needless to say there is a lot to update on!

I will start with what I remember and needless to say will be reminded by Traci later on that I forgot to mention 35 other things...it's just the way it goes. 

Overall everyone is doing great, Piper's Celiac appears to be under control, and in the short months we have gone gluten free, she has grown almost 2 inches, gained weight, has more energy, her little beer belly (which was bloat from the gluten) is nearly gone, and her hair is even thicker.  I know that I have been a naysayer about this gluten free stuff for a long time, and I stand by the fact that mostly it's just a tortuous health choice...I mean come on muffins and donuts are awesome!  But there are some where gluten does in fact affect their health (damn is it effect, or affect?) and we happen to be one of those families where gluten is a legitimate no-no.  I will continue to poke fun at gluten intolerant people simply because they seem to be the ones who want to piss and moan about their intolerance to everything.  And also I just like poking fun at people...it lets me know I am still alive!  I am kidding of course.  In all actuality it seems to appear that we as a society eat way too much grain, especially refined grains, and a boatload too much of sugar.  I stand by the fact that a diet high in veggies and lean meat is going to be your best bet, oh and get some exercise too.

Traci has done an amazing job of getting us gluten free, she makes sure none of our stuff has any hidden gluten in it, which I am realizing that alot of generic food items either are processed in facilties that process gluten and use gluten as some type of filler...so out of the house that stuff went!  By the way I have been raving about Traci's garbanzo bean cookies she made the other day and I will continue to do so...does it sound strange...yes it does....does it taste like what I would imagine a unicorn sprinkling magic awesome dust into my mouth tastes like...absolutely.  Ok...that was wierd.  Moving on.

Maizy recently had a cardio check up and there were no changes, which is awesome...no news is good news!  So needless to say she rocked her appointment, all smiles as usual.  I must say I have never seen a baby as happy as Maizy, yes Piper was a happy kid, but you can just tell Maizy loves life...she's been through a lot so I guess she is just loving that she is here and treating everyday as a blessing...just like we all are! 

Her appointment was in KC as Children's Mercy, and before we went Traci discovered that "Disney on Ice, Rockin' Ever After" was at the Sprint Center.  Well of course we had to take Piper because she loves all the Disney Princesses...she also loves all their secondary characters as well...Mother Gothel, Bears, Flynn Ryder, Grand Duke...the list goes on.  So after Maizy's appointment, Traci and I were able to eat at Korma Sutra in KC which is an awesome Indian restaurant that we frequented while we were living KC this last summer.  We then headed back to Topeka to pick up Piper, who had spent the day wearing out Aunt Tanzey and Uncle Allen, we arrived at their house happy to see that it wasn't on fire, and everyone was in good health...minus the gash on Piper's head...which resulted in some kind of rendevous with the edge of the staircase.  With Piper if everyone is still alive...it's a success.  I see lots of pictures on Facebook about "living with boys" that picture should actually say "Living with boys..and Piper."  I often tell Traci I don't need a boy...I have a Piper! 

So we dropped off Maizy with Tanzey and Allen and we took Piper to Disney on Ice, she had no idea what was going on, and kept trying to guess what we were doing.  Of course her ideas were amazing..."Are we going shopping with Ariel from the Little Mermaid?....Dad are we going to buy beer and lollipops?"  We arrived at the Sprint Center and Piper realized that whatever she was doing it had to do with Disney Princesses and she was in awe.  The cool thing was we had front row seats...the not cool part was we had front row seats.  Those characters get really close...Piper liked the princesses, she did not appreciate Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, and Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid getting so close...at one point Sebastion stopped and waved at Piper...she tried to bail out like she stole something!  "Daddy, he's too close!!" Piper yelled and she tried to crawl over me, and honestly I agree...he was creepy, stay away from my kid you underwater creepy uncle!

Another great thing about the Sprint Center was they had Gluten Free snacks, priced at a premium of course, and they had booze.  So Piper had gluten free cookies, and mommy and daddy had margaritas. 

Piper loved it though, she couldn't stop talking about it, as we left and walked back to the parking garage Piper looked at me and said "Sweet Baby Jesus that was fun!"  Well first I need to explain that I said "Sweet Baby Jesus" once, and since then Piper loves saying it because she knows it gets daddy a glare from mommy.  So I told Piper that we don't say that word anymore, she looked at me and said "Okay daddy I will only say it when Mommy isn't around..is that ok?"  More glares from mommy...

Easter was a great time as well, the girls had their Easter egg hunt at Great Grandma Dodo's, and of course all the kids were spoiled!  I need to get some pictures posted soon, I promise I will do it within the next 8 months.

Maizy has really taken off as well, she is waving at us, saying Mama and Dada..notably Mama...pretty much all the time.  She loves mommy alot..so much that when mommy is 5 feet away from here...she completely loses her mind.  She is holding herself up on things, and is really taking to eating real food, she is loving greek yogurt right now!  She is growing up so fast it seems like so long ago she was that tiny little baby in the hospital waiting for heart surgery.  She is a trooper and after all she has been through she is an inspiration.  There have been days I have been at my wits end..ok most days I end up at my wits end...my wits end is pretty short, and all she does is smile at me and start furiously kicking her legs and arms, and I stop and remember that life really isn't that bad...in fact Life Is Good!

As I close this post, all of you are aware of the happenings in Boston at the Marathon on Monday.  As a runner myself, (our whole family are runners actually) it hit me hard, because I know that very easily could have been my family there.  It could happen anywhere, this world many times seems to be a horrible, angry place.  And I pray with all I have that somehow my children...all of our children, can live in a world that is less hateful, angry, bigoted and violent.  But I do know this, evildoers will not outshine the rest of us.  If these cowards thought they would destroy the resolve of runners...they picked the wrong damn people.

Piper told me she was going to win the Boston Marathon some day...damn right she will.

Pray for Boston.

Wheat Gluten, Solid Food, and a 5K

Well I figured it was time to update again, pretty interesting stuff going on for Team Ferrell!

Maizy has started eating solid food, she is doing pretty well with it, alot of time babies who have been intubated have a texture aversion, but Maizy is doing great with it.  She is also sitting up and doing awesome at that as well, she isn't a giant fan of sitting, as she would rather try to stand!  She is also dominating her jump-a-roo.  She goes nuts in that thing, jumping and flailing her arms in the air.  I can't help but sing the House of Pain hit "Jump Around" when I see her doing it. 

Piper had some big news recently, we had noticed that she really was a very small kid, full of energy and very smart...but very small as well!  Her doctor charted out her growth since she was born and noticed that since she stopped breastfeeding she had fallen off the growth chart.  After consulting with Piper's doctor, who may I add is awsome by the way, we started to think that perhaps Piper was not getting enough animal protein which is the most "complete" protein you can eat.  Piper eats alot of fruit, vegetables and beans so we thought that could be it.  While we thought we had pinpointed it, we still decided to do some blood tests to make sure that there was no thyroid, kidney problem, or anything of that nature. 

Well we got the results back and everything is fine with her kidneys, thryoid, etc.  However the tests did overwhelmingly find something, something that explained the stunted growth, lack of weight gain, and her giant albeit cute belly....Piper has Celiac Disease.  Celiac is an allergy to wheat gluten that causes in children all the issues she had been having with growth, her belly and "her digestion."

I must admit though I had some pre-concieved notions of Celiac....or the whole wheat gluten fad is probably the better way of putting it.  I thought it was a load of bullshit.  Everyone today has some "intolerance" to something, wheat gluten, peanuts, lactose, exercise, guns, common courtesy, clowns...the list goes on.  Most of it is a load of steaming horse turds.  If your tum-tum hurts after you eat something, it doesn't mean you are intolerant to it...everyone needs a cause/disabilty/allergy/etc now days. 

Well guess what Celiac is real and good old Piper has it, I still wasn't 100% convinced until I saw the test results that were incredibly high in indicating Celiac...and even more convincing are the changes already being noticed in short period of time Piper has been gluten free.  She has gained two pounds and grown an inch in a month.   Traci actually saw a study that indicated that some children after going gluten free will grow 5 inches in a year! 

So yes Piper has Celiac and Maizy has a heart condition...so if you believe in past life stuff, and Karma...I apparently punched Moses in the mouth, or sold my family for whiskey, or something in a past life.  Of course I am kidding, it could be much worse and Piper is as smart, energetic and wonderful as always, Maizy is rocking and rolling, and we can handle this just like we have everything else.  There is no need to feel sorry for ourselves, post sad bastard messages of Facebook, or anything like that because when it comes down to it...nothing is a disability unless you make it one.  You just buck up and do what needs to be done!  Plus now she can be that hip kid that doesn't eat gluten.  It's a health fad right now to you know!!

One last thing before I wrap this up, at the end of February we are doing the Red Dress Run in Minneapolis KS.  February is Congenital Heart Defect Month, and we think you should be running the race too!!  Here is a link, we will be the people wearing the shirts that say "Team Maizy!"  Here is the link if you are interested.
http://www.ottawacountyhealthcenter.com/Red-Dress-Run.html

I hope all of you are well, and remember LIFE IS GOOD!!!

More pics!!

You are coming with me kitty!

Kitty shot put!!

Deeter the cat is the labrador of cats.

Ok kid...no more playing

Love = Kitty headlocks

Hello everyone!

Just doing some light reading

Is this Hemingway....it has to be...it's brilliant

Add caption

Going for a jog in this beautiful weather

Holy shit I need a rest...wait is that a rock?

Back at it!!!

I need a drink!

Champion!!

Mommy had a meeting

Well tonight Traci had a meeting so I was given the evening to hang out with the girls, and when I say evening it was about an hour, and when I say hang out...I mean lets see how bad we can screw with dad.

First off we finished up dinner and that seemed to be going okay....maybe this will turn okay for me.

Next off bathtime...that went okay, after we got out I was getting Maizy ready while Piper waited patiently wrapped up in her towel.  Then I heard "Hey daddy....." I turned my head to see Piper smirking at me just long enough to toss off her towel and take off running naked out of the bathroom...."bye daddy!" she screamed.  Okay so I at least have one child dressed.

 So I went out into the family to tell Piper I needed to try to put Maizy to sleep..."Okay daddy I will help you."  I told her that the best way to help was to stay in the family room and play quietly with her princess castle.  "Okay but I don't want to wear any clothes..."  I reluctantly agreed because I knew she knew that I was holding a 7 month old and she was going to get to do whatever the hell she wanted.  Plus sometimes you just need to run around naked.

So I went to Maizy's room and started to give her a bottle and get her to sleep....that was when things got quiet in the family room....not like a "please be quiet" kind of quiet....but more like a property damage/daddy I broke my leg/I think this is on fire kind of quiet.  That was when I realized something....I had not taken Piper to the bathroom after her bath.  See Piper has been potty trained since before she was two...she took to it fast, which was awesome and spearheaded by Traci, but sometimes when she gets to playing, and having fun you need to make sure she goes potty.  Well she had a lot to drink today and I made a mental note before bathtime to make her go potty when she got out of the tub...that mental note was apparently written in Chinese because I completely missed it. 

So just as Maizy closes her eyes, the silence is broken in the family room..."UH OH DADDY I NEED HELP...I HAVE TO PEE!"  The only thing that came into my head was "Oh shit, please don't pee on the carpet...mom's only been gone for 40 minutes."  She came running in the room...."Daddy I peed...sorry....I told you I had to go...." then she ran out.  Oh great.  So I put Maizy in bed...she was asleep at least so I hadn't completely failed at getting the girls tended to while mom was gone. 

I came out of the room just in time to see the headlights of Traci's car coming up the driveway.  So I had to move quick to find the place Piper peed in an attempt to make it look like all hell had not broken loose the hour she was gone.  It was pretty easy to find where Piper peed...somehow she was able to piss all over a throw pillow that was on the floor...not a drop on the carpet....well played Piper, well played.  I quickly picked up the pillow as Traci came walking through the door...first thing out of Piper's mouth was "Mommy I peed on the pillow." "It's okay" I said "I got Maizy into bed and asleep and Piper had an accident while I was in Maizy's room." 

Traci then went into the Maizy's room to check on her, and was that sweet little girl who was asleep two minutes earlier still asleep?  Oh no...she was wide awake smiling as if to say "Hey mom, I pretended to be asleep because I wanted to f*ck with daddy!"

So in review....Traci left for roughly an hour for a meeting, Piper ran around naked, Maizy faked sleeping, Piper pissed on a pillow...and Traci just kind of smiled at me like the slow kid in 5th grade who finally stopped eating glue. 

Kids 1  Dad 0

But hey if it wasn't for this kind of stuff, life would certainly be boring...and not smell like pee.  LIFE IS GOOD!

Pics!

Just holding my bottle...no biggie

What are you doing out there Scout?

Hey what's up?!?!

I'm in a band!

Maizy's DJ table...spinnin' beats!

Hi there Mr. Bear!

Where did you go?!?!?!?!

Treadmills and teeth!

Hello everyone!  I trust all is well in your home, things are going great here as well!

Traci and I have recently started our half marathon training for the Abilene Marathon.  I have run this race the past two years and Traci has run it as well.  They offer a 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon.  Neither of us have ventured into the arena of full marathons yet, so we are doing the half this year.  The weather has no allowed us to do our training runs outside very often so we have been forced inside and onto the treadmill.  If you know our family you know that running inside on a treadmill is not ideal, we would rather be outside.  So we have been doing our runs inside, which has led to Piper discovering the wonders of the treadmill.

One day as I was running inside, I had that feeling like someone was watching me...sure enough someone was..."Hey...what are you doing daddy?" Piper asked.  "I am running" I said, Piper looked at me like I was crazy.  "What are you running on, daddy?" Piper asked.  "I am running on a treadmill" I said.  "Oh...let me try" Piper says....thus began Piper's love affair with the treadmill.  She routinely asks now to run on the treadmill, so I place her on the treadmill and hold her hands as she walks on it, then she will demand to go faster and faster.  Granted the treadmill is set at 1.4 which is very slow for an average sized adult, for a child the size of Piper it's an all out sprint.  She loves it.  She will tell me "Daddy, I am tired, I am all done," so I will take her off the treadmill and she will immediately ask me if she's sweating.  She thinks she is sweating because she ran alot, and she is training for a race too!  Needless to say its entertaining in our house as usual.

Maizy's teeth finally broke through so she now has too little sharp teeth on her bottom gums right in the front, it's pretty adorable...and it's pretty painful.  She decided the other day when I was coming in for a kiss to show me just how efficient she was with her teeth, and she latched onto my nose.  Yeah they are sharp, yep they hurt....and hell yes she thought it was hilarious.  It now appears by all accounts the she is getting more teeth, which means she will now have a better chance of instilling more damage on my nose in the future. 

Well thats about all for now, I trust everyone is happy and well.  Life is Good!!

New teeth, the Battle of the Paci, and sledding

Hello all, well this is has been one heck of a week or so, a lot of very significant things have taken place in the Ferrell home.

First off Maizy finally has a tooth that has broken through, that's right our little one has a nice piece of jagged enamel poking through her gums!  It seemed to take forever, but that damn thing broke through.  While I do not remember how teething was when I was an infant, I can only imagine it sucked...alot...I mean epic suckiness.  The poor girl was flushed, had a horrible diaper rash, and seemed to be crapping at an alarming rate...but no worries the tooth broke through, and everything seemed to be just fine...only 100 more to go...kids have a 100 teeth right?

Next up, Traci decided that now was a good time to attempt to ween Piper off her pacifer, or as she calls it her "that" which was a name picked up from us at some point when we asked each other to pick "that" up and give it to her.  I imagine it was probably me half crying asking Traci just to give "that" to her so she would stop crying and I could go back to sleep...I am tough like that you know.

Anyway, so one Monday night Traci decides to try to put Piper to bed withough a pacifer, her reasoning being if she has to take out her pacifer to talk to us then she is too old for it, albeit she is only 2 1/2 years old.  See Piper didn't even take a pacifer until after she was a year old, so we thought it was time to just get her to stop taking the thing.  Piper only took her pacifer at nap and bedtime so Traci decided to try to see if we could get her to bed without the pacifer.  You may have noticed by now that I continue to refer to Traci and her decisions in this endeavor...why do you ask am I doing this?  Well it was her idea...I was just along for the ride, thanking God that I had to leave that next morning for work, and would not return for a couple days.  

The pacifer weening is best described as an epic battle...lets call it "The Battle of the Paci" Traci is the United States, tenacious and ready to battle no matter the odds, as Piper was crying for her pacifer she simply states "We will get through this she needs to just figure this out."  I am more like the French..as soon as Piper cried for her pacifer, I immediately surrendered...explaining to Traci "for Christ sake just give her the damn pacifer!"  Which may I add was roughly 10 minutes into the battle.  

Well it went much better than I thought it would, bedtime that night was a bit tough, she cried and wanted her pacifer for a little bit, and was convinced that we had lost it, and needed to find it.  So she kept volunteering to get up and help us look for it.  She cried for a bit but ultimately fell asleep.  Magically she hasn't asked for her pacifer since that night, it still takes a bit more time to get her to sleep but she is sans pacifer at night and at naps.  So I call that a success, one that I really had no hand in....but hey....whatever.

Maizy also had her 6 month appt and is growing and gaining weight just as she should be, so we are very happy and thankful for that!  She now weighs 12 lbs 15oz!  Good job kiddo!

Also we got about 8 inches of snow here on New Years Eve, so recently we decided that we should go sledding at Traci's parents house, Piper and I had been sledding quite a bit at our house so we thought that sledding at Traci's parents house would be a great time.  I guess it's worth noting that Papa and RaRa live on the HIGHEST POINT IN OTTAWA COUNTY!!!!  So Piper and I pulled out a sled, sat down and took off....Piper had a great time...she loved it...I think I shit my pants. 

That hill was steep, lots of jumps and apparently some rocks...which is evidenced by the massive bruise on my ass.  But Piper laughed all the way down and when we would crash she would say "Oh man...wipe out" or "Oh wow that was a great crash daddy."  What can I say she gets her toughness from me. 

Well that's enough for now, hope all is well with everyone and remember...LIFE IS GOOD!!!