Claire's first Homecoming

Since you know she will have no choice but to go to the 'U' (just kidding... kind of). Claire attends the University of Minnesota Gopher game with Grandpa Jim, Dad & Mom. Too bad we lost. Again.

Pooping Machine

An update on our progress with the battle of Number 2.

Our daughter, who just over a week ago would NOT poop for five days, now poops nearly five time A DAY!!! (Seriously, yesterday it was four times.)

She loves to go on the potty. Loves it. She walks by the potty and she decides she has to go. She even pooped at the neighbor's house yesterday. No kidding. On the potty.

She refers to herself as the "pooping machine". Comes out of the bathroom and says, "I'm just a pooping machine".

This has allowed us to reintroduce a banana and some carrots to her diet. We'll begin backing off on the Miralax to every other day in the next couple of weeks (per our doc's recommendation).

What a difference two weeks makes.

Magic Muffins, Math & Miralax

We've switched our dear daughter to a high fiber diet. No more cheese, bananas or carrots. And pizza is limited. As well as backing off on her beverage of choice - milk (only at meal times - no more at snack). She is really going to miss the milk, bananas and carrots. I hope that we can return those to her diet once she gets over her fear of going #2.

It's been a bit of a struggle for us the last few months. While it has some to do with her diet, it has more to do with her mental view of things. We're making the diet changes in attempt to remove the fear and get over this hump.

High fiber muffins are now magic muffins. The last couple of days she didn't want to finish the muffin. Obviously, we need that to happen so we're playing the math game. We came up with this a while ago and reintroduced it at breakfast recently. We count the number of pieces of food on her plate and ask how many she will have left if she eats one. We play this all the way down to zero. Why this works, I have no idea, but I'm sticking with it.

And Miralax. She's been on 1tsp/day of Miralax since Friday. She has no idea that she is on it however as it is the miracle laxative (hence the name, me thinks) with no taste or odor. Mixed into her morning beverage she chugs it down without question.

Do I feel a bit bad about that? Absolutely not. The alternative is far more hard to deal with, trust me.

So far we have had three days in a row of success. That's the most we've had in a row in the last month.

Keeping our fingers crossed and hoping this post doesn't jinx anything.

Dance, dance, dance!

Notable Comments from Claire

"Is it going to fit?" (After a particularly large poop in the toilet)

"I'm only going to eat two bites, because that's how I roll." (While negotiating with mom about how much she needed to eat before she could get a treat)

State Fair Fun

On the bus to the fair. One of her favorite things about going is riding the bus.

Showing off her farm skills.

Worn out (actually, she is - but in this picture she is also trying hard not to smile - she said she was "just teasing").

Lake Superior Photos #1

Claire let her cousins bury her in the sand. She had a good time with this. Until we needed to clean her off. Lake Superior water is none to warm...

On the ferry to the island.


More to come when I download from the other camera.