All things Princess

Unless you’ve known me since childhood, you likely don’t know that I adore the British Royal Family and grew up with this secret desire and belief that I would one day become a real princess. (This was interrupted for a year or two when the New Kids on The Block came around and my heart was with them).

My elementary school BFF Jesse and I used to parade around the playground at recess with this terrific game we’d dreamed up that we were royal princesses. We dreamed up our kingdoms and adventures that were executed with perfect British accents and it was a game that lasted years. My Grandma and Grandpa had collector magazines and tons of articles that they gave me to start my first scrapbook (which I still have), and I saved my allowance money and faithfully bought the monthly Majesty magazine issue. 

Looking through the wedding photos of Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson’s weddings fueled my princess dreams and my determination that I was going to have a ball gown wedding dress with a veil the length of my train just like them.

Now I must pause and borrow a statement from my dear friend Jesse’s blog – we did have other friends in school and have grown up to become successful and well-adjusted adults.

As I have gotten older, I still have a deep love of all things “princess”. I think I surprised my in-law’s the first Christmas we spent with them as I would randomly burst forth into song from the movie “Ever After” that had just been released. However, they are used to my frilly side and just smile when I tell them of my Pretty Princess Tiara that I would wear during the final stages of any University course (it seriously helped me study), or if I tell them of the Tiara bowl I refrained from buying at the Disney store (I would have had to share with Ellie or bought two, but I’m sure Cheerio’s would have tasted sublime). 

Thankfully I have been blessed with a husband who, after 5 years, is starting to get used to this side of me. While he was surprised that I was going to blog about the Royal Wedding, he wasn’t as surprised as when he found me watching TV one night wearing sweats and my wedding veil (something every girl needs to do).

Watching William and Kate’s wedding was so exciting for me and while I wasn’t able to share it with my BFF Jesse or my sisters, I did get to share it with my own young Prince Will and I tried not to complain too much about how tired I was the next day. 

While I didn’t become a princess on my wedding day, two things did happen. First, I married a man who adores me and treats me like royalty every day. Second, my veil was longer than my train….

Paying it forward

My first child was born full term, incredibly small and was diagnosed with hip displacia at birth. I remember someone coming to my face in the O.R. and telling me my brand new baby's hips dislocated even before I really saw or held her and not having a clue what that meant.

Very quickly, my husband and I went on a crash-course in hip displacia and through the haze of sleep deprivation and new parenthood we learned what we could. At 8 days old, we took our little baby to the Orthopedic Clinic at the Alberta Children's Hospital (ACH) and she was put in this completely barbaric looking body harness to keep her hips in the position they needed to be in so they could finish growing properly. We were told by the nurse as she strapped our daughter into this, that this brace would never come off and we were left with an uncertainty of the future that we had a difficult time describing to anyone.

We adjusted to our new normal which included regular trips to the Orthopedic Clinic at ACH, and got to make lots of friends along the way. Two things frustrated me the most - first, when people would ask if my 3-month old was 3 weeks old, and then the "what's wrong with her?" question when I would respond her true age since it didn't correspond to her size. Second, once I was changing her diaper in the ladies room at the mall and a stranger came and discussed her experience with hip displacia when she saw Ellie's body harness.

After one particularly tiring visit to the Orthopedic Clinic with Ellie, we sat in the caffeteria area at the Children's and listened to the Choir sing Christmas Carols to all who were there and I cried. A stranger came up to me and asked how old my baby was. When I told her she was 3 months old (she was about 8.5 lbs at that point), the woman gushed over how beautiful she was and how she just knew that she was an older baby even though she was small. She told me that she'd had a small baby too and that Ellie would eventually catch up - I left with a lighter heart and thankful for the encouragement.

Ellie was pronounced healed at 6 months old, and I went away from the experience deciding that I would use our experience to be there for someone in the future. Fast forward six more months and the shocking phone call from my little sister that my niece who's the same age as my daughter had just been diagnosed with hip displacia too! What a ride that was, never EVER did I think that my first support role would be to my own sister!

As a result, our Orthopedic Doc (who just happened to be the same guy for both these little girls), put a screening plan into place for all of our subsequent children since it was now obvious that hip displacia was a genetic trait in the family.

So last week, Baby Will was 6 weeks old and sent for his hip ultrasound and tomorrow we back to the Orthopedic Clinic to hear the results. I have learned I am incapable to attend any clinic at the Children's Hospital without a level of anxiety and stress, but I am trying not to overly worry about tomorrow's appointment.

What I am trying to focus on is the opportunities Will and I will have to meet new people and who we will be able to encourage tomorrow. Last week both my kids had ultrasounds at the ACH Imagining Clinic, and thanks to the assistance of my parents (yay for retirement!) I was able to be in two places at once.

As my Mom and I came out of Will's appointment, we were met with Dad visiting with a family in the waiting area while Ellie played with a little girl who was built in miniature form just like Ellie. The mother told me how encouraged she was to see a miniature child that was several months older than her own, who was talking (well sort-of), walking, alert and interactive, and hitting developmental milestones. She quickly told me of the worry the doctors were putting her through because her daughter was small, but after seeing Ellie she said she wasn't going to worry any more.

I left feeling exhausted and blessed at the same time and it reminded me about the visit I had with the stranger when Ellie was three months old. I am so thankful that God puts people into our lives to encourage us and for us to encourage - the trick is to recognize the opportunities we have to encourage those around us, something I am going to be more attentive to, especially in the realm of the big scary Children's Hospital!

The iPad 2

I'm sure every household has one of these - a jar for collecting loose change.

Prior to my marriage, I never really put much thought into my loose change, and would try and pay for things when my coin purse got too full. I had a piggy bank that I decided my loonies and twoonies would be saved there, and a Tupperware container in the kitchen for quarters (thanks to my apartment-dwellers laundry requirements).

So when I got married, it was a bit of a surprise to me to see this massive jar of coin in what was to be my new bedroom. Mark eventually spent several nights rolling it, and then proceeded to instruct me of the benefits of saving loose coin.

We were given a beautiful vase as a wedding gift from one of the little old ladies at church that was made by another lady in our church who does gorgeous pottery work. This vase was not water-proof, and my new husband, who had previously lived in the a-typical bachelor mansion, had a hard time understanding why things like this would be pretty decorations - until he started chucking his coin into it.

So there it sits on our dresser, I love the colour of it as well as the style of the piece. It reminds me of this lovely lady who has passed on, as well as the friendships we've developed with the lady that made the vase. And it works as a perfect coin collector! When it gets full, Mark carries it to the basement to empty it into his original massive jug and then returns it to its place of honor on our dresser. We have a similar piece of pottery (made by the same lady) in our kitchen, so I am now a regular contributor to the coin collection.

Preparing for our second baby's arrival that was expected for March 6, 2011 (he arrived 2 weeks early), gave push for the both of us to go through the house again and do antoher "purge" of our precious junk as we made room for another resident. And so for the second time in my marriage, the Coin Jug made it's appearance and my husband spent several nights sorting, stacking and rolling coin. The grand total was quite a shocking figure and I asked Mark what we were going to blow it on ("found" money like this always buys something off our list of things we need to replace or purchase).

And then he told me he was thinking of getting an iPad - I had my opinions about the purchase, really not going one way or another. My biggest hesitation was that our 2.5 yr-old daughter is addicted to our iPod Touches and her Grandmother's iPad, which I don't particularly like for whatever reason. (though it is amusing that she can play "Angry Birds" and get better scores than Mark).

I then proceeded to go into labour and give birth, never really giving it another thought. Fast forward several weeks, the money is in the bank just waiting for that perfect purchase, and Mark says the new iPad's are getting released and he's thinking of hanging out at the mall to get one. I originally thought "yeah my husband, who thought I was crazy for getting up at 5 a.m. for Boxing Day door crasher sales, is going to stand in line for HOURS for the chance to get an iPad 2..." I was a little doubtful.

So the morning of the release arrives, he does all his research for wait times and then decides he's going to do it. Baby Will and I drop him off at the mall with his backpack full of reading material, water and snacks. We kept in touch for the afternoon via text messages and the occaisional phone call - he felt his odds were "pretty good" that he was going to be successful.

He later explained the process to me - the Apple stores received their shipment of iPad's but weren't allowed to open them until 3 p.m. so they had no idea how many they had or the specs of what was shipped to them. He said the store closed at 4 p.m. to get everything ready, and then at one point, a staff person came through the line and started handing out tickets to people - if you got a ticket that meant that you got an iPad. The last time we spoke, the ticket distributors were about 40 people ahead of Mark. As I was driving to pick up Ellie, my phone chirped with a text message "I GOT A TICKET!!"

The kids and I got to the mall and made our way to the Apple store. It was neat to see Mark near the front of the line and then when we arrived, he WAS the front of the line. Ellie did her little cheer "Hi Daddy!" which made her a favourite among the Apple staff who were pumping up the line to keep everyone revved up. We all kissed Mark and waved him off into the store to get his iPad - it was very exciting.

The following morning, this is the sight that graced my living room. At least it was paid for with our loose change!

Family Moments

Mom & Dad Ratzlaff brought Ellie to the hospital Wednesday afternoon when Will was about 36 hours old. I am not sure if she totally understood that Baby Will was here to stay, but she enjoyed meeting him and touching his face and hands.

The feelings and emotions that swirled around me are completely indescribable as I watched Ellie hold Will for the first time. It was a wonderful moment for our family.

And a Boy makes two

Willem Bruce (Will) was born on Tuesday February 22 at 1:25 in the morning. Weighing in at 8lb 4oz and 20 inches long. Everyone is doing great.

A new era - new bed and new room!

At the beginning of January, we started the process of getting Ellie's new room set up. We started with clearing out the bed Grammie and Papa Butter had used when they visited in September, then put all the Christmas decorations back in the attic. We then assembled the bassinet and Ellie was a HUGE help to Mark - he quickly learned where he can and can't put his bowl of screws!
Ellie was very excited about the "pretty" bassinet and seemed to understand that it was for the baby. When she went over and pulled herself up to peek into the cradle, she seemed quite disturbed that there was no baby actually in it yet. We went and got one of her dolls and put it in the cradle and that was a sound solution to her problem!

The next step was finishing her valance - something I made without a pattern. It was scary becuase I drew out what I wanted from my head and wasn't entirely sure if it would look as good in real life as it did in my mind! I get the feeling that my husband shakes his head when I get nervous with my sewing - until I reminded him how nervous he gets with his wood-working...it seemed to speak his language. Although I was nervous, the valance came together very quickly and I am very proud of how it looks and the little finishing touches I did to make it look professionally made that only I know about (or someone who is a better seamstress than myself).


The fun part came the day we brought Ellie's new bed up and got it all assembled. Again, she was in there like a dirty shirt climbing all over everything and being of great assistance to her Dad.


I found this bed last Spring at the awesome second hand store in our neighborhood and since it came with a mattress that was in really good shape, we snapped it up. Mark was a little unsure of the loudness of it, but I loved it - I especially loved that it was made from wood (versus plastic) and would appear to last. Ellie laughed at all the animals and talked about each one and the sounds they make. As soon as Mark brought the mattress up and put it into the bed, she climbed on and exclaimed "bed!" This was the first time we thought that it would be a fairly easy transition.

That very night, Ellie came down with the stomach flu and graciously passed it along to myself and Mark. We spent the following weekend in Radium recovering (while Ellie played at Grandpa & Grandma's), and then had a weekend at home and then finally last Friday decided it was time for the big move.

Ellie and I started moving all her clothes from one dresser to the next - which took forever because my fashionista daughter needed to try on EVERYTHING. It was fun though, and once Mark got home he started helping too and I think Ellie enjoyed it. I had made her a new quilt for her new bed, so after supper we gave it to her and then we made the bed together - she kept saying "oh wow!" over and over and then jumped and played on the bed.

The hardest part for me was when we moved the bassient into the baby's room and told her this was now the baby's room - she pulled her footstool over to the crib and tried climbing back into the crib crying "bed!" over and over. We weathered that storm fine and while I hid my tears till after she was asleep, she was very excited about her new bed.

As of this morning, she has had three successful nights and two successful naps in the new room and bed. We are very proud of her and hope that the transition is exciting and not overly stressful.

6 weeks and counting!

Today is 6 weeks until our due date, according to what the doctors say (I'm sticking with my on-line calculator thingy that said March 6th (not the 7th) was the official due date). It's hard to believe that we're in the final stretch of Baby Project#2!

So far things in preggie land have been good, aside from the normal malady's that strike a woman when she's building a baby. The big watch lately has been my blood pressure - it was an issue with my first, and likely contributed to Ellie being so small at birth (4lbs 11oz, or 2138 grams).

Since Ellie was so small, she was placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) immediately after birth. They called her a "feeder-grower" in that they just wanted to watch her closely to make sure she gained weight and grew properly. She was short (only 17" tall), so she never looked scrawny like the majority of the NICU babies did, and she soon became the favourite NICU baby to care for. They rated her size as "<<<3rd percentile" - I wondered how many "less than" signs could be put in front of a percentage to make it reduce to the next-smallest number! Though we had excellent care from our nurses and doctors, there was a lot of emotions for us to deal with because we didn't know when we were going to take her home, and thanks to the kindness of my nurses on Post-Partum, I wasn't discharged until Ellie was so we were able to go home as a family the first time.

Very early in this pregnancy, I was on the maternity floor at Rockyview Hospital and walked past the NICU and emotions surfaced from Ellie's birth that really surprised me. Who knew that two years later things would surface that could surprise you! Mark and I started praying that this baby would not be little or need to spend time in the NICU at all - I forget that sometimes when you pray, God answers you quite literally.

So at my ultrasound two weeks ago, when the doctor met with me after to review the results, I burst out laughing when he told me that this baby was rating in the 95th percentile for size. Uh, wow!! Of course I had to explain myself to this kind doctor, so since he found out that our fist baby was a miniature one, he wanted to see me again just to keep an eye on Baby's growth.

I am very thankful that we appear to be having a baby that will not need to spend time in the NICU, and am humbled again by God's sense of humor to our prayers. I guess I'll be tucking away all my preemie-sized baby clothes that I was going to have ready "just in case" we had another miniature baby!!