Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 started off with a bang.  On Thursday, Dec 20, we had a blizzard.  We had been planning to leave for my mother's that evening--but instead spent the day digging out.   Ky's school was closed (and it was closed the next day) due to the weather.  We received over 14" in 24 hours.  It was fun.  At one point the power went out and I quickly realized I should have heeded my friend's advice to "make sure everything is charged".  Our phones were dead.  Luckily our neighbor's still had power and we borrowed their phone to call back Rob's mom (our conversation had been cut off) and then to call the power company.  The power was out only for an hour or so.

Friday, at lunchtime, we departed to our now shortened trip to Indiana.  Despite the weather we made excellent time.  We arrived at my mother's in time for dinner.  We let the kids get their wiggles out and then we were off to bed.  Saturday morning my mom had an oriaentation class and we had planned to visit my good friend Liz and meet her baby Graham.  Unfortunately, due to sickness, Liz & Adam did not arrive until later on Saturday.  We enjoyed Saturday with Grandpa Terry and my mother.  Joel & Jamie also joined us for dinner. 

On Sunday my Aunt and Uncle and their grand daughters as well as Joel & Jamie came over for a Sunday luncheon.  My mom made turkey and it was a WONDERFUL meal.  (Yeah, I ate a lot!)  Ky, however, did not eat much at all.  He became sick and when we were getting ready to leave he actually puked.  (Excellent timing as usual.)  We were then faced with the decision of leaving with a puking child or staying until he got better.  Rob and I looked at it this way--when one gets sick, often the others follow.  We didn't have a whole lot of clothes and we weren't in the comfort of our own home.  It seemed like a better idea to just hit the road and get home before anyone else got sick.  On the way out we made a very quick stop at the Vander Heyden's and met baby Graham (so cute!).  It was a good trip, but sad since our visiting time was cut short with everyone.

Poor Ky, continued puking in the car (in baggies), but once out of Indiana he stopped.  By the time we hit Wisconsin he was actually asking for food.  Luckily no one else got sick. 

Monday, Nana & Grandma Jan came over.  It was a nice relaxing day full of cookie eating (especially now that we realized we had forgot to give the Vander Heyden's the cookies we had baked for them.  It was a yummy affair.  The kids had some gifts.  Ky received a fun game with rubberband and discs that he loved.  Alaina got fingerpainting (need I say more?) And Talia got her first big girl game. 

After playing with all the new toys, we were off to church for Christmas Eve service. 

14" + of snow...Blizzard of 2012

 

Aunt Jamie & Uncle Joel

 

Aunt Char & Cousin Jade

 

The Irvin Clan

 

Liz & Baby Graham

 

The Vander Heyden Clan

 

Christmas Eve game of Sorry

 

A good book with G'ma Jan

 

Dressed for Christmas Eve Service

 

Giving Big Brother a Kiss

 

Time to check our stockings

 

Baseball ornament from U. Adam & A. Liz

 

A new puzzle

 

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!

 

A football and a tutu...a well rounded girl

 

Abby Cadabby

 

G'ma Bucky always makes an appearance somehow! :)

 

Princess?

 

My Boy!

 

Traveling with babies

 

Feeding G'ma

 

Christmas Day

 

That's my girl!

 

Learning from big sister

 

Checking out cousin Devin's new gift

 

Happy with her babies

 

One day Joseph was mysteriously replaced with Elmo...I am still unsure which kid did

this...

 

Meet Mr. & Mrs. tree

 

Gingerbread house making

 

Alaina's fell before we got a picture

 

One happy boy

 

Make that 2 happy boys

 

And my personal favorite!

 

Currently our family is in limbo with churches.  We have been strugggling to find something that meets want Rob and I need as well as has a strong program for kids.  The church we had been attending had split up and the new "branch" we were attending made it very difficult for us to hear any of the sermon (it overlooked a pool) when our kids were vey distracted.  We have been attending a church nearby that a friend goes to.  While we enjoy the messages and the children's program we know it is not quite the right fit since the worship is not the right style for us.  We plan to continue looking with the new year and pray that God guides us to a new church home.  Anyway....we attended the current church's service and it was really nice.  Even the kids enjoyed the service, which says a lot! 

After church we drove around our neighborhood and enjoyed the Christmas lights before heading home and getting ready for bed.  Earlier that day, I had let the kids each open a present early.  I had made each kid a photo book of their birth.  It didn't quite receive the excitement I hoped for, but I know they will appreciate it later on in life. 

Of course, the kids were up bright and early the next morning.  (Santa did not give me the gift of sleeping in.)  We put our usual YUMMY Christmas breakfast casserole in the oven and let the kids have fun with their gifts.  The house was trashed as usual. 

From there we were off for the Schnake Christmas which was nice.  The kids opened gifts early, which really helped out with timing.  They were then busy and less frantic/excited.  The kids had a blast with cousins.  And we had a nice time with adult conversation--hearing from Ryan about Spain, and of course Debi filling us in on various family.  I always love hearing her stories. 

It was a very nice Christmas (though busy with travels.)  I am glad we did the Indiana visit though--and am happy to have seen family and friends. 

So a few other fun details, from the pics...We REALLY needed to get a new tree.  And we couldn't find any for a price we like so we (or I should say Rob) decided to get a real tree.  Ky got to pick it out--and let me tell you the tree was MASSIVE.  Anyway, a few days after Christmas we found a nice artificial tree--and of course we had to set it up when we got home...so that is why we had the dueling trees--and yes we left both of them up for a week.  It was fun!

Over Christmas break we also had a Gingerbread house decorating party.  The kids had fun--though Alaina's broke before we were able to get a picture.  They loved piling on the frosting and the candy.  Massive amounts of sugar were consumed...and we did this during Talia's nap to spare her the unhealthy binging.   Yeah 2 blogs this month.  I am proud of myself.  Now if I can just backtrack...so many pictures and adventures, so little time to blog!

Talia's Fall

At the end of Winter Break, I took the kids sledding with our playgroup and then we went to McD's for lunch. They have an indoor playground and the kids enjoy running through it. Talia is too small to climb up into it, so her "running" tends to be limited. However, since Ky was with he actually helped her up so she could get down the slide. I was okay with this since she enjoys it. Well, I guess I was wrong. I was chatting with friends and keeping an eye on them. Ky had helped her up 2 platforms and Talia suddenly decided she wanted to get down. I watched her lower herself and then he feet missed the platform below and she fell feet first. She bumped her head on the platform and then proceeded to fall into a lower portion of the play area. It was a big fall (about 4 feet), but I wasn't over-concerned (boy was I wrong.) When she had bumped her head, it didn't appear that hard (her head didn't jerk forward or anything). She was laying on the bottom and crying. I asked Ky to help her out (She had fallen into what I call the "pit of despair"--Alaina has only now gotten big enough to climb out of it on her own.) Ky lifted her out, but then Talia continued laying on her stomach crying. I thought she was just upset. (Again--I was wrong. Perhaps this is part of the problem of having multiple children, falls just don't seem to phase you in the same way.) I called for her to come to me (It is very hard for adults to climb into these play areas.) Again she wasn't coming. Ky and a bigger girl helped pull her out to me. When I got her, I checked her head and saw a small red bump--no biggie. I calmed her down and then offered her french fries which she refused (weird!) She then tried to fall asleep in my lap. I then started wondering if maybe she hit her head a bit harder than I realized. My friend Rachel is a nurse, so I asked her opinion. She looked at Talia's eyes and said she looked fine. Talia then napped in my arms for the next 30 minutes. When she awoke she was moody. We packed up and left for home then. When we got home, it was then that I realized she was not moving her right leg. UGH! I called the doc and they had no openings until that evening in Urgent Care. When Rob got home we headed for Urgent Care. Poor Talia. She was so crabby and at this point, I was really worried it was broke. The Doc at Urgent Care also agreed with me. She was sure it was broke. She ordered X-rays. And after a long wait and many more tears the x-rays were done. Upon returning back to the doc, I was drug *anxiously* by the doctor back to radiology. The doctor told me to wait outside the room and went to speak to the radiologist. At this point, I began to panic. I was envisioning social services being called on me because of this severe break in Talia's leg. Several minutes later the doc reappeared and took me back to her office. There she told me that the x-rays did not reveal any breaks and that if Talia wasn't walking by Monday, I should come back. This was the first frustrating part of Talia's journey. I returned home, shared the news with Rob, and put Talia to bed. At 11 that night, I went to check on Talia and discovered her bedding was soaking wet. My first thoughts was that Alaina had dumped her water on her. I called Rob and told her to pick her up so we could change the sheets. He picked her up and then Tali began vomiting. (Note to self--wet bed could mean vomit!) We ran her to the bathroom. For the next 3 hours Talia vomited repeatedly. She was so tired and exhausted. There was very little rest for her. Around 2:30, my brain started to think about everything...fall, leg, bump on head, vomiting (the fact that she didn't even cry the first time she vomited in bed)....I went downstairs and called the clinic. The instructed us to go to the ER. So off we went. We dropped off Ky & Laina at our friends Ben & Crystal and drove with Talia puking to the ER. When we got there, Talia's blood pressure was elevated and her heart rate was high. She was crabby and clearly in pain with her leg. The docs looked at her head briefly, but could not find a bump so they focused on her leg which they figured was the cause of everything. They gave her anit-nausea meds and prepared her for possible IV's to help with fluids and pain meds if necessary. It was a very long 5 hours...They took additional x-rays of her hip and still were unable to find a fracture. Even an Orthopedic Doc came and basically said--we see no breaks, we don't have any reason to believe we should cast her--go home and if she isn't walking by Monday see an Orthopedic Pediatrician. So off we left with a diagnosis of "Right Leg Pain" and they assumed the vomiting was associated to the pain she was in. To their credit, by the time we were discharged, Talia seemed to be feeling much better and began sleeping. That day was Friday--and it was an off day. We picked up the big kids and went home. We plopped Ky & Alaina in front of the DVD player and Rob and I went upstairs with Talia and slept for the remainder of the morning. By early afternoon, Ky began complaining of being sick and wanting to puke. I really need to give Ky more credit--because I doubted him, or maybe I just didn't want to believe him--I was already dealing with one kid with problems, I sure didn't need another. Well sure enough, Ky then began to vomit. I was then dealing with a crying baby from pain and frustration of not being able to move and a crying boy who was over the toilet. EGADS! You know the saying "When it rains, it pours"? EXACTLY! We survived that day--and were happy to head to bed that night to try to make up for our lack of sleep. The next morning Alaina woke us up nice and early like usual. We sat down for breakfast and Talia began barfing all over again! This whole time she did not have a fever, so we knew that she did not have what Ky had (and the ER confirmed this the day before.) I was pretty much done with all the puke and called Urgent Care. A nurse there recommended that I should go back to the ER. I wasn't convinced that that was going to necessarily help us. At this point, we were concerned that her bumped head had more to do with her vomiting than pain (we were keeping her pain meds.) I was able to get us an appointment at Urgent Care. Thankfully our friend Crystal said she could come over and watch Alaina and we took Ky (who still had a fever and was angry about missing his basketball game) with us. At Urgent Care the Doc told us that Talia needed a CT scan of her head. Her puking without warning (she wouldn't cry or anything she would just vomit) was a concern that her bumped head could be more serious. So off we went back to the ER. This time we were more prepared for the long wait. We brought food, games, and our tablet to entertain. After a LONG wait--the doc came and told us that he thought Talia had a concussion--due to her lack of appetite, vomiting, etc...however he wanted us to decide if we really thought a CT scan was necessary. He told us that to give a CT scan to Talia she would have to be sedated and then her brain would be exposed to the equivalent of 200 x-rays. He said the concern with giving CT scans to a child this young is that it increased the chances of cancer and then if she had to have another scan in the future it would further increase things for her. The doc said that the chances of her having a huge bleed that would need to be drained was slim. He also stated that if it was severe we would see other signs--listlessness, being out of it, etc... He said that they may discover a small bleed, but then they would just observe her overnight and release her (somthing we could do at home.) At this point, Rob and I decided to forgo the CT scan. It just didn't seem worth it and we had no indications that it was severe. Once again, the doc said to see an orthopedic doc on Monday if she wasn't walking. From there things calmed down. On Sunday night, Talia crawled a couple of times. On Monday morning, we were immediately called by our clinic and informed that they were trying to get Talia an appointment immediately at the Orthopedic doc. After a whole lot of mumbo jumbo an appointment was made for Tuesday morning. I would like to say that that Tuesday we got answers--but we didn't. Talia had more x-rays done and they did not find anything. The doc said her best guess was that Talia had a non-displaced fracture and that is why they couldn't find anything. She said that toddlers bones heal quickly though and that if she wasn't walking in 10 days - 2 weeks, we should bring her back. Today is day 10. Talia will pull to standing, but not for long before she begins crying. It is clear her leg hurts her. And at this point it is pretty much definite that it must be a facture since a muscle or tendon would not cause this much pain 10 days later. I am hoping she will begin walking in the next few days or we will be returning to the doc (*UGH!*). I have to say that throughout all of this Talia has had a great demeanor (with exception of the last few days. Now I think she is just done and wants to be walking again.) So what have I learned--McD's is evil...well actually I already knew that. I guess this has been a good reminder to me that falls can be worse than they appear. And perhaps Ky just needs to leave Talia alone until she can climb on her own. So that is our exciting last week and a half. I will update Talia's condition in the next blog.  HA HA!!  Next blog---(guess i forgot to publish this one! oops!)  Talia started walking on Day 12!  Yeah!  Below is  video of her walking.  You can see that it hurt her, but she did it.  Now she is just fine!  WHEW!  We are so happy that everything worked out well!