Here are some pics from T's bday party, the girls Holiday Sing performance and their Christmas party.
Check out this pic- T walking to Grandma Bo- look at her face! She loves this little guy!He made it and she said, of course "Bless his heart. Would you look at that!
Time for cake! The little kids ate way more of it than T did. Maycee, Emmy, Callie and Ethan all dug in! Thomas only ate the little bit I fed him.
T and all his cousins- Jack, Tori (a week older than him) and little Aubrey, a few months younger. Cousin Marcos was there (of course :) and so was his big cousin Ethan. Wow has our family multiplied in the past few years. Caryn and T excited about the balloons!
The girls at their "Holiday Sing"- ultra liberal school :) They sing nothing at all about the Holidays! One rebelious teacher said Merry Christmas to the crowd. The high school had some kind of Christmasy bells performance, but that was as close as it got. But I wouldn't expect more (Shad does) b/c it's not a religious school. Their class wears shirts every year over their clothes. This year they chose the colors of their shirts based on the continents on some map that they use. Callie was Europe and Emmy was South America. Shad put T in the doll stroller b/c he was trying to bake cookies one night and Thomas would not stay out of his way. So into the doll stroller he went. Hey, everyone was happy. Shad got to make his cookies, T got a fun ride and Cal had fun pushing the stroller (Em was sleeping).
Cal and her favorite buddy at school, Melina. These two get in LOADS of trouble together. I was at the school for like 2 hrs and Callie got into trouble 3 times! The first while the teacher was reading, she and Melina were talking, so she had to go sit up by the teacher. The second time she was playing w/ a bag of cookies about a minute later and the teacher took her cookies- she just about fell apart b/c she was saving them for another friend at school. The third time she and Melina were running around the class so they each had to hold a teacher's pocket. Yeeks.
Walking across the bridge at school. When school starts up Emmy will be on one side of the bridge and Callie on the other. They are kind of sad about it, but not as much as I thought they'd be. We'll see how it goes when it happens.
Thomas had a great day and a great party. So many people who love him came over to celebrate his big day. Thank you for making his day special.
Thomas is such a good little guy, happy and optimistic, easy going and happy go lucky. He's smart and can be feisty too. He's walking more and more and doing soo much better- slowing down some and not running anymore when he starts to lose his balance (thank God!). He got lots of fun toys and had fun with them!
He really dug into his cake but I don't think he ate any of it. He had fun squishing it though!
Thank you again for making his day so special. I know he's going to grow up to be the appreciative type and he'll one day look back at the little questionnaires everyone filled out and he'll be touched by them, I just know it :)
Callie was mad at her daddy for some reason so she blurted out my Christmas gifts! She told me I was getting a clock w/ people who come out and sing (I want a coocoo clock :) and a sweatshirt. Shad just sat there with his mouth open when she told me all of this. She said she told me because "Daddy is mean!" Poor guy, he took her shopping with him yesterday and even took her to Chili's since she was complaining that we don't go to Chili's anymore. Callie LOVES Chili's. She refused to tell him what we had gotten him though b/c I'm not mean, she said last night. Tonight Daddy made her hot cocoa and was cuddling w/ her watching a movie in front of the fire and she asked him to go into the other room w/ him b/c she wanted to tell him something. I asked what it was and asked if she was going to tell him his Christmas presents and she said she was so she would be fair b/c she told me so she has to tell him now! So we'll see if we make it to next week before everyone finds out their Christmas presents!
Last night was the girls' Holiday Sing program at school. Three years ago Emmy was crying and wouldn't go up and sing. This year she stood in front of a packed crowd, went up to the mic and announced her class and the song they were going to sing. I was so proud! She said that when she did that it felt like food was coming up in her throat and her throat was tight. Poor baby! She did so well though.
Last week Thomas took about 12 steps between Shad and myself. The last several days he's been taking four steps or so before he'd either sit or fall down.
Today he's started letting go of things and walking.... After being in the hospital w/ Callie and hearing about "toddler fractures" and all that stuff, I realized I'm really not ready to have Thomas walk. Though I was anxious for him to walk so he'd not be a vacuum, I'd rather him eat everything on the floor wherever we go instead of him falling. He's walked across our big room floor tonight, he just needs to slow himself down a bit and I think it'll all go more smoothly (I'm praying for it at least).
Here's a video from tonight. You know the little baby toy that you put the rings on? What's it called? Anyway, he fell on the thing you put the rings on and it had no rings- fell right on his chest! I want some pads for his little wrists and full body armour! See why I'm not ready for him to walk??
I want to thank everyone for their good thoughts and prayers as we dealt with Callie's hip problems this week. Thank you so much. Here's a recap, because I know many of you heard bits and pieces of the story and many want updates on our girl. What an ordeal this has been.
It's the worst feeling in the world to know that your baby is in pain, needs help and you can't do anything to stop the pain or help her :(
On Monday morning, Callie woke up at about 3AM, which isn't all that unusual. She complained her leg hurt, but was sleepy. I carried her into our bed and she slept for a few hours. At around 5:30 she woke up again, complained (she always complains in the morning about something or other though) again about her leg and saying that she wanted to get up and eat. I thought she was just doing her regular old complaining and told her to go back to sleep b/c it was too early to wake up and get cereal. At 6AM she started complaining more, said she couldn't walk (which, again, isn't unusual for Callie :). When she wouldn't get up to eat her cereal, I realized something must be wrong. I called the oncall pediatrician and she said to wait until 8 to make a same day sick appointment. At 8 we called and made an appointment and luckily got our regular doctor who is wonderful. We saw her at 9:15 and she said that we needed to go to the ER because she suspected it was something in her hip. Until this time, we had thought it was her knee or a sprain maybe, but weren't sure.
Callie's right leg was bent and she would not move it at all. She cried in pain when we moved her at all- even to put her sock on her right foot was excruciating. She had a bit of a fever (99 degrees) at the docs office, but she was quite bundled up, so they weren't sure if it was really a fever or just b/c of being too warm. We headed over to the ER and waited for 4 hrs in the waiting room. This was a feat b/c one of us had to hold her and we had to be still and hold her a certain way so her right leg could stay bent and turned outward or else she'd cry out in pain. We had to take Callie to the bathroom a few times (and we couldn't get her out of that certain position, so it was a struggle, even with our great teamwork, in an icky bathroom to manage it all. Finally we got a room in the ER. The first doctor came in and said, "Oh we'll give her some motrin and check on her in a half hour to get her to walk on it." Callie was funny about this- they'd ask her to move her leg and she'd move her good leg, haha. She pulled that on just about everyone that came to examine her. So anyway, half hour later (and still no motrin) the attending came in and examined her and said that it wasn't a simple problem that could be fixed with motrin, and that he suspected either hip inflammation or a bacterial infection in the hip. He ordered blood work, xrays and an ultrasound. He explained that if it was a bacterial infection, it would be a medical emergency and Callie would be sent up to the OR immediately and the orthopedic doctors would take over and open her up, take out all the bacteria (basically taking the hip joint apart to do it and possibly going into the bone if the bacteria had gone that far), flushing it out, putting antibiotics on it and that would be it. If it was the hip inflammation, we'd just have to be patient until she felt better.
The xrays were scary for me. I saw the films and there were a lot of bumps on the right side. I thought it was fluid and silently freaked out for the half hour until the doctor saw us- he let me know that was just gas :) So the xrays were actually reassuring since there were no signs of fluid in the hip. The blood tests were no fun for Callie- they had to do the IV twice as she wouldn't drip blood out of the first IV. The nurse came in and Callie was very calm, like sleepy almost, and she tried to give the IV w/o any help. I warned her that Callie could be a "F-I-G-H-T-E-R" and she proceeded to insert the needle and Callie flipped out while the needle was half in her vein. Good thing for the nurse that Callie's leg was hurt, I guess, b/c she was limited in her reaction as she really couldn't move her trunk or lower body. IVs are horrible, IMO. I really felt for her. She cried and cried and was just so sad to have to go through all this. She cried that she just wanted to go home and to Grandma's house to build her gingerbread house. After the IV was in, she refused to use either arm the whole night since she was poked in both and they were both sore. Here's Callie eating frenchfries w/o arms :) She felt pretty bad at this point, but was trying to stay a trooper. She thought it was funny when I told her she reminded me of a giraffe eating leaves.
We waited an hour or more for the ultrasound. The doctors told us that if there was an "effusion" on the ultrasound, they'd have to biopsy the fluid. I watched the ultrasound and was able to easily see there was a large amount of fluid visible on her right side. When we got back to the ER we were immediately told Callie couldn't have any more fluids or food to prepare for surgery :( The orthopedic doctors, radiologists and the general doctors all came to meet with us and explained their respective roles in all of this. One thought that it was an infection b/c her right side seemed "warm" compared to the left and that was indicative of an infection, another thought since her pain was so bad and she refused to move or bear weight it was an infection.... Her blood work came back in the meantime and the white blood count, and whatever else they checked all came back good, but they thought maybe we caught the infection early and it didn't show up in the blood yet.
She was wheeled up for the procedure at 10 o'clock or so. She was very thirsty, but excited to go on another ride in her bed. She was tired at this point, but still smiling at us. They let us stay with her in the room for a while as they were giving her some of the medications. They didn't put her completely under, just used conscious sedation. It took them quite a while and a lot of different meds, they said, to get her to be consciously sedated enough. They used a needle guided by ultrasound. When outside, we did hear her cry out once, but that was it, and I suspect that was before they had even started- probably from moving her. When they shut the door to the room, that was the hardest part. Our fear was hidden while we were with her. We were both being strong for her. She had no idea what was going on, what she had to go through, or what the possibilities were of what was wrong with her. She just said she wanted to be fixed. As Karla put it, she was a "brave little toaster." I fell apart when she was in there. Shad was great, reassured me that she would be fine, but he was so scared too. The procedure only took about fifteen minutes or so, but God knows those were about the longest fifteen minutes of my life. Shad and I did so much during those fifteen minutes- washed our hands over and over, went to the bathroom a few times, cried, hugged, prayed, begged, and prayed some more.
Finally the attending came out and said they drained 2 1/2 ccs of fluid from her hip and that the fluid was clear and bloody, which was fantastic news since it meant it wasn't obvious that it was an infection. They had warned us prior that they could know right when they drew the fluid whether it was an infection b/c it'd be puss. So we were praying that the fluid would be clear. The doctor explained she'd be in pain. He said they had to numb it several times to the bone, then they stuck the needle to the hip, moved it around to get it in the joint, then removed the fluid. He then showed me the fluid they took out and it looked scary all bloody and what not, but he assured me it was good looking stuff..... We went in w/ Callie and she briefly awoke with a smile :) She stayed asleep and when the sedation nurse lady was trying to arouse her about a half hour after the procedure she kicked with both legs, which seemed like a good sign b/c at least she was using her right leg.
I went home to the other two babies at around 1:30 in the morning and Shad called twice to tell me that Callie was up walking in the middle of the night, standing on her leg, which was great news. I got back to the hospital around 6 or so and Callie was favoring her leg and acting like it hurt. The preliminary tests on the fluid were good, so we were hopeful. The doctor came in and made Callie get up and she did and walked for her. It was wonderful to see!
Within a half hour, here was Callie running around the hospital. What an amazing recovery. The day before she couldn't even walk, then she has a needle shoved in between her hip joint, and she's up and running. I was fearing the worse and am so happy. The preliminary result of the fluid is good, but we have to wait two days for the full culture, so we'd appreciate all the prayers and good thoughts you can send us.
We were home by 1:30 today. As we were leaving Callie said, "I'm so happy they fixed me". Callie slept several hours at Grandma's house. When she woke up, Emmy said "oh no, Callie, I heard you had an owie." Callie said yeah, and pointed to her bandage from the IV :)
So what caused this? They think it was caused by an upper respiratory infection (cold). The doctors explained that when we're sick our bodies put out antibodies to fight the cold. Sometimes those antibodies get confused and go fight something else. In Callie's case they started fighting something in her hip which caused the fluid to collect and inflame the hip joint. Weird, huh? I guess this is fairly common, occurring in 1 out of every 3,000 kids. It's most common in 3-5 yr olds and more common in boys than girls.
And aside from all this drama, this was Thomas' first night being away from mamma and his first time having formula! He did just fine. Uncle Eric, Marcos and Alice visited Callie in the ER and on their way out they took Thomas some milk that I had pumped. It was awful to be back in that NICU pumping room where I was almost a year ago because Thomas was the one then scaring us.
So again, please keep the good thoughts and prayers coming Callie's way that she continues to recover and that her lab tests all come back ok. It was heartwarming to have so many people show their concern for our Callie. Thank you.
Callie said to me tonight right before she fell asleep, "Mommy are you going to have to go to Heaven tomorrow or sometime soon? I'm going to miss you, momma." I said "I don't think so, not for a long, long time, but only God knows. I want to stay here with you." She said, "Well I don't think we ever need to go to God, momma."
So how depressing is all that?
Another depressing (or reflective, depending on how you look at it, I guess) thought- I saw a little girl, about Emmy's age, at Toys R Us tonight and she was blind. I was holding Thomas and checking out and dropped my keys. Her mom asked her to help me find them and she felt on the floor and picked them up for me. Her mom told her that I was holding a baby and that's why I needed help. She asked to feel the baby so she felt Thomas and her momma said to her, "Isn't he cute, honey?" I just about fell apart. That sweet little girl.
The things that are so important that we take for granted- sight, our senses, and just being here one more day....
Soooo, on another lighthearted note, Thomas took 10 or so steps last night! He did it a few times and today he has pretty much refused to walk :) He's taken 5 or so consecutive steps, but that's about it. He's on his way though :)
In the past week, T has sprung 2 new teeth- giving him the top two and the bottom two. He's sooo close to walking. He barely hangs on when he walks, but he's not yet confident he can do it alone. Natalee, his little buddy, will be walking before him, haha.
T's bday invite:
Emmy told me today that she doesn't like homonyms anymore, she likes doing synonyms more. Little info like this reaffirms that the their tuition is the money we spend best every month. Cal's learning the continents, is solid in her upper and lowercase letters and almost all of the cursive lowercase letters. She's forming words at school and reading little books at home.
I had primary orientation today at school and the head of school was impressive in the things she said would happen in Elementary when Emmy moves up. She said that she'll learn her math facts very quickly, that she'll start working more on spelling, but not as traditional schools would teach- she'll write a report and the teacher will pick words out to put in her spelling book as words she needs to learn, so the theory is that since it's her work, she'll care more that it's right. She also said that socializing isn't just the 10 minutes at recess and 1/2 hr at lunch- Montessori really embraces and recognizes how social this age is and realizes that it is very important. They will work in small groups and large groups, much as they do now. Emmy and Callie have their best friends at school- they work with them side by side most of the day.
There's another school that's close and it's new and a big part of what they believe is shortening the school day without shortening the time for instruction (so they take away social time) and I guess Montessori is very close to being the opposite- they are fostering their social lives and encouraging them to learn in groups, learn how to work w/ people who are at different levels, etc. The other school claims that htey have a shortened school day so the kids can spend quality time at home- Montessori believes that too, they just do it by not giving hours and hours of worksheets to do at home. Lucky kids- they won't have homework.
So anyway, there are moments when I start to doubt the alternative educational thing we're going on, but as for this moment, I'm a true believer again :) I still remember the day Caryn and I read about Montessori in a college sociology class- we both called our mothers and wanted to know why they hadn't put us in montessori..... Puuuurty soon Auntie Caryn will have little chillins of her own in a fun little montessori school :) HIP HIP HOORAY TO THAT THOUGHT!
He made it and she said, of course "Bless his heart. Would you look at that!
Walking across the bridge at school. When school starts up Emmy will be on one side of the bridge and Callie on the other. They are kind of sad about it, but not as much as I thought they'd be. We'll see how it goes when it happens.
Walking across the bridge at school. When school starts up Emmy will be on one side of the bridge and Callie on the other. They are kind of sad about it, but not as much as I thought they'd be. We'll see how it goes when it happens.
