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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Enchilada night


Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

One week to go.....


These two guys have been busy fighting lately :p Every so often we get a few peaceful moments of play but I think they are ready for being together all day every day to end LOL They love each other but they need some time apart ;)

In one week, they both go off to school, S to the second grade and B to preschool. The house will be very very quiet...

Today we had B's preschool orientation and he was so excited :) He remembered his teacher from our visit last spring and he remembered the toys he liked in her classroom :p He had fun showing his Dad all over while I filled out the rest of his paperwork. He got a tour of the bus he will be riding and we met his bus drivers (two) and he cried when it was time to leave :p He was ready to say good-bye to us and stay!

The first day of school will be busy, though--S has an appointment with the orthopedist to get his cast (red) taken off for x-rays and then get a cast put back on (unless he needs surgery. Fingers crossed that he does not) immediately after school. That will take hours and I am hoping my parents can take B after preschool so I don't have to drag him through all of that appointment :p Iz is much easier to entertain than B is :p

Happy girl


Monday, August 27, 2012

A bath-worthy meal....


This is the face of a happy and full little girl. I can always tell how much she likes a meal by how messy she is--if she doesn't like it, she picks at it and gets barely anything on herself. If she loves it, she steadily tries to get it in her mouth and gets it everywhere; we are still working on the fine motor skills and sometimes they leave much to be desired ;) A messy face and shirt and hands and hair mean Make It Again!

My husband and kids love Hamburgery Helper but I am not really a fan. It tastes....odd to me. Too many chemicals? Weird seasoning mix? I dunno. But we have reached a compromise. Over on Chickens in the Road, there is a recipe for various flavors of homemade versions and they are simple and cheap and I know exactly what is in them and they actually taste pretty good. Last night we tried the Taco version (recipe found here: http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-hamburger-helper/)a>/) with black beans and corn added in, which was a hit, and I turned leftovers into enchiladas today, which was an even bigger hit.

I used the chilaquilies sauce recipe from The Vegan Mouse (http://thenmouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/chilaquiles-casserole.html/a>.html ) because we loved the flavor so much we always use it for homemade enchiladas now :p I put about three tablespoons of last nights leftovers in a tortilla, rolled it up, placed it in a dish with some sauce in the bottom and then covered my row of enchiladas with the rest of the sauce and cheese and baked.

It was such a hit that I have been asked to postpone tonights menu of pork cutlets (a favorite) and turn the rest of the leftovers into more enchiladas for dinner. It isn't often that they want the same thing for lunch and dinner ;)

More gratuitous messy baby shots ahead!



Cranky Baby

Yesterday, no matter what I did, Iz was miserable. Hold her, put her down, offer her food, give her toys, tickle her, rock her, nothing worked. I got this face:


And then S comes over and we get this:



Apparently Cranky Baby just wanted her Big Brother :)

Monday, August 20, 2012

HI!!

Izzy learned how to wave a while back but really only did it when prompted. Probably had no idea why she was doing it but she went along with it because we asked :p Today, though, I think it all clicked in her little head because she was a waving machine!

All through Sam's Club, B would cheerily say "HI!" to people and Iz would start waving at them. I'd say 90% of people would say hi back and wave and a few stop to admire the cart full of cuteness ;)

Later on, I dropped B off at my parents' house and picked up S (kiddo did not want to walk around Sam's Club because his arm was achey today)--tonight was S's follow-up x-rays for his ortho appointment first thing tomorrow morning so off to the hospital we went. We arrived after hours so we had to make our way through the hospital to the back entrance of the ER to register; S thought our trip "exploring" the hospital was great fun :)

We stopped to look at a model of the Old Hospital and S reminded me that Grandpa had been in there when he was a kid--while S was in the ER last week, my Dad was talking to the nurse and telling him how he had been in the Old Hospital when JFK was assassinated and how he didn't really understand what had happened because of the medicine he was on (he was in for problems with his tonsils and had an allergic reaction to penicillin while there). One of S's ways of dealing with scary things like hospitals and IVs and big loud machines is to connect with the experiences of people he loves. He had to hear all about Iz while in the ER but since she had never been to this particular hospital, he needs stories about other people who were there :p

As we continue down more hallways, he asks if the New Hospital existed when Grandpa was little. I tell him no and that most of the New Hospital didn't exist when I was born because they had added on a lot since then. He had known I was born at that hospital but it just occurred to him tonight that that meant Grandma had also been there LOL He was quite excited that now there were four people on his "already been here" list (Aunt Heidi is the other) :p

He was the model of cooperation while we registered and waited and did x-rays and a little over an hour later we were on our way. We stop in to Meijer for a few groceries and without B there to announce our presence with his cheery "HI!", Miz Iz and her waves were not getting enough attention. So she started alternating her own baby version of Hi and Bye along with the waving and got what she wanted LOL S kept telling her how cute she was ;)

Fingers crossed that S gets his cast tomorrow! We had an appointment back on Tuesday and he was still too swollen to get a cast plus they are still not entirely sure that he doesn't need surgery :/ Hopefully the x-rays tonight look good and we can go the cast route and not have to worry about surgery for S :( The thought of it scares him (AND ME).

Monday, August 13, 2012

The unexpected likes to come at night...

Yesterday we were having a pretty relaxed day. S got invited to play video games with Grandpa and the rest of us ran some errands. Everyone was tired when we got home so all three kids and the husband took a nap. Iz, I expect, but the other two kids rarely take naps so they were worn out :p Late afternoon naps usually mean no one is tired at bedtime. We had sandwiches when they woke up and put on a cartoon movie. Iz was tired so I took her back in the bedroom to nurse her and get her to sleep. She was just about asleep and I knew in a few minutes I could slip away and get the boys ready for bed since their movie was almost over. Before that happened, though, I heard a thump from the living room and the most awful cry :(

S fell off the chair and broke his arm :/ When I heard him cry, I jumped off the bed (waking Iz in the process) but he was faster than I and came into the room--his lower arm looked like a U. EEK. The husband had the van at work so I called my parents, who live around the corner, and my mom came to watch the Littles while my Dad drove us to the ER. The husband left work and came home to pick up Iz and my Mom took B home with her.

We get to the ER (nice thing about a broken arm at eleven pm is no traffic) and they immediately assign him a room. He asks if he can ride in a wheelchair and the orderly goes and gets him one, wheels him back and settles him in. Aside from the initial crying, S has been very stoic about everything. He panicked a little at first, kept asking me if he was going to die, but while I was making calls and dressing and getting ready to go, I kept telling him it would be fine, the hospital would fix everything up, they would have medicine for pain and would straighten his arm and we talked about all the people we know who broke a bone. At one point he was worried they would need to remove all his skin to get to the bone and he didn't want to lose the temporary tattoo he had gotten at summer camp (that was mostly washed off and illegible at this point).

He kept very politely asking if he could please have pain medicine now but he went through a round of vitals, exams, and X-rays before it came down from pharmacy. They thought they may have to send him to surgery because he broke two bones, they were not clean breaks, and his arm was U shaped. But they wanted to try to set first so they hooked him up to a crash cart, got an IV started and put him under conscious sedation.

Setting those two bones was no easy feat and I think they were all surprised when they got them to snap back together and splinted. There was much twisting and pulling and pushing. Thank God for the conscious sedation--he watched them doing it but felt nothing (and remembers very little). One of the student medics walked out into the hall and promptly passed out. They had to admit him and get a full workup. His fellow students got to practice putting an IV in him. Poor kid will probably never live this one down.....

When S started to come out of the sedation, he told one of his nurses, "I am one tough cookie. Yep, I am a tough cookie. You cant break me in half. I'm a tough cookie. But a bear would eat me because I'm a cookie. He doesnt care if I'm tough he will just yum yum yum me and eat me. I'm a tough cookie."

They had to observe him for a while to make sure he came out of sedation fine and he was good to go in about half the time they expected. We left the ER about 2:30am. He slept for about an hour once we got home and then was asking for help (can you warm my blanket? Can I have an ice pack? Can you take the ice pack off? Can you help me with the bathroom? Can I have more pain meds now? etc etc etc) every ten to fifteen minutes. I was so glad when the husband got home from work around 7:30 (yes, he had to go back in. The other manager was kinda mad the first one told him he had to come back--she thought he should have stayed home with us. I agree with her ;) ) because he took over and I got to finally sleep for a couple of hours.

My boy never stops moving yet he has spent all of today curled up in his little nest of blankets and pillows in the recliner, watching cartoons. He barely ate or drank but I did get him to eat a few bites here and there and he drank a cup of sprite and a cup and a half of water. We are tempting him with his favorites to get him to eat/drink at least enough to keep him going :p He is on tylenol with codeine for pain and it wears off much sooner than he is allowed to take another dose but he seems to take after me and doesnt like taking pain meds so he often just holds real still and waits for a while after they are "due" to take more. He also prefers to put his ice pack on first and put off the next dose of meds just a little bit longer :p I think I might try some ibuprofen and see if that helps without the weird side effects he wants to avoid. I know Iz was able to stretch out her tylenol with codeine doses by alternating with ibuprofen so maybe he can, too.

He is in the temporary splint and bandages and sling right now--they said the orthopedist will put on a cast when the swelling has had time to go down a bit. Oh, and S is very proud that they had to get him an adult sling--his arm is too long for a children's sling :p

And one thing that amused me was the fact that the doctor and nurse practitioner on S's case thought I must be a doctor or nurse because I was explaining all the equipment and procedures to S before they even thought to do it. The NP in particular was floored that I knew so much and was not in the medical field. I told her "I read a lot" LOL

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

3 month post-op cardiologist visit

Iz was mostly cooperative during her EKG but she let it be known that she did NOT like the Echo. She does not like her scar to be touched by anyone but me and occasionally Daddy and even then, its only when she asks for it to be touched (she loves to be massaged and asks for it daily). Poor little mite looked so betrayed when we let Dr E continue to press the wand on her scar :/

It was a great appointment, though! Her blood pressure was really great, 94/60. She was 29.5 inches and 19 lbs 13 oz--gains in length and weight :) Last appointment back in May two weeks after surgery she was 29 in and 14 lbs 4 oz so Dr E was quite pleased with her growth.

The echo shows that her right pulmonary artery is still half the size of the left one. But it does not affect her at all so as long as it doesn't start restricting further, we should be fine. Dr E said that even if it does start restricting, the left will pick up the slack and we wouldn't see any outward signs and it would have to be picked up on echo. Fingers crossed that it just hangs out as is and never needs intervention :p

There are no leaks around her patch and he can see where her heart tissue is growing over and across it--he said eventually it would be completely surrounded by her heart. Reminds me of a tree we saw one day when we took the kids to the natural history museum; it was growing around and over a sign pegged to it. Won't be too long before the sign is completely enclosed by the tree.

The best news of all was that her heart is back to normal size :) We were warned that the enlargement would persist for months, maybe even a year, so I was hopeful that it would have gone done some but was not expecting to hear it went all the way :)

We have been cleared for yearly visits. One hand, that is fantastic! On the other hand, eek, I have to wait an entire year to be reassured that nothing has gone wrong? OY.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Wish us luck....

Tomorrow morning Iz has her three month visit. Well, slightly over three months since her cardio was on vacation when she hit the three month mark from her last visit (two weeks after surgery, one week after discharge). She has been doing well--off her meds, less sweating, less hard and fast breathing, more energy, more weight gain. And, yet, I am nervous. So many what-ifs. What if the patch is leaking, what if the heart is still significantly enlarged, what if the stenosis in the PA is worse. What if what if what if.

We will know soon enough, eh?