The day after Christmas we went up to Ober Gatlinburg. You paid for an hour and a half session, and we knew there was one at 11:00 am. Bill decided since he was awake early, to go ahead and drive up and buy our passes so that if there was a line we wouldn’t miss out. Normally they want you all to be right there and get your bracelets, but they allowed him to pay for them and then hold them back for us.
The bad part of it was he drove the van because he didn’t want to deal with the stick shift up and down the mountain. So when he was on his way back to our cabin, he made this one turn that is steep and sharp, and the wheels started spinning and he felt the van start sliding, and he was truly worried that he was going to go off the edge and down the mountain. The wheels caught and got some traction, and he was able to continue on up the hill. After going through that harrowing experience, he made the next big turn and started onto the loop road that our cabin was on, and he drove just a little ways, and a large tree was down and completely across the road. He definitely couldn’t go forward, so he then had to back up, a small road, with drop offs, and he was still freaked out from the previous scare! He managed to get back onto the other road, and had to then go down and then drive up the road that is generally the out road. Steep down, the driveways face the other direction, so now he had almost slid down the mountain, had to back up a significant distance on a different mountain road. Instead, now he has to get the van to go UP a different tough road, where he passed another downed tree, but only the top of that tree was in the road and it was at a spot where it was wider and you could get around it. Then he had to pass our driveway and back up into it, as he literally could not make the turn backwards to get into it from the direction he was forced to come. He arrived back home and I could tell something was up, he told us his tale and was a little bit on edge for the rest of the morning.
We managed to all be up and moving along and were ready to go ahead of schedule, and we made it back up to Ober Gatlinburg early, and we were very glad that Bill had gone early once we arrived (and we got there early around 10:20 or so), they were already sold out for the 11:00 tubing run. We had another small drama when we went to have the lady put on our wrist bands. Liam freaked out! Bill identified the problem pretty quickly, and I have to say, I don’t know that I would have gotten it for a while. The previous times Liam has had any sort of wrist bands put on him it was at the hospital and having procedures done... Poor little guy was absolutely out of his mind and refusing to have it put on. We finally got it on, and he just pulled and tugged at it and screamed. We kept trying to explain that was our ticket to go tubing on the hills. We took him outside to watch and I don’t know that it helped do anything more than scare him about it as well... So, when our time came, the girls and I all got in line, got our tubes and slid away. Bill took Liam and went to the arcade inside and let him play for a bit to help him calm down.
The tubing was fun, not like anything I’ve done before. All the snow was manufactured, and there were 6-8 formed lanes down the hill, with banked sides. You got your tube, and walked around to the conveyer belt lift. It was very nice to be able to just stand there and hold onto the cord for your tube and up you went to the top of the hill. The girls and I had some fun runs down the hill. Bill and Liam showed up after a little bit, and they had these double tubes. So Liam is doing alright up the lift and at the top of the hill. He’s sitting in the tube waiting in line for his turn, he’s smiling... THEN, it is their turn. Bill is trying to get into the back of the tube, Liam is bailing out! He’s screaming, “You can’t do this to me!” “I’m not doing this!” and fighting to free himself. Meanwhile, there isn’t really any other way to get down the hill. So I am shoving him back down to sit, and we are causing a scene. Bill sat in the back and wraps his legs around Liam to keep him sitting in the tube, and then they were off and down the hill, Liam crying and screaming all the way.
I was surprised to see them head right back up the hill. Liam asked to go, and was happy all the way. He got up there, and sat in the tube waiting for his turn, and Bill still held onto him but he seemed to be o.k. with the whole thing. So then they headed back up for trip three... Again, Liam sat until it was their turn, and all of the sudden he starts fighting and screaming and trying to climb out of the tube again. I’m trying to shove him back down to sit in the tube again so they can go down, and the worker guy says, the adult has to be in the front and the child in the back of the two part tube. Well, we try to explain to him this is his third trip down. I’m trying to hold him down and now we have to take him out and move him! So... he’s screaming, Bill is supposed to be in the front, but when it becomes clear that there is NO way Liam will stay in the tube if not held there, the guy suggests to Bill, that he could turn around backward facing, so he is facing Liam and can still wrap his legs around him. Meanwhile Liam is throwing a fit the whole time, and now I have to push him over the edge and watch him as he heads down the hill.
After that run, Liam is done, and Bill was going to take him, but Rebekah and Sariah agree to take him for a while, since they were cold and let Bill have some time to go by himself. Toward the end Bill and I went inside to check on the kids, and Bill went walking around with Liam for a bit, and Liam said he wanted to go again! So up they went and Liam had a blast and asked to go again, but alas, it was too late. Our time was up and he couldn’t go any more. Oh well. At least maybe he has decent memories of going, since his last run was a positive one.
Before we left Ober Gatlinburg, we went through their little zoo place. The one bear that we could see was hibernating back in one of the stalls/caves way far back inside. Amanda spotted him, and with the zoom lense I was able to get a fuzzy picture of the bear we paid money to see. The kids really got a kick out of the nocturnal animal exhibits. There were turtles swimming, and there were several kinds of lizards and snakes. The kids were all really excited trying to identify each of them.
After that we headed back home to our cabin. (or to our cabinet as Liam called it). Bill decided the one road and turn that he had the hard time with that morning, he didn’t want to make again, so he drove past our turn, up and around another curve in the road so we could get to a drive way we could turn around in, so that we could hit our road/turn at more of a direct angle and have the momentum of going downhill rather than trying to backtrack going uphill as we had previously done. It worked. Yay, no slipping and sliding. Then we took a risk and went past the first turn to the loop of our road, and up to the 2nd turn. The road had been cleared, yay, no backing up! However when they had come and cut the tree, they barely cut it the width of the road, there was not much wiggle room. (I can’t believe I didn’t grab the camera and take a picture of the big tree that had come down the day before in the storm and blocked off the road!) It wasn’t the one that knocked out the power lines, but that also made me wonder how many trees had come down around the area during the storm on Christmas eve. We arrived safely and well back at our cabin.
We spent the afternoon organizing and beginning to pack up. Some people took naps – that riding up a lift and sliding down sitting on a tube apparently took a lot out of some of us. ;-)
We wound up our trip with a dinner show at The Dixie Stampede. What a fun time. We arrived early for the pre-show. Liam was a challenge he did not want to sit down and we waited and waited... Bill went and bought us some popcorn and some fun drinks in cowboy cups. It helped to keep him entertained for a little while. Finally the pre dinner band came on and all of the sudden, he was entranced. He started clapping along to the bluegrass music. Then he started strumming his little hand across his imaginary guitar or banjo. He did that for the longest time. It was really cute.
The dinner show was really fun. The kids all loved it. Because we went at Christmas, instead of the entertainers being soldiers from the North and South, they were Red and Green Elves. We got a Christmas show. It was wonderful. They incorporated silly Christmas gags into the horse and rider portions of the show. They had a toy land portion, and then they had the whole Nativity story. There were Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus. I asked Liam if he knew who that was, he said, “Mary”. Then he said, “Is that Amanda?” because she had been Mary in the nativity play at our Church party recently. The Shepherds came out with real sheep and goats. One sheep was really funny, and kept jumping around; it would jump almost straight up in the air. It was pretty funny. One of the other highlights was that the wise men actually rode in on Camels. They came out right in front of us. It was pretty cool. The food was pretty yummy too; Creamy vegetable soup, Roasted chicken, cheesy biscuits, and a flakey delicious apple pastry. Yum Yum.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Chrstmas in Dixie 2009 (part 3)
When we decided to go away for Christmas, I thought about a tree, and what we might do. Sariah was on it herself. She has a small 3 ft. tree we got for her last year, and she planned to take it, and to get each of the kids new ornament for the year and her little ornaments so we’d have a Tree to help us celebrate the occasion. When we arrived and got everything unloaded from the vehicles, and while Rebekah was helping get dinner cooked, Sariah got to work and set the tree. It turned out really cute. Sariah also decorated our family tree at home this year. She did a great job, and it turned out nicely. I appreciated the help.
We knew the wind had really picked up and it was raining quite a bit by the time we went to bed on Christmas eve. At one point in the middle of the night, when Rebekah woke up in pain and needed more ice/snow on her burned finger, she found the power was out and came to wake us up. Bill called the power company and let them know. We hunkered down to sleep some more. The kids had originally wanted to be up at 6 am for Christmas, but Bill ended up earlier than that, and spent some time getting a fire started. He told the kids to stay put till it was day light, since we needed the sun to see as we had no electrical lighting.
Bill told me later that the little nativity I had bought that has the Blessed family inside the word Faith, had a tiny little LED light on it, It was the only light they had while they were up and trying to navigate and get a fire started.
Around 7-7:30 a.m. it began to get light outside, so I got up and we let the kids loose, once Liam and I were down stairs. Christmas with a fire was lovely. Everyone seemed pretty happy with their gifts. Liam had dinosaur explosion... Marissa played with her new Bratz doll, one of the best gifts with the most excitement of the morning was when Rebekah and Hannah opened their gift, with borrowed Auburn t-shirts (thank you A) and a gift certificate note telling them they were going to Tampa Florida to the Outback bowl with dad, to see Amanda play in the marching band! (The other kids weren’t interested in football when we asked them a few months ago).
The kids played some of our new games, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Snorta! They played with their new things, and we made gingerbread houses (o.k. not really out of gingerbread – I bought graham crackers). I’m glad I had that little activity to occupy us with for quite a while mid day. At one point the power flickered on, but quickly went back out. We knew that they were at least working on it. We were going through the firewood. We had quite a bit out front, but it was all wet from the rain storm over night (and the snow last week), so we brought some in and sat it in front of the fireplace to get dried out. We had planned to make bacon and eggs for Christmas breakfast, but with no power and an electric stove, we ate cereal.
After awhile most of us were pretty tired from being up for various parts of the night. Rebekah crashed, Amanda hung out texting her friends back home. We talked a little about if the power didn’t go back on, and if we could pull ourselves together enough, perhaps we might go into town toward evening and see a movie (the squeakquel). It would have light and warmth. Power was on in town. We were just grateful to know someone was working on it, and on the other hand we felt so bad that other people were not able to be together at home with their families on Christmas morning, because they were out working on power lines. It was after 2 p.m. and I couldn’t wait any longer for the power to come on to make food, so I was about to make Bill a sandwich, and had gotten out some of the left over’s; hummus and cheese and crackers, and pita from our Bethlehem dinner, when the power flickered again. At 2:30 the power lines were fixed and I got out the bacon and eggs and made our meal. The kids were a bit disappointed that we weren’t going anywhere (to a movie), but we watched some movies, and played some more games. We all had a pleasant day, and even though there were several naps during the day, I think we all went to bed at a pretty decent time that night as well, grateful that we had power, and heat, and that we had this time together as a family.
We knew the wind had really picked up and it was raining quite a bit by the time we went to bed on Christmas eve. At one point in the middle of the night, when Rebekah woke up in pain and needed more ice/snow on her burned finger, she found the power was out and came to wake us up. Bill called the power company and let them know. We hunkered down to sleep some more. The kids had originally wanted to be up at 6 am for Christmas, but Bill ended up earlier than that, and spent some time getting a fire started. He told the kids to stay put till it was day light, since we needed the sun to see as we had no electrical lighting.
Bill told me later that the little nativity I had bought that has the Blessed family inside the word Faith, had a tiny little LED light on it, It was the only light they had while they were up and trying to navigate and get a fire started.
Around 7-7:30 a.m. it began to get light outside, so I got up and we let the kids loose, once Liam and I were down stairs. Christmas with a fire was lovely. Everyone seemed pretty happy with their gifts. Liam had dinosaur explosion... Marissa played with her new Bratz doll, one of the best gifts with the most excitement of the morning was when Rebekah and Hannah opened their gift, with borrowed Auburn t-shirts (thank you A) and a gift certificate note telling them they were going to Tampa Florida to the Outback bowl with dad, to see Amanda play in the marching band! (The other kids weren’t interested in football when we asked them a few months ago).
The kids played some of our new games, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Snorta! They played with their new things, and we made gingerbread houses (o.k. not really out of gingerbread – I bought graham crackers). I’m glad I had that little activity to occupy us with for quite a while mid day. At one point the power flickered on, but quickly went back out. We knew that they were at least working on it. We were going through the firewood. We had quite a bit out front, but it was all wet from the rain storm over night (and the snow last week), so we brought some in and sat it in front of the fireplace to get dried out. We had planned to make bacon and eggs for Christmas breakfast, but with no power and an electric stove, we ate cereal.
After awhile most of us were pretty tired from being up for various parts of the night. Rebekah crashed, Amanda hung out texting her friends back home. We talked a little about if the power didn’t go back on, and if we could pull ourselves together enough, perhaps we might go into town toward evening and see a movie (the squeakquel). It would have light and warmth. Power was on in town. We were just grateful to know someone was working on it, and on the other hand we felt so bad that other people were not able to be together at home with their families on Christmas morning, because they were out working on power lines. It was after 2 p.m. and I couldn’t wait any longer for the power to come on to make food, so I was about to make Bill a sandwich, and had gotten out some of the left over’s; hummus and cheese and crackers, and pita from our Bethlehem dinner, when the power flickered again. At 2:30 the power lines were fixed and I got out the bacon and eggs and made our meal. The kids were a bit disappointed that we weren’t going anywhere (to a movie), but we watched some movies, and played some more games. We all had a pleasant day, and even though there were several naps during the day, I think we all went to bed at a pretty decent time that night as well, grateful that we had power, and heat, and that we had this time together as a family.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Part 2 (still fighting with pictures)
Part 2
As we were driving along, we looked behind us, and could see the kids dancing, and singing, and being crazy in the van behind us. I don’t know what they were listening to at the time, but by the motions we could see, I think it may have been The Chicken Dance! We were glad they were having fun, but also glad that we didn’t have to listen to all the FUN!!! ;-)
We had barely been driving at all, it seemed and the girls text us and say someone needs to go potty! So we pull off the road at the next exit, and potty and get gas. We hadn’t even gotten to Chattanooga yet! While we were stopped, I looked over and saw the sun in the sky as it was beginning to fade away. It was beautiful, so I had to get out and take a picture or two. At one point Sariah jumped out of the van and ran toward me to scare me! Silly girl! I wanted to get her picture, but she was too fast, and I only got her backside as she raced away from me and back to the van.
We started out the 5 hour drive several hours later than we’d hoped, so when we arrived in Gatlinburg, it was already dark. Very pretty to see all the Christmas lights and decorations for the season, but it would make it a bit more difficult to find our cabin. Apparently Liam started yelling out, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” when he saw all the lights. We had to first fine the rental company to sign in and get the key to our cabin and directions. Then we were off! We drove through town, and began up the mountain roads. They had snow several days before and said there had been some problems with the road our cabin/house was on, but it had gotten cleared that day or the day before, so we should be o.k.
The road was steep and narrow, with lots of switch backs. The kids weren’t comfortable with that, and quite frankly neither were we, so I swapped out with Amanda, and I drove the van up the mountain road, following behind Bill. At the first stop sign, it was quite steep and a pretty sharp turn. The next corner we had to turn at however, was really steep, and at a hard angle. The road had was a bit slick, and my turns were just spinning for a moment. I got a bit nervous at that point. It was probably good that it was dark, as I couldn’t really see how high up we were going, or how far down we’d fall if we perhaps went off the edge of the road. The kids were all very quiet, and that was good as well. All I needed was to hear them all talking about dying or something!! Thankfully, they didn’t start talking about how scary it seemed until after we stopped and got out of the vehicles. We found our cabin, after driving down quite a steep incline as well, and it seemed you looked straight down the mountain to all the lights of Gatlinburg below.
We unloaded and made dinner and settled in. (Bill finally ate an actual meal, and enjoyed it!) After dinner the kids enjoyed the hot tub. Bill and I went back to town, to shop for the rest of what we needed for food, etc. for the next several days. We didn’t get back till around midnight, and as a passenger, it was a little bit different drive. You know how it is when you aren’t the one in control of the vehicle... I was a bit more nervous. We arrived back and we all settled in to bed for the night. The cabin had a master bedroom upstairs with a king size bed, and on the main floor the bedroom had 2 queen sized beds, and the sofa in the main room folded out as well.
Thursday – Christmas Eve day
Bill had done a little searching on the internet about what activities might be fun for the family. We had purchased tickets for an indoor water park, so off we go in our bathing suits, down the mountain to the water park. Winter coats over bathing suits, what a look! We had fun at the water park, but would I do it again? Probably not... the water in the lazy river was a bit chilly, and the big water slide was WAY COLD!!!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
The best part was the kids wading pool, it as shallow enough to stay warm, and then, the hot tubs. Those were nice, and big enough that when we first got there, (when it opened at 11:00) there weren’t very people at all, so we mostly could do whatever we wanted. Liam liked the warm water in the hot tubs, which weren’t HOT, but nice. They were quite big, you could almost swim in them, and Liam kept wanting to play tag. We had been there nearly 2 hours, and were quite cold unless we were in one of the hot tubs, so, at that point, we sort of decided, if we wanted a hot tub we could just go back to our cabin and use the hot tub there!
We went home and showered and dressed in warm clothes, and we considered going out somewhere to see some sights, but after he late night the night before, we were all a bit worn out. Bill needed a nap, so we decided to stay ‘home’ and prepare for Christmas. Sariah had a project she needed to finish – she was making a sock monkey for Rebekah. She needed a little help, so, I ended up doing a lot of the hand stitching of the parts to attach them, and then, She decided she didn’t want the hat to be matching (part of the sock). She asked if Amanda might make a crocheted hat to match the one that she’d made for Rebekah for Christmas, to go along and match for the sock monkey. So... as a result, we spent most of the afternoon in the bedroom upstairs. Rebekah had to hold down the fort downstairs, with all the other kids. Thank you Bekah! She made Christmas cookies with the kids. (I had bought some gingerbread cookie mix, but forgot to bring the cookie cutters with us! And then she did the pre-made sugar cookies.
We had a casualty... Rebekah burnt her finger on the cookie pan the last batch. It was really hurting her and throbbing/burning for hours. I wanted to get some ice, so I ran outside and got some snow. Snow - Natures ice pack. As soon as it melted, her finger would begin to burn. It had begun to sprinkle, and was supposed to rain quite a bit that night, so I got some more snow and put in the freezer, so we'd be sure to have enough for her. She took some medicine to help reduce the pain, but was still up nearly every hour all night long in pain, and needing more snow/ice.
After this we prepared for our traditional Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner. Where we eat simple foods that might have been eaten by Joseph and Mary and the people in those times – we sit on the floor and eat by candle light. We have fish, and cheeses (like a brie) and grapes, and crackers. After we have eaten our meal, Bill reads us the Christmas story from Luke 2. We started this years ago when we lived in Japan, and it has become our family tradition. We never miss a year. We did this when we had Christmas with grandma and Grandpa in Virginia one year. We did it the year Bill was deployed, I prepared the meal and he called us and I had borrowed a speaker phone so we could all hear him and he was there a little bit more than just in spirit. It was special to be able to hear him read the Christmas story to us, even though he was so far away. So, even though we were in a cabin/house in the woods, we bought the food to have our special dinner.
After that part was over, the kids quickly like to move on to the next tradition of opening up their new Christmas jammies! Then after everyone gets dressed and ready for bed, we let them open one more present. Last year we started doing a secret santa between the kids (the idea is then I don’t have to try to run all over town and help the kids all buy things for each and every one of their siblings... not that it isn’t a nice idea, but it gets hard with all 6 kids). Anyway, so we let them open the present from their secret santa. Then we had to get 6 kids settled and down to sleep for the night in preparation for Santa to come.
As we were driving along, we looked behind us, and could see the kids dancing, and singing, and being crazy in the van behind us. I don’t know what they were listening to at the time, but by the motions we could see, I think it may have been The Chicken Dance! We were glad they were having fun, but also glad that we didn’t have to listen to all the FUN!!! ;-)
We had barely been driving at all, it seemed and the girls text us and say someone needs to go potty! So we pull off the road at the next exit, and potty and get gas. We hadn’t even gotten to Chattanooga yet! While we were stopped, I looked over and saw the sun in the sky as it was beginning to fade away. It was beautiful, so I had to get out and take a picture or two. At one point Sariah jumped out of the van and ran toward me to scare me! Silly girl! I wanted to get her picture, but she was too fast, and I only got her backside as she raced away from me and back to the van.
We started out the 5 hour drive several hours later than we’d hoped, so when we arrived in Gatlinburg, it was already dark. Very pretty to see all the Christmas lights and decorations for the season, but it would make it a bit more difficult to find our cabin. Apparently Liam started yelling out, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” when he saw all the lights. We had to first fine the rental company to sign in and get the key to our cabin and directions. Then we were off! We drove through town, and began up the mountain roads. They had snow several days before and said there had been some problems with the road our cabin/house was on, but it had gotten cleared that day or the day before, so we should be o.k.
The road was steep and narrow, with lots of switch backs. The kids weren’t comfortable with that, and quite frankly neither were we, so I swapped out with Amanda, and I drove the van up the mountain road, following behind Bill. At the first stop sign, it was quite steep and a pretty sharp turn. The next corner we had to turn at however, was really steep, and at a hard angle. The road had was a bit slick, and my turns were just spinning for a moment. I got a bit nervous at that point. It was probably good that it was dark, as I couldn’t really see how high up we were going, or how far down we’d fall if we perhaps went off the edge of the road. The kids were all very quiet, and that was good as well. All I needed was to hear them all talking about dying or something!! Thankfully, they didn’t start talking about how scary it seemed until after we stopped and got out of the vehicles. We found our cabin, after driving down quite a steep incline as well, and it seemed you looked straight down the mountain to all the lights of Gatlinburg below.
We unloaded and made dinner and settled in. (Bill finally ate an actual meal, and enjoyed it!) After dinner the kids enjoyed the hot tub. Bill and I went back to town, to shop for the rest of what we needed for food, etc. for the next several days. We didn’t get back till around midnight, and as a passenger, it was a little bit different drive. You know how it is when you aren’t the one in control of the vehicle... I was a bit more nervous. We arrived back and we all settled in to bed for the night. The cabin had a master bedroom upstairs with a king size bed, and on the main floor the bedroom had 2 queen sized beds, and the sofa in the main room folded out as well.
Thursday – Christmas Eve day
Bill had done a little searching on the internet about what activities might be fun for the family. We had purchased tickets for an indoor water park, so off we go in our bathing suits, down the mountain to the water park. Winter coats over bathing suits, what a look! We had fun at the water park, but would I do it again? Probably not... the water in the lazy river was a bit chilly, and the big water slide was WAY COLD!!!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
The best part was the kids wading pool, it as shallow enough to stay warm, and then, the hot tubs. Those were nice, and big enough that when we first got there, (when it opened at 11:00) there weren’t very people at all, so we mostly could do whatever we wanted. Liam liked the warm water in the hot tubs, which weren’t HOT, but nice. They were quite big, you could almost swim in them, and Liam kept wanting to play tag. We had been there nearly 2 hours, and were quite cold unless we were in one of the hot tubs, so, at that point, we sort of decided, if we wanted a hot tub we could just go back to our cabin and use the hot tub there!
We went home and showered and dressed in warm clothes, and we considered going out somewhere to see some sights, but after he late night the night before, we were all a bit worn out. Bill needed a nap, so we decided to stay ‘home’ and prepare for Christmas. Sariah had a project she needed to finish – she was making a sock monkey for Rebekah. She needed a little help, so, I ended up doing a lot of the hand stitching of the parts to attach them, and then, She decided she didn’t want the hat to be matching (part of the sock). She asked if Amanda might make a crocheted hat to match the one that she’d made for Rebekah for Christmas, to go along and match for the sock monkey. So... as a result, we spent most of the afternoon in the bedroom upstairs. Rebekah had to hold down the fort downstairs, with all the other kids. Thank you Bekah! She made Christmas cookies with the kids. (I had bought some gingerbread cookie mix, but forgot to bring the cookie cutters with us! And then she did the pre-made sugar cookies.
We had a casualty... Rebekah burnt her finger on the cookie pan the last batch. It was really hurting her and throbbing/burning for hours. I wanted to get some ice, so I ran outside and got some snow. Snow - Natures ice pack. As soon as it melted, her finger would begin to burn. It had begun to sprinkle, and was supposed to rain quite a bit that night, so I got some more snow and put in the freezer, so we'd be sure to have enough for her. She took some medicine to help reduce the pain, but was still up nearly every hour all night long in pain, and needing more snow/ice.
After this we prepared for our traditional Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner. Where we eat simple foods that might have been eaten by Joseph and Mary and the people in those times – we sit on the floor and eat by candle light. We have fish, and cheeses (like a brie) and grapes, and crackers. After we have eaten our meal, Bill reads us the Christmas story from Luke 2. We started this years ago when we lived in Japan, and it has become our family tradition. We never miss a year. We did this when we had Christmas with grandma and Grandpa in Virginia one year. We did it the year Bill was deployed, I prepared the meal and he called us and I had borrowed a speaker phone so we could all hear him and he was there a little bit more than just in spirit. It was special to be able to hear him read the Christmas story to us, even though he was so far away. So, even though we were in a cabin/house in the woods, we bought the food to have our special dinner.
After that part was over, the kids quickly like to move on to the next tradition of opening up their new Christmas jammies! Then after everyone gets dressed and ready for bed, we let them open one more present. Last year we started doing a secret santa between the kids (the idea is then I don’t have to try to run all over town and help the kids all buy things for each and every one of their siblings... not that it isn’t a nice idea, but it gets hard with all 6 kids). Anyway, so we let them open the present from their secret santa. Then we had to get 6 kids settled and down to sleep for the night in preparation for Santa to come.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas with the Robertson's (part 1)
Christmas 2009
We decided to take a trip and get away for Christmas. We knew that if we stayed home, we’d have children and parents all in various rooms, watching different shows on different t.v’s or playing on different computers, etc... we’d be thinking about all the work that needed to be done around the house, and more than likely we’d just be grumpy with each other, and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we found a cabin/house up in the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN that was still available the week before Christmas, and we made our reservations.
Rebekah came home from college on my birthday (Friday, Dec. 18th) – what a nice birthday present!
The night before my Birthday, Bill and I attended a Work Christmas dinner at the Space and Rocket Center. It was a nice dinner, and I’m glad Bill at a really good meal. It’s pretty much the last thing he ate for nearly a week. That night Bill started feeling ill – chills and fever! By morning he could barely get out of bed, he felt so bad! I get the kids off to school, dropped Liam off at his school and went to a hair apt. I had scheduled as my birthday treat. Afterward, I went home and tried to keep all the kids who were excited aobut the Christmas break, and home from school early after a half day, just a little bit quiet so dad could rest. Bill barely got out of bed for the next several days. Sunday when we came home from church, he asked for an I.V. so I hauled him out and he got an i.v. and some shots of antibiotics and pain killers and I brought him back home to bed. Monday morning he felt somewhat better, and got up and attempted to go in to work. On his way he stopped at the Dr’s again, and they gave him a breathing treatment as he couldn’t take a full breath, and told him he had pneumonia. Oh, and he had lost abt 10 lbs since he hadn’t eaten much of anything in days!
He went on to work with a couple of new prescriptions and tried to get a few things taken care of. Those who saw him at the office told him to go back home! He really didn’t look like he was well at all, (and that was the first day he looked almost like himself again)! We were a little concerned that he was not going to be well enough to enjoy our Christmas trip to the Smokey Mountains... We started making him smoothies full of protein powder to help him regain his energy. That, and the i.v. he’d had made a huge difference. Tuesday he stayed home in bed, and the rest of us gathered and packed things and got things ready to go. I was very behind! I REALLY wanted to go to a fun ornament x-change, but never finished my ornaments, and as it was I didn’t get to bed till after 3:30 a.m. after getting things organized as best as I could.
Wednesday we didn’t get going quite as quickly as we’d originally wanted, but we eventually got on the road. We had planned on driving us all up in the van, but with the possibility of snow up the mountain, we decided to drive two vehicles, so we could shuttle everyone up to the cabin/house in Bill’s truck since it has 4 wheel drive. We later were glad we’d made that choice!
Just as we were packing up Rebekah made the suggestion that the kids all ride in the van and she and Amanda would switch off driving, and Bill and I could ride up in the truck together, and have time to talk... What a nice present that was. We were able to talk and visit, on the 5 hour drive, or listen to the 80’s music channel, and the kids got to listen to all the silly songs and sing and be loud and crazy, and it didn’t drive us nuts! It was great!
We decided to take a trip and get away for Christmas. We knew that if we stayed home, we’d have children and parents all in various rooms, watching different shows on different t.v’s or playing on different computers, etc... we’d be thinking about all the work that needed to be done around the house, and more than likely we’d just be grumpy with each other, and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we found a cabin/house up in the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN that was still available the week before Christmas, and we made our reservations.
Rebekah came home from college on my birthday (Friday, Dec. 18th) – what a nice birthday present!
The night before my Birthday, Bill and I attended a Work Christmas dinner at the Space and Rocket Center. It was a nice dinner, and I’m glad Bill at a really good meal. It’s pretty much the last thing he ate for nearly a week. That night Bill started feeling ill – chills and fever! By morning he could barely get out of bed, he felt so bad! I get the kids off to school, dropped Liam off at his school and went to a hair apt. I had scheduled as my birthday treat. Afterward, I went home and tried to keep all the kids who were excited aobut the Christmas break, and home from school early after a half day, just a little bit quiet so dad could rest. Bill barely got out of bed for the next several days. Sunday when we came home from church, he asked for an I.V. so I hauled him out and he got an i.v. and some shots of antibiotics and pain killers and I brought him back home to bed. Monday morning he felt somewhat better, and got up and attempted to go in to work. On his way he stopped at the Dr’s again, and they gave him a breathing treatment as he couldn’t take a full breath, and told him he had pneumonia. Oh, and he had lost abt 10 lbs since he hadn’t eaten much of anything in days!
He went on to work with a couple of new prescriptions and tried to get a few things taken care of. Those who saw him at the office told him to go back home! He really didn’t look like he was well at all, (and that was the first day he looked almost like himself again)! We were a little concerned that he was not going to be well enough to enjoy our Christmas trip to the Smokey Mountains... We started making him smoothies full of protein powder to help him regain his energy. That, and the i.v. he’d had made a huge difference. Tuesday he stayed home in bed, and the rest of us gathered and packed things and got things ready to go. I was very behind! I REALLY wanted to go to a fun ornament x-change, but never finished my ornaments, and as it was I didn’t get to bed till after 3:30 a.m. after getting things organized as best as I could.
Wednesday we didn’t get going quite as quickly as we’d originally wanted, but we eventually got on the road. We had planned on driving us all up in the van, but with the possibility of snow up the mountain, we decided to drive two vehicles, so we could shuttle everyone up to the cabin/house in Bill’s truck since it has 4 wheel drive. We later were glad we’d made that choice!
Just as we were packing up Rebekah made the suggestion that the kids all ride in the van and she and Amanda would switch off driving, and Bill and I could ride up in the truck together, and have time to talk... What a nice present that was. We were able to talk and visit, on the 5 hour drive, or listen to the 80’s music channel, and the kids got to listen to all the silly songs and sing and be loud and crazy, and it didn’t drive us nuts! It was great!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Christmas is around the corner...
Christmas Festival is over, (lots of fun, but lots of work and lots of long hours). (all my boxes of Nativities haven't even made it out of the back of Bill's truck yet! I guess we won't be putting them up in the house again this year...).
We've had sickies... 3 of the 5 kids who've been home have had it, Now Bill has it. We are hoping that NO ONE else gets to go through this one. High fever, body aches, throat hurts, etc...
School is over! No more stressing over finals...
Bekah is home! YAY!!!
Now to really get ready for Christmas! Hoping to have a wonderful time together as a family!
We've had sickies... 3 of the 5 kids who've been home have had it, Now Bill has it. We are hoping that NO ONE else gets to go through this one. High fever, body aches, throat hurts, etc...
School is over! No more stressing over finals...
Bekah is home! YAY!!!
Now to really get ready for Christmas! Hoping to have a wonderful time together as a family!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
So much to be THANKFUL for!!!
Last year in November I found and participated in the http://nablopomo.ning.com/main/embeddable/list blog post every day to give thanks, this year life has been crazy and I realized it has been over a month since I've posted anything!!!
I do have soooo very much to be thankful for. I'm thankful that when Liam got sick we had Dr's who figured out what was wrong and that now all we have to do is go in every so often to check on things and band off any new veins that may have become enlarged since the last procedure. I'm thankful that after the one at the beginning of Nov, we don't have to go back for another 6 months.
I'm thankful for a husband who has a job, even when it keeps him very busy, and the kids don't always understand why he works such long hours... I'm thankful for a husband who seeks learning and as a bonus after all his years in the service that he is able to take advantage of the G.I. bill, and Though it means more hours 'working' on homework, he is able to have his Doctorate Degree paid for.
I'm thankful for wonderful children who are learning and growing. Who are over all compassionate towards others (even if it isn't as often shown toward their own family members), and who often go out of their way to help others. I'm thankful for children who are growing in the Gospel, and willing and unembarrassed to share it with their friends.
I'm thankful for the opportunities we have had to travel this past year. I'm especially thankful for a wonderful extended family who is able to put up 8+ people over a long Holiday weekend, who are so welcoming and willing to share with us. I'm also especially thankful for all the friends who have helped us out over the past year in particular when we have traveled, and for when we've been in the hospital with Liam. It is so wonderful to know that I don't have to worry too much about my family back at home, as others are so kind and willing to jump in and help in whatever ways we need.
I'm Thankful for my health - for limbs that work, since when you sprain an ankle or hurt your hand, thumb, wrist, etc. you realize how lost you would be without them on a regular basis! I'm thankful for insurance that covers (most) of the medical care and attention we need.
I'm also very Thankful for the opportunity I have to witness Miracles! The see the Miracle of Birth unfold. To help women find their strength, and to see that little life as it comes forth from it's mother, fresh from Heaven! I am always in awe at the miracle of life! I wonder how anyone can see that sweet new little baby, and not know that God has created this amazing process! How from two little cells, a whole little person develops and grows under his/her mothers heart, and all the intricacies of the human body, and all the processes from breathing to circulation, to reproduction again that can create a whole nother person...
And as we approach this Christmas Season, I have so much more to be thankful for... I'm Thankful that God has a plan for me, even if I'm a bit impatient or don't always ask for the help to know what that plan is, and how to implement it in my life. I'm thankful for the Birth of My Savior Jesus Christ, and for the season we have to remember it. I'm thankful for the opportunities I have to share my love of the Gospel and Jesus Christ at the Christmas Festival that we hold each year.
I do have soooo very much to be thankful for. I'm thankful that when Liam got sick we had Dr's who figured out what was wrong and that now all we have to do is go in every so often to check on things and band off any new veins that may have become enlarged since the last procedure. I'm thankful that after the one at the beginning of Nov, we don't have to go back for another 6 months.
I'm thankful for a husband who has a job, even when it keeps him very busy, and the kids don't always understand why he works such long hours... I'm thankful for a husband who seeks learning and as a bonus after all his years in the service that he is able to take advantage of the G.I. bill, and Though it means more hours 'working' on homework, he is able to have his Doctorate Degree paid for.
I'm thankful for wonderful children who are learning and growing. Who are over all compassionate towards others (even if it isn't as often shown toward their own family members), and who often go out of their way to help others. I'm thankful for children who are growing in the Gospel, and willing and unembarrassed to share it with their friends.
I'm thankful for the opportunities we have had to travel this past year. I'm especially thankful for a wonderful extended family who is able to put up 8+ people over a long Holiday weekend, who are so welcoming and willing to share with us. I'm also especially thankful for all the friends who have helped us out over the past year in particular when we have traveled, and for when we've been in the hospital with Liam. It is so wonderful to know that I don't have to worry too much about my family back at home, as others are so kind and willing to jump in and help in whatever ways we need.
I'm Thankful for my health - for limbs that work, since when you sprain an ankle or hurt your hand, thumb, wrist, etc. you realize how lost you would be without them on a regular basis! I'm thankful for insurance that covers (most) of the medical care and attention we need.
I'm also very Thankful for the opportunity I have to witness Miracles! The see the Miracle of Birth unfold. To help women find their strength, and to see that little life as it comes forth from it's mother, fresh from Heaven! I am always in awe at the miracle of life! I wonder how anyone can see that sweet new little baby, and not know that God has created this amazing process! How from two little cells, a whole little person develops and grows under his/her mothers heart, and all the intricacies of the human body, and all the processes from breathing to circulation, to reproduction again that can create a whole nother person...
And as we approach this Christmas Season, I have so much more to be thankful for... I'm Thankful that God has a plan for me, even if I'm a bit impatient or don't always ask for the help to know what that plan is, and how to implement it in my life. I'm thankful for the Birth of My Savior Jesus Christ, and for the season we have to remember it. I'm thankful for the opportunities I have to share my love of the Gospel and Jesus Christ at the Christmas Festival that we hold each year.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Paci, Binky, Dummie...
A friend wrote a post about her daughter giving up her paci recently, and as I began to respond, I realized it was getting long and was a whole post in itself, so... here it is.
We called a pacifier, what it was - a Plug! It plugged up the crying, etc... To make it sound a bit cutsier, we generally called it a 'pluggie'.
I USED to think that if you offered (forced) a plug, that you would avoid a thumb sucker! I was firmly convinced of this, and the idea that you could always throw away a pacifier, but you couldn't get rid of a thumb!
HA! I had three paci/plug children, and the next sucked a plug till abt. 3 months old she spit it out and found her thumb! That was it! No more paci/plug!
Then I stressed about the thumb... At about 8 months I noticed one day, she just wasn't sucking on it any more! WoW! How did I get SOOOOOO lucky!?!?! Since then, no more paci/plug babies, the next two just weren't ever that interested. it helped in a pinch in the car seat in the car, but otherwise, they didn't really like it as anything other than a not so fun toy.
Bekah was a serious plug baby! By the time she was a todler, she had to have three pluggies at all times! One in her mouth and one for each hand! I thought I'd NEVER get rid of them! When she didn't want to be in her bed, or woke up in the middle of the night, we'd listen as she fussed a bit, but it wasn't until we heard all three pluggies, dropped out of the crib and clattered onto the wood floor, that we knew we would have to go in and retrieve them all to get her setteled down before she'd go back to sleep.
The other Rebekah plug story is: She liked the NUK pacifier. The Orthodontic pacifier. However, she liked it UP-SIDE DOWN!!! We wondered what it was doing to her teeth! (she did have to have braces, but so have each of the next two and I can already see that the others need them as well, so I don't think the upside down orthodinic pacifier caused that). We used to put it in straight/correctly just to watch her flip it over. She would flip it with her tongue, in NO time at all! It was actually pretty amazing. We would do it for friends and probably strangers... it was our fun baby party trick!
We had heard, read that you shouldn't make too many big changes in a young child's life all at one time. We were moving from Germany back to the US, and I wanted to be sure to get out of country (so I didn't get 'left' behind when the Military suddenly decided to give Bill his orders to be at the school he was going to go to, and I'd be too far along to travel over seas...), so Rebeakh and I left just after Thanksgiving. We spent the time with Bill's parents, where Rebekah got lots of grand parent time. Along with moving away from her 'home' and leaving her daddy behind for the time being, she also left behind her crib, and started sleeping in a 'big girl' toddler bed.
Bill arrived back in country a day or two before Christmas. Bill had to report in at the school in AL, just after the New Year. Since we didn't know how long it would take for us to get housing, and we'd be stuck in a small hotel room, we decided to leave Rebekah in VA with her grandparents. We got housing abt. two weeks later, and so the drove her down and were there to help us get moved into our new 'house', on post.
The next BIG thing in her life was the arrival of her new baby sister on the 1st of March. So, she's had a major move, moved out of a crib, and now she had a new baby to contend with as well. How could I even THINK about taking away her pacifier(s)! As mom's (and dad's) of children who are very attached to some sort of comfort item, be it a blankie, a stuffed animal or doll, or a pacifier, you do not ever want to think about being without that item!!! Because she always wanted the three plug's at this point in her life, we kept quite a plethora of 'extra' pluggies on hand. In a somewhat short amount of time we started comming up a little short on extra pluggies. I remember one sad night, with a crying fussing child who we drug out (or made us head out) at nearly midnight to drive to an open all night grocery store to buy a new pluggie, since we couldn't find even ONE anywhere in the house at the moment!!! (they were hidden in the toy box, etc, etc.
Shotly after that, I started noticing that her pluggies were getting holes in them. I figured they were getting old, or something. One day, a few short weeks after Amanda was born, we were visiting a friend. Rebekah came in to show me that her pluggie was "broke". (she was getting molars and had been chewing on them!) I told her to go throw it away. She went to the trash can threw it in and said, "bye, bye"! That was IT!!! she never had another pluggie! It was the last one we knew where it was, and just said, all of them broke, and somehow, this child who had had to have three all the time for nearly a year by that time, never really even asked for another one. Did I get LUCKY or what!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!
We called a pacifier, what it was - a Plug! It plugged up the crying, etc... To make it sound a bit cutsier, we generally called it a 'pluggie'.
I USED to think that if you offered (forced) a plug, that you would avoid a thumb sucker! I was firmly convinced of this, and the idea that you could always throw away a pacifier, but you couldn't get rid of a thumb!
HA! I had three paci/plug children, and the next sucked a plug till abt. 3 months old she spit it out and found her thumb! That was it! No more paci/plug!
Then I stressed about the thumb... At about 8 months I noticed one day, she just wasn't sucking on it any more! WoW! How did I get SOOOOOO lucky!?!?! Since then, no more paci/plug babies, the next two just weren't ever that interested. it helped in a pinch in the car seat in the car, but otherwise, they didn't really like it as anything other than a not so fun toy.
Bekah was a serious plug baby! By the time she was a todler, she had to have three pluggies at all times! One in her mouth and one for each hand! I thought I'd NEVER get rid of them! When she didn't want to be in her bed, or woke up in the middle of the night, we'd listen as she fussed a bit, but it wasn't until we heard all three pluggies, dropped out of the crib and clattered onto the wood floor, that we knew we would have to go in and retrieve them all to get her setteled down before she'd go back to sleep.
The other Rebekah plug story is: She liked the NUK pacifier. The Orthodontic pacifier. However, she liked it UP-SIDE DOWN!!! We wondered what it was doing to her teeth! (she did have to have braces, but so have each of the next two and I can already see that the others need them as well, so I don't think the upside down orthodinic pacifier caused that). We used to put it in straight/correctly just to watch her flip it over. She would flip it with her tongue, in NO time at all! It was actually pretty amazing. We would do it for friends and probably strangers... it was our fun baby party trick!
We had heard, read that you shouldn't make too many big changes in a young child's life all at one time. We were moving from Germany back to the US, and I wanted to be sure to get out of country (so I didn't get 'left' behind when the Military suddenly decided to give Bill his orders to be at the school he was going to go to, and I'd be too far along to travel over seas...), so Rebeakh and I left just after Thanksgiving. We spent the time with Bill's parents, where Rebekah got lots of grand parent time. Along with moving away from her 'home' and leaving her daddy behind for the time being, she also left behind her crib, and started sleeping in a 'big girl' toddler bed.
Bill arrived back in country a day or two before Christmas. Bill had to report in at the school in AL, just after the New Year. Since we didn't know how long it would take for us to get housing, and we'd be stuck in a small hotel room, we decided to leave Rebekah in VA with her grandparents. We got housing abt. two weeks later, and so the drove her down and were there to help us get moved into our new 'house', on post.
The next BIG thing in her life was the arrival of her new baby sister on the 1st of March. So, she's had a major move, moved out of a crib, and now she had a new baby to contend with as well. How could I even THINK about taking away her pacifier(s)! As mom's (and dad's) of children who are very attached to some sort of comfort item, be it a blankie, a stuffed animal or doll, or a pacifier, you do not ever want to think about being without that item!!! Because she always wanted the three plug's at this point in her life, we kept quite a plethora of 'extra' pluggies on hand. In a somewhat short amount of time we started comming up a little short on extra pluggies. I remember one sad night, with a crying fussing child who we drug out (or made us head out) at nearly midnight to drive to an open all night grocery store to buy a new pluggie, since we couldn't find even ONE anywhere in the house at the moment!!! (they were hidden in the toy box, etc, etc.
Shotly after that, I started noticing that her pluggies were getting holes in them. I figured they were getting old, or something. One day, a few short weeks after Amanda was born, we were visiting a friend. Rebekah came in to show me that her pluggie was "broke". (she was getting molars and had been chewing on them!) I told her to go throw it away. She went to the trash can threw it in and said, "bye, bye"! That was IT!!! she never had another pluggie! It was the last one we knew where it was, and just said, all of them broke, and somehow, this child who had had to have three all the time for nearly a year by that time, never really even asked for another one. Did I get LUCKY or what!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
We're off to NY...
O.K. so we've been planning this trip for 20 years! Bill's 20 yr reunionfor West Point is this weekend. Most of the people we will see there, we haven't seen since he graduated, we got married and moved on with our lives. They say that the Army is a small thing, and especially members of the Church in the Army...however, we have never until just this last year had anyone we knew from a previous duty station, live where we live at again. So, it has been many years since we've seen most of these people. We have a few friends that we've kept in touch with and even seen on rare occasions over the years, but for the most part, it will be the first time since graduation that we've seen his class mates.
I'm a bit nervous, and excited to see some people again. It's been a long time wince we've had the chance to catch up with old friends. AND, as an addition to all of that, we are staying with one of the families I nannied for, again. Bill hasn't seen them in abt. 14 yrs. I did get to see them last year when I went, but it will be good to see them again. We are going a day early and spending a day in the city, and we are going to see Phantom of the Opera! I' so excited! I've always wanted to see that one, but never got to. (we took a friend to see a show once, but she wanted to see Cats, and even though we'd already seen it... we went to Cats).
I am however sllightly worried about Liam, and pray that all will be well for him and for all who will help care for my kids while we are away. I worry about him daily now, and pray always that he will not have another incident, and we'll be able to stay on top of things, with the 'frequent' endoscopy, and appointments we'll have over the years, and we won't have an Emergency, like last time. On the other hand, this is now just life for us. Does it mean we should put the rest of life on hold, always, just so that we can be here personally to 'watch' every move he makes, 'in case' something happens? Honestly, if we did that, we'd all have to be hermits, and never leave the house and pad all the rooms, make him live in a plastic bubble in order to 'protect' him, and that wouldnt' be good for anyone!
Sometimes I worry that I am being a little too 'flip' and irreverant of the situation, but on the other hand, sometimes, you either have to laugh or else you'll cry. He's over all a healthy 'normal' (whatever that is!) 3 yr old little boy! He or any one we know could fall and hurt themselves, or get in some sort of accident, at any time. How is that so different? We can't live our lives in fear! We just have to keep moving forward to the best of our abilities...
And so... we're off to NY. (wish us all luck, and say a prayer or two, for my boy, and my peace of mind...).
On another note: I have never traveled so much in my life (since I was young anyway). I feel like I've taken so many trips this past calendar year... I'm sure it's a fluke, and the partying will have to come to a stop eventually... ;-)
I'm a bit nervous, and excited to see some people again. It's been a long time wince we've had the chance to catch up with old friends. AND, as an addition to all of that, we are staying with one of the families I nannied for, again. Bill hasn't seen them in abt. 14 yrs. I did get to see them last year when I went, but it will be good to see them again. We are going a day early and spending a day in the city, and we are going to see Phantom of the Opera! I' so excited! I've always wanted to see that one, but never got to. (we took a friend to see a show once, but she wanted to see Cats, and even though we'd already seen it... we went to Cats).
I am however sllightly worried about Liam, and pray that all will be well for him and for all who will help care for my kids while we are away. I worry about him daily now, and pray always that he will not have another incident, and we'll be able to stay on top of things, with the 'frequent' endoscopy, and appointments we'll have over the years, and we won't have an Emergency, like last time. On the other hand, this is now just life for us. Does it mean we should put the rest of life on hold, always, just so that we can be here personally to 'watch' every move he makes, 'in case' something happens? Honestly, if we did that, we'd all have to be hermits, and never leave the house and pad all the rooms, make him live in a plastic bubble in order to 'protect' him, and that wouldnt' be good for anyone!
Sometimes I worry that I am being a little too 'flip' and irreverant of the situation, but on the other hand, sometimes, you either have to laugh or else you'll cry. He's over all a healthy 'normal' (whatever that is!) 3 yr old little boy! He or any one we know could fall and hurt themselves, or get in some sort of accident, at any time. How is that so different? We can't live our lives in fear! We just have to keep moving forward to the best of our abilities...
And so... we're off to NY. (wish us all luck, and say a prayer or two, for my boy, and my peace of mind...).
On another note: I have never traveled so much in my life (since I was young anyway). I feel like I've taken so many trips this past calendar year... I'm sure it's a fluke, and the partying will have to come to a stop eventually... ;-)
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Sick little boy - Pic's (long)
Here's Liam at home with Amanda while we finished up the birthday party for Marissa. At the time we had NO idea how sick he was about to become. Sept 12th 2009
Sept 13thWhen Liam was moved out of PICU - and moved onto the ped's floor - he was allowed more visitors. He loved when the family visited. Bill bought him some new games and books to keep us busy during the time in the hospital. This is a game of UNO - Moo! an UNO game for smaller children. It's very cute!
Liam was finally able to eat something - an all liquid diet - on Monday night after not eating anything since Friday evening. Sariah is helping get a drink of Gatorade. Here is his 'SOUP'. He was so disappointed, there were NO NOODLES in his soup! What kind of SOUP is that?!?! Poor boy! 
We took Liam's favorite stuffed animal - his Panda Bear - with us to the hospital. The girls brought him some other favorites of theirs. Nuzzle puppy is Sariah's special doggy. The other little puppy doggy was given to Liam by a nice volunteer at Huntsville Hospital. And lets not forget 
that the girls brought him up his COOKIE Monster slippers (he got them from our neighbor - Caleb (Bob)).
When the girls came to visit they thought it was interesting that Liam has been put in 'his' room. The room number matched his birth date - 4(April) 29th.
Here is my sick little boy - his Arm all taped up to the Arm boards to hold it straight so he didn't bend and hurt the I.V's he had in his arm. They left the stickers to hook up the heart monitors even after we got unhooked from them to go to the ped's floor.
Sept 14th 2009 When they came to get us for the CT scan they gave him a wagon ride down to Radiology. It is supposed to make it a bit more fun, however, Liam was unimpressed!
Dad and the boy taking a walk and trying to stretch his legs a little bit - as well as get some activity and a change of scenery. They made it to the nurses station.
He didn't even want to go play in the game room after he walked all that way, he was so worn out.
Liam was finally able to eat something - an all liquid diet - on Monday night after not eating anything since Friday evening. Sariah is helping get a drink of Gatorade. Here is his 'SOUP'. He was so disappointed, there were NO NOODLES in his soup! What kind of SOUP is that?!?! Poor boy! We took Liam's favorite stuffed animal - his Panda Bear - with us to the hospital. The girls brought him some other favorites of theirs. Nuzzle puppy is Sariah's special doggy. The other little puppy doggy was given to Liam by a nice volunteer at Huntsville Hospital. And lets not forget that the girls brought him up his COOKIE Monster slippers (he got them from our neighbor - Caleb (Bob)).When the girls came to visit they thought it was interesting that Liam has been put in 'his' room. The room number matched his birth date - 4(April) 29th. Here is my sick little boy - his Arm all taped up to the Arm boards to hold it straight so he didn't bend and hurt the I.V's he had in his arm. They left the stickers to hook up the heart monitors even after we got unhooked from them to go to the ped's floor.Sept 14th 2009 When they came to get us for the CT scan they gave him a wagon ride down to Radiology. It is supposed to make it a bit more fun, however, Liam was unimpressed! Dad and the boy taking a walk and trying to stretch his legs a little bit - as well as get some activity and a change of scenery. They made it to the nurses station.He didn't even want to go play in the game room after he walked all that way, he was so worn out.When Liam had enough energy and as an incentive to get him to let them draw blood, or for him to take med's we'd offer for him to go to the game room with dad. he liked playing the touch screen games. He could do that with his left hand and manage to win, since his right hand was all taped up.
We noticed after the first night he had started retaining fluid a bit. I tried to take a picture of his poor little/big belly, but he wasn't playing my games at that point! He tried to cover his head and turn away from me... ;-( By Tuesday it was so tight and swollen. his belly button was stretched completely flat (almost like a pregnant belly).
The Dr's never seemed to terribly concerned about it, bit we were a bit worried, since we have too vivid a memory of our little guy last time when he had all the '3rd space fluid' (when your organs don't function well because they/you are sick, your body pushes a lot of the extra fluid (and he got a LOT of fluid from all the I.V.'s he had been given) out into the tissues of the body. Last time he literally swelled nearly twice his size! from 7 lbs up to 12 lbs in a week). http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1989/46946/hospital_stay.htm
In this picture you can see some of books and games that we brought in (or bought) for Liam. When the girls came to visit, Life didn't necessarily stop just because we were in the hospital for the week. Sariah is working hard on her schoolwork. (with a little help from dad)
Tired and worn out after a long day... (or night).
Tuesday night he was able to have actual food. He decided he didn't want noodles (in soup). I ordered whatever I could think of that was soft. He liked the rice and ate a lot of it, the mac n' cheese was pretty good. The mashed potatoes??? He claimed that they were "Yucky Stuff!"
Wednesday morning was pretty much spent just waiting around to get the ultrasound of his belly and to go home.
Liam likes Dinosaurs, and The Land Before Time Movies have become his favorite. We had a friend bring us a few movies to borrow, and The first Land Before Time was one of them. He would watch it and watch it, We have the first one at home, but have been able to borrow the others from the Post Library over the past months. Liam LOVES them. I liked borrowing them from the library, because, then I got a break and we were not 'forced' to watch the same movies over and over again... Well, this hospital stay ended up sending Bill to the store and he was able to buy every single one of the episodes (there are 11) for Liam. We watched all of them but one, at least one time if not more (along with a few other different movies, occasionally), but when you are trapped in bed, and can't do much, and you are so miserable... movies help to pass the time! When the nurses come in and wake you up at 2 am, to take your blood, the movies help calm you down and get you to fall back to sleep. They were well worth the price (monetarily, as well as mom's dislike of repeated movie watching...)!
We had several visitors come to see us at the hospital, and we received a few nice meals (non hospital food, yay!) from friends, while the rest of the family at home was being fed by the sweet sisters of our ward. Liam got some nice coloring books and crayons from friends, and a cute Get well soon balloon from his friend Katie - Thanks so much! He likes them now, even though he didn't show it at the time...
We noticed after the first night he had started retaining fluid a bit. I tried to take a picture of his poor little/big belly, but he wasn't playing my games at that point! He tried to cover his head and turn away from me... ;-( By Tuesday it was so tight and swollen. his belly button was stretched completely flat (almost like a pregnant belly).
The Dr's never seemed to terribly concerned about it, bit we were a bit worried, since we have too vivid a memory of our little guy last time when he had all the '3rd space fluid' (when your organs don't function well because they/you are sick, your body pushes a lot of the extra fluid (and he got a LOT of fluid from all the I.V.'s he had been given) out into the tissues of the body. Last time he literally swelled nearly twice his size! from 7 lbs up to 12 lbs in a week). http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1989/46946/hospital_stay.htmIn this picture you can see some of books and games that we brought in (or bought) for Liam. When the girls came to visit, Life didn't necessarily stop just because we were in the hospital for the week. Sariah is working hard on her schoolwork. (with a little help from dad) Tired and worn out after a long day... (or night).Tuesday night he was able to have actual food. He decided he didn't want noodles (in soup). I ordered whatever I could think of that was soft. He liked the rice and ate a lot of it, the mac n' cheese was pretty good. The mashed potatoes??? He claimed that they were "Yucky Stuff!"Wednesday morning was pretty much spent just waiting around to get the ultrasound of his belly and to go home. Liam likes Dinosaurs, and The Land Before Time Movies have become his favorite. We had a friend bring us a few movies to borrow, and The first Land Before Time was one of them. He would watch it and watch it, We have the first one at home, but have been able to borrow the others from the Post Library over the past months. Liam LOVES them. I liked borrowing them from the library, because, then I got a break and we were not 'forced' to watch the same movies over and over again... Well, this hospital stay ended up sending Bill to the store and he was able to buy every single one of the episodes (there are 11) for Liam. We watched all of them but one, at least one time if not more (along with a few other different movies, occasionally), but when you are trapped in bed, and can't do much, and you are so miserable... movies help to pass the time! When the nurses come in and wake you up at 2 am, to take your blood, the movies help calm you down and get you to fall back to sleep. They were well worth the price (monetarily, as well as mom's dislike of repeated movie watching...)! We had several visitors come to see us at the hospital, and we received a few nice meals (non hospital food, yay!) from friends, while the rest of the family at home was being fed by the sweet sisters of our ward. Liam got some nice coloring books and crayons from friends, and a cute Get well soon balloon from his friend Katie - Thanks so much! He likes them now, even though he didn't show it at the time...We also got this cute teddy bear and balloon bouquet from Bill's Office.
When we finally arrived home on Wednesday afternoon, what did he most want to do??? Play Wii!!! Of course we happily let him! So glad to have him home!!!
When we finally arrived home on Wednesday afternoon, what did he most want to do??? Play Wii!!! Of course we happily let him! So glad to have him home!!!Life Goes On...
We are home from the hospital. Liam seems to be fine, over all, a bit whiny and clingy, but fine in general.
Liam had a Dr's appointment with the G.I. Dr. on Friday. We will have to go back for more endoscopy and banding of more esophageal varicose veins, over time. It is all a play it by ear situation... we will go back again (for outpatient treatment unless something comes up during the procedure, and he ends up back in-patient) every 2-3 months or 6 months, or whatever we determine over time for the next however many years. We’ll have to keep an eye on him, and somehow allow him to be a regular kid and play like he always has (he’s a wild man!), and if we ever see any signs of bleeding, vomiting or bowels, we need to take him in immediately! That is quite scary to me, and yet, I can’t tie him down... (last night he bumped his chest against the table at dinner, and cried and said it hurt. It makes me wonder if it is ‘sore’ because he just had all the trauma to it this week, or will it continue to be tender as long as it is vulnerable?).
Will I be freaking out whenever he wants to play rough? Will he be able to take karate classes like his dad had earlier suggested? What if he got hit or kicked in the chest? I do not want to become an overbearing, overprotective mother, but how can I not? This week he is on a soft food diet, but honestly even after that... he could scrape an enlarged varicosity in his esophagus, by not chewing his food carefully enough. He could cause himself serious injury by eating a chip! how am I going to get through this?!?
On we go... Bill was supposed to have left for a trip on monday morning last week, but with Liam in the hospital he postponed his trip. We came home from the hospital on wednesday, and early on Thursday, Bill left for NM. He will be gone for a week. Kids have projectds to work on for school, I have Childbirth classes starting back up (I was supposed to have the 1st class last week, but put that off while we were in the hospital), I have mom's approaching their due dates, choir...
and LIFE goes on.
Liam had a Dr's appointment with the G.I. Dr. on Friday. We will have to go back for more endoscopy and banding of more esophageal varicose veins, over time. It is all a play it by ear situation... we will go back again (for outpatient treatment unless something comes up during the procedure, and he ends up back in-patient) every 2-3 months or 6 months, or whatever we determine over time for the next however many years. We’ll have to keep an eye on him, and somehow allow him to be a regular kid and play like he always has (he’s a wild man!), and if we ever see any signs of bleeding, vomiting or bowels, we need to take him in immediately! That is quite scary to me, and yet, I can’t tie him down... (last night he bumped his chest against the table at dinner, and cried and said it hurt. It makes me wonder if it is ‘sore’ because he just had all the trauma to it this week, or will it continue to be tender as long as it is vulnerable?).
Will I be freaking out whenever he wants to play rough? Will he be able to take karate classes like his dad had earlier suggested? What if he got hit or kicked in the chest? I do not want to become an overbearing, overprotective mother, but how can I not? This week he is on a soft food diet, but honestly even after that... he could scrape an enlarged varicosity in his esophagus, by not chewing his food carefully enough. He could cause himself serious injury by eating a chip! how am I going to get through this?!?
On we go... Bill was supposed to have left for a trip on monday morning last week, but with Liam in the hospital he postponed his trip. We came home from the hospital on wednesday, and early on Thursday, Bill left for NM. He will be gone for a week. Kids have projectds to work on for school, I have Childbirth classes starting back up (I was supposed to have the 1st class last week, but put that off while we were in the hospital), I have mom's approaching their due dates, choir...
and LIFE goes on.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Huntsville Hospital...
So, Friday night, Liam started running a little fever. He hadn't napped, so he fell asleep at about 8 p.m.
We were in the middle of Marissa's birthday sleepover party... Around 10 pm Liam, who was asleep in our bed, started gagging a bit, and Bill who was in the room with him, got him up and took him to the sink. He started calling for someone to come. Bill thought it might have been blood, but when I looked, it was soooo dark, I thought he must have gotten into some chocolate. Vomiting blood is just not the first thing that popped into my mind!
He watched T.v. for a little while and then fell back asleep. He woke up around 2 am to potty, and was quite warm again, so I gave him some children's Tylenol. At around 5 am he woke up and started crying and throwing a fit, Bill thinks looking back on it, that he may have not been completely in his right mind even then, as it was really unlike him. Then he started jerking a bit and was sort of unintelligible. I told Bill to turn on the lights, so I could 'see' him. His hands were sort of jerking, and his legs were stiff and straight out. I called our family Dr. and yes, woke her up at 5:20 a.m. After running through everything, she suggested it might have been a febrile seizure, which is quite common among children his age, and more so with boys than girls. She suggested we watch him, but make sure he is conscious, can respond to us, and that it is also normal to sleep after a seizure. So, that is what we did.
Liam spent most of the morning snuggling or sleeping in someones arms, while I finished up with the party stuff. The birthday party girls left at 10:00 a.m. and shortly afterward, Liam started fussing again, and then sent into a similar seizure type activity, getting stiff and his hands shaking, and eyes sort of rolling back in his head. Afterward, he went into the deep sleep again, but he was absolutely pale! He had NO color in his face, and his lips were white! IT was very frightening. I decided it was time to take him in...
Amanda, Sariah and I took off with him and we went first to the urgent care center right outside our neighborhood. We got inside with him and they told us they just couldn't do anything for a child with seizures there, and we needed to take him to the E.R. in town. This time I held him in my arms, while Amanda drove us to Huntsville Hospital. He had some color at that point, and was a bit responsive, but was still so out of it. I kept monitoring his pulse and breathing all the way as we drove to make sure he was still doing o.k.
We pulled up to the ER and we got out and I left Amanda to park the van. We were actually taken right back, and only had to sit in chairs in the ER waiting room for a moment. We were back in a room before Amanda even got parked and came inside. I asked the guy at the door to please bring her back to me when she got inside. We found out later they usually only let two people back with a patient, but since they were my children, they allowed them both back. At first they were quite upset, and crying, and I was amazingly together - my heart was pounding in my chest and I felt shaky, but I didn't cry at all. The girls helped as we gave the report about his health history.
They ended up needing a urine sample so they had to catheterize him, and he also had to get blood drawn and an i.v. started. The I.V. took forever, since he was so dehydrated at that point. They had to stick him at least 4 or 5 times to get the first needle in. They tried to draw blood but he just had so little to draw, it was clearly not good. They started the I.V. bolus to hydrate him and later were able to get the second I.V. line in, and it worked much better and they were able to get the blood they needed to run the tests. All this time, the girls were very helpful trying to help hold him down, gently but firmly so that he didn't' fight. Liam cried which made Sariah cry, she is still very sensitive to him and worries anytime he gets sick, that he will 'GET SICK' and here we are! Anyway, after a while, the girls were helping to hand stuff to the nurses, and picking up after them, and they were doing a great job helping out. The nurses all commented on how much help they were! and that they should train to be nurses...
The E.R. Doc had also asked me if he had had any diareah or anything unusual. I then recalled that on Thursday or something he had had a BM that had been very dark, almost Tarry looking. I didn't' give it a whole lot of thought at the time, as kids eat various things and then they will have a BM that is a strange or unusual color... So the Dr. also ordered a stool sample. They got that, and put it on the slide. They put the stuff on it and it immediately turned bright blue, meaning there was definitely blood in his stool. They ordered a CT scan and abdominal x-rays.
They got things ready and were going to admit us upstairs into the Pediatric ICU. I was actually amazingly calm throughout all of this. I guess, even though he was quite sick, they seemed to be giving us answers and talking to us more than they had when we went through the 'mystery diagnosis' 3 1/2 yrs ago with him. It had been so scary that time, as he had been so small - just 10 days old.
As we were about to be moved from the E.R. up to the PICU; Liam threw up again. It was thick and black, but definitely blood. They told us his hemoglobin levels were down to 4. (normal is 12). So they had us set up and he got a blood transfusion when we got upstairs. Dad and Brother L. arrived shortly after we arrived up in PICU. Liam had been asking for his daddy all day so far. (several times during the 2 1/2 hrs we'd been here). Dad and Bro. L gave Liam a blessing. Dad, mom and Liam stayed, and Amanda and Sariah gave hugs and kisses and then drove home with Bro. L. Later The girls came back with a change of clothes and some sweats to sleep in, and some toiletry items. I had sent home a partial list of a few things I needed, but they did a great job of thinking what we'd need immediately.
Liam had the pulse oximeter on his finger, a blood pressure cuff (on his ankle since his one arms was already immobilized), all the heart electrode leads to monitor heart rate, and breathing, then he had the I.V. going with a bag of fluid, and a bag of blood hooked up to two separate iv's and his little arm taped up and immobilized on a board thing. Along with all of this he has had a low grade fever most of the time we've been here. He has been pretty miserable and slept a lot, but he did get a bit more animated after he started to get the IV fluid and the blood transfusion. We knew he was coming around when the Dr. was standing talking with us, and I was sitting on the end of his bed. Liam told me to move, I couldn't figure out why, but then realized the t.v. was on the wall behind me, and I was blocking his vision and was in his way! He wanted to watch Hannah Montana that was on the t.v. ;-)
Well, it's been a long couple of days: Sunday he was doing better, and no longer critical, he was released out of PICU and able to go out to a regular room on the pediatric floor. That way he could have more visitors (ie:his sisters could some and dote on him all they wanted...) (the PICU Dr. even said that was definitely one of her considerations to releasing him to the ped's floor). There were/are plusses and minuses to that. Having been through this part of the Hospital once before, we knew that it was great news, as it meant he was doing so well, but also that we would have to deal with the staff. There is comfort in the continuity of care, of having basically one (or limited) care givers. They know the history, they know what they have been doing for you so far, and so can build on that base. When you are out on the floor, you have to deal with multiple care providers, interns and students. You have countless people coming in and out of your room, often in a large group. They ask irritating questions, such as, "what has he eaten recently?" or "How is he eating?" when he has NOT been ALLOWED to EAT Anything for several days!!! Just the mention of food in front of him is rough, since you have to tell him no he can't have anything, because someone else has brought it up in front of him? (Bill and I had been taking turns going out of his room to eat, so that we didn't make him feel bad, and want food he couldn't have!)
It is aggravating to have to retell his whole medical history every time someone walks in the room, since they have NO idea who he is or what his situation is and what his treatment is or should be!
Liam, doesn't always warm up to new people in new situations very well. For that matter, it often takes a while for him to warm up to people he knows! SO... here we are in this new environment where it is quite scary, and mostly horrible, since he has been poked and prodded, probed and annoyed. You have each new nurse or student, and each new set of Dr, and their entourage, of students, that comes in the room and expects him to talk and interact and be happy to see them or something! Liam has basically shut down or tried to ignore when this parade comes through his room. He doesn't look at them, more often than not he frowns, and often cries. Some of them have shown a bit more compassion than others, and we appreciate them! Others, we want to string up, or possibly draw and quarter...
The first day he got the two IV's in his little arm, and all the other yucky things that he had to go through. At least whenever they needed MORE blood from him for this test or that, all they had to do was to get it through one of the i.v. lines already in place. By Monday, that was no longer working. They had to get blood from a vein directly. Well, this is like a world wrestling federation wrestling match! I have generally been laying on the bed half on top of him trying to help hold/pin him down. Bill has had to help hold his arms or legs to keep tehm from flailing or kicking, and at least two nurses have to work on it. Along with all of this, he is screaming, in hysteria, that "you can't do this to me!", "STOP! You're Hurting me!" Owie, owie, owie!, etc. etc. It is awful! I understand that they need some of these tests, however, sometimes, I think it is still just to 'check' a box on a list somewhere, and doggone it! If you don't have your BEST person come to the room to do this to my kid and get him on the first stick, instead of after a minimum of three sticks for everything he's had done, I think I am going to LOSE it!
This morning they wanted another blood draw, to make sure his platelets were up and that his clotting was good before doing the procedure. The nurse in the middle of the night comes in and mentions to me, during one of the countless times they came in to take his temp, or get his Blood Pressure, that they had it scheduled for 2 a.m.! WHAT?!?!?! I asked how long it would take to get the results back, she said it would depend on who was in the lab, etc. but average, an hour. I said, His procedure today wasn't scheduled until around NOON! couldn't they wait until a more humane hour of the day to do this? especially since he was actually sleeping through, most of the BP and Temp checks. She was able to put it off until about 5 am, but still... Of course somewhere around 3 am, they decided his temp was up, and that he needed tylenol or motrin. Now, he's had a fever low grade, sometimes higher than others, since we got here, and he had up to this point only had tylenol or motrin administered twice. But this time all of the sudden he 'required' it right now! While he is sound asleep at 3 in the morning! SO, we got to wake him as they are trying to shove it down his throat, (squirt it, into his mouth), and he is fighting and spitting it out. Not so pleasant either.
The blood draw was horrible! They are telling us that the UAB Dr's (in charge of the Ped's floor) want two more blood draws from him (one today/tonight, and one int he morning). However the G.I. Dr. who did his actual procedures, told us he doesn't require any more at all. He told us he'd try to talk to them, but I don't know that it will do that much good. We can try to refuse, but it might get ugly.
Anyway, we have been through all sorts of crazy emotions! Fear being at the top of the list! I have been amazingly able to hold it together this time. I really like the t.v. show House, where people with strange illnesses come in and he and his team of Dr's try to figure out what the mystery diagnosis is to treat them or cure them or whatever it is. I however, really do NOT enjoy living an episode of the mystery illness show!
The original thought was a gastrointestinal bleed. Well, even that being the case, they had to find the reason for the bleed in the GI tract. The GI Dr. figured that if it was lower GI the blood wouldn't have made it's way back up to the upper GI tract to be able to be vomited out. Although he only vomited the two times, it was clearly (he thought) an upper GI bleed.
Saturday, until they thought they had a good idea what was causing the bleeding, and they didn't see any more fresh bleeding, they didn't want him to eat or drink anything. His poor little mouth was dry and his lips were getting a bit cracked. Bill asked me if I had any lip stuff, and the only one I had, that I had grabbed out of the van while we were on our way into the hosp, and I put it in my pocket was a lightly tinted frosty pink. We used it a few times on him since his little lips were so dry. After he threw up in the ER, Sariah got him a wash cloth to wash off his mouth and teeth, etc. When we were up in the PICU room, he asked for something to chew on. Several of us had been chewing gum, so I hoped that wasn't what he was referring to. He doesn't usually chew gum (hasn't figured out how to NOT swallow it yet). It occurred to me that he was chewing on things
Sunday evening, Liam was finally able to eat something, albeit, only a clear liquid diet. He hadn't eaten anything since sometime Friday afternoon. He had fallen asleep before we got the pizza for the birthday party girls. Bill asked him if he wanted soup to eat. When the 'soup' arrived and it was just broth and didn't have any NOODLES in it, Liam was pretty unhappy! Poor little guy! He did try to eat some of it, with his sisters encouragement, however, it was so strong and salty, that he really didn't eat very much of it, and he even started coughing, from drinking in the salt. Poor kid. He wanted food so bad!
Monday morning Dr. Mc did an endoscopy. Liam had a slight bit of sedation through his IV line, and the procedure to take pic's of his upper GI and stomach, took only about 4-5 minutes. What it showed, were viscosity's, of the esophagus. It was in actuality one of the things he was looking for, although we were really hoping it was just a bacterial infection that had caused an ulcer somewhere and would be an easy fix with some antibiotics and some antacids.
He surmised that the esophageal viscosity's were a result of something called 'cavernous transition of the portal vein'. This would be the lesser of the possibilities for the problem that he was having. So, he was sent for another C.T. scan, this time of his stomach instead of his head, to determine what the cause of the varices. Then we came upstairs and Liam was finally allowed to actually EAT something. Soft, but food, something he could actually chew on... Mac n' Cheese, Mashed potatoes (or as Liam decided, it was 'yucky stuff'),Rice, ICE CREAM, and Chocolate Milk are however his favorites!
We waited most of the day for the results from the C.T. scan. We asked the UAB Dr. if those results were back, and she said she'd check on them. She called Dr. Mc and he told her he'd come talk to us. When he came over to talk to us about the results, he said he really wasn't sure about them, since none of the three Pediatric Radiologists were working on Monday. He had gotten sort of second hand info that the Radiologist (who generally only works with adults,) didn't think he had seen what Dr. Mc had been looking for. Which was not exactly good news, he tried to lay everything out for us, saying he didn't see how it could be the worse situation with cirrhosis of the liver, which would require care at a bigger medical center either in Nashville at Vanderbilt or in Atlanta. But, since Liam did not have any jaundice or high bilirubin counts, or any other signs, he didn't see how that could be the cause.
Dr. Mc said he had called one of the ped. radiologists at home to have him take a look at the ct scan, but hadn't heard back from him yet, so he really hated to tell us any of this. We told him that we understood that, but that we'd been waiting all day and had sort of pushed him to tell us something before he had all the info he wanted in order to talk to us. While we were talking, he got a phone call from the ped radiologist. He went out into the hallway, to talk. While he was gone, Bill, who had been trying to hold it together all day just broke... he'd been reading on line all day about various scenarios, and he knew what cirrhosis meant, Liver Transplant. Which also could mean a lifetime of worry about rejection, if we even got a liver to be able to transplant, etc, etc. I amazingly felt a little numb, I don't know why, but I just couldn't let myself deal with that as a possibility, until I heard that there were no other possible causes, and solutions. Since Dr. Mc wasn't ready to give in and go with that diagnosis, neither was I.
When he came back in he told us good news: which is subjective, since it wasn't the best news we had hoped to get that morning originally, but the ped radiologist confirmed what Dr. Mc hoped/thought, that is was the cavernous transformation of the portal vein. Basically what he described this to be is that the vein(s) taking blood flow into the liver, is blocked, somehow. A jumbled mass/mess of veins. As a result, the extra blood that was not making it's way into the liver, was being shunted back up to the esophagus, and with that extra blood volume and pressure, the veins in the esophagus expanded. Since the esophagus is soft tissue, there is just not a lot of protection for those enlarged veins, and they can be scraped or scratched by hard foods, or just break open from the pressure on it's own.
What this meant, however, was to go back in and band the viscosity's (under surgery, although for an adult it would be a procedure done just like, and during the endoscopy, but since he is little, the tool to do the banding, is small enough to fit, however, it could compress the airway, and so it needed to be done in the O.R.). What he would be doing was to go in and essentially tie off the vein that was enlarged and cut of the blood supply to it, so that it would no longer be enlarged, and the blood flow would stay where it was supposed to be, and over time the body would self heal and actusally should grow other pathways for the veins to the liver. DUrring his first 10 years this should get better and he should have outgrown it. (We can hope anyway).
There were three varicose veins, but one was large, and the others are still a bit smaller and will have to be done at some time most likely over the next year or so. It is also likely that over the next couple of years he might end up having more varicosities form, and needing them to be banded as well. At least we know some symptoms and idea's to watch for if he has more of these that bleed and will get him to help imediately. The GI Dr. did say it is good that we don't live out in the toolies, so we would be far away from help if we needed it... but on the other hand he didn't act like we should be freaking out or anything.
This morning, after taking blood, which was a horrible fight, three pokes, as I already stated, we saw the UAB Dr, and entourage, and the Dr. wanted two more blood draws, one tonight, and one tomorrow morning. We did ask that IF we had to do it, we requested the Nurse Richard again, since he was so good. However, after the procedure, we talked to Dr. Mc about it. He didn't feel like he needed any more blood tests. He is only the 'consulting' Dr. so he can't write orders, but he can give his oppinions, etc. He did that, but it never got changed in the orders by the UAB Dr's. When the night nurse came on tonight, she talked to us, and we told her that we felt like if the Dr. who actually was caring for him, ie: doing the procedures, and treating him, didn't feel it was necessary to get more blood, then that was good enough for us.
Now we are just hoping that we don't have problems with being released to go home tomorrow.
Wednesday, we are supposed to go home. The Pediatric Radiologist did ask for an ultrasound in the morning, before we leave, so that he has a base line to start with so we have something to follow, as Liam grows and we can see if there are changes.
As we have been going through all of this, I am thankful for family and friends. For everyone who stepped in and helped. It really is wonderful to know I don't have to worry about my other kids, and that everyone and everything is being taken care of. I'm also thankful for those that helped with meals, for my family as well as for us here. I'm also thankful to all those who were so willing to help. I am thankful for modern technology, and the ability of the Dr's to find and fix what is wrong. I am also thankful for technology and for being able to put Rebekah on video phone on the computer so that she can interact with Liam, and sing him songs and try to help him feel better, even though she is far away.
I am so thankful for prayer, and for all the many, many prayers that have been going out for Liam and my family. For family and friends, across the country and around the globe that have been praying for us, and also for those who have put Liam's name on the temple prayer rolls. And for friends of friends or family who have also been praying for my little man!
Well, that's most of the story... I have taken lots of pic's to document this newest adventure in our lives, and one day hope to get some of them put on here.
As for now, we had to plead, beg, fight, cajole and bribe Liam to finally get a dose of motrin into him earlier. It was about an hour process. After which, I told him he could have more ice cream, although he's had several different kinds today already. ;-) He finally took it, and then got to watch more movies, and daddy read him books, and I fed him ice cream! What a life... if only, he wasn't hurting, misserable, and in a hospital!
We were in the middle of Marissa's birthday sleepover party... Around 10 pm Liam, who was asleep in our bed, started gagging a bit, and Bill who was in the room with him, got him up and took him to the sink. He started calling for someone to come. Bill thought it might have been blood, but when I looked, it was soooo dark, I thought he must have gotten into some chocolate. Vomiting blood is just not the first thing that popped into my mind!
He watched T.v. for a little while and then fell back asleep. He woke up around 2 am to potty, and was quite warm again, so I gave him some children's Tylenol. At around 5 am he woke up and started crying and throwing a fit, Bill thinks looking back on it, that he may have not been completely in his right mind even then, as it was really unlike him. Then he started jerking a bit and was sort of unintelligible. I told Bill to turn on the lights, so I could 'see' him. His hands were sort of jerking, and his legs were stiff and straight out. I called our family Dr. and yes, woke her up at 5:20 a.m. After running through everything, she suggested it might have been a febrile seizure, which is quite common among children his age, and more so with boys than girls. She suggested we watch him, but make sure he is conscious, can respond to us, and that it is also normal to sleep after a seizure. So, that is what we did.
Liam spent most of the morning snuggling or sleeping in someones arms, while I finished up with the party stuff. The birthday party girls left at 10:00 a.m. and shortly afterward, Liam started fussing again, and then sent into a similar seizure type activity, getting stiff and his hands shaking, and eyes sort of rolling back in his head. Afterward, he went into the deep sleep again, but he was absolutely pale! He had NO color in his face, and his lips were white! IT was very frightening. I decided it was time to take him in...
Amanda, Sariah and I took off with him and we went first to the urgent care center right outside our neighborhood. We got inside with him and they told us they just couldn't do anything for a child with seizures there, and we needed to take him to the E.R. in town. This time I held him in my arms, while Amanda drove us to Huntsville Hospital. He had some color at that point, and was a bit responsive, but was still so out of it. I kept monitoring his pulse and breathing all the way as we drove to make sure he was still doing o.k.
We pulled up to the ER and we got out and I left Amanda to park the van. We were actually taken right back, and only had to sit in chairs in the ER waiting room for a moment. We were back in a room before Amanda even got parked and came inside. I asked the guy at the door to please bring her back to me when she got inside. We found out later they usually only let two people back with a patient, but since they were my children, they allowed them both back. At first they were quite upset, and crying, and I was amazingly together - my heart was pounding in my chest and I felt shaky, but I didn't cry at all. The girls helped as we gave the report about his health history.
They ended up needing a urine sample so they had to catheterize him, and he also had to get blood drawn and an i.v. started. The I.V. took forever, since he was so dehydrated at that point. They had to stick him at least 4 or 5 times to get the first needle in. They tried to draw blood but he just had so little to draw, it was clearly not good. They started the I.V. bolus to hydrate him and later were able to get the second I.V. line in, and it worked much better and they were able to get the blood they needed to run the tests. All this time, the girls were very helpful trying to help hold him down, gently but firmly so that he didn't' fight. Liam cried which made Sariah cry, she is still very sensitive to him and worries anytime he gets sick, that he will 'GET SICK' and here we are! Anyway, after a while, the girls were helping to hand stuff to the nurses, and picking up after them, and they were doing a great job helping out. The nurses all commented on how much help they were! and that they should train to be nurses...
The E.R. Doc had also asked me if he had had any diareah or anything unusual. I then recalled that on Thursday or something he had had a BM that had been very dark, almost Tarry looking. I didn't' give it a whole lot of thought at the time, as kids eat various things and then they will have a BM that is a strange or unusual color... So the Dr. also ordered a stool sample. They got that, and put it on the slide. They put the stuff on it and it immediately turned bright blue, meaning there was definitely blood in his stool. They ordered a CT scan and abdominal x-rays.
They got things ready and were going to admit us upstairs into the Pediatric ICU. I was actually amazingly calm throughout all of this. I guess, even though he was quite sick, they seemed to be giving us answers and talking to us more than they had when we went through the 'mystery diagnosis' 3 1/2 yrs ago with him. It had been so scary that time, as he had been so small - just 10 days old.
As we were about to be moved from the E.R. up to the PICU; Liam threw up again. It was thick and black, but definitely blood. They told us his hemoglobin levels were down to 4. (normal is 12). So they had us set up and he got a blood transfusion when we got upstairs. Dad and Brother L. arrived shortly after we arrived up in PICU. Liam had been asking for his daddy all day so far. (several times during the 2 1/2 hrs we'd been here). Dad and Bro. L gave Liam a blessing. Dad, mom and Liam stayed, and Amanda and Sariah gave hugs and kisses and then drove home with Bro. L. Later The girls came back with a change of clothes and some sweats to sleep in, and some toiletry items. I had sent home a partial list of a few things I needed, but they did a great job of thinking what we'd need immediately.
Liam had the pulse oximeter on his finger, a blood pressure cuff (on his ankle since his one arms was already immobilized), all the heart electrode leads to monitor heart rate, and breathing, then he had the I.V. going with a bag of fluid, and a bag of blood hooked up to two separate iv's and his little arm taped up and immobilized on a board thing. Along with all of this he has had a low grade fever most of the time we've been here. He has been pretty miserable and slept a lot, but he did get a bit more animated after he started to get the IV fluid and the blood transfusion. We knew he was coming around when the Dr. was standing talking with us, and I was sitting on the end of his bed. Liam told me to move, I couldn't figure out why, but then realized the t.v. was on the wall behind me, and I was blocking his vision and was in his way! He wanted to watch Hannah Montana that was on the t.v. ;-)
Well, it's been a long couple of days: Sunday he was doing better, and no longer critical, he was released out of PICU and able to go out to a regular room on the pediatric floor. That way he could have more visitors (ie:his sisters could some and dote on him all they wanted...) (the PICU Dr. even said that was definitely one of her considerations to releasing him to the ped's floor). There were/are plusses and minuses to that. Having been through this part of the Hospital once before, we knew that it was great news, as it meant he was doing so well, but also that we would have to deal with the staff. There is comfort in the continuity of care, of having basically one (or limited) care givers. They know the history, they know what they have been doing for you so far, and so can build on that base. When you are out on the floor, you have to deal with multiple care providers, interns and students. You have countless people coming in and out of your room, often in a large group. They ask irritating questions, such as, "what has he eaten recently?" or "How is he eating?" when he has NOT been ALLOWED to EAT Anything for several days!!! Just the mention of food in front of him is rough, since you have to tell him no he can't have anything, because someone else has brought it up in front of him? (Bill and I had been taking turns going out of his room to eat, so that we didn't make him feel bad, and want food he couldn't have!)
It is aggravating to have to retell his whole medical history every time someone walks in the room, since they have NO idea who he is or what his situation is and what his treatment is or should be!
Liam, doesn't always warm up to new people in new situations very well. For that matter, it often takes a while for him to warm up to people he knows! SO... here we are in this new environment where it is quite scary, and mostly horrible, since he has been poked and prodded, probed and annoyed. You have each new nurse or student, and each new set of Dr, and their entourage, of students, that comes in the room and expects him to talk and interact and be happy to see them or something! Liam has basically shut down or tried to ignore when this parade comes through his room. He doesn't look at them, more often than not he frowns, and often cries. Some of them have shown a bit more compassion than others, and we appreciate them! Others, we want to string up, or possibly draw and quarter...
The first day he got the two IV's in his little arm, and all the other yucky things that he had to go through. At least whenever they needed MORE blood from him for this test or that, all they had to do was to get it through one of the i.v. lines already in place. By Monday, that was no longer working. They had to get blood from a vein directly. Well, this is like a world wrestling federation wrestling match! I have generally been laying on the bed half on top of him trying to help hold/pin him down. Bill has had to help hold his arms or legs to keep tehm from flailing or kicking, and at least two nurses have to work on it. Along with all of this, he is screaming, in hysteria, that "you can't do this to me!", "STOP! You're Hurting me!" Owie, owie, owie!, etc. etc. It is awful! I understand that they need some of these tests, however, sometimes, I think it is still just to 'check' a box on a list somewhere, and doggone it! If you don't have your BEST person come to the room to do this to my kid and get him on the first stick, instead of after a minimum of three sticks for everything he's had done, I think I am going to LOSE it!
This morning they wanted another blood draw, to make sure his platelets were up and that his clotting was good before doing the procedure. The nurse in the middle of the night comes in and mentions to me, during one of the countless times they came in to take his temp, or get his Blood Pressure, that they had it scheduled for 2 a.m.! WHAT?!?!?! I asked how long it would take to get the results back, she said it would depend on who was in the lab, etc. but average, an hour. I said, His procedure today wasn't scheduled until around NOON! couldn't they wait until a more humane hour of the day to do this? especially since he was actually sleeping through, most of the BP and Temp checks. She was able to put it off until about 5 am, but still... Of course somewhere around 3 am, they decided his temp was up, and that he needed tylenol or motrin. Now, he's had a fever low grade, sometimes higher than others, since we got here, and he had up to this point only had tylenol or motrin administered twice. But this time all of the sudden he 'required' it right now! While he is sound asleep at 3 in the morning! SO, we got to wake him as they are trying to shove it down his throat, (squirt it, into his mouth), and he is fighting and spitting it out. Not so pleasant either.
The blood draw was horrible! They are telling us that the UAB Dr's (in charge of the Ped's floor) want two more blood draws from him (one today/tonight, and one int he morning). However the G.I. Dr. who did his actual procedures, told us he doesn't require any more at all. He told us he'd try to talk to them, but I don't know that it will do that much good. We can try to refuse, but it might get ugly.
Anyway, we have been through all sorts of crazy emotions! Fear being at the top of the list! I have been amazingly able to hold it together this time. I really like the t.v. show House, where people with strange illnesses come in and he and his team of Dr's try to figure out what the mystery diagnosis is to treat them or cure them or whatever it is. I however, really do NOT enjoy living an episode of the mystery illness show!
The original thought was a gastrointestinal bleed. Well, even that being the case, they had to find the reason for the bleed in the GI tract. The GI Dr. figured that if it was lower GI the blood wouldn't have made it's way back up to the upper GI tract to be able to be vomited out. Although he only vomited the two times, it was clearly (he thought) an upper GI bleed.
Saturday, until they thought they had a good idea what was causing the bleeding, and they didn't see any more fresh bleeding, they didn't want him to eat or drink anything. His poor little mouth was dry and his lips were getting a bit cracked. Bill asked me if I had any lip stuff, and the only one I had, that I had grabbed out of the van while we were on our way into the hosp, and I put it in my pocket was a lightly tinted frosty pink. We used it a few times on him since his little lips were so dry. After he threw up in the ER, Sariah got him a wash cloth to wash off his mouth and teeth, etc. When we were up in the PICU room, he asked for something to chew on. Several of us had been chewing gum, so I hoped that wasn't what he was referring to. He doesn't usually chew gum (hasn't figured out how to NOT swallow it yet). It occurred to me that he was chewing on things
Sunday evening, Liam was finally able to eat something, albeit, only a clear liquid diet. He hadn't eaten anything since sometime Friday afternoon. He had fallen asleep before we got the pizza for the birthday party girls. Bill asked him if he wanted soup to eat. When the 'soup' arrived and it was just broth and didn't have any NOODLES in it, Liam was pretty unhappy! Poor little guy! He did try to eat some of it, with his sisters encouragement, however, it was so strong and salty, that he really didn't eat very much of it, and he even started coughing, from drinking in the salt. Poor kid. He wanted food so bad!
Monday morning Dr. Mc did an endoscopy. Liam had a slight bit of sedation through his IV line, and the procedure to take pic's of his upper GI and stomach, took only about 4-5 minutes. What it showed, were viscosity's, of the esophagus. It was in actuality one of the things he was looking for, although we were really hoping it was just a bacterial infection that had caused an ulcer somewhere and would be an easy fix with some antibiotics and some antacids.
He surmised that the esophageal viscosity's were a result of something called 'cavernous transition of the portal vein'. This would be the lesser of the possibilities for the problem that he was having. So, he was sent for another C.T. scan, this time of his stomach instead of his head, to determine what the cause of the varices. Then we came upstairs and Liam was finally allowed to actually EAT something. Soft, but food, something he could actually chew on... Mac n' Cheese, Mashed potatoes (or as Liam decided, it was 'yucky stuff'),Rice, ICE CREAM, and Chocolate Milk are however his favorites!
We waited most of the day for the results from the C.T. scan. We asked the UAB Dr. if those results were back, and she said she'd check on them. She called Dr. Mc and he told her he'd come talk to us. When he came over to talk to us about the results, he said he really wasn't sure about them, since none of the three Pediatric Radiologists were working on Monday. He had gotten sort of second hand info that the Radiologist (who generally only works with adults,) didn't think he had seen what Dr. Mc had been looking for. Which was not exactly good news, he tried to lay everything out for us, saying he didn't see how it could be the worse situation with cirrhosis of the liver, which would require care at a bigger medical center either in Nashville at Vanderbilt or in Atlanta. But, since Liam did not have any jaundice or high bilirubin counts, or any other signs, he didn't see how that could be the cause.
Dr. Mc said he had called one of the ped. radiologists at home to have him take a look at the ct scan, but hadn't heard back from him yet, so he really hated to tell us any of this. We told him that we understood that, but that we'd been waiting all day and had sort of pushed him to tell us something before he had all the info he wanted in order to talk to us. While we were talking, he got a phone call from the ped radiologist. He went out into the hallway, to talk. While he was gone, Bill, who had been trying to hold it together all day just broke... he'd been reading on line all day about various scenarios, and he knew what cirrhosis meant, Liver Transplant. Which also could mean a lifetime of worry about rejection, if we even got a liver to be able to transplant, etc, etc. I amazingly felt a little numb, I don't know why, but I just couldn't let myself deal with that as a possibility, until I heard that there were no other possible causes, and solutions. Since Dr. Mc wasn't ready to give in and go with that diagnosis, neither was I.
When he came back in he told us good news: which is subjective, since it wasn't the best news we had hoped to get that morning originally, but the ped radiologist confirmed what Dr. Mc hoped/thought, that is was the cavernous transformation of the portal vein. Basically what he described this to be is that the vein(s) taking blood flow into the liver, is blocked, somehow. A jumbled mass/mess of veins. As a result, the extra blood that was not making it's way into the liver, was being shunted back up to the esophagus, and with that extra blood volume and pressure, the veins in the esophagus expanded. Since the esophagus is soft tissue, there is just not a lot of protection for those enlarged veins, and they can be scraped or scratched by hard foods, or just break open from the pressure on it's own.
What this meant, however, was to go back in and band the viscosity's (under surgery, although for an adult it would be a procedure done just like, and during the endoscopy, but since he is little, the tool to do the banding, is small enough to fit, however, it could compress the airway, and so it needed to be done in the O.R.). What he would be doing was to go in and essentially tie off the vein that was enlarged and cut of the blood supply to it, so that it would no longer be enlarged, and the blood flow would stay where it was supposed to be, and over time the body would self heal and actusally should grow other pathways for the veins to the liver. DUrring his first 10 years this should get better and he should have outgrown it. (We can hope anyway).
There were three varicose veins, but one was large, and the others are still a bit smaller and will have to be done at some time most likely over the next year or so. It is also likely that over the next couple of years he might end up having more varicosities form, and needing them to be banded as well. At least we know some symptoms and idea's to watch for if he has more of these that bleed and will get him to help imediately. The GI Dr. did say it is good that we don't live out in the toolies, so we would be far away from help if we needed it... but on the other hand he didn't act like we should be freaking out or anything.
This morning, after taking blood, which was a horrible fight, three pokes, as I already stated, we saw the UAB Dr, and entourage, and the Dr. wanted two more blood draws, one tonight, and one tomorrow morning. We did ask that IF we had to do it, we requested the Nurse Richard again, since he was so good. However, after the procedure, we talked to Dr. Mc about it. He didn't feel like he needed any more blood tests. He is only the 'consulting' Dr. so he can't write orders, but he can give his oppinions, etc. He did that, but it never got changed in the orders by the UAB Dr's. When the night nurse came on tonight, she talked to us, and we told her that we felt like if the Dr. who actually was caring for him, ie: doing the procedures, and treating him, didn't feel it was necessary to get more blood, then that was good enough for us.
Now we are just hoping that we don't have problems with being released to go home tomorrow.
Wednesday, we are supposed to go home. The Pediatric Radiologist did ask for an ultrasound in the morning, before we leave, so that he has a base line to start with so we have something to follow, as Liam grows and we can see if there are changes.
As we have been going through all of this, I am thankful for family and friends. For everyone who stepped in and helped. It really is wonderful to know I don't have to worry about my other kids, and that everyone and everything is being taken care of. I'm also thankful for those that helped with meals, for my family as well as for us here. I'm also thankful to all those who were so willing to help. I am thankful for modern technology, and the ability of the Dr's to find and fix what is wrong. I am also thankful for technology and for being able to put Rebekah on video phone on the computer so that she can interact with Liam, and sing him songs and try to help him feel better, even though she is far away.
I am so thankful for prayer, and for all the many, many prayers that have been going out for Liam and my family. For family and friends, across the country and around the globe that have been praying for us, and also for those who have put Liam's name on the temple prayer rolls. And for friends of friends or family who have also been praying for my little man!
Well, that's most of the story... I have taken lots of pic's to document this newest adventure in our lives, and one day hope to get some of them put on here.
As for now, we had to plead, beg, fight, cajole and bribe Liam to finally get a dose of motrin into him earlier. It was about an hour process. After which, I told him he could have more ice cream, although he's had several different kinds today already. ;-) He finally took it, and then got to watch more movies, and daddy read him books, and I fed him ice cream! What a life... if only, he wasn't hurting, misserable, and in a hospital!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Marissa is 9 years old today!
Nine years ago today, Marissa Naomi came into our lives.
6. She likes to write special songs for her sister.
So, in honor of her birthday, I'll tell you NINE things about Marissa:
1. She likes to sing and dance!
2. She is a Fashionista!.JPG)
3. Marissa KICKS! She is now a 2nd degree Blue belt in karate! 
3. Marissa KICKS! She is now a 2nd degree Blue belt in karate! 4. She is "Beautiful" and "my best friend" by: Liam
5. She is a social Butterfly and usually has many BFF's.
6. She likes to write special songs for her sister. 7. She is very giving - and for presents at birthdays and Hollidays, she will offer up her favorite toys, or any money she might have as gifts.
8. She is Spunky!
9. She is our Little Japanese child.
It has been a lot of fun watching this energetic, fun loving, spirit grow up! She has kept us on our toes, made us laugh, and we look forward to watching as she grows into a beautiful young woman!
Happy Birthday Marissa!
missing life...
I've missed so many big events in the past few weeks! I've been fighting with my computer, with blogger, with finding my photo's, etc... so I just haven't blogged. I will rectify the situation soon. But today I have other things so...
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
I'm going to NY!!!!!
Today we are flying to NY and tomorrow we'll get to see Bekah! Yay!
I miss her! We will be moving her into her dorms on Friday. Fun times!
I hope to havbe lots of fun pic's next week to post!
(oh, and Liam's first day of school from last week as well!)
I miss her! We will be moving her into her dorms on Friday. Fun times!
I hope to havbe lots of fun pic's next week to post!
(oh, and Liam's first day of school from last week as well!)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Potty Training...
O.K. I just had to post this one! Liam is potty training. Well, he's basically done, but we still have to help him...
He LOVES wii, so that is what I held out for him to get him to go poopy in the potty, over the summer! It worked! He was going pee on the potty, but had never done the other on the pot, so over the summer, (once we got home from our cruise), I got serious. He couldn't go to pre-school if he wasn't potty trained, I had my motivations also... ;-)
We made potty sticker charts. He got special CAR's stickers that he picked out, if he pooped on the potty, but even that wasn't enough!!! So, I told him no more Wii until and unless he pooped in the potty! That didn't take him long at all! For most of the past month or more, he suddenly becamse quite 'regular' and would go nearly every morning, first thing, and then he would say, "Now, I can play Wii?!?!?!" in this high pitched sing songy voice, WHILE STILL SITTING ON THE potty!!! Too funny! It was a very good motivator.
So about two weeks ago, he had several days of multiple accendents. He was just being LAZY, and was too busy playing Wii, or picking out a movie to watch in the movie closet RIGHT across the hallay from the bathroom door!!!!! So, I said, "NO more Wii, until you have a full week of NO accidents!" He managed to not have once accidnet for the next week, and has begun to play Wii again.
Well, the next thing is... He still wants to remove his pants completely to go potty. He's still a bit short, (he's only 3 after all) and it's just easier to have him sit down, right now. But, he can't spread his knees far apart to hold himslef on the potty with pants around his ankles. I've been a bit woried about him 'needing' so much help when he starts school this week. He doesn't wipe himself either.. (I guess since girls wipe all the time, it isn't as big of a step to have them wipe one thing and then move on to the other... AND they were all trained much before this time frame!!! anywhere from 20 months to 2 1/2 yrs).
I have been trying to help him to learn to put his pants on all by himself! He's getting there, but still 'thinks' he needs help. I guess I am still helping somewhat, if nothing more than a cheer sqaud, as he does such a good job! I also lay them out on the floor in front of him the correct way, so he puts them on right.
So... the point ot this whole post?!?!?! A little while ago - He sits down, picks up his underwear, and starts singing to himself as he is trying to get himself dressed.
"You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in... and you shake it all about!"
It was so darn cute, I just had to write it down!
He LOVES wii, so that is what I held out for him to get him to go poopy in the potty, over the summer! It worked! He was going pee on the potty, but had never done the other on the pot, so over the summer, (once we got home from our cruise), I got serious. He couldn't go to pre-school if he wasn't potty trained, I had my motivations also... ;-)
We made potty sticker charts. He got special CAR's stickers that he picked out, if he pooped on the potty, but even that wasn't enough!!! So, I told him no more Wii until and unless he pooped in the potty! That didn't take him long at all! For most of the past month or more, he suddenly becamse quite 'regular' and would go nearly every morning, first thing, and then he would say, "Now, I can play Wii?!?!?!" in this high pitched sing songy voice, WHILE STILL SITTING ON THE potty!!! Too funny! It was a very good motivator.
So about two weeks ago, he had several days of multiple accendents. He was just being LAZY, and was too busy playing Wii, or picking out a movie to watch in the movie closet RIGHT across the hallay from the bathroom door!!!!! So, I said, "NO more Wii, until you have a full week of NO accidents!" He managed to not have once accidnet for the next week, and has begun to play Wii again.
Well, the next thing is... He still wants to remove his pants completely to go potty. He's still a bit short, (he's only 3 after all) and it's just easier to have him sit down, right now. But, he can't spread his knees far apart to hold himslef on the potty with pants around his ankles. I've been a bit woried about him 'needing' so much help when he starts school this week. He doesn't wipe himself either.. (I guess since girls wipe all the time, it isn't as big of a step to have them wipe one thing and then move on to the other... AND they were all trained much before this time frame!!! anywhere from 20 months to 2 1/2 yrs).
I have been trying to help him to learn to put his pants on all by himself! He's getting there, but still 'thinks' he needs help. I guess I am still helping somewhat, if nothing more than a cheer sqaud, as he does such a good job! I also lay them out on the floor in front of him the correct way, so he puts them on right.
So... the point ot this whole post?!?!?! A little while ago - He sits down, picks up his underwear, and starts singing to himself as he is trying to get himself dressed.
"You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in... and you shake it all about!"
It was so darn cute, I just had to write it down!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Searching for East of Eden...
Amanda switched classes from regular English, with obnoxious immature boys to Honors English this week. I'm glad she was able to switch (based on her grades from last year). I'm very proud of her! The down side right now, is that the summer reading she was supposed to have done for Honors English is two more books than what she already read for regular English 11, so... she has a LOT of reading to do. She started reading East of Eden yesterday... It is a 700 plus page book, and from what I understand heavy reading!
I had a thought tonight, if I had a copy of it as well, I could try to read along with her, and when she is just too tired to read, perhaps I could read aloud to her (and I would know what it was I was reading...).
So, DOES ANYONE have a copy of EAST OF EDEN, just hanging around on a shelf at home, that they wouldn't mind lending to me? and if so, would you mind bringing it to Church tomorrow so I could get it from you? That would be FABULOUS!!!!!! I will go ahead and say thank you in advance!!!!!
I had a thought tonight, if I had a copy of it as well, I could try to read along with her, and when she is just too tired to read, perhaps I could read aloud to her (and I would know what it was I was reading...).
So, DOES ANYONE have a copy of EAST OF EDEN, just hanging around on a shelf at home, that they wouldn't mind lending to me? and if so, would you mind bringing it to Church tomorrow so I could get it from you? That would be FABULOUS!!!!!! I will go ahead and say thank you in advance!!!!!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Another baby... :-)
I attended a birth last night. It was really sweet to be there with friends, to see a young mother be born at the birth of her baby... To see how a mom goes though this time, watching as her daughter becomes a mother. 
I work with mom's all the time: It is fun, exhausting, exciting, difficult, and awesome... But this one was different for me. I've known this young mother since she was in High school, I saw her in her prom dress, and she was the Young Woman that my young woman looked up to (as a new young Bee-Hive). Remembering back to the day I was able to attend their wedding, as she was sealed for time and all eternity to her sweetheart, and now, to be privileged to be there as that sweet young couple became a family of their own.
It is a bit overwhelming, looking forward to the day when that is me with my baby(s) all grown up, and becoming a mother. Realizing it is not all that far off in the future... I had to wipe at a tear or two today, thinking about these things.
Thank you to this sweet family for letting me be a part of their lives. 
Thank you to my family for being supportive of me and my desire to help mom's and families. For holding things together when I leave for a birth, late night phone calls that inturupt their sleep, and for being my additional cheering squad, and my sounding board when I get home. For sharing my joys, and listening when I need to vent!
Thank you to my family for being supportive of me and my desire to help mom's and families. For holding things together when I leave for a birth, late night phone calls that inturupt their sleep, and for being my additional cheering squad, and my sounding board when I get home. For sharing my joys, and listening when I need to vent! I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have to work with mom's, and for the desire in my heart to help mom's have beautiful births.
p.s. Baby P was born at 5:33 a.m. (labor really started at 11 p.m. on her due date), he was 8 lbs 4 oz, and a tall 23 1/2 inches long!!! The nurse measured several times to make sure that was correct!
He is adorable! and Mom did a fantastic job! A beautiful natural birth.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
When does the world slow down...?
I have had a busy summer. Rebekah Graduated from High School, left three days later, for three weeks. Was home for one week, gone to Especially for Youth for a week with Amanda. They returned home, and the following week Amanda and Sariah went to Girls camp for a week. Sariah came home and that afternoon we drove her to Mississippi to help out our friend who's husband is deployed to Afghanistan, and has three kids - a 7 yr old boy, and 22 month old twin girls. Amanda got word that it was official, she had a job. Summer higher - through the military on post. So she's been working, working, working. when she wasn't EFYing, Camping, or gone for Youth Conference. Sariah has been gone for nearly three weeks, but comes home this Friday. I attended the conference last week, 2 days after a birth. Meanwhile, Bill took Rebekah up to NY a week ago for College. While I was at the airport dropping them off, I got a phone call from a mom saying her water had broken, and that night I was off to the 4th birth of the summer... (the 2nd in under a week).
In between all of that, we took our cruise for a week, and Bill officially retired from the Army, though he started terminal leave long before and has been working at his new civilian job since April. He is gone this week on his first TDY to New Mexico. Hannah wished she could have gone with him to 'see' where she was born. Perhaps some time we'll go back for a visit.
And, on top of all of this... we've been rearranging, and moving everyone around! Liam is the only one who isn't moving/changing rooms this summer. We're not finished yet, but we are getting closer every day. After we get everyone to their new places, we'll get things painted and finished up... but for now the upstairs hallway is lined with boxes of all of Rebekah's stuff that we need to put up in the attic to store for her for the next several years. I know that some of the younger kids don't feel like it's been a very exciting summer at all, but, here it is only a few more weeks until school starts again.
When we get the rooms together we'll take pic's and show off all the changes.
In between all of that, we took our cruise for a week, and Bill officially retired from the Army, though he started terminal leave long before and has been working at his new civilian job since April. He is gone this week on his first TDY to New Mexico. Hannah wished she could have gone with him to 'see' where she was born. Perhaps some time we'll go back for a visit.
And, on top of all of this... we've been rearranging, and moving everyone around! Liam is the only one who isn't moving/changing rooms this summer. We're not finished yet, but we are getting closer every day. After we get everyone to their new places, we'll get things painted and finished up... but for now the upstairs hallway is lined with boxes of all of Rebekah's stuff that we need to put up in the attic to store for her for the next several years. I know that some of the younger kids don't feel like it's been a very exciting summer at all, but, here it is only a few more weeks until school starts again.
When we get the rooms together we'll take pic's and show off all the changes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)