Willa's cast comes off and she works toward breaking another bone

We met with the doctor on the 28th (last Monday). They looked at the arm and took the cast off. Hooray! They said with this type of break that we still need to be really careful with the arm for the next month.

Three months is the magic mark, and we have to go in then for one last x-ray. Until then, they told us to stay away from playgrounds and rough play. I asked if the PA (our doctor was out that day from his own surgery) if he had ever had young kids and that it was nearly impossible to not have rough play. For a four-year old, she will do just as much damage jumping on the furniture and running crazy at the house as she will at the playground, so I take her there and tell her to be careful. We have to burn the energy somehow.

The funniest story is that soon after the surgery when we just had the soft cast on, we went to the park where she originally broke her arm. As we were getting out of the car she started telling me how she could go jump again now that her big cast was off. I told her that it wasn't a good idea to jump very far, but during that park visit she was running around and climbed up on the very same structure where she broke it the first time and jumped off again!!! Though, she only climbed about two feet high instead of the 3-4 feet distance of when she broke it. That child is going to break another bone, I just know it.

Running like a crazy person after church, ready to trip and fall any minute. Our 1:30 pm church is finally over! We had 8:30 yesterday and it was marvelous. Home by noon then lunch, naps, and quiet time. It definitely beats getting home at 5 pm in the dark.

Attempting to break her arm again. She has been swinging from the monkey bars, but here she decided to just use them to balance her as she walked on the rope.

No cast!

My parents came for a few days after Christmas. Every house needs a ratio of 3:2 for adults per children. June like following Grandpa around the house to give him hugs and then climbing up on the couch to sit with him.

Doing Uncle Brandon's hair with some toys curling irons and a blow dryer. It was quite the wind-swept look.

I was folding Willa's blanket and found a long, thick lock of hair on it. "he horse needed a haircut," she told me.  It actually does look better this way.

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas with ourselves this year. Ryan's office was only closed Christmas Day and he didn't want to take days off since he's new, so we decided to stay in town. Rebecca and Brandon came for Christmas Eve dinner and then for breakfast Christmas morning. It worked out perfectly because Santa doesn't wrap presents at our house. The girls could get up and play with their Santa gifts until they came, we ate breakfast, and then all sat down to unwrap presents together. Poor June had been really crabby the afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve. She kept crying during the night and when I went in there she had become really congested. She would calm down and go back to sleep if I laid on the floor with my hand through the crib. After a few minutes of steady breathing, I would creep back to my room for a few more hours until she woke up again.

She mustered enough energy to be thrilled about her new pink car - she made a beeline for it and immediate began turning the wheel and trying to drive - but after that she needed an early nap. We put her down right as we were eating breakfast, which was a Christmas present to me because then I could enjoy the meal and opening presents without having a sick, whiney baby to hold.

Lincoln logs. It's just a starter set and she needs a grownup's help but I was glad to bring this toy into our home.

The lesson of this Christmas might be that if one child get a riding thingy, then the other child should get a riding thingy. Many tears and arguments were avoided. Willa lusted a little after the Crazy Coupe, but was very easily redirected to get on her wiggle bike.

Aunt Shannon's tea set has been a big hit. Willa adamantly wanted a Sofia dress (which she immediately changed into). It was a harder sell to tell her that the purple Rapunzel shoes would match the dress and that Santa couldn't find purple Sofia shoes.

The girls had adorable red silky jammies for Christmas Eve. Willa didn't want to put hers on at first, but then she saw it came with a matching cape (robe). Then, she was so embarrassed about how much she liked it that she wouldn't look at anyone the rest of the evening. You can see June is starting to lose it. Not the greatest picture of all four of us, but at least we're all in it.

It was a nice Christmas and nice to be together. It's the first time we've ever had a budget to buy a few more gifts which was nice and strange. The girls got so spoiled by grandparents and aunts and uncles that we hardly needed to get them anything from us. Christmas afternoon we headed to Brandon's parents' house in Henderson for dinner. It was great to be with the Kembles and the food was delicious. A very, merry Christmas!

Stake Music

Our Stake musical fireside was on Sunday and I played my harp. (It was a rough weekend for June to be sick since I had the stake fireside and also our ward's Christmas program that I was playing for. On Saturday, Ryan was setting up in the gym for the church party, I was playing for the choir rehearsal with a sick, feverish June on my lap as I played. Next year, no over-extending!)

I really felt the Spirit as I listened to the musical numbers. Our stake does a great job of putting this fireside together and there is a lot of talent. The only other stake fireside that rivals it was our stake in Bloomington, and I do have to say that Bloomington's would blow our one here out of the water. BUT, it's hardly a fair comparison since everyone participating in Bloomington was a grad student or a professor at one of the best music schools in the country. There was this amazing rendition of "Oh Holy Night" that left me in tears during the dress rehearsal and the real thing. I couldn't find it online, so I thought I'd leave you with two other great religious songs.

This one is "The Holy City" sung by Stanford Olsen and the MoTab. I love this song, I can't explain why.

This one is for my Latin friends. "Veni veni Emmanuel" by the King's Singers.

Santa and more

We all survived last weekend and managed to avoid the June Sickies 2.0. She had a lingering fever for a few days and just wanted to lay on my lap or nap in her bed the entire time. It was very out of character for her and I was planning on a doctor's visit the next day if she hadn't improved, but thankfully she woke up Monday and was herself again. After sleeping much of the weekend away, she was NOT sleepy for a Monday afternoon nap, though.

I took the girls to see a free Santa last week. It was pretty good, for being free. I haven't been a big fan of Santa photos in general, and think they're usually a waste of money, but then my friend told me how her mom put all their Santa photos in a giant framed collage and that it was really fun to see them age through the years. Suddenly, I'm a fan! I'm not fan enough to spend $17, though.

The photos turned out terrible, but it was a fun activity. Willa was very shy and nervous and very much wanted to sit on the bench next to Santa rather than on his lap. I was very proud of her for whispering that she wanted a Sofia dress when the big man asked. He was not the greatest Santa, though, and made a comment to me about hardly being able to hear her. Rude! June wanted nothing to do with him, and clung tightly to me. Santa made me sit on his lap, which I tried to decline, and will firmly decline next time when I have my wits about me. Hmmm, maybe $17 isn't so bad after all.

Willa has been playing so much better with June these days and it both warms my heart and makes things substantially easier. I love being able to make dinner to the sound of them playing together in the other room rather than whining at each other underfoot in the kitchen. They are getting very good at hugs and kisses. There is still some typical bickering going on and June is often the little rascal in these situations as she purposely teases or taunts Willa.

Here are some photos from Ryan's new office. We went to visit one day after June looked around the house and said, "Daddy, daddy?" I told her that daddy was at work and she said, "Come back!"

 

He doesn't work for Tropicana Entertainment. The firm name is above and the lighting was bad. If you want to know, shoot me an email. 

 June chillaxin'

I finally got around to getting a membership at the Children's Museum. We LOVE it and I only wish we had done it sooner. People who don't get memberships to museums or other similar places are crazy and here's why: it gets us out of the house, my children play instead of fight, it's a safe place, and it's something that engages them when they get bored of the usually library/park rotations that we have around the neighborhood. It's usually an amazing deal when you figure out how much one trip would cost. Now we can go as often as we want (several times a month, once we went three times in a week) and not have the pressure to stay for long periods of time. I know that some people are homebodies, but my kids gets so restless and they NEED to run around and explore a new space. If there is extra whining and bickering I know that we need to get out.

There is this adorable traveling exhibit right now of famous children's books. This is the snow angel from The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats which is one of my all time favorite books. I remember loving it as a child, and I love reading it to Willa now. "He walked with his feet pointed out like this. He walked with his feet pointed in like that." They had the footprints to walk in and a bunch of other fun things. They also had the coconut tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It had a really pulley/conveyor belt system thingy where you put the letters on the tree, they traveled up to the top, and then fell down. It's so fun!

I wrote too soon

Well, we got the surgery over with, but we did not avoid the flu! Ryan and I were out at his work Christmas party (which was held at the "Fantasy Suite" at The Palms) when our awesome babysitter Rilie texted to say that June had thrown up twice! Yikes! Poor June. Poor Rilie!

We thought we should remove ourselves home, taking time first to eat a cupcake each. The cupcakes coordinated with little gift bags. You got a gift bag that coordinated with the color of filling inside the cupcake. Ryan and I both ended up getting a yellow cream center inside. I was a little disappointed that we were each getting the same thing, until we opened the gift bags and found $50 cash inside each one. Saweet! It's nice working for a bigger firm :).

So, we hauled home and poor June had a fever. Rilie was a champ and is definitely the #1 babysitter in the history of the world. She kept everything clean, had the dirty clothes and trash from cleaning up wrapped in separate plastic bags. She managed to get Willa to bed and was holding a clean, but sick June. We told Rilie to wash her hands, take a shower when she got home, and wash all her clothing. Then we paid her a nice, fat amount for working under pressure. I hope she doesn't get sick!

The family who watched June while Willa was in surgery had the stomach flu about five days ago, but a good 48-72 hours had passed since they had been sick so I thought she was safe. Plus, it was a very clean home and I know the mom is on top of things. I'll just chalk this one up to fate and Ryan's family's weak stomach genes. Crossing our fingers that the rest of us don't get it!

Post-op

We avoided the stomach bug so far and had the surgery without incident. It was so short and simple, they said they could have done it in the office except it would have been very painful. So we had to go through the whole hassle of the hospital just for a little gas sedation. They didn't even need to do the IV sedation. It made we wish that we could have just stopped in at the nearest dental office instead of the hospital and have had them sedate her :).

Since the surgery had been pushed back, her arm had healed a lot more than  it would have if we had the surgery earlier. That meant a Christmas surprise of only a soft splint on her arm and no more hard cast! To celebrate, Willa was finally able to put on her Rapunzel dress that Bridgett got her for her birthday and that she has never been able to wear.

Surgery is always a pain and having a toddler wake up with anesthesia is no joke, but I am also so grateful that it was such a minor thing. We were at the children's hospital this time and it was sobering to see the new baby next to us going in for a five hour heart surgery . We got to leave the hospital just as they were starting on her. It definitely made us feel very grateful.

Ta da! Rapunzel dress at last!

Rollin' with the homies

This amazing new park opened up a few miles from our house. It is amazing and has all kinds of playground equipment that I had never seen before. My friend took this photo and it cracks me up. I love Willa's little arm up on the side of the car. Rollin' with the church homies, for sure.

That photo is unrelated to the current stress of the moment. I've got a dirty kitchen downstairs, a million things to do, and I'm a little stressed, so of course, I'm blogging.

Willa is scheduled to get the rods out of her arm tomorrow, yay!! It was an ordeal to schedule the surgery, she should have had them out last week, but since we were changing insurance with Ryan's new job, we pushed it back a week to give the doctor's office and hospital time to process it all. Then, the nurse called and said that they were moving her from a Tuesday 9 a.m. surgery to a Thursday 11 a.m. surgery. Of course, you can eat or drink anything eight hours before surgery, so Willa wouldn't be able to have anything all morning. Has anyone had a toddler who deals well with being hungry? I sure haven't. I was tossing and turning all night worrying about how I would deal with Willa when the day came. I was worried she would sneak food or just have a huge fit. Plus, June would be eating and it would be really hard for Willa. So I called the nurse and begged in my nicest voice explaining what a monster Willa would be if she had to wait that long for the surgery. So, the nurse nicely called around and switched the location of the surgery so now it is in a different place but at 8 a.m. Apparently, it's hard to schedule something at the end of the year because they are crowded from people meeting their deductible. Thankfully that was all settled. 

THEN, this morning a mom in our preschool co-op casually mentioned on Facebook that her daughter woke up with the barfies at 3 a.m. Since Willa had preschool with this girl at their house just yesterday, I am a stress case. I'm so worried that she's going to get it and we're going to have to cancel the surgery. There's nothing I can do about it now, so of course I sit and stew. I need to do some relaxation to calm myself. June got the stomach sickies and we had to cancel our Utah trip, so now I know from experience that bad things can and do happen! Hopefully, everything will go well, but for now I'm just stewing about Willa's behavior tonight and if it was the norm or if it seemed like she is coming down with it. That's our news! Hopefully you'll hear a happy surgery story tomorrow.