A New Year's Eve Tradition

Remember this owie from last year? Last year, as in, to the very day?

The morning of New Year's Eve we were getting ready to go roller skating...and I was a little worried how my accident prone boy would do. Broken bones? Sprained ankles? Cracked skull? And then, when we were still in the comfort of our own home, BANG! Sawyer ran right into the door and got a huge owie on his forehead! Kate was the only witness, so the details are a little sketchy. But I will say it is not he first time he has ran into a door. Or a door knob. Or a wall. But this was a little bigger than his average owie and he took a little longer to calm down.


We gave him some ice and he sat on the couch with it on it for a few minutes and then he was all better.

Today it looks much better. Not like the time he ran into the wall and was a rhinoceros for a week...remember that?

Anyway...

As I reminisced on our ER trip last year I remember that I didn't blog the pictures from it. My dad thought they might be a little too sad. Or graphic. So turn away if you don't want to see.

I'm warning you....


consider yourself warned...

here he is on Jen and Micheal's counter with the paramedics bandaging his head. See those hands with the red and purple sweater? Don't worry, that is me. I was actually trying to care for him while someone else took the pictures!

Here he is after our ambulance ride...when he was so mad at us he wouldn't make eye contact

And here he is while we were waiting for the anesthesia to wear off

I sure love my accident prone boy!

A tale of 3 hospital visits

My sister Dani had her baby at 1 am December 31 and I was lucky enough to be there taking pictures. I got home around 3 and fell into bed, exhausted. The next morning we woke up and started getting ready to go back and visit Dani. We were planning on taking the kids to meet their new cousin. Things were kinda crazy with lots of people around and nobody noticed Ethan and Sawyer jumping on the air mattress...which was adjacent to a sharp edged fireplace. The next thing I know I hear a bang and my dad saying, "oh no, thats going to be bad." I picked him up, saw all the blood, and ran away saying something like, "I can't do this!!" Luckily I had my mom, dad and brother in law. By the time I composed myself they had him laying on the counter with a sterile gauze covering the wound. His clothes were all bloody but I was able to get close to him and talk to him.Ui My sister called 911 and the ambulance soon arrived. They were afraid of a neck injury so they had to strap him to a little baby board with a tiny little neck brace. It was adorable and frightening at the same time. He hated being restrained and I think he was screaming more because of it than because of his injury. I rode in the ambulance with him and he calmed down about halfway to the hospital. He just kept saying, "All better." He really wanted out of that thing! We got to the Utah Valley ER which was just 4 floors below where my sister was in labor and delivery. The ER was full so we had to wait in the hallway for a room for a little bit. My dad had driven behind the ambulance and by the time he found us Sawyer was sitting there laying on the bed all strapped in and staring at the wall, completely ignoring us. By that point he was just plain mad! We had to wait a long time for the doctor and Sawyer just laid on his bed watching cartoons. Eventually he came in and decided to put him out for the stitches. He got a shot in the leg with the medicine, which he hated, and then shortly after was out. The Dr did the stitches while telling me funny stories. I did not make eye contact with the cut once but I'm told you could see skull. He had one stitch on the inside and 8 on the outside. While he was asleep the Dr also removed the staple that was in the back of Sawyer's head from a week ago when he had fallen out of a tree in Tucson and I had taken him to the ER there. I heard the Dr telling the nurses outside in the hall that he was going to prescribe bubble wrap for him. After we were all done I sat by his bed and waited for him to wake up. Grammie, Papa and Kate had come while he was still asleep and Kate was so excited to give him a balloon and a little stuffed dog. She brought it to him and just laid it on his sleeping chest. We had left the house in a whirlwind and she was following her mom's example and completely freaking out. Luckily I had my sister and mom there to calm her down, but she was still worried about him. The Dr warned me that he would be groggy and that he might even hallucinate or something. The first thing he said to me when he woke up was, "I all better." And it was true. He had to sit up and drink a little but we were soon released and we walked straight from our ER room to Dani's recovery room where we visited a little before going home completely exhausted. Ryan had just finished up at Baylor the day before and was driving from Houston up to meet us with all this stuff going on. I told him the next ER visit is his turn.

Today Sawyer keeps telling me "All better, band aid off!" but we still have a week to go. When Ryan saw it he said it was much bigger than I had told him. I thought I had heard the Dr say an inch (and I hadn't fully examined it, of course) but I guess it is more like an inch and a half. Ryan says it makes him more manly though and Sawyer's uncle Michael had bought him a little tool set to commemorate the event. Like when Kate had her stitches, I think it is hard to see my perfect little child's face with a potentially large scar. But what can you do?

All day I kept having flashbacks to it and having to shudder. But I just have to keep reminding myself that it is over and that he was taken care of and that everything looks great now. And it looks like I'm going to have to get used to it because he has proved time and again that he is one accident prone little boy!

**i forgot to mention the bruises he had already on his head. he had ran into the same fireplace and got the bruise in the middle of his forehead...then he ran straight into the kitchen counter and got the bruise on the right side of his forehead...when I left my kids with jen and michael as I was with dani in the hospital they jokingly said they would work on a matching bruise on the left. and now he has one only much much worse. seriously, I don't think you can be more accident prone than that!**

Weeeeeeee haw!

This morning while I was getting ready I overheard Ryan getting the kids dressed. They were laughing and giggling and having all sorts of fun it made me smile. I heard Saywer say "Weeeee haw!" (one of his new favorite words) and then a large "BANG!" followed by screams. I guess he was running in circles and ran right into the edge of the wall. I don't know if these pictures properly convey how ginormous and purple this thing is.
My favorite was, after he had calmed down, I sat him on the couch with ice on his head and I had him lean back on some pillows. I finished getting ready while he sat on the couch as still as can be with that ice on his head and he looked adorable. I wish I had taken a picture. Before we left we said family prayer and then the kids said their individual prayers. Sawyer likes to say his prayer all by himself. Usually you can't understand much but today he was going on and on and then he pointed to his head. I think he was making sure his point was getting across!
We are all praying for our little rhinoceros boy!

Kate's first ER visit

I love Costco. Costco always brings back memories of going with my mom in Tucson all the time and, of course, large chocolate covered ice cream bars....mmmm....
Unfortunately here in Houston we don't have a membership so we rarely get to go. Yesterday we were excited to head to Costco with our friend Melissa and her daughter Summer. We ate samples, picked up some jerky, vanilla and ziplock bags and then checked out and headed over to the food court for lunch. After we were done eating Kate and Summer headed to throw away the trash and, for some reason, Kate did a sudden and fast 180 and ran smack into the cart. I was a little ways away and I saw her fly backwards and then Melissa picked her up and started carrying to her. I started saying, "oh, she's okay!" but then Melissa said, "actually she's bleeding." Sure enough, above her eye she was bleeding quite heavily (as head injuries tend to do). As soon as I got to her I headed for the napkins and started applying pressure. I had several nice people ask me if I needed help, got me ice and then fortunately there was a Dr there eating pizza who came and introduced himself. I don't know if he was a pediatrician or not but he definitely had the bedside manner for it because he was totally sweet and reassuring for Kate. He looked at it and reassured me that there wasn't blood in the cornea and that her vision would be fine (which I wasn't even thinking about...but it was nice to be reassured of anyway!) and then he even took my hand, which was visibly trembling quite a bit (thanks Dad) and told me everything would be okay. He directed me to go to Texas Children's Hospital ER. I was so lucky that Melissa was there because she immediately offered to take Sawyer.
So Kate and I headed alone to the ER, singing songs and saying prayers the whole way there. I walked in and checked in and it really wasn't long before they called us back. (The nurse told me it was a lucky time to be at the ER because it was randomly really slow.) Everyone was really sweet. They brought Kate crayons and coloring pages. After a few people looked at it they decided to do 3 stitches and they taped a cotton ball of lidocaine on it, which took the pain away. Kate eventually calmed down and we had fun coloring. After about a 45 minute wait they came in and started setting everything up. They have a special person at TCH who comes in just to entertain and distract the kids while scary things are being done. Most of what she does you need your eyes to experience so mainly she just talked in a sweet voice. Kate calmly laid down on the table and closed her eyes and let them drape the paper over her. They had told her that her job was to sit as still as possible and she took her job really seriously, she did not move or talk or anything. They did the 3 stitches without a hitch and everyone was really impressed with how easy it was. Afterward Kate got a popsicle, juice box and some stickers and she ate them while we waited to be discharged.
After we left the hospital we headed to Target so Kate could choose some jellybeans from the jelly belly wall and a toy. She chose a Sleeping Beauty Barbie (her first Barbie!) and we also got Sawyer a Buzz Lightyear. I was glad we did because when we finally got to Melissa's 6 hours later (Thanks again Melissa!) he immediately ran to us and started crying. I can only imagine what he was thinking as we left him with Kate sobbing. He was easily consoled with Buzz!
The first night with the stitches she woke up at 3am crying and telling me her bandaids fell off, which she must have dreamed about because they were definitely still there. She has been really careful with them but she really hasn't complained about much pain. I am so proud of her, I think she has really handled everything like a big girl. And I'm just excited to see how it heals and what beautiful scar she's left with!
These pictures were all taken at the ER with my phone so pardon the quality.

Firsts in Galveston

First Ferry ride to our first time at Bolivar's beaches....covered to our waist in seaweed...so we turned around and rode the ferry for the second time back to Galveston

First time swimming in the ocean at sunset

First time in the ER for one of my kids. (I didn't take my camera in...and I call myself a blogger!) So my story will just have to suffice.

Ryan declared Saturday a family day so we planned on heading to Galveston. We spent the morning being kind of slow and lazy and cleaning the house. Right before we were ready to leave that afternoon, Kate and Sawyer were running down the hallway and Sawyer fell and came into the kitchen to Ryan with his mouth pouring blood. I have never seen so much blood coming from one of my kids. Ryan washed him up while I held him and eventually the bleeding stopped and I was able to take a peek inside his mouth. I didn't want to really pry in there since he had been through so much trauma but I could see a red line right on the inside of his cheek but it didn't look too deep. I consulted my nurse husband and he agreed that we could probably let it heal on its own. By that time Sawyer was happy with his popsicle and his mommy to snuggle.
We left for Galveston and rode the ferry and then headed in to have some dinner before hitting the beach. When I went to get Sawyer out of the car he said "ouch" and pointed to his cheek. He wasn't saying it like he was hurt, he was more just telling me it was there. I could see him rubbing his tongue on it.
(while I was editing pictures of the ferry ride I actually noticed this one with his tongue on his owie)

So I asked him to open and he did and what I saw made me instantly start to go into mother panic mode. It was like a giant tear/hole in his cheek! It looked so much worse than before! I don't know if he bit it more or if I just didn't have a good enough look the first time, but it was bad. Ryan decided the kids were hungry enough that we should let them eat first and then head to the ER. (Does that sound as ridiculous to you as it did to me?) Somehow he got me to agree and I hurried them through dinner. Sawyer, of course, ate all his chicken nuggets and oranges like a champ. It didn't even seem to bother him at all.
After about 20 minutes of circling around the Galveston hospital we finally found the emergency room (I would think it would be better marked) and I took him in. The place was empty and we got checked right in.
By this time I had decided he needed stitches. The hole seemed massive. And frankly, if I didn't think that....I wouldn't have come to the ER. The nurse practitioners in the ER looked and said it probably would need stitches but that he would probably need conscious sedation so he would tolerate it. I asked Ryan if that sounded okay to him and he said yes so they left to go start the paperwork. When they came back they said they had talked to the plastic surgeon upstairs and he had said that stitches would be too traumatic for a 2 year old and that since it wasn't all the way through his lip and wasn't continuously bleeding that it would be best to just let it heal on his own. We said okay and he went to go write the prescriptions for antibiotics to help prevent infection and Chlorhexedine to swish 2 times a day (Kelley, can you believe that a Dr actually recommended that for my 2 year old?) and I had to really accept the fact that we weren't leaving there with stitches. That was a little hard for me but I just had to trust them.
Luckily we were in and out of the ER in an hour and we were able to enjoy the last 15 minutes of sunlight jumping in the waves. Both my kids enjoyed every minute of it, running and jumping in and out of the water. Then we got some ice cream and headed home.
Today Sawyer's "ouch" is looking much better. When I ask him how his ouch is, he says "good" and he opens and shows it to me really well. It is actually healing really well. The human body is a miraculous thing and the mouth sure is a fast healer! And, through it all, it hasn't fazed Sawyer a bit! He even ran into something else today and got a big purple goose egg on his forehead to match.
I have a feeling this won't be my last ER visit with Sawyer!

ooops

ooops #1:
Yesterday was gorgeous. Seriously sunny and warm and just gorgeous. We were outside playing in the grass for a while and then we got out the charcoal BBQ to start dinner. Sawyer fell asleep on my lap (because he apparently isn't napping after daylight savings time) and so Kate was helping Daddy get things ready. Ryan started up the grill and went upstairs to get the food and Kate came down all by herself with a big blue blanket for us to have a picnic. She kept saying, "I am so excited to have this picnic!" and she was so proud of herself for bringing the big blanket downstairs all by herself. She started spreading it out and I looked up at her just in time to see her back into the BBQ and brace herself with her hand straight into the coals! I jumped up and put Sawyer on the blanket and then got her and started pouring water on it. It was hard to see what was going on because her hand was black from the coals. Ryan ran down when he heard her scream and brought her upstairs to get it taken care of. Once they walked away I looked around and there was Sawyer, laying on the blanket, sound asleep!
Kate had a hard night but slept well and was so happy when she woke up and it felt all better. Just a big blister to show for it!

ooops #2:
The first night we were camping the kids were playing cute in the dirt and leaves and so I sat down on a curb to watch. When I stood up I heard a little rip and to my dismay I turned around and found a small hole in one of my favorite pairs of shorts! Once I stopped feeling sorry for myself, it was small enough that I could still wear them and so we biked and had some fun. Before dinner started, I had to run to Target and I went to sit in the car and I heard a riiiiiiiiip and I stood up to find this:

Kate thought it was pretty hilarious. Guess there is no hope for patching them!

And these last pictures aren't so much an "ooops" as they are a cute!

Elephantitis

I've posted before about Sawyer's allergy to mosquito bites. Once we became aware of it, I was really diligent about bug spraying him....until I went on my trip to Tucson and unpacked my bug spray from my diaper bag and haven't really thought about it since. Then Saturday we went to the park and in a matter of minutes he had 3 on his arm. I borrowed a friend's spray and I thought he would be okay. The bites were a little bigger and redder than normal bites, but nothing more than expected for him. The next day I was sitting in church and I notice his hand was a little puffy. When we got home we gave him some Benadryl and kind of forgot about it. Then Ryan left for a meeting and I was bathing and jammying my kids before bedtime. We were chatting on the computer with my sisters when all of a sudden I look down and his hand was ginormous! It seriously looked like it was growing right in front of my eyes! I started calling my Dr (why do kids always get sick on the weekends?) and waited for a nurse to call me back and she gave me some advice and I put him to bed. This morning it still looked bad. Actually, it probably looked a lot worse! I had no idea what to do. Sawyer didn't seem bugged at all. He was sitting and playing just like normal...except for the one hand 3 times bigger than the rest of his body! so I took the poor kid to the Dr. He said it was more severe of a reaction because the 3 bites were all right by each other, but he wasn't worried. He said just to guard against infection he recommended antibiotics. Phew. His hand is still ginormous, but its nice to know now that I am doing the right things for it.
And I'm never leaving the house without bug spray again.

faffles for dinner

Last night Kate asked for faffles for dinner...

and what Kate wants, Kate gets....even though she's pooped her pants the last 2 days. WOW, she has one nice mom!! (really, I just didn't have any better ideas for dinner)

Kate loves to help me cook and she helped me stir in all the ingredients for the waffles with surprisingly little mess! Then I was making the syrup and she was asking to bring her chair over and help me. I was telling her "no, its too hot!" but then I let her bring it over to the counter next to the stove. I was stirring and telling her all about how hot it was and not to touch and all that over and over. Once it started to boil I turned the burner off and then brought it to the other front burner to add the flavoring. As I filled the teaspoon, about to dump it in, Kate says "I want to help!" and leans over and goes to put her hand RIGHT ON THE HOT BURNER!!! She may not understand how hot it is, but her mama sure has good reflexes because I jumped and threw the teaspoon in the air and maple flavor went everywhere and grabbed her hand. I'm pretty sure I stopped her and she didn't get burned, but she was a little startled. (I can't really blame her!) As she was crying I asked her if she got hurt and she held up one finger. It didn't look red or anything but I gave her some ice and sat her at the table and finished dinner. I cut up her waffle for her and gave it to her and then I saw her eating like this:

One finger on the ice the whole time! It was pretty darn funny!

Here are some random pictures of Kate and Sawyer hanging out on Kate's bed

and the other day I was looking at different blogs and I found one with short hair hairstyles and this was the first post on there. So Kate and I had fun this morning playing with her hair!

Kinda a funny do, but it was nice to have a bit of a change! Can't wait for it to grow so I can venture more into this fun hairstyle frontier!