Friday, March 22, 2013

Sydney Plays Soccer

 Sydney just started playing her first year of Soccer.  She was so excited about it, that she didn’t even take off her soccer jersey for three days (aside from showers).  She is hilarious.  The parents decided to name the team HIGHLIGHTERS.  Cute huh?
We were worried that Syd might hate soccer for the fact that the other kids steal the ball, but she loves it!  I was so surprised.  She doesn’t really go after the ball, but she does run up and down the field to follow the ball/crowd. She absolutely loves it  The sad part is, she has only had one game and now her arm is broken.  L  Poor girl.  She won’t be able to finish out the season, but at least we were able to get her in action!

 This is her friend Chase from school.  They are great friends, and were so happy to find out that they were on the same team.  There was a very sweet reunion every practice where they would run to each other and embrace in a giant hug.  It was so adorable!




Wednesday, March 20, 2013

No More Monkey Bars!

 Sydney has gone and got hurt....again.  2 Days ago I received a phone call from the Elementary school.  I picked up and listened as her teacher told me that Sydney had fallen off of the monkey bars at school and that she thought her arm was broken.  Now, I have seen two broken arms as a mother, two broken elbows to be exact. (Dylan fell while running on a tennis court, and Syd fell off of Grmandmas bed). Both times, they were a tad painful, but in the grand scheme of things, didn't worry me too much.  They got their casts on and the pain was gone and they were back running around within hours.  So, when I had received this phone call I figured, Oh crap, poor kid...shes is going to be in a cast for 6 wees!  I also thought, well lets just wait to hear what the nurse says...it is probably not that bad. While driving,  I calmly called Cameron to let him know, and then my brother in law to ask if I needed to go to the ER or the orthopedist if it was truly broken.  I clearly didn't think it was going to be a huge deal. Well, what I saw when I walked into that nurses room at the school is something I will not ever forget.  Her arm was hanging and bent a bit backwards on the bed at the elbow.  It clearly was broken.  I immediately cried out a couple of profanities, and proceeded to comfort Sydney (throwing down her backpack that I hand't seen was where her arm was rested).  Shit! Syd screamed and I immediately lost it.  This was not just a minor break.  Cameron called back in this exact moment and by the sound of my voice, he knew it was serious.  He quickly left work and met me at the ER, and Jason our family ER Dr. came as well.  Here was the xray:
When Jason saw it he said, "This is a bad break".  If you know Jason, there aren't many "bad" things, so that alarmed me.  It was a level 3, the worst kind. He and his partner both said they wouldn't feel comfortable working with her arm and that she needed to go to Childrens Hospital in Atlanta. So off we went to another ER.  

 They had to cut off her dress :(  (It was one of my favorites).  Here she is getting a split to help transport her to Atlanta a bit more manageable   Poor girl.  Every time we hit a bump in the road she would cry, "OW! stop shaking me!"
When we were able to get into an exam room, two clowns came in singing and blowing balloons.  It almost got a smile out of Sydney, but not quite.  They were great though and I was so grateful to them for keeping her so occupied.  Makes me want to do that someday!  

I don't have pics from when we were in her hospital room.  Sydney was pitiful.  It truly was awful and very reminiscent of her stay 4 years ago.  Sydney does not respond well to morphine.  It makes her super cranky,  tired and it doesn't work too well with managing her pain.  She was in a lot of pain and just would moan and moan.  She also had not eaten anything since 7 am that day, and it wasn't until 9:00pm that they were able to get her in for surgery.  When she came back from the surgery she was fast asleep, so Cameron snuck out and went home.  It wasn't 10 minutes later that Sydney woke up...and stayed up. All night.  I thought after the surgery it would be better, but to no avail, it was way worse.  She was in so much pain! It was so hard to see and so tough because there was nothing I could do.   Syd and I probably got about 3 hours of sleep total. She would wake up about every 15 minutes moaning, itching (from the meds), crying that her eyes were acting "crazy" and that she wanted to go home, and hyperventilating because of the pain.  It was horrible.  It was easily in my top 3 all time worst nights of my life. It is so hard to see your kid suffer and not be able to do anything about it. Nothing prepares you for that.

Anyway, the next afternoon she as able to get her "pipple cast" on and we were able to come home.  She is doing much better but still very pathetic and needy.  These pain meds work better, but still she is in pain.  

I never thought a broken arm could be so awful, but after looking at this xray, it makes sense and it makes me so incredibly grateful for modern medicine.  Here was her very first smile after getting her cast.  It was ready to go home!

Interesting note: It was brought to my attention that these breaks are very rare for kids this age, and that syds epilepsy meds might have caused a loss in her bone density.  Kids on these meds (the specific ones that she was on) have 2x more fractures like this, and often have osteoporosis.  I don't know if this was the case, but it sure is worth looking into. Now I am off to research how to build up that bone density...if possible.  Poor girl, she has been put through the ringer.

Monday, March 11, 2013

FAMILY!!!!


Macey :
Here are a few words that come to mind when I think of our little Macey:
Sweet – While painting the other day she started painting as if she was writing and wrote/said, “I love Sydney…. look mommy I wrote it”, and “I love Dylan too”.  She loves her brother and sister very much.  She is a sweetheart.
Aware- There are many times when I give Macey something to eat and she runs and tells Sydney, “I don’t think you can have this, it’s not good for your tummy, Right mommy, right?” She usually is right.
Tender- While watching a singer on American Idol one night, Macey turns to me, grabs my face and says, “Mommy, she is beautiful just like you”.   Heart melted.
Bossy- “Sydney, go to your room!” Enough said.
Baby- She still likes to be called a baby, but only when she is being cuddled and held.  She still is my best cuddler ever.  She is nearly 3 and she still loves to snuggle up with me and on top of me (like a baby).  I love it.  She still also sucks on her two fingers! 
Stink-  I just call Macey Stink and I am not sure why.  She likes it too since she thinks it’s funny. She is my little stink, or my binky dinky donker.  Don’t ask where these names came from, but she loves em. Funny thing, my mom called me this when I was a baby.  So odd, but not surprising since Macey is my baby twin.
Smarty Pants- She is so SHARP!  She will remember stories, and answer questions that I ask Sydney before Syd even has a chance to think about it.  She speaks way more than my other two did at age 3, and has a really large vocabulary and understanding. 
Silly- “Whatever”.  She says this a lot when trying to get a laugh.
Instigator- She will start little fights with Syd when she is in a mood, and she just pushes and pushes until Syd ends up crying. What are sisters for?
Fibber- At 2 she has learned to point the finger at her brother when something goes wrong.  “I don’t know, I think Dylan did it”.
Jokester- when reading books or telling stories she likes to make faces to make us all laugh.  She also does this thing where she says, “hes like …….” (and she moves her eyes to show you what the person in the book looks like). She will do this over and over again with each page of a book.  Just yesterday she saw a hat over a dogs eye and she says, “ heehheee mommy hes like…” and slams a hand over one eye while the other eye moved back and forth.  She is hilarious.
Sensitive- If Macey’s feelings have been hurt, she puts her fingers into her mouth and slowly walks away and/or hides her head while silent tears stream down her face. It is quite pathetic.
Immodest- she still refuses to wear clothing when inside the house.  In the mornings I have to take her naked (in her panties) to drop off the kids,  I come home, get her dressed to go to the gym, and the second she walks back into the house, you better believe her clothes are off before even walking up the stairs.  I have to wake her from nap time to get the kids, and often times I have to actually bring clothes in the car to change her into if we have errands to run.  UGH! She likes naked time.
Protector-  Macey really protects her sister Syd.  When their cousin was here recently and pushed Sydney, Macey came running in yelling, “Don’t hit Sydney”.  I was so proud! 
Pleaser- when she makes a mess or does something that she knows might upset me, (like spills her milk all over the couch this morning when she knows it is not supposed to be on the couch), she brings me the cup and says, “I’m sorry mommy”.  How can I be mad at that!?  She is going to be trouble!
Firecracker-  when I or the kids raise our voices at her, she sometimes has been known to yell back, “don’t well (yell) at me!”.  It’s pretty cute.  “Stop welling at me Sydney!” Attitude!

Sydney:
She is in LOVE with her sister.  When I pick Sydney up at school, the first thing that she does is climb in and give Macey a hug and say, “Macey, I missed you!” She always notices when Macey is away and it bothers her, A LOT.  I believe that Macey has been an integral part of Sydney’s learning and development.  Those two are two peas in a pod, and they kind of take care of each other and look out for one another.   
Cute story: We have been going to Speech therapy at UWG for a while now and we have a little system where the girls have sticks (in the back of my car) and we all have to hold on to the sticks when we walk through the parking lot and across the street (It seriously is like 2 blocks of dangerous walking terrain).  I found that this was the only way to keep us all together and safe (since holding hands always ended up with three kids crying and complaining).  Anyway, Sydney is always making sure that Macey is holding onto that stick before we even move.  It is so adorable.  And while we walk we all say over and over again (while laughing since I am hilarious), lets “stick” together.  Lol.  It’s funny, and sweet, and reminds me how great my kids are J, and how hilarious I am.  LOL.
We also just had yet another IEP meeting.  The second one in 4 months!  This one was great because I was able to talk about what Syds speech therapist,  Mrs Carolina,  works on with Syd at the College.  We were able to add a couple of goals and take off a couple as well, which was great.  She no longer needs to work on saying yes and no or her proper greetings with others, she doesn’t need daily assistance in the classroom, and she doesn’t need any academic goals (though we added one just for kicks).   It also was fun to hear how everyone thinks she is doing.  Again, they all said, she is exceeding most of the other students academically.  Wow.  And when I talked about reading next year, they offered nothing but great optimism.  They said she knows her letters probably better than anyone in the classroom; we just need to get her to talk more and tell us what she needs, voluntarily.  (She still will send her friends up to the teacher to tell her when she needs to go to the bathroom. SO FUNNY! But I think it really is just shyness). The most important goals right now are answering WH questions, and having longer length sentences (Mean Length of Utterance or MLU).  Here is for the best part of the meeting:  When we left, her teacher pulled me aside and told me (though she said she probably shouldn’t) that she along with the speech therapist both believes that Syd will catch up, and that this is just a matter of time.  I myself have believed that for the last 6 months, but it was great to hear that a professional feels the same way.  Woot woot!
Dylan: 
Recently Dylan has begun to really enjoy reading.  When I say enjoy, I mean he takes it to a whole new level for a first grader.  It is INSANE!  He now cries at night if we don’t let him go to bed with a book.  You would think we took his Skylanders away! It’s nuts!  He also is getting in the habit of reading a chapter book a day.  When I say chapter book, these are like Boxcar Children or the Magic Tree House series 120+ pages.  He is obsessed.  We go to the library once a week now and he gets 4 books to read that week, along with those, he has his school book (that he has a week to finish), and he is also reading the first Harry Potter book.  Intense huh?  It was only a year ago that he was reading site words! It blows my mind how fast this kid learns.  It is incredible!  And you wonder why my expectations are so high for Syd.  The teachers always have to remind me to not compare because Dylan is so advanced…but I don’t know where she is supposed to be, so I just look at where Dylan was at her age and she seems so far behind.  (And in truth she is still ahead of her class! )
Anyway, I never thought that the day would come where I had to yell at Dylan to stop reading, but wow, it has.  There are days when I have to literally grab his face so that he will hear me, look at him and ask him to put down his book and go outside, or go clean his room. He doesn’t hear anything when he is in the reading zone.  Is that crazy or what?  We went to his Grandmas house to see her (after they came back from a trip) and I had to argue with Dylan to go spend time with her and the family.  It is hilarious.  I am so proud of Dylan for keeping up with it, and enjoying it.  Just yesterday he was reading  I Survived the Titanic (which BTW, the I survived series is the greatest way to get a non-reader interested), and mid way through I asked him about it and he was nearly in tears.  His eyes were watering and he told me what was happening,  “mommy, there was only one life boat left and the boys family was all in it, but he had to be taken off of it because there wasn’t enough room”.  It was so sad, yet so great that he was so invested in it.  It made me so excited for him and so grateful for authors who write specifically for these young ages.  I honestly do not remember any books, aside from Roald Dahl that ever grabbed my attention.   
Dylan also has lost two teeth in the last month.  So now he is missing 3 on the top (since the other two were knocked out) and one on the bottom.  He looks hilarious, but so cute!  His reading teacher Mr. Bradley pulled out his second tooth and though I know that would have never happened in CA, I was so thankful for him.  I love the south! Cameron and I want NO part in the teeth pulling process, and if he wants to do it, then by all means, GO FOR IT!

Mommy and Daddy: 
We are so full of joy these days.  We have such amazing kids.  I think that every parent says this, but I really actually believe that we have the best kids on the planet.  We are so blessed with these sweet spirits, and we are humbled daily for the fact that we were entrusted with them.  Each of our kids brings something so unique into our lives, and I couldn't imagine a life without any/either of them in it.  Sometimes I try to think of life before them, and I can't.  I can't remember what life was like without that joy that children bring.  My brother Tim and his wife Angela just yesterday 3/10/2013 brought into the world, a perfect little baby boy;  Luke William West. Tim wrote on Facebook about how the only 5 times where he has felt such a sense of joy was with each birth of his children and the time when he asked his wife to marry him.  I fully agree and have experienced this, but I also often will cry in my car as I ponder about the joy that I have in my life.  I feel it all of the time, I am ALWAYS aware of it, and when I think about losing it, I actually feel pain.  I don;t want to ever be without this feeling.  Its a hard thing to describe, but I never truly knew what joy was until I had my children  and my family, and I pray that I never take that Joy for granted.  I am the luckist lady alive, and I want my family to know that.  I want my kids to know that my absolute favorite part of my day is at the end of every night when we say our family prayer and we throw our hands into a pile (all the while Macey and Sydney saying, "tips, tips" for fingertips) and raise out hands up saying "family".  We then end with a family hug, (more like a dog pile), and we all make sure to squeeze everyone.  I love it, there is NOTHING better than that! I get sad to think that someday we won't have that after our kids age and go off to college, but until then, I want to cherish every night when we do come together as family and celebrate that joy and goodness that we have together.  Family

Monday, March 4, 2013

Sisters Week in Georgia

I have been really behind with my blog lately.  So I will do some quick blogs to catch ya'll up to speed.
Antie Lindsay and Auntie Em came to visit us in GA!  It had been 2 and a half years since we had seen Lindsay.  We had a great time!!

Ice Skating time!  This same day we went to The Varsity as well and treated the kids to a real southern tradition.
 Fun at home:
 Monkey Joes:
 Lake Day:
 Pedicures thanks to Angela! She called ahead and had the people go and get Martinelli's for us.  So fun and so cute!  Made out date very memorable.  
 Legoland!
Photoshoot with Aliya and Dylan: