A Series of Unfortunate Events

Trust me, I would rather be blogging about what an amazing time we had at Aspen Grove, Everett learning to walk, or even Hudson learning to make his own bed, but unfortunately I have to blog about another broken bone. You ask why I have to? Well, several reasons really. 1. Word gets around and people ask details, so it saves me time (selfish, I know) 2. Sadie would ask years from now why we journaled Hudson's broken arm and skipped over her broken leg 3. We would look like abusers if we tried to hide it.

I now feel I have every reason to be totally paranoid about my kids getting injured. But what am I to do? How can I predict these unfortunate events? Is the solution for them to never jump on a trampoline again? Maybe I am doing something wrong, it can't be milk or calcium, they both drink plenty of milk, but maybe not enough of something else? Their genetic makeup? Somebody tell me because if I hear the word fracture or broken come from a doctors' mouth one more time I am going to lock us in the basement! Or at least take Mike up on his idea of making bubble wrap clothing for our children.


Alright the story. We were loving our vacation at Aspen Grove with Steve's family. The place is a dream (more on that later). After picking up Sadie from her day camp on Wednesday we noticed Sadie wouldn't put weight on her left leg. I thought at first that it might have been cramped or asleep, but it persisted. I asked Sadie and she said, "my friend hurt me and that wasn't nice, and they wouldn't stop jumping." I went to her camp counselor and asked if they knew of a time when Sadie fell or hurt her leg. The counselor said that on the tramp Sadie started crying and they thought she hurt her ankle. (She didn't fall off, these tramps look impossible to get injured on). She didn't complain after they picked her up and then they went down for naps and were picked up by parents. Adam assessed and said if she didn't put weight on it in the morning to get an X-Ray.


This morning I took her to urgent care and the doctor said "cortical compression fracture of the tibia". There are two hairline fractures, one by her knee and the other close to the ankle. We see the pediatric orthopedist Monday that we just discharged Hudson from last week. Unbelievable, I am in shock, but could be worse.

Tribute to Dad

There are three wonderful Dads I need to acknowledge today. My own Dad, Steve's Dad, and my kids' Dad.


Ten things I love about Dad
1. When I was a child gave us piggy back rides to bed
2. I don't think I would have learned to water ski with any other Dad. He is VERY patient and determined.
3. He taught me how to throw a softball, and I was always amazed how he never used a glove.
4. He would take us to the track to run together.
5. He taught me about money and how to use it.
6. He is always there to talk politics with me.
7. Always believed I could accomplish ANYTHING. It was never uncommon for him to say "I think you would be great at that".
8. My favorite words of Dad's are "phenomenal" and "skiwampus"
9. He loves my children
10. He ran marathons



Ten Things We Love about Tom
1. He will be there in times of need. I can remember Tom showing up in the middle of the night more than once.
2. Takes the kids on nature walks
3. Loves to hike, bike, and cross country ski
4. Teaches us about finances and budgeting
5. Extremely charitable.
6. Tells THE best jokes
7. He creates memorable experiences for the whole family (ie Aspen Grove)
8. If we ever have a family history question we know to go to Tom
9. He is extremely organized. Steve has borrowed many scout plans/activities from Tom that he has filed. These plans include map, packing list, and activities (all from things he did in the 80's and 90's)
10. Loves his grandkids




Ten Things we love about Dad
1. He absolutely adores his children. He is always saying, "Sadie's my girl" or "Everett is so handsome" or "Hudson is such a good kid"
2. He plays nonstop with the kids.
3. The kids love Daddy Day b/c he takes them to McDonald's, swimming, and they work together.
4. He works hard to provide for us
5. He explains how everything works to Hudson.
6. It is not uncommon to hear Hudson say, "Daddy needs to come home and fix this". If anything breaks Daddy always seems to figure out how to fix it.
7. He loves to play loud music and dance with the kids
8. He is goofy, usually having to do with dancing or playing his air guitar. He can get H and S laughing so hard to the point of wet pants.
9. He creates memorable experiences (Disneyland, Pinetop, Camping...)
10. His favorite thing is to be with us.

We love you Dad!

Events & Happenings

The last few weeks have been filled with adventure as we had back to back vacations from Huntington Beach with Uncle Dave and Aunt Ann's and followed by a trip to Colorado to spend a week with Mom, go to Carrie's shower, and run the Bolder Boulder (of course). This post is more for family history purposes rather than anything, so it's long.

Disneyland

We mostly went for Hudson since he has had an obsession with Mickey Mouse since he knew what the creature was. I have no idea how it all begins. I never remember introducing it. Anyway to our surprise Sadie loved every minute of Disneyland as well. She says her favorite ride was the Winnie the Pooh ride and she loved seeing the princesses and was convinced they were waving to her in the parade. Hudson's favorite rides were the roller coasters. He and Steve rode almost all of them. Steve said H seemed terrified during the ride but as soon as it was over he would say, "let's do it again!".


Steve and I had so much fun seeing the kids' excitement. I was even happy to sit with S and E as they took naps and Steve and Hudson rode the roller coasters. I never thought that time would come that I would enjoy missing a ride, but things don't sit quite the same anymore after having kids. We'll leave it at that. I just loved seeing my kids have so much fun. I am starting to understand how my parents loved to spoil us.


Uncle Dave and Aunt Ann's
I wish I had a picture of them with the kids. We had so much fun. Hopefully they felt the same :). Let me paint you a picture of how good they were to us. After a LONG day at Disneyland we walked in the door. I was carrying E who was drenched in Gatorade that he spilled all over himself, sticky hands from the sucker we gave him (see above pic, we were desperate), and he smelled like throw up b/c I accidentally gave him soy, and he had puked all over Steve earlier that day. H and S were covered in dirt and were in desperate need of a bath. So we walked in, Uncle Dave grabbed E (even though I warned him of the mess) changed him, BATHED him! In the meantime, Ann starts a bath, takes over with the other two kids, and before we could even get the kids PJ's out of their suitcase they were bathed and clean and ready for bed! We were amazed and think they are more than ready for grandparenthood. Aunt Ann also treated us with yummy meals and snacks for the go. We had a great time catching up with them in their lives and spending time with Josh as well.

The Beach

We were lazy on the beach and were able to catch up with Maly and Dan and meet beautiful Mansavanh. The kids were hilarious when the waves came . . . Hudson loved it, and couldn't get enough of it, Sadie ran all the way back to her towel, and Everett cried and wanted me to hold him (not the warm sink bath he is used to). He also consumed about half of the sand on the beach.

We also saw Dolphins! My first time to see wild dolphins.

Colorado

We ditched Daddy, who started his internship and took off to Colorado to see Grandma and Grandpa. When we were taking off in the plane Sadie said, "hold on Natalee!" I had no idea she knew my first name, or where that came from. It gave me a good laugh. The kids did great, but there was a crazy man sitting BEHIND Hudson who complained about the kids the whole time and actually blamed Hudson for spilling his drink. The whole thing is quite a funny story, but this post is becoming anything but brief, so I will move on.

Mom helped me improve my sewing skills and she showed me her new quilting skills. We had fun managing the kids and shopping as well. It was fun, crazy, and relaxing all in one. We were also able to go to Carrie's shower, which of course was a great party.

I was able to catch up with my Colorado friends as well.

I almost forgot to mention I beat Steve in the Boulder Bolder. Love you hon.

I now know why people think I look a lot like my brother Matt. Are you speed walking hon? :)

Anniversary

Oh, and how can I not mention celebrating the six best years of my life. My mom watched the kids while we had a Boulder getaway to celebrate. We love each other. We won't get mushy on the blog.

whew.

Everett's Allergies Cont...

Here is an update on Everett's food allergy situation. I received an email from a friend who's son has major food allergies. I found it so informative I thought I would just cut and paste (for those of you who are interested).

1. Most doctors (I would say at least 90%) are clueless about food allergies. They seem to get pet or pollen allergies but are not educated on the various symptons of food allergies. There is a website, I think it is for the Allergy and Anaphalaxis Network. Something like that. Try to see what you can find on there about possible symptoms for food allergies.
2. I recommend feeding your child nothing but rice (rice pasta is good, Trader Joes sells a brown rice bread, rice crackers, brown rice, rice milk, rice cereals both a hot kind like Bob's Red Mill and other cold like a gluten and corn free Rice Chex), chicken (seasoned with just salt and pepper), potatoes, and apples (best if lightly steamed or sauced). After a week or two of this kind of diet then slowly (maybe one thing every 3 or so days) add in one thing at a time. Corn allergies are quite common so I would definitely avoid corn as well as soy. This means nothing from corn: meal, syrup. starch, and the like. Other highly allergenic foods to avoid for a little while are nuts of all kinds, other legumes (the soybean is a legume) including pinto beans, eggs, wheat, and oats as they are closely related to wheat. It sounds like you have also removed milk. That is probably smart. If you are concerned about calcium there are some good liquid supplements out there.
3. Follow your instincts. The doctors told me (even one of the most well-known dermatologists at PCH) that Josh's problems were not food allergies. I knew they were wrong and the years have proved me right.
4. Read every label.
5. Try to not get discouraged. If taking away all the foods is not working then he might not have allergies. Still, sometimes it takes even 2 or more weeks after you have removed the offending food for the symptoms to alleviate. Your baby doesn't need dairy to survive like a lot of people say.
6. We have no history of food allergies on either side of our family. A and C seem to not be affected. We don't know why J has had all these problems but are glad that we know. So, if the doctors ask about family history and there isn't any that doesn't mean it isn't possible.
7. Throwing up...J used to throw up everytime he ate bananas, hot dogs, soy and other things. Recently Ch fixed us "dino nuggets" from Costco. There seems to be a soy ingredient (soy protein isolate) in those that caused him to vomit. But, he can have things with soy lecithin. We finally figured out that Hebrew National hot dogs have mustard seed so he can't tolerate those. And he has outgrown his banana allergy. J still gets hives from eggs. He is highly allergic to mustard seed, lentils, peanuts, tree nuts, pine nuts and eggs. I can cook with eggs now but he definitely can't eat them if they are not mixed into a recipe. Let me know what you think will work or what foods you are trying to avoid. I can give you some ideas about what to cook. FYI...eating to accomodate food allergies usually makes the grocery bill increase. Whole Foods (we call it Whole Paycheck) has many options for people with food allergies. Good rice in bulk can be purchased at Lee Lee on Dobson and Warner. I feel really blessed for all the times we have adjusted our meals for J. We eat better now because of it. J was allergic to my breast milk so I learned to eat a diet free of eggs, milk, nuts, wheat, and soy. It is possible.

So we have had Everett on the rice, potatoes, apple, chicken diet (I also had him on whole milk and yogurt, b/c I know he is not allergic to those) now for 12 days and he went throwup free for 10 days straight, which is a record since he was about 9 mo.'s old. (on day 10 he threw up randomly and I think he might have eaten something off the floor. Who knows). Anyway, I just started yesterday adding beans to his diet and so far so good. In a few days we will add another food and see how he does and we will continue with this until we hopefully figure out all of his allergies. Thanks for everyone's concern and we hope to get this problem solved!

Soy That's What it Is?

When Everett was nine months old he started throwing up every day or every other day. We saw 2 different doctors who suggested he had a sensitive gag reflex and the other said he had reflux. I wasn't convinced, the reflux meds did not work and the throwing up continued. I started thinking maybe he was allergic to dairy (since I knew a lot of kids who are) so I started substituting soy milk. That he threw up immediately. I talked to a friend at a family get together and she said, "maybe he is allergic to soy" which I had never even considered. We started avoiding it and he does better but still throws up about every 4-5 days. So I think there might be something else he is not tolerating. Other symptoms he has which might or might not be related are he coughs every day and it is common for him to have a gurgle in his throat. And randomly he broke out in hives last Sunday ( I gave him corn chex for the first time, but who knows??, I am scared to give him anything new!). Anyway, maybe there are others of you that have dealt with kids with these symptoms. Since we are not going to be able to see an allergist until the summer (insurance reasons) any advice would be great.

H: Mom, my arm is feeling much better. We can take this off now (referring to the cast).

Me: Um, actually Hudson you have to have it on for a month or longer.

H: Hmmm. Is that like 70 minutes?

Me: No, a lot longer.

This is going to be a long haul. Any ideas on what to do with a four-year-old with a cast? The Dr's ruled out "running, jumping, climbing, sand, and water." When I told Hudson that he started running as fast as he could around the room.

So I guess a lot of drawing, coloring, tv, and saran wrapping the cast. I was really hoping for an aquaplast cast (waterproof, which he had with his last broken arm) but they wouldn't give us one b/c he has above elbow (so was his last one). Oh, well. There are MUCH worse things in life. We will survive.

Colles Fracture

Well it started off as a great day. I dropped H off at preschool/joyschool and Sadie, E, and I were off to meet my sister for a little shopping. After a couple hours Sadie couldn't hold herself together anymore so I cut the trip short and decided to just wait in front of H's preschool until he got out (about 15 min early). A few minutes after I arrived my friend was carrying H and waving me to him. She said he fell off the tramp and his arm did not look good. I took one look and knew it was broken. There was a bow in the middle of his forearm. We wrapped it to his chest, dropped E and S off at Amy's (thank you so much Amy) and we were off the the ER. Hudson was not crying this whole time, he was in shock and very pale.

They gave him some morphine soon after we got there and after about a half hour he was feeling good. He had an IV in his right hand that was resting on a small pillow and as soon as the meds kicked in he said "this pillow feels really good."

We then got X-Rays and here are the results...

You can see that both bones are broken. We then waited four hours for pediatric orthopedics to come. During that time a volunteer asked H if he would like to play some video games. Which of course he said yes. So he and I played Shrek for the next four hours. It was mind numbing. At that point I was really wishing I would have stuck a book in my bag. I was grateful however that H was distracted during that time.

The orthopedic doc came and said they would set his arm. They gave H some meds that would make him forget the event and control the pain, plus he already had the morphine. This type of anesthesia doesn't put them completely under, he would still have his eyes open during the procedure. He put a chair to the side for me and said I could step out when the meds took effect if I wanted to. Typically I would love to see a procedure like this, but there is something about seeing your own child go through it. I could feel my heart starting to pound and my hands getting cold, so I stepped out.

It only took about 5 min and they called me back in. For the next 2-3 hours we stayed in recovery and this was probably the worst part b/c H was starving and all they would give him was popsicles (to make sure he could keep fluids down). Typically he would love getting endless popsicles, but not today. He kept telling me over and over he wanted dinner and I just kept telling him we would have to wait a while.

We finally were checked out and they sent him home with PBJ sandwhich, fish crackers, Gatorade, teddy grahams, and juice and he was very happy. He tried to convince me to let him eat there, but I told him other people needed the room. I couldn't believe he wanted to stay.

He slept great last night and has barely complained at all. The next few days we will just be bumming around the house. Dr's orders.

His first request this morning was that I get ALL of his snacks and toys from the "hostible" and put them right next to him. When I didn't pull all of them out he said "where are the fish crackers? oh, and that other sticker, all of it mom."

Saturday we go in and get his "real" cast. And by the way this is H's THIRD broken arm. This is the worst of the three and hopefully the last. And no I don't abuse him and as far as we know he does not have brittle bones. Yes, he drinks milk.

Thank goodness for good doctors, medication, friends, and family. Looks like everything is going to be just fine.