Future Basketball Player?

 

Morning Fun with Levi

 Every morning my kids wake up so early since the time changed.  I have been going with it since it gets dark so early too.  Today we had a doctor's appointment at 11:45 and I figured that would be perfect since Levi needed to get a nap in before we went.  Silly kiddos slept in- Levi an hour more than usual and Katie and hour and a half.  It still worked out and we made it to Katie's appointment easily.  It was quick and painless- just an xray to make sure her elbow hadn't moved.  On the way there I looked back and Katie and Levi were holding hands in the car- awwww!


I feel like I am getting sick so I let Katie watch a Princess show while Levi slept so I could lay on the couch for a little while before making dinner. I took the kids outside at the same time we usually wait for Dan. Levi hasn't been looking for him the past few days but everytime a car drove by tonight he would run down to the edge of the driveway yelling, "da da!"  :(  Guess he still misses him and hasn't forgot about Daddy yet.

I finally took them to the backyard so Levi wouldn't be sad anymore.  He was distracted by his basketball hoop and had a lot of fun putting the basketball in the hoop.  There was a lot of sorrow from both kids when they had to share the basketball :)  You would think one of them would like one of the many other balls that we have, but no- they both need the same one :)

 

We had stuffed shells.  They were pretty good, but I think using the same mixture and layering it like lasagna would be easier and just as good.  The recipe even suggested having a paper towel handy to wipe your fingers between shells to keep them looking neat.  Why do they need to look neat?  Once they were stuffed I covered them in sauce.

After dinner we tried to kill time playing shark in Uncle Matt's room.  Although I am not sure Uncle Matt gets his own room anymore since he has been staying at the beach the last few times he has visited.  Once the kids started to fall apart I knew it was bath time even though Katie insisted she wasnt tired.  She was.  Funny how they always insist that they arent.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

This morning started with a little more screaming and after a quick run to Target to get some acceptable tasting pain medication (and wine) things were going much more smoothly.  My Mom stayed the night so I was able to make chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  Both kids loved them.  I figure a few mini chocolate chips probably have as much sugar as the syrup that Katie dunks her pancakes in and they are sooo yummy!

Yesterday before our ER debacle I had started working on my Christmas lights out front.  It is only a little over a week until Thanksgiving and thankfully I have lots of family coming into town to hopefully hang out with all weekend, so I want this done early.  Before we went to bed last night my Mom and I put up some stuff until we blew a fuse.  Dan had some ideas for me to fix it and luckily one worked.  Today I got to add on and on.  I was having a lot of fun.  Every year we wrap the tree in front of our house and I wanted to do it this year too.  Dan usually climbs way up into the tree and makes it looks beautiful.  I was a little nervous to do that given our recent luck so I only wrapped a little but it still looks okay.  I am not quite done but happy with what is up so far.  (it's not on yet, just in place)

Levi came out and my Mom said that it was pretty and he kept saying, "pretty" over and over again :)

We even decorated their garden.  I hope it will keep it warm

My Mom stayed for dinner and I made a new shrimp fried rice recipe.  So good.  I wanted to eat it all :)  My Mom is good at portion control and it rubbed off tonight on me too.  Good peer pressure :)  The is only minor grumbling upstairs in the Katie-Levi co-sleeping bed so all good things today.  I hope they both actually do go to sleep.

The Calm Before the Storm

Before the whole ER debacule today we did have some fun getting out some Christmas stuff.  I figure that if we are leaving so early we may want to enjoy it a little early.  We put up some little trees and our stockings.

getting the trees out of the bag

Levi helped put the ornaments on the tree.  well he actually tried to eat them

figuring out which start goes with which tree

hanging up sleepy elles stocking

all set up

 

The ER- Volume 2

Things seemed to be going well today.  When Katie went up to get Levi from his nap I heard a big thud.  I go up there and Katie had tried to lift up her piano and the top popped off and all of the keys fell out everywhere.  My mom came over and we did our best to put it back together. Since it was such a beautiful day we decided to go outside. I decided to put up some Christmas lights so my mom took the kids for a wagon ride. Five minutes later I hear screams of agony getting closer. Apparently my mom let the kids out at Katie's 'mailbox'.  After getting the pretend mail a huge metal panel came loose and landed on her toe. By the time she got to me her toe was black and there was blood everywhere. Que more Tylenol and frozen to see if she would came down. She didn't. 

We headed of to the ER on base again.  The X-ray technician remembered her from a few nights ago luckily this this nothing was broken but they had to do something about the mounting pressure building up from all of the blood under her nail.

I knew it was going to be bad when they sent in two corpsman that wrapped her body up in a blanket to hold her down while they gave her this numbing agent. It was horrible.  She screamed so loudly and then they had to do the other side. They said the stuff tingled and burned.  Lovely. Mercifully it worked very quickly and they were able to clean it out.  Then they took this small needle drill and drilled two holes into her nail and squeezed the blood out.  I could not believe how much blood was under there.  About half way through one corpsman asked if she wanted to watch. The other guy quickly said that was a bad idea but Katie was curious and said she wanted to watch so we sat her up and she got to see them drain all the blood away. After I stopped feeling like I was going to faint it was interesting. Her toe went from black to a medium purple. They bandaged her up and showed me how to re bandage it and told me pus is good.  Really, puss is good?

We picked up icky del taco and ate at my parents house. After dinner Levi tripped over Katie's toe and it wasn't numb anymore. Poor babe. We'll see how tomorrow goes. She now says she is an X. Right elbow left toe bad other side good. 

Dont call CPS

Levi and I were playing while we were eating dinner and he stole my breadstick and ran away.  I chased him and he was having fun with me taking a little bite and then he would run away again.  Then I leaned in for a bite and he moved his finger and I bit down hard on his little finger :(  I felt his little bone.  He looked up at me with hurt little eyes and did a big cry.  He got over it quickly, but I felt bad.

Katie is sound asleep in bed and Levi is screaming his head off next to her.  Then he will jump on her and pull her hair.  Not sure if she is really that sleepy or has a career in acting coming up. 

Ugh. I went up there when Levi started standing on Katie's head and kissing her.  He had thrown up on his pillow.  Thinking he was sick I took him to my room and snuggled him.  Then he started sticking his fingers down his throat gagging himself and then giggling.  Really Levi?  Children are so weird.  I told him, "Levi go night night or Katie or bye bye"  Crossing my fingers and toes I think he understood.  He has calmed down and may actually be asleep . (knock on wood)

The days are long, but the years are short

We had a good morning.  My mom came over and we traced the kids with chalk.  I went to Lowes and got a few flowers to plant on the hill in front of our yard and we played a lot of My Little Ponies.  

Levi's chalk body

looks just like him

now it is time to trace grandma

get grandma

i should save her but it is kind of funny :)

After Levi's nap we went outside to try to burn as much time as possible before complete darkness set in.  We noticed that our neighbor's garage door was open and walked down to hang out for a bit.  They were putting up their Christmas lights and turned them on for a while.  The kids all ran around and had fun.  Katie spun until she fell over (don't tell the doc- I'm sure that's not okay) and rolled down the hill.  Levi marveled at all of the lights.  By the time we got home Katie was crying because she was itchy, her arm hurt, and her burnt finger hurt.  The only tylonel I had was the icky stuff she doesnt like. She had to down it quickly and then drink some milk.  Then Levi wacked her in the mouth with a wooden spoon.  that really helped her demeanor.  I heated up some leftovers and tried to convince the kids to eat.  Katie had to go potty and cried because she didn't think she could get her pants off fast enough with one hand :( :(  :(  She is so frustrated.  Neither kid really wanted to eat anything.  I even gave them applesauce for dessert and they still didnt want anything.

Then we played playdough dresses for barbies.  Katie usually loves this game but she was so frustrated that she could do anything with one hand.  She couldn't roll the playdough or pull it out of the cookie cutters or even open the package.  She was so sad.  I tried to help her do it but I was also trying to keep Levi from eating it all.  She finally decided it was too hard and we played a little. 

trying to work the cookie cutters

stamping play dough

 I was going to open a book that Dan had read when he got online and tried to talk to her.  She didn't want to talk and just cried a little.  It was horrible.  She is having such  a hard time with not being able to do anything and missing Daddy.  Ugh. I hate it.  I don't know what to do for her.  By that time everything was going wrong for her.  It tried to get them to the bath.  She didnt want to trashbag over her cast because it smelled funny- she didnt want to stool to rest on- her legs were itchy- snow white fell in the water- she wasnt done in the bath- sleepy elles cast was uncomfortable to cuddle with- she was cold- she didnt want to sleep with levi because he was too crazy- she didnt want to sleep in her room because she would be lonely.....


 I feel very overwhelmed.  I just want to get through the days but what a terrible way to live.  By the time Dan gets home, Katie will be almost 4 1/2 and Levi will be 19 months old.  And they plan to do this again in 2016. Tomorrow I am going to try to take the kids to Sunday School.  It starts exactly when Levi expects to take his morning nap and he cries if I leave him :(  Maybe I will put up my Christmas tree or something.  Seems like lights tend to make everything seem more merry. 

Living with a Cast and Police Helicopters

If you haven't figured this out, I pretty much only blog when I am away from Dan or my parents to let them know what's going on around home.  Mundane stuff.  

Katie has been getting used to life with a cast.  She can get on the toilet with a little help but can't rip the toilet paper off the roll yet :(  She did actually carry a stuffed animal with her cast hand today which was great for her.  She is having a lot of trouble eating with her left hand so I have to cut everything up really small and give her a sharp adult fork and still feed her a little.  It is quite a challenge feeding two kids and trying to eat myself.  We were very lucky that our awesome neighbor Lexi brought us a lasagna, bread, salad, and brownies so I didnt have to cook anything today.  Hopefully soon we can get back into a normal routine.  In the bath we wrap her arm in a trash bag with duck tape and she rests it on one of her stools.  We went to Target today to get some more Tylonel.  Apparently the stuff from the pharmacy tastes terrible.  We also got pens to sign her cast and tried to find Disney Princess movies with the free digital download (not easy)  When I went to give her the medicine tonight apparently we did not buy it :(  Not sure what happened.  It was in the cart but I didnt pay for it.....  Guess we will be back tomorrow.

 

Katie and Sleepy Elle are twinsies with matching casts now. 

When we got home from Target we drove by cops cars. As I was entering my neighborhood there were two helicopters circling giving us the description of a man they were looking for and oh by the way my garage door was wide open. WTF?!?!?  I drove to my neighbors house and had her watch my kids while I went inside to see if some creepy white dude wearing all black was in there.  Luckily I didn't find him.  Why does this stuff happen?  For some reason now that Dan is gone Katie doesn't want to sleep with Levi anymore even though she has been for the past few months :(  I need them to sleep together so he doesn't cry all night and I actually get to sleep.

Before Katie went to bed she listened to a story that Dan read for her.  Levi walked in the room and said, "Da Da!" looked around and then ran to the garage and started knocking on the door looking for him :(

Now, if the kiddos will actually go to sleep I will consider today a success :)  Everyone is still alive and more or less in one piece!

The Deployment Curse

It never fails that the stuff hits the fan as soon as your husband leaves. This time we got a jump start on it. Four hours before Dan was supposed to be at his deployment Katie did a backflip off the changing table while Levi was getting his diaper put on. Her elbow bent back all weird and she screamed and wouldn't stop crying even with pain meds and princess Sofia. We knew it was bad. I tried to hold her still and corral Levi while Dan frantically packed the rest of his stuff up.  We had planned to put the kids to bed and finish packing and hang out leisurely.  Instead we dropped Levi off with my dad and headed to the emergency room on base.

Thankfully the medicine eventually kicked in and she fell asleep. Dan got to stay with us after his report time and got to hold her while they put the initial cast on. After saying goodbye to daddy we still had to wait for the doc again and visit the pharmacy. We made it to my parents place around 2 am. She was scheduled for an appointment at 9 am so we all woke up early for that. Levi stayed with my parents and I took Katie to get her cast since she broke her elbow. She picked pink and purple. 

The novelty of having a cast has already worn off and she is realizing that she can't do what she wants to do. No more ice skating or swimming or sand or biking.  How in the world do you keep an active kid occupied without those things?  And the cast is heavy. She goes back in six days for another X-ray and four weeks to check it. Thank God I have my parents here to help. She can't even go pee by herself yet. I hope she gets used to it soon and can get back to herself. 

I figured this has to be the whole deployment curse, right?  Well when we got back to my parents Levi slammed their fireplace door shut and broke it spewing glass EVERYWHERE!!!!!!  Prayers please!