D & M

What a month! I thought I had a lot to post about two weeks ago, but even more has happened since then. Here is a fun thing from this past Tuesday night. My parents were coming to town for a few days since we missed going up to Utah for the party. I thought it would be fun to do something out on the town and I knew my mom had been wanting to see Donny and Marie.

Luckily, one of our good friends from our USC ward happens to have an "in". His dad is the producer of the show! I texted Brynna and Austin and asked pretty please if they would be able to spare any tickets. As usual, she was super nice and hooked us up with four VIP tickets for Tuesday's show and a meet-and-greet afterwards. It was exciting and fun to look forward to, but I think we were all a little nervous about the meet-and-greet because it just seemed like it might be awkward.

So, we went to the show and it was fun! It was at the Flamingo and it was cool because all the seating was around tables and booths so it felt very intimate and personal (and a little old and tiny bit shabby if we're being honest - it's one of that last real theaters like that on the Strip). Donny and Marie would talk to the audience and come down a lot. In fact, there was one point in the show where Marie came down and was drawing lips on all the men with a tube of lipstick and I'm pretty sure she would have snagged my dad too if the song hadn't been about to end. Whew, missed a bullet on that one.

It was a good show and they work hard. My parents really enjoyed it and it was such a treat to go out and get the VIP treatment. In fact, when we picked up our tickets, there were supposed to be lanyards for the meet-and-greet with them, but they weren't there. I told the hostess and she was like, "Uh, can you tell me the name of who got you the tickets?" I gave her their dad's name and she immediately just got the lanyards with no questions asked. It's nice to have friends in high places!

After the show, we went to a little room and they had everyone line up to get pictures and autographs. We ended up talking most of the time to Austin's dad, though. It was nice to see a member of the Sperry clan again and to catch up on our friends. We are so lucky to have such generous and kind friends! Actually, I think the photos were supposed to cost money and only be hard copies, but Austin's dad again hooked us up. He told us to tell them our emails and they would email us digitals and if they asked any questions just to give his name.

Waiting for the show to begin. Showing off our fancy VIP lanyards.

Ryan fulfilled his family's life long goal and private joke of talking to Donny about their shared genealogy. Apparently, they're second cousins, twice removed. If that's hard to understand, Ryan's great-grandpa's GRANDPA is somehow related to Donny. So, yeah, way way back - which makes it all the more absurd to pretend that there is a close connection. We had lots of discussions about whether we should bring a fan chart with the common relative highlighted, whether Ryan should go up and hug him yelling "cousin", etc. In the end, Ryan did bring it up with a chuckle and they shook hands manfully saying "cuz."

My dad got a special hug from Marie since it was his birthday-ish. His actual 70th birthday was Monday and we went to the show on Tuesday, so it was like a little extra celebration.

A very exciting and fun night!

Pictures

I wanted to post a few pictures from recently. We went to the doctor this morning and Willa's radius has slipped to a 30 degree angle so we will be doing surgery in the morning to put rods in, but thankfully no pins or screws. The excitement around here never ends! I decided to take my friend Rachel's advice and escape into a good book. We went to the  library and I found two that I'm excited for. Tomorrow is my birthday and I plan to thoroughly enjoy the peace and quiet of the waiting room for a good hour or two. It will be a luxury to read with no interruptions. Rebecca is coming to stay at home with June. I'm  so thankful for insurance and good doctors!

 Family birthday cake:

Showing her Frozen "gown" as she calls them.

Beautiful Frozen dress and purple cast.

The cake was a disaster. I wanted to do a cake with the doll in the middle and the cake for a dress. You can buy the half dolls at Hobby Lobby. Since I didn't read any instructions or plan it out, unsurprisingly it didn't look too great. Once again, my propensity for function over form comes out. All the little girls loved the purple, though!

Opening presents. Note the helpful mom who took over and helped one-armed Willa unwrap so that I could take a photo.

Piñata time!

Sick June getting some teddy bear love. Our stake did this amazing carnival last week. A little boy got this bear for sixty tickets and then gave it to the girls. It has become June's second mother. Whenever I don't let her do something she runs over and hugs the teddy for moral support.

Willa turns FOUR

Amid all the broken arm drama, we had a birthday to celebrate! Willa turned four on Tuesday the 14th. She has been awaiting this day for a LONG time and even knew her birth date and could tell it to other people. She's never really had a friend party and I knew she wanted that experience, so we planned a simple park party for Wednesday. She has preschool on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning we usually have a park playdate with friends anyway. I just sent everyone a message who normally attends and said that we were going to have a little party and that they didn't have to bring presents, but they could expect to eat some cake.

When Tuesday came, I still wanted to celebrate a little with her, though. We got balloons at the store and decorated the house with streamers. I asked what she wanted to have for dinner and she said meatballs with ketchup :). I happily fed those to her while Ryan and I ate something else. After her bath, we let her open the family presents that she had been receiving in the mail. I think it's safe to say that all of her wildest dreams came true. We had zero Disney princess dresses. In fact, we only had one dress-up dress at all, which was a gift from Shannon two years ago! She REALLY wanted an Elsa dress. Rebecca got her Elsa AND Anna dresses, Grandma Daniels sent her an Elsa nightgown (which she promptly changed into) and a Frozen outfit. We gave her Snow White and Belle dresses (from the consignment sale), Bridgett got her a Rapunzel dress, and then a few days later we got a package from Shannon with a Sleeping Beauty nightgown and matching doll.

After the traumatic hospital experience, I bought her an Elsa and Anna doll as a reward. She has wanted one for SO long. Since she's the oldest, and I think since we just have Netflix instead of regular television, which makes it so she doesn't see commercials, she really hasn't known what toys are out there and I don't think about it a lot. Then, we'll go to a friend's house and she'll see a toy and be totally in awe that such a toy exists. A few months ago, we were somewhere and they had Anna and Elsa Barbies. She was so entranced and couldn't believe that there was such a wonderful thing. She has been asking and asking for Anna and Elsa dolls since then, and I keep telling her to wait for her birthday. She has been very patient for a little girl. Ryan and I also got her a set of Elephant and Piggie books that came with Gerald and Piggie plush toys. I was happy to see her get very excited about those too. We really haven't pushed the "princess" here, and it is kind of crazy how they pick it up from friends and culture. The princess crazy is very strong.

On Wednesday, I brought a cake to the playground with matching cups and plates. My friend also donated a filled pinata that had been sitting in her closet. It ended up being one of the most pleasant parties and park mornings! I had low expectations and didn't plan anything. The children just played until we called them over for cake. Then they played until we called them for presents. Then, we put up the pinata and everyone got plenty of turns to swing. It was also filled mainly with little toys, so there were plenty to go around and kids didn't get all greedy like they would with candy.

I am still in awe about how well it went. It was also nice because all the other moms were so helpful. Most of them have older children and have much more experience with everything, so they knew just what to do. Handing out slices of cake, refilling water, taking photos when I was helping Willa, or they helped Willa so I could take photos. They are really great ladies here and I'm very happy and grateful to have found them. 

I just have to add that this October has been CRAZY! Ryan's had a lot of job-related stress. Willa's arm, then her birthday. Then, on Thursday this week, the day after the party, June threw up. Normally, this would be a bummer, but this week it was much worse. My mom was throwing a super secret, super awesome 70th birthday surprise party for my dad on Saturday. He was going overnight fishing with a friend on Friday. We were supposed to fly in on Friday night and then when he got home on Saturday afternoon the entire family would be at the house to surprise him. My mom worked so hard putting everything together. Well, June started puking, and puking, and puking. She finally stopped around 11 pm on Thursday, but she was feverish all day Friday. Our flight was Friday afternoon and I was so scared that one of us would catch the flu from June and start puking on the airplane - since that would have been about 24 hours from when she first started getting sick. Or, that we would make it to Centerville, but spend the entire time cooped up sick in a bedroom and possibly pass it onto all my family there. I was also really nervous that we would get it on Sunday and it would prevent us from catching our flight home. Willa has an important doctor's appointment early Monday morning that we can't miss. I had to cancel the tickets and we stayed home. Thankfully, it was Southwest, so we can use the vouchers another time, but it was just a huge disappointment for everyone. Willa kept asking if we were going to Grandma's house, and didn't understand why I couldn't leave sick June with daddy. I felt badly because my mom had really worked so hard to make this party happen and we were supposed to get a big family photo there. We had a fun day yesterday, and I'm feeling okay about everything, but it just seems like this month keeps hitting us with one thing or another. I was telling Ryan the other day that I was feeling very stressed but couldn't remember why, but then I counted up everything going on and realized THAT was why.

The good thing is that none of us got sick. Ryan and I were so paranoid on Friday that we felt sick all day. Have you ever had that feeling when you know the stomach flu might be coming? I get too nervous to eat anything because I don't want to throw it up, but then I realize that my stomach might be hurting because it's hungry and not because it's sick. It's always a little dance I do. Am I sick, am I well? I freak myself out. But, we are all well! We've also had a lot of good family moments and a lot of peace and calm this month, which has helped between all the storms. So that's the update, the good with the bad.

Ryan Runs Again!

On Saturday morning, Ryan ran a half marathon with his running group. Their coach urged everyone to sign up and had been building the workouts around the race. We were really excited because Ryan was feeling good and it was just going to be a fun time. Then, Willa broke her arm on Friday night and that took some of the fun out of it, but I decided that if the girls were doing okay in the morning, I would take them to the finish line.

The race was at 7:00 am and Ryan said not to expect him before 8:15. We got there around 8:00 and were able to get near the finish line. It was just a nice day. The 5K was finishing up and then two extremely fast runners in black jerseys came in. I was a little disappointed because they were from a different team and if they were first and second place, that meant Ryan had to beat his teammates to just get third place, which might be difficult. Well, tada! In comes a yellow jersey. It was Ryan! I was a little surprised, but mostly very excited and happy for him. He won third place and had a personal best of 1:15! That's like an average of a 5.45 mile. When I run these days if I can do half that fast then I feel pretty good about myself. He was flying! The girls and I started cheering and he waved to us as he finished. He was speedy, speedy, speedy and still had lots of energy at the end of the race.

It was a very fun race and he also won $100 purse! If only he could quit his job and run several races a day. It was really fun having his team there. They were all cheering and we were cheering as they came in one after another. His whole team did really well. Their coach road her bike alongside them and would encourage them or urge them to break away at times. It was nice having friends there and to feel like people were cheering him on. He's not the speediest guy in the shorter runs, but he's built up more endurance and it really showed in this race.

I'm kicking myself for not getting a family photo after the race because it was such a nice day and a nice time. This is a photo of Ryan and Bryce, the other white guy on the team.

After the main winners had come in and the other runners were just trickling in, Willa wanted to run and have us clap for her. She would sneak to the finish line and run through it while we clapped. I tried to hold her back and to have her go when there were no runners in sight, but one time I was scrambling after June and Willa ran through right as another guy was trying to finish. I felt so bad about it! After that, I decided it was time to take the girls out of there before we got in trouble.

ER becomes nightmare post-visit

After a very whiny and sad weekend with Willa, I called bright and early on Monday morning to set up an appointment with the pediatric orthopedist. The hospital told us to call and said he was contracted by them and obligated to see her on Monday. The office was pretty busy, but they had an afternoon appointment. The thing was, this doctor was on our Tier II coverage for insurance so he would cost a little more than someone on our Tier I. They gave me the information for a Tier I doctor, so I called him to set up an appointment, but the very earliest he could see her was on Thursday. It doesn't sound like that long, but it would have been nearly a week after the break and the hospital hadn't set her bone, and kids' bones heal really quickly. I hemmed and hawed and then decided that we just needed to get this done, so I went to the Monday doctor.

They had to double book us to get us in, so the waiting time was loooong. We finally got in and the nurse started commenting strangely about the hospital's notes. I didn't really understand what she was saying. That's until the doctor came in and looked at the notes and the hospital X-rays. Turns out, the hospital had completely misdiagnosed her! I'm so angry at them! They said it was a very mild fracture and would heal very easily. The doctor said it was a very, very bad and complicated break and that he would need to do surgery as soon as possible... TOMORROW! Meaning, we met on Monday and he wanted to do surgery on Tuesday. I was like, "Are the bones connected at all because they said it was a green stick fracture?" He was like, "Uh duh, lady. No, these bones are not connected, they're not even in the right place. We're going to have to do screws and pins and rods and all sorts of stuff." Not only that, but her radial head was out of joint, which is super serious and she couldn't extend her fingers which meant radial nerve damage. Grrrrr.

The icing on the cake was that he didn't think he would be able to set the bone. He told me that usually the hospital hooks the child up to the IV for pain and they set the bone there. He doubted that he would have enough pain medication at his office to do it. What the ?@!@*#&?!!!! Really, it was bad. Plus, this doctor didn't have the best bedside manner so he wasn't the easiest person to talk to. Finally, he decided to do his own X-ray before we scheduled the surgery. He came back and said his own X-ray was much clearer. The break wasn't AS bad as he thought, but it was still pretty bad. The radial head wasn't as far out of position as it had appeared in the first X-ray, so he thought he could straighten the bone on his own before we tried surgery. Apparently, if the X-ray angle isn't just perfect, it's really hard to get a look at the radial head correctly. (Another fact I will tuck away in my brain in case I ever deal with another broken arm). He brought Willa in some oxycodon or hydrocodon and then came to set the bone. It was so sad. She screamed, but he pushed and pushed. Finally, after the cast had dried, we took one more X-ray. He had been able to significantly move the bone. It was originally at a 45 degree angle! He moved it back to 20 degrees or so, which he said is within the range for a child to have it grow back straight, but it might take 12-18 months! Surgery might still be necessary, but we went home that day. We are going back on Monday and they will X-ray it again, so we could possibly have surgery next week. One of the breaks is close to her elbow, which makes it really unstable.

I was pretty worried and stressed out after that, not to mention keeping both girls entertained in the doctor's office for almost three hours. However, since we've been home I've been feeling a lot better. Willa has been much happier. I feel so badly that she went the whole weekend with the dislocation in her elbow! No wonder it was bothering her so much. She cried a lot when he set the arm, but pretty soon after she was much happier (thanks, narcotics! Can I get some for our next road trip?). Even when those wore off, she was much happier. I think her arm must have been really, really painful and now that it is set better, it doesn't hurt as much. She's even been moving her hand a little and not screaming when I try to move it. The doctor said to work with it every day to extend the fingers so that she doesn't lose motion and muscle and all that. That's our saga. I hate ER's. I called this one and talked to the manager and complained. If there is any damage caused by their mistake, good thing I know an attorney who can get the damages covered :).

Broken Arm #2!

We were at the park yesterday afternoon when Willa jumped off a piece of playground equipment and broke her arm. She has jumped off of it a lot on other trips, but I think that Ryan maybe has helped catch her. I talking on the phone and a little distracted, so I feel guilty that I might have been able to catch her if I had been paying closer attention. As soon as she hit the ground, I saw her arm bend out of shape. She started crying pretty hard and cried even harder when I told her we were going to the hospital. She started walking but kind of fell down crying. I picked her up and I think June waddled behind us. We drove straight to the hospital and I called Ryan to meet us there since he was driving home from work. She did not want to go at all! Four is a hard age, they understand enough to be scared, but not enough to understand why we have to do things sometimes. 

The emergency room and whole thing was just annoying. It wasn't a horror story like you hear about, but it wasn't efficient and we were there almost four hours! Ryan got there soon after we did and he took June home while I stayed. I also had the brilliant idea to put Willa in the stroller, which helped so much to wheel her from place to place. The X-ray was super clear and it was obvious that both bones in her forearm were broken. Ulna and radius, I think. The good thing is that they are greenstick fractures, which means that bones bent and broke, but that they didn't break completely through. The doctor said they should heal quickly with no lingering problems. He also pretended to look away so I could take a photo of one of the X-rays. Nice guy!

Here is the annoying part. After the break had been diagnosed, they just needed to splint it and then we could go home. But, they wanted to give her some Tylenol with codein in it first because, duh, it hurt. We waited a whole HOUR to get the medicine. For some reason they didn't have it on the floor and had to call it in from the pharmacy, but it took forever! I could have left her, drove to CVS and gotten the prescription filled and been back in half the time. I wonder if the order got lost or forgotten. 

When we had very first gotten to the ER and talked to the nurse, she put us in a "quiet" room and said they would bring her some Motrin while we waited for a room and to get X-rays. Thirty minutes later, I went and asked where her medicine was. They just gave me blank stares and then I could hear them calling around and saying, "Oh, that's the one we've been waiting for to come to room 7 and to come to radiology." Really?! We were totally forgotten about and they were just wondering where we were. So after that, it wouldn't surprise me if something similar happened to get the medicine the second time. The nurses and staff were nice, but I just think that it wasn't run well, or something.

Willa was a basket case until I let her play a Strawberry Shortcake game on my phone until the battery got too low. I'm also used to children's hospitals and doctor's offices where there are lots of child friendly things available. There were no toys in our room and the television didn't have any kids shows. It was just a really uncomfortable place to be with a hurt, scared toddler who is up past her bedtime. Anyway, we got her fixed up with a fiberglass splint. We will go to the pediatric orthopedist on Monday. They like to do a splint for the first few days until the swelling goes down before they cast it. There wasn't a lot of swelling but her arm was bent funny. It was sad.

Can you see the slight bow in the forearm?

Under a warm blanket hanging out in the stroller. She kept her arm covered and didn't move it the entire time.

Finally, the splint and a Popsicle! When we first arrived and she was screaming in the waiting room, people just ignored us. On our way out when she was quiet with her cute little arm, there were lots of sighs from the peanut gallery at this cute, sad thing.

She slept pretty well last night, considering everything. I heard her a few times and went to check, but she was mainly crying out in her sleep after moving the wrong way with the cast on. Here is a picture this morning at Ryan's race. She really hates to wear the sling. They said it's mainly to help with the weight of the splint, so I don't press it with her.

As we were leaving the hospital, she asked if June would go to the hospital. We talked about that and she said that she would help talk to June about something happy to keep her from being scared. She started naming all these things and it was so cute. "Like, a splash pad is happy." I didn't mention to her that she didn't really seem to heed this advice earlier when I was trying to get her to calm down. Today was not perfect, but not too bad. She is getting used to it. Hopefully it won't be on too long! Since she broke her wrist at 18 months, has glasses, and now this - it makes me wonder what other physical ailments we are going to get with her :)!

Preschool!

Today was my first day doing preschool. It was exhausting but only two hours! Those little girls had lots of energy. I don't always realize how much Willa has matured over the last year with her attention span and sitting still. The youngest girls were here, there, and everywhere. June was the ringleader of the zaniness. She had to sit on a carpet square and then she distracted them from circle time with lots of silliness and laughing. She thought she was one of the big girls and there was a moment when they were all playing outside when she was right in the middle of all of them having a grand old time digging dirt.

Painting paper plates for our spider craft. It was a little hectic, but now I feel more confident about how to direct everything on Thursday. Then I'll have five weeks off until the next time, yay. Notice June having her own chair and insisting on doing everything.

June's well check

I finally got on the ball and scheduled June's eighteen month well-visit. One mom in our ward who has five children told me that she is always on time with their well visits because she's afraid the doctor will think that she's over her head if she is late.

The appointment was at 7:45 am! It is nearby and I thought an earlier appointment would help the girls go on their maximum amount of sleep possible. It was a success! June didn't cry at all and only had a little cry when she got her flu shot. It was funny going to early. We were in the waiting room for longer than I had expected when a man hurried through. It was our PA (we go to a pediatric practice and have a great PA named Dominic). As soon as he got in, the nurses admitted us and started everything. It was funny to me that he was running late.

June weighs 22 lbs, 14th percentile and was 32.5 inches, 64th percentile. I asked Dominic about her eating and admitted that she will go months without eating a vegetable. He is so relaxed. He said to give her a vitamin, let her eat what she wants, and not worry about it right now. So, candy for breakfast it is! Actually, tonight she was starving and refusing dinner and started yelling "cookie!" At least, I think that's what she was saying. I told her no cookie so then she climbed down and ran over to the bananas and yelled "nana!" It's her go to when she is hungry and doesn't like anything else.

I found this great photo of Ryan with the girls on Sunday morning. He is a good daddy and they love him.

June at 19 months

June has been so deserving of her own post for a long time. I was going to do it at 18 months, but it never happened. She is just such a firecracker. She adds so much spunk and laughter into our lives. I want to record some of her funny antics before I forget them. She is picking up new words nonstop and loves to try new sounds if she is in the mood. She loves to sing along with the hymns in church or anytime other people are singing, or if there is music on in the car. When we are having family prayers or blessing the food, she folds her arms and likes to make eye contact with a very triumphant look on her face that communicates, "Look how cool I am doing this." She also babbles along with the prayer and pretends she is saying it.

Many mornings when I shower, I put some Baby Einstein on the computer for her to watch in our bedroom. The other day I could hear her singing along and laughing. I checked in on her and she was singing to Beethoven's Fifth and then the Viennese Waltz. She loves those songs and gets a big kick out of singing "Duh duh duh DAHHHHH". It's not quite on pitch, but she does loves to yell out that last note with a big smile on her face. For the waltz, she mainly likes to sing the last four notes as "Ha ha Ha ha". It's super cute and of course, I think she's a super prodigy music child, but really she'll sing along with anything. She's just not as inhibited as other babies so she belts it if she feels like it. If I sing either of those little tunes, she'll recognize it and join in.

June is obsessed with shoes. I'm not sure if it's the shoes or the promise that we might be going somewhere. She brings me several pairs a day, starting early in the morning and says "shoes, shoes". She has also started experimenting wearing Willa's shoes and she points her little toes so cutely as she puts them on herself. She has also decided that she's big enough for the princess dress-up shoes, which are high heels! She holds onto the wall and wobbles slowly forward in them. Last night at the Thalman's, she came to me to take off her regular shoes, walked to their toy bin, found princess shoes, brought them to me to put them on, and then waddled off in search of the "big girls" who were already in their princess attire. It's amazing what the second child picks up on so early! Willa didn't really know about any of this stuff until the last year or so.

June has just discovered some negative words to say and they make me laugh every time. The first is "Dop!" (stop). She uses it multiple times a day when I'm trying to change her diaper, get her dressed, do her hair, or basically do anything that she doesn't want me to do. She uses it very appropriately and in context. The other thing she just started in the last week was shaking her head and saying, "Uh huh" for No. It's helpful and funny and annoying. "June, do you want a cheese stick?" "Uh, huh" - very helpful. "June, come get your jammies on." "Uh, huh" - not helpful, but funny.

She's been sleeping better, but is still the pickiest eater. I can get her to gnaw on a raw carrot and last week she ate a few peas from my spoon, yay!!! Usually, her diet consists of toast, oatmeal, cheerios, yogurt, apples, peanut butter, and grapes. She was doing well with Dino chicken nuggets, which I liked to give her for protein. We finished those off and replaced them with Mickey ones this week and she won't touch them.

She's started the phase of needing to do everything that Willa does. She loves her blankie and her animals. She loves to role play with animals and makes them hug whatever we're looking at in a book or she'll try to feed them with her spoon. She's doing better with Ryan and she is so-so on nursery. We love our June!