The Scariest Moment of My Life

I know that title might sound a little bit extreme, but this honestly was the scariest moment of my life (besides when my dad told me he had prostate cancer and I thought I heard him say he had pancreatic cancer... luckily that is all well behind us now).

In mid-January, I was sitting on Miles and Vivienne's floor reading a book to Vivienne.  I was sitting right beside the bunk bed ladder.  Evelyn was playing on the beds, which is not uncommon.  As she was coming back down the ladder, she fell right on her head right beside my foot.  She fell from about 4 feet off the ground, and she appeared to land directly on her head. 

She immediately started screaming that blood-curdling "I'm very VERY hurt" scream that you only hear about once a year.  I scooped her up, and she was thrashing around in my lap like an injured animal.  She asked for her blanket and her bear, but then she just started saying "ow ow ow" over and over again.  We tried to move her downstairs, but her wailing became so intense that we stopped in our bedroom and laid her on the bed. 

This was when I got really scared.  At this point, she stopped moving completely.  She had her head turned to the right and she wouldn't even move her head.  I could feel her moving her feet when I pressed them, but she was basically lying completely still and crying and moaning "ow ow ow" over and over.

Jason and I discussed whether this was a 911 type of moment, and I finally decided to go in the other room and call 911.  My biggest fear was that she had some kind of neck injury and that we had disturbed it or made it worse by picking her up and moving her.  The 911 operator asked me if I would like to have an ambulance (which I thought was odd, because I was calling her for her advice on whether we should get an ambulance?).  She said that the EMTs would be there in a few minutes, to be sure the front door is unlocked and to wait for them.  I texted my mom and one of my best friends, Pam,  to let them know that Evelyn was hurt.

I stood on the front porch until the ambulance arrived.  It only took a few minutes (which of course felt like years).  The EMTs came upstairs and fairly immediately recognized that she had a broken clavicle.  Upon hearing this, I fell into a puddle of tears, first with the "oh no" type of feeling and then with the "oh yay" (it's not a broken neck!) type of relieved tears. 

Somewhere in all of this, Pam and her husband came into our room.  They happened to be right down the street at a coffee shop on a date.  She was at our house no more than 5 minutes after I texted her.  I have told her that I will never, never forget that she came that night.  In retrospect, I think God knew that we would need them, and he made sure that they picked someplace really close for their coffee date.

The EMTs gave Evelyn a shot of morphine in her left shoulder.  She did not enjoy that, and kept on screaming.  He said that it should put her to sleep and that they could move her once she went to sleep.  She never fell asleep.  She never stopped screaming.  Jason had to carry her down the stairs to the gurney. 

My dad walked in the front door as Jason was carrying her down.  He was driving a new set of bunk beds to our house when this all happened (the irony is not lost on me).  He didn't see the texts that I had sent him about what happened, so he was totally shocked to see Evelyn in that state.

The EMTs pushed Evelyn to the ambulance on the gurney.  At that point, my mom arrived and Evelyn got to see Grandma for a moment.  When I got into the ambulance with her, she just kept saying "I want Grandma!"  So I ran back inside to retrieve Grandma and off to the hospital we went.  As soon as the ambulance started moving, she finally stopped crying (thank you, morphine!). 

After arriving at the hospital, Jason was able to find us.  Evelyn had this dazed look from the morphine and just being overwhelmed by the entire experience.

Daddy held up his phone so that she could watch Umizoomi.

Here are what her x-rays looked like.  It was a clean cut through the bone with the ends overlapping slightly.

The doctors at the hospital gave us a sling and asked us to try to immobilize her as much as possible (easier said than done!).  We got a prescription for Tylenol 3 (with a little codeine), which came in very hand the next day.  Here we are heading home in the van:

Evelyn was in pretty bad shape for a couple of days.  The first day, she wouldn't even really walk at all.  She was clearly in a lot of pain.  Every time we picked her up or moved her, she would cry out. We quickly learned to pick her up by her bottom instead of by her armpits.

She spent a lot of time on the couch watching TV with her "entourage" (as Jason calls it - her set of about 20 babies and stuffed animals that she insists come down with her every morning). 

It didn't take her long to fall asleep on the couch like this.

I got lots of extra snuggle time, but our girl couldn't keep her eyes open.  She wore these pajamas for about 3 or 4 days, I think.

We were so humbled by the sense of community when this all happened.  From meals to cookies to visitors with "get well soon" signs... we just received so much love.  The first smile we saw since her accident was over a blue frosted cookie from our neighbors.  

After a couple days, we visited the orthopaedic clinic.  They did x-rays and said to come back in 6 weeks.  It was a rough first few days, but she was back to her normal self in no time.

We go back for our final x-rays in just a few days.

Christmas 2014

Well, Christmas 2014 was a blur.  I got very sick just a few days before Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, I was so sick that I couldn't even get out of bed to set up the kids' presents and bake everything I had planned.  I was so disappointed that Christmas wasn't going to include some of the special things that I had hoped for this year.

While I was asleep in bed in a nauseous stupor, Jason (without my asking or prompting whatsoever) took the recipes that I had left in the kitchen, went to the grocery store to buy everything and stayed up until well after midnight cooking.  He also put out all of the children's Christmas gifts and set everything up.  I woke up on Christmas morning to discover that he had assembled the breakfast strata (which involved things like roasting the mushrooms before adding them... not your basic strata) and baked french toast.  I am so incredibly lucky to be married to such a dedicated and loving husband and daddy.

I don't have very much detailed memory of Christmas Day itself.  Grandma and Grandad came over to celebrate with us, which is always a treat.  We were able to eat a delicious meal on the back porch.  I love North Carolina winters.  The kids loved all of their toys.  Miles got a plane that he can assemble and disassemble.

Vivienne got roller skates and a bike and some princesses.

I can't even remember what we got Evelyn, but she seemed happy enough.

I spent most of the day sleeping and feeling like this:

But Christmas was nonetheless a great day to celebrate our Savior and our family and focus on what's really important.  I wish we could carry that into every other day of the year.  In the spirit of that ideal:  Merry Christmas, everybody!

Fairy Princess Patching

This little fairy princess had her follow-up at the ophthalmologist a couple weeks ago.  We will now be patching her right eye (her good eye) to get her left eye to work better.  She is supposed to wear her patch for 2-4 hours per day for at least the next 3 months.  Of course, Vivienne has been a total trooper about it and often wears her patch all day long because she likes it.  Let's just say she does not have issues with compliance.

Cutest little fairy pirate I ever did see, if I do say so myself.

Boone Trip - Happy 8th Anniversary!

We just got back from a weekend getaway to Boone, NC to celebrate our 8th anniversary (which was on December 10th).  It was an awesome few days together without the kids (who were gleefully spending the weekend at their grandparents' house).

On our first evening there, we had dinner at the Hob Knob Farm Cafe.  It's a farm-to-table restaurant in downtown Boone.  After our meal we stopped for some groceries and wine and headed to our cabin in the mountains.  After a long stretch of winding, steep roads, we arrived at our weekend home.  It was a perfect little cabin with a gas fireplace and rustic decor.

It was so nice to be able to sleep in, even though the latest I slept was 8:30.  I guess my body just can't sleep that late anymore.  We got up on Saturday, made a big pot of coffee, ate breakfast and lounged around for a while.  Then we headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Grandfather Mountain.

The drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway was gorgeous.  Even in December, the drive has many incredibly beautiful views.  The landscapes there are like something out of a fairy tale.  There are tons of horses and cows and Christmas tree farms.

We arrived at Grandfather Mountain only to discover that all of the hiking trails were closed due to "snow and ice."  The frustrating thing about this was that there wasn't much snow or ice.  I guess they were being very, very cautious.  Oh, well.

We just went a few miles down the road to the Tanawha trail.  We hiked for 5.5 miles round trip to the Linn Cove Viaduct.  The entire Tanawha trail is 13.5 miles long.  It was a strenuous and technical hike,  with many large rock staircases and large obstacles.  It was exactly the kind of hike we love most and the views were incredible.

We could not have asked for better weather.  Bright, blue cloudless sky, warm sun, hiking without coats in December in the mountains.  We did hit some very light patches of snow, but certainly nothing worth closing a trail over.  (Ahem.)

Jason had a hard time with his hiking boots and was very, very glad when were back at the car.

Saturday night, we had a great dinner at Vidalia in Boone.  Then we headed back to our cabin again to "sleep in" until 8 am.  Another big breakfast, and we said goodbye to the cabin.  Before heading back to Cary, we wanted to sneak in one more hike.  We decided to try Elk Knob State Park.

It was clear as we were parking the car that there would be a lot more snow on this hike.  We started out with our coats on, but quickly tied the around our waists.  This was a phenomenal hike.  It was 1.9 miles to the summit (just under 4 miles round trip).  We were hiking on a well established path through quiet, snowy woods.  It was a moderate hike, much easier than Tanawha, but the views were spectacular.  I would recommend this hike to anyone going to Boone.

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped to write each of the kids' names in the snow.  They were delighted when we showed them these photos back home.

We've been married 8 years now.  We moved 2000 miles.  We bought a house.  Jason has completed 4 Ironmans (with ridiculously good times) and countless marathons, including Boston.  We had 3 beautiful kids (and two at one time even!).  This is only the beginning.  Love you, Jason.

Occupational Therapy

A couple months ago, Miles' preschool teacher mentioned to me that he had difficulty with holding his pencil.  Even when he did grip his pencil correctly, he had difficulty applying enough pressure to get the pencil to write.  She suggested we consider occupational therapy.

My first step was to take him to Project Enlightenment.  A child psychologist did a full evaluation of him there, everything from vision to hearing to fine motor skills to social development to problem solving.  The results of that were that he was doing fine in all areas.

After that, I took him to a private physical therapy office (that also does occupational therapy) for an evaluation.  They determined that he does have a minor delay in fine motor skills, and that his delay is related to a deficiency in upper body and core strength.  I was surprised to hear this, considering how much time we spend outside running and jumping and playing on playgrounds.  This also spurred my memory of his pediatrician saying that he had "low tone" when he was about 6 months old.  His therapist, Abby, said that this is probably related to that.

Now, once a week, we take him to therapy.  He absolutely loves it.  He gets to roll down the hall on their scooter board, play games and make crafts with Abby.  She is a gem, and she says that he has already made lots of progress.

We need to spend more time doing wheelbarrows and crab walks and practicing with our pencils, but he has already made strides.  Abby said that he probably would only need about 6-8 weeks of therapy, which would have us ending some time in January.

Friendship Feast

The kids' preschool does a Friendship Feast for the 4-year-olds.  Two classes get together near lunchtime, one class dressed as Native Americans and the other class dressed as pilgrims.  They share a meal together.  And it is STINKIN' ADORABLE.  I seriously almost cried when Miles' class came in because they were so cute.  Miles' feast was last Friday, and he dressed as a Native American.  Vivienne's feast was today and she dressed as a pilgrim.  Jason took time off of work to come watch both kids' feasts.  I'm thankful that he has flexibility at work to attend events like these.

Vivienne's normal glasses are broken, so she is wearing her backups for now (which she does not like because they are slightly too big).  She kept leaning her head forward to be sure her pilgrim hat didn't fall off, and that caused her to be looking over her glasses.  I think she looked more like the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe than a pilgrim.  She was adorable nonetheless.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2014

The kids had been eagerly awaiting Halloween for about the last 12 months.  About once a month, they would ask me when we would wear costumes and go trick-or-treating again.  (I'm pretty sure I can thank the random Halloween episodes of Dora for that.)  Last night, their dream finally came true.  Miles decided he wanted to resurrect the space shuttle costume from last year (which made Mommy very happy).  Vivienne had her heart set on being a "butterfly with orange and black wings".   And Evelyn just had to settle for the free, hand-me-down adorable droopy ladybug costume.  I must say that our crew was quite the cute little posse.

I'm pretty sure we were the first trick-or-treaters in our subdivision.  The kids just could not wait another minute.  After Grandma arrived to join in the fun with her cute orange pumpkin t-shirt, we headed out in broad daylight with our pumpkins (and Evelyn carried her fuzzy monkey from Easter).  Our first stop was our next-door neighbors' house, and then we were off.  The kids lasted quite a while, but after a while, Evelyn decided she wanted to ride in the stroller.  Around 7:30, we came home with heavy pumpkins and tired legs.

After a couple pieces of candy, the kids quickly found their fake teeth and that's when things started to get a little hairy…

Already looking forward to Halloween 2015.  Surely the space shuttle will not fit by then and Miles will have to choose another costume.  Mars rover maybe?