Yay for Spring

Tennessee has had gorgeous weather, and the park has been helping Caleb get his walking skills down again. Love this time of year!

Anndi With Hair... Mommy's Hair

Our gorgeous girl loves to smile at people. I was wondering what she'll look like with hair so...

A Week and a Half After the Casts Came Off...

Stage 1 - We took Caleb to the park. We played and played, carrying him from one thing to the next. My mom and Caleb played in this little house at the park that had a play kitchen. Caleb started trying to stand at the kitchen. Then, my dad took him into the parking lot to ride his little Harley toy. Next thing I knew, my dad called for us to look over. Caleb was standing on his own. I ran over to him and said "Good job Caleb!!!" and then asked him if he wanted to walk. He grabbed my hands and took two steps towards me, using my hands for support. Tears of joy!

Stage 2 - The Monkey Walk. This happened 9 days after the casts came off. Caleb liked to stand with his hands on the ground, so we taught him to take steps like that. We call it the "monkey walk."

Stage 3 - 10 days after the casts came off, Caleb had his Real First Steps, for the 2nd time in his life! We were so proud of him, he decided to walk and he could do it. He is now, 15 days after the casts came off, still tottering around. He has a hard time with balance and seems to get sore after too much walking. He used to be so fast, but I'm sure he'll get there again. I'm so happy he's walking.

Anndi is 2 Months Old!!

Anndi is growing!

10 lbs. 10 oz. - 50th percentile

23 1/2 in. - 90th percentile

(head is 70th to 90th percentile)

Anndi is very good at finding her hands. Sometimes she finds a finger to suck on.

I have used these little snow boots way more than anticipated! Love dressing her up.

Anndi fell in love with Katie Duncan. She never sleeps on people like this, but she just slumped into her and took a nice nap.

Good news and Bad news

The good news is the casts are off!So, that's progress. The bad news is Caleb cannot walk. I had unrealistic expectations, thinking that the day we got his casts off we'd head straight to chuck-e-cheese and he'd be running around like a crazy little toddler. Well, I was wrong. He has not even stood on his own.

He is making progress by crawling a few feet at a time. However, I am having SUCH a hard time with this. His legs look almost deformed. They are skinny and bent weird to the side. My athletic, coordinated little guy is hardly even crawling.

I am grateful, though. This is all temporary and he will be up and running again someday. I just dont know when that day will be.

The Kidlings

Caleb has been sporting his bright green and yellow full-leg casts for over three weeks now! A week from today, he will have x-rays done and hopefully get the big things removed. I weighed him today and he weighs 32.5 lbs. with these things on. He's putting some chub on in his face from being sedentary so much, too! I can't wait til he can run around again. To hear his pitter patter all over the house will brighten my life!

Saramarie came along and saved my life for a couple weeks. She has been staying with us and helping tremendously with entertaining, feeding, and taking care of Caleb. She's so much fun to have around. We all love her so much and will never forget how much she helped us in this difficult time!

Anndi is already a pretty princess and learning how to be the center of attention. We found Cozmo laying this way, acting like he's protecting her... or maybe he's just enjoying the soft blanket on the floor. Caleb loves Anndi and is so nice to her... unless he's cranky. He is a great big brother!

I Used to Love Snow...

I have felt that I should write down all the details about the day Caleb broke both of his legs sledding. So here it is!

Blake's family was in town from Utah, where they were snow-free. They came to visit, see miss Anndi, and be part of her baby blessing. While they were here, it was the worst snow storm in middle Tennessee since 2003. It was a layer of ice, then snow, then ice on top. On Friday, me, Caleb, my dad, and Thomas went out sledding on the golf course for a little while. Caleb absolutely loved it but we didn't find very good hills. The next day, Saturday, my dad and mom, and the Duncan's came over to take everyone sledding down a hill in our neighborhood. Some neighbors had gotten a bonfire going and were blocking the street so that it was relatively safe to sled down this giant hill.

The hill really was perfect for sledding. It had two ditches on each side of it, and if your sled went into the ditch then you just sledded all the way down in the ditch. On the right ditch there was a little "jump" that went up and over someone's driveway. Everyone was enjoying the jump. It was little but fairly steep so you could get some air if you were going fast enough. My dad went over it several times.

Caleb sledded down the hill with me a few times and Blake a few times. He loved the speed and would immediately say, "Again!" at the end of the hill. Finally, Caleb got to go down the hill with his Ga-Ga (my dad), and they went to get in the sled. They decided to get in a different sled than they had been using. It was a little more stiff than the other one, but hadn't been used yet so they went.

As they went down the hill, they slid into the ditch, which was just fine normally. They went to go over the "jump" but as they hit it, the stiffer sled would not give and just rammed into the jump and stopped. Their bodies rammed into the snow wall and Caleb's shins hit the end of the sled. Blake and I were going down the hill behind them on the road, and Blake saw their crash. It did not look bad from our angle but after a few seconds of trying to comfort Caleb, my dad called for my help. I ran over and held Caleb. He usually wants his Ga-Ga because he's so fun, but this time he kept saying, "Want Mommy. Want Mommy." That's when I knew something was up. I held him like a baby and rushed over to the bed of Duncan's truck and laid him down. He was moving all of his appendages, so I knew that he did not seriously injure his neck or his back. However, he was not calming down at all.

I tried a little trick that I usually do to calm him down, and I said, "Will you just stand here for a second so I can unzip your coat?" He would not put any weight on his legs. That was really weird. So, we rushed into the car where Blake's mom had been sitting and watching all the sledding. I looked at Caleb's face and aside from his pink cheeks and nose from the cold, his face was turning green. I recognized that from when Thomas broke his arm. I knew that his leg or legs must be broken.

We rushed into our house and took his boots and pants off. I took one glance at his legs and started panicking. They did not look normal, and one looked like it was bent a weird way. I felt sick and extremely upset. Me, Blake, my dad, and Blake's dad piled into my car and put Caleb in his car seat. He was bawling and his teeth were chattering. He was holding both of his knees and kept saying,"Hurt. Hurt. Hurt." I kept telling him, "We're almost there and we'll fix it."

Unfortunately, the roads were all covered in snow, ice, and slush. Traffic was not the best and it took what felt like forever to get to the Emergency Room. When we went in, the room was packed. One time when we went to the same ER, the room was nearly empty and it took us close to 3 hours to be taken care of. So, I began panicking and crying again. I asked the receptionist if it would be a while, and we told her he was a 2-year-old with two broken legs. She said it may be a while. I was a really pissed off mommy at that point.

We went and sat down, where I just held on to Caleb tightly and rocked him side to side. He was really tired since he missed his nap. I sent Blake's dad and my dad to get ice cream and Ibuprofen. Caleb started to fall asleep, but kept flinching and then feeling the pain all over again. He would not touch the ice cream and never actually took the Ibuprofen.

After 30 minutes of waiting, we got called in by the nurse. She said, "So what's going on with Caleb." I said, "Well, he has two broken legs." She looked at me in shock, "Are you serious?" Then, she got down to business and rushed us into a room less than 15 minutes later. They cut his socks off, removed his clothes, and put on a tiny hospital gown. A doctor examined him and a nurse put an IV in his arm. She braced it with an arm brace so that he would not pull the IV out. They pumped a bunch of morphine into him and he began to relax and feel less pain. They took X-rays of both legs and then we waited.

We waited a couple of hours and finally they got an ambulance there to drive us to the Children's Hospital where he would be taken care of. They had a stretcher with a little pad on it that had buckles for a child. They gently moved him and buckled him in and covered him with a blanket. His legs were spread wide and extremely bent at the knees because that was how he was most comfortable. They kept him that way.

He was very sedated and hardly talked at all the whole day. As they rolled him toward the ambulance, his eyes lit up as he saw the cool vehicle we'd be riding in. They allowed one person to ride with him, so I got to go. The drive took a while because of the snow. They drove only 40 miles per hour on the freeway! But, we got there safely and were immediately put into a room at the Children's Hospital ER.

He kept asking for "water ice in ner" (Water with ice in there.) but we couldn't give him any because they wanted him to be prepared in case he needed surgery. He hadn't eaten since before noon that day. They took more X-rays of him at the Children's hospital. He got a Diego sticker and was very protective of it, and put it on his shirt. Also, he did not want anyone moving the blanket off his legs because it seemed like every time they did, they would move his legs and he'd feel the pain shoot through them.

Caleb was so tired the whole day and kept trying to fall asleep, and would flinch in his sleep and feel the pain again and start to whimper. It was so sad. My mom and Blake's mom kept Anndi all day for me, and the Hissongs brought me the pump so that they would have milk for her. Caleb had so many people who wanted to help.

At 10 pm, the casting people finally came in. They had examined his X-rays and did not need to do surgery, which was great news! They would need to "set" one of the legs, but that was all. As soon as they started wrapping him, Caleb seemed to feel the pain much less. They squeezed the right leg while the cast was still malleable, and that set the bone back in perfect position. We got to go home with Caleb by 11 pm.

Blake slept in his room that night, because he still would wake up when he'd move in his sleep and start whimpering in pain. The next day was Anndi's baby blessing. Church was cancelled so we just did it at my parent's house with family and close friends. Caleb was held the whole day and hardly talked at all. He would not eat anything, because he was on Lortab. He slept most of the day.

Halfway through the day, however, he started complaining of a tummy ache. Finally, he threw up several times. It was really sad and made the whole situation that much less bearable. It was especially hard on my dad. Luckily, though, Caleb would insist on Ga-Ga holding him a lot of the day. He loves his Ga-Ga.

That night and the next night were a little better, as the pain began to subside. However, then our house was hit with the stomach flu. I got it first and threw up all night while taking care of baby Anndi. Then, my dad got it. Then, little Caleb got it, then Blake and his mom, and last my mom. What a week.

2010 has been interesting for us so far... brand new baby, 2 weeks of bronchitis and colds, 2 broken legs, and the stomach flu. It will go up from here! Caleb's 1 week follow up doctor's appointment was very positive. His bones already show enormous healing in just a week's time. He got new, colorful casts, and has another appointment for March 1st when he will hopefully have the casts removed. I think we're going to have a cast-removing party at Chuck-E-Cheese's!

Anndi is TALENTED!

Anndi rolled over at 4 1/2 weeks. She not only rolled over, but she rolled over intentionally and did it about 30 times. She has done it every day since, too! I am amazed, because Caleb rolled over at 4 weeks, too, but he didn't mean to and we couldn't get him to do it again the next day. This little girl is very "movement oriented," as her doctor called her! She said she will probably walk very early, just like Caleb, because being movement oriented at this age is "atypical." Oh man!! I am proud of her and honestly wouldn't mind so much if she walked early. It was fun when Caleb did.

Sledding Accident

On Saturday, my sweet little barely-2-year-old boy had a bad sledding accident and broke both of his legs. By late that night, he had two full-leg casts on. The breaks are in both of the bones in both of his shins. He was sledding with my dad, who happens to be one of his biggest fans, and they hit a solid wall of snow & ice. They were going fairly slow and unexpectedly hit it.

He did not have to have surgery and got to go home from the hospital that same night, sporting two heavy white casts. That night, he hardly slept because he would fall asleep then flinch and feel the pain all over again, even on heavy pain meds. The next day, Sunday, he threw up all of his pain medication and any food he had eaten. He just laid there like a zombie all day, being held by several people. On Monday, he woke up and was doing much better. The pain seemed to subside quite a bit. He still didn't eat a whole lot that day, but was bossing people around and smiling, so he was feeling better.

Monday night, I got the stomach flu and threw up all night between feeding Anndi and changing her diaper.

Now my dad and Caleb both have the stomach flu.

Thank heaven this is temporary. Caleb will hopefully only have the casts on for 4 full weeks, or til the end of February. He has an appointment with the orthopedic docs on Friday. He probably would have been feeling pretty good today if it weren't for the stomach flu.

Pics will follow. It still kind of breaks my heart to see him in casts sometimes. You can see pics of the sledding day at Chantelle and Chris's blog.

Blake's Family in Town!

Grandpa and Anndi napping.

Anndi is turning out to be a really good baby. She is sweet, beautiful, and sleeps well.

Uncle Thomas and Caleb watching tv together!

Caleb and Anndi bonding.

Grandma, Anndi, and Caleb hangin out.

Caleb eats pizza so hilarious! He eats the toppings only, and tends to get sauce all over his nose in the process.

Anndi in her beautiful headband!

Anndi and mommy.

Anndi's baby blessing is this weekend. Her Grandma Haines got her these beautiful lace socks and little white shoes for her blessing. Adorable. I can't wait to dress her in all of her blessing outfit on Sunday!