Some Christmas Videos and More

Sorry I forgot these. Something is wrong with Youtube so I had to go in myself and change the darn code. I still have more to download!

Our Second Christmas

Christmas Eve


Christmas Evan on a table- (a good look at his thumb!)


Meli's cute dress- and on her toes (cringe)


Christmas Morning- our Olympic view!


Toys are coming out of her head!


Christmas Dinner (without Thomas)


I didn't think that the kids would understand the whole Santa thing. I mean, it's only their second Christmas. Wrong! They know who he is and have pointed him out the past couple of weeks. They helped me make cookies for him yesterday and we put them in front of fireplace.

We have been taking our time today opening presents. Evan is a little emotional when it comes to Thomas. He carries around his Thomas train and wants to do everything with him (eat, sleep, walk, etc.). When we try to get him to open another present, he starts whining to be left alone. "Mom, I just want to play with Thomas, Percy, and Toby, jeez!!"

We have a lot of pictures and movies. I will put a couple movies, with more to come. For more pics, click HERE to see them on our photobucket album.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Santa Train

On Saturday we took a train through the woods of Point Defiance in Tacoma. Santa hopped on the train and visited with all the boys and girls. John and I even got a candy cane!

The kids wanted nothing to do with the lap of Santa Claus, but they were happy to be near him and tell him hello. Well, they weren't happy to be that near him. But from four feet away they loved saying, "Bye Santa!"

Breakfast of Champions

I don't feed them mini-chocolate donuts that often anymore. Maybe once a week. I tell them that donuts and milk will make them big and strong. Hey, that's what the doc claims, so if I feel like being lazy and not making eggs or pancakes (toaster kind, duh), I don't have to feel bad. They are prescribed.

They are also the breakfast of John Belushi, winner of decathalons. Enjoy big and strong Meli, as well as my favorite SNL commercial of all time.

Who needs 4 fingers!

Yesterday was a very hard day for me. I took Evan back to Children's to get his cast off. We were in a "cast room" with a lot of other kids and Evan was terrified of the commotion. And of course we were not treated in a timely fashion. They must be immune to the sound of a small child screaming. Finally, Dr. Hanel's resident came and took the cast off...

And then Evan and I saw it. The new hand. At first I was amazed at how much his finger now looked like a thumb. It was a thumb. And then the reality of it hit me. Three fingers, a thumb, and a lot of gruesome clumps and puffiness. I would have been OK, but I was immediately left alone with the responsibility of holding his hand steady while he thrashed around screaming. We waited for the doc to show up and I silently cried. The tears streamed down my face and I could do nothing, with one hand around his body and the other holding his hand. I am so thankful for the mother that came to bring me tissues and kind words.

I want to say that it's not fair. Not fair that I have to go through this and other mothers will never know, understand, or care what it's like to have a child with problems. But I stop myself in mid-thought every time. Because there are always other children who are worse off and I should thank my lucky stars. The next bed over from us was a newborn preemie with casts on her legs/arms. How horrible.

And in true Evan style, as soon as I took him out of that room, he ran up and down the hall while his splint was being made. Laughing and running, in no pain, and not caring about his hand at all. He was not upset about his hand. He just wanted out of that room. He was all smiles and is still smiling. All day today he has been looking at his hand and saying, "Hand!". We think maybe he thought he didn't have one anymore, since it was hidden in the cast.

The next weeks will be challenging for me, mostly because the healing of his wounds is freaking me out. But I think over time, when the swelling subsides and the wounds heal, Evan will have one heck of a hand. Tonight in the bath he folded his fingers down and we could see that he will be able to perfectly hold a stick. His old thumb was angled wrong and he would never be able to hold a stick with it. So we are happy, excited, scared, cautious, etc. Taking it one day at a time.

He will now wear a splint for three weeks except for baths. Then only at night. I will post better pics of his hand soon. Now if only Meli would stay healthy. This morning I took her in 'cause she has had high fevers and started holding her belly and she had to have a catheter to test her urine. Can I get a break over here!!

I forgot I had a blog!

It's been over a week since I posted and I didn't even think to post anything in that time. It has been crazy around here, of course because I have two almost two year olds with new antics and attitudes, but also because they both have had random fevers this week. And Evan is still hurting once in awhile.

The language around here is amazing (I won't mention the bad words that Amelia has been caught saying). Amelia talks CONSTANTLY and in full sentences. She likes to narrate for me. For example, last night I brought her upstairs to take a bath. She said, "Going up the stairs, take a bath. Yay a bath! Oh no, turn on the light. Get the water runnin!". Evan says two or three words together, like, "brush teeth" and drink juice please".

They both know all of their ABC's. In order and out of order by sight. They can count to 13 in order. Amelia is a little better at that. I wish I could take credit for this, but they really did it all on their own. I'm just going with the flow!

Amelia is in the beginning stages of potty training. She loves the potty. At first she would just sit there and say all done so she could wipe. My sister told me to give her a book and it worked the first time! So if Amelia remembers, she will tell me, "Mommy, pee" or the other and I will run her in there in and voila! Gotta be quick, though! Evan could really care less about the whole thing. (I can't believe I am talking about pee, but, hey, it's my blog!)

Here is a video from last week of already doing amazing things (it's a little dark)!