Big Boy

So, Jeremy started doing this well just a day or two ago.

 

I’ve tried to give opportunities to practice sitting up over the last month, but he never stayed on his bottom.  He was much more interested in flopping over to his tummy to practice crawling, which, thankfully, he still doesn’t quite have the hang of yet!

But a couple mornings ago, I sat him down on our bedroom floor, and he stayed that way for several minutes.  He still prefers to be in position to scoot backwards and turn in circles, but he’s starting to realize that he can see what’s going on if he stays like this for awhile.

I guess it’s time to call the photographer for his “sitting up” pictures!

I also bought Jeremy a couple of Halloween costumes at our local Goodwill Store, believe it or not.  I bought two because I couldn’t decide between them, and I like to get first-Halloween-costume pictures made in early October.  (This year, I’m going to have the other kids photographed in their costumes with Jeremy!)  As I tried them on him, I realized that he may be dressing up as whatever costume still fits him come Halloween!  The costumes are 6 to 12 months in size, but he nearly fits both of them now!

So, does anyone want to vote?  Elephant?  Or Bumblebee?  We think they’re both pretty cute!

  

In other news, soccer didn’t go so well this weekend.  We attended Charlotte’s game because she still thinks she ought to go and support her team, and the score was, I think, 4-0, at which  point league rules required the opposing coach to start pulling players.  The score ended up being 6-4, but it wasn’t pretty.  Elijah’s team ended up losing 4-0, another ignominious defeat.  Of course, this was the day my dad came to watch the kids play!  Oh, well.  Maybe next Saturday will be better.

I hope that your week is going well and that you are enjoying cooler temperatures!  The trees have started changing here, so I think that fall is finally on its way.

Here are a couple more pictures of Mr. Personality to close out this post.

 

Have a good one!

A Good Report

Charlotte went back to the doctor on Monday for a follow-up x-ray, and I’m happy to report that not only was wait much more reasonable this time, but also that her bone has not moved in the least bit.  This means that she got to keep the boot, instead of being casted, and Dr. Maxey even wants her to start putting a little weight on it.

“A little bit a stress helps it heal!” he cheerily told us.

Well, I’ve never heard that before, but, hey, he’s the doctor.  The one that just got back from vivisecting cadavers in Strasbourg, France.  “Did you know that the hospital in Strasbourg is the second one in the world that allowed vivisection?” he inquired.

Why, no.  But I do now.  And as long as what he does helps him be a better doctor, I’m all for it…whatever it is!

Charlotte goes back again in two weeks, at which time, I suspect, Dr. Maxey will tell her to wean herself from the crutches.  The boot should come off by the end of October, and he even said that we could sign her up for winter basketball, if she wanted to play.  So, Charlotte will play basketball, and Jeff will coach her team.  That should be a good time for all!

Life still seems a bit busier with Charlotte injured, though.  Getting out of the house becomes a major ordeal, and I’m finally remembering to add at least five minutes on to my targeted departure time.  Last week, I spent a lot of time angry at being late places, which is a total waste of energy, since the situation is what it is.  This week is better.

But adding to the complication now is the fact that Jeremy has outgrown his infant carrier, so he’s now in a big-boy car seat.  While the carrier wasn’t much fun to lug around, it definitely had its advantages.  Now, the stroller is getting a workout because I simply cannot carry him most places that we go.  He is a very wiggly baby who wants down everywhere, and that’s just not practical.  And now, we’ve lost the advantage of letting him stay asleep in his carrier if he happens to get that way while traveling in the car.  Jeremy inevitably wakes up when we unstrap him.

Sigh.  But I guess he has to grow!

On the bright side, Jeremy has finally decided that sleep during the day is a wonderful thing and is taking long naps both morning and afternoon.  I can put in the crib awake, he will talk for a few minutes, and then he’ll roll over on his tummy and saw logs.  He really is a good baby.

Who can believe that it’s officially fall?  Is anyone else getting this crazy, unseasonably hot weather?  I think we hit ninety today, which is a little bizarre in Illinois in late September.  But I guess that’s better than ice and snow, which, I’m sure, will be here before we know it.

Well, I guess that’s all from our way.  Hope that things are well at your place!

At Long Last

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again.  Tae kwon do has been such a good experience for our family!

My original plan was for Elijah to take classes, as he is our child most in need of discipline, self-discipline, and goal-setting.  However, Charlotte took to the sport like a duck to water, and, as Jeff says, I guess I should have figured that.  She has always responded well to activities with incremental awards and goals to reach.  She is self-motivated and independent, which makes martial arts a good fit.  While the classes obviously have other people in them, it is very much an individual sport.

Anyway, Charlotte finally completed her 100-day leadership project to earn her black shirt and full-leader status at tae kwon do back in August.  She is only the second purple belt to achieve this, as most people are brown belts earning full leadership.  She was supposed to get her black top and then test for her brown belt on Saturday.  The broken leg threw a monkey wrench in that plan, but she was still able to go to a test last night and be presented with her black top, crutches and all!

Charlotte chose to train for several 5K races for her project and discovered that she really enjoys running.  Mrs. Rhonda Kurtz, one of the two co-owners and masters at the academy, gave a brief talk about Charlotte’s project and showed off her running medals and trophy.

Then, Mrs. Kurtz presented Charlotte with her new top and helped her put it on.

 

 

After she had her top on, Charlotte went to the front of the people who were there to test that evening.  They were all standing a V-shaped formation.  Mrs. Kurtz explained that full leaders were like the goose who takes the point of the V formation when geese fly.  That goose carries 70 percent of the work load during her time at the front.  In the same way, full leaders are learning to take additional responsibilities for helping and leading others in the academy.

 

After Mrs. Kurtz explained all this, Charlotte stood in front alone and issued a few commands and led a couple of exercises.  (Well, she issued the commands and watched her class do the exercises!)  Then, we all cheered while the class gave Charlotte high fives.

We were so glad that the Kurtzes allowed Charlotte to do this!  It was a very special time for her and peak of four months of hard work.  When she heals, she will proceed with testing for her brown belt.  Elijah plans to test for his in October, which will put him ahead of her.  She’s pretty philosophical about it, although it seems a bit unfair!

Needless to say, we are very proud of our girl.

A Rough Week

Finally, I am back with an update to our new craziness!

We took Charlotte to see Dr. Maxey, an orthopedist, on Monday morning.  After an excruciatingly long wait in a very crowded waiting room, we finally saw the doctor.

About our wait…although I printed out all of the registration material and filled it in the day before we went to the doctor, as directed by the website, I was told when I called on Monday morning to be there at 9:30.  I told the scheduler that I had everything filled out, and she repeated, rather snidely, as if I were hard of hearing and understanding, that 9:30 was the time to be there. 

OK.

When we arrived, at 9:30 as directed, the receptionist was pathetically grateful that we had our paperwork done already and directed us to sit down.  Shortly thereafter, someone from records called Jeff back to fill in paperwork.  SURPRISE!  As we told everyone at every step of this process, we ALREADY HAD THE PAPERWORK DONE!  The records lady was pathetically grateful, adding that no one ever brought the paperwork in complete.  Jeff came back out in about 30 seconds.

Then, we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  At about 10:30, Jeff inquired as to when we might be called back.  We found out at this point that our actual appointment was at 10:10, something that no one had seen fit to tell us at any other time during this process.  Evidently, the 9:30 time was to fill out paperwork that I HAD ALREADY COMPLETED!  The receptionist had to call back to the nurses’ station to find out that we were actually next.

It was after 11:00 that we were finally put in an exam room and told that the doctor “will be right in.”  The nurse asked us if we had filled a green paper with Charlotte’s medical history.  I rather drily told her that we had PRINTED OUT OUR PAPERWORK AT HOME AS DIRECTED BY THE WEBSITE and that the paper was probably white.  “Oh,” she said.  “I was looking for green.  Here it is!”

Yeah.

Dr. Maxey finally made his appearance around 11:20, and we actually liked him very much.  As we chitchatted bit, he told us that he was headed for Strasbourg, France, the next day for some type of cadaver workshop, and, since we’ve been there, we talked a bit about it.  He’d also been to Switzerland that summer and stayed at the same place as David and Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham.  Interesting!

As far as Charlotte’s leg, Dr. Maxey told us that she had the best possible type of break to that bone.  While her tibia is fractured, her fibula is fine and offers good support for the broken bone.  Because of that, he put her in a removable boot cast instead of a traditional fiberglass one.  This means that she can bathe and dress pretty easily.  She will be on crutches for a couple of weeks and then will be able to walk on her boot.  She is looking at six to eight weeks in the boot, but Dr. Maxey anticipates a “happy ending.”

We will take her back on Monday for a follow-up x-ray and to make sure that the boot is holding the bone together properly.  If it isn’t, then he’ll cast it, but he doesn’t think that will be necessary.

So, as I’ve admitted to myself and Jeff and others, the biggest problem now is my attitude!  I’m very accustomed to Charlotte doing most things for herself, such as dressing, bathing, clearing her spot at the table, making her own breakfast and lunch, picking up after herself, getting her own glass of juice.  Now, I’m doing most of that because we really only want her walking on the crutches, as that is hard enough for her right now.  So, now I have two helpless children, and I find myself not liking it much!

In addition, Jeremy, who is an amazing calibrator of the household stress level, decided to go on a nap strike for the end of the weekend and early part of the week.  I was nearly out of my mind trying to homeschool, keep the baby happy, and get anything else done.  But yesterday, he finally had enough of being tired and cranky and took two, two-hour naps.  Heaven!

And it’s hard to stay angry at him…he’s just a baby!  A couple of weeks ago, he finally figured out how to get his toes to his mouth.  I love it when my babies do this!

 

Jeremy is also so near to crawling that he can taste it.  He’s up on his hands and knees, rocking away, plus throwing in a few baby pushups on his hands and toes, too.  We are so not ready for a mobile Jeremy!

And that’s been our week, so far!  Last night, Charlotte finally got her black top in tae kwon do, broken leg and all.  I’ll tell you about that next time.  Have a good one!

And I Didn’t Even Say, “What Else Can Happen?”

I really have no clever lead-in for our news from this weekend, so I’ll just say it straight out.

Charlotte fractured her left leg playing soccer on Saturday.

Yep.  No joke.

It was the freakiest accident in the world but evidently not unprecedented, as Jeff discovered at the ER.  Charlotte was playing midfield and kicked a ball with her left leg, which, incidentally, is not her dominant leg.  Another child from the other team had planted his left leg to take a swing at the ball with his right foot, and his and Charlotte’s shin guards collided with a sickening crack that could be heard all over the field.  The other child hopped away, holding his leg and saying, “Ow, ow, ow!”

Our child collapsed on the field, screaming in pain.

I called our pediatrician’s office and left a message for the after-hours clinic, and then we loaded up and headed back home because it was time to feed the baby.  I was hoping to avoid a Saturday visit to the emergency room, and Charlotte’s leg was showing no signs of being broken.  It wasn’t bruising or swelling or misshapen, so I was hoping that we could be seen at the after-hours clinic or at a prompt care.

However, when the nurse called me back, she told me that, if Charlotte couldn’t put any weight on it, we needed to take her to the ER.  If she could limp, we could take her to a prompt care clinic.  Charlotte couldn’t even put her toe on the ground without crying in pain, so Jeff loaded her up and drove to the ER, while I stayed home with Elijah and Jeremy.

Of course, Jeff and Charlotte had a typical ER experience in that they were there for over five hours before they could leave.  In the course of their time there, Charlotte was examined by a resident, who really didn’t have any authority to order an x-ray, which is what Charlotte needed. 

Eventually, the supervising doctor came in and told Jeff that, while Charlotte’s leg did not appear to be broken, he was going to order an x-ray anyway because, when his now-23-year-old daughter was a kid, she had a soccer injury just like Charlotte’s.  He had been working in the ER, and his wife called to describe the injury.  Even as a doctor, he told his wife that it wasn’t broken and not to worry.  When he got home that evening and his daughter couldn’t stand up and was still in a lot of pain, he took her to the ER, where, sure enough, the bone was fractured.

So, Charlotte had an x-ray, which clearly showed a fracture of the larger bone in her lower leg.  The crack goes about 2/3 of the way through the bone.  They put on a temporary cast, left a message at an orthopedist’s office, got a pair of crutches, and finally let Charlotte come home.  I will call the doctor at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow to see when she goes in for her permanent cast.

Here’s our girl.

Sigh.

Yesterday should have been a big, exciting day for Charlotte.  She had her soccer game in the morning, which she always enjoys.  In the afternoon, she and Elijah were going to test for their brown belts in tae kwon do, and Charlotte was going to be presented with her black uniform top that she had earned for completing her four-month-long leadership project in running.  Then, we were going to take the kids out to eat to celebrate and go to the Saturday night service at church because I was running a race on Sunday morning.

Obviously, we had a major adjustment to all of our plans!

But I do need to say this…God definitely knew that this was coming down the pike and has been quietly arranging things for the past few weeks to make this much less troublesome than it could have been.  I have been meaning to make reservations and buy tickets for a road trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, at the end of October and haven’t gotten around to it.  With this new circumstance, I highly doubt that a fifteen-hour drive to Virginia is in the cards, even if Charlotte’s cast is off by then.

Jeff and I also did all of that freezer cooking last weekend, so we have few worries about food preparation for the next six weeks or so.

And this could have been so much worse.  If she had broken her leg in the big upper bone, she would have been in a hip cast and completely immobile for six weeks.  As it is, she’ll have a knee-to-ankle cast and be able to get around on crutches pretty easily.  (She’s already hobbling around pretty well today!)

On the bright side, Charlotte’s tae kwon do masters want her come on Wednesday night to another test to get her black uniform and so that they can sign her cast in Korean!  She is pretty excited about that.  Actually, her spirits have been great through this whole mess.  While she was disappointed to miss the rest of soccer and her tae kwon do activities, she said, “Well, at least I’ll be better for basketball!”

And my race went decently this morning.  I ran a half-marathon relay with a friend, and I averaged 10 minutes for each the the 6.55 miles.  This was my first race since having the baby, and I was satisfied.  I ran it more quickly last year, but I don’t think it’s so bad five months out from Jeremy’s birth!

I hope that your weekend had no broken bones in it!  I’ll keep you posted on Charlotte’s progress.

Alas, Poor Spotty

With two geriatric guinea pigs, it was bound to happen, but we were still pretty sad when it finally did.  On Thursday, little Spotty died.

 

Charlotte went in to change out the bedding in the cage and started to pick Spotty up.  The next think I knew, she came tearing out into the kitchen and hollered, “I tried to pick Spotty up and I saw that her eyes were open and she was cold and I THINK SHE’S DEAD!”  Then, she burst into tears.

Sure enough, I went in to check, and poor Spotty was lying very still in the middle of her cage, with Humphrey nudging at her in distress.  To make a long story short, Charlotte took Humphrey out of the cage and put her in a cat carrier, and we waited for Jeff to come home and deal with the body removal and funeral.  (I don’t do dead animals.)

This is the first time we’ve actually had a pet die.  Our cat, Sam, died two summers ago, but he was living with my parents at the time.  Goldfish don’t really count.  So, this was rather traumatic for everyone.  Charlotte brought up a shoe box for Spotty and made a headstone out of a piece of marble she got in Italy.  Jeff dug a hole in the back yard, and we had a small funeral for Spotty.  Elijah burst into tears about halfway through and cried for an hour.

Sigh.

In other news, we had our first home school co-op on Friday.  I had 18 students in class with one absent; I felt as if I had gone back in time 10 years!  But I feel as if it went pretty well…kids are kids, whether they are homeschooled or otherwise.  Some will listen, be respectful, and try hard; others will stare off into space, push the boundaries of respectful behavior, and do just enough to get by.  And strangely enough, I could probably peg most of who will fall where after the first class.  But I plan to enjoy myself, in any case!

Charlotte and Elijah also did well.  Charlotte thinks that she will like her classes and even brought home a salt-dough map of the Middle East that she’s been working on.  Elijah was not as impressed, although he did really like his music class.  The theme is “Christmas around the World,” and he got to help the teacher pronounce words in a French song.  Jeremy did really well in the nursery, for which I am very grateful.  He napped and then played happily.  I was in there during the last hour to feed him and help with the other four under-two-year-olds.  Hopefully, the rest of the semester will go as smoothly!

And now here we are, enjoying our long Labor Day weekend.  My calendar is completely empty for these days, which is always a treat.  Yesterday, Jeff and I cooked for about eight hours, getting 32 or so more meals into the freezer, like what I did right before Jeremy was born.  I had mentioned last week how nice it was to have good, home-cooked meals frozen so that I didn’t have to prepare something every night, and Jeff said, “If you want, we could get meals ready one day over the weekend.”

So that’s what we did!  And, let me tell you, that’s a whole lot easier with two people than with just one!  I still don’t know how I did that when I was eight months pregnant.  We were both dog-tired by the time we were done yesterday, but we definitely got a lot accomplished.  As you make two of each meal, we actually food prepared for the better part of the next two months.  Yee-haw!

And that’s been our week.  Enjoy your weekend!