Monday, September 28, 2009

A couple of Ainsley's punchlines

Two funny things Ainsley said this weekend:

We were out to dinner at Red Robin (overstimulating restaurant, lovely because kids can be loud and no one can hear them over the other noise) and they had this advertisement in the middle of the table that was shaped to be like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Andrew explains to the kids what the real Leaning Tower of Pisa is and tells them about when he walked up the stairs inside of the building. He then tells them how engineers are trying to keep it from continuing to lean more because if they don't eventually it's center of gravity will be too far off and it will fall over. Ainsley pipes up with, "The news people will love it when that happens."

My parents were here this weekend and when ever they leave it is TRAUMATIC for the kids. Camden screamed, and screamed, and screamed when they left. As Ainsley and Hudson were telling them goodbye and Camden was freaking out Ainsley says, "This is going to take me years of therapy to get over."

No drama around here.



Sunday, September 20, 2009

Mouth Jewelry


As if poor Ainsley didn't have enough trauma to her little mouth lately (tonsillectomy) she got braces this week. She loves how they look, but is not enjoying the way they feel. Fortunately, the attention at school for having braces might make up for the pain.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Kindergarten!

It was a very long week and a half after Ainsley started for Hudson to wait to start Kindergarten. Finally on Tuesday he got to go to his "gradual entry" day and yesterday was his first official day and now we are on the every day schedule. He is in afternoon so waiting all morning is a bit long too, but I like only getting one ready in the morning. (and I'm also going to enjoy the next 8 weeks before I have the baby of the afternoons with both big kids in school and Camden taking a nap!) Here he is before school:
Camden needed to be in a picture too (he is doing "potty school"- happily that has been really easy. Talk about a blessing for me!)
How cute is he?! He had a great day and loved his teacher. A funny coincidence is that both A & H have student teachers in their class, and both of the student teachers at one point had Andrew for a teacher at Barlow! Small world.
Here he is in his classroom:
Here he is coming off the bus THE FIRST DAY! Riding the bus home with Ainsley is the part of school he has been anticipating the most. So cute!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Third Grade


Today we sent Ainsley off to third grade. When I picked her up after school I could tell before she even said a word that she was not happy. As we were walking across the parking lot she said her day was horrible and she would tell me about it in the car. I responded with, "I'm sorry it wasn't great, but I'm glad your done for the day because I missed you." She then said, "Well, you'll never have to miss me again because I'm never going back."

Don't worry, she is going back. Happily Ainsley didn't just learn school work today. We had the opportunity to process the difference between expectations and reality. By the time she went to bed tonight we were to the point that she was willing to go back, had determined that her teacher might actually be nice, and she has flowers ready to take to her in the morning. Who knew you needed the skills of a hostage negotiator to parent?

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Double the pleasure, double the fun... right?

A resounding no. Two kids getting their tonsils out was more like double the misery, double the pain. It sounded like such a good idea...they both need it done, so just do it at the same time, right?

How did it go? Not. Fun. In fact, notfunnotfunnotfunnotfun.

But now, 8 days later, we are getting close to back to normal. I have had repeated requests for a blog post, similar to when I posted about Hudson's tubes. The thing is, I haven't slept through the night since the night before, I've been playing nurse to two uncomfortable children, and I'm 7 months pregnant. On top of that the tubes were a few hour event, this has been a week plus event, so it is just not going to happen.

The best I can do is tell you that Ainsley is doing well. She wouldn't talk from Saturday to Wednesday, (that was a strange event) and still complains that her throat hurts. But for the most part she is fine. Hudson is not so okay still. His adenoids evidently caused some damage when they came out so his little sinus system is a swollen mess which has led to labored breathing, hurting ears, and a sinus headache that makes his sore throat the least of his concerns. The biggest of my concerns is that he is having a really hard time sleeping, and so I am too.

And while I am not up to a blow by blow account of the ordeal, I will answer the other question I keep getting, "Why did they both need them out?" Evidently our genetic make-up has created children with insanely ginormous tonsils and adenoids. All three of our kids (well- the three that we can hear sleeping currently- good chance little yet-to-be named in-utero baby is currently growing giant worthless parts as well) snore. I was told by our primary care doctor, "snoring isn't something that we treat, especially with a surgery like a tonsillectomy." Our kids have been for the most part pretty healthy, and have never had strept throat or any bad throat issues. But after Hudson started for the first time getting all the ear infections last fall I started noticing even louder snoring and that his voice really started taking on a nasal quality. So me and my medical degree decided that since Andrew and I had both had ours taken out, mine because they were so big, I needed to investigate if our kids needed theirs out. In fact, my actual words were, "I'm going to just start taking them to ENT's until someone can solve this problem."

Well, the first (very nice) doctor we went to I sat down across from with Hudson and explained that I thought he had big tonsils, he snored, and I thought he needed his tonsils out. Before looking at Hudson the doctor started into a very rehearsed speech about how they just don't do tonsillectomies very often any more, and really never unless there is lots of documented evidence of multiple infections. But he would take a look. Hudson opened his mouth and although I have the ability to exaggerate, I'm not here, the doctor says loudly, "WOW! These are real whoppers!" I'm pretty sure whoppers is a medical term. Anyway- he goes on to determine that his sinus and ears are a mess because his adenoids also are huge and the doctor says he is actually worried that his tonsils even pose a choking hazard for him. He immediately explains that he thinks that there is no doubt that he really needs to have them removed. Score one for my medical degree. I then go on to explain that my daughter and other son are in a similar situation, and this man who started out saying basically there was no way he was taking out tonsils, actually set up Ainsley to have hers out at the same time, even though he hadn't seen her yet. He agreed to see her and confirm that she needed them removed, but said he wouldn't even look at Camden because he wouldn't ever do the surgery on a child under 3. (at that crazy time I thought doing all three at the time would be a good idea- haha!)

Anyway- I brought in Ainsley and there was no question she needed hers out as well. I took Camden with me to this appointment, even though he had said there was no chance with him. I asked him to just check his to see when and if he wanted me to bring him back. Again, not exaggerating, the doctor looks in Camden's mouth and says, "these are the biggest tonsils I have ever seen on a two-year-old in my entire career. He actually said he would take them out at the same time as the other kids, but there wasn't time in the hospital schedule to take all three of them (thank you Lord for sparing me that nightmare). So whenever it is convenient for us we will have Camden's out.

I'm considering waiting until after he gets married so his wife can take care of him. Let's just say that I made the right decision in not choosing nursing as a career. I don't have the patience.

There you go, I planned on a two or three sentence "not fun, but were okay" post and ended up with this little disertation. Overall we are very blessed to have this over with and no big complications. Thanks for asking... (oh you didn't, sorry!)