Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and the Lost Boys: September 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This is from a couple of weeks ago, just prior to Ava's head scan. The imaging place suggested sleep depriving Ava prior to her CAT scan to make her more compliant to lay still. I was skeptical. I certainly didn't want to stay up all night and then go to work in the morning, and I thought she would end up more difficult because she was tired and cranky. In the end, I decided to shave a few hours off her normal 10-11 hours of sleep. I put the girls down at the same time, as not to get Elizabeth all riled up because Ava was getting special treatment. However, I went back in after the girls feel asleep to wake up Ava and let her stay up watching a movie until Daddy came home around midnight. Trying to get Ava up and out of bed was harder than I thought it was going to be. I pulled her out of her bed and set her on her feet. Immediately, she started circling like a dog looking to make a bed. Not finding her bed, she just laid down on the floor. Then she started pawing for her blanket. Not finding her blanket, she just gave up, stuck her thumb in her mouth and pretended to hold her blanket. All of this without opening her eyes.

After taking this shot, I dragged her out of the room and fully woke her up. She and I watched Aladdin, but she didn't make it to the end. She did do a great job laying still in the "Ba-chine," but of course was cranky and fidgety while waiting for the disk of images.

Oops

Ryan came into the bedroom last night and asked me if I had something to tell him. I couldn't even begin to guess where he was going with that line of questioning, so I told him to spit it out. He asked why there was a book about divorce on the kitchen table, and if there was something that I was not telling him. I still had no idea what he was talking about, so I headed to the kitchen to see a kids book on the table titled the following.

Standing on My Own Two Feet A Child's Affirmation of Love in the Midst of Divorce

It turns out this was the book that Ava picked out at the library the other day. I let the kids choose their own books. I wasn't doing any censoring other than making sure the book was in English and was age appropriate. I glanced at the book Ava was holding and saw the words "My Own Two Feet" and the image of the little boy. I thought it was a book about getting dressed by yourself. Oops! I guess I will be taking that one back, and doing a better job in the future of double checking what we are borrowing from the library. However, if you are ever looking for a children's book on divorce this does appear to be a good one for younger children.

It could be worse...

At least we don't have septic issues like Annie and Billy, but we do have our own problem now with a broken A/C. The fan motor died which also probably took out the compressor. The whole unit is 12 years old (15 year life expectancy), so now we are looking at replacing instead of rebuilding. Not fun! At least it is not July or August with record setting temperatures. We now have high in the high 80s or low 90's during the days and most evenings it dips into the 70s. That gives us a little time to get some other quotes and compare options.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Cute but Infuriating

Yesterday, we went over to Gram's house to go swimming and celebrate her birthday. After the kids polished off a dinner of chips and cake (I did try to get them to eat real food), I figured I better take them home before things really got wild. I got everyone home and in bed just after 8pm. This is already an hour past their normal bedtime. The house was quiet and I moved onto laundry, trash, and pulling some things together in the garage for donation. After chatting with my neighbors outside, I came back in at 9pm to greet two little girls in the hallway. In synchronized sing-song voices, they recited "Mom, can we wake up now?" It was almost like they had been in their room rehearsing this for the last hour. It was pretty cute, but highly infuriating since it was now two hours past their bedtime and they still were not asleep. However, they were looking pretty cute alsleep in the same bed when I checked on them later.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Ava-ism

Chronologically, I know this is a little out of order, but I thought it was still funny enough to share with you. Better late, than never. "Here mom, that's for you," handing me a $20 bill when she opened one of her birthday cards. She ran off with the card, and I was left holding a $20. Hey, who am I to complain, I can aways use some cash. No, I haven't brainwashed her. In fact, Ava loves money and always has some in her suitcase and car seat. She just prefers coins over paper. Let's just hope she doesn't become obsessed with plastic.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Costa Rica

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ava: Update

Ava got another CT scan on Tuesday and met with the doctor for a follow-up visit on Wednesday. While there is still evidence of the crack in her skull and trauma to the brain, no one is worried. She is acting normally and is slowly healing. Unfortunately, heads do not mend as quickly as arms or legs, so it will still be a few more months before we can let her go full steam. Now, if I could only get Casey to slow down. He loves to run, but his top half gets ahead of his bottom half, and next thing you know is that he is doing the flying Superman into the floor head first.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Back to Reality

After returning from Costa Rica, we quickly jumped back into our normal routine of laundy, dance class, and birthday parties. Ryan and Casey stayed home to watch college football, while I took the girls to a birthday party for one of Elizabeth's T-ball teammates. The little boy's grandmother loves to take pictures, good ones at that. I thought I should share the pictures of our fun afternoon with all of you.