Where Did My Baby Go?!

Colin is getting so big! I just can't believe it! We decided that since the school year is almost over he should practice eating lunch at school because kindergarten is all day around here. On Friday he picked out what he wanted for lunch today- I had to write myself a note so I'd remember to take him early! He did so great! Thankfully each class has aides stay with them during lunch so they were able to tell him what to do because I didn't even know the drill!

Peyton and I stayed in there with him for a little while so we could make sure he did fine and he did! It kind of makes me sad how big he's getting! The time sure does fly so fast! We love him so much and are so blessed to have him in our family! He's such a sweetie!

Falling Down the Stairs

Yesterday Peyton woke up at 6:20 which is way too early! I tried bringing her in bed with us and getting her to go back to sleep. She wasn't having it! At around 6:40 she said she wanted milk so we headed downstairs...and we fell!

 

I'm really not sure how it happened. Apparently my foot slipped. My memory of the event is a little foggy- no, I did not black out!! I think my foot slipped and we landed on the next step. HARD! The brunt of the force was on my right butt cheek and of course I was holding Peyton on the right hip. After we landed we proceeded to slide down the rest of the steps (I think!) I screamed and she started crying. I thought she was just scared.

 

We got up, came down the next set of stairs, got her milk, and laid down on the couch. She cried for a little bit but calmed down and we fell back asleep. It wasn't until around 8 when she tried to stand for the first time. She was still on the couch and started crying so my first thought was "Oh no, she's hurt too." I thought it was probably her ankle. I checked it and her range of motion seemed fine. She wanted to get off the couch and when she tried to stand up her left knee immediately buckled. Then I started to worry that she'd broken her tibia.

 

She didn't want Ryan to hold her and just wanted me. I was still planning to go to church but the more I observed her the more I thought we needed to get her checked out. Ryan stayed home with Colin and I took her to urgent care. They didn't end up doing an xray because the doctor didn't think it was broken and didn't want to expose her to the radiation. He thinks she badly bruised it or strained/sprained it. He said if her tibia was broken he'd expect to see a much larger bruise on her leg than what was there and he'd expect her to cry constantly, not just when she tried to bear weight. It can take 10-14 days for her to feel better and actually put weight through her leg. Poor girl, I feel so bad!

 

She still isn't walking today. She crawls or walks on her knees. This morning she was pushing her doll around on her knees. If she tries to stand on it she starts crying, points to her leg and says "boo boo." It's pitiful :(

And guess what, I thought the fact that she's had to resort back to crawling would keep her out of things. Nope, she's been climbing things again today..she can't stand but she can climb. Go figure! I just hope she feels better soon!!!

 

As for me, I'm sore! My butt and tail bone hurt. The pain started spreading yesterday. At first it was just my butt then my whole low back hurt, then the pain moved to my left side and stomach as well. Today my back's a lot better so it's my right butt cheek, tail bone, and left side and stomach. Good grief!

Baby Proofing?!

There's baby proofing and then there's Peyton proofing.

I don't think the last one's possible!

This girl sure is crazy!!!

(But absolutely adorable so it kind of makes up for it!)

 

In November before we left for Utah for Thanksgiving I cleaned my WHOLE house. Everything. Rooms, toilets, dishes, laundry. We were coming home to a completely clean house and I was excited! (It was also probably the first time my whole entire house was clean at once--don't judge!)

After we got back it was super easy to keep up with things because nothing was overwhelming and it was nice and fast to put things away and re-clean. We've still done pretty well with the laundry which is awesome!!! No more piles of clothes for us :)

 

Well, a couple months ago it started getting really hard to keep up with stuff again. I was confused. I had done so great for so long, why wasn't it working anymore?

I'll tell you why--because around that time Peyton decided she could climb out of her playpen which is where I usually put her while I was getting ready or trying to get something done. Gone were the days of getting ready in peace in my clean bathroom. I had to start bringing her in there with me because the mess she made in there was probably better than the mess she'd be making downstairs unsupervised.

 

Well those messes were insane!! We had locks on the cabinets but a couple were lose so she was able to get into them (Ryan had since fixed them)--she was CONSTANTLY pulling feminine hygiene products out of the boxes and strewing them around the floor! She also got into all the drawers which did not have locks on them because we didn't need them with Colin (now they do too)! Her favorites in there were my face wash cloths and Ryan's deodorant, oh, and the Qtips--yeah, those are fun to pick up from all around the bathroom, bedroom, and closet! Onto the closet--She started pulling clothes off the shelves and hangers, and took most of the shoes off the shoe shelves and carried them around the room too. Good grief!! She would also get into my desk drawer with my jewelry and pull that all out. Luckily at that point she was not climbing onto the desk and getting into my makeup..that has since changed too!

 

I'm pretty sure she's trying to send me to the loony bin!!! I cleaned out the desk drawer so there weren't any pens/papers in there that she could pull out and I locked the jewelry in it's box so that problem has pretty well gone away. Sometimes I'd take Ryan's pull up thing off the door into the closet and close it so she can't get in there but it's still kind of an issue. We used to have a basket of books by my bed so we could read to the kiddos in our bed before bedtime--packed those up. I completely cleaned out the nightstand so she can't pull anything out of there. The locks on the drawers and cabinets are holding up well--she was so mad the first time she found out the drawers wouldn't open!

 

However, since I've been able to take away some of her favorite things to get into she's found other ways to make messes or give me an ulcer. She climbs onto the trashcan and then to the sink to brush her teeth or wash her hands. She's progressed though and is now climbing INTO the sink. She gets in the bathtub a lot and was standing on the edge one day and fell in. She's CONSTANTLY climbing onto my desk and putting makeup all over her face. I told you she was crazy!

 

Hopefully one days she'll grow out of this climbing faze and stop getting into everything! Until then my house will definitely not be spotless!

 

***

 

Climbing on the table has been going on forever. However, as of last week she's decided that it's funny to climb up there and then hit her head on the chandelier!

 

After she puts makeup on she'll tell me "eyes"

 

Oh this was great! She would lean down and pop back up making the turtle bounce--there was the start of an ulcer for me!

She also decided one day that the best place for her to sit was on the glass side table. I'd remove her and she'd go right back, cracking up the whole time!

Wedding Day {Pictures}

I'm going to let the pictures do the talking for the most part!!

 

James came over Friday morning for some first look pictures. Peyton loves him so much! Even as I'm putting these pictures on here she's reaching her arms out for him to hold her!

I barely took any pictures outside the temple Friday--figured I'd leave it up to the photographer! It was cold and windy and we happen to have a certain one year old who wanted to run all over the place...here she is hanging out with Josh!

Handsome man!

The ring ceremony:

This is one of my favorites from the night! I know Peyton's blurry and there's random people in it but I really like it!



Dad did the ring ceremony and did a really great job!

First dance

Daddy Daughter Dance

My little dance partner! On our way over to Mom and Dad's Friday morning Colin said "Mom, do you remember when we went to Daddy's friend's wedding and we danced together?" I said "Yeah, do you want to dance together again?" and he said "Yes." As soon as the first slow song came on he was out of his chair escorting me onto the dance floor!!! I love him so much!

Family photo op--couldn't quite lose the binky for the picture!

The garter

Jason caught it!

Peyton was soooo tired! She enjoyed a little cuddle time with Mike!

Rachel and Grandpa

BFF's

The decorations were gorgeous! All of the flowers were so beautiful. The cake was to die for--they used the same bakery we used for our wedding and I'm pretty sure that's the only reason Aunt Kelly and Uncle Andy flew out here ;)

Joni!!

My other favorite picture of the night!!

I love that she's smiling here!

It was an amazing day and so much fun! The whole day/weekend went by way too fast but I'm so glad our family was able to be all together to celebrate with Rachel and James! James' family was so sweet and I'm glad the ones who made it out here were able to! I'm so excited for Rachel and James as they start their life together!

The Wedding Week

We're at the end of an amazing weekend that went by entirely too fast, if you ask me! It definitely felt like a whirlwind of fun and I'm grateful for all the family we were able to spend time with! I didn't take a ton of pictures throughout the week but I've got some! Stay tuned for posts about Rachel and James' wedding--for now we're going to talk about the week leading up to it!

 

Rachel and James were supposed to get in late Monday night but were unable to due to bad weather in Denver. Their flight from SLC was cancelled and they were re-routed to Charlotte, NC on the red-eye. They didn't end up getting into STL until noon on Tuesday and their luggage made it at about 2:30--not the best start to the wedding week!

 

Originally Rachel and I were supposed to get our nails done Tuesday morning and Kim was going to practice her hair that afternoon so Rachel and James could take pictures that evening--we had to scrap it all. After Mom and Dad picked them up from the airport they had to go back to get James' Aunt Jan and then they went out to lunch while they waited for their luggage to be ready. They got to Mom and Dad's around 3:30. We had just got over there after Colin was finished with school.

We hung out and talked for awhile and ordered pizza for dinner. Ryan was in Memphis until Thursday so we stayed over there until it was bedtime.

 

On Wednesday Rachel was going through the temple for the first time. I dropped the kids off at my friends house and went over to my parents to carpool with them. James' parents and brother had gotten in late Tuesday night so we met them for the first time at the temple. Afterwards we went out to a late lunch/early dinner at Macaroni Grill. Thankfully Joy was okay with keeping the kiddos a little longer so I could go out to eat with everyone! It was so much fun to get to know the Messicks. They're so sweet and cute! I'm glad we were able to spend some time getting to know them this week--Rachel sure lucked out in the in-law department!!

 

After I got the kiddos we headed over to Mom and Dad's. I thought Rachel and I were going to get our nails done but we ran out of time so the kids and I just hung out for a bit and went back home.

 

I was stressing out about Thursday because all week they'd been saying we were going to get severe storms with extreme wind and hail. We had 5 groups of people that were supposed to be flying in that day and I was afraid every one's flights would be delayed or cancelled. That night before bed Colin and I said a special prayer asking for the rain to not be as bad as they were predicting and that everyone traveling would be able to do so safely and in a timely manner.

 

When I woke up Thursday morning I was checking the weather when Colin came into my room. He said he wanted to look too. It was already thunder storming and I said "It's supposed to rain." Colin said "I know. It's a good thing we prayed for Jesus to protect everybody!" I love him soooo much! He is such a sweetie! We said a bunch of prayers throughout Thursday as well and the weather never got as bad as they predicted! Every time I checked it the severe weather alert had been pushed back another hour until it was completely off! Small miracle!!

 

It still rained A TON but everyone arrived safely and without problem, for the most part! Ryan got in at 2 and stayed around to pick Josh and Joni up (who got in around 3:40). My grandma arrived that night around 6, James' brother and sis-in-law were the only ones who had some issues- their initial flight was cancelled but they ended up going to the airport anyway and getting another one so they got in a few hours after they were supposed to. My mom's cousin, Derek, was supposed to get in that night but he was flying for work that day and his flight was delayed a couple hours so he missed the flight to STL and had to come in on Friday. Jim, Carrie, Allie, Kelly, and Andy were also scheduled to fly in Friday and luckily didn't have any weather issues!

 

Thursday night we had dinner at Mom and Dad's with everyone who was in town: Bruce and Terri (James' parents), his brother- Allen, Doug and Kate (bro and SIL), Aunt Jan, Gma McDonald, Gma and Gpa Grodeon, Aunt Kim and Uncle Brent, Aunt Amy and Kylie, Josh, Joni, Jason (drove down from U of I in the torrential downpour), Ryan, Ryan D, Me, Colin, and Peyton, Mom, Dad, and of course, Rachel and James! It was a lot of fun to be together and celebrate the love Rachel and James share and the marriage they were about to embark on!!!

 

Friday morning the kids and I got over to Mom and Dad's around 9 so we could get ready. Ryan worked from home that morning and came over around 12:30. Kim had com over at 8:30 to do Rachel's hair. She also did mine. We had fun getting ready and hanging out. The sealing was at 2 so those of us who were going inside had to be there by 1:30. The people meeting us there came at 2:30 for pictures and to see them walk out of the temple.

 

Wednesday:

Allen, Bruce, James, Rachel, Terri, Jan

Bonus pic:This is from last week when our Ward did a family picnic at the park next to the temple. We walked the temple grounds together as a family and got a picture together!

More pictures and wedding day details to follow!

Easter Recap

Well it's been a few weeks since Easter and I still haven't put the pictures up! We've got quite a bit going on this week so if I don't add them tonight I'm pretty sure they'll never make it!

The day before Easter we went over to our friends house for their annual Easter egg hunt. They put out over 1000 eggs--it's insane! The kids had so much fun! There were so many eggs that we had to dump all the ones they got in a bag so they could refill their baskets. And by 'they' I mean Colin--Peyton pretty much just sat down and pulled the candy out of a couple eggs!

Saturday night the Easter Bunny got their new outfits and baskets all set out. Peyton's dress was a light pink color with trim that matches the jacket--completely adorable!

Pictures on Sunday before church

I love these kids so much!

He is so handsome!

After church we headed over to my parents for another egg hunt then we all went to Kim and Brent's for dinner that night. It's so much fun being able to spend the holidays with our family! 

Whew, glad I got the Easter post done!

Stay tuned this week: Rachel and James are getting married Friday! We've got a lot going on before the big day! Should be a blast!

Crib Climbers

Tonight is Peyton's first night in her big girl bed! I can't believe it! Apparently my children like to climb out of the crib! I've talked to several other mom's who have kids older than mine that are STILL in cribs and have no intention of climbing out!

Colin was in a big boy bed by the time he was 17 months old. Seeing how Peyton is way more of a climber than he was I thought she'd be in one by 14 months! However she held out a little longer than he did!

 

Tuesday everything changed though! Colin came in and woke me up that morning and said "Peyton's awake. I need you to unlock her door for me." I was like "Why is her door locked?" He told me Ryan did it--which I didn't think he did.

 

I didn't think she was up yet because she wasn't making any noise. He said "She is up. She's reading her book. I hear it talking to her."

 

I told him I'd go get her after I went to the bathroom. Then he said "Be careful when you open the door, Mommy. She's sitting behind the door....I see her fingers."

 

CLEARLY she had climbed out of her bed...and she's been doing it ever since! Nap time, timeout, when she wakes up in the morning.

 

The first time Colin climbed out of his crib he only did it once and then waited a month or two until he was doing it continuously. Peyton's been doing it every time she's put in there which clearly isn't too safe! So we headed to Babies R Us today and got her a bed rail so we could switch her crib over to a toddler bed.

 

She was pretty excited when she saw it! We'll see how well she stays in but at least she shouldn't get hurt getting out!

 

{I'm pretty sure she stayed in it tonight!}

 

The Night Peyton had a Seizure

Friday night on my way home from work I received one of the phone calls a parent never wants to hear. Ryan (my brother) called to tell me that Peyton had had a seizure, they'd called 911 and the ambulance was there now.

Insert freak-out!
 

I composed myself enough to talk to the paramedic and tell him which hospital to take her to. Then I had to call Ryan to let him know what was going on and tell him to turn around and head back to St. Louis. It turns out he was only a couple minutes behind me on the interstate so we met at Cracker Barrel and drove to the hospital together. Mom rode with Peyton in the ambulance and Dad was already at the hospital when we got there. They had a room for her already so the 3 of us were waiting when Mom and Peyton got there.

 

I guess I should give the back story now:

I got a text from Mom that morning saying Peyton had a fever. I texted and called throughout the day and it seemed to be hovering around 101. Around 5pm when I should have been getting to Mom and Dad's (but was late because my last patient took forever) Mom took her temperature again. It said 104 then about 30 seconds later it said 100 then it said 102. We're not sure if the thermometer was wacky or if Peyton's temp was really all over the place. Mom was trying to give her medicine and she wouldn't take it so she decided to give her some Gatorade. Then Peyton started shaking when she was in my moms arms. At first she thought she just had the chills but then her eyes kind of rolled back in her head (not completely, more like looking up), she started salivating, and all her limbs shook.

Of course Mom freaked out and screamed at Ryan to call 911. She took Peyton outside so they'd be closer to the ambulance when it arrived and she had another one. Afterwards Peyton was just really lethargic and in and out of it. A policeman arrived before the ambulance. Mom said he didn't really do anything, just asked some questions and reassured her that she had done everything she was supposed to. She said the paramedics didn't do too much in the beginning either. They asked a bunch of questions and had Mom keep holding Peyton. She said she was getting mad at them like "why aren't you doing something? Get her to the hospital."

Peyton was on a stretcher in the ambulance and Mom was sitting at her head. Mom said Peyton had a death grip on her finger but she slept most of the time. When she'd open her eyes Mom would lean down and talk to her so she could see her. Her vitals were stable in the ambulance, they took some blood so they could check her blood sugar and that was good. Her lips and feet were a little blue so they tried to put oxygen on her but each time they did she'd mess with it and try to get it off. They don't have thermometers in the ambulance so they didn't have a temperature.

They arrived at the hospital 5-10 minutes after we did. She was awake when they came in but wasn't too responsive to anything. She just looked really out of it. After the paramedic passed her off to the nurse they took her temperature. It was 102 something. We weighed her and they gave her Ibuprofen.

I held her most of the time but I don't think she had any clue who I was. Her eyes were glossy and glazed over and she wouldn't focus on anyone. She didn't talk or really move- just sat there moving her head back and forth slowly and methodically. They called it post-dictal. We called it freaky!

The doctor came in pretty quickly and Peyton was still out of it. He took a look at her and then went to the Attending to discuss her case. She cried some and said "Mama" and kept putting her hands in her mouth and salivating. Once it was just the 5 of us in the room dad gave her a blessing and we waited around for the next course of action. --Actually he may have given her the blessing before the Doctor even came in.

Anyway, She finally stopped crying and fell asleep. The doctor came back and said they wanted to get a urine sample to check for a UTI (it's common for little girls under 3 to have them if they get a fever with no other symptoms). They could either give her a catheter (more invasive) or just put a bag in her diaper, wait for her to go, send it off to the labs, and potentially have to do a catheter if it came back questionable. I decided we should do the catheter from the get-go because it would expedite the process...in actuality, nothing's really expedited in the ER!

Around 7 or 7:30 Mom and Dad decided to leave so they could relieve Ryan from Colin duty because he had some plans with his friends. Around 8 or so Ryan decided to go grab us some food because we hadn't eaten anything yet. Right before he left Peyton woke up and said "baby." She was starting to act like her normal self. I think at this point her fever was completely gone (it went down to 99 about 45 minutes after she got the ibuprofen). Prior to Ryan leaving they had come in to do the catheter and Peyton peed all over before they could get it done. The nurse decided to wait about 30 minutes since she'd just emptied her bladder and they wouldn't be able to get anything---maybe we should have just gone for the bag! They got her some apple juice to try to induce urine so we wouldn't have to wait forever.

I think she said "baby" and started perking up after she'd had some juice. After Ryan left she was acting completely normal and wanted to get down and play. I wouldn't let her get down though because she didn't have any shoes on. Ryan called when he was gone to see what I wanted to eat and I said I didn't really care, just get me some french fries. She completely perked up at that and was like "fries." I asked the nurse if she was allowed to eat when he got back and she said that was okay.

I called my parents while he was gone to let them know she was talking and acting normal. They were so relieved! They were taking Colin to get ice cream--lucky boy! In the meantime, I'd gotten a text from Kim saying they wanted to come see us. They had been at the temple so they stopped by on their way home. They ended up getting there right when Ryan got back with the food and when the nurse came in to do her catheter. (It was a good thing Kim and Mike came because we didn't have her car seat! We had given it to my mom that morning and they obviously didn't need it on the ride over! The hospital said they could give us one and Mom and Dad said they'd bring it back but it was great to just get Garrison's and not make someone else drive back out)!

She was a trooper. She cried but was good. She was holding my phone looking at pictures so I just tried to get her to focus on Colin. I also gave her a french fry. When the nurse first did it nothing was coming out and I asked if it was working. The tech said it was in the wrong place. What?! They got it right but it shot out and the pee just started going every where. Thankfully the nurse had the cup close and was able to get what she needed to.

Peyton was great. She was laughing, eating fries, trying to drink my soda, waving to every body. As soon as she started talking after she had her juice it was like a switch flipped and she was acting like her normal self. Thank goodness!!!

They let us leave around 10 or 10:30. When we left Peyton was still fever free and she was starting to look tired. She fell asleep on the way home. We took her temperature again and it was still normal. She slept in until 10:30 on Saturday. She may have slept longer but I went in to check her temperature. She hasn't had a fever at all since before we left the hospital. She has been acting completely normal ever since Friday night!

Febrile Seizure Facts:
-They occur when a fever spikes really high, really fast
-The 'post-dictal' period occurs for a few hours after the seizure. The children appear out of it and really tired. They sleep a lot
-Children grow out of febrile seizures by the age of 5
-(This one is kind of conflicting)- One doctor said there's a 50% chance that she may have another one since she's already had one and the nurse said it usually only happens once, knock on wood.
-The best thing to do when someone has a seizure is to lay them on their side. They don't recommend putting your hand in their mouth to hold their tongue anymore because most likely you're going to get bit (my mom did get bit!)
-They said from now on if she has a fever that gets
up to 101 to give her Motrin to try to lower it so it hopefully won't spike so high. I think 99 sounds like a better number though!

We are so grateful that Peyton's okay and back to her normal self! We feel so blessed for all the prayers that were said on her behalf and the concern shown for us!

Before she perked up :(

Afterwards: joking around! She was opening her mouth really big to try to get a drink of my soda! She thinks this face is so funny! In fact, she's doing it to me right now because she can see the pictures!!

We finally got some good reception and she was able to watch Huckle.



Terrible Two's

They're here.

Early.

I think it was like this with Colin too.

They should rename it--the terrible one-and-a-half's.

 

Except with Colin I don't think it was this bad.

He had fits but Peyton has full on TANTRUMS.

Like, banging her head on the closest hard thing, such as cement at the park, a wall, the floor, her bed.

And if there's not somewhere to bang it she slaps herself in the face. No wonder her forehead's always bruised!

{The difference between a boy and girl, perhaps? I don't know!}

 

This weekend was pretty bad. Screaming every time we got in the car. Like, for the entire car ride!

She even got her arms out of the straps so Ryan had to pull over to re-buckle her (and tighten it)! Not only did she scream in the car but she's now resisting getting in her seat: straightening her body out stiff as a board so we have to man-handle her in. My goodness it's not fun!

 

She has also decided that hitting is a good thing. Me, Colin, who cares! If she doesn't get her way she turns into a crazy monster! Yesterday it got so bad I had to put her in her bed while I was getting ready. She screamed the entire time (and head banged, of course).

But once I picked her back up she calmed down.

 

***

And then there are times like tonight:

 

Moments.

...Of pure bliss.

Moments I want to remember for eternity.

Where I feel like I'm stepping back from the situation and watching it as it unfolds. Like on a movie.

When we turned some music on and twirled around the kitchen while I was making dinner.

Me holding my baby girl close to me as she giggled and giggled.

 

And these moments happen every day.

Sometimes they are fleeting.

Lost between the moments when I want to pull my hair out!

But they're there.

And I'm so grateful for them!

And for my two beautiful children Heavenly Father has blessed me with!

 

And I will gladly take the moments of terrible two's (or one-and-a-half's, or whatever age they may be)!

As long as I get to have these moments as well!