Alex has lots of patience with Kaitlyn and her fascination with his glasses.
Month: December 2014
Kaitlyn woke up crying while I was talking to Teague’s doctor on the phone. Alex decided to try to help her calm down.
Another day. Another eye appointment.
This one has been on a bottle strike for days, but when I gave her some banana today she inhaled it.
Eyelashes are something you don’t think much about. Occasionally you notice someone who has extremely long or dark lashes, but that’s about it. Then today we learned eyelashes have been keeping Teague in constant pain since his eye surgery. It took us a while to realize his recovery from surgery was going on much too long and there might be another problem. Teague had been grouchy, complaining of his eye hurting, and waking up from sleep screaming. I just didn’t think that maybe we had an additional problem. We finally emailed the Boston doctors and they recommended going in to see if Teague possibly had a corneal ulcer or his eyelashes were touching his eye. We had our local eye appointment today and learned that Teague’s lower eyelid has rolled inwards. The eyelashes have been continually rubbing his eye and even caused indentations on it. Ouch!
Since being in Kansas City we have seen two different pediatric ophthalmologist – the first moved for some additional training and then a second one a few weeks ago. We saw a third today simply because we wanted to get in as soon as possible. She diagnosed the problem but wanted us to see the second ophthalmologist again before being referred to a plastic surgeon for correction. I didn’t think much about this since she noted on the card “as soon as possible.” Imagine my shock when the appointment we were given was January 19th (over a month away). For one of the first times in my life I said no. I pointed out my son was in pain and so they moved the appointment to January 6th. In my opinion this still wasn’t reasonable with a diagnosed problem and a hurting boy. I came home and emailed our Boston doctors asking if they could give us a referral to a local plastic surgeon and skip the second ophthalmologist. Within 30 minutes, Dr. Elliott (the Boston plastic surgeon) had talked to a local plastic surgeon and given me a call. She had done some online research for his certifications, found his picture (to make sure he was a white hair – her words), and then called him. When he immediately knew that Teague’s CFOEM made his a complex case she decided he was a good fit. He agreed to fit us in on Monday when he was at Children’s. Thank you for awesome doctors!
When we moved to Platte City, I kept seeing all kinds of things about MOPS on Facebook in the area. I decided to sign up and hoped to meet other moms. It’s been great. Not only do I see all the moms I have met from church but I have met lots of new friends too. Today a few from my discussion group gathered to play and let the kids decorate cookies.
Teague got a new book at school today so of course we all had to read it.
Teague had his Christmas program at school today. He even knew most of the words to the songs.
I love the way my boys love on their sister.
Typical post-shower shenanigans.
Snuggles with Daddy.
First bottle of the day – at 4 pm. I’m thinking she might be a touch sick. She’s still all smiles though.
Perk to Dad working at Hallmark – getting fun toys! If you do not have a treeluminator you need to go buy one. Our boys love turning the tree on and off (over and over again).
We kind of love sitting in front of our tree.
Granny made Kaitlyn the most beautiful dress!
The perfect gift for Wade has been eluding me all season. Most of the unclaimed items on his list were unattainable – $19,000 CNC etc. Then someone posted a hedgehog on the local swap n shop. Wade has always said he wanted a hedgehog. It’s never appeared on his list but I decided to take a chance. I bought a 6 month old male hedgehog from a teenager about 30 minutes away. The hedgehog came with a cage, blanket, wheel, and food. I was initially keeping it in the guest room, but they tend to be shy creatures and need a lot of handing. The 10 minutes Kailtyn and I gave it a day didn’t seem sufficient. Then this morning I inadvertently saw one of my Christmas gifts – thank you fedex man. I decided it was the perfect time to give Wade’s gift to him early. He was definitely surprised and the boys were ecstatic. We are now owners of a hedgie named Reggie.
Wade got his Christmas present early. The boys were as excited about the hedge hog as Wade.
First cereal. She didn’t hate it but she didn’t eat more than a few bites.
The gumdrop (or Dot in our case) tree makes an appearance.
I normally buy the kids at least one ornament a year. (I had several people do this for me growing up and when Wade and I got married our first tree was overloaded with special ornaments.) This year it seemed appropriate that they come from Hallmark. We even let the boys pick out their own when we were in Wade’s work building for the Christmas party. I thought the boys were pretty good at picking something out that will remind us of their interests at their current ages. Alex picked a fairy and Teague picked a car.
Floor snuggles.
While dealing with Teague’s tantrum (see his daily post), Alex took it upon himself to cover Kaitlyn with his blue blankie and put on a puppet show for her.
Even mid-tantrum he is the cutest, santa-hat wearing boy I know.
She almost has the sitting thing down – then this happens.
He begged me to take this picture. I’m pretty sure he’ll regret it later in life.
These boys love their daddy.
Trying to teach Kaitlyn to walk.
Alex had his school christmas concert tonight.
We skipped nap for a playdate today. I looked over as I was cooking dinner and realized Teague had fallen asleep sitting up.
A very typical Kaitlyn pose lately.
I’ve lost count on how many times we have seen Santa this year. Tonight was at Alex’s school for the PAT (Parents as Teachers) Holiday night with ornament making and cookie eating. (Alex asked for smelly markers, a pad of paper, a fairy house, and a real fairy. Teague asked for a remote controlled Viper.)
Biggest helper of the day.
Unwrapping the tree!
The cuteness.
After visiting two Christmas tree farms the only thing we got were naps for all three kids during the drive. It turns out one place had no trees over 3 feet tall and the other only accepted cash, which we didn’t have on us.
After visiting two Christmas tree farms the only thing we got were naps for all three kids during the drive. It turns out one place had no trees over 3 feet tall and the other only accepted cash, which we didn’t have on us.
We tried to cut down our own Christmas tree today, but it wasn’t meant to be.
My kids are have already seen Santa a record number of times this year and we still have a few weeks till Christmas! Wade was out of town (for the GaTech football game) so the kids and I headed to Leavenworth for some cookie decorating.
We unfortunately had a rough morning at home and Alex lost his cookie decorating privileges before we even left the house. He did pretty well sitting and watching Teague decorate his four cookies. (The pout was all for the camera but it looks very similar to his real pout face.)
Then it was a picture with Santa before we left. (Alex asked for smelly markers and a fairy house. Teague didn’t ask for anything.)
Three little monkeys sitting in a row.
(Kaitlyn loved her new seat and sat contentedly the entire time the boys ate breakfast.)
A big brother doing what big brothers do.
This little guy has had zero wants on his Christmas list except for the occasional generic “car.”
We were the only two in the room and I know I put her down on her back. I didn’t actually see her roll but this time I’ll give it to her.
Santa hats!