Liam the philosopher

We have a nice ritual of reading books together in either Liam or Laney's bed each night before bedtime.  The kids climb under the covers together and we read 3 books, one that each of them picks, and one that I pick.  As we got ready for bed 2 nights ago, Liam made it to his bed first and settled in to wait for Laney to finish brushing her teeth.  My little boy looked at me with a very serious look on his face and said, "Where did we come from?  Where did we all come from?"  He punctuated this sentence by throwing his hands up in frustration and furrowed his brows to bring home the point.  It took me a minute to decide what to say to him, since he isn't even 3 yet and really has a hard time understanding things that aren't concrete.  This is what I told him:  "God made us all.  He made you and then he put you in my tummy and then the doctor took you out."  Then he wanted to know how Laney, Patrick and I were made, and I had to explain to him that God made us all the same way, and that we were all babies once.  This is hard for him to believe and I know that he doesn't really understand that people are babies before they grow up.  He seemed to accept my answer though, and went happily to bed.  However, he began asking me today in the car where things he was seeing came from.  "Where is that tree from?  Where did that cat come from?  Where did that building come from?"  I told him that God makes everything and that really satisfied his curiosity.  Perhaps my son should pursue philosophy as an undergrad!

Kindergarten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was Laney's first day as a kindergartener!  Where did the time go?  It seems like just yesterday we were holding our precious 5lb baby and kindergarten seemed like a far off dream.  At any rate, the day finally arrived and I am thrilled to announce that it went great.

I have been talking up kindergarten throughout the summer with Laney, telling her stories about my time in kindergarten and reading her books about it (such as Kindergarten Rocks!, and The Night Before Kindergarten).  Thankfully her school had the foresight to schedule a kindergarten meet-and-greet last week, and she was able to peruse the classroom and meet Mrs. Shmeiser before the big day.  That really did the most to calm her jitters about the first day of school.

Last night I got a little emotional as I read her this:  http://momastery.com/blog/2013/08/14/it-gets-better/

But it was hard to be too tearful because she was just so excited for school to start today.  She woke up in a great mood, requesting cheesy eggs and sprinkle toast for breakfast (served on her red "you are special today" plate).  She picked out her own outfit, and requested a ponytail with the front pieces braided into it.  All 4 of us piled into the car after taking a few quick pictures on the front porch.  I have to note that she picked out her own backpack, and although I think it is pretty hideous, she thinks it is just gorgeous!

Pretty sure this backpack is more than half her size!

Waiting outside the kinder playground.

Waiting in line with Mrs. Shmeiser

We dropped our big girl off with her teacher on the kinder playground.  She found a hook for her backpack and got in line on her assigned shape.  She blew us a kiss and didn't really look back after the parents were dismissed.  Although tissue packets were thoughtfully handed out to all of the parents, I am happy to report that I did not need mine.  Going to school is a big step for my girl, but an inevitable one and I am looking forward to all that she will discover about herself this year in school.

She was all smiles when I pulled up in the pickup line, and as her teacher helped her into the car, she said to me, "Laney is just an angel!  I wish I had 30 just like her in class!!"  That just made my day!  We came home for lunch, since kindergarten is just half day in San Marcos.  She requested her favorite, turkey and cheese with mayonnaise, and then said the cutest thing to me as we ate.  She told me that she was glad that Patrick and I had talked to her so much about kindergarten because she knew what to expect when she was there today, and that made her feel good.  She also wore her special kindergarten name tag all day, only taking it off at bedtime to put on her pj's.  Laney told us tonight that she is really excited to go back to school tomorrow.  I truly don't think this day could have gone any better than it did!

Liam sees something special

I was having lunch with Liam at Panera just now. He turned the lady at the table next to us and told her "I saw a titty in the bushes."

She actually choked on her coffee, so he clarified by saying "I saw a titty tat in the bushes at my house." I smothered a laugh and told her he meant a cat.  She did not look amused.  She changed tables less than a minute later...

She probably won't report me to CPS.  (We left quickly anyway.)

Spin art

Jessica and I had a favorite place to go to when we were kids to make stuff, and I think it was called Splatters.  It was (in our minds) this magical place to make cool clothing.  You would pick a sweatshirt/t shirt/tote bag/etc and put it on a spinning table and then drip paint onto it to create cool designs.  Inevitably, the clothing looked like we made it and the fad lost its steam pretty quickly.  How I wish I could find a picture of one of our ugly creations.  Alas, no photographic evidence might not be a bad thing.  Anyhow, today you can buy little machines like this one to create the same art.   I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, so last night I introduced Laney to spin art, the modern mommy version.

Laney needed to make some thank you notes for the volunteers in her Moppets class at Mops, as well as some Mother's Day cards.  We dropped a card into my salad spinner, which I haven't used in years since I discovered salad in a bag :)  Laney dripped paint onto the cards and then we gave it a whirl.  Here are her creations:

She really wanted me to put Laney Bug instead of Laney on the back.  

  I have to say that I had forgotten how fun it is to do spin art, and was really immersed in some fun memories last night as Laney and I made modern spin art cards.  It was really neat to see her experiment with the paint and to think of new ways to decorate.  It was like a little science experiment every time we took the lid off the spinner to see what we had made.   Mommy bonus: this project is not very messy and pretty cheap.   I think this art project is bound to repeated again and again this summer.  

Castember is almost over!

Thankfully, the month of Castember is drawing to a close.  Liam had a rough go of it week one, but was rewarded with excellent news at his one week checkup.  We had an x-ray taken of his leg (through the cast) and it showed remarkable healing.  In fact, you couldn't even see where the fracture had been.  The doctor then gave us the greatest news of all:  the cast comes off a week early!  That means, as of tomorrow, the cast will be gone!!!! Yippppeeee!!!  The last 3 weeks have been a trial for us, and a test of wills as well.  Liam has come through all of this remarkably, complaining very little about the cast or any itching.  He has had his fair share of muscle cramping and pinches from the cast itself though.  He started walking around on the cast after 2 weeks and by the end of last weekend was going up and down the stairs with remarkable speed.  We also began taking him to the park after his x-ray showed good progress.  There is a small park nearby that Liam could navigate really well in.  We just slipped one of Patrick's big socks over the cast so he didn't get any debris inside, and off he went.   I even had to ask him to stop climbing up the side of the jungle gym the last time we went.  I am just not ready to explain any more injuries to the doctor right now...

This cast has seen better days!  It is cracked in  the back by the heel too.

Here is Liam's famous "monster walk" perfected by hobbling around on his cast.

Castember update

Day 1 of Castember, which is what I have renamed this torturous 4 weeks of cast-hell, did not go so well.  There were (rightfully so) lots of tears from Liam and a lot of screaming too.  I don't know why the docs don't prescribe something stronger than Motrin for kids, but it sure would have been handy.  Liam got about 2 solid hours of sleep before waking up screaming.  We put him in our bed, gave him a dose of medicine, and then settled in for another hour of screaming.  He spent the night sleeping in 1 hour bursts, then crying for about an hour.  We think we logged a total of 5 non-consecutive hours of sleep that night.  Saturday morning was difficult too as we navigated the ins-and-outs of a non-walking Liam.  He was frustrated and angry that he had to be carried everywhere, and uncomfortable as he got used to the cast.  We were frustrated too at having to revert to having a child that needed so much hands-on entertaining again.  He did end up sleeping better last night, after we discovered that sliding a pillow under his cast while he is in bed helps to prop the leg into a comfortable position.

Day 3 turned out to be much better than expected.  We all woke up at 7am (which is sleeping in our house on a good day) and were elated that we actually got some decent blocks of sleep in.  I do have to admit that at 2am Liam woke up in pain.  We gave him some Motrin and put him back in bed between us.  Liam snuggled right up to me, forehead to forehead, and asked me to sing "Country Girl" by Luke Bryan to him.  While we ordinarily rock out to this song in the car, I did my best to turn it into a lullaby.  Not so easy when the first part goes like this:

"Got a little boom in my big truck/gonna open up the doors and turn it up/gonna stomp my boots in the Georgia mud/Gonna watch you make me fall in love/Get up on the hood of my daddy's tractor/Up on the toolbox, it don't matter/Down on the tailgate/Girl I can't wait/To watch you do your thang/Shake it for the rednecks rocking/Shake it for the young bucks sitting in the honky-tonks/For the rednecks rocking 'til the break of dawn/The DJ spinning that country song/Come on, come on, come on/Shake it for the birds, shake it for the bees/Shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek/For the crickets and the critters, and the squirrel/Shake it to the moon, shake it for me girl/Aw, country girl, shake it for me/Girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me/Country girl, shake it for me/Girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me"

Bless his heart, my little dude actually fell asleep as I sang this to him, and managed to stay asleep more or less until 7.  As I was changing his diaper this morning on the floor, he moved his casted leg and said to me, "I can move it!"  I think he had been afraid to move that leg up until then, and this was a breakthrough for him.  He started flailing his cast around as he realized that although he couldn't walk on the cast, his movement wasn't completely limited.  This was a great realization for us too.  In fact, this afternoon he surprised me again as I had left him and Laney playing blocks in his room, and here he came scooching backwards out of the room on his tushy.  Laney showed him how to scooch around the house and he got really fast at it.  She even taught him how to crawl up the stairs and then scooch back down on his tush.  She really has been such a bright light for him the last 2 days, cheering him up more than Patrick and I ever could.  She has been drawing him very detailed get well pictures, hugging him, and volunteering to get things for him without even being asked.  Sister of the year!

I was so pleased to see my children interacting in this way, and Castember doesn't look as ominous as it did yesterday.  I hope this rose-colored view of the next 4 weeks is here to stay.

Liam and his Purple Cast

This trout face says it all

Another parenting first for me:  a child with a cast.  Liam let himself out of Shesh's house Friday just before lunchtime and managed to fall on the garden path and break his leg.  I heard screaming from down below the patio and couldn't believe there was no blood or scrapes when I reached him.  I was also thankful that it wasn't a snake bite because the baby rattler's are out right now!

This is where it hurts...

Anyhow, I piled him into the car, texted our play date friends that we would not be meeting up with them for lunch, and speed dialed Dr. Schmottlach's office.  Poor Liam cried and cried  on the way there, making it pretty clear to the receptionist that we needed to be seen right away (Thanks Bluetooth )  The doctor examined Liam and told us that he was pretty sure he had broken the leg, and sent us over to another medical building for x-rays.  After a 30 minute wait, Liam and I went back to the x-ray room.  I am so glad that I had the foresight to jam a few lollipops into my purse while we were in the pediatiricans waiting room.  I was also thankful that my phone had a full battery charge and was loaded with games to keep my little dude busy.  Liam was being pretty brave about the whole thing, until they pulled the x-ray machine over him to take a picture.  That really freaked him out, but he held it together for the 2 pictures.  

We headed back to the pediatrician's office, and Dr. Schmottlach told us that he had an oblique tibia fracture (aka Toddler Fracture).  Dr. S explained that his bones are soft and when he twisted his ankle falling, it snapped the bone.  An adult would have just sprained the ankle, but kids usually break bones instead.  He sent us to another local medical building to get it casted.

When the technicians came in at the ortho office, they held out a pile of fiberglass swatches in bright colors for Liam to pick from.  Liam had been very adamant at Dr. Schmottlach's that he wanted a purple cast.  He picked the purple right away at  the ortho too.  Patrick had given me the go ahead to get him a purple cast, so we got him ready for the casting.  2 talented technicians came in and had Liam all wrapped up and casted in under 5 minutes.  Liam was brave for the whole thing, and convinced him not to cry by having him tell the techs about Disneyland (his favorite subject these days!)  He had to get a long-leg cast which extends from his toes to his upper thigh, bent 40 degrees at the knee so it won't slip off.   He will have to wear the cast for 4 weeks.  Until then, he can't walk or put any weight on it!

Not exactly thrilled about this, but Lovey helped him get through it. 

So upset to have a cast on.  Not happy at all that he can't walk.  

So, what does one do to entertain a 2.5 year old who can't walk, go to the park, play in the sand, stand at a Thomas the Train table, take a bath, go swimming, or even ride a scooter?  Guess we will soon find out!