The Bright Pink Full Leg Cast

Micah thought it was fun to get down and crawl along side Hallie...


We were really disappointed Hallie didn't get her cast taken off as planned, but are so grateful she is no longer in the spica cast. 2 weeks and we should be cast free for real! The instant we got home she was crawling around and a couple days later she was walking with the cast.

Kickin' Back

Hallie kickin' back her new cast... this seems to be the position of choice while sitting in the car!

Thank Goodness Grandpa and Grandma are here!

We were starting to get a little restless and bored!
Crawling around on the floor, dragging a cast...
Can be exhausting!

Searching for treasures in rice, scooping rice, spilling rice, eating rice, worked miracles until she put a marble in her mouth and had to spend 15 minutes getting rice out of her cast... good times!Still watching way too many movies...Sporting an awesome new truck shirt which he had to stop and show several other customers in the store :)Sunday drive to Point Look Out State ParkFinishing a lazy day with the fam with some ice cream and a walk on the boardwalk... life is good :)

Yea for my new-to-me camera coming today! No more lame0 cell phone pics... I'll be back in business! :)

Sew Cute Shop Amy Butler Birdie Sling GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Thanks Lora for the giveaway link! I can't resist, I've been wanting this bag since I saw it a few months ago... this would be way easier than pumping one out myself!

Sew Cute Shop Amy Butler Birdie Sling GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Random updates... Tyson's family comes tonight to visit... we are so excited! We're done with the cast, unfortunately not actually off, but we are all done with it. Especially Hallie, I think her leg is feeling better, she's been trying to walk, crawling all over- which is all great, but she is frustrated with her limitations and uncomfortable. Thankfully we'll have extra entertainment around this week, she was getting bored with my creativity :)

The Cast

Here is Hallie's cast. It's quite the contraption! Thankfully it will only be on a short while! It's hot and stinky! You'd think someone would come up with a better solution for keeping the cast protected from the diaper area... it's tricky!
With the cast she can no longer sit upright on the floor... we've had to get pretty creative.
Queen Hallie on her new throne... The table has surprisingly been perfect for her, she fits well with the cast hanging off the side!

And last, but not least, she has been crawling short distances and this morning I set her on the couch before I went to the bathroom and came out to find her like this...

My Little Fishies

Hallie was lovin' the water before her injury. This is one of the things I'm most disappointed about, I'm hoping we'll be able to catch the last week or so of the water park before it closes for the summer. Fingers crossed!

Can I just say how much easier it is to only bring one child to the water park!? Not only is it way easier getting in and out of the water park and car, but it is so much easier to leave the small fenced in wading area and go to the bigger, a little deeper, and way cooler wading area with small slides and floating animals. Trying to coral two toddlers on to one slide making sure one doesn't slip on the stairs and the catching the other before they drown in the water at the bottom of the slide... sounds amusing doesn't it?! The lifeguard in me is blowing my whistle and moving a little closer to the edge of my chair!

Here is Micah signing sleep, ready to go home, but still waiting for Hallie. On the rare occasion we now go, he lasts much longer now that we can spend more time on the slides! I miss our daily form of great entertainment and my budding tan :(

A New Little Boy

We've been doing our best to focus on the positives around Hallie's injury. One of the first and best things that has come from this time is Micah is thriving. Who knows if it was just the timing or if it's because he's had more time away from Hallie, but he has come out of his shell! He is much happier, talking more, and sleeping better. Now if we could only get him to eat more... that kid would drink milk 24/7 if we would let him!

I love this picture of him... he concentrates so hard on things and his focus is so visible, this totally captures him in the 'moment.' Thanks again Karlyn for the great photos! Pointing at a plane in the sky...

Showing off his new tractor pjs, which he spotted in the store... I just couldn't say no to the excitement!

Our new table

So something good did come of our shopping trip gone bad (our trip to ikea where Hal's leg was broken) Thanks again to Lis and Bobby, I didn't come out of the store empty handed they not only took care of Micah, but bought my stuff for me! Micah and Hallie are now the proud owners of their own little table. We love it! (and all the other goodies we got!)

Update: Hallie's leg

Not really any news to report for update... due to not having a referral from our insurance (still learning this whole tricare process!) we didn't get into the doctor yesterday. Well actually Hallie and I made it there, but after a long drive and wait, we weren't seen by the doctor. I told them we would take the risk on insurance not covering the visit if she needed to be seen that day. So the nurse came a took a look at her splint and said it looked ok. The doctor looked at the x-ray from last week and said she should be fine to come back later this week. So we are scheduled to head back Friday am (with our referral!) and will see what they have to say.

As for her... she's still in pain, at this point I'm finding lots of random things to do to keep her entertained... a change in scenery works wonderfully. She's not sleeping very well at night, but then again, she's not expending very much energy during the day. She still tells Micah what to do and he still listens. ??? I'm waiting to see if he'll figure out that she can't get him! He is being ultra cute and giving her hugs and kisses on a regular basis, he's such a sweetie! And please... keep the ideas coming... I'm loving them... you guys are all so creative!

Serious Emergency

Photo curtesy of Langdon on flikr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/langdonknits/3674428525/

We have another serious emergency in our house, but don't worry... this one doesn't involve anyone being injured or sick. This one is a little more lighthearted, but still very serious.

We are on our last spoonful of homemade jam... Blackberry jam to be exact

In all our moving I didn't realize we were so low... and now they day has come- the last spoonful and no more in the pantry!

Last week I saw a few signs along the road beckoning me... 'U-Pick Blackberries' and 'Pick your own blackberries.' And I've even been frantically searching the sides of the roads for a lonely thriving blackberry bush. I know with the rain we've had around here they have got to oh so good!

I'm still scheming on how I can manage to get me some of those yummies, sadly a broken leg and a broken car (my car in the shop this week for a few more repairs before our warranty expires) aren't helping in my jam emergency.

Then there comes the problem of actually making the jam. With 1 child who's got a bum leg and 1 child who desperately wants his life back to normal... not lookin' so hot at this point is it? See what I mean about this jam emergency!?

Despite all the drama, and with the odds stacked against me, know this...

I will find a way to make it happen!

Broken Femur

Our poor Hallie! If you haven't heard, she has a broken femur bone.

As for the details, we were shopping with Lis and Bobby at IKEA, I had stuff hooked to the handlebar of the stroller (please don't ever do this! I hope I have learned this lesson for others!) And while taking the kids out of the stroller (and forgetting that things were attached to the handlebar) the stroller tipped backwards. I was holding Hallie, but somehow her foot or leg got tangled up in the stroller, we are still not really sure what happened because it happened so quickly and she was not noticeably tangled up anywhere.

Lis and Bobby took Micah and I followed the GPS to the closest hospital, which landed me at probably one of the trashiest hospitals in the DC area- Prince George's Medical Center. (I hope there's not one trashier then this!) I'll try not to rant too much here, but I just have to assume there were other people in the waiting room who were sicker then Hallie. We waited for around 3 hours before she was actually seen by a doctor. This was all despite the fact that she was obviously in pain, crying saying 'ouch' from the moment we walked in the door. We even had several comments from others about the fact she was obviously hurting. So there's the extent of my rant, I could go on but I won't.

They determined that she had a spiral fracture of her right femur. Thankfully the bone is not displaced. They put a splint on her leg, and we were transferred to Children's Hospital in DC to see a pediatric orthopedic specialist. I am SO grateful we were transferred to this hospital, they were so great. From the instant the transport team arrived at the ER to get her they went above and beyond. They started an IV and gave Hallie her first pain medication since the whole ordeal began. They were concerned with not only how she was doing, but with how I was doing. Like I said above and beyond, I was the least of my worries. They came armed with a great stuffed animal for Hallie, which came from a great organization, the Allie's Friends Foundation. Seemingly not much, but she held on to that bear for 3 days straight.

They determined since it was not displaced that they would see how she did with a splint, so at this point no cast. We go in to the Doctor Tuesday to check her progress. They will determine at that point what needs to be done. We are praying that the splint will do it's job and allow her bone to heal fully and that she will not need a cast... this would mean a spica cast, which stretches the full length of the leg and includes both hips, not fun for anyone at any age, but especially not for an active toddler! She obviously is not able to walk on it, but has been an absolute trooper.

This happened Tue early afternoon, we were home by midnight Tue night and she has spent the a lot of time chilling on the couch and in bed with me. Not that you want this to happen really at any point, but to add to the ordeal Tyson was out of town for the week for work. Lis and Bobby also went way above and beyond (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!) They haven't started "life" here yet :), just moved to the area, starting school and work in August, so they came and stayed with us and were are TREMENDOUS help with Micah and also with Hallie. I seriously don't think I could ever thank them enough.

Tyson returned home Friday evening and we are all so happy daddy is home. Hallie has been doing great, still in a good amount of pain. She has been relatively content to hang out on the couch, floor, or bed. We've ventured outside for a few walks and today actually just a few minutes ago, is the first time she has attempted to get up and walk... which is still a HUGE no-no! I take that as a good sign, her leg must be feeling a little better, but we may need to get a bit more creative with how to contain and entertain her!

We would all greatly appreciate your prayers for a quick recovery, my heart sinks to my stomach when I think about the things she won't be able to do during her recovery. I know we will find other great things to do, and I will put my Rec Therapy degree to good use, but simple things like running, going to the park, going swimming (she has been a total fish lately!), you know all the good stuff a toddler loves to do are not looking so hot for the rest of the summer.

I will attempt to get back to some regular posting, but will for sure post an update Tuesday after her appointment.