Well, I can't believe it but this time next year, 2012, we will already have Keira registered for kindergarten. This is a big deal for me! We are looking at building a new house, but Dan wants to wait 3-5 years. We are looking to build in the Fallbrook or The Bridges (Denton) area. Where we live now, Fallbrook, and the Bridges are all in different school districts. My problem with this is that I do not want to be living here when Keira starts school and then have to pull her out in the middle of the school year when we move and go to a different school. I want to know where we are going to build, the district, and the school before she starts school, so her, Aden & Taygen can all go to the same school without moving in the middle of the school year.

I am a very picky person! That's just me. It takes me 2 hours just to pick out a pair of shoes, ask Dan, it drives him crazy! I want them to go to a small school, where they will know every kid and I will know every parent. I want the teachers to know the kids by name and know some stuff about their lives. Right now Keira goes to a preschool with 16 kids, which is great! I know all the parents, sometimes we sit down and talk while we are waiting for the kids to get out of school. The parents look out for each kid like they are their own. Keira recently went to the zoo with her preschool for the letter Z and still had her cast on...I was really nervous about this, a couple of the parents must have noticed me about to cry when I loaded her up in the van to go, because one of them said, it's okay Amber we will watch out for her! And they did..one parent told me they kept her out of the sand so the sand did not get into her cast and walked around with her while the other kids were playing so she didn't feel left out.

Honestly, I do not want the kids to go to an LPS school, there are just way too many kids in the school district.  I want to move to a small town, so the kids can go to a school with less than 100 kids. I have even thought about private schools for the kids, Lincoln Christian is a very good private school. I know this sounds weird to some, but I don't want my kids to be just a number to the teachers or just another kid that  goes to that school. I want the kids to have the same friends in kindergarten that they do their senior year.

I went to York High School (the worst school, BTW, sorry guys) from 5th grade-junior year, I had the same friends from 5th grade thru high school, we moved, went to a different school, lost those friends, unfortunately I did not make anymore/new friends at my new school (although, some friends did follow me to the other school). I did not know anyone my first couple months, I was lost & scared and I don't want Aden, Keira, or Taygen to feel like that when they go to school. If Keira goes to an elementary school here in Lincoln & makes friends, when they have to change schools to a middle school, who knows if those friends will be able to go to that middle school. Where if you are in a small town, you do not have an option but to go to that elementary, middle, or high school because that is your only option (and that's what I want), but here in Lincoln there are 37 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, & 6 high schools to choose from when you leave/start school. Pretty sad!

I really have to stop stressing about stuff and just take the days as they come, that's just not me though! I have to have every thing planned out in advance and it drives me crazy if it is not.

Second week update

Friday, March 13th.

Daddy took her this time and she saw her Dr.'s physicians assistant, but the PA said everything still looked good and no surgery! She thinks her arm is doing so good that her original Dr. wants to see her in 2 weeks (and 5 days) this time.

Her next appointment is Wednesday, June 1st. At this time they are hoping to get the cast off. She will still be in a sling, but at least she will be able to have movement in her arm!  We have not told her about getting her cast off because the Dr. is not really sure yet, so we don't want to get her hopes up and something go wrong that she still has to wear it for another week or two.

She is doing a lot better! She just figured out that she can still use her fingers to hold stuff and grasp stuff. Before she would not have anything to do with that arm or hands (in fear of hurting it again).

Keira only has 2 days of school left. On Tuesday, she went with her preschool class to the zoo for the letter Z. The teachers and volunteer parents kept a good eye on her. One of the parents told me that they wouldn't let her play in the sand because they were afraid she would get sand in her cast.

Sorry, I haven't been keeping up with the updates.

First week appt. Wednesday, March 4th.

Keira had her first week appointment on Wednesday, March 4th. The doctor said everything looked good and was healing correctly. The doctor was surprised by the specialist that put her cast on. He was expecting to have to take that cast off and put a new one on, but he said the cast was the best he had ever seen. They took x-rays of her arm and everything is healing. I didn't really like this doctor because he talked in circles and did not have much eye contact. He thought she might have to have surgery but he said everything looked good this time and scheduled her appointment for the next week, Friday, March 13th. He also said that she might have a bump on her lower arm by her elbow. I thought he meant a visible bump on the outside of her arm, but Dan thinks he meant on her bones and you will not be able to see them.

Keira is doing a lot better. She hasn't had any of her pain meds since Thursday and I just gave her Tylenol before she went to bed for the first time today. I feel so bad for her! She can't do anything that she used to.

It makes me wonder if everything Keira went through (Iv's, blood pressure cuff, nose oxygen, heart monitors (she does have a heart murmur), ambulance transport, Children's Hospital)  in the 2 hospitals that she was at from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m is what everyone with a broken arm goes through. I talked to my little brother because my niece had a broken arm a couple months back and he said they went to the hospital, put on a cast and was sent on their way, maybe a minimum of 2 hours.

We take so much for granted in our daily lives. Some of us can walk fine, talk fine, and can have a normal life. But then there are others who can't and have to make accommodations to their everyday lives. Keira's accident has really made me think that we really can't take anything for granted ever again! She used to be able to get herself dressed, now she needs my help or dad's help to get her dressed. She is afraid of picking her cup up with one hand because she doesn't want to drop it. She cannot go to the bathroom by herself anymore without help getting onto the toilet, wiping, and pulling her pants up. She can't sleep in her own bed anymore because she can't use her other hand to grab onto the rails. She has to sleep in Aden's bed with him (Aden has a full size bed. Aden is at the head and Keira is at the foot of the bed). She has fallen so many times since she has gotten her cast just because she is off balance and when she does start to fall she cannot catch her self. Today (Monday) she was dancing around and tripped over the step stool and hit her head on my bed rail, luckily she is okay! She cannot get on or off of the couch by herself, I walked into the living room the other day and found Keira upside down on the couch because she was trying to get up by herself. She can't get up or down from her chair at the dinner table. She CAN unbuckle her self in her car seat and that makes her so proud!

People have tragedies in their lives, kids that can't walk or talk due to an accident or kids who have mental illnesses, or kids with cancer. This is our tragedy, we are just going to take it one day at a time!

Keira has her first weekly appointment at Children's in Omaha on Wednesday, May 4th. I will keep the updates coming.

We went on family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. We went up there Easter Sunday after Church and stayed Sunday night and Monday night. All day Monday we went swimming, made teddy bears (like teddy bear factory), got tattoos, used magic wands on the magic quest, and went swimming again.  Dan and the kids came back in the room about 9:30 p.m. Monday evening after swimming. We were getting all the kids ready for bed, Keira was climbing up the bunk bed ladder to go to bed and fell off.

When I got to her I thought she hit her head. Before Dan took her downstairs to the lobby she was falling asleep on the bed, I had tell her that she couldn't go to sleep. They actually checked her head at the E.R. and everything was fine!  When she fell she was no less than an inch from the foot board of the bed across the bunk bead on the floor. She wouldn't stop crying and said her arm hurt. She wouldn't move her arm and her arm started swelling, then I knew it was broken.

In this picture: On the right is the ladder of the bunk bed. On the bottom left is where she landed. Her head was less than an inch from hitting that board (lower left, lighter brown vertical board.)

Dan then took her down stairs to the lobby to see where a near by hospital was. I stayed in the room with the other two kids to get them calmed down and to put them to bed. While he was down there he talked to a paramedic and they also thought it was broken. They took down information for an incident report and sent Dan and Keira on their way to a nearby hospital.

 Dan got to the hospital about 11 p.m or so. Dan did not like this hospital at all, they were not child friendly at all. Dan said they were not very nice to Keira at all while taking X-rays, they were moving her arm all around and making it hurt worse instead of helping her. They wound up saying that she had see a specialist  and be transferred to Children's Hospital in Kansas City because the X-rays revealed a break in the growth bone, which means if it doesn't heal correctly the arm will not grow with the other arm. After about 2 hours at the E.R. they transferred her by ambulance to Children's Hospital.

Picture of Keira at the E.R. You can tell she is not happy and is in pain!

When they got there Dan finally got answers and just loved the way him and Keira were treated. Dan found out that she had broke her arm in 2 different places and dislocated her elbow. They had her on IVs and a nose oxygen.  They had to put her under to put her elbow back into place. Then they put the cast on and she was ready to go. They had to make sure she could wake up and stay awake for a while before Dan could leave with her.  They were finally back in the hotel room about 5:30. We had to get a separate room so she had somewhere to sleep. She was not getting back on that bed!! She has a full arm cast now and has to go back to Children's Hospital in Omaha weekly!

I am very upset about this fall! Not upset at Keira, of course, but at the hotel! Keira has a bunk bed at home and climbs it about 3 times a day and has never fallen off! There are a couple things about this bunk bed (that you can see in the upper picture of the bunk bed) that I think should be changed....1. The ladder is straight up and down and Keira and Aden's is slanted and is actually easier to climb up. 2. There is no where to grab on to when you climb up it. 3. The top is closed off and can't grab on anywhere.

I was a nervous wreck all night. I did not sleep at all that night. Neither did Dan obviously..since he was at the hospital for 6 hours. They got back into the room at 5:30 a.m., Keira and I slept in the separate room, I still was not able to sleep even when she was back because she kept waking up moaning and in pain.

We came back home Tuesday after noon. She was not doing good at all. She was still in pain and very sleepy and just laid around all day at home. She didn't want to eat and her stomach hurt all day.

She gets to go to school tomorrow (Thursday) I am very nervous about this. Just because I don't know how the other kids are going to react and I just hope she is okay! She has swimming on Thursdays at school she can't even go swimming with her friends. She cannot go swimming at all, she can't do dance, which was Tuesday night, and she can't go to her dance recital, which is Saturday afternoon.

She is doing a little better today. She has been up walking around. She knows that when she is walking around she has to have her sling on. But when she is laying down or sitting down then she can take it off. She is still in pain and is still complaining about her stomach hurting. I think she is just getting nervous about the pain and it is upsetting her stomach. She takes her medication and is okay for a couple hours.

I will just start by saying March is not the kids' month! It started off with Aden's WC check on March 11th. We found out he had walking pneumonia so they gave him amoxicilan. He was supposed to take it for 10 days...the 8th day of taking it he broke out in hives. We took him to the Dr. Saturday, March 19th, we couldn't see our regular pediatrician because it was a Saturday so we had to go to a different office location, the Dr. we saw told us that he was having an allergic reaction to his meds. Finally, today after 5 days of having bright red spots all over his body, they are going away.

Taygen also had her WC check the same day as Aden. She had to have shots. This was on Friday, March 11th, that night about midnight or so she woke up crying in her bed with a fever (the same way Aden's pneumonia started). Not knowing that our Dr. office was open on Saturdays we waited until Monday to take her in. So we made an appointment for Monday, March 14th. They checked her lungs, ears and throat and everything sounded good. The Dr. told me that it was probably just her shots. Well, today Wednesday, March 23 I noticed that she had the same rash that Aden had making me think that his rash was contagious, meaning that he isn't actually allergic to his meds. Anyway, so I got her an appointment for Wednesday, March 23rd...for her cough (still) and her rash. The Dr. says her lungs, ears, throat and nose look and sound good and that it is just a virus or a reaction to her MMR shots....of course it is!!! She said the cough lasting as long as it has been could be more than one cold on top of another one. The first cold never went away and she got a second cold.

So, to make a long story short. Aden and Taygen have been to the Dr. 4 times within a week and a half (11 days).

Taygen turned one on March 5. She had her 1 year well-child checkup on March 11th. She is 19 lbs and is in the 50th percentile. She is 28 inches long and is in the 10th percentile. Her height hasn't changed since her 9 month check. She had to have 3 shots and a prick on the finger for anemia.  They did the prick on the finger and sent it to the lab, the nurse came back and said the level was 10, which means Anemic. She redid the test because she didn't think that was right, so Tayg got another prick on the finger and had to draw more blood, the nurse came back and said the level was 11, which now means no Anemia. 

Aden is 2 1/2 and had to have his 30 month well child checkup as well. I took them in on the same day, to make it easier and didn't have to run in on different days. Aden weighs 26 lbs and is in the 12th perentile and his height is 34 1/4  and is in the 11th percentile.  He didn't have to have any shots this time! 

We found out Aden has pneumonia. He had been coughing (croup like) and a runny nose (and acting fine) for about 2-3 weeks. He got a slight fever when he was sleeping Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning. He complained that his chest hurt when he coughed Wednesday morning when he was eating breakfast and just told him that he can just relax today and watch some of his shows since we didn't have anything to do that day. I wasn't too worried because he would be going to his Dr. for his well-child check on Friday and I would just talk to her about it then. Well, we get there and she listens to him breath,  Dan tells him to blow hard while she is listening to him breath. She tells Aden to blow again and that's when she heard the pneumonia. It's one of those things you think to yourself...if Dan wouldn't have told him to blow like that, would she even had caught that? He is on Amoxicillan and is doing much better. 

Taygen has also been coughing and runny nose. She checked out fine at her appointment. Tayg got a fever that Friday night (a couple hours after the Dr. appt. and shots), so of course, I was worried because it was the same way Aden's pneumonia started. So I waited for the weekend to pass (because I am not taking her to Lincare or any kind of Urgent Care place) and got an appointment on Monday. They didn't hear any kind of pneumonia. The doctor thought that the fever was due to her shots, but the nurse told me that Taygen would not get any kind of shot symptoms for 10-12 days. 

They monitored her oxygen for about 20 minutes and was worried about her breathing, they thought she might need a breathing machine (Aden has one when he was a baby). She came out of the appt. fine, she doesn't need a nebulizer or any kind of breathing machine. She is still not doing very good. She still has her cough, runny nose, very weak, just wants to sleep but when she does sleep it is only for about 30 minutes at a time (she can't get comfortable and her coughing wakes her up).  She has been like this every time she has gotten teeth, so hopefully that's what it is and not some health issue. 

Taygen turned one on March 5th. It is hard to believe she is 1 already! She is not walking yet. She is pulling herself up onto things and walking around holding on, but she just won't let go yet. She can stand by herself for about 10 seconds and then she plops back down on the floor. She has a little walk and ride train that she holds on to and walks with.

We decided to do her Baptism a week before her birthday, February 27th, and do her birthday party when everyone would be in town. She did great with her Baptism, she didn't cry one time. We went to Lost In Fun for her birthday party. It was a great turn out. She was so exhausted by 1:00, she was sleeping through all the play :(.