Worst Mother in the World Award goes to....

ME! :(

So a VERY scary thing happened to us last week with Isaac. We were at the grocery store and Isaac was in his car seat in the cart (on the part where bigger kids sit and get buckled in, does that make sense?). Anywho, we had fed him a bottle and then got him out of his car seat to burp him. Then, much to my regret, I put him back in his car seat but didn't buckle him. The car seat was leaning back enough that it was holding him in and I didn't think it would be a problem. We were checking out and I was just distracted, which was not a good excuse, but I was just not paying close enough attention. I figured that we would be leaving soon so I would buckle him when we were done and had to get in the car. Well the car seat got bumped and Isaac fell out RIGHT on his head! It was the most sickening thing I have ever heard/seen watching him fall like that. I immediately ran over to him and picked him up and just started crying hysterically. This is probably the point where I should have been calm and collected but I most certainly was not. Thank goodness Keith was there and was calm because I was a mess. People kept coming up to me asking, "should I call an ambulance?" or "what should we do?" and I just kept saying "I DON'T KNOW! HE FELL ON HIS HEAD!!"

Well as soon as he hit the ground he started crying really hard. He cried for a few minutes and then started to calm down and wanted to fall asleep. Well I didn't know how serious it was so I just kept talking to him and trying to keep him awake. We took him to the ER at UVRMC and told them what happened. He got really pale all of a sudden, and the nurses took notice so they got him back pretty fast thank goodness. They told us we could let him fall asleep since he had such a traumatic experience. We got back to one of the rooms and the doctor came in and looked at him and said he should have a CT scan. He asked us if Isaac passed out or vomited after it happened, and we said no he just cried really hard. The doctor said this was a good sign. After that, they took us back to the CT scan. It was so sad watching him as they had to strap him down to get the test done! He just cried and cried. I got to stay with him thank goodness.

After the CT scan we went back to the original room to wait for the results. After a few minutes Isaac started to get his color back, he started smiling/cooing and playing. I started to feel so much better about it but was still very worried. I was thinking the worst of course, like does he have skull fracture? Is he going to have permanent damage? Is his brain swelling up? I don't know enough about the medical field to know what could happen in this kind of situation.

The doctor came back with the results and gave us a thumbs up. He said that everything looked fine but that we should watch him closely and check on him through the night. He said that we did the right thing by bringing him in though, just since he is so young. He said that he has seen hundreds of these cases at the ER (where kids fall out of shopping carts) and 99.9% of the time they are just fine. He also said that it even happened to his own child while he was in medical school! That made me feel a lot better.

That night Isaac woke up every 3-4 hours or so just as the Tylenol was wearing off, which is understandable. I had a hard time sleeping that night anyway, because I was worried about him and also just felt horrible about what had happened. It kept re-playing over and over in my head watching him fall like that. I think it will be burned in my brain forever! Pretty soon after he fell he developed a good sized goose egg on the left side of his forehead, and he still has it but it goes down a little more every day.

Here's a couple of pictures, you can see that the left side of his forehead
is sticking up more than the right, that's his goose egg :(

The whole time we were going through it, Keith kept saying "I don't know how to explain it, but I just know he's going to be okay" and that was very comforting. He stayed calm the whole time, which was a relief because I was hysterical, and Malea was crying because I was crying and Isaac was crying because, well he landed on his head! My mom and step-dad met us at the hospital and helped with Malea which was really nice. I think it helped her to calm down.

I am so glad Isaac is okay! I've decided that from now on he will always be buckled and he will be down in the basket of the cart instead of up by the handle!

New Sister-in-Law

Congratulations to the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Dan Martindale! My brother Dan and his bride Kelsie were married yesterday at the Springville Art Museum. It was a great day and I'm so happy for them! I'm so excited for a new sister-in-law!

Sickies

We have dealt with so many sick bugs this year, it is not even funny! I've decided I'm not going to have a baby in the fall again if I can help it, since that is right when cold and flu season starts. Since Thanksgiving, we have had stomach flu, Keith and I got food poisoning, and we had a couple of different head colds that went through most of the family. Despite my efforts to wash hands and use Purell, we have still gotten sick a lot. I am longing for spring and summer!

Isaac has been dealing with a yucky cold and broke out in a crazy rash. He was on Amoxicillin for a mild ear infection, so we're still not sure if it was an allergic reaction or just the result of some weird virus. The rash hasn't seemed to bother him too much (thank goodness) but it has been pretty dramatic looking. The doctor said that from here on out we will just have to be careful what kind of antibiotics he gets in the future.

This is probably when the rash was at its worst (above)

Dealing with a lot of sicknesses has really made me grateful for good health. I really take for granted good health until its taken away for a time. It has mostly just been inconvenient in terms of not getting good sleep and dealing with runny noses, doctors appointments, etc. But I realize it could be a lot worse.

I've decided I'm probably going to keep my kids in more for the next month or so. It is just so hard with a busy 3 year old! Pretty much if Malea gets sick with something, Isaac ends up with it too. We will still go out and do the normal things we have to do, but I'm probably not going to take Malea to nursery, storytime, play group, or anywhere else where there are groups of other kids. I just need a break from sick bugs for a while.

Princess Malea is 3!!!

My sweet little Malea turned 3!!! I can't believe she is so grown up! We had such a fun weekend full of lots of fun festivities.

On Saturday (her actual birthday) we had a Princess Party with some of her friends. It was SO fun! It was a little chaotic at times, but I think everyone had fun. All the kids dressed up like princesses/princes. We had pizza and then all the kids decorated a little foam crown with jewels and with sparkly letters to spell their names. It was really fun! Then we had cake & ice cream and presents. She got so many fun things, including a really fun slide/basketball hoop toy that was a combined gift from us and her grandparents. My aunt made this AMAZING cake, everyone loved it! She is so talented.

Now this is the part where I get sentimental and you can stop reading if you want :)

The day before her birthday, I came across a movie on TV called "Motherhood" (it has Uma Therman in it, I had never heard of it before that day but I guess it came out in 2009). Well the movie was just okay, but there was a part in it that really struck me. Uma Therman's character was preparing for her daughter's 6th birthday party. She looked out the window to see her daughter playing outside, and stopped to watch her. She put her hand to her chest and said, "today is her last day of being 5." Well I don't know what it was, but I burst in to tears! That sounds so silly, but it really hit me that Malea was turning 3 and this day was the last day of her being 2. She was never going to be 2 again. It just really made me think about how fast kids grow up, and despite how frustrating or difficult it can be sometimes, we should just cherish every minute of it!

Malea is just such a joy. There are so many things I love about her. She is very energetic, has a great sense of humor, and loves to have fun. She can be a little drama queen sometimes, but that's just Malea. I wouldn't want her to be any different. She is SO smart. I am just amazed at the things that come out of her mouth sometimes. She loves to do arts and crafts, which I just love. I will be sad when she doesn't want to do crafts with me anymore. She loves to get out of the house and do things. She is very motherly and is so sweet to her little brother Isaac. She is always watching out for him. The other day at church she was in nursery and heard a baby cry out in the hall. She said, "that's my little brother! I need to go help him!" and she ran out of the doors and almost in to the other ward's sacrament meeting before the leader caught up with her! She just loves him so much.

I just can't believe how fast these 3 years have gone by! It seems like I just had her yesterday and now she is a big 3 year old. That sounds so cliche, but its true. I'm so excited to watch her grow up and so proud of the girl she is becoming, but I can't help but get a little sad when I think of how fast she is growing up. There are times when I am busy with something or pre-occupied and Malea will say "play with me mommy!" I am trying really hard to remember that cleaning the house can wait, and its more important to spend time with my sweet little girl.

I LOVE YOU MALEA!!!

Under the Sea

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium back in December and I realized that I never posted about it! Malea was so excited to go, and we have been wanting to take her for a while.

She loved all of the animals and was talking about it for days! She especially loved the penguins and sea horses. It was a fun little family outing!

Isaac had fun too :)

Keith petting a sting ray (minus the sting).....he was much braver than me, I was too big of a wuss to do it!

Our little penguin :) Malea loves penguins....she loves the movie "Happy Feet" (much to my dismay....I cannot stand that movie!) and she will pretend she is a penguin sometimes (soooo cute)

Peekaboo!

Isaac - 4 months

Isaac is 4 months old!

He is growing up so fast. Here are his stats from his 4 month check-up:

Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz (17th percentile)
Height: 24.5 inches (30th percentile)
Head circumference: 16.5 cm (37th percentile)

He is kind of small but that's okay, he is so dang BUSY that I'm not surprised! Pretty much if he is awake he is moving constantly! Everyone that holds him says "he is so wiggly!" I'm scared for when he starts crawling/walking, I have a feeling I'm going to be chasing him around all over the place!

An interesting little tidbit, I checked Malea's growth charts from when she was 4 months old and she was a pound heavier, an inch longer, and her head circumference was in the 90th percentile!

Isaac just started rolling over from his back to his belly right before he turned 4 months, so he is now rolling both directions. He is also starting to reach/bat for things and when he lays on his back he plays with his feet. He is so smiley and loves to laugh. He is also ticklish (which he inherited from his mommy). I can already tell that he is going to be our "class clown". He has a great sense of humor. He is just such a joy!

Its funny how different each child is....I thought when I was pregnant with him that I was a pro now since we already had one, but boy was I wrong! He keeps us guessing all the time. Things that worked with Malea don't always work with him. It just goes to show that every one is born with different, unique personalities!

He absolutely loves his sister. He smiles when he sees her, and loves when she plays with him. Now that he is getting a little bit older it is fun because Malea can entertain him. I have also noticed that she is a little bit rougher with him since he is not a newborn anymore, and we are constantly reminding her to be gentle. I'm interested to see if they will still be buddies when he is able to follow her around and steal her toys though!

Merry Christmas!

Our 2010 Christmas card

We had a great holiday season this year! It was so much fun because it was Isaac's 1st Christmas. We have so many fun traditions, especially now that Malea is a little older.

Of course we had to go see Santa (Malea is always so excited until she gets up to him and then she is all serious lol)

She asked Santa for a Jessie doll for Christmas (from Toy Story)

We went to see Santa with our friends The Dinkel's and she also got to ride the train with Maddie and Zach!

Trying to get a picture of both kids in their Christmas jammies

Another fun tradition is going to see the lights at Temple Square!

A picture of the kids in front of our tree

It was fun this year being able to do Christmas crafts with Malea! We made a paper plate snow man, paper bag reindeer, and homemade Christmas cards that Malea colored and put stickers on. It was so fun :)

Isaac had fun too!

A picture of Malea and Daddy with our Gingerbread house, another tradition of ours (I'm too lazy to do homemade ones so we just always buy the kit lol)

A new tradition this year was taking Malea to the Festival of Lights! She LOVED it!

Malea helping mommy make Christmas cookies for the neighbors

Christmas Eve
This picture cracks me up, I was trying to get a cute picture of both of the kids but Malea pulled a face and Isaac wasn't too happy....oh well, good memories!

I bought this blanket for Malea's 1st Christmas, so I had to get a picture of Isaac with it too :)

Only 1 more day!

Christmas morning
We had Keith's parents, Grandma & Grandpa "Dub" (Walker) over for Christmas morning

Keith got the Blu-Ray player he wanted!

And Malea got the Jessie doll she asked for!

Both kids with their loot

Merry Christmas!