Our first ER visit

Emerald's lovely head laceration

Just above her right eye, in the hair line (which made for some fun stitching)

Emerald watching us work when she was supposed to be napping.

In her tent city

Well, we had our first ER visit last night. Emerald fell against our stair banister (which is square shaped at the base) and split her head open pretty bad. I was at bible study, and Skip was watching the older 2 kids. He called me, saying "get home NOW!" I knew it had to be serious. He said he was in drawing a bath for the kids, heard a thud and then screaming. He looked out to see her lying down, screaming loudly. Luckily, she was w/o clothes, as it was bath time. He placed in the bathroom, went to get a rag to clean her up, and when he came back in she was standing in a pool of blood. He sent Calvin to search out the phone (to call me) and poor Calvin tried hard to help. She was still screaming when I got home, poor little girl. She is such a daddy's girl, but wanted me when I got home :) I called Heidi, and w/o hesitation, she dropped everything and raced over to the house to watch the boys for us--thanks so much Heidi!! You were a life-saver. Our neighbor, Jamie, even watched the boys for us for about 10 minutes until Heidi got there. We feel so lucky.

Skip and I put her in the car and drove her to Children's Mercy South, which is such a good place to take children, so kid-friendly. They triaged her, got us in a room and put some numbing meds on her. She was in really good spirits driving to the hospital, giggling, joking with us. She did great up until we had to irrigate the wound. Then, our sweet, precious little girl turned into a STRONG kicking, thrashing wild child. Poor little girl. She was sooooooooo not a happy camper. We can really appreciate strong lungs in this household, what with a preemie and 2 adults with asthma. That girl has some lungs! They finally got her stitched up, both internal and external stitches. I don't know how that doc did that with all the moving around she was doing. Trying to hit a moving target!! Finally, they were done and Emerald got a slushie. She was asleep w/in minutes in the car on the drive home. We got home about midnight, relieved poor Heidi, and put her in her bed. Surprisingly we actually slept from about 12:45-6:45 w/o incident! Amazing!! Our poor little girl. The cut is mostly in her hair line, but extends slightly into her forehead. It made for some interesting stitching with all that crazy hair in the way. And I had planned to get her hair cut over the weekend, now it will get postponed even longer. She can't get it directly wet for a week or so, and how am I supposed to wash that mop of hair?? She can't submerge it for 2 weeks, good thing her swim lessons aren't for 3 weeks.

I had planned to blog about other things today. I had planned to write about how Emerald is going to Vacation Bible School with Aunt Heidi this week. She went yesterday and LOVED it so much. We kept her home today, it was a long night and I want to keep an eye on her today. Guessing she'll be back tomorrow. We also watched Josiah yesterday. He was such an easy baby! Took a great nap for me. Zach took a 3 hour nap for me yesterday!! Great babies.

I had also planned to blog about our washing machine. About 2 weeks ago it started acting funny. It wouldn't turn right after I had the clothes out. Skip briefly looked at it and it seemed to start acting better. I did another load of laundry, and the drum inside felt different, weird. We called a repair guy, who finally came yesterday. He took one look at it and said, "bad news". It broke one of the tripod legs. He said it'd be a $650-700 repair!! No thanks!! He did inform us we were lucky b/c if another leg had broken it would have spun out of control, possibly breaking the inner plastic piece and spilling water all over our floor, possibly damaging our flooring. Our laundry is upstairs, which could have been bad if it'd have leaked below or done water damage on the second story. So, good news, right?! Needless to say, we are heading out to purchase a new machine today. Funny thing is, my neighbor, Jamie, had her washer go out last week and bought one this weekend. We should have asked the store for a 2-for-1 deal, right?!

It was a day yesterday! First the washer, then Emerald to the ER. I told Skip to be careful driving home last night. I was fearful that our 3rd event might take place. I am just so glad that Emerald is fine and that she didn't injure herself any worse. My poor baby girl. It is just no fun at all having to hold down your little one while they get stitched up. I don't wish that on my worst enemy. Way to go Emerald, you were a trooper little girl!! Oh, and Dr. Mike, if you are reading this, she wished you were there! She kept asking for you. Personally, I am glad you weren't there, as I would have hated you to be the bad guy. She thinks you hung the moon!

Zach turned 5 months old

We have a stomach sleeper!! Yes, I know, you can write and tell me all you'd like about how "Back to Sleep" and back is best. Honestly, this kid won't stay on his back!

Lobster doesn't look so little compared to Zachary any more.

These 2 pictures show exactly what type of thing Zachary likes to do best these days--be a roly-poly! He ends up on his tummy every time we lay him down.

Our Zachary turned 5 months old on the 27th. I know, this post is a little dated. He has really discovered his rolling abilities this month. We are fearful of the time when he learns to roll from belly to back consistently. He will want to be chasing the big kids all over the place. He really seems to be growing, too. We went to the doc on Tuesday and he is up to 11 lb 3 oz! Hard to imagine he's nearly tripled his birth weight already! His head size did increase, which ever so slightly had us worried. His doctor checked with the head of neurosurgery at Children's Mercy to see if he thought we should order a CT scan. That was ruled out since we have already had a clear MRI done on Zach's head. We will just continue to monitor it and make sure that it doesn't change proportionately with his growth in weight and length. Whew, one more thing we don't have to worry about. Perhaps that big noggin is the reason our little guy still has a weak neck. He isn't quite able to hold it up on his own, but he is getting better each day. By the way, in the pictures you might be able to see a birthmark on Zach's leg. It is called a Hemangioma, and is harmless. We've had several questions about this, especially since we've started wearing shorts. I just thought I'd explain to all.

Our little man is cooing so much these days, lights up the room with his smile, and is giggling a lot. He usually smiles biggest when his big sis or brother comes to pay attention to him. Zach still has eyelashes that are a mile long and I love them, especially when he uses them to smile with his eyes--my favorite. He has been loving his toys, and especially likes his O-ball. There are times when he loves his pacifier, then others he just pushes it out. Our little Z-man is a cuddler, too. He loves to be up on our shoulder, resting his sweet head on us. It is a sweet feeling. He has increased his feeding to almost 4 oz a feeding most of the time, and it must help as he has been sleeping through the night all week. He is still mostly wearing 0-3 month sizes, but we've found a few 3-6 month size outfits that fit him. We sure are getting a lot of use out of those newborn and itty-bitty sized clothing! Zachary is such an easy, sweet baby. We love him dearly and can't imagine life without him.

Kansas

For those of you not familiar with Kansas, this is for you! This is always one of my favorite areas to drive through. It is called the Flint Hills. It is located north of Wichita and this section is along I-35. For a good 20-30 mile or so stretch it is just open prairie. There are a lot of cattle on this area, very few trees, no houses. I love being able to see for miles and miles. I think it is gorgeous. Simple--reminds you just how small we are in this big, wide world. If you see any small black dots, those are cows. There are soft, rolling hills (not flat like everyone thinks). When I think of Kansas I think of wheat fields, sunflowers, and this!

Partying with Doctor Ashley

Zachary and DOCTOR Ashley!!

Visiting family at a graduation party. In this picture you can see Maverick, a cousin's baby. He is a cutie-pie.

Great Grandma meeting Zachary for the first time

Emerald and Grandpa hanging out together


Calvin and Emerald loved playing Super Sleuth while at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Our trip to Wichita and Belle Plaine including meeting many family members for little Zachary. One of the reasons we went this weekend was to attend a graduation party for a cousin of mine, Ashley. I am so proud of her!! She is now in a resident program in Tulsa. She is going to make such a fantastic doctor!! Way to go Ashley!

Time at the farm

This picture reminds me of Laura running in Little House on the Prairie.

Doesn't this look just spell trouble??

Grandpa about to hop on the tractor.

When we pulled up at the farm they were planting. Grandpa will soon have a crop of sunflowers.

We went to Wichita this weekend. Just the kids and I, Skip stayed home to play not 1, but 2 rounds of golf!! Yeah for Skip! This was our first trip with Zachary. He did great on the way to Wichita, not so well on the way home. He wasn't bad, I just had to stop 4 times in a 3 hour ride home. It would have been better if I'd had another adult in the car, but better safe than sorry is my philosophy. We introduced Zachary to Great-Grandma Beulah, Aunt Gracie, and Cassie. We also got to see a bunch of family at a fun graduation party for Ashley. Grandpa took us down to the farm for awhile and the kids got to play and watch him work on the tractor.

Some sibling lovin'

Just some cute pics of the kids all together. It is nearly impossible to get them all looking at the camera at the same time, let alone all smiling at the same time. I'll take what I can get.

We are heading to Wichita tomorrow. It will be our first road trip with Zachary. Unfortunately, Skip has to stay home to play golf, yes, boo hoo for him. The kids and I will have fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa and other family members. Wish me luck!

Memorial Day fun

Jessie and Emerald playing dress-up

Rene getting her baby fix

Sorry, Brian, best pic I got of you

It's hard to get 2 year old boys on the run.

We had some dear friends come to visit for Memorial Day. Rene and I were college roommates and we are still close friends. We are so thankful to have them in our lives. Their daughter, Jessie, is someone Emerald looks up to and it is so sweet to see her admiration for Jessie. Emerald and Jessie have too much fun playing dress-up in some former dance clothes donated by some wonderful peoople!!Noah, their son, and Calvin really played well this trip. The adults even had the chance to play some dominoes. If only we could get together with them even more often.

Fishing Post #3

I had to post both these pics b/c Calvin looks so sweet.




After we finished, aka our attention spans were done, it was flower picking time

Fishing Post #2

Fishing

Our beautiful lake with a golf course view. The weather was gorgeous and the wind, calm (a rarity in Kansas). It made Skip wish he could be in 2 places at once.

We took the kids fishing for the first time this weekend. On Saturday the weather was beautiful. We started the day off by going to Jiggle Jam, a kid concert at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City. Silly me, I forgot my camera. Just imagine a stage, many bands playing kid music (similar to The Wiggles, but not them), and lots of smiles and dancing. It was a good time. Zachary got a little tired and was done with loudness and being hot. Em and Cal had a blast.

When we got home we ate a quick dinner and gathered our fishing poles. We took the kids to the city lake which is located next to the golf course. Although we caught no fish, we considered it a successful outing. We had no kids, hats, fishing poles, chairs, etc. end up in the water, so like I said, a success! Emerald kept asking why we hadn't caught any fish. A little bit of impatience, but not bad. Calvin, however, isn't quite ready for multiple fishing outings yet. Give him a few years. I'm posting several posts, as I got some cute pictures, so be patient with me.