A great day for a train ride

Surprisingly, we have never been to the Oklahoma Railway Museum.  I say that because Haylie is border lined obsessed with Thomas the Train and pretty much all things related to it.  I think she wants to be a train conductor when she grows up.

The museum is open only on the weekends and only offers train rides on the 1st and 3rd.  Since we were having a lazy Saturday this past weekend, I looked it up and it just so happened that it was the 3rd Saturday of the month!  So off we went to find the outdoor museum.

Haylie was so pumped!!  She was a tad disappointed that it wasn't Thomas, but we told her that he was coming later this year.  She asked and paid for our tickets at the station, she got to pick out her seat and she was pumped when Lee the conductor came on board!!!

(Do you see the guy in the background of this picture?  It's the Dr who I went to see at Mercy clinic when I broke my toe.  How random is that?!)

Thankfully Haylie didn't pick the outdoor seats - it was 100 degrees outside.

Jace is inheriting his sister's love of trains. He had a great time as well.  He wanted to be all up in the mix, looking out the window and taking everything in.

I had asked on FB if this was a good place to go and I got lots of "nah, just wait for Thomas."  Well, my train-loving kids had a great time riding the train, looking at the tracks, seeing the drivers, pretending we were on Thomas and watching toy trains go around in circles.

I asked Haylie if this was the best day of her life and she said YES!!

The countdown to Thomas begins...

A New Look

I love the color green.  I think there is something soft and inviting about it...unless you pick the wrong shade of it.  In our first house, we painted our living room a light green color - we weren't a fan but we were too lazy to repaint so we kept it.  Moving into this house, we decided we were NOT going to use the same color...but lo and behold I somehow picked the EXACT same one.  UGH!!  Since we were painting the entire house at the time, we left it and I tried decorating around it.

Well, enough was finally enough. 

We got 5 of our own paint samples and our neighbors who are doing the same gray analysis let us borrow several of theirs as well!  We were not going to make the wrong choice again.  We went with the square below the large dark gray square, it's kind of in the middle.

During:

And a few hours later, ta-da!!  It's a brand new, fresh looking color.  I love it.  It's Behr's Classic Silver.  At first we thought it might have a purple tint to it, but the green was making it look that way.  It almost has a blue tint to it, but either way, it's SO MUCH better and Justin and I both really like it!!

Now for new countertops & backsplash and new art on the walls.  It's never really just a simple paint job...

Medical Updates

Between Jace and I, we might have to start taking up donations to cover our co-pays for all of our doctor's visits.  It's almost a little ridiculous, but hey, at least we have really good insurance that only makes us pay a co-pay.

Anyway, an update on my foot.  I went to see the podiatrist last Friday.  I was a little annoyed because they asked if I had my x-rays with me...*pause*, why would I have them?  So it took another 45 minutes for them to get the radiologist report.  I finally get in to see the doctor, give him the background story, and he tells me I did a great job by putting my toe back into place.  I get to stop wearing the boot, but I still need to be wrapping my toe to my other two toes and wearing closed toed shoes to help keep it all together.  No exercising, no climbing ladders, keep it light and level.  I get to go back in about a month to do more X-rays to make sure my bone is healing correctly...which also means I get to take horse pills of Vitamin D+Calcium to help with the healing process.  All in all, I feel like I'm getting better and my walking is slowly improving where I'm not noticeably limping as much.

Today we went to see the plastic surgeon for Jace.  I was so anxious this morning just because I wasn't sure which direction the appointment could go.  Would we schedule a surgery?  Would he tell us nothing could be done?  Would Jace cooperate?  Thankfully we were at Children's at they had a great waiting room full of toys so my kids were super happy.

20 minutes later, we see the doctor and after hearing the background story and looking at Jace's cheek, he decides it could either be an infected pimple or a pilomatricoma, like the dermatologist said.  He basically gave us the option to do surgery or not, to keep exfoliating the skin to see if something changes, to give it time, basically whatever we wanted to do.  That was NOT the answer I was hoping for today.  I wanted to hear something concrete...but the fact that no one can really tell us for sure what it is we are dealing with is irritating to say the least.  The surgeon could put Jace under to find out its simply a pimple or he could find out its the actual pilomatricoma and get it off his face.  It's a toss up.

Since we are going on vacation soon, we've decided to give it at least until we get back to decide on any surgery options.  That might give us some time to make a discovery that it either is a pimple (to have a pimple since January would be so awful) or the pilo, since no one with a medical background can tell us. I've decided that I'm frustrated mostly with the dermatologist, who gave us 5 minutes and then passed us on.

I know this is simply a cosmetic thing we are dealing with and I am so thankful it's not something really serious.  So, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective!

Who needs baby toes anyway?

So I broke my baby toe on Friday.

It all started with my kids sleeping in...which was wonderful...except I was trying to go to my workout class.  Deciding their happiness was more important that day, I ended up skipping.  I was enjoying a bowl of cereal when my kids got up.  Thinking - I really should put my bowl up so Jace doesn't get this - I still put it down on the coffee table and went to get them.

Fast forward a bit to after their breakfast and they are in the living room playing...Jace finds my bowl of cereal and is getting milk everywhere.  I'm still in the kitchen cleaning up when I hear this so I run into the living room to minimize the milk spillage...and my baby toe collides with the bottom of my couch.

I'm suddenly in a LOT of pain and I look down...my toe is pointing more to the left than it should be.  So I feel it, and push it back in and it pops back in place.  About to pass out, I hobble to my phone to call Justin.  I somehow get it taped up and swallow 800mg of Ibuprofen.  I had some friends coming over within a half hour (thankfully!!) so I wait on the couch while trying to do as little as possible.

One of my friends studied PE in college so she has a background on injuries.  Once she got there and I told her what happened, she told me to go get it x-rayed in case something happened more in my foot.

Later that day once Justin was able to come home and Amy's hubby could come get her kids (thank goodness for half-day Fridays!) we went to the Mercy clinic to get it checked out.

After a few x-rays and some crazy conversation with a wacky dr, I learned I fractured my toe 2-3 places and it's a jagged break, not a clean one.

So today I'm waiting for the podiatrist to call me to set something up. I get to wear a boot for 2 weeks for my toe to heal.  My foot is half bruise.  I get to not do any exercise for 6 weeks (which I'm refusing to wait that long if I can help it.)

It's a baby toe!!  I thought they were pointless and just a nice way to round out your foot.

Anyway, hopefully everything heals up right without getting too crazy...and that I'm not limping around soon enough.  It's been 2 days with the boot and I'm ready to throw it away!

He has good qualities too!

I think I'm figuring out (finally!!) that boys are completely different than girls.  Haylie was always so timid and careful and when we told her no - she either cried because she was so tenderhearted or immediately straightened up and obeyed (for a little while at least).

And then, we had Jace.  He is at the stage in life where if he wants something and doesn't get it, he will let a tantrum fly.  If you get in his face, he will slap you.  If he is done with something, he will push it away and scream.  Most of all, when we hear his scream...we know he isn't happy.

But he has some really fun personality quirks coming out.  He can be such a sweet boy.  He really is a Momma's boy - which I LOVE (until I have to leave him, put him down, etc. then he just cries and cries.)

He is full steam ahead, which results in busted foreheads and fat lips and chipped teeth and bruises galore.  It just adds character.

He is silly and loves to be tickled. He wants to play rough and wrestle and tag.  He loves to find his (or Haylie's) belly button and just hold his finger there for awhile - probably wondering what a silly thing to have!

He throws things and then sweetly says, "Uh oh."  He also says Mama (sometimes coming out Nahnah), Dada, yeah, uh huh, hi, night-night and most of all - Buhbah! We aren't sure what this is, since it is his main word for all sorts of things.

He loves sitting in your lap.  He should come with a back up beep because you never see him coming, he is just all of a sudden there.  He is getting into his books and wants to sit on your lap while he "reads" them.

If you want to make him happy - give him a straw and a cup of water.

If you want to make him sad, have him share with Sister.

He gets so excited to see me or Justin - especially if we have been away.  He definitely likes giving hugs - whether it's a hello hug or in the middle of playing hug.

He is getting easier to figure out - well, at least it seems that way.  His sad times are usually needing food, drink or diaper.  Otherwise, let him have his way and there won't be any problem.

Easier said than done.

For the Fourth...

For the Fourth, we had a relaxing (well, mostly, unless you count a couple of tantrums by my favorite Jace) day out on the lake!  Justin's parents have a little cabin in the Lake of the Ozarks so we went up there for a day.  We got out on the lake around 11:30 and stayed out til late afternoon.  It was nice to be in the water and relax in the sun.

Justin was crazy brave enough to take our camera out in the water but he got some good shots.

Life-jacketed cousins!

Haylie's first time to go tubing - and probably her last for a long time.  It went too fast for her and she got scared.  Same for even riding in the speed boat.  I guess pontoon is more her style!

Jace did NOT care to wear his life jacket so we got to hover behind him most of the day.  He finally warmed up to the boat and eventually the water.

 

Justin performed a miracle of getting him to sleep on the boat, which was a relief.

My little fish. She LOVES the water!!

Happy Independence Day 2013!!

The Journey of the Boil

I've mentioned Jace's red spot a few times on here, but have since gotten a little more information as to what the doctors we've seen have concluded.

This red mark started off as a pimple in January.  It started to get better and almost went away and then all of a sudden, it ballooned into a small, hard mountain. 

Concerned about my baby's face, I took him to see the pediatrician to which they told me it was a boil. We started giving Jace some oral antibiotics and also used a topical antibiotic on it.  The boil started shrinking and we were optimistic that this was the right course of action.  Then the medicine ran out and the boil was still very much on his face.  Trying not to be annoyed or even vain, we contacted the pediatrician to which we were told it would eventually go away.  We let it go for a few months, trying to just ignore it.  When we went into his well baby check up for 15 months, they mentioned it would take until the end of the summer to go away.  Yikes!

So, determined we could do something proactive for it, we got a referral for a dermatologist in the city.  Our appointment arrived and the dr told me it could either be an angioma or a pilomatricoma. Either one sounded horrible and nothing could be done.  We were told to wait another 6 months to see what would happen.

A few days ago, I noticed it had gotten a little more of a bump under his skin and changed to a darker red.  I called the dermatologist and was told it was then a pilomatricoma and she wanted to refer us to a pediatric plastic surgeon to cut it off.

I almost swallowed my tongue when she suggested this, thinking it was a little more extreme than I was hoping for and was thinking surely antibiotics would help??  She assured me they would just be a waste of time and money.

A few days ago, I took Jace back into the pediatrician for bronchitis and asked the dr's opinion on this matter since I really trust his medical advice.  He said it was a little more aggressive than he would have done, but he trusted the dermatologist and that the plastic surgeon was a really great one.

Well that's all nice and dandy, but my baby is only 1 and he already is needing to go to the plastic surgeon??!?!

So, Justin and I are at a loss. Do we just ignore the red spot and hope it goes away since it's not bothering him?  Do we leave it on his face for him to maybe have self-image issues?   I'm worried about it, I need to pray about it and I'm hoping that after a consult with the plastic surgeon, we will have a more definite course of action.

Any advice?  You can even tell me I'm being so stupid to worry about a red mark on my boy's face.  I won't be mad.

Family Pictures

It has been about a year since we really took good family photos.  This time though, we tried to take them ourselves - since between my sister and I - we have nicer cameras.  It took a few weekends to schedule everyone in and randomly it started off with some rain drops, but that didn't stop us.

We actually have a lot of good ones - I put them on my FB if you want to see them all.  But I wanted to highlight some here too...because I just LOVE these pictures!

Haylie and best cousin Evie walking on ahead.

My sweet girl in tall grass.  This is a perfect Oklahoma girl picture.

Just to clarify - this kid was not happy almost the entire time.  These pictures you see of him smiling - we had to work VERY hard to get.  We were all dripping sweat trying to get a good one of him.

I might have photoshopped his face - judge me if you want.

And my Dad brought a tripod so we could get all of us together.  Jace wasn't looking in any of the 15 we tried to take and Haylie was singing with arm movements - so this is the best we got.  We'll take it though!