Ava's Ears

A week ago Ava had tubes put in her ears because she's had quite a few infections in the last year. I thought it would be a simple "slap 'em in and send her home" surgery, but it turned out to be quite and ordeal.

We had to be to the Yankton medical clinic by 7:00am so Ava and I left at 6:15 to make sure we were there on time. My mother-in-law came down to spend the morning with Joseph so Sam could go to school. Anyway, after we got to the clinic the nurse checked Ava in and gave her a cocktail of Demerol, Versed and Tylenol. I guess this helps the kids to get really relaxed so they don't get nervous or anything. Ava sure did get relaxed. In fact she acted down right drunk. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. She kept saying silly stuff. For example...she was looking at a National Geographic magazine and all of a sudden she stops at a picture and says...(imagine a drunk person talking)

Ava- "Hey, I know that guy"

Me- "You do?"

Ava- "Yeah, it's my dad!"

Me- "That's not dad"

Ava- "But my dad wears a shirt like that!"

Later on...

Ava- "Momma, how come you got three noses" she tries to unsuccessfully touch my nose and gets my mouth instead.

Also...

Ava- "Hey, whats that weird smell over there. Smell it momma" she is pinching my nose and pointing to the corner.

Me- "I can't smell anything, cuz you're pinching my nose and I can't smell the corner."

On with the story now. About 10 minutes before she goes in for the surgery she somehow slides down the foot rest on her chair and bonks her head on the floor. The nurse pops her head in and inquires why she is crying. I told her that she bumped her head a little but is fine. The nurse then goes on to say that they won't be able to do the tubes now since Ava had a head injury. WHAT!!! The anesthesiologist comes in and says that if she has a broken blood vessel in her head the anesthesia could make it bleed more and that would be a problem, so he won't put her under. GOOD GRIEF.

The nurse shows us to the recovery room so Ava's cocktail of medicine can wear off. During that time a pediatrician came down to check her out and said she was fine for surgery. She went and talked the anesthesiologist into putting Ava under. Fifteen minutes later she was done. An hour after that we were sent home.

An hour after we got home, Ava started throwing up every 20 minutes and wouldn't stop. This went on for a few hours, then she started throwing up blood. Apparently when you heave that much, it can cause small tears in your esophagus which results in the blood. I took her to the acute care clinic in Vermillion. The doctor on call got a hold of Dr. Krell. He said to send her to the hospital for observation. When we got there, Dr. Krell showed up and had her hooked up to an I.V., since she was dehydrated he had her spend the night and following morning. We were finally discharged at 1:00 the next afternoon. Apparently Ava didn't take well to the anesthesia and that's why she vomited so much. I sure hope we never have to do this again.

The hospital here has done a great job of taking care of my kids when they've been admitted. There is a lady that works there named Kari Jo. She works with pediatric kids and always makes sure they have enough toys and fun things to keep them happy. She sent home a little sack for each of my kids. The sack contained a surgical mask and bonnet, band-aid, medicine syringe and medicine cup. My kids love playing doctor with the stuff.


Ava in the hospital

Yes! It's edible...

Well here's another project the kids and I did together recently. I really have to scrape for ideas when the weather is chilly or downright cold. Not that it has been lately. We did this a few weeks ago. Anyway...we made peanut butter playdough. It was especially nice for Joseph because he insists on eating regular playdough. I know it's non-toxic, but I just don't want him eating it all. How are we supposed to play with it if all of it's in his little gut? Boy, the kids had a great time playing with, then eating it through out the day. And yes, Joseph is wearing girls clothing, but that's a story for another day:)

Makin' a Pinata

Recently we saw some of our friends at Wal-mart and they were purchasing a pinata for a birthday party. My kids really wanted one too, but we refused to pay $15 just for the heck of it. Sam said we should just make one. So, we did. We all had a lot of fun. We made our own paste out of flour, water and sugar and picked up some newspapers at the broadcaster. After letting the kids deliberately tear up a bunch of paper, we got our hands gooey gluing all the paper to a big balloon. We let it dry for a few days, then the kids and I painted it different colors and hung streamers on. We can't wait to fill it with candy and crack it open. Maybe we'll do it on Easter since it's the shape of an egg!

Beat the energy out of those kids Dad

Gosh, we had some really crappy weather last week. It had to happen during spring break too when everyone was out of school. The kids were restless, and grumpy. We couldn't go outside and I didn't want to drag them out in the cold to go to the dome, so we had to come up with something fun to do at home. Sam suggested he build a wrestling ring in the living room and "beat the kids up". He brought out our queen mattress and the kids 2 twin mattresses and set them up. The kids all had a blast tag teaming on dad. Ava brought out pillows. She holds them in front of her and BASHES into Sam as hard as she can and knocks him down. Joseph likes to do it too. It was a good way to get out some pent up energy. We left the mattresses out and after dinner the kids got to "jump on the beds". SO, if you have some crazy kids, try this out!

Girl from the 1800's...

Well a few weeks ago, Bianca studied Laura Ingalls Wilder at school. Everyone was supposed to dress up in clothes from that time period. Of course I don't have a bunch of bonnets on hand, so I decided to make one. I, not knowing anything about sewing, thought it would be a snap to slap together. But it turned out a bit harder than I thought. Sam and his mom talked me through it and Brenda also assisted me in reading the directions for the pattern. After recruiting all those people to explain the pattern to me, I finally got the bonnet finished. I am quite proud of the finished product and should be able to do the next one completely on my own with no explainations. It turned out really cute and can actually be unbuttoned on the sides and turned into an apron.

Baptism

As you can see, I'm finally getting around to posting about Bianca's baptism.

What a wonderful day it was. We had originally planned to have it on Sunday December 21, but of course South Dakota had to give us some yucky weather. My parents and in-laws couldn't get down to Vermillion from Sioux Falls, and my Brother Matt and his family were stuck in Minnesota. So...we had to postpone it until the next day. That of course made me irritable, cuz I hate it when things don't go as I planned. Bianca cried and cried but I told her it was better to have it the next day then for Grandmas and Grandpas to get killed on the interstate. That quieted her down.

When the day came it turned out perfect. Lots of people were able to come and we even had to set up more chairs in the R.S. room and in the cultural hall for the "after baptism food".

Bianca looked beautiful in her white clothes. The speakers were her Dad and her papa Steve. Sam spoke about the Holy Ghost and Papa spoke about baptism. They were both quite entertaining. Sam even sewed and stuffed a cute dove and threw it at Bianca. She loved it.

I was standing on the side of the font when her uncle Jake baptized her and of course I cried like crazy. Afterward, Bianca said she felt really good. I am so proud of her for the choice she made. I love you Bianca!

We're working on the plumbing!

I'm pretty excited today. Joseph has been wearing underwear since he got up from his nap. That was at 4:00pm and it is now 7:30pm. When he woke up he said he needed to go potty, and he sure did! Yippee. I hope it keeps going so well. If he does as good as Ava did, then he should be trained in a week. However, I'm not going to get my hopes up to high. The minute I put his diaper on so he could get ready for bed, he filled it up. But at least he didn't make a mess on my floor.

Gee, we might not have to buy any of those expensive swim diapers for the pool this year. I hate paying for those things.