Abby's Post--Wisconsin Dells

Hi! Im Abby, and I'm writing in my moms blog today. Well, on Friday me, my other siblings, and my dad got back from Chula Vista, a waterpark in Wisconsin Dells. There were four things that I liked alot. One thing that I liked at Chula Vista was the waterpark.

There were slides, a lazy river, and a big tower with slides. But my favorite slide was Jungle Adventure. You go down a drop and go down to a big cylinder and spin a round and a round. The second thing I liked about Chula Vista was our hotel, our hotel room, and our hotel pool.

Our hotel was called the Atlantis Hotel. The Atlantis Hotel had two pools. One pool had a mini slide, a basketball hoop, and a big fountain. The other pool has three pools and an arcade. One pool is deeper and has a basketball hoop. The other pool had two slides and some sea animal structures to climb on. The other pool was just a hot tub. The arcade had really cool games. My favorite game was "spin the wheel''. Our hotel room was just right for us to! The third thing I want to tell you about is our favorite site to see.

Our favorite site was the upside down house. We especially liked the dinosaurs going into the upside down house.

The last thing I want to tell you about is the candy store story. One day we were eating at Gillys Island for lunch. Daddy said if we ate good we could go to the candy store next door. So,we all ate good so we got to go to the candy store . They were selling........salt and vineagar......crickets!!! So guess what Nolan did? He got them! So he went back to the hotel room.... and ate them! He said the legs got stuck in his teeth and throat! He ate body, eyes, and head! Gross!!!!

Well, I hope you liked my story!!!!!!!!    
   

PTSD

Memories and senses are funny things. You know, how certain smells, sights, sounds remind you of being somewhere else? That's been happening to me a lot lately. The other day at work, someone mentioned the word Hospitatlity, which is one of the new markets we're entering, and I heard hospital. And the immediate flash in my head was when I was in the hospital with Abby, watching her wake up from surgery. Last week I made an appointment with my urologist for my regular kidney stone check-in, which is at Froedert, which is connected to Children's Hospital, the lady asked me if I would be parking in the parking structure. I immediately thought about walking across the walkway into Children's, having to show my parent badge at the check-in station. Then, this morning, I used a different foamy antibacterial gel before I left for work. It's the one we used to keep for our hands with all of Abby's medicine, wipes, syringes, etc. As I was driving in, I smelled it and immediately thought about giving medicine through her PICC line all those months.

It's been one year since Abby first complained about leg pain. Fortunately, she's recovered 100%. This path could have been so different, the memories invoking so much more. I'm more than blessed that they are good reminders of how lucky I am today.

My 12-month old

Today we had our final assessment for Ava on her speech therapy. Basically, today we knew that they would tell us their decision, after one intake meeting and two 30-minute speech therapist meetings, whether she would qualify for services or not. It's a strange want... I want her to qualify for services, but I want her not to need services. I want her to learn to talk, but I do love her expressions and her miming. I want her to be able to talk because she should be able to, but I want her not to talk because then she'll stay my baby.

And in the end... she qualifies for services. Basically, she's advanced and on par for a three-year-old in a lot of areas--gross motor skills, general comprehension, etc. But one area--speech--she's very behind. So behind, in fact, that they classify her in that area as a 9-12 month old. In addition, because she had many ear infections (and eventually tubes) when she was a baby, that qualifies her for speech therapy through the program.

So what does that mean? Once every other week, a speech therapist (Ms. Rachael) will come visit us in our home for 30 minutes. She'll work with Ava and work with us on things we can do, such as give her choices--do you want juice or milk? instead of just you want juice? which she can nod her head to. We also need to start playing dumb with her and act like we don't know what she wants or is saying. In a house of 4 kids... are you kidding me? I don't have time for that! Get the juice and move on! Hmmm... maybe that's why she never had to talk in the first place?

Anyway, it's another journey in our life. I'm not particularly concerned. I believe a year from now I'll be writing about how we can't shut her up. But for now, it's what we'll do.

They crack me up

I got home from work tonight, and as I was headed in, I noticed a pumpkin sitting on the recycle bin right outside the door I normally go in. The pumpkin had a face colored on it with permanant marker, and so I thought, "I'll have to tell them how scared I was by the pumpkin by the door." And just as I was thinking that, I stepped into the mud room, turned, and saw... 4 kids AND DAVE standing on top of the washing machine and dryer! I started laughing, and Ava started screaming. I think she screamed, just one scream--no breath, for about 15 seconds. It was very impressive!

We also went to the pumpkin patch this weekend. It was lots of fun. I'll get my pictures off my phone and write about it, someday when I'm not so tired!

I ran!

On Tuesday, I got the all clear from my doc to run again. Well, to run a little bit, anyway. She told me I could run 1/2 mile, then cross train (bike, swim, walk, elliptical), wait a day and then do it again, and if it's ok, I could slowly increase my mileage. So yesterday I dropped Abby off at volleyball practice and then found a treadmill. I walked for half a mile, then started to jog. It felt... surprisingly good! So good, in fact, that I ran a mile instead of a half. I just couldn't stop that quickly. Then today, Abby told me she wanted to run this morning. Who am I to refuse? So we tood a 3-mile jog (it was quite slow compared to my normal pace, so it really was like cross training. Really!)

While I was jogging at the Y, and reading Runner magazine, I kind of got the itch again. Maybe I would actually like to run more. Hmmm... My friend Holly told me not to make any decisions on another marathon until I fully recovered from the first. It's like having a baby--if you had to decide right after birth, you'd never do it again. This weekend makes me wonder... is she right? I guess time will tell!!

Travel advisory

Last weekend we traveled with our neighbors, Brenda and Mayur, Kyan and Rayva, to their camper in Door County. I'd never been to Door County, so I was looking forward to the fall drive and the relaxation. The last time we went somewhere with Brenda and Mayur, Mayur lost his wallet. This time, on our way up there, Mayur got a phone call from the owner of the campground, telling him that all the power was out from a wind storm the previous night. Lots of trees looked like this!

No power = no heat = no water = no light = ... All of us packed into a hotel room! Luckily our hote room was a suite. We all squished in, with kids on the floor, and me on the floor, and Brenda and Mayur on pull-out couch. If we weren't good friends before, we certainly are now!

 Abby and Mayur even started looking like each other!

 And we certainly tuckered out the littles...

We truly had a great time. The weather was perfect, we ate at a neat place called PC Junction, which delivers food to you on a train and has a ton of things to do outside, then headed to a winery and finally to the camper for some trick or treating.

A good mix of busy and relaxing. And the only time all of us in the hotel became an issue was when Dave and Mayur headed out to karaoke... and came back feeling pretty good. And LOUD! And wanted to turn lights on. And make drinks. But other than that we were good.

The next time we travel with Brenda and Mayur we'll be heading to Dominican Republic. While we seem to have some mishaps when we travel together, in the end we always end up turning it into a fun adventure!

Loves his sister

I don't always get to see it, but Max really does love his little sister. They play together quite a bit during the day, and everytime Max makes something in preschool, he comes out to give it to Ava. Yesterday, a little girl had her birthday and so everyone got a treat bag. When Max came out, Ava ran up to him and gave him a hug. Max said, "Look what I have! Do you want a treat?" When Ava got all excited, Max handed the treat bag to her.

One of the other moms responsded with, "You've got to be kidding me."

Either he really loves Ava, or he'll be a salesman like his dad!

These kids are gonna be the death of me!

On Saturday, while I was happily heading to Ikea with my mom, sister, Abby and my niece, Dave called me and said Nolan had a little accident while doing tricks off the ramp with his scooter. Basically, he fell, and his face took the brunt and he looked like this:

Those chipped front teeth? NOT baby teeth. Ugh.

But, after an hour and a half at the dentist, he came out looking like this:

Still painful face, but at lesat his teeth are as back to normal as they're going to get!!

Then, while Dave had Nolan at the dentist, I got a call from school. Abby has been a little under the weather, so I assumed it was that, but no. I got a call directly from Mr. Heimark the principal. Apparently while Abby was on the swings, some boy thought she was done and tried to take it. When she said she wasn't done, he punched her. In the face. Again, UGH! What do you do with that when you're in the middle of a meeting? She was back in class, so it couldn't be too horrible, but still. I had to work late tonight, and she called me around 7:00 and was just beside herself, and I felt so bad for not being here for her. Luckily, I got home before bedtime, saw for myself that there wasn't a mark anymore, got to give her a hug and all seemed to be ok.

Between these two, and Ava's craziness, I'm afraid I have to call Max the normal one right now. Oh my!!

Yeah, what she said

My friend Stacy has a blog over here. She is smart and funny and so, if you don't already read her blog, you should. But in case you don't make it over there, I'm copying from her blog today because I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Why the Ebb and Flow of Blogging?
1. Sometimes I have nothing to say.
2. Sometimes I have too much to say!
3. Sometimes I want to share the kids with the world.
4. Sometimes I want to keep them to myself.
5. Sometimes we are so busy my head spins and I can't remember what day it is.
6. Sometimes our life is like watching paint dry.
7. Sometimes I write a blog post, but never post it.
8. Sometimes I wish I never posted it.
9. Sometimes I am surprised when someone says they read my blog
10. Sometimes I am embarrassed when someone says they read my blog.

I couldn't agree more.