Monday, February 28, 2011

We Could Use a Nursemaid Around Here

Kate had an (un)exciting trip to the emergency room this weekend. Friday night, she and Maggie were playing on Maggie's new bed, acting crazy as usual for that time of the evening. Maggie fell off the end of the bed and landed on her bum on a toy and did a little crying over the bruise on her rear. We gave her a little talking to about the seriousness of the height of her bed and the possibility of her falling off of it and truly hurting herself. Then, not more than five minutes later, Kate rolls off the end of the bed in the exact same way and falls awkwardly on her left arm. She cried and cried and cried; and while she could move her hand and lift her arm over her head, she seemed a little hunched and wimpy about the way she was moving and holding her arm. Mike went ahead and put Maggie in the bath, but Kate flatly refused to go into the tub and actually requested pajamas. I could hardly even put her down long enough to change her diaper without her crying for me, and when I went to change her clothes, she started wailing again. Still, her arm looked completely normal and she let us feel it and squeeze it without complaint. She wanted to rock in the rocking chair, didn't ask for her usual bedtime stories or milk, and went right to sleep. We wondered if she just sprained or twisted her arm and was really just overtired from not having taken a good nap earlier.

As the evening wore on though, she woke up several times crying. We gave her some Motrin, and after lying awake talking to herself (not crying) for a long, long time, she finally slept and didn't wake up until the next morning. She seemed much better the next day, playing and eating as usual, but when we changed her clothes or cleaned her hands, she would cry. So after we put her down for a nap we consulted our 24 hour nurses hotline at our pediatrician's office. The nurse asked us to bring her in to the ER after she woke up from her nap because the severity of this kind of thing in a child Kate's age was very hard to determine without x-rays. They just don't always react to pain the way you might think they should.

Mike took Kate to the ER around 3:30 pm and I stayed home with Maggie. When they finally got home after 7:30 pm, Mike said the doctors had decided that Kate probably had what they call Nursemaid's Elbow. It's apparently very common in toddlers because they are active but their ligaments aren't very strong. Basically the arm bone pulls out of socket at the elbow and slides under the ligament. They tried to pop Kate's arm back into socket a couple of time, but it's likely that it had already done that on it's own the night of the fall. Her pain is probably just residual tenderness, so they gave her some more Motrin and I've been giving her Tylenol when she seems a little pitiful or grouchy. So far, she's running and playing and sleeping fine since her ER adventure, although she does still sometimes wince or cry out a bit when you mess with her arm. If she's not totally fine by tomorrow, we were instructed to call her pediatrician and make an appointment with him.

Mike said that at the ER they kind of gave him the stink eye and several different people asked him to tell the story of how the injury happened over and over again. He felt a bit like they were trying to make sure that he hadn't done something terrible to her that jerked her arm out of socket. You didn't mean to do it; you just got a little too angry at little Danny, isn't that right Mr. Torrance?! Poor Mike.

And poor Kate. Hopefully this won't have any long term negative effect on her racquetball game.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Maggie's Birthday Celebration

And so another Fowler Family Festivus draws to a close as Maggie's birthday winds down. Around here we start our holiday season at Halloween and don't stop eating sweets and opening gifts until mid-February after clearing Christmas, Kate's birthday, my birthday, Valentine's Day, and a couple of cakes for Mags. This year we already had about a third of the homemade carrot cake that I made for Mike for Valentine's Day (it's his favorite) still in the fridge when I started making Maggie's ultra-pink strawberry birthday cake. Cake-o-rama!


Nothing says love like carrot cake.

The first wave of celebration came when a box arrived in the mail from Nana and Papa. I went ahead and let Maggie open it even though it wasn't quite her birthday yet because, well, a present came in the mail!!


Happy, happy!! Joy, joy!!


She even let Kate open one of her presents for her in return for all the presents she opened for Kate last month.

Next, her brand new big girl bed was delivered from the furniture store on the day before her birthday. She got all new sheets and duvet cover from Grandma the Great (picked out by me though... if you don't like them, don't blame Grandma! For the record, Maggie loves her purple sheets, of course.) She and Kate played there all afternoon!


Two little monkeys cuddling in the bed...


That night, Mike took down the crib. Goodbye old friend!


And we moved the toddler bed into Kate's room! Here she is practicing sleeping in it.


And relaxing with a book. She actually really loves the "critter bed" (it's IKEA name is Kritter... it has a cat and a dog on the headboard), but she only loves it until it's time to go to sleep. Then one of us has to basically sit outside her door and keep putting her back in it until she gives up and falls asleep. This too shall pass.

On Maggie's birthday, we got up and let her open her presents from us first thing.


Kate helped again. Oh, and it's not Christmas. They just love wearing their matching Christmas pjs all year round.

Mike had taken the morning off, so we headed downtown to the Children's Museum, which Maggie chose as her favorite place to go on her birthday. We had tons of fun!





We had some lunch in the museum restaurant before Mike had to go into work for a few hours and Kate collapsed in the car for her afternoon nap. All the way from the museum to the parking garage and into the car seat, Kate kept repeating, "I no like, I no like!" Neither of the girls wanted to leave at all, but they both ended up asleep, so I think they were done.


Chocolate Milk!

Later, we had hot dogs and tater tots for dinner - another choice made by Mags - and then the neighbor kids came over for strawberry cake.


With pink, red, and white heart shaped sprinkles! That's pinkalicious.

AND THEN, the next day we headed up to Gram and Grandpa's for chocolate ice cream cake and more presents!


Mike and I both feel a little woozy about how grown up she looks in some of these pictures. We're already starting to worry that she's going to be much too pretty and we're hoping that she'll at least be mega-nerdy so Mike won't have to sit up nights on the front porch with a shot gun! Paternal and maternal (mostly the maternal) genetics guarantee that she'll be at least semi-nerdy. Fingers crossed!


This little Playmobil garden set from Gram and Grandpa was a huge hit. Both girls spent all weekend playing with it. Who doesn't love making a huge mess with water and modeling clay and tiny little plastic flowers?!

And so, a marvelous time was had by all. We ate cake, our little bitty baby turned four years old, we ate more cake, we played musical beds, we ate cake, we hit the museum and had lunch out with Dad, we ate cake, we made several big messes, and we ate cake. Birthday success! And may all your Festivuses be white... because it snowed again here today! Argh!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Happy 4th Birthday, Maggie!





























I have to admit to you that I got a little choked up looking through this year's photos to do this post. She's grown up so much this year! My little Maggie Mouse really isn't a baby at all any more. She's enrolled for preschool next year, and she got her real, big girl bed yesterday and passed the toddler bed down to Kate. Look out world, here she comes!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I See Your Snow and Raise You Two Feet

My Okie friends and family have been posting a lot of photos of and ranting about their recent snowfall, and while I appreciate how unusual and unfamiliar this kind of weather is for them/you, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say.... BOO YAH!

Here are a few Summer photos of our house for comparison's sake (notice that we have shrubberies in the front yard):







And now for the Winter shots. These photos were taken last Saturday:




This is the pile that Mike shovels the snow from the driveway onto. Last week before it snowed again, he had to go out and move the pile over so he could clear the driveway again onto this pile. Otherwise it was getting too tall and would have avalanched back into the driveway!




You can't really get into the backyard anymore unless you climb over the deck railing onto the pile and sled down.


The snow is above my knees. Kate doesn't like to play back there because it's too high on her and makes her anxious.




Our front yard shoveling pile. I can't see to back the car down the driveway because it's over the roof of the car. I just have to go slow and be careful!


Didn't I say something about shrubberies? We still have Christmas lights on them because we can't get to them to take the lights off.


Our street is only plowed in a narrow one-lane tunnel for cars to come in and out. Cars are allowed to park on the other side of the street, but only some of it has been hand shoveled out by the people who park there. Thank god we have a driveway!




Our front sidewalk


Mike's regretting not buying that snow blower last fall.


That's the top of the back yard pile looming up over the deck railing.





OK, I'm done mocking you. I'm going to go cry a little bit because it's actually snowing again right now. Luckily (?) it's only supposed to be an inch or two today and then we should get a break for a week or so. Stay warm!