Or eating breakfast in style.
Or beautiful girls.
Or watching an 18-month old experience the joy of making popcorn.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Small Moments
Or watching an 18-month old experience the joy of making popcorn.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
10 pictures
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Summer Recap: Bloomington
We went to Bloomington as usual this summer. Matt and I feel very blessed. Matt's Nana lives about an hour away and we see her frequently. The girls absolutely adore Nana and we love having her so close. She has special sleepovers, tea parties, little presents and always is thinking of our girls. Despite being in her 80s, Nana is spry and energetic. She has helped me on a number of sewing projects and knows how to make something look really beautiful.
My grandparents are farther, but still it's not a far drive. And we love to visit Bloomington. We love visiting them too. Charlotte really warmed up to them this last visit and played with them all the time. The girls of course loved them too and we had lots of good reading time. We went to our favorite, Wonderlab, and even played at the beach! We just had a blast.
We just love having so many grandparents so close!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Follow-ups
Last week Charlotte had some follow-up appointments at Nationwide Children's. It was a long day but we made it through. Nathalie came with, since I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the time frame, and we resorted to cookies and COSI as our breaks! But here are the results.
Neurosurgery: Charlotte didn't have nuerosurgery, but she did have to meet with the neurosurgeon to make sure she was walking/seeing/interacting/ etc alright. The NS came in and looked at her CT Scans again, talked to me some and then watched her interact with me and Nathalie. After a few minutes of watching he said, "This was a clean break and it looks like she's healing great. We don't want to see you in here again!" He laughed and said she was doing great and we wouldn't need to have another follow-up.
Ear/Nose/Throat (ENT): At her ENT appointment, they wanted to check two things. First, they wanted to make sure all the blood had drained from behind her left eardrum. So they checked her left ear, removed some earwax (very traumatic and lots of crying) and her left ear drum looks clear. She does have a cold, so there is some fluid in her left and right ears but no more blood. That's great news because it means her body processed and reabsorbed the blood.
The second concern was her hearing. Charlotte's fracture occurred so close to her left ear they are concerned that the bones in her ear were affected and she could have some hearing loss. So we had to an audiogram (hearing test) to make sure she hears alright. First they tested pressure behind her ear drums. There is supposed to be positive pressure. Behind her right eardrum there was no pressure and behind her left there was negative pressure. You might be thinking, "But her right side wasn't hurt!" You're correct. No pressure behind her right ear is probably a result of the congestion in her ears from the fluid. The greater concern here is that there is a difference between the right and left ear. The left ear is worse.
The second part of the hearing test was the actual hearing test. A specialist and I went into a soundproof room where I held Charlotte on my lap. Speakers were located on opposite sides of the room and sounds would alternately come out of the speakers. There were varying sounds--more intrusive to less intrusive, loud to quiet. Charlotte did not pass. She had trouble hearing the quieter, less intrusive sounds. They were perfectly audible to myself and the specialist, but she did not look at the speakers. With the louder sounds she would look up in the direction from which the sound had come and there would be some visual reinforcement. Initially we were playing quiet games with her to keep her distracted but when she wasn't really responding to the quiet sounds, we took away the games and just played with her fingers. She had trouble on both sides.
SO.
What's next? Well, this could be nothing to be worried about. She does have a cold. (Actually, we all do this week. Except Matt, the stinker with the amazing immune system.) So the hearing test problems could be related to the fluid in her ears. The problem is, we can't tell if it's just the fluid or if the fluid is affecting only her right ear and her left ear really can't hear. The fluid could be creating the same result for both sides, since she might not be able to hear out of the left side very well anyway. Or she could be perfectly fine and was distracted because she is only 18 months old. She would not let us do any hearing tests with ear buds in her ears.
We go back in a few weeks. I'm supposed to help her fight this cold gone and when we go back she will hopefully have clear ears. We'll do the eardrum pressure test again and see if we can get more conclusive results on the hearing test.
As for me, I'm a little worried but not much. Charlotte has been learning new words and talking a lot. I haven't noticed a problem in her hearing. This could be because we're SO LOUD at our house that she can hear everything that goes on. Or that she doesn't have a problem with her right ear and her right ear is compensating. Either way, she is learning new words every day and is talking just like an 18 month old. We'll find out more next month.
Neurosurgery: Charlotte didn't have nuerosurgery, but she did have to meet with the neurosurgeon to make sure she was walking/seeing/interacting/ etc alright. The NS came in and looked at her CT Scans again, talked to me some and then watched her interact with me and Nathalie. After a few minutes of watching he said, "This was a clean break and it looks like she's healing great. We don't want to see you in here again!" He laughed and said she was doing great and we wouldn't need to have another follow-up.
Ear/Nose/Throat (ENT): At her ENT appointment, they wanted to check two things. First, they wanted to make sure all the blood had drained from behind her left eardrum. So they checked her left ear, removed some earwax (very traumatic and lots of crying) and her left ear drum looks clear. She does have a cold, so there is some fluid in her left and right ears but no more blood. That's great news because it means her body processed and reabsorbed the blood.
The second concern was her hearing. Charlotte's fracture occurred so close to her left ear they are concerned that the bones in her ear were affected and she could have some hearing loss. So we had to an audiogram (hearing test) to make sure she hears alright. First they tested pressure behind her ear drums. There is supposed to be positive pressure. Behind her right eardrum there was no pressure and behind her left there was negative pressure. You might be thinking, "But her right side wasn't hurt!" You're correct. No pressure behind her right ear is probably a result of the congestion in her ears from the fluid. The greater concern here is that there is a difference between the right and left ear. The left ear is worse.
The second part of the hearing test was the actual hearing test. A specialist and I went into a soundproof room where I held Charlotte on my lap. Speakers were located on opposite sides of the room and sounds would alternately come out of the speakers. There were varying sounds--more intrusive to less intrusive, loud to quiet. Charlotte did not pass. She had trouble hearing the quieter, less intrusive sounds. They were perfectly audible to myself and the specialist, but she did not look at the speakers. With the louder sounds she would look up in the direction from which the sound had come and there would be some visual reinforcement. Initially we were playing quiet games with her to keep her distracted but when she wasn't really responding to the quiet sounds, we took away the games and just played with her fingers. She had trouble on both sides.
SO.
What's next? Well, this could be nothing to be worried about. She does have a cold. (Actually, we all do this week. Except Matt, the stinker with the amazing immune system.) So the hearing test problems could be related to the fluid in her ears. The problem is, we can't tell if it's just the fluid or if the fluid is affecting only her right ear and her left ear really can't hear. The fluid could be creating the same result for both sides, since she might not be able to hear out of the left side very well anyway. Or she could be perfectly fine and was distracted because she is only 18 months old. She would not let us do any hearing tests with ear buds in her ears.
We go back in a few weeks. I'm supposed to help her fight this cold gone and when we go back she will hopefully have clear ears. We'll do the eardrum pressure test again and see if we can get more conclusive results on the hearing test.
As for me, I'm a little worried but not much. Charlotte has been learning new words and talking a lot. I haven't noticed a problem in her hearing. This could be because we're SO LOUD at our house that she can hear everything that goes on. Or that she doesn't have a problem with her right ear and her right ear is compensating. Either way, she is learning new words every day and is talking just like an 18 month old. We'll find out more next month.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
A Little Bit About Rabbits
So I still can't find my camera. We should be buying another one soon, but I really wanted to talk about rabbits.
Remember this post? Where I talk about the food we eat and how Matt and I are committed to producing our own food? Well one of the steps along this has obviously been raising our own food. We ended up giving our chickens away because a neighbor didn't like them and hey, they were against the law anyway. We were sad because we loved our chickens, but didn't put up a fuss because we knew it was illegal to have backyard chickens. So instead we are raising rabbits. They're not illegal (because they're counted as pets) and as long as we make sure they don't smell, we can have lots of them.
We started out with what we thought were three does and one buck. We got the buck from a friend who raises show rabbits and he'd been used too many times that they couldn't breed him anymore to any of their rabbits because they were all related. We bought the three does at Easter time. Our buck was a Californian.
About a week after we bred our does, we decided to put Thumper in with their buck. See, even though Thumper was the biggest white rabbit and had been exhibiting some dominant behaviors, Matt wasn't convinced he was a he. And Matt was right. Turns out Thumper is just a really dominant female and one of the ways of asserting dominance is....ahem, mounting, the other females. So we bred Thumper to the buck and the day after all our kits froze, she kindled and had 6 live kits. This time we were prepared though. We moved her cage into the shed and put a portable heater and heat lamp.
Those six kits are thriving and almost 3 weeks old. Now they look like this. (And close to this color too, since one of the bucks is black and the other is a silvery brown. White is recessive, so the kits will almost always be dark).
One last surprise for us too. Apollo turned out to be a girl too. When Matt and I got her, we didn't know how to sex a rabbit. But a few weeks ago we finally figured it out. And she definitely was not a boy. So we bred her to our friends' buck and renamed her Athena. Turns out she isn't a 3 yr old experienced buck-- she's a 1 yr old doe and this will be her first litter. And we are expecting 3 litters this month. But this time we're prepared.
So now we have four does and no bucks.
Does, anyone?
Remember this post? Where I talk about the food we eat and how Matt and I are committed to producing our own food? Well one of the steps along this has obviously been raising our own food. We ended up giving our chickens away because a neighbor didn't like them and hey, they were against the law anyway. We were sad because we loved our chickens, but didn't put up a fuss because we knew it was illegal to have backyard chickens. So instead we are raising rabbits. They're not illegal (because they're counted as pets) and as long as we make sure they don't smell, we can have lots of them.
We started out with what we thought were three does and one buck. We got the buck from a friend who raises show rabbits and he'd been used too many times that they couldn't breed him anymore to any of their rabbits because they were all related. We bought the three does at Easter time. Our buck was a Californian.
Our does are New Zealand whites. Both are excellent meat breeds. Our buck (Apollo) was several years old, but we bought our does when they were only 8 weeks old. We knew we'd have to wait until mid-July to breed them. We named our does Thumper (because she thumps excessively), Corn and Broccoli. The kids named Corn and Broccoli. Broccoli has another name-- Houdini. Or Houdinette, if you will. Because she can escape from a regular cage. We ended up rigging her cage in a special way because she was prying the door open enough to squeeeeeeeze out.
So fast forward to mid July. It's blazing hot here. 97-103 degrees every day for 3 weeks. No rain. Our does have reached maturity and along with that we reached a startling discovery. Thumper wasn't a doe. He was a buck. Take the "T" off his name and that's how we realized she was a he. We are also running into some problems. It's been so hot that the rabbits don't want to breed. Not only that, but heat can render bucks temporarily sterile so Apollo, when introduced to a lady, barely moves. Too hot and not enough hormones! So we have two bucks, but one is unusable because he's related to the does and the other one's libido has hit the bottom.
Some of our friends here also went into rabbit raising with us. They had two does-- a New Zealand white and a New Zealand black. Then they picked up a scruffy little buck from the flea market. Well in their household, that scruffy little buck was doing his job. They had a litter of kits in August. We decided to try our two does, Corn and Broccoli, with their buck. And it worked! Our New Zealand's are big rabbits and the buck is little. But size doesn't matter! He was enthusiastic and efficient. And in mid September, we got rabbit babies from both of the girlies.
A total of 13 live kits from the two does. The mamas were a little confused though and didn't make the best nest. So when the babies were a week old and the temperature dropped to the low 40s at night, every single kit died. Matt and I had been watching the weather and we wrapped the cages up so they were protected from the wind. We put some old fabric in underneath the straw. We borrowed some fur from one of our mamas and tried to put it on top of the babies. But it wasn't enough and the cold got to our little fuzzy squirmies. See, rabbit kits are born without hair which makes them vulnerable for a few weeks. And our mamas, because it was their first time, didn't prepare the nests enough.
About a week after we bred our does, we decided to put Thumper in with their buck. See, even though Thumper was the biggest white rabbit and had been exhibiting some dominant behaviors, Matt wasn't convinced he was a he. And Matt was right. Turns out Thumper is just a really dominant female and one of the ways of asserting dominance is....ahem, mounting, the other females. So we bred Thumper to the buck and the day after all our kits froze, she kindled and had 6 live kits. This time we were prepared though. We moved her cage into the shed and put a portable heater and heat lamp.
Those six kits are thriving and almost 3 weeks old. Now they look like this. (And close to this color too, since one of the bucks is black and the other is a silvery brown. White is recessive, so the kits will almost always be dark).
One last surprise for us too. Apollo turned out to be a girl too. When Matt and I got her, we didn't know how to sex a rabbit. But a few weeks ago we finally figured it out. And she definitely was not a boy. So we bred her to our friends' buck and renamed her Athena. Turns out she isn't a 3 yr old experienced buck-- she's a 1 yr old doe and this will be her first litter. And we are expecting 3 litters this month. But this time we're prepared.
So now we have four does and no bucks.
Does, anyone?
Monday, October 1, 2012
More than a month and the aftermath
Well. We've had a busy few weeks around here, with family visiting, lots of extra activities, service projects, commitments and all that on top of Emily school, Matt school, work and life. Also, I can't find my camera.
So. Instead of the post about rabbits I wanted to do tonight (since I want to show you pictures), I'm giong to talk a little bit about something that has been running through my head for awhile.
It's been more than a month since Charlotte's accident. Before I get into this too far, let me just say that she is recovering beautifully. She just started talking (in sentences!) two weeks ago. She has entered the silly, into everything, tantrums, "MINE!" stage, complete with chasing her sisters, more tantrums and a lovey-doveyness we haven't seen since she was a baby.
It has been an interesting month for Matt and I. Having never been through an experience like this, we were both unprepared for the lingering emotions. I was especially unprepared, and especially vulnerable since I had seen the whole thing. Matt has mentioned more than once that he can't get the image of Charlotte strapped to the board out of his head. And that he felt completely powerless in both hospitals. He's a pretty stalwart guy, so the fact he's mentioned this to me tells me it has been bothering him.
As for me I've been experiencing some lingering stress (if you want to call it that). Some things keep happening-- I too can't get images out of my head, but mine are when I picked her up and she was unconscious in my arms. When they took her away from me to get her CT Scans. Her neck brace and IV in the hospital. The first two weeks after, I would lie awake at night thinking of "what could have been". My brain unwillingly took me on some traumatic journeys. I couldn't turn the images off.
I also had a moment of tunnel vision a few weeks later. The girls and I were on a walk and a dad rode by on his bike, with his little daughter in a rear bike seat. Without a helmet. Even though the girls were all around me and we were on a busy street, I only saw that baby. I saw her unconscious. I saw her with worse than a cracked skull. I saw her fall. I could not focus on anything but her. I didn't hear or see my children, only her. I was too far away to run to that father, but my instinct was to run over there and grab him by the shoulders and yell into his face that his daughter was in danger and didn't he know how important a helmet is?! When they rode out of my sight, I came back and noticed that Emily had ridden to the corner and was waiting for me and Charlotte and Nathalie had climbed out of the stroller and were running toward Emily.
I'm also paranoid now. Only about Charlotte and bike helmets. But I think she's going to fall, my heart skips a beat, I get this incredible rush of adrenaline and I breathe quickly and sharply. So much for our theory about not reacting when our children get hurt! It's pure instinct to react this way with Charlotte right now. My parents even commented on this reaction. This will probably ease over the new few months. I also haven't been on my bike yet. Part of this is because the doctors told me no biking for awhile and part of it is fear. Fear that it will happen again. We'll get there. It'll come when it comes.
Lastly I've noticed intense emotions. On one hand, Charlotte is entering a frustrating stage. She does throw a lot of tantrums. She only wants to eat in my lap (which I cannot allow, for the sake of my sanity). She screams all the time. She is incredibly clingy since her accident (the only side effect we've noticed) and her bedtime routine is a 20-30 minute process where I, and only I, sit with her and rub her back until she falls asleep. Some days this is hard to manage. And I find myself frustrated by Charlotte throwing a tantrum again. Or by the fact that I block out an hour for bedtime when I really don't want to sit there rubbing her back. And when I think those thoughts, my other brain half responds, "You shouldn't feel this way. Don't you know how lucky you are? You should be grateful all the time. You're a terrible mother for feeling like this about your baby." I have internal struggles and guilt about feeling frustrated with her (and even my other two) when just 5 weeks ago I was riding in an ambulance with her.
Whew. Before you call me up and ask if I'm really doing okay, or if I need to talk to someone, or if I want some medication, let me tell you. I really am doing okay. Yes, there have been moments of emotional upset. And moments of stress and worry and guilt. But I'm not curled up in a ball on the couch having panic attacks. I'm not watching hours of Hulu or refusing to eat (or only eating chocolate). I'm happily interacting with my girls, doing all the homemake-y things I usually do, planning a new quilt, working on house projects, playing with our baby rabbits and doing an awesome workout group with friends. This isn't a cry-for-help post, it's more of a "hey, I didn't know this would happen" and "I wish someone had told me what to expect of myself" type of thing.
So there you go. Hopefully something traumatic never ever ever ever ever ever happens to you. But if it does, here's a glimpse of what you hopefully don't ever experience.
Thanks for reading this unusual and long post. I'll keep looking for my camera, since the baby bunnies are WAAAAY more interesting and cute. There is no way I'm going to be able to eat them.
So. Instead of the post about rabbits I wanted to do tonight (since I want to show you pictures), I'm giong to talk a little bit about something that has been running through my head for awhile.
It's been more than a month since Charlotte's accident. Before I get into this too far, let me just say that she is recovering beautifully. She just started talking (in sentences!) two weeks ago. She has entered the silly, into everything, tantrums, "MINE!" stage, complete with chasing her sisters, more tantrums and a lovey-doveyness we haven't seen since she was a baby.
It has been an interesting month for Matt and I. Having never been through an experience like this, we were both unprepared for the lingering emotions. I was especially unprepared, and especially vulnerable since I had seen the whole thing. Matt has mentioned more than once that he can't get the image of Charlotte strapped to the board out of his head. And that he felt completely powerless in both hospitals. He's a pretty stalwart guy, so the fact he's mentioned this to me tells me it has been bothering him.
As for me I've been experiencing some lingering stress (if you want to call it that). Some things keep happening-- I too can't get images out of my head, but mine are when I picked her up and she was unconscious in my arms. When they took her away from me to get her CT Scans. Her neck brace and IV in the hospital. The first two weeks after, I would lie awake at night thinking of "what could have been". My brain unwillingly took me on some traumatic journeys. I couldn't turn the images off.
I also had a moment of tunnel vision a few weeks later. The girls and I were on a walk and a dad rode by on his bike, with his little daughter in a rear bike seat. Without a helmet. Even though the girls were all around me and we were on a busy street, I only saw that baby. I saw her unconscious. I saw her with worse than a cracked skull. I saw her fall. I could not focus on anything but her. I didn't hear or see my children, only her. I was too far away to run to that father, but my instinct was to run over there and grab him by the shoulders and yell into his face that his daughter was in danger and didn't he know how important a helmet is?! When they rode out of my sight, I came back and noticed that Emily had ridden to the corner and was waiting for me and Charlotte and Nathalie had climbed out of the stroller and were running toward Emily.
I'm also paranoid now. Only about Charlotte and bike helmets. But I think she's going to fall, my heart skips a beat, I get this incredible rush of adrenaline and I breathe quickly and sharply. So much for our theory about not reacting when our children get hurt! It's pure instinct to react this way with Charlotte right now. My parents even commented on this reaction. This will probably ease over the new few months. I also haven't been on my bike yet. Part of this is because the doctors told me no biking for awhile and part of it is fear. Fear that it will happen again. We'll get there. It'll come when it comes.
Lastly I've noticed intense emotions. On one hand, Charlotte is entering a frustrating stage. She does throw a lot of tantrums. She only wants to eat in my lap (which I cannot allow, for the sake of my sanity). She screams all the time. She is incredibly clingy since her accident (the only side effect we've noticed) and her bedtime routine is a 20-30 minute process where I, and only I, sit with her and rub her back until she falls asleep. Some days this is hard to manage. And I find myself frustrated by Charlotte throwing a tantrum again. Or by the fact that I block out an hour for bedtime when I really don't want to sit there rubbing her back. And when I think those thoughts, my other brain half responds, "You shouldn't feel this way. Don't you know how lucky you are? You should be grateful all the time. You're a terrible mother for feeling like this about your baby." I have internal struggles and guilt about feeling frustrated with her (and even my other two) when just 5 weeks ago I was riding in an ambulance with her.
Whew. Before you call me up and ask if I'm really doing okay, or if I need to talk to someone, or if I want some medication, let me tell you. I really am doing okay. Yes, there have been moments of emotional upset. And moments of stress and worry and guilt. But I'm not curled up in a ball on the couch having panic attacks. I'm not watching hours of Hulu or refusing to eat (or only eating chocolate). I'm happily interacting with my girls, doing all the homemake-y things I usually do, planning a new quilt, working on house projects, playing with our baby rabbits and doing an awesome workout group with friends. This isn't a cry-for-help post, it's more of a "hey, I didn't know this would happen" and "I wish someone had told me what to expect of myself" type of thing.
So there you go. Hopefully something traumatic never ever ever ever ever ever happens to you. But if it does, here's a glimpse of what you hopefully don't ever experience.
Thanks for reading this unusual and long post. I'll keep looking for my camera, since the baby bunnies are WAAAAY more interesting and cute. There is no way I'm going to be able to eat them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)