Merry Christmas

It was wonderful and very Merry Christmas around here. The kids kept us busy right from the start. On the drive home from Thanksgiving weekend they asked, "Can we set up the Christmas Tree?" By the following weekend they were singing Jingle Bells and asking to watch Frosty The Snowman. How could I say no?

With stockings hung by the chimney with care


It was time to begin the festivities. Claira had a long but pretty performance one night at school,

Why do the little girls began fussing as soon as I turned on the video?

A couple days later the two little ladies and I made it over to William's school for a sing-along. It was a bit of a crazy LOUD event. There was about 500+ kids in the gym all singing and dancing together at the top of their lungs, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Aby LOVED it!!!

William received a 'Gingerbread Man' book from his teacher so we made Gingerbread Men with our neighbors and friends. The kids loved it!
As we got closer to the actual holiday friends began to come into town. And it was wonderful to see Aby giggle and "klippty klop" on her God Fathers knee.

William also had a great time playing light sabers with his Mississippi Best Friend Michael. It was so cute. William got his backpack full of his favorite bug books, nerf guns, light sabers, and then dressed his 'nice' clothes to head over and see his friends. He is still talking about it a week later, begging to go to Mississippi this summer to see other good friends he remembers. I don't think our Van could carry all the treasures he'd want to bring.

Finally it was Christmas Eve and time for our annual living room picnic.

Cheers!

And quickly all the yummy fancy cheese was gone and it was time to open one gift. AbyKate could not have been happier with her Dora panties that William gave her. There were 7 pairs and as she tried on each pair she would holler, "THEY FIT!" then shake her bootie and try on the next pair.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

The children were nestled all snug in their beds...

Then it was morning!

And it was all smiles!

What was Santa THINKING???? Hold on tight!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AbyKate's Vacation

Not what you and I would call a typical vacation, but she called it a hotel.
It all started with a high fever and sweats at 1am. I just figured this was the beginning of some kind of virus, nothing too weird. But she just kept waking up screaming then would fall back to sleep, by 6am she was struggling to breath. I had her in bed with me and had already called Andy to see if he'd already gotten on the bus for work (he'd already left the house). She was all sweaty and her little chest kept caving in and it was all she could do to breath. As long as I was with her she was calm and could breath comfortably. I contemplated the ER since Andy had already gotten on the bus by my call but I still had 3 kids in tow. I decided to get Wil on the bus and off for the day, get everyone dressed and just head to the pediatrician at 8:30. This worked well as AbyKate started to act less stressed and started talking again. The Doc office got us into a room and took her stats very quickly. She was in a lot of distress but what they called a "Happy Wheezier" since she was all smiles and talked their ears off between wheezing gasps. They gave her a breathing treatment and well that hardly improved her situation so I dropped Claira off at Gymnastics with her car seat and off she went with her best friend Natalie for the day, THANK YOU GREG.
She had a great day and Greg, Natalie's Dad, taught her how to pump her legs on the swing!
Now I had the two little girls at the ER and again they got AbyKate right in, gave her another breathing treatment followed by another one. Her heart rate was up to 190BPM and during this third treatment my little pixie started to scream and fight then suddenly she passed out. The nurses just said to keep holding her and do the treatment. Her heart rate came down to 150 and she started to perk back up. After some juice and some graham crackers she was all jibber jabber and seemed to have turned a corner. As the afternoon approached she started to struggle again, and again they did a treatment but this time they also decided she needed to be observed and was too unpredictable to send home. I called Andy and had him head home. By 3pm he was at her side, and I kissed my pixie goodbye. It was so hard to leave her but a mother of four has to wipe the tears away and do what is best for everyone. Daddy is almost as good at giving cuddles as Mommy so that is who she got. I had to get William home from school and couldn't be the parent to stay for the night because I have the wee Emilia attached to my hip (aka boob :-) He did better then I could have in the circumstances. He had taken his laptop so he could work from her room, but come to find out they have no kid channels on the TV and being barley 2 she doesn't really do movies yet. So the nice Daddy went to Nick Jr and let her watch Dora show after Dora show. Then a very nice nurse gave her a new baby, that she got to keep, whom she quickly named "Doctor Baby" and the kids and I brought by their doctor kit so as you can imagine the hours she made her Daddy play with her. Thank goodness she had no big episodes all night and Andy was able to go to work the next day and I was able to bring her home in time for a good long nap.

The following weeks have been spent with lots of breathing meds that make her crazy. I mean look at those eyes!

The diagnosis, asthma. We're not too sure about that since she did start with a fever, but time will tell and if it happens again we'll be more apt to accept that diagnosis. For now we just keep a rescue inhaler close by and hope we never have to use it. And when asked if she wanted to go back to the 'hotel' she replied "No tank you" I hope we never take a vacation like this again!