Longest Word Ever

Grant informed me the other day that he knew what the longest word in the world was..."SupercalifragilisticexpialidociousOptimusPrime."

Hulsbergerness September 2011

Our September...

Family Vehicle Decals

courtesy of xkcd.com

All I have to say is, "Ain't that the truth!" Dave and I had a very nice chuckle over this comic.

Disclaimer: I would never ever ever trade my babies for a pile of money, and I know there are people out there that would trade piles and piles of money for babies half as cute as mine and I wish to bestow upon them my fertileness...I am not planning on using it for awhile! ;)

Sweet Sunday Treasures

Last night we went to our yearly Fantasy Football draft at our esteemed League Manager's home. We drafted our teams and ate pizza and had a great time. There were cookies and cake pops and cupcakes and soda and bunt cake. After Grant had what could have been enough sweets for a kid 3 times his size, I cut him off. He wanted one more cookie, so I told him to ask our lovely hostess if he might be able to take one home in a baggie for tomorrow. She graciously slipped into the kitchen to help him while I was deeply engrossed in my next draft pick and later informed me that she had put it in my bag. What follows is the email I sent her today to enlighten her as to the fate of that cookie.

So remember that "1 cookie" in a baggie you were going to give Grant for "tomorrow"? Well I got home last night and forgot it was in my purse. We got to church today and I got the kids all settled into our side row (remember how I sit alone now that Dave is in the bishopric). So the meeting starts and we are about 5 minutes in and Grant is rummaging through my purse for a toy and he pulls out said cookie and it has morphed into about 6 cookies and 4 cake pops and Grant looks like he has just struck gold! He may have even shouted Eureka! Looking back, the details are a little hazy.

I grab them quickly to avoid Mason seeing them but it was too late! "DIS!!!!!!" hear from my right as a chubby little pointer finger zeros in on the miraculous treasure...My internal monologue was playing out two options: #1 Play keep away for an hour and put up with Mason loudly expressing his displeasure in a quiet holy setting. #2 Give them the goods and avoid a tantrum and a lot of looky loos....
Long story short...it was 9am and I ended up with 2 very hyper kids riding a sugar high, the likes of which have rarely been seen in church. They were making 4 foot laps in our pew and giggling and there were crumbs and chocolate skid marks from here to Sunday. It was epic. Just thought I would let you know I was thinking of you this morning!!!!

Mason's August Adventures

(There are 3 new posts documenting some recent Glimpses, so scroll down and start at the beginning. I've heard that is a very good place to start...)

We are tiptoeing around here, hoping that Mason will not join in on the medical emergency bandwagon. So far so good, but I will be needing some wood to knock on. He did get stung by a bee today, so we'll just call that his part in this month of adventure and move on.

Here are a few cute pictures of what Mason has been up to this month.

Being cute.

Being smart...Science!

Lots and lots and lots of self portraits on the iPhone.

He loves hiking in the blueberry backpack. Also, see that scrape on his nose? He fell twice in the same day face down on the sidewalk and scraped it.

Getting dirty!

Getting cleaned up after all those adventures!

Grant's August Adventure

Grant has been making Transformers and then making more Transformers and then he takes a break and then he makes more Transformers.

I guess Avery was filling Grant's head with all kinds of whimsical tales of the ER. About 10 days after Avery was in the hospital, Grant fell while playing in his room and through the hysterical tears was holding his elbow and saying, "I broke my arm! I broke my arm!" I thought, "Oh that's cute. He has no idea what he's talking about."

After the usual tactics for calming a crying child (popsicles and cartoons) didn't work, and we saw the big bump forming on the back of his upper arm, we decided something was definitely wrong. We assumed it was a hyperextension or maybe a dislocation, so we asked Dr. Mario (our neighbor) for advice. He took a look and recommended we take him to the hospital. Although he didn't throw any giant colored pills capsules at Grant, we took his advice.

So Dave handled this one and loaded Grant up and went again to Primary's.

He got a sling after being triaged.

and an xray (see that chip in his humerus? The theory is that the lower bone hit it when his arm went straight and took that chunk out.)

There were crayons to help him wait patiently while the doctors debated over what to do about this weird break.

Finally they got splinted and sent home around midnight with orders to return to the Fracture Clinic on Wednesday for something a little more permanent.

Here's the final product. Grant instantly knew that he wanted a green cast.

After lots of lecturing to us about keeping the cast dry, it was less than 24 hours later when he fell into a friends kiddie pool and soaked it. There was a lot of sitting in front of the blow dryer that afternoon.

Avery's August Adventure

How's that for alliteration?

Avery loves to wave now. Do I really need to say how cute it is?

Most everyone who reads this blog probably already knows that we've had a pretty crazy August. We are thinking about getting a punch card to the Emergency Room at Primary Childrens.

On August 1st, Avery started with a high fever that we couldn't lower with Tylenol or Motrin. After about 48 hours I got a little concerned because she wasn't eating well and was really lethargic. I called the pediatrician and they wanted her seen that night, but had no more appointments so they recommended taking her to Instacare. As soon as the doctor saw her vital signs there, she said to take her straight to the ER at Primary's. That really freaked me out.

When we got to Primary's her fever was 104 and her heart rate was 220. They immediately admitted her and got to work putting in an IV to give her fluids. Three tries and 30 minutes later... The drip IV wouldn't have been fast enough to get her heart rate down so they took a 50ml syringe and pushed in 140ml as fast as they could. That helped perk her up a little and took her heart rate down a little, but not enough so they gave her another 100ml. She had all the signs of sepsis shock (basically a raging bacterial infection) so they took blood and urine and a nasal swab and gave her some IV antibiotics. They were even thinking of doing a spinal tap to test for meningitis.

By now it was about midnight and I was hoping they would send us home after they stabilized us and they were debating whether to send us to the ICU or just a regular room in the hospital. We ended up staying in on the regular infant floor for a few days. Her blood and urine cultures all came back negative and she had an equivocal (fancy term for present but low titer) call for a respiratory virus called PIV, so they weren't sure what had made her so sick, but she had stabilized and her fever and heart rate were under control.

We were sent home with a warning that they hadn't really cured her, so to watch her very close. The next day her fever broke and she got a faint rash on her belly, so I am 99.44% sure she had a bad case of the roseola (a virus that most infants get at sometime, but is usually much more manageable.)

So there's our documentation of Avery and I's first Girls Days Out. I felt really weird being in the hospital with a baby, and not just having given birth. And when you're not a patient they don't give you any beverages besides water!

I wish I would have gotten a picture when Avery was in the ER. She had an IV, blood pressure cuff, O2 sensor, nose oxygen, and 3 heart rate cords. I didn't even know how to hold her. Oh and get a load of that tiny little hospital gown. I almost cried when they brought that in, its a shame they ever have to use them.

This video Dave took when he came to visit. (Shout out to a great friend who watched our boys like a champ so Dave could come see us.) You can see how sick and worn out she was. When have you ever seen a 7 month old lie so still?