Christmas 2007

Christmas sort of snuck up on us again this year. I know that I sound like my mom every time I say this, but boy does the time fly these days. Erica started walking again the Tuesday before Christmas, so it has been so exciting to watch her enjoy her new freedom. The world is her oyster now, and she's gotta go check everything out! Even though it's proved to be a little more work for us, we are beyond excited to see her walking and getting into everything!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Smith's in Cambridge. Church, lasagna dinner,
lots of presents, and a beautiful time with family. (Here are the kiddos on Christmas Eve--Erica in her velvet dress, and Hayden with his gift haul)

Christmas morning we celebrated together as our little family of 4 (+ Oscar). Believe it or not, Santa had come (despite Hayden's naughty behavior as of late), so we opened our stockings and gifts from one another. Hayden was most excited about the new trains we got him for his Thomas train set, and Erica loved the new kitchen we got her for her bedroom.

Here is Erica with a little cell phone to her ear--she is
BIG into talking on the phone right now!

Here are Jon and Hayden checking out the new expansion kit for H's train set.

After our little family time, we packed up and headed over the celebrate Christmas Day with the Sharpe's in our P.J.'s, as always. We had a wonderfully relaxing time, with lots of good food to eat, a plethora of generous gifts, and much cherished time with our family.

The Sharpe family tree on Christmas morning--beautiful and untouched.....
before the paper flew!!

...and here we all are enjoying our first course of Marilyn's amazing Williamsburg Dinner. Notice that we are all still in our P.J.'s--the greatest tradition EVER!!

H thoroughly enjoying his new Playmobil airplane.

...and Erica having a tea party.

We are currently still busy putting toys away, putting toys together, tripping over toys, and breaking down boxes from all the new toys. We are then going to pack up some old toys, and donate them--because we have been taken over. We are officially a "kid house" and it's making me crazy! I've got to find some semblance of order around here...

Other than that....Life is good. We have so much to be thankful for.

~Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~

Sliding, Snot, & Snow Angels

Today the kids and I enjoyed a little fun together in the snow in our back yard. Jon had the great idea of shoveling the snow into a big pile at the bottom of the slide, and then sliding down into it. It was a blast, to say the least! Despite snow in the face (Erica went down face first a few times), snow in the mittens, snow in the boots, and snot running down Erica's face --both of the kids squealed with delight on each descent.

Here they are rooting around in the snow, and making snow angels....

....and no trip outside would be complete without some "digger" action.

Next on the winter agenda is to teach Hayden how to down hill ski.
I am, of course, a little nervous--but very excited to see if he loves skiing as
much as his mommy and daddy do. Here's hoping!

Buddies

I just cannot get over how much Hayden and Erica are enjoying playing together as of late.
I mean, don't get me wrong--they do still have their moments of disgust with one another,
but overall--they are really starting to enjoy each others company.
What a fun thing to watch as parents.

Above was one of Erica's first baths after her cast came off.
As you can see, no sympathy from her brother!!

"Reading" a book...........

and playing in Erica's room....

...........so darn cute, I just had to share. :)

Happy Turkey Day!!

We were lucky enough to get to spend Thanksgiving with both of our families again this year.
We had dinner with the Sharpe's (below) on Thanksgiving Day, and spent the afternoon with the Smith's (above) the following Saturday. As always, we ate too much--but had an awesome time with our families. We have so much to be thankful for.

Tummy Time

Hayden knew that Erica was having her cast taken off Tuesday, and when Jon dropped him off that morning at Preschool he ran around telling everyone "Do you know what today is? It's a BIG day....Erica get's her cast off today!" Unfortunately, when Hayden got home from school, Erica was still napping, and this made him very sad. He kept asking to go into her room, and just take a "quick peek" of her without her cast. It was pretty cute to see his excitement.

After Erica woke up, I laid out a blanket on the living room floor for her to roll around and play on. Hayden got out a bunch of toys, positioned them around Erica, and then laid down right next to her on the floor to play. It was the sweetest thing.

Here he is giving her hugs and snuggling....

Erica's Big Day!!

We had been looking forward to cast removal day since we learned of Erica's need for this major hip surgery back in July of this year. We knew that another 6 weeks in a Spica cast was going to be hard on all of us. Fortunately, we were quite prepared for what to expect and for how to care for her in the cast--being that this was her 4th Spica cast and all. Not to mention that we had a SWEET Spica chair to accommodate her (Thanks Daddy!). Never the less, after surgery on October 8th, the countdown began for cast removal on the 20th of November. We tried to not wish the time away, but let me tell you--that is much easier said than done!

Here we are at Gillette Children's Hospital for the big unveiling:

Before (Obviously) :)

During:
Our first glimpse of Erica's legs after the top half of her cast was lifted!

After:
Relieved, happy, and on our way to x-ray!

Here we are in Radiology getting ready to have x-rays done of her pelvis & hips.
Below are her x-rays following cast removal, which is 6 weeks following her bony reconstructive surgery (aka.. pelvic and femoral Osteotomy)



It's a little hard to see the dysplasia in her left hip if you aren't used to seeing x-rays of the pelvis, but I mainly posted her x-ray for you to see the hardware (plate and screws) holding her L hip and femur in proper position (the light area in the middle of her pelvis is just shielding that they put over her ovaries to prevent radiation exposure). As I mentioned on her Caring Bridge page, her surgeon was very pleased with these follow up x-rays, and feels that her L hip is much improved, and the areas of bone grafting are healing well.

While waiting to see Dr Novacheck in an exam room, Erica remembers how to roll over from her tummy to back, and back to tummy-- so exciting!!

Next we head to Rehab for a whirlpool bath, and a Physical Therapy Evaluation.



Here is sweet E enjoying her first tubby time in 6 weeks!! You should've seen her splashing!!



Erica enjoying some Play therapy, where we were finally able to assess how much range of motion and mobility she has coming out of her cast. As you can see--she surprised us all, and is dong quite well, however quite wobbly and she really guards that left hip in sitting, rolling and standing. This is probably due to joint stiffness, some residual pain, and muscle atrophy.



She stands alone!! Our proudest moment all day!



And finally around 3:00 pm we head home from our long, eventful day at Gillette (cast removal was at 9:50 am). Erica hadn't napped all day, so here she is sleeping soundly in the back seat. In a normal car seat, I might add!!!

WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!!

3 Days and Counting...........

Hello my fellow bloggers, sorry for the long delay since my last entry. Life has been busy, but we haven't been taking too many photos lately, so I apologize for the lack of good photo footage with this entry. As most of you know, we are finally in the home stretch until Erica's cast removal on Tuesday, the 20th--so I guess I am saving up my camera batteries until the big day and weeks following when she takes off again! We are dying to see her roll, crawl, walk, and climb again! Heck, we are just dying to see her legs, put normal diapers on her, cuddle her, and give her a bath in the tub again. It's really the small things that you miss most when your baby is stuck in a body cast.

Here are a few photos from our trip to Como Zoo last weekend. It was a beautiful fall day, and we hadn't been to Como in a really long time, so we packed up a picnic lunch, and headed out for the zoo and conservatory. It was a really fun day--despite a lot of the outdoor exhibits being shut down for the winter.

Two of our favorite zoo animal sightings............

Last night the four of us attended the opening of "Frog and Toad" at the Children's Theater. It was magnificent! The acting and singing were superb, and the scenes and sets changed frequently enough that it kept both Hayden and Erica's attention for two hours. We didn't get home until close to 10pm, so H & E actually slept until almost 8am this morning. Yea Haw!!

We got Hayden's Preschool photos back this week, so thought I'd share.....he's such a big boy, and learning so quickly. We love the stories he tells, and all of the hilarious things he says. Just as an example....the other night I was taking him on a date to see the Bee movie at the Southdale theater. When I took his winter hat off, his hair was sticking up all over, so I did the typical mom--lick my hand and try and get his hair to lay down with a little spit. He pulls away from me and says "Ah mom, you just put lick in my hair....lick off your tongue." Yep, yep I did....I started laughing so hard, I had to call Jon and tell him what had happened. Oh the things you do as a parent......it's a little embarrassing, really. What's even worse is that now Hayden is old enough to call me on it!

And finally I will leave you with a photo of Erica's cute little legs--just in case you forgot what she looked like without a Spica Cast on.....I know we have!

Happy Halloween!!

Jon, Hayden, Erica & I spent the evening at Nana and Papa Sharpe's home in Edina. Marilyn made us a beautiful, healthy dinner before we went out and filled our bellies with candy and junk food!! We then got the kids all dressed up in their costumes, and headed out to trick or treat around their neighborhood.

Above are the pumpkins we carved this year...I carved the wolf on the left, and Jonathan carved the bat on the right. I want you to know, though, that I carved mine the old fashioned way--with a little carving knife and lots of sweat. Jon used an air saw hooked up to his air compressor in the garage --I was sure to tell him that this is CHEATING! He disagrees, of course, and feeds me the line about "anything that can be done, can be done better with a motor." Yep, that's my husband for ya! :)

Here is Hayden, the little monkey--or Curious George. Either way, it fits his personality, and I have been calling him a "stinky monkey" for some time now as a nickname, so it really seemed appropriate this year!!

Next we have E.Rae, who has always been our little pumpkin--amongst many other weird nicknames (like stinky monkey), so she wore the pumpkin costume this year. Why, you ask? Well, because Hayden wore it at two, so why not get another wear out of it? May as well get your money's worth, right!? I did have to rip the seams out of the crotch and sew in Velcro this year, though, to fit over her cast. All in the name of love, I tell ya!

And finally, a photo of the two of them--sharing a Halloween hug
(although it looks a little one sided)!

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

We started the tradition a few years back of going to the Apple Orchard in the fall with some of our friends and their kiddo's. This was our second year at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake, and it really is a beautiful place.

Here are all of the kids from L to R: Hayden, Paige, Erica (above), Natalie, Josie, and Breanna. Yes, Hayden is still the only boy of the group--but he doesn't seem to mind a bit!!

Here we all are getting ready to go on our hayride. I wonder why they still insist on calling it a "hayride" even without the hay??

The requisite photo of Hayden "driving" the tractor!
A quick snuggle for Hayden and Jonathan beside the lake.
......and finally Erica munching on popcorn and looking so stylish in her new, pink hat.