Aiden Wrote a Book

I was going through Aiden's things from this past school year and found a book he'd written. I'm going to share it with you word for word including his spelling. I just wish I could also include the illustrations. The title of his book? "P" is for Pelvis

A is for Acromioclavicular is a holder so you don't lose your shoulder.
B is for Bone Marrow. It makes up your bones so we don't look like cones.
C is for coller bone. It holds up your neck if you it causes wreck.
D is for Deltoid muscel. It's a holder for your schoulder.
E is for Excretion. It holds your waste and look likes a bear.
F is for fibromylasia syndrome. It give you fatigue and symtoms.
-headaches
-cognitive and memory problems
-morning symtoms
G is for Gluteus Maximus. It's a muscel. Another name for it is your butt.
H us fir humerus bone. It makes people laugh when you hit it.
I is for indegestion. It happens when you burp. Idegestion is really helpful.
J is for joint. It helps you bed, so you don't blend.
K is for knee. It's a important joint so you don't just fall.
L is for lucky if your brake your bone.
M is for mouth. It helps you talk. It also hold your tongue.
N is for nostrol. It helps you breath. It contains your bugers.
O is for organs. It helps you digest. There's many types.
P is for pelvis. It's your hip. It's a bone.
Q is for quart size brain. It helps you think.
R is red blood cell. It's your blood. Blood is every where.
S is for shin. It's under your knee. It hurts when you hit it.
T is for toenail. It protects the soft skin under them.
U is uvela. It helps you speak.
V is veins. It carries your blood.
W is for wenis. It's extra skin. It sounds kind of funny.
X is for
Y is for
Z is for

I guess he got tired and didn't finish the last three letters of the alphabet. There you have it, folks. Anatomy and Physiology according to a fourth grader.

Take the Key and Lock Her Up-Another Apartment Dwelling Update

I'm learning lots of great things living in this little apartment with the kids. One of them is about unlocking doors the children have locked. Basically what I've learned is that it simply can't be done. Ever. The maintanance people have been here so many times to unlock the doors that they'd finally just turned all the knobs around so they lock from the outside. The only one left was the master bedroom.

Liam sleeps in our room and opted to sleep in a lot this morning. Since he was sleeping, I decided to use the time to clean house without him picking through things he didn't belong in. Somehow in the shuffle of things, I locked the bedroom door from the inside, and left the little key thing in there with him. Oops!

Normally calling maintanance to come open the door wouldn't be a big deal. I always feel a little bit stupid, but worse things have happened, right? Well, today was different. I was cleaning in just my underwear. JUST MY UNDERWEAR!!! I was on the phone with my friend, Taffi, when I realized what I'd done. Normally she is one of my most supportive friends, but this time she just laughed at me. Nice. Thanks for the love.

Luckily I remembered that we had some storage clothes in the closet in Aiden's room. I ran and picked through it fast enough to throw some clothes on before the guy got here to open the door...I still wasn't wearing a bra, though. SO humiliating!!!!

So, I'm only mostly embarrassed about it. I got the door unlocked, and the knob is now turned around so that the door won't get locked again. I guess the good news is that maintanance will come quickly if they hear that a baby is locked in a room. The bad news is that you may not always be dressed when they get there.

Don't Touch That!! (Again!)

I'm pretty sure Liam is going to be my dare devil child. CJ was always very curious, too, and could get out of just about anything. This is a different kind of daring that I see in Liam, though. His is the kind that ends him up in the ER frequently. Isn't there some sort of speedpass parents can get for when they have children like mine who consider ER doctors and nurses to be like some sort of extended family?

We had a lovely 4th of July dinner of hamburgers cooked on the grill. Since we're in a tiny little apartment, we just have a tiny little grill. It's one of those $20 ones you can get at Wal Mart. Not even a little bit fancy. It stands about a foot and a half tall, cooks about 6 burgers at a time, and just does its job and nothing more.

After finishing eating, CJ decided he wanted to eat his cupcake on the patio. No big deal, right? Well, it shouldn't have been, but he forgot to close the door behind him and Liam toddled right on out the door. Because he's the most inquisitive and accident prone child ever to walk the earth, Liam had to make a bee line to the still hot grill.

Byron and I saw it happening, and it was one of those Twilight Zone moments where everything happens in slow motion. I dropped everything and flew out to him, but it still wasn't fast enough. Both hands and one fore arm had already touched the grill.

I quickly took him to the Acute Kids Urgent Care that was down the street and they sent him on to the Children's ER in Plano. The ER at Children's decided he needed to go to the ER in Dallas. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! We all know how I feel about Children's of Dallas.

I fought and argued and disagreed with them. These burns aren't nearly as bad as the one he got a few months back. I knew he was fine, but they were adament that he needed to go. They wanted to send him via ambulance, but I put my foot down. No. Way. Is. He. Going. On. Your. Ambulance. He wasn't crying in pain, the burns were not above second degree, the swelling had slowed down significantly, and there was no reason to justify such insane measures. The doctor in Plano insisted that the swelling could get worse and he could lose his fingers. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Really, this wasn't half the burn he'd gotten last time. Really.

I finally relented and agreed to take him myself to Children's of Dallas so the burn people could look at it and tell me he was fine and just needed silvadene and treatment with the pediatrician. I also said they'd have less than 30 minutes to get him into a room of his own away from other sick children before I'd take him and leave. In my mind, the risks of being there far outweigh the benefits when you consider his health. They did do well. I'll give them that. He had his own room within ten minutes of arriving. That's all they did well in, but at least he was in his own space.

It took an hour or so for the burn specialists to come in. They took a few minutes to look at him and the conversation went something like this:

"How did this happen?" I told them the story.
"How many kids do you have?"
"Five"
"And, what do you think needs to be done here?"
"I think he needs silvadene, gauze, and to be seen by the pediatrician every other day or so for the next 7-10 days where the pedi will change the dressing and debride any blisters that have opened".
"You clearly know what you're doing, and don't need to be here. Let's get him ready to go home".

Finally!! Someone who was reasonable enough to realize that I can parent my child AND that he didn't need to be in that nasty ER. That's where it ended, though. Apparently a child can't be sent home until a regular doctor sees him. Really?!?!? He's there for a burn so shouldn't it suffice that the burn doctor saw him and said he could go home?

Well, it was the 4th of July. It was getting late. Accidents started happening and the ER was filling up (which is why I didn't want to go there in the first place, but what do I know? I'm just the mom). Anyway, we waited and waited and waited. Finally a "doctor" came in who had psychology on her pretty white jacket. Great. They sent my kid a shrink because that's all that was available?? Really, I was ready to go home. Couldn't they just dress it and send us on his way? This is how the conversation with her went:

"Can you tell me what happened?" I told the story.
"I need a medical history. Does he have any history of illness?"
"He has a pre-disposition for C-Diff."
"What's that?"
SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! At this point, I knew expaining NEHI would be more than a challenge, so I just dumbed it down for her so she'd understand.
"Does he need bloodwork do you think?"
"No, he's here for a burn."
"Any fever?"
"No, he's here for a burn."
"Any fever or coughing?"
"No, he's here for a burn."
"What do you think needs to be done here?"
"I think he needs silvadene, gauze, and to be seen by the pediatrician every other day or so for the next 7-10 days where the pedi will change the dressing and debride any blisters that have opened".
"Hmmm...let me go ask someone what we need to do".
"Ok, but can you make it quick? The specialist said he's good to go, but we need you to sign it off."
"Any sign of ear ache or anything?"
"No, he's here for a burn."

Yeah. It went that well. I'm not even exaggerating. I HATE that ER. (I think I've mentioned that before, though).

Anyway, we finally got to leave around 3am. I got home around 3:30 and had a total of three hours' sleep before having to get up and take him to the pediatrician who was only opened half a day that day.

Our doctor took one look and said, "They wanted to ambulance him for THAT?" He laughed. What did he do? He applied silvadene, dressed the wound, and asked us to come back tomorrow so he can treat the wound, debride the blisters that are open, and watch for signs of infection. Hmmmm...what a great idea. Wish I'd thought of that.

Important Lessons Learned in Primary

CJ is very literal. That combined with his hearing loss often results in some funny conversations. He loves going to Primary at church and then coming home to tell us what he's learned. This past week, we were sitting down to dinner and he explained that we are the sheep and Jesus is the leopard. Ummmm...hmmm...I'm picturing that analogy in my head, and I'm not sure it's quite what the Lord was hoping for. I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't hunt His people down like prey. Jesus is the SHEPHERD, CJ. Shepherd!

And the Rockets' Red Glare...

Since the 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year, we opted to take the kids to an event that was happening on Saturday. Kaboom Town sounded like a blast (pun intended), so we made plans with Roberto and Gabriella to take the kids and go. We got an extra stroller so Drezden wouldn't have to walk, picked up a shower curtain to sit on, and packed extra bottled water.

We got there, settled down, and the sky proceeded to open and spew forth heavy rain. The event planners sent us all to a parking garage across the way, which is where we headed. We set up shop there for 30 minutes or so and tried to enjoy the excitement. With the exception of the cars trying to drive through the garage, the humidity, and CJ asking if it was a tornado every five minutes, it was pretty fun.

Once we got outside again, the rain started up. We were drenched. Byron was miserable, the thing we'd brought to sit on was wet, the kids were a little grumpy, and there was still 3 hours until the fireworks started. We opted to take the kids and head to a place where there were benches. Next to the benches were little pools about 18 inches deep. Since they were already soaked, we let the kids jump on in. Even Liam had a little fun with it. We let them do that right up until the fireworks started.

What a display!! It was really beautiful. My favorite part was watching Liam enjoy the show. We'd put his hearing aids in so he could get the full affect of it all. He was so mesmorized by it. He didn't move an inch the whole time the fireworks were going off. I remember looking over and seeing the reflection of the lights from the fireworks on his face. It was a beautiful moment really. After the rain, the crowds, the mud, the cold, and...well, I think that's all I have to complain about...after all that, this amazing display was completely worth it. Hopefully we made fond memories for the kids. Hopefully.