19 Pounds... Almost

Today was Audrey's 15-month well-baby exam. I was very apprehensive about it, because Audrey's weight has been quite a tension point lately. When Audrey was weighed during her exams that fateful weekend that she burned her hand, we were told she weighed 20 pounds. Two weeks later, when we took her to the doc to be diagnosed with strep, we were told she weighed 17 pounds even. Imagine our concern at the possibility that she had lost 3 pounds in two weeks... now, today (on accurate, digital scales), we find out she weighs in at 18lbs, 14oz. Whew. Not exactly out of the teens, but safely past the 17-pound-mark.

The pediatrician explained that there were obviously errors in the readings both times Audrey had been previously weighed, but that she believed she would normally be over 19 pounds. However, due to her strep and the fact that she was not eating like she normally would, she had probably lost a few ounces. Either way, she is still progressing (however slowly that progress may be), and she is destined to be petite. She remains in the 3rd percentile for her weight, tenth percentile for height, and 30th percentile for head circumference. At least she's big in the brains department! Ha!

Everything else checked out OK- no ear infections, a slightly swollen lymph node due to the strep infection, a normal temperature, clear eyes, healthy breathing, and slightly above-average developmental milestone achievement (while we were there she was pointing to the dogs decorating the corner of the room and saying "Dok, whoof!" Then, while being weighed, she was crying for her diaper to be put back on: "Dia-tor!" which impressed the nurses). Our little smarty-pants!

She'll have another appointment at her 18-month mark for a weigh-in, and her next official well-baby exam will be when she's............ TWO! I can't believe that's already being discussed and scheduled. They aren't kidding when they say time flies. Wow.

Audrey's First Trip to the ER

What a ridiculous night. What a stressful, awful, dysfunctional night! Audrey's first trip to the ER on Friday night... what a marathon.

On Friday night, after dinner, Audrey and I were getting some dessert together. Kyle was with a friend installing new headlights on his truck, and we were home alone, enjoying what was a peaceful end to a slow day. I had cut a piece of cherry pie, and put a mug of apple cider in the microwave. I had her on my hip while I got things together, and as I pulled the mug out of the microwave, she just stuck her hand almost up to the wrist into the hot brew, for no reason. It took us both a second to process what she had just done. She was just kinda holding her hand in the apple cider, shaking, and not doing anything. I had to move from the microwave to the kitchen island to put the mug down so I could then pull her hand out of the mug. Once her hand came out of the juice, she started screaming, and didn't stop for the next hour.

I held her hand under cool water. I tried to get her to hold refrigerated items (like bottle necks and a baggie of leftover peas). I even took her upstairs and gave her a squirt of baby Motrin. Nothing even took the edge off her volume or intensity. I finally called the Blue Cross Blue Shield nurse-on-call, explained the story in a nutshell, and was told to call the pediatrician's after-hours nurse. After calling and leaving a message for the nurse-on-call, I decided it was time to take Audrey to the urgent care place in town. I received a call back from the pediatrician's nurse on the way out the door, who confirmed that I had made the right choice. We were on the road just before 6:30pm, and Audrey had burned her hand at about 6.

Once at the urgent care place, I had to juggle the screaming Audrey with the rounds of paperwork I had to fill out, and by the time we were seen by the doc, Audrey's knuckles on two hands had started blistering.

The urgent care place was great. One nurse started calling around to find the nearest ER that could handle such a small burn victim. The doc left and came back within a few minutes and spread cream on Audrey's fingers and wrapped her up with gauze. We were then given direction to Children's in north Dallas, and we were back on the road in less than 15 minutes. (We were told that because Audrey had been burned in such a critical area- her hand- they were not equipped to diagnose or treat her, and we had to go to a bigger facility, hence, Children's.)

We were parking and sprinting through the cold by about 7pm, and since Audrey had received the cream at the urgent care place, she had stopped crying and seemed to be much more comfortable. Infact, she wouldn't cry out of pain for the rest of the night.

At 7:10-ish, I was sitting in a waiting area, waiting to see a nurse to be checked in. By 7:30pm, I was in the official ER waiting room, and shortly after, Kyle arrived. From then on, it was a waiting game. I mean, a waiting game. The next time we talked to another medical personnel, it was after 10, and that was a quick vitals check, and then back into the waiting room. Then a social worker came to check on Audrey and hear our story about how she had burned her hand. Then more waiting. We were finally moved into a room within the ER at about 11:30pm, and saw a 4th year resident doc at 12:15am. Then we waited more. Then another doc came in and said she'd need some cream and gauze, and she'd be fine (which was what had been done before 7pm while we were still in Cedar Hill... awesome). Then we waited some more. Then someone came in with our discharge papers, but no cream, so we had to complain a little, and a third doc came in and looked at Audrey's hand and left. Still no treatment. Finally the supervising doc came in and we re-explained everything, and it was found that the doc who should have ordered the cream for Audrey hadn't put in the order. Once that was straightened out, a nurse (who had been at the nurse's station the entire time on Facebook) came in with the cream, treated her in less than 5 minutes, and after filling out our paperwork, we were allowed to give Audrey some water and go home. We were walking to our cars at 1:15am.

The icing on the cake: at the parking garage, Kyle didn't have a bill small enough to pay the at the automated exit machine, so I had to walk my only cash to him and feed it in to the machine so he could leave. Once he paid, the machine spit out a bunch of dollar coins, and Kyle pulled out. I pulled up behind him with the change the machine had spit out, and the machine wouldn't take the type of coin it had made change with. SO I had to dig frantically through cup holders and wallet to get change enough for me to leave, while the people lined up behind me started honking impatiently.

What a night.

We got home around 2am, wiped Audrey down with a warm washcloth, put her in her pj's, and tucked her in.

The next morning, she slept in until 10am, and took a 3 hour nap at 1pm. Our brave little trooper. She only fussed here and there at the ER when she was tired or thirsty, but she was so good. It is now Monday, and she is doing very well. Her hand doesn't seem to bother her at all, and the docs all agreed that she'll heal well and have no scarring. What a stressful introduction to the ER, but what a blessing that the only reason why we were there was a first-degree burn that will heal on it's own.

Park

On Tuesday morning, I heard on the morning news that the cold, crisp weather as we knew it was about to take a turn for the worse, and in 24 hours would be in the teens. I decided that we should take advantage of the tolerable temperatures while we still could, so after errands and nap time, we headed to the neighborhood park (our backyard is muddy and inhabited by a furry mud-beast). We spent about 45 minutes before dinner playing and having a great time... that should go a long way in the battle against stir-craze.

We arrive, and Audrey focuses on her bouncy ball

The darn ball kept bouncing!

Caught ya, finally!

Happy girl

Trying to follow Mama

Park equipment spotted

Mama, who?

What to do with the ball?

Ball, who?

Up, up, and away!

Surveying the view from waaaaaay up here

My beautiful baby

First push on the swing... meh

Second push... weeeeeeeeee!

Third push... pppppppppfffffffffffft!

Back on the equipment- so high up

Someone punched holes in the floor!

"Dot, dot, dot..."

Going down... time to go home and eat!

Christmas 2009

Sit back, boys and girls, because this is going to be a long one... it's the story of the Carroll/Ware/Kinney family Christmas extravaganza!

As we all know, this year in Texas, we all got to experience a white Christmas. For many, it was the first in their lifetime. For others, the first that could be remembered for years and years. On Christmas Eve morning, after a breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and coffee, the loading of the Christmas gifts and gear commenced. I mostly packed and wrapped stuff in trash bags, and Kyle did all the loading. This, of course, is when the precipitation first started falling. Let's just say it put Kyle in a festive holiday spirit.

By the time we were on the road to Cleburne, the rain had started freezing, and by the time we arrived at Nanny's, it had turned in to snow. It wasn't long before the view out the back windows started looking like Christmas:

We were able to unload and relax a little before the official start of the ca-razy Christmas 24-hour marathon of festivities, flurries, and fun: Christmas Eve service at Kyle's family's church.

Carols at the Carroll's

Kyle rests by the tree, already surrounded by gifts

A trifle compared to after Santa arrives

The overflow area

Audrey watches as snow falls and sticks for the first time in her life

Once the time came, we all got dressed and headed out into the increasingly unpleasant weather to attend the Christmas Eve service wherein Nanny did a beautiful job with the hand bell choir, and we saw lots of family friends.

As tradition dictates, the next move was to Mimmy and Pappy's for their Christmas celebration. The roads were quite slippery by the time we headed out of town, and the 7-minute drive outside the city limits was quite stressful (we didn't worry about it, though, since all the weather people had assured us that none of the frozen precipitation would stick, so we were just imagining things...). We were greeted at the gate with warm hugs, smiles, and the smell of beef stroganoff cooking away.

Audrey inspects the beginning of a new tradition: buying a live tree WITH root ball to be planted after Christmas

Mimmy shares an appetizer with Audrey

A full shot of Audrey's church outfit

Artsy Christmas centerpiece #1

We do stockings first, and Audrey figures out how fun it is to squish Mama's soft oatmeal cookies, so she squishes every one

Audrey helps Dada with his stocking

Audrey seemed to have more fun with the stocking itself than the stuff inside... the soft cookies being the exception

Opening presents

Our makeshift high chair at Mimmy's

After dinner and gifts, we had to high-tail it from Mimmy's back to Nanny's. It was way past Audrey's bed time, and the roads were getting worse. As we drove back in to town, we passed 2 wrecks, one of which had CareFlite on the scene. We were relieved to get back into a warm home with hot coffee and more family. We arrived just in time for the ceremonial hanging of the stockings.

Robert, Kim, and the kids go first- each hangs their own stocking, and many photos are taken

The paparazzi

A Kodak moment

Alas, on Christmas morning, I discovered that my camera battery was almost dead, and I thus missed the frenetic opening at sunrise. A new approach was taken this year, though: after the Santa gifts were inspected, there was a more controlled distribution and opening of gifts, and we actually got to watch everyone open and enjoy their treasures.

The aftermath

Grammy and Gramps play with Audrey while Mama and Dada load the car

Nanny making lunch in her new Christmas apron

Back at home, we unloaded all our Christmas loot, and we moved on to the last phase of our Christmas celebration: Christmas dinner. This year was the second year of a new tradition we've started; after the wrapping paper and tinsel settles on Christmas day, we head home and prepare a Christmas feast, and stretch out the family togetherness one more night. This year, we chose to do a Victorian Christmas theme, complete with goose and plum pudding.

Mimmy and Pappy came up first, and helped with the cooking and preparation. Grammy, Gramps, and Aunt KK joined later, and after gorging once again, we all hung out by the fire, and concluded the holiday with one more family sleepover.

Pajama jammie jam Santa, hanging out

Pappy

Kyle and Katy lounging by the fire

Mimmy reads her new Southern Living cookbook and sips coffee

Our Christmas fire

After-dinner snacks

The trivia game we kinda played

Katy reading the amazing hand-made alphabet book Mimmy made for Audrey

Christmas centerpiece #2

Dessert anyone? How about desserts?

The demise of the Christmas goose: goose stock

Audrey's Christmas treasures (actually about 40% of them)

This year's Christmas was an excellent one, filled with friends, family, food, and an amazing sense of peace and contentment. The most surreal part was watching Audrey walk around the tree, name people and objects around her, and dance to Christmas carols. Last year, it was impossible to imagine the squishy blob in red pajamas on her second Christmas. This year, it's even harder to imagine what she'll be doing another year from now, but we are truly looking forward to it. We are so blessed.