Weekend in DC

Last weekend we took a quick (and very last minute) trip to DC to visit our nephews and Patrick's sister and Mom.  There were some serious logistics involved with getting 4 kids under the age of 5 out and about but we still managed to do it (by god).  There was only a little bit of child caging that had to be done:

Highlights included a good solid morning at the natural history museum where Evie saw dinosaur fossils for the first time, we all became engrossed in human evolution (ok maybe Evie wasn't too engrossed but she wasn't uninterested...and Izzy slept through it all)  and I learned about some funky mammals I had never even heard of before. 

We also visited the national gallery for just a quick walk though and took a carousel ride.  (A favorite activity for both of the older Lacroix girls...)

The highlight though was taking Evie and Dylan ice skating.  I am afraid I was about as wobbly as the kids were at first and wasn't too much help but after a few laps we were all doing pretty well.  Evie even skated "by herself" with the help of the railing a bit.  Genevieve took to it and managed to skate with us for almost an hour.  It was pretty warm and thus just about the best ice skating I've ever done!  More than anything else it was so very wonderful to see her doing so well!!

 It was a great, but rather tiring trip for everyone....

Isadora at 7 Months!!

We missed a 6th month update for Izzy because of Evie's illness (and my school craziness) but rest assured our littlest Lacroix is growing (seemingly exponentially) and becoming ever more a cool little person.  At seven months Izzy is a master sitter, a loquacious jabberer and still the biggest, cutest smiler I have ever met.  Her sleep and routine were erratic prior to Evie's stint in the hospital but got much much worse during the experience, to the point where we decided drastic measures were necessary. As a result we have spent the past 1.5 weeks "sleep training" her, which has been a bit brutal but her sleep is much improved and she is doing all of it now in her crib (at the low she was sleeping with me and waking up every 2 hours so it is a big improvement!) Her favorite place to nap is in the ergo... really her favorite place period is probably in the ergo.... but she occasionally naps in her crib too.

She is a super solids eater and likes to eat peas and carrots, oatmeal, eggs, spinach and rice, pears, apples and most recently sweet potato puffs.  The puffs are just about the best thing to happen to her (or really us) in the past few weeks because they keep her occupied while other food is made.  She can now sit for 15 minutes or so at a stretch on the floor just playing with her toys (which is what she is doing right now) and makes all sorts of funny noises to narrate the toy-playing experience.  Her favorite utterances right now are dadadadada and raspberries (is that an utterance?) Her favorite toys are a wooden fish that she likes to chew on and a colorful hexagonal rattle thingie (good description eh?) She also likes to jump in the jumper for short stints (I have it next to the piano and can generally get through one or maybe two pieces before she is finished with that activity) She is constantly in motion, particularly with her hands, which she moves around in tiny circles like a flamenco dancer.  My favorite silly thing that she does is when you pick her up and she is really happy she opens her mouth reaalllly wide and tries to eat your face.  This can be a particularly messy experience when it occurs just after a meal :)

Little by little

I am (as one might imagine) incredibly behind on just about everything so just a quick update.... Little by little Evie is feeling better.  She seemed to "turn a corner" as they say on Tuesday and even decided to start sleeping in her own bed again.  Although her range of motion with her head/neck still isn't great it is better than it was last week.  She is finished with her antibiotics (hooray 5 less times each day we have to coax her to take something) and hasn't needed any codine for about 24 hours.  She is down to just two pain meds, which makes me so happy.  She even went into school for an hour yesterday and an hour today.  Here is to hoping her recovery continues on this trajectory!

Recouperation

Evie has been home for a few days now and little by little is starting to feel better.  She still cannot move her neck much but the pain seems to be subsiding a bit.  She has her moments where she is like the Evie we all know and love (see picture above), which makes both Patrick and I feel so very happy.  I think we are both coming to terms with the fact that it is not necessarily going to be a quick few days and then back to normal.  Her doctor said that if she is still contorted this way by the beginning of February we'll need to take her to PT.  In the meantime we are doing our own little bits of PT, we make her do a bit between her "shows" and she usually tries pretty hard to do the exercises the way we ask her to.  We'll go for follow-up appointments with both the surgeon and infectious disease doctors early next week.  At the hospital the ID doctor told us that there is a 50/50 chance we may never know what caused the abscess and her neck issues.  I think I am coming to terms with that, honestly my only desire right now is for her to feel 100% better!

Going Home!

Genevieve had a great day yesterday.  After the doctors did their rounds they decided she could be disconnected from her IV and start taking all of her medicines orally.  On the first floor of the hospital there is a library with a little kid door that she noticed the other day but lamented she couldn't go through with an IV.  So to celebrate her new found freedom we went down to the library and she went through the kids door.  Evie's big challenge for the next few weeks is going to be slowly working her way back to normal, during the storytime at the library and tried to jump and discovered that she isn't quite back to normal.  She had a lot of fun playing in the morning and then slept (and Patrick too) all afternoon.

In the evening she had lots of visitors including my cousin, aunt and uncle and her teacher came by to visit.  She made paper dolls with her cousin and reiceved some of her favorite books from school and a lovely card from her teacher.  The love she has recieved, both in visits and in e-mails and thoughts, from everyone has been so very wonderful and I am so greatful to have so many people around us that care so very much about our little girl.  The best news though of the past 24 hours occured as I was writing this little post, her doctor came in and told us that once she took her morning antibiotic we could go home!!  Hooray!!

In search of Pinkie Pie

Yesterday (or was it Saturday... I am afraid the days are a bit blurry at this point) Genevieve decided that a "pinkie pie" doll would make her feel extra brave and help her take her medicine (She is on a combination of IV meds and oral meds, with the hope of moving her to oral meds so she can go home).  Patrick, the local present shopper, went on a target run for said doll.  As he wandered the aisles of target and consulted with a number of expert sources, aka little girls who just had that knowledgeable look about them, he discovered that there really was no such thing as a pinkie pie doll per se.  There was, however, a my little pony named that but she wasn't the nice soft (and assuredly pink) princessy doll Evie was imagining.  He came back empty handed and discovered that a pinkie pie was actually not a real doll but a doll that Evie had conjoured up and decided she wanted.  Me though, with the power of google, managed to find a soft version of the pinkie pie pony.  I showed this option to her and she immedietly agreed that this pinkie pie would certainly fit the bill.  I then set about finding the doll.  The problem was that we, thinking this was a usual doll that we, being the Luddites we are, have never hear of, had promised pinkie pie as a present today for all her hard work fighting the pain and taking her medicine.  Alas Ms. Pinkie Pie is not a usual buy.  Thankfully I was able to order it from the toy store and then could pick it up there when it arrived.  I explained that Pinkie would be slightly delayed and Evie was very understanding....

Last night we had a really tough night.  I left the hospital at 11 pm to go to my parents and take care of Izzy.  Evie was uncomfortable when I left and doing worse with the pain than she had in a day or so.  Her fevers still didn't seem to be comming back, high of about 100 deg, but her pain was.  At 2 am Patrick called me and told me she was doing really badly and so my mom, Isadora and I jumped in the car and came to the hospital.  The poor thing was again in very bad pain and trying so hard to still be nice, saying no thank you even when we asked her about pillows here or sitting there.  This kid was clearly earning her Pinkie Pie. 

One of the (many) things that has been eye-opening to me this past week is just how much medicine is a riddle solving game.  Last night the riddle was why she was doing worse again after doing so much better.  The best solution seemed to be that we had stopped the really strong ibuprofen so we managed to get that to her again by morning and she was (seemingly) instantly improved and was finally able to fall asleep.  The fact that her neck was still contorted and the pain was not going away has had everyone very worried so this morning she was told again that she couldn't eat or drink and that they would do another CT scan in the afternoon.  Unfortunetly the afternoon stretched into the evening but finally around 4 pm today she had a another scan.  She is so uncomfortable that we had to sedate her to do the scan and impressed all of us with her good additude and ability to count to forty in french as the medicine kicked in.  I didn't mention this before but having your child be sedated and then put under a big machine is an incredibly scary thing, the first time they let Patrick stand next to her with a radiation coat and I watched from the tech room.  This time they made me leave and Patrick and my Mom stayed with her.

While another CT scan was very scary, the good news is they did not see anything on it, which means that her initial diagnosis was correct and we will just have to focus on reducing her pain and rehabilitating her neck (which has now been in a contorted position for a week).  Needless to say I was thrilled to get the e-mail that Ms. Pinkie Pie was available for pick-up so I told Genevieve she would be on the way and went out right after the CT scan to retrieve her (and a few other toys... I just couldn't help myself)  I must admit Ms. Pinkie Pie is decidedly the most ridiculous toy I have bought yet for Evie... a pink pony that talks and you can teach to walk, but I tell ya what if it makes her feel even just a little bit better I am all for it!  Ohh and I think we may need to do a garage sale after this whole experience because by god her toy supply must be doubled by this point :)

Our brave little girl

It has been a difficult week for everyone, but most especially the bravest of all of us, the not so little anymore Genevieve.  As I write this right now she is peacefully asleep next to me and it makes my heart so happy to see her getting better.  Having told this story now seemingly a hundred times to all the doctors I'll tell it one more time here for posterity sake...

Sunday night Evie complained of a sore throat as she went to bed.  (She by the way had just had a very exciting evening out with Patrick and went to see Tin Tin in 3D)  On Monday morning she woke up still with a sore throat but seemed OK to go to school.  She was very tired all day and stayed so through the evening but couldn't sleep hardly at all.  On Tuesday my mom took care of her for us because she seemed too sick for school.  During the day she started to hold her head funny and complained of pain in her neck.  The pain got worse and worse, to the point where she was complaining about bumps in the road.  It didn't seem to be getting better so Patrick took her to the ER on Tuesday night (and was therefore up all night with her again) and they diagnosed her with toriculous (basically a spasmed neck)  The next morning she wasn't feeling better and had a fever so I took her to her pediatrician's office where her doc suspected there was something more than just a spasm going on and decided to check her into the hospital.  So around 11 am on Wednesday we were checked in and the long series of pokes, prods and check outs began for Evie.

They needed to put her on an IV and draw blood so a special person that is here just to help her feel better explained the process and then told her if she was really brave she would get her a barbie.  If braveness is measured in barbies Evie must be one heck of a brave girl because she now has 5 of them and a barbie mini cooper to boot.  Throughout all of the first day she was as good natured as can be even though she was clearly in a lot of pain.  On Wednesday night they decided to do a CT scan, which was very scary for both Patrick and I, to try to figure out what was causing the neck position and the pain.  In the end they found an abscess in the back of her throat and the decision was made for her to have surgery to drain it on Thursday.  She was so very brave as we wheeled her down the halls and through the hospital in her bed to the OR.  I think saying goodbye to her as they took her in for surgery was one of the scariest things I have ever done.

Surgery went well but (and we didn't find this out until later) the surgeon had to dig around a fair amount in her throat trying to get all of the abscess.  This made it so that she was in even worse pain than before come Friday.  It was made all the more difficult because on Thursday night they had to replace her IV twice.  By Thursday night we had a routine down.  I stayed with Evie during the day usually with my Mom or for awhile with my aunt Lisa and then we all hung out together in the afternoon and evening and then I went over to my parent's house to care for Izzy and Patrick stayed to keep her happy and comfortable at night, then around 6 am I would come back and we would start all over again.  On Friday we had so much trouble with the pain and she was just miserable, it was so very hard to watch and so very frustrating because all I wanted to do was to make the pain go away.  Mom was taking care of Izzy so I was all by myself during some of the worst of the pain and it made me realize just how important it was to have other family around too.  All day Friday she was also spiking fevers so there started to be some concern that in fact there was something else going on instead of or aside from the abscess. 

Because the fevers weren't going away we had first an infectious disease doctor and then a cardiologist come to see her on Saturday.  They thought maybe she had something called kawasaki's disease...  They did an ecocardiogram of her heart and found everything to be ok and at around noon yesterday she stopped spiking fevers, which was a really good sign.  As of today her fevers are down and her pain seems to be improving somewhat and she can move her neck a little so they are now thinking that there isn't anything else wrong with her, thank goodness.

The whole experience has been such a strange and scary time warp.  I think though scary experiences have a lot to teach us.  From my standpoint it has made me acutely aware of just how lucky I am to have such an amazing husband in Patrick, he is the most loving and thoughtful father a kid could ever ask for (and he even remembers to bring me exactly the coffee I love when he goes out).  I am also so lucky to have a mother who is not only caring but so very knowledgeable and without whom I think this whole experience would not have been scary but terrifying.  More than anything the past few days have made me appreciate Genevieve, she is such a wonderful little light in this world and is so very brave and has such a great attitude even despite the pain and the pokes and the prods.  Hopefully she will continue to feel better and we will get her back home soon.  As funny as it sounds I am looking forward to the normal and mundane more than I ever thought I would....

Little Skiier

Genevieve took her first go at downhill (or really down-mild-incline) skiing last weekend.  It was a much anticipated event for all of us.  Last year she begged us to take her to see snow and somehow we just didn't quite manage it so I was doggedly determined to get her out this winter.  Sunrise had a good bit of snow about 3 weeks ago and fortunately most of it was still there.  We had two days of blue skies, warm skiing and decent enough snow, just about as close to heaven as it gets! 

My Mom stuck around Pinetop with Izzy and on Friday Evie took her first lesson in the morning and then stayed at "Funland" for the rest of the day while I skied with my dad.  I am still breastfeeding Izzy so about half way through the day I had to find a way to pump milk.  This adventure was made more the challenging by me forgetting by battery pack and then the locker that I put the pump in being stuck closed... with signs everywhere indicating "Use at your Own Risk"  Thankfully both obstacles were overcome, one when the maintence guy showed up with a blow torch (but then just used a master key to get my locker open) and the second when I found a nice plug next to a table in a more or less discrete corner... of the bar.  It make for a good little break for my dad, who sat and had a beer while I took care of business.... the loud music also helped mask the vaccuum sound, which was nice. My Dad found the whole thing so comical that he insisted on taking a photo...

On Friday night Patrick joined us and we skied together on Saturday while Evie took another lesson.  By the end of Saturday we were ready for her to show her stuff!  She was a little hesitant and refused to get on the mini-lift, instead prefering to use the "daddy-lift" method.

She showed us a couple of pretty darn good runs... with only a few fumbles here and there.  I must admit I was pretty impressed.

Early January Goodness

Well we have been making the most of the end of my break before school starts again.  Last week we went to the Sweetwater wetlands with my mom, brother and his girlfriend and saw lots of great ducks.  It was ridiculously lovely outside! (Which you might have guessed based on the tank top Evie is sporting)

We also took a trip out to the Desert Sonoran Museum with a gaggle of friends, including M, Evie's bud from afar.  The two girls were just about as cute as it gets and apparently M would like to marry Evie because 1) She plays princesses with her and 2) She likes her.  (Sounds like two solid reasons to me!) 

It was a fun trip out because it allowed me to neglect my "chores" for one more day (during every break I make a laundry list of things I need to do before the semester starts again, and always manage to accomplish roundabout a quarter of the list, but hey that is better than none!) and because it gave both Evie and I quality time with good friends!  Oh and putting on the bat ears always makes me happy.

Then on Thursday we set out for the high country to get in some much needed (and anticipated on Genevieve's part) time in the snow.  Tomorrow is my first day officially back at work/school so I need to run a few more errands before then so a report on Genevieve's visit to snowy northeastern AZ will have to wait for a day or so (ohh I know you are on the edge of your seat!)

Camping!

We went out for a great trip to the great outdoors this week!  For Isadora it was her first camping trip and for Genevieve and I it was our first in a long time.  Patrick was in DC for New Year's so it was also a first attempt for me to take the girls (including Kita) by myself.  Luckily I wasn't totally by myself because I went with good friends who, among other things cooked all the food for me.  I did, however, managed to get Gargantor our tent up by myself with Izzy watching me intently from a bumbo that I brought for her.  It was a glorious (and free!) campsite on the Tohono O'odam reservation at the base of Baboquivari peak.  We rolled in at about 4 pm and stayed until 2 the next day and for December it was really warm, getting up to the mid seventies during the day. 

I was a little concerned about my ability to keep both girls warm at night but in the end it worked out quite well... despite Evie's blow up bed deflating in the middle of the night.  Luckily I had brought extra sleeping pads with me so we just moved her to the other side of me and I slept the night with a girl cuddled up on each side.  I had hoped to have Kita at my feet but unfortunately the zipper broke on the tent and so Kita had to be moved to the car (I started out with her in the tent but then she snuck out on me, thankfully my friends were still awake and tied her up...  I was a bit concerned at first when I woke up in the middle of the night and she wasn't there) 

 The next morning (after breakfast burritos complete with bacon and eggs... oh yes I choose my camping friends well) we took a hike up the mountain toward a cave.  It was a pretty darn difficult hike straight up the side of a mountain and both of the girls did great.  Izzy complied and just slept in the Ergo for 95% of the hike (the last 5% she was awake for and decided she was done with the pack so I just carried her in my arms... luckily we were off the steep stuff by then). 

Genevieve was a super hiker and kept up and kept going (without complaining even) for the entire hike.  To motivate her on the way down I told her I'd make her a badge that says "Super Duper Hiker" so now I need to go shopping for a button making machine or something :) We didn't make it all the way to the cave (it got really steep and rocky and I could tell Evie was tiring) but what we did get were some amazing views!  Maybe a year from now we'll take Patrick back and show him the spot and Evie will be ready to make it all the way to the top... 

Christmas 2011

We had a lovely Christmas this year!  We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with my brother's girlfriends family over from Germany.  We even started a game of Risk but, after two hours, had only made it through a few rounds (and this is why my brother can never get anyone to play with him...)

 After a yummy dinner of tamales we, for the first time, went home to our house for the night and did Christmas morning just the four of us.  Santa brought Evie a bike and Izzy a rattle thingie.  He was a bit messy coming down the chimney though and spread ashes in our living room and left a few hand prints here and there too.    The most amazing thing about Christmas morning was that we all slept in until 7:30 because Evie pretty much forgot (unbelievable as that may seem) that it was Christmas and just stayed cuddled up with us in bed until Patrick wished her a Merry Christmas and she realized what exactly that meant.  After presents and breakfast we moseyed back over to my parent's house for more presents and more Rimszas.

  Many of the Phoenix clan came down this year and it was great to have the larger group dinner but not have to travel all the way up to Phoenix.  All in all there were about 25 or so for dinner (about half of the potential I think) and it was tiring but fun. At one point during the day we tried to take a family photo...

In the end both Evie and Izzy of course made out like bandits and Evie is already talking about next Christmas, but must be ready to move on because this morning she asked me where the decorations for New Years are because she was ready to take down her little Christmas tree....

Winterhaven

The fun continued on Thursday with our annual trip to Winterhaven.  It has gotten super cold (for Tucson) so it was a pretty quick, brisk walk around really only a block of the neighborhood because even though everyone was dressed warmly we were all too cold to make it too far.  (Patrick came straight from work and was still in his tie, he was better off though than our friend who also came from work and was still in scrubs...) 

 

There were a number of new fun houses this year and, of course, the favorites: water show house and the gingerbread house.

  

Whew just 2 days now until Christmas, or as Evie has been saying, the Day Of Joy....

Visit with Santa

On Wednesday (it has become the 5 days of fun before Christmas around here) we went to see Santa at the Reid Park Zoo lights.  Evie has been visiting the S-man here for the past 4 years and was quite excited for this year's little talk.  We weren't sure how Isadora would feel about him, but decided to get her dressed up just in case she was a willing participant.  She started to get fussy just before the big moment on the big man's lap but a quick nip of a bottle put her in a good enough mood to catch this photo:

Genevieve gave Santa her letter and let him know she would like a bike (with tassels and a little bag in front) and a baby crib.  Santa let her know that three days should be enough to get that bike made and she was understandably elated.  After our visit with Santa we watched a singing and dancing show.  Well Patrick, Izzy and I watched, Evie ran around in circles in front of the stage.  She ran and ran and ran.  After awhile other kids joined her in running around in circles.  She informed us at one point that running around in circles is a good way to make friends... who would have guessed?

Izzy tolerated the whole experience quite well, she was a little dubious of all the commotion at times but. thank goodness, is returning to her more or less normal self after a few days on antibiotics to treat that nasty ear infection she has had for goodness knows how long.

Cookies!

On Tuesday we had our 4th annual cookie making (but really should be called cookie eating) get together.  This year with 2 new little ones to add to the mix gourmet cookies were not on the menu.  Giggles and lots of cookie (or in the case of the parents, dough) eating was.

After cookies were made we took the opportunity for a photo op with the girls and their new little siblings... a little chaotic but decidedly cute! 

Note that Evie made not one, not two but three wardrobe changes during the course of the 3ish hour cookie making experience.

Little Angel

 Evie had another successful ballet performance this past Sunday, this time as an angel in her ballet studio's annual nutcracker ballet.  I was determined this time around to do my daughter's hair myself so I went out and bought gel and bobby pins galore... well I managed to do her hair half well this time, which is a great improvement over last time when I just threw in the towel.  And this time I had a screaming 5 month old urging me hurry the heck up because she was not happy with anything but being held (as it turns out we took Izzy into the doctor yesterday and she has a terrible ear infection, poor thing).  Anyway I say it was a half successful attempt because the bun looked great for about 30 minutes and then was a disaster...  oh well there is always the next performance.  As for our little ballerina she was not detered by the sorry state of her hair and did a great job with her little routine.  The whole time she had the cutest focused look on her face.  She also really enjoyed watching all the big girls dance after her little bit was through...