Its been a week

Its been about a week since Child #3's birthday and he is already 60% completed on Lego Harry Potter. Yeah he's a junkie... and he's quick to pick up stuff. Seriously he's SIX!!

Think we might need to monitor how much time he gets to play... he'll have it completed in no time. LOL!

They moved C out of the PICU today. He's now up in regular room. They have removed almost all of the tubes & such... he still has the one in his head (because of the TBI and that a piece of his skull is currently "elsewhere") & his IV but everything else is out. WOOHOO!!

Friday night Child#1 when up to the PICU with Hubby. She sat and talked with him. He was happy to see her (and recognized her). I picked up a new book at Half Price Books for them to read together "_The Graveyard Book_" by Neil Gaiman. They both enjoyed it, he wanted her to come back and read some more.

Yesterday he was able to go outside with a walker for a little while. He was in total heaven. He hates being so cooped up inside and was feeling depressed about having to be stuck up in his PICU room and a bed. So having a little fresh air was really good for him.

Anyways, its AMAZING that 11 days after his accident he is already out of the PICU. They were saying at least 3+ week in PICU. Everyone is just so happy that he's progressing so well.

Its been a hectic and busy past week to say the least. I spent most of Friday & Saturday up at the PICU helping out. Sunday was Aidan's birthday we had his Harry Potter themed party, lots of fun stuff to get ready for that...

Can I just say that Hubby is reminded just how tough my "job" is since he got to spend the ENTIRE day Saturday with all four kids by his lonesome. He needs those little reminds occasionally. ;-)

C is doing really well. His ICP (inter-cranial pressure) has continued to stay down in an excellent range. He started to regain consciousness over the weekend. He was fighting the sedation which is so typical for children... don't they understand when we drug them to sleep we want them to sleep. :-) Mom & Dad were finally able to get some sleep Thursday night and have been able to rest each night which has been wonderful. The Ronald McDonald House is truly a blessing... though whose idea was it to put metal window frames with metal blinds to tap, tap, tap against them all time long!!! Roll of packing tape took care of that Friday morning. LOL!

Friday they hooked him up to an EEG machine. There was lots of lovely wonderful brain wave activity. Not too much but also in lots of different places. Child#1 went up Friday night with Hubby and she sat with C for a while, held his hand and talked to him. His brainwaves responded to her voice, in different areas than he responded to Mommy. Again totally awesome. We talked about it and she's wants to start going up and sitting with him often and reading to him. I explained to her that even once his head injury wasn't as big a concern as before he is still looking at a long recovery just from the fractures. Lots of time immobile so she really wants to read with him and then as time goes on they will be able to talk about the books (future book club!).

He "passed" his first neuro exam Saturday morning with flying colors. Could squeeze the correct hand and twitch the correct toes when asked even while sedated on fentanyl. The doc was very pleased figured at least a 93+% of recovery just from those results. They are trying to slowing wean him off the heavy meds so that they can start to address some of the other injuries. He is responding well.

The first couple of days were really hard because of the medication he was on causes a kind of amnesia. So every time he started to wake up he had no idea where he was and what was wrong... why are there tubes all over and one down his throat. Strong boy kept wanting to get out of bed and yank out the vent tube.

They have been able to reduce his respiration dependancy on the ventilator significantly over the weekend. We are hoping they will be able to remove it tomorrow.

He finally had his big MRI Tuesday night. Turns out their next door neighbors are friends with a woman who's parent donated the "Simmons" MRI machine that sits in the OR to help entice Dr. George (one of the best in his field) to Dell from Duke. That is the same machine (and Dr) that is putting C back together. The results of the MRI were super positive. There is some bruising on the frontal lobe from the impact of the brain moving inside the skull and some of the back where the basel skull fracture is which "might" cause some minor "personality" changes but he should return to himself over the next year. Meaning no signs of permanent brain damage!! Still some internal bruising on the lungs but that seems to be healing well. The pelvis/hip is gonna be the main concern and the neck. Once they can take the breathing tube out and he can tell us exactly where and how it hurts they will be able to do a lot more to correct it.

Wednesday morning at about 5am the Dad was woken up to a ton of alarms going off. He looked over that the bed and C had disconnected the breathing tube, pulled out a bunch of his IVs and was half way rolling out of the bed trying to make a break for it. He was ready to go. :-) Talk about total scare the bejeezus out of everyone. I was sitting with him later that afternoon and got a total full eye contact recognition from him which was awesome. He suddenly tried to sit up again (like usual, he wants out of the bed so badly) I was quick to his side to get him to lay down. I said "hey you" he looked up right at me and his eyes locked with mine (I saw the recognition) and I said "hey I know you and you know me too huh?" I got a HUGE grin. So he is definitely in there.

He has been improving in huge leaps and bounds. When he was first brought into Dell, they told us to not expect to really talk to him for several weeks. He is communicating with blinks, nods, shakes and shrugs since Sunday! He shrugged today!! His mom was holding his hand and he kept pulling it away. She asked if he wanted her to hold his hand. He shook his head no. She asked if she could put her hand on his shoulder. He shrugged. She told him since he didn't care she was gonna put her hand on his shoulder. He just shrugged again. CLASSIC 9 year old.

Yesterday was a good and rough day. They took his breathing tube out early that morning. He kept trying to get out of bed to hide in the bathroom to get away from "the man in the truck that was coming"... totally heartbreaking. He also had trouble recognizing his Dad who finally had to leave the C's room for a while so they could calm him down. Within a few minutes he was able tell them Dad's cell number and wanted them to call him now! It is totally common for recognition issues to happen with a TBI but it is still hard. It will continue to happen and then improve over time. He also ate some pudding which was great, no issues with his swallow reflex. He remembers that football is his favorite sport and knows who his coach is.

Today his Dad said he's back to the old C we all know and love. They also believe that the hip that was damaged is still weight bearing so that is a very positive thing. Small steps, small steps.

So he is doing awesome but still has a looooong road ahead.

Hogwarts Success

Well, I think the Hogwarts Celebration Feast was a success. At least by all the happy kids after wards. We had a really big turn out. Somewhere around 16+ kids. Wow talk about a lot of kids.

Child #3 was beside himself. He had a lot of fun and had a great time. He made sure every child got to choose a wand of their very own.

I think he was quite pleased by his presents too. Lots of Legos and of course the Lego Harry Potter game for the Wii. One of my mama friends came with her sweet daughter and rocked the "bestest" present... a small electro-static plasma globe thingie and a wand with a light-up tip and makes a whooshing sound. Child #3 was practically giddy. He loves sciency kind of stuff like that and of course a wand... that makes sound!! Lots of "Stupdify" was being yelled upstairs.

Yeah for another birthday party success.

Hogwarts Celebration Feast

Hogwarts-mania has officially hit our household. For years I've had different friends tell me I just had to read the Harry Potter books. I never did, they just didn't sound appealing to me. Maybe it was because I didn't have as much reading free time. I don't know I just never thought I would read the books.

So over the summer Hubby makes an unusual comment. Maybe he'll read the Harry Potter books. What?? This is the man that doesn't read fiction. Like ever anymore. I think I've seen him read 2 or 3 fiction books in the 17 years I've known him. It isn't like he doesn't read, he does. Lots and lots of history, military history, political and such. Just not a big fan of fiction. He read lots of SciFi when he was young but had pretty much given it up by the time we met.

So for him to suddenly without any prompting from me decide to read fiction? Mind blowing. Anyways, right around that time ABC Family channel was showing the Harry Potter movies over the weekend. We ended up watching most of them. The kids watched them with us. They really enjoyed them. So gradually I was sucked in and I bought the books for the kids. We recently started reading the books out loud before bedtime.

While Lego Star Wars is very popular on the Wii around here... Child #3 is seriously obsessed with wanting the Lego Harry Potter game for the Wii. Its almost all he has talked about for months. Needless to say I suggested that his birthday was coming up.

In light of the recently Harry Potter obsession, Child #3 decided he wanted to do Harry Potter as the theme for his birthday this year. You would think since the newest movie in the series is coming out in Nov there would be lots of Harry Potter stuff in preparation. Hell no!! Nada! Zip! Zilch! Everywhere online was sold out (was from the previous movies) and nobody local had any party supply items for Harry Potter. Seriously! It is insane. Thankfully a friends who's son used Harry Potter for his theme over the summer still had a few things leftover that she let me have. Good thing I'm kind of "crafty" too.

Since I couldn't find invitations, I made some up and printed them on card stock. They came out pretty good... considering I had to replace the ink cartridges in the printer after trying to refill them and it still not working. Seriously. Those ink cartridges are a total pain in the ass. I sent the cards to school for Child #3 to pass out to all his classmates. I couldn't find any rubber bands so I improvised with some brown satin ribbon. Really came out awesome with the cream card stock and brown ink. Very dramatic.

For the party favors I made:
Wands out of thin wooden dowels found at the craft store. Some painted white, some tan, some grey, some black, some brown. Then decorated with some sharpie marker to create some different designs.
A Snitch made from a Styrofoam ball and felt wings for decoration.
I came up with a "Honeydukes Candy" store theme. Typically I don't do candy for birthday parties (just cupcakes) but this time... lot and lots of sugar!
Candied Pineapple pieces
Lemon Drops
Sour Gummy Worms
Gummy Bugs, Caterpillars & Slugs (from Willie Wonka)
Chocolate covered Spiders (actually pretzel pieces)
Molded Chocolate Frogs
Licorice Floss
JellyBelly Jellybeans

Needless to say, lots and lots of sugar. Sorry other parents.

Cupcakes will be Chocolate with Chocolate Icing topped with Chocolate dipped ice cream cones to look like wizard hats. Also a batch of Yellow cake cupcakes with Chocolate Icing. "Since not everyone likes chocolate cake".

Drinks will be Fruit Juice punch, Ice water and Butterbeer. I found a recipe for Butterbeer online. It is basically Root Beer, Cream Soda with caramel syrup and whipped cream. Very very sweet.

Other decorations ideas I came up with:
Hedwig (Child #3's owl from Build A Bear)
The Sorting Hat (from Elope)
Box set of the Harry Potter books in hardcover in a very cool spiffy cardboard box "trunk"

Sadly, I have run out of time to create "brick castle walls" out of large rolls of newsprint paper and paint. Creating bricks using sponges. Or make the felt peak style hats the students wore in the first two movies. Maybe next time. Somehow I don't see Harry Potter losing any interest around here any time soon. Especially from the boy who wanted a Mickey Mouse birthday two years in a row.

We are having it at one of the neighborhood shady parks with has a nice sized gazebo with a large picnic table under it. Lots of shading trees surrounding the fun playscapes. A very nice park to have a party at when the heat gets up there like it is known to do here in Austin.

Here's to hoping its a success...

Why do these things happen?

Hubby's best friend's son C (age 9) was hit by a truck in front of their house this evening. He was life flighted to Dell Children's Hospital. He is "stable" in ICU where they have him in a sedated coma.

His skull is cracked, several vertebrae and his pelvis are broken. They have no idea what his prognosis is going to be.

He is the sweetest boy. We've always joked that he and Child#1 are going to be married. They are the best-est of friends when they get to be together.

Since hearing about it I've felt like I'm gonna throw up. Hubby just left to go the hospital.

First day of School 2010-2011

It is that amazing day today. All FOUR children will be in school at the same time and at the same school... well for the next two years then Child #1 will shift to 6th grade at Middle School.

HOLY SNIKIES!!!!

How did I suddenly have four children in elementary school? How did this happen? Where did all the time go? Wasn't my oldest just starting school the other day? Heck wasn't my youngest just born a couple of months ago?

What?... that was over 4 years ago? GET OUT!!! No it wasn't. It wasn't. I deny that statement. Can't possibly be true... can it?

So I couldn't get to sleep last night, too many things running through my head. Not to mention that big ole pile of paperwork from Meet the Teachers night that I had to fill out. Talk about getting writers cramp... filling out school district info in QUADRUPLICATE.

Blargh!! My poor widdle hand was sore.

Child #1 set her alarm apparently at 6 AM (WTF?!?) and she came in and woke The Hubby up around 6:25AM (5 minutes before my alarm went off) to let him know it was time to get ready for school. I got up and went into the boys room to wake up Child #2 and #3. The Hubby for some unknown reason decided to wake Child #4 up. Why? Neither of us has any clue. Her class doesn't start until 11:45 AM and she certainly didn't need to be getting up at 6:30 AM.

Everyone got dressed and was downstairs for breakfast. I made breakfast and packed lunches for everyone to take to school.


So after a tasty breakfast of toasted bagels, apple slices, oatmeal and fruit smoothies we loaded everyone up and headed up to the school. We parked on the backside and walked up. It was so weird it was about 7:30AM and there weren't very many cars around, the car line was empty and there just didn't seem to be hardly anyone around.

School starts at 7:40AM and it is usually a mad house of cars lined up to drop off kids. There weren't very many of the school safeties manning the dropoff spots either. It was just kind of weird.



Child #1 turned and went off down the main corridor through the big double doors to her new area of school. All the 4th and 5th grade classes are on the other side of the school with the gym and cafeteria between them and the rest of the school.

So off she went strolling down the hallway with her backpack slung on her shoulder... like a teenager heading off to High School or something.

Very very scary.

I'm not ready for her to grow up so fast.

We walked the boys to their classes. The halls still weren't very full, there were only 6 other kids in Child #3's class. It was like everyone forgot to come to school or something. Just very weird.

Child #2 almost walked into his old classroom (old habits) but then slide right into the groove of the morning routine... drop lunch box into the basket, remove papers from backpack, hang up the backpack on the hook... go sit down in at the table. He was even helping some of the other kids. Hopefully that will be something he can do though out the year, be a leader and help some of the other kids out.

Once the boys were in their classes we headed back to the house with Child #4. I went back to sleep for a while and Hubby and Child #4 hung out and enjoyed the quiet morning together for a while.

Then it was time for Child #4 to head to school. She was excited but also nervous. She was trying to hide the fact that she was a little nervous.

It was a mad house in the front hallway with all the parents milling around waiting to drop off their kids. They were so loud and noisy just milling all over the place.

One of the first things it said in the packet of papers we received on Meet the Teacher night was that the first day of school we were to take the kids back to the classroom then everyday after that we would meet her in the front hallway before class. NONE of the other parents were following the directions. So we just walked on in and went straight back to the classroom... the rest of them started to follow a few minutes later.


Child #4 was intently watching everything that was going on in the class.

Again, I think all the parents milling all over the place was making her nervous, I noticed quite a few of the other kids seems to feel the same way. Finally it was time to say our goodbyes and let the class get started.

We walked up to the front hallway, I wanted to wait to get a picture of the "Duck line" when they all heading over to the cafeteria in a few minutes. It took over 20+ minutes for the class to come out because I'd say at least 75% of the parents wouldn't leave the classroom. I get how hard it can be to leave your child but come on people, they tell you over and over again that it is better to do a quick goodbye instead of standing around getting in the way of the class getting started.


Finally the class was able to leave and head to the cafeteria for lunch. Of course I didn't get a very good picture of Child #4 walking in the duck line. But she seems to be perfectly happy and didn't seem to be upset about being there.

The Hubby and I decided to go and have lunch. It was nice. We had gyros which were quite tasty. Then because we were so full we went back to the house and took a nap. LOL! It was a totally funky day... rush rush to get the kids to school... slow quiet time... rush rush to get #4 to school... lunch... slow quiet time nap... go to pick up the kids and wait in a 20+ minute barely moving car line after the release time. Everyone was there to pick up their kids it seemed like. The car line went almost 1.5 blocks up the next street... it was totally insane. It is rarely more than a couple of cars past the entrance/exit into the school parking lot but it was down the block, around the corner and down the other block. INSANE!