Things I've been meaning to blog about

So...  Brom's broken arm...  I meant to already post the x-rays.  I know I posted the first ones, but there are more. 

So I don't know if I already recorded this or not, but here goes.

A week after Brom broke his arm he was supposed to get a cast.  He had been wearing a splint for a week.  Jeremy just wanted to leave it that way, but I was getting tired of it because he kept slipping his arm out of it, so I kept having to rewrap it.  Plus, when you get a broken arm you're supposed to get a cast!  Anyway, I wanted to try to get it here in town instead of going to the pediatric bone doctor down in the valley that the ER people referred us to.  I called our regular doctor and asked if they could do a cast for him.  They looked at the x-rays and said they could, but then the morning of the casting appointment they called and said, "Oh, wait. The doctor didn't realize he is so young.  He can't do a cast on someone that small."  So they referred us to the very same bone doctor that the ER had.  Ha ha!

We went down to the valley to the bone doctor, and they decided that those first x-rays were no good.  If you look back at those here, you'll see that even though we turned his hand it still showed the bones next to each other.  It's important, though, to show a side view of the bones to see if they were bent.  Apparently, we didn't turn his arm enough when we took those first ones.  So we got more x-rays.  Here are those ones.  They printed them for me.

 

I tried scanning these, and it didn't work.  They came out all pixelated, even when I turned up the quality all the way, so I had to take a picture with my camera.

 

Anyway, in the first one you can see that the bone actually is bent.  It looks like a bent straw, huh?  The doctor said that if Brom were older he would have to have surgery, but that since he's still so little and still growing at such a fast rate the bone would straighten out on its own.  And he pointed to the second picture and showed me the fuzzy stuff around the break.  He said that means that the bone is healing.  Cool, huh?

 

So then he sent us to get a cast in another room.  You could tell the guy who did it actually did a lot of them.  He had it down to a science.  He handed me a ring that had square swatches of casting material in the different colors we could choose from.  Joshua and Benji were with us.  (That made for a fun trip!  They are so silly together!  They laughed pretty much the whole time.)  I asked them what color we should pick.  I had originally thought I'd go with blue, but then I saw that the blue wasn't pretty at all.  Joshua said we should get purple, and Benji said we should get orange.  I was kind of partial to the orange one anyway, so that's what I picked.  It's such a happy color.  And then he asked if we wanted black or white lining.  Black, of course!  After all, it's football season, and I knew we'd be going to cheer for Uncle Joe!  (Go, Tigers!)

 

 

 

So here's a picture of the cute little guy with his new cast.  It got pretty dingy by the time it was time to get it off.  He was still mainly crawling when he got it on, so he would turn his arm with his elbow up to crawl.  It reminded me of a gorilla walking on his knuckles.  Ha ha!  And then after a while he got to where he would just lay his cast on the floor and scoot it along like a ski.  It was quite entertaining. :)

 

Life with that cast really was not so bad, but it did mean sponge baths instead of baths in the tub and that it was a little harder to get him in his carseat.  And every now and then he'd whack me with it.  But it looked like a macaroni.  It was cute.  Sad, but cute. :)

 

Three weeks after the cast was put on it was removed.  Michael and Jill came along that time.  The doctor had said he'd only need 2 weeks in a cast, but he wrote 2-3 weeks on the chart, so they wouldn't let us only do 2.  Really, that's ok.  We wouldn't want to take it off prematurely.  So yeah, we went back down to the pediatric bone doctor.  I found out during this process just how it is that cast saws don't cut skin - only casts.  They look like a circular-type saw, but they don't spin.  They vibrate.  So when they get down to the cottony layer (the first layer the put on before the lining) it just vibrates the fluff, and that doesn't do anything.

 

After the cast was removed they did more x-rays to make sure he was healing good.  Here are pictures from that trip.

 



Last photo op before cast removal!  Here he is in the waiting room.  (And, yes, that is Jill's leg with a high heel.  They are hand-me-downs, and she has had so much fun wearing them, even though they're too big.)

 

Somebody threw these on the floor for me and go them all bent up. :( But you can still see (click to see it bigger) that the bone is indeed healing.  If you look to the right of the broken bone you can barely see how he's kind of growing a new, straight bone.  Apparently, the bent part will be absorbed into his body as the new piece gets stronger.  Kind of cool!  I didn't know that!

 

And here you can see that his bone is even more fuzzy.  It's healing!  The doctor said even though the bone is still bent, it was definitely healed enough to have the cast off and to go about his daily activities as usual.  And he does not need to go back for more checkups, they said.  Wahoo!

 

Here's the little guy with no cast!  All buckled in and ready to go home.  And he got a sucker!  His broken arm is the one that's just laying there.  It definitely took him a few days to get used to having his arm back.  He didn't use it as much as his left arm for a while, but now he's all good.

 

And since he got his cast off he has really taken off walking.  He walks everywhere and is getting pretty quick.  And just a few days ago he learned to stand up in the middle of the floor.  So now he toddles along and the falls on his bum after a bit, and then he stands right back up and keeps going.  His walking also means that he thinks he's old enough to play on my computer.  He stole my mouse pad yesterday, and I can't find it.  And he's constantly pushing my keyboard buttons, stealing my mouse, and taking things off the desk.  Silly boy!

 

I'm so thankful he's out of that cast, but most of all I'm thankful that he's healing so well!  Hooray for Bubby!

 

Oh, and a little bonus - pictures from his birthday!

 

Like a deer in the headlights, right? ;)

 

I made him a smash cake.  I'd never done one before, but I think the biggest reason why I decided to was that when Joshua discovered the idea of smash cakes a few months ago he thought it was like the cutest thing ever.  He doesn't remember thinking that, but I remember.  I though, "Well, you only turn 1 once.  Why not?"  So I got a little 6-inch round pan and those cheap-o tubes of frosting that never work like the pictures on the bag show, and I made that cake.  Ha ha!  My idea was to write his name and make a red balloon and a blue one.  They came out looking stupid.  It was much easier to make a dashed line than not.  Maybe the frosting bags had air bubbles in them?  I don't know.  Anyway, it was simple, and he is only one.

 

After he smooshed it good we let his siblings help him finish it off.  Yummy cake! :)  Happy birthday, Bubby!


Oh, and I don't know if I said it already or not, but since Jeremy started working at the mine again we can use the Country 
Club for $25 a month for the whole family! They have a pool, gym, and golf course. so I have been going to the gym, and it's wonderful to be running again. I've been trying to ease my way up, and this week
I ran 14 miles. 14 miles! :D I'm so excited about that! Yea, me! I have been reminded that running on the treadmill is easier to get into and that the first two laps are the hardest. It is fun to push myself and cheer myself on. It's great!



Hyrum

I posted this on Facebook, but I'ma put it here, too. :)

On Sunday Hyrum turned 14 and was ordained a Teacher. It's simply amazing watching my children grow and learn. I can't believe he's 14 already! (That always makes me sit back and say, "Only x years until he leaves me. Waaaah!" The years go too fast!) I'm so proud of Hyrum. He is such a great person. He's a good example and a good friend to me and to many. He is just plain amazing to me.

Newborn Hyrum

 

Hyrum's first Christmas
It's funny - I felt so old and grown up, but look at us! We were just kids!

 

Joshua and Hyrum

 

Jeremy ordained Hyrum a Teacher on Sunday, and then Hyrum changed out of his white shirt before I could get a picture of him and Jeremy together. And then he spilled chocolate pudding on his shirt and pants. Oh, and he got a dove for his birthday. He named him Apollo. Apollo is so sweet. His coo sounds like Morse code played on a recorder.

 

Hyrum and Apollo. This birdie thought Hyrum's hair made a good nest. After this picture, he was sitting in it, content as could be

Timmy

We have a wiggly Timmy in our bed. I started to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to try to calm him down. Jeremy joined in for the second phrase and said, "How I want to drive a car." Timmy said, "Aaah! Car? What a talking about?!" :) He surprises us all the time!

Happy Birthday!

 

Brom turned 1 today! :D  What a year it has been! We are so thankful to have our sweet, happy little Abraham! :)  We went camping last night for Brom's first time camping in a tent, so here's a picture of the little guy at our campsite this morning. It was a great campout, and I think Brom mostly enjoyed everything except wearing shoes. Ha ha! Happy birthday, sweet Bubby! :)

Progress

I want to cry. I just wrote a long post about Timmy's latest achievements, and he erased the whole dang thing. :'(

Here we go again.

I have more to record at a later date, but I just wanted to record some of the new things Timmy has been saying.

Timmy likes to sing the ABC song. He sings it all the time. He also really likes Old MacDonald,  but he sings it E-I-E-I yoyo. Last night he found three plastic animals to sing about: a dinosaur, a snake, and an elephant. Who knew Old MacDonald collected exotic animals? (Oh, and just a side note: Timmy calls steak "snake.")

The other day he found a little box of nails. I asked him to please put them away, and he said, "OK," and did it!  He demonstrated understanding of my directions and use of a new word in one whack! :) He's also learned the word ugly, but I don't think he knows what it means. He uses it to describe people and things in pictures.  (It's ugly Mommy!")

Yesterday he was climbing on a bucket and knocked it over. He said, "Sorry," before picking it up. :) And today he told his Papa,  "I want a purple gum." (Jeremy has gum hiding in his dresser right now.) I believe he has said want before, but the use of pronouns is totally new for him! He usually refers to himself as Timmy, but it sounds more like "Teemee."

Also,  before he could have gum we got him to say please. Another first! I wonder if it's because of the "Please, Thank You, Sorry" song on Baby Signing Time.

And just this evening he told me, "Bubby loves Mommy." (Bubby is another nickname for Brom. Yes, I do really like nicknames,  especially for my babies. They all get several, but most don't survive babyhood, which is probably a good thing.) Yes, Bubby is a silly nickname, but I love hearing Timmy use it. So cute! I think he even told me one day, "Brom is Bubby."

Anyway, love is a concept I've been trying to instill in Timmy's brain.  I tell him that I love him and Papa loves him and Jesus loves him. Maybe it's starting to stick! I just can't wait for the day when he tells me, "I love you." That would demonstrate an understanding of what love is plus use of two pronouns!

I have given a lot of thought to Timmy's speech therapy. I honestly have ended up doing nothing about it. Part of me cringes about not getting him therapy because that's what everybody else does for autistic children with speech problems. But I have to shove that thought out of my mind and just remember that I'm not supposed to get him into therapy. I have a strong feeling about it. It has been such a blessing just having him learn by playing. He picks up all sorts of things. And I figure there is a lot in his brain that he just can't express. Timmy is often a challenge, but he's also a gift.

OK, I'm falling asleep here. One more thing to record. We have been getting everyone we could to the eye doctor just for a checkup because we can. We had Hyrum, Joshua, Benji, and me examined earlier this week

(Gonna puke. I just lost a bunch more that I wrote! Here we go again again.)

We we're all good. Michael and Jill got examined today, and they both had to have their eyes dilated. Jill was super upset about that, but they bribed her with stickers and treats. Anyway, Jill is good, but Michael is not. He measures 20/25 in one eye and 20/45 or so in the other. His depth perception is off, and apparently the bad eye is turning to far inward to focus while the good one just looks right at what he's looking at. So he is going to need glasses. He was worried about that. He kept talking about how people would react. He kept mentioning how Brookie (his cousin and pretty much his best friend) is going to react,  but I think he's more worried about other things like that he'll get teased. He perked up when he got to choose frames. There were lots of good boy ones to look at. I let him pick whatever he wanted, and, of course, he needed red ones. They are red and black plastic with rectangular lenses. And he chose that kind of lenses that get dark when you go outside. I wasn't sure if he'd like them, but he said yes, and,  apparently, Jeremy had some like that in like fourth grade and loved them. So OK.

Jenny will get his exam tomorrow. He had laser surgery years ago, but he says his sight is going bad at least a bit. I guess all eyes do with age. Anyway, we're curious to see if he'll need glasses again.

The end. Good night!

A memory

Before Brom was born somebody gave this doll to Jill. It has sleepers on it that are for a preemie. It's actually kind of an ugly baby doll if you ask me. Anyway, Timmy discovered this baby one day, and he was so pleased. He ripped the snaps open and then brought it to me. I dressed it again, and he ripped the snaps open again. It was so fun! ;) Well, weeks later, after Brom was born, I had just gotten Brom dressed in some sleepers, and he was just laying there while I put something away or something, and Timmy came along and ripped his snaps open. A real live baby doll! He didn't get the same response when he DoD it with Rom, though. ;)

Brom

Brom is getting to be a great walker, and today he figured out how to cover his face and say peek-a-boo! :) And he has little curlies! :D

Also, look down a couple posts maybe. Turns out there was a post I forgot to publish. It was all typed up and just sitting there. Yes, it does talk a bit about my brother. Yes, Mama, you did ask me not to talk about it, but it was already written and I am done.