Ouchie!

Well, Monday morning (Oct, 5th) while I was at work and she was at childcare (Michelle's house), she was sitting on one of the little sit and scoot toys that every child plays on (Marc still does since we have 2 of them). She got startled by someone, jumped, lost her balance, and fell off of it onto the carpeted floor. She fell off and began to cry. Michelle picked her up and comforted her. While she was comforting her she felt her arm and didn't feel anything wrong. While comforting her, Samantha fell asleep so Michelle laid her down in the Pack-n-play for a nap. She slept 2 hours. When I got there to pick her up after work, Michelle told me what happened and we went in to get her. She was shaking and wouldn't move her left arm. My Mommy instinct told me to take her to the doctor's office. I tried to call them to let them know we were on our way, but the phone system never picked up. I decided that I was going to the office, with little Marc in tow, and that I would bang on the door if need be.
I got there and Samantha was seen immediately by our primary doctor, Dr. Elsing. She squeezed up and down her arm. Samantha never winced or freaked out, but Dr Elsing went ahead and ordered some x-rays just to be sure. The 4 x-rays that were taken were pure torture for both Marc and Samantha. Every time the tech moved Sam's arm to get it in the right position, she cried, which in turn made Marc cry. I told him I was proud of him for caring about his little sister so much. His response was "That's what big brothers do". I told him that not all big brothers care about their little sisters as much as he does. His response: "Well, I'm a special kind of big brother and this kind of big brother always looks out for his little sister." Out of the mouths of babes! :)
Well, the set of x-rays showed that she had a definite break in her left forearm. Dr Elsing was worried that there was a smaller fracture in the bone right next to it, so she ordered another set of 3 more x-rays. Those x-rays revealed that, yes indeed, there was a small fracture in the other bone.

Since she had 2 bones with breaks/fractures in them, we were referred to an orthopedic doctor, Dr Maupin. The ortho appointment wasn't until the next morning (Tuesday) so Dr Elsing wrapped her arm in a plaster-like splint and wrapped it in an ace bandage.We went to the ortho appointment Tuesday morning and he said he needed more x-rays! So, poor Samantha (and Mommy & Daddy) had to have 4 more x-rays. Dr Maupin looked at the x-rays and decided that since the break was so close to the elbow, (and apparently he "saw" something on the x-ray) that he is concerned that she dislocated her elbow in addition to breaking her arm. Being 18 months old, they can't get her arm at the right angle to get the x-ray of her elbow that they need so Thursday morning at 7:30am to be sedated so they can take the x-ray they need. If the x-ray shows that her elbow is dislocated they will pop it back it while she is still sedated. They say the procedure will take about 1/2 an hour and 1-2 hours in recovery.

Since she can't have a bath in the tub for fear of getting her splint wet, we laid her on the kitchen counter and washed her hair in the kitchen sink and gave her a sponge bath. :) She was very happy with the situation, but she had applesauce and mac & cheese crusties in her hair that needed to washed out.
Here's to hoping for a good appointment tomorrow and a good outcome....nothing wrong with her elbow. Any and all prayers are very welcome. :)

Lil' Chef

I finally brought the play food and kitchen that Marc used to play with upstairs so Samantha can play with it too. She has had a BLAST with it!! She really enjoys taking the food out of the box, spreading it on the floor and then decided what to take over to the kitchen. She h as to taste test some of it first. ;)"Hold on, the phone is ringing"
"Hello?"
Ok, now that she is done with her phone call, she is washing the dishes to be used for lunch.
Now she is trying to pick out what food to cook for lunch.
The kitchen makes running water sounds, microwave popping con sounds, boiling water sounds, and it talks to you if you turn the correct knob. It likes to ask "What do you want to eat?". I showed her how it made the sounds, but the first time she did it, she was SO confused on why the toy was talking to her...super cute. She has spent many of fun hours standing (and sitting) in front of the kitchen and food. I am sure she will have many more to come. :)

Red Flannel Festival - October 2009

The first weekend in October every year means Red Flannel Festival. Red Flannel consists of many things (most of which we don't do) including an arts & crafts fair, a parade, and a small amusement park with games & rides.
The library has a "Read to Ride" program. Kids K-5th grades read 6 books and get 2 tickets to something free at the festival, their choices were free ride, free hot dog, and free popcorn. Marc got 2 tickets for reading 6 books. Marc chose free popcorn and free ride. The ride he chose was the spinning berry ride. It is a lot like the tea cups at Disney World. The whole berry spins and there is a wheel inside to make your individual berry spin. Luckily the other people in the berry with him didn't mind spinning. ;)

After we did the ride, some wondering around, and watching the parade, we were a little wet and kinda cold, so we made some hot chocolate and hot cider when we got home. Marc had his own mug of hot chocolate (not very hot, more like warm chocolate).

As he was drinking (or guzzling) it, he gave himself a hot chocolate mustache, all the way around his mouth. Once he figured out I was trying to take a picture of his mustache, he licked most of it off.
After hot chocolate, the kiddos had a nap, and the we all had some dinner and some good relaxing, family time. For the first time this year, there were fireworks at dusk. They were set off about a block from our neighborhood. Once it got dark outside, we headed out to the front yard and ran (or walked) around to get some energy out.
The view of the fireworks from our front yard were blocked by our neighbor's roof, so we walked over and crashed their bon fire. I told them since their house was blocking our view, that we were going to steal some of their heat while we watched the fireworks. Since it was the first year, they were really slow going. Samantha thought they were cool in the beginning. She would say "petty" when one of the exploded and she saw the colors. The fireworks that are just a noise, she would say "boom". She eventually got bored with them and started walking around our neighbors yard. Marc I think, had more fun playing with the other kids. Oh well, who care what you are doing as long as you are having a good time, which we were. :)

Cute Videos

It has been fun watching Samantha trying to do new things lately. :)
Here is a video of her trying to snap her fingers like she had just seen Daddy doing.


I turned on the Wiggles for Samantha the other day. (Amazingly enough, I still remembered some of their songs from Marc's day). She was really "shaking her booty" to the music. By the time I got the camera and got it turned on, she almost done...but her is just a little of her dance moves.



Enjoy!

An Afternoon on the Playground

After we left the zoo on Saturday afternoon, Me, my Mom, and the kids ran a couple of errands and then we went to the playground. Marc wanted to play on the playground at the zoo, but it was too crowded so we took him to a school's playground where there was only 1 other family.

Climbing the ladder and trying to follow Marc up

Marc and Samantha on the bouncy alligator
I tried to get Samantha to swing on her belly, she wasn't quite sure about it
Marc swinging
Marc climbing on the playground
This cool alligator bounced and rocked with her movements.
Marc teeter-tottering with Grandma
Samantha loves swinging
They had super speedy slides!

This is a cool circle swing. It spins him in circles.

It was a gorgeous afternoon and we had a ton of fun running around the nearly empty playground! :)

Morning at the Zoo

Marc was gone all week for a business trip out to San Diego so I called on my Mom for company with the kids on Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. I had Bunco with my neighborhood Moms Friday night (and after the last couple of days beforehand, I needed to get out)! My Mom came up after work on Friday and spent the night at our house Fridays night. Marc was excited that Grandma was having a sleepover at his house. :) We got up Saturday morning and went to the John Ball Zoo.
On Saturday the zoo was having a big Monarch butterfly "thing". They had butterflies that the kids could pet. Marc wasn't soo sure about it.....
On the other hand, after a little coaxing, Samantha really got into it. She actually very quickly reached out and grabbed one of the butterflies and bent its wing...oops!Throughout the zoo there were butterfly development stations where the kids got to learn the life cycle of the butterfly.At the last station the kids could color a monarch butterfly. The outline was on an overhead and they colored with Sharpie markers (hence me helping Samantha, I didn't want permanent markers all over her clothes). They turned out really cool. When you hold them up to the light, the light shines through them. I am going to stick them on our living room window that gets lots of sun in the afternoon so we can enjoy their hard work.
This was the first time we have been at the zoo when Samantha was old enough to really watch the animals and enjoy it. :) The first animal we come across when we walk through the gate are the ducks. There were loud ducks so Samantha decided to talk to them in their own language. She kept saying "kack, kack, kack". :)
After the ducks were the fish. These were down low enough that Samantha could go up to the tank and look at them. She loved it!
Both kiddos liked watching the big brown bear. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See?.....I See Marc and Samantha looking at me.



While Marc was working very diligently on coloring his butterfly, Samantha had fun looking at and talking to the monkeys down below on monkey island.

Even though we were there in the middle of a gorgeous afternoon, not many animals were very active. The tiger was pacing back and forth in his area. When we walked up to the cage, I said that he looked like a big kitty. Samantha kept "yeow"ing at him the whole time we were there. :)

Since we took Grandma with us, the kids got spoiled while at the zoo. ;) Grandma splurged and let Marc get a spray on tattoo......
He chose the one with the zoo's logo. The whole time Marc was getting his tattoo, Samantha was holding her arm like she wanted one too. We told her maybe next year.
Outside the zoo gate is a park area. I saw some pretty flowers groupings. Flowers=photo opportunity. ;) Unfortunately, Samantha was tired and she didn't really want any part of posing for pictures, so we got the best we could.

We just plain tuckered Samantha out!

Busy Day!

Whew....Tuesday was a busy day!! We were up at 6:30am so Marc could go to kindergarten in the morning. I picked him up after school, came home and had lunch. Right after lunch we went for his first swim lesson of the fall. After swim lesson we came home and had a nap. After nap we went back to school for his class picnic.

When we first got there there was a little time to play on the playground.It was a crazy sight!! There were probably 50 kindergartners and some siblings all running around on the playground...talk about chaos!!
After some play time it was time to eat.I took Marc picture...I figured it is his school picnic so I would take a picture of him eating....well, Samantha was feeling left out. She shrieked and smiled her scrunched-up nose smile. So, of course I had to take her picture too.After staying at his picnic for just a little while, we headed down to Grand Rapids to the Schuler's Bookstore on 28th Street. One of our favorite authors, Laura Numeroff, was there for a book signing. She write the "If You Give A..." book series and the "What ??/?? Does Best" series. She had 2 new books that just came out. She read her 2 new books and and "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", but she changed the words. All the kids thought it was hilarious!! After she read the books, she signed books.By the time we got home and I got Marc in bed, he was in bed at 9:00pm and I was in bed at 10:00pm. Ugh!
As we were driving to the bookstore, Marc said to me, "Mom, I think I will tell her that I like her books". I thought that was soooo sweet! I am glad that we are raising children to like and appreciate the value of books! :)

Celebration on the Grand

Well, this past Saturday was Celebration on the Grand. For those of you that don't know what it is, it is a celebration of downtown Grand Rapids. We have not been there for several years, since before Marc was born. Daddy Marc was looking at their website and noticed there was a family stage with some acts geared for kids, so we decided to head downtown on Saturday.

Before we headed over to the family stage we went to the VanAndle Public Museum. There was a daVinci Machines in Motions exhibit. This exhibit was a bunch of working models of a machines that daVinci invented.Outside of the museum there is a space capsule that Marc loved "wowing".After exploring the museum for awhile we headed over to the family area. The Helen DeVos Children's Hospital is working on a remodeling project. They had a tent set up where kids could go in and decorate tiles that would be used in the decorating. Just for decorating a tile, each child got a t-shirt that stated that they helped make art for the new hospital. :) Samantha actually helped me, Daddy just didn't get a picture of her coloring on the tile. ;)
The whole theme was circles. So Marc decided to make "abstract" circle smiley faces. He thought that would cheer up the kids in the hospital.The family area was partially sponsored by Celebration Cinemas (local movie theater). So their mascot Flick was walking around and playing with the kids.There were several tables set up from different area businesses with activities for the kids to do. Celebration Cinemas had a spin-to-win wheel. Everyone got to spin the wheel, kids and adults. So, the first time we spun we got a glow necklace, a coupon for free popcorn, a box or candy, and a stuffed Flick toy...good haul. :)After awhile we went back to the wheel again (shh, don't tell anybody) ;) This time we won free popcorn coupon, another Flick toy, and a t-shirt from G-Force.

The family area was by the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum. There is a cool looking fountain there, so I made it into a photo-op.One of the tables set up was for Operation Pillow Talk. They go around and have people decorate or write on pillows and then send them to soldiers overseas . We took this as an opportunity to reinforce with Marc just how much our soldiers sacrifice for our country.The main act that we wanted to see on the family stage was a kids songs band called Scribble Monster. Marc had fun dancing all around during the outdoor concert.One of the songs they sing is all about chocolate milk. Marc just happened to be drinking chocolate milk so as they sang, he and Daddy waved it around like a lighter during a rock ballad.
The area that the stage was in had a huge hill. So they took pink spray paint and made a big section and called it the rolling spot, so not to sit there. Marc had a blast rolling down and then running back up the hill.I tried to get Samantha to do it, but she was more interested in watching the older kids doing itThis whole thing is free to the public. It was a lot of fun, and we came home with a really big loot!
2 free popcorn coupons, a box of candy, 2 stuffed Flick toys, a G-Force shirt, 2 Art for the hospital shirts, a canvas Home Depot bag, a glow in the dark necklace, McDonaldland cookies, a home-made bookmark, a homemade tambourine, and lots of other little stuff.
It was a beautiful sunny day and it was a great day to spend with the family! :)