The day started nicely enough with waffles!

After making a nice mess with the bisquick, scooping from one bowl to the next, we tried to get ready for the day but lost the babies! Where could they have gone?

Here’s one!

and there’s Mary!

After a fun filled Sunday evening of chasing the dachsunds (of which none of the pictures came out), and doggy kisses Tuesday morning, we headed to Trinity hospital, formerly Montclaire. The kids loved the fountains and visited them on the way in and out of the hospital.

Any place with elevators is okay. “I push the buttons!”

MawMaw was okay and glad to see William walking. She had been worried he’d have a horrible limp but that was not the case. He proceeded to run with sister back and forth across the room screeching. Granted his run is much slower than MaryVic’s but you can see the determination to keep up with her. We visited for an hour or longer before heading back to Jasper for lunch then home. Mom’s procedure on Tuesday went fine, polyps removal in her throat. She was home Tuesday evening. MawMaw was home by the end of the week.

We went to the Texas Roadhouse for their family night Monday evening but it doesn’t compare to our favorite place, Chik-fil-A’s family night on Tuesdays. Both places provide free ice cream for kids but the roadhouse doesn’t have Cow and Balloons!

Sean let William try on his hat.

MaryVic was most disappointed on Wednesday night when informed that we were not going to Panchos and would not be eating out every night of the week. She finally got there on Saturday for the required weekly dose of cheese quesadillas.

The children went to daycare Tuesday through Friday. William made it every day for a full day. He was getting tired on Thursday but got a break when Poppa and Grandmomma came up Friday and checked them out of daycare early. He has the required daycare runny nose but otherwise is doing fine. MaryVic will yell ‘C’mon William!’ and he is right there for fun, mayhem and mischief.

William started attending daycare last week. The owner is keeping an eye on him herself and we have tailored his return around her vacation. He went a half day on Monday and Tuesday then a full day on Wednesday. MaryVic went half a day on Monday and for a full day on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Drop off on Monday was awful. MaryVic went to class with no fuss after getting hugs from Momma and William. William who had been ignoring all talk of his imminent return to ‘school’ on Monday tried to keep on going past his classroom. There was no coercing him into the room and no one wanted to make a bad association by forcing him through the gate. Finally, the owner pulled just a little and I pushed just a little and he scooted past the gate. He had been quietly saying ‘no’ to all our entreaties…play with your friends, color, get the tractor, etcetera. The volume increased noticeably when the gate closed and he went to bawling. I sat in the office for 20 minutes listening until the owner came to talk to me. We agreed to see if he would go to breakfast and if not I would leave work to retrieve him. No one was going to pick him up and carry him, he had to get up and walk. Right then, he was laying on the floor refusing to do anything. “NO!”

He did perk up and had a nice time. He was quite happy to see me at 12:30 and didn’t really want to wait for his sister to get out of the lunch room. He would point at the door, take a few steps, and look back at me, annoyed at his escape being delayed. We all went home, took naps and had a nice afternoon.

Tuesday, both of them went to class without fuss. MaryVic was excited to see her class was in with Williams. She went through the gate while I whisper hissed, “Mary, grab your brother’s hand!” She turned around and said, “William! Come On!” He ran on in after her, pausing to enthusiastically wave bye to me. I ran!

I picked him up at 12:30. I had time to chat with the owner who said he was much doing better than she expected. There was one piece of the playground equipment they were not letting him get on but it was more them not being ready for him to be on it. William was happy to see me again and we spent another afternoon at home.

MaryVic wanted both parents to pick her up so William and I waited for Greg to come home before getting her. Of course, she then fussed about being picked up late! Fortunately the distress didn’t last long since it was Tuesday night and time for the weekly visit to see Cow at Chik-Fil-A.

William’s special balloon surprise. It was slow when we got there so Sean Hughes the Balloon Guy made more elaborate balloons for the children present.

William loved his balloon man and couldn’t decide which way to wear it.

Minnie Mouse ears were very popular with the girls.

The Cow is a ham and cut up with Greg some. He really interacts with customers, stealing milk, asking for phones and cameras, and high-fiving everyone. He does like to have his picture taken.

Wednesday William went to class without a problem, waving bye to me. MaryVic was unhappy despite big hugs from Mom and brother. Unlike before the ‘break’, William gave her a huge hug each day. He stayed all day at daycare. I was worried he would be fussy after nap. We had a note from the owner about trying Tuesday through Friday of the following week.

William was tired each day and we made sure he had a warm bath with epsom salts at night. Otherwise there were no issues.

The daycare did move the teacher who was in the room when the break occurred, to caring for a different age group. The new teacher is the one he had prior to being moved to the 2 year old room. The trucks the children were pushing have been removed from the room.

Now for some pictures of our time at home…

I couldn’t resist taking these pictures of the kids waving bye to Daddy on Friday morning. MaryVic had been borrowing my bedroom slippers but the slippers were upstairs. I let her borrow some of the shoes I had stashed in the pantry and William snagged a pair too. They clattered around for part of the morning before returning the shoes to me.

And that’s all the pictures I have of them at home!

Everyone at work has been super nice and welcoming my return. I am still on intermittent FMLA leave until the first or second week of June. The first full week at daycare for William will be the first week of June. This lets me have the flexibility to be available should any issues arise. Currently I have no sick leave so once I’m off FMLA completely, Greg gets to be the point man for child care. Sick leave accrues at 8 hours per month so what are the odds that the kids will get sick in the first month of daycare?

Thankfully everything has worked out in all areas of our family life from my job, my availability to care for William, Greg’s ability to provide for our family when my income went to nearly nothing, toys from friends and family to entertain the ‘stuck’ little boy, little mother MaryVic, the return to normal going smoothly so far, and many other things big and small. Hopefully everything will continue to progress in a positive manner. Now that our time will be more crunched between work and the home front, I anticipate that our blogs will be less frequent although I hope we can pause and share our lives with our family and friends on the weekends. Maybe at naptimes like now!

William’s next appointment with the doctor is May 27. His leg will be x-rayed to be sure it has healed or it is continuing to heal well. We are not anticipating any problems and will be sure to let everyone know what the doctor says about it.

We went to the Wednesday storytime for preschoolers as we missed the Monday Toddler Time. MaryVic had a great time but William was a bit distracted. He wanted to push the stroller all over the place. They both enjoyed the craft and visiting everyone.

It was a nice day and we went to the playground outside the library.

Last year, Mary couldn’t do this without help. This year she has mastered it and insisted on having several pictures taken.

Very proud!

Lunch with Daddy afterwards. She was being goofy and refused to smile.

I found a toy that they hadn’t seen in a while and she’s begging William to share it. He would look at her and go “NO!

Dance class on Saturday. Another one spent walking the stroller.

Little did I know it was in preparation for this! We went to the Family Fun Zone at Thoroughbred Theater. We took the shopping cart with us. He pushed the cart around, chased the Chik-Fil-a cow and was able to flee the other mascots in this manner. I sat down with him in the chalk drawing area and asked him if he wanted to draw. I pointed him towards the chalk and pushed his cart on over. This was the second or third piece of chalk because I was so surprised to see him start walking independently. I was busy cheering and yelling at Greg who was being superdad and standing with MaryVic in the facepaint line.

After that I was brave enough to put him in a bouncy with some other tots. It was 4 years old and younger only and not crowded.

He liked being in but this is all he did. He went in it again but immediately wanted out.

The next morning I heard MaryVic coaxing William down the stairs. It is the first time since the accident that William got out of bed himself (the guest bed) and came downstairs. “Come on little fella, it’s not far now…” They were very cute. They haven’t made another trip down the stairs together.

One of only two pictures I have of William walking at the zoo on Sunday. I think there was the ‘help, my feet won’t stop’ red shoes deal going on. He would stop and squat frequently to rest. He occasionally laid down in the path to rest. He did not want us to pick him up and if we persisted in asking, he’d get up and go for a little bit more.

Sunday was probably the most he has walked with it getting less frequent as the week goes on. He does a mix of moving via crawling and walking. I picked up papers from daycare and we’ll see how he does on Tuesday for half day.

We’ve kept busy and went to Toddler Time this past Monday. He did walk around the library. He fell down the bonus room stairs Monday night but was okay. He calmed down fairly quickly compared to the playground fall in Arab.

On Tuesday MaryVic went to school. William and I did the grocery shopping and visited Home Depot for lock for the front door. MaryVic can unlock it so Greg has put a flip lock at the top. Not high security but it should keep her in. She stepped out one day and I thought she was with Greg, he thought she was with me… I found her wandering on the sidewalk in front of the house. I think she was looking for aliens. I don’t know why the child security doorknob thing works on the other doors. Yes, we do have one on the front door. I guess I should take it off now.

Yesterday we went to the pool and stayed around the house in the afternoon. It was interesting as the air conditioning guys were here until in the evening. A little more interesting when we found the hole in the ceiling but they were genuinely apologetic. As MaryVic, likes to say ‘accident’s happen’.

I twittered yesterday about the doctor and it doesn’t seem to be anything major. I woke up Tuesday morning and checked on William who was fussing at 3 a.m. I noticed my right eye hurt and went to get it checked. The doctor said it was probably just sinuses and gave me some prescription eyedrop samples. She told me to take some sudafed.

Today is a quiet, rainy day. We may go to the pool again after naps. We’ll just take it easy and let the air conditioning guys finish up. The patching guys have already been here and will be back next week. Air conditioning guys are back to finish up. Greg is home talking to them so we should be all done with that soon!

And Part Two

On Monday morning he decided to ‘help’ me push the stroller around the library. I was carrying him while MaryVic rode in it. He does get heavy after a while, even without a spica cast. He squirmed confirmation so I put him on the floor. He crawled to it, pulled himself up and started trying to push it. He couldn’t get forward momentum without assistance at first but he ‘helped’ me traverse the whole library. He started to get some momentum right before we had to leave. I let him push all the way out to the van and he had a tantrum when I took the stroller away from him.

We went to the park on Monday too and he decided to independently walk a yard or so. I left him standing with nothing around and set down on the ground a few feet away. He was screaming but he decided to come over where I was sitting. He fell down once but stood up again and came until he was sitting down next to me. I was not deliberately trying to push him but he was being a bit bossy so I guess it was a ‘mommy tantrum.’

He decided to give the play shopping cart at home another try. He pushed it around for a long time in the evening. Once he was going, he was so tickled with himself that he didn’t want to stop.

All the walking took a toll. He fell asleep crying. On Tuesday, he flat refused to walk or crawl. He must have been very sore because he wanted me to carry him everywhere. Pinkerton Park was slammed with cars parked out to the main road so I took the kids to Strahl Street Park by the Community Service Building off of Fowlkes Street. It is a nice little park. William crawled the primary playground unit three times then insisted on being carried around everywhere.

I finally gave up and put him in a very warm bath with epsom salts for over 30 minutes in the afternoon. MaryVic joined him and they played for a long time. He felt better after the bath and tackled the shopping cart again. He pushed it around some and cried when I picked him up to put him in the van. He tried to push it out the laundry room to the van but I caught him and took it back in the house.

We took the kids to Chik-Fil-A for dinner. He scooted into the play area on his bottom and climbed into the little airplane unit where he could spin the steering wheel. He crawled to the unit to climb up for the slide and could make it up the first two steps which are pretty much on top of each other. He was too short to get any higher. It was probably for the best since MaryVic tended to get ‘stuck’ at the top of this unit during our first family nights at the restaurant. He would scoot around on his bottom to get to the play area and chase after the Cow in this manner. Usually he resorts to crawling which is a faster so it was funny to see him scooting.

He fussed some Tuesday night while falling asleep but not as bad as Monday night. He tossed his leg at one point and cried afterwards. He did fall asleep relatively quick. I can say that none of this fussing is as bad as during the ‘cast’ period. MaryVic came and got on the guest bed with us. I left them sleeping on the guest bed together in a pillow fence and they slept all night.

It is exciting to see him up and around. I’m so happy to see him starting to ‘go’ now. There is a tinge of sadness too as I notice the limp he has now. I’m so glad he is going to outgrown it and won’t be able to remember any of this. He truly is a little trooper.

I was in the kitchen Monday morning and heard shrieks which always require investigating. They were watching Cat in the Hat on the computer and William had decided it was more fun to spin MaryVic in the office chair. She was more than glad to let him because hey, a little brother has to be good for something!

And she reaps the benefits of all the upper body strength he developed while in the spica cast.

He enjoyed it as much as her.

It was unusually cold Monday morning but pretty. I took the kids to the library despite the temperature. Here they are playing on the preschool computers in the children’s department before Toddler Time. They had a good time at the storytime about Bugs!

After Toddler Time we went up to Momma’s office where she has some neat things like balls and slinkies.

And oooo… bookmarks!

Bookmark or ball?

Momma needs help. Look at this mess!

Yes, this needs to go.

and it does.

Then there are two helpers and then the shredder gets unplugged!

Monday continued with rounds in the library to visit co-workers, lunch with Daddy and then home for naps. We stayed in the rest of the day although MaryVic campaigned to go to the indoor pool. It is not heated so Momma vetoed pool visits. William did walk in the library a little bit while holding on to Momma and while holding on to Daddy with one hand in the evening! We have him climbing the stairs at bedtime now, all 16 steps.

On Tuesday MaryVic went to school so Momma did some cleaning. First she moved everything into the den and playroom to mop. William watched a show after he tried to climb a chair and get on the coffee table. The subsequent scolding sent him to climb up on the bathroom stool where he perched the whole time I was mopping.

Daddy came home from lunch and left the van. William took his nap and then we were off to get sister.

Everyone was glad to see him out of the cast although he took one look at Ms. Cathy and promptly hid from her, tucking his face into my neck. He perked up and then played spider on Momma while I talked to her. We found MaryVic in her class. Apparently everyone got the memo and all the little girls were in a pink outfits and the only boy was in a blue polo, very cute.

Ms. Cathy gave us a gift from Williams class. She told Greg and I about it weeks ago. She said it took forever to dry. The kids stepped in paint and walked on the paper. The teachers wrote the children’s names next to the footprints at different places on the sheet. A cute idea and it was sweet of them to think of him. I do have to laugh at the irony of it though.

She gave the roll to MaryVic to carry, ‘Can you carry William’s gift to the car?’ or something like that. All I know is William heard his name and started shrieking at the fact sister was touching something of HIS! So William got to carry it to the car. It was long enough that both of them had to hold it in their laps on the way home which William tolerated. He couldn’t wait to get it unrolled. I kept hearing paper noises and finally there was the rip.

We made it home with it mostly intact . MaryVic carried it in via the front door while I unloaded William and he pouted about it. I kept them from destroying it during the unraveling process. William promptly crawled all over it repeatedly. MaryVic crawled around with him too. At first he fussed about that but decided it was more fun to play with her on it.

Just a picture taken while waiting for Daddy to come home so we could all go see the cow!

We had dinner at Chik-Fil-A. The balloon guy was astounded to see William out of his cast. He really is very nice and made a big deal of it. He made William another special balloon with lots of twists. A race car balloon! MaryVic got a balloon wand with which she proceeded to attack the cow. Literally, I had to go get her at least twice and pull her away from cow. Momma, I’m hitting him on the nose! Yes, I saw that and you need to stop or cow is going to start going the other way when he sees you! And he did, unfortunately, so we had William at our table, “Coow! No…Cow!” So no cow high fives for William. Cow took a break right after that and it was time for us to go.

The next couple of days are supposed to be nice so we’ll be shooting for the park, indoor pool and zoo before Friday when it is supposed to rain again. Greg has added Twitter to the web blog. I input where we are which I was doing via Facebook. I’ll be able to input it via Twitter and it will update my Facebook page and the blog page. It seems pretty nifty.

We spent more time at the library than planned. I needed to look for something for a co-worker which I couldn’t find in my office, of course! I spent some time in the office and the kids played very nicely. MaryVic shredded part of my ‘to be shredded’ stack and William did tummy time on the floor. Afterwards we walked around and touched base with co-workers.MaryVic got her first library card and checked out books. She was thrilled. I guess she takes after her mother’s reading tastes right now as she insists on checking out Halloween books. I like the scary stuff, good ghost stories and thrillers too. She was nice and checked out 2 board books for her brother.It was after one by the time we left the library so to apologize to the kids for having kept them there so long, we went to Sonic for milkshakes. They could not have the shakes in the just cleaned minivan so straight home. William fell asleep on the way but he did eat his shake after nap.After he woke up, ate lunch and I was finally able to get them moving. Well, I did give up after an hour and just bagged the chicken nuggets to go with us to the grocery store. We did the grocery shopping. I was very amused with MaryVic. We passed the store’s blood pressure check machine and she started going on about my arm. After spinning in circles 5 times trying to find what was on my arms?!, I figured out she was reminding to check my blood pressure which I had forgotten about. She sat in the cart telling me that she’d give me another sticker for checking it. I had already received two Kroger stickers because I was a good mommy (much to the Kroger pharmacists amusement). Blood pressure was fine: 117/50 and 106/67.The only other thing of note on Monday were I called Vandy again to double check about Williams appointment. Dr. Martus had said that April 1 was too soon to remove the cast and to either go to Vandy on Friday or come back to the Cool Springs office on Tuesday, April 8. The nurse called me back and said Dr. Martus needed to see William 3 weeks from the last appointment which would be April 2. The cast may or may not come off then. We have decided not to hold our breath hoping and just go with the flow.On Tuesday, MaryVic went to school with not a lot of fuss. William and I stayed home for the day. He was very good as I went on a small cleaning spree. Americare staff were back at the house again baiting the outside for the ants.We picked MaryVic up and went to Chik-fil-A for dinner. She got a pink and purple armadillo and William got a green alien man from the Balloon Guy. The alien guy was as big a hit as the train and he attacked Momma and stomped on dinner.The ants have found our primary garbage can in the garage. Of course, this is discovered in the evening, long after AmeriCare Pest Control is gone. Greg sprayed the corner of the garage down with Home Defense. So the Ant Wars wage on…All is well otherwise. We have an outing to the Apple store today, Wednesday, to see about the shift key on my laptop.

William is healing very well. The bones appear to be well within the tolerances the Doctor wants. So, we have a choice:

• We can go to the Children’s hospital in Nashville on April 4th and have the cast removed
• We can wait until the following Tuesday (April 8th) and go to the Franklin Branch and have the cast removed.

Tough choice. Drive to Nashville and have the cast removed Friday, or not drive to Nashville, but have to wait until after the weekend to be rid of it.

It took both of us about 3 seconds to choose Friday. I think William took less time than that.

The doctor is definitely trying to prep us for a “hope for the best, prepare for the worst” situation with him walking. He’s definitely taking the stance of “He’ll walk when he’s ready, and don’t worry about it”. I just don’t think he wants to give a timeframe and then have us turn around and say “you said x days, and it’s not happening right this minute.”

My dentist’s daughter was in a Spica just before 2 years of age about 8 months ago, and he was saying that his daughter was up and walking almost immediately. It was nice to talk to someone who had been in the same situation, and to hear a very matter of fact tale, as if it was no big deal. Just reiterated the same stuff we heard already, no lasting effects, small limp for a little bit until completely healed.

Finished up with a trip to visit the Cow for Family night. William scored well with the Balloon guy again:

Shawn, The Balloon Guy bravely decided to battle the forces of copyright and Walt Disney’s Empire by making a hat for William, that I’m sure is NOT Mickey Mouse. He doesn’t normally do something of this scale, especially on a crowded night, but as predicted, William got an excellent Balloon animal once the cast was revealed.

Mary, having noticed the sing along guy in the front of the restaurant, helped get the party started.

What was two, soon became a whole flock of kids…. To the point that these pictures were the ones at the beginning… when we could still see Mary. Shortly after this, the numbers doubled, and then doubled again. We’d see a curl here and there, and then nothing….

They played (William did the Chicken Dance VERY well for only having the upper body mobile) like you would not believe. We thought for sure that they would pass out the moment we got the home.

Oh no. Second wind turned into forth wind, and no one slept well..

William and I had breakfast and then he sat in a baby vibrating chair while I showered. He was really good. We came downstairs and did tummy time. Played cars, ball and blocks until Daddy came home for lunch. We had lunch and loaded up for the follow-up trip to the doctor.

The doctor visit went quicker than we thought. We were in and out of x-rays and talking to the doctor in 15 minutes. Everything looks to be going well. The bone still is obviously broken in the x-ray but together and the doctor was very pleased with how it looked. He told us that the next visit would be the one that decided if the cast needed to be adjusted or a new one applied, etcetera. He did say if things stay the same, it is highly unlikely they will do anything to the cast.

Then he started talking more about after the cast comes off. Greg and I have slightly differing perspectives on the discussion but it doesn’t matter because we can ask more next week and however it long it takes William to recover, it will take that long. I had been thinking that he might be up and around in 2-3 weeks, walking again. I guess I also thought the healing process would alleviate any limp too. I was a little taken aback when the doctor said 6 weeks or longer to walk again, talking about rolling, crawling and pulling up. And yet again, when he said there would be a pronounced limp but it would alleviate over time with his normal growth rate to next to nothing.

I guess I was being overly optimistic about things and got a reality check. Greg thinks William could still walk again in 2-3 weeks and the limp will be gone in just a couple of baby growth spurts. Ah well, mothers worry…and this one will look for more on the web about it.

We took William to Home Depot afterwards and looked at ceiling fans with lights. William is in favor of replacing the bonus room fan with the earth light and fan with rockets. I’m afraid we’ll be going with something a bit duller

We went to daycare and picked up MaryVic who had a good time at school. Mrs. Kathy came out to see William. She reminded me that gymnastics is on Thursdays and dance on Mondays. MaryVic is only signed up for gymnastics but sometimes attends dance on Mondays to make up for missing a gymnastics class. She said they are making a huge card for William. The kids are putting their footprints on it so it was currently drying. Apparently a major production, toddlers with paint on their feet, and now that I think about it, a little ironic? Sweet thoughtfulness though. She said they pray for him at daycare at breakfast and lunch.

I got an email from Nashville Parent while waiting for Greg to get MaryVic. Seems I won the February drawing and we have two weeks to come pick up our dvds, Charlie Brown’s Valentine and a Bob the Builder dvd. I had to laugh when Greg joked I should have bought a lottery ticket. I think this may be one of the few drawings I’ve even won.

William fell asleep on the way home. We were home for just a little bit then loaded up again to go to Costco and then our favorite Tuesday night hangout, Chik-Fil-A. The kids had a blast. The balloon guy made William a super duper Mickey balloon hat that he loved and MaryVic got a dolphin. MaryVic played in the playground and danced and sang. She even dragged Daddy up there to dance with her. She really got into the music and all this time, letting her ice cream melt until it was tossed. William wiggled and danced along to the music too. We took tons of pictures with our iphones so we’ll have to see how they turned out.

You would think the kids would have been tired through and through but no… We finally got William down and I had to go snuggle MaryVic. Finally both of them were asleep for the moment if not the duration.