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 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.