kids Archives - Page 17 of 84

happy birthday, sweet girl

Today is Evangeline’s 3rd birthday. It seems so crazy to me that I have had a daughter for 3 years. And though I can see her dramatic attitude taking shape, I absolutely love having another girl in the house.

young girl in yellow dress in yellow flowers

I wanted to take her to a field of yellow flowers to take some birthday pictures. We were on a time crunch and she was more interested in the flowers than taking pictures. But I did get a few that I’m in love with. I think I need to enlarge a picture or two. I couldn’t get over how pretty this little place was. We plan to go back very soon to get a few more shots when we’re not feeling so rushed.

Sometimes I feel bad about not doing anything big or exciting for the kids’ birthdays. I would love to dream up a perfectly themed party. But our lives are already so full right now. That just doesn’t work for us at this point in life. But in the meantime, I try to do little special things to let them know they are loved.

For Evangeline, that meant adding some color to the day. Last night I blew up 36(!!) balloons to fill up the living room floor and surprise her when she woke up. 12 for each year of life. I planned to video her reaction when she first saw the balloons but she and Kingston were awake before I even woke up—way too early!

I also made a colorful cake for her. And all I have is this phone snap that looks way overexposed on the laptop.

So after our traditional birthday trip to Mcdonald’s (and the worker was so kind to give Evangeline her meal for free when she heard it was her birthday!) we headed home to eat cake. And wouldn’t you know it? She fell asleep right before we got home. (Probably because she was up at the crack of dawn…but what do I know?!)

She was not a pleasant birthday girl when she woke up–it’s her party and she’ll cry if she wants to.

But the sparkler candles that I bought her, that wouldn’t blow out too easily, put a smile on her face. And cake. She is so my child. Nothing puts a smile on my face quite like dessert.

I love this girl and her love for all things colorful. Her insistence on wearing a dress…every single day. Her obsession with “Frozen.” Her requests for an “Elsa braid” or “Anna braid” every day. I love the fact that every time she notices my growing belly, she starts referring to the baby as “baby Elsa.” Her giggles. Her love for her mommy and her friendship with her best friend, Legacy. I love that you can see how caring she is when she talks to Desmond and tries to give him bites of food. And that even though it drives me crazy, that she’s strong willed and determined. I love everything about her. I keep selfishly praying that we will be blessed with another baby girl. Because nothing would make me happier than giving her a baby sister, a built in best friend.

That’s all the sappiness for now!
Happy 3rd birthday, sweet baby girl!

May 5, 2016

Blog, liam

Liam’s surgery

So this isn’t a super exciting post. But it’s informative and hopefully can help if you’re ever in this situation. So as most everybody already knows, Liam had an emergency appendectomy the other night. Because I never have really known much about appendicitis and the symptoms to look for, I thought I would just briefly write down what happened to help others be informed. Also, I have a feeling that some will ask what happened. So this is my way of sparing myself from repeating it as much.

So it all started on Monday around noon when Liam told me his stomach was hurting. He said he didn’t feel sick, it just hurt. When I asked him where, he pointed right below his belly button. He spent the rest of the day lying on the couch and even took a nap (which hasn’t happened in years.) I went out to run a few errands. When I came home that evening, he was playing on the iPad (a special treat, reserved for Don’s weekends.) When his turn was over, he immediately got up and ran to the bathroom to throw up.

Okay, so it’s a stomach bug? That’s what I assumed anyway. The next morning Kai and Kingston came in my room to tell me that Liam was throwing up again. I was actually quite surprised that no one else was sick because they had all taken a drink out of the same mug the day before. He was still complaining about stomach pain. So I got him situated on the couch and they spent the morning watching tv. He finally asked for toast around noon but it took him an hour to eat just over half. Still, at this point I’m still assuming stomach bug.

Around 2:30, Liam walks over to me, hunched over, and says it is hurting on the lower right side of his stomach. I knew that’s where the appendix is located so I immediately googled “signs of appendicitis.” One of the things that immediately popped out at me was that the “pain usually begins below the belly button before moving to the right side.”I asked Liam if he had been feeling sick or just hurt. He said that the only time he felt sick is when he was throwing up.

After consulting a dear friend, she told me to apply light pressure to the spot that was hurting. I could tell it was very painful for him and it didn’t hurt him when I pressed anywhere else. So I immediately called the doctor’s office and got an appointment with the nurse practitioner.

(those hospital gowns are the cutest though!!)

At the doctor’s office, it was quickly determined that it was a likely case of appendicitis so we went straight to the ER at Mercy. They ran some tests on him before determining that it was, indeed, appendicitis. So he was prepped for surgery and whisked away. As weird as that moment was–sending my child away to be operated on–I felt an incredible peace throughout that evening after feeling very panicked hours earlier in the doctor’s office. I believe the prayers of so many of you were being answered and we were able not to worry while we waited.

The surgery went well and we were able to go back and see him soon after. He slept until 4 when he woke up asking for food and kept asking to go play in the activity room (that didn’t open until 9.) When he finally was given the green light on eating food, we ordered a feast for him. It cracked me up to see such a huge amount of food for such a little guy.

As soon as the activity room opened, he was in there playing with all the fun toys and games. We spent our whole day there (minus the hour and a half they had to close it for a meeting.) They loaded Liam with toys to take home and we were able to make a build a bear penguin. I can’t recommend the Child Life specialists at Mercy enough. Liam loved them and they were great with kids. They made a scary situation fun for him and made him want to stay.

So now we are home and recovering. Today was the first day he was able to push past the 6 hour mark for ibuprofen. He was incredibly brave through this whole ordeal. When the surgeon told him what he was about to do, Liam said “Oh, I didn’t know it was that bad.” But when asked if he was scared, he said “Just a little, I guess.” He amazes me and I’m so proud of my sweet little guy (who got tons and tons of compliments on his hat while we were there.)

So hopefully he’ll be back to being active pretty soon. Although, after his brothers and sister were home for less than two hours, he already got kicked in the stomach. So we’re watching for fever and bleeding/pus at the incision site. Pray that it wouldn’t affect his healing! The funny thing is that he’s hoping this lands him back in the hospital haha.

Thanks to all who prayed, texted, emailed, thought about us, visited, gave him gifts, etc. It really means a lot to our family that you care so deeply for us! And praise the Lord that it was caught in time!

January 22, 2016