Merry Christmas from Wisconsin!

I hope your Christmas was filled with peace, joy and a bit less excitement than ours. Our day started with a 5:30 alarm (because apparently AJ was afraid he wouldn't wake up Christmas morning). That woke him up, along with us because he was sleeping in our room due to his aunt, uncle and their  puppies in his room. We heard Teddy stirring, so we decided to bring him to our room for family snuggles until 6 a.m. when we'd go downstairs to check to see if Santa came. 

Teddy was so excited to come into our room so early that he somehow stepped in a basket (that isn't anywhere in the walking path) and cracked his chin on our dresser, knocking down several things with a clatter that accompanied his cries. We saw quickly that he was dripping blood, unfortunately from his chin. That's a tough area to get to stop bleeding, especially when he wouldn't let us apply pressure and barely would let us keep dabbing it after the first couple minutes. After just a few minutes he was done crying and wanted to bounce all around our sheets, rolling around with his face on the sheets. Let's just say we got to do a couple loads of blood-stained laundry. 

After a bit, it seemed to stop dripping blood, no thanks to liquid skin which only resulted in protests. A shower seemed to help stem the bleeding and at least get him clean. So we went downstairs to see what Santa brought while debating whether we needed to head to the hospital for stitches.

We had excited kids for opening presents but determined we really did need to take him in for medical treatment. Fortunately urgent care was open with a short wait posted online. (Urgent care is a much quicker process and typically way less traumatic for Teddy as he has really bad memories from the ER.) We had family at our house to hang out with AJ, so we took Teddy in for a Christmas visit to the hospital.

This was before the trauma of treatment started.

The doctor and nurse realized pretty quickly that it did indeed need stitches ... and that applying a bandage with numbing cream wasn't going to work. That sent Teddy into hysterics because he really does not like bandages on him, and I'm sure it felt funny to have it being numbed. So instead they rounded up probably all the doctors and nurses working at 7 a.m. Christmas morning to have a team of 4 people to assist. 

We did a blanket wrap, literally restraining his arms and legs with a blanket and then applying pressure. It took 5 of us holding him while the unlucky doctor put in 4 stitches into a hysterical Teddy. There are few things worse than having your child hysterical (or lifeless after seizures) and being unable to do anything to make it better. 

However, as soon as the stiches were done, Teddy bounced back quickly, smiling as we left the hospital and excited by the time we got home to ring the doorbell and see everyone inside. 

Once we got past that excitement, we had a splendid Christmas. The highlight was seeing my 99-year-old grandfather and making memories with him and the boys. The kids loved their presents, and we even managed a Christmas morning run for some of us. 

Unseasonably warm weather allowed Teddy to join us for our Christmas run. 

We're not too excited we get to start the New Year at urgent care because that's when Teddy's stitches need to come out, but that should be less traumatic for all of us.

Family Photos - Our Family Is Growing!

We did family photos last week. Last year we added Sigrid, and this year we added Bri. We joke that they are our adopted daughters, but the reality is they have become family. Heck, some days, they are our favorite children. ;-) We're so blessed to have these ladies in our lives, caring for our boys and making our lives easier and happier.

Weird how most of our children don't look like each other ...

This would be the best picture if AJ wasn't crying from Teddy head butting him. 

At least our daughters are photogenic. ;-)

Santa at the Zoo

Last weekend we headed to the local zoo with Dave's parents (while he was home recovering from a minor surgery). It was great to see the animals that were out and about, and I think it made me appreciate some animals that normally aren't that interesting to me. We saw huge snowy owls, ducks with funny-looking mohawks and my favorite little monkeys. Teddy really enjoyed those guys!

There happened to be a scavenger hunt searching for monkeys dressed as elves, so AJ had a blast searching for those. In fact, we were nearly done walking through the entire zoo when he said that after we found all the monkeys that we'd have to go back to look at the animals. 

AJ's highlight was getting to see penguins up close and personal. They are one of his favorite animals (along with groundhogs and then cats for domesticated animals). He thought it was pretty cool to see them up close and hear the braying sounds they make. 

So close to his beloved penguins!

Teddy was pretty excited to see Santa. He's gotten braver with Santa through the years. He's always been fascinated by him but on his own terms. He's always so excited to see him that it's hard to get a picture with him looking at the camera rather than Santa. But we got a really good picture with me and the boys and a pretty good picture with the grandparents as well.

I swear I was crouching to hold Teddy. I'm taller than him still.

In Wisconsin, you have to embrace winter and still find the fun things to do to get fresh air. This was a great way!

All smiles, who cares if we're not all looking at the camera?

Life's Been Busy

Sheesh, no wonder why I feel like Christmas is almost here. It's been a hot minute since I last posted here. Life has been busy. Here's a few highlights and ordinary moments in our life:

Both boys are fully vaccinated as of this week! As great as that is, it doesn't really change anything in how we'll act as a family. With extremely high COVID in our area (and, um, world), we still are keeping a very small circle. We're hoping to be able to celebrate Christmas with both our families separately, even though we stayed away at Thanksgiving to avoid unnecessary risk for a couple hours of eating together. (Our Thanksgiving was really nice, even though it was just the 4 of us and rather mellow. We'll take mellow.) Teddy still will continue his adapted education for the time being until the numbers change drastically. 

The boys had a nerf gun battle with their "sister" Bri this past week. I walked upstairs from work and chuckled to see Teddy running around with a gun and his safety glasses. (Safety glasses are mandatory following a nerf bullet to the eye incident.) He thought he was pretty cool.

He was so excited to join the fun!

He thought he was really cool this week when he managed to video call his grandma. None of us are quite sure how the two of them managed that, but Teddy called, she answered and Teddy thought it was the coolest thing ever. 

Notice the pride on his face!

The little things are not so little for us. I love hearing what new adventures Teddy finds with Bri, as long as he's safe. It's great to run upstairs to grab lunch to find them having a dance party, doing crafts or simply making memories being goofy. 

One Small Step Toward Protection

We're sick of COVID. It's changed all aspects of life for us because we now see everything through the lens of risk versus reward as we try to protect Teddy in particular. Once your child has been intubated once, it's not something we ever care to experience again.

Fortunately Teddy was able to get his first dose of the COVID vaccine this week, and even more thankfully he seemed to experience no side effects. We did medicate him with Ibuprofen for a couple days afterward just in case he were to develop a fever (because fevers often trigger seizures for him). 

AJ didn't "throw away his shot!" 

He was very excited to get out of his Kimba Kruze chair to go sit at the table by the nurse. However, when she wiped his arm with the alcohol pad, he realized this was something medical and immediately tried to push her away. I was able to hold his arms and him, so she could administer the vaccine. Teddy did freak out the most when she tried to apply his bandaid, so I snagged it to show him that it wasn't on him. He still was freaking out and looked like he was trying to remove his arm (probably because his brain processed the jab) for just a moment. He immediately went back to his Kruze, which is his safety spot during medical procedures and was then  perfectly fine. 

AJ is normally quite wary of shots, even to the point of working himself to tears before the shot even occurs. However, he was so excited to have this opportunity that he was an absolute champ. He went first, and after his shot, looked at his arm and said, "Oh, you're done? That was just a little pinch." He complained just a bit the next day about a sore arm, but he knows it's well worth it for the added protection for him and our family.

Of course, he also knows that nothing changes now, and nothing will honestly change in December when they are fully vaccinated. COVID cases are incredibly high, and it seems like it's everywhere. We'll still continue to wear masks and avoid activities that are higher risk. Hopefully as more get vaccinated, we'll see the tide turn ...

Peter Pan Tried Flying

Ugh, this kid will be the death of me. Or the death of himself.

Apparently after being Peter Pan for Halloween, Teddy thought he should try flying in real life. He fell over the railing from the second floor or possibly the top of the stairs. He landed with a thud (that's obvious, right?), stunned for about 30 seconds and then started crying without moving. Talk about heart-stopping moments.

Yet within 5 minutes, he was done crying and moving apparently normally. That didn't change the fact that we determined it was best to take him in to get evaluated given his incredibly high pain tolerance and lack of communication. He was excited to go for a car ride with both mom and his babysitter in the middle of the day. He was still excited when we went into the hospital. 

I'll be honest I felt a bit ridiculous telling the receptionist that he fell over the railing for two reasons: the fact that he fell over a railing itself and the fact that he was giggling and appeared perfectly fine. 

(Sidenote: the ER won't tell you whether you should go to urgent care or be seen at the ER. However, urgent care will always take you down the secret passages to the ER when they determine you really needed ER services. When in doubt and not clearly a life-threatening situation, we should always try urgent care first. Of course, this was my third trip down that secret passage ...)

As soon as we went back into the ER, though, Teddy's demeanor changed. And the moment I tried to push his chair into the ER treatment room, he instantly began crying and actively resisting going into the room. We were quite the spectacle with a whole ER team ready to evaluate and treat Teddy, asking me what they can do to help. My response? "The only way he's going in that room is if we force him."

You see, that was the same room where he was intubated. Even though we thought he was out of it, he clearly has traumatic memories. I did manage to get his chair into the room and honestly don't remember whether I had to pull him from him chair or managed to get his chair into the room. (Let's just say we both have some traumatic memories from there.)

They quickly permitted me to have another caregiver present, so we got an extra set of helping hands. And we needed them and then some. I tell you, it was much easier to wrangle Teddy when he was smaller. I'm still larger than him, but he's on path to outgrow me much quicker than I can handle. I'm less concerned about him growing up than I am about not being able to restrain him for medical procedures and wrangle him as needed to get through days like this. 

They decided on a chest x-ray but needed no further tests thankfully. It was challenging enough to get that one done even though it takes about a minute and is completely painless. From the moment Teddy went into the treatment room, he was crying non-stop. At one point, I was concerned he was going to throw up because he was crying to hard ... which would have then indicated a possible concussion when in reality he just hated being there. 

Our nurse was able to get us to a private waiting room with a couple couches, chairs and kid table and chairs. It still took about 15 minutes, but he finally settled down and stopped crying. We rearranged all the furniture repeatedly, sat in everything, ate a snack and enjoyed apple juice. We waited there until they cleared Teddy to be released.

We took off his mask when he was alone in the room and crying ... poor kid.

Although Teddy was unfazed once we left, I know how challenging those visits are physically and emotionally on all of us. I wish that our childcare provider didn't have to endure the hour of crying and the feeling of helplessness when nothing calms Teddy. But I absolutely appreciated her help and calm demeanor as she bear hugged Teddy to get him out of his chair into my lap for the chest x-ray and helped redress him after he had an accident (while I was holding him, of course) and kept Dave updated. 

And in related news, we have renewed our efforts to safety plan the railing. Teddy clearly didn't learn any lessons as he was trying to climb the outside of the stairs the next day ...

Halloween - the Best Therapy

I think it's safe to say that Halloween is Teddy's favorite holiday. Now that he's past the phase of being freaked out by costumed characters, he loves most everything about Halloween. (There was one scary beast character that got the side eye from Teddy.) And I loved watching him experience everything!

I say most everything because he'd really love everything about Halloween if he was allowed to enter everybody's home, traipse into their backyards and explore their garages. Those were the only disappointments for the evening when I redirected him from those activities. 

I was so proud of Teddy this Halloween. That might sound odd because all he had to do was wear a really cute costume and get candy, right? When you think about all the effort and skills that go into trick-or-treating, it's like every therapy rolled into one activity that lasts a couple hours. And Teddy rocked it. 

Wendy with her beloved Peter Pan and his Shadow.

From walking so much (with only a few breaks in his chair to rest) to stepping up to every front porch because everyone has a step I swear, he did so much physical therapy. He only fell once, caught his balance several times and trucked through ditches like nobody's business. 

He knows the sign for candy or treat, so he signed that at many houses, along with thank you. Near the end, folks got more of a wave than signs, but they still knew what he meant. (And Dave looked up how to sign trick or treat, so we now have a year to practice the full sign!) 

Grasping candy in a bowl and taking only a piece or two, much less letting it drop into your own bucket, is monumental from a fine motor standpoint. His therapist would be proud of his release skills as he practiced all night, not to mention when he decided to carry his own bucket.

That was my favorite moment. Even though Teddy was putting candy into his bucket all night, I was carrying it because he was holding my hand part of the time and holding his beloved sword that he was so proud to have. All of the sudden, though, leaving one house, he looked at the bucket 2/3 full of candy and realized he should be carrying it. He threw down his sword and used two hands to pry the bucket from me. From that point forward, I was not permitted to carry the bucket and was relegated to sword duty. He was also extremely concerned when he climbed in the car that his candy bucket wasn't in his arms.

This was the few moments Teddy was actually with the kids. I'm not creeping behind him. Oh wait ...

Teddy is such a social butterfly that going from house to house to see all the people is completely his jam. He honestly thought we were supposed to go inside each house because why else would they open their doors. He did amazing at listening overall, going to each front door, ringing or trying to ring the doorbell and then moving on to the next house. Seriously, taking him trick-or-treating was absolutely amazing this year!

I think we should consider trick-or-treating once a month as therapy. I think Teddy would be on board, but now I need to convince my community.