July 2010 Recap

Sorry I've been a posting slacker. I've been working on like 3 different posts, but something always gets in the way!

The slideshow is massively long, but it includes a lot of things - 4th of July celebrations, Ireland's bday parties, my triathlon, the girls' swimming lessons, 24th Idaho pictures & pics from the hospital.

McKINLEY:

-One day, McKinley said “I wish Dora was my sister & Boots was my brother cuz he can talk”

-We were talking about re-doing McKinley’s morning chores. Mom asked her what chores she would like to do. McKinley thought for a minute & said “hmmm – I know! Going to the zoo!”

-McKinley has been big into maps this past month. She drew a map & showed where we lived. She talked about the earth and countries.

-We’ve been reading James & the Giant Peach this past month & then we watched the movie. The book was definitely better. It was a fun read since it was one of mom’s favorite books growing up. She earned enough reading points with the library to get 3 prizes!

-McKinley lately has talked about going to heaven & seeing Jesus. She talks about how sad she’ll be if we get separated as a family. One day she said “Mom! I know! If we’re making a chain (holding hands) when we’re walking to the store & a car hits us, then we’ll all go to heaven as a family!”

-We were driving back from swimming lessons & Mom was talking to McKinley about not growing up too fast & how much she’ll miss her when she grows up & moves away. McKinley said “But Mom! I’ll be your neighbor! I promise mom!”

-McKinley did really well in her swimming lessons. She is really starting to swim by herself! She practices big scooping arms & can do monkey-airplane-soldier really well. More than that, she has fun meeting new friends & she loved her teacher. She also loved jumping off the diving board & going doing the slide.

-We got a library book that had a story involving Ireland, which was fun, but McKinley wanted one about Mount McKinley, so we rented a book about Alaska with beautiful, big pictures of Mount McKinley. When people ask McKinley her name, she’ll often reply “McKinley! I was named after a beautiful, strong mountain!”

-Mom is somehow always the last one out of the room after we say goodnight to the girls & inevitably, McKinley says before mom shuts the door “Mom! Mom! I have to tell you something!” One night she said this & mom said “yes, McKinley?” She said “Mom – you know that one in heaven?” Mom: “umm – Jesus?” Mc: no, the other one. Mom : Heavenly Father? Mc: No – the other one. Mom: The Holy Ghost? Mc: yeah. What’s his name mom? Mom: Umm. The Holy Ghost. Mc:But mom, what’s his NAME? Mom: Ummm. I don’t know, sweetie. We just call him “Holy Ghost.” That girl never stops thinking & wondering.

-McKinley has been really big into inventions & experiments lately. She will bring us interesting “inventions” consisting of cups, toys, utensils, paper, etc all wrapped in tape, or we will walk into the kitchen & find one of her many “experiments” with food. She is a natural-born scientist!

-McKinley loves her cousin Michael SO SO much (she tells me so). She keeps trying to think up ways of us moving into their house or them moving here. We keep telling her it just won’t work, but she’s determined to find a way.

IRELAND:

-Ireland saw a 4^th of July float when we were driving to Richfield. She said “look mom! It’s Christmas inside!” which it did look pretty Christmas-y with sparkles all over.

-HAPPY 3^rd BIRTHDAY IRELAND! We told her that they were doing fireworks and having a parade to celebrate her big day since it was held on her birthday this year. She got wonderful gifts, including a walkie-talkie, cute clothes, and puzzles. It was a fun birthday and she loved getting sung to and blowing out her candles.

-Ireland is still infatuated with socks. We can see why she still wants them on her feet because she has the sweatiest hands & feet known to mankind, but does she really NEED them on her hands? We find socks all over the house.

-TA-DA...! Ireland is POTTY TRAINED! She still has accidents once in a while, but she is doing SO WELL! She had a potty-party day with her cousin Joshua & got to open presents when she went in the potty. After potty training, we went to Arctic Circle to celebrate Ireland & Joshua being a big boy & girl!

-When Ireland does have an accident, it’s hard to get mad, because she will run to you & sign & say “Sorry mom! I peeped!”

-Grandma Potts put Ireland in Kezi’s jumper just for fun & now Ireland wants to get in it all the time. She just jumps up & down & gets a lot of energy out!

-We’ve been reading James & the Giant Peach this past month & then we watched the movie. The book was definitely better. It was a fun read since it was one of mom’s favorite books growing up. She earned enough reading points with the library to get 3 prizes!

-One day, Ireland says “Mom – will you help me with my D-D-D-Dora shoes?” (think in your mind of the Dora theme song J

-Ireland continues to have one bump or bruise after another. One day while jumping on the tramp, she fell against the bar & got a huge goose egg & bruise.

-Ireland recognizes & writes the letter I for Ireland! We signed her up for preschool at the Little Blue Schoolhouse down the road – the same one her cousin Joshua will be going to. We’re excited for her!

-In our FHE, we were talking about names. We went through everyone’s first, middle & last name. We got to daddy & said “what’s his first name?” both girls: “Jason!” good job. “what’s his middle name?.....pause…. it starts with a D….” Irleand: DADDY!

-Ireland did SO well in her swim lessons & we are both so proud of her. Mom was kind of worried about it since she JUST turned 3. She got distracted quite a bit, but she never got out of the pool without the teacher telling her to & she tried to do what the teacher said. Her teacher said she’ll be an awesome breaststroker if she stays with it!

-whenever we get home or whenever she wakes up, she runs through the house yelling “Grandma! Grandma!” She’s so excited to see her Grandma!

-For some reason, Ireland has started eating her pizza upside-down. As in… all the toppings fall in her lap.

-There were some flies in the house & dad said we needed to shoo them. Ireland said “Yeah! Shoot them daddy! Shoot them!”

-Whenever Ireland talks about swimming, it comes out “schwimming.” “mom- I wanna go shwimming!” “I can’t find my shwimming suit!”

-If you ask her to do something, Ireland says “I will, I will!”

-Ireland has learned a trick from her big sister: when she gets in time-out, automatically she says she needs to go potty!

-Mom was fixing Ireland’s hair one day & apparently brushing too hard. Ireland said “Mom – you’re owie-ing me!”

KEZIA:

-Kezi had a rough month with being in the hospital for 4 days. All the shots, poking, prodding, checking, and being always hooked up to the machines was pretty traumatizing for her, but she did pretty well & all the nurses & doctors went on & on about how adorable she was. She even gave smiles when they were hurting her. She sure slept and acted better once she was home, though. There were lots of prayers said on her behalf & we are all so thankful that she is going to be OK.

-Kezia has some new tricks this month – she loves to click her tongue, pop her mouth, and shake her head. She’s a cutie!!

-She is quite the copy-cat and will try and mimic whatever facial expression or sound you make.

-Kezia can put her hand over her mouth & say “ba-ba-ba-ba!”

-She says ma-ma, da-da, & hi!

-Whenever Kezia wakes up from a nap or in the morning, mommy brings her to the top of the stairs & lifts her up to play peek-a-boo with whoever is up there. She loves this game.

-Kezi is crawling all over, pulling up on everything & has started to let go of things & stand by herself for a second or two. She has had a couple falls this month – once from the hospital bed to the linoleum floor – and got quite a bruise on her head.

-She is interacting with her sisters more & more each day. She wants to be with them & loves it when they include her in their games.

-One day Kezia was outside & her cousin, Michael, brought her to mom & said “Ummm… here’s your baby. I think she needs to be milked”

-She still is having a hard time sleeping through the night. About every other night, she is up for an hour or more.

-She doesn’t like her medicine that much, but she takes it OK.

-Kezi LOVES to hang out with mom & dad on their bed & crawl from one parent to the other & babble on with her cute baby talk. We love it, too.

-Kezia still doesn’t like baby food that much & would rather eat pretzels, yogurt, crackers, cookies & especially popsicles.

-Kezia loves singing & she will wave her arm around like she’s leading music. It’s so, so cute!

Home, sweet, sweet Home

You know that feeling you get when you walk in the door after being on vacation for a while. Today was kinda like that... times 50. There was a dash of desperation in there.

Today, Utah celebrates the freedom of coming into the Salt Lake Valley.

Today, Kezia celebrates freedom, too.

Freedom from cords, wires, needles, IVs.

Freedom from pokes, prods, and stickers on her chest & legs.

Freedom from endless questions, tests & bright lights at night.

They are still waiting on a couple of lab tests, but for now, STV seems to be the culprit. They showed me how to check her heart rate with a stethoscope and if it's over 200, I have to call the hospital - and I have a follow-up visit with the electrophysiology cardiologist in the next 2-3 weeks. She's on Propranolol every 8 hours for the foreseeable future.

She sure seems to be much better, though. The sweats are gone, the rash is almost gone, she's urinating more normally, and crawling all over & pulling up on things. She's back to being our busy, blue-eyed, beautiful girl!

As we walked outside to leave, and I took the first breath of fresh air in 4 days, I had a number of feelings:

Hope... that I won't be coming back there (except for her follow-up appts)

Appreciation... for all those who work and volunteer at that sacred place.

Anticipation... to be home after 4 days & sleep in my own bed.

but most of all GRATITUDE... that I get to go home with my precious child. For I know... not everyone can.

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and comments. We truly appreciate them and are looking forward to life getting somewhat back to normal.

Primary Children's - Kezia

Sigh... I was hoping this would be an after-the-fact ER visit post. I guess it is not so.

So - here's the scoop on my precious baby girl:

Since Sunday, Kezia hasn't been acting quite herself.

By Monday, she started with the cold sweats. She would just be so sweaty - soaking through her clothes & then shaking from the cold. Her hands & feet were freezing. She wasn't urinating like she should.

Wednesday Jason & I took her to the Dr. Strep & UTI came back negative. He was worried about a bacterial blood infection & sent us to Primary Children's.

We got here at 1pm yesterday. Thankfully, the ER wasn't busy and we were able to get into a room. So - a couple hours and an insane amount of questions later, they started the blood work and urine sample. Let's just say that it was a toss-up who cried more - me or Kezia. It is so, so difficult to watch them do these things to your 8-month-old baby.

At about 5, another Dr. came in & said that her initial blood work came back fine, but she wanted to listen to her heart. She said it was way too fast & they hooked her up to the monitors. Her heart rate was almost 300. Normal is about 120. So... a bunch of people came in fast & they used a medicine called Adenosine to "reset" her heart rhythm. They had to use it twice, and it was a pretty scary experience, but the 2nd time, her heart rate came back down to normal levels.

So - they diagnosed Kezia with Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). I guess it is a fairly common heart condition in young kids. Basically people with SVT have an alternative electrical pathway in the heart - one without a pace regulator, hence the super-rapid heart rate.

They attributed the cold sweats & lack of urine to the SVT because her heart was beating too fast & not being effective in its pumping, so they kept us overnight to monitor her.

At 3am, she had another episode. As a way to "shock" the heart into getting into the right rhythm again, they used a pack of ice & smothered her face with it. Three times. Let me tell you how that feels as a mother to watch your baby get smothered & not able to breathe. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. She did eventually come out of it, but needless to say, nobody got more than an hour's sleep last night.

Kezia's cold sweats have continued even with the treatment of her SVT. She's soaked about 20 of their nice blankets since she's been here. So - they are still running tests - this girl has had about everything short of an MRI - x-rays, ultrasounds, blood work, EKG, Echo cardiograms, etc. Everyone has been really good to us here at Primary Children's. It's a strange feeling because I appreciate what they're trying to do for her, but they just keep hurting my baby & it is just so hard to watch. Still, we feel very blessed that we've caught the SVT and it doesn't take much to look around this place & know that your situation is so much better than so many. Also - I just have to say how much I love my family. When there's a need like this, they all just step in line & are willing to take our girls for us so we can focus on Kezi.

Anyway, if you remember, please add Kezia to your prayers. We're waiting on a few tests, but the other tests have come back fine & we hope to be out of here within the next couple of days.

Tri, Tri Again

Yesterday, I was able to participate in my 5th triathlon - the Echo Triathlon in Coalville. We got up early - just before 5am, grabbed Kezia & headed out the door (mom & dad brought the girls up a little later :). We got there & they had the athletes ride their bikes about 3 miles to the registration/transition area just outside of Echo Reservoir. I have to say it wasn't fun or easy to carry all your gear for 3 miles not to mention extra energy used & the possibility of a tire blowout. I did the Echo tri 6 years ago & I really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd "tri" it again. I was somewhat disappointed, though, when I realized it wasn't the "quaint" 300-400 athlete size that I competed in before. Yesterday consisted of 700+ athletes & it was a bit crazy. So many things had changed since I last competed there. Not necessarily bad - just a lot more hectic.

My Sprint wave didn't actually start until almost an hour after the first wave. The swim was good - the only hardships were getting past the pack (which, with that many people, involved many kicks to the face), and a point in the middle of the swim when I swallowed a big gulp of water & had to cough it out. I felt good & fast on the swim, though & was quickly on to the bike.

The bike is admittedly my biggest weakness & to my chargrin 2 girls in my age group had sped past me within the first couple miles. I pushed hard, though & played "do-se-do" with a few of those girls. The bike was a bit longer than the 12 miles it was supposed to be, but I finally saw the transition area again & pushed it.

Finally, the run! Thankfully, it was a beautiful morning - not too hot. Still, I wish they had ONE more water station. My calves were screamin' at me for the first mile or so, but I mostly stayed behind this 27-year-old since her pace seemed pretty close to mine. I passed her once toward the end & then she came back & stayed by me & said "hey - why don't we just do this together?" So - it was nice to have some company on that last mile. I pushed it at the end & whew! I was done!

Don't laugh at me, but I hoped to be able to place in the top 5 for my age group - I always have, but this year with the craziness of the move & still waking up with Kezia at night, I was pleased to get 6th in my age group. The other factor is that I've now entered the 30-35 age group & these ladies are seriously hard core!! My main goal, though, was to have fun & do my best, which I did. Not sure I'll do this race again. It's getting harder to find open water swim tri's that do not have so many competitors, although I have my eye on a couple for next year. Now... on to the TOU Half!

Thanks SO MUCH to my support team - my mom & Jason (who watched the girls while I trained & mom swam with me), my dad (who ran with me on Saturday), and of course my girls (who are my inspiration & reason I tri!)

Here's some pics from the big day:

4th of July/Ireland's 3rd Bday

Sorry I'm about a week behind in this post, but such is life...

Last weekend, we went to Richfield for the annual 4th of July festivities. Jason had to work on Saturday and had to be back by Tuesday, so it was a pretty quick trip, but we enjoyed the time we were down there. We haven't seen Jason's side of the family hardly at all this year, so it was great to catch-up, visit, and watch all those cousins play together. This year had PERFECT temps for a great celebration. Usually it's too dang hot to breathe in the park afterwards, but it was really nice. Ireland's 3rd birthday (on the 5th) fell on the day of festivities for Richfield, so that was kind of cool. We told her they had a big parade & fair to celebrate her birthday! It's hard for me to believe she's three. She's already riding a big-girl bike (which she got with money from her Aunt Al), and this past week we've been potty training & she's done great! I barely finished her birthday book in time, but managed to get it put together just in time. So... I first included a slideshow with my fave pics from the 4th, then I included a slideshow with my digi-scrapbooked pages for Ireland's bday book. Enjoy!

And here... many hours of work put in to these scrapbook pgs for her birthday book:

Tew-getherness!

Back in June, we had a Tew Family Reunion (my mom's side of the family). It was a lot of fun & we had a great time eating, visiting and discussing our family ties.

Here is a slideshow of the event:

June Recap

Enjoy! Hope you're having a great summer!

McKINLEY:

-Sometimes, McKinley will cover her ears when we are trying to tell her something. We are working on not doing that.
-McKinley was going up a big hill on her bike. Mom was encouraging her & she was doing great, but was obviously slowing down. Mom kept encouraging her, but she said “Mom – my muscles are gone!”

-In the morning, we told McKinley that we were going to go to Jack’s house that night & so for the morning prayer over the food, she prayed that it would be nighttime right now.

-McKinley calls all toast French toast.

-Mom was looking for dad & asked McKinley if she’d seen him. She said “No! Maybe he’s playin’ hide n’ go seek by himself!”

-McKinley got to go on a special date with Grandpa Potts to the Symphonic Choir. He said she did a great job holding still & listening. Afterwards they went for ice cream & McKinley said “Grandpa, I love ice cream too much!” Don’t we all, McKinley. Don’t we all.

-If we tell McKinley not to do something, she often says “but what if I forget?”

-McKinley was playing with a penny. She put it in her mouth & said “Mom – I’m cleaning this”…gulp. She swallowed the penny. We called poison control & everything, but she seems to be doing fine. She did like to tell everyone she met that day, though, that she swallowed a penny.

-When we were up in the mountains, mom took the girls to see the stream. McKinley asked if there were fish. Mom said yes – and you’ll get to go fishing with dad soon! She said “Quiet mom! They’ll hear you!”

-McKinley wrote a sweet note to her friend Lizzy, telling her that she missed her. She put the note in an envelope to mail. Then we decorated the envelope. She wanted to write a word that she knew how to spell on the back. Mom looked & saw that she wrote the word POT on the back of the envelope. Let’s just all hope that it wasn’t sent through the security system on the way to Lizzy.

-Grandma Potts has a toy where it asks you questions & you can record the answers. One question it asks is “What does a daddy say?” McKinley said “Here honey. You can play a game on my phone”
-Mom & Grandma Potts were testing the sprinklers one day. It went through the cycle a couple times – just watering each station for a few minutes. At dinner, we told dad that we were working on the sprinklers. McKinley said “Yeah, dad! They were broken all over! They just kept turning off & on!”
-Grandma is teaching some piano lessons to McKinley. They’ve started with learning the fingers & what number each finger represents. Mom was testing her one day. She shut her eyes & mom said to hold up #5, so she held up her pinkies. Then, mom said #3. Well, let’s just say it was somewhat humorous when McKinley held up both her middle fingers with her eyes shut & said “look Mom! I got it right!”
-McKinley told grandma “Aunt Cindy said that if I don’t brush my teeth I’ll get catigories!”
-McKinley wrote an “I love you mom” note one day that was so sweet. She said “Here mom. Put this in your pocket & take it out when you’re feeling sad. So sweet.
-We were driving somewhere (McKinley has a lot of her deepest thoughts/questions in the car) & she asked “Mom – ya know the gloves that doctors wear? Are they made out of white balloons?” That girl is a thinker, she is.
-Grandma has talked about McKinley singing a song in Sacrament Meeting. McKinley said that would be fun & that before she sang, Grandma should stand up and say “Ladies and Gentlemen! This girl knows how to sing!” McKinley was practicing singing “Whenever I hear…” except she sang loud and clear (and many times) “Whenever I hear the SONG on my face, or look at the blue, blue sky…” J
-Mom & McKinley were playing pretend one day & we were at school & she was the teacher. Mom said she was feeling really tired & McKinley said (in her teacher’s voice) “Well… then you can go to the restroom, because that’s where you rest.”
-McKinley had on one of Grandma’s black dress-up shirts. She came out & said “Look mom! I’m a missionary!”
-Mom & McKinley went on a special date to go see the Murray Park play of “Annie.” They both had a great time. It was a perfect night for a play.
-We know the Holy Ghost is working on McKinley when she says “Mom – I have to tell you something..” it’s usually followed by a confession.

IRELAND:

-Mom caught Ireland playing with crayons & putting them in her mouth. Mom was starting to get after her & Ireland said “Mom – we don’t eat crayons! We eat ice cream!”

-We put Ireland to bed one night & she came out after about 20 minutes & said “Good Morning!”

-When we tell her something lately, Ireland has been saying “Ok, OK, OK, OK…”

-Ireland has taken on the role of police of closing your eyes during the prayer. We still haven’t convinced her that if she can see other people & tell them to close their eyes then she must have her eyes open, too.

-Grandpa & Dad were watching basketball one night when it was time to go to sleep. Mom was trying to get Ireland to get her PJs on, but she said “No mom! I wanna watch basketball!”

-Ireland was pretending to eat Kezia one day & she said “Kezia tastes like brownies!”

-Ireland’s nursery teacher always praises her & tells us how good and obedient she is.

-When she’s mad, Ireland will say in her angry voice “You have a choice!”

-Both McKinley & Ireland love, love, love to water grandma’s plants. They may or may not be getting overwatered some days ;)

-Mom caught Ireland under the dinner table with the sugar dispenser. She was having a “sweet” time down there.
-Ireland was also licking peanut butter off her plate one day. She loves that stuff.

-Lately we’ve been having fun saying “Ireland Anita… HUG!” or “Ireland Anita… KISS!” Most times she is happy to comply (although, I don’t think she’s caught on to the play on words)

-Whenever we get ready to go someplace, for some reason Ireland will say “Are we goin’ to the doctor’s house?”

-Ireland loves to get Kezia’s headbands & put them on her head – many times multiple headbands are the thing.

-Another thing Ireland has been doing is reiterating herself: “Mom, when a baby cries, then a baby cries!” “When I want to go.. then I want to go!”

-Mom & dad were cuddling in bed with Ireland one day. We were asking her what she wanted for her upcoming birthday. She said “Chocolate!” We said “Okay, well what about toys?” She said “Yeah, toys… and chocolate.” We said “Well, what about balloons?” She said “Yeah balloons! And Chocolate!” Hmmm – that girl definitely inherited the “chocolate gene”!

-Ireland is lately infatuated with her penguin PJs. They’re kind of hot for the summertime, but if she had it her way, she’d never take them off! She likes to waddle like a penguin when she has them on.

-We were riding bikes outside in the front yard one day. Ireland liked to sit on the baby walker/scooter, but she kept dragging her toes. After a half hour, she had 2 bloody big toes that required band-aids. Silly girl!

KEZIA:

-Kezia is already 8 months & as cute as can be!! She has really mastered the crawling thing this month & has gotten very mobile. We’re really needing to watch her closer to make sure she doesn’t go near the stairs or crawl over to something small & put it in her mouth. She’s also pulling up on anything & everything! She’s standing in her portable crib now when she’s done with her naps. What a big girl!

-Kezia is also mastering the ability to pull off cute headbands & bibs L

-One day Kezia was on the changing table & mom went over to grab a diaper quick & she fell off L It was so, so sad because she fell right on the slate & she ended up getting a little black eye L

-Kezia has started to give up the mellow cries & go straight to screaming.

-She sleeps OK – usually straight through the night 2 or 3 nights a week.

-Kezia has a little mirror she plays with and when the light is on, it puts a dot of light on the ceiling. Ireland gets SO excited when she sees the dot. Kezia is just playing with the mirror, but Ireland is watching it move across the ceiling & screaming “dop! Dop!”

-Kezia can clap hands & wave now! It’s sooooo adorable!!

-Another sweet thing is that Ireland will put her head on your shoulder when she’s tired. She likes to have her neck and face rubbed gently. She will also wrap her arms around you in a little hug. It’s so, so cute & sweet.

-We were in church and the closing song had started & people were singing. All the sudden, Kezia starts “singing” and stops when the chorister sat down. It was so cute.

-Kezia does still say “Mama” and “la-la-la”

-Kezia also likes to squeeze mama’s arm when she wakes up.

-Kezia continues to capture people’s attention with how adorable she is – those bright blue eyes, that amazing smile, her laughs & giggles are just SO CUTE!

-Still waiting for that first tooth!