Princess Party

Friday night Riley was invited to her friend Kay's birthday party at Super Franks in the Princess Room.  We've been to Super Franks for many a birthday but never to the princess room.  It was ADORABLE!  They had a princess come and dress the girls in princess dresses and did their hair.  Then they did a little fashion show, for dinner it was a tea party (with pizza of course).  The boys even had a great time dressed as knights!  It was a late night but Ri had a TON of fun!

We Call Her Robo-Riley

Whelp, just when we thought we had a break from the orthopedic surgeon we headed back there on Friday.  Wednesday morning I noticed Riley limping on her left foot, she had just gotten up so I figured it may be stiff since she had just woken up.  They had told me stiffness and soreness was common so I didn't think anything of it until that evening when she was still limping.  I took a look at her ankle and saw that it was bruised around the ankle and swollen.  Fan-freaking-tastic!  Yes, that statement is 100% sarcastic.  Honestly, can we get a break!?!  I also noticed her foot was turning in again.  Thursday I called Dr H's office, of course he's out for 2 weeks because we never have these issues when he's around but I described what was going on and his medical assistant suggested we come in for x-rays.  It sounded like a sprain but since it was the foot that was just casted, better to be safe.  We had to see the nurse practitioner since Dr H was gone, which made me super nervous.

Friday I had to go to the office for some meetings, I left at 11:00, rushed home, grabbed a bite, went to get Riley and headed back up to Walnut Creek for a 2:00 appointment.  We got there a little early so I took her to a delicious bakery up near John Muir (where she and Jacob was born and I made Marc stop every morning when I was in the hospital after having Jacob) for a little treat.  Riley was SUPER chatty on the way up, telling me all about water play that morning and who did what and how we forgot a towel but her friend Kay let her borrow hers and Trevor shared his sunscreen with her.  Apparently Riley has delinquent parents!  We headed into Dr H and thank goodness Beverly was there, she took Ri's sock and shoe off and saw her ankle and said "Yes, good thing you came in.  It needs to be looked at."  I had a bad feeling about the whole situation. 

The nurse came in, she was SUPER nice and made friends with Riley before touching her feet.  She touched around and asked where it hurt.  Then suggested some x-rays to make sure it wasn't broken.  Ri was so brave, she laid on the table and let him take pictures without a tear or trying to negotiate getting out of it.  The nurse came back in and said there was no break, which was good, and the bruising and swelling was consistent with rolling the ankle.  We think she jumped off of a play structure at day care and rolled her ankle because her muscles and tendons are still sore from having been in the cast for 5 weeks.  Now typically, at 4 1/2 they cast for sprains to keep the patient from moving their ankle so that it can heal.  But the nurse had been texting with Dr H and they decided not to cast her because she had just gotten out of casts AND they didn't want to mess with the alignment by casting her without Dr H there.  So, Riley is now in a brace on her left foot.  She can take it off for swimming, water play, and showers but other than that it's on until July 12 when we go back for an already scheduled check-up.  Still don't know if we lost all of the correction that we got over the last 5 weeks of casting but we'll find out on July 12. 

Of course Riley took it all in stride.  On the way up she asked if we could go home after going to the Dr if we could go home before getting Jacob and play Candy Land together.  So after her appointment we headed home, ate our cookies and played a game of Candy Land before getting Jacob from school.  It's been over 100 degrees here, so I feel bad that she's stuck in the brace but it's better than a cast and like the cast, it's not holding her back one bit!

The 2013 Season

Of Family Fun Day has officially begun!  We had a little mini-session Friday to celebrate the removal of Riley's cast but we went all out yesterday!  We were going to take out the giant giraffe pool we had but Marc popped it while blowing it up so we went to plan b which included our slip and slide and sprinkler ball toy.  Both, major hits.  Neither kid had the slip and sliding down but they had fun with the sprinklers and Jacob had a love hate relationship with the ball sprinkler.  Jacob of course ate his snack in the middle of the slip and slip which prevented slipping and sliding but Riley ran all around him and eventually he was on his feet running around in the water fully soaked!

And It's Off!

Friday I took Riley to Dr H to get her cast off.  They are so awesome there, Jacob had his 18 month appointment so I couldn't make the 12:45 slot that they wanted us to come to and they didn't want us to come at 3:45 when we were scheduled for because he was going to be super busy so they told us to just come when we were done with Jacob and go in the back door and they would get us in a room.  On the way up Jacob fell asleep, no surprise there after the two shots he got and considering it was nap time.  Riley wanted to go to Fuddrucker's and there is one in Walnut Creek across the street from my office so I was going to take them to that one for a quick bite before going to get the cast removed and as I was trying to find a spot Riley said "Mommy, you better find a spot real quick because I'm about to fall asleep."  I took that as the one and only clue that lunch would be a disaster so I told her we would go to Dr H and get her cast off and then go to the Fuddrucker's near our house in the hopes that they would both sleep.  Sure enough both kids were snoozing by the time I got to Dr H's so we sat in the car until Riley woke up and then we headed in.

We snuck in the back door and Riley ran up to Beverly who got us in a room, handed out the lollipops and got the casting guy.  Cast came off and the foot was extra stinky but her sores had healed up so whatever Dr H put on them really worked.  We had a wait a bit for him to see us but when he did it wasn't all roses.  He said we could do a brace, nothing, or surgery.  Come again!?!  I guess he got good position, though Marc and I both kind of see it turning in a little, but the question is how long will it stay.  I think he wasn't 100% sold that we were good.  He said to leave it for now, watch it, let her enjoy the summer (she already missed her first day of water play at school).  We go back in a month but her warned me that we'd probably be doing this again (which is ok by Riley as long as it's after water play is over) and that she'd probably be missing school, i.e. she'd be having surgery this winter and would be out for the 6 week recovery.  They were all worried about how I was with the news, so how am I with the news?  Sad, disappointed, worried, upset, all of the above.  But I try to remind myself that this was a long shot, that we kind of knew it would be a temporary fix and we were doing it so if we ended up at surgery we could say, hey, at least we did everything to avoid this.  And if we go another round of casts, I'm ok with it, but I don't want to keep doing casts and then have to do surgery.  I don't know that it's necessarily fair to Riley to disrupt her routines so much just to end up operating.  I'm extremely worried about Riley's future and dealing with pain.  Recently I've read a lot of stories of adults and teens having horrible issues with pain and arthritis and it concerns me, I want her to have a normal pain free life.  Besides the news that we weren't in the clear yet it was an overall happy day.  Riley was so excited to have her cast off.  We stopped at Fuddrucker's on the way home and after an attempted nap, it was outback to play in the kiddie pool, we had to break that new foot in with water sometime, plus we needed to de-stink it!

Bev and Dr H got a kick out of this photo, Riley is holding her casts f rom her tenotomy that she had when she was 3 months old.  Her left thumb is on the knee part of the cast, these were full leg casts and they are the size of her thigh now.  We forget how crazy small she was!!!

In the casting room, ready to go!

The sawing begins, Jacob hates this part and cries (hence the lollipops from Beverly), his sister laughs!

Almost off!

It's free!  It's free!  (Notice the curvature still).  Her foot also looked bigger and definitely needs some toenail clipping done after 5 weeks!  Her foot is still really stiff, I'm hoping it's because it's been casted for 5 weeks and it will loosen up soon.  They said it was normal for her to be stiff and sore for a few days.  She of course ran out of the office, took her no time to get used to being cast-free.  And today she went back to gymnastics and did great and said she had a grea

Hi from my extra stinky foot!!!

Celebratory lunch at Fuddruckers!

Jacob isn't one to say no to a Fudds lunch!

18 Months and Growing!

I can't believe it but my Jacob-pants is already 18 months old.  I have no idea where the last year and a half went but my little man is 1 1/2!  He continues to be super fun!  He's developing quite the personality and just loves to make us laugh. 

He hasn't been talking as much as I would think he should be at this age but he says: ball, baoon (balloon), momma, dadda, buh-bye, mine (this is a new one as of Wednesday and yeah, not so excited about this one!), hot (his favorite word by far.  He'll say it and then blow, it cracks me up), bubah (bubbles).  I guess I am comparing him to Riley who was fully talking at 18 months.  And let's face it, he may not get a word in until Riley leaves for college!

He still enjoys eating and pretty much needs to be double fisting it when eating.  Jacob now has all of his teeth (minus the 2 year molars, I would very much enjoy a break before those come in).

He likes to shake his finger in a "no no no" motion when he sees someone doing something that they're not supposed to do, the other day I picked him up and one of his friends climbed on the bookcase and was sitting on it and he ran up and shook his finger at her.  He screams when he sees trucks or motorcycles, they're pretty much the best thing since sliced bread.  He also shakes his head no when he doesn't want something.  And one of his newest things and one of my favorites, when he wants you to play with him he will pat the ground next to him to come sit down.  I don't care how important what you're doing is, when an adorable 18 month old pats the ground you go and sit down and play with him! 

His favorite toy right now is his Fisher-Price pirate ship that he got for Hanukkah.  He can play with it for hours!!!  Or until his sister snatches it away! :)

He had his 18 month appointment today and here are the stats:

Height: 32.5" (37th percentile)
Weight: 25lbs (60th percentile)
Head Circumference: 49cm (87th percentile!)

Still short and fat!  The Dr said to watch his vocabulary, if he's still not talking in 3 months or I'm still concerned she will put in a referral to have him evaluated but right now she doesn't think he will qualify for speech therapy because he's saying about 9 works and they look for 10 at this age so we're not far off from the target.  Other than that he looked great, he was not happy about the exam or the shots.  But the lollipop after the appointment, that was awesome!

 

 

Pre-K

Riley started her Pre-K class this week, so far it's going great, we've gotten feedback the first two days that she's doing great.  She needs some reminding of rules and behavior correction but all of the kids have as most of that class is new.  In our area if you go to public school and want the before or after school care they make you start in the summer to hold a spot for the school year so there was a mass exodus of kids last week.  The teacher told us yesterday that Riley is definitely a leader, that she has pretty much the whole class following her around and participating in her games.  Pretty funny since she is the smallest in the class.  I'm glad to see her confidence up since for a while she was feeling a little self conscience.  She's also made friends with a little girl, Anna, I know her mom from when they did gymnastics together and she's very sweet and almost exactly a year older than Riley.   I'm glad she's making some new friends as I was a little worried since a lot of her friends are leaving to go to transitional kindergarten or kindergarten. 

They told me last week that she would be moving to Pre-School C which is their Pre-K class and I had a moment where I had to collect myself.  I remember dropping Riley off over 4 years ago for the first day of day care and it was unfathomable that she would ever make it down the hallway and into Pre-School C.  Even when they showed us the class on the tour I wasn't really concerned about it!  The way the school is set up is Infants is the first room on the right when you walk in, then you go to Toddlers which is next to it, then to 2s across the hall, then to Pre-School A right next door, then back across the hall to Pre-School B, and finally next door to the last classroom on the right to Pre-School C, there's a kindergarten class across the hall from Pre-C but Riley will go to public school.  I remember looking at the parents those first few weeks of day care picking up their pre-schoolers from the end of the hall and thinking what a different lifetime that seemed.  And here I am, making the long stroll to the end of the hall to get my Pre-School C student looking longingly at the Infant room wishing my baby hadn't grown up so fast!  It feels so odd walking to the end of the hallway to get her.  Time has just flown by, next year at this time she'll be done with KinderCare and off at public school.  I really can't believe it. 

Riley has matured tremendously in the past few months.  We were sitting at dinner Monday night talking about her first day of Pre-C and she said her friend Kay was trying to play with the 5 year olds and they weren't letting her play.  Riley told us that she said to KayKay (that's what Riley calls her), "It's ok, KayKay, they're not being nice but you're my friend so you can play with me."  My heart was ready to burst!  I was so proud of her for being a leader and doing the right thing and not excluding a friend so that she would fit in with the older girls. 

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day, mostly because no one had a fever!  We were taking bets on who would be sick or who would have a fever but everyone stayed healthy.  We spent the day over the on peninsula, we took the kids to a breakfast place that Marc and I went to when we lived in Mountain View and then Marc showed the kids and I his office.  We spent the remainder of the day in Palo Alto just walking around before heading home in time for the Giants game.  It was a great family day!

This boy LOVES him some milk!

Famalamadingdong breakfast!

I took Riley with her friend Bella to paint ceramics for their dads for Father's Day.  Riley made Marc a rocket ship (it's a piggy bank) and she was so excited to give it to him!

I wasn't sure how the rocket ship would go over so I also painted Marc this pizza plate, I thought it was the perfect gift for him

He was VERY excited!

Say Cheese!

Jacob just started "cheesing" for photos which is so super cute and fun!  I love his smile so the fact that he will now give me one on command is great news to me!  He is also all about the laugh these days, so I got a couple of these:

Before I got the BELLY!  Funny boy definitely got the laugh out of us on this one!  As you can see, he's very proud of the BELLY! 

Graduation Day

I can't believe my baby had her first graduation yesterday.  Her preschool B class graduated Wednesday afternoon, some of the kids are moving on to kindergarten, Riley is going to stay at her preschool another year but she's moving to Preschool C which is like a Pre-K class.  They did a little performance, Riley started crying during the second song and ran off, I guess she has a case of stage fright.  Which shocked all of the parents in her class as she runs right up to them and tells them stories about her cast and talks to them freely and is so social at parties.  It was really sweet how concerned they all were and Riley told us that she got scared by all the people, progress from last year when she ran off stage at her dance recital and couldn't tell us why.  She was in  little funk afterwards, I think she was embarrassed but as soon as I told her I got scared at work sometimes too when I have to talk to all of people, she snapped out of it and ran to be with her friends.  I also think the fact that they had cake for the graduates helped too!