Audrey ankle update

So it turns out....she has a stress fracture in her left ankle.

I believed the whole time it's wasn't achilles tightness, especially after our first therapy session. She may indeed have achilles tightness, but I didn't think that was the root of her pain. And, Momma knows best! Although we were halfway through the appointment before the MRI results came in and I wasn't getting very far trying to tell the orthopedic surgeon I was convinced that therapy hadn't helped Audrey. Maybe it had, slightly loosened up that area, but I told him she was complaining just as much as she was before. He told me it was ok to send her back to gymnastics......and dance.......

And then the results came in the door.

A stress fracture. No cast. No crutches. Just rest.

Have you ever told a 5 year old they can't jump, or run, or dance? Ugh. It's gonna be a long 3 months.

I am thankful though, that it's not something much much worse.

Sarah

Audrey's ankle

She's having to do 6 weeks of physical therapy to try and heal her Achilles tendonitis, per the doctors orders. What disturbed me slightly, was when she went for her first PT appt, the therapist got her foot/ankle to do what the Dr. could not do, within 30 minutes. I'm not sure what we'll be doing for the next 6 weeks, except a lot of exercises at home and twice a week therapy....in the middle of the holiday season, of course. :)

Fearing it's the "c" word or another serious condition we checked with her pediatrician just for peace of mind.


The above was written about 6 weeks ago.

She did therapy. And it didn't seem to help. And the physical therapist seems to think it's not her achilles tendon at all.

There were still nights that she'd wake up crying and complaining that her ankle hurt. There were still times that she had to limp or walk on her toes because it hurt. There were still one or two instances where she refused to walk on it.

At times I wondered if she was faking. At times I wondered if it was something major. At times I just didn't know what to think as the therapist could never get it to do what it did when we weren't there.

Yesterday, the therapist recommended that we be done with therapy, cancel her last sessions and move up her appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon. After leaving and calling her pediatrician, we went ahead and did an MRI today on her ankle. We await results on Monday. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit nervous.

But for today, I'm off to her room. The  new Barbie Dream House is moving in and we've got to rearrange.



Sarah

I'm an Aunt!

I was so excited to meet my new niece, Olivia, tonight! My first time to be an Aunt on my side of the family. Our kids continue to have sniffles and coughs so I met her from afar but plan to hold her soon! I'm so happy for my brother and Hannah. And so excited that Ava will have a little playmate.

Jeremy and I went to the hospital after getting a text this afternoon and finding a sitter for our girls. Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, we had to go today if we were going to meet her in the hospital. 

I can't believe I found the cutest "My First Christmas" outfit the other day--marked down of course because it was a few days before Christmas, and it was even size newborn. And I didn't buy it. I thought, "Nah, she won't have the baby before Christmas" and well, she proved me wrong. I found a cute Valentine outfit for the little miss instead.  

She is so adorable and compared to my ten month baby and some of our baby dolls, she is sooooo tiny. and perfect. I can't wait to watch her grow.  

I'm so excited, I'll say it again, and can't wait to see my little brother in his new role as "Dad." Welcome to the family, Livy. 

peering from afar at her cuteness.

B was so funny as he was questioning the little scratches on her face and if they were anything abnormal. Sounds just like me!

Sarah

christmas cookies

What to do on a wintery Sunday afternoon two days before Christmas? Make cookies for Santa, of course! Gluten free sugar cookies and I don't get along. But in the interest of using the 800 cookie cutters I have and so my girls can participate in cutting them out and decorating them, I decided to give a store bought mix a try. A friend told me about Bob's Red Mill Shortbread Cookie Mix that she uses for cut out cookies.  We managed to keep a few for Santa and the rest, they ate. 

Audrey and Allie wanted to roll their own dough out and shape it and pound it and play with it, so I gave them each a chunk of dough and let them do whatever they wanted with it. This year they picked out trees, angels and  reindeer. We decorated them with colored sugars before baking.  

Sarah

three little girls in the tub

All three girls took a bath together tonight. You can officially call them sisters. I'm going to opt out of posting a picture of it, but they were pretty cute, splashing and giggling. Ava loved it! She loves hanging out with her sisters and being a part of the action.


Sarah

Christmas Tea

Audrey's preschool class had a "tea" as their Christmas party today and invited parents. They served cookies and hot cocoa, sang a few songs and exchanged presents with their teachers. After her tea, Daddy took the older girls out to lunch and Ava and I tagged along. 

Today Audrey's teachers talked to me about moving her to a different class, with the same teachers.  We had no idea going into this day that it would be the last time she'd be in class with these kids. Glad I got some pictures. I'd love to take credit for the braid in Audrey's hair today, but her teacher did that!

Audrey loves it when Daddy comes to her school

eating cookies and drinking juice. her teacher braided her hair before the program

she loves her teachers. 

Of course her sisters came too! 

Allie. Ava. Audrey

Sarah

Allie's smile

I had this picture in with the Christmas tea, because it was taken when we got home. But I thought it deserved it's own post. I rarely capture Allie's real smile. And this is it! A belly laugh, tickled down to her toes smile. I see Jeremy in her more and more everyday.

Sarah

Allie's 3 year interview

An interview with Allie at three years old.

1. Me: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?  
   Allie: Purple

2. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?  
   a Painter 

3. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE PERSON IN THE WORLD? 
   Lilah (her cousin)

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL (S)? 
   puppies 

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE? 
   McDonald's

6. WHAT DOES DADDY DO AT WORK? 
   he works. he goes every single day.

7. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? 
   nuggets (chicken)

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? 
   Alice in Wonderland

9. IF YOU COULD LIVE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE? 
   Kindermusik (not quite sure she understood this question)

10. HOW OLD ARE YOU? 
    3!

11. WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND? 
    Lilah (again, her cousin)

12. WHERE DO YOU LIKE TO GO? 
    Cinderella's Castle

13. WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO LEARN ABOUT? 
    gymnastics

14. WHAT WAS THE BEST PART OF YOUR BIRTHDAY?
    My Bitty rocking bed (she got a doll cradle)

15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? 
    Dora the Explorer
    
    
    WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? 
    My leapster 
    
    
    WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK? 
    My Marley Book 
    
    
    WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TOY? 
    My Winnie the Pooh figurines
    
    
    WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BREAKFAST FOOD? 
    french toast 
    
    
    WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG? 
    The Periwinkle Song
    
    
    WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SNACK? 
    french toast
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Sarah

Allie's Birthday

Today is Allie's actual birthday, December 16th. We all had breakfast together this morning and she blew out candles.  We gave her the Alice in Wonderland movie, as that is her favorite right now and a pair of pajamas from American Girl to match her Bitty's pajamas.  

All grown up. Age 3.

Now this cracks me up. Audrey had to get a picture of Allie's cupcake and candles on her "phone" which is actually Allie's new Dora phone she got at her party. 

Two of her favorite people in the world. Her Daddy and her older sister. 

 Best friends.

Sarah

A Mexican Fiesta! Celebrating Allie.

After her friend party today Allie's family came to celebrate her turning three and the super sweet and spicy girl that she is.

I made chicken enchiladas and a taco bar, we had chips and salsa and guacamole and of course, margaritas. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing, per Allie's request for dessert and since I ruined her cake, the best chocolate cake in the world, hours before her party, I had to come up with a cake in two hours. Which, is why I was in a hurry with the icing and I got it too watery and it ran all over the cake. (sigh) This is the second or third time I've ruined cakes this fall. 

Alas, despite another cake catastrophe, her birthday was a success. And that chocolate cake with white icing tasted great alongside gourmet ice cream and sprinkles.

These candles broke about four times. They were glued and held together by toothpicks just long enough for her to blow them out. 

Allison is very meticulous about making sure she gets every little piece of paper off the box.

her new doll cradle for Bitty. 

Allie wanted to sit at the island to eat her ice cream and cake, so we let her even though it's not designed for chairs.

Sarah

Allie's Dora the Explorer Party

Allie turns 3! This is her Dora the Explorer friend party. We had a Mexican Fiesta right afterward for family.  

I thought we were nuts having a birthday party on a Saturday night in December, but we lucked out and had a good turn out at both parties, despite the worst cold and flu season EVER. For the friend party we went on an adventure (like Dora does on her show) and we used "Map" and 'Backpack" to help us know where to go and for any tools we might need once we got there. We had cupcakes, opened presents and just had some time to play before the next party started. 

It was hard to do an explorer party inside--without turning my stairway into a mountain and without elaborate props and a lot of time. And when Allie found out it was inside she wasn't too happy--because Dora does all of her exploring outside. Well, Dora doesn't live where it gets cold in December either my dear. 

 We set up little areas in our house where the kids traveled using their maps. First we went to Puzzle Island where the kids had to use their backpacks to complete the missing pieces to the Dora puzzle. Then we went to Star Valley where we searched for chocolate stars. Upon completing that we went to Painters Place (I should really hire someone to make more creative names for these things...) where the girls painted a little treasure box. 1. Because Allie loves to paint. It's her thing. And it was her party so I wanted to incorporate something she really liked to do. 2. Dora is always finding treasure per sea so they painted a box they could put their treasure in. Since we've painted before at parties Next we had a Dora piñata that was supposed to be outside on the Pergola but instead got moved to the garage due to rainy weather. Inside the piñata was candy and little jeweled dress up rings--that the girls could also put in their treasure box. After the piñata it was time to open gifts, have cupcakes and sing to Allie. 

When the girls arrived they picked a spot at the table where a party hat and coloring packet were waiting for them. 

I don't sew.  I've talked about this before. And since I'd just overworked my MIL with aprons from Audrey's party, I had to make something that resembled Backpack, like what Dora wears in the show. I didn't like the foam pattern I found on the internet because although it was cute, you couldn't put anything in it, and I wanted to fill it with things they needed on their adventure. So I came up with purple gift bags, purple ribbon to put it on their backs, and got the pattern for eyes, mouth and eye brows from Nick Jr. It did the trick. I just wanted it to last for the duration of the party.

the birthday girl coloring with her party hat on

the coloring packets

the backpacks I made for the party

The map. Got the template from Nick Jr. and I added the "artwork" on the back,
with some clipart from the internet.

getting our backpacks on

the girls on their adventure

left to right: Lanie, Corinne, Lilah, Lana, Audrey, Allie, Macy and Hannah. 

showing off their backpacks

a before and after of the boxes. This painted one is Allie's. 

 opening gifts. this was Allie's 3rd year video going in the background... 

cupcake time!!

her birthday will always compete with the Christmas holiday....

Sarah