Growing Up Wenzler: May 2013

Difficult to believe, but Alice is one month old yesterday! As a One Month gift to her Momma, Alice gave me her first, for-sure, for-real smile! It was a wonderful, big smile! I grabbed the camera and got a couple of the smaller smiles that followed. :)

A lot has happened in this last month!

GiGi's Playhouse- Nashville Gala!
After lots and lots of time and effort and lost sleep, our hopeful little group pulled off an awesome first gala! Alice was only one week old and my mom had to drive me there because I was still under driving restrictions and people were surprised to see me there, but I just couldn't miss it (and I am SO glad I didn't)! We had a really great turn-out, including Nancy Gianni (GiGi's mom and founder of GiGi's Playhouse) and some other members of Inc's executive board. It meant a lot to us that they flew down from Chicago to support us that night. We raised enough money that night to make opening our doors in 2013 a reality!

With Nancy Gianni

Daniel Got a Haircut!
The Thursday or so after Alice was born, I asked Keith to take Daniel for a haircut that upcoming Saturday because it was starting to get a bit long and scraggly looking. He agreed, and that was that. Or so I thought. The morning after the Gala (the Saturday in which Keith was to take Daniel to the barber shop), I woke to find Daniel had been given a homegrown haircut by his Daddy who felt he was qualified to do this after watching two whole instructional videos on YouTube. Keith had waited until I was gone the night before and he armed himself with a pair of shears that he found in the box of DOG GROOMING supplies out in the garage. It looked pretty bad, but it wasn't AWFUL. My mom and I trimmed on it a little to even it up when Keith wasn't around and I begged Keith to leave it alone and let it grow back out. Well, wouldn't you know, Sunday morning I woke up to find that (while I was "sleeping in" with Alice) Keith had taken a pair of clippers to sweet Daniel's remaining hairs and made the cut even shorter. I cried. To say things were a little "tense" around here might be a bit of an understatement. Let's just say that he's promised not to cut his hair without my permission again.

^Day One^

Day Two

GiGi's Meetings!
We had a Gala wrap meeting on May 7th and a monthly board meeting on May13th. Alice came with me to both meetings...

Alice's Two Week Check-Up!
After the new nurse incorrectly zeroed out the scale and led us all to believe that Alice had lost nearly a pound since her birth (scale said 5lbs 13oz), Dr. Hood and I spent the entire check-up talking about ways to have her put weight on and planning regular weight checks. At the end of the appointment, Molly (aka: Dr. Hood- shes's on the GiGi's board with me... It's been an interesting transition from calling her the formal "Dr. Hood") said that we should just double check her weight. Well, wouldn't you know it? Alice's weight was 6 lbs 12oz! Almost back to birth weight! Molly told me to basically disregard everything we had just talked about, keep up the good work, and she'd see us again at Alice's regular two-month check-up!

My Mom Left!
After being here for a little more than two weeks, my mom left the Saturday before Mother's Day. I was so thankful that she was able to come stay for so long. I am incredibly grateful that she was willing to use up most (if not all) of her accumulated vacation days to come help out with the big kids and do all of the driving while I recovered from the c-section. It was a little scary watching her car pull out of the driveway as I realized that we were officially out-numbered.

Mother's Day!
We celebrated my first Mother's Day as the momma of three littles! As I said in the blog I posted that day, there was once a time when I wondered if I would ever get to be a mom. It's the one thing I wanted more than anything in my life and I will never take it for granted.

My First Solo Trip to Target!
The situation was getting desperate and we REALLY needed toilet paper. So, I loaded all of the kids up and took them to Target. It was time to figure out how I was going to make this work. The trip went surprisingly smooth! And I got the toilet paper restocked! Huzzah!

Keith's Appendectomy!
Thursday night, May 16th, Keith started complaining of a stomach ache. We thought he might have caught a stomach bug going around his office. He did not sleep well that night and stayed home from work the next morning. By lunchtime on Friday, he decided he should probably see a doctor. I told him that I suspected appendicitis and he should probably go to the ER, but he's a guy and he wasn't convinced. So, I sent him to a walk-in clinic here in Spring Hill (poor guy had to drive himself). He texted me a few times with updates. He had a fever. They suspected either a GI bug or his appendix. They were going to check his white blood cell count. Fever is a little higher. WBC was high, they were sending him over to an imaging center here in Spring Hill for a CT scan. He was coming home for a couple hours to give the contrast dye time to get to where it was supposed to go in his body. He was to go back to imaging at 4:00pm. Poor guy laid on the couch, in a lot of pain and shivering. I suggested he shower to warm up (and because I knew he'd be having surgery later and he might be glad he took one last shower).

He went back up to imaging and texted me at about 5:15 to let me know that the CT scan confirmed acute appendicitis and he was to go straight to the hospital. I loaded the kids into the car and we were ready to take him to the hospital as soon as he arrived back home. It felt strange to just drop him off at the ER, knowing he was about to have surgery and I probably wouldn't see him for a few days, but his parents arrived about five minutes after I left and his mom called me with regular updates. The surgery went well and it sounds like it was a pretty serious situation. His appendix was infected/dying/gangrenous. They kept him in the hospital until Sunday mid-morning when I loaded the kids back into the van and we went to pick up Daddy. Having him out of commission for nearly a week was difficult, but I made it work. Nothing like "sink or swim" time!

School's Out!
Etta had her last day of the regular school year on Tuesday, May 21st. She is enrolled in Extended School Year again this summer, but the first two-week session doesn't start until mid-June and some of the staff will be different. Her class celebrated the last day with an Ice Cream Party! Keith was still home recovering from surgery so I was able to leave a napping Daniel at home while Alice and I went to celebrate with Etta. She was pretty excited to see me and at one point got worried when she looked back up and I wasn't standing in the same spot. After a quick scan of all of the other mommy faces, she looked relieved to see me again. Sweet little love! She really enjoyed her ice cream and singing/dancing to some of their favorite circle time songs from the year. Then, I helped her pass out gifts to her teachers and we headed home to get our summer on!

Etta with Ms. Pam and Ms. Amy

Etta and Ms. Amy

Etta and her OT, Ms. Rachel

Etta and her SLP, Ms. Mandi

Daniel Gets Pink Eye!
Not much else to say about that. His eye got red and weepy and a little swollen and the phone nurse at our pediatrician's office called in some drops and it cleared up quickly. No one else seemed to contract it.

Aunt Donna Visits!
My Aunt Donna (my dad's sister who also lives in Panama) came for a visit! She's been coming to a dentist in Atlanta about once a month for a while to have some work done. She stays with her in-laws while she's in ATL and someone finally told her that she's only about a four hour drive to our house. So, she planned to come see us for a couple of days during this last trip. She arrived on Wednesday, May 22 and left around lunchtime on Friday. It was really great to see her and for her to have the chance to meet both Daniel and Alice (I had not seen her since my last trip to Panama when I was about 9 weeks pregnant with Daniel).

Etta Goes to the Dentist!
Etta had a teeth cleaning the same morning Donna arrived. I had to pull out of my driveway by 9:15 to make it to her appointment and Donna pulled in at 9:05. So, we loaded all three kids in the car and she went with me to help wrangle babies in the waiting room. Etta's teeth looked good and she was cooperative while they cleaned them. She was rewarded with a new toothbrush and two plastic coins from the treasure box area which I promptly threw in the trash because it was junk/clutter that she didn't care about past the actual act of picking them out.

I Mowed the Grass!
I pushed a lawn mower for the first time in my life! The front yard was starting to look a little overgrown and Keith was out of commission. When I suggested that I mow it, he got very excited and right away he showed me what I would need to do to get it started and he told me that it wouldn't be any more difficult than pushing one of those giant shopping carts in Target. I did it the next morning while he was at work. Donna took a picture of me from up in the play room and I texted that to Keith. He immediately called me all excited and laughing and repeatedly telling me how "hilarious" it was that I had done that. For the record- it IS more difficult than pushing a Target shopping cart! Those things will (surprisingly) turn on a dime!

Etta's Big Girl Car Seat and Big Girl Bed!
Etta got a new car seat. It's a high-back booster with a five-point harness and it has CUP HOLDERS! I think I was more excited about it than she was because she has a hard time with change like that, but she seems to be adjusting. Also, the tent we've been waiting on since November finally arrived! When I ordered it, I knew it was on back order until February, but delay after delay with the company meant that we didn't get the tent until May 24th. I almost cried when I realized what the UPS guy had just left on my porch. The sage of Etta's bed/ sleeping situation has been ongoing since the day she was two and she started climbing out of her crib. I've only had the bed tent set up for a few days, but I can already tell it's the ANSWER! (http://myreadysetbloom.com/) Now... to get her going on the CPAP...

Memorial Day Weekend!
We had a fairly lazy weekend. On Sunday we met Keith's parents at the park for a couple of hours. The highlight for both kids was playing in the creek before we went home.