recovery

I thought I'd post a little photo update about Harper's face now that her scabs are gone.  It is amazing how fast kids heal.

Click to see a larger version of the photo to get a good idea of what her lip looks like.

Harper has commented several times over the last few days that her "booboos" are now gone.  It has only been two weeks and she is looking and feeling amazingly better.  The plastic surgeon used dissolvable stitches so they pretty much came out as the scabs came off.  She still has a couple of stitches left in her nose but they should be gone soon.  

She is back to her crazy self!

Palm Springs

We are in Palm Springs right now for a retreat with Tom's law firm.  I think that the kids and I are having a lot more fun than Tom is because he has been in classes and doing team building exercises, but it is nice for all of us to get away for a few days.

We drove out on Friday (which was actually our 5th wedding anniversary) and had dinner with everyone.  Harper had a little too much ice cream (which she is allergic to anyway) and ended up throwing up all over the place on Friday night.  Yuck.

On Saturday Tom had to go to some classes after breakfast so I took the kids to a children's museum a couple of blocks away.  Most of the activities were a little too old for Harper, but we did find one thing that she LOVED.

She kept turning around and saying, "Look Mommy, I'm painting!"  I had to literally drag her away kicking and screaming so some other kids could have a turn.

When we got back Tom took Harper to the swimming pool.  She was a little nervous at first, but ended up really loving it.

Jonah and I hung out in the shade while they swam.

And now we are just packing up our hotel room and waiting for Tom to get back from some classes.  It's fun to get away, but it's nothing like sleeping in the same room with your children that can make you want to get home and sleep in your own bed.

9 months / 35 months

This is going to be brief because I still have a giant, unpacked suitcase and a sink full of dirty dishes, but I wanted to mention a few things that have been going on with the kiddos lately so I don't forget.

Carly and Jonah

Jonah is still his jolly little self.  His growth has continued to slow down (Harper did a similar thing around 8-9 months) and he weighs just under 21 pounds (I weighed him at Harper's appointment today).  I am not taking him in for his 9 month appointment until next month because I wanted to do his 9 month and Harper's 3 year at the same time.  He can pretty efficiently pick up his own food now and seems to love carbohydrates (waffles, bread, crackers, etc).  I think he might be getting interested in crawling, but it is still going to be a while.  Right now he can roll around on the floor and can also bounce himself forward pretty well when he is sitting up.

This little boy loves Elmo.  Harper will be watching Sesame Street and Jonah will quietly be playing with his toys, but when the "Elmo's world" part comes on he watches and giggles. So cute.  He is still toothless.  I think it looks like his bottom two teeth are coming in, but I think he will be like Harper and have his teeth come in late and grow in very slowly.  One of my favorite things right now is when we are standing somewhere in public Jonah likes to stare at someone and smile until they look at him and smile back.  He does this all of the time and I just love it.

I love these chubby arms and legs!

Harper is doing pretty well.  This morning she was wiping her nose and she wiped hard enough to break off some of the scab on her upper lip and that took some of her stitches with it.  We already had an appointment with the pediatrician today and he said that the would looked healed enough that it didn't need to be re-stitched up.  I have been surprised that she doesn't seem to be afraid of dogs.  She comments on the bite several times during the day and will say, "Doggie did a big no-no, Rocko go to time out."

Harper + chicken nugget = one happy little girl

Other than that she is her normal self, which means she is happy and loving one second and whiny the next.  One of her favorite things is to help with Jonah and she likes to bring me diapers when I need them or bring Jonah toys if he is fussing.  She is really good at getting him to laugh and he just adores the attention she gives him.  Our trip to Utah in combination with the dog bite has really hindered our potty training work and our progress with getting Harper to eat new foods, but we are going to get back on track now.

I know that our family is interested in how Harper is healing so I will try to update on that again soon, but just know that she is healing well and she is okay.  The doctors at Primary Children's did such a great job.  I just keep thinking about how much worse the damage could have been and I am grateful that she is doing so well.  I know that my mom and stepdad feel really bad about what happened, but it isn't their fault and it makes me feel bad that they feel bad so they better stop it!

long day

I have more stuff about the rest of our Utah trip but I will post that later.  Earlier today I was fixing Harper some lunch when I heard Rocko (my parents' lhasa apso) growl and Harper start screaming.  He had bitten her on the face.

I am not a huge fan of dogs, but I really like Rocko.  He has always been pretty tolerant of Harper as she chased him around, but she must have done something today that pushed him over the edge.  Harper loves dogs and I hope this doesn't change that.  I just hope we can help her to be a little more gentle and give animals a little more space.  But Rocko better stay away from my little girl in the future!

Luckily my brother Chase was home and he was able to go with us to Primary Children's hospital to get Harper stitched up.

I was pretty surprised at how well Harper handled the situation.  She screamed a lot at first, but she calmed down by the time we got to the emergency room and was very brave as she got an IV to be sedated for her stitches (she had to have an IV since she is allergic to eggs which are in the sedative they normally use).  They actually had a woman come in and talk to Harper about IVs and put a little IV in a doll's arm.  I think it really helped.  Harper got to keep the doll and colored on it with markers while we waited.

Harper chose the bumblebee bandage to hold on her IV.

I was really impressed with the doctors and nurses at the hospital and a really wonderful plastic surgeon stitched up Harper's face.  She had to have stitches on her nose, along a cut on her upper lip, and also in a puncture wound on her lip.  The plastic surgeon said that while it is never ideal to have cuts on your face, the location of her cuts were very good for healing with minimal scarring.  

It was so hard to see Harper out of it.  After she got her  stitches we could see the wounds a little better.  

I am so grateful that Chase was able to come with us.  He was so helpful with the kids for the 5+ hours that we spent taking care of this.

Luckily we had a late flight.  We made it back to LA even though just about everyone we saw asked what happened.  

friday

The highlight of today was definitely the BYU basketball game.  Wow.

In addition to that, Harper checked out the rapidly melting snow

Took a nap on the couch with Kelly

Jonah hung out with Chase

Harper helped Grandma make cookies

And the kids played with their cousins and we all went to dinner.

And while we were doing all of that Tom waited in this line

Sorry for all of the boring details of our day, but I know Tom misses the kids so I wanted to post some photos so he could know what we're up to.  

wednesday, thursday

As you can see, Harper had some fun with her cousins Hailey and Gavin yesterday.  They spent a long time just jumping off of the fireplace onto the floor together.  

Today Carly and I went down to Provo to check out BYU.  I am trying to persuade Carly that is where she should go to school.  We also made a stop by the candy counter at the bookstore.  Yum.

We drove by some of my old apartments and then walked around on campus.  This is Harper in front of the MARB which is where Tom and I met.

Afterward we went to Cafe Paesan, which is a restaurant in Orem that is kind of like Cafe Rio but with Italian food. Harper and Jonah were both very happy and giggly even though neither of them had any yummy pizza.

We are looking forward to spending the day with my Mom tomorrow since she has the day off. 

tuesday

We woke up this morning to this

So we spent the day in the house until some of it melted away.  Harper and I colored:

Jonah did a lot of crying.  He has had a lot of trouble sleeping in a new place and he is a little sleepy and sad.

After Carly got home from school, we went to my Dad's house to visit him and my grandparents.

Chase held Jonah while he finally got some sleep.  It has been so great to have some extra hands to help with the kids.

Utah

We are currently in Utah to visit family and see my little brother who just got home from his mission on Friday.  I was nervous about flying, and it was pretty much worse that I had anticipated.  The kids were okay until the stewardess brought around drinks.  Harper had a juice and I had a diet Coke.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Why would I get open drinks on an airplane with 2 kids?  Within about 10 seconds the juice was spilled all over Harper and the diet Coke was all over me.  I had a change of clothes for Harper, so after a few minutes of whining and screaming she had calmed down.  No change of clothes for me, so I got to spend the rest of the flight with Coke-soaked jeans.

Today we brought lunch to my Mom at school, but other than that we have just been taking it easy.

Kelly has really been taking it easy.

Carly and Kelly didn't have school today so we went to Target and the distribution center.

Chase has been catching up on all of the things that he has missed on the last two years.  He has already bought a new cell phone, laptop, and ipod and has been looking for a car.  Harper has really enjoyed seeing him play his guitar.

We have been having fun, but we miss Tom and I feel bad that he has an empty house for the next week :(