Ethan's First Trip to the ER

So Ethan has now taken his maiden voyage to the Children's Hospital Emergency Room.  He is four months younger than Caleb was for his first visit, but I'm actually surprised that it has taken Ethan this long since he is MUCH more of a daredevil than his brother.  Well, on to the story...

About 14 hours after we got home from Florida, on the afternoon of December 23rd, Nanna and Papa arrived for their Christmas visit.  Shortly after they got to our house, Ethan was playing in the play room with Nanna while Daddy, Papa, Caleb and Mommy were upstairs.  According to Nanna, Ethan suddenly decided to take a leap from the top of the playroom steps into the playroom (something he has never been permitted to do, but since when do two-year-olds obey all of the rules?).  Nanna said that he hit the ground left foot slightly ahead of his right, and that his left leg immediately buckled under him. Initially, he cried a little bit, but was easily calmed down.  He resumed crying anytime he tried putting weight on the foot, so he compensated by crawling and dragging himself around the play room for about thirty minutes.  After observing him for a while and Marcus examining his foot, all the adults agreed that an X-ray would be a good idea.  Marcus and Ethan headed off to Children's hospital while the rest of us went ahead with our dinner plans.

Since I didn't get to be there for the ER visit, this part of the story is second-hand, but I have no doubt that Marcus will correct any errors I make :)  They arrived and were admitted quickly to an exam room.  Apparently, children in the ER over Christmas week get the royal treatment, because, during the 2-3 hours they were there, Ethan received a bunch of stickers, an adorable new teddy bear, a really cute Christmas book and a lot of playing and tickling.  (Marcus said that he's pretty sure Ethan's infectious smile and eye contact won him more 'rewards' than the average patient.)  Whether due to the holidays or to his personality, Ethan had a great time from beginning to end.  He was very cooperative and still for the doctor and for the X-ray, and we were all very relieved to hear that there were no breaks or fractures anywhere in his foot.  He must have just pulled a muscle or bruised the bone.

It has been over a week now, and he is still limping, but the foot has improved a lot.  For the first three days, he wouldn't even walk without a dose of ibuprofin in him.  By the start of day four, he was putting weight on it without meds.  The ER had suggested that we follow-up with the pediatrician if Ethan was still limping in four days, so I took him in on Monday afternoon.  The pediatrician recommended no further X-rays as long as he was improving, and said that he had no concerns at this point since Ethan was walking on it without complaint (albeit, with a limp).  The only hard part the last couple of days has been trying to keep him from doing any further jumping until the foot is completely healed.  Ethan's feet have been spring-loaded since he could jump, so keeping him grounded has been no easy task.

The one funny thing about this foot injury has to do with the timing.  Since Ethan was limping everywhere we went the whole week of Christmas, Marcus ingeniously taught him to say "God bless us every one" whenever someone asked about his foot (just like Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol).  Ethan's childish enunciation of this phrase is perfect and the image of him limping around and delivering that line has been absolutely hilarious.

More about our Christmas with Nanna & Papa next time!

Wagner Christmas

Our days with family in Melbourne, Florida were busy and full of fun.  A bunch of the family came over to hang out at Mimi's house that Friday night that we arrived.  Caleb and Ethan had a lot of fun running around and playing with their cousin Chase (who is one year older than Caleb).  Saturday morning, Marcus slept in as late as he could, and then headed off to the shooting range with his brother Mike.  The boys and I spent the morning at Mimi's house and then all three of us went down for early naps (thanks to the late night and travel the day before).  All four siblings (along with spouses and children), converged on Mike & Gigi's house around two Saturday afternoon to open presents and eat together.  

The kids were very excited about presents this year.  A couple of adult elves helped put all the presents in piles and then we let the kids take turns opening their presents.  All of the kids did a great job stopping after each present and thanking the giver with a hug and a kiss.  I was very happy to see their excitement and gratitude for each gift.  Our boys enjoyed a shower of Imaginext Batman toys as well as several new Lego sets.  They also each got a new bike (Caleb got the 18-inch bike I promised him at Thanksgiving and Ethan got Caleb's 14-inch bike.)  Aunt Traci and Aunt Gigi cooked the traditional Wagner holiday meal: ham omelet, sausage balls and several delicious desserts.  Around 6:00 pm, Mimi took Caleb and Chase, the oldest cousins, for a special treat: they went to see A Christmas Carol performed at a local theater.  Aunt Wendi and Joel also went to the play.  After Aunt Traci took Maddie home for bed, I followed suit and took Ethan back to Mimi's house and put him down.  The Daddies stayed up late at Mike's house, intending to play PS3, but Mike's game system was out of order, so they had to revert to the dark ages and just hang out and talk :)

Sunday morning was worship at Marcus's home church, and then lunch at Jason's Deli with the whole family.  After lunch, the four men (i.e. big boys) piled into one car and headed to Orlando to watch a movie together, while the ladies took the five kids to their various homes for nap time.  After naps, Mimi, the girls and the kids piled into the Mimi-mobile and Aunt Gigi's car and headed to Orlando to meet the guys at a very cool restaurant in downtown Disney called T-Rex.  Aunt Traci and Aunt Gigi were kind enough to get there before the rest of us and wait in line so our party of 14 could be seated shortly after arriving.  I was especially grateful for that, because it ended up taking us almost two hours to get there. (Thanks to a gas stop, an emergency potty stop for Caleb, a slight wrong turn, and a LOT of traffic.)  The kids loved the T-Rex experience, though, and we topped the evening off with some playing and browsing at the huge LegoLand right next to T-Rex.  In spite of the cold, all had a great time, and we had to drag the kids back to the car around 9:00 pm for the trip home.  I so hoped that the kids would fall asleep on the drive, but apparently being in their cousin's car seats and in their Mimi's van was just too stimulating, and they both stayed up the WHOLE way.

On Monday morning, Mimi, Marcus and I took Caleb and Ethan to the elementary school where Mimi works so they could ride their bikes and play in the park.  Aunt Traci, Uncle Josh and 18-month-old Maddie joined us there.  It had finally warmed up a little on Monday, so we all enjoyed some time outdoors before meeting the rest of the family at Makotos, everyone's favorite local Japanese restaurant.  By this point in the trip, I was at my wits end with occupying little boys at restaurants, so I was more than happy to accept Mimi's ever-ready iPhone entertainment :)  Monday night, Mimi volunteered to put our kids to bed so that Marcus, Wendi, Traci and I could go see the latest Narnia movie in the the theater.  Marcus had a Rave gift card from one of his bosses, so we splurged for the first time in our lives and bought popcorn and a soda at a movie.  It was very exciting :)  The movie was great, and we came home to two sleeping boys and one happy Mimi.  (It is pretty awesome when you get to come home from a date to a babysitter that was so happy to get to watch your kids that you feel like you did her a favor.)

Tuesday was our final day in Melbourne.  Uncle Mike & Aunt Gigi had to work and Aunt Wendi and Joel had already headed back to Birmingham, so the rest of us spent the morning at the Melbourne Zoo.  Marcus had to leave us for a job interview around noon (and accidentally took my car keys with him), so the rest of us had to do some creative car juggling to get everyone to Crispers for lunch time.  Aunt Traci saved the day by running around to get me a set of keys and then going back to the zoo for my car while Mimi and I manned the kids at Crispers.  After lunch, we all met over at Mike's so the kids could do their stocking scavenger hunt.  Mimi abbreviated the stocking hunt this year because a couple of the kiddos were sick and all them were tired.  Even with those cards stacked against them, the kids participated more than ever and thoroughly enjoyed the hunt (especially the boys).  After the stockings presents were claimed and opened, the Mommy's took the kids home for bedtime and the big boys finally enjoyed their night of video games.

We said our goodbyes, loaded up the car, and hit the road again on Wednesday.  We stopped in Gainesville for a park and dinner date with our good friends, Danny & Lauren Price (and their three kids).  We lingered with our friends longer than we probably should have, and ended up pulling in our driveway just before midnight central time (which was 1:00 am "body" time).

Thanks for a great week, Wagner Family!

Opening presents in Mike & Gigi's living room.  

 Mimi looking through her Christmas gift: a family photo book

The cousins having fun at the Melbourne Zoo.

Alligator Farm

After an activity-filled two weeks of traveling and celebrating Christmas with family, I will be playing catch-up on the blog for a little while :)

On Thursday, Dec 16, we piled into our packed-to-the-hilt SUV and started off for the Red Roof Inn in Valdosta, Georgia.  (During our five trips to Florida in the past two years, we have learned that breaking the trip down into two days makes it easier on all of us.)  We got to the hotel a little before eleven, transferred the sleeping kids, and enjoyed a pretty good night's sleep.  The good-sized king bedroom & bath were definitely not bad for the $42 we paid.  After a rather lame but still filling continental breakfast, we were back on the road before 10:00 am.  After hearing that most of the family wouldn't be off work until after 5:00ish that day, Marcus made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take I-10 toward St. Augustine for some sight-seeing instead of taking our usual route through Gainesville & Orlando.

We arrived in St. Augustine around 12:30 and parked near the Castillo De San Marcos so we could enjoy some strolling.  Cheap as always, we told the boys we would only pay to go inside one thing: either the castle or the Alligator Farm.  They chose the Alligator Farm, so we just walked around the castle and saw what we could see from the outside.  Then, we crossed the street and spent some time exploring historic St. Augustine, something that could have taken up the whole afternoon (especially if we hadn't had the kids along).  We ate lunch at a quaint little bar with a live guitarist for entertainment.

The kids were very good all the time we were eating and walking around, so we were happy to reward them with a trip to the nearby Alligator Farm.  Marcus and I had visited the alligator farm more than seven years earlier, but we were impressed by all the additions since then.  The place is more like a zoo now, in addition to being an alligator hatchery.  We saw all kinds of exotic and local birds, monkeys, a komodo dragon, as well as hundreds of alligators and crocodiles, including a couple of albinos and the farm's largest alligator, Maximo.  They have even added a mulched play area, which our kids throughly enjoyed after so many hours in the car.

The grand finale of the afternoon was watching the feeding of the big gators in the largest swamp area of the park.  We saw this seven years ago, and it was just as impressive this time as we remembered it being then.  More than 300 alligators crawling over each other in the water vying for handfuls of dead rats tossed out by zookeepers is really something to see.  When we were all alligatored-out, we piled back in the car and set off on the last 2-hour leg of our journey to Mimi's house.

More about our Christmas in Florida next time :)

The feeding of the big gators in the swamp.

The boys pretending to be eaten by a preserved alligator on display.

Ethan dropping food into the juvenile alligator habitat.

The boys enjoying the play area.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

On Sunday morning, Caleb and I headed out for a before-church run to Target while Daddy and Ethan held down the fort at home.  We got what we needed and pulled back in the garage just in time to pick Daddy and Ethan up for church.  Church ran a little long that day, and, after eating out, we didn't make it back home until around 2:00 pm.  Both boys fell asleep in the car, and we decided to carry them upstairs and let them nap since we knew they would have to be up later than usual that evening.   Marcus and I ended up hanging out upstairs until the boys woke up around 3:45 pm.  When Caleb woke up, he went straight downstairs for a drink.  Our conversation (still upstairs) was suddenly interrupted by Caleb's deeply chagrined voice wailing: "Mommy!!!  Daddy!!!!  The Christmas tree fell all the way down!!!!!!"  I looked at Marcus, whose face was registering a fast-flash of surprise, realization, and then mild panic.  We rushed downstairs to see that, sure enough, the Christmas tree was flat on its side in the living room.

Ethan, conspicuously absent from the rush downstairs, was the first questioned.  He explained with the nonchalance of a two-year-old that he pushed the tree over so he could reach the train ornament that he wanted at the top.  The next question was, when did all this happen?  Marcus filled us in on that by sheepishly admitting that he had heard a crash downstairs while Caleb and I were at Target, but he thought it was just Ethan playing with his toys and had not investigated it.  So, our once-beautiful Christmas tree laid on its side in the living room for about seven hours before the tragedy was discovered.  And, naturally, I had watered the tree just before leaving for Target, so the laminate wood floors in our living room were flooded for half the day.

After five water-soaked towels, four broken ornaments, three dustpans full of tree needles, two whining kids and one hour of effort, the mess was cleaned up enough that we could go back to our preparations for the babysitter and the Christmas banquet we were attending that evening.  We did our best to restore the tree to its former glory on Monday and Tuesday by restringing some lights, rehanging ornaments and doing lots of fluffing, but I'm afraid it is a lost cause.  Caleb was so sad on Sunday night.  He told the babysitter everything that happened and explained sadly that "our tree used to be so beautiful."  All in all, I'm just really, really glad that Ethan didn't get hurt, and that the floors do not seem to have any noticeable damage from the water.

The Giving Season

Last year, Caleb made Christmas cards for his friends at church by cutting pictures of toys out of magazines and gluing them into the cards.  This year, I wasn't thinking about that and ended up throwing out all the toy magazines after we bought the bunk beds.  Caleb remembered making the cards and he wanted to do something for his friends again this year.  When he brought it up, we had just purchased a 24-pack of play dough during a sale the week before, so I told Caleb and Ethan that they could give some of their play dough to their friends, if they wanted to.  They were up for that, so I got some cute little gift bags at Walmart and we got to work.  Ethan's favorite part was picking which colors of play dough to give to each friend.  It was hilarious to hear them discussing each friend and what colors he/she liked the best.  

After we stuffed the bags with play dough and candy canes, we got to work on the cards.  I typed up a very simple little quad-fold Christmas card in Microsoft Word and printed out ten copies.  Caleb wrote each friend's name and his own name for each card, and Ethan traced his own name for each card.  Caleb spent more than an hour carefully writing all the names (as well as his own name, over and over).  Then Caleb and Ethan put some Christmas stickers on each card, which took them another hour (since Mommy was cheap and bought foam stickers).  After each card was doled out to its corresponding bag, we put all the cute little bags in the car to be hand-delivered to each friend.

I'm glad the boys came up with another good idea this year to help us all remember that Christmas is more about the joy of giving than the fun of receiving.