Slippers and Surgery

Today was Amelia's surgery on her ears. We were due to be at the hospital at 12:30pm. No foods for 8 hours. No liquids for 3 hours. I had decided it would be fun to get her a pair of slippers to have at the hospital. She loved her princess slippers (even wearing them to bed last night!) Anyways she did remarkable well today with her jello breakfast and kept very busy. By the time we were leaving she was getting a bit restless but actually settled down when we got to Ridges hospital (mostly because we let her put her slippers back on). We waited for 1/2hour to get back to a room, but then they had a great peds room.... one of the best I have ever seen. Tons of toys and plenty of space. She loved this and I didn't even need to break into her purse of toys. We found out Dr. Griebe was running an hour behind but Amelia was not at all bothered and loved playing. She did very well at being put to sleep even. She liked the mask. Their child life specialist had come in and let her practice with a mask and a bear and Amelia was quite the little doctor, even wanting to play with the IV. Anyways after two hours of waiting in that room they put her to sleep about 3 and we were done by 3:25. She was worse coming out of Anesthesia this time, screaming and looking very disorientated. It was a bit scary for me who has seen this before. They opted to just let us take her home, without even had something to drink!. Anyways she cried the whole way home and finally fell asleep with David in the chair for an hour. She woke up at 5 crying and continued to cry for the next 1 1/2 hours. Finally the tylenol we gave kicked in and it was liked she turned the corner back to herself. She has now eaten a bit, drank and is to bed (with her slippers on!) The doctor said the tube placement went well and this should help. Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes.

Cancelled again

Monday I was canceled from work again... the last time! Here is what my day consisted of
1. Sleep in till 8:30
2. Clean the bathtub
3. Change all the sheets in the house
4. Do all the laundry in the house
5. Clean out the fridge
6. Wash the floors
7. Talk to my good friend Amy while drinking coffee
8. Grocery shop
9. Pick up the kids
I'd say it was a pretty productive day!!!
Now I will work on Friday and the Weekend.

Weekend in Rochester

Aunt Stacy enjoys Samuel.. I think they will need to come to the cites and watch the kids some weekend! It was great to visit with you Stacy.

Great Grandma Peterson and David. It was the first time Great Grandma saw Samuel

Amelia enjoys the ca-ca (her name for kity Jasmine). She has come a long way from the time she would scream every time she saw the cat. She actually looks for Jasmine and tries to get her to play. Now I think Jasmine wishes she were still scarred of her.

Grandma looks on as Amelia tries to hold Jasmine.

3 Generation picture

We had an enjoyable weekend in Rochester with David's family. We had an early thanksgiving dinner! Lots of yummy food. David's sister, brother and their spouses along with his Grandma all came for the weekend. Everyone enjoyed seeing the kids and how they had grown.

Update

Samuel at 3months old

Cousin time!

I thought I would post some pictures before giving an update of recent events.
Thanks to all of you that were praying about my first day of work, and subsequent stress of being canceled. Here is the latest. My insurance was reinstated on the 19th so that was a huge answer to prayer... really the only thing I was worried about. I also found out that I can only be canceled twice a year by them. I can choose to stay home if I want and they need it. I'm next scheduled on Monday so we'll try this all again and see what happens. I would like to work. I have heard things are different at the hospital so I'm praying that I will remain positive about my job and fall back into the routine of things. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Another update.... Amelia was at the pediatrician for her pre-op physical today and the verdict was that there is still fluid in the one ear so we will go ahead with the surgery on Tuesday. The ENT had said if the ears were clear at her pre-op we would cancel surgery (he thought they would be!) We have had this procedure before so we kinda know what to expect. Amelia is older now, and a bit more dramatic and likes her mid-morning snack and lunch (which she wont' be able to have). Our biggest job will be keeping her away from food all morning and drinkafter 11am as surgery is not till 2pm. My parents will be in town anyway so will watch Samuel, so we are grateful for that (though he is usually the easier one of the two :) ) I'm hoping the tubes will help with the speech and reduce the colds this winter!

Priceless

Sorry, this will be another post without pictures. I promise I'll get some more up soon. Today was supposed to be my first day back at work, but I got a call at 4:45am saying I was getting a "mandatory to stay home." Most people would have been excited to have another day to stay home, however as many of you know I carry the benefits for the family. I'm still waiting to hear how this will impact that. Also for you moms that have had to go back to work after kids you know the emotions of returning to work. I spent last night getting daycare bags ready, work bag ready, lunch packed, etc. Now I have to do this all over again on Sunday night. I was not scheduled again till Monday. The kids still went to daycare. I'm on a list to be recalled if the census increases so essentially I'm "on call" I'm going to try to have a productive day and get some work email caught up on and do some mandatory education (all without pay, of course!) I guess things could be a lot worse, but I was all psyched up about returning. I enjoy being a nurse and I'm so thankful I have a career that allows me to work part time, and spend most of my time at home with the kids. Last night Amelia was playing with her piggy bank (David had suggested she count how much she had in there after a previous conversation.) I told her mommy was returning to work the next day and how much would she pay me to stay home with her.... she brought me 6 cents! After this morning's call I'm thinking that was a pretty good offer!!

Update

For those of you wondering how our church directory photo's went, here is an update.
1. Amelia had to bribed with fruit snacks to sit nicely (we did not capture any smiles)
2. Samuel was alert but we also captured no smiles.
3. We got combinations of the kids, kids alone and David and I (I felt like it was engagement pictures again!)
4. We bought way more than we planned on buying and deviated from the plan! I'm such a sucker for pictures and now have a 10x20 framed print of the kids on the way to my house along with all the proofs and an 8x10 of the family (this was free!) Oh well you can never have too many pictures right?
You'll just have to come by the house to see all these beautiful pictures we took.
By the way after we were done Amelia was running around and loved being in other people's pictures (smiling the whole time). Go figure! The whole process was a bit exhausting... reminds me I need to call Penny's for Samuel's 3 month pictures. Here we go again.

Practice for Pictures

We have our family pictures tomorrow at church for the directory. Here are some shots of the kids practicing (they are not in the official outfits they will be wearing), Hopefully tomorrow night will be as good!

Stay tuned to see how the 4 of us look in our formal wear... here's hoping for a good family picture.

Weekend in Fergus

Grandpa pulled out the pedal tractor (it belonged to Janelle's Grandpa and was a favorite toy when I used to visit them.) Amelia loved it.... though she kept saying choo-choo, thinking it was a train. I know the Grandkids will have hours of fun playing with this.

Grandpa shows her how to push it

Halloween

Who is the clown in these Pictures?

We were in Fergus for Halloween and Mom and Dad had fun seeing Amelia in her costume.... a clown. We headed to Bethel church for their trick or treating party. They had a lot of fun carnival games and of course candy for the prizes. Having not been there for many years it was fun to see some old friends. Amelia was a little shy at first so Daddy helped out with the games. We then ran home for a quick supper and then out to the mall for trick or treating.

Showing off the clown costume. Grandma found an old wig to add to the ensemble. It didn't stay on much but was so cute. The bottle was also a new favorite toy of Amelia's from Grandma and Grandpa's play room. It was with her much of the weekend.