Kansas City Here We Come!

Last weekend we made the long trek to KC for Vivienne's 3rd birthday party and Noella's baptism.  When we drove to WI Dells in January both boys were screaming their heads off after 2 hours of driving.  We were more than a little concerned about this drive, since it's about 7 hours on a good day.  They did fine but we called it after about 4 hours and got a hotel room.  Kade was excited to swim in the pool and we were excited to put the boys to bed so we could catch a few games in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament!

We've been so busy that we forgot to fill out a bracket!  However, it's a given that we cheer for 1. a Big Ten team and if that's not an option then 2. the underdogs.  Kade always asks us who we are cheering for and then he usually agrees that he's going to cheer for that team as well.  Except, he changes his mind when there's 1 second left and decides to cheer for whoever is going to win.  He's been having fun telling us the scores (who knew that watching March Madness could also double as a lesson in learning numbers for a 4 year old?  It's a win-win!!) and picking out his favorite players.  It's usually the guy who has the flashiest shoes out on the court.

Pool time!!!

We had initially decided Mason wasn't going to swim since his burns were freshly healed and we didn't want to risk an infection.  But when he saw Kade jumping in and splashing around there was no possible way we could keep him out.  Mason loves to swim too!

We got to Kansas City early afternoon on Friday and we immediately went to the park to burn off some Crazy Kid Energy!

Snack time in the middle of the basketball court.

Mason's got a little learning to do on how to go down a slide properly.  He starts out well but tips over half way down and we're never quite sure how he's going to end up :-)

The boys and the girls…and the creeper behind the pole.

Notice Mason's pants?  The silly Minnesotan's weren't properly prepared for the sun and 75-80 degree weather that KC had in store for us.  Yes, we checked the weather before we left but we couldn't quite wrap our heads around it.  And, being from Minnesota, we thought for sure Mother Nature would say "Just kidding!" and then send us 40 degrees and rain.  Thank goodness I packed sunscreen because we had to reapply it at least 3 times a day and Kade still got sunburned.

Noella!!!

Hard to believe there's only 10 months separating these 2!  And Noella had Mason beat in birth weight! She seems so tiny next to him.

Next up, party pictures!!

It's been a pretty quiet week, thank goodness.  So this week is just a post with some cute pictures that didn't make it into previous posts.

Kade and Violet riding in style.

I bought a few new headbands and the boys took them away the minute I cut the tags off.  Kade thought he looked like a basketball player.  I can only assume Mason thought he looked like a ninja.

Mason loves basketball!  

We had some warm weather last week!  Not as warm as Kade thought it was though.  He told me he couldn't wear a shirt because we were playing Shirts vs Skins and I was wearing a shirt already.  Can't blame his logic though because I definitely wasn't going to be on the Skins team! 

The boys got haircuts last week.  Kade wanted his hair spikey.  Can't believe my 4 year old puts more product in his hair than I do!

10 days, 2 doctor visits, about 100 gauze pads and roughly 6 miles of gauze wrap later Mason's burns are healed!  There's one little spot on his forearm that got burned pretty bad so it will probably have a scar but it looks like he will be scar free everywhere else!  I'm not sure what we're going to do with all of our extra time in the mornings and evenings now that we don't have to do dressing changes!

In other news, we recently discovered that Mason is tongue tied.  I had the doctor take a look after he gave the A-OK to the burns.  Not only is he tongue tied, apparently he's REALLY tongue tied.  Umm, there's levels of tongue tied-edness??

The good news is it hasn't affected his eating--that's an issue for some but definitely not for him.  The bad news is it could affect his speech so he may need a speech therapist or we could get the piece of skin holding his tongue clipped.  I think this kid has had enough pain recently.  The thought of clipping the little thingy that holds your tongue down is not something I want to entertain for him.  Gives me the heeby jeebies just thinking about it!!  His tongue holder is really thin though so the doctor said it could tear at some point.  Again, shivers down my spine.

I did a quick google search of it.  One of the symptoms is that he won't be able to clean his teeth with his tongue so kids may make fun of him.  Really?  That's something to consider?  Maybe I'll be sure he always has a toothbrush with him so he doesn't get picked on for not being able to lick his teeth.  I'm more concerned about the other "symptom" that was mentioned:  not being able to lick ice cream cones.  Now that would be a disaster.

Kade story:
Last week a bird hit our window.  It didn't sound like it hit very hard but the bird was sitting on our deck, just below the window, for quite awhile.  My windows are disgusting.  There are hand prints, snot streaks and tongue licks all over them.  I'm making the bird take the blame for this one.

Anyway, the bird wasn't moving.  Not even a little.  I thought it was a goner but Kade assured me it was ok because it's eyes were wide open.  I wasn't ready for that conversation so I just went along with it.  Eventually the bird did move, it blinked, turns out Kade was right!  It sat there for over an hour so we randomly checked on it.  I noticed at one point it was fluffing it's feathers, presumably to stay warm but Kade had a better explanation.  He thought, maybe, the bird was exercising.  I'm going with Kade's theory  :-)  I love that kid.

Kade said he saw the bird walk away.  I didn't see it.  In any case, it's gone and we're just going to keep on believing that the bird is living the good life in a tree somewhere.

Cute little beaver!!

He assured me he wasn't going to sleep, just play cars during rest time.  He must've passed out during the starting line up!

Hopefully these are the last of the snow pictures for 2015!!  A girl can dream anyway...

March Came In Like a Lion

In terms of the weather it was fine but March 1st was a horrible day for us.  Mason and I had our first and last ambulance ride (knock on wood, preferably a Sequoia tree).

Sunday morning started out like any other day.  Erik and the boys were playing downstairs, I was upstairs making hot chocolate for us.  I came downstairs, set my freshly made steaming mug on the table in a spot that I thought was far enough back from Mason's little bear paw reach.  I was horribly wrong.

Mason was across the room from the mug, I turned my back for a second and then Erik and I both turned around just in time to see the steaming hot chocolate spill all over him.  The image of the steam rising as the liquid was falling is permanently seared into my brain.  The heart wrenching screams coming from Mason's mouth are permanently scarred into my mind.

I thought it was just on his hand.  I grabbed him, ran upstairs, and threw his hand under cold water.  As I was holding him I realized that my hand was burning in the spot I was holding him across his chest.  I tore his clothes off.  As his clothes were coming off, his skin was coming off with it.  Blisters were already forming, and sloughing off, on his perfect baby skin.

Erik called the nurse line while I put him in the tub to pour cold water on his body.  The nurse asked a series of questions, as well as gave us instructions on how to treat the burns.  Finally she asked what percent of his body was burned.  Apparently you measure that with their palm.  1 palm = 1%.  I eyeballed it and said 5.  She said to hang up immediately and call 911.

Sirens.  A police officer standing in my bathroom.  Mason screaming bloody murder.  The EMT's.  A ride in the ambulance.  Me strapped on to the cot with Mason in my arms.  He couldn't go in a car seat because the burns were on the entire left side of his torso.  As well as his left forearm (his hand that I was initially holding under cold water wasn't even affected).  Me, hoping and praying the ambulance didn't get in an accident on the way because my baby wasn't strapped into anything, although there was no way he was getting out of my death grip.

He finally calmed down about half way to the ER.  I started singing softly in his ear, the Tylenol kicked in and my inquisitive little bear cub LOVES to watch people.  It was enough to make him forget his pain.

3 hours later we left the ER with the knowledge that he was extremely lucky.  He ended up with 2nd degree scalding burns on 7% of his body.  If it had been 10% we would've been in the helicopter on the way to the nearest burn unit.  If his entire forearm had been burned, instead of just the one side that is, we would've been in the helicopter on the way to the nearest burn unit--in fear that his hand would've lost circulation, or worse, due to swelling.

Instead, our little Mason was, and still is, a champ.  He didn't cry at all in the ER.  In fact he gave everyone big smiles.  He slept in my arms, watched Monsters, Inc. and laid there calmly while the nurse dressed his wounds.

He hasn't slowed down even a little bit.  You would never know he's wrapped up like a mummy underneath his clothes.  He's not a fan of the dressing changes but I think it has less to do with pain and more to do with the fact that he's being held down for a few minutes.  He's still getting into everything he shouldn't be (giving us heart attacks at every turn) laughing, wrestling, eating.  The only way you can tell something awful happened would be to look at Erik or myself.  We each acquired 25 new wrinkles and 500 gray hairs from the incident.

The crazy thing is, Erik tried the hot chocolate that was left in the mug immediately after the spill and it wasn't even that hot.  It was drinkable and Erik is super sensitive to hot liquids.  That's how incredibly delicate baby skin is.  LESSON LEARNED.  The hard way.

Kade has been fantastic through all of this too.  He entertained Mason in the ER.  At home, during dressing changes while Erik is wrestling with Mason and I'm playing nurse, Kade will sing to Mason to try to keep him entertained all the while throwing gauze, tape, etc. at me in order to keep things moving.  We're like a well oiled, but extremely dysfunctional, surgical room!

The boys' favorite thing to do--chase Kade around the couch in the living room.  This pastime has been put on hold until the wounds on Mason's chest heal.  Look at those smiles though!!