Happy 4th Birthday, Kai!

Our sweet Kai Lane turns 4 today, and I can't believe it! Here are some pics of my precious boy during his 3rd year:

Puddle Jumping

Lots of rain the past few days means way too much time cooped up inside for two energetic boys!  So this afternoon we made the most of it and let them get absolutely filthy.  They were in heaven!

Kai's Glasses!

At our last visit to the eye doctor a couple of weeks ago, we learned that Kai has regained almost no vision in the eye that was injured.  We had been holding out hope that the patching we had been doing had helped, but at this point it sounds like he doesn't have much vision in that eye at all.  So the doctor prescribed eyeglasses not so much to improve his vision, but instead to serve as a layer of protection for his good eye.  The great news is that he has excellent vision in the good eye, and we want to do everything we can to keep it that way.  Playing mind games with a 2 year old to encourage him to actually wear his glasses has been an interesting process. 

Bribery:  "You can have [insert toy or sweet treat of your choosing here] if you put your glasses back on."

Flattery:  "Oh Kai, you look so handsome with your glasses on"!

Emotional power play:  "It makes mama so sad when you throw your glasses across the room. [Fake crying helps.]

Modeling:  "Look, Mama and Daya have glasses too!" [Usually followed by Kai's keen observation, "Not Ruby and Kai and Ja Ja (Pla Shee)!"

Bargaining:  "We can't do X until you put your glasses on." [This one seems to work best in general, but is a real bummer when we're running late and really need to get out of the door in a hurry.]

Warm Winter

I LOVE that it is the beginning of February and we can be outside enjoying 70 degree weather.  This is a little different than the first week of February last year when we had that awful ice and snow storm!  I took Kai and Ruby to the park yesterday after school and snapped a few pics.

Aaron and I decided that the caption for this one should be Ruby saying to Kai, 

"Oh, big brother, how I envy your luxurious locks of hair"!

Kai discovered a new way to ride on the stroller rather than having to walk like a chump:

But most of the time he has to exert his independence.  

"No, mama!  I do it!" is his mantra, and he repeats it about 200 times each day.

We brought bread to feed to the ducks and geese, but Kai decided he needed a snack instead.  Silly boy!

How time flies!

We came to the realization over the holidays that we have added a child for each of the past three Christmases.  No wonder things seem kind of crazy around here!  Our New Year's Resolution is to remain the same size family in 2012...we'll see what happens!

We spent a few days in Giddings at the end of the holiday and I convinced the boys to pose for a few pictures so I could compare them with last year.  It is so amazing to me how quickly they change.  But they're still my sweet little boys!

Happy Birthday, Pla Shee!

Today is Pla Shee's 11th birthday!  To celebrate, we made sugar cookies and decorated both the cookies and later ourselves.  Lots of giggles ensued.

Silly boy!

Yesterday evening as I was helping Pla Shee put the final touches on some of his handmade Christmas presents, Kai was playing in the living room and Ruby was hanging out in her bouncy seat.  Then Kai walked into the kitchen pleading, "Zip me, Mamma, zip me"!  Turns out "zip" also means button, snap, or fasten.  He had found Ruby's sweater and pants in the dirty clothes, managed to put both on correctly, and just needed some help with the finishing touches--the buttons on the sweater.  He was so proud of himself!

 Later in the evening we headed to Pla Shee's basketball game and yes, Kai proudly sported this lovely outfit in public for all of Venus to admire. He is such a silly little guy.

A tired little boy...

On Sunday I left Aaron at home with Ruby (Pla Shee was in Dallas visiting his first family), and Kai and I braved the cold to do a little Christmas shopping.  This year 95% of the gifts we give will be homemade, but the presents from Santa will be purchased.  I neglected to take into account that our shopping excursion coincided with Kai's naptime.  As you can see from the picture*, he did not let shopping interfere with his napping plans.  He was sound asleep! :)

*Please note that despite the fact that the cart is from Wal-Mart, we were not actually shopping at Wal-Mart.  We were at Big Lots (which probably isn't a lot better, if we're being honest).  If you want to know more about why we boycott Wal-Mart, check out the excellent (and entertaining) documentary below.

Mondays are the new Friday

It just so happens that Aaron's day off is on Monday, and today I stayed home too because Ruby had her 2 month check-up this afternoon.  It was so nice to hang out in our pajamas all morning, especially since a huge cold front blew in yesterday and brought a lot of nasty weather.  Here's my Roo at 10 weeks old this morning:

She was 10.8 pounds, so she's doubled in size since she was a week old.  Kai had better look out...we have wagers on when she'll surpass the little guy on the scale.  It shouldn't be too long, at this rate!

This is Kai hanging out in his pj's this morning and cooking up an apple for brunch.  He's just recently gotten into a lot of pretend play, so we do lots of "cooking" on the kitchen set that Pu Lue built, which now sits in Ruby's room.

This picture of the kitchen set was taken before we painted the walls and rearranged the furniture, but you get the idea.  Kai gladly hopped in Ruby's crib this morning to show off her cute hand-painted walls, courtesy of Gigi (Ann-Marie Barker).  Ann-Marie is a really talented artist, and you can check out some of her recent work on her website.

Big Brother Kai

Kai created this whole set-up for Ruby to "watch tv" (it's really just a music box) with him.  What a sweet big brother!

Living with guilt, and counting our blessings

It's been four months since Kai's injury, and we've made it through two major surgeries and over 30 visits to four different doctors.  By all accounts, he is a thriving and vibrant (and very lucky!) little boy.  Despite the skull fracture, there was absolutely no injury to his brain, and we feel extremely blessed that this is the case.  His right eye was not so fortunate.  We learned about a month after the initial injury that his retina had detached, so he had surgery at the end of August to re-attach it.  Now that it's been about 3 months since the surgery, we had another follow-up appointment with the pediatric opthamologist, who has encouraged us to patch his "good" eye for 3 hours each day.  Apparently this will help his brain to realize that it needs to try to use the right eye again.  Looking at him, you wouldn't know that there was a problem--his eye tracks and looks just fine.  But when we patch it, it is clear that at least right now he doesn't have vision in his right eye.  It is really hard to do the patching each day because it brings back all of those awful feelings of guilt associated with the accident.  Also, he doesn't like not being able to see for three hours a day (imagine that!).  But we're trying.  And we're REALLY glad that Pla Shee is such a loving big brother, because it takes a lot of energy to entertain Kai when he can't see! 



We go back to the doctor at the end of January to reassess things and to get fitted for glasses.  Kai's a big fan of accessories, so I think glasses will go over well.  :)

Another Kai video

Kai cracks me up.  Check out his stellar stacking skills.  Who needs toys, anyway?



I'm thankful for: Kai

It is impossible for me to express in words how much I love Kai, and how much joy he has brought to my life.  He is truly the most amazing blessing in our lives.  The day we adopted Kai and became a family of three was a day that changed us forever.  Having Kai in our lives has strengthened our bond as a couple, and helped us appreciate each other more. When Kai had his encounter with the donkey this summer, I literally cried for weeks.  I couldn't get over how close we could have been to losing him.  Even as I type this now, tears are welling up in my eyes.  He is such a precious gift, and we are so blessed that he escaped the incident with a scar and a story to tell.  He is such a sweet little guy.  Now that he's two, it seems like he learns something new every day.  He's talking up a storm, and loves to mimic everything that Pla Shee says and does.  He adores "Baby Roo," and is constantly tucking in her blanket or retrieving her pacifier for her.  No matter how overwhelmed I'm feeling, he always knows how to make me laugh.  He's a little tiny ball of energy with a smile that literally lights up the room.

 Kai at 2 months old

 

6 months old

 9 months old

 1 year old

 18 months old

 22 months old

 2 years old

And just for fun, a video of Kai singing his favorite songs yesterday.

Kai's Magic Ball

This is a video of Kai and my dad playing their "Magic Ball" game.  I just can't get over how cute it is that Kai plays along.  Just in case it's not obvious, the magic ball is imaginary.  Now, every time we visit my dad, Kai asks to play "Magic Ball." 

Getting back to normal

Just a lazy Saturday thankful for being at home and hanging out as a family.

Recounting the scariest night of our lives

It's been exactly one week since the scariest night of our lives, and it seems only fitting to recount the story here if only to wrap up this crazy week and move on.  Last Friday night around 8 pm, Aaron, myself, and Kai went out to feed the animals and milk Weezy, our goat.  Helping to "milt eezy" is Kai's very favorite thing to do, and talks about it repeatedly throughout the day.  Aaron and Kai were milking the goat, and I proceeded to feed the sheep, goats, and finally the donkeys.  What I didn't realize was that Kai decided he had had enough of milking the goat and followed behind me to feed the donkeys outside the barnyard.  I had my back turned, and saw just out of the corner of my eye behind me Kai running up behind the donkeys, who were eating.  I shouted "No, Kai!", but it was too late.  One of the donkeys, surprised by Kai's presence, kicked with its back foot and hit Kai square in the forehead.  I immediately ran over, scooped Kai up, and handed him to Aaron, who ran to the car with him.  I drove as fast as I could possibly drive to the nearest emergency room, which took about 10 minutes but seemed like an eternity.  Aaron sat in the back seat with Kai, applying pressure to his head.  Kai screamed like crazy the whole time--he never lost consciousness. 

Everything was a blur once we got to the hospital in Mansfield.  Kai was still screaming and thrashing around, so they had to give him a sedative so that he would be still for the CT scan.  The CT scan showed that he did not have any bleeding in his brain, but that he had a skull fracture.  They started an IV and placed a neck brace on him, they then called for the ambulance to come pick him up and take him to Cook Children's in Fort Worth.  Only one parent is allowed to ride in the ambulance, so we decided that Aaron would be the one to go with Kai, and I drove our car.  I have absolutely no idea how I managed to hold it together as I drove the 25 minutes by myself to Fort Worth.  I just remember talking to myself the entire time, telling myself that I had to hold it together and could break down later. 

At Children's we were taken to the trauma ER.  The room looked just like the ER shows on television, and their were probably 20 people milling about, all focused on Kai.  Then all of the doctors came in to tell us what they thought--a neurosurgeon, an opthamalogist, a pediatric plastic surgeon, and the ER doctor.  The donkey's kick had not only caused a fracture in Kai's skull, it had also broken the bones surrounding both of his eyes.  As the night wore on, his right eye continued to swell and was soon swollen shut.  Kai went into surgery at 2:30 am on Saturday morning to clean out and stitch the wound.  We waiting in the waiting room outside the OR for 2.5 hours.  Finally they came out and told us we could go up to the hospital room.

I didn't feel relieved at first when I saw him.  I didn't know what to feel.  There he was, my tiny baby, laying on this giant stretcher, asleep, with tubes and beeping monitors everywhere.  All I wanted to do was scoop him up in my arms and hold him, but the nurses said he had to stay in the bed and couldn't be picked up.  About 30 minutes later, Kai woke up and started thrashing around the bed and screaming.  The nurses relented and let me pick him up.  He immediately fell back to sleep.  After that, they never made us put him back in that bed, and we never did.  Aaron and I held him the rest of the night, and all day Saturday and Saturday night. 

We cried every time we made eye contact.  I tried to sing Kai lullabies, or recite his favorite book, Goodnight Moon, but couldn't get past the first few words.  We basically just sat there, crying and cradling him, for hours and hours.  We pulled ourselves together when we had visitors, recounting what the doctors had told us and updating folks via text message and a few phone calls.  We saw the opthamologist, who was confident that despite all the broken bones, Kai's eyes themselves were not damaged.  The neurosurgeon also stopped by and said he wanted to monitor Kai to make sure that he did not leak fluid from the fracture in his skull, which would warrant emergency surgery.

Saturday evening was the first time we saw a glimpse of our old Kai.  He had a dose of morphine, and immediately afterward, woke up and said "read book, Daya."  (He calls Aaron "Daya"). 

This is the only picture I took while we were in the hospital, and I took it right after he asked Aaron to read to him.

We burst into tears and read him stories for about 20 minutes until he fell asleep again.  Saturday night was more of the same.  We traded off holding Kai as he drifted in and out of a fitful sleep. The next morning we asked the nurse for another dose of morphine, and it was as if a miracle happened.  He woke up, and within 30 minutes he had pulled off his chest monitors, was talking and laughing, eating cinnamon toast crunch cereal, and singing songs.  An hour later he was walking around the room, and within another hour he was jumping, climbing, and acting like a normal 2 year old.  The neurosurgeon came by and said that he was ready to discharge us.  It was absolutely amazing.  I honestly thought that we would be there another week, and might even have to have a major surgery.  Instead, we were told we could go home.  It was really very surreal.  We gathered up our stuff and headed home late Sunday afternoon.  I felt like I had been run over by a truck, but had survived.
Here is a picture I took of Kai on Sunday evening.

We ended up having to head back to the hospital on Monday afternoon because we were afraid that Kai's runny nose might indicate a larger problem related to the fracture, but we had the fluid tested and were told it was "just snot," much to our relief.  He was on prescription pain medication for a couple of days, and then no longer needed it.  By Wednesday, he was back to his normal silly self, jumping, singing, laughing, playing, climbing, and doing all the normal things that active two year olds do.  He is healing quickly, and he seems to have no memory of the incident at all.  Aaron and I, on the other hand, have had to do a lot of processing this week.  For me, dealing with the guilt I've felt combined with the pregnancy hormones I've got going on right now, I've been pretty much a basket case emotionally.  But we're managing now, and each day it gets easier, as he continues to heal and we see what an amazing, resilient, and precious son we have.  We've got lots of follow-up appointments with doctors over the next few weeks, but by all accounts, Kai has made an amazing recovery and is no worse for wear.

I would be remiss if I neglected to thank all of the amazing people in our lives who love and care about us and made the past week livable.  Thank you to Dad and Ann-Marie, Holli, and Mike and Lauren, who stayed with us in the hospital until 5 in the morning.  Thank you to Holli, who went way above the call of duty and watered our chickens and turkeys at 6 in the morning on Saturday after staying up all night with us at the hospital.  Thanks to James, who went and bought feed for all of the animals on Saturday afternoon so they didn't starve.  Thank you to those of you who visited us at the hospital, who prayed for us, who sent healing thoughts our way.  Thank you to my mom and to Aaron's mom, and to my aunt and uncle, who came to help us this week after we got back home.  Thank you to all of the friends who left kind messages on Facebook.  Our family has been incredibly blessed to make it through this week, and your love, support, prayers, and thoughts are a very large part of what got us to this point.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's a picture of our sweet baby boy from this morning.

PS--We've got a couple of donkeys we'll give away for free if anyone's interested. :)