Help, please!

Last night we put the kids down around 8:30 (which is a little later than usual, but b/c of the time change, we are adjusting), well they were not ready to go to bed. I kept hearing them giggling and laughing and I knew that Miller kept getting out of his bed and into bed with Lainey. So about 9:15 I hear Lainey laughing, but a kind of annoying laugh, and then it kind of turned to a desperate laugh/cry and then I heard Lainey yelling, "Mommy, Mommy, help me." So I immediatley jump up (and had to put Jon & Kate plus 8 on pause... ughhh :) and when I walk into her room, this is what I see:

Lainey's foot and just above her ankle is wedged, stuck, trapped (not looking like it's going to come out) in the rails of her crib. So, I immediatley start trying to wiggle her foot out, but it's not budging. Then I reach for the phone.... I need to call Tony. (He left to go play tennis with a friend right after we put the kids down) and of course, he doesn't answer, so I call his friend's phone, no answer. Dang it, he must have left his phone in the truck or can't hear it ringing (50+ times) while he's playing tennis. So, after about 15 minutes of trying to wiggle her foot out of the railing and calling Tony's cell every minute... I decide to call my parents, maybe they have some idea or advice what I should do to get her foot out. Oil, my dad says, well that didn't work... I just felt like I was making her ankle and foot more swollen and then it would never come out, there was no way I was getting her foot out by myself. Every time I put pressure on it or tried to turn it, she would scream and say, "Ouch, Mommy, help me." So, after another 20 minutes (and more missed calls to Tony's cell) my parents arrive.

You see in the picture below how small the opening is on this last open space of the crib.... the other slats are wider, but this one near the corner post is much smaller (how and why she got her foot there, we will never know).

There for about 10 seconds, we all thought we were going to have to get the saw to cut the railing to get her sweet little, pink polished foot out of there. But then, my dad pulled the railing apart just enough for my mom to pull on Lainey's leg while I was turning and pushing her foot back through. It took all 3 of us, but she was finally free!

Oh, I almost forgot.... my little helper (not) during all of this.... was trying really hard to make his sister laugh during her stressful time!

Oh and yes, Tony did eventually call when he got back in his truck and saw all of the missed calls.... he felt horrible that he didn't have his phone handy and has promised to keep his phone with him at all times now. :) So, by 11:00, they were both back in bed and on their way to going to sleep. And, yes, she is fine, no bruising, no limping, just a little sore, I am sure.

And Mommy said, no more climbing in and out of bed!

Play time!

Lainey & Miller LOVE, LOVE (did I say LOVE) playing outside, especially on their tractor and 4-wheeler. Miller drives, Lainey usually pushes... she canNOT drive worth a flip. Miller is a natural driver!

Sweet loving to his sister while she watches Dora.

Playing dress up!

More dress up!

And more dress up!

November & December

Miller & Lainey helping Mommy make Birthday cupcakes for Daddy's 33rd birthday!

Lainey is trying to decide if she is comfortable with "Ho Ho" holding her.

Miller would not let go of Grammie's hand the whole time!

Time to get caught up!

Ok, ok, I know it has been a thousand years since I have last blogged.... but a lot has happened since my last blog on October 8....

Let me summarize by month....

In October, for Lainey & Miller's birthday activities we vistied Thomas the Train at the East Texas Railroad in Rusk, TX, we ate lunch at the American Girl Bistro with our Bitty Twins in tow, we turned TWO and we celebrated Halloween! Here are a few pictures from October:

Miller and his "Buddy" at the American Girl Bistro

Lainey and her twin at the American Girl Bistro

Enjoying their first ice cream cone after Thomas the Train

Lainey in her train hat riding Thomas

Miller, Pop, Daddy and Lainey at Thomas the Train

Dance class!

Two of my friends and I have been discussing enrolling our girls in a dance class. So last week, I spoke with a lady at a dance studio in Rockwall and she suggested we try the class out before we paid the tuition to see if the girls would participate and how they would like it. So, today Lainey (along with her two friends, Landry & Sloane) tried out the dance class. The class is an hour and 15 minutes long... and I was worried that Lainey's attention span would not last that long. But, she went in the dance room with no problem and seemed to follow the teacher's lead and instruction fairly well (more than I would have thought). We (the moms) had to watch from a small window outside of the room. The hour and 15 minutes seemed to move along fairly quickly (although, I think Miller seemed to get bored waiting on his sister). Lainey did very good, better than I thought she would. She actually paid attention and followed instructions from the dance instructor. Here a few photos I managed to snap through the window with blinds (so, they aren't super clear). ** Remember, we were just trying the class out, so my daughter is the one that sticks out like a sore thumb in her non-leotard, Halloween shirt wearing, no ballet or tap shoes barefoot self! **

Here they are stretching before they begin dancing.... don't want any pulled muscles, aww! (**Lainey is on the left in the orange striped shirt**) I think it is so cute how she is looking at and listening to the instructor.

They made a choo-choo train and all followed in a line! Too CUTE! Landry, Lainey and Sloane are the last three cuties in the back of the choo-choo!
Lainey, Sloane and Landry patiently waiting on their next instruction from the instructor. (The other girls were changing from their ballet shoes into their tap shoes and since this was our girls first (trial) class, they don't have tap shoes).
Lainey getting ready to do a forward roll with help from Ms. Valerie
Lainey is all done, now she is crawling through the tunnel!

Our first trip to the Dentist!!

Well, our first trip to the dentist was not an expected one, but nonetheless, was a memorable one! Here is a rundown of how we ended up in a pediatric dentist office and an oral surgeon's office in the same day: Our little man was running and playing just before bedtime Wednesday night and tripped and fell and landed tooth first on the ceramic tile in the hallway. Immediately he begins screaming and crying (a cry and scream I have never heard from him before). My mom was closest and swooped him up and immediately we saw blood was everywhere. Tony freaked out and was scared to look (so he went and sat down on the sofa with his face in his hands) and I ran and got a wet washcloth... finally we got enough of the blood out of the way to see it was coming from inside his mouth and not his lip, as we originally thought. Then I saw this ugly broken-looking tooth staring at me. I then freaked out and ran out of the room and left my mom standing there holding Miller as he screamed and cried. I then realized, I was the MOM and needed to take care of my baby, no matter how scared and sad I was (Tony I guess also realized he needed to get over being scared and jumped up to help). My mom immediately grabbed her phone and was trying to dial her dentist office number (ironically, they had called her earlier that day to confirm her dentist appointment for the next day). Then realizing it is 9 o'clock at night and no one would answer we decided to call the dentist at his residence. (We have [my family] has gone to this particular dentist for years, so we felt comfortable enough to call him at home.) My mom got Dr. Watson on the phone and explained what happened and he asked us a few questions and asked us to see if the tooth was loose (which it was VERY loose) and said that there was really nothing that could be done right away unless the gum was cut and he needed stitches (which was not the case).... he said to apply ice and give him some Tylenol to keep him comfortable and to have someone (a pediatric dentist) look at him first thing the next morning.

So basically, from what we could all tell, he had probably broken his tooth, and it looked like it was broken at the gum line and it was VERY loose... it was difficult to see much more because of all of the blood. So we put him to bed and checked on him periodically through the night to make sure he wasn't bleeding to death.

The next morning, blood had dried to his tooth, so it was still difficult to see where exactly it was broken. He didn't eat much breakfast that morning. So, as usual, I dropped them off at PDO and explained to his teachers what had happened and that there was a strong possibility I would pick him (well, Lainey, too, of course) early if I could get him into see a dentist. So, I called the pediatric dentist (Dr. Suzanne Allman) in Rockwall that my aunt and my sister-in-law both use for their kids and highly recommend (and now I do, too). I explained what happened the night before and the lady asked us to come in at 12:15 (it was 9:45 or 10:00 am) when I called. I was impressed with how fast they were getting me in on such short notice and especially for being a new patient.

So, we arrive at the dentist office and they did an x-ray and the results of the x-ray were not good..... his tooth was broken in half at the root and had to come out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What, my baby who will be 2 in 3 weeks has to have his top front tooth pulled and be without a tooth until he is probably 6 or 7?????????? No way, this could not be true... what about his beautiful, big (all teeth) smile???

Dr. Allman explained to me that there should not be any damage to his permanent tooth when it eventually comes in when he is about 7. She also said it would not cause him any speech problems. I also asked what our other options were.... she basically said that the tooth (since it was so loose and broken so bad to the root) that it would eventually fall out and may do so in many pieces, which he could accidentally swallow and then it may be more difficult to remove after that. She explained there was no reason for a spacer, they only put those in with back teeth and that they are just ugly and almost impossible to use in the front.

So, later that afternoon we visited an oral surgeon who told me the same thing Dr. Allman had suggested. So, we scheduled the surgery (yes, he required anesthesia) for the very next morning.

Here is picture of him the night before the tooth was removed. You can see how black it was, which was just dried blood.... the tooth itself was not bruised. Also, see how happy he was.... I think it hurt Tony and I more than it hurt him. This is the last picture of Miller Man with all of his baby teeth! :(

So, Tony, Miller and I arrived at the oral surgeons office at 8:15 Friday morning and we were done about 9:05 am..... the tooth was gone and there was nothing we (as his parents) could do about it now. I won't go into the details of the morning of the surgery when they put him to sleep, etc. But they said he was such a big boy and was very good, they also mentioned how he was trying to fight the anesthesia.... he wasn't ready to "go to sleep" before the surgery. I asked the surgeon to keep the tooth so that we could have it. When they handed it to me in a sterile pouch.... it was in 4 pieces.... my little man really busted his tooth up.

He has two (dissolvable) stitches and we go for a follow-up visit on Wednesday.

Here is a picture of Miller Man and his Pop (my dad) the day the tooth was removed. They are sitting in my dad's 1964 Chevy truck he restored and calls it Miller's truck. He loves to drive his truck with his Pop. His tooth (excuse me, missing tooth) is hard to see in this picture, it just looks like a black space, which is basically what it is, a dark, empty space. :(

But, after all of this.... he has not let that front tooth stop him from eating.... immediately (even before it was removed) he figured out how to eat as to not agitate the tooth or the area. He is a trooper!

Pumpkin Patch at the Arboretum!

Well, today my mom and I took the kids to the Dallas Arboretum for a little photo shoot in hopes to get a cute picture to use for the birthday party invitation... well, almost 200 pictures later (between my and my mom's cameras) we didn't end up with very many "great" ones. I was really hoping for a great photo of the two of them together and all we ended up with was good/ok ones of them individually. They would not cooperate at the same time, if they did, we ended up with their backsides, butts in the air or heads turned. It was so exhausting... all I wanted was a cute (ok, perfect) picture of them for their invitation and all they wanted to do was run around and NOT pose when I asked them to.... typical life of almost 2 year-olds. Miller loved the hay, this is where he was most cooperative. Lainey loved to look at the pumpkins and flowers, but always seemed to have her back to me. We even tried to bribe them with a snack, the conversation went something like this, "If you sit there with the pumpkins and smile real big and say cheese and let Mommy take your picture, then you will get a fruit snack." Miller, "Yea, ok." Set him down right where you want him and he laughs real hard with this big grin and off he goes... what a stinker. I now know, I was asking for WAY too much. At least we tried.... I have something to look forward to next year, they will be older and maybe, just maybe, be more cooperative! Ha! We shall see.

So here is a tiny sampling of the top best pictures: