Wheels!

Just in case you missed it on Facebook...

Madeline's wheelchair rep brought her a demo wheelchair about 10 days ago. This video was taken within five minutes of the rep's departure. Her smile says it all! Watch her mouth...she's "counting" with me!

Oral Narration on Abraham Lincoln

Would you like to "hear" one of Carli's oral narrations for history? She's doing a pretty good job considering this is our first year doing Charlotte Mason style. We continue to work on what starting at the beginning, including the most important facts, etc., but for second grade…again not bad! J

For this particular narration, I asked Carli to tell me what Abraham Lincoln was like. She included a story she remembered from a while back (President's Day??), I thought it was a good example of Lincoln's personality. I then asked her to tell me briefly about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and slavery.

This is unedited. I did help her with the date and the names of the two armies.

 

Abraham Lincoln had a very big smile. When he was young (like 15 years old), he loved to study the law book. He lay with his nose in a book and his feet on the tree. He was very smart and kind. He was more than six feet tall.

 

One time there was a man driving down the road and Abraham Lincoln said, "Please let me pass!" And the man said, "No, I'm not going to." Abraham Lincoln stood up and got taller and taller and taller and the man said, "Stop getting taller!" and got out of the way into the mud. Abraham Lincoln laughed and helped him out of the mud.

 

He was elected President of the United States. There was a war in 1861 and one side was called the Union and the other the Confederacy, and they were fighting and Abraham Lincoln did not like it.

 

He did not like slavery, and he let the slaves free.

Before and After

Before surgery

Perched on Mama's lap...a little sleepy at only 6:15 AM

All dressed for surgery

Silly girl rolling her eyes (probably at Pastor Kraig!)

Granny comes bearing gifts from afar (Pennsylvania!)

Breathing treatment (she was as happy as a clam with Granny holding her)

And she's off to see the surgeon!

After Surgery

In PACU (Post-Anesthesia Recovery Unit)

Before Morphine

Now in PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit)

After Morphine

Good Night!

Before-Surgery X-ray

The severe curve is called kyphosis.

Since she had her head tipped back for this x-ray, you also get a good look at her VP shunt.

After-Surgery X-ray

You can see the two rods side by side.

There is still a very slight curve, but the huge curve is gone!

The cables wrapped around near the top of the rods allow the rods to grow with her

so that she will not require surgery every year to adjust.

Before-Surgery Back Pics

This is one of the few really good pics of her back I have.

She was less than a year old here, I believe.

Ready for surgery

The discoloration over this area is probably due to how much they had to stretch the skin to put her all back together after her myelomeningocele repair two days after birth.

After-Surgery Back Pic

Yesterday Madeline was pretty sleepy most of the day, waking only to wimper, sign cup, and get more morphine. She drank lots of water and generally looked at us like, What did they do to me?? She ran a high fever which Dr. Didelot said is completely normal for spina bifida kids. Evidently the since so many of her nerves are dead, they cannot tell the brain that there is inflammation, so anything this huge causes high fevers especially at night for around three days. Last night she was running a fever up to 103.

So far today she has been awake more, and her temp is down to 99.5. She has had some valium for muscle spasms. She ate a couple bites of pudding and drank lots of PediaSure, cried when the bubbles and music went off on the thingy at the side of her bed, refused to smile for Mommy, and smiled and blew a kiss to Daddy when he came in!

We were moved out of PICU today, so we are all settled into our private room with a private bathroom and shower!

We've been so blessed by so many of you. Diana and Kirsten Metz kept the girls overnight so we wouldn't need to get them up so early in the morning, my mom drove from Pennsylvania to be with us during surgery and then to keep the girls through the week. Pastor Kraig and Aunt Pam and my mom's friend Susan spent hours with us here. We've received so many texts, emails, phonecalls and Facebook wall posts, and to top it off, a bunch of Glen's Twitter friends from all across the country went together to bless us with "out-to-eat" money (and evidently, we're going to have to eat a LOT (: ). You know who you are, and there is no way we could ever thank you enough.

Our worship pastor, Liz, sent me this verse yesterday, and I was so moved by it: Proverbs 14:26--Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge.

Happy 5th Birthday, Olivia Grace!

Miss Olivia turned 5 this week! I can't wrap my mind around that. Bittersweet, indeed. She's growing into a lovely little lady, with her innocence and charming personality always leaving us with smiles and chuckles.

Since it was her big birthday #5, we let her pick what she wanted to do. She picked Chuck E. Cheese (We should have known). We invited a couple of her friends to join us. That day we were blessed with a healthy dose of beautifully fluffy snow, and the restaurant was practically empty, thus reducing the noise level to that created by our own children!

What a beautiful smile from Elizabeth!
The rodent himself

Opening a handmade card from Lizzie.

Olivia has been attempting to reproduce it all week.

Olivia, Elizabeth, and Kalli

Carli was sure that Olivia would need help riding her new bike.

Olivia donned her new tutu.

Madeline and Daniel

Daniel Ray and Madeline Kate are exactly two weeks apart. It was such fun this Christmas seeing them interact with each other. Aunt Kayla envisions Daniel pushing Madeline around in her wheelchair in the years to come. Hoping they'll always be close!

Christmas at Mom's!

Christmas at Granny's is: Sweet. Loud. Yummy. Fun. Giggly.

Did I mention CRAZY! With the 6 grands, three of them practically babies, CRAZY it definitely is, but we wouldn't have it any other way! :)

No way!

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Follow the directions below to enter:

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