Update On Ella!

So on Friday we went up to The Center of Children's Dentistry north of Children's Hospital for a follow up. Ella was her normal happy self of course! Walking all over the lobby while we waited to be seen.

While we were waiting I noticed that I had one of Ella's little bows in her diaper bag. Ella hasn't really had enough hair to put in a bow before, but this time it stayed. Although....I'm not sure I like it. This is my first girl so I'm not used to "doing hair"...maybe I just put it in wrong, who knows!

Of course she's chewing on everything right now it's like she's doesn't even know she has a wound in her mouth! So the dentist took a look at it and it was not showing any signs of infection so that was good news. The chunk of gum tissue could still be moved back and forth from side to side. They decided they would consult with the oral surgeon on Monday. In the meantime they sent me home with some antiseptic liquid to dab on her wound with a Q-tip.

Today I talked with them and since we have been keeping our eye on it and feel that it's definitely NOT infected they want us to just continue doing what we are doing and come back for another follow up next Tuesday. What I took away from the conversation from the dentist today is it sounds like new gum tissue is going to grow up inside of the wound and eventually the chunk of her gums that's not fully connected will need to be removed. Ewww! If you zoom in on the above picture you can see the wound on the upper right side. The darker red line on her gums is the entry point.


Of course about 5 minutes after I got off the phone with the dentist she fell over holding another toy and her mouth started bleeding all over again. She's just at this phase where EVERYTHING goes in her mouth and it's almost impossible to keep her mouth safe 100% of the time. The part that's been the hardest is she just wants to eat! The dentist wants us to only give her soft food with no particles. So I've been feeding her yogurt, baby food, mashed potatoes, soup, pudding and ice cream. She is so independent though...she LOVES to feed herself. So tonight I finally gave in and let her eat some canned peas and bread sticks. I have noticed that she is favoring her left side when she chews and I won't be giving her any food that is hard, but I do want her to have some more options. Hopefully this will be a distance memory real soon!

White Bear

Ella hasn't really ever shown affection towards a toy before. I've given her Amanda The Panda and Polly The Dolly, but she never really formed an attachment with them. She has a few animals that were gifts from her shower on her hutch in her room. The boys have mainly been the ones playing with them. The other day Jack wanted the white bear and ever since it's been down Ella has been loving it. She'll find it throughout the day and just squeeze it and carry it around. I love seeing her snugly side!

This Is What Happens...

{Of course this was before the mouth injury!}

When your 2 1/2 year old doesn't eat his Peanut Butter & Nutella sandwich and leaves it on the coffee table.

She LOVES food!

This was the first time she's had peanut butter and I think she likes it!


She had her fingers clutched around the sandwich so tight! I usually don't let our kids have peanut butter until after their a year old...thankfully we don't have any peanut allergies in our family!

What A Day!

Yesterday started off pretty normal...I got Ella up and while nursing her the boys came into our room. The night before the boys had been playing with the metal parts from this...

a bed rail for Jack's bed. We used to have it up but then I took it apart to wash it and never put it back together. The metal skeleton comes apart so the mesh part comes off. Anyways the boys had been using those metal pipes as canes...think Latso from Toy Story 3!

After I nursed Ella I put her down and went into the bathroom to get something. When I came out I saw the tail end of her falling on the ground....holding one of the pipes. She was crying of course, but I thought it was more from bumping her head when she fell. That's when I noticed the blood...not a lot just a little. We tried to look in her mouth and we could see that the pipe had hit the upper right part of her gums, but it didn't look that bad. I figured she wouldn't want to eat anything other than baby food for breakfast, but oh no...she was hungry! Don't stand between a girl and her food. She took a great morning nap...woke up ate lunch and nursed again. That's when I noticed it had started bleeding again. It got me concerned so I called the dentist.

We had dentist appts for all 3 of the kids scheduled for Friday anyways, but after describing what happened the nurse was able to get us in later in the afternoon on Thursday instead. So I took Ella up for her appt while Michael stayed home so the boys could nap.

This was Ella's first time at the dentist so of course I took pictures. She let the hygienist clean her teeth and then we tried to get an x-ray, but she wasn't having it.


While waiting for the Dentist to come check her out I sat her in the chair and got some cute pictures. Seriously she has a major mouth wound and she's still happy! Once the dentist got a good look at how bad it really was he didn't feel comfortable trying to fix it. He didn't have his anesthesiologist there either. So he told us to head to a hospital. Since I was right in Burien I decided to just go to Highline since it was closest.



The Highline ER is beautiful and it wasn't busy at all. We got right in! Thank goodness! Ella of course had her ID bracelet off in record time.


After looking over the wound they decided it needed to be stitched up. They had me get her undressed and then we waited for them to get set up. Since she's not even a year old there was no way they could just do a local anesthetic so they had to give her Ketamine which is what they use to do conscience sedation at the dentist office. They did end up hooking her up to oxygen and they also monitored her heartbeat and her blood pressure.

They didn't do an IV they just gave her a shot which she cried about and then she fought the sedation for a while, but here she is once she gave in and relaxed. The nice thing about this is she couldn't feel anything, she wasn't aware of what they were doing and the best thing is she won't remember it.

Below is a picture of them working on her so if you can't handle that stuff you might want to scroll down further without looking.

Here they are reattaching her gum to the top of her mouth. This picture is actually pretty tame. It looked tons worse than this in person. A big chunk of her gum was involved and it moved over and made a flap. It wasn't dangling from her mouth, but just about. You know how you have teeth up under your gums waiting to come out. Well Ella's gums were cut into right up to those teeth...it was like her teeth got scalped!

Towards the end of the procedure...which didn't work because gum tissue is really soft and the stitches kept tearing...she had to be restrained because she was starting to come out of the anesthesia.

Her cute little toes! She did really well considering! Coming out from the meds was the worst though. They turned down the lights and got the room as quiet as they could...I guess light and noise make it worse. She still cried and thrashed around in my arms for about 40 minutes. I tried to comfort her, but she wasn't really there yet. When she finally came too it was like nothing had happened. Before she started really coming out of it was when the doctor came in and said they thought she needed to be seen by a pediatric dentist at Children's Hospital and they were arranging for a transport via ambulance.

They said the safest way to transport her was in her own car seat so I ran down and got it for her. She was wide awake by this time and as happy as can be. The EMT guys were great!

Getting loaded up....who would have thought that with two older brothers she'd be the first one to take a trip in an ambulance!

What else do you do when you have a mouth injury....chew on a hard phone toy! She never fell asleep nor did she cry during the transfer. I was worried how much the trip was going to cost since I've heard ambulance rides can be VERY expensive. I was talking to Michael on the phone and one of the EMT guys said we would be fine since we have Medical Coupon for the kids. It's totally covered. Praise God! I guess a normal ride can cost $1500!!

At Children's she had more doctor's look in her mouth. They were pretty sure that she had broken one of her molars that are still up inside of her gums so they called in the specialty dentist to check her out. Around this time Michael got to the hospital...he had to call my parents so they could come watch the boys for us. When the dentist came we went over to the dentistry part of the hospital and we all had to hold her down so they could get an x-ray. Then while that was developing we all had to hold her down again and they did a VERY thorough exam. It's was awful! She was screaming and pulling so hard. After checking it out and confirming with the x-rays she did not in fact break her molar like they had thought in the ER. Also it looks like her teeth that are still up in the gums weren't effected at all. I was so worried that they would be damaged and not come in correctly.

The dentists then call another doctor and consulted with him and they really thought it was best to not put her through another procedure since the first one failed. The mouth is really an amazing thing and since the gum was a big chunk it was actually suction cupping to the top of the mouth on it's own. So they wanted to see if it would heal on it's own.

After Michael had gotten to the hospital they brought in a pump for me to use. I hadn't fed Ella since 12:30 and it was 8pm! They didn't want me to feed her just in case she needed to have surgery. Finally after they decided to not do surgery she was able to eat. It was after 10pm so you'd think she would gobble a bottle down. WRONG! She just chewed on the nipple! Seriously...she has NEVER taken a bottle and I really doubt she ever will. So I nursed her, but there wasn't much there. Then the nurse came in to give her some Motrin in one of those syringe things and I asked if I could use it to give her milk and she took my milk that way. Silly girl!

We finally got discharged at 11pm and were on the way home! By this time Ella had been awake since 3:10pm when I woke her up from her afternoon nap to take her to the dentist. I think she fell asleep in the car, but she woke up once we got home. I nursed her again and she got to bed at midnight. She didn't wake up until 7:45 to nurse and then she ate some baby food and pretty much went right back to bed. So how is she doing today...

She's a happy girl!

She's been a little more tired today and I've had to give her Tylenol twice...she has gotten mad at me because they don't want me to let her eat anything solid only baby food. She loves her food! This afternoon I take her back to the dentist up by Children's so they can check it out and make sure it is in fact healing on it's own. They also want to make sure it isn't getting infected. They and we didn't want them to prescribe an antibiotic unless absolutely necessary. So we'll see what they say. I sure hope it's healing!

Clapping & Being Silly!

Here's a video of Ella clapping, signing 'more' her own way and just being silly with her sounds and expressions.

If you're checking this on FB click here.

What's For Dinner?

Last Thursday my mom and dad came over for dinner and this is what I made...

The most yummy pot roast ever!!! I called my SIL and found out how she made the pot roast that we had on Christmas Eve and I replicated it. It was my first experience with fresh garlic...I know I'm lame! I've always used minced garlic or garlic powder, but not fresh garlic cloves. I think the next time I make it instead of stuffing cloves of garlic into the meat I will actually puree the garlic and rub it all over for a more even garlic flavor. Over all though it was scrumptious!

Joyful!

She is the epitome of joy!

She is so happy and fulfilled. All her needs are met. She doesn't know disappointment. She knows that Mommy and Daddy can fulfill all her needs. Just recently she's started asking to nurse...she pats her chest or if I'm holding her she'll pat mine. I love her little language!

Trike Ride & Play Time

Last Monday we decided to get out and enjoy the sun breaks we were having.

We took the kids and their trikes down to the walking trail by the Green River in Kent.

The river is really high right now!

I had completely forgotten that they put these sandbag walls up last year in preparation for flooding. It made the trail half the size it normally is. Thankfully we didn't run into too many people and zero cyclists so it wasn't really an issue.


It was right after lunch and Ella wasn't sleepy so I decided to put her in the stroller. She likes to be worn by me IF she's sleepy, but I knew she would like to look around more. I don't have any gloves for her so we used socks.

We went a little ways down the trail and then came back to this little gravel ramp so the boys could throw rocks. There little legs were so tired of peddling...well Owen's were, Jack gets pushed still!

I went to chat with Ella for a bit and she kept catching her own reflection in my sunglasses.

She kept trying to reach out and touch herself. She's such an angel!

Love of my life and my best friend!

Back at the car Jack just had to give Sissy some love! She's even beautiful when she makes goofy faces!

Our next stop was a park that was right up the hill. This time Daddy got to hold that sweet Ella girl!

See that smudge on Owen's pants? Yeah while he was throwing rocks he said something about poop...turns out he picked up a piece of dog poop and it got on his gloves and pants. Disgusting!

In the words of Jackson...."There's me!"

Trying to climb up, but it was a little too scary!

One more slide before we go!

I love how Owen looks so happy and...

Jack looks freaked out!

After this we headed to the car and Owen had a complete meltdown...he didn't eat a good lunch so that was the main problem. He was also tired so that exasperated things as well. Once we got home he eat a whole PB & J (we had offered it before we left, but he only took 3 bites) and he was like a different child and then he took a great nap. I love it when he eats and sleeps!

He LOVES To Be Sung To!

This video is just priceless in my opinion. First off after we sang the beginning part of Happy Birthday - Happy Birthday To You - Jack reaches over and puts his arm on Owen and says, "Bubba", you know just in case you didn't know who the party was for. :) He LOVES his big brother SO much! Then when we sang - Happy Birthday Dear Owen - Owen is so giddy he can hardly contain himself. Priceless!!!

If you're checking this on FB...click here!

7th Tooth - Closer Look!

Can you see the third tooth on the bottom right? It's funny that the one on the other side hasn't come in yet to make it even. The boys always got their teeth two at a time. Sometimes Jack would get four teeth at a time. Thankfully as you can see...she's not crabby!

The Pinata!

A few weeks before Owen's party I started thinking it would be fun to have a pinata....however...I didn't want to buy one. So I went online and learned how to make one.

It's really pretty easy...time consuming, but easy! First you blow up balloons and tape them together if needed. At first I wanted to make a spider and that would have been easier, but we didn't have big enough balloons...hence the reason Michael made an ant instead.

Michael decided if he was going to do this he was going to make it look as realistic as he could so he added the pinchers, antennas and 6 legs. Once you get the whole thing taped together you cut up a bunch of newspaper dip it in paper mache paste (flour & water) and start layering. You have to do 3 layers and let them dry in between each layer. That's the time consuming part!

After it's all dried you can decorate it with stripes of tissue paper or really anything you want. Michael just used some spray paint we had on hand.


Then you cut a flap on the top or whatever is going to be the top when you hang it...so for our ant it ended up being his bum. Then you use something sharp...we used the BBQ fork and you pop the balloons inside and then stuff it with candy.

Then you drill a couple holes right by the flap and thread some twine or rope so you can hang it. It took about 4 1/2 hours for Michael to make and about 10 minutes to be destroyed, but it was SO worth it. It was tons of fun!

Here's the video of the final destruction.

If you're checking this on FB click here to see the video.

Owen's Birthday Party AKA I'm Pretty Sure The Post With The Most Pictures EVER!

We celebrated Owen's birthday party on Sunday the day after his actual birthday.


His party was a bug theme...the invitations had bugs on them and so did the table. You see the centerpiece...that was the grand finale, but we'll talk more about that later!

I was going to buy a bunch of bugs at The Dollar Store, but then I remembered I had an ant punch so I punched out a bunch of ants and put them all over the table.

I made goodie bags for each of the kids and stamped bugs on the outside.

Party goers - Uncle Ry and soon-to-be Aunt Stephie...their wedding is less than 2 months away!

Pa with the birthday boy!

The playroom is always a big hang out spot for both parents and kids.

All night Owen was asking is it time to open presents. I kept having to tell him the order of things, food, spider game, cake and then presents. When I told him it was time for the spider game he booked it in from the garage. He knew he was getting one step closer to his ultimate goal! :)

I printed out a spider for each kid and I drew a spider web for the kids to stick them on. Then we blindfolded the kids and spun them around 3 times. I love how Paige is having to hold Jack back in this picture. He is always wanting to be right where Bubba is and she was keeping him out of the way.

As you can see the spiders end up all over the place! This was the first party we had ever played games at and it was a lot of fun!

Who won?

Caleb won lightning bugs...they come with tweezers that you use to pick up the gummy bugs and the tweezer has a light that turns on when you squeeze the bugs to pick them up so it looks like they light up. Seriously cool!

Time for "cake" - Dirt Cake with gummy worms!

Owen was SO happy! He absolutely LOVES the attention and he was almost giddy while we were singing...I'm going to upload a video in another post.

What he had been waiting for all night!

Owen got a Woody riding on RC car from Toy Story and miniature Buzz & Woody Cars (We have to take the Cars back because we actually already had them) from Miss Heather, Caleb & Dillon. I think that Jack has pretty much taken Woody and RC hostage. He was actually walking around the house the other day holding it saying, "I think this is mine!"

A motorcycle from Jeremy, Erin, Cameron & Haley....he loves this!

From Mr John & Miss Tricia he got two coloring sets!

I'm so sad I cut his head off in this picture, but I had to post it. He was SO happy. From Papa & Grandma Martin he got a Chevron Tow Truck!

Uncle Rick, Aunt Michelle, Avery, Cooper and Paige added to Owen's tools by getting him a power screwdriver.

Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie got Owen some very cute shoes (more for me :)) and he also got Rock Em Sock Em Robots! Michael and I had so much fun playing with this the next day!

Ga-Ga & Pa got both Owen and Jack a BIG present for their birthdays, but you'll have to wait to see that. For Owen's party he got $4 in quarters taped inside his card. Owen also got a learn to write board from our friends Jim & Norean, $10 from Uncle Jon, Aunt Becky, Camryn & Samantha and a gift certificate to Fred Meyer's from Mr Micah, Miss Kim, Andrew & Josiah!

Remember the centerpiece? Michael spent quite a bit of time making this super cool ant pinata for the party. I'm going to do a whole post on it from start to finish. At first Michael wasn't sure how it would hold up so I went to The Dollar Store and bought this plastic horn thingy that the kids could use to hit it with. I also thought if the kids ended up hitting each other it wouldn't hurt as bad as a baseball bat would.

I love how Andrew is swinging with the drill in his hands!

Go Samantha!

Aaron's turn!

Come on Jack....show it who's boss!

Caleb took a few swings!

After the littler kids got a swing the bigger kids got a shot. Camryn hit it a few times.

Paige got some good swings in too!

Cooper really had some good hits...in fact he bent the horn thingy!

Cameron must of had some pent up aggression because he let it all out on that poor ant!

By this time every kid had gotten to swing at the ant so we brought out the wooden stick and let Avery got to town. One shot and the ant was done for!!! I have that on video too so I'll be posting it...it was so hilarious!

The lute!

Our yearly tradition of getting a picture with Uncle Ry on Owen's birthday. To see the pictures from the previous years click here.

Group shot - When I really looked at this photo I thought it was funny...first off Andy is still clinging to that drill and out of 29 people of course Jack isn't looking at the camera...he's looking at Woody!!! Insert the music for...I only have eyes for yoooouuu!!!

Last photo I promise....if you made it this far you seriously deserve an award! Owen's party was a complete sucess and I have our family and friends to thank for this. We love you guys!