One of Those

So far this has been a pretty busy week. I always recognize that the blog is the first thing to go when I get really tired or busy. I figured making sure everyone is still alive, and ate at least breakfast, is a smidge more important than updating this ol' thing. But what do I know.

I don't have a lot of time to update on what everyone has been doing. But here are the basics: no major milestones have happened this week. No new teeth lost. No one broke any new bones. Math only made people cry 2 out of the 2 days of school so far. Jericho somehow got poop all over his HANDS instead of in the toilet. (Yes...that happened.) We have gotten to meet up with friends two days in a row. It's freezing outside. No one ever sleeps through the night around here. I caught Amaryllis eating food out of the trash AGAIN today. (She's definitely gotten sneakier with the cast...I didnt even hear her go in the kitchen. So much for that.) Yeah, I think that about covers it.

I'm just going to leave this picture riiiiight here. It kinds of sums up how I feel about not having any time to blog these last couple of weeks. And it sums up how Amaryllis feels whenever we don't give her EVERYTHING she wants. That happens a lot. She has a really rough life for a spoiled little baby. ;)

Bookie

Amaryllis has recently been following in her older sisters footsteps. She cannot get enough books. (It runs in the family, as her mama has always loved to read as well.) If she's ever quiet she's either 1) eating something out of the trash that she isn't supposed to have, or 2) sitting in her room in front of the bookshelf pulling out ALL the books and "reading" them.

She loves to sit and let people read to her as well. But she's very impatient, and typically won't let you actually finish reading the whole page before she turns it to the next one. And she will screech at you if you don't let her turn the page. I've read half of so many books recently. I feel like I'm really missing something...so much unfinished business.

Her older siblings have also started reading to her as well. Some of them like to read more than others, so often if I've read a particular kiddo book until I think I'm gonna lose my mind, I'll pass the torch on to one of the kids. Tirzah loves to read, and will sit and read to her for as long as Amaryllis will sit there. Amaryllis gets along better with Merrick, however, so the length of time Amaryllis will sit with Tirzah is relatively shorter. ;) Girl drama already, ladies? Ain't no body got time for that.

I love watching her get so enthralled by books, and love how she calls them "bookies". Reading has always been something that I loved, and I know it's something that, should she continue to love it, will be a great hobby and teach her so much. Now if we could just get her that excited about playing nicely with other children...

Just Kidding. Here's Your Cast.

So a few days ago I had blogged about how Amaryllis had her little incident, and that the splint she was wearing was due to come off in a couple days. We went to her orthopedist appointment, and they took off the splint. (She was super mad at the doctor at this point and already throwing a fit.) As the doctor was examining her foot and leg, she noticed that she was freaking out when she's press on a certain spot in her foot. She decided it was worth a second x-ray. 

We went back to the x-ray room, where she proceeded to freak out some more. (I mean laying on a table is definitely something worth freaking out about. This much be she doesn't want to take naps or sleep at night either.) I was very glad to get out of there, as I'm sure the x-ray tech was glad to see us go. We waited a few more minutes, and sure enough, the doctor confirmed that there were three broken bones in her left foot. I didn't know this until today, but apparently breaks are easier to see after some healing has begun, especially in babies. 

So we let Amaryllis pick out the color for her cast. (She of course picked the brightest loudest color they had...neon yellow.) It was really quick putting it on, but she screamed the whole time. Not because it hurt, but mostly because she didnt want those people messing with her or to have to sit still for a few minutes. She is a tough cookie...but she will let you know when she has no intentions of putting up with something. This was one of those times. 

Thankfully she only has to be in the cast for 3 weeks, but we can't get it wet. (That fancy schmancy cast you can get wet isn't covered by insurance...but believe me I considered it. But it's not summer so I think we can handle the not getting the cast wet part.) She isn't letting it slow her down even a little bit. She is all over the house, and has already managed to figure out how to kick her siblings with her cast to make her point. (It took her like 2 hours to figure that out. Diabolical.) She is loud as mess, too. Which means she will have a lot more trouble sneaking snacks out of the trash. ;) I'm not too worried about the next few weeks. I'm just thankful it wasn't something more serious, and that fancy pants is a strong-willed, tough little baby. 

Stairs Sometimes Bite

This past weekend was a very snowy experience for this area of the country. We got about a foot of snow...which is way more than we ever typically get. (Way more than a foot in some areas...maybe a little less in others.) We spent the weekend sledding (and just staying inside drinking coffee and watching football when it was too blizzard-y to play outside) with some of our awesome church friends, building a crazy igloo, and eating way too many snow day snack.

Towards the end of the day Sunday Billy had gone upstairs in our friend's house to put Amaryllis down for a potential nap. In classic Billy fashion, he and Amaryllis -who he was carrying- fell down the stairs. (He has a flair for falling down stairs, unfortunately for him. Usually it's in his sleep because he sleepwalks a lot, so I'll give him that.) He tried really hard not to land on her at all, but ended up landing partly on her foot/leg. We really aren't sure which it was at this point...but we think her foot since it was a little swollen late that night. She seemed ok at the time after we calmed her down...and we went ahead and put her down for a nap since nothing was visibly wrong with her foot or leg at that point.

(Amaryllis took this herself, during a break from her 

favorite activity of looking at puppies on instagram.) 

A couple hours later when she got up from her nap, I noticed she was refusing to put that foot down on the ground and wouldn't walk around on it. She spent most of the time sitting on my lap, or crying when she tried to get down and walk because she was obviously hurting. We hung out for a little bit longer, fed her some pizza, and made the trip home. We kept thinking, because she didn't seem upset unless she was trying to walk, that we would wait and let her sleep that night, and take her to a doctor in the morning if it was not any better.

We got home and I ended up deciding to go ahead and take her into the ER that night. Billy was most likely going to be working in the morning, and I figured I would just go ahead and get it checked out while I didnt have three other kids to worry about along with it. She and I went to the local pediatric ER, and since it was pretty deserted we were in and out fairly quickly. They did x-rays and said all looked fine, but because they are always concerned about damage to growth plates (I still need to do more research on that, because I really have no idea what they are and I probably should) and because it could possibly be sprained, they wanted to be cautious and have her wear a splint for a few days. They put her splint on and we went on home so we could finally get to bed.

Yesterday and so far today she has seemed mostly like herself. She's a little clingy and cranky...but that's mostly because I'm trying to keep her from walking around -which she is insisting to do...this goofy crooked walk because of her splint- and she is annoyed with me and the splint. She doesn't seem to be in any pain right now, which I'm very glad for! I think it was probably just sore/tender from the fall, and am very grateful that we aren't dealing with a break in one of those adorable , chunky baby legs. I'm also very grateful that, even though I have four wild, rabid animals for children, this was only the second time we've had to make an ER trip. Hoping we keep it that way for awhile, and that this little munchkin is soon relieved of the splint that is holding her back from her typical shenanigans.

Troublemaker

Amaryllis is a typical "fourth child". You know how you get more and more chill with each baby...the oldest gets the best of everything, including things you don't really need, and their successors get handmedowns and you stop even bothering to clean the pacifier when it falls on the floor. It's not that you love them any less, you just get busy and realize that cleaning the pacifier that fell on the floor really isn't going to keep them from ingesting every germ in sight. So you just focus on the important stuff like "did you eat actual food today"?

Another thing about being the fourth child, is that she has many older siblings to learn shenanigans from. She also has many other people to distract me, giving her the opportunity to get into said shenanigans. First thing this morning she watched me throw a leftover piece of a snickers bar in the trash. She waited until I was out of the room dealing with another sibling, and then she got it out of the trash, made herself comfy on MY pillow, and ate it right out of the wrapper. When I found her she casually handed me the wrapper as if to say, "oh, was I not supposed to have this?"

Later in the afternoon we were working on school. Or trying to at least. She spent most of the time getting up on the coffee table where the kids were working and waiting until they were distracted, and then throwing their papers off the table, stealing their pencils, or just dancing on the table to provide a little entertainment. She thinks she's really funny, as stereotypically babies of the family do, and that's probably because we DO think she's really funny. (I try to hide it, but she gets away with a lot of things simply because I can't stop laughing at her.) She definitely reminded me of why I try to do school while she is napping. 

She is a little troublemaker, for sure. But I feel like there is a lot of other people who contribute to her delinquency. One of the perks of being fourth baby, I guess, you get to blame your older siblings for teaching you all your tricks, and your mom for laughing at you.