Mayo Clinic 10.28.11

Andrew and Aaron had their annual nephrology appointments today in Rochester.  They both had good reports and tolerated their blood draws just fine.  Although Andrew did cry a little more than Aaron did.

Here Andrew was all done and all smiles as we waited for Aaron.  Gabe was completely distracted by the TV (cable!!!) so his smile was a little forced here.

Cheese!  Little Andrew's blood pressure was elevated during this visit so we need to keep an eye on it for 4-6 weeks to determine if an "intervention" needs to be made (medication).  I'm not sure how we are going to manage it yet but we'll figure out a way to get it done.

Another big grin for the ride home.

As a side note, more for my memory and to tell Andrew about when he was older: They put a little "baggie" over his business to catch a urine sample since he is not potty trained.  I had pretty much forgotten about the baggie since it took him FOREVER to fill it last time and we decided to go down to get some food.  I popped Andrew up on my hip and we got in the elevator.  I felt something warm and set him down when I saw "water" dripping off his shoe.  Thankfully we were alone in the elevator because the baggie had sprung a leak.  The elevator door opened and some poor lady saw us kinda acting weird with "liquid" on the floor of the elevator and she backed away saying "I'll take the other one".  Ha!  I cleaned up the floor of the elevator with 2 baby wipes and we hurried back up to the 16th floor where I knew there was a great "special needs" bathroom with a large counter for me to remedy the situation.  Amidst quite a bit of crying Andrew and I were able to salvage a sufficient sample and remove the apparatus from the poor kids skin.  We lost 1 pair of socks in the battle but amazingly there was only 1 little dot of "liquid" on my shirt and Andrew's pants.  After we had breakfast (finally) we drove to Fleet Farm and Andrew got a new pair of Minnesota Vikings socks to replace the other ones.  And a new John Deere dump truck for all his troubles!

Some Good Mail!

Monday a package from Grandma & Grandpa Schaefer arrived.  It was much anticipated because....

.

....it had CAPES in it!  Grandma (with the help of her trusty sidekick Grandpa) made a batman cape for Gabe and a Superman cape for Andrew from scratch.

We had 2 very excited boys to try on their capes....

....and to see what else was in that box!  It was chock full of goodies.

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa, we love it!!!

We also received a package from Grand Auntie & Uncle Linda & Jim.  It also had many goodies for us including these hilarious suckers!  Andrew had a hard time keeping it in his mouth (note the drool on his shirt).  Gabe was trying to look "mean" to go with the vampire teeth.

Cleaning Up

Getting ready to start.  Gabe's got the grain shovel to move things along...

Teamwork!

Voila!  Finished product...

Warm-Ups

Stretching out, getting ready to go on a walk with mom.

He says he was exercising and stretching in this photo.  To me it looks like a victory stance!

Bedtime Snack

 As usual ice cream was the bedtime snack the other night.  Andrew was being goofy with these sunglasses perched on his head.  This picture is how he glares at me.  Love that!

 Here is a good shot of the healing ear.  The crusty dark stuff is the DermaBond glue.

And a big CHEESE grin!

Oh Andrew!

He thought it was so fun to be in the toy box.

And now for the "Oh Andrew!" pics.  Our boy took another tumble at daycare resulting in an ear injury.  His ear was SO swollen but Rachel had stopped the bleeding (don't ask me how!).

I put him in the tub to clean the dried blood off his ear.  Apparently I also got the clot off the wound and it would.not.stop.bleeding.

Carleen brought me out some gear to try to get the bleeding stopped.  Stupid platelets!  It just oozed and oozed for a good 3 hours before we gave up and took him to the ER. 

Of course I shouldn't fail to mention that I could not get ahold of Aaron because he was at a meeting at the church and doesn't answer his cell phone (grrrr).  So I loaded the boys up and took them to the church and then let Aaron decide what we should do with him.... he chose ER because we were pretty sure they could just DermaBond (glue) the wound.

So after the doctor DermaBonded the wound it was still! bleeding!  So I think the doc got a little nervous and started asking us about his bleeding disorder, etc.  He ended up calling the ER at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines for some advice.  WELL, they advised drawing platelets to see just how low they were and they also suggested a CT scan of the head since there was significant bruising behind the ear.  He was saying words like "skull fracture" and "internal bleeding".  Gulp.

We decided to "let" them draw platelets even though we know they are ridiculously low.  Soooo, after they stuck him twice fishing for a vein I said no more sticking and also declined the CT scan simply because there was NOTHING wrong with him other than a huge bump on his ear.  He was his usual self unless we touched his ear because that hurt!

The doctor was a little unsure of letting us go without a CT of the head but told us that he will let us decline because I am a health-care professional and he trusted my judgement.  Thank goodness because I have no idea how they would have pulled that off without sedating him and they can't sedate without an IV line and they couldn't even draw blood.... It would have been a nightmare!

So Andrew had a pressure dressing put on his ear and his head wrapped like a turban and we got home about 11:30pm Monday night.  Here he is having a snack when we got home.  He got to snuggle in bed with me so I could keep an eye on him.  He kept tapping his turban and saying "hat.... outside?"

The next morning we followed up with a nurse practitioner and she thought he looked great.  She did a thorough neuro exam and told us we only needed to follow up again if the swelling in the ear did not improve.  

Oh Andrew!

Letters from Great Grandma Gena

Gabe and Andrew got some special notes in the mail this week.

I could not get this image flipped, so you'll have to turn your head sideways to read Gabe's note.

Along with their notes they each got a $10 bill to spend!

WILD child with a sweet side

Good grief this child is wild sometimes!  I love this picture because it is sooo HIM.  Just crazy, happy, smiling, fun!

And a side profile of the rider...

I helped Andrew dress our build-a-bears and my old cabbage patch doll... then he came and got me... "come, wook..... (points to them all lined up on the pillow), nigh nigh".  He can be so sweet!

Buzz Cuts and First Homework

Andrew modeling his new haircut from dad...

Gabe showing off his haircut and his teeth.

Reading time with my cute boys.

Gabe's first homework assignment was due on Sept. 26th.  He had to make his home.  We printed out some pictures and then he colored the rest with colored pencils.

Enjoying himself!

The finished product.  He drew pictures of transformers, a door, and a cross.  He also colored a cat and the atrium (orange part) because that is where the cats live.

Cross Country & Des Moines

A few weeks Humboldt held their home cross country meet.  We haven't missed one yet since we moved here and the Wildcats did not disappoint!  Andrew was in top form as the above photo shows.  Although he does need to straighten out that arm swing.... :-)

That's our buddy Kalle in the blue.  She is an AWESOME runner but is out now with some hip problems.  Sad cause it's her senior year.  We hope she'll be back in time for sectionals and state!

I had some clingy boys while we waited for the runners.  That's about 75 pounds I'm holding there.

Well that didn't last long!  Andrew wanted down and then Gabe started slipping....

Oh my!  This is such a silly boy.  He wanted the stickers on him like a tattoo.  So of course I helped him out!

We had a mini vacation 2 weekends ago in Des Moines.  Aaron took the boys swimming while I got a few hours to shop.  I arrived back in time to photograph my little fish.

Yup, that's Andrew jumping in by himself.  He could also float around and swim a little with his life jacket.

No trip to Des Moines is complete without a trip to Toys-R-Us.  The boys had fun and each got some new toys!

Exhausted on the ride home.  Gabe slept the ENTIRE way from Des Moines until we pulled into our neighborhood.