Giggle

Spring Fling at Primrose!

This morning we spent the morning at Primrose, Zach and Elaina's school, for their annual Spring Fling event. The Spring Fling is Primrose's annual fundraising event and 100% of all proceeds will be donated to the MN Make a Wish Foundation and Primrose Children's Foundation.Two excellent causes supporting kids!

The kids had a FANTASTIC TIME...and so did Mom and Dad!

The Zach enjoyed all of the games! His favorites were the dunk tank, angry birds, and racing Minnows!  At the dunk tank he dunked one of his past teachers Ms. Lee and even Mr. Holt! Way to go Zach! Ms VanO gave Zach a big HIGH FIVE for dunking Mr. Holt!  Zach found his teacher Mrs. Chuhel and raced Minnows and WON!!  Then he played angry birds with his teacher Ms. Brosho. He used a real sling shot with large balls to knock down milk crates and stuffed angry birds. Angry birds was tough but Zach gave a good try!!

Elaina's favorite thing was the duck pool where you selected ducks and matched the Primrose friends (Benjamin Bear, Percy chicken, Megy Pig, Liby Lamb, Mia Mouse, Billy Duck, Og Bookworm, Ally Bunny, Molly Cow, Katie Cat, Peanut Pony and Erwin Dog).  She also enjoyed planting a plant, playing pick a pop where she won a 64oz bottle of apple juice! Elaina also enjoyed playing on the playground with the other little girls.

There were LOTS of activities for kids in addition to those above, there was digging for dinosaur eggs, there was a dress up photo session, fishing for prizes, sand creations, face painting , Pepsi Ring toss, a silent auction, Bingo, fantastic food, raffles, and more!! 

Unfortunately I forgot my camera so when Primrose posts photos on facebook later tonight or tomorrow I'll find the ones of us and post them below.  I know for sure there are two photos. Who knows there could be more candid shots too!

RED J-E-L-L-O!

On May 12 I posted the following entry on Facebook:

Despite my PANIC of the Red Jello stain on our carpet I still managed to stop, pick up the camera and snap this photo of Elaina:

I marked on the photo where the red Jello stain used to be thanks to Capture!  Check out those messy hands of Elaina. I also managed to get all the red jello out of her cute top and pants using Dawn dishsoap directly on the stains and letting it sit for a few hours before tossing in the washer. The above is one of the outfits I picked up from the Just Between Friends sale night night before this photo was taken so I was happy the stains came out! 

Exploring the Sensory Table

Elaina had fun this past week exploring the sensory table at Primrose.

Elaina loves exploring the world with her hands. She also really enjoys art.

MORE Mac and Cheese, PLEASE!

NUM! I LOVE MAC & CHEESE!

Elaina finished her bowl of Mac & Cheese...

Then she saw Zach's bowl that he didn't finish and pointed to it. She finished off his bowl as well.

So in addition to one whole hot dog, some green beans, Elaina ate over one-half of a box of Mac and Cheese! She MUST be going through a growth spurt!

Elaina's Surgery

Over this past autumn and winter Elaina has continually been on and off antibiotics for middle ear infections.  She always seemed to have fluid in her ears and the infection was just ending or beginning. The pain she experienced from her ear infections kept her awake at night; which also kept Mommy Megan and Daddy Dave awake at night.

We experienced the same series of ear infections with Zach which caused issues with his being able to hear.  Stick your fingers in both ears and then talk - that how Zach was hearing.  All mumbles and unable to hear words properly enunciated. So once we hit five ear infections with Elaina we made an appointment with the ENT to see about ear tubes.

Before Elaina was seen by the ENT last Thursday (Jan 19) she had two more ear infections which brought her to the "magic number" of seven ear infections. 

This morning we brought Elaina into the Midwest Surgery Center in Woodbury at 6:30 AM. Her surgery was scheduled for 7:15 AM. The surgeon was running a little late this morning so we brought Elaina back into the surgery suite at 7:30 AM. I held her in my arms and everyone in the surgery suite sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with me as the anesthesiologist placed the mask over her nose and mouth. Elaina fell asleep in my arms.  I then laid her on the surgerical table and left the room. I posted to Facebook at 7:35 AM that Elaina's surgery had begun while waiting in the doctor's consult room. I didn't even have a chance to flip through 20 pages of the magazine I was paging through when the surgeon came in. She said the fluid in Elaina's ears was thick, goopy, snot like pus and the worse she's seen in awhile. She then said we made a good decision in having tubes put in because she'll now be able to hear much better. Although, this made me feel bad that we didn't get her in for surgery sooner. But you can't go and get tubes after only two or three infections it needs to be several. Elaina will need ear drops for the next week three times per day in each ear because of all the goopy icky junk in her ears.

I left the surgery consult room and returned to the main waiting room to wait for Elaina's name to be called so I could go back to the recovery room to see her and comfort her. I picked up my coat and sat down and then posted to Facebook at 7:44 AM that Elaina's surgery was done. So it was really done by 7:40 AM or so. Yes, it is that quick!

My name was called just a few minutes later to meet Elaina in recovery. She was crying in the recovery room and reached her arms out to me when she saw me. I picked her up and she snuzzled her face into my neck and continued to sob. She smelled like "hospital" which I presume to be the left over anesthesia smell. Poor baby! I sat down with her and rocked her while giving her a bottle of apple juice which she drank fast and wanted another bottle of apple juice. After drinking half of that she snuggled with me a bit more then we were ready to venture home.

As I sit here typing this entry Elaina is playing on the floor with puzzles in the other room with Dave as if nothing has happened. Kids rebound quick!