1st day of Preschool

Jackson was very excited about his first day of preschool. At 8:30 he turned off Handy Manny and said 'ok, I'm ready to go to school!' I, of course, needed to get some pictures and his reaction was to pose impatiently. I dropped him off and teared up a bit, I think more because he didn't have the slightest hesitation about me leaving. He barely said goodbye before he followed the teacher into the classroom.....sniff sniff. A few minutes after I returned home, I found Emery sitting in the rocking chair in Jackson's room, grinning from ear to ear. I'm pretty sure she was thinking 'Ha! He can't kick me out of here now!'

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To Windsurf or not....

The goal used to be to get up to the lake before the winds came up so we could rig and be ready to windsurf as soon as the wind shifted. Now the goal is to get up there early enough that we get a table with some shade and can play for a few hours before the kids have a melt down because it's nap time. But somehow it's more fun this way :)

Wedding Song

Peter Salett opened for Swell Season at Red Butte Garden last night. Tim and I did not realize who he was but when he started singing I said " this is the guy who sang our wedding song." Then he sang our wedding song. Awww. So of course when he said he would be signing cd's after his show, we had to go meet him. Unfortunately his cd's were cash only. Who carries cash anymore? I had left mine in the car because really, what did I need cash for. We had tickets to the show and a cooler packed with food and drinks. Wouldn't be needing any money until we got home and had to pay the babysitter. Tim had given me his cash, which I stashed in my wallet to pay the babysitter. So we had no cash to get a cd and have the guy who sang our wedding song sign it! And there was no re-entry if you left. Bummer. We went back to our chairs and wondered if there was anyone there we knew who we could bum ten bucks off of. Then Tim went to talk to the girl manning the gate. She said he had better be done for the night because there was no re-entry. So he told her the story about how the guy who wrote and sang the song we danced to at our wedding is here tonight! And he's signing his cd's! Except they only accept cash and all of our cash is in the car! She said, "That's a sweet story, run fast." So he did. And we met Peter Salett. I said "Heart of Mine was our wedding song!" He said "Aww, how many years?" And he signed our cd--Tim and Amy, I see my story has brought you 7 years of good luck. Here's to 50 more!

Jackson's 4th Birthday Party

After the Thomas the Train cake last year, I swore I would never do blue frosting again. Yet here we are....

A Toy Story party with a Woody cake

A bounce house

and presents

Healing

The sutures came out today. She fought a lot and I'm amazed the nurse was able to get them out. We wrapped her in a sheet, Tim held her like a football and held her head in the nurses lap while I held her arms and legs. She screamed bloody murder, turned bright red, worked up a sweat and still managed to move quite a bit. She's so strong. The nurse said it didn't hurt to have stitches taken out but I don't believe her. The 12 year old ( he seemed so young!) that stitched her up in the ER used a special stitch called a mattress stitch to sew her up. It's best for healing and will give her the best chance for minimal scarring. Unfortunately they are a lot harder to take out. But the scar is approximating well and I am a lot less nervous about the open wound in the middle of her forehead now that it is covered with the steri strips and looks to be healing nicely. She is such a trooper and continues to climb everything in sight as though this little accident never happened.

Kids

We had a birthday BBQ for Tim and I did not get any pictures of him but I did get some cute ones of the kids.

Little trooper

I've always known I would not do well in an emergency situation but until now I had never really been tested. Emery took care of that for me yesterday. We were having a playdate with Sophia and Andrew. Michelle and I were outside with them. The kiddie pool was out. The kids were watering the flowers, the dog and each other. Andrew and Emery needed to be big like the older kids and climb the stairs into the play house above the swingset. There was a gap where the monkey bars are and I had decided enough was enough and I would close the gap with a baby gate until Tim could get some boards up so we didn't have any accidents. HA! I was in the play house doing just that when Emery decided to climb up the stairs. Michelle saw Emery and went to make sure she made it to the top. At that moment, our dog Kaiya must have decided 'what fun! let's all go!' and bolted up the stairs, knocking Emery through the gap between the stairs. She probably fell about 4 or 5 feet. Michelle tells me she even hung on for a second and slowed herself down. I heard Michelle say "Oh no! Emery!". I saw her fall out of the corner of my eye. I turned and ran down the stairs. She was screaming and we both thought, 'oh good, she's crying'. Crying is good when a kid falls on their head. It means they are conscious. But then Michelle picked Emery up and she was facing me. My stomach dropped and my legs felt weak. I remember screaming "I can see her skull!, My GOD! I can see her skull!" She had landed on the sprinkler head underneath the swingset. There was blood. A lot of blood. Head wounds are like that. I carried her to the deck, a million panicky thoughts racing through my head. I pressed a towel to her head. I heard Michelle saying "I'm calling 911, I'm calling." And I said No! I'll just drive her! See...not good with emergencies. I was crying, Emery was crying and I could hear the sirens. Over and over I said to myself, "she's crying, she's okay, she's crying, that's good." The paramedics arrived, put her on a backboard and stabilized her head, a precaution for neck injuries, because of the height of the fall. She fought them the whole time. She fell asleep in the ambulance on the way to Primary Childrens. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life. She needed to be sedated for suturing and it took 4 of us holding her down to get the IV in. She's a strong kid. The Doctor said there would be three layers of sutures. I figured skin and muscle and asked, so what's the third layer? "There's a layer of fascia that covers the skull" he said. "I'll fix that first." Then the nurse turned to me and said, "so when you said you saw her skull, you were right." Gee thanks. I will forgive Kaiya way before I forgive myself.