Smithler: A Work in Progress

Fun Easter egg hunt!

The girls and I were pretty sick the week before Easter, so we stayed at home and colored eggs in our pajamas.

The best part of Easter this year was seeing Adeline begin to really understand why we celebrate it. We read her little Bible every day (sometimes we read two or three stories each day) and she definitely retains every single thing we read. So, when Easter Sunday came around, Adeline seemed to really get why we go to church at all, and what Jesus did for us. Since then Adeline has asked on more than one Sunday if we are celebrating Easter again. She can't wait until Easter 2010!

I mentioned Adeline's ballet class in an earlier post, but never put pix up. Her class is now over and I think she enjoyed it. It didn't seem to hold her attention like I thought it would though. We may try dance class again later, but she told me that this summer she would like to take an art class. So, beginning this week she will be taking two classes at the rec center, one where she gets to just run around and play with other kids and the other is called "Messy Art" - should be interesting.

Poor second child, Lylah. I haven't posted new pictures of her in months! She is already 9 months old which is so hard to believe. Time definitely goes by much faster with baby number 2. A few things she is up to these days:

One thing that is so much fun about living in Phoenix, is MLB spring training season. We live within 30 minutes of quite a few fields and you can buy relatively cheap "lawn" tickets for games. Absolutely perfect for families with little ones who could care less about the game, but love picnics! So, we went to two games in March, both on beautiful, 75 degree and sunny days. I'm sure I won't appreciate that same sun in about a month, but for right now, it's lovely to live in Phoenix!

I love baby feet pictures, don't you?

Adeline is into making silly faces for the camera these days. We are sitting at about right-center field cheering on the Cubs!

I can't decide if this picture is cool or a little scary.

This picture cracks Jeff up. Adeline was trying so hard to get Baba to read the sign to her, and he just wanted to take a picture of her breaking the rules.

Again, silly face!

Yes, I know I haven't posted pictures in a LONG time. For the three of you who check in periodically, so sorry about that. I will give you two of my main excuses - 1. Our computer broke. Well, it is still usable but I have to hold the screen upright with one hand and type with the other if I want to use it - not easy to do. 2. Our lovely 3 year old decided to "drop" our camera on the hard tile floor. We finally broke down and bought another one, but we were without a camera for a while.

Anyway, we had a little picnic at a local park tonight and I really wanted to share a picture of the girls! Hopefully, I'll start blogging again soon, but I've said that before... Maybe if I get a bunch of comments (and a new computer), it will motivate me to update more! (I know, shameless!)

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Yes, I realize that I am months behind in pictures for the blog, but this is more fun for me... So, here it goes...

Jeff and I did not go to the dentist last week for the first time in... umm.... 5 years! And, we certainly have not been back multiple times over the past week because, well... we haven't been in 5 years!

On that note, I would never, ever put Adeline to bed without brushing her teeth because I knew if I took 2 more minutes to put her down, I would miss the first few minutes of Grey's Anatomy. (Don't worry, I really did brush them the next morning!)

And, because I am not addicted to any TV shows other than Grey's, I did not spend 28 minutes of precious nap time watching Reality Steve this week talk about what may or may not happen on the Bachelor. (I'm not even going to link him, I don't want to be a bad influence and encourage you in any way to waste your 28 minutes as well.)

As we were pulling out of our driveway yesterday to go to church, Jeff and I most certainly did not hear Adeline say "But you forgot to buckle me in!" We are such responsible parents, we would never, ever forget something like that. (And, no, I'm not going to tell you which parent forgot!)

I did not spend $6 at Costco this week buying the book Twilight just because I have heard so many people talk about the series. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it, but I was just too curious to put it back down.

I did not spend almost 3 hours talking to my great friend, Amie, this week and I absolutely do not miss her a whole bunch!!!

And, finally, I did not take my little girl to the dance shop this week and buy her her first ballet shoes and leotard for ballet class I enrolled her in. (First class this Wednesday - I promise to post pictures! It should be interesting.)

The day was upon me... Monday I had to take both girls to the doctor - Adeline for her 3 year well visit and Lylah for a follow-up visit for an ear infection and a flu shot. I knew that Adeline would probably have to get at least one shot as well, so I was not looking forward to this appointment in the least! Which takes me back to the last time this scenario occurred...

About 4 months ago, I took Lylah in for her 3 month well visit, which of course included a number of immunizations. Now, I hate to see my babies upset, but I don't freak out when they cry after getting a shot. I know it hurts them, but I know it is for their own good. So, I comfort them as best I can and before we can even get all their clothes back on, they are fine - like it didn't even happen. However, I should not have expected my 3 year old to react the same way.

To put it in perspective, Adeline HATES it when Lylah cries! Sometimes she yells at her to stop, sometimes she tries to cover her mouth, and then there are the sweet moments when she will sing a song for her or give her a toy to attempt to calm her down.

Back to the doctor... Adeline was sitting quietly in a chair, eating an extremely healthy and nutritious snack pretzels and being the sweet, obedient, little girl that she is! I thought to myself, "okay, Adeline is fine so I can comfort Lylah when this onslaught of shots begins." As the sweet, unsuspecting nurse gave Lylah her first of four shots, Lylah cried out in pain (who wouldn't?). I stroked her arm and kept telling her that it was okay and it would be over soon. BUT, before I knew it, I hear Adeline yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" as she proceeds to jump down from her chair and head for the exam table. At that point I realize that Adeline needs to be soothed and calmed down much more than Lylah needs me stroking her arm. So, I walk around the nurse to get to Adeline and not a moment too soon because my lovely, obedient, patient and calm 3 year old is attempting to claw her way onto the table so she can swipe the remaining needles away from the nurse (who was a little surprised at the whole ordeal). The gesture was sweet, but it was a little crazy for a few moments as I tried to console Adeline and watched from across the room as Lylah screamed with each additional prick to her little, chubby legs. The entire episode only lasted a few moments, but I do not wish to relive those moments ever again.

Which brings me back to this week. Not only am I taking both girls back to the doctor, but this time, I'm pretty sure Adeline will have to get a shot as well. What a difference a year makes! 2 year olds may have an idea of what is coming, but you can kind of talk around the whole shot thing until that precise moment is upon you. And then, it's over before they know it and a sucker or a sticker makes it all better. A 3 year old, however, is not so easily distracted. As soon as we walk into the office, she knows what is about to happen and I notice her increased breathing and little hands shaking a little bit with nervousness. Poor girl! However, things went remarkably smooth! Adeline got her shot first, cried for less than a minute and was fine. Lylah got hers, cried for just a few minutes and was fine. The nurse came in with bracelets and suckers for Adeline and a little plastic octopus for Lylah and all was right with the world. Crisis averted! But, next year, I am scheduling the appointment so Jeff can at least come along. He shouldn't have to miss out on all of these wonderful memories!

On a different doctor's office note - what would you do in this situation?

For some reason, our doctor was extremely busy this week and so we had to wait an unusually long time in the waiting room. This waiting room is small, but it is still split in 2 different sections, one for healthy kids and one for the sick. We are sitting in the healthy section, enjoying a little Sleeping Beauty on the TV screens hung on the wall and 2 little boys come in with... well, I think she might have been the grandmother. They were about 4 and 6 years old and were instantly taken with Lylah. As the grandmother signed them in at the front desk, they immediately plopped down in front of Lylah's car seat and proceeded to touch her toys, pull her pacifier out of her mouth and hold her hands. I was so uncomfortable with this and was trying nicely to ask the boys not to touch her toys or her hands or her face. I'm thinking "does this lady not see what her boys are doing?" She finally turned around and told the boys to give the baby some space. What does that mean? In their little minds, it just meant to back up about 2 inches. Anyway, this continued even as the grandmother came and sat down (practically in my lap, I might add. Apparently, their definition of personal space is much different than our family's). The kicker was as soon as the grandmother sat down, she pulled out a tissue from her pocket, held it up to the older boy's nose and said "blow"! WHAT?!?!?!? Are you kidding me? I think I even laughed out loud a little bit because I could not believe what was happening. I just wanted to scream "get your sick kids away from my baby!!!!" But, I didn't. Should I have said more? What would you do?

By the way, I have never been so happy to see someone who came in after me get called back to see the doctor first.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not spend way too much time this week working on TAXES! And it's not even April yet. Ughhhh!

I absolutely love cutting my girls' fingernails, so I most certainly did not avoid cutting Lylah's nails, even though I knew they were getting long. And, I did not wake up the next morning to see a big scratch across her cheek due to the fingernails that I did not put off trimming. I would never do that, I'm super mom!

I did not absolutely freak out because Adeline accidentally let one of her birthday balloons loose in the backyard and I was not ultra-paranoid that some poor animal or child would find said balloon and choke itself. I am not a paranoid person at all and I never conjure up crazy, irrational scenarios in my head.

Even though I haven't bought diapers for Adeline for at least six months, I did not completely forget which child I was buying diapers for and buy size 4s for Lylah. This did not happen four days ago and Lylah is definitely not still wearing size 4 diapers even though they are way too big.

Speaking of Lylah, I did not bring out the high chair this week and she did not get to try lots of new solid foods. Not my baby, she cannot be 7 months old already!

I know that I am probably the only person who would ever do this, but I most certainly did not eat an entire bag of peanut butter m&ms this week! And, of course, I offered the m&ms to everyone in my family, I would never think about hoarding an entire bag! Not me!

On a fun note, I did not go shopping this weekend and would have never even considered buying a cute, new coat and boots for myself. And, it does not make me sad at all that we live in the stinkin' desert where I can't even enjoy my cute, new coat because it cannot already be in the 80's outside!

A friend of ours offered to take some family pictures for us this week! I was not excited at all about the potential of free pictures and I definitely did not go out and make sure we all had outfits that matched. Unfortunately, the photo shoot cannot be summarized perfectly by this...

And, finally... I did not celebrate my baby girl's 3rd birthday this week! There is no way she can be that old!!!!!

We went to the "bounce place"!! This is, by far, Adeline's favorite place to go so we invited her friends, Isaac and Dallas and spent Friday morning bouncing away. It was perfect, we were the only ones in the entire room so we had all the inflatables to ourselves! The kids loved it!

The first time we went to Bounce U, we had to help Adeline climb up everything and go with her down the big slides. This time - she was all on her own!

I shouldn't admit this, but I totally started crying watching Adeline climb up these stairs with her little mat in her hand. It was just hitting me hard that she is growing up so fast. I also cried singing happy birthday to her on the morning of her birthday. I'm such a girl!

They had a TV on in the snack room and the kids did not take their eyes off of it.

Lylah, as usual, just hanging out. You know we have babies that spit up A LOT, so where the baby is, there is always a cloth diaper in hand, or in the car as the case may be.

Cute kiddos!

I love sweet Isaac's face in this picture (on the left)!
"Can I cut in??"

In honor of Adeline's 3rd birthday on Monday, I thought I would devote a few posts to our sweet little girl (one of them). She says some funny and clever stuff, although, most of the time I completely forget to write it down and inevitably forget what was said. But, for your reading pleasure, here are two of her classics!

The other day I could hear Jeff and Adeline playing with Lylah in her room. Many of you already know this, but Jeff loves to speak Turkish! We've been in the states for over a year and a half, but he still speaks Turkish almost every day (even if no one knows what he is saying or we just respond in English). So, this morning, Jeff was on a Turkish kick and would not speak English to Adeline, only Turkish. Adeline knows a few Turkish words and phrases, but Jeff kept asking her question after question in Turkish. So, the conversation goes...

J: Ne haber, Adeline? Ne yapiyorsun? etc...
A: No, Baba.... No, Baba!
J: Adeline, I'm just speaking Turkish to you.
A: No, Baba. Don't speak Turkish, speak clearly!

Tonight, Jeff and Adeline read the story of Zachaeus in her Bible and he taught her a little song to go with the story. I was in the other room feeding Lylah and she came to tell me good night and sing the song to me. It went a little like this:

So, as we are closing in on Adeline's 3rd birthday (I can't even believe I am typing that!), I realized that I haven't shared with you our Thanksgiving weekend experience. I learned a lot that weekend and you never know, those of you with little ones might be in my shoes sometime down the road as well. So, this is the story...

We spent Thanksgiving afternoon with some friends, and got home around 5pm that evening. Adeline hadn't had a nap all day and if you know her, you know she is a sleeper and NEEDS those naps! So, I was about to make us something light for dinner and I put in her Care Bears Excercise DVD. It's just a little 10 minute excercise routine that the Care Bears do, and she loves joining them in their workout. Jeff walks in the room and Adeline asks if he will dance with her (there is a little dance routine at the end). So, they are spinning around the room, dancing and I hear Adeline fall down. Now, again, if you know anything about Adeline, you know that she isn't the most coordinated little girl and she falls ALL THE TIME. She didn't fall particularly hard and Jeff was holding her arms as she landed, so we didn't think anything about it until she started crying... and didn't stop.

She cried and cried for almost an hour as we asked her where it hurt, put some ice on it, offered her anything she wanted to see if she would stop crying (***See the bottom of this post for a funny story***). Finally, she fell asleep in my lap (which she never, ever does) as she was so exhausted from the long day. Well, we put her to bed, but about 3 hours later, she woke up crying and holding her arm. We knew that something was really wrong and debated taking her to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room. I decided Urgent Care, a b-a-d decision. We took her (and sweet Lylah, she just hung out in her car seat all evening) to a nearby Pediatric Urgent Care and walked right in to see the doctor, there were no other patients. The nurse took Adeline's stats and when we explained to her what happened, the first thing she said was Nursemaid's Elbow. We had never heard this term before, but we just continued on, talking with the doctor (who barely spoke English), getting some excruciating x-rays taken and waiting... The doctor came in and told us that there was possibly a hairline fracture in her forearm so they were going to splint it and give us the x-rays to take to our pediatrician to look over. They splinted her arm twice (the doctor really couldn't decide what was wrong, it was very obvious) and we were finally on our way home...

Such a big, strong girl!

Adeline was such a trooper and the next day she was definitely in pain, but as long as her arm was in a sling she seemed okay. But, every time we moved her arm at all, she cringed and we could tell she was not faking it. We looked up Nursemaid's Elbow online (what in the world did we do before the internet?) and it seemed to us, this is exactly what had happened to Adeline. When she fell, Jeff held onto her arm to "cushion" her fall (wouldn't any parent do the same?) and it dislocated her elbow joint. We decided to take her to a pediatric emergency room (remember, it's Thanksgiving weekend, the pediatrician's office was closed until Monday). Lesson #1 - NEVER, EVER go to Urgent Care again, go straight to the Emergency Room!

We went right in, and the doctor agreed that it was probably Nursemaid's Elbow but needed to take x-rays just to double check that it wasn't, in fact, fractured. Poor Adeline had to endure more x-rays and when they came back the doctor took her arm and "popped" the elbow back in place. (It was never fractured!) It literally took one second and within one minute she was completely fine, like nothing had ever happened.

Oh, the guilt!!!

I couldn't believe that my little girl had endured this pain for more than 24 hours and that was all we needed to do - pop it back in place. I don't know how to fix it myself, but I plan on learning so we will be prepared (just in case). Lesson #2 - be very careful of the girls' arms, especially between the ages of 1 and 4.

I know we have all done it, walking along, dad holding one arm, mom holding the other and... "1...2...3...weeeeeee" swing our little one alongside of us. DON'T DO IT! I know it's fun, but apparently, this pretty commonly results in Nursemaid's Elbow. I have seen parents doing this since then, but I restrain myself from saying something. What a party pooper I would sound like to some stranger!

We took Adeline out on Saturday morning for a special breakfast of Dunkin' Donuts! She definitely deserved a treat for a rough two days.

Orange frosting and sprinkles - yummy!