Dec 16-31: Christmas in Virginia

We spent Christmas 2014 with the Chalker family in Virginia; we had a great time at my brother Kurt's new place!  Kent & I made the bold move to drive the 13 hour trip rather than fly.  We had several compelling reasons to support our decision - and I swear that insanity wasn't one of them!!  Kent & I were actually looking forward to it; this was our first road trip for the family that was longer than 3 hours.  Our kids did great!!  We bought a DVD player with 2 screens that can be installed in the car and that did the trick!  Erik loves videos and will watch endlessly, if we would let him.  Elin is content to watch for awhile, but I also brought some books & toys for her to play with that kept her entertained when she tired of videos.  I got stuck in the back seat between the 2 car seats to keep the videos, games, books & snacks flowing.  Several times on the trip up, I begged Kent to let me drive and each time, he would give some excuse like "when we stop to eat" or "at the next rest area", but somehow, he managed to evade each of the opportunities and I never did get the chance to drive.  What a sneaky guy - in my opinion, he was just too scared to take his turn in the back!  We left our house (later than anticipated, of course) around 9AM on Sunday, Dec 21 and arrived at Kurt's around 10:30PM that night.

The Chalker Clan
(Kirstin & her family on left, Kalvin, Kurt & family in middle with Nana & Pops and Kelli's family on right)

Due to the severe delay that I've suffered in posting updates to my blog, I'm going to rely on my pictures to show most of what we did rather than trying to write it out.  I'll forewarn you, however, that my picture-taking abilities are rather poor on this trip (as evidenced by the complete lack of photo documentation of the road trip!)

We played outdoors, went for walks and rode on the 4-wheelers and Kurt's new tractor:

The "big" cousins, Jake & Lauren, holding Elin's hands as they walk up the hill.  Love it. 

Erik on the trampoline

Elin & Auntie Jenny

Uncle Kent braving the trampoline with all the kids!

We played indoors with new toys, puzzles and electronic equipment! We also had to snuggle sometimes to stay warm in the chilly Virginia weather!!  I don't have any pictures good enough to share, but Erik loved spending time with his Auntie Jenny.  He would go into her room in the morning and snuggle into bed with her (he has only recently started to do that with me).  A few mornings, Uncle Kurt totally indulged him and gave him breakfast in bed!

Notice how Erik is sticking close to his beloved Auntie Jenny?!!

Elin & Kaeleigh

Snuggles with Pops

Funny faces with Uncle Kal 

Movie Night

Elin & Jack getting in some cuddle time while Erik gets to sit by Pops

We opened presents (we didn't get very good shots of the event since it was pretty much mayhem the entire time!)  In the Chalker family, we open 1 gift on Christmas Eve - not the stockings - and then the rest of the gifts & the stockings are opened on Christmas morning.  But at a somewhat reasonable time on Christmas morning - none of this crazy crack of dawn business in the our family!!:

Christmas Eve

Elin & her Christmas Eve gift from Erik - her very own doggy!

Erik loves to help, so he jumped in to assist Santa Pops & started handing out packages

Initial moments before the boxes & bags really started to come our way!

Elin was completely enamored with Kurt & Jenny's dog, Bear, and Kirstin & Lee's dog, Stella.  Bear is getting up in years, but thankfully is also a rather calm & patient dog and he took to Elin after an initial getting acquainted stage.  He actually spent a good bit of time "herding" Elin around the house making sure that she stayed in the main area and didn't go off by herself!!  Erik was also very enamored and decided to pretend to be a dog for a good portion of the trip!  In keeping with his 2 new loves, Erik declared that he was Auntie Jenny's dog and she humored him by "walking" him around the house with his leash!  Elin & Erik both found where the dog food was kept and absolutely loved sneaking into the room and filling the dog bowls up with food.  We had to keep a close eye on those two to make sure that they didn't overfeed the dogs!

Erik, the dog, with his leash/chain on!

We celebrated Pops' 30th birthday on Sabbath, Dec 27 and he had lots of photo opportunities with all his grand-babies:

Uncle Kurt gave Elin her first taste of whipped cream:

I took Elin to Sabbath School (no one else wanted to attend).  She started out really well and then got a little spastic during the class.  Our class at home is HUGE & pandemonium does tend to reign supreme most weeks, so it was a shock to be in a class with only a handful of toddlers who were mostly well behaved!  The class was small enough that each child is called up front to sit on the teacher's lap, asked to repeat the memory verse and then & only then are they given their snack!  What a concept!

Luckily, my best friend, Lauron, was in town that weekend visiting some family, so I was able to visit with her & her husband, Tom!  It was wonderful to see them both and I even snuck off to breakfast with them all by myself - it was wonderful and yet, oddly, weird to eat my food without also trying to feed 2 kids, keep them in their chairs, keep them happy & not screaming, and not having to pick up cheerios, toys, napkins, etc from the floor!

I want to share one funny story about Erik that happened during this trip.  Erik was walking with Nana down to the mailbox (which is quite a ways away) and Erik wanted Nana to carry him after a bit (probably only a few steps).  Nana told him that he was a big boy and could walk.  He took a few more steps and again asked to be picked up.  Nana caved & carried him for a little bit, but he's a big, heavy kid, so that didn't last long.  She put him down & said he could walk since he was a big boy.  This pattern repeated for a few times.  Then, Erik once again asked to be picked up and when Nana stated that he was too heavy and Nana couldn't carry him that far, he replied "Nana, stop fussing & whining!"  Ha, ha!!  I bet that he had been waiting MONTHS to say that to someone rather than having it said to him!  Nana told me that she couldn't do anything, but laugh & pick him up.  She stopped fussing after that!

Everyone left Kurt's place on Sunday, except for the Johnson group who elected to stay one more day to hopefully avoid the Sunday traffic as everyone headed home from the long weekend.  Poor Kurt & Jenny had to put up with us for 1 more day!  Of course, Elin started to get a slight fever that day, so we began to medicate her in the hopes that the fever would go away and not develop into anything bigger.  Monday morning, Elin's temp was being held at bay with medication so we decided to go ahead and head home.  I was, once again, stuck in the backseat with both kids.  The ride back was much harder than the ride up, primarily due to needing to administer medication to Elin and then starting to get that same fever myself.  I nearly lost it about an hour outside Orlando - I was ready to demand a hotel for the night so that I could just.get.out.of.the.car!!! The worst of it, though, was trying to nurse Elin while she in her carseat!!  She decided that her milk supply was on tap since I was sitting right there with nothing better to do and she would cry & wail for her milk until I would give in and nurse her for a few minutes.  Has anyone reading this ever tried nursing a child in a carseat?!!  It is hard & it hurts!!!!!  My ribs were black & blue by the time we got home.  Ouch!

The only picture I have of Elin during the car ride home.  She looks perfectly content in this picture!

Dec 7-15: On the Mend Again (please let it be so)

Oops, so sorry - I've left all my faithful blog followers hanging for nearly 2 months wondering how Elin is doing!  In short, Elin was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and was mostly back to normal by the end of the week.  We are so thankful that she is healthy and back home again.

Sunday started out just like the last few days with Elin being able to maintain her respiratory rate but lacking energy & just wanting to sleep.  She had to spend the day on oxygen to keep her O2 levels at an acceptable level.  However, thankfully, she did become more alert in the afternoon and started signing a few words.  It was so exciting and really exhilarating to see her practically come to life again.  It was so encouraging even though she didn't smile, chatter or giggle like she is prone to do.  Nana spent most of the day with us; she & Elin took a nice, long nap together in the middle of the day.  After Elin's movie date with Kent on Saturday night, she was very interested in watching TV.  By the time we left the hospital, we may have watched Polar Express about 10 times!  Elin also started to show some initial interest in food again on Sunday afternoon.  I had brought a few of her favorite snacks to the hospital with me and Elin took a few bites of them, but was mostly interested in just holding them in her hand!

Elin on Sunday afternoon

On Monday, Nana had to return to Ohio to go back to work, but Pops agreed to stay with us until next week Monday to help out with Erik.  By this point in our hospital journey, both Kent and I were miserably sick as well; my throat was so sore that it was hard to understand what I was saying (Elin's doctor couldn't understand me on the phone and always asked to speak to someone else when he called to check on Elin!!).  I finally broke down and went to Centra Care in the afternoon to see if I could get some antibiotics.  After an incredibly frustrating 2-hour wait, the doctor spent maybe 5 minutes with me but I left with a diagnoses of laryngitis and a script for a wonderfully strong antibiotic!

The doctors took Elin off oxygen first thing Monday morning to see if we could potentially go home that afternoon.  She made it 30 minutes before her levels dropped too low and they had to turn on the machine again.  That means we get another day in the hospital - yippee!!  Elin spent more time awake today, but she did manage to nap through an Orlando Magic visit; good thing she doesn't follow basketball yet or she would have been devastated!  When Elin was awake, I pulled out her baby doll and showed it to her.  She immediately reached out for the doll and then proceeded to sit & hug it for a very long time!  Poor baby just needed someone to hug.

Elin hugging her Dolly

On Tuesday, the doctors said we could go home - after 5 nights and 4 days, we are finally heading home!!  Elin had spent Monday off of oxygen and had maintained her respiratory rate until she was at a point where the doctors felt they weren't doing anything for her that we couldn't now do at home.  After getting that good news, we simply had to wait for Elin's nose cannula & IV to be removed, for the discharge paperwork to come through and for Kent to come get us!  During her hospital stay, Elin seemed to be bothered more by the nose cannula than her IV line which surprised me (probably because I hate having an IV line in).  Elin got really cranky when we removed the nose cannula and then proceeded to wail during the IV removal.  While she was crying, I saw that she had had 2 new teeth come in while we had been in the hospital (her 2 lower canine teeth).  Hmm, she normally gets a runny nose & a slight fever when she is teething - could they be the partial cause for her continued fever that started this whole journey?!  Hopefully not much!  It was a relief to have her well enough to go home, but also a little scary knowing that we were now solely responsible for her continued health improvement!  

Kent & Elin as we say Good-bye to Florida Hospital

Elin did something so sweet when we got home. Pops had not been able to come to the hospital to see her, but as soon as he heard the car in the garage he came out to say hello.  Kent got Elin out of her car seat and turned her around so she could see Pops; she pointed down to the floor which is her sign for down.  After Kent put her down, she made the most pitiful little face & held her arms up and walked up to Pops asking for him to pick her up and give her a hug! He had tears in his eyes.  He picked her up and she put her little head on his shoulder and just lay there for a while.  Such a sweet girl!!  This entire experience, now that it's over, has shown me the amazing power of prayer.  I'm so thankful for all the support and care that our friends and family have poured out on us. Elin is surely one well-loved little girl. 

Elin getting hugs from Pops

The rest of our week was spent recuperating and trying to get back to normal. We had visits to the pediatrician for Elin (Elin lost more than 2 pounds while she was sick so now she's tinier than tiny), Parent/Teacher meetings for Erik (he's a great little guy and does really well at daycare) and a mammogram for Kelli (results came back clear!).  I'm so thankful that Pops was able to spend the week with us to help take care of all the miscellaneous and sundry items which allowed me to rest when time permitted. I had planned to start weaning Elin this month, but that plan has been completely de-railed - Elin gets milk nearly every time she asks this week!  Elin is so weak from her illness that she struggled with walking the first few days she was back home; it was heart-breaking to see her stumble and fall when she had been easily walking & running before.  With her weight loss, she has the skinniest legs now!

By Sabbath afternoon Elin was feeling really good and was mostly back to normal so we decided to go ahead with some plans to take a Polar Express-type train ride with the Orange Blossom Cannonball train.  Both kids love that trainride; this is our second year doing the ride. The ride mimics the Polar Express movie and provides hot chocolate and cookies for the kids as well as a visit from Santa Claus. Erik and I have been having a running debate this month about whether Santa is real or not! After watching Polar Express, Erik is pretty certain that Santa is real because "Mama, he moves on TV"!  I never believed in Santa Claus as a child and have not wanted my kids to believe that he is real and then learn later that we lied to them about Santa Claus. I also would rather have them focus on the real reason for Christmas - Jesus!  So we have been focusing on that this holiday season. I got an Advent Nativity calendar with stickers that the kids really enjoyed (even though Elin was better at taking the stickers off which drove poor Erik crazy!). We also bought them some books with the Christmas Bible story as opposed to the fictional stories.

Somber little girl on Wednesday

Finally getting some smiles by Friday

Some laughter, too!!

Starting to move easier & faster again!

Elin & me on train

Kent & Erik on train

Best picture I could get of the kids - ugh!

The AHS Christmas brunch was held on Sunday at one of the Disney hotels; Pops was able to attend with us. The company has grown to massive numbers and it took great skill to navigate the crowds to find enough chairs & to find our friends.  I'm sure that we missed seeing lots of our friends and coworkers, but after we finally settled into one place we were able to see a good number of people as they moved around us instead of us trying to move around to find them!  Since we have all been sick recently we opted to skip the Disney parks for the rest of the day and instead came home to play with Pops and do some chores like putting up Christmas lights!  Pops left on Monday and we were very, very sad to see him go; our only consolation was that we would see him again super soon for Christmas!

Kelli & Amy at the Christmas Brunch