Bandage Removal (Not too messy)

Jake was able to remove the bandages 3 days after surgery, so that's what he did today. It wasn't as bad as I was picturing it. There were 4 incisions. One above the knee, 2 in the knee, and 1 below the knee. The surgery was done arthroscopically, so there's less scarring, and a faster, less painful recovery. The bruising seems to get darker each day, but that's normal. It has to get worse before it gets better.

Where did his kneecap go? You can see where the surgeon actually signed his initials in Sharpie. It's part of JCAHOs protocol. When he said he was going to autograph Jake knee before surgery, I thought he was joking... but he wasn't.

As the swelling is going down, we're noticing how much smaller his right leg is than his left. He hasn't fully used his left leg since the injury in mid-March. The muscle is atrophied a little bit. It'll take some time to gain full strength back in his leg. In the meantime, we like to push on his left thigh and calf to see how "mushy" it feels compared to his right thigh and calf.

ACL Reconstruction Surgery

I will have to begin at the beginning with this story. SO... two years ago Jake was playing basketball with some guys at church. During a game he hurt his knee. After some icing and rest it felt better after a few days.

Fast forward two years to February 2010. On a Tuesday evening he decided enough time had passed that he would try playing ball again. He texted me saying that he hurt his knee. But he was just joking. Thursday evening the guys were playing ball again. Off Jake goes to play. I got another text saying he hurt his knee, but this time it was followed up with "no joking". GRRRREAT! So more ice and more rest. Again it felt better after a few days. The following month in March... hurt AGAIN, only this time it was more painful and more damage. He iced and rested, but the swelling never fully went away and it was several weeks of not being able to use that left to it's fully potential. It wasn't 100% weight-bearing and couldn't fully extend. We just figured it was due to the swelling. In any event a doctors appointment was made.

At the appointment, the doctor said he wanted to sent Jake to an Orthopedic Surgeon for further review. Early April we went to see the Orthopedic surgeon. He said he was pretty confident with what happened, but wanted Jake to get an MRI to confirm, but he was 100% sure surgery was needed to fix the problem.

The MRI was done on Friday, April 23rd. A couple days later came the call... yes, it was what the doctor suspected. He said that Jake tore his ACL two years ago, reinjured it in February, and re-injured it again in March. During any of the injuries, the damage to his meniscus could have occurred. However, the pain felt in March could've been the meniscus folding over, which was what was preventing him from fully extending that leg and thus making it hard to walk and bear the weight.

Surgery was scheduled for June 2nd. After we get everything talked about and set up for June 2, we get a call on Monday, April 26th from the surgeon saying that he had a cancellation and wanted to move Jake's surgery up to that Wednesday, April 28th. Apparently there's only a few months from time of meniscus damage where you have the best chance at repair and since there was no way to know for certain which time the meniscus was damaged, the surgeon wanted to operate sooner rather than later.

4/28/10- SURGERY DAY! We sent Shyla to my parents place. They were brave enough to care for Shyla until Sunday! Way to go parents! Jacob stayed all day at a friends place.

9:30am- Jake and I arrived in Pleasanton. After a little waiting the nurses took Jake back to "prep" him. I was able to go back to see him after about 45 minutes. Waiting got a little boring, but the nurse gave us a Suduko puzzle to complete. 12:00pm- Surgery. I was told it would take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, so I went to the mall which was next to the hospital and met my dad for lunch. We walked around the mall for a bit and then I headed back to the hospital.

2:00pm- I got to the waiting room.

2:30pm- Tthe surgeon came out to talk to me. He said Jake's surgery went really well. He worked aggressively at fixing his meniscus and only had to remove a small portion of it. Which is great! The less the better. The more = the higher chance of getting arthritis in the knee later in life. The surgeon said I had to wait another hour before a nurse would come get me.

3:40pm- The nurse comes out to tell me that Jake wasn't feeling very well so she wants to give him more time to rest. I had to wait another half hour.

4:05pm- I headed back to see Jake. Poor guy. He was sucking on ice and looked very, very pale. He was very naseous and didn't look too well. The nurses wanted to make sure he could keep food down before they sent him home.

5:45pm- We packed into the car and headed home. Even though it was prime traffic time, we still got home to Antioch from Pleasanton at about 6:45pm. Surgery day was a success!

After getting Jake settled in bed at home, I went to pick up Jacob. Shyla will be coming home Sunday. I'm easing into life so as not to take on too many responsibilies at once. Jake is resting and we're praying for a fast recovery. The initial recovery is about 6 weeks. That's when Jake can bend his knee more than 90 degrees. The for about another 6 weeks he has to take it easy when lifting heavy things, actually I think he's not really supposed to lift heavy things. The entire recovery is about 8-9 months before he can return to sports, but for now we're taking it one day at a time.

(I TOOK MORE PICTURES OF JAKE IN THE HOSPITAL, BUT THEY DISAPPEARED FROM MY CAMERA MEMORY CARD WHILE IT WAS IN THE COMPUTER BEFORE I WAS ABLE TO SAVE THEM!!! )

This Is What Happens...

...when you play frisbee with daddy.

Messes

The morning started with this...Shyla came into the office with a baby food jar full of fruit snacks. She "claims" they were for me, although she ate them all. She knows how to get into the childproofed cabinets. So she went into the cabinet, got out the closed box of fruit snacks, opened the box, and then opened 4 packages and stuffed them into a baby food jar to eat them. At least she came and showed me what she did before she ate them. Harder to be mad at her for leaving the box parts and all the wrappers all over the place. Smart girl!

The late morning brought me this...It was a little too quiet, so I went to see what Shyla was up to and found she had taken the lotion from the bathroom, rubbed it on her hands, and then proceeded to smear it all over the couch! It was on the armrest, the bottom of the couch, and the floor.

Right before naptime brought me this...Both kids were laughing. So I just assumed they were playing together and having fun... which they were...! Shyla had taken an entire box of cereal and was shaking the box up and down making the cereal fly ALL OVER THE KITCHEN!

Two days later, I guess Shyla thought my heart needed a jump start, so......she drew a flower on the carpet! Luckily it came out. Can't blame it on her brother this time, it looks an awful lot like the flower she drew on the board. (It's hard to tell which one is the flower. It's the big swirly thing in the middle and then the stem and leaves are a little smaller just below it.

Congratulations to Class of 2023! (But really 2025)

Shyla graduated from preschool today! The program said Congratulations to the Class of 2023, but she'll be going back into the program for the next 2 years and that following Fall, she will be starting kindergarden, so Shyla's really the C/O 2025. It was a tiny glimpse of the accomplishments to come. Watching her made me see in my mind graduating high school... and even college!

The ceremony was really cute. It started off with a puppet show. The students got to sing some songs for their family. Everyone stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance (parents and family too). One by one if the students wanted to, they went up front to say it indivdually. Shyla said the first half nice and pretty and then rushed the second half and said it really, really fast. Everyone laughed! A few of the student teachers that were in the class got to say some kind words to the students. I'm kind of sad. The picture above shows the students with their "independent study child". Each student in the glass was paired up with a student child that they would study throughout the class. Shyla didn't have one :( Her "study" left class after the students had been assigned. It's hard to tell, but Shyla is in the yellow star above the last girl on the right. She is posing with her teacher, but she doesn't seem to mind. The teacher was bummed that the girl left class and she was telling me that the students were very concerned about Shyla. Sometimes there were activities that were "paired", but since Shyla had no pair, the other students always made sure she was never left out. How nice of them and I was glad to hear that they noticed her and wanted to make her feel part of the group.

Shyla receiving her diploma. Each child had a "name" attached to their diploma. There were some I thought for sure were going to be Shyla. Hers was "Little Miss Sunshine". It was fitting for the dress she was wearing, which she fondly calls her "Belle dress".

Afterwards, we got to go in the courtyard and celebrate with some good food. The weather was gorgeous so that was a bonus. The teacher said Shyla did absolutely wonderful for being the youngest one in class. That was so nice to hear. I'm already excited for her to go again next year. There was a lot of good food and snacks to eat, but what do I find my little girl eating???... a sucker!

In the meantime, I'll be having my own version of preschool throughout the summer and fall. I'm planning on twice a week having "Shyla's Corner". I've already got a space in the family room called "Shyla's Corner" where I've been hanging up her schoolwork. During Shyla's Corner time I'll be teaching her about fruits, vegetables, colors, shapes, numbers, painting, etc. I'm really excited to do this with her. It'll be a little challenging with little Jacob, but hopefully soon he'll be able to participate too!

Chores

I'm starting 'em young! Shyla's job is to start the dishwasher.

While Jacob's is to clean up the cereal on the kitchen floor.

"Smile For Mommy Just One More Time"

Shyla and Jacob,

It feels like only yesterday when I first met you. First gave you a bath. First helped you to stand. Your tiny finger and toes were the highlight of my day. When I would hold you in my arms and rock you to sleep, my heart wanted to melt.

As we approach the date that Jacob will turn 1, and recently, Shyla, you turned 3, I often wonder where the time has gone. I try to capture every moment, big or small. I want to remember your face when you saw Christmas presents under the tree, or how your eyes light up when you see a bug in the grass. We are all gone too soon from this earth, but while I'm here I want to remember everything about you. If I ever forget a memory, or how I felt on a particular outing, all I have to do it look at the pictures taken and I can instantly be taken back to that moment. You two are growing up way too fast for me. I wanted you to stay little babies forever, but Shyla and Jacob, you're proving to me that no matter how much I want it, you have to grow up... and I have to let you.

People have often said to your mommy that she takes too many pictures. I say to them that I can't take enough. How many is too many anyway??? It's a little space taken up on a disk, but it is filled with memories that will last longer than my lifetime. When it's my time to leave you, until we meet again, I want to leave you with the best memories of your lives, both in your memories and in pictures.

I hope when you get older and you look back at all the times I made you sit still, wear silly clothes, or dressed you up to look dashing, it's only because I love you. You both are tiny, precious versions of mommy and daddy. You have our eyes, our hair, our toes, fingernails, laughter, but best of all, our smiles.

That's why for as long as I can, I will continue to say, "Smile for Mommy, just one more time".

Multi-Stake RS Meeting

I went to a Multi-Stake Relief Society meeting tonight at the Inter Stake Center at the Oakland Temple tonight. I met up with my friend Tami for dinner beforehand and a couple other friends joined us inside when we arrived. Gloria Allred was the main speaker and she had a lot of very amazing things to say. I can't remember specifically what was said, but I do remember she talked about families and the role of a mother. I will probably always hate that I can't remember, but I will always remember how I felt while listening to her speak. It was a great meeting!

I Heart Craigslist

If I've never done a posting about Craigslist before, then I'm long overdue. I love Craigslist! We use it for almost all of our babycare needs and also for some needs of our own. Clothings, toys, bouncers, diapers, etc. We've been needing to change out Jacob's clothes from his 6-9 month and 9 month clothes, to one year old stuff. Problem, we didn't really have any clothes in that size. I searched Craigslist for a while. Seems baby boy clothes aren't as readily available as baby girl clothes are.

I found a particuar ad that had about 15 items of clothing for size 18 months for ONLY $5! I figured I'm a size ahead of what I need, but I love seeing babies in clothes that are too big. They are cute enough to get away with it. So I wrote to the lady and said I was probably too late, since the ad was a couple of days old, but were the clothes still available... and they were. When looking up the ad the next day to get some information, it dawned on me that the ad was written much like another ad I had seen for size 12 month clothes for $15. We asked about the 12 month clothes and they were available too. Jake came home with a kitchen sized garbage bag full of clothes for only $15!!! There were 37 pieces of clothing! WHAT A STEAL!

Moral of the story: If you search long enough and hard enough, you will get what you are hoping for at a fraction of the retail cost.

HAPPY EASTER

Easter morning was a lot of fun. The night before, when everyone had gone to bed, I went downstairs, I mean the Easter Bunny stopped by and left a present for everyone! In the morning Shyla was so excited. She actually started eating the peanut M&M's before she had breakfast. She continued to eat them after Grandma Candy arrived. Her excuse was, "I'm getting them to give to Grandma". Good one Shyla!

After breakfast we waited for Grandma Candy to arrive and then we had an Easter Egg Hunt in the front yard. It was supposed to rain so our backup plan was to have the hunt in the house. I think it would've been harder to find the eggs intermixed with all the toys laying around. Fortunately, we had the hunt, and just as we were finishing up... it started to sprinkle. It then turned quickly into full on rain, which continued until the next day.

After the "hunt" we went to eat at Fresh Choice. As always, the company was nice and the food was yummy! Jacob enjoyed his first ice cream cone and devoured it. He'd whine whenever it wasn't in his mouth.

I want to take a minute and say that after the eggs are hunted, the candy is eaten, and bunny has ran away, that Christ is still present. Without Him, there would be no Easter. I'm not even sure how the Easter Bunny came to be part of this special day. But I don't want to forget the rold that Christ has played in my life. In a nutshell, I was raised Catholic and am now a Latter-Day Saint. While not everyone in my family believes the same things as myself, I strongly believe that without the knowledge of Christ and the special role He plays in our lives, that I would not feel as strongly as I do today that there is a God, and that Christ lives. He is my rock, my salvation, and my Savior.

Child Water Safety Fair

After playing around at the Eggstravaganza, we stayed for a child water safety demonstration called April Pool's Day. I think they were betting on it being sunny, but this day there was cold, wind, and clouds. It was still fun! I learned about carseat safety (which you'd think I know a lot about having 2 kids, but I found out I didn't know as much as I thought I knew). Shyla learned about life jackets. And Jake learned that to keep baby Jacob happy he had to keep the stroller moving!

We were told that there was a helicopter that was going to land in the parking lot so we went out there to wait and watch. Beforehand, I saw some pretty flowers and couldn't resist taking pictures of Shyla. I think flowers help to make little girls look very angelic-like.

Shyla's preschool is across the street from the community center. Here she is showing us where her school is at. She even got to sit in the front seat of a firetruck! We forgot to ask, but next time she gets in an emergency vehicle I hope they let her toot a horn or sound a siren!

Killing time before the helicopter lands. Actually, the helicopter was in the process of landing during this picture. You can sort of see it in Shyla's hair that it was windy from the propelors (propelers?). Jake gave her his sunglasses so she wouldn't get dirt kicked up into her eyes.

Watching the safety alligator walk out of the helicoptor reminds me of an image of Obama getting off Air Force One. Only in this instance, the safety alligator is here to help the children... not hurt them in the years to come!