Liza's surgery

Liza had her surgery today and all went well. They reattached the part of her humerus that had broken off and now she is sleeping off the anesthetic. She felt pretty good when she came home but after she took her medicine she went right to sleep and has been out all evening.

She will be in the plaster cast she has now for a week, then they will take that off and take out the stitches. Then they will put on a fiberglass cast that she'll have for the next 5 weeks or so.

Everyone is asking if she is still planning to go to Greece with the UT spring break trip. The answer is yes, as long as there are no big complications. The doctor said everything looks good and she have no problem going. She'll have the cast to protect the arm, so she should be fine.

For now, we'd appreciate your prayers for quick healing and that she would feel ok and not have too much pain in the coming days. Thanks!

Haircut for Belle

Last Sunday Isabella really wanted to get her hair cut. Since we have to comb through it every day (it's been a week now with no signs of lice...) she wanted to get it cut shorter so it would go faster. We went to the place nearby and she had about 4 inches cut off.

Here she is in the chair looking, as she is now fond of saying, "very sophisticated" with her hair up on her head.

Here she is sporting her new hairdo at Baskin Robbins. She's quite happy with the new look.

Valentines Icecream

The kids received money in their valentines cards from their Grandma Carla and Grandpa Roger, so we went out for icecream a couple of nights ago. We had buy one get one free coupons, but you could only use one per visit, so Liza had Isabella do her own ordering. She was very grown up about it as she chose her icecream and sprinkles and then had Zach order his. She then paid for it and was delighted to have change.

Here are some pictures...
Isabella had peanut butter fudge with sprinkles.
Zach had mint chocolate chip with sprinkles.
Isabella had more on her nose then in her mouth at times. :-)

We all had a good time and Liza proved that she can eat ice cream one handed just fine.

Sick List

Liza and I have been thinking about keeping a list of all the illnesses and crazy health things that have been happening to us in the last few weeks.... so here they are:

1. Lice invaded our house and have been hard kill off.
2. Zach got a cold.
3. Isabella came to our bed after midnight saying "my face is wet" and we discovered that she had a bloody nose that had gotten all over her, the bed, the bathroom, etc.
4. Liza got an eye infection.
5. Liza broke her arm.
6. Liza had a reaction to the pain medicine and threw up all day Saturday.
7. Zach woke up this morning with one eye glued shut with gunk. He went to the doctor today and we found out he has an ear infection that went to his eye.

Please, God, make it stop. :-)

Going potty

Zach has finally got the hang of going to the potty. He still forgets now and then, but for the most part he is going to the bathroom now. When we were starting we had the potty chair in the living room. I was concerned that it might go everywhere if he was sitting down, but he solved the problem all by himself. He looks like an acrobat of some kind when he goes, but it works!

Crazy Hair

Last a week ago Thursday we found another louse in Isabella's hair, so we decided to use something new that some friends from church suggested. It's called Lice Ice and it basically hardens in your hair suffocates anything that might be in there. As an added measure of security and for piece of mind, we did Liza's hair as well. Here she is looking very suave with her hair all slicked back...
But the stiff pony tail kind of kills the suave appearance... :-)

Isabella did hers as well and we left it in all night. It seemed to work really well with out any chemical pesticides.

Making cookies

Before Valentine's day, Liza and the kids spent the afternoon making Valentine's day cookies. They had a blast rolling them out and decorating them.

Notice Zach's apron. I'm sure he won't think that is super cool when he gets older... :-)

Lined up

Zach loves to put things in a line. He lines up his cars, his little people, his markers. One day last week, he lined up his trucks and train then sat down in the line. Then he called, "Mommy, Mommy, come make a line with me." I thought it was so cute, I had to take some pictures.

Marble works fun

A couple of weeks ago we had our friends the Bakers over for dinner. While they were here, the kids showed off their marble works toy and we all had fun building a big tower for the marbles to race down. We got this toy (from discovery toys) for them for Christmas and they love it. It never goes together the same way twice and it is fun for them and for the adults too, as you can see from the pictures.
This one got so high that Zach had to use a stool to get near the top.

Dan was working with Isabella on a section that had 3 jumps in it.

It was so tall when we were done that Zach had to hand the marbles to Kristy for her to put them in the top. We all had a lot of fun.

Potty-training

Since we have 5 weeks in town, we decided it would be a good time to work on potty-training with Zach. (He'll be 3 in April.) So last week, we cleared our schedules, made a chart, bought treats and stickers, and got started.

We have also still been battling the lice, so last week when nothing was happening on the potty-training front, I was really questioning if he was ready. Sunday we took some time off with church. I told my mom on Friday that if we didn't make progress this week, we would stop working on it. I was doubtful.

Well, last night I finally caught Zach in time and he went in the potty. We did our potty dance, got candy and a sticker, and I was so thankful. This morning when I changed his diaper, he told me he had to potty. I didn't believe him because I had just taken off a full diaper. But he squated over the potty, and went. We danced again, and that set the tone for the day. We had no success last week, and then all of a sudden, he goes 4 times. Even at the Y after swim lessons with Chris. Who would guess that?! I am so thankful.

Bible teachers

On Sunday we went to Rudy's after church. It is one of our fave restaurants. We were asking the children what they talked about, and both of them had made valentines for children at an orphanage our church supports in Ethiopia. They also got prayer cards for two specific children to pray for. Of course, they also talked about Jesus.

Zach kept asking us what we talked about, and both our Sunday school class and the sermon was on marriage. Then he said 'Ok, now I am the teacher. Let's count to 5. Let's sing "A,B,C's". Let's sing "God is so good." Then he asked a question, asked "Who helped God heal people?" I answered "Jesus" and he said "Good job, mommy." It was very cute!

Isabella's free association prayer

Tonight Liza was praying with the kids and asked them what they were thankful for. Isabella started praying and said, "Thankyou God for the sun and moon and stars. Thanks for the clouds and the rain and the grass and Korea and Louisiana .... and Russia and Austin and Spain! and Kansas and Indiana." I was trying not to laugh. :-)

Fun at church

This last week at church we had the ribbon cutting ceremony and first worship service in our new sanctuary. After the service there was a picnic and party with bounce houses, climbing wall and a petting zoo. The kids loved the bounce house and had fun riding the pony and petting the animals. It was also Isabella's first time to go to a "big people" church service. She did pretty well and said she liked it when it was over, though she spent most of the time coloring and reading. :-)

Zach looks at the baby chicks and Isabella pets the bunny.

Isabella pets the angora goat. It looked like and expensive sweater to me...

Smimming lessons

This February the kids have been doing swimming lessons at the Y and have really been enjoying it. They have been in the water most of their lives wearing floaty suits, but this is the first time they have moved in to the world of actual swimming. Both of them love it. Isabella is in a class with 2 other girls, and Zach's class includes a parent (Liza does the swimming.) They are both ready to move on already, so they are going to jump a couple of levels for March and both be in the same class. The kids say "Thankyou!" to Grandma Carla and Grandpa Roger for the Christmas present of swimming lessons!

Isabella practicing kicking with her classmates.

Zach and Liza practicing floating on his back. He can swim everywhere with the dumbbell, and can go about 5 feet without one before he starts looking for someone to grab on to.

Cute Things He Says

There are several very cute things that Zach says that I don't want to forget. I thought it would be a good idea to record them here...

"Berry" as in "I love you berry much"
"Toolet" as in "I need to go potty in the toolet."
"Neverna" as in "Jonah didn't want to go to Neverna"
"Wine" as in "I drawed a wine."
"Prane" as in "Look at that prane wine." (Look at that Plane Line= the white line left by an airplane in the sky)
"Cool" as in "Let's go swim in the cool."
"Narbles" as in "Let's play with our narbels."
"Toddewer" as in "I'm not a baby, I'm a toddewer."
"Trembow" as in "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Sometimes it causes me to trembow, trembow, trembow."

Code

Last night we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate the start of a new potty training week for Zach, and the fact that we'll be home for the next 5 weeks. We talked about it for a couple of days before hand, but didn't want the kids to know that we were going there... so we refer to it a "Mousey Queso." It's a code they somehow have not figured out yet. We also use "The Scottish Restaurant" when speaking of McDonald's (that one came from when Liza was in Kaz with a toddler who missed fries with a great passion.)

So, I'm wondering what other codes are out there that parents of young ones use or used to use. Use the comment link to share yours.

Lots of bubbles

I wrote before about Zach getting the bubble machine for Christmas. When we got back to Austin, found another one on the 50% off shelf at Target and picked one up for Isabella as well. They love to stand on the play scape and send bubbles through out the yard and floating down the street. It's really funny when people are walking by and notice the air filled with bubbles. I took this quick video of them at work last week...