Our Latest Addition

After having such a great experience with Natalie last year, we decided that we would at least remain on the "emergency list" for the foreign exchange student program as there seem to be a lot of students who need a new family throughout the year.  We didn't have to wait for our new student long.  We got a call the first week of August asking if we would take another German girl for the year.

 

We decided to go for it, so we are happy to introduce to you, Charlotte. So far we have really enjoyed having her stay with us. There are 5 German students in our school so our house has been full of Germans lately, which is a lot of fun...especially when they cook for us :)

 

Here is a picture of Charlotte with 2 of the other exchange students.  Charlotte is the one of the right:

 

 

(Oh, I should probably add that this was taken on "Nerd Day" for Homecoming week at school.)

Cooking With Sammy

Sam was "cooking" outside today with the neighbor boy.  Here's the recipe for what they made.  Sam calls it "Bad Guy Soup."

Bad Guy Soup

• Fill a bowl with dirt.
• Catch as many grasshoppers as you can - in this case, one - and smash them. (If your mom discovers what you are doing at this point, you may have to smash them further to make sure they have been "put out of their misery.") Add to the dirt.
• Add rocks to taste.
• Stir it all together while laughing maliciously: "Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" until thoroughly mixed.

Though it may seem like it, I'm not exaggerating on these directions one bit.  I thought they were being pretty imaginative, but when they started the sinister laugh, I knew I would have to put this on the blog.

My Turn

As you know, Seth had appendicitis this summer.  Then Elena went delirious with a high fever.  Now I have whooping cough.  Ironically, I had planned to get the vaccine for whooping cough right after the baby was born.  At least it's me and not the kids - I'd hate to watch them go through this. The only disadvantage to it being me is...well, I'm the mom.  And we all know how much gets done around the house when Mom is sick.  Seth has done a great job of stepping up and taking care of things as much as he can, though. I'm on antibiotics so I'm not contagious, but they don't do a lot to help improve the symptoms.  Chances are I'll just have to ride this cough out for the next few weeks.

I figured as long as I'm too sick to get much done, I would update the blog.

The month of July was spent mostly at the pool.  Elena mastered going off the diving board in the deep end by herself without a life jacket.  She was pretty proud of herself.  Sam was also very good at going off with his life jacket.  Unfortunately, every time I brought my camera they wouldn't go off the board so I didn't get any footage.

At the end of the month, we went camping at Storybook Land in Aberdeen, SD with several of our friends.  The kids had a blast.  While we were there, we went to a show with Lakota Hoop Dancers.  At the end, any kids who wanted to come up and learn how to dance could do so.  I was able to get footage of that.  Here are Sam (green tank top) and Elena (white tank top, green shorts) doing a "traditional" hoop dance:

First Day of Kindergarten!

 

Evil Knievel

Not only can Sam ride his bike without training wheels at 3 years old, but he can also pop-a-wheelie (a tiny one) and slam on his breaks to leave a patch on the cement - which is great for his tires.

Yesterday, however, he started to show more of his daring side than I would like to see.  I was talking with my sister and my sister-in-law at the park while the kids were playing when one of them said, "What is Sam doing with his bike?"

I looked over and he was trying to carry his bike up the steps leading to the highest slide on the playground.  I ran over and asked him what he was doing, and he replied, "I'm going to ride my bike down the slide." When I told him that that was absolutely not allowed, he came back with, "Well, can I ride it down the steps, then?"

It's going to be a long time before I'm comfortable letting this boy out of my sight for more than a few seconds.....

After a long day of swimming....

Back to the ER

We have been fortunate that our ER visits have been short-lived and have not resulted in any long-term health problems for any of our family.  Still, I hope we're done with the ER for awhile or, better yet, forever.

We had a very scary morning yesterday.  Elena had her shots on Thursday afternoon and she had a fever of about 102 degrees when she went to bed that night. She hates taking medicine and I was only able to get her to take a little bit of Tylenol and Motrin.  I've learned that if I force it down, she will immediately vomit it back up.

She was sleeping in our room and she asked for milk around 6:00.  After drinking her milk, we noticed her breathing was kind of irregular.  Then we heard her throw up.  I brought a bucket over to her and tried to get her to sit up, but she couldn't sit up and wasn't responding.  Seth turned on the lights and we saw that her lips were blue and she wasn't breathing - it appears that she was choking on her vomit.  I immediately ran downstairs and called 911 while Seth did the Heimlich maneuver.

It took him a few tries until she started breathing, but even after she started breathing she wouldn't respond.  She wouldn't talk at all and kept slipping in and out of consciousness.  By the time the ambulance got there, she was unconscious. They took one look at her and brought her straight into the ambulance.  I went along in my pajamas with nothing but my phone.

Seth's sister lives next door and had seen the ambulance at our place so she ran over and was able to take Sam so Seth could drive to the hospital right away.  In the ambulance Elena opened her eyes a bit after getting oxygen.  When they tried to give her an IV, she woke up quite a bit more (she hates needles more than she hates medicine) - enough that they were able to skip the IV for the time being.

At the ER her temperature read 105.  She chose to take her tylenol rectally rather than orally - yes, she is that stubborn.  Her temp dropped steadily, and after several tests and a couple of x-rays we were able to take her home in time for lunch.  She was lethargic the whole time and she wouldn't talk.  Seth was very anxious to hear her talk again - it was so unlike her.  She doesn't remember anything from the early morning and very little of the ER visit. What she does remember she says it seems like it was a dream.

Her fever continued for the rest of the day, but she felt much better.  We were finally able to get her to take her medicine by getting the chewables, crushing them and mixing them with a little juice. Thank you, Bill Cosby for the idea.

The doctors claim that the incident was purely coincidental and not related to her vaccines, but I'm having a hard time believing them. Especially since the Centers for Disease Control specifically lists a fever for 105 or higher occuring 1-3 days after the vaccine as a possible side effect of the DtaP.

Anyway, life is back to normal, seeming a little more precious.  I am so thankful that Seth and I were both home so I could call 911 while he did the Heimlich. I am slightly terrified of trying to rescue a choking person - I know what to do if I'm the most capable person on hand and I have dealt with minor episodes when my kids were little, but I was very relieved to have Seth there - he did a great job.

I have also never been more thankful that we let our kids sleep in our room if they are sick or having trouble sleeping.  I shudder to think what we would have found in the morning if Elena had been in her room where we couldn't hear her. 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  I'm happy to report that Elena's fever is gone and she is back to normal.

Goodbye, Natalie!

Well, this is only about 2 months late. We brought Natalie to the airport for her return to Germany at the beginning of June.  My morning sicknes kicked in on the ride home from the airport so I haven't had the motivation to write a thorough post on here until now.

We absolutely loved having Natalie as a part of our family and it was hard to let her go.  There were many tears at the airport and afterwards.  Poor Sam doesn't do well with goodbyes and he broke down several times throughout the day, saying "Why did Natalie have to go???" 

When we ask Elena if she wants to get another exchange student someday, she says "No.  I just want to get Natalie again."

Here are a few pictures from her last days here.

We made her a "German" chocolate cake for her birthday - delicious!

All the cousins have been missing Natalie as well. We had a big going away party for her the night before we left for the cities. Most of Seth's family made it so she got to have one last night surrounded by our huge family in a small town before she moved back to her huge city full of small families (she knew very few families in Germany with more than 2 kids :)

We decided to spend our last weekend up in the cities and, unfortunately, the whole family got sick except for Natalie. Doubly unforunate was the fact that we didn't all get sick at once, but took turns so it was drawn out over 3 days.  During one brief period where we were all relatively healthy, we were able to visit the brand new fire station where Seth's brother, John works.  The kids loved getting to see the big firetrucks up close.  They even got their own fire hats.  We were so worried that Natalie would come down with it on her flight home, which would have been miserable.  I guess all that hand sanatizer worked, though, because she managed to escape the bug.

Sam hopped in by Natalie for a cuddle on her last morning in the US.

The Phases of the Moon - by Sam

Sam pointed out the moon to me last week, explaining that it was a half moon.

After a minute, during which time I assume he was pondering how the moon goes through the different phases, he said: "Mom, I think maybe a rocket man flies up to the moon with a knife and cuts it in half."

I tried explaining how it actually happens with the moon reflecting the light of the sun and the Earth blocking the light.  Sam came back with, "But how does the moon get cut in half??"

I think we'll stick with the rocket man theory for now.

Our First Camping Trip of the Summer

We had our annual DeCock camping trip with Seth's mom's side of the family last weekend.  I was fortunate to have 2 days in a row where I felt pretty good and we had air conditioning in the cabins so there were no complaints all weekend.

I failed to take any pictures of the weekend, but Elena brought along our old camera.  The battery only lasts about 20 minutes and it frequently loses the pictures you take, but it keeps her happy.

So here are some highlights of the weekend as documented by Elena: