The highlight of February was Rylan turning 6 months (15 lbs 10 oz and 26 ¾ inches long) old and really turning a corner for the best. As I mentioned in past post, she is kind of a diva and has a preference for her parents. I mean she LOVES watching Jackson, but he can’t hold her. So when it came to the holding it was up to Jared and me. Then 6 months hit, she cut her two bottom teeth and it was as if we picked up a different child from Miss Tiff’s. She was smiley, and giggling, and letting other people hold her. She was delightful!! Trust me you want to watch this entire video. . .the last few seconds are the best!
She loves bouncing in the doorway bouncer and is simply memorized by Jackson, he continues to be the one who gets the most giggles out of her.
She started scooting around on the floor going after her brother and toys. It is fun watching her do her army crawl to get around. Jackson went straight to crawling so we never got to enjoy the amusement of watching a baby at this stage of crawling. She started to enjoy various vegetables and loves sitting at the table with her big brother to eat. She also developed a strong love of baby puffs and any other soft finger foods that we would give her.
With her being able to sit on her own our photo sessions became a lot more fun. She is slowly becoming the perfect model as she is more smiling and even likes to strike some poses. This is good because Jackson has become camera shy. It takes A LOT to get him to pose for a photo. Thankfully my camera has fast shutter speed so I am able to capture him on the move.
February break was nice and relaxing, we did our usual trip to Strong Museum and The Bounce House. I am excited for the day that Rylan is able to play with him, however, I am slowly realizing that Jackson hit many milestones early and Rylan is probably more on pace with the average child. At a little under 2 Jackson is climbing many of the ladders by himself and has no problem doing it over and over again which tires him out nicely.
Enjoy the photos from February. . .
%%wppa%% %%album=67%% %%size=auto%% %%align=center%%
Jackson’s vocabulary really started to grow. He started to string together more and more words. He is able to count to 10 all on his own and even has some one to one correspondence when counting. He also started to become quite the little athlete. He loves golf just as much as his Uncle Dave!
Rylan would transition from her army crawl to a sitting position on her own. At 7 month she was a peanut (compared to Jackson at her age) only weighing 16 lbs 6 oz.
After the winter of sicknesses that the Twamley’s had we were ready for some sunny weather and being able to air out the germs in the house. It felt as though the kids, Jared and I just kept passing the same germs and sicknesses to each other. If it wasn’t Jackson it was Rylan and visa versa, and if both children were healthy than one of us had something! Someone was literally sick on and off since I went back to work in January. I guess that is a perk of being the mom of two kids. Thankfully mid March hit, Jackson and Jared were over the second wave of the flu and Jackson already had his trademark ear infection, so we were all set. My students at school were tired of me being out and literally fell silent whenever the phone would ring. When I would get off the phone they would go “. . .was it the sitter? Is Jackson sick or is it Rylan?”
Even with the illnesses we got out of the house whenever we could. . .
It was the middle of March and I thought to myself. . . “I am not sure what I am going to blog about?!?!” Thankfully Jackson and Rylan worked together to give me a great story to tell. It is the story about the time that Jackson broke Rylan’s arm.
It all started while I was reading aloud to my class from Because of Winn Dixie. The phone rang and I kept reading as I walked over to see whom it was. I immediately stopped when I saw that it was Miss Tiff. “Uh oh. . .it is the kids sitter” I said to no one in particular. I could hear groans from my class as they held their breath waiting for me to tell them that I had to go home. I got off the phone and told them . . .”don’t worry I don’t have to leave. Jackson was dancing with his friend Taylor and fell on Rylan. When it happened she screamed really loud and wouldn’t move her arm. The sitter just wanted to let me know, she doesn’t think anything is seriously wrong, but she will call me after her nap” The kids let out a sigh of relief and I went back to Winn Dixie.
Fast forward to the end of the day and my 3:30 hair appointment. Jared encouraged me to just go, that he was sure everything was fine and that he could handle it. So off I went to get my hair done. When Jared got to Tiffany’s to pick up the kids, they decided that she probably needed to be seen, after Jared talked to her pediatric doctor they decided to take her to strong. At this point I already had dye on my hair and wasn’t able to go anywhere. Jared was like super dad, reassuring me that he had everything under control and it was no big deal. I rushed from my hair appointment to meet them at the hospital. The minute I saw the little peanut I knew in my heart that her arm was broken, it was completely limp, as she sat on Jared’s lap smiling.
She just came out from getting her arm x-rayed, one of the nurse practitioners asked me what happened. I told the story of the sitter calling during my read aloud and what had happened with Jackson dancing. The NP said “Ok, well that sounds like what your husband told us” that was when I realized they weren’t asking me out of concern for her arm, but out of concern for her well being in general. In the 3 hours that I was at the hospital we had told the story close to 10 times, Jared said he told it about 5 more times before I got there. It was horrible to think that someone would actually think we would abuse her, and then what was even worse was to think that people actually hurt their kids. We found out that her humorous was broken clean through. The problem with the break is they have not seen a break this bad in a child her age. If it were an older child they would put it in a sling and tell the child not to move it. At this point they wanted to transfer us to Strong. This was when I confusedly asked “Aren’t we at Strong?” NOPE we were at General, which is funny now, but was just annoying at the time.
After what felt like the millionth medical professional said “This is a really bad break” or “The humorous is a hard bone to break” I lost it, I broke down and said “I need you to tell me that nothing is wrong with my daughter’s bones” The poor doctor or intern or resident that was subject to this break down just stared at me. So I followed it up with “Everyone keeps telling us what a bad break it is and how hard it is to break that bone, I just need to know her bones are ok. I can handle you thinking we abuse her, but I can’t handle the thought that something is wrong with her bones” After that they wrote “crazy mom” on my chart and stopped asking us what happened.
The ended up treating her at General by putting her arm in a sling and ace bandaging the sling to her arm. This worked for me because I knew we would follow up the next morning at the pediatric orthopedics office. By 9:00 we left General and headed home, thankfully she fell asleep in the car and we just left her in her car seat to sleep for the night. I spent the next 2 hours writing sub plans for the week because there was no way I was going to leave Rylan. Thankfully the following week was Spring Break so that would give her more time to heal before going back to the sitter.
Tell Us What REALLY Happened Rylan
The next day after the pediatric orthopedic doctor asked me to tell her what happened because “this is a bad break and the humorous is a hard bones to break” she told me that she was going to sling it to keep it close to her. It took a couple tears and they agreed that it wouldn’t hurt to put a cast on her arm, as they have never treated a break like this in a child so young. I felt much better after she had her cast on, but quickly realized the importance of also immobilizing her arm because any time that it moved at the shoulder she would scream.
I didn’t realize until my birthday that Rylan’s little break ruined Jared’s big birthday surprise. Karyn and he secretly planned to send me to Minneapolis for a couple days to celebrate out birthdays together. Jared tried to convince me to just go, but I knew I would not be able to go and enjoy myself knowing that Rylan was in pain. So we celebrated my birthday by having a birthday party for Jackson and my cousin’s son Nathan. . .I mean birthdays are more exciting for kids right?!?!
March wasn’t all about Rylan. . . Jackson’s love of construction trucks, specifically the digger grew and grew! It was the perfect inspiration for his birthday party.
Enjoy the photos from March. . .
%%wppa%% %%album=69%% %%size=auto%% %%align=center%%
Speak Your Mind