Did I Say Things Were Back to Normal?

I believe on the last post I did. Hahahaha.. guess that joke was on me!

Spring Break was this past week and for me there wasn't much of a break. I was glad to have the break from work but with two kids at home there's never much time for rest. So, when Josh's Memaw called and asked if she could have him for the weekend along with his cousin Matthew, we thought.. that would be nice..just one kid at home and a small break before things start getting crazy with baseball and back to work again. Plus, we knew he would have a great time at Memaw and Pepaw's.

Saturday, as I was leaving Walmart, Brent calls to say that Josh has had an "accident." What kind of accident? Hit his head? Bleeding? What?

Apparently he fell off a playground device, grandma and Josh don't know what it's called, but it's about 4 feet off the ground, and landed wrong on his arm. When I met them to pick him up, his arm was swollen, he couldn't move it, and it was starting to bruise, and he was in pain. So, I just took him straight to the ER, expecting to have to wait hours as usual. We surprisingly got in 10 minutes after we got there. They took X-rays and of course it's broken. So I'm thinking, okay, they set it, he gets a cast, we go home-but of course it's not that simple.

He broke his arm above his elbow.. pretty common injury for kids this age. However, he also displaced the growth plates and bones in his elbow and so they have to be moved back into place and, naturally, it can't be done here in our town at this hospital. So, plan B, they ambulance us to Texas Children's so we can go to a Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon. Surgeon? Well, yes, they say, he has to have surgery to put the bones back in place. Oh wow... sooooo, a couple of hours later we get our ambulance ride to Texas Children's. We're admitted and we get a room. The surgery was supposed to happen that night but at about 11:00 p.m. they told us it wouldn't happen until Sunday morning. So, bright and early Sunday morning he was taken into surgery. Thankfully, everything went fine and he has 3 pins placed in his elbow and a cast on to hold everything in place until he heals. They finally released us from the hospital on Monday before noon. He's doing okay except for the pain. I guess the first few days are going to be pretty painful for him but hopefully it will lessen as we get further into this week. He has been such a brave boy and such a little trooper. Hardly any tears at all even though we told him it was okay if he wanted to cry. I know I'd be crying if it were me!

We have to go back next Monday to see the doctor and then in 3-4 weeks to have the cast taken off and the pins taken out. After that, the doctors don't want him doing anything for 2 months so he doesn't re-break or re-injure it.

He is very happy to be back home and the best part.. he doesn't go to school this week. The doctor wants him home this entire week. He thought that was great... until I told him that I was calling his teacher to have his school work sent home for him to work on so he doesn't get behind. Apparently, that's not too big of a deal for him since he gets to stay at home and do it. His grandma's will be down taking care of him while Brent and I are at work so they can also help him with it.

This also means baseball season is officially over for him this year. He was a little disappointed about that but thankfully not crushed. We told him we may still go to a couple of his games just to see his team play this year.

Thankfully, everything has turned out good so far and we are very lucky to have some wonderful friends here that helped us out tremendously with Jacob. Thanks to them, everything went so much better and we knew we didn't have to worry because Jacob was in great hands.

Below are pictures of Josh in the hospital at Texas Children's. He can't wait for everyone to sign his cast!

Josh after surgery with cast.

Josh getting his hair "washed"...no he's not naked.

Josh happy to be going home soon.

Random thoughts and happenings!

Well, things are pretty much normal now.... Brent and I are working, Josh goes to school, Jacob to daycare, and baseball season has started. We stay busy, which is good. I am trying really hard to keep up with the updates but time gets away from me so fast now-a-days!

So what's been going on in the Kovar's world?

Well, we are about to put our house back on the market. We just had new carpet put in all upstairs and it really does make a difference. Hopefully it'll sell this time around. It was this time last year that we put it on the market and we had a lot of lookers last year, just no offers.

We have baseball practice 2 nights a week right now, which lasts for about 2 hours. Josh was hesitant at first because of all new teammates. I think he expected to have the same team from last year. He's getting more into it now that he's getting to know the new kids. Their first game is coming up next week.

Josh recently went to a skating party. It was the first time he had ever been on skates so we were wondering how he would do. He actually did very well. He fell down a few times but got the hang of it pretty quick. (See pic below) I have a feeling this is what he will want to do for his birthday party this year.

Josh's first time on skates!

He is still doing good in school. He, like the rest of us, is starting to realize that summer will soon be here and is starting to count down the days. What does he want to do this summer? Sleep he says.... such a little man already!

Jacob is growing like crazy. He's now eating up to 6 ozs. every feeding, but the best news... He sleeps through the night! YEAH!!!!!! He usually goes down anywhere between 7-8 and isn't waking up until about 4-5. We feed him again and usually goes right back to sleep until we wake him up to get ready for daycare. Some mornings he is up for the day at about 5 and that is tough but thankfully it doesn't happen that often.

On the downside.. he's been having to go to the doctor for one thing after another. Of course, first was jaundice, then the acid reflux. A couple of weeks ago he got a mild case of thrush. Not a big deal at first... until we discovered that the pharmacy had messed up on the prescription label and we had been overdosing him for 3 days. The doctor wrote the prescription for 1 mL, 3x a day. When we picked up the prescription it said 1 tsp 3x a day for 14 days. On the 3rd day we had already run out of the prescription. So we called the pharmacy thinking maybe they didn't have any big bottles to put it in at the time, maybe they forgot to put the refills on there, etc. When they looked it up on the computer, all I heard on the other line was "Oops, that's a mistake. That's supposed to read 1mL 3x a day." Not what you want to hear when you are giving your newborn medication. So, of course, me being me, freaked out and went off on them, called the Dr. etc. Thankfully no longterm side effects, just a bad case of diarrhea, but my mind would not stop going to the what if's. What if it had been a different med.. what if something had happened in the middle of the night and we didn't know because we thought he was sleeping.. etc.. So be cautious! Always double check with the doctor before you leave about what you're giving them and how much and then double check your directions and dosage on the labels. Seems like you would do that anyway but we never gave it a second thought. Dr. would write a prescription and then we would have it filled and just assume that everyone did their part correctly and no worries. We will never make that mistake again.

Anyway, so after that was over.. we noticed congestion. Thought it was probably allergies since it's becoming Spring and everything's in bloom- but it wouldn't go away and he started to have dry boogers in his nose... so I took him in this past Saturday morning to the doctor again... the verdict? A full blown ear infection in one ear and another starting in the other one... Lovely! Why the sarcasm? Josh started having ear infections from 6 weeks old until 14 months when we finally got tubes. It was a year of hell with that for us and for Josh. So now, we have begun now with Jacob too. However, we already told them that we will NOT wait as long as we did with Josh to get tubes. If we are still dealing with ear infections by the time he is 6 months, we will be getting tubes and getting that over with- for him and for us. He goes back in a week to see if the infection is gone or not.

On a brighter side, even though he has been sick, he seems to still be pretty happy. He has found his smile and what a beautiful smile it is... I love those gummy ear to ear grins! We started noticing it on the changing table. We would lay him down and he would turn his head and start grinning from ear to ear. We thought "Man he really likes having his diaper changed." Then we realized what he was smiling about. We have his comforter hanging on the wall above his changing table. He is fascinated by it. (See pics below)

Jacob looking at comforter

Pic of comforter

Jacob smiling at comforter

All in all he's a really happy baby. He has his moments but then again all babies ( and kids for that matter) do. Brent and I realize everyday how lucky and blessed we truly are with our two boys we have is our lives.

Below are more random pics of Jacob. Our next post will have lots of pics of both Josh and Jacob. So stay tuned and check back often!

Jacob bundled up after a bath

Very happy after his bath

~Smiles~

~More smiles~

What a week and more!!

Well, maternity leave ended for me on the 25th of this month so on Monday it was back to work. That felt very strange. As many of you know, I stayed home with Josh for 5 years before working. I had never experienced having to leave my child in the hands of someone else for so long at such a young age. Heartbreaking. I started crying Saturday, continued on Sunday, and of course on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I think Thursday was the first day I didn't cry but it still feels strange walking out of there without my baby. He is the 2nd youngest(7 weeks) in there. Most of the babies in there are crawling and getting ready to start walking. I know they hold him a lot when I am not there and he is in great hands. They document everything, the communication is great, and there are 3 people in there for about 7-8 kids. Not a bad ratio. Anyway, he seems to have adjusted well. He's finally starting to sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time there. The only draw back.... He already has a cold! Not that I didn't think he wouldn't get sick, but it's scary when they are so little. I'm actually not sure if he got the cold from school or from Josh. Josh has had a very stopped up nose this week and a cough so it's very possible he got it from his big brother. I know how quickly it can turn from a cold to worse so we'll be sure this weekend that he gets plenty of sleep and TLC and no contact with anyone other than us. He also has a rash on both of his cheeks that he started getting at about 6 weeks, but the Dr. thinks it's just the hormone rash that some babies get.

Josh is doing great. I think he's ready for Spring Break. He's getting so tall and so witty. You can tell when he speaks that he gets his sarcasm from his mom and dad. For instance, this morning Josh was being very demanding and practically giving orders right and left to us. He had us running around like crazy until I realized that, "Hey, who does this 7 year old think he is?" So we had a little discussion about who's in charge, how we need to ask when we want something and not demand it, yell it, or order it from someone. As I was leaving the room after this discussion, here's how our next discussion went.

Josh: "Can you push play on the DVD player?"
Mommy: "Sure... Is there anything else I can get for you, Your Majesty?"
Josh: "No, but I would like a massage!" (Then of course he laughs)

Now, I'm not sure exactly where he came up with that line, but it had Brent and I practically rolling on the floor and also in a state of disbelief about how sarcastic he really is. But like I said, it's not like we don't know where he gets it from, but I can already imagine the phone calls from teachers at school as he gets older!

I think our schedules are finally getting back to normal with just a couple of things added here and there. Josh has started baseball now and has practice on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-7 so when I get off, it's run to get Josh, then Jacob, then turn around and run to the ballfield, wait for Brent to get there and then turn around and take Jacob home and try to get dinner started. Then they come home after practice, try to eat, get homework, and to bed in a decent hour. The other days are a little less stressful but nonetheless it is an adventure now with 2 instead of 1 but I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything!

So, for those wondering how my first week back at work went....

There is definitely something in the air making the kids go crazy. I guess you could call it Spring Fever. I will admit that I am pretty strict with my kids at school, I expect alot from them not only academically, but also when it comes to responsibility and manners. I guess you could say they forgot about these things while I was on leave so it's been a week of re-establishing who's in charge and finding their manners again. I made 3 phone calls home, took up 2 Nintendo DS's, caught a kid lying to my face, dealt with some attitude adjustments, had a parent teacher conference, and was called a "**tch that trys to act black." (for that one I wrote a referral!) I also came back to find out that my window for my teaching observation starts next week and ends on the 15th. So all in all, an interesting week back to say the least and of course, it's business as usual!!