The New 'Do

In case you didn't crack the code of Bill's previous post (which he has now deleted), Lexy and her little scissors decided to cut all of Tori's hair off last Thursday afternoon.

I was tutoring, and the girls were both supposed to be asleep. I had left out Lexy's Arts & Crafts bin on her little table figuring she might wake up sooner and would need something to occupy her. Although she had a episode with a friend's doll's hair last spring, she really hasn't had any issues with the rules for scissors, so I didn't think it would be a problem.

So, apparently neither of them ever went to sleep, and Lexy had invited Tori out into the family room to do Arts and Crafts.... ON HER HAIR.

They both walked up to the table while I was tutoring with huge grins on their faces saying, "Look Mom! Look at Tori's hair!"

I was in total shock, as was the girl I was tutoring. We were speechless. Thankfully, I had just heard a talk that morning at MOPS about how we shouldn't be yelling/screaming at our kids. Since the message was still fresh in my mind, I heeded the advice and chose silence instead of screaming.

I took Tori back to bed. Lexy resumed her arts & crafts (ON PAPER, this time), and I finished tutoring (although my mind was a little preoccupied, as you can imagine!).

When I had finished tutoring, I made a 911 Hair Emergency call to a hair-stylist friend and she said she could try to fix it at her house right then. It was a tough fix, since there wasn't much hair left to work with.

So, here she is in her new 'do. It's cute.... but clearly, not a hair cut I would EVER in a MILLION YEARS give a 2 year old.



Since then, Bill and I have had plenty of discussion with Lexy about WHY she would cut her sister's hair. Bottom line, we think there might have been a touch of jealousy over her curls. Which is even a BIGGER parenting issue to tackle. Ugh.

We don't believe in the concept of karma, but we did end up in at Urgent Care on Friday night for Lexy, who jumped off the couch and hit her forehead on the edge of a chair resulting in a little, but deep, cut that, thankfully, didn't require stitches. She is currently sporting about 8 steristrips (sp?) on her forehead and has been told to keep in dry for 5 days. I guess swimming is out of the question!

The good news in all of this is that Tori seems totally unfazed by the fact that she now looks completely different. In fact, those pictures were taken Friday afternoon when she was looking at herself in our bedroom mirrors, admiring her new look. I think she might even LIKE it.

I just hope it grows a little before we take our family Christmas picture....

Christmas Review

Totally behind in the blogging, so I'm doing a whirlwind tour of the Hughes Zoo Christmas....

Christmas Eve at our house....

Grandma, Gigi, Uncle Ryan and Kristy.....


Presents literally engulfed our living room....




Lexy delighted in GIVING gifts more than RECEIVING (melted my heart)....


Ryan gave THE gift of the night-- a rocking horse that makes galloping sounds for Tori-- so cute!....


Both girls were a little under the weather with what we thought were "just colds." HA. When will we learn our lesson....

Tori had the barking cough of croup all night and I had to take her outside into the cold air twice in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. When she would settle and go back to sleep, I'd hear Lexy start crying for me. She was complaining of a sore throat and telling me that her ear hurt. I alternated between the two all night. Oh, the joys of motherhood.

Christmas morning....

(Big gifts this year: Lexy-- new bicycle [or "bike-a-cil", if you ask her], Tori--new baby stroller)

Hughes Zoo (running on VERY LITTLE SLEEP), Grandma, and Gigi.... Not willing to let our "colds" dampen the spirit, we charged on ahead and had our traditional egg casserole breakfast-- A Hughes Family tradition-- cinnamon rolls and apple cider. Oh. And we opened all the gifts from Santa. (How could I forget that) The morning is kind of a blur. Not many pictures to document it because no one was in a picture-taking mood. We were all just going through the motions in a daze. To wit, we forgot to open our stockings until lunch time.

After breakfast, we headed straight for URGENT CARE!! Isn't that where everyone goes on Christmas morning?! Thankfully, the answer was "no", and we didn't have to wait long.




Diagnosis: 2 ear infections, one in each daughter. Antibiotics all around!! And I hope you don't mind driving 20 MINUTES ACROSS TOWN because there's only ONE pharmacy open on Christmas Morning! Merry Christmas!

Still in pajamas after long morning naps, we headed over to Grandma Holly's house for the traditional Christmas dinner. We had a nice gathering of family that hadn't been together for quite awhile due to various circumstances.


Christmas 2008: One that will not be forgotten anytime soon. :)

Err, correction....

Tori woke up with a high fever AGAIN this morning, so I started to get a little worried.

I called her pediatrician, and after explaining the whole scenario to the triage nurse, she suggested we come in to be seen.

We've just arrived home from the doctor, and guess what????

SHE DOESN'T HAVE AN EAR INFECTION.

Dr. Kim said it's next to impossible for her to have had one on Wednesday night that cleared by Friday morning, so he thinks she probably NEVER DID have an ear infection. Lovely.
And I've been shoving antibiotics down her throat for 48 hours.

(And for those of you with superb memories, yes, this is the SECOND TIME the local Urgent Care has misdiagnosed her ear infections.)

So, we are now on "Rash Watch", as Dr. Kim thinks she might have Roseola.

I hope that she just miraculously gets better and we never know what it was that caused the fever... :)

#8

I've tallied the number of Tori's ear infections at 8. (give or take)

She woke up yesterday afternoon from her nap with a 102.7 temp. No other symptoms whatsoever-- nothing. So, I knew she had another ear infection.

An evening trip to Urgent Care confirmed it.
And the doctor went so far as to say "the left side looks bad."
Poor thing.

As I sat at the local pharmacy waiting for her prescription to be filled, I struck up a conversation with another gentleman also playing the waiting game. Tori was making googley eyes at him, so he couldn't resist. Turns out, he was waiting for ear drops for his 16-month old son who was having tubes put in his ears on Friday. We chatted and shared our chronic ear infection war stories. Our poor kids probably don't know what it feels like to have "normal" pain- and pressure-less ears.

Tori has an appointment with an ENT in August, and although initially the idea of surgery freaked me out, now I'm kind of hoping the doctor will recommend tubes for her. *I* am getting tired of her having ear infections, and I can't begin to imagine how tired of them she must be.

Her fever continued most of the day today, but here's hoping she'll be back in the normal range tomorrow....

The Falls

We took our annual family vacation to Yosemite this week and had a blast.
We hiked to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls the first afternoon-- a very easy hike-- and began to wonder if Lexy would be up for anything more difficult the following day. Granted, it had been a long day of travel, but she was a bit of a drama-queen on the maybe half-mile walk on a PAVED path that was relatively flat. This did not bode well.

But, we decided to stick with our plan and hike to the top of Vernal Falls the next morning.

The family.... at the beginning of the hike

Ryan (my bro) & Christy

But Lexy surprised us. And everyone we encountered along the way.

She hiked the ENTIRE thing by herself!!!! Without complaining!!!!




Preparing to head up the Mist Trail....
(apparently Poor Tori couldn't see a thing!)

She and I walked the Mist Trail portion together, hand in hand. It was WET.
I'm talking every-thread-on-your-body-soaked WET, water-drops-running-down-your-arms-as-you-walk WET.
See all that mist blowing around? It was assailing us as we climbed.

And very slippery... and yet she seemed undaunted. In fact, when we reached a point where there was a break in the torrential mist, all of the adults stopped to rest and catch our breath and enjoy the rainbows.


Not Lexy. She charged ahead, climbing the VERY steep steps. She actually had to use her knee to scale some of the stairs that were 2+ feet high. (sidenote: Bill requests that next time trailblazers use dynamite to create a rock staircase, could you please make the stairs more uniform? They are very hard to climb when they are all at different height increments. Thank you kindly.)


Enjoying her Gatorade-- her hiking Juice-- during a quick break.


The last few steps to the top!

So, we made it to the top of the falls, enjoyed some lunch as we shooed squirrels away, and then headed back down the mountain. Hiking journey= success!

At the Vernal Falls foot bridge on the descent

And then came the second fall....

We were a mere 20 yards from the bus stop, getting ready to head back to camp. Lexy had finally pooped out and asked me to carry her, and I had obliged, until my back started spasming. As I set her down, Bill decided to race Lexy to the bus stop (in an attempt to get her to go the distance on her own). However, Lexy, in her naive 3-yr-old-ness, took off WEAVING through throngs of weary hikers tired from their day's trek. I, ignoring the advice I'd given her ALL MORNING LONG of "watch where you are putting your feet", began craning my neck, trying to watch her as she darted in and out of the crowd, hoping she wouldn't trip anyone. And then.... BOOM.

I fell.

My ankle rolled right off the edge of the paved road and I landed in a big heap on the dirt. I immediately knew it wasn't good. Surges of pain running into my foot. As I sat there pondering my options, I realized there weren't many and decided to "walk it off" as my brother, standing overhead, was urging.

Fast forward three days... Thursday afternoon, when my foot began resembling a club due to CRAZY swelling, I decided it might be time to visit the local Urgent Care. I mean, why not? We're practically on a first name basis with these guys!

So, $15 and 3 X-rays later, my fears were confirmed.
I have a small fracture.
A BROKEN ANKLE.
The doctor wanted to give me crutches. HA!
I told him to keep 'em-- there'd be no way I'd use them with two kids to take care of.

So as I type, I'm sitting in an Gel Ankle Brace, icing my ankle.
And I'm supposed to go to an Orthopedic specialist next week.
I know you're jealous.
What a fun way to start off the summer!!! :)
Thankfully, aside from the initial CRAZY pain, it doesn't hurt. I CAN walk on it, although I'm not supposed to. And I think the intense swelling experienced on Thursday might have had something to do with the fact that the girls and I went shopping at Target that morning for more than an hour. Oops. Don't tell anyone. How was I supposed to know that keeping my foot in an non-elevated position was going to make it swell up like a balloon?!? Lesson learned.