Poor Brenton

Well, we have had a couple of exciting days here at the Swainston home. Sunday night (around 8:00 PM) Brenton stepped on his toy train, fell backwards, and caught himself with his left arm. He really cried really hard for a couple of minutes, but then went back to playing with his toys. He would grip toys just fine, but we did notice that he wouldn't put weight on his left arm. Every once in a while, he'd hit his arm on something, or forget and lean on it. When he did this he would kind of whine and say, "owe". We tried to look at it close, and we pressed on it up and down to see if we could tell if anything was broken. We didn't notice anything weird, but he wouldn't let us touch it for more than a couple of seconds. It wasn't swelling or bruising, but he definitely didn't want to play hard with it. He was ready for bed by this time, and we were having a hard time deciding if he was hurt, or just grumpy because he was tired. Brenton has an unusually high tolerance for pain. At least that's my opinion. Here's a story example:

A couple of days ago Brenton stubbed his toe. He said, "Mommy, owee toe." I said, "you hurt your toe?" he said, "Yes." That was the end of the conversation. I didn't even look at his toe because he didn't say anything else. When Kale got home from work, he said, "Wow! What happened to Brenton's toe?" I then looked and it was covered in dry blood, and the toenail was split down the middle.

Anyway, after much deliberation and conversation, I decided to take him to the ER at 8:45 PM on Sunday. I asked Kale if I was being paranoid, and he said, "Yes, but that's okay." After about 30-45 minutes at the ER, the Doctor told me that his arm was indeed broken. It is actually just a "buckle fracture", http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/pediatricsurgery/g/torus.htm so not severe, but it does require a cast for 3-4 weeks. The ER splinted the arm, and we had to see his pediatrician the next day to get it casted. When I called and told Kale it was broken, he said, "No way!" Ha. I'm not usually right, but this time I was. Not that I was happy to be right this time.

So the next morning, I called and got an appointment for Brenton at 1:00 PM. Kale took work off and we took Alex to a babysitter. We then headed to Coeur 'D Alene for Brenton's appointment.

All went well with the casting, until about 5 minutes after we left the Doctor's office. The Doctor called us on our cell phone, and asked us which arm Brenton had broke. According to the x-rays and the file, we just casted the wrong arm! She was correct. Don't ask how ALL of us (Kale, me, the nurse, and the Doctor) all missed that one. Wow! What a stupid thing to not notice. So, we headed back to the office to have the correct arm casted.

After putting a cast on the correct arm, they then had to saw off the other cast. It started okay, but then went bad. Brenton started screaming, yelling and trying to pull away. It took Kale, me and the nurse to hold him down so the Doctor could remove the cast. After the cast was removed, we saw a couple of small burns on his hand from the saw. The Doctor didn't seem too surprised by it. (When a cast hasn't had the full amount of time to set up, it's harder to remove because you can't crack it. You have to saw completely through it.) Anyway, the Doctor put some ointment on it, and a band aid, and we left. Brenton soon started to cry holding his burnt hand. He cried so hard and much, that we stopped at the store and bought some Neosporin with pain relief (the best stuff ever!) and an ice pack. We put that on, re-bandaged it, and headed home. He did fall asleep in the car, but as soon as we were home and he woke up, he was in pain! Not from the broken arm, but from the burn.

After giving him both IB Profrin and Tylenol, I finally talked him into letting me remove the band aids and put more ointment on with a loose gauze wrap covering it. As soon as that was done, he was MUCH happier. He was able to play for a while before it was time for bed. He slept most of the night.

Today, the burn is a huge nasty blister. It's about an inch long, and 1/4 inch tall. I've never seen a blister so tall! There is so much fluid in it. So far, we've kept it wrapped, applying new ointment and bandages two times a day. We now have some prescription burn ointment to put on it, so hopefully that will help keep it from scarring. As for the pain, he hasn't really complained about it again.

He has asked us a few of times to take the cast off. We just tell him it has to stay on for a long time to help his BIG owee heal. Usually he responds with a dramatic, "Ohhhhh, yeahhhhh."

The pictures above were taken with our cell phone. I know they're not very good, but I have something to document how unobservant Kale and I both were.

The moral of the story is, when your child is getting a cast put on, or any procedure for that matter, make sure it's being done on the proper body part.

PS As for the pediatrician, we still love her. She's been a great doctor to both of our boys, and hey, if both of us can miss something like that, we can easily see how she could, also.

Christmas

In my last post, I forget to mention we are going to Utah for Christmas! We are driving down (weather permitting of course) the Saturday before Christmas. We are splitting our time between Kale's family in Logan, and my family in Salt Lake.

All of our Utah family and friends, we'd love to see you while we're there. If you're going to be around that week and have time to see us, email me or Kale so we can try to arrange something.

For those of you not in Utah, sorry. We still hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and we wish we could be seeing you, also.

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For me, Thanksgiving has been a hard time for me the last few years. Too many scary memories. That being said, I do have A LOT to be thankful for, and I'm trying to focus more on those things, than the things that can be upsetting.

We did have a great Thanksgiving. We went to our friends home, here in Silver Valley. Grandma & Grandpa Sevy. (They are our adoptive grandparents.) They are the parents of our good friend Danny, and are wonderful people. We had a great time at their home, and enjoyed some WONDERFUL food.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to Coeur D 'Alene to a place called Triple Play. They have quite a few fun things to do. The highlight for the kids was the small indoor water park. Brenton and Alex both LOVE the water. Alex lasted quite a long time, even though the water wasn't extra warm. Brenton lasted as long as we would let him. We were definitely ready to go home long before he was.

They had a great kid area that we mostly stayed in. At first Brenton wouldn't go down the slides. After I forced him to go down on my lap, he still wasn't very interested. A little later, Kale forced him to go down with him, and then he forced Brenton to go by himself. After that, Brenton loved the slides. He kept running up the steps, and sliding down, over and over again. He always made sure one of us was right behind him.

I've included a picture of Brenton going down the slide head first on his belly. He really enjoyed going down that way, until he got a mouth full of water. After that, he reverted back to the traditional bottom slide. All in all, it was pretty fun.


Last night we had our first real snow fall. I absolutely love how it looks when there is snow in the trees...so I included some pictures of the street we live on, and also our house. Brenton & I took these this morning. Brenton spent about an hour with me outside this morning, helping shovel snow. We are

supposed to another round of snow, so maybe we'll do it all again tomorrow.




Alex is now walking...well a couple of steps at a time. I have yet to get a good video of it, but when I do I will get it posted. (Just for you mom.)

These videos I've posted are both of Alex. One of them is Alex saying "Mama" and then laughing at me. The next one is Alex doing his "snort". It is such an ugly thing that he does, that it ends up being cute. The screaming child in the background was just Brenton wanting some attention. I hope you enjoy.

Long Day

Things here are a little chaotic, but I think normal for a family with two children. We have two sick little boys in our home. Now I'm waiting for Kale to catch it.

This morning Alex was having a really hard time. He woke up at 5:00 and I tried EVERYTHING to get him back to sleep. After letting him cry for about an hour, I finally went and got him. About a 1/2 hour later, he fell asleep with me in the recliner and slept until 8:00.

Fast forward to late morning...Alex's nap time is usually 10:00, well, he would NOT go to sleep. I tried his swing and his crib. Finally after about 1 1/2 hours of crying, I went up to get him. It was then that I realized he'd thrown up all over his crib (including his favorite blanket). I got him up, and took him downstairs. Since Brenton was down there playing, Alex of course wouldn't let me rock him...so he stayed up playing. Finally around 1:00 PM I got him to sleep in his swing. At this time, I talked to Kale and he agreed to go to Coeur D 'Alene tonight to take Alex to the Doctor.

While Alex was sleeping, I put Brenton down for his nap. A 1/2 hour later, Brenton was telling me he was "ukky" (meaning poop.) I went and changed his diaper, and put him back to bed. (I'm not as lucky as Nikki with the potty training. He's starting, but it's still pretty hit and miss.) About 5 minutes later, he again was yelling out that he was "ukky". I tragically ignored him, thinking that he just wanted to get out of bed. Well, about 30 minutes later, I peeked in to check on him, and he had his diaper off and was laying on his bed asleep (luckily it wasn't poop, just wet). To show how poor my judgement was by this time, I woke him up and put his underwear on him instead of his diaper. (He had just pooped and peed 30 minutes earlier!) I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

Alex woke up, and I went to get him. Shortly after that, Brenton woke up SCREAMING! He had peed all over his bed, his comforter, his favorite monkey, plus his eye was bright pink, and he was yelling "ow" and grabbing his ears. So, after getting him changed and dressed, taking him upstairs, and giving him some Tylenol, I called the Doctor's office and asked if I could bring Brenton in, also. Luckily they said yes.

Alex started acting better, but Brenton kept crying and fussing until his 7:30 appointment. After we arrived at the office, and had been taken to our room, Brenton was weighed (36 pounds), and then we sat waiting for the Doctor to come in. Brenton then threw up all over me, the diaper bag, and the room. The fruit punch he'd had earlier made for some very pretty red smelly chunks!

Alex ended up being fine, he just had a cold. Brenton however has a double ear infection, plus his cold. The cold has spread to his eye, but the antibiotics we were given should take care of that, also.

So, besides having to deal with poor sick kids, we also had to spend 30 minutes in the car while going home, smelling of vomit. Not a great ending to a LONG day.

Both kids are asleep right now, so I'm going to stop going on and on, and head to bed. Wish us luck with the boys tonight! I would really appreciate some sleep.

Happy Halloween!!

We had a wonderful Halloween. Alex was a skunk & Brenton was a dragon. (Brenton picked out his own costume.) I bought both costumes a couple of months ago, and I bought very large sizes for both of them. Both of them must have had a growth spurt. Brenton's pants were a little snug, and Alex's pants didn't really fit at all. They were much too short. He was still VERY cute! I really loved his costume.

Kale's work has a pumpkin carving contest each year. This year Kale spent a lot of time working on his pumpkins, and one of them actually won! The "double" pumpkin was the 1st place winner. As for the second pumpkin, a lot of people couldn't figure out what it meant. If you know what it means, leave us a comment. I'll post what it stands for later.

The town right next to us has a Halloween carnival every year. This year we took Brenton to it. He enjoyed the games they had for little kids, but because he didn't really understand how to play them correctly, he made it through all of them in about 15 minutes. Brenton's favorite game was the fishing pond. He actually did that twice. The horseshoe toss was quite funny. I showed Brenton how to throw the horseshoe and make it land on the pole. I think he wondered why I was standing back so far, because he immediately walked up to it, stood over it, and set the horseshoe right on it. MUCH EASIER!

Wrestle

Everyone said that if you have two boys close together, then they'll wrestle. I just didn't realize how soon it would start.

Home again!

The weekend after we got home, we took the boys out for their last bike ride of the season. When we moved here, we didn't think we would be staying long, but we fell in love with it here. We like the weather (for the most part), we love the mountains, and I especially LOVE the fall. The trees all change color. The mountains are blanketed in tress of green & yellow. In the valleys, there are many other colors, but the brilliant yellow has to be one of my favorites.

Along the trail there were many woolly worms. Kale stopped and tried to get Brenton to hold it. He would stare at it, but had NO interest in holding it. He actually started to through a fit when Kale tried to put it in his hand...I guess I've made my son a wussy. (I'm not much of a person for bugs either.) As for Alex, he just kept staring at me. I don't think he even noticed the worm.

Cutie

This outfit was one that I bought in Wisconsin. Brenton looks like such a little man in it!!

Cookies

Back at my parents house, we let Brenton decorate cookies. He enjoyed the frosting okay, but his favorite ended up being the sprinkles. He dumped almost the entire container on his one cookie, and then spent the next couple of minutes eating them. He must take after his Aunt Nikki. She's a sprinkle fanatic!

Wisconsin Dells

The last thing we did with Jason & Beth's family was go to Wisconsin Dells. If you've never heard of it, I'm amazed. You should go to their web-site and check it out. It's an entire town with pretty much only resorts. We ended up staying at the Kalahari Resort. It currently has the largest indoor water park in America. It soon will be the second largest, because they are building another Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH.

The resort was amazing! It's an African themed resort, that has lots to do. We spent one day at the water park. We had to force the kids to leave. We were all exhausted, even the kids, but they were having so much fun...

The kid areas were amazing. The even had things for little babies like Alex. They had some Johnny-Jump-Ups in the water! Alex has always loved the water, so he really enjoyed being there also. He played for probably 4 hours before I decided he HAD to take a nap.

The next day we played in the arcade before leaving. Brenton's favorite thing to do was like whack-a-mole, but I think it was whack a monster. He did play a game of air hockey with Damon, but Brenton liked watching the puck go in the goal so much that he helped Damon put it there. Brenton lost VERY quickly.

The Elephant is the Resorts mascot. Brenton was petrified of it. I told him to give the elephant a hug, and he said "No! Mom" meaning, you hug him mom. I did hoping that it would show Brenton that it was okay, but it didn't really help. Brenton still wouldn't go near him.

Appleton Children's Museum

My niece's daycare was closed for the week, so my mom & I took her back to Oshkosh with us for a few days. While there, we made the short drive up to Appleton, WI, and took the kids to the children's museum. It was fun, and kids really enjoyed. For some reason, Brenton & Isabel would NOT get along that day. I think they were finally tired of spending so much time with each other. They wouldn't share, or even let the other one stand next to them without fighting, hitting, and yelling. It was a completely mutual agreement, which seemed really strange to us.

Anyway, we ended up separating for most of the time. My mom took Isabel, and I took Brenton & Alex. I think both Brenton & Isabel enjoyed that much better than they would have if we forced them together. By the end of our time there, they were getting along much better. These pictures were taken at the little play land. It was cute, but the thought of how many germs were EVERYWHERE made me not want to stay long.

Pumpkins

My mom bought pumpkins for the kids to paint. Damon & Isabel actually attempted to paint faces on theirs, while Brenton felt he needed to cover the entire thing in paint, along with himself. They all seemed to enjoy it, and the paint was washable, so all in good fun...right?

Madison

My brother Jason and his family live in Madison, WI. It's only about an 1 1/2 hour drive from my parents. We drove down there the weekend after I arrived.

My mom and I took the kids to the Madison zoo. It is also a free zoo, but it was pretty cool. It was kept up really nice, and it had the normal animals that you would expect a zoo to have. We really lucked out. The day we took them, it had been raining all morning. We ended up going anyway, and it stopped just as we got there. Because of the weather, we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves. It was so nice to be able to let the kids run.

My brother's son is almost 5 years old but really large for his age. Their daughter is 6 months older than Brenton. Brenton loved playing with both of them.

The picture below was taken after we left the zoo, on the car ride home. They were all exhausted.

Oshkosh Park

Oshkosh, WI has an absolutely wonderful park. I guess everything was donated. The materials as well as the labor to build and maintain it. We could have spent days there just letting Brenton play. Due to it's size, you can't just sit on the bench and keep an eye on your child. If you need to keep track of him, you have to follow them around. I got tired of that way before Brenton was ready to leave.

The park also had a zoo. The animals were basic, but they did the job. Brenton really liked feeding the goat & lama's. They even had a monkey to watch, but he didn't cooperate very well. (Not much monkey watching happened.)

The park is situated on a small lake. They have a kids train ride around the lake which Brenton took with my dad and me. Then we rode the old fashioned merry-go-round, and rented a paddle boat. The merry-go-round and train both cost $1, and the paddle boat was I think $5. I thought that was extremely cheap. Our paddle boat didn't go very fast with my dad and me in it, but Brenton still seemed to enjoy it.

Oshkosh

Well, as you all know, I took Alex & Brenton and flew out to Wisconsin to see my parents, and then my brother's family. We flew into Chicago, and then drove up to Oshkosh, where my parents now live. Besides smelling like cow dung, the place my parents live is very nice. They don't have mountains, but the rolling hills are just a short drive away, and the places to eat are AMAZING! (Well, compared to where we live anyway.)

Our first morning there, my mom let me sleep in and she got up with the kids. Brenton came and crawled into bed with me, and then pulled his feet out to show me his new shoes. As you can see from the picture below, they were princess shoes that my parents had bought for Brenton's cousins. Brenton loved to put them on and walk around the house. All in all, there were about five different pairs, all had heals with either bows, lace, or sequence. I especially love the shoes with his camo pj's. I thought this picture was funny, but hopefully it won't follow him the rest of his life. I wouldn't want my son to be permanently damaged.

We're Back!

We are back from our trip to Wisconsin, and I have lot of great pictures to post, however we're having some Internet issues. Hopefully in the next week or so, we'll have it all worked out, with cable Internet of our own!

Until then, you are all still in our thoughts...and obviously we are in yours, since you're reading our web-site. :)

Spokane, WA Fair

Last Saturday we went to the Spokane, Washington fair with our good friends Danny & Crystal Sevy. The boys really seemed to enjoy it. Well, I think they both just enjoyed being out of the house and be surrounded by all the people. Brenton loves animals, so he really enjoyed seeing all of them.

At the fair, we went to the demolition derby. The night we were there, it was the compact car derby. There actually weren't many cars, but it was much better than we thought it would be. They raced the cars first, and that was actually kind of enjoyable to watch. Brenton wasn't quite sure what to think about the cars crashing, but once he saw his dad clapping, he kind of got into it himself. It was pretty cute.

The days go by...

Time seems to be moving very quickly. I was always told that the childhood of your children flies by. I guess everyone was right.

Brenton has definitely hit his terrible twos. He throws fits constantly, and it seems like he's in time out for about 1/2 the day. We have started taking him to daycare about 1 1/2 days per week. It's actually one of the women I work with in Primary that is doing it. She has two little girls for Brenton to play with. One is three, and one is about 20 months. Plus, Kale's boss has started taking her daughter there, so that's another girl around Brenton's age. Brenton absolutely LOVES going "to play". He shouts "YEAH!" when we pull up to their house. His speech has started to really take off, also. (His speech therapist told us daycare could help with that.) So, besides the fact that he is now playing with Polly Pocket dolls with three little girls two days a week, we are thrilled with the change. It gives me a chance to get some work done at home. (I haven't really been able to work at home since Alex was born.) My boss is really liking the extra work I've been able to do.

The pictures I've posted are a couple of recent ones. The before & after pics of Alex are from him eating these Gerber biscuit biters. He absolutely loves them, but as you can see, they make quite a mess, so he unfortunately doesn't get them nearly as much as he'd like.

The picture of Alex hunched over in his crib is how he finally fell asleep last night. We've been trying really hard to just let him cry himself to sleep, however, last night is the first time he actually did. When I went in to check on him, this is how I found him. He was obviously sitting up, and eventually fell over from exhaustion and went to sleep. It was pretty cute.

The picture of Brenton in the kitchen, is from a tradition we're starting. Every Sunday, we make cookies as a family, and then take them to someone. Once the boys are old enough to choose, they'll get to pick who we take the cookies to. So far, this has been really fun. Brenton absolutely loves pouring the ingredients in the bowl as we mix them.

August fun

Things here have been pretty fun. My roommate from college, Kelly, came out to visit for a long weekend. Kale & our friend Danny took her down Silver mountain. I've never been biking down Silver Mountain, and I don't really want to go. There are apparently a lot of different ways down, but Danny seems to take the steep and dangerous ways down.

You see, Kelly is an avid mountain biker, and is much more advanced than Kale or Danny, so we were very excited for her to come out and do the ride. We warned her that someone seems to always get hurt when going down Silver Mountain with Danny, we just didn't think it would be her. She biffed it about 1/2 mile from the bottom, but proved that she is definitely a trooper. Even though she has a VERY bruised body, and some spots of embedded gravel, she still managed to play with me and the boys for the rest of the weekend. I think she might think twice about coming out here again. The time she came out previous to this, Brenton broke her nose. Once again, SORRY Kelly.

The pictures at the top are from their bike ride. The one on the right is Danny & Kelly. The one on the left is a view from the top of the mountain.

While Kelly was here, we went to a food festival in Spokane. They had a lot of choices for food, but the desserts were by far the best! I'd never had cheesecake on a stick before, but let me tell you, it was wonderful!! The picture below was taken at the festival. There was a small part of the river that had a lot of ducks that Brenton loved to feed. He kept trying to jump in the water, so Kelly was helping to keep him out of it.

I have gotten plane tickets to go and see my parents in Wisconsin. I fly out September 26. I of course am taking both boys with me...so wish me luck in the traveling part. I'm really excited to spend time with my parents, and my brother Jason & his family. It will be nice for Brenton to be able to play with his cousins.

We hope things are going well for everyone, and the friends & family that are struggling with things, are continuing in our prayers.