Happy Birthday Mr. H!

Happy Birthday Hazen!  You are simply amazing.  Even with a broken leg, you don't miss a beat.  You are crawling around with your gore-tex cast, pulling yourself up to standing, and make it hard for anyone to know that you are actually wounded.  I hope this "go get 'em" spirit is never lost.  May you continue to give big smiles, snuggle big snugs, blow lovely kisses, and go with the flow.  You make our world a much better place.  Thank you for making our family complete exactly one year ago.  We love, love, love, love you!

To celebrate Hazen's special day, we made homemade chocolate buttercream cupcakes with white chocolate frosting.  Hazen's special "Godparents", Tom and Cara joined us for the celebration.  Cara just got back from almost a month in Central America, doing great things for people who need great things in their lives and she is sick as a dog, but she wouldn't miss her special guys 1st birthday. 

And to wrap it up, John and I took the kids to Mad River for "Roll Back the Clocks" Day.  Lift tickets were $3.50.  We each got to take three runs and Cally took her first run all the way down the double with her Dad. 

All this and we made it back to Hazen's 12 month check up  just in the nick of time.  He's still in the 75th % for height and head circumference.  His weight is a bit of an unknown b/c he came in at 20 lbs. 12 oz., but has a cast on, so we aren't sure how much that weighs.  In any case, he's a healthy little guy-- growing as he should and not letting a little leg injury get him down.

What are the odds?

If I got a nickle for every time that John or I said "I feel so lucky", I'd be rich.  We have two amazing kids, a gorgeous house, a fantastic network of friends, great jobs, wonderful family, etc. etc. etc.  But every once in a while, something unfortunate can happen where even the lucky ones feel like the odds are against them.

On Sunday morning, John was carrying Hazen down the stairs and he slipped.  He slid on his butt down about five steps, all the while, doing his best to protect our precious little guy.  I saw the whole thing happen and was most worried about his head, but that seemed fine.  Even so, I couldn't get him to stop crying.  I lay him down and tried my best to do a secondary survey of possible injuries.  Something was obviously wrong, but I coudn't pin point what it was.  Our usually mellow little guy, who hasn't been known to cry for more than a few minutes, just couldn't be settled.  After 20 minutes of Cally trying to give him stuffed animals and play peek-a-boo while I rocked him in the glider, nothing could avert the tears, so we decided to load and go to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital, Hazen had settled down and we were able to get a better idea about what was wrong.  He clapped his hands, smiled, and wiggled one of his legs, but his right leg remained shockingly still.  I didn't think it possible that we could have another leg injury within a year of Cally's femur incident.  An x-ray and consultation with an orthopedic resident later, it was clear that Hazen had a buckle fracture to his lower femur.  This would not require the full body cast that Cally had on her for four weeks, but it would mean a big leg splint none-the-less.

Words can't really express how badly a parent can feel when their child is hurt as a result of their actions.  And how do you explain it happening twice within a year to one family?  We were sure Child Protective Services would be knocking on our door.  But accidents happen.  There are few people who can say they have never fallen down some stairs.  Accidents have nothing to do with what kind of a parent you are.  They have nothing to do with how much you love your child.  Most of the time, they just happen, and you move on, as best you can given the circumstances.  To dwell on the "why me/us?" things, is counterproductive.  But it's also a real bummer to feel judged or unsupported by other people.  That just feels yucky, but I guess that is the way some people are and there is nothing we can do to change that.

Meanwhile, Hazen is doing great.  Within hours of being home from the hospital, he was finger painting and back to his old smiling self.  He's already figured out how to get from here to there.  He does a sort of "wounded animal" crawl and is even trying to pull himself up on tables and chairs again.  We go to a pediatric orthopedic doctor on Friday morning to get a real cast (right now he has a splint with padding and an ace bandage around it).  Cally has been a really supportive and helpful older sister. 

Ski Like a Girl!

As anyone who knows us understands, we love winter and we love skiing.  In other words, we have an agenda for our children.  That is, we want them to love winter and love skiing, too.  So far, things seem to be going along that trajectory...... the first morning that Cally saw snow this winter, she said, "Look Mom &; Dad, it's snowing!  Now we can go skiing!".  Like proud parents, we gave each other the wink of pride.

Cally put in some time at the Magic Carpet at Smuggler's Notch last year (both before and after the fated femur incident) and was quickly ready to take it to the next level of riding lifts.  At two years old, she was proudly loading the lift and skiing with the assistance of our vital "H Bar".  This X-mas, when we went to Smuggs, she watched other kids skiing on their own and she said she was ready to try it.  However, we've got a girl who isn't afraid of speed.  And so, she's perfectly willing to just bomb down a hill.  As educators of high school and college aged people, neither John nor I are "qualified" to teach a three year old how to ski.

Admitting our weakness, we sought out the experts.  We looked into our options, acknowledging that Cally is on the young end of the ski lesson spectrum, and decided to do Parent/Tot lessons at a little tiny hill in Richmond (all of 10 minutes from our house) with a total vertical drop of 500 ft.  Cochran's is a quintessential "Mom and Pop" ski area.  It has a tow rope (the kids call it the "carrot lift" b/c of the orange handles you grab), they serve hard boiled eggs and have a pot of hot dogs boiling on the stove in the lodge, and they breed some of the areas best skiers.  Not that we want to be parents of a ski racer, but the convenience and low key comfortable atmosphere made it work.

Cal took to her first lesson like a champ.  I'm not going to lie, I had a small bag of skittles to "reward" her, but she stuck it out for the entire two hours (and because we were late signing up, her lesson is from 11:30-1:30 which means she's skiing during lunch and the usual map time)!  Because I have to ride the tow rope with her between my legs, I think I might have been more exhausted than she was after a dozen laps on the bunny slope.  And she was pretty exhausted, too!



But the next day, she was ready to go for it again.  John and I skied all morning at Stowe and were ready to take off (because the conditions weren't all that great) and she exclaimed that she, too, wanted to ski before we left.  So she and John took four laps on the bunny slope



Last week, it was all of 8 degrees F.  John was out of town for the week teaching a Winter Skills class, so I asked Uncle Scotty to watch Hazen while we went to the lesson.  I packed a small thermos of hot cocoa and resupplied the skittles coffer, telling Cally to let me know if she got cold at all.  She amazed me, she was pumped for her lesson and only needed to go inside for a quick hot cocoa break and was anxious to get back at it again.

And even though she still just wants to go straight down the hill, she is learning to turn, fall, and do the snow plow.  She already can't wait until Saturday for her next lesson.  Yesterday (Wednesday), she asked me if it was time for her ski lesson yet.  Mind you, it's been really cold, then rainy, and now freezing again (conditions are looking grim).  But as long as she's having fun, we'll keep at it.

It's been the perfect year to put in our time at the bunny slope because our winter has been so pathetic and the parents aren't missing out on our own fresh powder.

Nana & Grandpa to the Rescue

The week after the holidays, Tammy, our beloved daycare provider had to close up shop for a few days for some scheduled medical procedure.  Because it was our first week back at school after the holidays, neither John nor I had the flexibility to take three days off.  So, we called in the reinforcements and with pleasure they arrived.  Nana and Grandpa are just those kind of Grandparents.  The ones who will come up at the drop of a hat to help us out.

They arrived with a home cooked meal for us, voices ready to read many books to the kids, energy to deal with two little kids for two days, and a willingness to bring them to the local libraries story hour and a trip to the bakery. 



And after spending two full days with our kids, they gave John and I the opportunity to go on a much appreciated dinner and skating date.

I say this all the time, but I feel so, so lucky to have family who can help us out during a busy time and offer so much unadulterated love to our children.  They have more patience, understanding, and encouragement for us than I could ever ask for.  Thank you Nana and Grandpa!

X-mas Love

 Here's our brief Holiday Recap:

We drove down to Darien right after school got out on Thursday, Dec. 22nd.  Cal and her Dad had spent the morning skiing and then John came home to miraculously fit 10 pounds of "stuff" into our proverbial 5 pound car...... boxes of gifts, luggage, eating seat, pack-n-play, stroller, dog...... somehow he did it.  Because that apple doesn't fall far from his father's tree!

Friday morning we boarded the 9:04 train to Grand Central Station.  Cal was fired up from the get go:

And these country bumpkins were very much in awe of the lights and action:

 

 After a stroll up the Rockefeller Center and a glimpse of the skaters and tree (before it got too crowded).  We headed to FAO Shwartz, where we told Cal she could pick out one "item" for her birthday.  For the first 20 minutes that we were at the store, she was dead set on a $9.99 panda.  Even when someone showed her a furrier, softer, or bigger animal, she didn't budge........ but then we went upstairs and she saw the dolls.  Ever since Tammy, our daycare provider started watching a new 3 month old baby named Callah, Cal has been pretty into dolls.  John wasn't too keen on the idea, but once you tell a kid they can have whatever they want (under $25), you kind of have to stick to it.  So, Cal chose Tess, a sort of non-descript plastic doll.

Next we headed downtown to have lunch at Bryant Park.  Within minutes of getting there, both kids were asleep.

But, Cal did wake up so she could ride a carousel with her grandma:

And the lunch that Bumpa treated us to was delicious:

We got home on Friday afternoon, just as cousin Will and Aunt Jenn and Rob were pulling into the grandparents house.  The cousins had a blast jumping on the trampoline, sharing snacks, and putting cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer:

Christmas morning was crazy. The whole thing was pretty surreal and overwhelming for all.  Makes me wonder how the heck we got caught up in this whole present madness.  

We got out for a playground adventure with our friends Tim, Sophia, Beckett and Iris who were visiting family the next town over:

The day after X-mas we headed north to visit the other grandparents.  Nana and Grandpa were kind enough to watch the kids so we could visit with Lynn and Mark.  Mark was recently diagnosed with Leukemia and had started chemotherapy.  Because of the need to stay as healthy as possible, it didn't make sense to expose him to our kids petri dish of ailments.  Mark seemed great.  Keeping his spirits up and in awe of all the outpourings of support.

Somehow, Nana and Grandpa were able to get our "No Nap Nelly" to take a nap (we were 0 for 3 during our visit with the other grandparents) and the kids were fired up to continue the gift insanity:

We feel so fortunate to have such amazing family.  The kids are so well loved and adorned with toys and clothes and fun.  Below is Cal playing with the dollhouse that Bumpa built for Aunt Nif, wearing a crown that her thoughtful Aunt Paula gave her:

And Hazen, hooting it up with his new blocks: