The Monster Dash

Yesterday Clara ran in the Monster Dash. It was a something like 200 yard little race. In costume, of course.

This year Clara decided she wanted to be a bumble bee. This was incredible convenient given the fact that she had a bumble bee costume in her dress up box already (thank you, Grammy & the thrift store). I made a little antennae headband and we were all set.

Pre-race pose with Maddie & Ella 

It was a really big deal to wear a number, let me tell you! 

Lining up. Clara freaked out when everyone started running. Lesson learned: we need to prepare her for the mayhem of the starting line.

Can anyone see the bee?

Too distracted by the candy to smile for the camera. 

I'm definitely thinking this will be a tradition. Next year we may run the 5k as well. We'll see :).

To Missoula

We joined my parents this past weekend for a trip to Missoula, visiting my brother & Jono's cousin Aimie (the other Aimie Hook :)) as well as taking in a Grizzly football game. It was a great little getaway.

The drive is always beautiful.

Heading east vs. west on I90 is definitely more scenic!

Clara begged to pull over and eat some snow. Daddy caved.

Loving time with Uncle E (See, there IS blonde in the fam!)

Dinner at Biga Pizza = delicious!

Clara loved the game more than I expected she would.

The crew, nice and bundled.

If Jono had a different job. If our family lived elsewhere. If we weren't surrounded by such an awesome community. If we didn't own our home. Basically if we had a different life altogether, we'd move to Missoula. It's a great place!

The Room

Just ten months after Caleb was born, we officially (okay, I officially) finished the kids shared bedroom. The joys of a) being surprised about the sex of baby #2 and b) having a teeny tiny (and wonderful) two bedroom home is that we got to transform the yellow and pink Clara room into a girl/boy combo room.

I picked out a blue/green/yellow floral print with a matching-ish blue/green/yellow polka-dot print as inspiration. My mom (bless her heart) busted out reversible curtains and a toddler duvet, as well as a crib skirt. From there I (finally) got around to re-creating Clara's bow sign (in white/blue), creating a new photo board (also in blues), making blue pom-poms and creating animal silhouette prints. Whew! We added a few other blue accessories and the room is now finally complete. 

Sometimes projects seem to linger between the "I have this great idea" and "project completed" stage. I am happy to say that C & C's bedroom is now officially done. 

Clara's corner

The Lubster's corner

Changing table + dresser

And we will enjoy this to the maximum before we find ourselves in the next transition (bunk beds, twin & toddler bed, sibling birth, ya know - any of those possibilities) ;)

Fall Days

I've said it before but it's worth repeating. Fall in the northwest is THE BEST. There are certainly times in the late winter/spring that I'd give anything to trade places with my sister in southern California. But in September and October, there is no place I'd rather be than right here. 

We've had sunny days and cool nights. We've busted out the hats, scarves and coats without freezing to death quite yet. And the colors are amazing. We've spent every spare minute at the park this fall and here are just a few pictures to document...

An afternoon with Morgan at Manito

Smashed but loving it

Joining Grammy on her field trip to the Finch Arboretum

Favorite tree 

Favorite little man 

Matching hats from J's patient. Kind of love them!

Monster #1

Monster #2

Seattle

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Seattle for Jono's physical therapy conference. We left Friday morning and went straight to the Woodland Park Zoo. I'm not sure how this is possible, but neither of us had ever been before. Of course we loved it - and the kids did too. Clara said her favorite part was the monkeys. Caleb had this great two syllable chuckle whenever he saw an animal, which was pretty darn cute. And the two of us just enjoyed watching our kids excitement + the glorious sunshine. You really can't beat a beautiful day in Seattle!

Checking out the elephants

No Clara, you will never EVER have one of these as a pet

An orangutan close-up!

Two handsome boys

My favorite part - the penguins

Just chillin' :)

Twelve takes and still a little cheeseball

Clara sported her sling at the zoo. It really did its job, as you can tell.

After we'd run out of steam at the zoo, we found a pizza place just a few blocks away with these great little wax wikki stix instead of crayons & coloring sheets. Whoever came up with this idea is brilliant.

Then we made a spontaneous stop at Erin's ice cream truck. She works at UW by day and scoops ice cream at night. Kind of a rad existence, I think. The butter toffee crunch ice cream was amazing - as was the fun opportunity to see Erin! I may just have a new dream of owning an ice cream truck someday ;).

While Jono learned all about business strategies in PT, the kids and I drove to Bothel to connect with college friends I hadn't seen in years!! Kelly and I were freshman roommates in BJ eleven years ago and Kim and I lived on the same floor my sophomore year. The three of us had nearly all our education classes together and we student taught together too. It was so much fun meeting their kids and watch them interact. We have six between the three of us - ages three to ten months. It was busy and so much fun! We wrapped up our time together at the Bothel country village train ride. Clara loved it!

Kira, Kim & Quinn, Us, Kelly, Jack & Henry!

The whole weekend was a bit of a whirlwind but it was wonderful. Family time. Reconnecting with old friends time. And we still made it back by midnight and had Sunday at home, which is kind of the best thing ever.

The Arm

On Monday night, September 17, I was fixing dinner upstairs when I heard Clara start screaming. I ran downstairs and she was laying beneath her little trampoline (where she'd tumbled over the handle bar), crying in pain. Our little girl can be a bit of a drama queen (the same response to stepping on her toe as you might expect from severing a limb) ;). But she always gets over her pain and moves on. This time was a little different. To start, her cry was different. And then it took her a long time to stop crying. So I had a bad feeling about it from the beginning.

Jonathan got home soon after the accident and we ate dinner and played with her (basically tried to distract her) until bed time. She kept complaining about her arm, but she fell asleep in her bed just fine, so we thought it was the end of it.

A few hours later she woke up crying and so we gave her medicine - but she was quite upset. Jonathan basically slept with her on the couch the remainder of the night.

In the morning she was still complaining, so after calling Jonathan and work, we decided to head to the doctor. Jono was able to join me and we took the kids together - which was a huge blessing. "Everything" on her arm hurt, but Clara mostly pointed to her elbow as the most painful spot. So we got an X-ray, anticipating that she may have broken her arm. It came back completely normal.

Since the plan of attack (in terms of healing) is immobilize if broken & start moving if not, we tried to encourage Clara to use her arm right away.

We tried taking her to the park, getting her to ride her bike, disguised fun things she had to do with both arms (etc) in an attempt to get her to use both arms functionally. For days she was not herself. I even called the doctor back, asking what is "normal" for this kind of thing. What I got in response was basically "the X-ray came back normal - drug her for a week and then see (in a very patronizing tone)". I was determined not to be the worrisome mom, so I just followed suit.

Sure, she got a little bit better. She didn't wake crying at night after a few days. She started to lift her arm higher and moved it with more range of motion. But then there was the changing regime (we had to put on her clothes a very specific way to avoid pain), and the getting-into-car plan of attack (which was painfully slow), and the holding hands with only her right arm at all times. In hindsight, I should've known better.

The first round...

Cuddling with daddy at the doctor

Waiting for her X-ray

Passed out on the couch

Today we went to the doctor for Caleb. He'd had a few rough nights of sleep and he awoke from his morning nap with a pretty high fever and wouldn't stop crying. In the hallway of the doctors' office, Clara tripped and fell on her injured arm. And she FELL APART. She'd fallen on it a time or two (and been pulled/squeezed accidentally) and so I'd seen the response before. She was in a lot of pain.

Picture me, pushing a stroller with a screaming infant while trying to carry a screaming Clara in my arms. It was epic.

When we made it down the hall to the office, everyone in the building could hear us coming. And it was precisely this reason that caused the doctor to inquire about Clara's arm (after diagnosing Caleb with an ear infection). When I described her persistent symptoms a whole two weeks after the injury, the doctor ordered a new X-ray - this time of the shoulder.

And what do you know? She broke her humorous. A mere inch or so above where her last X-ray was taken.

When I heard the news I was sick to my stomach. Sick because I had been pushing her to use her arm. And because I was starting to get annoyed when she said it hurt (I thought she was just trying to get more yummy medicine, which is as good as candy to our obviously sweet-deprived child). And sick because I let a doctor convince me that my daughter was fine when I knew that she wasn't.

Thank goodness she isn't at all traumatized. Here I am getting all teary about the fact that it's been broken all this time and to her, the real injury happened two weeks ago. What's the big deal about today? Now she just gets to wear a peanuts sling (I was trying to teach her the names of all the characters earlier today ;)) for a few weeks.

And this mama has learned her lesson. I will certainly do my best to refrain from being an over-the-top worrying freak. But I will trust my gut and listen to my daughter. Turns out she's tougher than I thought.