The New Strap Me In So I Won't Fall Out Swing!

She is a trooper I will give her that, it takes a whole lot to scare my little girl. Only days after literally flying off the swing Sophie was asking to get back outside and swing again. However, she was asking to swing in her old baby swing that used to hang from the large tree in our yard before we got the swing set. That "red swing" she was referring to broke and got thrown out. Thanks to Great Grandad Sophie now has a brand new "blue swing" that Mommy feels much safer with and that she will be swinging in until she reaches the maximum weight limit! So, thank you Great Grandad for providing hours of entertainment for Sophie and putting an expression of true joy on her face. It is so wonderful to be able to go outside with her and have something that she can do rather than have done for her since most outdoor activities are limited for us these days.

Oh yeah, just yesterday Sophie told Neal that when she gets her "pink thing" and her "red thing" off she is going to swing on the other swing and do a back flip off that one too! Ummmm I don't think so! I think we are going to have to keep a closer eye on this kid than we thought!

The Mountains

This past weekend we took a trip to Blowing Rock, NC with Neal's parents. The weather was absolutely amazing!!! It was so gorgeous, we couldn't have asked for a nicer temperature we actually had to wear light jackets and pants Saturday afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed the 60 degree weather that the mountains had to offer. We, of course had this trip planned out long before Sophie's injuries and had plans for lots of fun outdoor activities, but we made due. Papa and Gigi Slimick came well prepared to entertain Sophie with lots of books and activities. She was so excited to be in the mountains. We had no idea how close Blowing Rock was to us and how short of a drive it was (only took us about an hour and a half to get there) so we will for sure be making some day trips!

So excited about the chocolate covered marshmallow on a stick!

Checking out a worm.



View from the deck of the house.


Enjoying the very brisk morning air.



Sophie had to hold the leash and walk Lucy.

Rolling With The Punches

Things are progressively moving forward here at the Slimick household. We are doing what we can to stay busy and thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has sent stuff, and dropped stuff by the house to help keep Sophie entertained and busy, which is a hard feat for a 2.5 year old since most things only hold her attention for about 15 minutes! So you can imagine the multitude of activities that we are running through and how the wheels are turning in my head with new ideas of things to do. I can't begin to express what it means to receive all the cards, emails, packages and get well wishes from everyone, I am overwhelmed with how many people care about my Sweet Sophie!

Sophie had her follow up appointment with her orthopedist today and he said that she is healing well and that the half cast will do and he sees no need to put her into a full on leg cast up to her thigh! YAY!!! Our prayers were answered with that one, since she is just feeling confident enough to crawl around and be semi mobile with out bearing weight on her leg, having her in a full cast would have presented a whole new set of challenges for her and us! So that was good news. We go back in 3 more weeks for the removal of both her leg and wrist cast at which time he will x-ray with the casts off and see how the healing has gone. From there the doc will decide if she can remain cast free or if she needs to be re-casted for an additional few weeks. Please continue to keep Sophie (and me) in your prayers, pray for swift healing for her and patience and strength for me. I never realized how much I relied on her walking around and following me around until she could no longer do it. I am nervous to leave her alone for too long in the play room for fear that she will try and stand on her leg, however she has been really good about that and seems grasp that she can not under no circumstances stand on her "pink thing" as she calls it. It really is almost like having an infant again (better get used to that one....hehe) only it is a 30 pound infant who wants to get up and run and do things! We are definitely taking things one day at a time and things are getting done (laundry, dishes, cooking, ironing etc.) just a lot slower. She really is handling this remarkably well and it is so amazing to me how resilient my sweet girl is, she just keeps rolling with the punches, bless her little heart.

Today, in an effort to keep some semblance of normalcy and pass some time, we baked some cookies. A favorite activity of both mine and Sophie's, I love to have them in the house and she loves to help and lick the batter! I had to make a modification in how she she helped since she usually stands on a chair at the counter, but it all worked out well and the cookies turned out fab. The recipe is a little out of season, but I happened upon it when thumbing through an old Parenting magazine when looking for words that start with 'C' for Sophie's alphabet book. It is a good fall cookie recipe, Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies. I love using pumpkin in recipes because it packs a good nutritional punch of Vitamins A & C and Potassium, plus I just love those fall spice smells, nutmeg and cinnamon mmmmmm.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup pureed fresh or canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnammon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 cups rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla; beat. Mix in combined flours, baking soda and spices, then stir in oats. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

Below are just some cute pics that I have been meaning to post of Sophie before the big break(s). I just had not gotten around to it yet. It makes me a little sad to see her cast free, smiling, happy and free to run around. We'll be there again running around though in a couple weeks, right now I will take the casted smiles knowing that things could have turned out worse.

I Had To Ask "What Next?"

We just got back from the Orthopaedic's office this morning with a shiny new red cast on Sophie's left wrist. Yes, she broke her wrist too. She had complained of it yesterday, but she was using it a little bit and had movement so we just thought that it was just hurt or at worst sprained from the fall, but no it's broken. I knew I should have had them x-ray it yesterday when she said it hurt, but it was not her main complaint, she just kept saying that her foot hurt most. So this morning when she woke up still complaining about her wrist I knew I had to take her. I showed up at urgent care as soon their doors opened for another round of x-rays, and since Neal was at work our fabulous deacon from church, Amy, came with me so she could go back in the x-ray room with Sophie, Thank Amy we love you!!!! The doc told us it was broken and made an appointment for us to head over to the Orthopaedics yet again. My dad rushed down to make the appointment with me so I didn't have to go alone. Sophie was a little more upset this time I think mainly because she is just over the whole situation. This cast will have to be on for 4 weeks as well, we go back in a month for the follow up. We are finally home and I think this is the end of the chaos for now and we can begin to heal and rest. She did have sort of a rough night sleeping last night I don't think that she could get comfy and she kept asking to take her pink thing off. Bless her heart. We'll see how it goes napping and sleeping tonight with the new wrist cast. Thank you again, everyone for your prayers, emails and visits. It means so much to have everyone reaching out in such a stressful time.

What Next?????

I am not sure how much more my sweet girl can endure. We have a had a rough couple of weeks here at the Slimick household, 3 to be exact. June 15th Sophie started running a fever out of the blue, it started off pretty low and quickly rose to over 104, well three doctor's visit later (only one copay...gotta love our Pediatrician!!!) and a catheter, it was determined that she in fact had her very first urinary tract infection. Yahoo. With it being her first UTI and due to her age they had to send us to the hospital about a week later for an ultrasound of her kidneys and an x-ray while they inserted a catheter with dye to see how her kidneys were functioning to make sure she didn’t have Vesicoureteral Reflux (Kidney Reflux). As it turns out she does have reflux in both kidneys, which basically means that when her bladder gets full her ureters (the tubes that get the urine from the kidney to the bladder) do not clamp off like they should and they allow urine to flow BACK up into the kidneys....not good. They grade it on a scale of 1-5, grades 1-3 children typically outgrow, grades 4 & 5 are more severe and usually require surgical correction. Luckily, for us Sophie is a grade 2 on her right kidney and a 3 on her left. However, in her left kidney she has two ureters coming out of kidney leading to her bladder, when you are only supposed to have one. So we have been referred onto a pediatric urologist to determine if that complicates her treatment since the double ureter makes the reflux worse, we see him on July 22nd. Until then our Pediatrician has put Sophie on a low dose of antibiotics to keep any further infections at bay. The only real down side other than the possibility of a procedure is now ANY time she has a random fever she MUST be seen to rule out the re-occurrence of another UTI or kidney infection. So that is how the week of June 15th and June 22nd went.

The week of June 30th through July 4th was just trying to get back to a normal routine for us and get used to remembering our daily dose of antibiotics. Then today happened. A day that will be forever etched in my mind, the day my sweet Sophie broke her left leg. It started off just like any normal Wednesday, aside from Neal being home, due to him waking up not feeling so hot he decided to take some sick time. I was pushing Sophie on the swing and she asked to go "super high" as she calls it. I have been preaching to Neal about not pushing her so high, but she has been doing so well holding on and Neal does it all the time so I thought "why not". Of course, she lost grip of the swing and was holding on with one hand out of my reach and then I watched as the swing reached it's highest point and my baby lost her grip all together and did a full on back flip and tumbled to the ground like a little rag doll. My heart sank, I felt sick and I thought for sure she had broken her neck, she landed awkwardly on the ground and as I raced to her she hadn't yet moved. I bent down to check her out she lifted her head and began crying and immediately reached for her leg and began screaming and crying that her leg hurt. Neal went and got ice and by the time that he had come back out to us I had determined it was time to go to the urgent care right down the street. Within minutes we were in the car and pulling up to the urgent care, they brought us back immediately did a work up and took x-rays. After reading the x-rays and determining that she had broken her leg in two spots her tibia and fibula, with one being along the growth plate, we were sent over to the Orthopedic's office with Sophie in a temporary cast to be seen (where we waited 2 hours before we even got called back!). After about another 45 minutes or so we finally left the office with a bright pink cast and a very brave little girl. We go back next week to make sure the cast is doing it's job properly. The prognosis is that she will wear the cast for 4 weeks and bear NO WEIGHT what so ever on the broken left leg. The doc wrote out an order for us to get a child sized wheel chair, but for now we are going to put some pillows and blankets (since her leg needs to be propped up for support) in her wagon and see how that goes. I am not quite sure how I am going to manage all of this on my own as I am growing in size every week. Of course, I feel ABSOLUTELY AWFUL since I was the one pushing her and I am not sure how I will sleep these next few nights watching the scene play out over and over in my head (Neal did not see it all go down), I can't believe I broke my baby's leg :( Luckily, we have already had a tremendous outpouring from our church and of course we have both Neal and my parents who are willing to do what they can when they can. So we will just take it day by day and get used to our new situation for the time being. In the meantime please keep my sweet girl in your prayers as it is very hard for a two year old to understand that she can't get up and move around or take her cast off. Thank you to all of you who have already been praying for healing and relief for Sophie it really means a lot to us.

My almost 3 year old does not always have her paci it is reserved for bed times only, but I made an exception for today!