Friday, April 25, 2008

A Tucker trial

This is Tucker.



We thought about adopting him. Obviously, he is a good dog. (See the above picture) He didn't mind the kids messing with him, he was good about going outside, and he wasn't much of a barker.

BUT,
He didn't like Boomer.

We had him for exactly a week.

He went back home today.

He was so happy to see his family. They love him, but wanted a family that would play with him more. I really want a friend for Boomer, so it didn't work.

If any of my Oklahoma readers know of a family that wants a dog, A GOOD DOG, than let me know.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Elam's Swim lesson

Today was Elam's first ISR lesson.
This is more about rescue, not recreation.
You can read more about it here.

This method teaches children as young as 6 months how to survive if they fall into water.

I found out about them through an email that showed a baby younger than Elam falling into a pool and floating and crying till he was rescued. (you can see the video on the web site)

Elam's Grani also saw this video.
So, when they were finally available here, we signed Elam up.



At this point, he was excited to be there, (and looking cute in his swim diaper.)


Not so much after this point.
His goal was to reach and grab a bar that was about 5 inches below the water.




At the end of the lesson (about 10 minutes) he was grabbing the bar and able to hold his breath under the water!
We go every weekday for the next 4-5 weeks.
I'll keep you updated.
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Elam's first ...............

This blog was created to help me remember important memories about my children. Some of those memories are "first" that happen to our family or children.

I will admit that with Elam being the third child, I tend to miss his "first."

Well, in order to not be over looked, Elam decided to grab some attention for the entire family.

A first for Elam and all my children..........
STITCHES!

On Tuesdays I teach dance, so the kids spend part of the day with Grandma Grandpa. I got a call from Grandma during dance class. (Usually, I don't even answer my phone, but this time I did)
Grandma described what happened and I let her know I'd be right there. He was already done crying and ready to get up and move around.
On my way I call the doctors office and guess what?????
She is out of the office on Tuesday afternoons!!!
It was already 1:00.

So, I leave a message on her cell.

At Grandma's house, I find Elam who is totally himself and fine, but poor Grandma, Grandpa and especially Gibson were still torn up. (Haven seemed to be ok)
After looking at the cut on his forehead, caused by running into the corner of the wall, I decided I'd let him take his nap and wait for the doctor to call back.

It seemed to take forever for her to call, so I begin calling anybody else I think can answer some questions.
My friend Kelli who works at church told me about an AM PM clinic that she has used quite a bit. She also googgled about stitches. I told her I wasn't sure if I would be able to teach my afternoon dance class and she was ready to call people for me.
I called the clinic and he said I had around 12 hours to work with before it was too late to close him up. I knew I had time to wait for Dr. Parker to call me back, but I still wanted to talk to more people. Kelli also gave me a work number for a nurse who I actually just spent the weekend with at Falls Creek. (Where I danced) I called and had to talk to a very stressed and frustrated nurse who finally put me on speaker phone in the isolation room my friend Mary Anne was in.
She calmly told me the same stuff Kelli and the Doctor at the clinic had said. I had time to wait for the doctor to call me back.
She finally did.
She told me to take him to the clinic, but I did have enough time to teach my dance class first while Elam finished his nap.
(a quick note on Gibson. He is truly my most sensitive child. He clung to me the whole time while I was at Grandma's and he cried so hard when I was leaving for dance, that I took him with me)

So, here we are at the clinic waiting to see the doctor. He is very smiley and saying cheese to my camera phone.


After taking the band aid off for the nurse, I could tell a major difference in the cut post nap.


Soon after this picture we had seen the doctor and were waiting for the stitches.



We were moved to another room where we waited as I watched the doctor prep all his stuff. He talked about the Glue that can be used to close cuts. He said only for vertical cuts which close more on their own.




After we were done, we went to eat at Chiles. It was a tough thing to go through, but we made it. The poor guy had to be wrapped into a sheet and I had to hold him down. It wasn't fair because he could only see me! He couldn't see the doctor who gave him 3 shots to numb him! He couldn't see the nurse who was holding his head. Only his mother who was struggling to hold him down. Actually, he couldn't see me at one point either because they put a paper with a hole in it on his face.

Check out his hair and all the after pictures. He was so sweaty!!! poor guy!!


The hard part will be keeping a band aid on him.
If you are squeamish don't look at these pictures of the actual stitches after he took his band aid off.

5 stitches total!!


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He is doing great this morning and doesn't seem bothered by anything that happened. Really, it was a pretty calm event. I'm glad it's over and don't want to do it again any time soon.
(My bets are that when it does happen again it will be with Elam!)
What do you think?

Charlene Imholz, my famous mother

My mom is a little famous.

Click above and see how my mom's notorious elaborate comments manage to get her onto another blog.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Cute brother stuff

This is how Gibson carries all of his cars back to his room at the end of the day.



His brother decided to help clean up and it was just too cute!






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Elam kept trying to put the cars in his shirt like Gibson, but instead he just lifted his shirt and put them on his tummy.