Rewind Time to September

I just can't seem to keep up, but I'll continue to try!  Here's a look at September...


Camping:
We had our annual camping trip with friends.  As usual, it's filled with lots of fun and great memories!

Catching crawdads

Hannah even got to do some walking in her Upsee.

Home School:

 For the month of September (and the few weeks we had school in August), we did apple experiments in Science and studied Johnny Appleseed in Social Studies (along with math, reading, phonics, and handwriting).

Jenna working on her sight words for the week

I probably could have started him in Kindergarten this year, but decided not to rush it.  I'm okay with things being easy for him this year as long as he enjoys it and isn't bored.  So far, he loves it!

Adding our finished letters to the coconut tree.

We used Bailey and Hannah to make the letter E during E week.

Jenna working on her math paper.  She's picking up on it really well.

Doing some apple math experiments - finding out how many bear manipulatives it takes to equal an apple.

Then they had to measure the circumference of their apple.

We hypothesized whether their apples would sink or float...

So then we of course had to bob for apples.

Working on phonics and beginning sounds.

Another apple experiment - which ingredient would keep an apple from browning the longest - lemon juice, pop, milk, or water.  They each made their hypothesis and then checked on the apples throughout the afternoon.  I believe Grant guessed correctly with the lemon juice, and I think Jenna said water.

We also made homemade applesauce in the crockpot.  The kids liked it!

Horse Therapy:

 We started Hannah on horse therapy per the recommendation of Hannah's therapist.  There seem to be so many benefits to it, and since it can't hurt her, we definitely wanted to give it a try!  The natural movement of a horse is said to help increase balance, torso strength, and improve walking.  Hannah loved being on the horse, and on a few occasions would cry when we took her off. 

Misc:

 Here are some random pictures from the month...

We participated in our church's annual 5K run.  My mom watched Hannah, while Drew, the kids,and I all ran.  Drew was actually trying to get a good time, so he ran on ahead.  Jenna walk/ran with her Aunt Kelley, while I stayed with Grant. 

It was a LONG run for the kids, but I was so proud of them for completing the whole thing and finishing strong! 

All 3 of my cuties!

I love this picture of Hannah in the Upsee.  She has been very curious about our front door and just likes to put her hands on it and examine it.

Then as we started walking, Jenna held Hannah's hand.

Cousin time

My gift to Drew for our 10-year anniversary was a year of pre-planned dates.  They're sealed in envelopes and each month we open the following months date.  Septembers date was a game of tennis followed by brunch at Bob Evans.  It was SO much fun!!  Neither of us are amazing tennis players, so we just laughed the whole time.

Jenna's first manicure.  :)

She chose a blue polish.

Then we followed the nail painting up with a dinner date to Friendly's where they were serving these blue drinks with gummy sharks.  A treat for sure!

Playtime!

She loves her peas...and open-mouth smiles!

She's growing up way too fast!

Her new favorite activity is tracing images from the previous page in her gigantic princess coloring books.

Hannah had a regular checkup with the neurologist last month, and while there, the doctor saw Hannah jerk and was a little concerned about it, so she ordered an ambulatory EEG (24 hour EEG).  They put all the wires all around her head and then wrapped her up good.

On top of her head was a big battery pack (or something like that), which was quite heavy.  She had a difficult time keeping her head upright.

A unit was connected to the top of her head with a wire so that we could click a button if we saw anything that was concerning to us.  So since we were supposed to closely monitor her overnight, we decided to have her sleep in bed with us.  The results of the EEG showed no signs of seizures (which we expected - we haven't seen anything that's really concerning to us); however, the "background noise" was abnormal, which is expected since she has CP, but there were also "sparks."  I guess these "sparks" mean that Hannah is at a higher risk for having seizures, so that's just something we'll have to watch for and be aware of.  So far, no seizures though (thank goodness!)

Jenna loved giving Hannah her bedtime bottle.  She sure loves her sister!

Bedtime stories

Poor thing was worn out!!

Sisterly love!

Cousin time

Hannah's therapist brought these elastic rubbery anklets with beads on them for Hannah to wear while she walked.  They bounce around and make noise, which Faye thought might encourage Hannah to want to walk. 

Do NOT slam the doors!

Oh how many times have we said this to the kids...?!  Over and over...and there's good reason as to why parents say this to children.  Even though we already knew this, we found out especially why you should NEVER slam the door this past Monday. 

Monday evening Jenna, Grant and I were in the basement school room.  Drew was holding Hannah upright at the door and unbeknownst to Drew Hannah's little hand had moved into the hinge-side of the doorway.  Playing, Jenna ran over and slammed the door...completely closed...as in the door was shut...with Hannah's sweet little finger in it.  Oh my.  We didn't even realize she was caught until she started screaming.  Once we got the door open, we immediately knew her finger was broken.  We ran upstairs, got a wet washcloth to help stop the bleeding.  I called my mom who immediately came over to stay with Jenna and Grant while we drove to the ER.

For those who don't know, one thing we've realized with Hannah's Cerebral Palsy is that she doesn't feel pain the way a "normal" person does.  We've seen instances of this before, but this incident really made it clear to us.  Hannah was definitely screaming and crying in pain when her finger was smashed in the door, but before we left for the hospital, we put her pacifier in her mouth and she immediately stopped crying.  As in...happy, sucking on her paci, even giving us smiles and a few giggles.  Oh my!  I know, had that been my finger, I would have still been crying hysterically.  Needless to say, she barely made a peep the whole way to the hospital while I sat in the back singing to her and making sure the washcloth stayed wrapped around her hand.

While at the hospital, we joked with Hannah that she better stop smiling and laughing because they'd drop us to the bottom of the list thinking that everything's "fine and dandy."  :)  I love her sweet spirit and good attitude...and, although I definitely want her to have the right sensations, I am thankful that she just couldn't feel the pain the way she SHOULD have been feeling it!

So at the hospital they did an x-ray of her finger, which confirmed that it's broken.  Then when the nurse practitioner came in and looked at her finger, she informed us that her finger also had a significant cut - about 65% through the finger right below her fingernail, which in the medical field is classified as a "partial amputation".  Oh my.  Poor, poor Hannah.  A broken finger and a partial amputation.  Yep, I would definitely still be crying.

The nurse practitioner then numbed her finger the best she could.  Apparently there was one side of her finger that she wasn't able to completely numb, so Hannah felt some of the stitches...oh my.  Then she reset her finger, put five stitches on the sides of her finger to help hold it together, and then cleaned her nail (which had come off) and reinserted it in her finger in it's "track".  Apparently, if you don't put the nail back in, scar tissue will form and a nail would no longer be able to grow.  So she put the nail back and then added two stitches to the sides of the nail to help hold it in place.  They put a splint on her and wrapped it up and told us to follow up with an orthopedic doctor in a few days.  They prescribed her an antibiotic as well as motrin to help with the pain as needed.

I didn't know what to expect from her the next day, but honestly, you wouldn't know she was injured if she didn't have her hand wrapped.  She was amazing and mostly back to her normal self.  The biggest issue I had was keeping her splint on!  Little stinker didn't want to slow down and would roll over on top of her hand (OW!!!) and then yank her hand out from under her...again with no crying...but the splint would come off.  So I saw a lot of her finger (OUCH!) and tried my best to rewrap it like the professionals. 

This morning we met with the orthopedic doctor.  He said her hand is looking good, but it needs more time to heal, and since she's young and won't leave it alone they decided to cast it for three weeks, which I'm thankful for.  I can't imagine having to keep her away from her finger for the next three weeks.  She is one tough cookie and such a joy!