Good News

Back in November I posted about Lauren's services being switched at the Infant Program with the county. She is just getting speech and was only being referred to Chesterfield County school system with a speech delay. Today our service coordinator called and gave me some really good news. She spoke with the person who will be scheduling Lauren's evaluation and they think Lauren needs a full evaluation based on her history. They don't want to miss anything is what our service coordinator was told. Don't get me wrong, I hope they don't find any major delays, but I feel a whole lot better knowing that we are going to have the full evaluation. Knowing that they think it is important also, makes me feel better. I have been afraid something was going to be missed this whole time. It also makes me glad someone who has not worked with Lauren will be doing the evaluation. I know for me the progress Lauren has made has become "normal" persay. I don't recognize that she is smaller and isn't talking as much until I get around other kids her age. I am not sure when the evaluation is going to be. Chesterfield County school system is supposed to be calling me, but many prayers are needed. Lauren has done so good and I get so emotional just thinking about how far she has come.

Also, on a side note, Lauren's knew two favorite words are what and why. She asks why ALL the time. My automatic answer is like every other parents automatic answer to this question...BECAUSE. They other day she asked me why, so I looked at her and asked her why and she said because (without the b at the beginning). How cute!

Happy Easter

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him". -Mark 1:6

I love Easter Sunday! This is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We have had a very good day today. We woke up this morning and got on our Easter dresses, well, everyone except Paul. The girls got their Easter baskets and ate candy for breakfast. Actually, Kristen didn't eat candy and wanted oatmeal. Lauren just wanted chocolate. We had a good time at church and came home to spend time with family. I am very tired, so this post is going to be very short. The girls went right to sleep tonight. In fact, Lauren was asleep by the time Kristen and I finished our prayers together. So...exhausted we are. Here are a few pictures from the day. We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Kristen and her Easter basket


Lauren and her Easter basket (she couldn't wait and had already started taking things out of her basket)


The girls in their Easter dresses


They posed like this on their own


Hunting for Easter eggs again. This was Kristen's favorite thing.


I thought this was the cutest picture


Only Meme would stuff plastic eggs with dollar bills. I just wish she had done that when I was little.

Easter Preparations

Today we went to our church's Easter egg hunt. Kristen was really excited and new exactly what to do. She had a basket full of eggs. Lauren enjoyed it too, but wasn't as fast as her older sister. She took her time.

Kristen VERY excited about all of her eggs





This evening we went through the resurrection eggs. These are Easter eggs that have special things inside of them that tell the Easter story. I was very impressed with Kristen and her listening skills. She picked up and knew more of the story than I would have thought. I hid them around the living room then had the girls look for 6 eggs each. It really is something to invest in if you have children. Both of the girls love opening the eggs and listening to the story. After that we dyed our Easter eggs. Kristen loved it. Lauren kept saying "I want down." Once I put her down she said, "Bye Bye eggs" and waved to them. She is just too cute. Here are some pictures from this evening.

I hope not

Lauren stuffing her shirt with tissues. I hope that this isn't an insight of what the teenage years will bring.

Trauma in the Harris Household

I think I have been nominated for the most horrible mother award! On Sunday, when we got back from our trip, I decided to take the rail off of Kristen's bed to see if she could sleep without it. She sleeps on the couch and does fine, so I thought that we should try it. I knew she would fall out of her bed at some point. We all have and I can remember one time specifically, so I wasn't so surprised when I heard the big thump at 11:30 last night. What did surprise me was the shrilling scream/cry that came after it. When I went in she was holding her neck, but I didn't pay much attention. I got her and held her while we sat on the floor for her to calm down. She never quit crying completely, but I asked her if she wanted me to go get her a drink. I had her lie down, went and got a drink (all the while she was still crying), came back. She didn't drink anything but didn't even want me to touch her or lift her up. She kept pointing to the right side of her neck saying it hurt. After 10 minutes I called Paul and told him I thought I was going to take her to the hospital because she seemed to be really hurt. I am going to note that I do not do well in traumatic situations. Most people think of everything that needs to be done, well, my brain just shuts down. Nothing...notta...zilch. That's what I have going through my head. Paul told me not to move her and call 911. Of course this would happen when he was at work, which he only works about 5 nights a year and it happened to fall on that night. I hung up and called my parents. Asked them to come over then called 911. I needed moral support. At this point, Kristen is crying, Lauren is crying and the dog is whining. The 911 operator told me to keep her as still as possible, which really wasn't a problem because she refused to move. During this time I was explaining to her that some people would come and try to make her feel better. She wanted to know if it was going to be girls because she like girls better than boys. I didn't gender specify on my call, not that I would have given the circumstances, so I was pretty sure we would end up with boys. I tried to calm her fears saying that the boys would take care of her just like the girls do. It took them forever it seemed like, although my parents were pretty impressed with their speed because they were here before they got here. Sure enough, when the knock came at the door there stood two men with blue gloves. I thought I could use the blue gloves to my advantage, because that is now her favorite color. My mom took Lauren and Kristen seemed to calm down as the men were assessing her. She sat up, started moving her head and was temporarily healed by the men in the blue gloves. We decided not to take her to the hospital because she said she was all better. They left and then we realized that maybe she wasn't all better. We went back and forth for a little bit on whether or not we were going to take her to the hospital. I came to the conclusion (which I am not a medical professional) that I would get up and make an appointment with her pediatrician. I was planning on making an appointment anyway to get another prescription for her eczema medicine. She slept good, it was only certain positions that she would say it hurt so I was beginning to think she was just bruised. Luckily, Dr. Little was able to see her. She sent her for an x-ray and...she has fractured her clavicle bone. Ouch! I feel so bad for her and wish with all my heart I could switch places. It just makes me feel horrible, because if I had kept that rail on her bed she would be alright. She is going to have that rail on until she is 16 now. Anyways, below is a picture of Kristen in the contraption they have her in. She hates it. She has a break down because of it every hour or so. I feel bad for her. She has to wear it for two weeks and then we go back to the doctor. I pray these two weeks go by really fast, that she heals good and is not in a lot of pain during the healing process. When we said our prayers tonight, after we were done she said "You know, God doesn't like it when I'm hurt. He wants me to feel better because he loves me." It made tears come in my eyes. I love that little girl so much and if I could I would switch places with her. I am going to put my girls in bubbles until they are grown ups.


This was at dinner tonight. The only smile I got while wearing her brace.



This actually turned out to be a good picture to show exactly how the brace works. She didn't want her picture taken, so as I was snapping it she started walking away. This was right after a melt down.



I took this picture because I thought it was the only picture I would get of her in the brace because she did not want to wear it or keep it on. I hope with time it will be a little less annoying and we will be able to put it on and keep it on without any melt downs. It will be a long two weeks.

Sweet Shenandoah

We went on a weekend getaway to Shenandoah. We went last year around our anniversary and decided to go back this year at the same time. It was much needed! We took the girls and we all had such a good time. The cabin was beautiful. It was right on the river and had toys for the girls to play with. We didn't even get the toys out of the bag that we had brought. Paul took his boat and was able to do some fishing on the river. The girls did wonderful on the trip there and back. I didn't know exactly how that would work out because in the van we had the dvd player. We had a little portable one that my mom loaned to us, but I wasn't going to get it out unless I needed to. I really enjoyed the trip and realized that this was probably the first trip we have taken that the going and coming back went so smoothly. No one was fussy and we all enjoyed ourselves. Anyway, the weather was really yucky this time. We we got there on Thursday, it was pretty late, so we dropped our stuff off and headed to the Food Lion to by some food. We came back to the cabin and baked cookies then the girls went to bed. They had a princess television and Hello Kitty comforters on the bed. Kristen loved it. For Christmas she wants a tv for her room. She liked being able to watch a movie at bedtime. It was a luxury for them. The next day we went to Luray Caverns. It was a waste of 46 dollars, which by the way was just for Paul and I to get in because the girls were free. Can you believe that? For 46 dollars we should have gotten a free t-shirt or a magnet or something. When we walked down the 100 stairs to get in the caverns the only reaction we got was from Lauren and she said "wow." Kristen said nothing. The only thing she said was half way through she asked when we were going to be out of this thing. We all wore jackets because the last time it was around 50 degrees in the caverns. This time, because of the humidity, it was around 70. We also met up with a couple of school groups, which by the way I am NEVER chaperoning anything. It was complete chaos and all of the parents that were chaperoning had this "What did I get myself into" look on their faces. We tried to wait until the gift shop cleared out to go back in, but it never did so we had to battle the chaotic kids. Kristen picked out a dog in a purse holder and a little pony. Lauren got a horse in a purse holder and a doll in a little purse. They both got rock candy. I got my magnet but had to pay for it. We had also planned to go to the garden maze, but it started raining so we went to Walmart and headed home. That night we had planned to build a fire in the fire pit and roast marshmallows and hot dogs, but the wood was wet. Kristen talked about it all day and Paul and the lighter fluid worked their hardest to try to get a fire started with no success. We ended up doing the hot dogs on the grill and Kristen got to help him fix them. It wasn't the same, but it worked to calm her down a little. The next day we headed to a couple of craft shops and then went out on Paul's boat. I didn't bring my camera, which I should have because it was quite and experience. We had never been out on Paul's boat before, so this was our first boating experience. It was...well...interesting. Kristen was so afraid that the boat was going to tip over when I was going to get in my seat that both Paul and I were laughing so hard at her. Lauren was like that boy in the Christmas story. It was quite cold so the girls had on pretty big coats plus life jackets. Lauren fell off of her seat and on to the floor. When she got up she had a bug crawling across her face. Lauren was content just sitting there pulling the legs off of the lizard bait we gave her. Everything was going good. Paul had caught a fish and the girls got to touch it and kiss it. Can you believe that. YUCK. Then...it happened...Kristen's fishing pole when flying into the water. She cast it a little too hard. You would have thought she went over board. I tried to grab it, but wasn't fast enough. She cried for a good little while, then finally calmed down. Long enough to inform us she had to go to the bathroom. Now that is a dilemma when you are in the middle of the river and it is cold. So, she went to the bathroom over the side of the boat then once she realized we didn't have any toilet paper. Well, I just wished I could have captured her face when we told her. It was priceless. We decided to call it a day after that. Once we got back, Kristen got off of the boat and went and stood on this rock. Well, I got off and Paul handed Lauren to me. It was on a bank, so I started slipping. The only thing I could do was run up the hill and I ran right into Kristen and knocked her off of the rock. Needless to say I was really glad to be back at the cabin. We then got in the hot tub and that was the BEST part of the day. The girls enjoyed it and we all relaxed for a little while before dinner. The next day, on our way back home, we stopped at the garden maze. Kristen LOVED it. She led us through and go us out. I was so glad we ended our trip on a good note and it turned out to be a bright sunny nice day. I really enjoyed the trip. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to go back next year. Here are some pictures from our trip.

No More Cast

Well, for a little while at least. Lauren went in for her appointment on Thursday to get her cast taken off. We were so happy. I was especially happy to take her home and give her a real bath so I could scrub that little leg. The Dr. said that things looked good and there were no restrictions (I am not too fond of this Dr). Other than walking with very big steps like she was lugging around that cast, she did very good. By Friday she was walking normal and all day on Saturday. I had went to a 31 party that a friend at church was having and on my way home Saturday night Paul told me he thought Lauren had hurt her ankle again because she was limping pretty bad. My heart just sank! When I got home, sure enough, she was limping worse than she did when it was hurt before she got the cast. Kristen said they were playing in the playroom holding hands and Lauren fell and that is how she got hurt. I don't know for sure, but we decided to let her go to sleep since she didn't seem to be in pain. I gave her some Tylenol, and we would re access the situation when she woke up this morning. I got up early, got ready (because my mother instinct new I was going to be taking her to the ER), and when I got Lauren up she was still limping. Her little ankle would make a popping noise every now and then and when she walked it looked very shaky. I felt so sorry for her. I just wished I could switch places with her. At the hospital they took x-ray's again. Lauren and I have had enough electromagnetic radiation to last us a lifetime! The Dr said there wasn't any new fractures and the x-ray showed that the break was healing but hadn't completely healed. He didn't come out and say it, but his questions pretty much said "I can't believe they took the cast off!" He said that since it isn't completely healed, Lauren has a greater chance of re-breaking it or injuring it again because her ankle is weak from being the cast and unstable. He put a splint on it and told us to call on Monday and get an appointment with the doctor we aren't happy with. He didn't want to put a cast back on because he wasn't sure how they wanted to follow up. The doctor should be able to look up the x-rays, but he gave me the x-ray report to take. So, here we go again.