Cole's First Trip

. . .to the ER. Is it sad that for every event in my life I think of how I can blog it the next day? Last night, Cole fell in his room and gashed his forehead on the handle of the air vent. I was in the other room when I heard a loud thud, then crying. It sounded like a shelf fell off the wall, but I knew there was nothing that heavy hanging in there. When I reached his room, he had a pretty good stream of blood pouring down in his face. That sight will always stop a mom's heart for a second.
I called Brett, who was at a friend's house, and he headed over. In the meantime, Cole calmed down after a bit, but it took longer for his sister to relax. Baylea, our resident worrywart, immediately broke out in tears and starting asking a million questions. Does he need stitches? Will he get a shot? Will the needle go into his brain?
Brett arrived and we decided he would stay home with the kids while I took Cole to get stitched up. Due to a bad experience when we took a two-week old Molly to the ER (another blog, another time), we are always worried that no one will believe us how an accident happened and child protective services will be involved. Isn't it sad how we have become afraid to seek emergency treatment for fear of having a child taken away? I know ER workers observe a lot of abusive situations, but it's unfortunate that non-abusive parents actually have to debate whether to take a child in or not.
Anyway, we got to the ER at 11:30 last night. Cole was being so good. His final prognosis was 2cm laceration on forehead. He didn't get stitches, but they glued it together with Dermabond, which it kind of interesting. After putting a numbing gel on, they just held the wound shut and squirted this clear gel on an area about the size of a nickel, waited for two minutes, then applied a second coat. It stays on for 8-10 days, then wears off. We were out of the ER by 1:00, so I was very pleased. Things can happen in an instant, but I thank the Lord that Cole is okay.

 
Baylea's first day of school last year. She started the 1st grade and was very excited to go full days.

 
Can you believe they've already argued over clothes?

 
The newly crowned big brother.

 
And here is baby Cole, who was a five weeks old here. He turned 1 two weeks ago, it's amazing and sad how fast time flies. No more tiny babies in our house anymore (we mean it this time!) 

 

I was recently able to download a lot of older pictures that had been "trapped" on my mini-DVR discs, so I plan on posting a lot of them shortly. As you will see, I happen to only take pictures of my kids apparently, so get used to the Bartlett Four.

Above is Halloween from last year. We had Snow White, Ariel, Captain Hook, and Eeyore. So in addition to our family's video collection, cereals, backpacks, and clothing, Walt Disney has also monopolized the market on our Halloweens as well. 

 

Here are pics of the princess room. It's been redecorated for a couple of months and I think it turned out really cute. I was never into super-girly things, but I would have thought this room was cool if I were Baylea and Molly's age. 

Rock'n Lock-In!

Friday night was our junior church "rock'n lock-in". It was tiring, but the kids had a lot of fun. We started out the evening with pizza, the staple of all youth activities. Then, we moved outside for a game of hide-and-seek, but that got a little nerve-wracking making sure the younger kids didn't go anywhere near the street. Plus, the flooding and storms from a couple weeks ago have provided excellent breeding grounds for mosquitos.

We moved inside and set up the tv to watch movies. We had told the kids we would be watching Star Wars movies, which they were excited about. Of course, Stars Wars movies to them are the most recent ones so we popped in the Phantom Menace. We also thought it would be fun to dress them up as characters. Melanie put the girl's hair up into Princess Leia buns while Lydia and I applied face paint. We had five Queen Amidalas, two Darth Mauls, two Darth Vaders, one Yoda, and one R2D2. How come no one wants to be Hans Solo or Luke Skywalker anymore?


We let them watch the first movie, then put in the next one, Attack of the Clones. They were still awake after that so we put in the third. Lydia and I thought the kids would go to bed much earlier than they did. They acted fine, but just didn't want to sleep (unlike me.) Suprisingly, the two that stayed up the latest were Connor and Jake, the four-year olds. It was almost 2:30 before they were made to lay down. The girls were all in a corner, "chit-chatting" and apparently wolfing down a whole bag of potato chips, which left quite a mess on the floor.

Lydia and I shared quite a few laughs that night, but were glad to do something for the kids. They all said they had lots of fun and hope to do it again sometime. We'll see . . .

I'm posting this pic because I miss my babies today. These three are visiting Springfield this week with my in-laws. It has been very, very quiet at home. I think Cole even suspects something is not normal, but I've noticed he has tried to make more sounds than usual. He's trying to communicate by saying de, ba, te, and da. He also discovered that rolling his tongue in and out makes a lill-lill-lill sound.

Baylea, Molly, and Connor will be at the Dickerson Park Zoo this afternoon and will see my parents later today. Have fun guys, I miss you tons. . . Mom 

Withdrawal is a stinker. No- not nicotine, or alcohol, or drugs. . .diet pop. (Coke, soda, cola, whatever.) Brett and I started another diet, again, on Sunday. Yes, we've attempted many diets, but this one isn't some silly fad diet. It's basically low-calorie healthy eating. I loaded the grocery cart with tons of fresh vegetables rather than meals that came in a box or a can.

I found a weekly diet plan through beachbody.com. We ordered their workout dvd's a couple years ago, and they are really good as long as you stick to them. So, for the past three days I've eaten a low-carb high-protein diet, which hasn't been too bad. But, we also decided to give up pop. . . which apparently our bodies are addicted to.

I've heard a lot of stories about the perils of diet drinks, but didn't usually care. If it gives me a caffeine fix and contains zero calories, how can it be that bad? At work, we have a supply of free cans of Coke products, and I averaged 2-3 cans of Diet Coke a day. Then at home, I always had Diet Dr. Pepper on hand and probably had 1-3 more during the evening. So, since Saturday night, I haven't had any at all. Yesterday was rough.

I was okay throughout much of the day, but started to get a headache in the afternoon. By the time I got home, it was pounding. I don't know if I've ever had a migraine or not, but this was what I'd imagine one to be. I felt almost nauseous, didn't feel like eating, and the lights hurt my eyes. We tried watching TV, but I ended up laying on the couch with my head cradled on one arm, with the other shielding my eyes from the lights. I think I went to bed at 9:30. Brett felt awful too. He said he had no energy and it was making him very grumpy (he acknowledged it was because of the withdrawal symptoms.)

It made us kind of wonder what sort of stuff we put into our bodies that affect us so much when we stop. I mean, why doesn't this happen when I quit eating peas? Anyway, today was much better, I have been drinking tons of water and am actually excited to start losing the weight.