"Oh, brother! A broken leg!"

Alayna and her sweet smile. As you can see, she is still enjoying her infant swing. Who would've guessed she'd still be using it at almost 23 months of age. She loves to swing and it is very soothing to her.

Love the double chin! Alayna doesn't have a very long neck. I think that is a common characteristic of 1p36. I'll have to check it out. Or maybe it's because I haven't had to tell her to stand up straight yet, lol!

And her hair keeps growing and is still curly. It really reminds me of Lexi's when she was about 3 years old. The only time it doesn't look crazy is right after a bath when her curls are all so nice. I remember with Lexi that on special picture days I'd give her a bath and wash her hair and go immediately to the portrait studio so it wouldn't get messed up. Oh, what we do for good photos!

Douglas is 4 1/2 years old and he loves to be outside. It doesn't matter if it's 95 degrees or 9 degrees! He was so excited to see snow and he jumped at the chance to shovel our sidewalk and driveway. All I had to say was "Awesome, thanks Douglas!"

Smiling proud to show off his good work.

Then the snow got the best of Douglas last Sunday. In this picture his is showing off his splint from Unity Hospital in Muscatine.

Here Douglas is showing off his new blue cast that literally goes up to his butt cheek. Oh, brother!

As if the hustle and bustle of preparing things for the holidays isn't enough, Douglas decided to throw a broken leg into the picture. He was sledding on Sunday in our yard with Alexis and Drake like they had been doing all week long. Alexis explained to us that his foot must have went into a big hole in a snow pile and came to a halting stop. He fell off of the sled and his ankle twisted. I wasn't around to witness all of the excitement because I went shopping. It happened about 5 minutes after I left. According to Alexis he was in a lot of pain. He must have got up and walked inside though.

When I got home later that evening, Dana informed me that he was taking Douglas to the ER to get an x-ray because he thought he might have a broken leg. OMG! Before I left earlier that day, I asked all of the kids and Dana to please not call me or text me because I needed some alone time. You see they do that all of the time and I'm usually not even 15 minutes down the road. But for heaven's sake, this is not at all what I meant not to text me about! So, off to the ER they went.

Douglas has a spiral fracture of his tibia (bigger of the two bones in the lower leg). It's the kind of fracture that kind of winds around the bone like a spiral. On Monday morning, we headed to Moline to get it casted. He was excited to pick a blue cast and it literally goes up to his rear-end. The first day he was very cautious and wouldn't move unless I carried him everywhere. That really stunk! I don't know how many times I made the trip downstairs to change the Wii game disc. However, since then he is adapting to his bum leg quite well and is getting around pretty good. Dana and I are both impressed with his ability to adapt and do things differently to move from one place to another. And that little guy is strong and uses his upper body strength to do a lot of the movement. He will have this cast on until December 29th and hopefully then he will get one that goes below the knee. For safety and mobility reasons, he is missing pre-school for 9 days, but it is the best choice. He is going to his babysitter, Ms. Amy, during the day and enjoying it. I don't think he is missing the very early bus ride to school at all.

Alayna continues to be as sweet as ever. Even though there are times that her whine and cry nearly sends her dad and I over the edge! Her ears are both completely cleared at this time. I hope they stay that way. She has also been sleeping really good. I can't remember the last night I had to get up in the middle of the night. Now, watch me jinx myself and have to do it tonight. I have turned the monitor on a very low setting and if she isn't loud enough, I don't hear her. And neither does Alexis. So as far as I know, if she does wake up, she is falling back to sleep somehow. Eating has been a bit of a change lately. I'm not sure if it is due to timing and her being tired, teeth, sore throat, or just sick of drinking a bottle. At times she eats good and at other times her mood is so bad it isn't worth forcing the issue. She refuses pretty forcefully. On Monday, after being very tired all day long and fighting her sleep, I witnessed her having one of her seizure episodes while she was in the swing. I stopped the swing and comforted her and waited until it passed. I will make note of this and if it happens again, I will call neurology in Iowa City to see what we should do. Again, these episodes have all occurred around sleep, either right before or right after a nap. That is a common time for seizure activity for our 1p36 kids.

I am looking forward to next Friday, December 19th because of getting out of school for our Christmas break. I enjoy spending the time at home with the kids and not having to set the alarm clock. I love the fact that we have no schedule. And I'm the first one to admit that if I can stay in my p.j.'s all day long I do. And I also don't care who comes to the front door! This year has flown by just as fast as the previous one's and I have lots to reflect upon. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only 14 days away!