Cute kids having fun playing together:
I was surprised that Karina and Lydia worked together to make something out of blocks - they usually seem to fight over pieces, but this time they cooperated happily:
Nate had his birthday and we celebrated with yummy cake with coconut frosting:
Unfortunately I didn't consider that the coconut flakes would go flying everywhere when Nate blew out the candles. It was a not so fun mess to clean up since the floor is carpeted.
Whereas Derek hated his own birthday cake (he refused to even try it and was in a horrible mood overall that day), he was thrilled with Nate's cake and couldn't get enough of the first birthday cake he had tried.
One night we were at an arcade celebrating the birthday of one of Karina's friends. At one point Karina passed a level of a Batman video game and I was so surprised she had passed since she has never played video games before. I was calling out to Nate who was with Lydia to give him the news of Karina's accomplishment and then I heard Derek crying. I looked over (he was right by the game Karina was playing) and he was sitting on the floor crying and blood was squirting in a constant stream 2 inches outward from his forehead. Luckily our friend there is a paramedic and was able to help. After several minutes of putting pressure on the wound, it was still bleeding a lot. She said that at the ER in the hospital, it would probably be glued, possibly stitched. Here is a picture of Derek at the hospital, before being treated, after we had cleaned off all the blood that had covered his face. By this time it wasn't oozing much.
The ER doctor glued him up. I am not confident that his skin was lined up quite correctly, though I don't know how it could have been done better with out sedating him. Derek was in a straight jacket to prevent him from thrashing his arms. That didn't stop him from thrashing his body though and he thrashed with all his might with me and a nurse holding him down and the doctor trying to clean off fresh blood oozing (since she cleaned off the wound and that made it start bleeding freshly). After a few minutes she got him glued up and he was perfectly content after the straight jacket was removed and I was holding him. Here he is with steri-strips. Hopefully with diligent application of the scar cream and sunblock over this next year, his scar will be minimal. No fun to have a scar on the face.
The girls (Karina especially) were sobbing in the car on the way to the hospital and were upset at the hospital and we thought initially that they were worried about their baby brother. As we were reassuring them that Derek would be OK, we came to realize that they were worried they wouldn't get birthday cake, since we had been at the arcade for someone's birthday. We promised them we would return for cake if we were quick at the hospital. They were thrilled that we were in and out of the ER within an hour and were able to return for cake. The day was saved, in their opinion. We were surprised we didn't have to wait at all at the ER. Other people were waiting bored, in the waiting room. I think it must have been because of Derek's age and because the hospital has a pediatric ER.
The kids like being tossed by Nate:
No shame in pushing a girly stroller. Unfortunately the stroller falls down easily, unlike his walker. It is not for inexperienced walking babies.
Karina has become an expert bike rider (with training wheels) and Lydia loves her tricycle. Last year we couldn't get Karina to spend much time on her bike because she was so scared. It is nice that she has more confidence with it. She came inside one day and said riding the bike was easy, which is what we had been telling her all along. Lydia couldn't ride her tricycle by herself last year, so she has made great progress too! Derek just thinks it is fun to be one of the big kids doing big kid things.
Smiling faces:
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