Worst Parents Ever!

Well, we have our first little fracture in the Daniels house.

And to our surprise, it was our sweet, cautious little girl.

Not this crazy daredevil!

And it only took us a week to figure out she had a fracture, bless her little heart, we seriously are the worst parents ever!

Sorry for everyone that's already heard this story, but for documentation's sake, I'm going to tell it again :)

Two weeks ago, I was upstairs with Avery in her room getting her ready for nap. She was standing behind me and I heard her fall down, then she started screaming and holding her ankle. I thought maybe she just tripped or rolled her ankle, there were some books on the floor where she fell. It wasn't really swollen and I could move it around, so I thought surely she had just sprained it or something. Well, the rest of the day she wouldn't put any weight on it and the next morning still wouldn't stand on it. I took her to the pediatrician the day after she fell and she also felt like it was just a little spain but told me to call her if she still wasn't bearing weight on it in a week and we'd get some x-rays. Well by Tuesday of the next week she still wouldn't put any weight on it (despite Shane and I trying to make her, even bribing her to stand on it....I know, worst parents ever!). So we went and got x-rays and sure enough she had a fracture. We made an appointment with the orthopedic group at Childrens for the following day, and I feared all night that she was going to end up in a cast. It turned out to be such a blessing, because she was seen by my friend Gerad from nursing school (he's a nurse practitioner there) He said that she has a "toddler's fracture" which is a spiral fracture of the tibia (shin bone) caused by a rotational type of injury to the bone. (I think she must have slipped on a book and her body twisted around while her right foot stayed planted, causing the bone to twist) Gerad said that he would normally put kids with this type of fracture in a cast, but that since he knew me and trusted that we would make her wear the boot, we could try that first, such a blessing!! So we went home in a walking boot, and she is doing great in it. She didn't want to walk on it and still crawled around for a couple of days, but now she's got the hang of it. She gets to take it off for bath and sleeping, thank goodness!!

She walks with her little arms out to the sides like this for balance.

She's just about back to her normal self, it's amazing how quickly kids adapt to things!

She'll wear it for 5 weeks, then we'll go back for more x-rays to see if she's ready to get it off.

If this is the worst thing she ever has to go through, then we are truly blessed!!

Two VERY Independent Two Year Olds

Independence.

I don't know if it's more frustrating for them or for me.

Carson and Avery (especially Avery) have become very independent lately.

"My do it" "My do it myself" and "My did it" (they get their I's and My's mixed up) are phrases used daily in this house. Avery gets herself dressed now, completely dressed shoes and all, all by herself. She does not  want any help or guidance, therefore her pants and shirt are usually on backwards and inside out, but she sure is proud of herself afterward. It is kinda nice that she is able to dress herself, except when we are running late, which is pretty much everyday :)

Here she is with her bathing suit bottom that she insisted was a hat.

Avery is still such a little mommy. She loves playing babies more than anything else, weather it's a baby doll or her brother.

She loves swinging her baby in her big swing outside.

Carson and Avery have been talking so much more since turning two.

They both love to look at pictures of themselves on my phone. Avery will say, "I want to see Avery." She kinda loves herself... a lot!! She really is so motherly, not only to her babies, but to Carson too. Carson is terrified of loud noises like the trash truck and the tornado siren. He usually ends up crying with his lovie buried in my shoulder, and Avery will stand there and pat his back and say, "It's ok Carson, it's ok Buddy." So sweet!! She also pats anyone that is coughing on the back and says, "goodness." She's become a little bit of a hypochondriac I'm afraid. She had the dreaded awful stomach bug a week before Christmas then got a UTI the next week, so she almost daily will tell me, "I sick, tummy hurts, I need to go to the doctor." Poor thing, I think she was traumatized by it all.

Carson is as rambunctious and tender hearted as ever!! As I said earlier, he is terrified of loud trucks and I cringe during nap time when I hear a truck coming down our street, it will usually wake him up despite the two fans I have in his room for white noise. Poor guy. Even though he is so scared of the trash truck, he still loves fire trucks, which he started calling a "Wire _uck" (fill in the blank:) Shane of course gets a big kick out of this.

Carson finally got a little hair cut before Christmas. I've trimmed his bangs twice now but still haven't touched the back, just can't bring myself to do it.

Carson has been talking so much more lately too. I can understand most of what he says, but sometimes have a hard time figuring out what he is trying to tell me. One of the things that he says now that just make me smile is, "I too happy" (he'll just say this randomly and it melts my heart). He also loves when we whisper in his ear, he holds his ear up to our faces and asks us to tell him a "secret" then he always wants to whisper a secret back. They both do this and always say the same thing," I love you." So sweet. Carson has started playing with some of Avery's baby dolls. He likes to wrap them up in his lovey and rock them while singing Jesus Loves Me. It is precious. They have also started putting their babies in time out and spanking them, which makes me sad and makes me question whether or not we should spank, but I think this is pretty normal play for toddlers to do.

Don't let this face fool you, he knows how to get into some trouble :)

They both love singing and can sing Jesus Loves me, the ABC's, and Twinkle Twinkle fully now. They can also each count to 10 (although Avery will occasionally leave out 3 and 4).

They both love to have the windows rolled down in the car, they say, "roll my wee-woah down." They have a very hard time understanding that Christmas is over and all the neighborhood decorations are packed up. They still ask everyday to go see baby Jesus by the duck pond. We've driven by a couple of times to show them that baby Jesus is not there anymore, but they still don't quite believe us.

Overall, turning two has been exciting, challenging, exhausting, and just plain fun!!

Christmas!

 This has been such a fun Christmas season this year. The kids are really starting to understand Christmas and have loved looking at all the Christmas lights in our house and in the neighborhood. They love singing happy birthday to baby Jesus and every time we leave our house we have to drive by the nativity scene by our neighborhood pond to see baby Jesus. It's so awesome to teach them the true meaning of Christmas and to watch them get so excited about it! Carson continues to be terrified of Santa. Whenever we ask him if he wants to sit in Santa's lap or give Santa a hug, he says, "I just wave." Sweet boy!!

We really enjoyed every minute of our fun and very busy Christmas this year.

I had to work Christmas Eve, so Shane and the kids spent the day together and we all met up at my parent's house for their annual Christmas Eve party.

The kids loved their new pj's from KiKi!

Sweet girls!

Shane's mom and grandparents came in town Christmas Eve as well,

And despite his long day of flying and airport delays, grandpa was still up for our traditional Christmas Eve game of left, right, center! 

My favorite people!! Love spending Christmas Eve with such wonderful friends and family!!

Christmas morning was so fun this year! The kids were so excited to see their new toys sitting under the tree, and I think Carson was very relieved to see that Santa wasn't actually waiting for him in the living room :)

Mimi came over at 6:30 (Carson and Avery's normal wake up time) to watch them open presents and then they ended up sleeping in till 8:00 (Merry Christmas to me!!) Sorry MiMi, but thank you for coming so early to help them celebrate Christmas!

Nurse Avery

Carson and Avery's new suitcases from great grandma and great grandpa

Dress up shoes

Carson's new fire truck

After gifts we headed to church. Carson and Avery went to a birthday party for Jesus while we were in worship, it was so awesome to be able to go to church on Christmas day, what a great way to celebrate the birth of Christ!!

Shane and his mom,

Family picture at church

Sweet babies!

After church we went back over to MiMi and Papa's house to eat lunch and open yet some more gifts.

Carson was so excited about his new undies! (potty training is near)

Christmas night was very exciting because uncle Travis (Shane's brother), aunt JJ, and baby Barrett came into town. This was Carson and Avery's first time meeting their new cousin.

Avery was so excited!!

Grandma with her three great grandchildren.

This is the best shot we got of grandma and grandpa with their great grandchildren, my two were not cooperating.

The day after Christmas, Carson and Avery had a very special surprise waiting outside for them from Grand-D.

They were so excited about their new power wheels cars.

Avery wanted great grandma to ride in her car, so sweet.

Can you believe she is 80? What a fun, sweet, loving great grandma Carson and Avery have!

Travis, JJ, and Barrett

We spent the rest of Monday hanging out with Shane's family. His Uncle Jerry and cousin Catherine drove up from Houston to spend the day with us. 

Travis, Catherine, and Barrett

We had a yummy dinner followed by a competitive game of poker (a Daniels/Traub family favorite :)

We were so sad for everyone to leave, the kids especially miss baby Barrett, they've been talking about him all week.  

Christmas flew by this year and now it's time for the dreaded Christmas clean up.

Merry Christmas!!