Christmas pictures -Thanks Stace!

Christian took his first multi-child bath on Christmas. Evalie and Jayda were very nice to let Christian join them. They were good about letting him splash them and he got his fair share of splashes. It was a huge success.








Christian LOVES to be near other kids. He would get so excited when Charlie would come play with his new toys. Here they are checking out the laptop DJ and I got him. Its a little old for him, but he needed a toy with buttons that made noise. Plus he loves to open and shut things, so he loves it.












Christian's Grandma and Grandpa Berezay also got him a little laptop, but its a little different. It has a lot of shapes, and sings a lot of songs. His favorite is the drum button.










Grandma and Grandpa Redford got Christian a little book that reads to him. He loves opening it up and hearing the songs and sounds. That's me helping him, our only picture together.


















Kim and Trent had our family for Christmas. They got Christian a cute little Tonka truck. He's still figuring out how to push it around without tripping. I think this summer he'll got nuts when I let him play in the dirt with it.

Welcome 2011

First a quick catch up of December. Christian had his first Birthday on Dec. 19th. All 3 chargers to all 3 of our cameras somehow got buried underneath all of our stuff in storage so my friend Natalie brought over her camera so we could get pictures. She's been gone for the holidays so hopefully I'll get those soon. Also waiting for Christmas pictures from my sister Stacey. Christian got everything he could have wished for had he known he was getting presents. He opened them like a pro and has been having a lot of fun exploring his new blocks, babies, trucks, boxes, and shapes.

DJ's promotion and pay raise started in December, which has been awesome. It is so relieving to pay all your bills and have money left over to save. We call 2010 our poor year, because it was the first year we lived off one paycheck. But we learned a lot of very good lessons about budgeting, sacrificing, and patience. DJ was so sick of working so much and not being able to do what we want with it that he decided we deserved a great Christmas. He worked a lot of overtime to buy himself a new Xbox, to buy me new maternity clothes (I had the same budget, but find it almost impossible to spend that much on clothes), and give the gifts we really wanted to. I needed new clothes, but when you're used to not spending money, that was a hard one. Thankfully, Motherhood Maternity was having a restaurant gift card reward so we earned almost as much in gift cards as I spent so I didn't feel guilty when we left.

We had an ultrasound on the 21st. We we're able to find out what we're having because the little baby was not cooperating. We also decided to move the due date back a week. Since I know when conception occurred (I know everything about September due to the accident) the new date makes more sense. We have another ultrasound on the 25th to get a better look and hopefully to find out this time.

I had my final appointment with the Podiatrist on the 28th. I didn't know this would be my last appointment with him when I went in. I had another round of Xrays. Well my foot looked solid. The bones were completely healed, the screws were tight, and my joint was stable. He manipulated my foot, let me know I didn't need physical therapy because it was doing so well, which was more good news. He said once I got a new pair of shoes, I could stop using the walking boot. I have to wear Podiatrist approved shoes from now on, and all the time. He said maybe up to an hour barefoot a day would be ok, but to really limit it. But at least I'm walking normally now and I even drove to the store, the first time in 3 1/2 months. The shoes I got are cute, extremely comfortable, and not a bad price, just about $80 bucks more then I ever would have spent before. So we'll slowly build back up my shoe collection. BTW, anyone who wears a size 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 and needs some shoes call me up. I have to get rid of all of my old shoes.

DJ and my parents are very happy to have me back at full speed and doing everything I used to. Now we just have to find a place and move again. Ug.

First word?

Christian loves to play in drawers. He was rummaging through Grandma's Tupperware drawer. He licks everything then puts it back. FYI we don't rewash so if you're grossed out by Christian spit don't eat leftovers at Grandma's right now.

DJ walks in and says, "Christian, are you playing in the drawer?"

"Yes!"

To make sure we heard him right DJ asks again, "Christian, are you playing in the drawer?"

"Yeayea."

It was probably a coincidence but we both swear he said it clear as a bell. He also waves now, its pretty cute.

What a kid

So I wanted to document Christian's personality. He is very vocal. He does not hide his mood. All day the house is full of happy gabbering, giggling, grunts of frustrations, yells of frustration, and when he's really had enough or got hurt (physically or emotionally) he cries. He is never silent. His favorite person right now is his Dad. He cries when Dad leaves for work at night and when Dad works days, he rushes to the door to meet him. His next favorite people are those working in the kitchen. If you are by the oven or the fridge, he wants to see what your getting, and if you're sharing it with him. Because I'm sitting a lot, he just comes to me for his bottle when he's ready to go to sleep.

He really is a dream. He loves to be the center of attention and he LOVES other kids. During sacrament meeting he makes all the little kids around him giggle. He wants everyone to be his friend. His little cousin Charlie gets a lot of hugs and kisses. Christian can hardly sit still when Charlie is around. He wants to be right by him.

His emotional development has been very noticeable lately. He recognizes when he is being ignored and when another little child doesn't want to play with him. It breaks his heart. He breaks down in tears. He has learned to play some games. His favorites are, "Let's shake our heads together", "I'm going to get you", and just recently he'll try to hide when he gets caught playing with something he's not supposed to.

He's on the verge of walking. He spends all day exploring, mostly through the kitchen drawers. I just hope I can help him keep this personality because he really is a pleasant little person to be around.

Just pictures

Christian and Charlie spent a lot of time together in their high chairs last week.

The three kids staring intently at the camera. Christian and Charlie liked to race for the bottle. Christian, more experienced with bottles, won a lot. We were impressed at how quick Charlie's scoot became by the end of their time together.

My only picture from my high school reunion. I am expecting you guys to share.

As Cherie would say, "I just want to eat those luscious cheeks!"

Crawling along

Did you know that you get callouses on your knees from crawling? My knees are looking pretty rough. Yes I have crutches, but getting up and down the stairs is much easier if you just crawl. Today is hopefully the halfway point of not being able to walk. If my foot is healing as well as I think it is, I will get out of the cast and into a walking boot in 4 weeks. Thank goodness! The surgery brought on the nausea, but I am not nearly as sick as I was last time. I feel very confident that once the first trimester is over I won't have anymore nausea. I'm 11 weeks today so that may be very soon.

For those of you who thought you had the best Mom, I'm sorry to tell you its not true. Mine has blown all away. Most 60 year old women are preparing for retirement, have a lot of independence, are done as caregivers, and are looking forward to trips with their spouse and short visits from children and grandchildren. My mom will never have that. She has a child at home who more often then not acts like a little child, even though she's 34. Now for four weeks she's also been the main caregiver to Christian and my food gopher. Michele and Christian are demanding enough. But to add a pregnant Melissa to the mix and I swear she has spent the last 4 weeks in the kitchen.

She did get a short break this past weekend. My Grandma has been in and out of the hospital in Canada over the past month and my parents decided they needed to go up and help her get settled in a nursing home before the weather made it impossible to travel. So Stacey came over and spent a week taking care of her two kids, Christian, and I. It actually went really well. Christian was so excited to have friends to play with that he ended up being the dream child. He took long naps and slept at least 12 hours at night. I have some very cute pictures of the kids but the camera is not within reach, so I'll post them in a bit. Until then, enjoy.

Yea, I know its been awhile

Ok so I know its been months since I posted last. I am completely behind, but promise to catch up over the next few weeks. Tonight's post will be a quick summary of some things I need to say.

First of all, I've caught up on all your blogs. Your lives sound exciting, some of you have some very interesting events coming up, all of your kids are adorable and look a lot bigger since last time I peeked, and I'm very glad I know what's up.

My excuse for being a blogging bum is not very good, but reasonable. For the past few months we've been living at the "Reisner House." Its a house my parents flipped, but just decided to rent out. It has been great living there, but since it was temporary we decided to not have the internet hooked up. So blogging meant going to my parents. Being at my parents is fine, but I like to blog at night when Christian is sleeping, not when he's begging me for attention and getting into all of Mom's files. So basically my laziness won out.

Ahh, but why'd we move in with my parents when everyone knows we could move into the apartment above the Pit Stop?

On September 14th, my friend Natalie, her little boy, and her boyfriend were in Moses Lake. He had applied at REC Silicon and was interviewing with them that day. They were following me around town. The plan was to show them some potential apartment complexes, where Subway was, and then I was going to go clean the Pit Stop. As we were driving my Incas, a car failed to yeild the left turn and turned right into me! I had enough time to react, slam on my brakes (I mean slam on my brakes, my ABS was going nuts) and I got a few honks out before the collision. I was totally bummed but this was not my first accident. My car was not smoking so I backed up, parked on the side of the road, and got out to check on Christian and asses the damage. As I was standing by Christian checking to make sure he didn't have any injuries my right foot really began to ache. My friend Natalie came over. I asked her to get Christian out because I needed to get all my paperwork and sit down. My foot was hurting pretty badly and swelling up by the time the police got there. They took our statements, called an ambulance (I told them not to, that we could drive up to the hospital afterwards to get xrays). I guess by law they have to, but they agreed that I was fine otherwise and that getting a ride to the hospital was fine. So after about an hour of calling family, getting help, and giving statements I was headed to the hospital. Thank you Trent for taking care of my car and giving me a quick blessing to ease my worry.

I was sure my foot was broken. It really hurt and did not look good. We got xrays and the doctor told me I had a foot sprain, that I'd probably be walking on it in a week, but to follow up with a Podiatrist just in case he missed something on the xray. I was a little shocked but hopeful that I'd only be on crutches for a couple days. He was right, I put my foot in a walking boot my parents had from when Michele broke her ankle. With that boot I could walk on my heel without any pain and I was starting to feel better.

DJ was concerned that Christian hadn't been checked out so a few days after the accident we went in to see our family doctor for a quick check up. Christian was fine, he did have two Chiropractic appointments for some minor issues but that was it. My doctor said to try putting weight on my bare foot everyday. He said if I couldn't do that within a week, he wanted to retake xrays. He said that sometimes breaks do not show up right away because swelling can hide them.

The next week we had Christian 6 month shots 3 months late so my doctor decided to redo xrays while we were there. He looked at them, said he still didn't see a break, and that my sprain must have been a good one. He said to keep trying to weight bear. Well, a few hours later, I got a call from the doctor's office. The radiologist saw something that didn't look right, but wasn't completely sure what it was. They scheduled a cat scan for the next week and told me to not take my foot out of the walking boot and to not try to weight bear.

I was like, really, its just a foot people, what is wrong. The day of the accident I had set an app with the Podiatrist but he was booked for 15 days. The cat scan was schedule for 2 days before my app with him.

To complicate matters I'm about to tell you all something that normally I would wait to disclose for several more weeks. The week of the second xray I missed my period. That weekend I found out I was pregnant the whole time! What the! I had had 6 feet xrays, one full back xray, one neck xray, and one pelvic xray and this poor baby has been exposed to them all and now they're telling me I need a cat scan. We're calling this our Fallout baby, for those of you who know the video game. So I go into the cat scan and let the guy know I just found out I'm pregnant and I'm not sure I want to do this. He agreed and called my doctor. My doctor agreed and ran over to talk to the Podiatrist himself. Apparently what is wrong with foot was obvious to him.

I have what is called a LisFranc dislocation and fracture. He saw it in the xray from the hospital. What happened is at impact, my foot absorbed the entire pressure of the accident. The pressure was so great, that the LisFranc ligament that holds the big toe and second toe together at the midfoot tore off one of the bones, dislocating the joint. This also forms the arch of your foot.

I did a lot of reseach on this injury. It is 98% misdiagnosed by ER doctors as a foot sprain. 96% of family doctors miss it. Most injuries I read about went months misdiagnosed. These people have chronic foot problems, have had multiple surgeries, and are in a lot of chronic pain. I am extremely blessed to have had it properly diagnosed so quickly.

Tomorrow at 10am I go in for surgery to repair the torn ligament and reset the dislocated joint. Best case senario is that for 8 weeks post op, I won't be able to do much but sit in a chair or in my wheelchair with my foot elevated. So now you know why we've moved in with my parents. When DJ is at work, I need someone else to help with Christian. There is no way I could do this on my own. The past few weeks have been difficult enough, but at least i could crawl around.

I am so grateful to have family that is so willing to help when needed, without complaining. And I am so grateful that the accident was not my fault and that all of these medical bills will be paid for in full.