Where do I begin?

I can't believe it's been almost 4 months since my last post.  I fully intended posting something right after Christmas, but little did I know how crazy Christmas would be.  I'm going to attempt to recap the last few months.  It's been quite eventful.

Christmas was on a Monday.  The Friday before, Lila started acting sick.  Nothing major, or so I thought, but with Christmas coming up, I wanted to get her on some medicine if she had an ear infection or something.  So, I took her to the doctor on call Saturday morning, where I discovered she was in the first few days of RSV, that it was a 12 day illness, and that it would get much worse before it got better.  The doctor also informed us that she shouldn't be around any other children not even in the same house as any other children until those 12 days were over.  That was a problem since Bowie was set to come on Christmas Eve.  Needless to say Meredith was devastated. I had mom call her because it broke my heart to tell her.  So after she got over being upset about it, they had to call and change their flight and come in the next week.  We sent Ben with mom and dad to mama joy's for Christmas Eve, and Hector and I stayed home with Lila.  We felt pretty pitiful but it ended up being a sweet family time.  Christmas day we actually went over to mom and dads since Bowie wasn't there.  Fortunately, Lila felt decent on Christmas day.  And on the day after Christmas it snowed!  The kids had a ball for the little time we were out there.  It wasn't much, but it was enough to have fun.

The next two days after that were probably her two worst days.  She literally lay listless in my arms.  She was a really sick girl.  Fortunately, she got every it in time for Bowie to get here, and we had a great Christmas!  We got a Christmas family picture taken with everyone in the family for the first time.  Mom's wanted that for a long time and despite the insanity, they actually turned out very well. So that was Christmas.

 Then January was busy but fairly uneventful and then February I can't even remember.  It's a blur. Come March, Lila started getting sick again, and it was just one day out of nowhere she started running some low-grade fever.  It started going up a little bit and it was getting close to bedtime so I was gonna wait until bedtime to give her her medicine.  She was laying in my arms and you could tell she really felt bad.  She was hungry and so she was eating what I was.  I had eggs and rice that Hector made for us.  Hector was going to go work out but decided to stay at home since Lila was sick.  As she was laying in my arms probably 30 seconds after she took a bite of food, I just felt her locked up in my arms and she started seizing.  I didn't even realize what was happening at the time.  I asked Hector if she was seizing and he said yes and grabbed her.  Fortunately because Hector has had experience with kids seizing in school, he knew what to do.  He grabbed her and he turned her on her side and just held her while he let the seizure finish and told me to call 911.  So I called 911.  Poor Benjamin was there watching TV and kind of oblivious to what was going on.  He looked over and she was foaming at the mouth.  Ben just thought she was throwing up and fortunately went back to watching TV, but I called 911 and they asked how long it lasted.  I said it felt like five minutes but probably lasted about two minutes.  The ambulance got here in probably three minutes because they are right down the road.  The ladies that helped us were great and really helped to stay calm.  They had to get Lila's car seat out of the car and used it in the ambulance.  I rode with her to the hospital. She was out cold by the time the seizure was over I guess it takes so much out of babies that she was passed out. Even though she was asleep, her heart rate was really high to the point that they were concerned about it so they gave her oxygen.  They told us they would run her through all sorts of tests and so just wanted to let her sleep in the ambulance. Little did we know when we got to Cooks that not only did they not start doing tests on her, they didn't even admit us into a room.  They sent us to the waiting area where we then proceeded to wait for probably 2 to 3 more hours before we were ever seen. we love Cooks but that was probably the worst experience we've ever had.  Before we saw the doctor, they were trying to draw her blood to do some test to make sure that it wasn't anything bacterial and they could not get an IV in.  Finally after the second attempt of her just screaming bloody murder and them pinning her down, we said we wanted to talk to the doctor.  We asked him if it was a really necessary to do and he said no that he got enough from the second time to do the basics and so we just took her home.  So now we wish we'd been able to use the ambulance for reassurance but not had to go through that whole process of cooks.  Needless to say, that was a bit dramatic for the family.  I have never seen a seizure before.  Well I guess I didn't South Africa when I was really young but as a mama that was pretty crazy.  We were so thankful at how quickly she bounced back.  She bounced back far faster than we we did!

So that was the last illness episode that we had with with Lila that was serious.  We just finished Easter which was a really blessing. We had a community Easter egg hunt that I helped plan.  I guess we served over 250 people it appears and for a first time that was pretty cool.  As a family, we had a great Easter with hunting Easter eggs and dying Easter eggs and all the fun things.  Lila did not want to take a picture with the Easter bunny so we didn't get one without her crying.

We were very thankful and I continue to be very thankful for how blessed I am with my wonderful family.  With all the major negative events that happen I don't know if I've mentioned before that Hector won teacher of the year for Bailey and he just found that he did he did not get district teacher the year but he was one of five teachers recognized in addition to the three elementary, junior high and high school teachers of the year.  He got special recognition for his contribution to the district with the special letter from the State House of Representatives.  That was real special for him to have his hard work honored. I continue to be in awe of the impact that he's having on the kids.

Lila continues to grow right before our eyes.  I can't believe how much she's talking now and I'm so thrilled. It just thrills my soul to hear her singing all the time.  She loves to sing. She sings Jesus loves me pretty much every day.  One of the sweetest songs that she's begun to sing on her own is "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus there's just something about that name".  There's something about my little two-year-old singing those words that is just priceless.  She's definitely almost two.  She's throwing her tantrums and meltdowns and yet somehow she makes them look cute and we're learning how to work through them.

Benjamin is doing wonderful.  I actually just had a teachers meeting with his teacher, Janie, and she was just amazed at how creative he was.  She says in all her years, and Ben's teacher from last year said this too, she had never seen someone his agen with his creative imagination.  She said she loved just seeing his mind work.  She also said something that was really sweet. She asked if I had questions or concerns and I said you know mainly at this stage I just want to know that I have a good kid that's treating others kindly and being who he needs to be.  She just went on about what a blessing Ben was and how when another kid's afraid, he tells them that all they need to do is put their trust in God.  She said whatever we're teaching him at home he truly has taken to heart, and it was just an incredible blessing to me, far more than knowing that he can count to 20 or whatever he is supposed to be doing at this time. Also had my meeting with Lila's teacher, Rose. and she said that Lila is such a nurturer, such a motherly personality that she in her free time almost always wants to be playing with the babies and actually is pretty possessive of the babies.  That's our only challenge is that she doesn't want to share the babies.  So again like I mentioned in my last post, she is a girly girl and  I'm so thankful that it appears that she by nature will have that nurturing instinct.  She and Benjamin are doing much better playing together, and it's so neat to see them interact. The summer is going to be fun! I'm ready for Hector to get home.  He is so active with the kids and intentional in connecting with them, and they love it!  Lila loves her daddy and I think the summers can be a real special time for all of us.

 So that's it for now.  I am sure there's plenty more detail but those are the basics of what's happened between now and the last time I wrote something.  This was my first attempt at dictating a blog.  So if there are major typos, it's the dictation software's fault!