Laughter is the Best Medicine

Babies? What Babies?

So, just as Abby is officially no-longer a toddler shaped little girl, Liam and Lily are officially toddlers. They don't even bother to crawl anymore and just toddle and climb and explore. We have this make-shift barrier to try to keep them confined to the living room (we now call it "the corral"), but they are constantly finding ways of breaking out. They are usually sporting a variety of bumps and bruises in varying stages of healing. (Check out Lily's shiner!) Oh, and they encourage each other in their attempts. Lily prefers the climbing over things method (Liam had been known to give her a leg up to help out) and Liam prefers the "brute strength" method... and he is STRONG!. Abby helps out the best she can and enjoys playing with her brother and sister now that they can finally play. And speaking of "play", I have started teaching her piano. I plan on getting her through the first book and then I'll find her a proper teacher... so far, so good! They looked so cute at church today, I had to take some photos. The dress Lily is wearing was one of my very favourite ones of Abby's (take a look below at little Abby). I love re-visiting all of her old clothes and giving them new life with Lily. Paul and I are still just doing the best we can. We look forward to his promotion which will take place as soon as a position opens up and he interviews with a district manager. We feel very blessed to live in a nice neighbourhood in a lovely home. We are so very fortunate.

Me and My Gallbladder

So, as many of you already know, I have been suffering through digestive problems most of my adult life. About 8 years ago, I started having regular gall bladder attacks. At first I didn't know what they were because after waiting in the ER for hours, the pain would go away right before- dumb! Anyway, recently, I started having severe stomach pains so I finally went to the doctor (I was losing a ton of weight as I couldn't eat anything) and I mentioned having these attacks. I told the doctor that sometimes I can go months and months with nothing and then sometimes I might have 2 in the same week- her face looked horrified and she wondered why I hadn't done anything before now. I mentioned my fear of needles and procedures, not having the time, thinking it was just the way my body did things and the fact that in my family- we do not go to the doctor unless something is REALLY wrong. Long story short, she sent me in for an abdominal ultrasound and they found a ton of gallstones. I forget the wording used, but there are a bunch, so guess who is going to have a cholecystectomy? Woo hoo!
Abby has been worried so I told her the "good news"- that they found out my gallbladder wasn't working right and that it would easily be removed and my tummy aches would go away and wasn't that fantastic? I thought that would be it and she would be happy, but, Abby- being Abby- started in with the genius questions:

"Why would Jesus make your body with a part that doesn't work?" (Jesus didn't make my body, Grandma and Grandpa did and Heavenly Father made my spirit. Jesus is there to help us get through our difficulties).
"Will you have a surgery?" Yes, but it isn't that big of a deal- doctors do it all the time. And now, you don't even get a huge scar, just a few little ones."
"But your gallbladder is part of your body! You just can't remove a part of your body! It does something!- What does it do?" (Well, it stores acid called bile made in the liver and releases it to help you digest food only guess what? Bile is also sent directly to the intestines as well and so you can do without it.)
"Why do you even have one then, if you don't NEED it?" (Because there are a couple of ways your body can do the same thing and if it is broken, it just makes things worse. Don't worry it is a really easy surgery.)

Yeah, then, in the morning, the questions continued...
"How many cuts is a few? Where will they be? I want to see a gallbladder." (I show her a really good abdominal diagram on the computer)
"No! I want to see a REAL one, not a cartoon!" (So, I find a real one- and she's not grossed out.)
"I want to see where they will cut you." (I show her a diagram)
"No! I want to see it in real life- on the inside! I want to see the camera inside you!" (There are a bunch of videos on YouTube, so I showed her the whole surgery from the point of view of the laparoscope.)

And then she was fine with it. Seriously, where did she come from?

So now, it looks like it will be removed next month- unless I have to go to the ER before then! I'm kind of mad it's going to take so long because I like to eat and not have pain. At least I'm finally losing the baby weight, but I kind of don't think this is the best weight-loss program out there.

Merry Christmas

Every year, Paul and I have the same old conversation: do we open gifts on Christmas Eve as was my family's tradition or on Christmas morning as was his family's tradition. This year, we compromised and spent Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's house, had finger foods and opened gifts we got for each other. Then, on Christmas morning, we opened our own family gifts and those from Grandma and Grandad (and Santa), and Paul and I did a nice big Christmas dinner later on for the rest of the family. I think it worked out rather nice- we got to spend time with the whole family and also some quality time with just the five of us. I think this is the model that we will keep. So, the kiddies looked darling and Christmasy and I wanted to take some nice photos... yeah well, judge for yourself... I love how I caught this just as Lily was about to crash land... ...just slightly worse than last year's attempt I think. Can you believe how much they've all grown in a year? You would expect it from the twins, but just look at Abby! Christmas morning, they were all wearing gingerbread man themed jammies, but we banned the camera in favor of making some nice family memories. I hope everyone had a very happy holiday this year.