My Girl

I've had a lot of precious moments with my girl lately. I'm a little less emotional now that preschool graduation is behind us- I was a wreck for two weeks! Unfortunately the last couple of weeks have been littered with scary moments as well.

On Friday the 21st David and I took the kids to their pediatrician for some shots Cody still needed (since he had had a fever all the times previous) and Emma was overdue for her 5-year well-check. Emma looks great- she is 54lbs and I want to say 42"??? I'll have to double-check her height. She is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight and has been since birth. Dr. Bryant estimates that she's on track to be 5'8". My pedi. told my parents that I would be 5'10" and play for the lady longhorns...I'm still waiting for those last few inches!

Cody had to have two shots. He didn't even flinch for the first one but the second one was not fun and Daddy pretty much teared up. I wouldn't know because I couldn't look. So that was that.

The next day (Saturday) we took Emma to see the new Shrek. She had to go to the potty two times during the movie and she had just gone right before we went to the theater. I knew that wasn't like her but wrote it off to her drinking her Hi-C too fast. The next morning Emma told me her "tummy" hurt when she peed. I shot David a look and we were off to urgent care Sunday afternoon. During the first week of May Emma had had strep throat so I assumed this was a UTI secondary infection. Her labs didn't point to it being a urinary tract infection but the Dr. started us on antibiotics and said they would do a culture to see if bacteria grew.

Monday morning Emma went to school and I let her teacher know what was going on and that Emma would be running to the potty a lot! That afternoon about 4PM I got a call from the preschool that Emma had blood in her urine and in her panties. Still, we were thinking this was just a really bad UTI. I called the Pedi. and they set up an after-hours appointment to have her re-seen. David had to go to work but my parents saved the day and picked up Cody for me so I could stay on this side of town and take Emma to the Dr. after school/work. Emma had gone through a few pairs of underwear and some had pink blood stains- not something any Mommy wants to see! But she seemed fine and was excited to see me. The after hours Dr. we saw was great- she recognized Emma's Redeemer t-shirt, come to find out her son is in preschool there as well. She spent a lot of time with us and was doing research right then and there. Because of the pain Emma was describing she scheduled us for an ultrasound to check for kidney stones etc. Again, her urine labs were looking clear so a UTI was out of the equation.

To keep a long story from getting longer...Emma was a champ through all of this. I'm not going to lie- they took a ton of blood from her and that SUCKED (excuse my language) but she didn't cry. So proud of our tough girl as DD calls her. So we don't know what it was. We really thought it was a complication from the strep throat and it could have been but the labs were inconclusive and her scans were clear. No blood or complaints since then. Our Pedi. was working with blood and kidney specialists who all looked at her labs and were very pleased with what they saw- all normal! Dr. Bryant said she'll give her a once-over when we're in soon for Cody's next well-check. I felt like I held my breath for two days while we were waiting on results and answers. Thankful that David took a couple of days off to be there through it all (he pulled up behind us when we got home from her after-hours visits) and thankful for everyone who prayed for us and checked in on us!

Since things seemed to settle down a little bit, we had a little family date on Tuesday night. Well there was a dual purpose to our trip to the Dell Diamond. Cubs hall of famer 2nd baseman Ryne Sandberg coaches the AA affiliate, the Iowa Cubs. He's on David's list of 'autographs wanted' and he got it. It was so cool! We were having an amazing night. The weather was beautiful, we had great seats behind the plate, Cody did awesome at his first baseball game, everyone was commenting on how cute the kiddos are and they didn't run out of Pok E Joe's chopped bbq sandwiches! So everything was dandy until we went to the restroom in the top of the 7th. Emma held the door open for us to leave and a woman flung the door open and knocked Emma to the ground. Her big toenail was 3/4 elevated from her toe (likewise w/the toe next to it) and blood was everywhere. Emma was screaming at the top of her lungs for a paper towel. I'll never forget that shrieking. She was shaking and sweating and all the woman did was hand her a paper towel and say "I'm so sorry." Either she really had to pee or she got the heck out of dodge. Probably a good idea because if she had lingered she might need someone to bring HER a paper towel. (Not really, but I got so pissed!)

I had Cody in my arms, along with an extra diaper and the wipes. I did my best to get on the floor with her but Emma wrapped her own toe with the paper towel and slid her sandal back on (I told her to put on tennis shoes and later she apologized for not listening to me about that.) We got about 10 steps out the door and she just was having such a hard time walking. My cell phone was in the diaper bag at the seats w/David so I had no way to call him for help. One older woman offered to help but what was I going to, hand off my baby to a complete stranger? I ended up just scooping up Emma and carried her 54lbs and Cody's 12lbs all the way down to row 4 where David was sitting. I'll skip ahead. A ballpark attendant had an EMT come down. Emma actually let him check out her toe and bandage it. A few minutes after he had left, Jay Miller the President and COO of the Round Rock Express was walking down our aisle. David is such a baseball freak that I actually knew who he was when I saw his name tag coming towards us.

How awesome is that? He brought Emma an Express bag with toys, t shirts, balls etc. and sat and visited with us for the rest of the game. Emma made me so proud by being able to calm down and enjoy the rest of the game. She told me and Jay that he was being a good Jesus Friend to come check on her since she got hurt. Proud mama! I just love her so much. She's been through a lot this last month. She had strep throat, got a bad cut on her cheek at school, had the weird bleeding/tummy pain and now her toes are all gnarly the week of her big dance recital! She just bounces back and does it with grace! That's the reason I chose Grace as her middle name. People and things come and go but my wish was that she'd be a beautiful person through it all!