Chicago and DC

Thanks to our super Expedia deal find, we we took a couple of trips in September: one with the girls to Chicago for 3 nights ($54...I know, it was a steal!), where we met up with grandma and papa, and one with just the two grownups to DC ($184 for airfare and 3 nights hotel plus car rental for 2 people...couldn't pass that one up, now could we!). I love my girls, but boy did I love being away and getting a good night's sleep three days in a row!

Here we are in DC...kidless, remember? It was nice...thanks for taking care of our babies, Kathy! We really loved the Newseum and the Library of Congress. And the killer garage sale we ran across one morning! I got a bunch of New York Times Best Seller List books for cheap, cheap, cheap! Now I just have to find time to read them!




Here are some pictures from our Chicago trip.



The Bean.



Riding the Ferris Wheel.


Taking an architecture tour of the city by boat.



At the zoo. Miya loves taking pictures...this is her insisting that it was her turn.




At the Shedd Aquarium. This is where I got the idea for our Halloween costumes. This is the first time in a while that Miya has wanted to dress up in a costume, so I thought I'd better capitalize on it!

Disney World

Yes, we went back to the wonderful world of Disney. I guess we just can't get enough of the happiest place on earth!

Miya loved the plane ride and bus trip to our resort, then did a face plant off the curb before we checked into our rooms. Poor baby. The swelling went down after a day, and she was back to her happy self in no time!




We stayed in a cabin at Fort Wilderness, and loved it! We rented a golf cart to get around. No, this isn't ours...but there were some pretty wild decorations!










We went to the "Not so scary Halloween Party" one night, and had a great time riding rides and trick-or-treating. We thought Miya would be tired or grumpy (or both) by the end of the evening (it started at 7pm), but she loved every minute of it! We got lots of comments on our penguin costumes.







Good times at Disney! Here's Miya asleep on the plane ride home. As fun as it was, it is nice to be home again. Thanks Kathy and Les for the memories...Until next time!

Pumpkin Patch

I know, I know...we haven't posted in forever. Time flies when you're busy. :) I'll do my best to post a little about what we've been up to these last couple of months a little later, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share some pictures we took yesterday.

We took a trip out to Millenium Farms Pumpkin Patch between sessions of General Conference. Miya and I rode the barrel train.

We also got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and pick our own pumpkins. Miya thought this was loads of fun...and Emi was mildly amused. We got some pretty good sized pumpkins!

They had a big slide, a hay bale maze, and other little games to play, but Miya was most impressed by the her ride on Charlie, the pony. After she finished her ride and we were walking away, she waved over her shoulder to her pony and said, "Bye Miya's Charlie!" I guess they got pretty close over those long six or seven minutes of riding.

Broken

Yes, it's broken. Miya's clavicle, that is. She took a tumble down a flight of 13 stairs in Jacob's parents' home. It was traumatic...especially for me. I did not remain calm, I must admit, and was as hysterical as Miya was for a while there. And I didn't even see it happen. But let me tell you, hearing it happen was worse than seeing it. I felt like I was seeing all of the worst case scenarios flashing before my eyes the way people describe their lives playing out in the seconds before a near-fatal accident. Evidently she dropped her toothpaste on the top step and fell as she was leaning down to pick it up.

This picture was taken the night before she fell...wearing the "princess jammies" that probably contributed to accelarating the tumble rate!


Anyway...a visit to the ER and 4 x-rays later, Miya (as well as the rest of us)was exhausted from the hours of crying...and we still had to pile in the car and make a 7hour trip back home. But we survived. Barely. Poor Mimi.

The next two days were rough, but Miya is doing pretty well. She still can't use her right arm much (they didn't put it in any kind of sling due to her age) but she doesn't cry very often because of the pain anymore. My poor baby...

6 months

Take a look at this cuteness! Is she adorable, or what?

I know it seems like I only post pictures on here...no musings, stories, etc. But hey, at least I'm posting, right?! These are from Emi's 6-month photo shoot. They turned out really cute. She's sitting up now (though she hasn't mastered it yet) and she kept the smiles coming throughout the entire session for the photographer.

Photo shoot

This afternoon I'm going to pick up the pictures we had taken of Emi at 6 months, so I figured I had better get on the ball and share the pics we had done of the family 3 months ago! The scanning quality isn't great, but get a load of those cute girls (and Jacob, of course...he's cute too.)!

Water baby

Check out our little water baby. Can you tell that she still LOVES bath time?!

Good times in the bathtub! from Jacob Nishida on Vimeo.

Houston Children's Museum

We've been to the Children's Museum several times, and it really is amazing! We still haven't been able to do everything, but here are some picture from our first visit in May and our visit last week.

Our budding artist...


She's tracing her hand in this one...


Shopping at the grocery store...


Driving the police car...


Playing in the water...

Children's Museum in Houston from Jacob Nishida on Vimeo.

Flattening a penny...

Sunglasses and the zoo

I just love this picture of Jacob with the girls in their new sunglasses!



We went to the zoo again last week - boy do we love living a mile from the Houston Zoo! Here are some of the highlights:

Radial head subluxation

So...Monday was all fun and games during our family outing to the Houston Astros baseball game until a very unwelcome case of Nursemaid's elbow or radial head subluxation happened to rear its ugly head. We were on our way back to the car after the game, swinging Miya by her arms between us. I quit playing, and since Jacob was still holing on when Miya tried to sit down, a one arm pull suddenly brought the fun to an end. Miya couldn't use her right arm at all, but we were able to get her home, bathed and in bed with only intermittent crying and frequent "Hurt arm" or "Ouchy elbow" comments from Miya.

We figured out what had happened using the trusty ol' internet, and when Miya woke up crying at 2am, Dr. Michelle went in and bravely attempted to "fix" the problem. Yes...all by myself. If anyone is shocked and/or apalled by this, know that I was fully prepared to take her to the emergency room, but hey - she had gone right to bed, and turning her hand over seemed like a pretty simple procedure to me, Especially since I was 99% sure that what had happened really was nuresmaid's elbow. Perhaps it will comfort you to know that I practiced on Jacob first. :)

I read this during my internet search:
Treatment
- While supporting the radial head, the forearm is supinated or pronated and flexed at the same time. A "click" will be heard or felt.
- After the "reduction", the child will immediately use the arm. There is no indication for immobilization and rarely are analgesics necessary.

I chose to hyperpronate since it's evidently more successful than supination (I even remembered what these terms meant from my anatomy classes...amazing!), and I immediately heard a glorious POP! Miya rolled over and immediately went right back to sleep. The next morning, she used her arm just like normal, although I found myself being extra careful with her when we played.

Thank goodness it wasn't something more serious, and that we didn't have to make her suffer through the night/day until we could get her to a real doctor. I'm considering med school now...I think I have some definite potential.

Here are a few pictures from the game. Miya took the first one (in case you couldn't tell). She's quite a talented photographer, don't you think?