We need a batter, not a broken ladder. OH HI DBACKS!

Kyle hasn't been so great these last couple of months.  He's missed more than 6 weeks of school due to a bout of upper respiratory junkyness, for one.  Ultimately, we even had to bring him to Urgent Care due to an ear infection--and Urgent Care typically won't see medically fragile patients at all, but they did that day because I was just that desperate.  (kudos to our urgent care--world class, those folks.)

Today, Kyle saw our favorite orthopedic surgeon.  Unfortunately we learned that Kyle has a 21 degree spinal curvature.  This is bad news.  For now, he'll get a soft TLSO (back brace) in hopes that we can put off back surgery for a few extra years.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that we got to enjoy, again, the holiday decorations at Phoenix Children's Hospital!  Our favorite, hands down, has been the Arizona Diamondbacks Christmas tree.  It's incredibly tall (I'm guessing twenty feet?) and decorated with Dbacks ornaments, paraphenilia, and gear.  Kyle is obsessed with baseball, and the Dbacks, so he spends lots of quality time with this tree--touching it, talking to it--each time we have to go to the hospital.  Today he zoomed right over to the tree, carelessly plowing through a small crowd of folks standing around the area.  Turns out Kyle interrupted a meet and greet with Willie Bloomquist, of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Kyle is only four years old, so has yet to memorize the Dbacks roster, but as we drove home I emphasized who he just met and he finally "got" it.  Nearly an afterthought, I asked Willie for a photo.  Kyle appears as though he couldn't have been happier if Willie had offered him a light saber (Kyle's other obsession). 

The Dbacks tree, with a little more detail (from a previous visit).

Thanks to the Dbacks organization, and to Mr. Bloomquist, for arranging to meet the kids of PCH and making a little boy's day.

mm mm not good.

This weekend we embarked upon some holiday baking.  It was actually a pretty sad effort--one was a new, unproven cookie recipe involving powdered sugar, shredded coconut and egg whites.  That turned out to be a fail.  I hate when I follow a recipe down to the letter and it still doesn't turn out.  

The second attempt was for cookie cutter cookies.  I particularly hate these.  They are delicious, yes, but given the sweat and tears and four letter words I've always had to throw around my kitchen when I make them, they just aren't delicious enough to make them worth it.  But I have kids now.  Kids love using cookie cutters.  And let's face it--once we have kids, we forgo our own comforts and conveniences and do things for THEM.  Though this time, I bought ready-made sugar cookie dough ("just add 1/4 cup flour, mix, and roll out!") and then let the kids have at it with Christmas cookie cutters.

I was meticulous with the shapes, took oh so delicate care of every cookie form they made and gently placed them onto the baking sheet.  They were so proud of their work!  Until the cookies went into the oven and their snowman-shaped cookie turned into a big blob.  Coincidentally, their gingerbread man, reindeer, and mitten cookie shapes also baked into the same blob.  And as I sit here and type this and munch on their blob-shaped angel cookie, I am annoyed that I mailed it in with a store-bought dough instead of going all the way and making my own labor-intensive sugar cookie recipe.

Well, at least I got a good photo op out of it.  Behold my silly bakers.

Gingerbread in the Hizzouse

Today, the Byrdlets and I visited an amazing gingerbread house exhibit at the JW Marriott. The theme was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and it knocked our socks off. Jenna happens to be an avid fan of the old Willy Wonka movie, and the twins are just fans of sweet things, so everyone was cool with this field trip. The exhibit will be displayed in the lobby there until January 2, 2011, so if you're in the Phoenix area, consider checking it out!

The chocolate river is in there somewhere.














Violet!












Miss Sassy if you're nasty.










The boy just smiles too hard to open his eyes anymore. He's that happy.























Oompa Loompa time.

Festivus Miracle

Lauren really is getting her power wheelchair soon. Everything was approved. It should arrive in January. And it'd better be pink, Josh from Permobil! That's a $33,000 Christmas gift that we were not expecting, so a hearty "thanks!" to the taxpayers of Arizona. Kyle may have to wait until NEXT Christmas to get his, though, as his paperwork fell through a crack. So, taxpayers, keep paying those taxes, please.

We celebrated Christmas Eve tonight with extended family, and then headed home to go to sleep straight away and hope that Santa comes. (He did.)