Squish's Big Day!

Here in the midst of coronapocalypse, I thought it would be nice to share some fun news to take my mind off everything going on in the world right now.

So last Saturday, our sweet little Squish had a big day! He {finally} transitioned from a crib to a toddler bed! This sweet boy will be 3 in about 10 weeks, and while he was fine in the crib for the most part, there had been a few instances where he found his way OUT of the crib. Most recently, about a week ago, we heard a loud T-H-U-D during afternoon rest time, followed by Squish casually walking out of his room and heading downstairs. We thought it was hilarious, and while we were super grateful he must have stuck the landing, we figured it was about time to get him transitioned to a toddler bed.

My mommy heart was dreading it just a little bit. Squish has been our littlest baby for so long! But alas, with his little brother's pending arrival in less than 12 weeks (!!!), I begrudgingly decided it was time to start referring to him as my "big boy" instead of my baby. *cue tears*

When I went upstairs last Saturday to get him up following nap time, I was armed with a set of 1,382 different sizes of allen/hex wrenches, prepared to remove the four screws that held the front panel of his crib. He sat in his bed and was all kinds of curious as to what I was up to. I managed to successfully remove the screws, and then we counted to three! Check out the video below. Please note the insanely adorable sound he makes when the front panel is first removed. LOVE.

((Please disregard the missing section of wall paper on the wall behind his bed and the fact that his crib was in the center of his room. He pulled off little sections of the paper when his crib was against the wall, so hubs cut out a large rectangular section to replace it. That will be done... eventually.))

Squish was super excited about the new bed situation! He loved the freedom to get up and down as many zillion times as he wanted. I did put up a white mesh panel that covers 3/4 of the side so he wouldn't fall out of bed at night. Here he was the first night at bedtime. He couldn't be more proud of his big boy bed!

And get this, y'all: he didn't make One. Single. Attempt. to come out of his room after we put him down for the night. Not one. He played in his bed, and I'm not even sure he got out of it at all that first night. And apparently it was a great situation for him because he slept very well. In fact, he was still out cold at 9:21 AM the next morning!

The rest of the week has been just as awesome! In fact, after rest time, he will wait for hubs or I to talk to him through the monitor to give him the a-okay to open the door and leave his room. How courteous, amiright? And most mornings he just chills in his bed until we either come up to get him, or tell him to come downstairs through the monitor. This kid is winning, y'all!

I just love this crazy sweet boy of mine, and I'm so proud of how well he's been doing with his new bed! He loves to play with his cars (and shoes in the closet) during his afternoon rest times, so he pretty much no longer takes any sort of nap in the afternoons. He might be a little bit more grouchy than usual by bedtime (aren't we all?), but it doesn't matter to me! He goes down each night so well and sleeps so soundly!

I'm glad we were able to make this happen now so he has a good three months to settle into this routine. Once Cinco arrives, things will change up again as we add a crib to their bedroom and start (eventually) making preparations to welcome our newest and final family member!

The One with the Fractured Clavicle??

It’s been an interesting week around here, y’all! We’ve had an ER visit for one kid, a head cold for over 2 weeks that just.won’t.quit. for me, and a canceled family vacation for all of us.

Wednesday afternoon, while I was at work, sweet little Squish walked behind Chase when he was on the swing in the backyard and was thrown into the ground. With quite a bit of force, as one might expect. He cried a bunch, hubs took care of him, and we were keeping an eye on him. He refused to use his right side well into the evening on Wednesday, wouldn’t let us pick him up under his arms, and was extra clingy and whiny, again, as you’d expect after such an injury. He didn't have a fever, but you could tell he wasn't himself.

Thursday was more of the same thing. He seemed to improve a bit with a rotation of Tylenol and Advil, but he would just let his right arm hang at his side, doing everything with his non-dominant left hand.

On Friday, when he was still refusing to use his right arm, I took a closer look. I carefully tried moving his hand, then bending his wrist, then his elbow... all was fine. But when I tried to move his arm in a way that required the use of his shoulder, he wanted nothing to do with it, and was in obvious pain.

I looked at his shoulders and was surprised at what I saw:

His right shoulder was clearly lower than his left shoulder. Also, his right shoulder blade looked quite a bit lower than the left side. I was immediately concerned he had dislocated his shoulder considering the impact of hitting the ground with such force. #majormomfail

Hubs was working from home Friday, so my mom come over to keep the older 3 while we took Squish to the ER. We considered the nearby urgent care center, but our expectation was that if he had in fact dislocated his shoulder, it would result in a trip to the ER anyway in order to have a pediatric orthopedic doctor sedate him to put the shoulder back in place.

Thankfully, overall, the trip was uneventful. Squish was such a trooper as we waited to be seen at the ER.

He’s using his left hand to color here. My poor sweet babe!

It wasn’t long at all before we were called back. He was such a trooper and was charming both of the lovely nurses.

They got us settled into a room to wait on the ER doctor to see him.

Again, Squish was such a trooper! He had to put on a tiny little hospital gown, and was just so patient throughout the whole process. He really had a hard time doing things with just one hand, so daddy had to help him drink his water. LOL!

An intern came in to examine him, and it was the most movement I've seen from Squish's right arm without him complaining at all! There was even a tiny "pop" as he manipulated his arm and shoulder for a few minutes. I was surprised Squish didn't wince in pain, but I don't doubt it was just because someone other than mommy + daddy were doing it. He may or may not work us over a tiny little bit since he is (currently) our youngest and most spoiled babe. ;)

Thankfully, he eventually figured out how to make that sippy cup work with just the one functioning arm! LOL!

Eventually, the resident came by to see him and evaluate him. He said he'd like to order a few x-rays to see what's going on. He didn't think anything was broken or dislocated, but wanted to rule it out regardless.

A few minutes later, a nice nurse from pediatric radiology came by to take us for his x-rays. He started out pretty cooperative, which was nice. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to stay in the room with him due to my being 21 weeks pregnant, so I had to step out and leave daddy in charge.

I will say it was absolutely HEARTBREAKING to stand on the other side of that door and hear my sweet baby crying as they had to move him and force him into (likely painful) positions in order to get the images they needed to diagnose him. I was grateful daddy was with him, but there's nothing like a mama's sweet hugs and caresses when undergoing uncomfortable procedures. I was about in tears before they finally opened the door seemingly ages later for me to come in and rescue my sweet Squish.

We went back to his room and waited for the doctors to read the scans and give us the diagnosis. This actually happened a LOT quicker than I had expected! They came in to tell us Squish had a fracture in his clavicle (collar bone).

Apparently, this was one of the better bones to break because they told us they fully expect it to heal on its own with NO intervention. So no sling, cast, surgery... nada!

Praise the Lord!

It really was such a relief to know he wouldn't have to be put under anesthesia or have any complex procedures performed on him. It was further heartbreaking to realize he'd been suffering with a broken bone for 2 days, but the fact that they didn't do anything about it made me feel a little better. The same things we'd been doing -- letting him self-manage the use of his arm/shoulder, keeping up a Tylenol/Advil regimen, making sure he takes it easy in order to eliminate the possibility of injuring it further -- that was basically all they told us to do! What a relief!!

Now, the worst part of all of this (if you ask the older 3), is that we had to cancel the vacation we had scheduled to Great Wolf Lodge!

Hubs and I had been planning it for a while, and we told the kids about it two weeks ago, so they've been counting down the days until we were to leave, which was supposed to be bright and early TOMORROW morning! They weren't too excited about the delay, but I promised we would reschedule as soon as we possibly could (and we did!).

The One with the Potty (Again)

Earlier this week, on Thursday, January 31, 2020, we officially began ATTEMPT #2 to potty train Squish. I spent some time here on my blog, reading through past posts about potty training the first 3 kids, and had a tiny bit of hope that maybe--just maybe!--we would find success this time with Squish. We tried for the first time about 6 weeks ago and he just wasn't having it. Surely he's ready now that he's 2 1/2, right??

I'm not so sure.

It's been a rough few days, y'all. It just hasn't seemed to "click" as well as it did with LO, Chase, and E. And we've been doing all of the same things: 24/7 access to the potty, an endless sippy cup of chocolate milk, unfettered access to electronics... all the things that worked in the past haven't quite seemed to work with sweet Squish.

Don't get me wrong--he's had a few successes on the potty. But those have been somewhat outnumbered by the accidents that have occurred elsewhere in the house. I typically like to potty train for the first few days with NOTHING on the bottom half, but that's proving to be difficult. We've got a pre-teen daughter and a dog: both reasons why it's not so great for a little guy to be strutting around half nakey.

I can't decide if I want to call it quits (again) or see it through for a few more days. I feel like the signs are there... I'm just waiting to see if/when it all "clicks" for him. Please pray for patience! I don't want to scar the boy with my irritability caused by having 3 other kids to care for, homeschooling, working part-time, and being 18 weeks pregnant with baby #5! There are a lot of stresses happening these days, and I really want this process to be as comfortable for Squish as possible. Lord help us!

Squish's (actual) 2nd Birthday!

Today we celebrated our sweet Squish's 2nd birthday! It's hard to believe just two short years ago I sharing his birth story and documenting our first week with baby #4!

Squish's birthday morning began with our usual family tradition... birthday pancakes!

He's TWO, y'all!

Look at that sweet face!

Awwww! He loved it when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him!

Cuteness overload! He's blowing out the candles. I just love this boy!

The rest of our day was pretty standard... lunch, nap time, and dinner--at Culver's, of course!

We happened to be eating dinner at Culver's at 5:25 PM tonight when Squish officially hit the big T-W-O! Seemed appropriate, considering our family essentially lives at our local Culver's!

After dinner, we came home to open the rest of the presents that he refused to open at his birthday party on Saturday. Surprisingly, he was more than happy to oblige and open his Pikachu-themed gifts! So much so that it was difficult to get him to stop long enough for a quick photo! LOL!

Yay! Squish loves Pikachu presents!

Take note of the Pikachu slippers he's wearing in the image below. These were in a box he had just opened and he insisted on putting them on immediately and didn't want to take them off! The boy really loves wearing everyone's shoes inside the house. He's hilarious!

Here he is opening the Pikachu comforter, crib sheet, and pillowcase I made for his bed. He really loved them!

See? He immediately laid them out on the floor and tested them out... with big brother Chase's help!

Somehow the slippers came off. He placed them on the floor in front of him and said, "Pleeeeease?" until someone came over to help him put them back on.

More Pikachu gifts!

What's next? Why, a birthday cupcake, of course! Here is Squish waiting ever-so-patiently for the singing to begin.

He really loves cupcakes. And the "Happy Birthday" song. And hearing everyone sing his name. Love his smiley face!

"Happy Birthday, dear Squishy..."

Notice those adorably interlaced fingers and the exorbitant amount of patience he is displaying here!

His attempt to blow out the candles! So sweet! Again with the fingers! #smitten

Cupcakes make for one happy birthday boy!

Cheeeeeese!!!

Yummy!

Silly boy!!!

He loves his cupcakes!

"All done!"

While he was cleaned up following his cupcake deliciousness, I made his bed with his new Pikachu bedding.

((Yes, there are THREE lion lovies and FOUR pacis in his bed. This is how parenting is done, folks.))

So much Pikachu cuteness! I hope he sleeps well surrounded by so.much.Pikachu! 

I sent LO up to take some pictures of his room and she thought a pano would be fun. Enjoy! LOL!

Happy 2nd Birthday, sweet Squish!

Squish's 2nd Birthday!

We had a great day celebrating Squish's 2nd birthday... 5 days before his actual birthday (he's still ONE for 5 more days! YAY!).

He loooooooooves Pikachu (from Pokémon), so it made sense for us to have a Pikachu party! He also loves coloring, so we started out with some coloring pages.

Just a few light snacks, including some of Squish's favorites: Doritos, apple slices, and grapes!

Pikachu cupcakes!

Seriously... Pikachu EVERYWHERE! LOL! Even his gifts were wrapped to look like Pikachu (thanks, Pinterest!).

Big sis LO blew up 70-something balloons and drew Pikachu faces on all of them! Win!

My mom the artist! Check out her Pikachu drawing! I love it!! And so did Squish!

Too cool for his party! LOL! He's wearing the free sunglasses he got at the hair place last night when I took him for his "big boy" haircut (he aged 2 or 3 years at least!).

Parties are better with friends and cousins!

Opening presents! He's not the biggest fan of opening gifts, but he made it through most of them!

Squish's gift from LO... Detective Pikachu!

His new ride from Mona! It "talks" to the Smart Home toy he got for Christmas.

Time for cupcakes and singing!

Yay, Squish!!

Love this boy bunches!

This cracks me up. Here he is with his first bite of cupcake (yes, he insisted on a fork!)...

....and about 5 minutes later he was "All Done!" and ready to get out of his chair.

Sweet smiles!

Time to relax and play!

A real-life Pikachu spotting! Check it out!!!

So much ADORABLE that I can't even handle it!!!

Sweet Squish had a great 2nd birthday party! We are so grateful to be blessed with wonderful family and friends to celebrate with us!