Woolsey Family Chronicles

The Woolsey 6 are partying hard this year on New Year's. For example, it is 7:21 on New Year's Eve and I am writing my blog. Chris is busy making cookies with Ava while talking in some sort of . . . I think it is supposed to be a French accent. The babies have gone to bed already. Although we actually could have gone out and partied hard since Nanny Kathy told me she could babysit tonight, I really just felt like having a mellow night at home with my family. It was a wise decision considering how my day turned out today.

Chris and I have been debating whether to get our sweet, precious Violet an MRI for about 6 months now. I am usually the kind of person that is willing to do any and every test out there if it will give us more information on a medical issue. This MRI for Violet has been a tough decision though, since Violet will have to be put out and it would obviously be uncomfortable for her. Even after our second neurologist told us he would probably get Violet an MRI if it her his child, we were still having a hard time deciding whether to go through with it. So, we put a call in to the great, wise, all-knowing Dr. Lehrman; a family friend who I have known all my life and trust implicitly. He told us that the MRI is to a neurologist what looking in the ear is the a GP. He said the MRI may provide some important information and that it doesn't have any radiation that could potentially harm Violet, so in conclusion, he thinks we should do it. Then a couple of days ago the office called to tell us Violet was moved to 2pm instead of 9am. This was bad news because she has to fast for 8 hours leading up to the MRI. Poor Violet was going to starve all day.

Chris and I woke up this morning and felt like we were on the fence again. Did we really want to put Violet through this? Did it even matter what the MRI told us since we already know Violet is perfect? How are we going to not feed our 22 month old all day long? In the end, we worked it out. We kept Violet away from having to watch her siblings enjoy their breakfast, their snack and then their lunch. Then I loaded her up and we headed to Sacramento.

Violet was very brave. She sat and waited for an hour with me in the waiting room with the top of both of her hands lathered in numbing cream. Then we held her down to the hospital bed while the anesthesiologist stuck her tiny hand with a needle and injected the sleeping medicine into her. Within 5 seconds she went limp and sat layed there perfectly still with her eyes open. It was creepy. Luckily the nurse had warned me that it might look scary or unnatural when Violet goes to sleep. They carried her away while I finished my book in the waiting room. An hour later they brought me a very agitated skinny little red head. I held her and she was still really drugged and out of it. Then she started flailing her body around and crying and I just had to sit there and hold her tight so she didn't fly out of my arms. Then she cried the whole way home. I tried to give her juice and snacks because I know she must have been starving, but she did not want anything. She was pissed. I had this weird feeling that she was holding me responsible for her crappy day at the hospital. She is like Ava in that she knows things she shouldn't know, and I feel like she remembered that I held her down on the bed and let the doctor stick her with that needle. All was well when she had a couple of pieces of pizza, a couple of sippy cups full of milk and a whole bunch of ice cream dibs.

In the end, we are so glad we got Violet an MRI and so happy that the whole experience is behind us. So, I am happy to be ringing in the new year with my family in my home. There will be a time to party at New Year's again one day, and that time is not now.

This morning Ava, big sister extraordinaire, was teaching the babies how to talk. Her first word in the lesson was none other than the word Ava. She would say to Violet, say AAAAAAA. Violet would say it. Then she would say, Violet say vvvvvvvvvvvvv, and Violet would say the sound vvvvvvv. Ava then said, to say ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Violet would say ahhhhhhhhhh. She was a great teacher and I couldn't believe when all the babies were copying all the sounds that Ava was teaching. Maybe I should pay Ava like $1 allowance a week to give Violet speech therapy; that would be a huge cost savings for us.

Here is a short list of the things that I liked in 2009:

My babies turned 1 year old
Barack Obama was elected President
Trip to Paris
Trip to Hawaii
Christmas and the two nights leading up to it
Snowstorm in Cameron Park
Ava starting Kindergarten
Ava learned to read
Getting my iPhone
Chris losing 30 pounds and ran a marathon in honor of Trevor
The song Just Breath by Pearl Jam

Here is a short list of the things I did not like in 2009:

Poop in the bathtub
Ava badgering me about snacks and play dates
The real estate market
The genocide in Darfur
Sara Palin

In 2010 I have one or two personal endeavors that I hope to get started. Oh yes, there is always the whole "i am going to get in shape and lose 10 pounds" resolution that I have made and not accomplished every single year for the past 10 years. This year will be different. I have more interesting goals in mind and if I can pull it off it should be pretty cool.

Speaking of cool, my good friend and neighbor Angela was on KGO radio tonight talking about Trevor and the importance of getting swabbed and put into the bone marrow registry. Make it a goal for 2010 my friends . . . get swabbed. It is easy, painless, and free. Just think how great you would feel if you were the match for someone and saved their life this coming year. Just think if you were the match for Trevor and saved his life and today he was a happy, healthy 3 year old little boy. That would be a life changing moment.
www.bethematch.org.

I wish everyone the best 2010. I hope this is a great year for all of us.

Until next time, the mothership is signing off.