I have eluded to the accident that Piper had on November 30th but I have yet to get to writing it down. I did actually start posting but Daniel had me stop putting up all the graphic pictures because we are in talks with the property insurance of the apartment complex where it happened over Piper's medical bills. Daniel doesn't want me to post anything to graphic just yet.
Emily came to find an apartment during the end of November. I was taking her around to see apartments and they often have leasing centers/club houses. We were waiting in this one and they had a kitchen with some candy, coffee, and a popcorn machine. Emily was filling out their guest card and I was holding Piper on my hip and scooping up some popcorn on a napkin. Piper started to squirm so I put her down. She walked around the couches and end tables scouting things out and then she started walking toward the gas fireplace. I saw her heading in that direction but I honestly didn't think it would be scalding hot. We have a gas fireplace at our house and it is on constantly. She plays near it and climbs up on the hearth etc... But ours has a mesh screen flush with the glass, like a window screen. You can't see it unless you are up close. This screen acts as a barrier so you can not touch the hot glass. At the apartment complex, the gas fireplace was on the floor with no hearth. I just assumed that it had a screen or tempered glass because how could you have a scalding hot piece of glass exposed on floor level in a public place? Anyway, I was about 10 feet away at the most, I said to her "Piper that might be hot" (thinking very warm, uncomfortable, NOT SCALDING) She approached the fireplace glass and put 2 fingers on it, realized it was hot, stepped back quickly and stumbled causing her to lean forward with both palms flat against the scalding glass. At this point I came running but the awful part was that she couldn't back herself off the glass. So for the 3 to 4 seconds that it took for me to grab her, her hands were pushed against the glass by her body weight. By the time I got to her everywhere on her hands (the whole palms and all the pads of her fingers) that had been against the glass was pure white.
We rushed her to the sink and put her hands in running water. I had Emily call Daniel at work and ask him what I should do. He said to wrap her hands in wet towels and get her to the ER. We did so and they gave her some heavy pain meds, tried to get her to soak them in water to no avail, lathered silvadene cream on them and bandaged them up. She had second degree burns all over her hands. She was really miserable for 2 weeks everytime we changed her bandages. The first night she had blisters 1 inch think on her palms and her little petite hands were fat as sausages. The next day the blisters had totally drained leaving saggy wrinkled skin. 2 days later we saw a wound care specialist and he cut off all the dead skin. This was the hardest on me. Poor Baby. I have pictures of each of these events but they are quite graphic and I will post them at a later date.
By the second or 3rd day she seemed to be fine when her hands were heavily wrapped. She could still play, help her daddy put up the Christmas tree;
and even hug her baby!!
I felt awful for poor little Piper and awful for Emily because she only had two days to look for apartments and here we were spending half a day in the ER. I just wanted to push rewind and not let her down or stay in the car or anything different that would have prevented what happened! Here's an interesting thing - The next day I drove Emily around and stayed in the car while Piper slept and the other kids watched movies (Dan had to work on Saturday of course). Emily told me there was a gas fireplace in one of the other leasing centers with exposed glass and she touched it and it WAS NOT hot. The glass had some black flecks in it - must be special heat tempered glass.
Poor Piper had 6 doctor visits in 3 weeks time. The first 4 visits were in the first week. She was also seeing her pediatrician because she had a fever for 5 days and we didn't know if it was from a virus or if the burns were infected (the biggest risk for burn victims). She even had to go to the lab and get blood taken. See her little band-aid?
The Pediatrician gave her some augmentin to help what he thought was a sinus infection (since she had a yucky nose and fever). By the 3rd dose the augmentin caused her to break out in hives all over her body. We quit giving it to her after the 5th dose. The next day she had a horrible diaper rash caused again by the augmentin. Daniel said it was probably a yeast infection because the augmentin had killed all the bacteria in her system. It was true - her poop didn't smell for 2 days. I had never experienced that. I didn't even know her diaper was dirty til I'd go to change her for another reason and then I got a total surprise. I know this seems gross, but I could put my nose an inch away and not smell a thing. Amazing what bacteria can do.
So this poor little baby has been through alot!! After the 2nd visit with the wound specialist we only had to wrap her palms and not all her fingers as well. And yesterday we saw him again and she's still red and tender but we've stopped wrapping all together and he said we don't need to come back unless we notice something unusual.
Yeah!! She'll be able to unwrap her Christmas gifts. At first our Christmas tree was safe this year (which I had been totally worrying about) because she could only bat at the ornaments because she had no use of her fingers. But now she is constantly pulling off ornaments and carrying them around the house. The top of our tree is a bit ornament heavy and the bottom is pretty sparse now.
Thanks to all of you who kept her in your thoughts and prayers. I'll post the burn pics later after things get ironed out. We did tell the complex that we would like to see them put up some sort of barrier in front of that glass so it doesn't happen to anyone else. Even something like those heavy cast iron tri-fold screens. Were were told about a week ago that they have put up some sort of barrier.
My mother goes to Curves, an exercise center for women. It's a strange place to learn how to make beautiful intricate looking snowflakes but that's just where she learned it. My kids spent last weekend at her house and she taught them how to make these beautiful creations. They each came home with one of their very own.
Pretty huh?
My little unicorn was so amazed by my big unicorn that she wouldn't look at the camera. It's amazing what a little soap and water can do!
The old floor was a "tile look alike" which I did like when we bought the house, but it was a very light color and it had a lot of texture. Dirt and dirty mop water would get caught in the grooves or low lying texture and dry there. It was really hard to get those grooves clean. This tile hides the dirt well and has the look of texture but is completely smooth. The old floor was easier on your feet and things weren't guaranteed to break if you drop them. The new floor is very hard and cold, I have to wear my slippers but will bring more value to the house when we sell it.
We were treated to a very special visit from my cousin Amanda , husband Jon and her daughter Alissa. Alissa was born only 2 months after Piper. Since they live 5 hours from here and Alissa has NOT been a cooperative traveler, they have not made the trip up here for family gatherings yet. We were delighted that they came for Thanksgiving and made a brief stop at our house. Ainsley enjoyed showing Alissa all of the toys in the house. I think Alissa was quite thrilled at the abundance of new things that make noise, light up and wiggle.
Piper liked her cake. She was quick to pick it up and take a few bites but then she found the paper plate. That kept her interest for a while as she looked it over and folded it and then she went back to the cake. At least cheesecakes are not quite as messy as regular cake and frosting.
We had the opportunity of a lifetime last night. The Salzburg Marionette Theatre from Salzburg, Austria is on a US tour premiering it's version of the Sound of Music. And yes, somehow little Lancaster scored such an awesome production but for only 4 days. Even though it cost a pretty penny - I thought it was worth it. My kids loved it and it's not like they are going to get this opportunity again. (I mean this was on a school night and only 12 minutes from our house. We didn't have to fight big city traffic or spend a ton of time in the car. This was local!) We were sad Daniel couldn't go with us but since he's in Denver for 9 days it just didn't work out. We're glad Mamaw could come in a pinch.
sit? I said anywhere he thought the kids could see well. He said, "How about the second row?" He told me that they hadn't sold any tickets in the first or second rows because they didn't think you could see well from there, but after the Tuesday night show - they realized that you could see fine from the second row. So we sat deadcenter second row with no one in front of us. What a dream. It's probably the only time in their lives that the kids could see a show without sitting on their knees and leaning side to side to see around other people's heads. We were so close you could see the faces of each puppet. I realized how good our seats were when I had to take Ainsley to the bathroom during the show and from the back I noticed they could only see the figures of each puppet but not their faces. Ainlsey sat eyes glued to the stage the entire time, not fidgeting, or asking when it would be over etc.... 
conferences. I was so glad she was here to help me with the kids and enjoy the show with us. We left the baby with a sitter of course. It was amazing how many strings were attached to each puppet ( at least 10). It's amazing how they don't get twisted or tangled and how life like each puppet moves. At the end of the show they lifted the top curtain and did one more number with us watching the puppeteers. INCRIDIBLE! There were 9 of them shoulder to shoulder, wrapping their arms around each other as they pass their strings around each other to move their puppet down the stage. I hope they all hold stock in deodorant companies - because they operate in VERY close proximity. I don't know how they maintain such control of their strings and remember the choreography of each puppet for the whole show. RAW TALENT!!
I did buy a pattern and waited for my mom to come help me. It was a lot more complicated with a lot more measuring and finishing raw edges etc... than I had expected. My mom was on the phone and distracted when I was cutting out the fabric. I didn't know that you had to flip the pattern over so you got two fronts and two backs. So I ended up with 4 fronts. We went back to the store and bought more fabric and I finished the first pair. They actually look pretty good and they don't fall down!! Yeah! I now am going to make a second pair of brown cords since I already have the fabric and embellish the cuffs or something to mix it up a bit.
