Elf Breakfast 2018

And I bet you can guess what movie was playing on the TV all the while! All the photos are here.

Through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest...

Jamie's new favorite shirt.

Fina's Recital

Fina's voice teacher and students held a recital tonight, songs from their village, or something like that. Fina sang "My New Philosophy" from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. I hear ice cream at BR's followed... And who was along the entire time - IB Man, Lexi's traveling companion from school for the next week or so. A few more pics are here.

The show closed with a sing-along.

Matteo's Neck Pain

Tracy: We found ourselves in the ER this afternoon after picking up Matteo in tears unable to move his neck. My mom-gut told me muscle pain but his hysterical cries and unwillingness to move his neck warranted a call to the pediatrician, who sent us to the ER. Fast forward... the doctor came in, examined him, and said all the blood work looked good, so muscle spasm is the diagnosis. At this, Matteo’s entire body relaxed and he murmured, “So I don’t have to have brain surgery, I don’t have Chiari?” The ER doc looked at me like what the heck and I had to explain his little brother has Chiari Malformation and just had decompression surgery. Never once did it cross my mind that Matteo thought his neck pain meant brain surgery, chronic pain for an unknown time, headaches, wheelchairs, etc. The anxiety those thoughts caused him must have escalated his pain beyond what he could handle. This is what the books don’t tell you when raising special need kids with siblings. How the siblings suffer, how the pain of their siblings becomes their own pain. And they worry about things other kids wouldn’t even have knowledge of. That a simple neck pain or head ache is no more than that, but a child who has watched his brother live in pain and under go so much, these simple symptoms become very scary. One co-pay and an afternoon later I now know I need to check my kids anxiety and see what is contributing to the pain before rushing off to the ER. #chiarimalformation #thingsthebabybooksdonttellyou #inthisfamilynoonefightsalone

Lexi's First Ballet Recital

She's been taking lessons at Colorado Ballet Society for a little while now...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Advent Calendar Tree (each ball is numbered)

I-70 Closures

This is why we headed back home from Kansas City yesterday instead of today. The majority of I-70 across Kansas was either "Completely Covered" or "Closed" by this morning. Good thing Siscos thought to check the forecast...

Topeka Zoo and I-70 Diner

We were originally planning to return to Colorado on Sunday, but all of a sudden there was a winter storm alert for all of Kansas along I-70 starting Sunday morning. Fortunately, we decided to head back Saturday and as it turned out, we got home just as the snow at our house was beginning, and starting Sunday morning, Kansas did indeed get something of a blizzard. We had a beautiful day to travel, so we were definitely going to try a stop or two along the way (Papa's always moaning about missing all the museums, big balls of yarn, etc.). We chose the Topeka Zoo. It's a modest zoo, but just perfect for a 90-minute stop. The only other lengthy stop was the highly Sisco-rated I-70 Diner in Flagler, CO. All the photos are here.