thespicelands.com

We had a very scary day two Wednesdays ago. Tru, Heidi, and I were at a local flooring store picking out new carpet for our house, which we listed for sale last week. We were waiting on the salesman to help us. He apologized for being on the phone and told me he was trying to direct his son to a particular store. The son was in his car looking for the store, and the salesman didn’t know how to tell him where it was. I offered to look it up on my phone. Heidi walked off, and Tru followed her. I went off after them, and the salesman said, “Oh, they can’t hurt anything.” I motioned toward the unprotected basement stairs, and said “Well, either of them could fall down the stairs.” He said, “Don’t worry. I’ll look after them while you look that up.” Not 2 seconds later, we heard a crash. We were about 10 feet away from the kids, but in the hallway. We walked into the room where the kids had gone, and Heidi was lying on the floor underneath a solid wood exterior door that had been propped up against the wall. Apparently, the store had just moved into that location and hadn’t finished their renovations and had left this door unhinged, leaning up against the doorway. Tru thought it was a regular door and had tried to open it, knocking it right over onto Heidi, who became pinned to the floor underneath it.

We called 911 and got her out. She may have been complete knocked out for a second, but we’re not sure. The salesman pulled the door off of her, and she looked so tiny crumpled up on the floor. It really looked like she was very badly hurt. By the time we picked her up, her eyes were halfway open and she was flailing, quiet, and unresponsive. As she became more responsive, she began grimacing with only half her face, twitching one of her arms, and flexing her legs together very severely. She started crying about 2 minutes after the door came off. She and Tru and I rode in the ambulance to the hospital, which took forever and a day. When we got there, they did a CT scan and X-ray of her head, chest, back, and arms and didn’t see any injuries. I am just flabbergasted that she didn’t have any broken bones.

She acted lethargic for the rest of that day, and sore and tired the next day. She got happier though, so we were surprised when she spiked a 103.5 fever on the third day. We took her back to the hospital, and the doctor told us there was a small possibility that a tiny skull fracture could have been invisible on the X-ray but still been large enough to allow spinal meningitis to develop. We were to wait it out. Luckily, Heidi didn’t develop any more symptoms and eventually got over what was apparently just a virus. Unluckily, the rest of us caught it from her, and we are just now beginning to feel better. A real estate agent warned us this would happen! It’ll take you 2 weeks working your butts off to fix up the house to sell, she said, and as soon as you list your house you’ll all get sick!

So sorry it’s been so long since we’ve written anything here! It’s been very busy this last month or two. We had a great Christmas. Papa and Nana Spiceland came to visit and celebrate Christmas and Tru’s birthday, then Papa, Missa, Ally, and Kerri came. We had a wonderful time with everybody. We were supposed to travel to Memphis to spend Christmas evening and the following days with Bama and Jessica, but all six of us were sick. We had an interesting but effective Christmas over Skype video conferencing.

Tru had to have two fillings last week and has to have three more in the coming weeks. Her dentist says that the location of the cavities tells him that better brushing could not have prevented these cavities. She’s just inherited Mike’s teeth and may have issues her whole life. I sure hope that Heidi inherited mine! I’ve never had a cavity in my life. Her experience was hilarious, though. We’d told her ahead of time that she’d have to smell some yummy-smelling air during the procedure. Somehow she’d gotten the idea that they were going to stick things in her nose to make that happen, so she was very relieved to find out that it only involved breathing from a small red nose covering. The dentist called her Rudolph the whole time! She got very relaxed and very happy on the nitrous. She kept saying funny things like “Mommy! I looooooooooooooove yoooooooouuuuuuuu!” and “I’m DIZZZZZZZYYYYYY!” After we went home, she bit her lip pretty badly, so it’s all swollen in the only snow pictures we managed to take this year.

We had half an inch of snow the day before her dentist appointment, and amazingly, some of it has stuck around. I believe today is day 6 with snow on the ground. Many lakes iced over, and the temperatures were in the teens and twenties many days. Tru had a blast playing in it. Check out the pictures section of our website for new pictures.

Tru and Heidi had adorable matching Halloween outfits on yesterday that they received from Papa and Nana. I had to get a few pictures, including these:

We had lots of fun last weekend in Hot Springs, AR with Papa and Nana! It was Heidi’s first time on the lake and Tru’s second. Tru caught three fish with Papa and went tubing with Nana. Mike and I water skiied for the first time ever. Mike was much better at it than me. He stood up 2 out of 3 times. I tried 10+ times and only got up 3 or 4 times. Nana was a pro. Heidi was thrilled with the ducks and still keeps asking to feed them. She says, “Dut? Dut?” Mike has video that may go up here later, but for now, you will have to make do with the pictures.

Hello, all, if anyone is out there anymore. I see that we have only had one new comment in the past month and a half. I’ll try to do better about posting updates if you guys will post comments so that we know this website is worth keeping!

Tru and Heidi both had regular checkups last week. Tru is 39 inches tall and 36 pounds. She had her first vision and hearing tests. She performed perfectly on the hearing test and did very well on her vision test, too. Dr. Zbell was very impressed that she could jump on one foot (a 5 year developmental milestone) and praised Tru for becoming involved in soccer. Tru proudly told Dr. Zbell about the two goals she’s scored in the last 3 games. Tru got her first set of shots in the last 2 years and her last until she is 11 years old. Tru developed a fever in reaction to the shots and had to miss two days of school. She’s fine now, though!

Heidi was 23 and a half pounds and 31 inches long. Dr. Zbell was impressed by how quickly Heidi can walk and by how many words she can say. Heidi also had to have shots and reacted badly to them. She developed a fever, a runny nose, and spots. The spots were a reaction to the chickenpox vaccine. She is still a little sick, and I am going to call the doctor tomorrow to see if she needs to be on antibiotics from an infection secondary to the reaction. Hopefully we’ll have that all cleared up before our vacation on Thursday! Heidi can say many, many words now. She can say Mama, Dada, Tru, dog, cat, bird, flower, water, baba (bottle), night-night, bye-bye, cheese, Cheerios, car, that, light, get down, up, cuddle, and more. We’ve enrolled Heidi in a very nice educational daycare facility, and she will start going there after we get back from our vacation, at which time I will also begin working more.

New pictures of Tru and Heidi in matching outfits, Tru’s first soccer practice, and Tru’s first soccer game. Both teams did great, scoring about 4 goals each, and Tru scored one for her team!

Time for another update. Heidi is officially walking! She started about 2 weeks ago, and now she can take 20-30 steps by herself. She can say lots of words, too, even if few of them are discernible to people outside our family. People outside our family would be able to understand night-night, bye-bye, cheese, baba (bottle), Dada, and Mama. We can also understand more, Tru, dog, bird, Cheerios, car, down, up, and diaper. However, mostly when she says these words, she’s repeating after us.

I have had irritational (industrial or environmental) bronchitis since July 4th — that’s 10 days now! We shot off fireworks of our own after the city-sponsored fireworks, and the smoke got to me. I’ve had a sore throat and have been coughing and hacking. I bought a bottle of chloraseptic spray about 4 days ago, and half the bottle is gone already. I can’t wait until my throat heals. Fireworks are SO not worth this. Next year, I’m staying inside or wearing a face mask.

Tru starts Pre-K/K4 in 27 days! She has a bookbag and a lunchbox with matching thermos, and she is so excited. Her teacher is young and excited about teaching, and we already know that one boy in her class is the son of the 3rd grade teacher at the Christian private school she’s going to. I can’t wait, either!

We are in the process of performing some much-needed home repairs and upgrades. I began tiling both bathrooms today and hope to be finished within the next 4-6 days. After that, we’ll be getting new countertops, getting a new backsplash, and repairing the deck that I almost burned down last year.

Happy birthday to my twin sisters Allison (Ally) and Kerri! 26 — WOW! Happy birthday to my stepmom, Melissa!

We haven’t done a real update in a while, so I thought I’d just post a few things. Firstly, Heidi took her first steps yesterday! She was in the church nursery, and Mike was there with her. She’s taken a few more since then, 1-2 steps at a time. She’s getting huge! She’s over 23 pounds. She’s in the 90th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. She’s wearing 18 months clothes already, which is perfect. Tru was 18 months old during the summer, so all the clothes are the correct season.

Tru is going to VBS at our church this week. She’s too young still to go by herself (church policy), so I’m volunteering in the nursery and Heidi comes with me. Saturday is the open house at Tru’s new school, so we’ll register her then. I can’t believe she’ll be in Pre-K in the fall!

We went to Atlanta to Ally’s house, and Kerri, Melissa, and Daddy met us there. Here are the pictures from our visit.

Heidi and Tru “swam” for the first time today. I bought a blow-up swimming pool at Target, but I didn’t realize how small it was! We may have been better off swimming in a flower pot! I let the water warm up in the sun, and then they had fun in it. Tru did a wonderful job of helping Heidi in and out of the pool. There are pictures available on page 2 and page 3.

There is also video of the birthday party and the swimming that Mike will put online as soon as enough people bug him about it!