All Boy

Max is the very definition of boy. He loves:

Tractors (Little Rock Garden Expo)

Dirt (Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum)

Trains (Amy and Casey Foote's House)

Balls (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Drums (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Helicopters (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Water (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Goats (Mary and Jeff's house in Alpine)

Drilling with Grandpa (in South Jordan)

Pliers with Grandpa (in South Jordan)

Deer (in Alpine)

Buffalo (in Alpine)

Horses (in Alpine)

Mowing with Daddy (in Little Rock)

Watching Curious George the Movie and Eating Popcorn

Hammering at Home

More Tractors (He really cannot get enough of these)

Lions (at Little Rock Zoo)

Firetrucks (in Memphis, TN)

Hiking (at Pinnacle Mountain)

Max has been talking more and more each day. He uses 2-3 word phrases, and we are amazed at how much he understands. The first 2 word phrase he used was when we were staying with my sister, Mary. Max found a cookie downstairs one morning quickly ate it. He then came and asked me, "More cookie?" It was pretty cute. Max is sleeping on a twin bed now in his "new" room. He usually has his striped blanket and 2 blue blankets each night, a stuffed cow, and a stuffed dog. He still has his binky, but hopefully we can break him of the binky soon. He is wearing size 4 diapers, but fits into size 3 too. Max is growing up so quick. We love watching him learn and progress.

Bread Day

From 6:30 to 10:00 this morning, I made 2 loaves of wheat bread, 2 loaves of French bread, and 4 loaves of braided bread.

I wrapped up 2 loaves of braided bread and 1 loaf of French bread to auction off tonight for a church fundraiser for the youth.

Garden

When we moved to Arkansas, one of the things we were really excited about was our backyard. It is huge! Max and Kate have a playset, a trampoline and plenty of space to kick a ball around. The previous owners had a fenced in dog run, but we saw it as a perfect place for our vegetable garden. Here is the space:

As soon as the weather was nice enough, we started to work. We didn't like the bush outside the fence, so we took it out.

Max was a good helper.

Next, we had to remove the grass. Rob rented a sod-cutter from Home Depot and whipped it out.

While he had the sod cutter, he cut an area on the side of our house so we could put berry bushes in.

After taking the dog house and cement pavers out, we put boards around the fence to keep the dirt from washing out.

I turned all the soil with a shovel.

We had a dump truck of supersoil delivered to our driveway to add to the garden.

Rob was up before 6 am one Saturday to start moving the soil to the back. Max was eager to help him when we woke up.

All the soil is now back, and the last board is screwed into place.

We put weed paper down, so we wouldn't have to do extra weeding, and then started planting. We have corn, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, garlic, shallots, onions, peas, beans, eggplant, pumpkins, watermelons, zucchini, and cucumbers all in the ground.

Rob designed a drip system for watering. He found a piece that will allow six drip lines to be connected at one spot.

I mentioned earlier that Rob cut the grass out on the side of the house so we could put berry plants in. Here is the area now. Raspberry, blackberry and blueberry (pots) bushes are in the ground and doing well.

This picture shows a contraption hooked to our facet. It will allow us to put the drip lines on a timer to water. It should work wonders!

I did not take a picture of my herb containers, but I have cilantro, oregano, basil and parsley growing in pots on the deck. They are doing excellent. We hope the garden really thrives. It is our first year trying a garden, so we recognize we may have over/under planted certain things. We are excited to be following the prophets advice and sowing seeds of self-reliance.

A Post a Day

I am going to try and update my blog on a daily basis. It may be trivial things I put on here, but I want to remember what is going on in my families life. I will try and post pictures, but it may not always happen.

Yesterday Robert took a test for work called the Series 7. I will admit I was a bit worried about how he would do. Rob studied on Tuesday night until about midnight, and then Max wasn't feeling well and Rob decided he could sleep in bed with us. Max kept snuggling up to Rob all night (which was fine with me), but as a result Rob slept very poor. I fed Rob French toast for breakfast, sent him with a lunch and hoped he would stay alert while taking his 6 hour test. After a long day, Rob came home with good news. He passed! 84% He only needed a 70%. Hooray!

I decided to get a season pass at the zoo a couple of weeks ago, and it has been a wonderful investment. The zoo isn't far from where we live (about 20 minutes), and it is pretty small. We can fly through it and still have an afternoon! I took Max and Kate over this morning. Typically Max walks the whole time, but as he isn't feeling the best, I had him sit on top of the jogging stroller. We had a great time.

I am hoping to go running when Robert gets home from work. I am really trying to get back into a decent shape. 24 more pounds to go! I have a goal to run a 1/2 marathon this year, so if anyone wants to join me, just let me know!

Kate Update

My Baby Girl is growing up so quickly! At her 4 month appointment (about 3 weeks ago), she weighed 18 pounds 13 ounces (99%ile), was 26 inches long (95%ile), and her head was 16 3/4 inches around (86%ile). We have switched pediatricians, and it has been sooooo much better. Kate is moving her left arm regularly. As you can see in the picure below, her left thumb is pointing down. The last movement we are waiting for her to do is suppination (turning her thumb up). She has come a long ways though. We are so proud of her.



I take Kate to physical and occupational therapy twice a month. These two ladies, Jenny (holding Kate) and Gladys (holding Max), have been awesome. They have taught me how to help Kate progress. THANK YOU GLADYS AND JENNY!!!

In March our family went to Utah for Sheri's wedding. While we were there, Rob blessed Kate. It was a beautiful blessing. We were so glad we could have her blessed with family there.

Kate loves to hide under her blankets. She thinks it is so funny. You can see her peeking out from the blanket, all smiles. Just this week Kate has started laughing. We love you Kate!

Moving Her LEFT Arm!

Today was a great day in the Madsen home. Kate started off the morning by moving her left arm! I excitedly called Robert and told him the great news. Kate has repeatedly moved her arm today, and I have video evidence! You can watch the clip to see it for yourself!

I went to St. Louis a few weeks ago, and the team of doctors I met with were very positive about Kate's diagnosis. I met with a physical and occupational therapist afterwards, and they gave me more exercises and things to do with Kate. We stay busy each day working on Kate.

On another note, Max has been extremely busy. He is getting into EVERYTHING!!! He uses chairs to get up on counters, beds, dressers, etc. He found a pen the other day while I was blowing my hair dry, got the lid off, and colored me a pretty picture all over the glider cushion! He was so proud of his artwork. Max is adding to his vocabulary at an astounding rate. It is so cute. He says "love you!" when we put him in bed. Max entertains himself really well. Yesterday when he was supposed to be napping, Max was playing in his room. Rob went and checked on him after 30 minutes or so, and Max had pulled everything off his bed, put his fireman hat on, and was crawling on his furniture. When he saw Rob, he climbed out, and said "Hat!" So silly! Max can be a picky eater. He didn't want taco soup or chicken fried rice, but he did want black beans, chips and yogurt! He dipped the chips in the yogurt, and ate them! Yuck! Yesterday Max stayed in nursery all by himself! It was a first. There were many tears shed (by Max), but he did it. Hopefully this trend will continue. Max is strong enough to hold and push the vacuum now. He thinks it is awesome to vacuum the house.

Brachial Plexus Palsy

Things have been busy since Kate was born over a month ago. Although Kate was not large when she was born (7 pounds 12 ounces), she got stuck when trying to come out. As a result, when the doctor pulled Kate out, he stretched her neck, causing shoulder dystocia. Shoulder dystocia causes birth brachial plexus palsy.

The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerves located under your collarbone. It controls your arm movement. Fortunately, Kate's shoulder was NOT dislocated and her clavicle was NOT broken. She has had x-rays to confirm.

The brachial plexus nerve has many different branches. The C5 and C6 nerves control your shoulder and bicep. C7 controls your tricep. C8 and T1 controls the wrist and hand. Kate has been able to move her wrist and hand since birth, so the C8 and T1 branches are normal. She regained use of her tricep (C7) within a week or so. However, Kate has not been able to move her bicep or shoulder yet, so we know the C5 and C6 branches are damaged.

There are three possible options for how the C5 and C6 branches are injured. We know it isn't normal. We are hoping it has not been severed (avulsion or rupture). We also hope it is not the neuroma option (partial severe). We would really like it to be neurapraxia, which means stretched. If the C5 and C6 branches are stretched, then we don't have to do any "repairs" (i.e. surgery). In 90-95% of infants that have birth brachial plexus palsy, by the time they are 3 months old they will be able to move their shoulder and bicep if the nerve was only stretched.

At this point, we take Kate to occupational and physical therapy each week. We have seen a pediatric neurologist and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. We saw the neurologist first, and she suggested we take Kate to St. Louis Children's Hospital as they have a brachial plexus palsy center. We then saw the pediatric orthopedic surgeon. She was very familiar with brachial plexus palsy. We felt very comfortable with her, so we have not yet decided if we are going to go to St. Louis or not. Kate has follow-up visits every month with the orthopedic surgeon. If we go to St. Louis, they will also want to see her each month. We are going to see if our insurance will cover the medical bills there or not.

We are praying that Kate will bend her elbow. If she can do that, her nerve was just stretched and with therapy she should make a full recovery.