Peyton's big week

The first part of this post is purely for photographic evidence. Peyton picked up this funny little habit somewhere, and it cracks me up every day. She likes to put things down her shirt. She puts everything down there- money, soap, food, toys, her binky, anything that will fit she will put down her shirt. Two times Peyton has snuck things past airport security in her footed sleepers- a bottle of travel size mouthwash, and a handful of hot chocolate packets. Both times I noticed something funny while we were sitting on the airplane, and Peyton just looks up at me like "I have no idea how those got in there."

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Here you can see her storing her sippy cupShe always looks down her shirt after she puts something down it. Almost as if she's just checking to make sure it's still there.Peyton's 18month birthday was this Wednesday! I can't believe she's a year and a half old!

For some Christmas fun, we Thelins thought it would be fun to take the kids on one of Oregon's longest standing Christmas traditions- the Polar Express. It's a train in Mt. Hood that takes a ride to Santa's Village in the North Pole. Santa and his elves come on the train, and everyone sings carols and has hot chocolate and cookies, and read the book The Polar Express. The kids absolutely love it. Well, it wasn't so fun for the adults (the train went back and forth along a couple mile stretch 4 times, it was old and rickety, cold, and crowded) but the kids thought it was nothing short of incredible. After our exciting ride on the Polar Express and some (less than) stellar pizza at Piedro's Pizza- which was also far too crowded, we sent all the kids over age 2 home with Grandma and Grandpa, and Justin, Ashley, Jade and I took the baby girls in our car for what we thought would be a nice, quiet ride home. So, we're pulling out of Hood River (the town where the train station is), and Justin (who is driving the Suburban) turns to us all and says "What do you think guys- my gas light just went on. Should we turn around or will we make it to Portland?" Jade voted that he would make it, since Suburbans have such big gas tanks- he said "You'll probably be able to make it all the way back to your house, but at the very least, you'll make it in to Portland." Ashley brought up the reserve tank, which gives you an extra couple gallons of gas, after your regular tank is empty. I was out-voted, and so we left Hood River. Approximately fifteen minutes later, we hear a funny noise, and all of a sudden we start slowing down. A big red warning light goes off on the dashboard. And then... nothing. We were officially out of gas. Now I've never run out of gas before, and I'm pretty glad because this was a seriously scary experience. After being out of gas for twenty minutes, the battery died, so all our lights went out, and we didn't even have flashers. We were on the tiny shoulder of a busy freeway, with no lights, pouring rain, and semi-trucks screaming by every few seconds. Scary. So we were stuck waiting for AAA for over an hour. Luckily a nice cop came by and put up some flares, and even gave us some extras in case the ones he put out died. AAA finally made it to us, gave us enough gas to get to the nearest town, and jumped us, and we were finally able to get home, not a moment too soon. It was quite the experience. Ashley and I just kept reminding everyone of all the positive points- we didn't have any whiny kids with us, it wasn't freezing outside (which means no ice- scary), we were in a nice big car, and we even had snacks! Needless to say, I think we all learned a lesson about gas lights that night.

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Peyton was excited for the Polar Express. This is her new "excited" faceI really love her pink, sparkly chucks, and her pink Santa jammies. Seriously, what would have I done if she was a boy?On board the Polar ExpressOur little elves- Gabe, Sam, Taryn, Max, Macie, Marley, Peyton, Trenton (Grandma and Grandpa in the background)With The Man, himself. He was a perfect Santa.Note our provisionsThank goodness for AAAOur car, stuck just 1 mile from the next exit.

Friday was another big day for us. Since Peyton has excessive fat in her stool, we had to do one last (MAJOR) test- for Celiac Disease. Peyton had to get an endoscopy so they could biopsy some of her intestinal tissue to make sure she doesn't have Celiac Disease. The good news is that this will be Peyton's last test. If it is negative, we will just know that her little body absorbs nutrients differently, and she will most likely grow out of it. She will probably just take PediaSure so that we make sure she's getting all her necessary nutrients. If it is Celiac Disease, the good news is that there is a 100% cure for it- she just doesn't eat gluten. The bad news is that gluten is in just about everything (wheat, barley, and rye) so we will have some MAJOR diet changes. More good news- gluten-free is SUPER healthy and since it is becoming more common, mainstream restaurants like Outback Steakhouse have gluten-free menus, so she won't have too hard of a time eating. But we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

I have been super worried about this endoscopy. Truthfully, it was much harder on me than on Peyton. The worst part for her was not being able to eat Friday morning. The procedure was done at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital, which is the leading children's hospital in Oregon, and one of the best in the Northwest. Peyton was admitted, then given a physical, then an IV (thank goodness protuberant veins run in my family, and it only took one try for the nurse to get her IV in, which is unheard of in kids Peyton's age). Once the sedatives kicked in, (I opted to just have her sedated instead of put under general anesthesia- which is much scarier) Jade and I went to the waiting room and waited for about 12 minutes while the procedure was done. Those were 12 very long minutes. Then they came and got us and took us back to her, so we could be there with her when the sedatives wore off and she "came-to". Every single nurse and the doctor told us how wonderful she was. They said she was so cooperative and so good natured and even tempered. I was proud of my drugged little baby. Everything went so smoothly, which made me more than relieved. The doctor had us wait an hour to make sure she didn't have any side-effects, and then we were able to go home. The down side for me was that the drugs didn't seem to have a normal effect on Peyton. Instead of making her drowsy, they made her active. She wanted to climb and run around. Unfortunately, she was not even able to stand up by herself, so I had to carry her around. As a result of this, she got pissed. She did not want to be held- she wanted to walk around and eat food (which she also wasn't able to do). It made for one unhappy baby, and one frustrated momma. Luckily, when we got home she took a nap and woke up perfectly normal. Thank goodness. You would never even guess she just had a medical procedure yesterday.

In her hospital bed, wearing her special jammies

She really was not happy about having to sit still in that bed. Note she is still holding her jammies. I don't think she was thrilled to be in different jammies.

After the sedative kicked in she was hilarious. She just kept looking at everyone and smiling like "I don't know why this is funny, but it everyone is really, really silly"

Right when the sedatives wore off after the procedure, she wanted to get out of that bed. She would try to get up, and then fall over. It was sad, but kind of funny. Then she started getting mad that she couldn't walk, and that was not funny.

She couldn't even keep her eyes open, or her head up. I was just so happy to be holding my baby.