Prior to Christmas Eve, all these winter weather warnings and advisories started appearing on the news. As the day got closer, the severe weather warnings turned into a blizzard warning, one of the first that KC has ever had. We weren't really sure what to expect, but we knew we were going to get a whole lot of snow!
On Dec 23, Eli had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder to repair some torn cartilege. He injured it this past summer, and has been trying to do some physical therapy in the hopes that it would heal itself. It turns out that surgery was the only way to repair it and we wanted to have it done while I was off work and able to help him out (doing everyday things, driving, etc). During the surgery, they were able to confirm a labrum tear (the cartilege that surrounds your shoulder socket) and fixed it by creating anchors that help the cartilege re-adhere to the bone. It is amazing that they are able to do all of that with only 3 tiny incisions. The surgery went really well.
As part of his rehab, Eli has to wear an immobilizer that prevents him from moving his upper arm except for small exercises to keep it from getting too stiff. He will be in the immobilizer for about 4 weeks and then will gradually do physical therapy to build his strength back up. In the meantime, he is not able to do much with his right arm, which stinks. I know he feels really bad about not being able to do much with Ella, but I told him to enjoy his break from changing dirty diapers and middle of the night soothing sessions!
So, these two events made for one very interesting Christmas. Since Eli's surgery was so close to Christmas, we decided to postpone our trip to St Louis to visit his family for the holidays. Eli was pretty loopy for a day or two and was in a lot of pain, so it made sense to stay home so he could rest. On Christmas day, we woke up to that mother of a blizzard we were hearing so much about ... mother nature had dumped about 8 inches of snow on us and the wind had created HUGE snowdrifts everywhere! We couldn't even open our back door to let Marley out, so he had to try and battle his way down our front stairs. It was hilarious b/c he is small and white and almost got buried by all that snow! He was so confused about where to go to the bathroom, so most of the time, he ended up peeing in our driveway.
Here's Marley looking outside longingly at our backyard ... the snow would have been up to his chin!
Marley peeing in our driveway :)
My mom called Christmas morning and told us that Christmas at my granny's in Lawrence had been postponed until the next day, so we spent the entire day lounging around with Ella in our pajamas - it was so relaxing. Ella gots lots of fun presents - plenty of toys and books for those chubby hands to grab and stick in her mouth! We had a blast playing with her, watching movies, and gazing outside at all that snow. What a perfect day!
We are getting ready to head to St Louis for New Years and are really looking forward to seeing Eli's family. It is snowing again ... let's hope it cooperates with our travel plans!
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