Our Little China Doll.
The Rockwell FamilyWell another month has flown by and I failed to post. Christmas was wonderful and we were able to spend time with friends and family. Elainea has now decided that she likes Santa Claus and will probably be excited for Christmas next year. The girls were so excited to get their handheld game systems. I was excited that I could still fit into a new pair of pajamas. I now weigh my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess that is the advantage of getting cryptosporidium when you are pregnant.
New Years was a fun celebration. We went to a party to compete for the Sequence tournament trophy. The girls had fun until we had to play the tie-breaking match after midnight. Hannah was begging to go night-night, but Elainea was content to just keep partying. We did not win back-to-back championships, but we gave it our best shot.
January was somewhat stressful. We went to give our depositions to the attorneys for the contractor and sub-contractor that built our home. Little did we know that the builder's insurance company would not cover his workmanship, but they do cover his legal expenses. Long story short this lawyer decided on the "I am gonna bury 'em tactic". In the deposition he announced his intention to depose every contractor that worked on our home as well as every doctor that Hannah has ever seen. This would put the cost of the builder's defense at over $150,000.00 which was three times what we were suing for. The attitude of the insurance company is that they would rather pay a lawyer whom they have a business agreement with than some unknown homeowner. Nice news for us! If we went to court and lost we could stand to lose our house. This is a social outrage! I can not believe that in the United States the average family can not afford justice. We decided that rather than risk the stress of trial on the baby and the risk of losing our house forced us to settle out of court for only a small fraction of the cost to repair our house. On the upside we still have our house and it has a brand new outfit and we are glad that we can make it our home.
Elainea celebrated her 3rd birthday quietly at home. We were at church and they asked if anyone had a birthday and we nominated her. The whole congregation sang happy birthday to her and she started screaming and crying in anger. She could not handle the attention. We decided to tone down the actual birthday celebration. We put three candles in a ding dong for her birthday cake, gave her a balloon on her chair and sang quietly as a family. She was much more acceptable of this approach. We gave her a Chinese doll to play with, and she threw it on the floor and expressed her displeasure with the doll. She ran to the toy room and started playing with Hannah's old dolls. So much for thinking you understand someone.
Gotcha Day proved to be another interesting day. She started off with a low-grade fever and a cough, which quickly progressed into labored breathing and a high fever by the end of the day. Today we took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with pneumonia. It is odd to see her laying down, totally lethargic and begging for medicine. She has been sick before, but even with a fever of 105 she was still running around. She is on medication and we expect that she will start feeling better tomorrow.
Hannah is doing really well. She is a straight A student and loves school. She and Elainea are starting to get along better. Hannah is funny and is a total delight to be around.
Elainea's speech has improved drastically in the last month. She is no longer considered with a disability. The speech therapists and social workers have been amazed with her progress since July. Except for speech she is advanced for her age. We are very proud of her.
Hayden is small for a baby at this stage, but our midwife says to not worry that he is not dangerously small. This makes us feel better, but we still are concerned and pray that he will be safe and born healthy.
New Years was a fun celebration. We went to a party to compete for the Sequence tournament trophy. The girls had fun until we had to play the tie-breaking match after midnight. Hannah was begging to go night-night, but Elainea was content to just keep partying. We did not win back-to-back championships, but we gave it our best shot.
January was somewhat stressful. We went to give our depositions to the attorneys for the contractor and sub-contractor that built our home. Little did we know that the builder's insurance company would not cover his workmanship, but they do cover his legal expenses. Long story short this lawyer decided on the "I am gonna bury 'em tactic". In the deposition he announced his intention to depose every contractor that worked on our home as well as every doctor that Hannah has ever seen. This would put the cost of the builder's defense at over $150,000.00 which was three times what we were suing for. The attitude of the insurance company is that they would rather pay a lawyer whom they have a business agreement with than some unknown homeowner. Nice news for us! If we went to court and lost we could stand to lose our house. This is a social outrage! I can not believe that in the United States the average family can not afford justice. We decided that rather than risk the stress of trial on the baby and the risk of losing our house forced us to settle out of court for only a small fraction of the cost to repair our house. On the upside we still have our house and it has a brand new outfit and we are glad that we can make it our home.
Elainea celebrated her 3rd birthday quietly at home. We were at church and they asked if anyone had a birthday and we nominated her. The whole congregation sang happy birthday to her and she started screaming and crying in anger. She could not handle the attention. We decided to tone down the actual birthday celebration. We put three candles in a ding dong for her birthday cake, gave her a balloon on her chair and sang quietly as a family. She was much more acceptable of this approach. We gave her a Chinese doll to play with, and she threw it on the floor and expressed her displeasure with the doll. She ran to the toy room and started playing with Hannah's old dolls. So much for thinking you understand someone.
Gotcha Day proved to be another interesting day. She started off with a low-grade fever and a cough, which quickly progressed into labored breathing and a high fever by the end of the day. Today we took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with pneumonia. It is odd to see her laying down, totally lethargic and begging for medicine. She has been sick before, but even with a fever of 105 she was still running around. She is on medication and we expect that she will start feeling better tomorrow.
Hannah is doing really well. She is a straight A student and loves school. She and Elainea are starting to get along better. Hannah is funny and is a total delight to be around.
Elainea's speech has improved drastically in the last month. She is no longer considered with a disability. The speech therapists and social workers have been amazed with her progress since July. Except for speech she is advanced for her age. We are very proud of her.
Hayden is small for a baby at this stage, but our midwife says to not worry that he is not dangerously small. This makes us feel better, but we still are concerned and pray that he will be safe and born healthy.
If the past year has taught us anything it is this "As a family we can endure anything". We have been so blessed to have everything that we do, but most of all because we have each other.
