The Jones Girls

When I was driving the triplets home from Amanda’s Occupational Therapy appointment yesterday, someone hit us.   I was on Euclid and Chapman in Fullerton and stopped at a red light.   I always look in my rear view mirror when I stop to see if the person behind me is stopping.   This is a reflex action after I got rear ended back in 1990 – what a bad accident that was!! 

Anyway, as I was looking in the rear view mirror, this black Toyota car kept on driving and not stopping.   I got nervous.  I assessed my surroundings to see if I could get out of her way but there were cars all around me.  So I prayed to God for protection, pressed my foot hard on the break, and I held on tight to the steering wheel with anticipation that we were being hit.   I focused my vision on my triplets in the back seat praying…   Wham!!  We were hit pretty bad in the rear.  She must have been going 30 mph.    I jolted forward even in my seat belt, but I was ok.  The girls jolted forward but were ok.  Thank God.  Savannah was in preschool safe and sound.  Again, thank God.

Then she got out of her car to assess the damage to her car.  She didn’t ask if I was ok or say sorry.   I told her I had triplet babies in car seats in my car.  I was so mad that she didn’t even ask if they were ok or check on any of us.  This girls was 18-20 years old.   I bet she was talking on the phone or text messaging.

I called Cliff to see if he was home.  I told him to get here and bring a camera and told him we were ok and what happened.  Then I called 911 to have the police come and the paramedics to check all of us out.   They were there in a few minutes and checked us all out.  My neck and lower back were sore.  The triplets all check out fine.  The paramedics told me a baby in a car seat is safer in a accident than an adult in a seat belt.   Very interesting…

The police took a report.  I didn’t even want to talk to get the girl, she was acting like the victim.  She stated she had a head concussion 2 days before the accident.   She called someone on her phone, probably her boyfriend and I heard her say that she wasn’t paying attention and hit us.  I should have gotten her insurance and driver’s license info but my girls needed me in the car.   I figured all of this would be noted on the police report.   it was a new car so I am sure she had insurance.  If not, we have uninsured motorist coverage on my insurance policy to protect us. 

Cliff arrived and immediately check on the triplets.  He then took pictures of both of our cars, the street, etc.   He assessed my car and said my tail pipe was destroyed but I could drive home slowly and carefully not going over 35-40mph.   So the police officer stopped traffic so I could get out of there.  I drove home carefully and I noticed when it was approaching 40mph the car would shimmy. 

I called the insurance agent and then picked up a minivan car rental from Enterprise.  Today I am taking our minivan into our mechanic who also a body shop as well.

Thank God we are all ok.  I am sore but will be alright.

Amanda saw her Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Wright, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles twice in November.  Both appointments the doctor said she is very impressed with Amanda’s recovery and she has exceeded expectations on how well Amanda is beginning to use her new thumb.  

Amanda has some stiffness in her thumb and the dr. said this is to be expected and in time as she begins to use it, the thumb will bend and be less stiff.   She said it can take up to one or two years for her thumb to be functional.

Amanda’s thumb looks amazing and Cliff and I are so happy we made the decision for Amanda to have this surgery.

I met with Maryssa’s case worker, Melanie, with Regional Center Early Intervention.  Maryssa has been approved for in-home private speech therapy once a week for an hour by a well known speech therapist in the area, Erica McBride.   She receives therapy every Tuesday at 5:30pm one – one with Erica.  I will feed the girls while Maryssa receives therapy.  This will be a good thing that way Maryssa will be able to focus and not be distracted by her sisters.   She was supposed begin Nov. 18th but we had an appointment glitch so we will begin Nov. 25th. 

Amanda is now receiving Occupational Therapy for her new thumb.   She had her first therapy session with her therapist, Michelle, on November 5th.  We take Amanda every Wednesday for 45 minutes for occupational therapy.  She does really well.    The drive is almost 30 minutes away but I will drive anywhere to help my kids!!

Halloween was so much fun this year.  The week before Halloween I took her down to Children’s Museum of La Habra and we carved a pumpkin and then we did a wind sock in the shape of a bat.  Our friends,  Victoria and her daughter, Sophia, joined us.   The museum offers this every year.  It is free.   They have really cool stensiles, all of the carving tools and the tables are covered to keep things cleaned.  Their craft room where we made the bat had all free materials so we could make the windsocks.   We are so lucky to have this place in our community!!

The weather in the last 2 weeks of October has been HOT.   We are talking mid to upper 90’s every day.  It certainly didn’t feel like autumn weather here!!  I didn’t want to get the girls costumes that made them too hot but when they trick or treated at night I wanted them to be warm.  So we decided to do 2 different costumes.   All 4 girls were ballerinas.  They looked so precious in their pink tutus and matching ballet slippers.   Their costumes for the evening of Halloween for trick or treating were Minnie Mouses.

In the morning I took the girls to the La habra Heights 30th anniversary celebration at the LHH park.   They had pony rides, bouncy houses, petting zoos, hay rides and fun activities.   Everything was complimentary.   We had so much fun.  The girls rode the ponies twice!! 

In the afternoon, we attended a Halloween party at Presbyterian Hospital in Whittier (PIH) for the annual NICU party.   They had a really fun bubble mania where the kids could make life size bubbles.   They looked so cute…4 ballerinas making all of these bubbles.

In the evening we attended our La Habra Mom’s Club annual Halloween party at my friend Fay’s house.   We had a costume parade, played games, ate yummy appetizers and enjoyed every one’s company.  It was a lot of fun.

I was supposed to take thre triplets to Savannah’s Halloween party at preschool but I was sick.  Savannah was a ballerina at school.  I ate some tamales my neighbor brought over and got really sick.  I think it was food poisoning.  So I was out of commission and couldn’t do anything.  I felt much better the day of Halloween thank goodness.    So mommy and daddy took our 4 adorable Minnnie mouses out for trick or treating in their choo choo wagon.   They filled their pumpkins with candy!!   The neighborhood was the busiest with bustling trick or treating that I can remember in the 10 years that I have lived here.   I came home to give out candy and Cliff continued on with the girls to trick or treat.  It was so much fun!!