DuckyPonder

Child Labor-

2012-01-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

It tastes like fresh guacamole.

Brilliant Mind

2012-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

This is more of a journal entry, mostly because I don't want to forget some things from this stage in Dave's life....ok you have been given fair warning ;)

David is one confusing child.

He still has no diagnosis other than significant global developmental delay, but I know that will change as the years go on. We often say "It's a David thing" in our house. He has not followed by the books in any way. We constantly are learning a new normal. Right now it doesn't feel like a trial so much as a life-learning experience.

Despite a 35% delay in speech, some of the things that come out of this kid's mouth just boggles my mind. This is not a "look how awesome my kid is" but seriously I am perplexed by his little mind! How can he have such a severe delay in so many areas yet have this incredible sponge memory?

What re-prompted (seriously this happens all the time where I am blown away at his memory) this, was a few hours ago we went to the library. He hopped on a computer and spent about 2 minutes arrowing through a screen that had a letter of the alphabet followed by a picture of something that starts with that letter. ie, "Rr" with a picture of a rainbow. He spent maybe a couple seconds on each letter, and I was taking note of how quickly but thoroughly he was studying each photo.

Now it is a few hours later and he is sitting on the couch, repeating the alphabet with each letter's corresponding picture. I recognize that he is not just thinking of something on his own that starts with that letter because I specifically remember noting what the pictures were and some of them had strange choices. I wouldn't be able to tell you from my own memory what all the letter's pictures were, but since he is repeating it back to me, it then recalls it from my memory--if that makes sense.

He is having one of those days, that I've mentioned before. Where his quirks and tics are much more noticeable to me, his language is more sparse and harder to understand, but then he starts regenerating information that he has previously processed at some point. The human brain is SO fascinating. I wish I understood him more.

Since we pulled him from his special ed school about a week ago I have been reintroduced to his little world. I felt like I was missing so much of it. He was up at 6:00 and getting ready, gone by 6:50, and not home again until 3:40. In the last 3 1/2 hours he was home before bed, he was tired and needed quiet - not conversation, or was busy eating, bathing, etc. Months of time passed where I felt like I was missing really knowing my child. I am sure all parents feel this way when their little children tot off to kindergarten, or in dual-income families where the schedules are similar to what I mentioned above, or maybe even more rigid. I feel blessed to be staying home with him. It is a challenging experience as I try to understand what makes him feel so angry, and how to get through to him on days where he is in a different world. How to balance teaching him the things of a regular-developing world while battling knowing that expectations need to be adjusted. To be so so proud of him for making it out for our first morning of running multiple errands in underwear, when he is 4 1/2 and most kids his age have been potty trained for a year or year and a half or more by now. His victories are different, but it makes me so much more proud of him for having to overcome them at a heavier price and harder work. And then there are things like today that just boggle my inferior mind. 100% of the time I think that David is insanely smarter than both Bart and I, but his mind just doesn't know how to properly process the information. I can't wait to see the little boy, and adolescent, and man he becomes, it's such a mystery.

Ok. Time stamped and sealed into the blogosphere... to remember on a hard day, or some day in the probably not-so-distant future when I might forget what life was like back when Dave was 4 and started staying home again. :)

the one

2011-12-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

Every year there is "the one" gift Dave will sleep, eat, brush teeth with, and generally carry around like a security blanket for weeks after Christmas.

This year? His choice was immediately obvious. He is in Star Wars heaven.

Christmas Prep

2011-12-23T19:35:00.000-08:00

We have been decking the halls and are officially ready for Christmas after visiting Santa yesterday. So many things to feel grateful and excited for this Christmas season!

We got the tree up super early this year in mid November. We waited until after Thanksgiving to decorate it and the rest of the house, but it's been nice sitting by the glow of the tree each night after Dave is in bed.

Yesterday Dave and I went to see Santa. He wasn't really into the idea of leaving the house at first--he was happy to get to stay home with mom and just play instead of school.

Then he realized what I actually meant.

And got super excited.

He was star-struck when we got there and he saw it was ACTUALLY SANTA CLAUS!

He got a little nervous while we waited in line

And tried to be patient while he waited for his turn.

Santa is such a sweet old man!

He asked Dave for a big hug and sent him on his way with a piece of chocolate, stickers, and a coloring book!

Christmas Eve? bring it on!

"quirky"

2011-12-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

I'm a little OCD. And I say that not in a "haha that's funny" way, but honestly, there are some slightly crazy things about me. Bart teases me a bit about it. The most evident of this is my nighttime routine. Everything on my bedstand (tissues, glass of water, stick of blistex, plugged in phone, and st. ives intensive healing for sensitive skin lotion) is carefully placed in the same places so I can get to them in the middle of the night. I can't sleep without lotion on my feet, to the extent of when I get out of bed if I forget something after I do my lotion, I have to reapply. It has to be the one kind of lotion. If I don't do it my feet literally hurt. This drives Bart CRAZY because lotioning routine takes about a minute and sometimes I will have to redo it two or so times before I'm able to lay down for good.

Crazy, right? I know. I also feel weird sitting in certain areas of a room, like if my back is to something sometimes it bothers me, and I panic a little bit if I feel like I'm in a place where I can't leave if I need to quickly. I like making lists. I'm a little bit psycho.

The first time we took Dave in for a consult we mentioned his OCD behavior and his need for processes to be done in a certain way and not interrupted. He is still like this in a very severe way, I think it's part of his disabilities, but I'm certain it is perpetuated by having me as a mother. As we were answering her questions, I was lining up toys that Dave was bringing me into a straight line. The doctor looked at me like I was nuts.

Like mother, like son?

Well, I became more aware of the genetics of this thing over Thanksgiving. Like mother, like daughter? My mom labelled all the dishes we were going to use. For everything. It helped a lot in the chaos of getting everything plated and ready, but did we REALLY need a label for the salad tons to know what they were for? Or what the gravy boat is for?

I don't feel any less crazy, but at least I feel less alone!

Branson

2011-12-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

The first week of November, Bart's parents and his older sister Heather came to visit. We spent a couple days in Branson. None of us had ever been, and we really enjoyed ourselves. It seems like there is so much to do there. The highlights were riding the Branson Belle boat and the famous train. Dave really thought it was cool. Fall colors were still abundant. Bart also went with his parents and Heather to see the Osmonds while I hung back with Dave in the hotel. I'm so glad they were able to visit.

Photomentary:

Halloween Happened

2011-12-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

Phew, I have been a bad little blogger.

Halloween happened! Dave will finish his stockpile of sugary sweets by 2016. (Seriously, you give this kid 3 smarties and he is bouncing!off!the!walls!)

Dave was Mr. Incredible!

Bart and I were zombies. Ok, that's just photoshop. We didn't dress up.

moneymoney

2011-11-22T06:37:00.000-08:00

Conversation with Dave this morning:
Dave: I need have some money please?
Me: I don't have any money.
Dave: I do have some money!
Me: Where? Can I have some?
Dave: (looking around on floor) I don't see ANY money ANYWHERE! It's gone!

Right you are Dave, right you are.

Bear

2011-10-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

Dave has this big plump brown bear. It was the first bear he ever received. He was two and a half days old. I had only held him once, for about 1 full minute before he was whisked away to the Children's hospital. I was recovering from my c-section and still a hospital patient when my son had his surgery, too. I talked the drs and nurses into letting me go see him in the hospital about 30 minutes away.

We got to the hospital and had to wait a while before we could go up --he was being taken for some tests. I was in quite a bit of pain. C-section recovery for me was pretty horrific, and with complications. I really just needed a pillow to rest under my legs. Bart ran to the gift shop and found a big plump brown teddy bear...to prop my legs on...and to eventually be Dave's when he got home. (You can't take stuffed animals into the nicu).

So this bear is special, and symbolizes the miracle of both of us making it through those first couple months...and how daddy (Bart) was the one that helped keep us together. Dave loves him. His name is Bear, appropriately ;)

nanananana batmaaaan

2011-10-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

The original "Michael Keaton" era 1984 Batmobile was parked in front of Walmart on Saturday. Dave was geekin' out. "Oh wooowwww." For the rest of the day he insisted that he needed to go back to "woo-mar" and "nee' dwive da batman car."

Skillz of Greatness

2011-10-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

His concentration says it all.

Around and Stop

2011-10-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Dave has been working on being able to draw a circle for over a year now. A year ago he was not really able to make more than very light (almost invisible!) marks on paper with a crayon. After working in occupational therapy, he was able to replicate a horizontal line fairly quickly.....but the circle has been a work in progress for a long time.

His old OT (I miss her so!) was such a sweet and kind person. Dave took to her instantly. I wish she could see that Dave has finally figured out the circle! She would work with him multiple times a week, and I would work with him each night. Arooooooooound and STOP! After a while we were able to get a series of swirls. Progress!

Here we are a year later and he can consistently draw a circle-ish shape without a ton of overlap.

So proud of him...can you imagine working for a whole year to do something so simple? The frustration would overwhelm me. He sticks with it and works hard.

He likes to draw faces. A series of horizontal and vertical lines for eyes, nose, mouth. This one is our dog, Katie. I told him to give her legs and ears. She has Shrek ears, evidentely ;)

EEG Party

2011-10-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

Dave had an EEG on Thursday. He's been having "events" that may or may not be seizures. This poor kid has had enough doctors appointments and pokes and wires to last him two lifetimes, and he's only 4. An EEG is a sleep deprivation study, so he got a few hours of sleep on Wednesday night and then I had to wake him up and keep him (and me!) awake until his 1PM appointment. So we had a party.

I started Wednesday night out with a nasty migraine. I waited until 1-something AM to medicate to hope it would last all day. Chocolate and excedrin pretty much fix everything. By 2 something AM I was feeling much, much better, and not as tired as expected.

Dave was ready to party with a slew of movies, watched back to back. Madagascar 2, Up, Monsters, some of those repeated again, Elf, on and on for hours and hours.

Of course what is a party without a little 2:30AM popcorn?

By 3 and 4 AM we were really wearing out. Dave and I had a little argument when I told him he needed to stay awake. "No! I go sleep! I need rest a little minute."

We bartered and he agreed to only stay awake if I would rub his feet for about 15-20 minutes.

He "need mama hold my hand"

By 5:30 or 6, we had another burst of energy and Dave and Katie played tug of war.

Dave lost.

This is the first she's really ever played with him, she's always been a little afraid.

And she basically dragged him around the room.

Spiderman made an appearance around 7

And he played with the batcave.

Nothing abnormal with a 7 AM tortilla.

I was a little relieved when the sun rose- it seemed like we were supposed to actually be awake.

He was a good sport and stayed in a good mood through most of the day.

Around 8 we "practiced" getting an EEG and I put stickers all over his head. He thought it was pretty silly.

Grandma came over around 8:30

She needed a pretend EEG too, so she got smiley stickers.

We busted out the big blocks, which our friend so graciously loaned us.

He built for a good hour or two.

This one was his masterpiece--designed by himself. He was so proud.

Thanks to my mom I was able to get about a half hour of sleep and a shower in, which made all the difference in the rest of my day. She gave him a bath and afterwards, he tried to set up a little sleeping nest on her. Dave would tackle her to the floor and then lay on top of her and suck his thumb and pull his ear, which means he is about to fall asleep. She would try to get him back up and he'd giggle and tackle her all over again.

It was almost time for the appointment! We had a totally nutritious and balanced lunch of frozen pizza and cheetos.

Bart came home early from work to be there for the EEG, and was the only way Dave stayed away on the drive down to Lowell. For the half hour drive, we put on a circus show in the car, were blasting music, singing, dancing, acting like CRAZY people just trying to keep him awake.

I didn't take photos at the EEG. It was rough on Dave, and a pretty traumatic experience, but he still acted like a champ despite all the tears he cried. We don't have results yet. He fell asleep for about 5 minutes during the study, 10 minutes in the car, and then came home and laid down on the couch for all of 3 minutes before.....

begging Bart..."comeon daaaad...les build sumpin!"

I am grateful we were able to go and have it checked out. Had our Dave been born even a dozen years ago instead of 4, it is very likely he wouldn't have made it past a couple months old. He has beat the odds in so so many ways. I can't express the joy he brings to my life, each and every day. Despite any restrictions his body has and continues to give him in this life, he is really a happy boy with so much love to give. Grateful. Love him. But boy am I glad that day is over :)

Ghost Zombies

2011-10-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

Certainly I didn't exactly heed the words of Pres Uchtdorf in the RS General Broadcast...... this absolutely did not constitute as a good use of time....but it was done at night while kicking back with Bart...and dreaming of cool spooky decorations. There is a gaping hole lacking Halloween decoration on the entertainment center...I need to spookify a frame to put this in. I'm not sure if I was going for ghosts, or zombies. Ghost Zombies?

Should I go ahead and two-for-one this and send it as our Christmas card this year?

Sunrises and Fog

2011-09-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

Oh how I wish I had brought a proper camera and had time to stop and take photos of the sunrises in the morning. It hits just in my morning commute and it's absolute torture to pass by things and think of all the great photos I'm passing up. Like orange and red fog? Yeah, definitely can not be properly photographed through a car with an iphone. So cool though. I geek out over it.

Big Baby

2011-09-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Meet Page. Good gravy, what a ham. Caught her sleeping like this a bit ago. She is one big baby.

sunsession

2011-09-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, you know I have a bit of an obsession with sunrises/sets. Sunrises, mostly. Right now, the sun is rising just as I take my son to school in the mornings. And his school happens to be east of here which means I have both the pleasure and annoyance of driving to school with the sun directly ahead of me.

Sometimes I'm sad I'm not at home or some other place with a more clear view than through my windshield with an iphone. But it is what it is...the photos never do the real thing justice. Here are some of my morning views from the last couple weeks.

Pledge of Allegiance

2011-09-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

Glad to see Dave is being instilled with some good solid knowledge at school. So many schools aren't "allowed" to recite the pledge of allegiance anymore, which is such a shame. I didn't know he knew this all the way through like this until just now. So cool!

Laugh-so-hard-I-cry funny

2011-09-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or in this case, laughs.

Mother Knows Best

2011-09-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

Dave has been into Disney's Tangled and has been 'singing' the last line of "Mother Knows Best" over. and over. and over, kicking his foot out the same way every time, funny kiddo.

Sunrise Season

2011-08-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, all but the first had to be taken with my phone through a windshield, but you get the idea. I'm a bit obsessed.

"Weird" Days

2011-08-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Sick day over here. Bart was sick for a couple days last week, and Dave and I caught it within 12 hours of each other. What is it? I have no clue. I accurately named it virus cocktail last night. It seems like everything all at once....Dave even had a weird rash that popped up all over his body on Saturday...and THEN started acting sick. Usually it's the other way around--rash after you're better, right?

I don't know.

Anyway, I've been sitting here all day. It is a disaster zone and I'm pretty much past caring. I don't like that breakfast dishes are still laying around with four hour old milk and dirty laundry on the floor and basically an explosion of toys everywhere, but I like the thought of dragging myself to do anything even less. It's rough when everyone's basically sick at the same time. I really just want to crawl into bed. So I'm doing the next best thing--sitting in my comfy blue chair and playing ridiculous amounts of games, spending too much time on facebook, and now blogging.

I played a while with Dave this morning before I started feeling really crummy again. He's having a strange day. He has these every once in a while. I get excited when he has them, because I know I'm going to see him do something I didn't know he could do.

One of the more noticeable abnormal things Dave does has been "echolalia", which is basically just meaningless repetition of speech. It can be spit right back after you say something to him, or it can be from something he's seen before, like a movie, etc. This used to be his only way of communicating, for example,

Me: "Did you go to the park today?"
Dave: "Did go park day?"
Me: "You did, huh."
Dave: "Did, huh."

Now within the last month or two, he only repeats back in a few instances (yay!)--he's very tired, doesn't understand what you're saying, is very upset, on bad days, or on "weird" days. He still does enormous amounts of repeating and reenacting movies/events from the day, etc, but conversationally, it doesn't happen as often.

So today is a weird day--so that's one side of the weird day. The other side is that he will all the sudden say something that sounds like something a normally developing child would say, in the way a normally developing child would say it.

Example, this morning playing with Dave, all the sudden he stands up from the floor. And tells me
"Stay RIGHT there, I'll be right back, okay?"

All the words there, emphasis in the right places, regular speed, etc.

I'm pretty sure I didn't hide my surprise. I laughed and said "Okay."

He's said a few surprising things like that today. I think I can almost physically see the change in him, since I'm sick and just sort of watching him play independently today. All the sudden it's like brain overload, and he'll pretend like he's at school and repeat an entire conversation that happened a week ago, or he'll read the same book 10 times in a row, repeating the same thing over and over, or act out a scene from a movie. And then something clicks, and it's like his brain is all working, and he understands things or will say things the normally he wouldn't. I wish I understood more. I didn't even know there was a name (echolalia) to the repeating thing until recently. I am grateful for friends that have gone before me with autistic, PDD-NOS or autistic-like children to help me know I'm not alone and to find a new "normal".

Anyway, He has days like this now and then, and I feel like he retains some of the learned information--so I like days like this.

Kids are so confusing......I'm sure I'll look back on this at some point and it will make perfect sense to me, but for right now, we just roll with it. He really is an amazing child. I am continually trying to figure him out. We have our share of rough, frustrating behavioral days, but they are frequently balanced out by days of wonderful behavior. He can be so compassionate. I was feeling especially crummy this morning, and he could tell. He came up on the couch and sat above my head, and just laid his hand on my neck, to comfort me, and held my hand with his other hand. All by himself. Something so simple helped me feel a little better.

I feel like as a mom of a child with a global developmental delay with an unknown diagnosis, I just want to Dave to be the best Dave--and that it's my job to help him become that. But on many days, I think he's the one that's teaching me.

It's unfortunate that we're home sick today, but I'm glad I got to see this.

Funny things

2011-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who has grown children told me I should start recording some of the funny preschooler things Dave does.... she had a friend that wrote down everything and then gave it to her son on his wedding day. It probably will illicite a gigantic eyeroll but it will could be fun to look back on

Dave's been in speech, occupational, and physical therapies since January. His hard work is paying off. The most noticeable difference is his speech and comprehension. It's amazing how his little mind works and you can see connections being made all the time. He is a little sponge.

So naturally, like any other 4 year old...... sometimes things come out funny.

Today he came home from school and wanted a banana. He ate it and then wanted another. After his second large banana, he asked for a third. I told him 3 bananas was too much. He started whining. "Banana GO PARTY in my tummy!" Poor banana doesn't get to join the party in Dave's tummy. He apparently has watched a couple too many episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba lately.
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Today he also asked his first "random" question. "Pigs drink milk?" Where do kids come up with this stuff?
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My husband works for corporate Wal-Mart. He was leaving for work this morning and I wanted to see if Dave was aware of where his dad goes every day.

"Where's dad going?"

"Daddy work WalMart!" He said it so proud, like he thought it was so cool that his dad wore a blue vest in the store we visit so often. I didn't want to break it to him it wasn't REALLY Wal-Mart.
____________
Dave got star wars figurines for his birthday last week. It's been hard for him to have to stop playing with them so he can leave for school in the mornings. He is currently under the impression that yoda goes to the Jedi School, another school here locally, so he can't come to school with Dave.

4!!!!

2011-08-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Dave is 4!

It's hard to believe how much he's grown just in the last few months let alone four years! Check it out....

He had a great day! Here is the photomentary...

New School Year

2011-08-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

Dave only got about 2 1/2 weeks of summer back in June, though he's had Fridays off all summer, but today marked a new school year

Back in April when he first started going? 6 AM was a disaster.

He's a school champ now! AND will be 4 this week, to boot!

Sunrise series, storm style

2011-08-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

I wake up at 6 on weekday mornings. Until recently, it's already been light by 4 something. I've missed taking my sunrise photos!

We've had the same HOT weather every day for a month until this last week, it finally cooled off and we had CLOUDS and RAIN. I missed a double rainbow..but I did catch a cool sunrise right after a thunderstorm had passed through. I don't remember this house blocking my sunrises to this extent last year. I know the prettiest ones to see here seem to be in the fall and winter, so I'm excited for "sunrise season". It's coming! A new school year starts tomorrow!

Making a man's tie into a boy's tie

2011-07-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

As Dave approaches his 4th birthday, I thought it would be an appropriate time to amp up the Sunday Best wear and start regularly wearing a white shirt and tie to church.

He has a couple long sleeved white dress shirts, but it's been 100+ almost every day this month. I hemmed the sleeves of the smaller shirt, and then solicited old ties from my dad. Dave has one tie, that's about the appropriate length for a 2 year old, and has a Christmas pattern on it. He totally wore it to church last week.

My dad graciously donated a few old ties to the cause.

I started hacking the tie up, trying to decide how long it should be and how exactly I should put it back together. I got some idea help from HideousDreadfulStinky and made some modifications so it could have a matching neck-piece that would velcro shut.

What I love the most about this project is that this is a tie I remember my dad wearing all the time when I was a little girl. Now whenever Dave wears it, I'll think of daddy.

The finished, but not yet ironed products:

Thanks poppy for your donations!!

Little cute creatures in the garden

2011-07-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

I have my garden box, and then here on my little porch I have a few potted vegetable plants. I was tending the planter that is overcrowded with lettuce and a bunch of other stuff. All the sudden, a handful of little creatures jumped out, several out into the yard and two into my hair. (You best believe I did the bug dance)

I figured it was grasshoppers or something because of how they jumped. Why were there so many?

Then I looked closer and saw that three were left on the porch. Little toads! They weren't any bigger than my thumbnail.

Not sure why there were so many hanging out in there. It is a good hiding place. It gets watered regularly, has cool vegetation shade, and isn't as frequented with predators as the grass.

One of the little toads found a hiding spot in the water draining area of a pepper plant pot that I was about to water. I slowly watered it thinking it would probably enjoy a cool soak. I know, kind of ridiculous but this toad was in toad heaven. Look at his little arms (toads totally have arms) hanging on to the edge!

White Streak

2011-07-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

We noticed this small crescent shaped white streak in Dave's hair a couple years ago when his hair started growing in thicker. It's pretty hard to see because he's blond, but it's much more noticeable after his haircut this morning. Can ya see it?

What causes this? Maybe stress from a traumatic infancy?

Penguin Daddy

2011-07-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

Dave has had this giant penguin, which he calls either Penguin, or Hahfeet (happy feet) for about a year and a half. He totes him around quite often. If Penguin falls over, Dave asks if he's okay. He puts Penguin in timeout when necessary. He is a very authoritative penguin daddy.

The other day I caught him reading to Penguin. He even read him that annoying Dr Seuss book "10 Apples Up on Top." Now that's love.

Such a Cow.

2011-07-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Chick-fil-a just had their yearly "Cow Appreciation Day." If you dress up like a cow, you get free food.
Need I say more?

The 4th that does not disappoint

2011-07-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

For years, I have been plagued with crummy 4th of Julys. Julies? No, definitely Julys.

As a kid, someone was always sick, or it would rain, or someone would blow up into a fight, or I would rip my capris open from the belly button to the knee while at the fireworks with a thousand people, or I burned my hand, etc, etc. Since married life, things haven't improved much. Our dog was bitten by something poisonous and went into anaphylactic shock and almost died, Bart had a freshly broken back another year, last year I had just started to miscarry pregnancy the day before. Seriously? Not a good record.

This year? So. Much. Better!

We started the morning off grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Because honestly, what is a major holiday without a last second trip to the store? Followed by a long nap, and then a party at my sister's house.

And everybody knows....a successful party always includes ridiculous amounts of delicious food and things that explode.

There was bike riding. Well, sort of. Bike sitting.

Dave spent a lot of time ROLLINUPINTHEESCALAAADE

There were tender brotherly moments.

There were lots of cousins and new friends for Dave to play with.

There were bald nephews.

Yes, he is 2 1/2 years younger than me, and he is my nephew.

There was shrapnel. We all got pelted a time or two.

There was the annual pre-firework play, written and performed my my nieces....and my sweet sister Sarah that coaches them in proper voice projection techniques....and she even reads a line or two herself.

There were mamas....

And daddys....

And there were fireworks. Oh, how there were fireworks.

There were oohs and ahhs.

And abnormally large sidewalk chalk, naturally.

And the highlight of the evening...three grown men stealing the toddler's scooters for a downhill race....

Accidentally dangerously close to exploding fireworks.....

And to top it off, it was a beautiful clear (ok, pretty hot) night!

We are redefining the 4th of July celebration around these parts.........can't wait for next year!

I'ma do it anyway

2011-06-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Dave's home for summer break. Early in the morning he is so scrumptious. I smother him with kisses.

But hello people, he's almost 4...and WAY too cool for mom, so he says"ewwwwwwwww I WIPE kiss."

Hmmmm..

2011-06-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Now that's what I call a cool car....

ba dum tish.

Surreal

2011-06-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

I still can't seem to get used to the weird clouds here in Arkansas. Don't they just look wicked?

My Dirty Little Secret

2011-06-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

We call our 3rd "bedroom" the "storage room." Since we don't have useable garage or attic space, it is a catch-all for outdoor toys and gear, luggage, files, crafts, books, movies, holiday decorations, blankets, outgrown baby clothes...etc, etc.

If you come to my house and need to use the bathroom, I usually am very explicit that the bathroom is the SECOND door down the hall to the left, in fear that you will open the FIRST door and be horrified by the storage room.

Today it got a good cleaning. I took a before photo because the last time I cleaned it (um, months ago?) I felt like it was still a disaster when I finished it due to all the STUFF. Yeah not having that problem this time...it was SO hoarderishly (totally a word, right?) cluttered.

And of course, an after photo for your viewing pleasure.

Yay! I can actually sew in here now!

Hey babe

2011-06-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hey babe. Sup?

AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA

2011-06-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA......That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of spiders. In my house.

Last week, Bart found a brown recluse in our master bathroom. Like. 5 feet from where I sleep. Now, I don't like tiny little baby house spiders. AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA. I didn't sleep much that night. And I literally made Bart stand outside the bathroom door while I got ready for bed in case another one should happen to try to eat me while my defenses were down. Seriously! I thought brown recluses were reclusive...but it went running TOWARDS Bart when he tried to get a closer look at it. I was doing some reading (Um, don't google spiders after finding one in your home if you ever want to sleep again) and I guess that some of them do that because they see your clothing as a hiding place. And then you move wrong to tick it off and it bites you. And I really shouldn't say tick because it was just two weekends ago when we had the whole tick bite fiasco. BUGS!! AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA.

But whatever. Life goes on. I mean, we got over the whole wolf spider with hundreds of babies on its back from last fall, right? Or maybe not...since Bart found another mama wolf spider with hundreds of babies on her back AGAIN this morning. Look, I know wolf spiders aren't that big of a deal but they're big...and HELLO THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF BABIES THAT COULD GROW INTO BIG SPIDERS AND HAVE HUNDREDS OF BABIES. In my house. AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA. Here is an example, for your cathartic viewing pleasure.

And then, there's the fact that I have a 3 year old BOY who likes BOY things. I was cleaning up and organizing toys (knowing fully well they would stay organized for about 60 seconds) and found a little black travel bag that I gave Dave to stow his stuff in. It seemed empty so I was going to put some little miscellaneous toys in it. I opened the bag up to stuff it and AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA!!!!!

BIG.....GIANT....

oh. Fake spider. About the same time I screamed and threw it down on the ground at my knees I remembered...Fake. Fake. Fake. ALSO at the same time....A REAL spider came scurrying out of the same bag. Commence screaming again.

AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA.

Sitting duck

2011-06-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

Dave was sent home early from school on Wednesday by the nurse. He started antibiotics Thursday and by Friday was feeling better, but I kept him home from school because his eye still looked pretty bad in the morning.

Thursday, he was miserable and cried almost all day and had two full-blown panic attacks because he couldn't breathe through his nose. It was so sad.

By Friday afternoon, he was feeling much better and was an easy target for boredom. Thank goodness for the "Bat cave" we got him for Christmas. This toy is seriously awesome. (And I wish I was getting paid to say this, but this is just my unbiased opinion) If you're looking for a cool toy for your kiddo...imaginext's batcave or I think they have some others...awesome. Lots of sturdy levers and hatches to open and shut and let the imagination run wild.

And when you're 3 and REALLY bored?....opening and shutting a hatch for an hour with mom peekaboo'ing on the other side may just save you from a horrible tantrum timeout.

Stick that tongue out, kid! Poor puffy eye.

Memorial Day

2011-06-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day was the morning we came home from our camping fail. We spent the morning cleaning up and feeling fried out from lack of sleep...so we were glad when my parents called to invite us over for a very low-key grill out. The rest of my family in the area was out of town in various places, so we just had a quiet outdoor picnic at my parent's house.

I promise the rest of us were there.......I just seem to only take pictures of Dave which is something I should probably work on ;)

We had our picnic.....look! Bart's elbow!!!

Then I got Dave in his swimsuit to go out and help water the gardens and play around. He was very confused as to why he didn't have a diaper on. I didn't have a swim diaper for him and figured a regular one would blow up like a balloon, and we were just in the backyard, right?

He kept asking "where diaper??" and pulling at the meshing inside.

My garden is growing! We've been eating some lettuce, green onions, basil and...mmmm cilantro. I have never had such good cilantro. Can't wait for everything else to come in! On the other end I have peppers and a few different tomato plants, some pole beans, some more herbs and for fun, I thought I'd see if I could still grow brocolli in the summer. Worth a try, right?

Cabin Fever Much?

2011-06-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Dave has been home from preschool the last two days with a double ear infection, eye infection, and sinus infection. Yuck. He is feeling much better today though and cabin fever has settled in.....

Sunrise series

2011-06-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

I took this with my iphone while at a stoplight on the way to Dave's school yesterday morning. I loved all the different clouds. It seems like right now the sun comes up at 5 something. So by the time I'm up at 6am, most of the deep reds and purples are already gone. Can we just skip the summer so I can see pretty sunrises again without waking up so early?

Camping Fail

2011-05-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after church, we headed down to Devil's Den to go on our first family camping trip. I haven't been camping for 10 years and it's been 5 or 6 for Bart.

Bart has been wanting to go for some time. He's crazy about camping. Case in point? Totally crazy.

We set up the tent momentarily on Saturday to make sure our family of four (dog) would fit inside. Perfect size for all of us! Well, I guess perfect would ideally ALWAYS be more space, but it would work just fine. Yay! We called and they had ONE overflow spot left, which meant it was cheaper! It was only available Sunday night so we wouldn't be able to make a weekend of it.

We told Dave in the morning that we were going to go camping. And then we told him it was time to get ready for church. "NO!!! CAMPING!" "You don't even know what camping is." "CAMPING!!!!"

After church we came home and piled in the car, headed to Devil's Den and set up camp.

Can I just say I love that my husband loves the outdoors and using his hands and is an Eagle Scout and knows how to do all kinds of cool stuff because of it? He is seriously talented.

Dave was pretty excited about the tent going up.

Dave is seriously rockin those socks.

After setting up camp, we kicked back and sat around the firepit for a bit. It was 90 degrees outside so we were quite toasty without the fire until the sun went down.

Boredom started to settle in so I told Dave to throw rocks at the pole that you hang your trash up on. This entertained for about 10 minutes :)

And then I think he just settled in a bit and was enjoying the outdoors for a bit. He went and just stared out by himself for a little while. I love to see him react to his surroundings without knowing anyone is watching.

But boredom settled in again and he wanted to go off and explore by himself. It was pretty rocky and sloped and he was trying some pretty unsafe stunts (read- he's a boy) and he learned that even "camping" has a timeout spot.

We brought Katiepup along...

And here's proof that I went :)

Around 8 it finally cooled off to mid/lower 80s so the boys started gathering sticks to start a fire. Dave was very proud of himself.

And he was of course a little pyro.

Overtaken by the splendor of the flame.

We roasted some hotdogs just as it started to get dark.

When night fell, I started to get creeped out by some rustling I kept hearing. Bart kept reassuring me that it was probably just leaves rustling or squirells in the trees. And then something appeared.....OFIJAWOEIFJAOIEJA!!!! WHAT IS THAT!!!

IT'S....A....

Oh. Armadillo.

Yeah I was still totally creeped out.

It was about 10 or 10:30 when we decided we better get to sleep. Once it got dark outside Dave started acting a little funny. Like he was camped out and tired. I figured when we got in the tent he'd be really excited and think it was cool.

Instead? "I wanna go home." This is coming from a kid that rarely speaks 4 word sentences and most of the time they have to do with wanting food or wanting someone to stop doing something. He usually doesn't think about any other place than where he is, so I was really surprised when he said it.

For the next half hour, he kept repeating it and then got really angry and started basically beating me up while Bart was finishing up cleaning up the fire and trash.

We decided it was best just to go home. It was still 80 degrees outside and more like 85 in the tent, and we had one little boy that DEFINITELY wanted to go home....which made all of us want to go home.

We got home and got Dave in bed, showered to get the smoky smell out, and by this time it was about 1 AM. Bart asked me to check for ticks on his back real quickly...and right as I was about to clear him, I found one on his leg. After searching everyone and everything, our current live tick count is up to 7. I'm hoping it stops there. Yuck. We have had to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. We found 3 ticks on Katie so far, and they're hard to find under her fur. We're hoping a good tick and flea bath will help.

It was nice to sit around the campfire out in the woods for a little while, but I think we've decided for now, we don't want to go camping anytime soon again in Arkansas!!

God's Majesty

2011-05-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

I have always been fascinated by light. As I look through all my "landscape" photos...I seem to focus on light (sunrise, sunsets, weather) and moving water. Light is so captivating.

You know when it's partly cloudy and the sun peaks through, there are these majestic sunbeam streaks that extend from the clouds down to the horizon?

Skies like this always make me feel like God is telling me He's not so far away. Like the kingdom above opens just for a brief moment and remind me of where I've come from. That I could almost reach up and touch the heavens if I really wanted to.

The last several days I've seen several skies like this. God saying "I am here, and I have a plan."

Master Gardener

2011-05-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

Dave planting some more seeds in the garden this morning. He was a pro. My parents have "loaned me" one of their garden boxes to plant in this summer until we have a home of our own to garden in--is that love, or what? I CAN'T WAIT to have a big garden...something about digging into cool dirt is so therapeutic.

Storms

2011-05-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

We have had some severe storms going through. Lots of tornado warnings, etc. Nothing more than some hail and light wind damage here, but there were EF4 and EF5 tornadoes just south and north of here. It breaks my heart to see the photos of destruction up in Joplin, MO.

I was 14 when my town was hit by an F4 and I still remember clearly the destruction and devastating things we saw...but our storm was nothing like this. Only 4 lost their lives in Cincinnati--in Joplin the count is well over 100 dead. And since I was just 14, I wasn't as heavily impacted by the stresses that we face as heads of family to protect and provide for our children. I heard of a woman who was holding a son the same age as mine and he was ripped out of her arms when the tornado came through. Absolutely devastating.

We did take some time to prepare, freshened up some 72 hour kits and figured out the safest place in our home was unfortunately under our kitchen table.

We saw some serious rotation in the clouds outside (yes, I stood outside barefoot in the middle of the street with with the cold inflow rushing towards the storm north of here....genius)

Tornado warning, around 7PM on 5/22. I have never seen rotation like this before. I love watching storms and following weather...I was geekin' out.

This one below was taken during one storm that had no real severe threat to us but severe threat to the east of us. The clouds formed overhead and were absolutely black. This was taken during the daytime. You can see the light off in the distance to the north, and you can tell how dark is is from the glow of the lights in the house across the way. It was incredible.

We also got deluged with rain, which caused some flash flooding problems again. These were shots I took between Centerton and Rogers, AR

Kryptonite Cake

2011-05-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

Any work done at the gym this week has been negated by this rich chocolatey goodness cake.

Chocolate is my kryptonite.

Please don't ask me what's in it; I'm too ashamed to say...but you're welcome to come grab a slice if you're curious. :)

Blonde?

2011-05-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

A little hair history:

So back in 2008, I dyed my hair a medium auburn. I'd never dyed my hair before, unless you count the strawberry temporary highlights my roommate did for me in college. Hairdye FAIL....you couldn't really see them a whole lot. I think she just wanted to put this ugly cap on me and take pictures.... And yes, we were 19 year olds with a rubby ducky themed bathroom. Don't hate.

The auburn looked like this:

I wanted it a smidge darker. So in my non-hair educated mind I thought if I processed a brown dye on top of it for a short while I'd get a dark auburn. Wrong. I got BLACK.

Like really seriously black. Hi, I'm Josie. I have super pale skin and light blue eyes. Black hair on me was REALLY weird.

Fast forward to 2011.

Haven't tried blonde yet, right? And yes I'm 26 but I'm getting GRAYS and that dull "I've had babies" hair...as blogged about back in '09 here. So that's my excuse, right? Ok, I really just wanted to do something new and bright for the summer. I gave myself blonde highlights a couple months ago and liked it. When the roots came in I decided to go more blonde. And yes, I was a little bit crazy and did it myself (it took me 4 hours and very tired arms) for $6. I'm still adjusting...I feel like I have a wig on or i'm looking at a stranger in the mirror. Does anyone else that does dramatic changes to their hair do this?

BLONDIE!

Blog on whether blondes have more fun is to follow.

Empathetic Claustrophobia

2011-05-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the radio while driving Dave to school a few days ago. People were calling in and talking about their biggest fears.

Most would say the things you would expect--heights, spiders, cockroaches, public speaking. Then one lady called in and said that she didn't consider herself claustrophobic, that she did fine in elevators, etc, but if she walked into a room that was smaller than she thought it was supposed to be, she'd panic....and have to "flee" the scene.

I chuckled at it and went about my day.

And then on the commute to take Dave to school this morning I had an out-of-body claustrophobic moment.

Have you seen the new smart cars out on the road? They remind me of every funny European vacation movie I've ever seen....how the people always rent a "compact" expecting a Civic or Corolla sized vehicle, and end up with a car that looks like this:

They're growing a little more popular, and apparently even enormous men drive them now.

This guy was hunched over the entire 25 minutes that he was stuck in traffic behind me (which for some reason in this pic you can't really tell). Whenever he reached for his coffee, just the act of extending his arm shook the whole car.

If you asked Dave, he'd say that he was Mr. Incredible.

After double-taking in my rear view mirror and a good out-loud laugh (and snapping a pic with my iPhone), I started to feel claustrophobic FOR the man...and the lady that called in on the radio a few days back suddenly seemed TOTALLY normal. Why would he subject himself to that!? Wife's car? Just trying to be super green?

Thanks for the laugh...big smart car guy. Don't worry....we all have a crazy iPhone pic of us taken at some point.

We. Are. Fa-mil-y

2011-05-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

We (I) am trying to be better about taking family pictures. We have hardly any photos of me and Bart...or of the three of us. So I used my motherly powers on Mother's Day to insist on taking a few pictures...arm extended and camera backwards style.

Can I make a note about the picture below....Upon reviewing the 50 or so photos I took...most of them had Bart making a face similar to or worse than this. Mother's Day magic can only do so much.

Thinking about NEC

2011-05-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

The house is so quiet. The last couple weeks I haven't really stopped long enough to notice. Since Dave's started school, I've been 5 times more busy than before. Prepping for the garage sale, catching up on housework and errands that I've otherwise neglected, my birthday, anniversary, mother's day celebrations. I still have a slew of things on my list but the last couple days have slowed a little. And it's quiet.

And you know how us chicks think a lot when it's quiet.

I've been thinking a lot about Dave. He's gaining so much more independence. Since he's started therapy, he's really taken off.

Last October, he couldn't take his socks off by himself. He spoke 2 word sentences occasionally, but mostly only repeated what was said around him.

Now he can almost get his shoes on unassisted. He can almost pump his own soap to wash his hands. He is learning to use a fork and spoon properly. He can drink out of a real cup. He speaks in 4 word sentences.

I know these things probably sound ridiculous to anyone with a normally developing almost 4 year old, but the transformation in him has been amazing.

I have blogged about some of Dave's health (or lack of) journey before, and most of it was focused on the before he was born part, because that's where the most apparent miracles happened.

I remember when the doctors told us to expect a less than 10% chance that our son live to birth, getting on my knees and pleading with my Heavenly Father for my son to live. The doctors had told us that if he did live, it likely wouldn't be for long, and not without some severe form of disability. So when his prognosis changed dramatically, we felt cautiously blessed, like our "luck" may run out.

When Dave was about a month and a half old, and had been home from the NICU for 10 days, we started noticing blood in his stool. At the ER his temperature was a startling low 96 degrees. In the next two hours, he lost over half his blood volume from his stomach and intestines. The doctors did not sugar coat. Our son was in very critical condition with necrotizing enterocolitis.

We felt like the miracles were done with and that it was time for him to go home. Bart and I said a prayer in the ER. As my sweet husband prayed for our son, I remember how real it began to feel when I heard him pray that if it is his time, that he may go quickly.

After blood transfusions and antibiotics and time in the PICU, our little guy beat odds again.

So now the house is quiet, like a little reminder of what may have happened. And it makes me feel so grateful that at 2:45pm it's not quiet anymore, and that Dave is home to teach me how to be a stronger, better person.

High Five Joke

2011-05-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Dave cracking (and laughing) at his first joke. I swear if you don't at least chuckle at this, you have no soul.

The Rains came down and the Floods came up

2011-05-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

It started raining and it didn't stop for a week in northwest Arkansas.

Devil's Den Park. This is a picnic area that our family enjoys.

Bella Vista

Highway 12, completely under water.

Hail in our yard.

Storm cloud to the north of our neighborhood. The duplex is blocking it but you can see a lowering section of a funnel cloud. It formed quickly and disappeared within a minute, never getting close to touching down.

Floodgates opened at Beaver Dam

University of Arkansas front steps became a waterfall

Funnel cloud photo taken by a friend in Bentonville

Storm clouds over our neighborhood in Centerton

More storm clouds over our neighborhood in Centerton.

Hail from our back yard

Flash flooding in Rogers taken from my car. That was one scary drive home from Dave's preschool.

Eventually the storms cleared and left us with very green grass and gorgeous skies!

APRIL IN PICTURES

2011-05-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

Since I last blogged a month ago:

We sold the truck for more than we bought it for. Awesome. Then bought a smaller more economical car for less than what we sold the truck for. Double awesome. It is fierce and purple. And manual, which makes Bart feel "at one with the road" or something. And also means I can't drive it because the closest thing to a clutch I've ever come in contact with is a piano sustain pedal.

I made jam. Lots of glorious strawberry jam. PBJs for lunch, everyday.

Dave hung out in the 'hood. As in...my sister's suburban neighborhood. It's quite nice. So fun to have cousins closeby.

I tried to do ridiculous and thoughtful things for my husband to induce either a feeling of specialness or laughter. I got laughter on all occasions. Nothing says love like a heart-shaped meatloaf.

We wore Halloween costumes in April. Just cuz.

We threw rocks. For a couple hours. Until a big spider crawled up my leg.

We went to a friend's house in our ward and took pictures with their Easter bunny.

And then taunted him endlessly with his buddies afterwards. Poor bunny.

Dave started full-time special ed school. He loves it--I promise. This was his first morning. 6:30 came MUCH too early.

And by 3 PM he was all tuckered out.

He's been going for over a week now and seems to be really enjoying it. It is an adjustment for me...and Katiepup both to have clean floors and such quiet. I am definitely ready by day's end to jump in the car and hear about his day of puzzles and playgrounds and crafts. Since day two he's been really excited each morning about going to his NEW SKYOO.

Dave keeps it real.

I celebrated my 26th birthday on Easter Sunday. I spent it with family and focusing on why my life is important. It was great.

We had massive rains over Easter weekend (a separate weather post to follow) so we did an indoor Easter Egg Hunt with cousins at my parent's house.

The kids laid all their candy aside and went completely nuts with the punch balloons they each found in large eggs. No bones or furnishings were broken--the true Easter miracle.

Dad is still the hilarious hero....

And I can never get enough cuddles with this guy, especially now that he's gone so much now.

And Katie...well she is reclaiming her territory during the days :)

Crazy weather and flood pictures will be a separate post.....it's incredible what mother nature did in the south within the last week and a half.

You're so vain

2011-03-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

Dave was pretty upset when I caught him checkin' himself out in the mirror this morning...bahahha

Heebies

2011-03-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

It's been about a week since this happened and I still have the heebie jeebies. Itching, squirming heebie jeebies.

Baby carrots are a refrigerator staple in our family. Grab a few to eat with lunch or dinner, ya know the drill.

But when I was making a roast and needed more than a few, I pulled the whole bag out of the fridge and laid it on the counter and saw something brownish.

They WERE a couple weeks old but not THAT old, right? The bag was more than half gone.

Upon a closer look, I found THIS:

THAT HAS LEGS. AND EYES.

Oh how I longed for the carrots just to have been strangely rotten.

I thought it was a cricket but upon further scrutiny, Bart and I classified it as a locust.

ITCH. SQUIRM. AWKWARD HEEBIE-JEEBIE DANCE.

Then, against (at least I'm REALLY...REALLY hoping) all odds, yesterday, I got an email from my friend Kelly in Ohio.

She was making taco salad for her family and opened a can of olives to serve with it and found THIS:

Oh man. No matter how you slice it.......THIS. AINT. RIGHT.

If you have any creepy cricket stories? Please simultaneously tell me and also keep them to yourselves to prevent any more heebie outbreaks.

Untitled

2011-03-19T17:48:00.001-07:00

The neighbor dog....my form of Chinese water torture, via my living room couch. :(

Memo.m4a Listen on Posterous

Febsies

2011-03-05T18:10:00.000-08:00

February is gone. Mostly...good riddance. Our family has spent the greater part of this winter sick. After all the playdates, appointments, preschool, therapy, church, etc we missed....there wasn't much of the month left to account for....BUT I did manage to capture a few photos, and we did have some good February moments :) Here's to hoping for a healthy and WARMER spring!

We got snow. Like...ridonkulous amounts of snow for Arkansas. Our largest snow left us with 18 inches.

Man, child, dog in snow awe.

Katie's Poo-de-sac

Dave was miserable sick. He had just had croup a couple weeks before and another something before that. So pitiful. The funny face in the second one is what he does whenever he is really congested. I always know instantly when he's coming down with something because he'll start to make this face.

This kid loves him some stickers. We are starting to try to introduce the potty back again and he is so excited whenever he has a success and gets to put a STEEKER up on the chart.

Grandma F made Dave a suhweet double-sided superhero cape. One side is batman, the other is superman. (I recently also discovered Dave can't say superman and instead calls him stupidman.) For a solid week, Dave wore the cape batman side out, but over his belly like a bib so he could SEE it....even to sleep in...minus one VERY mandatory (but tearful) wash. This is such a cute idea.

And then...there is THE DOG.

THAT DOG.

She barks. barks. barks. All. day. long. And Half. the night. long. We got new neighbors that leave their dog tied outside all the livelong day.

At first I loathed the dog. Even the neighbor across the way who normally is very quiet and seemingly kind was driven crazy enough to go on a screaming rampage one night after the dog had been barking constantly for over two hours. He completely lost his wits slightly before I lost mine. We turned off our TV and sat in the dark and just looked out the window at the drama.

Now, I feel sorry for her....but am still super annoyed. It seems like no one but God loves this dog. The lady next door is single and has three children age 3 and under including a newborn and made it pretty clear she doesn't have time or desire to keep the dog. Lately she has left her unleashed...like she's hoping the dog will run away or something. It's sad. I went out to leave her a bowl of water on our porch since she's obviously left out there. I called her over to come get some water and quickly went screaming for the backdoor when the little ankle biter came running for me barking... Of course Bart laughed at me and said there's no way she would have bitten me and that she's still "puppy"

Somebody's gotta love this dog. She's not even a year old and was abused as a little puppy...and seems to be quickly becoming abused again. What do you do? I don't want to make enemies with a duplex neighbor by calling animal services but at the same time...poor (annoying) dog!

Blissfully Unaware

2011-01-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

Look how blissfully unaware I am that my face is about to get sneezed on.

The Sunrise Series

2011-01-21T05:37:00.000-08:00

The sunrise this morning was awesome. I don't know why but my camera doesn't pick up reds like it should. Off to the left was the deepest deep magenta. So cool.

Indoor Plumbing

2011-01-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Today I am once again reminded to be grateful that I have the luxury of urinating indoors.

Sorry Katiepup.

MOTHERHOOD

2011-01-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

What's for Breakfast?

2011-01-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

I remember in one of my sociology courses in college a professor talking about social norms, specifically what is acceptable to eat for breakfast. She talked about her daughter asking for something bizarre for breakfast, and how she told her daughter that wasn't a "breakfast food." Well who decides what kind of food you can have for breakfast?

Dave had a special request for breakfast this morning. String cheese, American cheese, crackers, and a banana. Request granted:

....but something tells me I'll be giving him toast or cereal or something for his snack.

New Year's and First Snow

2011-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

We partied at my brother's for new years eve. I will leave out all incriminating photos of the events except for one of my son getting a little wild with the grub.

We also had the first snow of 2011 a couple weeks ago. Dave and I were sick so we didn't get to go out and play, but we enjoyed it from the warmth of our living room. :) And yes, that is our ghetto grill on cinder blocks. Don't hate.

Cool Dad

2011-01-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

Dave has a cool dad.

He can make cool stuff out of wood. He can construct things. He can fix things. He can make cool gun/car/helicopter/guy sound effects. And lately he builds cool Lego airplanes that put a sweet smile on and even sweeter little boy's face.

Tunnel Nappin.

2011-01-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

Dave's been under the weather. And that's saying something considering it's cold and gray outside.

His fever maxed out at 103.6. He bobbled up and down to 103 for a couple days. Fever is mostly gone now, but the doc thinks it's croup. Yucky chesty wheezy cough. It's so sad.

He's been a bit tired, despite the steroids. Falling asleep randomly. Excited for bedtime. Not making it past 6:30 pm.

This looks like a good resting place, no?

The Sunrise Series

2011-01-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

This morning there were some really cool clouds and a weeeiiird green glow to the sky. Did you see it, NWAers?

Bart and I joked that the vertical line was a "solar flare," therefore explaining the weird green sky and random dead fish and birds in AR and etc. Have you heard that story? It's creepin' me out.

But when the sun kissed the clouds, it went from eerie creepy to really pretty cool. I had put my camera down and turned back around to see the clouds reflecting pink and got all excited. Bart was definitely laughing at me, especially when I said "Another 30 seconds and it'll be perfect." WHAT?! I THINK IT'S COOL. Sigh.

A Sunbeam

2011-01-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

With the new year, Dave has graduated from the nursery at church to the "big kid" primary Sunbeam class.

There are 17 new sunbeams in our branch.

17 moms and dads today had the excitement/nervousness/confused *yuck* feeling about their 3 year olds becoming more "grown up" in some little way.

I took Dave to his front-row seat and had him sit up on a chair next to one of his preschool buddies. This morning I tried to explain to Dave that he had "graduated" from nursery and was a REAL sunbeam now and got to go to primary.

"Nooo. nursery. :(" Simple, calm, but so sad. He'd say the name of the teacher he's had in nursery for so long. They had a special connection.

He was definitely unsure, but quietly accepted his seat, looking around the room at the chaos of dozens of kids and teachers figuring out where they sit...parents assuring their kids that they'd love their new teacher. I left, knowing Bart was just across the room sitting with the 4 year olds. Feeling so glad he was in there. But as I shut the door behind me, just for a brief moment I considered running to the bathroom and crying my eyes out. He's so big! He's growing TOO fast. I sucked it up and went to gospel doctrine...secretly wanting to escape and peak through the window to check on him.

Ok, before you think I'm being all melodramatic...yeah. He's 3. He's got at least 15 years left at home and I have plenty of "time" left. But it feels too fast. And I know as he gets older it will just get faster and faster with more and more time away. He starts therapy this week and it will be another several hours a week that I'm away from him. I'm doing some mama adjusting.

And I'm pretty sure I saw some other sunbeam mamas trying to gloss over their feelings of "why do I feel SAD for a good thing?"

It's normal, right? Yeah. Don't answer that. It's normal. It's normal to feel too fast. It's normal to breathe in the calm quiet moments where he just lets me hold him still. The "I love you mamas" that will likely get less and less frequent over time.

It's all normal. But it's new to me. And I have a feeling no matter how many times a mom does it, it still feels just as strange and fast.

Love this little bug.

Obligatory Christmas Post

2010-12-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

We have had an amazing Christmastime.

Christmas Eve was spent in tradition--a Christmas bath and "first present" opened, followed by our traditional Christmas Eve donuts and watching A Christmas Story. Dave joined us for the first time this year. He was into it.

And spend much of the movie dancing around the room in a blur.

Christmas morning came. We are still at a point in our lives as parents that we wake up before Dave--waiting in anticipation for him to wake. When we heard him stirring, Bart went in and told him Santa had FINALLY come and brought him presents. Dave squealed in delight and came running down the hall to the glowing tree and presents.

"I open it," with a sweet smile and gently touching one of his presents.

Bart's dad made a gorgeous Noah's ark for Dave, complete with lots of wooden animals. It instantly became a family treasure.

It was so fun this year now that Dave is understanding and getting into the Santa Claus thing. We opened gifts and made a slight change of Christmas dinner plans and headed to my mom's after hearing that my sister and her son were very sick. Dinner pulled together nicely. We missed some of the family that was unable to be there, but were glad to spend it with some of our family.

Sunday morning I caught Bart in his Sunday best wrestling around with Dave in his new play tent. (Btw, can I brag that I got this for 80% off for $5? It has a really cool tunnel. Just sayin'.) Love these guys.

And now we're soaking up the last bit of the weekend and hanging out with our new toys, feeling so blessed to have family and loved ones and each other, and most importantly the Lord in our lives.

A different kind of Sunrise

2010-12-22T06:49:00.000-08:00

So if you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you probably know I like to take pictures of sunrises and the occasional sunset.

Usually I take pictures of purple and red and blue and orange sunrises...like these.

Yesterday I woke up to a denser fog than I've seen in quite some time. No purples, reds, blues or oranges here....but still somehow so beautiful in all its grayness.

SANTA CLAUS!!!!!!!

2010-12-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

Dave met Santa Claus AGAIN today.

Last weekend, Santa drove down the street on a firetruck in our neighborhood. When Santa saw Dave and I waving out the window to him, he came up and knocked on the door.

Dave was star-struck. He started to run the opposite direction of the door.

We went to the mall today for another visit. Dave was again just as star-struck. He didn't make a single peep in his whole time with Santa.

Santa: "What's YOUR name?"
Dave: Beaming smile.
Santa: How old are you?
Dave: Eyes bugging out.
Santa: What would you like for Christmas?
Dave: Eyes still bugging out.
Santa: You're sure not very talkative are you?

Santa promised to come to our house in Christmas Eve if Dave was a good boy, and sent him off with a parting gift of a coloring book and Ghiradelli peppermint bark.

Santa is the coolest ever. Especially when he takes a curling iron to his white beard and wears a shiny gold watch. He was the REAL DEAL.

Dave didn't make a peep until we were out in the car. He couldn't hold in his excitement anymore.

"SAAANTA CLAAAAAAAUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Dave is in heaven with all this Santa Claus is coming to town business.

hmmm....

2010-12-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

I'm obviously just a REALLY mean mom.

Doing water-coloring painting with him, and all. SO mean.

What he is

2010-12-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

We've been busy the last couple months around here. It's been apparent for some time that Dave has been delayed in almost all areas of his development. It's come to us as no big surprise considering how high of risk he has been for delay given his medical history. I took him to his doc for his 3 year checkup a few months back and we decided it'd be good to have him formally assessed so that he could receive therapy and early intervention services for this delay.

He finally finished all the assessments a couple of weeks ago and through it all it's become more and more apparent how serious this delay is. We're still in the figuring out process of what is best for Dave and for our family...and what it all means. Yesterday I met with the therapists that worked on Dave's assessments and they didn't give me a ton of "surprise" results, but it was still hard to be put face to face with it all.

I came home and somehow managed to not shed a tear over it, but instead was left the rest of the afternoon with this sad longing feeling. Wanting to give Dave the world and more--like we all want for our kids...but feeling like in a very real way I may not be able to give it to him. At least not how I'd hoped.

I posted on my facebook, "hmm :/ Had Dave's special ed. conference today...I need a pick me up. Send cyber hugs my way...."

Within minutes I had friends sending me their love from near and far. I felt loved and better about it and grateful for them indulging my Debbie-downer moment.

Dave is knotted up in my heart-strings. In some way he knows what I need and supplies me with it. He prepared me for a rough day yesterday by coming up to me and saying "Mama prilly. (pretty) I luh you mama."

Then, I woke up this morning with a million thoughts in 60 different directions about all of it. Dave was up early too. I immediately turned to google and started researching programs available in the area....state insurance, etc, etc.

I was interrupted by Dave just in time for me to begin to feel information overload.

"Dave cuddle?"

Ab..solutely. heart-strings.

Then he asked to watch Elmo. I let him watch Elmo song videos on youtube now and then. He LOVES this song and likes to shake his thing to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVzjoj96vs

I love the lyrics.

Shake it, Dave!

You're so weird.

2010-12-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the movie Elf with Will Ferrell?

My mom purchased the DVD a handful of years ago, watched it with my dad and then mailed it to me in college with a note attached "This is the dumbest movie we've ever seen. Thought we'd send it to you. Enjoy!"

Like I would appreciate it or something.

Sigh. I did. Haha!

Anyway, we've watched it in our house recently...and tonight, sitting at the dinner table, this scene was reenacted.

Bart ~~of course~~ incidentally played the part of Elf.

Bart: *obnoxious belch* "Did you hear that?"
Dave, with perfect comedic timing: "You're SO weird."

Commence laughter with tears. How's that for a family night.

Aren't they cute?

2010-12-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Just sayin....

Baby it's cold outside

2010-11-26T07:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Our Thanksgiving this year is the coldest one we've had since Bart and I got married. Wednesday was high of 70 degrees. Thursday? High 30.

We are a little chilly.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We got our first snow briefly in the morning to kick off the wintry season. It's wonderful to spend Thanksgiving with family. I didn't take many pictures because I was just enjoying the moment...

The pie:person ratio was at a record high this year. We didn't even know what to do with that many pies after such a delicious dinner.

This morning, on Black Friday, Dave and I slept in. Bart headed to work in the car because the truck was encased in ice....allowing Dave and I to have a kicked back day, unable to submit to the pull and tug of the biggest shopping day of the year...and also allowing me to enjoy the sunrise from the warmth of my home.

As the sun rose, it illuminated the ice that surrounded every branch and twig of the trees across the way. Gorgeous.

Still my buckethead

2010-11-23T13:58:00.000-08:00

If I had to make a list of favorite Dave "phases"...THIS would be somewhere on the list (the video, not the spring cleaning). That little buckethead made me giggle.

Turns out Dave is still a buckethead...a year and a half later.

And I still love it. I kinda like this kid. I think I'll keep him.

A real sense of gratitude

2010-11-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

What's the difference between this kid

And this kid?

The first photo is a picture of a cardiology patient.

The second? Not a cardiology patient. David no longer has a need to regularly check up with a cardiologist.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out a post I wrote last September about his heart.

His doctor came in today with another doctor-in-training. His regular doctor listened to his heart for several minutes, and then turned to the other doctor in the room. "Come listen to this. I want you to hear what a perfectly healthy heart sounds like--you haven't heard one all day."

Music to my ears.

They did his echocardiogram and confirmed it looked just as beautiful as it sounded.

Such a miracle that just 3 1/2 years ago I was 6 months pregnant sitting across a desk from a specialist being told that my baby probably wouldn't live to birth because his little heart was crowded with tumors. And here I am, breathing in the hugs, kisses, spills, giggles, tantrums, trucks and buzz lightyears that fill my home because of this little guy.

I think God knew I needed him. And today I feel extra blessed and knot-in-my-throat thankful for him.

busy busy!

2010-11-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

We have been crazy busy over here. I miss blogging .... so I thought I'd stop by for a moment and say hello.

Hello.

Ok I'll say a few things more than that. Mr. Dave is starting up all sorts of therapy to hopefully help him catch up. So all the assessments for developmental therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy have been taking a portion of our time. I think he is really going to love it and I think it will be great for him. I've met some of his therapists and so far they all seem great and Dave loves them all.

Dave is also super happy to be back into his preschool group...post-head injury. We're hosting this week and the kids are all so different and all great kids.

And what is a blog without a photo or two?

And this last one cracks me up just because of the look on Dave's face. He can be wild and rambunctious but sometimes he doesn't know how to act when other 3 year olds act the same way haha!

The Square

2010-11-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the square downtown had it's final farmer's market of the year. They also had trick or treating for the kids, and lots of the local shops and vendors were giving out candy, too.

So it was another chance to dress up like Buzz, so of course we went! We were happy to have my niece and sister-in-law along with, too!

Doesn't she make such a CUTE Dorothy??

Preschool Halloween

2010-10-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Dave has been participating in a preschool group. Some gals from church and I all swap turns teaching. The group got so large that it had to be split in half and today we combined both groups and had a Halloween party for the kiddos.

Dave dressed as Buzz Lightyear, of course.

And so did 4 other boys!

It was seeing double, er...quintuple everywhere you looked. To make it harder to tell them apart, they are ALL three years old and all had shades of blondish hair. Too funny.

Gettin' 'fly' Christmas Cards with Shutterfly

2010-10-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

Shutterfly is doing something really cool this year. They are looking for bloggers who are interested in receiving 50 (count 'em, 50!) free holiday cards. So this is my post about their awesome cards. If you'd like to write a blog and get your 50 cards, check it out: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

What is Shutterfly? It's an online site where you can create photo books, personalize photo cards, photo gifts & stationery, and share and print photos with family and friends.

Let me first off say that I love Shutterfly. They are fairly priced, constantly have promos and perks for their members. I got totally free 4x6 prints when I created a free account on their site. So if you come to my house and look at the photos in the frames, most of them were printed by Shutterfly.

The awesome thing about their Christmas cards is the HUGE (HUGE!) selection they have.

Classic, trendy, modern, simple, frilly? They have a card for you.

Do you always forget Christmas cards until Christmas Eve? Send one for New Year's. They've got those too.

Do you have a really cute kid and can't pick just ONE photo to use? They have tons of different layouts that allow for different numbers of pictures.

Different sizes. Folded cards. 5x5, 4x8, 5x7....whatever dimension meets your fancy.

The drawback?

PICKING ONE. Seriously, I'm looking through here at their HUNDREDS of layouts and I just don't know which I like.

Kaleidascope Noir? I love how colorful and happy it is.

I love the idea of Christmas letters that accompany Christmas photos, but I understand that it can be painful to read a two-page typed letter in font size 10 about every detail of every family-friend's life from the past year. That's why I love the Love 2010 Card:

The simple side of me loves the Starlight Flurries Card

The indecisive side of me likes the With Love Blue Christmas folded card--with plenty of spaces for different photos. Or maybe I just think the dad has some 'sweet' shades.

Or this awesome card that gets the photo and the holiday letter down all in one place--the Christmas Letter

And in this one, I can't tell which I love more...the Retro Kaleidoscope layout...or the CUTE little girl who is featured on the example photo....

These are just a few....check out some of the others HERE for holiday cards or HERE for Christmas specific holiday cards.

What are your favorite layouts?

Hatman

2010-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Remember the baseball game we went to this summer?

Ever since then, Dave LOVES wearing hats. Can you tell?

Too fast

2010-10-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took a picture of Dave while we were playing outside in the back.

It's a blurry photo. Nothing remarkable except the neighbors trash you can see behind him.

But he looks so BIG here. So boyish. It's an exciting thing to watch him grow. To explore new things. Along with broadening shoulders he has broadening understanding.

When Dave fractured his skull a couple weeks ago, I did a lot of self-guilt about the whole situation. If you read my post about the accident you know what I'm talking about. Bart was upset by Dave being hurt, too, but he tried to explain to me that "He's a kid. He's a BOY. Kids break bones...bones heal. He's OK!"

A kid. Wow. He really is, isn't he? So big.

He's still MY baby though--and I'll feed my ego with moments like this---

What a BIG problem a TINY decimal can make

2010-10-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

This one is totally my fault. I can't believe I didn't notice my mistake before I clicked "confirm payment."

Duh. Lately I've felt like I've been walking around a bit like this....

I had a few things on my credit card last month, totalling to about $120.00. I went to pay it off from my checking account, online.

Payment amount:120DECIMAL POINT 00

I checked my checking account last night....it said my balance was negative "eleventybillion dollars" (translates to A LOT), and my most recent transaction was a debit payment to my credit card company of $12,000.

HAHA.. WHAT?! No way. *gulp*

So I checked my credit balance. Positive $12,000.42. Ok not funny anymore.

I called their 24/7 customer service line. Around the clock customer service= probably 2 chicks that stay after 6pm to answer all the calls.

Long story short? Credit card is frozen for bounced payment, checking account is obviously frozen for enormous overdraft...FOR an estimated 4-5 DAYS...before it straightens out....and I have $3 in my wallet.

Double thumbs up for me!

look-a-like

2010-10-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

For the most part, I think Dave looks like me. He has some Bart qualities but I hear so often "he looks just like you," and well...he kinda does.

But I also can't shake his celebrity Hollywood lookalike, especially when I took this picture of him today.

Am I the only one who sees this? It's the eyes, the turned up nose, the mouth lines....

I think he totally looks like Kiefer. Without the cheating and reckless drunkenness, though. Although I do have some pretty incriminating photos of Dave....

A Birthday among Chaos

2010-10-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Bart's birthday this weekend. Friday was pretty low-key since he worked and I spent the day at the doc to check up on Dave.

--Dave is doing better. He is bouncing off the walls and he seems less bothered by the whole thing than I do. He's back to eating normal foods and after a week or so we'll put him back into most of his regular activities. Docs say his head should heal in two months and just to keep him from jumping off things or no riding trikes, etc, until then.---

Of course there was a cake.

Dave cracking his head knocked something loose. This kid hates almost all sweets. Like will gag and turn up his nose. He ate some cake! I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing....

I'm glad Bart appreciates my dorky Halloween cakes I make him each year. Even if its a weird cat. We don't even like cats. Nothing that a few (in)appropriately placed candles can't fix.

Saturday, my parents watched Dave so I could have a datenight birthday with Bart. I made a special dinner (which there are no photos of because we devoured it before getting the chance) and we topped it off with these:

Chocolate dipped strawberries, 4tw.

We had a nice night out after dinner. Gorgeous sunset--cameraless. :(

And at the end of our date, we both were ready to go get our little guy. Good weekend. And it's not half over! (It stinks Bart works Saturdays...until Monday comes and he has the day off :)!)

Bonk Head

2010-10-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

Blah. Where to start. Beware-this is a very, very honest post....and Dave's ok, I'm ok, just needed to get it down.

It is probably important to note that Tuesday was a "bad" mom day. I was impatient, forgetful, preoccupied, and felt like I wasn't getting much accomplished. It was dinnertime and I was further frustrated that the meat I had set in the fridge the day before was still frozen solid, and when I decided to make something else, the celery had gone bad, so on, so forth.

Stupid things frustrating me. Stupid things that don't matter. I had just told Bart that I felt like I definitely didn't deserve any "great mom/wife of the day" awards and apologized that dinner would be late and that the house was a mess. (He doesn't mind, he is very gracious, I just was in a beat-myself-up mode)

I turned to walk out of the kitchen and saw Dave pit-patting towards me, and in fear of plowing him over, I grabbed him and tried to sweep him under my feet....which all happened, except that I dropped him a foot or two up in the air straight down onto the back of his head on our "wood" (it's actually very cheap fake wood laid on cement) floor. Crack. Ugh, I still hear the crack.

He wouldn't stop crying. I knew it hurt him, and bad. I swept him up and the tears wouldn't stop after several minutes. I hurt that he hurt...and it felt like my fault. Bart held him for a while, Dave hysterically crying still. And then he started vomiting.

But I didn't drop him from very high, right? I mean- surely it gave him a bad headache and sometimes people throw up from headaches. I know I have once or twice. Maybe just a dark room and some rest will help...and we'll keep our eyes on him.

He keeps throwing up and crying. Maybe I did do something to him. I call and leave a message for a nurse to return from his urgent care center at his doc's office.

I put Dave in the bath and he settles down some. He is really only using one side of his face. Why is he using one side of his face? I finally get him to smile and the other corner comes up a little. OK- I'm imagining things.

Crying stops, vomiting stops. Holy moly that's a big bump on his head. Maybe he's fine, just needs some rest. Thank goodness.

The nurse calls back. Bart explains what happened and Dave's reaction. She says to get to the ER right away.

Really? But he's calmed down. And he hasn't vomited for like 20+ minutes. And it's his bedtime. We'll go to the ER and traumitize him for them to say he has a mild concussion and that we didn't REALLY need to come...a copay and several hours later.

But that's not exactly what happened. When we pulled into the hospital parking lot, Dave vomited again. Maybe we DO need to be here.

He did so well in the CT scan. He's like me, and gets clausto easily. They put his head down in this big cushy pillowy thing that wrapped up above his eyes. I quickly said "I like your hat!" He relaxed, and thought it was a fun game. I felt slight redemption from my bad mom day. He held mostly completely still, with a tired smile on his face. When we came back to our room to wait for the results, he wanted to play like normal Dave, only his balance was off...and Bart and I jumped at every tipsy step.

He was acting mostly normally, so I was again thinking that nothing happened, just a precautionary trip.

And then the doc came in and said he did indeed crack his head. It was fractured and you could tell he really whacked it hard. Since he had stopped vomiting and wasn't acting weird anymore, they let him come home and just had us monitor him throughout the night and then followup with docs later this week.

His head should heal on its own fine, it will just take a while. Doc said he'd probably feel pretty sick for a week, and that it should continue to hurt him for about a month. It doesn't immediately appear that any damage was caused. Sigh. So he was blessed, coming out of this. He's probably going to be just fine--yet I've still beat myself up some over it.

I know-I know--I KNOW it's NOT my fault. Accidents do happen. But he slipped out of my hands, and I wonder if I had been a little more on top of my game if that would have happened. If I would have not allowed myself to be quite so frazzled that day. I felt bad because this kid has had more than his share of medical trauma. Seriously, I went to the ER for a non emergency once when I was like 14. I think that's it. I can't count how many times Dave has been there for various things.

Yet while we were in the ER room and I was holding back tears, I kept telling Dave over and over "I'm so so sorry"...and he is the one that comforted ME...saying "s'ok" and gave me a hug. Don't sweat it mom.

So for the next week we're just laying low at home, trying to control nausea with calmness and a mild diet. I can control his diet, but not the calm part. He's been up and down yesterday and it's a good sign that he has more energy and wants to play, but he's been crashing hard too, showing that he's not feeling totally himself.

Reality check. Check. Gratitude that I can hold my baby and that he's ok? Check check. Not feeling guilt? Still working on that one, but I'll get there.

Gratitude for people who reach out and make Dave feel special? Triple check. Ladies from church get together on Wednesdays for playdates and yesterday they and their kids made Dave a paperchain of get well soon notes. Check out the smile it brought to his face.

So thank you for your concern, prayers, thoughts, and love....from all of us.

DuckyPonder

Child Labor-

Brilliant Mind

the one

Christmas Prep

"quirky"

Branson

Halloween Happened

moneymoney

Conversation with Dave this morning:Dave: I need have some money please?Me: I don't have any money.Dave: I do have some money!Me: Where? Can I have some? Dave: (looking around on floor) I don't see ANY money ANYWHERE! It's gone!Right you are Dave, right you are.

Bear

nanananana batmaaaan

Skillz of Greatness

Around and Stop

EEG Party

Ghost Zombies

Sunrises and Fog

Big Baby

sunsession

Pledge of Allegiance

Laugh-so-hard-I-cry funny

Mother Knows Best

Sunrise Season

"Weird" Days

Funny things

4!!!!

New School Year

Sunrise series, storm style

Making a man's tie into a boy's tie

Little cute creatures in the garden

White Streak

We noticed this small crescent shaped white streak in Dave's hair a couple years ago when his hair started growing in thicker. It's pretty hard to see because he's blond, but it's much more noticeable after his haircut this morning. Can ya see it?

What causes this? Maybe stress from a traumatic infancy?

Penguin Daddy

Such a Cow.

The 4th that does not disappoint

I'ma do it anyway

Hmmmm..

Surreal

My Dirty Little Secret

Hey babe

AWOEIFJAWIVKSEIDFJAWIOA

Sitting duck

Memorial Day

Cabin Fever Much?

Sunrise series

Camping Fail

God's Majesty

Master Gardener

Storms

Kryptonite Cake

Blonde?

Empathetic Claustrophobia

We. Are. Fa-mil-y

Thinking about NEC

High Five Joke

The Rains came down and the Floods came up

APRIL IN PICTURES

You're so vain

Heebies

Untitled

Febsies

Blissfully Unaware

The Sunrise Series

Indoor Plumbing

MOTHERHOOD

What's for Breakfast?

New Year's and First Snow

Cool Dad

Tunnel Nappin.

The Sunrise Series

A Sunbeam

Obligatory Christmas Post

A different kind of Sunrise

SANTA CLAUS!!!!!!!

hmmm....

What he is

You're so weird.

Aren't they cute?

Baby it's cold outside

Conversation with Dave this morning:
Dave: I need have some money please?
Me: I don't have any money.
Dave: I do have some money!
Me: Where? Can I have some?
Dave: (looking around on floor) I don't see ANY money ANYWHERE! It's gone!

Right you are Dave, right you are.