Wordless Wednesday

Jeremy Update:

Yesterday Jeremy ate some food with help and today he was already feeding himself. Today he had some orange sherbet and a banana. My dad took a video of him eating both times and it was fun to watch him swing the banana peel around as he ate. I took some of the simple books Carter and I have written up for him to look at yesterday. Today my mom was showing them to him and he successfully read a book we wrote about the color green. Each page listed something that was green which was also shown in the picture. Carter loved the video my parents sent of his Uncie J reading his book! With the OT he was shooting a ball into a trash can and made it pretty much every time. So not only can he still beat Thomas in a race while in a coma, read more here, he has better aim with his brain not fully functioning than I do on a regular basis! He no longer needs to be in the ICU so they moved him rooms today. That was pretty overstimulating for him and got him a bit worked up. My dad came to our house to eat dinner and while he was here, Jeremy tried to get out of bed multiple times. My mom was able to restrain him and he moved around accidentally hitting his head once. When I arrived to visit he was much more calm, but still agitated. We wanted to be close to his bed in case he tried to get up again so I was sitting really close to his bed which gave him great access to me and he slapped me a couple of times. He also reached over and held my hand as well. I was talking to him and he randomly yelled out, "I don't remember!" I hadn't asked him a question or said anything that related to that, so I know he's just getting to the point of being frustrated that he can't remember much. I told him it was okay to not remember and as his brain continues to heal he will remember more. He kept saying "oww." I told him I wished I could make him stop hurting. He looked at me and said, "You can't?" I explained to him I can't do anything to make the pain go away, but his nurses can bring him medicine that can help. I sure wish I could do something though! I shouldn't have picked a name so similar to mine for my daughter as Jeremy has been calling me Elise every now and then. Mostly he calls me Liz, but every once in a while he says Elise! Hopefully tomorrow once he has adjusted to the new room, he feels safer and less agitated. I hate to see him in pain and confused. They still have him listed as level 3 of recovery, but we are seeing more and more behaviors that would indicate he is nearing level 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dressed in their Valentine's Day outfits and ready for a playdate.

 

Took a break during a playdate to read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trying spaghetti squash for the first time.

 

 

Spending time with Jeremy's cat, Mr. Jones and Agent Smith.

 

 

 

Wearing Gma's ear muffs while on a hike.

 

 

Super Bowl party, haha!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elise was sitting in my lap and leaned back so she could have her head in Carter's lap and her legs in my lap.

Eating spaghetti for the first time!

Sleeping on 2 pillows, haha!

 

Excited for his Valentine's Day cookie from Uncle Mike and Aunt Judy.

Playing with Valentine's Day rulers from Gigi and Papa.

 

Trying a beer flight on a rare date night, thanks to Ty's parents!

Running Lately

Jeremy Update:

Today was another busy day for Jeremy. He got to eat for the first time. He had vanilla yogurt, apple juice, and hot chocolate. He is still on a feeding tube and continues to lose weight so hopefully he'll be able to put on some weight as he begins eating food. He wrote the word dog on his white board when asked. He also looked through some books I brought up that Carter and I have written together during various learning themes. He was reading one about the color red with my mom and when she got to a page with a stop sign she asked what color it was and he said, "stop!" I'm so glad we have all those books for him to look through as he relearns how to read. My mom had the idea to FaceTime Carter so he and Jeremy could talk and they both loved it. Jeremy immediately told Carter how cute he was. When Carter said, "I love you, Uncie J!" Jeremy responded with, "I love you, buddy!" When Carter blew kisses Jeremy blew them back. I went up to visit again tonight and happened to show up right when Jeremy was due for some pain medication so he was extremely agitated and had a headache. He was not too pleased with me because I was holding his hands back from pulling out his trach tube, but later he was back to blowing me kisses. It was amazing how quickly the medicine gave him relief. We were all thankful as it is so difficult to see him in pain! I asked him if he had a good day and he shook his head yes. I'm excited to see what he is up to tomorrow. Now on to random tidbits about my running lately...

After Jeremy's accident I continued to run but things just weren't the same. I emotionally wasn't in it and found myself crying through my first few runs. Then as time went on I was able to make it through runs without crying, but I had to force myself to get out there and had a serious lack of motivation to do much other than slog through a few miles. It was therapeutic for me to run and I knew it was making me feel better, but I was exhausted and down and just struggling. Finally I started to enjoy running again and got antsy when I missed a run. My paces started to slowly creep back down to where they had been before the accident. I kept thinking I was stuck in a rut. I was running the goal splits for my speed work and tempo runs but my heart just wasn't in it. I wasn't getting that kicking ass and taking names feeling anymore. Speedwork wasn't as satisfying when I didn't feel like I was cruising and rocking out. Just this past week I finally started to get that turn over in my legs, that "I'm going to crush this run," feeling in my chest, the excitement to get out and run hard. A couple weeks ago I ran a 5 mile tempo run at 6:58 pace. My goal pace was 7:00 minutes per mile so I beat that, but just didn't feel strong. Then just one week later I ran a 10k tempo run at 6:56 pace and felt great. Not only did I add a mile to my tempo and still run faster than the previous week, but it was also significantly windier the second week. It has been amazing how much my running has improved since Jeremy has gone from a coma, to stable, to talking, and now even reading and writing! I've always known emotions and mental health can really effect running, I've just never seen those aspects have such a huge impact on my training.  

I was pretty proud of that 10k tempo!

 

This weekend I will be racing a 10k at the Sweetheart Run. I am excited. I'm ready to put my training to the test and see what I can do. I ran my 10k tempo in 43:17 so I'm itching to drop a few seconds per mile and pull off a sub 43 performance. My original goal was to break 44 minutes but I know I should be well under that based on my tempo runs. I'm also a bit emotional about the race. The whole reason I switched to the 10k rather than the 5k was because Jeremy wanted to start running longer distances at races. I decided to tackle my first 10k in years so I could run with him. We were signed up as a team, The Sweet Sibs. Now I'll be running the race alone 45 minutes after everyone else completes the 5k. It feels lonely and sad just thinking about it. But I also feel like this is a test. This will make me stronger. I feel like I'm running this for Jeremy and I want to run my very best! We've had a super windy week with the wind at 15-20 mph every day and gusts up to 40 mph so I'm hoping for a calmer Saturday morning. I'll be thinking of all of you and everything you've done for Jeremy and my family through thoughts, prayers, and gifts as I tackle this next race without him there. I keep telling myself we already did the Runway Run 5k and it can't get any worse than that! I think each race without Jeremy there will keep getting a little bit easier until finally he's back there walking or running with us!

Group shot before the race.

Ready for the fun run.

Weekly Learning Theme: Outer Space

Jeremy Update:

We continue to be shocked by Jeremy. We have been expecting days where he stalls out or takes a step back with progress but that just hasn't happened. Each day he does something new and blows us away with his progress and spunk. Today the OT wrote 1 2 3 on the white board and Jeremy wrote 4 5 6! Then they asked him to write more and he very calmly turned and dropped his maker in the urinal by his bed! He was also able to read all the names of the staff helping him written that were written on the dry erase board hanging on his wall. Something I've been worried about was that Jeremy wouldn't remember Carter. He and Carter had such a special relationship and it hurt to even think of that not existing right away when Carter visited. I wasn't as worried with Elise because she's so young. I knew it wouldn't hurt her feelings and they'd just start a new relationship. Today my dad was showing Jeremy pictures and asked him who they were of. Jeremy identified Carter saying he was so cute and Elise saying she was adorable. When I visited I showed him some pictures of Carter and he kept saying he was cute. Then I showed him a video of Elise and he said she was adorable. It warms my heart that he not only remembers them, but still loves them so much! I also got to hear him use some new words while the nurse was turning him. He said she was hostile and an asshole. Then when she was finished I told him to tell her thank you which he did and then blew kisses at her. When he blows kisses he puckers up and smooches at you, he doesn't actually use his hand. It is so sweet to see! Later when I was talking to him about his cats I asked him if he loved his cats and he responded with, "Hell yeah!" A tech came in to give him a shot and some medicine. The shot hurts and he was very vocal, saying "None of this is what I need. I don't need this!" But when she was leaving and I told him to thank her for the pain meds he made the I love you sign with his hand. My parents left to eat dinner while I was there and when my dad returned to spend the night he asked Jeremy if he liked spending time with me and Jeremy shook his head yes. Now onto the highlights of our space leaning theme...

During our week on polar animals Carter became really interested in the Earth, the sun, and the moon. We'd be driving and he'd say, "Let's talk more about the Earth, mommy." Then we were at Jeremy's house taking care of his cats and Carter found an Earth paper weight Jeremy had. He picked it up and started telling me about how it was a planet and pointed at random places on it telling me it was where we lived, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Paul lived, Gma and Gpa lived, and Oma and Opa lived. I thought it would be fun to do a little learning theme on outer space, not expecting him to learn and memorize anything specific, just to introduce him to the idea of space and the universe as well as have some fun talking about things he had been interested in. We had a lot of fun!

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  I have updated our objectives a second time because I felt like we were ready to focus on something new.  I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives.  Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually.  The highlighted objectives are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

1. Continue to improve fine motor skills and drawing (specifically I'm looking for him to be able to copy a circle and a square as well as draw a person with 2-4 body parts).
2. Understand same and different.
3. Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book. 
4. Use age appropriate scissors. 
5. Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)
6. Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).
7. Count and understand what the numbers mean.  

Activities/Movement:

• We started the week with a sensory bin. I had some star beads left over from an activity I created to use in my classroom. I've found an advantage to buying most of my classroom materials with my own money is that I now I have them to use with Carter. I put black beans in the bottom of the bin and then threw the star beads on top. As I was putting them in I was wishing Carter hadn't accidentally broken the special claw grippers I had from my classroom as they would have been fun to use in order to work on fine motor skills by using them to pick beads out of the bin. While I was thinking of it I remembered my new hair clips my mom got me for Christmas to use to pull my hair up into sections while I'm straightening my hair. They were curved which added an extra element of difficulty and it took me a minute to adjust in order to pick up stars so I wasn't sure with the fine motor practice along with the spatial aspect that Carter would be able to do it and was amazed when he did! He was so proud of himself too! Later Carter asked where the planets were so we pulled balls out of his ball pit to represent the sun and the planets and added them to his bin.
  

  

  I just love the beauty of this sensory bin, the bright stars against the black beans.

  

  So excited he was able to get a star!

• We read a few books about the planets and then I pulled out some planet cards I found here. We looked at each card and discussed what the planet looked like while I told him the planet's name. Once we looked at all the cards we counted to see how many planets there were. Then we drew a circle to represent each planet and colored them with markers we felt were similar in color to the planet. 
  

  

  Then Carter drew a kite and we made up a story about a kite that traveled to space.

  

  Looking at our finished pictures. Carter added dots for star

   
   
• Once we had drawn all the planets we looked at the cards again and talked about how the planets looked the same. Carter noticed they all looked like circles and I explained that they are actually spheres, but look like circles when shown on paper. Then we talked about how they were different and used that opportunity to sort them a few different ways. The main difference Carter noticed was that Saturn had a ring so we sorted them into planets with a ring and planets without a ring. When we were finished he mentioned they were different colors so then we sorted the planets into piles of like colors.

  

  Sorting into planets with a ring and planets without a ring.

  

  Sorting based on color.

• We talked about constellations and how people have imagined the stars connected to make pictures and then made up stories to go with the pictures. I found some dot-to-dot constellations here and here and we worked together to connect the dots and then color in the pictures. I'd point to a number and tell Carter what it was. Then I'd point to the next number, tell him what it was, and tell him to draw a line between the numbers. He actually did pretty well drawing lines between the numbers although he didn't fully connect the dots.
  

  

  Connecting the dots. I just noticed Elise's naked booty in the background. She was diaperless due to a rash.

  
• After we did the connect the dot constellations we made constellations of our own. We each drew a picture on black paper and then added star stickers to turn it into a constellation. I made a heart and called my constellation a heart. Carter drew a wild picture and named his constellation starby. They looked pretty cool. Then Carter asked why we didn't have a sun in the picture. I told him it was a good idea to add one and asked him what color he wanted to make it. He said pink and cut out a circle to make a sun while I cut out a moon.
  
  
  
• I cut stars out of foam by tracing a star cookie cutter. Then I let Elise play with the stars. As she played I told her what color they were and talked about their texture and size. She loves to chew on foam so, of course, she shoved them in her mouth to chew on them. When Carter woke up I had him sort the stars based on size. 
  
  
• After Elise had played with the foam stars on their own I threw them into a tub with balls for her to play with. She liked to search through the balls to find the stars. I thought that was a fun idea so I put the stars in our ball pit. As Elise searched through the ball pit I switched up a page of We're Going on a Bear Hunt to say as she searched. I said, "We're going on a star hunt. We're going to find a big one. What a beautiful night. We're not scared." That got Carter's interest so he started searching with us and we counted the stars he collected when he was done.
  
  
  
• We practiced counting backward from 10-1 and then jumping when I said blast off. Carter thought that was great fun and would ask me to do it over and over.

• I found a free printable with pictures to show the life cycle of a star here. I showed them to Carter and put them in order for him. Then I asked him how the stars looked the same and how they looked different. He decided to group them into like piles. He put the stars that looked round together and the stars that didn't look all together in a pile. As we were working with the cards I was kicking myself for not printing multiple copies of the cards. Then we could have matched the like cards as well as played memory with them.
  

  

  Looking at stars during breakfast.

  

  With his stars grouped together.

• To practice more with time of day, we wrote a book about what we do when the sun is up and what we do when the moon is up. I wrote the same sentence structure on each page and had Carter tell me what to fill in. Then he illustrated the book and we put it in ziplock bags because Elise loves to read them and Carter thinks it's really cool.
  

Craft:

• I pulled out all the star and moon cookie cutters we have along with our circle cookie cutters to represent planets, the moon, or the sun. I left them in a container on Carter's craft table and he used them a few different times. He attempted to trace them with markers and got frustrated so I helped him. Then I got out finger paint and showed him how to dip the cookie cutters in paint in order to make a picture. That was quite the hit!
  
  
• We made rockets out of the kids' footprints. I saw them here and thought they were cute. Once they were dry I glued them onto black paper and then cut out a few of Carter's stars he made using the cookie cutters and glued those on as well. I thought they turned out really cute but then when I looked at the picture I took of our finished product I was disappointed it looked a bit phallic in nature. Now that I'm looking back at the sample I saw online I'm thinking I need to add the window and hopefully that will make it look more like a rocket!
  
• I cut a circle out of blue construction paper to represent the Earth. Then Carter cut and ripped green paper and glued it onto the circle to make the land. He had some pieces that hung off a bit so I trimmed them when he was done. With older kids it would be fun to make all the different planets, giving them different things to add like stripes or rings.
  

Make Believe:

• My favorite activity of the week was playing with a cardboard box I turned into a rocket ship. First we read the book Not a Box and talked about how our box was a rocket ship. Then we played using the control panel I had drawn inside. The buttons had letters, dots, and simple two letter words on them. Carter would tell me where he wanted to travel and I would give him commands on which buttons to push, focusing mostly on letter names and the number of dots on the button so he had to practice counting. Then I'd show him the words up and go to push. It was so much fun! Elise was his co-pilot and on her side she had big shapes made of different colors. When we traveled somewhere I read Carter a book about where we were. We traveled to Mars and Earth and then Carter wanted to go visit Santa.

  

  The rocket waiting for the kids to wake up from naps.

  

  Carter sat in the rocket and Elise stood, of course!

  

  Elise discovered this flap and played with it most of the time she was in the rocket.

  

• I cut the middle out of a couple paper plates and we each decorated our own. Then I used a hole punch and string so we could wear them on our heads to look like astronaut masks. We watched a couple videos of people walking on the moon and Carter thought it was hilarious how they bounced along. I explained to him why that happens and then we pretended to be astronauts on the moon, bouncing around the house. As we bounced we talked about what it was like on the moon and what we saw.
  

Songs:

• We talked about the word wish and what it means to make a wish. Then we sang Starlight, Starbright. Afterward I told Carter what I would wish for if I saw a star and he told me what he would wish for.

• Of course, we also sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star which also happens to be one of Carter's favorite songs.

• When we were playing with the foam stars I used them to sing Five Little Stars to the tune of Five Little Ducks. 

Five little stars went out one night, 

over the black hole and far away.

Mother star said, 

Hey hey fly back!

But only four little stars flew back. (and so on)

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

• I planned to go to the Air and Space Museum to walk around and see a planetarium show. Our membership expired on the 31st and we had decided we didn't use it enough to renew. We didn't have time on the 30th so we headed out the 31st. When we arrived we realized it was closed on Sunday, so no museum trip with this learning theme. Instead I'm considering our trip into the front yard to stargaze our interactive experience for the week. Ty went out with us and helped us locate the north star along with the big dipper. Carter loved being up on daddy's shoulders so he could get a better look.
  
  

Books:

• Skippyjon Jones Lost in Spice by Judy Schachner
• Little Star by Look and See
• Bringing Down the Moon by Jonathan Emmett
• A Pig Is Big by Douglas Florian
• Dream Animals by Emily Winfield Martin
• Bizzy Bear Space Rocket by Benji Davies
• A Circle in the Sky by Zachary Wilson
• Our Stars by Anne Rockwell
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Cabrera
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Caroline Church
• Little Bear, You're a Star! by Jean Marzollo
• Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey
• The Sun by Martha E. H. Rustad
• Moon by Steve Tomecek
• The Moon by Melanie Chrismer
• Zoo in the Sky by Jacqueline Mitton
• The Moon by Martha E. H. Rustad
• The Moon by Carmen Bredeson
• Sargazers by Gail Gibbons
• How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
• I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• Stars! Stars! Stars! by Bob Barner
• Curious George and the Rocket by H.A. Rey
• The Earth Book by Todd Parr
• Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
• What the Moon Sees/What the Sun Sees by Nancy Tafuri
• The Planets by E.H. Rustad 

Jeremy Update

Yesterday I forgot to mention that Jeremy reached over onto a table by his bed, grabbed wipes, and attempted to open them when he wanted cleaned up. The other day he got a hold of the remote by his bed and turned on his tv. He was also busy today. This morning my dad was with him and thought he'd write a word on a dry erase board to show to Jeremy. He wrote cat and asked Jeremy to read it. Jeremy looked over and immediately read cat. One of the areas of the brain that plays a large roll in reading was damaged in Jeremy's brain. It was nice to know he was able to look at and recognize the word. We don't know if he will be able to decode and blend sounds as he improves, but his recall of the word cat gives us hope. Dad wanted to see if he would do it again once my mom arrived so he wrote another CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) word on the dry erase board and asked Jeremy to read it. Jeremy looked at the word, grabbed a paper towel, passed it from one hand to the other, situated it in his hand, and then erased the word. We all cracked up over that. He is still just as much of a spitfire as always and is doing things his own way! He also did all the steps to erase the board that his OT taught him. We are seeing a few more of the behaviors that will come out during level 4 of his recovery. Today the nurse wanted to swab his tongue to help with the thrush he has. My dad was singing on one side and I was opening my mouth and opening wide to show him what to do. It was overstimulating for him and I was the person closest to him so he slapped me. Tonight he has been even more of a spitfire telling the nurses they are cute and pretty. I guess it's always good to butter up the people taking care of you! I'm excited to see what he's up to next! 

Jeremy Update

This afternoon the respitory therapist (RT) put a thinner tube down Jeremy's tube which hooks up to his trach. He is now able to breathe around the tube better and is able to speak more. Sometimes what he says is still unclear as he's pushing most the air through his trach. While I was visiting I heard him say help and a string of curse words. Later my mom said he told the nurse, "Get off of me!" When the nurse was pricking him to check his sugar levels. While I was there we thought we'd have Jeremy practice brushing his teeth. Normally that consists of someone guiding his hand to do it. When my dad handed Jeremy the toothbrush he just started brushing on his own. When he was done he launched the brush and it hit the wall on the other side of the room and bounced to the floor. It was quite impressive! We are all pleased with his progress. I'm excited for him to get another piece added to his trach tube which will make it easier for him to speak and to be heard. I'm interested to see what he'll be saying once he becomes less confused and is ready to say more than just express his displeasure with his current situation. He continues to improve little bits at a time!

Jeremy Update

I spent the night with Jeremy last night. Thomas had been with him in the evening and when I arrived he said Jeremy was giving him high fives and knuckles when he asked. I was impressed but Jeremy was pretty tired when I arrived so I let him rest. Not soon after I laid down in an attempt to go to sleep, Jeremy somehow wiggled his legs off to the side of the bed. I walked over to him and asked if he wanted back in the bed and he shook his head yes. I went to the nurse's station to ask for help getting him in bed but they had just sent quite a few nurses to lunch so it was a long wait. During our wait Jeremy repeatedly asked for help. I couldn't tell if he was saying, "Help, please," or "Help, Liz." Today he said mom when referring to my mom, so I think he may have in fact been saying Liz last night. I felt helpless because I knew I couldn't safely get him back into bed by myself but he was asking for help and was agitated. Eventually he grabbed me by the front of my shirt and pulled me close, then reached around and slapped me in the back of the head. When I looked into his face I could see he was upset and hadn't intended to hurt me and was shocked he had done it so I reassured him I knew he didn't mean it and it was okay. His eyes changed back to calm almost immediately. He was also occasionally reaching over and slapping me on my side. If he got too rough I would remind him to be gentle and if he continued, I would take his hand and show him what gentle was and tell him I liked it when he was gentle. I was impressed with how quickly that modified his behavior. Once he was resituated and back in bed I told him I was going to bed. After I laid down he looked over at me and I told him I was still there and waved at him. Then he raised his eyebrows at me and puckered his lips into a kiss and sent me a few that way. It was the sweetest. Throughout the night he would look over at me and even roll to his side and peer at me through the hole in his bed rail, it was so cute and endearing. We have all heard him say words, mostly help and curse words. I imagine it will be quite entertaining to see what he has to say once he begins talking. Today my mom asked him to pass something to my dad and he was able to do so. He also gave both my parents a hug. I am so pleased with his progress and just know he will continue to move forward. We are all looking forward to what he picks up and remembers next.

Elise says, "Yay, Uncie J! Keep working hard!"

Favorites

Jeremy Update:

Last night and again this morning Jeremy laughed when dad told a joke. They haven't attached a voice box to his trach tube yet but my mom described it as him hunching his shoulders, bouncing, and smiling with his mouth open. We will have to give him a hard time later that deep down he really does think dad is funny! During his OT he practiced the skills he worked on yesterday and added in brushing his teeth. The OT asked him to throw a ball to dad and he did. At one point he gave a nurse the thumbs up and he continuously gave Thomas high fives. He is much more active and is able to move around a lot more. That includes slapping around and he's come in contact with us a few times. The policy at the hospital was that they keep a neck brace on trauma patients until they are able to verbally say their neck doesn't hurt. Jeremy's X-rays showed no damage to his neck but they left it on so he had been wearing it for 4 weeks. The staff here did an X-ray and went ahead and removed it. They plan to put a smaller tube through his trach so they are able to place a voice box which will allow him to speak. I'm excited to see if he's able to talk and have a feeling he will be able to from what we've seen as far as mouthing words and laughing. He seems to be nearing level 4 of recovery which is agitated and confused and can lead to aggression. I know emotionally it will be a difficult stage for us, but I'm excited to see him continue to move forward! Now on to a random post I wrote a while back and discovered when I was seeing if I had anything to post today...

One of the moms in my mom's group wrote a Facebook post about how all moms have a favorite child. While I appreciated reading her point of view and reasoning, I can't begin to fathom having a consistently favorite child. When I was younger my mom told me as a parent it's not possible to have a favorite child. She said there are days when one child is your favorite in that day because what they've done or how you are interacting. That seems natural to me. You'll have your moments where one child is driving you bonkers and then the next day it's the other child. Or you luck out and they are both angels at the same time! I have experienced that with Carter and Elise for sure. There are days where Carter is pushing every button I have, whining, and being defiant. On those days looking at Elise's face and being greeted with her two-toothed grin keeps me sane and helps me regain my patience with Carter Typhoon (Ty's nickname from his grandma as a kid was Typhoon and it definitely fits Carter as well). Then there are nights where Elise is being a pickle going down for bed and knowing I get to go out and snuggle Carter while reading night time stories keeps me from getting too frustrated. To me that's the beauty of having more than one child. You aren't so focused on the misbehaviors or difficulties of one child because you have the other(s) there to brighten your day. There's a balance with more than one. One can bring you smiles while the other is making you want to pull your hair out or at the very least shut yourself in the bathroom. For me it shifts throughout the day as well. One day Carter was a real toot all day long and I had just about had it with him. Then we went for a run and Elise started crying right after we turned around to go back to the car so our only option was to continue on. Sweet Carter started singing to her to get her to stop crying. It was heart warming. He went from frustrating to favorite in just a moment. What are your thoughts, is it possible to have a favorite child?

I mean, how could you possibly choose between these two cuties!?!