DAISY Award and Jeremy Update

During Jeremy's fight for life in January I shared updates on here frequently to keep everyone up-to-date. I typically kept the updates to numbers and facts without much else added because it was just too painful. I mentioned in this post that they were starting Jeremy on a new medication, pentobarbital, to sedate him in a different way. Rather than simply keep his body in a coma, pentobarbital limited his brain function. Now that we know the outcome of Jeremy's situation, that he survived, I would like to share the story that explains why he ended up on that medication. Mostly I want to share this story so you can understand the immense impact one nurse in particular had on Jeremy's survival. Jeremy's accident occurred on January 2nd. The first two weeks he was in the hospital there were constant ups and downs where we feared we were going to lose him. The scariest came on the evening of January 7th/early morning of January 8th. The evening of the 7th Thomas and I were visiting Jeremy toward the end of visiting hours and saw his intercranial pressure (ICP) climb into the high 30's and then into the 40's. As visiting hours came to an end his nurse had gotten his ICP down into the 30's again which was still well above where they wanted it to be, under 20. We left with heavy hearts and worried about what the night would bring for Jeremy. I began to feel dread that our hours spent with Jeremy that evening may have been the last hours we would spend with him alive.

My mom arrived to spend the night with Jeremy and reported that our nurse that night was Nicole. We all felt an immense amount of relief as Nicole had come to the rescue of Jeremy's nurse the first night he was in the hospital and helped her organize everything and get Jeremy in the best position he could be. That night was a constant battle for Nicole as Jeremy had maxed out on all the medications he was currently receiving. He was on the highest available dosage and his ICPs were still dangerouly high above 40 and even higher at times. Without the option of increasing Jeremy's medication, Nicole experimented with different strategies to bring Jeremy's ICP down. She adjusted the positioning of the head of his bed. She turned out the lights to decrease stimulation. She only moved him when he had recently been given a breathing treatment. My mom said she was constantly moving about the room, adjusting and working, making little adjustments here and there to lower Jeremy's ICP. Had it not been for Nicole and her quick actions and thoughtful plans which kept Jeremy's ICP from climbing too high, he would not have survived the night. Jeremy's ICPs were high enough that they would not be able to do a craniectomy, where a portion of the skull is removed in order to give the brain more room to swell. Had they done the procedure at this point it would have acted as a vacuum and his brain would have been sucked out of his skull. When my mom returned the following morning with an update from the night before I felt hopeless. I knew Jeremy had survived the night, thanks to Nicole, but I wasn't sure he would survive the day. That morning I did what I had feared I would have to do for days, I sat Carter down and explained to him that his Uncie J might die. He sat in my lap as tears ran down my face and we held each other. My mother-in-law happened to call that morning for an update and I had to share the information that things weren't looking good. Thankfully, the decision was made to switch Jeremy to pentobarbital and his body responded well to it. Instead of January 8th being the end of our journey, it was the last major scare in a continuously terrifying path toward recovery.

Every day after that terrifying night where Nicole amazingly kept Jeremy alive, I walked through the hospital toward his room and saw a sign about the DAISY Award for Extraordinary nurses and thought of Nicole. I thought of how hard she fought, how she never gave up, how she requested to be Jeremy's nurse even though we knew he was the most difficult case on the floor. As Jeremy began to make improvements Nicole would meet my mom at the door, running with excitement to share Jeremy's improvements. She was a nurse who was not only the best at what she did, but was an amazing support and ray of hope for my family. My dad wrote a beautiful letter nominating Nicole for the DAISY award and she won. Our entire family was able to go for the reception. I was excited to see Nicole again and hadn't thought much about it other than getting to see her. We found out she won on a Tuesday afternoon and the reception was to be held Wednesday afternoon so there wasn't much time to think about it. Thomas and I rode together to the hospital. As we climbed the stairs toward the Neurotrauma ICU (NTSICU) I began to feel increasingly more and more emotional. I remembered running up those steps to get to Jeremy's room when things weren't looking very good. I remembered racing dad up the steps feeling optimistic on a night when things had been going well. As we walked into the waiting room, I pictured Carter sitting on the bench watching Curious George as I waited to go back to Jeremy's room the night of his accident. We had almost a month of memories on the floor of that hospital and every single one of them was emotional and most were tinged with a great deal of sadness and despair. They came to get us for the reception and pulled us into the same office we sat in the night of Jeremy's accident as we waited to hear news at 2 am on whether Jeremy would need a craniectomy and discussed the possibilities of survival. At that point I was an emotional mess and came to the realization that the moment I saw Nicole I was more than likely going to weep. Thanks to her all these terrible memories led to a positive outcome. Thanks to her, my brother is alive. Nicole was in a different office under the guise that she was having a meeting. When they went to get her and she turned the corner to see Jeremy standing there, the look of shock and amazement on her face was greeted with the tears that rolled down my face. Here was the woman we could thank for the life of our beloved brother, son, and friend. There she was with tears of joy in her eyes, seeing the patient she had worked so hard to keep alive, standing in front of her looking simply amazing. It was a great moment and one that I will remember for the rest of my life. We are so grateful that we got to see Nicole again and that we got to show our deep appreciation for what she does every day by nominating her for the award and for being present as it was given to her. We continue to be thankful every day for what Nicole did for Jeremy along with what everyone in the NTSICU did for him during his stay. There is really no way to thank someone enough for saving the life of someone you love.

Nicole and Jeremy in the middle with her DAISY Award.

I thought it would be fitting to also give an update on Jeremy as I shared this story with all of you. I've been wanting to give an update and this seems like the perfect time. Jeremy had surgery on Friday, June 17th, to remove the filter that was placed to catch any possible blood clots so they wouldn't travel to his heart. The hope is that his circulation will return to normal now that the filter is gone. It is possible his circulation issues are due to his brain stem not functioning properly due to his TBI, so they may be a lifelong issue. Due to Jeremy's issues with circulation he is at risk for infection. He also has more swelling which makes it easier for his skin to break open. Due to all of these factors, his skin broke open by his toenail and his toe became infected. It was treated, but the infection never fully cleared up so he had to go back to Urgent Care and was given another round of antibiotics. The concern with infection is that since he has hardware in his body (the rod in his femur), infection will travel to the hardware. They want to ensure any infection is treated quickly to prevent that from happening. Jeremy was having strange sensations which he described as water running through his body. The doctor said what he is feeling is his nerves beginning to function again which is reassuring but was a terrifying feeling for Jeremy before he knew what it was! He has been struggling with bursitis in his hip which has made it difficult to walk. He is using his cane to help him walk with less pain and without favoring that side too much. Physically things are going pretty well. The infected toe has kept him from being able to run, but other than that he hasn't had any set backs.

Cognitively things are also going well. Jeremy was struggling initially with basic math and became frustrated when attempting problems. Recently he remembered how to do problems without a calculator. He has voiced frustration with his comprehension and attention span when it comes to reading. If he reads for longer periods of time he cannot remember what he has read. My parents have encouraged him to just read for short periods of time and take breaks. We feel confident that it will return with time. We notice a deficiency in social skills that we are also confident will improve with time. Big groups and loud places are overstimulating for him and we've also noticed he gets frustrated easier and does not like shaking hands especially when the hand shake is overly firm. One of the therapists explained to my parents that after a TBI reactions become more extreme, referring to post TBI reactions as a big R (big reaction) rather than a small r (small reaction). In a situation when he may have not liked something before, but just went along with it or made a quiet comment on the side, he now reacts very vocally and in ways that would seem rude to those who do not understand his situation. He is unaware that his behavior is inappropriate so I see that as the task that will be most difficult to work on. It's easier to work on deficiencies when we realize they exist.

So many times I have people ask how Jeremy's recovery is going and if I share the positive along with some of the difficulties, they quickly shut me down acting as though I have forgotten how lucky we are to have him here. That is most definitely not the case. I am thankful for Jeremy's presence every single day. I just feel like if I don't share the struggles, it gives a false sense of what recovery from a TBI is really like. That is not only a disservice to Jeremy, but also a disservice to others recovering from TBI along with their families. There is a misconception in the general public about what it is actually like and I had no idea what to expect going into this life change. I read lots of articles and searched out information so I could be informed and know what to expect as we traveled this road to what doctors expect will be a full and complete recovery. If more people understand, it will make the recovery process easier for patients as well as family members of someone with a TBI. It is hard and scary and can be worrisome that the person you knew pre-TBI will not be the person you know post-TBI. But my dad made a very astute observation one day when he said, "I'll never be the same person I was before Jeremy's accident, why would I expect him to be?" And, boy, is that so true!

Weekly Learning Theme: The World Around Us

The We started a weekly learning theme about the world around us way back in April for Earth Day (read about last year's Earth Day learning theme here) but I just wasn't feeling it. I wasn't finding the motivation to request books at the library or carve out time in our day to do the planned activities, so I didn't. At first I thought maybe I just wasn't super interested in the topic so I asked Carter what he wanted to learn about. To which he normally responds with some random topic and we venture into learning about it. This time he said, "NOTHING! I don't want to learn about anything right now!!!" So I decided we needed to take a break from learning themes until we were both excited about them again. It's only fun to forge together learning about a topic when we are all excited about it. When we aren't excited it feels forced and like a waste of time. There are so many teachable moments in our days that learning themes aren't really necessary. We just do them because I enjoy planning themes and it helps me make sure I change up activities and expose Carter and Elise to lots of different topics and materials. So now here we are about 2 months later and I found myself itching to take on a new learning theme. I guess we just needed a little "summer break" early. So I went ahead and finished up this theme before moving on to a new one. This time around we loved it which solidified for me that we had needed a break.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. 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.  I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers. 

The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

1. Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
2. Understand same and different.
3. Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book. 
4. Use age appropriate scissors.  (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
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 with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).

Experiences Elise was exposed to during our theme this week are highlighted below:

• Pretend play/Imitate the behaviors of others.
• Begin to identify and point at body parts. (Right now I just want to say body parts aloud to her frequently and point them out on myself)
• Group based on simple characteristics. (This is something I will do while talking aloud and allowing her to feel objects)
• Fill and empty containers.
• Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously.

Activities/Movement:

• We found a blueberry farm near our house where all proceeds of blueberry sales go to sending medical missionaries to third world countries. We decided instead of buying blueberries at the store each week, we'd go blueberry picking once a week to get our blueberries. So far we've been 3 times and Carter LOVES it! I think mostly because he can sample the blueberries as we pick.

  

  Our first trip with Hayden.

  

  Our second trip he had things all figured out and would just get up underneath the nets for easier picking.

   

• Carter got the chance to help me plant some marigolds flowers which we got for free at a festival downtown. He also got to plant some cosmo flowers from seeds at his Oma and Opa's house. After planting the seeds he kept wanting to go over and check on them and wondered why he couldn't see them yet. It was so funny! He also helped me water our blackberry bush, the marigolds, and the flowers he and Elise gave me for Mother's Day.
  

  

  Pointing out where he had planted seeds in Oma and Opa's backyard.

• While we played with sand I showed Elise how to put sand in the bucket and then pour it back out. We also did that while playing with grass and rocks.

• We played a fun game where I found something in the yard and put it in a bucket from our sand box. Then I gave the bucket to Carter and sent him out into the yard to find a matching item. He loved the game and even started doing it to me, telling me to close my eyes and then handing me the bucket with something in it. It was also fun because it made us both search the yard a little closer and we noticed things we hadn't seen before.
  
• Every time we go out on a run I search for animals and different things in nature as I run. That way I can point them out to Carter and entertain him as we go. I continued doing that during our learning theme and one day we found a flower that looked like a giant dandelion. I tried to figure out what it was by searching the internet when we got home but didn't have any luck.
  
  

• Our worms in our worm farm were still going strong so we observed them during the week. Then at the end of the week, we let the worms go in the yard.

• We went on a nature hunt in our backyard, searching for items to put in our nature sensory bin. We collected rocks, sticks, bark, leaves, and flowers. Carter loved collecting the items and as we added new things, we'd discuss their texture. We used our sense words to compare the items later when he played with the sensory bin.
  

• To practice sorting with Elise we sorted our materials from our sensory bin into piles for hard and soft. Elise participated by feeling the object. Then Carter would tell her whether it was hard or soft and I would add it to the corresponding pile. She enjoyed getting to feel lots of different items.
  
  
• We sang a song about our 5 senses and then talked about them a bit more. After that we used all of our senses to describe things we saw in nature.

•  I found some blank books in the Target Dollar Spot so, of course, I bought them. I showed them to Carter after we had seen the birds in our backyard and he was inspired to write a story about a family of birds. It was so cute and he cracks me up with the names he comes up with! He planned out his story and told me what he wanted each page to say. Toward the end he got tired of drawing and asked me to finish the pictures for him so I did.
  
   
• While we were outside during the day, I'd ask Carter to listen to what was around him and really pay attention to what he heard and where the sound was coming from. Then we went outside at nighttime and listened. We talked about how the noises we heard at night were different from the noises we heard during the day. We also used it as an opportunity to talk a little bit about animals that go out during the day and animals that go out during the night. We've talked about nocturnal animals before and we talked about it a little bit again. At a different time we went outside and focused on feel, talking about how the wind felt on our faces and then how it smelled.

Craft:

• Carter made a craft by gluing grass on paper. Ty had just mowed the lawn so we collected some of the grass and then he glued it and leaves to a piece of paper to make a piece of artwork.
  
  

Special Snack:

• We used the blueberries we picked to make blueberry muffins. I found the recipe here and it was amazing! We actually ended up going blueberry picking once a week and Ty would get so excited when we went because he knew we would whip up a batch of muffins with our newly picked berries. I always made a couple muffins without the topping for Elise to limit her sugar intake.

  

  Addison, Carter, and Hayden helping me make muffins after our first blueberry picking trip.

Make Believe:

• There are some baby birds in the bird house in our backyard. Carter liked to watch them come to the hole with their beaks open wide for food. Then he wanted to play baby birds inside. He'd open his mouth wide pretending to be a baby bird and he wanted me to feed him worms (shoe laces). We also made a giant nest on the living room floor, collecting lots of blankets (leaves) and clothes (sticks). It was a lot of fun!

This was the best picture I got of our baby birds. It was hard to get a picture!

Songs:

• We listened to the Five Senses song from Dr. Jean's Kiss Your Brain cd. It was a lot of fun to dance to it similar to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. We would point to our body part that we use for each sense.

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

• We were down by the water at the Riverside trails and kept an eye out for animals. We saw lots of different kinds of bids, Carter loves to point out robins, as well as rabbits, geese, and goslings. When we saw the goslings we discussed how they looked the same as the adult geese and how they looked different. Carter loved seeing the goslings and we had just read the book "Mother Bruce" which showed the different ages of geese as they grow up. We decided the goslings were teenagers.

  

  We didn't want to get too close, but here's a big group of geese and goslings.

  

  Some stragglers heading over with the others.

• Throughout our time talking about nature we went on lots of walks and stopped to look at different natural wonders like flowers and lakes. We even took time for Carter to climb trees.
  
   
   

• We went on a few different hikes at our favorite hiking spot. Elise started walking for part of our hikes and she loved it! I was amazed at how well she did, stepping over stones and roots and generally just being a straight boss. Carter loves to pick up sticks to use as walking sticks as we go.
  
   

• We also enjoyed going over to see Ty's Aunt Brenda and got to feed the ducks with her. Carter tends to want to eat a bite of bread for every piece he feeds the ducks. It was fun to see the duck and watch them swim.
  

Books:

I'm going to be perfectly honest here, I didn't feel like requesting a bunch of books like we normally do. For this learning theme we just stuck with books we owned at home and a few others we found while browsing that fell under this theme. I know there are way more really awesome books about nature out there, I just wasn't in the mood to find them.

• In My World by Lois Ehlert
• Traces by Paula Fox
• Giving Thanks by Jonathan London
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
• The Earth Book by Todd Parr 
• Riki's Birdhouse by Monica Wellington
• The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
• A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart
• Curious George Plants a Tree by H.A. Rey
• Are Trees Alive? by Debbie S. Miller
• All the Way to the Ocean by Joel Harper
• Earth Dance by Joanne Ryder
• A Seed Is Sleepy by Diana Hutts
• More by I.C. Springman
• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• Outside Your Window by Nicola Davies
• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
• Lost in the Woods by Carl R. Sands II and Jean Stoick
• The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
• Sing-Along Song by JoAnn Early Macken 
• A Gift From the Sea by Kate Banks

Father's Day Weekend

Our weekend started on Friday when Ty got home from work. The kids and my favorite lunch spot, Tropical Smoothie, was offering free smoothies for anyone who came in wearing flip flops to support Camp Sunshine. So we went out for sandwiches and smoothies for dinner which was yummy! They had balloons tied to the chairs to make it a bit more festive and Elise excitedly said, "ba-oon," when she saw them. Ty has been working Saturdays in a new supervisor position. He gave the crew the day off on Saturday since it was Father's Day weekend and we were so excited he didn't have to go in to work on Saturday, we stayed up a bit too late on Friday. Saturday morning the kids and I let Ty sleep in while we played. When he woke up we headed out to the blueberry patch to go berry picking. It was a very hot morning and the kids were starting to lose it a little bit as we were getting ready to leave so we decided to head to McAlister's Deli for lunch since they have 99 cent kid meals. We picked Thomas up and he went with us. Then that evening we headed to a friend's house for a pool party. Carter had such a blast with his buddy and Ty and I had fun socializing although I spent the majority of my time in the pool with the kids. Elise shocked me by being totally cool just floating around in her special baby floaty. If she got too far away from me, she got upset but for the most part she was pretty content. Carter had a blast swimming around on his own and didn't ask for me to hold him at all! Our friends ordered in barbeque for everyone which was so nice. We enjoyed the delicious meal!

Sunday morning we let Ty sleep in again. While he was sleeping we made some homemade blueberry muffins with our newly picked blueberries. Then we set the table, brewed some coffee, and picked some flowers from the yard so we could have a special Father's Day breakfast. After we all ate breakfast together the kids and I walked muffins to Jeremy's house. We wanted to treat Opa for Father's Day and Uncie J because he'd just had surgery that Friday and Oma just because she's awesome. We hung out there for a while to give Ty some time to relax and drink his coffee. When we got home Ty mowed the lawn and then it was time for lunch. That evening my family came over for dinner and we grilled out chicken breasts and had sides that Thomas brought over to share with everyone. It was all delicious and we enjoyed the time together. Although Father's Day involved mowing and grilling, I know Ty had an awesome Father's Day weekend all in all. He was also very excited about the surprise present we got him, steaks and burgers from Omaha Steaks! We are so thankful for Ty and what an amazing daddy and husband he is! We love him so much.

Carter was so cute telling everyone "Happy Father's Day!"

Elise sharing blueberries with daddy.

A Letter to Elise at 15 Months

My Eleesey Boo, you are now a quarter of the way through your second year of life! You are funny, sweet, curious, and down right adorable. We all love you so much. Any time I look at you my heart melts with love for the precious little baby/toddler that you are! I can't believe how good you are and how much joy you bring to my life. It still amazes me how I fall more in love with you and your brother with each month that goes by. How is that possible?

I didn't want her nasty apple in the pictures, but she would cry when I took it away and that didn't bode well for photos. She didn't eat it, just carried it around.

At this age your personality shines through a bit more each month. We are starting to see some more of your spitfire side coming out. You are so funny with how you communicate at times, but you definitely let us know when you don't like something. You scrunch your face up, ball up your tiny fists, and scream. When you are tired you get really mad when we put you in your car seat and will bite at my Fitbit or anything we may be wearing around our wrists. You get a bit of a temper when you want to do something and we don't let you.

We rarely see that temper of yours because you are very compliant. If you start to do something and I tell you no, you immediately stop. Most of the time you try again right away, but still stop if I tell you no again. Your favorite is putting your foot in the dog water. Usually with a shoe on as I'm trying to quickly pack snacks and drinks so we can head out the door. You comprehend so much of what we say. I can ask you questions and you shake your head to respond for yes or no. You also follow commands like lay down, get down, no, lift your legs, arms up, simple stuff like that. You are really good at helping me get you dressed as well as undressed. It is so nice! The trickiest part of getting you dressed is finding your shoes. You know which cubby your shoes are in and constantly get them out and carry them around the house. It never fails that I can only find one of the shoes that belong to the pair that match your outfit! You also carry Carter's shoes around. Sometimes when we are getting ready to go I am searching for one of your shoes and one of Carter's! One day I put the swim bag by the door with your and Carter's swim shoes in it. Of course that meant when it was time to go each of you only had one shoe. I've gotten wise now and find your shoes before we need to go and put them up high where you can't reach!

You walked over and sat in the chair on your own.

 

 

Talking has taken a big jump this month. You say quite a few words and it's obvious you know what they mean. You regularly say mama, dada, Carter, Harper, oh no, and Benny. You also say mimi for banana which surprised all of us because that's exactly what Carter called bananas for the longest time but he stopped saying it before you were born so you've never heard anyone say it before. You have also said Oma and Opa as well as balloon which sounded like ba-oon. At the aquarium you pointed at fish and said fi-dee. You mimic Carter a lot and have said let's go when we were leaving the house. One day we were waiting on him so we could leave and you kept yelling, "Come, Carter!" I was so shocked I didn't think to pull out my phone to take a video until too late and you had decided you were done. I love the way you say Carter's name, it's so cute. In the evening when you hear the door chime as it opens you yell dada as you run toward the front door. It's the sweetest! Then once you get to daddy you turn and run away like it's a game.

You are such a little fierce firecracker too. You aren't afraid of anything (other than swings you freaking hate them and I guess water on your face as you flail your hands around when you get water on your face). You like to stand on the fireplace, climb on the bed, wrestle with Carter. Anything Carter is doing you want to do as well. You will straight up carry ice around without even acknowledging it is cold. One day you fell off the bed as I was running toward you and you just climbed right back on like nothing had happened. You also aren't afraid of anyone. That stranger danger phase has yet to hit you. You'll walk over to complete strangers and sit in their laps. You also love babies and smaller children but will grab their faces, noses, and ears. You've done it to me and it really hurts! It's the only thing you do that me telling you no doesn't have an effect on. Anything else you stop when I tell you no. That is something you do constantly and I have to follow you around pulling your hand away and telling you no as you reach for someone's face. I'm so ready for you to be over it! You love other kids though, so I hate that you do that because then they're afraid of you! When you see Addison you get so excited, stomping you feet and kissing her face. You also call your friend Finley by name.

Sister loves to run!

 

 

Much to my dismay you have figured out how to take the caps off markers. Carter's usually pretty good about putting them away but often forgets to put them up on the cubbies where you can't reach and leaves them on the table. You like to open them, put the ink end in your mouth and suck it or rip the tip off with your teeth. It's gross! You've also learned how to kick a ball and attempt to throw balls with them sometimes going behind your head which is hilarious because you can't quite figure out where it went. You now walk during the first part of our hikes and love it! You saw me brushing a My Little Pony's hair and then you started brushing your pony's hair. When daddy gets you ready for bed, he gives you the brush after he brushes your hair and you brush his sideburns. It's darling! You also pick your play comb up and comb your hair. Soon enough you'll actually have a decent amount of hair!

You are a little too good at sharing. You try to give your sippy cup to other people when we are at play dates. You also like to hand your toys to the dogs. If you ever eat while walking around instead of in your high chair, which we do sometimes for snacks, you try to feed your snack to the dogs. I've been showing you how to put things in buckets and then dump them out. You've just caught on that it's pretty fun to do. I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning and saw you had pulled a small cooler off the bottom shelf on our shelving unit and were filling it with tools from the play tool bench. You are so creative! You are strong too. One day we took a cooler with popsicles to the splash pad to share with friends. When we got home, you found the cooler and carried it all the way in to me because you wanted another popsicle.

Elise went over, got a book, and headed to her chair to read.

 

 

There for a while you were pulling dirty clothes out of your laundry hamper at bedtime quite a bit. We noticed you would snuggle them to fall asleep so we started letting you sleep with a blanket at bedtime as well as naptime. Right now you use a very lightweight swaddling blanket because it's so hot out! You are down to one nap a day for the most part. You act like you'd still like a morning nap some days but if we stay home in the morning for you to nap, you take forever to fall asleep. Sometimes you take a little nap during our morning run and sometimes you fall asleep on the way home from an outing and then sleep through lunch, eating first thing when you wake from your nap. My favorite is still getting you when you first wake up. You get so excited to see me, bouncing and stomping your feet. I love it! It definitely makes my day! Your afternoon naps are usually 2-3 hours long and you sleep from 7 or 8 pm until anywhere from 6:30-8 am depending on the day.

You are still a wonderful eater. You eat mostly anything. Sometimes you'll use your spoon or fork for a few bites but usually toss it overboard pretty quickly. You are fully weaned and did great with it. Every once in a while when you're tired, you'll pull my shirt out and look down it or plop your head on my chest and suck at my shirt, but we haven't nursed in a long time. Oddly enough I've leaked milk a few times in the past few weeks but I haven't nursed you in over a month which I thought was random.

 

My sweet Neesey Noo, I love you so! You are a good and easy baby and I'm so thankful that your challenges are different from those your brother posed. I like that you change it up. You are oh so sweet, absolutely beautiful with a loving heart and I couldn't adore you more!

Now on to daddy:

You have a little bit of a temper little girl! Now, when you're little, it cracks us up. When we take something from you, you are quick to let us know your displeasure. But, often times, you are very compliant and will even give us what you have when we ask.

You are also starting to communicate with us more and more. Just the other day, I asked you if you were done with lunch, and you aggressively shook your head no. I gave you another handful of blueberries and you were happy as a clam!

It is so much fun watching you play with Carter. Just tonight he was laying on the ground and you crawled over, got on his tummy, and started bouncing! You both laughed so hard. You guys play so well together it melts my heart.

You are also just now at the age that when you hear the alarm chime, you say dadda and come running to the front door. I love that so much!

I love you baby!! 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Painting a picture for his daddy for Father's Day.

 

 

 

 

Elise driving the play car at the playground.

Carter telling Elise we were driving to Oma and Opa's house.

 

Carter enjoyed gymnastics class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miniature ice cream cone.

 

 

Carter sharing his free smoothie with Elise.

 

Picking blueberries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harper sleeping with Carter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ate a salad for lunch so Carter wanted one too.

Elise enjoying a smoothie.

 

 

 

Carter checking Elise out before the doctor came in.

He said everything looked good.

 

The kids showing off their medals from the summer reading program.