Growing Up

The kids are growing up (well, duh). This week Zachary has learned to sit up from laying down and is right on the verge of crawling. He'll get on all fours and rock back and forth. He has this look in his eyes of getting ready to set out on an adventure. But his body won't quite cooperate yet. And the other day Eldon said that he stood up in his crib. But right as I walked in the room, he fell down. Hard. With many wails and tears. I haven't seen him try it since, but I'm sure he will soon. Zach's third tooth just came in, too, first one on the top. He's so adorable; he has the cutest smile I've ever seen, complete with cute dimples. His hair is coming in blond, and I just love him to death!

Erica lost her 5th tooth this week. And 3 are wiggly. Poor girl's going to need dentures soon. Out of all 5 that she's lost, we've only found 2 of them (and one of those I pulled because I was afraid of her swallowing it, it was so loose.) She's written a lot of letters to the tooth fairy. She has one tooth coming in the bottom, which is about as big as the three she lost down there. I'm interested to see what the dentist has to say on Friday about all these lost teeth!

Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since I posted, so I figure I should catch everyone up. All 2 of you who read my blog. :)


My sister Karen and her kids came to visit last week. They live in VA now, so it's only a day's drive away. I'm excited to be able to see her more often. While they were here, I finally got a chance to make a topsy-turvy tiered cake, since there was more than enough people to eat it up. We also went to Cabelas to look at the animals. And on Friday we spent a wonderful afternoon at the beach. The weather was absolutely perfect! It was quite crowded when we got there, but pretty soon the people that had been there all day were leaving, and it thinned out quite a bit. We went to a beach that has beach wheelchairs. It was great to be able to push Erica around on the beach. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins! (note: I didn't take the beach pics, they're from CT's parks and rec website.)

The past two days James and I have been canning peaches and green beans. Boy, what a project! I'm glad we're done with the peaches, they take so much work. With all the craziness of the summer, I feel like I still haven't gotten on top of all the work I have to do, so this year I *really* didn't want to can anything. But I bought the peaches anyway because that's just what you do. After finishing and seeing (and tasting!) the peaches, I'm glad I did it, and now I'm back in the canning mode. Next up, pickles!

Podunk Festival

Last night we went to the Podunk Bluegrass Festival that is held in East Hartford every year. It lasts for 4 days, but on the first day, always a Thursday, it is free to East Hartford residents. Since tickets go for about $30 each, this is a great deal. And I love the music. The weather was great and we always take a picnic with us, since it is held at a park. It was fun to watch Jessie dance to the music -- constantly. She started dancing as we walked into the park, danced sitting down and eating, and danced on the way out. At the end of each song, Zachary would clap with everyone else. That was really cute.

Bye Bye Toothy

Erica has lost 2 teeth now. She lost the first one in the hospital. When we entered the hospital, she had one loose tooth. When the breathing tube was put in, the other front tooth was knocked loose, and it eventually got lost at the hospital.

Well, this time around, the breathing tube knocked her loose tooth really loose. It was hanging by a thread. But Erica wouldn't let me pull it. While we were at the ward pioneer picnic, it came loose while she was eating a piece of cheesecake. She felt it in her mouth, took it out, and asked James what it was. He said he didn't know, but then realized it was her tooth and said so as she was dropping it to the ground. Luckily, I saw it hit the ground and was able to pick it up so we could give it to the tooth fairy. So now Erica is missing her two front teeth. And she has 3 wiggly front bottom teeth. Eating should become interesting...

Well, it's happened again...

...you've wasted another hour listening to Car Talk. Oh wait, no, sorry, wrong channel. What's happened again, in our household, is shunt failure. On Tuesday, I noticed that the left side of Erica's face seemed a bit droopy. I had her squeeze my hands and move her eyes around and other such tests, and both sides seemed to be functioning close to equal. In fact, her left hand even seemed to be stronger. So I figured it was just leftover from the previous shunt failure and I had just gotten used to it and was re-noticing it. So that evening I mentioned it to James, and he said he'd look at it in the morning. So Wednesday morning, he said, "Yep, the right side of her face looks like it's going to fall off." Wait, the right side? I thought for a second and realized he was right. I'd gotten my sides mixed up looking at her. Her right side shouldn't be drooping at all! Shoot.

So, off to the doctor we go. Actually, James took her because Eldon was throwing up and I was in the middle of making a cake. Because life's fun that way. Sure enough, CT scan shows a fluid build up in the left side of her brain (yes, you read that correctly, the left side, because the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body. Although the CT scan displays it on the right side of the monitor, just to make it more confusing.) Erica had surgery Wednesday evening, and is doing great. She should be coming home this afternoon - Thursday. That's shunt surgery the way it should be -- 24 hours. The left shunt was clogged with "schmuck". So it was replaced, and hopefully all is well. My poor little girl.



I keep wanting to post this, but haven't, so I'll post it now. These are the posters Eldon and Jessica made for Erica when she came home from the hospital last time. If you look closely , yes, closely at it, you can see that all the letters are actually pictures of something. Very creative, I thought.

He Rides!

He finally did it! Eldon figured out how to ride his bike on Friday. James said he finally took off after moving from the sidewalk to the street. James got quite the workout too.

We're bustin' outta this joint!

The time has come! After 6-1/2 weeks, Erica is ready to leave. When we started rehab, we had 3 goals: eating, sitting, and crawling. She did well enough on her swallow study, that she's able to eat soft, chopped food and thickened liquids. And she's enjoying eating, especially all the ice cream she gets!

She can sit in a chair very well, and can also propel herself around in her wheelchair.

She can't, however, crawl yet. But we decided that it wasn't enough to stay here any longer. We're going to take a week off, then back to therapy we go, but as an outpatient this time. The doctors and nurses here at CCMC have been so wonderful! We're going to miss them, but it will be GREAT to be home!

Thank you so much for all your thoughts, cards, help, and prayers.

Erica says, "I am getting better every time I say a word and I love that I am going home too!"