Reincarnated As A Mother

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Goldilocks and the Three Beds


This boy.
Never a dull moment.
We went to visit a friend from church and up the stairs he
went (we thought to play with her kids).
Nope, we found him first trying out this bed.

 Clearly, it was too hard...
so off it was to this bed.
I think that one was a little too soft...
or perhaps, too BSU-ey?
 He finally settled on this bed;  the teenage daughter's
queen sized bed.
Good choice son.
He was a "bear" though, to get out of there and get
him out to the car.
Speaking of the car.
Look who commandeered my camera
while I was driving.
That girl.
(And that boy)!

Monday, August 22, 2016

And They Are Off...

Let's face it.  The Internet has been full 
of all these darling portraits of kids holding signs
about what grade they are in or what school they are going to.
I'm lucky to a. get my kids off to school
and b. be alert enough to snap a picture on my phone.
Poor Holland starts her day with an out the door time of 6 a.m.
Yes, it is still dark.
And yes, she's still half asleep.
 Greer is a much more palatable 7 a.m.
 Remember, I was crazy enough to have four kids going to four schools.
Reese and Kean both ride buses.
Luckily they are supposed to be only 15 minutes apart.
 Reese got on and left us with no problems.
 Kean's bus was well over half an hour late.  Which means we played around
and rode his bicycle for nearly 50 minutes.
But once he got on the bus, he was fine.
His new bus driver and aid, by the way, are darling.
The first day is under our belt.
They all seemed to do fine, even Kean.
He's a big first grader this year- we have him on a Kindergarten 
schedule, only going half a day.  But I think he'll be moving right up to longer
and longer days before we know it.
Yes, he's doing that well!
Knock on wood...

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Whoosh

Big sigh of relief tonight.
We got through another day of screenings at the hospital
(checks to make sure the big C hasn't come back to torture us).
One of the best things about going to the clinic is Miss Jenn.
As a Child Life Specialist, her job is to play with the kiddos.
Kean loves her--
 and pleasantly shocked both of us by telling her some of his
favorite foods he likes to eat (without prompting).
That's a big deal, folks!
Here's the rundown.
Kean's counts are all looking fabulous.
His neutraphils (ability to fight germs) are still quite low
but slowly, slowly inching up.
The doc said once in a while it takes a kid much longer
to recover.  Guess we have that "once in a while kid".
I like to tell myself, slow and steady wins the race, right?!?!



Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Birthday Cone of Shame

I absolutely love this picture.
My friend Fabiana took it THREE YEARS ago
when we did the photo shoot for the Hall of Heroes
at St. Luke's Children's Hospital.
This boy is growing up so very fast.
 Today we celebrated his seventh trip around the sun.
And what did he want for dinner?  Tacos.
It is a big deal that he has progressed enough to tell us
what he wants for dinner.
He is doing really well.
(Knock on wood)!!!
 For the first time ever, he blew out some of the candles on his cake
and was engaged and excited to open some of his presents.
 He was particularly taken with this little car his Aunt Kori
sent him.  He'd push the button and giggle as it raced across the table.
 Alas, the item that got the most play
(and wasn't even a birthday gift) was
the dog's cone of shame.
Go figure!

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Playtime

Byron and I escaped this afternoon to meet up with some friends for lunch.
Kyle and Amy Benson live a few hours away and have a little girl
who is about six months younger than Kean.
And like Kean, she was blessed with that extra chromosome
and cursed with cancer.
 We met at Tucanos Brazilian Steakhouse for the yummiest lunch we've had in a long time.
That meat is incredible!
Last night, we also went out-- for the most relaxing
and loveliest evening on the lake.
 Oh, and side splitting, heavy duty belly laughs--
'cause look who we were with-- our dear friends, Calene and Mark
Borup and Marc and Monique Warner.  
 I was a wuss and didn't even try... but Byron got 
up skiing...
 and criss crossed the lake-- which we almost had to ourselves.
Boy, did we both need those breaks!

Thursday, August 4, 2016

The Meanest Mom

Last year, I threw Reese a huge 9th birthday party
(I admit, mostly out of guilt for all the short changed
birthdays she's had over the last seven years).
So this year, I told her I wasn't doing another party,
she could just have a few friends over to do something.
Big sister Greer and her friend Jaymie decided that
wasn't very nice.
They came up with a surprise party for Reese.
Here's the funniest part.
They went to all this work-- printed posters, made signs,
came up with theme foods and decorations and activities-- all based
around the theme of the Hunger Games.
But get this, Reese's friends hadn't seen the Hunger Games or get any of the games, food or signs.
Thankfully, that didn't put a damper on the party.
They still scarfed down all the food
and played and played in the pool.
I don't know how we'd throw a single birthday party
without Grandpa Bodily's (Gobily's) pool!

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Snaggletooth

We're sad summer is coming to an end in a few short weeks.
Kean can't get enough of "swimmin' at Gobily's".
 And while he can't swim, he can go down
the slide until everyone's arms are exhausted from
catching him.
 He's learned a new trick though---
going down the slide on his tummy and his back!
 The boy is an absolute daredevil.
 And if he's not rocketing down the slide, he's jumping off
the diving board.
Evidently, plain ol' swimming is dull, dull, dull.
 He was on... oh, round 847 when he slipped and hit his face,
knocking out his other front tooth and scratching up his face a tiny bit.
He wasn't phased by the blood, just annoyed he had to get out of the pool
for a while.
And get this, the kids and their friends found his front tooth at the bottom of the deep end!!
The tooth fairy can finally come for him-- if he only cared.
Well, better than that, the "Sweet Tooth Fairy" came to our 
house in the form of our friend Shannon Bluth.
She brought her famous, mouthwatering strawberry pie.
Yes, it is as good as it looks.
 She saw that Kean got clocked in the face on the last day of summer
school and decided he needed a strawberry pie.
 Nothing makes you forget about a sore cheek than fresh strawberries
and a sweet crust, right?