World's cutest sounds.

Add this one to the list:

The sound of children slurping popsicles outside on the deck.

Good Surgery

Jackie is out of surgery, and at last account from her mom, is doing well. Praise the Lord!

Prayer Request - surgery

The surgery is tomorrow, Sept. 11 - the dear patient's name is Jackie. Please say a prayer for her, her surgeons, her parents and family. And, you know, if you could also pray for the surgical and hospital staff (including the cleaning crews - you can't imagine how important those people really are) - that would be most wonderful.

Here is an explanation of Jackie's surgery, and where she is in her development, from her mom:

It has been a while since I have updated everyone on Jackie's progress, so I thought her upcoming surgery would be a good time to catch everyone up. As most of you know, we have been 'patching' Jackie's eyes for the past year due to her diagnosis of strabismus and amblyopia. This patching was in hopes of delaying or even preventing surgery, but the progress was not as much as the doctors had hoped for - so we have eye muscle surgery scheduled for Tuesday, September 11th. This procedure is an outpatient surgery, so we should be home Tuesday night if all goes well. Please keep Jackie in your thoughts and prayers next week as she recovers from this procedure.

Jackie is 17 months old now and I can not believe how much she has accomplished in the past few months. She is still in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy with the Early Intervention Program, but is age appropriate in both speech and OT. Our area of concern at this time is her Gross Motor Skills (primarily walking) and she was fitted for a walker last week (8/28). She was also fitted yesterday for SMO Braces for both feet. SMO is the acronym for Supra-Malleolar Orthosis and is prescribed for patients who have soft, flexible, flat feet. We are hoping this will help improve her standing balance and walking. The braces are custom made, so it will be a couple of weeks before we have them.

Thank you all for your prayers tomorrow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAGA!

We love you so very much!!!

Overheard at the Zoo

Poodle: Mommy, I really need to put this tiara and veil on your hair.

Lok: Honey, I need to keep my hair looking half way decent until after my appointment this afternoon, but after that, you can do anything you want to it.

Poodle: But Mooommmmmmeeeeee, I REALLY need to!

Lok: Tell you what, go put it on Daddy. Tell Daddy that Mommy said he needs to wear it.

Poodle: Daddeeee - Mommy said you need to wear this.

Jmk (from other room): Oh, no no no. You tell Mommy that she's crazy as a loon.

Poodle: Mommy! You're a crazy balloon!

Add to the wish list..... a dog.

A while back, I started a "June Cleaver" wish list, with the first item being a certain oven. I have now found another item I would like to add, please!

A dog.

Not just any dog. We have a wonderful 4 legged friend of the yellow lab variety who fits most all of our canine needs. But there is a certain dog that I really feel would be a necessary addition to the success of our home.

The dog from Peter Pan. Nana, to be precise. Now, if you're drawing a blank and thinking "I'll go google this in a minute, because I really don't remember Peter Pan", then don't worry. If P.P. wasn't one of the movies that we watch with the kids, then I wouldn't have remembered this most lovely Newfoundland either.

Nana.... the nursery maid extraordinaire. Brings the children their "tonic" at bedtime. Straightens out the bedsheets. Picks up toys. (Did I mention that she picked up toys?) Now, I haven't actually read J.M. Barrie's play/story - so, my description of dear Nana is based on Disney's version of the pup. And, frankly, Disney takes a LOT of license when they redo stories. But, nevertheless, Nana is quite the helpful hairy beast, no matter who is telling the story.

How GREAT would it be to have a dog that went around making up the beds in your house, and picked up the toys at the end of the day for you? I mean, seriously, I really want that dog.


p.s. to the post. My DH emailed me to remind me that, actually, Nana is a St. Bernard. Well, yes, he's right. In the movie, she's a St. Bernard, but in the play, she was described as a Newfoundland. Everyone sufficiently confused? :-)

A deja vu that I did not want.

I put Tooter down for his nap, and noticed some small brown'ish streaks on his crib sheet. First thought - UGH. I just changed this sheet last night. What IS it with him and the poo-poo diapers? Gross, gross, gross.

Then I realized - "wait a minute. He didn't have a dirty diaper when he woke up this morning. He hasn't been in his crib with a dirty diaper today.....

Oh. Man. I know what that is."

It's blood streaks. From his legs and feet. And then I remembered my sheets during 7th grade, when I would wake up and have those same tiny blood streaks. Because I would scratch sores thru the eczema on my legs.

My little man is doing the same thing now.

This is one of those times that I have to console myself with the thought that God has spared him from much worse problems, by allowing him to only deal with this skin irritation. No, it's not easy to see your small child with inflamed skin from the top of his neck to, literally, the ends of his toes. But I'll pick him up after his nap from his crib. In his room. Not from a crib in a hospital.

Sometimes our greatest blessings are not what we have, but what we don't have.

Big Labor Day Weekend!

We got to meet a most precious person this weekend - Jerra! David brought her to Meet The Family this weekend. Saturday night, we met at the Elite and were also able to see GaGa's sister, Aunt Aimee, and Jaime's mom, Linda. What a CREW we were! Huge long table, 3 kids, tons of food. We were loud and crazy, but what else is new? ;-)

Now, I know what you're thinking. Where are Lok and MooMoo in this picture? (That IS what you were thinking, right?) We were the official photogs for the evening. As is typical.

Sunday night, after the kids went to bed, J&D and Jmk and I stayed up WAY too late, sitting around the island in the kitchen talking and laughing and being generally unaware of our ages. The later it got, the funnier things became. MAN, did 6:30 come early yesterday morning!

Then we had a fun family gathering on Labor Day. It was a long weekend for everyone, but I am SO glad that we got so much great time with Jerra and David. It was such a treat to get to talk with her as much as we did!

Poodle, Jerra, and David - Poodle is quite enamored with Jerra!

She was a big reason for a lot of the gathering this weekend. She spent the weekend at our house, and we got to meet/visit/have fun with her for the first time. What a doll!!!

It was also nice spending so much time with David. I usually don't get to see him a whole heck of a lot when he's in town. And I can't think of a better reason to see more of him than having Jerra at the house!

Big high five for GaGa!

Yesterday, Labor Day, we had everyone over at the house, and MooMoo and GaGa brought over a ton of BBQ and made homemade ice cream. (Yummo!!!)

Jaime's folks were still in town, so we got to see them again too! It really was a lot of fun.

Poodle had a bit of a beauty salon session with Granny. It's hard to see them, but there's is a fabulous beaded necklace around Granny's neck, and of COURSE, a bow in her hair. She looked simply divine.

Tooter had big fun fiddling with the foot rests on Granny's chair.

And last, but certainly not least, MooMoo got some Baby Audrey time on Monday. Can't you just get lost in those big eyes? She's such a sweet baby.

Days that begin with "F"

From a conversation in the van this morning:

Me: Poodle, what days begin with an "S"?
Poodle: Saturday and, oh of course, Sunday
Me: How about "M"?
Poodle: Monday.
Me: Which days begin with "T"?
Poodle: Tuesday and Thursday.
Me: Okay, which one begins with a "W"?
Poodle: Wednesday.
Me: Very good. And, now, which one begins with an "F"?
Poodle: NACHO NIGHT!

:-)

This might help you understand that last one. I love a girl with nachos on the brain.

Katrina Anniversary

To those who are still rebuilding - you are in our thoughts. To those who have rebuilt and are helping others now (Jennifer and David!), we are amazed with your generosity!

The Katrina experience truly brought out the best and the worst in people... but today, I hope we all celebrate the BEST that was brought to light. God WAS glorified thru the storm by the outpouring of love and support and good-will that followed the storm waters. And, at the end of the day, that is what matters the most.

Stand tall MS Gulf Coast!!!

Baby Steps

My apologies for this indulgence, but I need to do a little journaling here to keep up with baby things.

Let's see...... things I need to make note of:
Tooter is now sleeping all night, and has been for the past month or so. Go Toot!!! (All night is 7'ish pm to 6:30'ish am).
He got his first "2 year" molar, gosh - what - about 2 or so months ago, and is working on his second on the bottom right. I remember Poodle not being very noticeable during this process. Toot gets downright cranky. It's a joy. ::ahem::
According to Poodle: "Ti - a drink with jam and thread". "So - a needle going thru the thread".
"Mommy, I don't need your assistance, I need your help!"

Okay. I think that's all I had in mind to get down in print. I may have to come back and adjust this during the day, but for the most part, we can all go back to our regularly scheduled program!

Huh. I did not know that.

We just returned from spending about an hour at the neighborhood pool.

Random poll question time everyone:
Raise your hand if you knew that there is a new trend in swimming pools - forgoing chlorine for salt water.

Mmmhmmm. Salt water in a swimming pool.

Now, it's not Gulf of Mexico kind of salty, but it is honest-to-goodness salt water. Some of the other residents there were telling us that this is a new trend because it is better for skin and clothes and it keeps the water as clean as chlorine does.

I just wish we had some kind of example in nature that could have kept us from bleaching our pool water all this time.

Oh. Wait.

::wink::

Marooooon! Whiiiiiiite!

Thanks to GrandCandy, the kids are now well outfitted for football season! (Tooter's MSU sippy cup didn't make it into the pictures).

Thank you GrandCandy!!! (And we haven't been able to get the uniform off of Poodle yet. ha!)

Go Bulldogs!

Yo yo yo - it's all about the hat, man.