Wednesday, July 29, 2009

We have been enjoying Arts Camp (aka Vacation Bible School) all week. The kids have had so much fun and have enjoyed the singing, dancing, crafts, snacks and fun with friends. Being back on a regular routine for the morning has been good but I also think everyone is tired. Ella took a 2 hour nap today. It was nice for me but I don't know how it will affect her sleeping tonight. There are only 2 in Eli's group so he has enjoyed so much attention and activity. He also really enjoys his friend Norah. Landon has had lots of friends in his class but has especially enjoyed having his neighbor, Bobby, join him each day.

They have been learning about Paul who was once called Saul. It has been very educational for Landon. It has also had me thinking about things that I wish I could change on my inside. I will hopefully walk away from the week motivated to making changes in myself to reflect a change and to reflect the love that God sheds upon us constantly.

On another note, it's hard for me to believe August is almost here. I feel like we have done so much but that there is so much more we want to do. I will try to make my list tonight of things we want to be sure to do before school starts back, included on that list will be hiking, biking, swimming, and of course fun places for the kids. Check out this picture of Landon on Saturday. He is working hard on learning to ride his bike. We hopefully will get rid of the training wheels very soon. Hope your last few days of July are a blast!

Thursday, July 24, 2009

Getting back on schedule slowly. Kids certainly miss the beach but certainly are enjoying being back at home as well. Sleep patterns are returning to normal as well which I am really happy about.

Some things I left out about the beach. Ella played a full round of putt putt for the first time while at the beach. Because she had so much fun we went out again to play another night. Not only did she play the full round in the 98 degree jungle weather with 89% humidity, she got her first hole in one. We were psyched about it and she was so proud to tell her dad. Landon tried out a real tennis racket at the beach and although he probably still prefers tennis on the Wii, he has found ways to play tennis in our backyard. Today he had Nannie out there with a large inflatable ball and two play rackets and was playing patio tennis. Eli is enjoying just getting to go in the backyard without his mom worrying about the alligator in the lagoon that was in Hilton Head.

Hope your week is going well too.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Back from the beach and getting back into the swing of things. It was a lot of fun and the biggest news is that Ella is feeling great. We really do appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers. The first few days of vacation she mentioned her tummy hurting once or twice but she was eating like a tiger. She truly was eating every 20 - 30 minutes. She would have a snack of goldfish and then 15 minutes later say she was hungry. We aren't talking about 5 or 6 goldfish either - more like 30-40 at a time. Luckily we had bought the Costco boxes of goldfish, pita chips, and wheat thins. Today I weighed her at the doctors office and she weighed in at 35 lbs. She gained back all of the weight she lost plus some. I thought that this eating would go on forever just as her sickness seemed to but today she has gotten a little bit more normal. Coming home we decided to make a transition to only one snack in the morning and one in the afternoon. She still has a great appetite and ate a bowl of cereal and 2 muffins for breakfast. As you will see in the pictures she is doing great. She also has plenty of energy and only napped once or twice while gone. The only downfall we have seen is that while she was sick she pretty much got to do only the limited amount of what she wanted to do. Now, she is having a hard time giving up not having to do all the things she doesn't want to do. She is also having to get used to everything revolving around how she is feeling or what she wants at a given second. We have had a few battles but hopefully it will ease up over the week.

Landon had a blast while on vacation as well. He mentioned several times that he wished we could live there. I am not sure if it was the house, or having his friends there to play all the time, or just having the full attention of mom and dad with our schedule revolving around fun things to do. He got to play lots of Wii with his friend Jason the first week. The second week he taught me how to play tennis on the Wii and also taught Aunt Beave some of the fun games to play. We taught him to play dominoes which he quickly took to. Outside of that he had a blast getting to play putt putt twice, go to the beach, ride the waves, play in the pool, build sand castles, play at the playground, go to the bounce house, eat shrimp and calamari, and just have a ton of fun. The other thing that he liked about vacation was the food; powdered sugar doughnuts for breakfast, honey buns, oreos, mint chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate covered ice cream bars, pizza, and of course shrimp.

Eli was living it up. He was sleeping until 9 or 10 every morning and napping in the afternoons. He also enjoyed the sugary foods for breakfast and the sandy lunches on the beach. He was a big fan of playing in the sand and crashing anything that took a while to build. He enjoyed the waves, the pool and the tidal pools. At one point I have video of him kissing the water. The yuckiest thing he kissed there was a dead beetle at the pool. He liked picking up the live ones and letting them crawl on his hands but some reason he couldn't poke the dead ones enough to get them moving. He definitely enjoyed having so many friends there the first week and kept busy trying to be in the middle of all the games and fun. Putt putt was an adventure for him. He tried to hit his ball the first couple of holes until he found that some of the holes had water traps and he could just kick his ball in them and have mommy fish it out. The rest of the time was spent finding any water available to throw his ball in. Another big time for him was when I took them to the bounce house and there was a train table there. He played trains for hours it seemed. Walking around the table saying "choo choo" the whole time. Finally he realized he could do several of the inflatable slides by himself and then that took over his time. The worst part of the trip for him was on our second Friday he fell off the chair in the kitchen and landed on his head on the tile floor. He got a huge knot on his head. Luckily it went down after a couple of hours but there is still a nice bruise to remind me how happy times can change in an instant.

Aunt Beave also got to come and visit towards the end of our trip. The kids and I were so excited to get to spend some time with her. Now that she lives in Boston it seems like it is harder to get together even though it happens just about as often as before. She spent time with each Ella coloring and playing in the ocean, playing games and Wii with Landon, and just enjoying all that Eli gets into. I had a great time relaxing (after the kids went to bed) and catching up. What a great time!

We definitely missed Mike the second week. Unfortunately he was home working and sick. He had pink eye and a sinus infection most of the week. He is better now and we are happy to get see him. For the 5 or so days that I was by myself at the beach it just seemed weird. Even though we are together all day while Mike works the nights seemed really long and lonely and the kids seemed quieter without Mike there to play games at night.

So glad to be back and look forward to hearing from you all.

BEACH TRIP UPDATE from Mike

I'm back home preparing for a busy week of work while Brooke and the kids are staying at Hilton Head for another week.

Last week was a lot of fun and we enjoyed friends, beach, pool, putt putt, and many other things.. Kids played hard and the adults chased them by day and played board games by night.

As I headed home I looked forward to a quiet week (besides work) a lot less than I thought I would. The last thing I saw while leaving was Eli having a full blown meltdown which broke my heart...

Ella continued to improve from her marathon GI illness....dramatically... She has gotten some of her weight back and her energy and mood are better (most of the time). She is in one of those phases where she really likes her Dad, and she colored me at least 10 to 15 pictures for us to share.... Each had her name and my name on them. She really liked the pool and the beach and as the week went on she became more and more independent. We started the week with me having to be in the pool right beside her or even holding her, and finished the week with her comfortably swimming around the pool all by herself (well...with her water wings). The final advance was her swimming with her face underwater... I didn't even expect that after all the screams I've endured every time a drop of water hits her face in the bathtub. To top it all off we went to an outdoor show for kids and the singer /entertainer had all the kids come up on stage. I wouldn't have given you $10 that Ella would even go up there, but not only that she raised her hand a volunteered to sing a song in front of a hundred or more people! Her put her on his lap and asked her how old she was and she said "fwoor" and then he asked her some other questions that were beyond cute. Then he asked her what song she wanted to sing and she belted out the "ABC's song" right in the microphone... She sang beautifully !!! In summary, she's eating constantly swimming like a fish, and surprising us all the time.

Eli was classic Eli all week ... lots of entertaining, kissing everything, lots of hugs and smiles....fearless as ever! He's digging the pool as well.

Landon swam, rode waves and played a lot of Wii with his friend Jason. He was very well behaved all week, and just went hard everyday and slept hard every night.

Pictures will be coming soon ... There are some good ones...

Please pray they all stay safe, and for Brooke to have the energy to handle them by herself on the beach and everywhere else.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Praise! Ella is doing well. She had a short episode yesterday afternoon but it wasn't for long and there were no ill effects. She has eaten sausage and chicken nuggets with no problem. Having a little protein in her has helped her sleep a bit longer in the mornings but hasn't slowed her appettite for the rest of the day. She is eating constantly and always waiting until the next meal. She is seriously eating for 15 -20 minutes of every hour. She needs to gain some weight back and get some of her color back but overall she is good. I am so excited that she is feeling better.

The kids have had an awesome week with Miss Lisa visiting twice, playgroup at Funigan's, the pool, and playdate with a friend tonight. They are also very excited about fireworks this weekend. It has been a joy to see them all smiling and enjoying playtime.

Last weekend we visited Pops and Nannie and the kids had a blast of course. They get so spoiled being there that it is such a let down to come home. Ella cried for a good bit even though they got to stay an extra night. While there they played lots of games and even took a trip to the creek. I think Ella's highlight was getting to have powder sugar doughnuts on Sunday, Landon's was getting to play Golden Tee with Pops, Dad, and Uncle Nathan, and Eli's was getting to visit all the dogs in the neighborhood.

Hope your week has been as good as ours and even though Ella is feeling well we still feel like we are on pins and needles to see if it happens again. If it doesn't, that's great, but we are still unsure as to what caused it and that is a little worrisome. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers.