Making Lemonade from Lemons....

Our sitter fell and is "out of commission" so yesterday I "split" the day with Kozy so that neither of us would have to be out the full day. I kept Richard and Claire during the morning hours and then they switched and went to Kozy's house for the afternoon. They had a wonderful time playing in his room (dumping out EVERY toy he owns), watching Veggie Tales, feeding the fish, and literally running circles around the house (yet another video clip I need to upload). It was a rather odd feeling to look in the rear view mirror and see TWO kiddos - think MAYBE I could grow accustomed to it - see TY, there is hope for me yet. LOL

Fun with MeMe

I love this picture of Richard and my mom - NO I didn't pose him - he just posed himself and MeMe snuggled in for the pose! LOL I also just HAD to share his block building - he STILL wants to organize and build by color...wonder where he gets that!!!

One of Richard's Favorite ways to spend an afternoon. . .

Recently my Aunt Jean and Uncle Bobby were in town from Arkansas... Richard has now named Uncle Bobby "Bob Bob" - guess he thinks that he is kinda like Bob the Builder. I'm not sure who had more fun: Richard or Uncle Bobby, but they both had a great time feeding the duck and geese at the lake. It is so funny as you look at the progression of the pictures to see how all of the ducks begin their trek across the lake when they realize that Richard has food...what's amazing is that not all of the ducks bothered rousing from their afternoon naps to come and eat. I love to hear Richard belly laugh and one of these days I will figure out how to add video so y'all can here the delight in his voice as he fed them.

One of many ways to delay bedtime. . .

NOT A NEW FACT: our child doesn't like to sleep- never has - probably never will....I am firmly convinced that all of the baby books that talk about newborns sleeping three fourths of the day are all lies and fiction!! Anyway, back to this point in time.... Richard is always trying to find new ways to put off bedtime just a few minutes here and there....one of his favorite is to say "wait mommy - I build for you" - hmmm - look at those future architectural skills. . . .

The Past Week or So....

I went to a REALLY great gifted conference last week - probably the most interesting and helpful session was about "dual rulings" - children that are gifted + something else (like dyslexia, aspergers, ADD, ADHD, and many many others)....I went up Wednesday afternoon and came home Friday...in the meantime my WONDERFUL in-laws came and got Richard and took him back home with them (my mom was supposed to be picking up Richard in the afternoons, but dad can't be around lil people germies at the moment) - Friday evening when I got in, Ty and I went to supper and then headed to Louisiana - spent some time Saturday at the Nissan dealership - can't wait to post a pic for Ty but will wait till it is officially his next weekend! Headed back to MS on Sunday by way of Clinton to celebrate Mom's birthday almost a week late and see how daddy was doing.

Daddy is doing really well. He still has the catheter in, but they are hoping to take it out on Thursday. He had a rough day Friday and ran a low temp but all was ok. Please continue your prayers for him as he continues to recover and he learns his new daily routine (he begins his day with a breakfast of 20 pills!!!)

Also, really important: please pray for my Cindy (I don't know how to link her name so this is her link: http://www.thebeckwithfam.blogspot.com/ ) She sent a text on Sunday morning saying that she had been admitted to the hospital because her water had broken and it is NOT time yet to deliver lil Miss Emily Ann...please lift Cindy and Emily up in prayer. Thanks so much.

GO UMC TRANSPLANT TEAM! THANK YOU GOD!!!!

Hi - it's 11:23 and I just got home - mom called me about one o'clock today saying that they had recieved another phone call and that the transplant team had requested that they report to the hospital within the hour - I readied my lesson plans for next week - went and got Richard, took him to his daddy at work and headed to the hospital - when I got there daddy was already back in the "holding area" as they did some testing to see if he and the donor kidney were "friendly to each other" - by this time they did have a room that they were letting mom stay in while daddy was in this holding pattern - at around 5 the nurse in the OR called to say that the next call would be to tell us that they had made the first incision or that the procedure had been cancelled - about 5:20 the phone rang with the good news that everything was "a go" and daddy was indeed in surgery and would be for an hour to two hours - mom and I went downstairs and grabbed a bite to eat and quickly headed back up to the room to make phone calls to friends and relatives to say this was REALLY going to happen unlike four weeks ago - by 7:25 Dr. Blandeau was peeping through the door with this HUGE grin ear to ear - he said that all went well and that daddy was in recovery but hopefully would be back upstairs to CCU about 8:30 or 9 at the latest - it took a bit longer than that because daddy was cold and in a lot of pain - mom assured me she was fine and so was daddy but I was NOT budging till I had seen daddy and given him a kiss!!! At about 9:45 I was out at the nursing station asking for an update when I heard a sleepy but strong for just coming through transplant surgery - "there's my baby" - once a daddy's girl ALWAYS a daddy's girl!! My brother and his family arrived safely in town and are staying at mom and dad's tonight before heading back home tomorrow - my brother is a music minister and is at his new church for the first Sunday this weekend.

The next few hours and days are REALLY crucial - I covet your continued prayers for daddy especially (Jerry Spires), but also the staff taking care of him and our family as we each help daddy through this recovery. Daddy will be in the CCU for about five days.
I am so grateful to live in Jackson MS tonight where GREAT things are going on in the TRANSPLANT department!!


**This is the email I sent out to my coworkers, excuse me if the wording is choppy - I am exhausted and headed to be for a few hours.

Here We Go Again. . .

Richard woke up sneezing today - I'm sure as a result of his allergies flaring up after his day outside at the park yesterday - so we decided to stay home and take some allergy meds. As I poured up the dose I told Ty I needed him to help (I don't know what happened to my child that used to take meds with NO arguments - now it is WORLD WAR III). . . as he came to help, Richard ran away and then it happened. . . SMACK!. . . . SILENCE. . . then WAILING!!! In his attempt to get away from daddy, Richard fell and smacked his head (yes the same place he hit it before) only this time it was on the corner of Ty's nightstand and it broke the skin. The crying ceased, the loving on mommy began- UNTIL I was the bad guy too and made him put the ice pack on his head! As you can tell from the pics, after a couple of hours he was back to his smiling self and we had to spend a good portion of the day playing "cars" and "race track." And, YES- he likes to LINE all the cars up before sending them on their merry way - and just for the record, there is a SPECIFIC order in which he likes them lined up and he will correct you if you do it "wrong." Oh well, long day - no real nap - and a child that at 9:30 still has not fallen asleep....at this rate I'm going to have to change my facebook status of "ready to face the work week head on."

Good Ole Wally-World....

You know why Wal Mart is such a HUGE and RICH corporation?!?! Because they now how to get more money out of you than you ever intend to spend in one trip! It doesn't stop there - they market not only to people our age, but even our two year olds!!! LOL Now how many parents do you think in one day use the "riding toys" at the entrance as a bribery tool in order to have a peaceful shopping trip? Hmmm - must admit that tonight I was one of those moms. It had been a long day, but I figured while I had spent the gasoline to go to the birthday party in Brandon, I might as well check out their WalMart - they always seem to have a better selection of children's clothes than ours' does...sure enough...our WalMart doesn't even have all of the fall selections in but their's had a LOT and was already picked over pretty good. I did find a couple of long sleeve tees, turtlenecks, and a couple of tees for Richard to wear next year. On the way out Richard talked me into Cheetohs (since he already had supper at the birthday party) and a ride in the jeep....hey, what can I say: a dollar and a half for Cheetohs and a ride on the jeep were well worth a peaceful trip to WalMart! Notice that he would not even let me hold his Cheetohs in case I decided to take them back. LOL Kuddos to the marketing folks at WalMart Headquarters - you definitely know how to get us.

Happy Birthday Bennett!!

Today started out kinda rough but wound up being a really fun filled day.... I woke up to excruciating throbbing in my head around 2a.m. so I got up and took some Excedrin...my early bird woke up at 7am so his daddy took him to go and get donuts and to give mommy some silence in the house. About 10am my head wasn't any better so I took something stronger for it and laid down for a few hours while Richard played with his daddy. I woke about 2pm and felt much better - definitely not 100% but way better than before so off to WalMart I went to pick up Bennett C. a birthday present...picked up Richard and we headed to Brandon. No-one was at Nicole's house, so I called her only to find out that the party was at the city park - good grief - what a day. Bennett came and greeted Richard and off to the slides they went. Richard had a great time on the slides and big boy swings...we even stayed after the birthday boy went home! LOL Thanks for a great time Bennett - have fun playing with all of your new Star Wars toys.

Being "Good" Shareholders!

Surely we have lost our minds....we went to see Wall-E for a second time! Richard is a "bit" enthralled with Wall-E. He has asked (ever since we went to see it the week it released) to go see Wall-E....we kept telling him that Wall-E was visiting other little boys and girls and that we would get to see him sometime after he finished visiting all the other boys and girls....the persistent question never ceased. So, when I opened the paper Sunday after lunch and discovered that it was STILL at Cinemark - we decided that we would give Richard an offer: if he would help clean up his toys and help with the house chores we would go and see Wall-E.....hey a little bribery never hurt, right? He was great about helping straighten the living room and his room and trying to help with putting clothes away (although his definition of helping was to toss them on his bed). We headed to Cinemark and crossed our fingers....last time he sat mesmerized till about twenty minutes before the end. . . this time he was GLUED - through all of the previews and the whole movie (well not the last two or three minutes) but we explained that he needed to watch so that he could tell Wall-E bye bye...that did it, and he even stayed to dance through the credits. Afterwards we played in the game room and then headed home. He got about half of his banana eaten and when I turned around to check on him he was out soundly----it was two and a half hours after his normal nap time. Anyway, it was good to see the parts that I missed last time but if we need an excuse of how we could sit through the movie a second time, I guess we could always claim that we were just trying to be good Disney shareholders! LOL I'm sure that once it is released to DVD on November 18, it will be soon memorized line for line at the Sullivan household - thanks Disney!!!

Forever Friends are the Best Kind of Friends!

Jill was a wonderful blessing that I inherited when Ty and I married. He and Jill worked at the Disney Store many years ago and have a special friendship that runs deep - I feel blessed to also be able to count Jill as MY friend as well! Jill came over from Birmingham for the weekend and we had a great time - rain or no rain! I had a great time shopping with her and eating at Mellow Mushroom. She brought Richard's Build-A-Bear "Sid" a grilling set since we planned to grill out. (Sid is named after Aunt Jill.) Richard had so much fun playing with her.... she went home on Sunday after church while Richard was asleep, and when he woke up from his nap he searched the house over and couldn't find her and he came over and said "Mommy I want to find Aunt Jill!" I had to explain to him that Aunt Jill had to go home, but hopefully we would see her again really soon.

Our Teeth Are Not Rotten!

MeMe offered to let Richard come and "swim" in the jacuzzi since "TS Fay" was causing it to rain and rain and rain! Richard had a great time after we convinced him that he could not jump in like he did at Lu's house and after his one unexpected dip underwater as he walked the ledge and found a "seat" that was much lower than where he had been standing. Thanks for being such a trooper MeMe. Oh, and back to the title - I PROMISE that my child LOVES to brush his teeth (especially with his singing Thomas the Train toothbrush and Wall-E toothpaste) but he is eating goldfish while playing!

Visiting With DD!

Mom and Dad were house sitting for Mrs. Gloria, so Richard and I headed over for a visit. We love to go and play with DD and MeMe...of course the alphabet mat and letter blocks are Richard's all-time favorites, but he also enjoys going down the baby slide, big slide, the motor bike, and mowing the carpet! LOL

Richard's First BIG "BoBo"

I'm not sure who needed the ER more, Richard for his bobo or Ty for almost having a heart attack! One night right after Richard had taken his allergy meds he was heading across the living room (with both hands full) to go and see his daddy - BAM!!! He tripped over a pillow and hit the solid wood coffee table full force because he couldn't catch or brace himself since his hands were full. It immediately made a goose egg - and of course Richard was screaming- I had always heard if it "popped out" it was a "good" thing, but Ty really thought we needed to go to the ER - all I could think was "I would do anything for my child, but I don't want to spend $2000 for them to tell me to go home and keep an eye on him." So we put ice on it, headed to the car and stopped by our friend Laurie's house - I figured she has THREE kids and would know if it was "bad" or not - she thought it was fine, but Ty was still unsure so I suggested we go see Mrs. Beth - she said that it was iffy - she was concerned about his right eye and if it was dilated or not - we wound up coming back home, icing it, and not letting him go to sleep for a few hours, and of course continuing Tylenol. Beth said he had to tell everyone all day long the next day about his bobo "right there" and "hitting the table" - all seems fine now and he has some pics of a really "cool" looking bruise...thank goodness our first "big bobo" has past - I HATE to think about the first time there is blood or broken bones - God give us strength!!!

Poppa's Birthday!

PatPat and Poppa came up and we celebrated Poppa's birthday together with steaks and all the fixings one day and Ichiban the next. Richard LOVED helping Poppa blow all the candles out and we had to do it at least three times! Richard also enjoyed showing Poppa how high he could build his block tower that spins. Richard LOVED the Olympics this year, especially the swimming and the gymnastics - I have NO idea what ad is playing on NBC in the background as he shows off his gymnastic moves, all I can say is "oh my" and this was network television before 8pm!! Anyway, we had a great time- have a wonderful 69th year Poppa!