It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today has been absolutely gorgeous so far. It's warmer than it's been in weeks. We were able to go out and play in t-shirts and shorts this morning. I haven't let Alison out in shorts in the morning since the end of May, I think. Since we've been having to wear long pants and jackets or sweatshirts, I didn't really realize how sunny it is in our backyard in the mornings. We had to come back in and put some sunscreen on because I had forgotten all about it.

Our neighbor was off today, and with it being such a nice morning, he was getting ready to take off on his Harley while we were out playing. As soon as Alison heard the engine start, she was off in search of the "cycle." She would have loved to have gone over and climbed on, but she doesn't understand, yet, that motorcycles have hot exhaust pipes, and they don't mix well with little girls' hands. So she had to be content to walk down the driveway and the sidewalk in front of our house until "Mr. Mike" took off.

I wanted to sweep off the patio because it kind of needed it and it was bugging me. I had barely walked out of the garage with the broom when Alison came running over to "help." I think I need to seek out a toddler sized push broom. (I'm not sure it will help, though. She has her own little rake, yet when I got my big rake out to clean up the stick debris Bo left after a couple of days of chewing on sticks, she wanted to use mine instead of hers.) I was finally able to get her more interested in mowing the grass with the bubble(less) mower and the patio looks much better now.

Why does Alison keep asking for her colors (crayons or, in this case, sidewalk chalk) and then not color with them when she gets them? I'm starting to think I have the only toddler that doesn't like to color. I drew a sunshine with a smiley face in it. Then we picked up all the chalk. We sang the sunshine song a few times (You are my sunshine, that is) and then Alison gave the sunshine a kiss. She had yellow chalk on her nose when she got back up. I've got to remember to always bring the camera out with me, because that would have been such a good picture.


This afternoon we're going to go for our usual walk. We'll definitely be going back outside to play after supper, although if she plays her cards right, Alison may be able to get daddy to take her out again before supper, too. I heard the weatherman say this morning that we should be in the 80's by the end of the week. If this keeps up, we might even be able to get the pool out and get some use out of the new bathing suits that are hanging in Alison's closet waiting to be be worn.

Alison's Potty Mis-adventure

Alison hasn't really wanted to sit on the potty much lately. For that I blame her father. At bath time on the day she tinkled on the potty, we had her sitting there again while Kevin was making sure the water wasn't too hot or too cold. She stood up just as she started tinkling. Kevin does not handle these things very well, so instead of gently trying to get her to sit back down, he freaked out and shoved her down on the potty. In the process the lid kind of fell shut on her. She got a little in the potty, but the majority of it went all over her and the floor. She became hysterical (she also became hysterical early last week when she happened to tinkle on herself while getting her temperature taken). Next morning we couldn't get her near the potty.

That was two weeks ago. Until earlier this week she would not go near the potty. Then I needed someplace for her to sit while I took her cruddy outside shoes off after we had washed our hands. So I sat her on the potty and she was ok with it. Ok, she would occasionally sit on the potty, as long as the lid was down and she was fully clothed.

Today I brought the potty into the living room and she played around with it and sat on it a little, even with the lid up at one point, but still fully clothed. Tonight she kept pestering me for goldfish crackers, so I figured a little bribe was in order. I told her she could have one if she sat on the potty. Then I told her she could have one if she sat on the potty with the lid up. Then she could have one if she sat on the potty with the lid up and just a diaper. Then she got to have one if we could take the diaper off. By the time we got the diaper off, I knew she wasn't going to actually go because it was soaked, and recently so. The funny thing is that one of the times she sat down with her clothes still on she said she was tinkling. Apparently she really was. :) I think she's starting to figure out what "tinkle" means because if she hears Kevin or I going, she'll tell us that's what we're doing.

She sat on the potty again before her bath, again with the goldfish bribe. I don't even care if she goes while she's sitting on it. I just don't want her to be afraid of it anymore. Hopefully we'll soon get to the point where the goldfish bribes won't be necessary.

Alison's nose...

...is all better now. Kevin remarked the other day that it looks like her face is elongating in the nose area. I told him it isn't really, it's just that the bump and scratch aren't there anymore. He took another look and agreed that that's what it was. :)

A trip to the mall

Since we've been going through this bout of "if it's Monday, it must be raining," and because Alison loves to go outside and run around, I was looking for something to do this morning where she could run around but not be out in the wet, muddy grass and the cold temps that come after that Monday rain. So we headed to the mall.

Since my goal was to let her burn off some energy (and hopefull take a good nap this afternoon), I did not even get the stroller out of the trunk. I carried her into the mall and put her down as soon as we got through the doors. She very nicely held my hand and off we went. The only problem is that she walks really weird whenever she's holding someone's hand, almost like she's trying to take steps as big as ours or something. So we switch to plan B. She climbs up on a bench and I whip out her harness. Now we're really good to go.

I followed her lead, for the most part. We checked out some of the murals they have on display in an old jewelery store. Then we went into the video store. About halfway back they have a bunch of stuffed toys. Of course we had to check them out. The ones that captured her interest were Donkey from Shrek. Before we could head back out of the store she had to "be nice" to both of them. In Alison-speak, that means she had to pet them.

Our next stop was the Hallmark store. I didn't let us get too far in there because there's way too much breakable stuff at toddler level in Hallmark stores. She did have to "be nice" to the ceramic dog in the doorway. A graduation display in the window caught her attention so we had to check out the owl and the little bear. Before we were able to move on she kissed the window, her attempt as kissing the owl.

From Hallmark we went in and out and in and out and in and out of the shoe store. Then we ended up in a jewelry store. She tried her hardest to get behind the counter there, but I grabbed her just in time. When she started trying to climb into the chairs in front of the displays, I gently guided her out of the store.

I figured that, as long as we were there and had the time, we could go to the bookstore. Getting there was easier said than done. It took me two tries to get her out of a store that had a mannequin sitting in the window. We had to check out another mannequin and some t-shirts at Steve and Barry's. Getting her out of the instant picture machine was quite the challenge, too. We finally get to Barnes and Noble and she gets in two feet and turns around to head back out. Figures....the store I want to go in, she doesn't. Oh well, I persisted. I ended up carrying her back to the kids books because it was easier that way. We picked up 3 books (Madeline, Curious George, and Are You My Mother?) and then headed up to the check-out. To get her going in the right direction, I had Alison carry one of her books. Things were good until we got the the check-out and had to wait. Alison was all over the place. She'd manage to stand and hold my hand for about two seconds and then she was ready to go again. Were it not for her harness/leash, she'd have been out the door and on her way down the mall with heaven know how much unpaid merchadise. She is so much like her father was at that age.

From Barnes and Noble we had 10 minutes to get back to Target, pick up the cereal that was our real reason for being at the mall in the first place, and head for home. Of course Alison didn't want to cooperate at this point. She had to look at everything in every window. I finally had to pick her up and carry her. That didn't go over so well. So she got another chance to walk. That lasted about 2 seconds. I picked her up and hauled her into Target and plopped her into a cart, kicking myself for not having gone to Target when we first got there.

We were in and out of Target in 5 minutes, then on our way home to meet daddy for lunch. Alison is now sleeping peacefully (I hope). The sun is shining, the temperature is climbing and the backyard should be fit for play by the time we get done with supper tonight. And I think it will be a while before we try another one of these mall excursions. :)

Oh! My Nose!!

For the past couple of days Alison has been sporting a Marcia Brady look, the look she had in the episode where she got hit in the face with the football right before her big date with school football star (who happened to be played by the same guy who was Fredrick in "The Sound of Music"). Alison got her smashed up nose from falling face first into the coffee table. She managed to do this while trying to get down off her father's lap. Unfortunately for her, daddy had his eyes glued to the television and had no idea what she was trying to do. She wiggled down, lost her balance and went right into the edge of the table.

It's times like these when I want to throttle Kevin. I happened to be on the phone with my mom at the time. I had already dragged his attention away from the tv once so that he could keep her from falling over in a laundry basket and smashing into the table. I could see that that she was about to fall from his lap into the table, but figured that the wriggling around would catch his attention, but no. Yet if I had said anything to him about it I would have gotten the sarcastic "I know, I know."

At least the huge bump went down a little overnight. It's now about the size of a small mosquito bite. It should be completely gone in a day or so and all we'll have to do then is wait for the bruise and the scratch to go away. Between that and all the scratches and bruises on her legs, I'm almost afraid someone will think she's being beaten! I hope we get through the clumsies soon!!

She Did It!!

Last night we finally went and bought Alison a little potty. I don't know why we hadn't done it before now, but we just hadn't. I did a little rearranging in the bathroom and found a (temporary?) place for it. Last night when she came in for her bath, we had her sit on the potty for a minute while we made sure the water was ok and got out the rest of her bath stuff. Since she had had a thouroughly soaked diaper less than 20 minutes earlier, we didn't expect her to go, and she lived up to that expectation. :)

This morning I figured I'd put her on it again for a few minutes and see what happened. So we got her pants down and diaper off and onto the potty she went. I grabbed the camera to take some pictures of her "first time on the potty" (even thought it was really her second time). Apparently I timed it just right because as I was telling her to sit down (again) and trying to get her to smile I heard it! That little piddle sound. Who would have thought that she'd go in the potty on the first real try at it!

I know it's going to take some time before she really gets it. I have no idea if she even made a little connection between what she did and where she did it. I don't know if she could even feel what she was doing. We tried again before lunch and she didn't go. But that's ok. I'm just thrilled she's gone once.

Kirsten

Kirsten is a little girl who is 3 months younger than Alison. She has Spina Bifida, too, and also had fetal surgery. We stumbled across her webpage when we were looking for information about shunts/kids with shunts. Since then we've been keeping track of how she's been doing via her webpage.

When we first "met" her last February, Kirsten was 4 months old and in the hospital having her second shunt revision (that would be her third sugery). Before she was finally discharged from the hospital in April, she had two more revisions. Since then, she hasn't had any problems with her shunt.

Today there was an update to her webpage letting everyone know that she had been admitted to the hosptial again last night after two weeks of extreme fussiness and becoming increasingly lethargic throughout the day yesterday. As her mother was taking her to the clinic, she experienced her first seizure. Later last night she was vomiting and had spiked a fever.

These symptoms scream shunt infection or shunt failure. However, our SB doctor told us that sometimes kids with shunts will become symptomatic when they are sick because the illness causes excess production of cerebral spinal fluid and the shunt can't handle it. When the illness clears up, fluid levels return to normal, and the kids are no longer symptomatic. We're praying this is the case for Kirsten.

Usually it's not a problem to almost forget that there's anything wrong with Alison. When things like this happen it brings it all front and center again. We've been given every reason to expect that Alison's shunt will be problem free, but there's always that chance that something will go wrong and maybe we won't be so lucky the next time.

For now though, we'll just count our blessings that Alison is fine, keep checking for updates on how Kirsten is doing and pray that everything will be all right for her.

The "Stuff"

While we were at my parents' for Memorial Day weekend, we went to church Sunday morning. The minister was preaching about the book of Acts. One of his illustations was about a man who had been reintroduced to Christianity through reading the bible and who went to a Sunday service at a church and, because he had been reading the book of Acts at the time, was expecting to see miracles happening. When what he witnessed was a regular run-of-the-mill church service he asked the congregation "where's the stuff?!?"

After the service at my parents' church, my mom happened to be heading down to the fellowship hall behind the minister and a visiting District Superintendent and she said to the minister "'the stuff' is downstairs." Assuming she was referring to the coffee, juice, bagels and doughnuts, he nodded and agreed that, yes, it was. My mom again said "'the stuff' is downstairs." Again, he thought she was referring to the coffee and doughnuts. Finally she said to him "no, I mean 'the stuff' is downstairs. My granddaughter is downstairs." Oh. He clearly still had no real idea what my mom was talking about. He doesn't know that Alison shouldn't be able to walk. He hasn't spoken to either of my parents about Alison since before they were leaving for Nashville to be with us when we had the fetal surgery.

I don't know why I was surprised at this. Afterall, I haven't been a member of this church for nearly 10 years. But, my parents have been members for more than 25 years. I wonder if this lack of communication on the minister's part has to do with his having a certain agenda and my parents being part of the contigent who are against this agenda. I would hope not. My parents approach Alison's condition the same way we do. They are more than happy to tell anyone who wants to know anything they want to know about the surgery and how she's doing now. And a lot of the church members have asked. One lady was nearly in tears the first time she saw Alison walking. I guess I just find it strange that in more than two years, this man has never even bothered to ask. If he had, he would have known he had a great example of "the stuff" running around in the cribroom that very morning.

A Picnic

Yesterday was our annual all-church family Pig-nic. It was held at a local park. Now, I think in the 10 years that we've lived here and attended this church we've gone to this picnic once before. We always talk about going, but when the time comes, for whatever reason, we haven't gone. Last year we didn't go because it was during naptime and we didn't want Alison to skip her nap.

This year we decided to throw caution to the wind, let Alison skip her nap and go. The church provides the meat (plain or bbq pork), beverages, and table service. We were to bring a dish to share, for a couple, or two dishes for a family (we only brought one dish, since we only have a small child who shares what we eat), and a few dollars to help cover the cost of the meat. So we picked up the fixings for an easy, and rather large, taco salad when we went shopping after church, threw it together quickly when we got home and headed off to the park.

It looked like a pretty good turn out. We had two pavilions reserved and they were both pretty full. There were lots families with smaller children (pre-school and younger), and quite a few from the senior set. There were not a whole lot of families with middle and high school aged kids, much to the chagrin of one of our youth group girls. She was disappointed that there were not more kids there her age.

There was quite a variety of food, too. I let Kevin go through the line first, and he came back with a lot of several different kinds of things. I employed a different tactic. I took small spoonfuls of just about everything. Everything was really good. We both shared with Alison. There was one particular pasta salad that she loved. Neither of us got to eat much of it. :) There was a pretty large assortments of desserts, too, most of it chocolate. That's where I really ended up looking like a pig because I took two different kinds of cake and a brownie. It was my intention to share with Alison. It's not my fault she didn't want more than one bite of cake!

After we finished eating, we had singing, accompanied by a couple of the highschool boys and their guitars. And there was Alison, when she wasn't running around, front and center dancing and "directing" the music. She was also very interested in the bounce house. We actually let her get into it a couple of times, after kicking the bigger kids out so she (and the reas of the smaller kids) wouldn't get squashed. She had a ball. She was fascinated by the flower that she had painted on her arm. We wrapped things up around 3:00.

Before we headed for home, we ran out to Home Depot to pick up some new hoses and some mulch. Once back in the car, Alison was singing along with her Oscar the Grouch CD one minute and the next minute she was sound asleep. Instead of going home, and having her wake up as soon as we pulled into the garage, we drove around for another 15 or 20 minutes so she could get a little nap. Once we did finally come home, we tried to get her out of the car without waking her up, but it didn't happen. She was wide awake and ready to go for the rest of the night.

All in all, I think we had a very nice afternoon.

This Just In...

I discovered today that my husband's jeans fit me now! Granted, he wears Levi 560's, which my mom affectionately calls "big butt jeans," but that is beside the point. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures I've shared, but he's not a real big guy... only a couple of inches taller than me.

I originally started this weight loss project with the intention of getting down to the same weight as Kevin, and I'm pretty much there now. Now it's time to get to work on the final goal....being able to fit into my wedding dress by our anniversary. (Well, it will actually be by Labor Day because my dress resides at my parents' house and we won't be there for our anniversary.) I want to be able to say that after 10 years I can still fit into my dress.