Life as a Leach

Yes, that is a Boxer Angel on our tree.  I think she is delightful.  After all, Boxers are God's favorite dog... :)

Last week, on Thanksgiving, I told you I was thankful for the love that these two have for each other.   Here's the proof. This week, I'm still thankful for that.  They are so sweet together! In other, unrelated news, my lack of posting has been due to an issue I've been having with Google saying I have used up my photo storage allotment.  After a week of trying to figure out a way around it (without deleting precious photos from my blog!), I broke down and paid for the cheapest subscription.  Since it took me 5 years to fill up the free allotment, this storage should last me a while!  It's still frustrating though.  :(

We have a beautiful lace-leaf weeping Japanese Maple in our backyard that is a deep purple in the summer and a bright red in the fall.  I thought it the perfect place to get a few pictures of the kids. Caleb and Abby thought otherwise.   Caleb flat-out refused to sit there. Abby sat because she's too  young to realize she can just run away she's compliant like that, but she fussed the whole time.  Fussy Faces don't make for pretty pictures. I took one of myself, because I sit still and smile when I'm told.

These two sweet faces. They love each other so  much.  It is so heartwarming to see the way Caleb bounds off the bus in the afternoon and runs right to Abby, or the way Abby throws her arms around Caleb and gives him a kiss when she wakes up in the morning.  They are truly best friends, and I hope this lasts through the years! Happy Thanksgiving!

I had such grandiose ideas of my kids playing in big piles of leaves and capturing those silly grins on camera.  Hey, maybe I'll even take a video so that I can record their shrieks of laughter. That was great...except that they really didn't want anything to do with the leaf-jumping.  Caleb did jump in once, and thought it was fun.  But he didn't want to do it again. He did enjoy throwing the leaves... ...especially at me! They spent the vast majority of their time digging in the dirt, but they played very nicely together! So much for beautiful fall pictures, but I'll trade them in for fun playing in the dirt pictures!

I registered our family for The Red Shoe Shuffle last night.  I'm so excited to raise awareness and support for an organization that we love so much. If you are interested in joining our team, The Joy Runners, we would love to have you!!!  You can register at the link above.  Make sure that you click on our team when you're registering.   Not into doing a 5K, or not local?  Please consider donating to our team .  All funds raised will go toward the purchase of a new bus for the House so that families can get to the nearby hospitals. My goal is to raise at least $1,000 myself, and I'd love to see the team be at least 40 members!  That would be amazing! I wrote this last year after we finished the Shuffle.  I hope it gives you a glimpse into why this is so important to us. You see, for us, it wasn’t just a 5K to raise money for a great charity. Being there, standing outside of the House that we lived in for so long, walking on streets t...

Abby's Grammy made her a really sweet little purple nightgown...and a matching one for her doll Joy!  It is the cutest nightgown that totally makes Abby look like she is right out of Little House on the Prairie. She pretty much wants to wear the nightgown every night.  :) Grammy also made Joy her very own little quilt and matching pillow...using scraps from the quilts that she has made for Abby!  They are the cutest things!  Abby likes to wrap Joy up in the quilt and rock her to sleep. She tried her hardest to put that little quilt around both of them! Sweetness.

In a rare moment by myself, I was standing in line in Walmart and the woman behind me commented on my vast array of baby food.  "Awww!  You have a baby!  How old?" I smiled and thought for half a second before I said, "Well, she's two." Slow nod and smile that doesn't quite meet her eyes and the judgmental look settles on her face.  "Oh.  I see..." I smiled and offered, "She's just not quite out of purees yet."  Then there was awkward silence and a weak smile. I was thankful for the beep of the signature pad reminding me to sign for my receipt.  Then I hightailed it out of there with my multiple bags of baby food for a child who is not a baby. Yes, it is hard having a child who eats so differently from others her age.  Yes, we still get judgmental looks and comments.  No, the feeding is not going any easier and she has actually pretty much refused all food since her illness a week ago.  Yes, I'm frustrated. ...

I came across this post from one of my favorite blogs, Love That Max.  It was exactly what I needed in that moment. Because of all of the speech and gross motor issues going on right now, my head spins with all of the different exercises we are supposed to be doing.  There are times when I totally forget about the exercises in the craziness of the day until after Abby goes to bed and I have a minute to think! We do work incredibly hard with Abby, but we're only human and sometimes we forget or get busy. The speech therapist we saw at our cleft palate clinic gave me some good advice.  She said I need to give myself permission to relax the therapy every now and then and just have fun with Abby. She's right. Just like the post above says, there's plenty of developmental goodness in tea parties and playing in a dollhouse without "therapizing" everything.  I've been so worried about the development that I've started to force the therapy.  That isn...

Oh my.  So much has been going on, and I haven't had time to write about it.  Here goes... Abby has been sounding pretty nasal in her speech recently, so we managed to get an appointment for this past Monday with the cleft palate clinic.  Our surgeon checked the palate to make sure there wasn't a hole that was allowing air to escape through her nose, but she looked fine. We met with a speech language pathologist at the same appointment, who listened to Abby and felt like it was a breath support issue.  Our home SLP has now given us some exercises to work on with Abby and our physical therapist is also going to show us some exercises to strengthen her core. On that same day, we went to feeding therapy.  Abby hadn't eaten much of anything since she got sick nearly a week before.  I think she feels like she wants to avoid what "made" her throw up (even though it had nothing to do with it!).  We've been having major feeding rebellion with lots of hit...

Ok, so not totally wordless.  Ignore me in this picture and focus on the cute 2 year old clasping her little hands.  :)

 Caleb's date for the gala was the lovely Abby O., who we have known for a very long time.   She was actually there to help us take care of Caleb and Abby, but don't tell Caleb that.  As far as he knows, she was his date.  Shh!  :) They danced the night away, and he may have even asked, "May I have this dance?" when "Call Me Maybe" came on.  The excited words, "Oh, this is my jam!" may have even come out of his mouth!!!  I can't make this stuff up, folks! He did save one dance for his Momma! In all seriousness, Abby was a humongous help and we were so thankful to have her there!  She was wonderful about taking Abby and Caleb to the Green Room for a few minutes when the talking got a little long, and waited on the wings while we spoke just in case we needed to send an antsy little person off stage...we did!  Plus, she's just a super fun girl who goes with the flow and put up with tight quarters in ...

 These two pictures just totally capture my children.   First, there's Caleb, as James Bond.   The hand on the lapel and the mysterious face were alllll him. Annnnnnd then there's Abby, my wild child!   She was going nuts on that dance floor, jumping up and down and twirling herself around.   My life is never boring.  If I am in need of some entertainment, I just find my kids.  

I think I can officially post my first Abbyism! At our feeding reevaluation on Thursday, where lots of therapists and doctors observe Abby eating and make suggestions, Abby was less than cooperative.  I handed her a cup of milk and told her to take a sip. She glared at me, put the cup back on the counter, shook her pointer finger at me, and scolded, "I don't want my milk, Momma, OKAY??" It was probably the clearest sentence she has ever said, and the therapists all erupted in laughter. That's Abby!

Ready for the play-by-play of the Gala program?  Warning: there are lots of pictures!! A children's choir opened the program by singing a personalized version of "Seasons of Love" all about the Ronald McDonald House.  It was very cute! The lovely Sandy Pagnotti, executive director of RMH Baltimore (and beautiful inside and out!) shared some remarks. Side note:  There have only been 3 directors in 30 years!  Doesn't that speak of the dedication and love these women have for families?!?   Extra side note:  That's our sweet, beautiful friend Elizabeth in the picture with the directors past and present! This is sooooo cool...this is the VERY first family to ever enter RMH, 30 years ago!  They somehow located them and they were able to share their story.   Joe Ehrrman, former Colts football player, was the man responsible for building RMH 30 years ago in memory of his brother.  Without his financial sup...

 The gala committee did a phenomenal job with the decorations.  There were so many tiny details that did not go unnoticed with us! There were pictures of kids as the backdrop of the stage--we knew almost all of them!  I loved seeing those smiling faces! Each place setting had a menu with a different child's picture and story on the back.  Gala-goers got to read about 800+ different children that have walked through the doors of RMH!  You may remember that one of our friends recently lost her son Malachi, who was a fellow trach kid.  When they sat at their place at our table, Malachi's sister had his picture and story at her place!  It was such a sweet moment for them. Whether they meant to or not, the gala colors coordinated perfectly with the colors in the carpet!  It really looked nice with the yellow, red, and blue. These trees lined the hall of the hotel where the cocktail hour was.  There were 700 pictures of kids...

Ronald McDonald House of Baltimore's very first music video!  It's just about the perfect song for The House That Love Built, don't you think?

The gala was...amazing!  I have so much to share that I am going to break it up into a couple of different posts!  It was such a celebration of 30 years of supporting and loving families through some of the toughest times in their lives, and we were thrilled to be a part of it. It was such an honor to share a little of our story, along side of our beautiful friend Tammy.  You may know her better as Brooke's mom, and she did a wonderful job of sharing about Brooke's battle. Our role during the gala was for our two families to share our stories, ping-pong style.  We then transitioned into telling a little about the amazing support of the two families who were to receive the Spirit of Children Award.  Our two families had the honor of presenting these two families with the awards. We are so thankful to the Paterakis family and to the Maryland McDonalds Owners' Associations for all of the support they give to RMH.  THANK YOU for ...