Life as a Leach

Although Caleb was a little nervous about these demonstrations beforehand, they quickly became some of his favorite memories of our trip! We went to quite a few of these demonstrations.  Something we realized is that Abby was perfectly fine with the noise if she could watch the set-up and everything that was happening.  She cried if we were further away and she wasn't able to see everything leading up to the firing.

Caleb's teacher (and the whole school, from what I can tell) has been talking a lot about filling each other's buckets.  Basically, doing and saying nice things to others fills their invisible bucket.  Doing something mean makes a little spill out.  So, be a bucket filler, not a spiller! Can I just tell you how much this simple concept has changed our home?!?!  Caleb has completely embraced the idea and talks often about ways he can fill the buckets of others.  Tonight at the grocery store, he plotted to fill the bucket of the checker who was putting our groceries in our cart! I'm pretty sure the guy's bucket was a little fuller when we left.  :)  We have also been sure to let Caleb know when he has filled our buckets.  He craves praise, so he absolutely loves knowing that he has filled our buckets up. I never  thought that Caleb would be this excited about school!  He LOVES it!  The boy is ready to go a half an hour before the ...

Little baby Matt had a baseball shirt made especially for him with the name LEACH on the back.  His mom gave it to us when Caleb was born, and he proudly wore it when he was about 18 months old.   We thought it fitting to wear it when we went to the Baseball Hall of Fame! Now Abby is able to wear it!  She's a pretty cute little baseball player! Caleb and Abby...crazy just like Daddy!  :) (In case you are wondering...Abby's eyes are not crossing.  She is closely monitored by an ophthalmologist, and it is simply the shape of her face.  It's pretty much just an optical allusion.  We do "the light test" often just to make sure, and I don't really notice it too often anymore.  But it is pretty obvious in this picture!)

I've never seen Abby's full head and neck. Ever. She was taken from us immediately after her birth to the room across the hall, where they attempted to intubate her before putting a trumpet into her nose.  My first glimpse of my daughter was so filled with tape and neon orange plastic that I honestly had no image of her in my mind.  In fact, when I went down to the NICU for the first time, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know which tiny baby in the incubator was mine.   I peered from face to face, but none of them looked like mine. The nurse practitioner had to bring me to my baby. Imagine how that felt, to not know who your daughter was. After the trumpet came the trach.  I could finally see a little more of her face with some of the tape gone.  (She still had a feeding tube through her nose at this point, so there was some tape there.)  But there has always been something  there that is not really supposed to be there. So, while I can cert...

Here are a few pictures I've taken recently with Instagram.  It's not my D90, but I do enjoy the quick editing features! Abby loves to put her sunglasses on! She really enjoys walking to the bus to get Caleb in the afternoons.  The last few days, she has taken a baby in a stroller.  AND, she can push it both down and UP hill!  I love when therapy meets everyday life!  (One of these days, I'm going to write a book about how to incorporate your child's speech, PT, and OT therapies into your everyday activities.  But not right now!) Caleb and Abby...I think Matt might have taken this one, actually! My favorite!  My grandmother walking with one of her great-granddaughters.

The Room Store corporation is going out of business.  Although I felt badly for the employees who were going to be out of work, we were thrilled with the discounted prices!! We'd been thinking about getting a loft for Caleb for a while to conserve space in his not-so-big room, but figured we would wait until we found a good deal. Room Store liquidation = great prices = Leach family visit to the store!! We found a great loft for a great price and even added an additional matching dresser for less than the original price of just the loft.  For the first time, I will finally be able to have Caleb's summer and winter clothes out at the same time!  Until now, I have packed up clothes several times a year and left a storage bin in his closet with "in between" clothes.  Not anymore!! Matt, our friend Steven, and my dad worked today to put it together.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it went up.  Matt and I spent the afternoon transferring...