Sawyer went pee in the Potty!!!!

I can't believe this. I was going to the bathroom (sorry, tmi) and Sawyer came in. He started tugging at his shorts and diaper. He has been doing this A LOT. It was hard to keep his diaper on him this summer. A few times I even put him in the thick undies for training when I was tired of putting his diaper back on. I have been wondering if he's ready for training or not because he seems so young. Sydney wasn't trained until a little over 2 1/2. I brought the potty up this summer to get him used to seeing it. He has sat on it quite a bit for short periods of time.
Well, anyway back to my story. So, he was tugging at his shorts. I thought, "here we go again". But, I decided to humor him and let him try it out. Would you believe that a second after he sat down he peed? And not just a little. He really went. I just can' t get over this one. I wonder if it was just luck or if I should buy some pull ups and work with him?
I was super excited and gave him some cheers. Yah!


*Oh and can you see that his thumb is unwrapped? He had another doc. check-up yesterday. Dr. told me that I can leave it unwrapped now. I feel leery of this because the stitches stick out in different directions and I am afraid they will catch on something. But, I am following dr. orders. I did wrap it last night with some neosporin on it. Thanks for all of your prayers. He is doing so well! We are still hoping for a nail!

how is this for pathetic? :)

{taken august 22}

Sawyer is doing much better. He is back to his old tricks and is seeming to feel better. His hand is not wrapped up this much anymore! We are getting by with a few bandages and then a wrap over that to help secure them and keep them clean. He had a doctor visit on Saturday with the other pediatrician and he said that the thumb was looking really good. He said considering his age, it is likely his nail will grow back. I am just so relieved he is feeling better and that we can change his bandages without too much turmoil. When we change it he usually looks at it and whines/whimpers and buries his face into my shoulder. Lately he's been extra cuddly, which i love.

Back to school...

Well, we officially started back today! We had a half day with kids, half day working in our rooms, and then we had 0pen house tonight. It was a LONG day! I am so glad I go back to only half days starting tomorrow. Last week I worked two full days and one half day. I have had a harder time getting into the swing of things and being emotionally ready for the start of school. Maybe it was the busy summer. Or the accident last week that drained me. Something has caused me to have an extra hard start to the school year. I have noticed the kids have been excited to have grandma come. That definitely helps. I feel so blessed to have her take care of the kids day in and day out for another year.

Next year Sydney is off to kindergarten herself. Hard to believe. She is super excited about school and has enjoyed time at her desk writing and drawing. As you can see she has almost mastered her name. The "n" is almost always written backwards, but she (mostly) writes the rest well. We are proud of her. We set up an area in her room for our "school time" and I bought a couple books from the teacher store to give me some ideas on working with her. We'll see how it goes. I will be chasing Sawyer around while working with her. I am not sure how it will work! He wants to be involved and sit at the desk and play with the markers, etc. I think we will have to buy him a desk of his own for his birthday. Anyway, it will be nice to have her home one more year before her official schooling begins. I am wondering what Sawyer will think about his big sis being gone. It has never been just him...I wonder if he will be bored? Well, that is a while off and I don't want to think of it much more!!!

Trauma in the ER, part 2...

{picture from july 16}
So, today I checked on Sawyer before going into work. We had a day to work in our classrooms to get everything ready for the students and some meetings. So, I was all ready to leave with a day full of work to do. I walked into his room and I saw pools of blood on his sheets. His shirt was all bloody and other parts of his body had dried blood on them. His bandage was soaked with fresh blood. After making a phone call to his pediatrician we took him to ER again. After the doctor took off his bandages blood came out quite quickly and was dripping on the floor. After unsuccessfully trying to stop the bleeding with pressure-which the doctor made barry and me do for 40 minutes- the doctor ordered surgi-seal (sp?) to be put on his thumb. This did work and after a wrapping of his thumb, we were sent home. Another 3 hours in the ER. Oh, and his pediatrician and the ER doctor have both said that his thumbnail might not grow back. And, if it does, it will most likely be deformed. If you think of it, continue to pray for Sawyer's little thumb. I know that there are much bigger problems that people have to face, and worse medical problems that people deal with. Much worse. Praise God we have not had to deal with anything life threatening or more serious. Yet, it is still sad to think of my little boy losing a fingernail. And all because I took him with me to work in my classroom. Sure wish I could change that. It is just a thumbnail, but it's my baby boy's thumbnail.

Trauma in the ER

We had our first ER visit last night. Sawyer had an accident while I was working in my classroom. He was out of my vision because he was in my library area on the other side of the bookshelf. What I can gather is that he was attempting to climb up a barstool. It was very tipsy so he fell and I think that he pinched his thumb between the shelf and the stool. When I saw it, it was gushing blood and looked TERRIBLE. I was panic stricken and ran with him out of the room to the bathrooms. The librarian, Danyell, saw me and followed me to the bathroom. Blood was pouring out of him. She said, "you have to take him in." Thankfully she drove us to the hospital. I sat in the back between Sydney and Sawyer. Abby was with us too. Sawyer bawled the whole way and I was hysterical most of the drive. I felt SO AWFUL. His thumb looked so bad and I was scared to death. It was sort of smashed in on the tip and the nail was torn away from the base of his thumb and skin was cut. Well, it turns out that he had to have his nail removed and his skin stitched because it was cut. Then, he had to have a little bit of his nail put back in so that it keeps the opening there so a new nail will grow. Unfortunately they could not sedate him because I fed him fruit snacks while waiting for the doctors. So, they just gave him local anasthetic (sp?) and there were 4 of us holding him down. He cried most of the time, but he was a trooper. Thankfully it is all over and we are on the road to recovery. He will see our pediatrician in two days. He should recover with everything healing normally. Please pray for Sawyer and his thumb. And for further protection of his little body. I can't take any more visits to the ER. It was truly traumatic. :)

The reception

Sara and I....

My cousin Sara got married on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado. She and Brendon got married on the side of a mountain at Sunrise Amphitheater. Sara and I were the best of friends during our childhood. I have many happy memories of my times with her and now I can add this to them. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to share in her day. Congratulations Sara and Brendon. We wish you many blessings and a lifetime of happiness!

The reason we went....

Mr. and Mrs. Brendon Loveday

August 18, 2007

still from the top of the mountain....

There were great places for photos. Aren't the boulders beautiful?

the view from 8900 ft.

Amazing.

The spectacular aerial tramway...

We rode the tramway up the mountain to see the sights. It was (as you can guess) gorgeous up there. I would have liked to spend more time up there walking on the trails, but we were all hungry and unprepared. Flipflops and sandals are not good for hiking! The elevation was 8900 ft.

enjoying the views from a lookout point

We (Barry and I, my mom, and my sister with Trevor and Trista) pulled off the road and enjoyed the views and snapped photos here. Just beautiful.

our drive to Estes Park

The Flatirons in the distance.

We are on our way to Estes Park. All of these photos are shot from a moving car so they aren't the best. But, they are still enjoyable to look at!

Isn't this incredible?

We spent the last four days in gorgeous Boulder, Colorado. Here we were on our way to a little town, Estes Park, which is very near Rocky Mountain National Park. We were unable to get to the national park, but really enjoyed the scenic drive and the time spent in Estes Park. It was amazing. I love to visit places like this and stand in awe at how wonderful God's creation is!

Like Son, Like Father...

Barry enjoyed the thrill of the slides as much as Sawyer did!

Brown City #2

It was Sawyer's second year at camp. In the picture on the left he was 7 months old. This year he was 19 months. He sure has grown alot! Just like the first year, he was confined mostly to the stroller. When he was lucky enough to get out, I (or my friends) was chasing him around, or he was playing on the playground. There is never a dull moment.

Brown City Camp #5

2005
2006
2007

This is Sydney's 5th year at Brown City Camp. This was the first year that we have not stayed at camp. We were only up two days this year! At least Sydney was able to spend some time with Reagan and Reilly and we were able to get their 3rd annual picture of them walking down the road. We missed staying up there this year, but hopefully opportunity will come again!

ducky is far away...

We took ducky to Indiana with us. You can see Sydney is snuggling with him in the car on the way there. Even though her attachment to him is lessening, she still loves to cuddle him. Sydney was in the back of the car on the way back home to Michigan and started sniffling after she realized that she forgotten him. After a phone call to grandma (thank goodness for cell phones!), all was okay. She has been filling his gap with other dolls and stuffed animals! Thanks to grandma who is taking good care of him!

mmmm, pie.

After blueberry picking a couple weeks ago I made a blueberry pie. It is my absolute favorite of pies. Of course it has to be slightly warm, served with a scoop (or two) of ice cream which then slowly melts and combines with the crumbs of the crust and the juice of the berries to make a delicious yummy soup. It is oh, so good!

Muskegon 2007

We went to the west side of Michigan this week. We had a great opportunity to spend some wonderful relaxing days on the shore of Lake Michigan with our friends Jim, Heather, and Ethan Hossler and the Doorn family. We had a few campfires, yummy s'mores, lazy days at the beach, fun rides on the jet ski, and great conversation with our friends and their family. Sydney now wants us to buy a lake cottage. Don't we all want one of those? :)