Spring!

Garden update:

Ahh spring. When tiny seeds you sprinkle around suddenly turn into little plants and some into edible ones! I think I could live to be 100 and never grow out of the amazement of little plants sprouting out of the ground. I ate the first tiny handful of lettuce this evening-mmmm. Just enough to cover a hamburger! We built a 4x4 square foot garden bed and planted strawberry plants, beans, peas and basil. I'm planing on having the guys build a few more next weekend when dad is here. I got a few more seeds too to plant more lettuce and spinach. I also bought a bunch of herb plants today too. I'm happy to see that at least some of them are perineals. I'm tired of replanting every year! I can't wait until I can really plant the garden (and get the plants off the freezer!) and better yet start eating! I have a bunch of roma tomato plants that I've grown from seed and they've made it so far and have really branched out the last week or so (I've been letting them hang out outside some pretty days). The strawberry plants mom got didn't fare well though so I had to replace them today :(. I feel so bad! The blueberry plant is doing well though. Have I mentioned that I can't wait to move them outside?!? I've also got sunflowers growing outside and some wildflower seeds I planted that are popping up. We got some plants last weekend at the native plant sale that JMU hosts that are doing pretty well too. I love my gardens!

Mary update:

I can't believe that it's been over 4 months since Mary's accident. I have some pics that I need to upload but I'm at work so I can't do that here! We go back to see the plastic surgeon and the physical therapist May 10th. Her shirt has been rubbing her raw in some areas-not on the burns but she has 2 places on her belly (now just 1) and one under her left arm that are pretty red/scaly. Wesley had decided to not do the elta twice a day... I've been soaking them with vit E oil in addition to the elta and that seems to be helping. I've also been trying to really get all the residue out of her shirts and rinse them well. I still don't love handwashing those things but it's now just part of the routine like the twice a day elta cream. Speaking of elta we have gone through a 16 oz jar of it and I've had to order another jar! It should be here this week. Her scars are looking really good IMO and I'm curious what the plastic surgeon/PT will think. She is really working hard at potty training. Recently she has been telling us when she is starting to poop and doing it/finishing it on the potty! She isn't reliably telling us when she needs to pee but really knows how to let pee out. I think we're pretty close!

She sings ALL THE TIME. Does "taper, taper" (a french song) with the motions in the car and with her dolls, ABC, twinkle twinkle, ba ba black sheep... she can count to about 13 and loves to show off. She's still either clueless about her colors or very color blind-all colors are red or pink, lol. She loves pretties-necklaces etc and will wear them awhile and then takes them off. She has a box of (hand me down) shoes that are still too big and loves to parade around in them or in my shoes. She def has a shoe thing! She loves to snuggle, plays the monkey game on the computer, can put on her own shoes ON THE RIGHT FOOT with velcro and all. She is a grandma's girl and worms her way into their house at any opportunity. Her crib has been converted to a toddler bed and she's done fine with that. She's very social, waves to people at stores, talks to strangers and has such a beautiful smile that people comment on how happy she makes them. She certainly blesses us! She can climb the rock wall by herself and go down the slide and she loves blowing bubbles. She is doing very well with keeping her hat on and reminds you that she needs it!

Of course she is also 2! So strong willed, runs away giggling when you're trying to do something, into EVERYTHING. She is a good eater-they both love their fruits and veggies. She still puts pretty much everything into her mouth which is pretty scary. I have to be very careful what is in reach. Especially since she now knows how to move chairs. I made the mistake of letting the kids smell the vanilla bottle last time we were making banana bread together and the other day I was washing dishes and looked down and Mary had the vanilla bottle (large plastic squeeze bottle from costco with a flip lid) open sniffing it going "mmmm smells 'lishous mommy". Sigh. Now where to put the vanilla... She's doing well at school, has no problems when we leave, seems happy and came home with the cutest painted butterfly today. I think her favorite part is the peice of candy they get when they leave if they still have all 3 shapes up next to their name. She certainly has a sweet tooth! I wonder where she got that?

Robert Update:

Robert continues to grow up daily-in every way. I swear he's grown another couple of inches! He is more social, talks to strangers, seems more confident every day. He still is a little clingy at drop off but almost like it's a game now. He likes school and is learning stuff every day. Although when you ask him about his day he usually talks about lunch and nap! Today he talked about sight words and writing so I guess he's absorbing more. They certainly come home with piles of papers every week. His pictures are more colored than they had been and it looks like he's making some progress with writing his name. He flat out refuses to write for me, lol. He plays daily with his legos, loves books and the national geographics kids magazine subscription he got for his b-day. He is very excited about clearing out upstairs/finishing the upstairs so he can move up there with his geotrax! Now to get Wesley motivated. He loves playing outside and is doing a great job riding his bike. I can't wait to go camping with him (there's a parking lot that is pretty much unused-it's for boat parking that I think will be great for bikes!). He pretty much knows his boundries and stays in them and asks to go somewhere else. He talks so much now and pretty involved stuff about what he's been watching or what happened. When we converted Mary's crib he decided he didn't need toddler bed rails anymore so we took them off and he's done fine without them. He's completely potty trained (night too) and sleeps in underwear which makes mornings so much easier! He dresses himself except his shirt (hasn't figured out how to get it started-we need to work on that) and undresses himself. He can do his shoes and we were pretty close to putting on/zipping his coat-I'm sure he'll have it next fall/winter. He's still really sensitive about loud stuff-vacuum cleaner, lawn mower, food processor. He completely freaks out about the vacuum cleaner. He's doing great with cleaning up his toys (with prompting) and the house has been looking a lot better recently. Of course getting rid of about 3 large bags of stuff helped... He loves to help in the kitchen-mainly with baking/pizza dough making. He has a healthy fear of the stove. Boy I wish Mary did! She's still right under foot! Recently he has become more of a snuggle bug and will crawl into my lap and say "I love you mommy". The first time he said that out of the blue I nearly cried. It was sooooo sweet! Now he tells me that daily! He's my sweet little boy!

Snoopy update:

Snoopy seems to have settled in with her meds and is doing pretty well. It takes her a little longer to pee-mostly at the end she stands there like she feels like she still is peeing/needs to pee. But she really isn't going out more often than before or having accidents. She is frisky (sometimes too frisky when she has her nose on the table trying to get the kid's food!), happy and looks good. I gave her a bath this week and she looks beautiful-so soft and shiny. She goes for her anual checkup next month. The vet says we could re-ultrasound at some point but I'm not sure whether we would do that anytime soon (there isn't a local place-we have to take her to Waynesboro for ultrasound). For now I'm just greatful for each day with her! We finally found a house/dog sitter for our trip to Martinsville in a couple weeks and I'm relieved about that! We generally put her in a kennel but I'm not sure they could do 2 meds 1-2 hours apart and I'm afraid she wouldn't eat and start puking again... So it sounds like for about the same money a friend is willing to stay at our house and take care of her :)

Work update

RMH is at 59 days until the big move to the new hospital. It's pretty hectic at work and there are lots of changes going on. I'm working a mix of coordinator/float pool and peds and that's going pretty well. It's good to be back to peds some. I've taken over a blood bank monitor that I do 1-2 times a month where I review when people don't do the documentation for blood transfusions right and create a table with the details. It's an interesting job. I've also re-joined the professional practice comittee. I've started sending the kids to "school" the day before I work night shift and having a chance to rest the day before has made all the difference in the world! I feel much better. It also gives me some time pretty much every week to do some housework and some me stuff. Whether cooking/gardening/errands/reading...

Well since I probably lost most people a paragraph in I guess I'll stop. This is me on starbuck double shot... lol. I keep a few cans in my locker for night shift.