Cincinnati

By now, surely you know that mostly I like to be sarcastic and witty versus serious and emotional. I seriously think I am just a very shallow person. I don't like to get that emotionally involved. It tends to exhaust me.

However, since I also happen to be slightly OCD, where I might have tended to overlook this post, since I did miss the date originally, I can't keep going in chronological order and not do this. And, since I am at least slightly OCD, and I generally do have to go in chronological order, lets just get on with this, shall we? :)

The anniversary of Kari's burns happened to be the weekend of my Reunion. And while I won't say it was the busiest week of my life (thankfully, it was quite relaxing), I will say that that day we just plain ol' forgot. We had originally planned to have our traditional hamburgers and fries "meal of remembrance", but we ended up going to IHOP and then to the homecoming football game. The rest of the weekend was quick, including a 14 hour van trip home, and life got back to normal fairly quickly.

A week after our return, it was time to head back up to Cincinnati for a check up with the Shriner Burn Hospital. It has been two years since her last check up and we were just going back up to make sure that everything "fit". Thankfully, Kari is doing wonderfully. Her grafts have matured, and so far everything is going well. We will have to continue to watch her as she grows. Depending on when and where she hits growth spurts, we may have to step in to make sure everything grows and stretches at the same time. Unfortunately the massage therapy can only help that, so I continue to spend my valuable morning time breaking out the lotion and getting greasy :) (See my use of sarcasm to avoid the real issue? :)

I will forever be grateful to the Shriners who continue to ferry us up and back from Ohio, as well as providing lodging and food on the trip. While I was decently well prepared for the 12 hour trip in a van, I wasn't prepared for the emotional trip down memory lane. The majority of the trip I was fine, but as we got closer to the hospital, and I started to recognize where I was, I was quite surprised at my reactions to certain buildings. Buildings that I apparently only associate with Shriners. Overwhelming feelings of fear, anxiety, loneliness, exhaustion, uncomfortable-ness, and strangely, gratitude.

They didn't pass as quickly as I would have liked them to, but they did pass, even before we entered the building. It was a fairly quick, but somewhat painful trip down memory lane. And while I am no psychologist, it was interesting to me that the physical buildings were the link (at least this time) that brought these things back to me.

I love this little girl, who likes to wear cowboy hats to school on Hat Day, and who has a fondness for sharpening pencils.

That smile and personality and intelligence and helpfulness makes my day. And, I am grateful for all the prayers and thoughts and help of all kinds that made those days passable, as well as the continued aide we continue to receive...

Now, onto lighter topics....

Hubby had to take a day or two off work to watch Kaitlyn, while I had Kari and Dylan on the road. We figured that would be a good time to start our kitchen remodel. What were we thinking?!?! So, while we are not done, and it was, of course, a long process, that comes next in my chronological-ness.... This is approximately what I left:

This is what I came home to. Purdy, ain't it?

Stay tuned for more tales of kitchen disaster, paint chaos, and saw dust out the wazoo, filled with wit and sarcasm... Whew, all that seriousness is exhausting!

Pumpkin Patch Attitude

I mentioned before that Dylan has started to come out of his shell. Translation: he knows what he wants, and is starting to assert his opinion. Where did that come from? When I grew up, kids weren't allowed to have opinions until they are 22 :) More often than not, it is ok, and he hams it up for me and the camera. On this particular day, he was not interested.

"Dylan, smile!" "No."

I think he gets it from his cousin Karley :)

"Dylan, look at mommy!"

He would not smile at me.
I couldn't even get him to look at me half the time.

Not gonna do it. Not gonna look at the camera.

Or he cried... That's always helpful.

Poor traumatized kid. Sometimes, being an 18 month old is so hard :P

Individual Pumpkins

Although we couldn't get any good group pictures, we got some pretty decent individual pumpkins.... I mean, kid pictures :)

Cousin Ashley

Cousin Taylor

Kari

I know it isn't a big cheesy grin, but I think it captures her pretty well :)
Kaitlyn

She is really figuring out how to ham it up. She can be pretty funny at times.

One of my faves :)

I know he looks terrified, but he really just refused to look at me and the camera.

So we tried to give him a toy.... Yeah. That didn't work either.

Oh well. Such cute little pumpkins anyway :)

Pumpkin Patch

One of the last things we did before the trip was over was try to get some pictures of all the grand kids together. Someone had the bright idea to go to the pumpkin patch... Although I don't think we ever really got a good posed shot, there are some cute "action" ones.

Pop. Leading the troops in.

This is what we started with:
Which progressed to this. Please note how happy both Karley and Dylan appear.

This was the best we got... Not bad, but, not good either.

Little Miss Priss just wanted to go explore. (Check out the boots :)

I love the "thoughtfulness" of this picture...

Auntie and her mini-me lookalike :)

Hubby, and his mini-me lookalike.

He was such a little grump during this outing... But, you will see that later.

Love it!

At least a decent time was had by all.

Football

The rule is "No ball games in the house".

But, it seems quite a bit less serious when the offending parties

are a "responsible" adult and an 18 month old.

"Kick it, son."

"Now, run right through me!"

I love how Dylan has his little finger out too. We couldn't convince him to kick the ball instead of holding it like his daddy :)

Reminds me of Bill Cosby :)
*PS- I have no idea who Mencia is.. I only wanted it for the Bill Cosby joke at the beginning*

The cupboard

Nana is a smart cookie. She has been around the block a time or two, and she knows what to expect. Know how I know? Nana has a cupboard dedicated solely to her grandchildren. Know what's in it? I'll give you two guesses.

Among the old Cool Whip containers and butter tubs, there is an assortment of plastic cups which provided, if not hours, a significant amount of entertainment time for an 18 month old.

Cousin Karley got in on it too. In fact, I think she

introduced "The Cabinet" to Dylan the day before.

I love how smart they kids are, in that they know what to do with the cups, even if they don't really use them themselves on a regular basis.

Dylan like to stack them inside each other. It was fun to watch his mental wheels turn as he figured out which ones would fit, and which ones wouldn't.

I love the dimple peeking out behind the cup :)

Oh to be young again.

When all you need is some empty floor space and a good ol' cup to gnaw on...

Motorcycle

For reasons that are both too numerous to go into and, more importantly, irrelevant at this point, we trailered the motorcycle up on our vacation. We had hoped to be able to go on a motorcycle ride with Pop, take the kids around a bit, or even take a trip to the grocery store for a gallon of milk or something. However, the motorcycle required a bit more extensive work than we had planned, and we didn't make it out on ours.

Bless Pop's heart, he allowed us to borrow his for a few minutes. We didn't end up going to the grocery store, or on a communal ride. But the kids did get a ride around the neighborhood.

There is just something so cute and funny about a little toddler body with a huge head.

Like a life size bobble toy :)

All by myself

Hey. Whats this?

Maybe if I put it in here....

Yeah. That's the stuff.

Roll it over. Swish it around a little bit.

Maybe bite it a few times. (I remember doing that as a not so little child)

That's what it's for!!!

Eh. Who needs a spoon anyway ;)