Sunday, July 27, 2008

Quite Teething Weekend

We have had a quite weekend here at home. We enjoyed a little time with Wendi and Fletcher on Friday night and Saturday morning. We really enjoyed having them here. Fletcher was a great help with Kale...he kept him quite entertained. We went to eat dinner with them on Friday night, and other than that, Kale and I have stayed home all weekend! There are tons of errands I could have accomplished, but I chose to stay home and get some of that "other" stuff done. Whew. It was nice to just stay home though! Ep went fishing. He has a local tournament this next weekend...





Then comes along Sunday night...Kale and Ep were enjoying a little father/son time in the big chair. I gave Kale part of a teething biscuit, which he proceeded to shove in his mouth...yes, the ENTIRE portion.

Despite the fact that he has been running a fever all day (oh, the joys of teething AND thank you God for baby tylenol and motrin!), we still enjoyed some laughs and smiles!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Weekend?

Ok, now I know how Mema feels...was that a weekend??? :) We were back at her house, working on her house project. I am determined to show her the positives of it and that there is an end to it...(yes mom, there really is!). I am pretty sure she has been ready to disown me several times over the past four weeks.
It was a quick weekend to Alma and back. I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I had hoped, but thats no new song and dance for me. We had a good time and got to enjoy some family time and see Bekah and her girls. We were supposed to eat dinner with Grandaddy and Noney and Fletcher...not real sure what happened with those plans. We still ended up enjoying catfish as the brand new Catfish Hole location, which is now a less than five minute drive from my parent's house. It was gooood! Kale is VERY aware when there is food for the taking...as he will now grab at food on other people's plates. So, here is your warning, if you are dining within reach of my son's extendable arms (or at least they seem that way!), you better guard your plate.
This week will come and go with a blink. Tomorrow Kale has his 9 month check up. Tomorrow night I will either get to have a date with my husband or he will ditch me for a tournament on the River (its called being a bass widow and I am somewhat accustomed to it). Wednesday is our second week of class at Fellowship (an introduction to the church and to help us find a place there). Thursday and Friday are still up in the air for me. I have to fit some coupon time in there somewhere...my binder and bag are out of control again...don't laugh!
Oh, one last thing about Kale...we have evidence of the fact that he has cut his first tooth. Don't be confused, this does not mean we have actually SEEN this tooth. He will let us feel the edge of it (feels like a serrated blade and HURTS when he catches your finger with it). However, even when sleeping, he keeps it covered...with his tongue. LOL. Seriously. Ep says that maybe he is afraid we are going to take it from him...so he is guarding it! Oh yes, Kale is soooo completely our son! :)
Thats it for now...back to work...

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The weekend

Well, after last weeks fast and furious four day weekend, this 2 day weekend is flying by. Mema stayed with us this weekend, so she and I spent some much needed mother/daughter things on Saturday morning while Ep and Kale played at the house. We wore ourselves out at the garage sales and then moved on to get a pedicure. We came home to rescue Kale before his daddy tried to take him fishing in the insane Arkansas humidity and heat. After a rest, we loaded back in the truck and went to Dickey Stephens Park (baseball) to visit our friend's lemonade stand that was benefitting Childhood Leukemia. While there, we saw more friends...including a long lost cousin of my cousins (thus not technically my cousin, but pretty much like one anyway) as well as Master Sargent (Vince...he fishes for the National Gaurd..and is buddies with Ep). We basically had social hour in front of the ball park. Then, I grabbed our free helmet and we bailed. Our night rounded itself out with a trip to Wal-Mart to grab a few things and Mema also managed to get a hair cut as well. Kale ate supper in Wal-Mart and seemed quite happy to have the shoppers as his evening entertainment. Quite a few times, he tried to talk to them with his mouth full of banana/rice cereal mush. :) I figured we could wait a little while before we start telling him to not talk with his mouth full.
Sunday started off well. Ep, as usual, bounded out of bed and seemingly hit the floor full of energy. It took a while for us to find a church that felt like "home", but now that we have found it...whew...Ep makes sure we get there! I am thankful to him for that. So, off our party wagon rolled to church. Ep and I in the front, Mema and sleepy head Kale in the back. It was Mema's first visit to the church and we were excited for her to visit. We printed out Kale's id tag and dropped him off in the nursery. He is in the "Fish" room. He should be in the "Turtle" room, but it is so full in there that we take him to the Fish room instead. Let's just say this...in the Fish room, Kale is the big whale amongst some guppies! Most of the babies in there are at least two months younger than him! I just know that as he sits up in the floor looking at the babies who are still trying to figure out how to roll over...Kale must be thinking this "Dude! You soooo gotta learn to roll over and then to sit up! It is SO much better up here in the land of sitting up!"
So, we went into worship and found out it was baby dedication day. It was so sweet. Then there was the sermon. It was going well, and was an excellent message. For the final portion of the message, the pastor shared a story with us. It is/was a true story and very, very recent. This is July, and the events of the story were in June. Yes, of this year.
Before I share the story...let me share this. I am still trying to make myself deal with the thoughts and emotions I have been blocking out and running from. Its not an easy task for me. Yet, I am trying. I made contact with someone at the church and wanted to request some time to talk to someone there about everything that happened immediately after Kale was born. With the holiday weekend and such, I let that communication fall to the bottom of my "to do" list. Well, God knows everything and He sure knew I had let that slide, because he gave me a good hard swift kick in the hiney with this story. In a sense, I feel like God gave me a choice...either run from His house or sit there and let myself start coming to term with everything. I wanted to run, more than once. I contemplated it, I really did. However, I planted my feet and stayed there...tears just rolling down my face. I wasn't able to wipe them away fast enough. I wasn't sobbing, but I was sure having a good cry, thats for sure! I wasn't the only one either.
The story is of a little girl...and her family...a family that waited beyond her due date for her to arrive. She finally entered the world and her family celebrated. Then came the shocking news. Something wasn't right. She landed in the NICU...and to sum it up, she didn't survive. The pastor read letters that the baby's grandmother and grandfather had written about the event. They were heartbreaking and at times sounded sooooo completely familiar. My heart just completely broke for that entire family. The waiting, the not knowing, the uncertainty, the questions, and the hardship.
The sermon was complete and I literally wanted to sprint to the nursery. I did manage to wait on the coffee slurpers (Ep and Mema) to use the bathroom before we went to get him. When they handed him to me, I just stood there hugging him. I don't know if anyone realized it or not, but I carried him from that door until it was time to put him in the car seat. Someone would have lost a hand if they had tried to reach for him!
So, back to the rest of Sunday...now that I felt like I had been hit by an mack truck that had spilled emotion all over me. We headed to Luby's, where our miracle boy enjoyed mashed potatoes (he literally was making mmmm sounds as he ate), corn, and macaroni and cheese. Then, just for fun, I gave him a few dollops of mashed potatoes to try to eat by himself. THAT was fun...especially after he started smacking his hand in it.
At home, Ep changed clothes and sprinted back out the door to go fishing. He told us all to take naps, and we complied. I slept for 2 hours while Kale slept for over 3 hours! Yep, a three hour nap! Who knew that boy could do that? We rounded out our weekend with play time and an early dinner (for Kale).

Ok, well, that was a little long...but hey, we crammed a lot into our weekend! If you are interested in hearing the sermon that "nailed me", then let me know and I will send you a link as soon as they post it on their website.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Hopkins

Tuesday nights are always uncertain around our house. Mema usually takes Kale to a family dinner at my aunt's house. About once a month, Ep fishes a Tuesday night tournament. Thus, about once a month, I have a Tuesday night to myself. Sometimes I go to my aunts, other times I go out running errands.
Tonight, I ran errands. I stayed out late, and Kale went to bed before I got home. So, that left me to either pump or know that I would start leaking milk before morning. Hmmm...pump or have a big wet spot in the bed...yep, I got out the pump.
On the way home tonight, I was thinking about our experience with Kale at Children's on THAT day. It will always be THAT day. November 5th will always be THAT day. I was thinking about how I still have not connected with anyone who has a child who has experienced what Kale experienced. I know God will send me a person to talk to about it...I just don't know when. I know that until then, he is still letting me prepare myself for that.
So, now that I have typed two full paragraphs, let me tell you the meat of this post. There is a new show out. It started two weeks ago on a Thursday night. Its a medical drama, yet reality based. Its real, its true. Sounds like a show for me. I programmed the DVR to record the first episode. Then, before I had the chance to watch it, I successfully managed to delete it. Ugh. I was SO frustrated. So, I recorded the second episode last week...and when I started pumping, I turned on the tv to watch a bit of it. Everyone but me is asleep in our house.
Within the first five minutes of the show, do you want to guess what one of the story lines was about? A baby...with a heart arrthymia...a heart beating faster than it was supposed to...at 240+ beats a minute (Kale's went higher than that)...a mom being told to walk out of the room because they are sure she doesn't want to see her baby get shocked. The nurses assure her that it would be traumatic for her. I wanted to scream at the tv...NO REALLY, YOU THINK SO??? So the mom of a three month old little boy left the room with tears running down her face. They showed the baby being shocked. Of course I watched. How could I not. My child experienced that at least 3 times. I needed to know what it looked like. Maybe when it happened to Kale, it looked worse, but really...what theys showed wasn't as bad as what my imagination had created. Then the doctor said "in most of these cases, we never know what caused the arrythmia and after we shock, the arrythmia goes away and never returns." Again, I wanted to yell at the tv...."Ok, maybe most, but not ALL cases do!" And then I just sat there and tried my best to focus through my tears.
I have no idea why tonights thoughts were there and then followed by seeing that specific episode (there were other recorded shows I could have chosen). But I know it happened that way for a purpose. I know, that if I seek it out long enough, I WILL find a way to help this struggle end on a positive note. Its very rare that a struggle finds me without me finding a way to make a positive spin on it. I refuse to let this struggle be the exception.
I want to know how that little boy is doing now. I will do what I can to seek that out. That is the closest case I know about to Kale's. That baby might not have WPW...but I want to know what has happened since that happened to him. I want to know how his mom is doing with it all. I am always seeking information on this...and can never seem to find much at all. I feel like I go in a circle with it. Maybe, just maybe, this is a new branch off of that circle. Even if I don't find out anything about that little boy, its somewhat soothing to know we aren't alone in this experience....that other babies and parents have walked this path ahead of us...or with us...or a similar path...and come out of it ok.

Ok, thats all I have...my brain is done for the night. Sorry to have such a serious and possibly heart wrenching post. But, this is Fletcherville...and we keep it real here! :)

Pictures for the addicts

Here are some pictures from this past weekend...
(yes Larry, you will get some copies of the ones at the bottom!)



The boys and the toy







































Chris and Kale






August Ladd, Kale, Elizabeth Harper, and Matheson Ladd








Mommy and Kale

Monday, July 7, 2008

We are all pretty tired, but we all survived the holiday weekend. We (and Mema) are now all back home in Little Rock. Our beds are hollering at us to come sleep in them. I will update more in the coming days.


Lots was accomplished this weekend, both on the "get it done" front as well as the social front. We had a great weekend!!!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Since I am at work, this must be brief. However, the next several days are filled with a lot of "going", so I thought it might be best to check in now.

Tonight we are headed to Lowe's to check out the ceiling fans. Its time for a ceiling fan extravaganza at our house (read: we NEED new fans). I think a new screen door for our back deck will be considered as well...as somebody we know will be somewhat or fully mobile by the time fall rolls around. We tend to leave the deck door open in the fall while we are grilling...and don't want to have any escapees when we aren't looking! (note to self: make sure it has a REALLY good lock!) (note to Larry: don't take this as a sign that you should worry) :)

Somewhere between Lowe's, dinner, and Kale's bedtime routine (or our best attempt)...we need to pack. This isn't a hard thing for Ep. It consists of about 15 minutes of grabbing underwear, shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, and his bathroom bag. Packing for me will take about 30 minutes and will include me throwing in a couple of extra t-shirts for Ep (for when Kale "bombs" him). Packing for Kale...will be non-stop until the moment we leave the house. Ugh.

My dad and brother are coming to Little Rock tomorrow. Leave it to them to have a scheduled trip to LR on the very same day that we FINALLY go to Alma/NWA. Josh, a friend of my brother, is graduating from ASP troop school (read: he will be an official state trooper). They are coming to support him during his graduation. I have no idea if I will see either of them while they are here...but its ok because I will see them this weekend.

Tomorrow night, AFTER the normal afternoon traffic has died down, we are heading to Alma. We plan a dinner pit stop to give Kale a break from the car seat and so we can all eat dinner.

The majority of my weekend is devoted to a special project with my mom. I plan to involve my brother, dad, and husband when at all possible. We NEED their help. Given that I am not sure if any of them will read this...that might have been a completely missed plea on my part. However, let it be noted...I will thoroughly appreciate and REWARD any hard work (outside of caring for Kale) that they help with this weekend.


Other weekend plans:
  • Go with Ep's family to see the NWA Naturals play in their new stadium.
  • Try our best to connect with some friends who would like to meet Kale.
  • Spend some time with Bekah and crew once they return from Alabama.
And that is about it...Ep will return home on Sunday. My mom and I will return on Monday afternoon.

Well, I attempted to be brief!

Hope everyone has a happy and SAFE 4th of July weekend!!!!!