The short take...

We're enjoying a crazy summer (already), before Kate starts Kindergarten (ALREADY!!?) this fall. Our kids are so much fun, and we are SO blessed!

If you want to browse our pictures, you can do so at our new Google Picasa album).

April 12, 2008

We've finally posted the rest of the pictures we promised you- Kate in March and some really cute pictures of Kate's first trip to the creek from last weekend! She's doing just great- crawling SO fast and pulling up on everything she gets to- she probably spends almost as much time standing as crawling! She can even balance herself up on her knees without holding onto anything- it's so cute. She loved the water when we went to the creek- though you usually can't keep me out of the water when we go, it was too cold for me to really play in. Because of that, we were just going to dip her in and see her reaction, but she loved it so much we let her just keep playing- she ended up being in the water probably almost 4 minutes! We got some great pictures of our water baby, and really enjoyed our afternoon.

We decided that we have to make the call on her first word- it's YAY! It sounds a little different than her babble, and she always claps her hands when she does it, so there you have it; her first word! Though she knows who 'ma-ma' and 'da-da' are, she can't really say them yet, though she loves her 'b' and 'd' sounds so much, she's pretty close to 'da-da'.

Honey's still at the Hospice house, and each day is a little different. She has happy days and sad days, days when she can eat and those when she can't get anything down. Though it's hard not to take every bit of latest news and try to project what's going to happen, it's really not possible- each week seems to have at least one hopeful time and one downcast time. So we're getting up to see her as much as possible, someone from the family is staying overnight with her each night, and we're taking it one day at a time, thanking God for each blessing.

April 01, 2008

Sorry we didn't update you last week- everything got quite busy. Honey had a great week after our last update, and was being able to be fairly mobile, considering everything; even going for 'walks' in her wheelchair around a number of blocks! Around Easter however, she started having a pretty rough week, with far more spasm episodes really wearing her out.

Since she had started doing better, they had been looking into moving her into the hospice house (24/7 care by actual nurses), since the current situation (one of her children with her at all times, two of which live out-of-state) really can't be kept up indefinitely. Once she started having a hard week, another reason for the move was added to the considerations; better and more prompt care than was possible while she was at home. Yesterday (Monday), they found out a bed had become available, so they elected to go ahead and move her in. It's still quite possible that she has several years ahead of her, rather than weeks or months, so it makes sense to be in a situation that can support her that permanently. It is still a far hope that she could recover to the point that she might come home again at some point in the future, but all these possibilities look more and less possible depending on each individual day's events. We're thankful that she's being cared after so well now, and we'll keep you updated on her general average condition as it changes.

Kyla and Kate are back in town, after taking an extended weekend down to Texas to see Granny and Papaw (Kate's great-grandparents). They had a great time, and apparently Kate's just an all-around great traveler! She got pretty tired at times, but she bounced back pretty quick. Michael's just glad to have his girls back home :-) Those pictures will be in the March set, coming soon.

Well there's no denying it; Kate's mobile. She can absolutely get anywhere she wants to now, and so quickly has begun pulling herself up on anything that she can. Every time we go in to get her out of her crib, she's standing up, looking through the slats. It doesn't look like she'll be long in the crawling world. She's also picking up sounds quite rapidly, and was even imitating the sign for "ball" from her sign language DVD the other day; it's simply amazing watching her as she gets to the point where she's analyzing things and you can see her evaluating and making decisions. She's really getting a personality all her own, and we're getting little glimpses of her future in some of her mannerisms and looks. Let me tell you, it's a joy.

Well, enjoy the "new" pictures of Kate we posted (they're from February...March should be available in the next week or so). Note that in both of our pictures feature sections, you can now click on the 'big' picture to download it- hope that helps those of you who wanted to save Kate's pictures yourselves!