a taste of freedom

Can you tell someone is excited about something???

I just know she is saying "hallelujah" in this photo.... notice what is laying on the floor beside her rather than on her??

FINALLY, after 17 weeks of being stuck like a frog, Mei Sims is free.... for 8 hours a day that is... and actually I wasn't supposed to start taking it off until tomorrow but I figured if it can come of monday, why not sunday, right?  8 hours may not sound like a lot, but we will take what we can get and will rejoice during those eight hours as she explores, plays and learns to use those leggies again.  For about an hour today, she said "walk walk" over and over and we practiced.  She is bound and determined but very very rusty at walking regular..... she keeps spreading her legs wide apart and walking like a sumo wrestler.... but she will get it soon.  The act of taking off the brace also made her shoot up about 5 inches... which is exciting to see how much she has grown since I last saw her standing on June 12th.  And can I just say what a joy it is to hold her and feel that teeny tiny hiney in my arms rather than a hard piece of plastic?!  Oh happy days!  Just had to share the good news.... and a few photos from the past month while I'm here with you....

She loves shoes and will wear them and any and every appendage!

Attempt at cute photo while they were all clean and dressed... got crazy ones instead.

One of MS's biggest fans.... she is about the only one in the family he is never mean to!!

Rollins & the grump bug.... more on him in a minute.

Walked in the room one morning to find this scene.  She wants to do everything he does!  And he now calls her "MY" Mei Sims!

She discovered a pacy at the bottom of a toy basket and had fun with it for a day... but it was gone when she woke up the next morning :)

Fun with apple peels.  The photo of AR totally captures her quirky personality.

MS has got some piggies now! Yea!

Bath for the "twins"

This just makes me laugh.... both sucking thumbs/blankies under the table with all the electrical cords. 

Sweet sisters!

Huh?  did I do something wrong?

Ok, so a word about henry.  After removing the cyst, my sweet angel has resorted to saying things to me like "mommy, you stupid." "Mommy you not funny" "mommy you not pretty" and so on.  After meeting with the eye doctor last week, I understood better that with the cyst, it was not just that his vision was blurry but rather one eye was totally distorted due to the pressure on it.  My take on this is that for 2.5 years he lived in a world where the distortion caused everything to look funny & silly.... so he was always smiling and laughing.... literally always... anyone who knows him in real life would agree.... and now that it is out, he can see clearly and we have awakened a beast.... oh my...... my theory that he had something that had killed all the mean cells may actually be true..... hmmmmm.... still needing Jesus these days

And one more thing.... about that cat....yes, you know the one.  Well, I opened my car door the other morning to load up the kids for school and out jumps a terrified little kitty!  Oops.  He had been trapped in there for 19 hours!  He was somehow still alive.  I guess all the cheeze its, pretzels and goldfish on the floor came in handy.  As you can imagine, he had some time to kill during his stay in my car and lets just say it wasn't a pretty sight! I cleared out the poop, dropped the kids at school and headed straight to a place to clean it up.  First stop, the place I knew that would shampoo mats was closed because it was raining.  Second stop, the vacuum was out of order.  Finally make it to the 3rd stop, where I vacuum all the hair out in the pouring rain.  Now my car smells like a wet animal.  I was able to get it shampooed the next day and it is good as new.  That same day, I was pulling a big box of wipes out of a closet in our house when the bottom of the cardboard box gives out and splash.  Splash?  turns out there was about 2 inches of water in the closet.  Who knew?  So the afternoon was spent pulling things out, finding mildew on multiple items that ended up at the curb and so on.... ends up it is a clogged drain where the AC is draining..... so onto the night, where I washed henry's blue school bag.... because it was the lucky recipient of a prize from the cat... in the process the bag came out totally destroyed and henry's gray shoes turned aqua.  Then I capped off the night by helping derek move a way too heavy old TV to the curb by using the kids' toy wagon.... which broke in the process..... a wagon I got recently, I might add, to replace the one I ran over.....

Our lives are crazy, unpredictable & full and I wouldn't change any of it.... except perhaps that darn cat.....