Katelyn, Conner and Caleb! » July 2005 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Wed, Jul 27, 2005 9:57 AM
Been a long time since posting...

My grandma isn't doing well. She, along with her daughters and doctor decided not to treat her pneumonia any more. She has aspiration pneumonia which means that everything she swallows that is liquid goes into her lungs as well as into her stomach. Even saliva. And that's what made the decision. She could drink thickened liquids that wouldn't go into her lungs but every time she swallowed saliva (which you can't thicken) she's adding to the fluid that is there.

I'm sad but I agree that it's the right decision. The doctor said that if they treated it agressively, she's spend months in the hospital and the end would be the same. This way she spends time at home at Park Place with her friends. She's on oxygen and is getting comfort measures by way of pain meds and stuff.

We're visiting nearly daily and the family as a whole has made sure that she's never alone because she doesn't like to be.

Yesterday when we visited, Katelyn elicited a huge smile from Grandma simply by saying, "Hi". Usually Katelyn just waves and doesn't make any noise. Since Grandma is legally blind, this doesn't do much for her. But hearing her great granddaughter did. Conner decided to play peek-a-boo while we were there and had roaring giggles going on. Grandma liked that a lot too. Those kids sure do like their Great Grandma and will miss her as much as I do.

I think what makes this hard is that she is so on top of things mentally. She's not a shell of a body that is waiting to catch up to her spirit which is already gone. She's totally here... her body is simply shutting down. I don't like seeing her waiting to die like this. :*(

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Mon, Jul 4, 2005 7:53 PM
Happy Independence Day!!!

Katelyn's been showing signs of feeling left out because of the computer. This weekend, I was on hardly at all and we spent the weekend baking a cake, making finger jello, doing art projects for her Aunt and Grandpa and doing puzzles. She loved it. I think I need to focus more on her.

Ok... now her aunt, the one who reads here, is probably wondering if she's the one the art project is for!

We've been impressed with Katelyn's puzzle abilities. But she's doing amazingly well with the 100 piece puzzle. I told her that before she opened it, she had to finish her Clifford puzzle because she hadn't finished that one at all yet. Wham, Bam, she finished it up. Amazing what the power of a reward can do! She's been working on the 100 piece for two days now and is about 2/3 done. We have been helping her a lot but she's still the one doing the puzzle. For example, we'll give her a group of pieces and tell her that they all belong to the sun and she'll put them together. Or we'll find a piece and point out to her that it has parts of a window on it and she'll figure out which window and where the piece goes. But was is really great is the number of times that I've simply handed her a piece that I know connects to pieces already in the puzzle and said, "Can you figure out where this goes?" I use a tone that implies that I don't know where it goes and she takes it, studies it and then puts it into place. Wow.

Conner is walking with a walker! The kind that he hangs on to and pushes but that he controls the speed of and still has to do a lot of the balancing on. He thinks those are great toys and is on the go and then some now!

We spent the day today with friends for college and their spouses. 3 couples in all and a total of 4 kids. This was the first time I got to meet the wife of one of my college friends (and fellow Barakel counselor) and that was great. I really like her! She is such a great match for her husband and they are so obviously in love and following God's will for their lives. It was really great to spend the afternoon with them.

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Sat, Jul 2, 2005 10:00 PM
Conner got tooth #3 on Thursday! That was a blessing because for the 3 nights prior he'd been super restless... he just didn't want to sleep but was obviously very tired. Holding him didn't work, nursing him didn't work, he was just uncomfortable. Then Eric thought of the Hylands teething tablets and we gave Conner two. He fell almost instantly asleep and slept for 4 hours. So we repeated that each night that he woke up restless. Those tablets are amazing. But they don't seem to work for all kids. I'm so glad they work for mine though!

Tooth #4 is getting ready to pop. Conner's gums are sore there and he doesn't like them to be touched. He's restless during the day for this tooth though. Whiny and clingy and generally uncomfortable. I'll be glad when that tooth pops through.

Conner is loving his foods. On Friday we went out to Pizza Hut and discovered that Conner loves peas. Yep... this boy who hates applesauce adores peas. Weird, huh? He picks them up individually and carefully puts them in his mouth and then as he chews (gums) them he just looks at you and grins and turns his head joyfully from side to side. It's a hoot to watch.

Katelyn now has four "pretty dresses". The kids and I are going to Pennsic this summer. It's been 10 years since I was there last so I'm really looking forward to it. But it also means medieval clothing for us all for a week. And for my mom! She's going to go with us! The kids are going to love having her there. Whenever I finish a dress for Katelyn, she puts it on immediately and then doesn't take it off for anything. We have to wait until morning and then offer her a bath (a favorite activity) and then we get the dress back. Apparently they're comfortable. If you want to see pictures, there are some listed under "garb" and I'll add more as I get them.

Katelyn's new "thing" is puzzles. The 24 piece interlocking ones. She adores them. And she memorizes them. It's so cute. She had two (until today) and we'd go back and forth between them all day. One would go together, then it'd get put back into the box and then the other would get put together, be put back into the box and the process would repeat. So today we bought a third puzzle to give her some variety. I also bought a 100 piece one to have ready if she appears ready.

The only problem with today's puzzle is that she had buyer's remorse over it. We let her pick out her puzzles and today it came down to a choice between Clifford and kittens. She deliberated back and forth and finally chose Clifford. But when she got home and found out that we didn't have the kitten puzzle, she was very sad. She kept signing cat and looking really confused. The poor girl apparently forgot that she'd chosen Clifford and thought that she had the kitten puzzle.

Katelyn is also all about "art projects". She loves these. It doesn't seem to matter what it is as long as it's an art project. She especially likes making things for people. And she's very specific about who each thing is for and who she wants to make something for next. It's adorable!

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