our miracle mile: Weekly (monthly) Update Volume II

Brad has been working hard in his garden this year and often miss L will "help" him. This has been GREAT! Miss L enjoys eating the veggies that she's grown and I love that she's learning where food comes from. The first ripe veggies were sweet peas this year. Miss L loves peas in general, but I couldn't believe how much she enjoyed the fresh peas from the garden. She ate the entire bunch! It's a good thing that they keep growing!

My favorite? She had so many peas, she didn't eat her pizza. Who knew my daughter would forgo her favorite food for veggies? Not me!

Not long after the pea incident we set off for our summer trip to our hometown. It's a loooooooooooong drive and we knew that with a nursing infant and a potty-trained toddler that we'd have to stop several times. It took us a lot longer than we'd planned but it was really a great trip.

I took these photos at a rest stop someplace. I'd just nursed him and put him back in his seat while we were waiting for miss L to get done with her business. They ended up being some pretty cute photos.

Miss L had her first experience with a DVD player in the car. I think she liked it.

We arrived in one piece and Saturday morning my sister ran her first 5K at the local airport. We went to cheer her across the finish line.

We got there with a few minutes to spare so miss L took a minute to look around at the scenery. I honestly almost cry everytime I see these photos. She looks so OLD. I mean I want her to grow and achieve things and be her own person, but at the same time I kind of want to keep her little forever. I know that you know what I mean.

Cousin K was there to run around with.

K ran with his mommy across the finish line. I'm way too chicken to even THINK about registering for a 5K. I'm so proud of my big sister!

Sweet baby W enjoyed it how he seems to enjoy most things.

Saturday night my parents hosted a cook-out for the family. We were there for such a short time and it was a great way to see everyone. Sweet baby W met lots of people for the first time and miss L had the BEST time with her cousins. This was really the first time that I remember her enjoying playing with her cousins and play they did. I'm pretty sure that miss L didn't stop going the entire time we were there. I bet our trips will be met with a greater anticipation than they used to be.

Sunday brought more family. I think that miss L's favorite part of visiting is the fact that she can pretty much go back and forth between Mawmaw's house and Grandma's house. She enjoyed playing outside between houses and escaping to the other grandma's house.

Miss L loved playing with some of Brad's old toys. This one is the Sesame Street Clubhouse.

Monday was another day of fun. We started the day hanging out and heading to the park. Before we left our house miss L completed her "chore" chart and earned a bike! I have to admit that I was originally thinking she would get a doll or a small toy, but she really wanted a bike and I think her dad really wanted to get her one so the reward this time was a bike. We didn't have time to get one before heading out on vacation, but we were able to pick out a helmet with some knee pads and she borrowed cousin K's bike while she was there.

Miss L rode her bike to our neighborhood park. I never really played in this park much since I moved in next to Brad in the 8th grade, but he did play there as a child. Brad fell off this very slide as a little boy and went to the emergency room to make sure his arm wasn't broken. We didn't require any ER visits this time.

After the park, the two cousins closest in age to miss L came for a playdate. It was a big time blast! They made cookies, played in the sandbox, ate lunch, made mischief, tried to play hide and seek and had a great time!

In our hometown there is a park that during our childhood had great carnival rides. It closed down at some point but has since been restored and reopened featuring a large carousel, a car ride and an airplane ride. There is also a train, which never closed down. I remember coming on some trip to visit my grandparents and I remember having a wonderful time. I actually remember a ride with boats the best, but that ride isn't there anymore. It's just amazing the memories that retracing your steps can bring up. I love watching miss L do the things we once did with the same enthusiasm. Pawpaw got a whole bunch of tickets and the little kids got to ride the little rides and most everyone got to ride the carousel and the train. Miss L asks to go to Pawpaw's house quite often and I'm pretty sure that this was one of the big selling points.

A big trip and lots of fun can make a sweet girl super tired.

I can't believe this is the same little baby dancing at our wedding!

Okay... so I think this is sort of cruel but awesome. :o) There is a tunnel on this train ride and as soon as the train goes into the tunnel all the tweenage girls on the train scream their heads off. Some of them were our tweenage girls, so I can hardly complain, but for an adult it's irritating at the most. For a two year old who has never experienced it before, it's probably more confusing. Brad snapped this photo in the complete darkness in the tunnel. Her retinas are probably damaged, but it's an awesome photo.

After the train ride Pawpaw supplied everyone with some bread to feed the geese. I was CERTAIN that miss L would be terrified, but she LOVED it. She chased the geese. She fed the geese. She ate their bread. It was awesome!

Here's something funny about the shorts miss L is wearing. She's a skinny girl with tiny little hips and that sometimes makes it difficult to find things that fit. I think these shorts actually fit her really well. That day miss L had an accident and her daddy grabbed these shorts out of the suitcase. He put them on her and left the house not thinking about it again. It wasn't until I pointed out to him that they were sweet baby W's shorts, size 3-6 months that anyone even noticed they weren't hers. Hey... they fit!

After that it was time for sad goodbyes.

Early Tuesday morning we loaded up and made our way to stay with some dear friends. We're lucky they live between our hometown and our current town, because it's always sooooo much better to stay with friends! We made a little trip out of it, arriving late Tuesday and leaving Thursday morning. Wednesday was full of playing and having fun.

Miss L with her buddies K and C playing in their backyard.

Miss L discovered roly polies on this trip. We don't have a lot of bugs at our house and I've never seen a roly poly here. My parents, however, have them in abundance and they are perfect bugs for an interested two year old. Apparently they have them at Sherrie and Darius's house too!

Miss L and her buddy K are only a couple of weeks apart in age and they had a great time on their extended playdate. I love their little faces!

That evening we went to an AMAZING local shopping/eating/playing center. In the center there is a large grassy area with fountains for the kids to play in. We took the kids out for a good time!

I think the biggest hit was actually the puddles around the perimeter.

I think next time we'll stop both ways!

Thursday morning it was time for more tearful goodbyes. We drove the rest of the way home with the threat of severe weather, but none actually coming to pass. Around 8:00 we finally made it home safe and sound and slept and slept and slept. :o)

Friday it was off and running again. On the list was going to the funeral home to finally pick up sweet baby B's ashes. In those first days after his death we visited the funeral home and didn't really like any of the urns there. His death was still such a shock and I really didn't want an urn that was too obviously an urn. I wanted something that would be beautiful in the house but wouldn't make people uncomfortable when they saw it. A lot of things go through your mind when picking out an urn for your child (and I'm certain for anyone you love). It's so final. We ordered an urn online and returned it and decided to just get a simple bronze urn from the funeral home. I really wanted sweet baby B's remains here at home with us and over time it became really important to me to have something heavy and substantial. We needed something that would stand up to having a toddler handle it (because you never know) and it was important to us that it survive if we ever experienced a fire, etc. It became less important to me to "hide" that it's an urn. I mean, I don't want anyone to be uncomfortable, but our son died, it's just going to be a little uncomfortable! :o) So we went back to the funeral home that Friday. It was a little overwhelming, but we chose this bronze urn with a beautiful nickel finish. It now lives in our basement family room with a photo of sweet baby B and an angel given to us by some dear friends. It feels like the perfect place at this point.

It's still a daily process for all of us. One morning shortly after the urn came home miss L told me, "I miss B." She remarks a lot that she wants to see him. It's fascinating to see her two year old mind comprehend all of this. She clearly doesn't understand the concept of death or resurrection, but she knows that SOMETHING happened. Before the urn came home we would just tell miss L, "we can't see B anymore, remember? He died and went to heaven to be with God." (it has since occurred to me that I need to give her some context with this so she doesn't think that "being with God" means being separated from your family, but I digress...) but this day I was able to take her and show her the urn. I figured there was no good way to explain cremation to a two year old without frightening her so I just told her when he died his body was turned into ashes and these are where they live, but his soul isn't here. We talked about how we can visit him and hold the urn and remember him and talk to him. She looked at me with concern since I was obviously sad and then we moved on. It was just the first of what I know will be many conversations about this. It's pretty amazing how much she can understand about the whole thing and honestly it gives me so much peace to know that he's not been forgotten even in her very young mind.

We also had sweet baby W's 4 month doctor visit. He's now 24.5 inches long and 14 lbs 6 oz. He's jumped from 5th to 10th to 50th percentiles in his last visits. This is great! Despite having some trouble very early on the boy is growing like a weed! Our pediatrician gave us some guidelines about how to tell when sweet baby W was ready for "solid" food and the next day we decided to go for it. It was actually my plan to wait until he was at least six months old. I felt like we started too early with miss L and that she had a hard time at first, so I was nervous about starting sweet W. As it turns out, he's a pro at eating. He loved his rice cereal and gobbled it right up.

I just honestly can't believe he's eating solids. Just as with miss L I'm making baby food for sweet baby W. It's just so cheap and easy! So far he's had bananas and sweet potatoes. He's not crazy about bananas unless they are ripe (like his mama) and he started getting hives on day 4 so he may be allergic. I'm going to give it a month or so and try it again to see. He LOVES sweet potatoes. I mean he LOVES them. It's pretty amazing how much a little guy can eat!

That same weekend we took sweet baby W's four month elephant photo. Brad has been taking amazing elephant photos so far so I think he's going to have to finish the year out.

Summer is in full swing here and miss L's favorite summer activity is here as well. I can tell that we're going to be spending lots of time at the pool this season. Miss L stopped swimming just long enough to eat a banana though the bugs were getting on her face and she just had to wear my hat to keep them off.