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It was Andy’s mom’s birthday yesterday, and, according to Noah (yesterday), “She’s 56. Yesterday she was 55.”
We had dinner at Fuddrucker’s tonight. The boys love to play the arcade games. And the food is pretty tasty!
I asked Noah to make a birthday card for Grandma.* He drew the line to write on, then wrote out the whole card (with prompting, of course!). Here’s the card:
 
Noah says that’s Noah, Caden, and Grandma, and they’re running. It totally looks like that, no? Apparently Grandma has a sad face because she can’t catch the boys. And Noah has spiky hair, and “the wind is hitting it and blowing it back.”
SERIOUSLY! I’m amazed at the things he comes up with!
*I really don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging, but I’m pretty impressed with what Noah can do! I don’t take much credit for it, either! It’s not like we’re practicing our writing every day-really!
Today was a hot one around here. It was a typical July day, but less humid than it could have been!
We started the day at playgroup, where we spent most of the time inside. Then Noah had a t-ball game (more about his t-ball season in an upcoming post). I have one very tan/slightly burned shoulder-but I really had sunscreen on!
After the t-ball game, the boys and I came back home and watered our plants outside with the hose. After watering a bit, I turned the hose on the boys. They were giggling (almost) the whole time. Caden was more tolerant than Noah. Then again, Noah is the sensitive one around here! Here are the boys post-hose-down:
 
Noah loves to spike his hair when it’s wet-but he won’t let me put any gel/goop into it!
Andy got back from a short business trip to Ohio tonight. The boys and I went down early and watched planes take off and land from an observation area. It’s not O’Hare or JFK in terms of airline traffic, but it’s still pretty cool to watch and hear planes take off. I’d really like to go where Jack went in “Lost” to see planes come right over your head!
Noah’s been into rhyming things lately. He’ll hear a word, then try to figure out rhymes. He’s doing alright, for a 4-year-old, but sometimes he goes off on tangents.
Noah: “What rhymes with ‘worm’?”
Nana: “Germ.”
Noah: “Germ! A germ is almost as small as a worm’s teeth!”
Whatever…
I decided this morning that the 4th of July is my second-favorite holiday. Christmas is first, but today is a very close second. I’m sure a big part of my love of this day is the fact that it’s summer, and the weather is usually pretty nice, as it was today. But another big part of it’s high ranking is the Brookfield 4th of July parade.
I suppose compared to other parades around the country it’s pretty average. We don’t get a lot of celebrities. We get the mayor, some alderpeople, a senator (local) or two, maybe a news person, and usually the current Junior Miss. We have fire engines, ambulances, the Fun-loving Grannies, the square dancing group, the Wacky Wheeler, and antique cars. Some jugglers, unicycle riders, bagpipe players, and Noah’s old karate school make their way down the road. There are the animals: a long-horn steer (which made me a bit nervous-can the one guy holding the rope really control this huge animal with very pointy horns if it gets spooked???), a zebra/mule hybrid, and a camel (which thankfully pooped about 50 yards before it got to us, followed closely behind by a Brookfield waste management truck with some guy who drew the short straw there to scoop up the poop!). And as always, there’s the candy. We made quite the haul this year-lots of Tootsie Rolls, Dum-Dum suckers, and Double Bubble gum.
But the best part of the parade is how excited Noah and Caden get. They love every bit of it. They wave, yell, cheer, clap and dance as the different groups pass us by. They stuff their faces with candy until I’m sure their teeth will rot. They respectfully take off their hats as the flag passes us. Most importantly, they’re smiling almost the entire time.
Someday, we’ll get more into the real reason for the celebrations we have today. Why we get to sit along the side of the road and feel that swell of pride as the flag is carried past us by a veteran of some war. Why we have fireworks and what they symbolize. Why we are so fortunate to have the freedoms and luxuries we often take for granted. And hopefully they’ll appreciate and love this day even more.
 
 
 
 
Last Sunday (yes, I could have posted this sooner, but I’m a little lazy, and there were more important things to write about lately), was had some rain come through. It was a weird weather day, with rain, then sun, then rain while it was sunny, and you could hear thunder to the south even though it was sunny here.
At one point, looking out our east-facing windows, I could see that the sky was a really dark gray, whereas out our west-facing windows it was sunny. Perfect rainbow weather! I grabbed Caden and headed down our driveway then turned to look east. Sure enough, there was a rainbow! It was awesome, and if we didn’t have all the trees we do, or the houses around our house, we probably could have seen the entire arc. I kept trying to think of where we could go to find a more clear area, but it would have been a car trip to find it. So we did the best we could. It actually ended up being a double rainbow, but it was faint. Very cool.
Caden wasn’t too excited about it, and when I ran in to get Noah and Andy to come look, they weren’t all that impressed either. My kids get excited about airplanes flying over (which happens frequently since we live near 2 airports, and I think we’re in a flight pattern for Mitchell International, as well), dump trucks (which we see everywhere), UPS trucks (also everywhere), and VW Beetles (everywhere!). Rainbows (which we hardly ever see-we don’t live in Hawaii, after all!) are apparently not excitement-worthy. Oh well, I enjoyed it! And now you can too!
 
 
These are the words the neurosurgeon used regarding Elijah’s surgery today.
Liz called me tonight to let me know that the surgery was a great success today, they got “all” of the tumor (from what they can tell), and they believe it was a papilloma, the benign form of the tumor.
So far, Elijah is recovering well. He’s not showing any signs of neurological damage-they were concerned he may have some problems with the right side of his body, but so far it looks like his arm and leg are moving normally. He’ll probably be in ICU for a few days, and from there, they don’t know how long it will be before they can take him home. It’s a little too early to tell. The shunts are still in, and it’s a good thing they were put in because they’ve been draining quite a bit since they were placed. They don’t know yet if he will be shunt-free or if he’ll need one more long-term. Either way, they’re very positive about what’s to come.
Ironically, when I was pregnant with Noah, during my routine ultrasound around 20 weeks (actually, about 5 years ago at this time of year!), a choroid plexus cyst was found in Noah’s head. It eventually resolved, and Noah has no signs of any problem with his choroid plexus. I asked Liz if there could be any correlation. She said she had asked the doctor about that, remembering my story, and that of a friend of hers who also had ultrasounds that showed the same thing. Her doctor said that Elijah actually has/had a cyst as well as the tumor, and there is probably no relation between the cyst and the tumor. He also stated that if she were to look back at her ultrasound from when she was pregnant with Elijah, she may be able to see the beginnings of the tumor, now that they know what to look for. Apparently, it wouldn’t have been anything that would have raised any red flags at the time.
Liz and her family are very thankful for all of the positive thoughts and prayers that have been going out to them and Elijah. The power of prayer can be very strong.
Yesterday, Elijah had a successful embolectomy to block off the main blood source to the tumor. At this moment (7:13 am central time/8:13 eastern time) Elijah is in surgery to have the tumor removed. He’s in an “MR-OR” which has an MRI machine in the operating room so they can stop, take some images, and proceed as necessary. This will probably make the 2-3 hour surgery take a little longer, but also should be more precise.
Liz now has her mom, sister, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law there, helping with the girls and giving some much-needed moral support. I’m sure Liz also knows about all of the people here in Wisconsin, as well as other states, who are praying, sending our positive thoughts, and supporting them from afar.
My dear friend, Liz (“my friend from church”), has suddenly found herself in a place no parent ever wishes to be. Physically, she’s spending the weekend at Children’s Hospital Boston. Emotionally, she’s terrified over the new diagnosis of a brain tumor in her 3 1/2-month-old son, Elijah.
The other day, she noticed Elijah’s head seemed to be quite a bit larger than she remembered. She measured it, and it was 6 cm bigger than it was 2 months ago. That’s a pretty big jump. They got into their pediatrician the next day, who recommended an ultrasound. The ultrasound was done yesterday, which showed the tumor, located in the choroid plexus, which was blocking the cerebrospinal fluid, causing hydrocephalus, which manifests as an enlarged head. An MRI was done to look closer at the tumor. The decision was made for Elijah to have surgery on Tuesday to remove the tumor.
It sounds like Elijah has some of the best doctors/nurses/medical personnel working with him. I know that Liz has some of the best friends/family/neighbors willing to do anything to help. I’m one of those friends, but considering I live about 1000 miles away, there’s not much I can physically do to help. But I can pray, and I can hope for the best, and I can reach out with my compassion and caring to do my part to help their family through this time.
For about 2 years now, I’ve been growing my hair to donate to Locks of Love.*** I saw Ann Curry do it on the Today show (when Katie Couric was still on it!) and decided it looked easy enough. I thought it may take 6 months to a year, so how hard could it be? Hard enough! My hair doesn’t seem to grow all that quickly, and I also wasn’t willing to go with a Natalie Portman pixie cut, so I really needed to grow it pretty long.
Recently, I’ve been getting a little annoyed with my hair. It’s mostly straight, but gets a little wavy and pretty frizzy in the humidity. Seeing as there is standing water everywhere in southern Wisconsin right now, the air is a bit moist. I knew it was time to cut.
My good friend, Day, is my hairstylist now. The last time I had gotten my hair cut was a few months ago and she said by spring/summer it would be long enough to cut. I called her last week and she got me in tonight. I was excited/nervous/scared/anticipating/sooooo looking forward to doing this!
Before:
 
After:
 
I love it!!!
***It turns out that you can’t donate hair that has been bleached to Locks of Love, and seeing as I’ve had bleach-based highlights in the past two years (not from Day, thank goodness!), I couldn’t donate to them. But I can donate to a group called Children with Hair Loss and they only require 8 inches. I had Day cut 9 inches anyway.
The day started out with a beautiful sunny sky, and plenty warm. We had breakfast at the Pancake House (a favorite), then went to the Brookfield Farmer’s Market, then back over to my parents’ house to play with my mom’s new Wii. Do any of you have a 60+-year-old mother who really wants a Wii?
My mom and I headed out to get pedicures at 4:00 this afternoon. Bad weather was threatening, but it wasn’t going to stop us from our pampering! While we were there, a very nasty storm blew through, including tornado watches/warnings, so we stayed there for a bit longer than necessary. We drove home in some very heavy rain and in much cooler temperatures. We were determined to have burgers on the grill, so Andy, my dear, wonderful hubby, braved the rain for a bit trying to get the grill going.
We eventually aborted the plan, and made the burgers on the stove.
After a yummy dinner, we had my mom’s favorite cake-chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting. My kids usually don’t like a lot of frosting, Noah especially, but they always like this cake. It was pretty tasty! (I made it from scratch-not that I’m bragging or anything!)
 
It was a really nice day, despite the weather. I just can’t wait to get back to my parents’ house to play more Wii! Love you, Mom!!!
 
 
p.s. Happy Birthday, Pat!
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