Four Wheelin'

"So many of my smiles begin with you."

 These two are the best of friends (sometimes).

 Their giggles make me smile.

 He finally taught her how to get her whole head w et.

He carries her around on his back and then counts to 3 and ducks under the w@ter and she goes under too.

She loves it and she loves him.

Get Well Wishes

We have gotten some of the sweetest Get Well cards for Will and we are so blessed by each one of them. Quite honestly the outpouring of love we have felt over the last week and a half has been humbling. I know that there are many people going through much more difficult circumstances and yet friends, family, acquaintances and people that we don't even know have been praying for our little boy and have been loving our family. Yup..I'm crying. I can't even articulate how deeply that has ministered to us through this trial.

Okay, wiping my eyes now.... on to the cute stuff. Check out what came in a package in the mail for Will:

How stinkin' cute is this card?? Someone knows Will pretty well and knows that he loves trains and of course his #1 favorite engine is Thomas!!!  I am pretty impressed with 8 year old Abby's artistic effort on this one!

Loving the Popsicle stick "W" on this one!

Emma wrote Will such a sweet note.

Our sweet cousins didn't just make special cards for Will, they also included Christian & McKenna. Emma made Christian a pop-up baseball card and even remembered that Christian has a made-up baseball team that he pretends he's on called the "Greencastle Smackers."

I love this note from Nate! It's probably my favorite just because I know how much work it was for him to write this. Precious!

Emma wrote McKenna a poem about Gymnastics and chose pink paper because that's McKenna's favorite color and McKenna is slightly obsessed with the Olympics and gymnastics right now. Such a thoughtful card.

Nate and Abby both wrote McKenna cards on hearts (that McKenna folded in half and pretended that they were bunny ears).

I don't have pictures of the inside of those cards because McKenna put them "some place special." Both Abby and Nate drew pictures of themselves and McKenna with the words "best friends." She LOVED those cards and put them in such a special place that now we can't find them.

There's lots of love between these cousins and the cards they sent are certainly treasures.

Little Feet

Enough about his hand....let's talk about this little boy's feet.
Will's little feet are so busy.

One of his favorite things to do is to try on other people's shoes. 

If you leave your shoes laying around, he will have them on in no time and then he'll try to walk around.

More Cousins

Hannah, McKenna & Elizabeth

My brother's kids are visiting this week. This is our 3rd week of cousin time this summer!! 

It's a lot to have 6 kids around but I can honestly say that I enjoy it mainly because both my brother & my sister are raising great kids. They obey and are helpful and there are very few conflicts. McKenna especially loves the attention of older girls and these girls set a beautiful example for her.

 They were busy trying to catch a snapping turtle when I told them to turn around and smile for a picture. Yes, there really was a snapping turtle but I had no faith in the fact that they could catch it. It was fun for them to try for 30 minutes. I'm doing my best to say "no" as little as possible during these last few days of summer.

"Can we catch a snapping turtle?"

"Oh sure, go for it! Just don't fall in."

 

 Will loved watching the ducks and even managed to throw a few pieces of his bread all the way into the water. It was so good for him to be outside.

 Checking out the garden. This garden is part of the environmental school adjacent to Christian's primary school.

 Christian was so excited to show us some cabbage his class planted.

 It was a cloudy day...not too hot...perfect for a summer morning.

 Well, what do ya know! They do have time out at the park. Hmmm...maybe someone learned a lesson.

 Trying out some balance beam tricks.

 Whoops...passing each other didn't work.

It's just fun to see them all together. I love it that I can now look at the twins and tell them apart just by looking at their faces, not because I memorized what outfit they were wearing!

 Will was so happy when he saw the playground. He wanted out of his stroller immediately.

Of course I regret it. His bandage came off and he got mulch in his wound. Thankfully I had the foresight to bring the bandaids, tape, antibiotic ointment, saline, scissors, etc. I got it fairly clean and wrapped again but it certainly made my blood pressure rise.  If you're wondering why his bandage keeps coming off it's because it's almost impossible to cover the tip of your finger well. And we have to keep the wound moist, so I slather antibiotic ointment on it and that keeps everything from adhering to his finger well. When the surgeon dressed Will's finger yesterday it only lasted about 30 minutes because I had to re-do it again. It's just tricky.

I put this story on Facebook this morning but I want to remember it so I'm putting it on here too:

This morning Will tried to trick us. He pulled his bandage off his "boo boo finger" and stuck it onto another finger (his pointer finger). McKenna saw it and said she thought it might be on the wrong finger and I sort of ignored her thinking that there was no way that he could get it onto a different finger. Then she started yelling that she saw blood. This boy is going to wear me out!

Favorite Faces!!

 Nate is the sweetest, snuggliest guy. He knows I'm always looking for a hug and he doesn't disappoint.

 He's growing up.

 Christian was so proud of his "gold" medal.

 And Abby was pretty excited too.

 Ice cream face. She handed off her cone to daddy for a minute so she could go play a game and when she came back her cone was gone. Daddy had to go buy her a new one! ha!

 Lots of tickets.

Hmm...someone didn't want their picture taken.

Doing Good

Will is really doing good! Most of the time he's running around the house as if nothing ever happened to him! I cringe every single time he falls down and catches himself with both of his hands but he jumps up and keeps going. whew.

It would be awesome if he would take it easy and not rip off his bandage daily. So much for dressing changes every 48 hours. We've been doing it daily.

On Friday he got one of the kids cups off the table, poured apple juice all over the floor and was splashing his hands in it. His bandage was soaked so I had to change it but Ryan was out running. So I piled every one in the car. We drove around until we saw Ryan and pulled over and told him to come home. That was fun.

Then later on Friday I was visiting a friend and running some errands and Ryan called me to come home. He ripped his dressing off again. So Ryan had to sit with him and hold his hand until I got home. Two dressing changes in one day is not my idea of a good time.

Saturday night was a similar story. I have no idea how he did it, but he got it off again. I really put it on tight that time and so far it's holding (forget that...it just came off while I was working on this blog post! ugh!!!!)  I'm getting quicker at these dressing changes but it really does take two people and Ryan goes back to work tomorrow, so this could get tricky.

Of course I've been feeling sorry for my little man. He can't get his hand wet at all and we are not letting him go outside because he just falls down all the time and we cannot risk his bandage coming off and dirt getting in his wound. So for now we're keeping him indoors and it makes him so sad. He just stands at the window and looks out. He loves to be outside. We've been taking lots of walks to try to make up for it. 

I may or may not have made a "Christmas morning" like purchase today at Walmart because my mommy guilt got the best of me. But you know..... when your one and you loose part of your finger and you have to be stuck inside for weeks you should at least have a fun train to ride around on.... right??? Ryan just rolled his eyes at me when I pulled it out of the car. We just love our little guy so much and wish with all our hearts this had never happened.

 

Ryan and I aren't the only ones who are in LOVE with him. I looked over and saw this on the family room floor this afternoon. The big kids just genuinely love hanging out with him.

Peek-a-boo!

That blankie of his has been a necessity as of late!

Boy am I glad he can get some comfort from his blankie. It's present at every dressing change.

Continued prayer...

While we are still rejoicing at the healing work Jesus is doing on Will's finger, the reality is that we still have a month of healing ahead of us. We are thrilled at such a positive prognosis for Will, yet today is "dressing change day." I'm dreading it. So please keep praying!

Specific Prayer Requests:

• For peace and comfort for Will as we change his dressing. And that I will be able to do it quickly while Ryan's holding him. Today will be the first time we've done it without the help of someone in the medical profession. When the plastic surgeon changed his dressing he had 2 nurses assist him. That means three trained people were working on his finger. Today it's just me.
• Pray against infection. This is a big deal. We've had a hard time getting him to take his antibiotic.
• Pray that his finger GROWS and GROWS and GROWS!!!!
• Pray that he doesn't cause any more injury to his finger. He is so rough all the time and rarely stays calm. I don't even know if he knows how to walk...he just runs and then trips and catches himself with his hands. Sometimes he jumps right up and sometimes he cries because his finger hurts. This happens over and over again during the day. Apparently he doesn't know what "slow down" means.