Special

In our family, when we explain things to our kids, we tend to refer to Frankie as special.

Somehow it has stuck.  I think it was here when it all began.

Anyway, this little girl Sadie is sure hung up over this whole "special" thing.

While she was playing with Frankie one afternoon, she was delighted in the fun she was having with him. 

As they were playing patty cake with each other she giggled with joy and said,

"I'm so glad at least somebody is special in our family."  

I could hardly contain myself.  :) Where does she come up with these things?

She seems to be confused as to what special means.  Wondering if she is "special" too.  

So we had a talk with her and explained that when we say someone is special, it means that they need extra help.  The term "special" is short for special needs.  

She seemed to understand.  

We have quite the amazing Polly Pocket collection.  My aunt Jeanine passed on to us hundreds of Polly Pocket pieces that her girls had. 

We've gotten hours of entertainment from them!

The other day while Sadie was playing Polly Pockets she said, 

"Hey Mom, I figured out how to play with my broken Polly Pockets."  

"They are all special:  Snow White was born without an arm; The boy was born with some blue skin; Cinderella is bald-but we can put a wig on her; and my Squinky pony was born with only one eye." 

She wasn't even kidding.  She plays with them just like she would with the other Polly Pockets.  

Dresses them and everything.  

It is amazing to watch the invaluable lesson she is learning here by having Frankie as a brother.  

I am so grateful that my kids have the opportunity to be apart of the experience of having a sibling with special needs.  What will Frankie teach us in his lifetime?

Many great things, I'm sure of it!

Frankie's Hand

Frankie has a new pinkie!

After he had his surgery, he had to wear a soft cast for three weeks.

He did pretty well with the cast on.

Since his little thumb was poking out of the cast, he was able to use it quite a bit.  

He'd love to chew on that little thumb. 

One of Frankie's favorite things to do is to stick his arm in the side crack of his high chair (above) when it's in recline mode.  Every time I move it out of there he just puts it right back in.  I have to shove a towel or bib there so he won't do that.  Because if I don't catch him, his fingers will turn purple from lack of circulation.  For what ever reason, he loves it.  

I traced Frankie's hand before they took him back to surgery.

Here is the silhouette before...

I should have had a plaster mold made.  I loved his little hand!  I will forever miss it.

Brace yourself, here is his hand after... 

A puffy little pinkie.  It looked so painful at first.

I was told to gently wash his hand with soap daily to help the stitches fall out.

I was not a fan of that.  I was so afraid to touch it.

I couldn't get over how I was supposed to just let it be exposed like that and go home.  Unprotected.

But he did fine!  I could tell he was a little sore at first but Motrin helped.

Here he is today.  10 weeks later.  

We go in for a visit in a couple of weeks to see how things are coming along.

The Doctor is not sure if she wants to separate the other two.  

Frankie is missing the middle segment on all his right hand fingers.  Typical fingers have three segments (bones), Frankie has two.  She thinks because of that and how skinny they are, they would be better together.

We'll see.  Kevin's vote is to get them separated.  I'm undecided. 

It's crazy to me that it looks like a full normal finger!  It's amazing what can be done!

  

I can't get over how much hair has come in on him.

A big difference from the top pics taken in July, 

to these that I took today.

He still has a bit of scaring to heal.  

We try to put Vitamin E oil on it to help it along.

As you can tell, he is a real good sitter now.  He is all over the place too!

July Happenings

Most of the photos I took this summer are from my point and shoot camera.  

It's easy to tote around.

Fourth of July this year was nice and chill.

We normally try to squeeze a lot in but I was thankful to just enjoy the day.

We started the day out with the neighborhood parade.  

Later in the evening we had a small barbecue with some of Kevin's family and lit some street fireworks. Then onto Sugar House park for their big firework show.  It was a perfect evening with a cool summer breeze.

After the morning parade, Sadie decided not to wear her holiday attire anymore.  

I had a birthday in July.  And you better believe that I got my favorite cake.  The one I look forward to all year.  The Peanut Butter Chocolate ice cream cake from Cold Stone.  

Yum!

I posted this picture because it perfectly captures MaryJane's animation.  She is always so excited for everything and gasps like this with excitement.  

My sister-in-law's family owns Classic Skating so we drove down to their new Orem store several times.  My kids love that place!  Bouncing, skating, arcade games and more.  

They can't get enough! 

I love the 80's gloves they picked out.

  MaryJane has a pink pair and wore them for two days straight.

We got to meet our new niece from Ethiopia!  

Kevin's brother and wife just adopted her this summer.  

She is such a little cutie!!  We love her.

  

We love going up to Millcreek Canyon for barbecues.

Fun times spent with friends.

The Gardners

The Scalleys

Frankie is always so easy to have around. 

We sure love him!

Rewind

Finally!  A new post!

Tap, tap, tap.

Is this thing on?

Why is this so hard?  The push to catch up on blogging?  I feel like it's the first day of school.  I'm nervous.  I can't come back, but I really want to.  

It's for me.  It's all for me.  Our journal.  The next several posts will just be catching up on family stuff. 

What holds me back is when I take 1,287 pictures and I can't upload them onto my computer because my memory there is full.  So, I have to back-up and delete.  Thousands of priceless pictures from my iphoto,  forever tucked away as a digital file in a little black shiny box.  Never to be seen again...well until I can print them in a book, which we all know will never happen.

But the blog.  I have this blog.  And that is what will carry me through. :)

Frankie's surgery and recovery went really well!  A post for another time.  Thanks for all the sweet comments!  I loved getting those!

Backing up to Fish Lake with loads of photos.  

Ahh, my Camper.  That was so fun to take it to Fish Lake!

It was so easy to just back into our spot and voila, we're all set up!

Eating lunch at my favorite pit stop.  

The Hot Spot in Salina.

I LOVE this happy little girl!

Frankie all cute on his hands and knees, getting a nice break from the car seat.

Kevin was SO pleased to have his little 50 on the back of the camper.

It looks so manly with those cute curtains in the window.  My bad.

Breakfast and nap time, so cosy.

I LOVED every minute of camping in this thing!!  

I awoke smiling every morning looking at my cheery kitchen!  

Warming the baby's bottle water on the stove, I felt so old fashioned! Ha.

The kids and their souvenirs.

We love Bowery Haven.

MaryJane and Zach

Me, Stacey and Insun

All of the Family on my Dad's side.

Swimming in the dirty devil at Capitol Reef.

It's dirty, but oh so refreshing on a hot hot day.

MaryJane and Olivia.

Kevin trained Cole, Austin and Luke how to ride the motorcycle.  

Off he goes!  Cole loved it!  Not enough riding time for him this trip. 

My parents rented a pontoon boat.  We tried our hand at fishing (again) but with our poor luck, we got nothin'.  Probably because we had all the littles on our shift and scared the fish away. ;)

But we still had fun!

Camping with littles is not easiest vacation, but it is sure worth the fun memories!  

My kids loved the endless fun they had with their cousins!

  

Frankie's Surgery Day!

We were lucky to experience Shriners Orthopedic Children's Hospital for Frankie's surgery.

It amazes me how this hospital runs on pure donations... and that there are 22 of them in the U.S!

All their services are free!

Frankie's surgery didn't cost us one penny!

Frankie's doctor is a Hand Orthopedic Surgeon.  She has her own practice and works two days a month at Shriners hospital.  Which was part of the headache in scheduling and keeping Frankie healthy.  We only had one day each month to try and book Frankie's surgery.  

Relaxed on the meds they gave him before surgery.

Giving mom some snuggle time.

We had to be to the hospital bright and early at 6 a.m.

Frankie leaving with the anesthesiologist to the O.R

During surgery Kevin and I killed some time in the fun facilities they have there.

We ate breakfast in the cafeteria downstairs.

Played a little hoop upstairs.

A new favorite game, Bananagrams.

These pictures don't really do the giant activity room justice.  With lots of windows that overlook Salt Lake.  The dome (in the top pic) is where the activity center is.

They brought Frankie to us awake.  But still plenty groggy. 

Surgery went smoothly.  

Thankfully she didn't have to take a skin graft from Frankie.  He had enough chubby skin on his hand she was able to use to stitch up his fingers.  

I love him!

Frankie liked to zone out to the Baby Einstein video while the meds wore off. 

He really enjoyed being with his mama.  

I love being a mom!

Grandma brought the kids for a quick check-in on Frankie.

They only stuck around Frankie's room for about 2 minutes....because they felt like they were at Disneyland in the giant activity room!

Can you see the joy on their faces?  There were about 25 different ride-on toys, slides, rocking horses, ping pong, a pool table, basketball, play dough centers and games centers.

We look the kids to eat lunch in the Cafeteria while grandma stayed with Frankie.  

Their 10 minute visit was more like a 2 hour visit.  

Why would they want to leave?  Boy was it hard to get them out of there!

A great children's hospital indeed!

Yay for same-day surgery!  We left the hospital around 4.

We feel so blessed that things went so smoothly!  Thanks for all your prayers!

Frankie is recovering well!  It seems like the first couple of days really set him back.  But slowly he's coming around.  As long as he is on Motrin and in mommy's care, he's as happy as can be!  

His poor little cry and voice has been raspy from the intubation.

Frankie's soft cast will be on him for 3 weeks.  I can't wait to see how it turned out.  The Dr. informed us that it won't be very pretty at first.  But that's to be expected.  

I love his little thumb sticking out!  I've caught him chewing on it a couple of times.  It's cute.  

Before, he loved putting his little hand on my lips to have me kiss him and now he tries to put that stinky tape smelling cast on my face.  So I appease him and smother his little thumb with kisses.  :)

We LOVED Shriner's and I can't believe we had such a great experience!  

The facility and staff were amazing!