Ticket to Ride

This post is for Grandpa....who came all the way to Texas from Michigan, to make this happen.  

My girl is short.  She doesn't even qualify for the special ed bicycles that they make.  Too short by two inches.  

We bought the smallest tricycle that we could find...and after much trial and error....we sort of gave up on rigging the  bike for her.  Enter Grandpa, who came for a short weekend.  He figured out how to put blocks on BOTH sides of the pedals and foam swim noodles (cut in half), so that she could learn to ride a bike!  (we had been trying to just put them on one side, but they kept flipping)

And Aubrey is not the only one who is enjoying to fruits of his labor:)  Sister wants a turn too and I'm sure she'll be racing with the big girls soon.

Aubrey rode her bike (during PT) all the way to the park with very minimal help.  She just needs someone giving her a little push to keep her momentum going.  Then for the next hour, she climbed the rock wall....

Slid down the slide, by herself....

And climbed some more!

She is STRONG and ABLE and MOTIVATED and DETERMINED.  And when given the size adjustments that she needs, SHE CAN DO IT!  This girl will not be left behind.  

Thank you for working on her bike Grandpa and making this happen for her!

Independence

This is never a good thing to see when you walk into the kitchen....

"Someone" was SERIOUS about getting and opening her own snack!  She is in an unending quest for independence lately and there is NO helping her with anything.   

Girl put the snack back, because she couldn't open it herself!  (I didn't tell her a scissors would work better than the pizza cutter)

Me....I'm moving things around in the kitchen to prevent use of the BIG knife next time....

Easter

A blessed Easter, from our family to yours!

Our Weekend............

I LOVE Fridays!  They are lazy afternoons.  No rushing to finish homework and make dinner and get baths and ready for the next day.  They are laid back and slow and fun.

Friday night this week meant a VERY competitive game of KICKBALL in the backyard!  Losers serve winners ice cream kind of serious!

More of a soccer player with her ball dribbling than a kick and run kind of girl:)  But that girl can run the bases like no bodies business!

Mom and Kate and Ella VS Dad and Alice and Ella

That's how we divide 5 people into two teams!  Ella got to kick all the time.  Which is fine, because some of the others in the outfield looked like this: 

And if you are gonna look like this in my outfield, you might as well kick the whole time.

Aubrey is starting to realize that Emelia is gaining on her in both size and weight and she WILL NOT have that.  She is very determined to keep Emelia in her place and show her who is boss!

And Emelia (14 months) realizes that she can do just about anything that the big girls can and is learning quickly to watch, take notes, then just do it.  For the record, she never did get to the top of the slide, but she sure did get close and I'm sure that with a couple more days of trial, she'll have it down.  

This girl will not be left out!

Found some time at the pool this weekend too.  She amazes me, this one.  Last year, she laid in the shallow, playing in the bubbles and "swimming".  This year, she paces.

Spends the entire day at the pool walking from one side to the other, over and over and over again.

And we just follow her lead.  I don't know why she does it, but she's good at it and each week, she gets just a little deeper in the water.  Swimming lessons here we come!

 And even though Emelia loves a good bath, she is NOT fond of the pool.  The last couple times, she hasn't let us put her down and has a pretty good death grip on us.

She's getting braver though and actually let us put her down and sat with the rings this weekend.  My girls like familiarity and comfort and sometimes it takes them awhile to warm up to new and different things. 

All 5 of them are so different.  I never tire of them surprising me with how different they all can be.  5 kids, all girls, with 5 very different personalities.

The big girls all did some rock climbing too, but those pictures are on my phone and I'll have to get them later.

Sunday found us BLUE.

We found a very large and beautiful hill of bluebonnets near our house this year and headed over after church for some pictures.

I love these blue bonnets....

Most of them were willing participants in my photo shoot.  They cut me some slack since I don't ask them to do this much.  But some were not so cooperative.

I had some "Little House on the Prairie" moments today as they were running up and down the hill full of flowers.

I'm trying to remember to capture the parents as well as the children, so that they can remember that we were there with them too!

And my girls are becoming better at capturing the parents too!  Thanks to Ella (5) for getting this one today.....the only shot she took of us and it turned out great. 

Another great weekend with the family!  

Day at the Farm

Today, Aubrey had a field trip to the farm.  What could have been SUPER fun, was cold and rainy.  I think the kids still all really enjoyed it, but I think it would have been a bigger success had it not been drizzling the whole time we were there.

*to protect the children in her class, I have not included pictures of the other children (or at least not faces).  If you have a child in Aubrey's class and want me to email you the pictures of your child that I got, just let me know:)  Otherwise her teacher will get a copy of all my pictures and can get them to you.

 While she LOOKS mighty....

 the umbrella did get the best of her....

and proved too heavy!  But she kept insisting on doing it herself:)

 She was afraid of the goats at first, but warmed up to them at the end.  I think it's tough not to be afraid of animals that are so much bigger than you and acting like they haven't been fed in days!  These guys were fighting over the food.

Touch a horse?

 FORGET about it!  She kept asking to be lifted up and get close, but the clench of her nails in my back and the NOOOOOOOOOOOO I got as soon as we were close, assured me she didn't want to touch it.

Most of her friends were braver.  

Tiny pig, behind a fence?  SURE....I'll say hello!  (she was signing pig here)

 A little after lunch therapy with a friend:)  She's been sleeping almost three hours now...

Farms sure do wear a girl out!

Together Again

All under one roof!  And Happy!

Last night, after she "self weaned", she must have gotten a second wind, because I couldn't get her to go to bed!!!!  She just kept talking and talking and talking and asking for food and snacks and toys and shows and books!  The stall tactics were at a whole new level!

 I finally gave her some books and she read all 6, WORD for WORD!!!

At 10:00, I finally went out into the lounge to get a break and see if she would go down.  And in about 2 minutes, she was asleep.  Her oxygen faltered a bit at 11:00 and I saw the light fading as far as going home, but they repositioned her and we were in the clear the rest of the night! She tucked her fingers into her blanket and slept til 8:00.

Her first request?

Sausage!  With a side of watermelon.

Our hospital doctor gave us the thumbs up to go home.  She felt that Aubrey, while still sick, was out of the woods and ready to go home.

Our new pulminologist came by at lunch.  He created a new plan for her and will see her in 4 weeks.  It is very uncomfortable to be starting over with a new doctor, who doesn't know her history, but we are moving forward and hopefully the fact that he at least saw her today and REALLY looked at her history from this stay will help us moving forward.  He just didn't understand how this virus could make her so sick....yeah....us either, but that is our Aubrey and this is how she does it!

So she is home, but not completely over this cold she has:)  We see her regular doctor tomorrow and as needed til she is well again.  She  missed 4 days of school last week and will miss all of this week....next week spring break!  So she will have missed 3 weeks of school before heading back.  The extra time home should get her completely healthy before going back, but I wonder if she'll backslide at all....we'll see.

Thank you for all your prayer.  Prayer is powerful and we are so grateful to the wonder friends and family that have been praying for our sweet girl.  You are amazing!

Thank you Lindsay for dropping off dinner yesterday too!  YUMMY to come home and have dinner ready to set on the table.  You rock!!!

Clicking our Red Shoes....

There's no place like home!!!

She made it through the night with out oxygen and we are going to be discharged today.  We could go home now, but are waiting to see a Pulminologist before we go or trying to get an appointment for tomorrow.

Last week when Aubrey got sick, we found out that our Pulminologist had up and moved his practice to another city or retired (reports are conflicting).  Scary for us and Aubrey since he KNEW her and her history.  So we are on the hunt for another and have a good lead, but if he can see her before we go home versus waiting to get a new patient appointment, that would be ideal and he can make maintenance recommendations before sending her home.

So we are waiting to hear if we are leaving soon or staying all day til he can come see her after office hours....either way, we are heading home today:)  Happy Day!