Six Months

Today marks the six month mark...six months post liver trauma,  post life threatening injury, post lung collapse, et al. Things are different than they were before. Not dramatically different in terms of every day life although I think I see things slightly different than I did before. It's like I have a new lens to view life through. Not good, not bad, just different.

It's taken me this long to even begin to write about the whole experience. I started journaling about it yesterday mostly to have a history of some sort. There is a lot to write about.

I am grateful to be six months out from the whole experience. You know what they say, "time and distance are a good thing" and in this case it couldn't be more true.

Eczema

Scott and I are beside ourselves when it comes to Lila's skin. She's been off wheat since July without a whole lot of success at eliminating the eczema.  About two weeks ago at the recommendation of her doctor we eliminated; gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, nuts and strawberries. I know, what's left to eat if you eliminate all of those things? The answer is not much but we're making due.

We thought we were seeing an improvement and at this point we are willing to do just about anything to get her skin to calm down. But alas she had another horrible outbreak of eczema last week so much so that she had to go to Urgent Care on Sunday morning. We thought maybe she had another infection because the eczema was literally all over her body. Sadly it wasn't an infection but just that her eczema had gotten out of control. Ugh. Poor thing it looks like a cat attacked her arms and legs but it's from scratching herself. 

We upped her dosage of steroids and antihistamines. Lila recently had a little growth spurt and is up to 38 pounds. We should have increased her medications with the new weight gain because her old dosage wasn't keeping up. 

I just pray that she outgrows this soon. Poor thing.

 

Quoting Eva: Water Me

Eva has is learning to talk in first person and has learned the word "me". Prior to this everything was "Eva tired" or "Eva hungry" and now it's "me hungry" and "me tired". The funniest thing through is when she says "Water me Mama". I'm convinced this is where the term Beer Me came from.

Quoting Lila: Heaven

Lila has been asking all sorts of questions lately. The latest is a series about heaven.

Our conversation on Saturday started by talking about Sampson's birthday (he's 7!). Quickly it turned a corner to doggie heaven, then people heaven and finally ended with who is going to live in our house when we die. Whew. That's a lot of ground to cover in a matter of minutes.

Sunday she exclaimed that she would be taking a hot air balloon to heaven. Tonight at dinner she had about 5 questions about hot air balloons including how to get on and off of them. Her brain is doing some serious overtime on the subject of heaven.

Eva and THE Coat

Eva tried on THE coat today and we did a little photo shoot at Esther Short Park in Vancouver. She loved wearing a dress and her fancy coat out of the house. As a reminder, I got this coat and hat at a second hand store when Lila was this age for cheap, cheap, cheap and it's such a timeless coat. By the end you can see that Eva was totally over having her photo taken. :)

Lila's Boat

We went to the Portland Boat Show today. No, we're not in the market for a boat but we thought it would be a fun outing on a rainy day. It was! It's always fun looking at brand new boats. Lila got to make a wooden boat which was certainly the highlight. She and I had fun sanding, nailing, coloring and glueing her boat together. On our way out of the show Lila was dragging her boat behind her on a string and someone stopped to ask her what she named her boat. She quickly responded, "Time Out" which is the name of my parents boat. Later she called Grandpa Shrum and had a full conversation with him telling him about her boat and the boat show. Cute!

Happy Birthday Serenade

My early birthday serenade from Eva and Lila was priceless. You will have to turn your volume up to hear. Enjoy!