In These Small Hours

I had the most amazing afternoon. It began with snuggling Dakin on the couch after his nap. Then I mentioned making tortillas, and he decided he wanted to get in his chair to help (or so I thought. Turns out he just wanted to eat them). We put his new favorite book (How to Potty Train Your Monster) on his tray and he had a ball...all afternoon...turning pages and having me read them. I must have read that thing 15 times total today. He just loves it. One of the pages just cracks him up--there's a monster named Cranky on it, and Dakin waits with a giant grin on his face for me to ask him what Cranky says ("rroooaaarrr!"). Dakin will reply with a 'raaaar!' It's really cute.

That's how we spent the afternoon. Snuggling, tortilla making, putting laundry away and doing dishes, sprinkled with huge smiles and potty training monsters. It was amazing.

The whole afternoon made me think of another of 'our' songs--"Little Wonders", by (of course) Rob Thomas. It's about the little things making up a life. Memories and experiences that, no matter what happens, will never cease to exist. That was this afternoon.

Let it go, let it roll right off your shoulders

Don't you know the hardest part is over?

Let it in, let your clarity define you

In the end we will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made in these small hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away but these small hours

These small hours still remain

Let it slide, let your troubles fall behind you

Let it shine until you feel it all around you

And I don't mind if it's me you need to turn to

We'll get by,

it's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made in these small hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away but these small hours

These small hours still remain

All of my regret will wash away somehow

But I cannot forget the way I feel right now

In these small hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Yeah, these twists and turns of fate!

Time falls away, yeah but these small hours

And these small hours still remain.

Another Chance to Help Cure SMA

So I am WAY behind on this, but please take a second to vote for Sophia's Cure in the Pepsi Refresh Contest. They are in the running for 250,000 dollars!!! That would go so far. Please vote and promote! We only have a few more days.

Thank you again!!

The Object of His Affections

Today, anyway, it was Kelly, from Handy Manny. (He used to be into blondes...I don't know what the sudden interest in a redhead is!). We found a half-colored picture of her in his coloring book today, and he was all huge, shy grins and looking away. He can even kind of say her name now...it comes out as a 'kuh'.

The other funny bit from today was this: I was drawing him a picture of a boat on his tray with dry-erase markers. I drew Dakin on the boat, and he started fussing. So I erased him, and Dakin said, "bye-bye me." It was pretty cute. In fact, he can say "I am cute" now. Just a side note.

Swimming

So one might be inclined to think that a child on a ventilator might have some trouble with large bodies of water.

You would be right.

Buuuuuuuuuuut, I never let a silly thing like difficulty stop me. We took Dakin swimming yesterday in my awesome friend Liz's pool. After thoroughly gearing Dakin up in a special built-in floatie swimsuit and an innertube, we got in. Now, this isn't Dakin's first time in a pool. We went last year, but we didn't have a setup like this. Needless to say, Dakin wasn't thrilled with the accoutrements. We ended up taking the floaties out and the innertube off, and he was much happier after that. He kicked at the freed floaties, and splashed with his hand.

It was fun. A great huge thank you to poor Jane who had to hold the ventilator to keep it out of the water. Mind you, she did this in near 100-degree heat.

Ten Thousand Smiles

That's what I feel like I get every day from this boy.

I have started putting him on the couch with me to snuggle and help him wake up from his nap. Yesterday, he was in his post-nap fog when all of a sudden he says, 'me.' Me can be Handy Manny, but in this case he was looking over my head at pictures of himself. Cute boy. Then he stuck his thumb in my eyes and told me they were eyes. He proceeded to tell me where my nose, ears and hair are. He also informed me I have two eyes.

Good thing he's keeping track of these things for me.

Tonight he pulled himself over to the edge of the bed and I got to sing to him and play with him as he fell asleep. I truly treasure these times...times I get him all to myself and get to just enjoy his spirit. I am so privileged to get to see that smile just for me.

Just So

Just so relatives don't start fussing at me for not posting (wink), here is a recap of Dakin's week--it was a good one.

We went to Storytime for the first time at our local library. Dakin kind of sat back and took everything in--he was looking slightly aloof at the whole thing. The part he really enjoyed was the renegade child who was running back and forth across the room.

We made it to the swings this week as well--Dakin was all smiles for the 45 minutes we were pushing him.

The highlight of the week (for Dakin, anyway) was the two days they spent tearing up my front lawn to redo the water lines. That meant there was a CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE in our front yard! Yes, you read that right--Dakin had his very own trackhoe. We sat outside for a half hour watching it dig a perfect rectangle. He thought that was marvelous, and had fun watching the guys doing it. Now there is a lovely large mound of dirt in roughly the shape of two graves--we were commenting that it was too bad they couldn't have done it in October. (YAY! Halloween is coming!!!)

Well, I wanted to post pics, but the camera is rebelling again. That's it for now.

Wordful Wednesday

Dakin, two or so weeks pre-'crash'. I LOVE this picture!