Joshua's story of how (hopefully) he stopped sucking his finger.

Joshua this is the story of how hopefully you stopped sucking your left index finger.

It was evening and I was nursing Eli and Andrew was finishing up making dinner. Joshua I saw you trying to eat a lime like an apple. I told you that you couldn't eat it that way, and that it must be cut first. So instead of waiting for either me or your dad to finish what we were doing you decide to cut it yourself.

The lime and knife you used to cut your finger with.

You took a huge kitchen knife and stabbed the lime.   This knife belonged to your Great Grandmother Shanley.  You stabbed the knife good.  To good in doing so once the knife went through the lime it than cut your finger. 

Just another picture of the lime and knife.

Both Dad and I where not more than 7 ft away from you.  How you managed to cut your finger without us noticing. I don't know.  Even Aunt Amber was here.    You came up to me and said mom I am bleeding.  When I saw that cut I franticly handed Eli to Amber.  Don't remember much about what happened after that.  All I know is that we went to the hospital so fast that Daddy didn't even have time to put his shoe's on.

The stitches the Er doctor put in your finger.

Once at the hospital we realized that you had cut your left index finger. This is the finger that you have up to this point sucked since you were a baby. Once the emergency doctor had seen your finger.  He told us that you cut your tendon and that you would need surgery.   So he lightly stitched it up, wrapped it up and sent us on our way.  This was a Tuesday.

The wrap used until you had surgery. 

On Friday we were finally able to see the hand doctor.  He said that you most likely cut a nerve too.  We could tell that you cut a tendon because you could not more your finger.   Surgery was set for Monday.

Surgery was early Monday morning. We had to be at the surgical center by 6:30am.  Thankfully Grandma Cameron let us spend the night at her house so that we didn't have to travel as far.  Grandma's house was only about 10 minutes away instead of our 30 minute drive.

Once we got to the Surgical center they had you get ready.  They put a gown on you and a cute blue surgical hat thingy.  You looked so cute.  

All ready for surgery.



They gave you this cut little lion.  That you where able to take with you into surgery.

They then us to this room where you could play with toys until your surgery.

Even Eli was able to play with the toys.  

Finally it was time to go.  A nurse walked you back to where you where going to have surgery.  Daddy and I waited out in the waiting room.  We where told that the surgery should only take about an hour, but it took closer to two hours.  I was starting to get a little worried closer to the end.  The Doctor finally came out to speak with us he said that you indeed had cut a nerve and that you had also cut two tendons.  And that the surgery went well.

Still sleeping from surgery.

We had to wait a little longer before we could go in and see you.  They where finishing up the surgery and putting your cast on.

Look how big that cast is on you

Just another picture of your cast.

Still waiting for you to wake up from surgery.

Still waiting.  

Starting to wake up

Drinking your first drink.

As you where waking up you were still out of it for a little while.  However we could go home as soon as you drank something and was able to keep it down.  You drank two juice boxes and had some apple sauce. 

Feeling a little sick after drinking some juice and apple sauce.

However you started feeling sick like you were going to thrown up. Luckily you never did through up.

Daddy trying to comfort you.

Mommy is who you really wanted.

It was hard for you waking up from surgery.  It must have felt awful having that huge cast on your arm.  Once you really came out of the stuff that puts you to sleep.  (Yea I know what it is called I just can't spell ). you did really well.   

So ready to go home.

Waiting for the van so you can go home.

Joshua you have been handling all this real well.  You have hardly complained about the cast.  You have not let this cast slow you down one bit.  You wore this cast for 10 days and than we went back to the hand doctor and he put on a smaller cast.  This cast just goes to below the elbow.  You will where this cast until the 6th of September and than you will start seeing the hand therapist.  I do not know how often we will have to see him.  So by time all is said and done it could be months before that finger is really functional. I must say that I am very proud of how you have been handling all of it.  You have not been able to suck that finger for over 3 weeks now.  You are just rolling with what ever comes.  This should not surprise me though you have always just been able to roll with the punches.  

Joshua's new cast.

This is the story of how you (hopefully) stopped sucking your finger.  I would hope that by no being able to suck on it for a couple of months will break you from this habit.   I guess we will see in about a month or two. 

Eli 11 months Old.

Wow Eli I can not believe you are already a month old.  It amazes me how fast you grow and learn.  In the last couple of days you have started to walk.  You will take about 6 to 8 steps at a time.  You are also standing up by yourself.  You are a mamma's boy.  Marysa can be at times your second mama.  She can put you to sleep sometimes easier than I can.  You love Daddy you get so excited when he comes home from work.  You crawl/walk to him so that he will pick you up.  You give him a big hug.

You have to modes sleeping or exploring.  Even when you nurse (which you still enjoy doing a lot) you move around a lot.   It seems like you always need to be moving some part of your body.

You have 6 teeth. 4 up top and 2 on the bottom.

I love that you are part of this family.  We have so much fun with you.  Your older brothers and sisters are enjoying teaching you how to walk.   I love that they look out for you.  With all the exploring you do, you need many people watching out for you.   It only takes a few seconds for you to crawl out of  a room.

Much to our dismay your favorite room in the house is the bathroom.   I don't know what it is about the toilet but if we forget to shut the door that is usually where I find you and usually there are a few things in the toilet.    We are getting better at remembering to shut the bathroom door.

Enjoy the following picture.  You will come to know that I can not take to many pictures.  I got a few really cute pictures of you.  It was not easy.  You did not want to sit still.

I have a love/hate relationship with you learning how to walk.
I love seeing you learn new things.  I hate how fast you are growing up.

You love exploring.  Here you are looking in a bucket that if full of news paper.

Playing in the dirt.

Here I am trying to get a picture.

Still trying to get your 11 month pictures taken.

Eli I love this picture.  To me your eyes are saying,
Really mom more pictures.

I think you look so much like your dad in this picture.
I love your chubby cheeks Eli.

I love your cute little feet.  

Oh Eli I can never get enough of that smile or dimple.  Your smile makes my heart melt.

Life has been CRAZY.

Lets see my last post was of Joshua turning four. Since than life had been pretty busy.

Caleb turned 11 on May 24th. He just finished 5th grade and is now in Boy Scouts. He is as tall as me. The other day I was sitting on the couch and out of the corner of my eye I saw a man. It startled me because Andrew was at work. It was Caleb. I new that one day my Sons would be taller than me I just never thought it would happen this early.

My very handsome boy Caleb.  He loves his Grandpa Ottosen's motorcycle and he loves riding on it too.

Marysa turned 9 on May 28th. She is as beautiful as ever. She just finished the 3rd grade. She was able to go to Missouri with he Grandma and Grandpa Cameron. She had a lot of fun. One of her favorite parts was this huge roller coaster at Silver Dollar City. This makes me exited because she is now tall enough to go on all the rides at lagoon and she would would have a blast going on all of them. I would love to go to Lagoon with Caleb and Marysa it would be so much fun. Marysa is also a big help when it comes with Eli. Eli loves her. It is so cute to watch.

Marysa having fun.

On fun thing we did on Marysa's birthday, is the kids and I participated in a 5k. It was a lot of fun. The kids and I finished the 5k in one hour. I pushed Eli in a stroller and Caleb and Marysa took turns pushing the double jogger stroller that hat Josh and Azalea in it. Caleb and Marysa did great neither on of the complained at all. The weather was perfect. I would not mind participating in another 5k. I would like to someday be able to run one with a goal of about 40 minutes.

The kids and I right after the 5k.

Picture of Me walking the 5k.

Caleb and Marysa walking the 5k race.  

Azalea cut her hair again. We are trying to teach her how to be obedient and She is just having the hardest time. She is not going to be able to go swimming for some time because until she can show be she can follow the rules she can not go swimming. Last year she ran off and a life guard had to pull her from the lazy river at the Payson pool.

Azalea with her new hair cut.  Even with short hair she looks beautiful.

Just love this picture. And I am showing off a bow that I made.

Eli had to get 9 stitches in his mouth. This is quite the story. I was getting dinner ready and Eli was in the stroller and I told Azalea "Do not take him outside." Well she didn't listen and while I wasn't looking she took him out and tried to take him down the stairs while he was in the stroller. He was to heavy and she let go of the stroller and down he went. He hurt is mouth I am guessing on a stake we have on flower garden border. She new she was going to get in trouble so instead of telling me Eli is hurt she ran and hid. I was not happy at all. This all happened about 2 hours before Marysa was headed to leave to go to Missouri. This was on a Friday June 3rd.

Eli with is hurt lip.  It looked a lot worse right after it happened.

Here is a close up of his lip.

Fast forward to Wednesday June 8th and at about 2pm Azalea started telling me her belly hurt. By about 4 she was just crying in pain. By 7:30 Azalea was in surgery getting her appendix removed. It all happened just so fast. She spent the night at the hospital and was home by 4:00pm on Thursday.

Azalea with an IV in her.  I hate having IV's they hurt.

Azalea in her cute hospital gown. Got to love that naked bum.

Even in the hospital Azalea has to look her best.

Finally going home.

On Sunday June 12th I had to take Eli to the doctor because he had a tempature of 102. He ended up having a sinus infection. The doctor thinks that there was swelling where he had his stitches and it blocked his sinuses and there for he got the sinus infection.

Azalea is doing really well she is back to her old wild self. Eli is also doing better.

Lets hope the rest of summer is filled with fun.

Joshua is now 4 years old.

Josh turned 4 yesterday.  I hope he had a good birthday.   We didn't do much.  But I told him all day long Happy Birthday.  We had cake and Ice cream for him.

Josh is getting so big.  He is learning how to count.  He is going to speech therapy.  He has been able to go to preschool this past year.  The bus even comes to pick him up.  He is still sucking his index finger and twirls his hair at the same time.  Oh how I love this boy.

Enjoy the pictures.   I plan on doing a photo shoot with my kids on or close by their birthdays.  The first 5 are pictures I took of Josh on his 4th birthday.  The others are just random pictures that I just love of Josh.

 I think Josh looks like a mini Sheldon Cooper from the TV show The big bang Theory.

 I think Josh is looking like a boy instead of a little boy.

 This is Josh playing with a toy sword, that his Aunt Amber gave him.

 Just got to love that fake smile.

This picture is so Josh.

 As you can see Josh is still sucking his finger and twirling his air. 

He is holding a car.  He is always holding a car.

He is wearing his favorite shirt.

This picture is taken of Josh on his last day of preschool this year.

He has learned so much.  This year.  Next year at this time I am going to be getting this little

boy ready for kindergarten.  How the time flies.

 Josh is almost 2 in this picture.  

I just love that curly hair.  

I love those red boots.

 This is Josh just minutes after he is born.  

Notice his hand is by his mouth.

 This is Josh at 18 months.

 This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Josh.

He is about 6 months old.

I am so grateful that Joshua is part of our family.  He adds so much joy, laughter, patience and much more to our family.  I can not imagine life without him.  

I love you Josh 

Happy Birthday!