We tried taking a family selfie, and this picture just totally sums up our life right now :) Joe is looking confused as to what is going on, Beau is crying because Baine is biting his finger, obviously Baine is being naughty by beating up Beau, and I am trying to keep a smile on my face :) Through all of this craziness and our crazy life, I still can't believe how blessed we are and happy with our boys! :)
The other weekend Joe and I took the boys to Des Moines to do a few errands. The boys were getting restless and needed to nap. Luckily, my dad and Shari were at Des Moines staying in a hotel and offered to keep the boys for a couple of hours. We took advantage of the pool at the hotel and let the boys get a quick swim in!
Last week, Beau was able to attend Vacation Bible School for the first time. While he was nervous and shy at first, he ended up having a great time and made new friends, so he says. He was able to come home everyday and tell me about the Bible stories he heard and tell me why it was important. I love this! I hope he loves going to VBS as much as I did when I was a little girl.
Tara sent me this picture of Baine the other day. I cannot believe how little (chunky) he was as a baby! It is crazy how easy it is to forget the little things, even when it was only a year ago.
The other day Joe had to drive to Missouri for work. He gets a little lonely/bored driving by himself, so he decided to take Beau with him to keep him company. I think Beau was excited to have Daddy unexpectedly show up at Jodee's to pick him up and take him for the day. After take a nap in the truck, sleeping with his mouth wide open, he talked Joe's ear off the rest of the trip.
We were at the lake all weekend for Memorial weekend. We had a great time with our friends and family. Tom and Mary even came for the weekend, and we always are entertained with them :) I was a little nervous as to how Baine would do with the noise and water after getting his tubes in, but he did better than I thought! He loved the first day when it was quiet and calm. We went to the beach and he absolutely LOVED playing in the sand. Beau and Baine even made sand castles. I was so happy to see them playing in the water and sand. As the weekend went on, Baine was getting sensory overload, and couldn't sleep on the boat very well. Thank goodness my dad and Shari were at the lake too, because they took him home for the last day so he could rest and relax.
A couple of weeks ago, Baine had his ear surgery to have tubes put in. We discovered late this spring that he was not able to hear. It broke our hearts. I think people thought I was crazy when I would say "something is wrong with Baine. He is not talking or developing right. Something is going on..." And while I wish I was wrong, I do feel validated that I knew my baby was not doing well :(. Dr. Klothe did an amazing job on his ear surgery, and had to scrape out a lot of mucus built up. We are hoping this is all we need to fix it!
While I know he can hear now, he is not yet talking. He had his surgery on a Wednesday morning, and Wednesday afternoon when I said "hey Baine-Joe!" he looked at me and smiled. He had never done that before! I cried with tears of joy. He is responding to commands, but still cannot communicate with us. We go Friday for his official hearing test and then discuss future possibilities from there. I am assuming we will need speech therapy. I will keep this updated!
Otherwise, we are very grateful and blessed to have this as a "minor" health concern. I know things could be much worse or a life-threatening condition, so for having this ear concern, we are grateful that is all it is right now. But when it is your child that is in pain and suffering, it still seems like a big deal and is still heart-breaking.
