07-01-11

Two weeks post op. Still waiting. Word was that we would think about extubating soon. His lungs are sounding clearer at this point and he is awake periodically. Here is another shot with his balloon. I know kids love balloons, so when I saw one with balls on it I was all over it. I underestimated just how important this balloon would be to Emery. He is sleeping and still holding the balloon in this photo. Sometimes when he would let go of it he would startle awake and point desperately to it until one of us returned it to him. He would look sad until he had it back in his little hand and then fall right back to sleep. His first game when he was feeling a little better was to pass the balloon to us then just his arm back in our direction to indicate that he wanted it back. It was his way of playing catch when he couldn't move much. The balloon was also the first thing that made him smile after being out of it for a couple of weeks. David and I were taking bets on what his first word would be after he was extubated. Hmmm...we both bet on ball.




My mom continues to work on her project, the garden, for a little while each day. You can see here that she basically had to weed every square inch of it to find the veggie growing in between. We have a lot of volunteer tomatoes that look great this year. She weeded around them and strung them up so we will have a LOT of tomatoes for the neighbors this year, if nothing else. As I said before, the garden is the least of my worries right now but it is fun to watch it grow and it gives my mom a great teaching aid for Lainey. By now I think Lainey could point out the difference between a marigold, a tomato, and weeds of several varieties. She has learned just how important it is to care for something to make it grow.

I put my brother to work on a huge bag of old papers that needed to be shredded. I kept meaning to take them into a place to have them shredded but it gave him a good project to do.