Wisdom from my walk

Shortly before 2 p.m. Caleb was playing in the living room and I was watching tv, and him of course! Caleb decided he was sleepy and laid down on the floor and cuddled up w/ the towel I had used to dry him after we played outside in the water. Before I knew it he was asleep! I took the time to get motivated and work on removing the chipped paint in our bathroom in hopes we can repaint in there sometime soon(hint hint Dean!). Now there is a huge mess in the bathroom! I grabbed a quick shower, since I was covered in paint and dust, sure to get out and hear Caleb awake, but he’s not. I know if I try to get a quick nap he is sure to wake up, but I can always try….

Been a busy week already, the inlaws left on Monday, my brother arrived Monday evening. I spent the day out w/ my brother and his family yesterday. Today is our first day w/out plans, and it’s nice!

Hopefully I can get Caleb into a schedule again. He is doing so well. He’s walking all by himself now. he can get to a standing postion w/out pulling up onto anything. He waves hello and says Hi sometimes but he is just getting the hang of the waving thing. It was nice having everyone around as he took his first steps and started waving hello. He’s just 9 1/2 months but he looks and acts like a 1 year old!

we talked to a counselor last night about our money problems, he seems to think we can afford to not have me work, it will take some strict budgetting and planning, but seems to think we will be okay. I am so excited! We could use a lump of money now to work on our car situation, but we know God will provide and somehow we will figure out what to do about the car. After talking to him I think both Dean and I felt a lot more hopeful about our financial situation. As a result of closing on the house we paid off our last school loan, so that was good. Now we just need to get rid of our credit card debt! Easier said than done! But if we focus on it we can take care of it a lot quicker.

My brother is doing so much better. He’s still having some trouble w/ his speech, but he sounds so much better than last week. His head hurts badly but that’s to be expected. It was a horrible scare he gave us, and it will be awhile before he’s back to his old self, but we are just glad he’s ok. Made us all think about how important seat belts and insurance are! Well, Caleb is finally napping and I should use that time wisely since it might be the only nap he takes, he’s so mobile and nosey it’s hard to get him to nap, but he was amazing and napped a lot throughout the craziness last week so he might do ok now that things are more normal around here.

My brother is doing much better! He is still having some speech problems, but they discharged him from the hospital today! He cant drive for 2 months and will have to work shorter work shifts for a while once he goes back. They drove to the shore today, they were ready to be home. But are coming back Monday night so that he can be here Tuesday for a check up and to get the stitches taken out. He still has a lot of recovery and rehab to do and it will be a long process, but the changes in the last few days have been amazing, definite answers to prayers.

other good news, Caleb is walking! All by himself! I think chasing his cousin around motivated him. He spent most of the week w/ family in the waiting room and we were all cheering him on yesterday as he took tons of steps alone. It was exciting for everyone to be able to see this huge accomplishment and help him learn. The inlaws are here and he is loving the time w/ them. He’s doing great despite the roguh week we’ve had. We wont be back on any sort of schedule for a while, yet he amazingly naps, even at the hospital and even tonight while we ate out. he’s an angel! I think he’s napped more these last few days than he does when it was just me and him at home, I think all the walking and visiting w/ family is wearing him out.

We closed on the house today, the mortgage pymt ended up being more than we thought it would, but as Dean pointed out we still couldnt get a 2 bedroom apt for what we will be paying for a 6 bdrm, 3 bath house! (at least not in Maryland!)

I was able to nap today while Dean and his parents visited his grandad, the week has taken it’s toll on me, and after closing on the house and hearing my brother and his family were safely back at his mother in laws on the shore, I was relieved and exhausted. I came back home to rest and it wasnt long before I was out. Dean came home hours later and I still only woke long enough to get a kiss and ask what was going on. Then we got up and went to dinner,mmmm! Crabs and a shrimp salad sandwhich! Well now its time for a relaxing night at home…goodnight!

My wonderful husband had this to say. Meanwhile, my brother is doing amazingly well today! he was up and about, walking and sitting in the waiting room w/ us. They took the bandages off today, he looks a lot better than I thought it would. He’s talking better, he’s doing better in general. Chances are he will be discharged tomorrow, but the recovery will be long and hard. They want him to come back for therapy and he cant be alone for a while, so the hows and wheres of what will happen are still in the works. Right now we are just happy to see him doing so much better. Meanwhile, my inlaws just arrived. Tomorrow we settle on the house, tomorrow my brother gets out of the hosptial, tomorrow…tomorrow….it’s only a day away! oh no wait, only a few minutes away…it’s way past my bed time! I have tons more to write but time is short and my brain is already compacted w/ so much else right now….so good night and tomorrow…tomorrow…

My brother was in visiting from the Eastern Shore this week, he was leaving this morning. My husband stayed home today to go to a job interview in the morning and was going to babysit in the afternoon so I could go to an orientation for getting my daycare license. I wasnt able to shower til a little after noon, right after cleaning house and eating lunch. As we prepared to walk out the door to leave, we got THE call. I told Dean not to answer if it was my mom, but then changed my mind and said to tell her we were leaving. He answered, I noted the change in tone and the quiet responses and he hung up. I was worried, and rightly so. My brother was in the ER, he’d been in an accident a bad one and my nephew was in the car with him too. We were the only ones who knew how to reach my sister in law who was in training downtown so we went to get her, and none of us knew how bad it really was til we saw him. The baby was unhurt, not a scratch on him. My brother now lays in the neurological critical care unit. He has a bad skull fracture and his brain is bleeding. We wont know until tomorrow if it requires surgery, in the meantime we only saw him briefly and when we did he was awake, but had trouble speaking. The frustrating part was the accident happened at 9:30 a.m. and we werent reached til almost 1 p.m.! My brother couldnt remember phone numbers and his wife didnt know til we told her. Thats a long story, but the important part was my brother remembered one number, my grandparents, my dad’s parents. My granddad was there at 9:30 and took my nephew home with him and he tried to reach everyone he could, but didnt think I would know how to reach my sister in law so didnt think to call me. I know he was dealing with a lot, but it still hurts to know how bad shape my brother was in and not being there right away. Last (last night) I saw my brother he was doing good, we just finished playing cards, Stacey and I beat him and Joe. We’d had a good night, I’d spent the day yesterday watching my nephew. All good memories, but I am scared to death that those might be the last of the good memories for a while….I will write more when I am not so upset and when we know more about his condition. So I probably wont be around here much until things are calmed down some. Your prayers are needed and much appreciated. We know God kept my nephew safe and worked out a lot of things before the accident happened, like my granddad, whom was the first called, isnt usually home on Tuesdays and just happened to be off today, my husband just happened to be off today, and the very fact that my mother and father were in the same room and I think even shared a word or too is a miracle! funny how tragedy changes people.

We had a very uneventful weekend. The muffler on the car we’ve been using fell off Friday as we drove home from picking up Dean at the train station, and we are w/out funds to fix it so we didnt want to drive that car all weekend. The other choice was to fix the flat on the other car we are using. So we did that , but that ended up being an ordeal too. point is, we went no where all weekend until yesterday when we tried out a new church, and then spent the afternoon hanging out at the mall waiting for the new tire. After that I washed the cars and Dean hung out w/ Caleb. The night was pretty relaxing, I went to bed quite early since oh yeah, I forgot that part…well Saturday night Jess came over and played cards w/ Dean, Stacey and I. She didnt get here til after 10, so we started late, but we played cards til 2 am at which time Dean went to bed while the gals talked. I was up til 4 when Jess finally left, then Caleb woke up around 4:30 for a bottle. I fed him then crashed for a whole 2 or 3 hours til he was up again. So last night I went to bed early to try to make up for that long night. Today my brother is in town, so we’ll be hanging out with family. Tomorrow I have a meeting w/ a daycare provider. Hopefully soon I’ll get some calls about the zilllion resumes I’ve sent out. Til then, I am enjoying every last minute home w/ my son!

When I worked at a daycare, I always enjoyed coming up w/ things to put in the sensory table. The kids always loved it, and I enjoyed it, but it was usually always messy. I’ve been wanting to do something similar w/ Caleb but we didnt have anything to use as a sensory table. Then last night it hit me, we dont use his baby bath tub any more and that would be perfect for filling with different things! So today I did just that, to introduce him to it, I figured I’d just start with water. And to avoid a huge mess, being the nice day that it is, we went on the deck and Caleb wore a pair of spiffy swimtrunks Dean and I got at Childrens place. I think his first thought was “hey what’s this?” Once he realized it was okay to play and get wet, he started enjoyinghimself.