Freedom Festival

I love love love this holiday season. The warm weather, cookouts, community parades and celebration. Ahhh... Ty & I attended the Greenwood Freedom Festival this weekend. He loved watching all the action passing by in the parade

(as well as a few suckers that were thrown his way).

"Vroom, Vroom...Ty loves motorcycles"

...and doggies

This is my friend Amy and her two boys Owen & Cooper.

We went to the parade together.

Ty's friend Luke Osborne got to ride in the Sheriff's petal car.

We had lots of sweaty fun that day! I was happy to have my summer craving: Lemon Shake-up! And Ty had his share of treats that day too: suckers, hot dog, Dip'nDots, cotton candy...

Fun in the Sun!

Today Ty & I met up with some of our friends at the Monon Center Pool. This was Ty's first time swimming since last summer when he was just an infant. In typical boy fashion, he had no fear and ran right in to the baby pool. Silly me forgot my camera, so this is the only shot I was able to steel from my friend Brianna. Ty is the one in the middle trying to put his face in the water. His friend Mya Young is at the bottom and Nolan Jahn at the top.

ZOO

We were so excited to take Ty to the Zoo for the 1st time today. He LOVES animals. The weather was perfect and we had some fun family time.

The bears were wrestling around and playing. It entertained us for quite awhile.

Zebras
Giraffes

The Rhinos were being lazy, so Ty didn't really "get it".

He loved running back and forth on this swinging bridge.

The monkeys were fighting, so that was entertaining.

Then we decided to let Ty play at the Splash park. He LOVED it.

Mmm...icecream!

Ty running away with the icecream cone...

Then we went to see the fishies...or "ish" as Ty would say.

Ty got to pet the sharks

He wasn't sure what to think about that!

And we finished off the day at the Dolphin Show!

15 Month Pictures

Here are Ty's 15 month pictures. We went to Portrait Innovations this time. I like that they give the prints to you the same day. It's wonderful for us impatient mommies. The color is a bit off because I scanned them.

15 Month Check-up

So who feels like the worst mom in the world???...me! Ty had his 15 month check-up today and found out he as an ear infection (his first). I honestly thought he was starting the terrible two's early, or he was acting up because I went back to work, or because his belly was upset since we tried whole milk again. Nope, an ear infection. Did I mention I'm a nurse too? Geez.

Ty showing of his "owie". He got just 1 shot this time.

Look at that face! Can you see why I thought we were entering the terrible two's?

But no...the pour guy just wasn't feeling good.
Laying down sucking his thumb. So sweet.

AND we have to take him back in a month for another weight check because he has continued to drastically decline on his weight percentile. I've noticed that he's skinny-minnie, but the boy can eat! So I didn't worry too much. The doc wants us to give him pediasure and as much fattening stuff as he will eat. She said butter on everything, whole milk cheeses/yogurt, peanutbutter... You know, all those things I'm trying to avoid so I can lose weight. Actually whole milk products are kind of hard to find. I had to really search. The majority of food is made with low fat-milk these days.

We tried for the 3rd time to switch Ty to whole milk. And again he was pooping like crazy and developed a rash. It's so weird since he tolerated milk-based formula okay and can have cheese & yogurt. So I guess we'll stick to soy for now.

Other than that, Ty's doing well. Meeting all his developmental milestones...running, climbing, babbling, trying to eat with utensils. He's a lot of fun.

And like any other little boy, no matter how bad he feels, he's not down for long!

And he still loves his mommy :)

10 Year Reunion

Tonight was our 10 Year High School Reunion. It was at German Park in Indianapolis.

Being the president of our class, I was in charge of putting on the event. It was WAY more work than I imagined. But it also went WAY better than I had hoped. Everyone was very thankful and said they had a great time. We had about 150 people come out of a class of 460.

I was so busy making sure things were running smoothly that I didn't take any pictures once the event started. Nor was I a very good wife and left Dennis to entertain himself. Sorry hunny!

I did manage to take a few pictures of our Reunion Committee getting things ready before the event. And I copied a few from other people who have posted on Facebook ;)

So here ya go!

This is my Reunion Committee. Stacy is trying to show us how to pose like Paris Hilton.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work I Go...

I realized today that it has been quite sometime since my last post. Some of that is because Ty is getting older and the smothering first-time mom in me has relaxed a bit. It seems as he gets older, there aren't as many new things to capture (although he continues to amaze me everyday).

After a visit to Riley Hospital with my family to serve a meal at the Ronald McDonald House, I made the decision to go back to work. It was definitely a "God Thing". Anyone who knows me pretty well knew that I didn't think I'd go back to the NICU anytime soon. As a matter of fact, on many occasions I recall myself saying I wanted to "get away from kids" IF I went back to work. But on the day we visited Riley Hospital, I was able to talk to a family whose baby had been in the NICU for over 7 months. Something just sparked in me. Part of it was the great feeling of being able to use the knowledge base I had stored away for a couple of years. The other part was this new compassion and understanding I had for those parents as a mom who experienced having a sick child myself. I felt God saying to me that it was time and He had some work for me to do.

I'm excited about it and nervous at the same time. I think about Riley every time I walk past the room he was delivered in (and the room his heartbeated last in). I haven't worked up the nerve to go in that room yet. I'm not sure how therapeutic it would be. It's not scary or sad, it's just that behind that door was the life that left me (my life as I once knew it). Now on the other side of that life, and door, is a new amazingly difficult to explain Me.

Wow...didn't plan to get that deep in this post. ANYWAY...so I started back to work this week. On my first day of orientation, I saw a familiar face. I couldn't place where I knew her. As the day went on, I began to put the pieces together. And as I was driving home, it dawned on me...it was Jessica, the nurse who stood by my side and held our hands as we enjoyed the last minutes of our time with Riley. She was my delivery nurse. A week or so after Riley was born, Jessica moved to Colorado so I never had the chance to tell her how much she meant to me. I never dreamed I would see her again.

So here I am, my first day back to work. Nervous, excited, feeling a bit uneasy, and God placed her there. What are the odds? She and her fiance decided to move back home to Indiana to be close to family as they begin to start a family of their own (sound familiar?). It's just so wild. We enjoyed lunch together today and was able to talk about my delivery with Riley. Surprisingly my eyes stayed dry, but she teared up multiple times. It's nice to see that Riley's life is still remembered and impacted people in ways I'll never know.