Bionic Mike

Today Mike went in for surgery to get a second cochlear implant, so he will have bilateral cochlear implants (one in each ear). He's doing this mainly to gain back the directional hearing he once had with his 2 hearing aids, and for job safety.

In the waiting room, waiting to be called into the pre-surgery prep area.
The two of us. Jake stayed with Grandma Jean.
Pre-surgery. Gotta love those hospital gowns.
X marks the spot (says 'yes').
After surgery. He has to keep the bandage on for 48 hours. Not so great for sleeping.
Jake played with this massage chair while waiting at the pharmacy to pick up Mike's prescriptions.
Then we went to the grocery store to pick up some soup. Jake got this birthday cake sticker and where else would a birthday cake go but your mouth?

New Bed

My boy is growing up! That also means he is growing bigger... so we got him a twin bed and placed it next to ours. We'll put him to sleep in his bed and whenever he needs to, he can crawl over to us in our bed.

He was actually pretty excited about his new bed!
(And yes, the sheets are pink. I used to sleep on those sheets, so they are very soft.)

Edited to Add: Jake slept all night in his bed!! He crawled into my bed when it was time for his 6am nursing session. Fabulous. I, however, didn't sleep that well since I wasn't accustomed to the amount of space I suddenly had. I'm sure that won't last long.

Flower Garden

Some happiness for your day...

Flower Garden

Click on the black background!

Blueberries!

Mike, Jake, Guthrie and I went blueberry picking! Last summer I had wanted to pick strawberries and blueberries in addition to raspberries. I missed the strawberries again this year but not the blueberries. It was so beautiful -- I find picking berries to be a very meditative activity.






We picked 12 pounds (for $14!).

Hello, Everyone!

Today was our first day taking Jake out in public again since he got the chicken pox. He still has scabs, but all the pox are scabbed over and many have fallen off and they are all smaller. We walked down to the village and did a bit of shopping. Later we went to dinner at Laughing Planet. It was really nice to feel normal again.

At the Park

Yesterday we needed to get out of the house. Since Jake still has pox scabs all over him, we can't really be in public. So we walked to our local park (Gabriel Park) and went to a big, grassy area that is a favorite of ours. It has a hill that we walk up and then run down together. Jake laughs his head off when we do that.

Then we sat on the bench and had a snack.

Jake was running around this area. My favorite thing is that there are all these swallow-tailed kite birds flying around having fun. If you look closely you can see them in the pictures.

Jake's first photo shot of mama!

Flicking the Lights

Deaf people commonly use lights to communicate with one another in lieu of voices that we cannot hear (the other option is to use our feet to stomp on the floor or our fist to pound on the wall to create a loud, low-frequency vibration that can be felt).

Anyway, Mike and I are no exception. Luckily, we designed our house so that you can turn the upstairs lights on/off when you are downstairs and the downstairs lights on/off when upstairs. Thus if I am downstairs and need to let Mike know that dinner is ready, I will stand at the bottom of the stairs and flick the upstairs lights.

I was upstairs doing laundry a few days ago while Jake was downstairs watching a movie. All of a sudden the lights flicked. There was Jake, standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting to talk with me!! Amazing.

Water Table

UPS rang the doorbell and there was a large box sitting on the front porch outside. Aunt Dotty had sent Jake this very cool water table! I quickly set it up and Jake was thrilled.

The water table came with 2 little boats, which Jake loves, but he insisted I run up to the bathtub and get his other boats as well.

After all that water play, the clothes came off. He thought that this was the perfect spot to sit and have a popcorn snack.
If you look closely, you can see the remains of the chicken pox.

Pretty Mama

I got all dressed up tonight to celebrate a family friend's 60th birthday. Before I left the house I asked Jake if "mama looks pretty". He totally nodded and smiled! Awww, good boy :)

Me with the very young looking birthday guy.
I grew up with his children, Katie and Joe.
My parents were there to celebrate as well. I grabbed a picture of the 3 of us...

Mike and Jake were invited, but Jake needed to stay home because of the chicken pox. And a good thing, too, since we found out that one of the friends at the party had never had the chicken pox!!

The Face of Chicken Pox

Well the worst is over, but the worst-looking part is here.
We endured a sleepless night and at least 12 baths in 12 hours. Today it was only 3 baths, a huge improvement. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

A Pox on the Pox!

Yeah, that's how he feels about it. Not fun at all. Miserable, in fact. Yesterday he was feverish and lethargic all day. His first pox popped and started scabbing over. However, many, many other pox decided to show up.
These pictures only show the pox that are at least a day old. There are many small pox that just showed up that you can't really see. He has pox in his hair, in his ear, down south, a few on his arms and legs, and generally just everywhere.


Today it is all about the hurt and the itch. No fever but this is worse. We're starting the oatmeal baths, the witch hazel for wet pox, aloe vera gel for scabbed pox, and lots of TLC from mama. On top of all that, I discovered that both of his bottom second year molars are poking through. Double ouch. The nursing helps sooooo much. There are actually natural opiates in breastmilk so it's a good drug of choice.

Special Guest

Well you'd never guess it just by looking at him.
He's happy and playing as usual.
That is a chicken pox.
The chicken pox showed up last night, just a few faint dots. There are about 10 dots today. Other than sleeping a bit longer, Jake is perfectly fine. The pox don't even seem to be bothering him -- I haven't caught him scratching at them. Hooray for natural immunity and getting this over with...

Oregon Country Fair, Year 2

We returned to the Oregon Country Fair this year. It was so exciting to go back, especially knowing what to expect.

There was good food that had to be eaten. (Also good drinks -- fresh squeezed lemonade, yum!)
I had my face painted soon after we arrived. So fun and pretty!
And Jake enjoyed just being there and helped us with the eating and drinking (didn't want his face painted).
There was this cool dragon.
There was lots of nursing -- it was HOT, in the 90's so we were all very thirsty the whole day.
Jake got to help paint!

A good view of my face paint. (I was nursing Jake to sleep in Chela Meadow, with great music playing in the background and people playing and hanging out.)
We were underneath this beautiful tree.

Hooray for the Fair!