Grammy Thomas

This is my Grammy (my mom's mom) who is now 77. She looks really good for her age and physically still pretty healthy. Unfortunetely she has Altzheimer's which has progressed rapidly since Christmas. Last week she was sent to the hospital for malnutrition. Up until that point she was living alone (her husband died about 10 years ago), but wasn't remembering to eat or take her medication. So after about a week in the hospital, she was transferred directly to a nursing home in the special wing for Altzheimer patients, where she will spend the rest of her life. Even though I knew this day would eventually arrive, it is still a shock. It has been especially hard on my mom. She has a brother and a sister, but she has done most of the work for Grammy. It's so sad what the disease takes away. She's already forgotten a lot of family which is heartbreaking. How do you live not knowing the person that you have become through a lifetime of experiences? I hope I don't ever have to find out.

I am grateful for the memories I have of Grammy and the family getting together. We continue to share with her as we visit her now in her new home.

Valentine's sleepover

Here is my little Valentine! Some friends of ours the Ashtons had a family tragedy and had to fly to Texas suddenly, so we had 2 of their three kids stay at our house last night. The boys were so excited to have their friends sleepover, especially on Valentine's. Abby and Tyler are such sweet kids we were happy to have them. This is Connor and Tyler, showing who they really are! Mike read each child a book before corraling them into bed. (We're glad we don't have 5 kids all around the same age! (John and Kate plus 8-no way!) The younger two slept in Connor's bottom bunk (we didn't trust them on the top!) Mike and I went down to the living room and watched a movie together and pretended we were on a Valentine's date!

All Smiles

Serena has really started to smile and laugh now and I was fortunate enough to catch her on camera. Here are some cute ones of my sweet 7 week old girl.

This next one is a close-up of her hair. (Notice she has Mike's hairline right now!) Her hair sticks straight up in the back, it's so cute! And when you hold her, her fuzzy hair tickles your chin.

Here's a close-up of her profile. I think it is very cute because of her round nose and chubby cheeks. You can also see her eyelashes growing. Long and curly like Mike's and the boys', that's what we want!

Connor failed!

Okay, I know that sounds bad, but I got your attention! Actually it is a good thing he failed-his speech evaluation, so now a therapist will be able to come over once or twice a week to get him to start talking. She tested him in 5 areas. The other 4 areas he tested beyond his age group, but speech he tested at about 18 month range. Which is funny because he still wears 18 months clothes-he must have liked that stage so much he got stuck there! I'm really not worried about his speech problem. I know those words are in there, I think he's just being stubborn. He has taken interest now in learning to dress himself. Of course it takes a while, and takes some patience from mom, but he gets so excited about being so independent. Maybe he'll realize his independence on the potty soon!