Laughter

I woke to the sounds of her laughter this morning. Sweet, precious, giggling filtering into my room from down the hall. Oh, how I love to hear Ashley Kate laugh! She was alone in her room. Alone by our standards, but of course dinosaur was there with her and he was "hopping and flying" above her head as she lay on the pillows waiting for me to come in and greet her. His antics had her cracking up and as I stood outside the door away from her view I was cracking up too. She is precious. At 5 years old she is the most precious thing I have ever known. I love her so much. Each morning as I walk into her room she grabs dinosaur by the neck, squeezes him to her cheeks and kisses his nose as she waits for me to say, "Ashley, you looooove dinosaur and mommy does too.. I looooove dinosaur and I looooooove you!" Its the same every single morning.

Last night we sat around the game table playing a round of farkle to see who would have to wash the dinner dishes. We listened to the antics of our Allie and her quick wit and we laughed. We laughed so hard at that girl. She is beautiful. She is talented. She is smart. She is athletic. She is FUNNY. So funny and we enjoy laughing with her every single day in this house. Allie may be a lot like me, a whole lot like me( Dear God gives us all strength), but she has her daddy and Blake's sense of humor.

Before bed Blake came in from an evening at his Allison's house and laid his tall 15 year old self across the foot of our bed. We listened to him for an hour talk about a whole lot of nonsense that had the two of us cracking up. That kid can put a twist on anything to make it funny. I love to talk with him. Especially at the end of a day. He has so much to say and without fail I find myself laughing with my son and soaking up the moments of him in our home. Time is flying by. Absolutely trucking by at record speed and more than once last night as he talked I found myself wishing I could freeze that moment, that image, that conversation.

So much has been going on the last week. Life is busy. The kids are so involved and so active. I love this life we are living. We know its temporary. We realize our time here in our home together is slipping away, but for now, for today we are living as though it could last forever.

Blake got sickly on Friday at school, woke up with an eye infection on Saturday. Allie injured her knee last Wednesday, managed through school, a basketball game, and a time trial. We really believed she had just strained it a little, but for the most part a small strap brace underneath it had fixed it. Yesterday in the last minute of volleyball practice she went down on it the wrong direction and injured it once again. In the same manner as she did last Wednesday. She's home today. Orders to stay off of it for at least 24 hours, allowing the swelling to go down some. This afternoon she will be having it examined, x rayed, etc. and then put in a large brace for support. Lots of fun! She's upset because there are more time trials to be run this week as they choose the track team at school and she's in the middle of her volleyball season. Ashley Kate for the most part has bounced back beautifully from her cold and the infection in her line. She still has an occasional cough, but her swelling, her yucky nose, her fevers, etc. are all gone. She is happy and playing and waking up each day ready to see what she can get into. She has another week of IV antibiotics and then we will re draw cultures to see if her line is clear for the first time since it was placed.

In other news, Ashley Kate's TWO FRONT TEETH have fallen out. Its crazy!!!! She looks like a hillbilly and its almost too much for me to take in. The teeth are falling out because of her lack of nutrition, which means that they may never really grow back in. She is 5 and 1/2 years old and she has lost 6 teeth! I don't think this is normal. I was visiting with a group of friends the other night and mentioned that I could buy new hair(since she has lost most of hers) and new teeth and they all just laughed. I'm not sure that they believed me, but I am serious. You can. You can buy hair and teeth for kids(have you ever seen Toddlers and Tiaras?) and if those teeth don't grow in I may be forced to do so! I don't know if I could really afford either, but I'm not opposed to throwing a garage sale to raise enough money to provide fake teeth for my girl. Ha! Don't judge, just go with me on this. I'm just thinking outside the box. She's beautiful and the thought of her being stared at because she has no teeth left in her mouth and only half a head of hair is just too much for me on top of all the other issues we have going on...just sayin.

Wow, see what happens when I don't post daily. These things get out of hand! Just a peek at what has been happening in our world.

Laughter, injuries, illness, and border line insanity over the loss of two front teeth.