A Family of 4 + a Golden

Unfortunately we had to put Jake down today.  This wasn't something that was scheduled or even expected when we woke up this morning, but it is how our day progressed.  Thankfully, Jake is now comfortable, able to swim, and seizure free.  Dave and I spoke this afternoon about how we would handle telling Carly.  We decided we would let her guide us by asking about him.  I felt it would happen today, Dave figured that with Halloween it would happen on Friday.  Well tonight at dinner we had the following conversation -

Carly - "When is Jake coming home"
{silent moment, two parents looking at each other and all around trying to figure out who is going to talk and what exactly will be said}
Dave - "He won't be coming home, he got sick and died."
Carly - "No he didn't, when is he coming home?"
Dave - "He isn't, he died."
Carly - "No he didn't, when is he coming home?"
Dave - "Never"
Carly - "What day of the week is that? When is he coming home?"
Sharon - "He is in heaven like GG Grandma where he can swim, play, and not have seizures anymore."
Carly - "No he isn't, when is he coming home?"
Dave - "He isn't.  He was sick today and went to the doctor and they couldn't fix him.  He died.  But he is happy and in doggie heaven now."
Carly - "Oh.  Are we going to get another dog?"
Dave - "Yes, but not for a long while."
Carly - "Why?"
Dave - "Mommy and I have to recover from this first."
Carly - "Can we call him Jake?"
Sharon - "No, Jake will always be our Jake."
Dave - "You will get to help us name him or her when the time comes."
Carly - "We should name him..." (she just kind of faded off) "Will he have the same doctor as Jake?"

While today has been hard on Dave and myself, thankfully the kids have been very well behaved today and Carly has provided comical relief at all of the right moments.

Dinner time recently has been a struggle with Carly.  The phrase "no thank you" has been used A LOT.  (Two weeks ago she didn't eat dinner 5 nights in a row...)  Last night we had lamb, asparagus, and couscous - Carly ate none of it.  Tonight we ate gyros or in Carly's case a Greek Taco.  Her "greek taco" was slightly different and consisted of lamb, humus, pita bread, and shredded Mexican cheese.  She ate the WHOLE thing!

Win for her Daddy with the creative dinner time naming!  Keeping this idea in my back pocket!

Carly has finished her first week of summer camp.  This winter I learned that the YMCA offered a triathlon camp for preschool kids, so I quickly signed Carly up.  Between registering her in February and starting camp on Monday we worked with her on biking and even purchased a "big girl" bike (with training wheels).  She took swimming lessons and was ready to swim the distance with no help.

On Monday and Tuesday the kids worked on swimming, running, and having fun with each other.  She was excited about her time and camp, but there was a lot more excitement on Wednesday when I picked her up.  Wednesday the kids took their bikes and began biking while at camp too.  This was a wonderful addition in Carly's mind.  She got in the car and quickly started telling me about her day.  They swam, ate a snack, biked, ran, then moved on to the playground and lunch before wrapping the day up with a craft.  She even quizzed me about what she was to do in T1 and T2.  (T1 = transition 1: move from swim to bike AND T2 = transition 2: move from bike to swim)

Today was her final day of camp and she had a mock triathlon.  We went out with a sign and cowbell and cheered our little girl on.  She swam the length of the pull (in a life vest), biked two laps around a cul-de-sac at the Y, and then ran around the tennis courts.  She wasn't very quick today, but her counselors claim she was during the week.  I will admit, Carly is competitive about accomplishing a task but not about finishing first.  Dave and I aren't quick and our goal is to finish a race, so I guess Carly will be a lot like us.

Last week was a BIG week for both of our children.  On Tuesday, Carly attempted her swimming test at our YMCA.  It was after her lesson and wasn't really in our plan.  She had finished her lesson and a boy who will turn 6 in a few months had made plans to take the test after class.  This boy actually sat out for the 5 minutes of class so that he would be rested for the test.  I thought it would be good for Carly to watch him take the test and cheer him on during it.  I also knew she could complete the swim and floating portion of the test if she put her mind to it.  She watched him take the test and get his yellow swim necklace and immediately wanted to try it.  Unfortunately, she was not successful.  She turned for the wall with 2 feet left in the swim (swimming a foot towards the wall, so really falling just a foot short).  We made plans for her to test again on Thursday.  Well, she passed with flying colors after her lesson and now has a yellow necklace.  This necklace allows her to swim without me in the water where she can touch (so not very deep) and allows her to go on the 2 large water slides.  Unfortunately, she isn't quite tall enough to climb to the top of the slides.  So the reality, it gives her nothing except for a HUGE sense of pride.

Thursday was also a big day for David.  He moved up from the nursery at the gym to the toddler room. This move is due to the amount of walking he is doing now.  Apparently, he was walking all around the nursery and checking on all of the other babies and beginning to climb.  Due to space David was actually moved to the 2 year old room this day.  When I picked him up he was sitting around a rectangular table while the other kids were coloring.  He wasn't coloring, but was watching them closely.  When I came to the door and called his name, he looked up at me, banged the table, and went back to watching these other children.  I actually needed to walk into the room and get him.  (Typically he moves as quickly as he can in my direction.)

Last Thursday was filled with 2 big milestones for our growing children.

David Jr and I have ended our breastfeeding relationship.  Last Monday (July 1) he nursed for his very last night... at his afternoon nap.  We were starting the weaning process, but then an eye doctor's appointment ran long and David Jr was more pushy than I wanted before his afternoon nap... so I thought this is the end.  Dave and I pushed through with this idea and on Tuesday evening I broke down and enjoyed cheese on my sandwich and salad at dinner.  Later in the evening I enjoyed a WONDERFUL peanut butter cup (a year in the making).

The past week has been tough.  I've been slightly uncomfortable.  David has been fussier at nap and bed times.  There are many times when I thought, "I wish I hadn't eaten cheese and could just nurse these tears away."  I am glad that I did go ahead and eat a few un-forbidden foods to help me not change my course on weaning him.

I am sure we still have a few bumps in the road in this process, but David is weaned and going down decently now for his nap and bed times.  I went 12 months without dairy and around 11 months without egg, peanut butter, and crab and am really enjoying reintroducing my body to some of my favorite foods.

David has been taking a few (1-5 steps) occasionally now for about a month.  Yesterday, I took Carly and David to a local splash pad.  David crawled around and then would stand up in an area to play with friends.  While watching David I started to think he was finally interested in walking.  (At his 1 year well visit the pediatrician felt that David has the muscle tone to walk but wasn't interested in doing it.)  Last night David began walking from point to point more and then continued again today.  He isn't ready to hold our hand and walk out to the car, but he did spend more time tonight walking than crawling.

Our family is back on the water!!  This morning Dave went for a 33 mile group ride while the kids and I hung out, made pancakes, and cleaned the kitchen.  Dave returned home shortly after David went down for what I thought was his morning nap.  It turned into a 2.5 hour nap and allowed our family to have a FABULOUS afternoon.  During the nap we made lunch, gathered our items for the boat, and got as ready as we could.  As soon as David (finally) woke up, we all sun screened up and made our way down to the water.

Carly and David both seemed a lot more comfortable on the boat today.  David was very interested in standing on the seat, holding a grab bar/rail, and looking out at everything going by (both when we were in the no wake zones and cruising.  Carly wasn't quite as clingy during our ride and even sat up in the co-captain's seat for our ride home.

After our first anchoring we caught sight of some friends and decided to try and join them.  So up came the anchor and we motored towards them.  This turned out wonderfully!  They had planned to meet up with more of our friends and built in babysitters.  There were 4 rising high school freshman girls on the boats we met up within about 10 minutes of Carly first getting into the water.  It was GREAT!  We kept a very close eye on Carly (we didn't expect them to watch her), but she had constant entertainment and company.  She was very interested in showing off for these girls (and the other "kids" that continued to join our raft up) and spend majority of the time jumping off of the boats or swimming.

David did not spend quite as much time in the water, but he did have two extended lengths of time floating around in his life jacket and holding onto a noodle.  He was also very happy standing on the back bench jumping around and watching everything.  Which was great with me - it meant he was out of the sun and under our canopy for most of the day.

Dave and I decided it was time for us to pull out when another boat did since our kids were still happy and not in full melt down mode - we knew we were on borrowed time and our luck would soon run out.  We called Carly back to our boat and explained we were about to leave, to which she responded with, "No thank you!"  This got a loud laugh from the other parents and she thankfully did leave without any fuss or tantrum!!

Our 4+ hours out on the boat were GLORIOUS today!