We had a lot of progress as a family this weekend. Emotionally, we are recovering, and enjoyed some normalcy. We took Parker to the O.A.R. concert at Ravinia Festival on Sunday, and to the pool one last time today. We are thankful for the time as a family-- especially with one extra day to heal our hearts and feel the sun on our faces. Today, Parker made HUGE progress. First, we have been working SO hard on drinking from cups. I wrote about this in a post over the summer-- but Ms. Deanna's aquarium tubing straw idea has officially caught on. Parker drank at least 4 ounces of chocolate Pediasure tonight at dinner...in less than 5 minutes! He was even breathing in through his nose so he could continue swallowing without a break. Proud Mama! Now, the trick will be getting him to do this with water :)
Secondly, Parker has been obsessed with books at night for the last few weeks (the teacher in me is swooning at this). Every night, we end our book reading with "Parker's Night Night Book" that was customized for him by Grandma and Grandpa Preis. We LOVE it. It has simple, rhyming phrases, cute illustrations, and is customized to fit Parker's life. One night a few weeks ago, Parker surprised us by recognizing the illustration of a slide on one of the pages. He bounced his little finger up the ladder and down the slide, saying "two...three...gooooo!" We were stunned and so excited. Parker has been identifying a new illustration each week. After slide was ball, then "bep" (bed), then star, and tonight was house. That elated feeling of him "getting it" will never go away for me. Matt and I are SO proud of everything he is accomplishing. And the fact that he does it all with this mischievous, sweet smile is a lesson for us all about how to live life. Love this boy.
We are finally at a place where our feelings aren't so raw, after 8 days. My deepest respect goes out to every mommy that has gone through this, or who would give anything to be pregnant. The last 8 days have been a lesson in being thankful for what we have. We have a beautiful boy, a home we adore with two crazy dogs, meaningful careers, and family and friends that we love. I am focusing on that, and on remembering to be mindful of hardships that everyone has. I think sometimes social media, as much as I love it, gives us this false impression of what life is like. We only present the happiest, cutest parts of our lives. And while I appreciate that because it cheers me up on challenging days, I do wish we could better support one another through the challenges in life too. I know I have a lot to learn by having more empathy for others. Talking about this with people in my every day life naturally brings up conversations about their hardships as well. I wish there were more opportunities to openly discuss those things, because they make up who we are, and conversations, at least for me, help me process events and move forward in my own life, and learn how to be a better support for people I care about. I digress... Beyond lots of introspection this weekend, we are hoping to get back to normal life. We plan to go to go see a show at the Ravinia outdoor theater, hopefully spend some time at the pool before it closes, put our house back together after a serious lack of cleaning, and just rest and relax together. This is my happy place:
