Charlie and the Bumbo

Charlie hanging out in the Bumbo...Thanks to the Fergusons for letting us borrow it!

He's been really liking these links lately!

Touch a Truck

Last Saturday, we took Charlie to another motorized vehicle event...Touch a Truck. It was a great way to get out of the house on a Saturday morning, get some fresh air, go for a little walk and Kenny LOVES to share truck/car, etc. information with Charlie.

Daddy and Charlie with the Wauconda Fire Truck.

Mommy and Charlie petting Rex the Standard Poodle...Rex was at the mobile grooming van station.

Mommy and Charlie on a snow plow!

Charlie with a sign

Thinking about everything he's seen today!

Of course, Charlie had to wear a "car" shirt.

Touching Trucks can wear a kid out!

Giving Thanks

The view from our front door.

Many see the beautiful fall colors like in the picture above and start to think about Thanksgiving and what they are thankful for. Sometimes we need to be reminded of what blessings we have in life and to be thankful for them. Kenny and I are so thankful for our Charlie and his entrance into the world this past summer and I think it reminded us both of how lucky we are. He's truly a little angel sent here from heaven.

After all of the medical "stuff" we have been through in the last 7 weeks, we have been forever reminded to be thankful for all of the blessings in our lives on a daily basis. We wanted to list some things that we have been and continue to be especially thankful for:

*Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Chandler and his amazing neurosurgery team and the wonderful nurses, especially in the NeuroICU. I can never repay these people for the wonderful care they gave to Kenny (and to me sometimes too!) and the hard work they did to help get to where he is today. We will always be thankful for the great medical community we have at Northwestern.

*Charlie's Grammy...she dropped everything to be with Charlie, to care for him (and our house) so that I could focus on Kenny and getting him better, understanding and learning about all of the medical stuff I never wanted to know about. I don't know what we would have done, had she not been retired. And Charlie's Pops for giving up Grammy while she lived at our house.

*Joan and Joe...and our sweet nieces. They welcomed me in their home so that I could be 15 minutes from Kenny in Chicago and have a nice place to sleep and relax late at night when I arrived after too many hours in a hospital. They were wonderful to sit up and listen to me talk about the day and then it was great to wake up in the morning and sometimes get to have a nice breakfast with our nieces. Having a wonderful home to go home to at night was THE BEST after those long days. And for taking care of our Charlie the few times he was in Chicago too.

*Grandma and Grandpa Friedrich and Cousin Lauren...for helping care for Charlie too. We have such a wonderful family who loves our Charlie soooo much.

*For all of the rest of our family and friends...we continue to receive amazing cards, emails, offers to help us with household tasks, babysitting for Charlie and care packages. Just as we think we are done with the food we have received, we get more. And it's so welcome! Kenny has so many restrictions, it's rough to run a house and take care of Charlie on my own, so having meals already made is wonderful and SO TASTY!!! We appreciate them so much and the extra time it gives us both to spend with each other and Charlie. All of the offers we have received and taken some of you up on are so appreciated!

*And for our coworkers in Wauconda and Lake Forest. They all continue to be so supportive of both of us with wonderful cards, phone calls and emails. The sick time donation that Kenny received brought tears to my eyes that there is such generosity in this world and that Kenny was lucky enough to receive it. My coworkers have been wonderful working with me to be back at work as much as I can be right now and helping to give me something "normal" to do as we try to adjust to life again.

*Last, I'm forever thankful for my Kenny and that he worked so hard to get through this and is still working hard to regain his strength. He is an amazing blessing in my life and this experience has reminded us both about what really matters in life. A kind of "milestone" birthday is coming up shortly for me and Kenny has expressed some concern about getting me an appropriate gift and I continue to tell him that I really don't need anything. Weeks ago, I might have had some grand idea for Kenny to get me for this birthday, but his continued good health and our sweet son is all the gift that I need.

I've mentioned before that Kenny and I feel overwhelmed sometimes with the wonderful things that have been done for us in the last few weeks and at times find it hard to express completely how thankful we are. We continued to be amazed at the sweet gestures that have been made and will continue to say thank to all of our friends and family and pay it forward to others we know that may have a need in the future and to those that we don't know. We will teach our Charlie to never take anything for granted and to Give Thanks for the blessings in life, not just once a year, but the whole year through.

Charlie's Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

I'm still not back at work every day each week because of Kenny's many doctor appointments, blood work and soon (we think!) therapy. The days that I'm home with Kenny and Charlie, in between going to appointments, I'm trying to plan more things to do with them, not only for the three of us to spend time together, but to help Kenny be out and moving around (call it Michelle's physical therapy). I see such a difference in Kenny, he can last longer doing trips to the store or out doing "something" without getting tired as quickly. Since he isn't in physical therapy yet, I know this will help him as he starts to go to therapy.

So, we decided that a weekday trip to pick out Pumpkins with Charlie would be much less taxing on Kenny than trying to get through a pumpkin patch on a weekend.

In the four years we have lived out here, we've never gone to the same pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. This year, we found a great one just about 15 minutes from us in McHenry and it wasn't too big, but wasn't too small. I hope we can go back to this one each year...they had some great kids activities that Charlie would love next year.

Charlie in his stroller and ready to pick a pumpkin!

Charlie and Daddy hanging out waiting for Mommy to pull up the truck to load up our stuff.

Mommy and Charlie...this pumpkin patch was decorated sooo cute...I couldn't resist some good picture opportunities!

What's this??!! A family photo?? Charlie's not looking, but we are getting closer to a good one!

How big is Charlie?

This is Mommy's way of torturing Charlie trying to get a cute picture!

Could have been cute if he looked up and smiled!

Poor kid...has to put up with Mommy taking crazy pictures!

Charlie...probably staring at another Mommy that isn't so picture crazy!

Can't Get Enough

I just can't get enough of Charlie!! He's getting such a personality now and I must have taken 50 pictures of him today...but not to worry...I didn't post them all! :)



Charlie and Daddy hanging out...watching the NASCAR race on Sunday.

Mommy and Charlie...there aren't very many of these pictures since I'm usually taking them.

Sleeping Charlie...so sweet!

He gets this look on his face alot...it cracks me up!

He's getting SOOOO close to rolling over...he just needs to figure out how to move his bottom arm out of the way and it really makes him mad that he can't get over!

This great blanket is from his Great Aunt Mary (Kenny's Aunt). It's wonderful...great construction vehicles on it, great colors...we love it! Thank you!!

Tummy time is NOT Charlie's thing at all. He has great neck/head control when being held, but HATES to lay on his tummy and lift his head. We make him every day, but he hates it. This is his attempt today...he CAN lift his head and hold it...he just doesn't like to!

And you can see how much of his hair he lost...so sad. And yucky cradle cap too!

The fingers go in the mouth alot now...

Thank Goodness

As of Thursday night, we are home again...and thank goodness is right. No more hospital stays for this family!!! We are done!

Kenny is home and doing well. Still short of breath when he is moving around, but they say it's all from being on bedrest and he just needs to keep moving and it will help his recovery.

We are just both glad to be home again with the little guy at the top of this post!! He sure did miss his Daddy!

Almost Home...We Think

Well, Kenny should be going tomorrow...although they said that yesterday and today too. He has a small blood clot near his left ankle. These types of clots are very UNLIKELY to travel above the knee, so there is only a very small risk of more serious problems occuring because of it. He will have to be on blood thinners and have more blood work done for awhile as they try to encourage this clot to break up and no more clots to occur. The doctors are great and doing a great job of deciding how to treat this the best for Kenny, but we are VERY sick of being at the hospital and dealing with any of this.

Charlie on the hand is so social now and so fun...it's hard to be away from him. I know Kenny can't wait to see him tomorrow!