Pirates Game

I am waaaay behind on keeping the blog updated, so the next few posts will bring you up-to-date on some of the things from our busy summer with family.

Way back in July we went to a Pirates game with my parents, some of the Cub Scout families from church and even Pete was able to come along! We had good time despite a little bit of rain and the Pirates even won the game!

As you can see, the boys are totally into the game.

Tolan jammin on a family favorite - Twizzlers!

Logan loved his foam Pirate sword that I swindled his dad into buying b/c it would last longer than an ice cream cone!

PNC Park opens up to one of the 3 rivers (the Allegheny) and views of the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline. The firworks after the game were excellent! Better than a lot of 4th of July fireworks I've seen.

A West Virgina Wedding

Two of Justin's cousins (sisters) got married this summer. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it to Sarah's wedding at the beach in North Carolina, but we were able to make it to Natalie's a couple of weeks later in West Virginia.

We tried to take advantage of the wedding decor and get a family picture, but we did not have any luck in getting one really worth sharing, but here's about as good as it got:

As you can see, the wedding was outside - and out by the barn the boys were delighted to find a tractor!

The boys enjoyed some slushies on the hot and HUMID day.

The wedding favors were shot glasses and Grandpa Shook had a great time showing Logan the ropes. After a few (pretend) shots, Logan tipped over his chair and fell to the ground. He was fine, and we all had a good laugh that thats why 3-yr-olds should not have shots.(No we [including Grandpa Shook] do not endorse drinking...especially for children....we were just joking around...don't call CPS)

Tolan's 2nd Birthday

One benefit of living near family is that you get to celebrate birthdays twice. While we were w/Justin's parents the weekend of the wedding we celebrated Tolan's birthday and then celebrated it again with my parents the day after his birthday, which was August 12. Two years went fast, but remembering the days when he was a newborn seems ages ago and I love the happy, smiley, determined, and independent young man he has turned into - all at the age of 2!

Isn't he cute? Enjoying the birthday serenade at Grandma & Grandpa Shook's

And loving all the new toys!Mommy and Logan enjoying the par-tay
It seemed like we had had a lot of cakes this summer and couldn't bring myself to make us another cake, so I used some scraps from one of the days I worked at the bakery and made a birthday trifle instead.

taking a deep breath to blow out the candles...

"Yaay! Did it!" He was so proud of blowing out one candle. I think Logan finished off the rest...

Playing with the next batch of new toys

Justin was showing him how to use the new tee....

but he has his own ways of doing things...

Happy Birthday Mr. T!

Other Random Pictures and an Update on Tolan

The boys enjoying some popsicles at a "sleepover" at Grandma Shook's. I always have them eat their popsicles shirtless. And Logan loves sleepovers at Grandma Shook's - one of these days we will have to have a sleepover without mom & dad!

This is Tolan leaning against the original door at his Great(x5) grandfather's store - the N.K. Whitney store in Kirtland. Tolan was too noisy for the tour inside, so we waited outside and I thought it was a great photo-op of him leaning against the same door his great(x5) grandfather probably once leaned against - but by the time I got the camera out, he was over it.

Unfortunately Tolan kept me pretty busy and I did not take more pictures of this trip to Kirtland where we met up with my mom's brother Lester and his family who were visiting from Utah. We had a great day visiting with them in Kirtland and hope they will come back our way again soon!

It's been a long time since we have been to amusement park when I was not pregnant, so this summer for my birthday Justin and I went to Cedar Point, which is basically an amusement park in Ohio mostly of roller coasters. This was our favorite ride of the day, which starts out launching you to 120 mph in less than 4 seconds then shoots you straight up 420 feet at a 90 degree angle and then hurls you back down to the ground in a spiral. It's all over in 17 seconds but we thought it was worth the hour + wait!The park is right on Lake Erie and after a long day we took our shoes off for a walk in the sand.
In fact, it was such a long day that we were too tired to make the drive home and ended up having a delicious dinner at Outback and staying the night in hotel - Thanks so much to my mom who watched the boys while we were gone and agreed at the last minute to extend her duty to the next morning!! Thank you!

Tolan seriously loves my dad's lawnmower and climbs up on it ANY chance he gets. Speaking of Tolan, he is doing great! He has been so brave through this whole ordeal. The only time he would get upset was when we needed to change his bandages, but now he is even okay with that. I must admit that I am SO grateful to be living with my parents right now since my dad is here and willing to change Tolan's bandages! I know I could do it if I had to, but it's been nice to be able to let my dad do it, especially in the beginning when it was gory and stressful and Tolan would get really upset. But he's doing so much better.

After it happened Justin was searching around on the internet hoping to see how it might heal and if there was anything we could do to improve the odds. He came across a new medication that is a powder made from pigs' bladders and is used for regrowth in injuries (and is also apparently being used to regrow livers and kidneys too?) Anyway, its still pretty new, but not considered experimental anymore and there happens to be a doctor in Pittsburgh that is using it and doing a study on it. So Justin got us an appointment! We met with the plastic surgeon and the VP of the company that makes it also happened to be there and they said Tolan was a perfect candidate and are letting us participate in the study and use the powder free of charge! So every other day we change his bandage and sprinkle on the "pixie dust." The only challenge is that he is 2 and the bandage has to last 2 days AND stay dry. So we've been doing our best with that, but his finger is already looking better. They don't expect a full fingernail to regrow b/c most or all of the nailbed was lost in the injury, but he should get most, if not all of the length of his finger back.

If you are interested, the man who first used it (and I believe the brother of the creator) was on Oprah with Dr. Oz this past spring and here is a clip.

Our First Trip to the Emergency Room (and Ambulance Ride)

Erin and I had been trying to get together for dinner all summer. We finally were able to set it up for last night. We had a nice dinner and were almost done when I heard my phone beep that I had a voicemail. I looked to see who it was from and was going to check it later, but I saw it was from my dad. I told Erin, "My dad never leaves voicemails, so I think I better check it." All he said was to call him. Hmm.

So I called. He said Tolan cut his finger, he's okay, but we're in the ER and you need to come. So we hurried up and got our check and headed to the hospital. I tend to not worry much unless its necessary, so I was doing alright since my dad said he was fine. I was imagining a few stitches and knew that he would want his mommy there so I got there calmly, but quickly. I also called Justin, who was on his way home from work, and let him know to go to the hospital.

When we got there my dad was in the waiting room with Logan and told me what he hadn't told me over the phone - so that I wouldn't freak out. Tolan hadn't just cut his finger - he had cut it OFF. It was the tip of his middle finger on his right hand - below the fingernail near the first joint.

My mom was outside on the patio with the boys who were playing while she was trimming a tree with some garden shears. She put them down for a second to get a caterpillar out of the way and the next thing she knew Tolan had the shears and was screaming and there was blood spurting everywhere. She scooped him up, picked up the piece of finger and ran up the stairs yelling for my dad. Logan didn't see what happened and they said he was okay until they were trying to rush him to get into the car and was seeing the blood and stuff and it was registering that Tolan was hurt.

When I got there they had already done x-rays and he was sitting with my mom all sweaty and bloody. He wasn't crying but he looked so sad. He was happy that I had a spare binky in my purse! Justin arrived not long after I did and soon they were loading Tolan and me into an ambulance to go down to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh where hopefully they could reattach the piece of his finger. Logan went home with my parents and Justin went home too to get Tolan's blanky and a couple of toys, then he drove down to Children's.

We did a lot of waiting around for pretty much nothing down there. They took more x-rays and the orthopedic surgeon checked him out and came back waaaaaay later to tell us they wouldn't be able to do anything. She said the nerves and blood vessels and everything were just too tiny to reattach it well and if they did, it would probably just die. So they just cleaned it and bandaged it up. No stitches or anything. Tomorrow we go to see the hand specialist, but basically we will just be keeping it clean and changing the bandages for the next 4 weeks until the stump heals.

Tolan did so well. I was very impressed at how tough he was. He would only cry when they came to take the bandages off and was in pretty good spirits most of the time. He did keep asking for the car (as in our car- to take us home...) and he asked about Logan a couple of times. But he was so good. And even today he was playing and mostly back to his normal self, just with a bandaged hand! He's a trooper.

We are glad he is okay and it always could have been worse! He's so young that it will heal quickly and probably better than we think and he will adjust to it just fine. I'm glad I wasn't there to see it all happen and everything. I feel bad for my mom that she had to stomach all of that and I feel bad I wasn't there for Tolan. But they both did well and I'm glad my dad was there to help and that he was smart enough not to tell me the whole truth until I got there!