welcome home.

on june 1st, sheppy came home! it was quite surreal and scary actually. after they unhooked him from all the monitors, there was a small part of me that thought "great, he's probably in SVT right this moment and we're not catching it because he's all unhooked..." and then to hold him with no cords right next to his bed was also weird. like you can actually take your kid out of his room? out of the hospital?? out to lunch?! what the heck....???

apparently we forgot we could do that.

but we brought that kid all the way home and carried on with life as normal.

the first week was rough. my kids did not anticipate that sheppy would ever come home with us. so there were lots of tears (from everyone), hitting (only from the kids, i promise), eye rolling (mostly me), and lots of phrases like "that's mean, mom" or "i'm the boss of you, you're not the boss of me" (also from the kids...)

but after school got out, things slowed WAYYY down and we could finally catch our breath.

and we've taken advantage of every slow moment of the day! the older kids and i are loving being out adventuring at our own pace, sleeping later and not having an agenda. shep is basically just our cute arm candy at the moment, but he's kinda a cranky accessory. 

someone asked the kids the other day if they like him and both replied, "he cries a lot." (not, "yes, we love him!!" just, he cries a lot....)

"oh, well do you help him feel better?"

"yeah, but he still cries."

that's true. poor guy. but when he's content, he's content. i think we accidentally set the bar way too high by holding him every minute of the day when he was in the hospital. we're kinda kicking ourselves now cause he demands a lot this kid....

in the midst of all this, let's take a moment to celebrate our newest 5 year old. (cue the tears) what the heck??? like she's half a decade old?? i hate it. i hate all of it.

but i do love that she was so pumped to get the illustrated harry potter book and that she wanted a "blue baby deer cake." yes girl, i got you.

back to shep. you might be wondering what our schedule looks like with shep and his "package." so i'll break it down:

8am: first meds on empty stomach, so no eating for an hour before or after.
9am: second round.
3pm: another dose.
4pm: another dose, empty stomach.
9pm: another dose.
midnight: another dose, empty stomach.
3am: another dose.

so between those empty stomach doses i'm trying to feed him at normal times. it's not THAT HARD, but it definitely requires me to think more and plan better than i did with the other kids. and we just bring his little syringes of meds with us wherever we go. so far it has not been a big deal and that is a blessing.

first outing alone with me and the 3! we all did great. no one was hit by a car crossing the road, i didn't raise my voice once, and both kids had their hair done (i didn't, but who cares. hats solve everything). so i win ;)

sam, everyday, "he's so cute. should we keep him?"

me: "probably."

seriously one of the best photos from preschool graduation... i don't even care. we're all pictured and this is really us.

bed squatter.

so guys, we're alive! thank you for all the meals, cards, flowers, good thoughts, texts, prayers, etc. they have all been noted, and felt with much gratitude. THANK YOU!!! we love our village and are so grateful to be raising these humans in such a loving community of people. 

i don't know about you, but i feel this picture is an appropriate one to end on:

if you know, you know. forever crushin' on troy bolton.

xoxo,

amanda