Dear Month of June,

Good-bye.

If truth be told, I shall not miss you.

You have given us a celebration of bodily fluids.

In four short weeks we have endured: Ellis’ first cold (lots of snot), potty training Clara (peeps and poops), projectile vomit, a surgery, and now sleep training our 8 week old (lots of salty wet tears).

Today, on the last day of you, the 30th, I was foolish enough to take all three of my children to Trader Joe’s, and you were kind enough to remind me why I am so glad to see the back of you.

While I was pushing our small cart – Ellis was strapped to me on the baby bjorn, Clara was in the cart (occasionally poking Ellis in the eye) and Millie danced around beside me —all was relatively calm until… Ellis decided to poop up a storm. The poop was like a waterfall cascading down my shirt, skirt, and shoes. And Ellis was covered in the stuff too.

It is like a bad dream I’d like to forget.

So, here is to a new month.

A drier month.

Bring on JULY, says I!

Kind Regards,

E. Dawson

Because I am an awesome mom – I brought home some SWEET medical supplies from Ellis’ hospital stay to add to our eclectic collection of “toys”.

Before you judge me, let me clarify- the nurses told us they were going to throw away whatever we didn’t take….it seemed such a shame to see this stuff go to waste.

It’s cool.

You gotta snag some plastic gloves whenever you get the chance, says I.

And this mask!

Holy smokes! I would have killed for this when I was a little girl. It would have been the perfect prop in the soap opera that we Kelly kids made together. I wish I could insert the clip right here – it was a fine piece of work. Since I cannot,  imagine if you will 3 1/2 year old Chas in the hospital bed – wrapped head to toe in toilet paper “bandages” as 10 year old Cameron sits at his bedside and urges him to get well so that, and I quote, “We can go bowling together.”whilst a laser tag thinger beeped in the back ground.

Pure genius!

Truly, it was a moving scene.

And I am NOT making this stuff up, just ask the Peterson kids – they are my witnesses. They actually ENJOYED watching our home movies and they have seen the soap opera more than once, it was called “The Young and the Restful.” Actually, it just struck me that perhaps they really didn’t like it and they were just humoring us.

I digress!

Please note that the cat, from the previous photo, is wearing Clara’s baby bracelet from her hospital stay. Only Clara put it on the cat’s ear.

We are so OFFICIAL when it comes to playing hospital around here. None of that Fisher Price plastic nonsense for us. Oh, no! We take this VERY seriously!

Clara wasn’t willing to be the patient (shocker!) – and so they REALLY had to twist my arm to get me to play along.

You can also play “telephone” with masks like this, just in case you were wondering why Millie had put the tube up to her ear. I also imagine one could whisper some serious “sweet nothings” using this thing. It would be like sweet nothings in stereo!

I couldn’t stop laughing when Millie was giving me oxygen.

It seemed like an unorthodox procedure to me.

But here I am,

fit as a fiddle!

And now able to breathe on my own.

Sometimes you’ve just got to trust your doctor.

Even if their plastic gloves are five sizes too big.

(Wink, wink!)

It’s official!

This little lady is a kindergarten graduate!

And she has to the CERTIFICATE to prove it, suckaz!

My dear friend, and favorite Catholic, Margie– has a new blog.

I love this woman. She is as good as she is beautiful, and she is very pretty, as you will see if you visit her new blog.

She is also taking portraits of people FOR FREE while she builds up her portfolio and her confidence. (If you live in the area I bet she’d snap a few of you and yours — I am going to get her to snap me and mine). She and I were talking about self-confidence and how it can be hard to have at times.

I just wanted her to know that I BELIEVE in her!

She is a natural behind the camera. And she is one of my favorite people – she doesn’t just have great fashion sense, she has a lot of common sense too. I also dig her kids — they are as good as they are cute. And they are CUTE.

As you will see if you visit her blog.

I suggest you do.

(maybe even put it on your google reader — plug, plug!)

You wont be disappointed.

Who managed, in three days time, to be potty trained — while her little brother was loosing his breakfast, lunch and dinner, her mommy and daddy were worried out of their minds and the household was a mess of stress.

YOU ROCK!

And your mama loves you.

Right down to your toes!

After two weeks of projectile vomit, mounds of laundry,  three trips to the pediatrician, a visit to the ER, a life saving surgery and 48 hours in the hospital —

WE. ARE. HOME.

As I type my baby boy is sleeping on my chest. I just kissed his little head. I am so happy – there aren’t words.

On Monday morning, when I handed Ellis to his daddy, free from tubes and beeping medical thingers….

he cried.

This is the second time in the ten years that I have known Jan that I have seen him cry.

“I am just feeling so emotional. People have been so good to us.” are the words that tumbled out of him as he held his baby boy.

They were! (perhaps you are are one of the people who was so kind to us)

We are feeling so much gratitude.

Thank you to all of our friends and family for your prayers, your words of encouragement, your concern. Thank you for helping us with the girls as we were in the hospital with Ellis. Thank you to the brilliant surgeon who saved our little baby and to all the doctors and nurses who cared for him. Thank you to God for giving us our baby boy twice.

Once on the day he was born.

And again on the day the surgery was a success.

We love this kid!

More than we know how to express!!

Six weeks ago today Ellis was born. The day after his birthday was Mother’s Day.

On his six week birthday, which we celebrated today,  we were back in the hospital – in the ER – and tomorrow, on Father’s Day he will have a surgery to correct a condition that he has called pyloric stenosis. I’m too tired to tell you about it, but if you google it, you can learn all about it.

Jan is spending the night with our little guy in the hospital. I had planned to make Jan a special Father’s Day dinner — and a special cake – a chocolate flour-less job. The kids I and were out earlier in the week buying him gifts. I had planned to wrap the presents we got him with a beautiful bow, and let him sleep in. Instead he will spend his Father’s Day ON DUTY  and if he is lucky he will get a few hours of sleep tonight.

I just wanted to honor the good man who is the father of the little boy who I love, the little boy who will be sleeping in his father’s arms tonight.

When I married Jan I really wanted my babies to look like him.  He was handsome, strong, successful and I was in love with him. HIM, HIM, HIM. He was all mine. Now I share him with three other little people. I feel that the four of us (me, Millie, Clara and Ellis) are some of the luckiest shmos on the planet earth. I had no idea the kind of husband and father I would be getting when I married him. I just knew I loved him. But boy, did I get me a winner.

The man is rock solid. I count on him for EVERYTHING.

I want him to know how much I love being on his team. Today when I was in the hospital with Ellis and Jan was taking care of the girls, the resident surgeon came in to have me sign a consent form. I was a bit unsure what to do regarding one of the issues they talked to me about so I called Jan. There was my rock – he knew the answer and knew just what to do.

I just trust him with my whole heart. He is competent, committed, helpful, loving, hard working and 100% tuned into me and our kids.

I love him more than I can say.

And I love our little boy.

The blessed little boy who, will spend the night in his father’s strong arms.

Happy Father’s day to one of the world’s finest fathers!

Millie’s new passion/obsession is writing and illustrating books. She is also hard at work on her “Bird Guide”, more on that later. I know I am her mom, but I have got to say that some of her books are truly inspired.

I wish I had some gumption, if I did I would scan some of the books and then put them on the blog.

No gumption today.

But her dad has some. He managed to capture her sketching-it-up the other day.

(How about Millie and Clara’s night gowns? Their dear old dad – the one with gumption – brought those back from his last trip to London. It makes me happy to see them together in their matching nighties. They look like they could be General Stanley’s daughters.)

See what I mean –

Front: darling

Back: darling

Again, that was,

Front: darling

Back: darling

…the pure sweetness and cuteness of a new born baby.

Do you know what I am talking about?

Maybe when one is so fresh from the heavenly realms that heavenly spark they bring to earth just cannot be captured on film.

It must be experienced in person.

Every picture we take I think, “close, but no cigar!”

His wide-eyed expression. The magical look of him drinking the world in. The delight in his eyes.

Un-capture-able!

If you are a praying person – would you spare a prayer for our boy?  He has been projectile vomiting for the last week. We are taking him to a specialist to see if we can work out this issue. I was up until 3:00 AM with him last night as he vomited gallons of his mother’s fabulous milk (ahem) all over the place. It is lucky that blogs don’t smell. Cuz it is stinky around here…including ME.