Summer Review Part 1

I've had a draft with a list of things we've done this summer. Things I wanted to write about in detail but probably won't....time always gets away from me. So here is a summary:

*In July we had a visit from Aunt Brenda, Uncle Russ, and baby Kiera. Karla and Jason got to meet Kiera for the first time. Karla still pretends to have a "baby" in her tummy frequently and she either names it "baby Oso" or "baby Kiera."
Here is a picture of me,K, J, and my siblings and their spouses and all my NIECES!


*Uncle Kevin came over and played with Karla for a couple days right after my surgery

*for my birthday we got a family portrait taken :) I was the only one really excited about that...it was my birthday so that is what we did!

*Jason and I got to go out to a nice dinner for our 10th anniversary. It felt like we hadn't had a relaxed dinner out in quite a while. We almost didn't know what to do. We ended up walking around downtown for a while and then the mall. It was nice to spend some "quiet" time together. We got new bedroom furniture in April as our anniversary gift. Jason promised me soon after we were married that he would get me bedroom furniture for our 10th anniversary. I thought it was funny because 10 years seemed like a long time away and I just knew I'd have new furniture before then. BUT as the years passed it became a joke...and then by year 8 and 9 it became something that I told him MUST happen on year 10! :)


*We had VBS at our church. Karla loved it again this year. It was neat to see how much she has grown and changed since last year! I talked the 4-5 year old class again so it was a busy week for us. Next year I'm going to teach a different class since Karla will be in the 4-5 yr class then! AH!


*Karla and I got to visit with my good friends Sara and Jennifer.

*Our friends invited us to their house on a lake so we went there for a weekend. It was a lot of fun. We got to ride on a pontoon boat and an electric golf cart. Karla went fishing for the first time and she LOVED it. She had a great deal of patience with it and caught 3 fish! There was only one other man that caught that many fish that day. I forgot my camera when we went to the lake so I didn't get any pictures! I will have to ask our friends for some pictures. :)

*Karla still loves to play Barbies. I have recently had to set limits on how long I will play them at one time with her...otherwise...I could go crazy!

*We still play prince and princess a lot too...even outside in the yard or at the park. I had hoped being outside would spark new ideas... :)

*We've enjoyed going to the library every two weeks and getting new books. Books could be Karla's second favorite "activity" behind Barbies/prince and princess.

Cuteness

Karla has been playing with Oso and his "mom" and "dad" a lot lately. She asked me to take a picture of her with "the whole family" last week...of course I wasn't going to pass that up!

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's this past weekend and went boating yesterday. Here is a link to some photos I put on facebook. Enjoy!

Reunion Pic

Mammy, Pappy, Mom, Dad, K and me!
(Jason was on-call and had to miss the reunion)

Surgery - done and mostly recovered!

I've been a bit slower to blog lately but a large part of the reason is because I had surgery on my right wrist 3 weeks ago. I was pretty nervous about it after having surgery on the left one in February. I didn't realize how "bad" the first surgery and recovery was until it was over...and took a few months to fully recover. I sure wasn't eager to do it again but was in pain and didn't want to further damage the right wrist. I wasn't happy with my first doctor so I went to a second doctor for a second opinion and I wanted a new doctor. I am almost fully recovered from this surgery and it has only been 3 weeks! I don't even feel like the 2 surgeries are comparable. They were totally different and this one was SO much easier - and it was my dominant hand!!

This doctor gave me a reason as to why this happened to both my wrists. My ulna is slightly longer than my radius (and it is supposed to be slightly shorter) and that puts extra pressure on the ligament that holds the two bones together (the one that tore in both my wrists). The surgery I had has an 80-85% chance of "success". If for some reason the ligaments would tear again then they would have to go in and basically cut the bone down to make it shorter. The doctor seemed optimistic that this would fix it so I am thinking positive...and am going to be more careful with what I do with my wrists!!

Anyway, the second surgery was at a surgery center rather than the hospital. I was given a nerve block rather than being put totally out (although I did sleep through the entire thing). I was nervous about going to a surgery center rather than a hospital and about the nerve block but it was SO SO much better! Quicker to recover too. If I ever have to have surgery again (and I hope I don't) I will definitely want to go to a surgery center!

Oh, and the other GREAT thing - I haven't had to have occupational therapy this time!! As long as I continue to do well, I won't have to!

In Karla-related news, she attended her first Bartels Family Reunion today! It is my mom's paternal(Pappy) side of the family. We didn't get to go last year because Karla was having asthma troubles. It was fun to take her this year since I have enjoyed going since I was a little girl. Now she gets to meet everyone, play on the same playground I did, and swim in the same lake. I didn't take any pictures - I was too busy - so I'll have to get some from other family members.

Last Dance Class

Karla had her last dance class for the summer today. I am going to try to get her into another class this fall but at a different location/studio. They had a short program today for family where they did tap and ballet.

Here she is doing one of her favorite moves.

Check out the seriousness. I'm not really sure that she was supposed to be doing that move again or not...

She got a medal (and a lollipop) at the end of the class. Her first medal! :)

And her favorite part of the whole experience may have been that Daddy bought her flowers! She said she has always wanted to get her own flowers. She was pretty excited and they were "all her favorite colors!"

I loved watching her perform today....and I don't think anyone noticed that I did get teary-eyed! Don't know why...I guess because it is just so fun to watch her do and enjoy new things.

The Farm Show

This past Monday Karla and I went to the Farm Show with Grammy, Pap-Pap, and Tio Ryan. Unfortunately, Daddy wasn't able to make it this year. Karla had a great time seeing all of the animals and riding the rides! Her favorite ride was the crocodile roller coaster! We got several funny shots of her screaming (with joy) on the roller coaster.


We stayed until after 10 pm! I couldn't believe she walked around for so long...and was still in good spirits!






The morning before we went to the farm show we had read a new book and the character in the book ate cotton candy at a carnival. I told her what cotton candy is and different places you could get it. When I told her she'd see some at the farm show that is all she wanted that day! So she was very eager to try some!! She liked it. :) Her first bite was documented:



For a flashback to this time last year click here. The big thing we started working on last year at this time was potty training! Glad I don't have to worry about that anymore. Now we are just working on doing the whole bathroom thing by herself without too much complaining. :)

Second Annual Guatafamily Get Together

Tonight we went to a gathering at some friends' house nearby. We've gotten to know the family that hosted the party pretty well through playdates and then Eliana has been in Karla's dance class this summer. All the families had children adopted from Guatemala. There were at least 12 children and many more adults. It was fun to see all the kids playing together. One of the little girls said something about being born in Guatemala and then Karla said, rather incredulously, "I was born in Guatemala too!" It was funny that she seemed surprised especially since we had talked about it before we went. Funny how things start clicking in her mind. I also discovered this week that she thought babies spoke Spanish and then English when they got bigger....since that is what she did. She asks me about this everyday now and I overheard her asking Jason about it this morning too.

I won't post a group picture of the kids since I didn't ask all the parents if that would be okay. :) I'll just post a few pics of Karla and the last picture is of Jason with Eliana in his lap and Karla eating a S'more next to them.