Tractor

While we are trying to get into the spirit of Halloween, carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, and getting Caroline's costume ready, Mother Nature is playing a little trick of her own. A Nor'easter is headed our way this evening. The coast isn't supposed to get much, but just inland they are calling for 7-10 inches. They are also calling for wind gusts of 40-60 mph so we're also preparing for that. Caroline and Alan headed to the shop to pick up the generator, just in case, and had a little fun on Grampy's tractor. Looks like she had a lot of fun :)

The latest

Caroline in her new apple hat and coat

My little cutie coming to say, "Bye
to Momma

Although we don't have a lot of pictures, Caroline has been very active these past couple of weeks.

We have learned that she can climb down from her learning tower. Oh well for that being a somewhat safe place while we prepared dinner :)

She is also climbing a bit more. She can get her leg kicked up to the fabric border around the top of the pack and play. Makes us wonder when we'll hear the thud and a little voice at the top of the stairs when she has gotten out of her crib :)

She loves to bring things to back and forth for me while I'm in the bedroom.

She almost has her tricycle pedals down. She gets it and can go through the motions, but she's not quite there. Soon!

She is not a big fan of Momma's "boo boo" and would prefer it covered. I'm not a fan either, kiddo!

She can put her shoes on and the correct feet too!

Her vocabulary has really taken off, including saying more people's names.

And just so much more that I can't think of right now. It seems like every day she does something that makes us go, "Wow." She loves to run and hide. Oh, and she loves going places so she can say, "Gotta go...Byeeeee."

Harvest Fest

Alan and Caroline went to Harvest Fest in downtown Kennebunk today. They checked out the new bridge and some of the pumpkin scarecrows. Of course, our little pumpkin wasn't afraid :)

A fly on a the wall

The past week and a half has been a definite learning curve around here. We're all doing well, thanks to Alan. Caroline is getting used to Daddy being home every day and all of the little changes in her daily life. Alan is getting used to taking care of Caroline on a 24 hour basis, while doing all of the chores and taking care of me and the animals.

Me, I'm trying to stay out of the hospital and recover! Besides a wild Friday night in the ER (I'm fine now) things have been uneventful on my front. I go from feeling good to having lots of nerve issues. I had my last check up Tuesday and the doctor said I can now remove the splint during the day and move my foot around, but NO weight bearing. I'm still so sick of the splint, it drives me nuts at night! My next appointment is November 2nd. If all goes well I can move into an aircast and begin physical therapy and start trying to walk again. I mean try too, my calf muscle as almost completely atrophied and wont flex.

Most of the time, I'm in our bedroom trying to keep myself entertained and listening to everything going on in the house. I try to figure out exactly what toy Caroline is playing with, what she and Alan are doing while they make dinner, listening to the both of them upstairs in while Caroline takes a bath, brushes her teeth and gets changed. I am thankful that I get to at least do these things and know my family so well that I can guess and visualize myself there.

So, there haven't been many pictures while Alan's in charge. He and Caroline have been busy around the house and out and about too. Yesterday, they headed over to Darlene's to visit Luke, Caroline's cousin who is 6 weeks younger than she. They had lots of fun hanging out. I'm sure Caroline appreciated the company of someone her own age after spending so much time with Daddy and Mommy!

Meg's Foot Surgery

For those that don't know the whole story or are confused I'll do a quick re-hash. Six years ago I moved to Maine and started a new job. A couple of weeks into the new job I twisted and fell right in front of all of my co-workers. It was embarrassing and it seemed my foot would never heal. Months became years and I was thrown every diagnosis in the book at it. Nothing ever worked. A few months back, as a last ditch effort, I was another podiatrist. He took a look at my MRI from November 2010 and from Spring of 2005 and saw something that NO ONE else caught. Not even the radiologists. I have an extra muscle. An accessory muscle is a genetic anomaly. They say maybe 8% of the total US population may have this. This extra muscle is impinging on my nerves and blood flow, just like a typical case of tarsal tunnel syndrome.

So, on Tuesday, I went in and the muscle removed. I never enjoy having surgery and being in pain. This time it was a whole new ball game because of Caroline. This is going to be a long, and slow, recovery process. Toddlers wait for no one! I'm on bed rest for 3-4 weeks and then will slowly begin to go to PT and make attempt to put weight on it. It will be months before I'm picking up Caroline and walking across the room. I've gone through many waves of panic and sadness. Now that it's happened, I'm doing my best to not get frustrated. There is no going back! I have books on how to better my food photographer, I the Montessori Method book on how to better educate my peanut, I have wool in hopes to become crafty, and I'm going to do my best not to micro manage from the bedroom while Alan handles it all!

My first post-op appointment was this morning and he said everything looks great. I have another on Tuesday and he'll re-splint again, this time a little more bent. Slowly, trying to get some stretch to the foot.

In the mean time, there will probably be more funny stories than pictures on this blog for the next week or two, but know that were are all learning A LOT this week with our new roles :)

A pretty dress

Summer is coming to an end and we're running out of chances for Caroline to wear some of her pretty clothes. I particularly love this dress. She wore it for her one year anniversary of her Baptism, but we didn't get any pictures of her in it. She hasn't worn it since. So, because I love pictures, I put it on her to capture her in it! Plus, it gave me an opportunity to take lots more pictures of Caroline since I'll be out of action for the next month. Most of you know, I'm having surgery on my foot and will be on bedrest for 3-4 weeks and a so recovery afterwards. I have given Alan a list of a few photo sessions he has to take care of while I'm gone though!

Modeling the back for me

Later that night, Nana and Grampy came back from Florida and brought us some giant lemons off of their tree.

Do you see the size of this thing?

Look! It's huge!

Smiling Hill Farm

Today, Columbus Day, we took a ride up to Smiling Hill Farm. They have a great barnyard for kids to check out the animals, a great market with all sorts of cheese, milks, eggs etc., and they have ice cream! We get all of Caroline's milk from Smiling Hill. It was a great way to spend the warm, Fall day.
We had a lot of fun checking out all of the animals. Caroline was interested in most of the animals, but of course if a barn kitty walks by or another little kid she is much more excited about that :)

We're obvious fans of Smiling Hill's milk. Ever since changing Caroline to whole milk, this is all she gets!

Checking out the Guinea Hens

We need MORE tokens!

Riding the John Deer-a-saurus

This bunny was one of her favorite animals.

The calf moo-ed and it shocked her!

You hush rooster!

A Whoopie Cow!

It's a baby, like me!

The adult goats walked away, so she got to feed just the baby goats :)

Bye, bye baby goats!

No one pay attention to the Donkey standing in the back. LOL