parenting craziness

Elijah and his parents + three free tickets to our nearest theme park = lots of laughs for all!

This is Elijah and me...guess who is the most scared? That would be me, of course. I know, I know, this is totally a little kid ride!!

Elijah was so cute. Each time we swooped up I felt him give a little shiver of delight -- and this ride caused lots of smiles. Payment enough, I suppose, for my weak knees and shaky stomach. :)

We took Elijah on a rollercoaster! Sorry, we have no pictures. He was only an inch or so shorter than the height minimum...so maybe he wasn't technically supposed to go??

We have always wondered whether Elijah would like rollercoasters. Once we started moving, though, I completely second-guessed myself about whether it was wise to bring Elijah along. I couldn't see his face because he was sitting with Todd, but I was just imagining him being terrified and feeling horrible about it. I am not exaggerating to say that I was praying for the ride to be OVER -- it was so intense and nauseating. I felt like such a terrible mother for taking Elijah!

To my great relief, the rollercoaster finally ended. The look on my little boy's face when we climbed out? It was something like: "I'm not sure what just happened, but THAT WAS SOOOOO COOL!!!"

What a funny little boy. I guess we weren't totally surprised since Elijah usually likes things that other kids think are scarey. Here we are several minutes after the big ride. Elijah still had the rollercoaster-induced perma-smile and wide eyes, while Todd and I are looking a little green.


I think the funniest part of this story is that Elijah was so wound up he hardly slept that night. It must have been really, really exciting.

Yay for fun times as a family! We have just recently been able to enjoy getting out and doing things together. So many of our "outings" in the past haven't been very fun because of Elijah's crabbiness. We are very thankful that he seems able to enjoy life a little more and able to tolerate quite a lot - even rollercoasters.

Praising You, Jesus, for helping us endure hard times and blessing us with fun ones...

We loved having Grandma visit!

Doing so much better on his tummy! We're very thankful for all the good things God's done in Elijah's life.
The long-awaited picture of the hyperbaric chamber that sat in our garage for a month. Todd was giving me a break on this day, but normally it was me, my Mom, and Elijah. Mom and Elijah wore a mask or a hood to receive 100% oxygen while inside the pressurized chamber.

We are happy to say that we're all finished with HBOT for now, and that we can again see some definite improvements in Elijah. His overall demeanor has again improved (even more happy -- and lots of smiles all day long, as opposed to mostly when he gets up from sleeping). Also we are seeing some good things regarding his vision. He is attempting to make eye contact on a frequent basis and occasionally we're even treated to a smile when he finds us in his field of vision. (If you remember a post from a few months back, seeing that happen ONCE was a miracle!)

Having my Mom here was a blessing!! We're so thankful she could come, and Elijah benefited from Grandma time, too. :)
These pictures are a little out of order, but above and below you see Todd's newest project -- managing 9,763 employees. They will soon be producing honey!

His workers came packaged in a little box, all three pounds of 'em, along with their supervisor, the queen. Above you will see Todd shaking them into their new cubicles.
This happened before the picture above, but oh well. Here is Todd brushing some sugar water on the caged bees to calm them down before they get dumped out. Calm bees = happy bee-keeper.
Our beautiful lake and mountains, seen from the sunrise service at the top of the mountain on Easter.

This was Todd's Easter Sunday attire. Yep, we shore dress fancy here in North Idaho.