Book Exchange

I am participating in a book exchange. I am supposed to get some friends to participate. It's a great way to build your child's book collection. Here are the basic rules.

If you participate you will receive a letter from me with instructions and 2 children's names, ages, and addresses. Send 1 book to the child listed in the # 1 spot. You will then give the letter to 6 friends and wait for your child's many books (36 books if done correctly) to arrive at your house.

Let me know if any of you want to participate.

Full autumn experience

We went with some friends to a cute farm to get some pumpkins.

Here we are on a hay ride. Easton loved playing with the hay!

There was a corn maze that he loved! He put his hand out and just touched the corn all the way through.

Even though his face doesn't show it here, he had a great time! They had old tractors and a slide for kids to play on.

(Pardon my hair. I hate humidity!)

Of course he was smiling here when I had my eyes closed. Impossible to get a perfect picture. Anyway, we had a great time and brought a couple of pumpkins home to Dad!

Birthday # 2

Here are a few pictures from Easton's 2nd birthday party. I didn't get to do what I wanted for it b/c of the hospital, but we did have cake and ice cream a few days later. Easton had a frosting mustache.

Easton definitely enjoyed his birthday cupcake!

Easton with Grandma and Grandpa Wilsted

Here is a picture of the cupcakes we made. They were so cute and they were banana flavored cake which is his favorite, so he loved it!

We went to a fair in the Poconos. It had good food, a few stores, and a bunch of rides. Justin particularly enjoyed this clown smoking in front of the kids. You can't see the cigarette very well, but if you look closely it's in her right hand.

We were a week before peak fall colors, but it was so beautiful up there. I must say that the northeast is one of the most beautiful places in the fall because everywhere you look there are thick deciduous trees in all different colors!

The neurosurgeon, the dentist, & the pediatrician

Well, it's been a very interesting week. Easton has been so irritable for the past few months which the surgery did not seem to improve,so we took him in for another MRI and it showed that he still had excess fluid in his head. This was on his birthday, so it was sad for me b/c I did not picture his first birthday being spent in the hospital.

He had surgery the next day, but this time his doctor put a shunt in. The shunt will cause some of his extra CSF to flow down to his stomach where it will be absorbed. He made an incision in his stomach and fed the shunt (tubing) up thorough his chest, over his collarbone and to the back of his head.
You can see the shunt in the picture above. It will sink further below the skin, so it won't be as noticeable. An extra 2 feet are in there, so it will grow with him.
Here is incision # 2 on his head. Honestly, it was stressful, but well worth it! Easton seems to be back to his old self. Thankfully my parents were in town for Easton's birthday, so they could help out. The only enjoyable time at the hospital was when we ate at Bobby Flay's Restaurant. It was only a short walk and it had the best sweet potato fries!

Unfortunately, life didn't settle down for too long. Yesterday he face planted which resulted in a fat lip and a battered tooth. I was without a car, but luckily some church friends helped out (thank you Ellen & Becca). We took Easton to the dentist & he said that we'll have to watch a few months to see if his tooth turns gray. We hope not.

We finished up with a visit to the pediatrician today for a neurologic exam. Thankfully that went well and showed that this surgery seemed to be a success! What a week! We're exhausted!