Gearing Up!

The weekend has passed and wow, what a weekend it was! Just the weather in itself made it feel like it was the July or August long weekend! We had a great weekend, visiting our relatives, I mean, the zoo in Brantford on Saturday. It was actually quite hot, so the highlights were the little animal show and all the plastic Little Tykes play equipment rather than the tigers and lions who were too hot and sleepy. Oh well, there's always next time! Keziah went with some of her cousins and had a good time!

This is about as close as she would get to feed the goat. She was brave enough to pet it though.

At the little animal show, she was much braver and had fun petting a snake:

a lizard:

and an alligator:

These little furry creatures were cute but too young to pet:

Keziah had a great time keeping up with her cousin, Conall.

On Monday, we spent the day with our very close friends, Jenn and Jay and their kids. We checked out the Eramosa Caves together. I think I am glad I had the excuse that I had to stay above ground with Lincoln, and Jenn was ever so kind in saying she didn't mind to stay with me :o)

Keeping mom happy as we wait for the others to come back up:

So as you can see, we are still taking Keziah out. Many people ask us if we will or not. To be honest, taking her out in public is MUCH easier than taking her to places where people know her, like church (or another sister church), family and friends. You see, the people in public have always stared at her ever since day one, so really, there is no difference in that environment. The people close to us know what she looked like before and so are taking in the changes as best as they can. We have heard from many that last week's fill really had them in awe (for lack of a better word) as to how big these things will get. I think that last fill-up just really hit people a bit more as it is really becoming obvious.

Keziah's Aunt Jenn made something ever so special for Kez; she sewed a doctor's outfit for Patches, Keziah's stuffie that she takes with her to the hospital!

Isn't it adorable??! She is one talented, caring and crafty person! We LOVE it! Keziah says "THANK YOU, AUNT JENN!!!"

And so today, with Patches and Kez dressed in their doctor outfits, they set out to help the baby that needed lotion and bandaids. We worked with saran wrap again to keep the lotion in place. I was able to put the lotion on her "owies" as well as saran wrap, so hopefully she'll let me tomorrow. The difference I noticed today was that if I used the word "cream", she became anxious. If I used the word "lotion", she was okay with that.

Here she is checking her baby's temperature with the thermometer:

Working the lotion and saran wrap, first on her hand, then on her head:

Although we won't be using those bandaids (tagaderm) anymore, I still wanted to work with them with her to help her get over her fear of them. At first she was hesitant, but once I reassured her that we will not be putting them on her and that they'll be staying home tomorrow, she went ahead and actually put it on the doll and took it off! I saw this as a big and positive step!

Just checking to make sure her baby's heart is still beating after taking the bandaid off :o) It was so cute because the whole time she was working with her baby, she would talk softly to the baby with encouraging words like "it's okay, it's just me, Keziah." or "I will hold your hand, it's okay." :o)

I am so proud of her! She did very well today with it all! I know tomorrow will be another story, but for now I feel we made some improvements as we gear up for the hospital.

We ask for your prayers, that Shaindy will be available to help her tomorrow and that we don't have a complete repeat of anxiety from last week.