New Routine!

This past month has felt like one big blur and I have lost all track of time. Tim laughs and gives me this bewildered look when people ask how long we have been home and I say 2 weeks...still. My mind has been so submerged with the kids, weddings, easter, snack days at school, trips to Calgary and Tim in the middle of finals, that I simply lost a few weeks. Amongst all of life's craziness though, we are finally getting used to our new way of life, the routine and all the different challenges that Ethan's injuries have brought. A bath no longer takes 2 hours (just one), and we are getting much faster at cleaning and moisturizing his body several times a day so that our whole day isn't eaten up by just taking care of him. I am still in awe at how well he is doing and how rapidly his body is beginning to heal. Our past few trips to Calgary have been great and our physiotherapists and plastic surgeon have had nothing but good to say about Ethan's healing. Dr. Harrop, our plastic surgeon saw Ethan 2 weeks ago for the first time since we had been discharged and could not believe how well behaved and patient Ethan is as they clean and debride his head and arms. We now have a new routine at home when finished a bath where Ethan falls asleep everytime on his pillow. It's great because it lets Tim and I get done what we need to without him squirming around. We are also trying a new essential oil blend on his scars called Immortelle from DoTerra to see if it will help with the healing process. Our friend Kristi brought it over for us to try and so far it seems to be helping...only time will tell! Tim and I were sitting around talking about Ethan's head the other day and Tim mentioned that he wants to look into the whole hair transplant process. We had a good laugh as he said, and I quote, "It may be painful and expensive but I think we should do it." Haha, maybe Tim should do a trial run to test how it feels. But I definitely think it is something we might look into down the road when he gets older. As much as we are starting to get used to the new Ethan, its still hard to see your little boy without any hair and so many heavy scars that are continuing to form on a daily basis. Its hard to wrap my mind around the fact that Ethan won't have a full head of blonde hair like he used to and I still struggle at times when I see a little boy his age with perfect skin. I feel like I have to keep reminding myself that Ethan will be just fine, I hope, with his scars as he grows up, but rather, I am the one that needs to overcome my idea of the perfect image. Image matters not, but who he is inside, as a person, and how he treats people and excels in life should be of more concern to me. But i know I am a biased mother because bald, scarred head and all, I still think he is the cutest kid around!

This boy absolutely loves movie night!
Our little drama queen!
My mom came and took care of Ethan for a bit. He gets so excited when we tell him she is coming over!
Our happy boy is back!
Sleeping as I do his routine lunchtime dressing change!
Hallie absolutely adores her little brother! I was making dinner while Ethan ran around complaining cause he was tired and hungry. Next thing I knew it was quiet and this was what I found! I love how she was rubbing his little legs!
Tim's beautiful sister Hilary was married this past week to our new brother-in-law Dane Owens and we are so excited to have him as part of our family. The kids were absolutely thrilled to hear they were going to have another new uncle! Poor Tim came down with a terrible head cold that day and had to write an exam earlier in the morning. He was able to finish his exam, quickly change and race to Cardston for the ceremony only to make it their 5 minutes before they began. We had a wonderful day, but must admit we were exhausted from chasing three little mischevious children all day long, who were thriving on too little of sleep themselves. Lets just say we were all a little cranky from the months of no sleep.
Left arm

Its doing much better.
Head about 1 week ago.
Right Arm.
Getting ready for bed after a nice warm bath. He is just so irresistible. I know all moms can relate with their own kids, you just can't get enough of them!
The 'Eternal Student' studying! As much as I love to tease him about it, I think there might be a day when I miss us being students.
Jello Jelly Beans. The kids loved them according to Hallie, so did Ethan!
Making rice krispie snacks for Ava's preschool class at midnight. What a long night!
Rice Krispie Easter nests. We filled them with jelly beans and the kids absolutely loved them. (They are just upside down while they cool in case you were wondering).
Hands in my pockets!
Hallie has been surprising me a lot lately and is willing to try a lot of foods she would normally frown upon. She loves eggs she told me today, just not hard boiled..."Honestly mom....their disgusting!"
Ava had a blast running around and was so surprised to find money in some of her eggs.
The Easter Bunny even remembered Tim and brought him one of his favorite snacks! Mmmm.
Easter fun! Ethan would find a plastic egg and then open it to eat it rather than find more eggs. Later on that morning when we went to the school easter egg hunt he got the hang of it and was sure he was going to get the most eggs of everyone.
I think it took him 15 minutes to open the hard boiled egg and only 1 second to realize how much he disliked it!