Little Mary-Margaret (Trisomy 18) is one week old

Mary-Margaret

Recently I mentioned in a post that I was in contact with a mom who was pregnant with a baby girl with Trisomy 18, and she had received one of the angel boxes we made and donated to UNC Hospital.

I am delighted that little Mary-Margaret is one week old today!  She was born via a scheduled c-section at 37.5 weeks gestation.  She weighed 3 lbs. 6 oz.  Miss Mary-Margaret needed the CPAP to help with breathing for a few hours after birth, but then came off that and has been breathing well on her own ever since.  She has an NG tube for feeding.

In spite of doctors continuing their typical Trisomy 18 warning -she'll die within a few days - she is doing just fine and is making plans to leave the NICU and go home very soon.

Mary Margaret

Making it to two weeks old is a milestone for Trisomy 18 babies.  Then 2 months is the next marker.  Then 6 months, etc.  (Of course we count the days, celebrate the weeks, and every month.)

Please pray with me that little Mary-Margaret lives for a long time!

You'll noticed that Mary-Margaret has her hands lightly clenched in these pictures, typical of a baby with Trisomy 18.  But I have seen pictures of Mary-Margaret where she has her hands opened normally.

I remember Lilly's hands were purplish when she was born because she clenched hers shut so hard.  They remained super tight for quite some time.  My second blogpost I wrote showed how we stuffed cottonballs in her hands to try and help her open them a little.

Lilly clenching cottonballs

Like many children with Trisomy 18, Lilly eventually got hand splints to help hold her hands open.  I called them her "boxing gloves" and she wore them at night:

Lilly modeling her "boxing gloves" the day she got them

Jumping from a Lilly flashback up to Solomon, I wrote in a post last week that his lead levels had come back elevated again.  We had follow up testing done at LabCorp where they checked for lead at a deeper level.  (Cellular level.)  Thankfully that test came back much better, showing a level of only 3.0.  Which means lead is not a concern for him now after all.  Thank you God!  :)

Solomon matching farm animal cards

I was thinking about the 3 children pictured in this post today: Mary-Margaret, Lilly, and Solomon.  All are different and all have similarities.  All created perfectly by God, for His purpose.

“(13) For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
(14) I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
(15) My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
(16) Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.” - Psalm 139:13-16

I HEARD a HERD of goats

Earlier this month, our goats had a fun surprise.

Our goats (left to right): Nutmeg, Pippi, Christa

They got to have a goat family reunion out in our goat pen.  The L. family brought their goats over for us to take care of while they were out of town.  The goats really enjoyed it as it was a big family reunion for them.

Christa got to see her daughter Daisy and meet her new granddaughter Buttercup:

Nutmeg, Buttercup, Daisy

Nutmeg liked butting heads with Buttercup, all in fun:

Nutmeg & Buttercup

Nutmeg got to see her sister Cloves.  She found out she was also an aunt.  Their Spice Girl family had grown as Cloves had two babies - Coriander and Cocoa.

Cocoa, Coriander, Cloves, Nutmeg, and Buttercup(in back)

I especially enjoyed having the baby goats.  They were fun to watch.  Buttercup was fascinated by Solomon for some reason.  The L family's goats wore bells which made a neat sound.  Whenever we'd bring them some shrubbery to eat, they'd all run towards us and the sound of all those hooves running was just cool.  :)

When the goats when back home, our goats seemed to really miss them!

The above pictures did not turn out very good at all.  The sun was too bright for my camera I guess.  I am not having an easy time with the camera I bought earlier this year.  Lighting, and motion, are my struggles with this camera. (I find many of the pictures I take of the kids turn out blurry - even if I try and focus first.)  I took this picture, right before the above goat pictures, and it turned out fine - I guess because the animals were in a shady part of the yard:

Sherlotta, Exhaust Pipe, Dixie.  Part of Tabby's flock of chickens.

I think the below picture of the guineas is funny.  I find them fascinating how they are ALWAYS together.  Amazingly they all seem to get along with each other.  Unlike people!  When they walk across the yard in this formation it reminds me of the old cowboy movies where the cowboys all lined up, ready for a gun fight.

On a different note, I am always coming up with ideas of things we can make to try and sell.  (I seriously need to open an Etsy shop soon!)  An idea I had recently was to make cinnamon scented pine cones.  I first shared the idea with Tabby.  She wanted nothing to do with it.  However Hunter was interested.  So he got busy collecting pine cones.  I found this recipe online how to make them.  We went outside and collected pine cones to try a batch.  Yummmmm .... they turned out wonderful.  Hunter sold two bags of them right away.

Then we advertised and within 2 days, Hunter had orders for 9 bags.  (We put 24 pine cones in each bag along with several cinnamon sticks.)  Sold for $5.00 a bag.  Bam!  Hunter made $55 in less than a week!

I gotta tell you though - that was a lot of pine cones!  :)

Today is Mesothelioma Awareness Day

Earlier this week, Solomon's lead levels were tested again.  Unfortunately, this time, they were back up.  To 5.3 which puts him back in the "we need to find out what is going on" stage.  This level is not dangerous - it would need to be much much higher for him to suffer brain damage.  But it was high enough that we had to go back to LabCorp a few days later for a re-test, at a deeper cellular level.  Assuming those results don't come back under 3.0, that means it's time to try and find the source again.  I am praying that the county worker with the "lead gun" will finally get motivated to come out and do the investigation for us.

But why?  Why does Solomon have an elevated lead level when Hunter was tested and does not?  They're both young and live in this house.  I've been continuing Solomon's detox.  But one thing I completely slacked off on since this summer is that I have not been damp mopping the floors every other day like I was.  Did this contribute?  Lord willing we will find out more soon.

What makes some people more susceptible to some things and not others?  Why did Lilly have that 3rd copy of the 18th chromosome but most other babies in the world don't?  God knows, but we haven't figured it out yet.

Recently I was contacted by a family who's mission is to spread awareness about Mesothelioma cancer. This is an aggressive cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, that affects the membrane lining of the lungs and abdomen. The family asked if I would write a blogpost sharing their story.  I was intrigued.  I have heard of people getting cancer from asbestos, but didn't know it was called Mesothelioma cancer and didn't know anything else about it.

Cameron, Lily, Heather

When Heather Von St. James was 36, she diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. ) She had been feeling really, really awful and had been losing 5-7 pounds a week.  Then she began to feel like a truck had parked on her chest and she couldn't breathe.  The diagnosis came only 3 months after she gave birth to a little baby girl named Lily Rose.  She was told she had about 15 months to live.  Thankfully she had good doctors and finally was able to have surgery.  One of her lungs was removed.

mother & daughter - still together

This happened 8 years ago.  Heather is incredibly fortunate to be a survivor and her daughter is so blessed to still have her mother.  With her husband Cameron, Heather seeks to share information about asbestos and mesothelioma.  Below are some things that I learned, from information they sent me.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral in the earth.  So it will always be here.  However, it sounds like we need to leave it alone and not use it, as it has been classified as a human carcinogen.  About 30 million pounds of asbestos are used in building materials each year in the United States.  It surrounds us as it is in many homes, schools, and buildings.

In spite of the 30 million pounds of asbestos still being used every year, that number is actually down.  Asbestos use was at its peak from the 1930s through late 1970s.  During that time it was also commonly used in over 3000 consumer products including toasters and hairdryers.

Mesothelioma is most commonly diagnosed in men between the ages of 50-70.  However it is on the rise among women.  Those with the highest probability of having asbestos related health problems are U.S. Navy veterans who served during World War II and the Korean war.

I find it strange that it takes so long for mesothelioma to surface - it is dormant in the body for 20-50 years after exposure to asbestos.

Heather's diagnosis was rather unusual since she was a young female.  But cases like hers are on the increase, due to second hand exposure.  When Heather was a little girl, she often put on her father's work jacket when she went outside.  Her dad worked in construction and would come home from work with drywall dust just coating his jacket.  So Heather's exposure to asbestos was second hand, through her father's jacket.  (Heather's dad died earlier this year, from kidney cancer.  Was it related to his work with asbestos?  Doctors don't know.)

Every year, between 2,500 - 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma.  On average, they are given 10 months to live.  This number seems" low," compared to the huge amount of people that must be exposed to it every day.  But why?  Why the 2,500-3,000?  Why not more?  Again doctors don't know.  I asked Heather for her opinion.  She replied:  "I imagine genetics play a huge part.  Amount of exposure, type of asbestos exposed to, etc etc ... Too many factors to weigh ..."

There is currently no cure.  In fact, it is tricky to even diagnose because it mimics so many other respiratory conditions.  Symptoms include: chest pain, chronic cough, effusions of the chest and abdomen, and the presence of blood in lung fluid.

However, once the mesothelioma diagnosis is confirmed, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery can help.  Heather's removal of her lung certainly helped her and she continues to feel great, 8 years after.  I think her obvious optimistic attitude and fighting spirit helped her too.

To learn more, here are a few links:

1) Heather's mesothelioma awareness website:  http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather/awareness/
Be sure to watch Heather's video of her story - this makes it all so real:  http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather/

2) Mesothelioma informational website, for patients and their families:  http://www.mesothelioma.com/mesothelioma/

3)  Direct link from the above site, about treatment: http://www.mesothelioma.com/treatment/

Heather says she and Lily are inseparable

I pray none of you reading this ever receive the mesothelioma diagnosis.  I'm sure many - if not most of us have been exposed to asbestos many, many times.  I am not sure but I seem to recall my dad saying he was exposed to it during his years of construction work in his youth.  I wonder about our wonderful old farmhouse we live in - it was rescued from it's dilapidated state and redone in the 1970s.  What about the stores we shop at, the offices we work at, the schools we attend, etc. etc.?

Of course we are not to live in fear.  But it is good to stay armed with information so that we can make wise decisions.  Just like with Lilly's 17 months of life.  I wish I had had more knowledge and wisdom about Trisomy 18 when she was born.  But I did the best I could and now, like Heather and her husband, our family seeks to spread awareness.

Thank you Heather and Cameron, for sharing your story with me and in turn, everyone reading this blog.  May God continue to bless you to touch many lives in your awareness work.

Continuing Montessori activities with Solomon

I love seeing pictures of activities other children are doing so that I can get ideas for things for us to do.  For example, Monday morning I printed out a photo from the blog "Tesha's Treasures" of some leaf art pictures her children did.  I think it will be a fun activity for us later this week as a part of nature study.

Because seeing other people's postings helps me, I am going to post more of Solomon's Montessori type activities below, in case they help give anyone else some ideas of things to try with their children.  (My first posting of a week of activities is here.)  These are all things we've worked on since my last post on them.

Practicing with wooden screws and a screwdriver.  The block of wood has holes in it for each of the screws:

Solomon liked this in spite of the fact that the screwdriver seems a bit big for him to work with it easily.  This is an activity he has repeated a lot.

Tossing bean bags into a laundry basket.  Throwing them from different positions:

Solomon really likes this and makes up his own variations, like throwing the beanbags into the trailer of his tractor.

Wooden puzzles.  One day I gave Solomon several wooden puzzles and he is enjoying them:

His favorite is a John Deere tractor puzzle.  No surprise!  We do have a couple puzzles that were a bit too advanced and frustrated him.  I put those away for now.  Challenge is good - but not TOO much of a challenge.  :)

I've noticed that flower arranging is a Montessori activity I frequently see.  I find that interesting for some reason.  I don't think I ever thought about flower arranging as a kid.  So one day when Hunter asked to gather and identify wildflowers for Nature Study, I thought that would be fun for Solomon to join us.  (He's usually napping during part of our school time.)  The boys hopped on their tractors and drove out to the road:

Our area is full of wild sunflowers growing along the roads:

Solomon just couldn't get the concept of picking flowers and leaving some stem.  Oh well.  When we got back to the house I gave him a little bowl of water and he floated his flowers in it.  We put the bowl of flowers where he sat at the table and he was just so proud of the flowers and pointed them out every time we sat down to eat.

I picked some flowers for my kitchen window sill.  I have a little booklet called Sparky's Guide to Roadside Flowers and it is a fantastic little book for identifying all those flowers you see along the sides of the road.  Nice color pictures - my kind of identification guide.

Magnets.  Hunter and I were doing experiments with a magnet set he has and Solomon was fascinated.  So the next day I put the magnet set on a tray for him and he stayed busy playing and experimenting a long time:

Pouring.  I gave Solomon two containers and he poured chick peas (garbanzo beans) back and forth:

Whenever he spilled some, he would carefully pick them up and put them back into the container.  (Another good thing about having the tray under where he's working - it kept the beans from going far.)  Solomon really really liked this activity and worked at it for a long time.

Then I blew it.  I said "You're doing such a good job pouring!   When you get really good you can practice pouring water."  Solomon's concentration was broken.  Then he started getting upset that he couldn't try pouring with water right then!

A big thing in the Montessori approach is to let the children work and focus and NOT to interrupt them!  It's sort of ironic that here in the U.S. parents are encouraged to be cheerleaders.  "Oh you're doing a great job!" "Keep it up!"  "Way to hang in there!" etc.  Yes that has it's place - to a certain degree.  But not when we're pestering or even falsely building them up.

Sort by colors.  Lately Solomon has become very interested in what color things are.  I have been in the habit of telling him colors of things throughout day.  (Ex.  "Please put the blue plate on the table.")  But since he keeps asking, I thought maybe some color sorting would help.  We're started with blue and green.  I found several blue objects and several green objects and showed him out to sort them on the colored foam.

It took him a few tries to get it right.  (And me wondering if he was color blind!)  But then he did it.  Then said "Again!" and put everything back and did it again.  And again and again ...  Finally he sorted the colors into little wooden bowls.

More broccoli taste testing and a fire!

Last Sunday I wrote about our taste testing experiment and how we started with broccoli.  This past week I made two more broccoli recipes for us to try.  The first, called "party pasta" was from the book which started all this for us, Getting to YUM: The Seven Secrets to Raising Eager Eaters by Karen LeBillon:

Party Pasta

Little bits of broccoli were mixed in with pasta and Parmesan cheese and a few more ingredients.  Tabby loved it.  Of course.  Hunter said "I don't care for it."  No surprise especially since he does not like pasta.  Frank had his straight, serious face and said it was better than the other broccoli recipes because the boring/plain pasta covered up the taste somewhat.  Solomon ate it OK.  I "did not care for it" either.

After last week's post I had a good half dozen people contact me to tell me they liked roasted or sauteed broccoli.  Cooked very crisp - almost blackened.  So yesterday I made roasted broccoli for supper: I tossed broccoli in olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.  I forgot to take a picture until everyone had been served, so that's why only a few little pieces are showing:

the remains of the roasted broccoli

The verdict?  Tabby "I love it!"  Hunter "I don't care for it."  Frank "The pasta dish was better."  Solomon ate a few pieces.  Me - I can not believe it - I actually really liked it!  I even went back in the kitchen and got those little remaining pieces on the pan.  And ... I am looking forward to eating it again.  What a major triumph - broccoli in a form that I like!

LOL - this must sound ridiculous to so many people.

The biggest excitement of the evening (to Hunter anyway) was when I went to get the food out of the oven.  I saw that the heating element was on fire.  I told Hunter, who was in the kitchen with me, that it was on fire. I turned off the oven.  The fire did not go out.  (Several inches of the heating element was smoldering - no flames. Yet.) I thought about the fire extinguisher, but Hunter knew exactly what to do "Turn off the switch in the fuse box!" he shouted and ran out of the kitchen.

I followed at his heels - he opened the box and I began scanning the labeled fuses.  I threw the switches of everything labeled kitchen and for the rooms around it.  The stove area stayed on.  (When our house was built in 1907, it was before electricity in homes out here.  So it was added later and the groupings in the fuse box are bizarre, in my opinion.)

I again tried turning off some more switches and the oven still remained on.  Hunter kept yelling "Turn off the main power switch!"  I hesitated.  That just sounded scary to turn off ALL the power!  But then Tabby hollared from the kitchen "There are BIG FLAMES now!"

OK - I turned off the main power switch.  We ran back to the kitchen.  The oven was finally off and the fire died down quickly.  Thank goodness it happened inside of a place made to get really hot!

Hunter led the supper prayer shortly after that and thanked God over and over in different ways that the fire did not hurt anyone or come out of the oven and that God helped him know just what to tell me to make it stop.  :)

So - I am afraid a new oven in on the "to buy" list for this week, even though it is not in the budget.  Just the week before, an appliance repair guy came out to see about replacing the thermostat on the oven but he said that it was so old he doubted the parts were still being made.

What I would love is one of these vintage looking, but new ovens:

from Google images

Of course it's way too expensive.  But I think it's really neat how there are a few companies out there that are either refurbishing antique appliances, or making new ones that look like old models.

When our house was built, the original owners had a huge cook stove in the corner of the kitchen.  The fireplace chimney is still on the other side of the wall.  I wonder what it was like to cook on something like that.

Wedding dresses turned into burial garments

Monday was Solomon's 2nd birthday.  He was born 9 months - to the day - that Lilly died.  I am so grateful for these 2 years of healing and joy he has brought.

Last year, I posted about the "angel burial pouches" I made, to go in our "angel box" donations to the hospital.  In the burial pouch post, I gave step-by-step instructions with photos on how I made them.  Recently I received a comment from a woman who had sadly given birth to a stillborn son at full term.  She joined a hospital charity and decided to make the burial pouches.  She used my instructions to do so and said the result was great.  She also mentioned that another woman in the charity group had had a little girl named Myla born with Trisomy 18.  She lived one day.

Earlier this week, my mom forwarded me an e-mail from someone that mentioned she was getting rid of her wedding dress and had gone online to see where she might donate it.  She found an organization that turned wedding dresses into burial dresses.  I had heard about that from my sister-in-law Nikki awhile back and I forgot to mention it here.  (At least I think so! I couldn't find a post about it.)

Anyway, I think it is a wonderful idea.  I did an online search and found a group called "The Mary Madeline Project" that does this.  From their website, here is there mission statement:

It is the purpose of the Mary Madeline Project to provide comfort and support to grieving families that have suffered the death of a baby. It was founded in memory of Madeline Marie Erickson who died at seven weeks of age and in honor of all the babies before and after her that have touched our lives. We are a non-profit organization that donates infant / baby burial gowns and blankets to  hospitals for bereaving  parents.  Women donate their cherished wedding gowns to the project and volunteers give of their time, talents and love by making the baby burial gowns and blankets.

It is very difficult to shop for a baby burial garment when a baby dies. For premature babies, it is often difficult to find something small enough. The baby burial gowns and blankets are given to Neonatal Intensive Care Units for babies who die in the neonatal period.  They are also given to labor and delivery units for stillbirths.

I was curious about Madeline's story.  She lived 7 weeks and had glycogen storage disease.  You can read her story here.  Here is a picture of her, from the website:

The Mary Madeline Project website has a bunch of the burial outfits they have made at this link.  I copied the below pictures of burial outfits, all from that page, to show you examples:

The blue portion was made with a prom/bridesmaid dress

I just noticed on the "To Contribute or Help" page that they are unable to accept any dresses at this time.  So I just went online again and found the original group I had heard about earlier this year.  It is a group from Texas called NICU Helping Hands.  A newspaper article about their work is here.  Here is a sample of a gorgeous dress from their website:

You can help NICU Helping Hands by donating a dress, money, or your sewing skills.  You can get all the details here on their FAQ page.

Well I know that burial gowns isn't the most cheerful topic.  But it IS important.  As I have written here several times, I am so very thankful that I already had a beautiful dress that I could bury Lilly in when she died.  Going shopping to find "the perfect dress" would have been just about impossible for me to handle.  I love groups like the above two and what they are doing.  One day when I have more time, I would like to do something on a big scale like that too.  In the meantime, I'll just do little projects here and there as I can.

Taste testing: broccoli

When I was growing up, we had at least one vegetable every night for supper.  Unfortunately I did not, and still do not, like many vegetables.  And I am embarrassed to say, that even at my age, I still involuntarily gag trying to eat some veggies.  I think it was in the 1980s that broccoli was put on the "anti-cancer diet."  My mom, a big broccoli fan, quickly fell in to the habit of feeding us broccoli several times a week.  Yuck.  If we kids dawdled too long over eating anything, we would be served a second helping.  We always had to clear our plates.  (And I bet my mom is reading this thinking "you don't have cancer do you!"  No mom I don't nor does any one else in our family.  Thanks to the broccoli??!!)

So last month, when I read Getting to YUM: The 7 Secretes of Raising Eager Eaters by Karen Le Billon, I was excited thinking "maybe I will finally learn to start liking more vegetables!"  Oh yeah, and I want my kids to eat them well.  (Tabby already does though.)  And ... for Frank to eat more too.  The author wrote, and used evidence, that repeated exposure to a food can help a person develop a taste for it.  Hmmm.  I was very skeptical when I read this because I've eat lots of "yucky foods" - besides broccoli - hundreds of times and still despise them.

However, she pointed out that when the French teach their children to like foods, they expose them to that particular food in many different forms.  Interesting.  Thinking back to my childhood I remember only eating broccoli cooked one way.  (Sometimes I was allowed to smother it with cheese, so maybe that counts as two ways.)

And, I reflected on an amazing broccoli experience I had earlier this year.  Tabby had asked me to make a recipe called "broccoli bites" from a cookbook I have called Effortless Read Food:  Taking the Kitchen Approach to Health by Wendi Michelle.  In this recipe, you mix sharp cheese with lightly steamed broccoli and them roll it into little balls and into a mixture of salt, Parmesan cheese, and breadcrumbs.  Fry in grape seed oil.  I forced myself to try one and was surprised.  IT WAS NOT BAD!

So I knew that I could tolerate a little bit of broccoli prepared at least one way. In Getting to YUM the author states broccoli is one of the "mildest green vegetables."  (Really?!)  I decided to start our experiment in taste testing with broccoli.  I would prepare it several different ways for several days.  I would use the recipes in Getting to Yum.  We would discuss what we liked and didn't like about it.  Life happened though, and we only had two recipes.  Two more to follow this week.

First I made "George's Broccoli Puree." I managed to eat several small bites without gagging.  Frank didn't say a word and had his serious face on as he ate.  Hunter tried it and said "I don't care for this."  Solomon ate half of his without protest.  Tabby smiled with the first bite and said "YUM!  I really like it!"  She was happy to get to finish up the boys bowls of puree.

George's Broccoli Puree

The next recipe we tried was called "Mollie's Enchanted Broccoli Rainforest."  (The author of the book said that it has been proven that people like things better when they like the name.)  It was a fun sounding name.  Reactions:  same as first night, though we thought it did taste a little better than the puree.  Tabby once again ate it smiling.

Mollie's Enchanted Broccoli Rainforest

Sigh.  I was hoping for fast results.  I know, I know, that was only two tries.  Two more coming this week.  Then after that, it is time for carrot taste testing.  I am determined to expand our eating horizons!  (I know any "foodies" reading this must be shaking their heads in bewilderment!)

I thought I would share one recipe - a non-broccoli one!- that I have been obsessed with this summer.  It is from the book Trim Healthy Mama by Serene Allison & Pearl Barrett.  It is called "Fat Stripping Frappa" and the author's describe it as a "creamy, icy, chocolately drink."  It reminds me of a fluffy Wendi's Frosty, but not as overly sweet.  It will fill you up for hours and is a great drink for losing weight.  I don't need to lose weight but am addicted to it anyway.  :)  The recipe is on pgs. 240-41 of the book, and I have re-written it below, using the amounts of everything I use:

1 - In blender, put in 1/2 c. of milk AND 1/2 c. of water (I use our goats' milk - the authors suggest almond milk).
2 - Add:  1 heaping Tbs. cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp. glucomamman powder, 2 pinches sea salt, 1 tsp. NuStevia Pure White Stevia Extract Powder [or Truvia], and a splash of vanilla.
3 - Blend well, then add about 20 ice cubes.  (It gets really thick - I use our Vitamix and use that push down thing that came with it to get things to mix when it's on).
4 - Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of plain whey protein powder and blend again.
5 - Pour into a quart sized jar and enjoy.  YUM ....

On a non-food related note, I bought Solomon his first pair of rubber boots last week.  It was so funny seeing him learning to walk in them. (They are up to his knees so I'm sure it felt weird!) He had lots of short practice sessions one morning and then by the afternoon was walking pretty well.  Now he gets so excited to put on his rubber boots when we go outside and put ours own.  When you live on a little farm like we do, you WANT to wear boots outside.  ;)