Boom! It's June!

Mali ~

To say that we had a pretty eventful beginning to our summer is somewhat of an understatement. Swimming, lightning bugs, birthday parties, the Pride parade, and your long awaited bone graft surgery, as well as various other shenanigans that are par for the course for life as a Wilkinson. Let's jump in, shall we?

Suzy and Double G have become the best of friends lately

A couple posts I shared to Facebook...

On one particular weekend, you had two birthday parties. One for your friend Lucy, and the other for your friend Addi. You enjoyed both of them. Below are the pictures I snapped quickly from Addi's party at Glow Putt. Nothing beats a party under black lights!

With summer comes sandals and evidently you fell in love with a particular pair while out with Lao Lao. You loved them so much that you wanted to use your own piggy bank money to buy them. Here you are with all of your bills and many, many coins. I'm sure the cashier especially appreciated the coins.

orange and blue Nike swoosh sandals

you were so proud to not only buy these shoes for yourself
but also ask for them as they were on hold under your name
(you were feeling like a grown up for sure!)

on this particular day, we found out our local Kroger got those
mini carts for kids...so of course we had to go try them out!
(I didn't even need any groceries...ha ha)

we found some things to buy anyway and you insisted on
paying, pretending to be "mom", lead me out to the
car with your loaded cart, and...

then made me get in the backseat where you even
gave me that "mom look" in the rear-view mirror
(you are a riot, kid)

Pool day was up next. We figured we should at least get some swim time in before your surgery where you will likely have to stay out of the water for at least 3 weeks...a bummer to have that restriction in summer time. Setting all thoughts of surgery aside, we had a good time at the pool together!

not sure what's going on but you two look funny

We do have a video of you doing your latest impression. It's called "Crazy Crab" and had us laughing all afternoon. I wish I could get it uploaded but the quality is horrible when it getto YouTube. Just trust me when I tell you it's hilarious!

Daddy got one of these blob hammocks too...you and Kyndall
broke it in. it's super comfy!

a note you left for me in my car to remind me
to get gas...you are so thoughtful

And some more moments from life with Mali Moo Moo...

First lightning bug hunt of the season!!

apparently it's full contact lightning bug hunting?

and apparently it wore you out as well...fell asleep waiting
for me outside the bathroom door

And then there was the Pride parade. You were more excited about it this year than in years' past, so it was extra fun to don as much of our rainbow apparel as we could, even painting our faces! It also was more meaningful this year because less than a week earlier, a gay nightclub in Orlando was attacked by a horrible person with a gun where 49 people lost their lives and many more were injured. It was devastating to think that these people were targeted simply for being who they are. Showing our support, in spite of some safety concerns, was very important to us and what our family stands for. Fortunately, the parade went off without a hitch and seemed to be a record-breaking year as 500,000 people were in attendance. Half a million out to support the LGBTQIA+ community! That's pretty darn fantastic, right?

all ready to go, Daddy had to work (boo)

yep, that's a rainbow tutu on your mama

even Brutus came out to march
(and dance) with everyone!

his shirt says, "I didn't choose to be
gay, I got lucky!"

this picture and the next are of the tribute float
to the victims in Orlando

and Jeni's even passed out free pints of
ice cream as they marched by ~ score!

While Pride was definitely a highlight of our June, your bone graft surgery was the next big thing our family had to tackle. They essentially had to take some bone from your hip and insert it into your gumline to complete your jaw from where the cleft was and to form good bone so that your grown up tooth would have a good place to take hold when it came in over the next few years. Hopefully, this will be your last major surgery until your teenage years. In prepping for it, Daddy was asking you if you were nervous or scared, to which you replied that you were. You both talked about how Daddy had had surgeries last summer and that everything turned out ok with that. You then said, "Ok, you had surgery last summer, I'm having surgery this summer, and Mom can have surgery next summer." ...Umm...thanks, kiddo, but I think I'll pass. Ha ha!

You were so brave the entire time and only really got upset when they wanted to get you into a gown when we first got there and of course in those last few minutes when they had to actually take you into the operating room without Daddy and me. No amount of drugs could have chilled you out in that moment. But, speaking of drugs, they did give you some Versed to take the edge off just before surgery and let me just say that it was quite entertaining to watch you acting so loopy. We all had a good laugh, especially you. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

helping the nurse take your blood pressure
(while holding my hand)

Audrey Ayi has never missed any of your surgeries...
we are oh so lucky to have her in our lives!

the Versed is starting to kick in

oh yeah...you are feeling no worries now

and here we had to call in reinforcements because you were barely
able to keep your head up...it was flopping all over the place

part of your tribe, the ones who came to wait with and support
us before, during, and (pictured here) after your surgery
(Memaw, Papaw, Lao Lao, and Audrey)

here you are in the morning
(cheeks are starting to swell...poor chipmunk)

up and walking, hoping to get to
go home soon

Speaking of swelling, that first night home was a doozy. You ended up falling asleep on the couch and so Audrey and I went out on the front deck so we could chat without having to whisper around you. When we came back in an hour later, your face was so swollen that your skin was shiny, lips were misshapen, and we could barely see your left eye. It was jarring at first glance, especially because it had seemingly happened so quickly. Everyone told us the swelling would be worst on day 3 post op, but it was still a bit scary. When you woke up the next morning (Saturday and officially day 3), it was even worse and I got a little panicky. But, in spite of how it looked, you said it wasn't too painful so I just decided to ride it out. By Sunday morning, it was already getting a ton better. Thank goodness.

putting together a puzzle with Jenny who had
come over to spend time with the brave patient

trying to make you comfortable and get some fresh air
while you heal...makeshift bed in the front yard

A sweet moment I shared to help update everyone on how you were doing:

evidently the cats decided to take it easy and sleep together all day,
in solidarity with you being a bit couch ridden for a while

by Sunday evening (day 4 post op) you were clearly
starting to feel better because you'd roped me
into one of your silly imaginary games

Later that same week of your recovery, I knew you were feeling better so I decided to attend a fundraiser for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. The following picture is of some of the cards I bought while there...I just love each of these quotes. If there is one thing I'm a sucker for, it's a meaningful quote.

Also, with Daddy and I deciding that one of us needed to be with you at all times during that recovery week, we took shifts and I worked 6 to noon and Daddy worked 1 to 9 each day. Fortunately, because I took the morning shift, you and I had the afternoons to spend time together and do fun things, like the zoo!

our attempt at riding the carousel at the zoo...you still aren't
comfortable riding the horses yet. almost, but not quite.

Below is a random reflection I shared to, once again, update everyone on your progress (and share your silliness) with them.

recovery is hard work and clearly the zoo was a bit much for you

You were also very lucky to receive some cool packages from friends and family tof help cheer you up once home, which was so nice and thoughtful of them. Here is one in particular, from EB's mom (Anthea) whose support really helped us last summer when Daddy was in and out of the hospital all those times.

here's just some Snapchat silliness

And some more silliness as seen below...reflecting how much I appreciate the little things in life, like having random every day conversations with you and how lucky we are to have a crazy Daddy in our lives.

Anyway, I love you, Peaches.
Here's to continuing your healing and having a good summer together!
Love,
Mama