So crazy, but such a good heart

My husband's cousin Evan is preparing to go on a church mission to Ecuador. He is leaving for his language training in about a week or so.
Today was his farewell gathering. Bob had to work so I took the kids over to visit with him and see their aunt and uncle and all their cousins. Mormons=lots of cousins.

Another of Bob's cousins has two little girls, one around 3 the other maybe a few months older than Ben. Dylan of course zeroed in on the girls and only wanted to hang out with them. What can I say, he digs chicks.

At some point during the party, Dylan wandered over to me with a very sour look on his face. He explained to me that the girls had a penguin toy and he threw it into tall grass and now he couldn't find it and he had to find it for the girls.

I went to go help him find the penguin, but it was nowhere to be found.

I told him "Look, honey, I can't find that toy and the girls don't seem upset at all so I think it's going to be alright."

He sat down in the grass, hung his head in his hands and mumbled, "It's all my fault mom. It's all my fault."

"Honey, it's ok!" I tried to reassure him.

He just stood up, gave me a hug and said, "I just want to go home now."

Poor little lamb.

Unforeseen

Elizabeth was born with a ventricular septal defect...it was small, and apparently a pretty common birth defect. She got checked out by the cardiologist and we were advised to just keep a trained eye on that VSD and it would probably close on its own.
And it did. She's never had a moments trouble from that VSD.

She was born with another apparently relatively common birth defect too. Elizabeth has a cup ear.
Basically, the little triangular-ish flap of cartilage that is supposed to be standing in front of her ear hole is instead squished up against it. When she was born the nurses and doctors thought it was probably just swollen tissue from being all cramped up in the womb. But the ear never popped out the way it's supposed to have done.
Looking at her, you'd never know. She doesn't look like a freak or anything. It's just a little funny anomaly. It doesn't affect her hearing or anything. It's never been a problem at all....

Until Christmas.

My mom bought each of the big kids their own portable CD players. When Elizabeth got hers out and tried to put in the earbuds...one just wouldn't stay in her ear. The one on the side of what we call her "Crazy Ear"

Oh, my heart broke!
Not because she's not able to jam a tiny speaker into her ear, because most likely her ear will eventually grow bigger and she will be able to pollute her brain with whatever garbage music kids listen to in 2017 and wear those stupid Bluetooth headsets that make EVERYONE look douchey.

My heart was breaking because she just couldn't understand why her headphones wouldn't work. I told her to just hold it up to her ear, but she decided she'd rather share with her brother. So they sat next to each other on Dylan's bed and listened to her music. One ear bud in Elizabeth's non-crazy ear and one in Dylan's ear.

It was so precious.

I told her I'd figure out a way that she could wear both ear buds...but now I can't think of anything!
Suggestions?


ps: see in the pic how the middle of her ear and the little flap of skin closest to her cheek are sort of flat???

Just something I like

I found this gal on Etsy this morning and fell in love with the cute, funny, witty, whimsical prints she has for sale.
Her main site has an even larger selection...everything is super adorable. These are my personal faves...






Not to mention....Ninja Giraffe


I'm totally getting some for the kids' birthdays and Christmas presents...you should too!

My little man

Isn't he so freaking cute?

Here he IS!

It's Sawyer!