In honor of it being award season and the Spare Tire Awards given out by my brother, Kip, after his cross country travels, here are the first ever hospital awards:
[caption id="attachment_2460" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="He looks surprisingly quiet right there. "]
[/caption]Loudest visitor: Ben, hands down. No contest.
Most fun had in hospital setting: Ben, hands down. No contest.
Most fun had in the hospital setting runner up: Karly, she can just make me laugh, she was my entertainment during Ellie's first surgery.
Greatest book recommendations/most delumptious (delicious + scrumptious) English Muffins: Sent from my aunt Suzanne. She is a former librarian and always gives me great book recommendations.
Most laid back: Thom. Couldn't have done it with Thom's courageous attitude and his absolute knowing that Ellie was receiving the very best care from the very best surgeon. I credit him and his attitude with making these surgeries and this hospital stay the easiest one yet.
Runner up for most poop in one sitting: Ellie Kennedy (so close to being the winner on that one!! Her aunt Susan would be so proud.) When the nurse came in to dump Ellie's "dump" from the commode, she said, "WOW!" But she told us the one little boy had filled the entire commode and she had given him an actual certificate to commemorate his accomplishment. We were so close.
Most informed: My sister, Susan (I discovered when my brother and I were in St. Louis and she actually knew more about our plans than we did even when Kip and I were physically in the same room...)
[caption id="attachment_2468" align="alignright" width="300" caption="How could this NOT be the most favorite part of his day??"]
[/caption]Most meals delivered: Janna (Janna planned on providing us with 5 weeks of meals and it has been such a relief to come home from a day at the hospital and just have our food already taken care of.)
Most visits: Brittany has been in the hospital almost every single day not only this visit but the hospital stay back in January.
Most surprising delivery: Laurie Schmidt, Ellie's occupational therapist from school, mailed a card and gift certificate for a restaurant near the hospital to the hospital. I don't think anyone has ever actually mailed us there and it was quite surprising and delightful.
Longest distance traveled: Betsy C. traveled from Chicago to attend the birthday celebrations. The day was that much better having her with us.
[caption id="attachment_2480" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Excellent Esther and her adorable children."]
[/caption]Most crayons delivered: Esther Kim (She scoured not only her house but her sister's house to deliver a huge container of crayons that kept Ellie occupied for an entire afternoon.)
Best texts: My brother Kirk keeps sending me inspirational/loving texts, just brightens my day.
Best at convincing me he was planning a surprise without doing anything at all: My brother Kip.
Best at thinking 40 degrees is a heat wave--Cynthia. (This award kinda cracks me up because my sister who lives in Memphis will say that if it is 40, they cannot possibly leave the house it is too cold. But when it got up to 40 here recently, Cynthia was concerned that the meal she wanted to drop off on our front porch would go bad if left out too long in the heat. Just funny how your perspective changes depending upon where you are.) Hard to come up with an award for Cynthia because she has done so much. She has made us delicious meals, wonderful chocolate chip cookies. She has offered to take Ben on playdates (with one actually happening b/c of our wacky schedule). She has visited with gifts. She even went to a Kevin Henkes book signing and had him sign a copy of his latest book for Ellie. AND she has loaned me maternity clothes.
[caption id="attachment_2481" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Jennifer and baby Alex join in our family fun!"]
[/caption]Best smell of springtime: Jennifer Wilkinson. Jennifer brought me a hyacinth plant for my birthday and as I type I can smell the wonderful springtime smell wafting toward me. In addition, she left work to pick us up this wonderful Chinese food close to her work the day of surgery numero uno. It was just a nice break in the day to have a visit from Jennifer AND to not have to think about what to eat.
Longest distance phone call: My mom from Malawi on the day of surgery.
Longest distance for crayons to travel: Grandma & Grandpa Kennedy. Those crayons traveled all the way from St.
[caption id="attachment_2477" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Bella and Sophia named me "Awesome Aunt" on my birthday."]
[/caption]Best rendition of the song "Happy Birthday": Kirk, Bella, Sophia, & Dariush rendition mostly because they called me "awesome aunt", but also because it was just so darn cute.
Best baker/conversation maker: Ms. Sue Zwart. Not only did Ms. Zwart (Ellie's special ed teacher last year) totally keep the conversation going and keep Ellie included in the room while she visited. But she brought home-made chocolate chip and frosted flower cookies. Made it so I could not wait to get to the hospital for more yummy delicious cookies!
Best silly jokes: Dan, Sara, Zach, Noah, Mia & Hannah.
Biggest football fan: My dad.
Looks best in the color orange: Ms. Mack, Ellie's third grade teacher looks stunning, simply stunning in the color orange. Of course this is not what I like the very best about her. I like that she brought me chocolates. Ok that is also not what I like the best about her. There are so many things I adore about Ms. Mack, but probably in the hospital setting with Ellie the thing I appreciated the most was how much genuine interest and attention she paid to Ellie. It's priceless.
Most courageous childcare offer: Lainie, although she already has 2 children at home under the age of 5, she offered to take Ben one day for a playdate. Wow. That's just about all I can say to that.
Best at not letting me cry by myself: Ms. Molly Petitt. The day before surgery, as I was picking Ellie up from school, I started getting emotional thinking about how I would not be doing that again for awhile. Even though it was a snowy or cloudy day, I had my big ol' sun glasses that cover half my face on. When I pulled up, Ms. Petitt and Ms. Latko were walking Ellie out to the car. When Molly saw that I was crying, she immediately grabbed me into a hug and started crying too. Ms. Latko did not realize I was crying and so was reporting on the day. But then when she realized that I was crying she joined right in.
Best at joining in on a group cry: Ms. Kendra Latko. Once she realized it was "have a good cry time", Ms. Latko did not leave us hanging out there on our own, but joined right in. I like that in a person.
Best car service: Chris & Kathy. When the red light went on in our car, it was Chris who came and delivered Ben & Thom to the hospital. Chris also had a playdate with Ben one afternoon to which Ben proclaimed that he wanted to go there the next day. PLUS they made sure our sidewalk was shoveled during snowstorms. PLUS they placed our trash cans out on trash day. But wait, there's more. They also made us a yummy lasagna.
Smallest teddy bear: Stephanie, super-duper school nurse, brought Ellie the tiniest teddy bear we had ever seen, it's like a teddy bear's teddy bear. So cute.
[caption id="attachment_2484" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="According to Ben, Juna is exactly what our baby will look like, but only if a girl of course."]
[/caption]Daughter most likely to be twins with our soon-to-be child (according to Ben): Lindsey & Gerald & Juna. Even though both Lindsay and Gerald are in school right now, Lindsey constantly offered to take Ben while Thom and I switched shifts at the hospital. Ben loved going over to their house and playing with their cats and "keeping Juna out of trouble" (although I am not totally sure how helpful he was at that.) Lindsey would text me to say what days she was available to watch Ben if I needed it.
[caption id="attachment_2461" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Izzy and Ben"]
[/caption]Most inspirational/coaching e-mails: Amy Riley. She rocks.
Best chicken naming--Izzy. Izzy really really wanted us to name our baby, "Daphne", like the girl in Scooby Doo. Since we already had a girl's name picked out, we used Daphne as one of our chicken's names (we have four babies in our basement right now if you were unaware. Imogene, Daphne, Tacky, & Blanche are their names. They are going through that awkward pubescent phase right now and should be producing eggs by the fall.)
Best at planning a playdate for Ben--Lesly. Izzy and her mom, Lesly took Ben on a playdate to Bounce U and for ice cream. I think Lesly realized that for Ben going on a playdate with one of Ellie's classmates would be just about the best thing that could happen to him (besides meeting a real live dinosaur or creating a robot or life sized train.)
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