This is Elmo…
He is going to serve as William’s stunt double for today’s post. First, Elmo pushed the chair across the kitchen...
to the counter. Then, Elmo climbed up onto the chair…
After climbing onto the chair, Elmo climbed up onto the counter. AND STOOD UP.
Then, Mama had a nice little heart attack and got William Elmo off of the counter.
He wanted a sippy cup of apple juice and decided to try to get the cup himself. I may have to start putting bells on the kid’s shoes!!
So with all of the fun things that we were doing over the summer; I forgot to share some pretty important medical information regarding Prince William with all of you.
Are you sitting down?
Prepare yourself…
Are you ready?
Deep Breathes…
Drum Roll Please……..
Our Prince is feeding tube free!! It is gone, it is healed, it is super!
William had his g-tube removed on June 11, almost 3 years to the day of having it put in. He is doing well with his eating but we still have to give him two supplements a day to make sure he is getting all of his calories, vitamins etc. His supplements are carnation instant breakfast mixed in his soy milk, twice a day. He lost a pound after having it removed but has since gained it back. He is growing taller too!
People who we have told above having the tube removed are always curious about how they did it, so I will share…
The doctor took the mic-key button out by taking the water out of the balloon that kept it in place in his belly. Doing this left a hole in his belly, so the doctor put gauze over it and taped it up (about 3pm). We tried to avoid eating or drinking for a few hours because, well, it just came out. I know, gross. By the next morning, I took the gauze off and the hole was closed. Just like that! Easy as pie!!
To be honest, I was a nervous wreck before the doctor took it out, second guessing whether or not he could do without it. But I am so happy that it is gone. And honestly, if someone would have told me that William would not have his tube a year ago, I would have laughed in their face, he was just not eating well by mouth. Boy, what a difference a year makes!!
Now, don’t get me wrong…William still has some difficulties with eating. For example, he likes what he likes and will only eat what he likes! So we have pizza, a lot. He isn’t a fan of the vegetable variety and he isn’t a real meat eater either, because I am sure that hot dogs don’t really count as a meat. Ahem. But what we have found that works is dipping sauces! If it can be dipped in something, chances are he will try it!! So we go through a lot, a lot of ketchup and ranch dressing! And yes, he will dip green beans in ketchup, eeewww!!
So there you have it…the Prince is tube free! Woo Hoo!!
On Monday morning, bright and early, Caroline and I packed our things and headed for the train station!
This year Caroline decided that instead of having a party with her friends from school she wanted to go to the American Girl Place. So that is what we did!
When we booked our tickets for the train we realized that the train tracks were under maintenance between the St Louis station and the Springfield, IL station. Because of this, we could either ride a Greyhound bus from St Louis to Springfield or just drive to Springfield and catch the train there. We chose to drive to Springfield.
Waiting in the station…
Getting ready to board the train…
Very excitedly waiting for the train depart…
The train departed Springfield at 8:38am and arrived at Chicago’s Union Station at 12:20pm. Caroline really enjoyed the train.
When we arrived in Chicago we took a cab to our hotel. It was Caroline’s first taxi ride.
Once we checked in at the hotel and dropped our bags off, we did a little site seeing at the Hancock Building.
We went to the 95th floor observatory, the thought of it makes me nauseous, but I managed!
We could see the Navy Pier…
And other tall buildings…
They gave us headphones and little radio things and gave an overview of what you were looking at out of each window. Caroline kept getting mad because her headphones kept falling off…
We had fun seeing the skyline of Chicago!
After we left the Hancock building we crossed the street and went to a store that was right next door!
AMERICAN GIRL PLACE!!!
The girl could barely contain her excitement. She was going every which way and didn’t know what to look at first! It was funny!
Before the girl got her shop on, I surprised her with lunch at the cafe, where Molly joined us for lunch!
The cafe was the cutest! And Caroline loved every.single.minute.of.it!!
Our first course was cinnamon rolls, which were heavenly.
Then we had appetizers…
which I didn’t get a picture of! We had strawberries and cheese, soft pretzel balls with cheese in the middle and cucumber slices.
For our main course, I had a grilled chicken salad and Caroline had baked macaroni and cheese…
Then we had dessert! That is chocolate pudding in the flower pot, a flower shaped piece of cake and a butterfly sugar cookie.
All of the food was fabulous and it was such a fun, sweet experience for Caroline! After lunch, we did some shopping. Caroline had made a list of the things that she wanted before we left so she got out her list and picked out all of her things. She was spending her birthday money and I must say that she spent it wisely! On a side note: Caroline also chose to put a large part of her birthday money into her savings account too!
Back at the hotel she had to look at everything!!
She was so excited that she finally got her Molly doll!!
We were beat from our long day, so we decided to rent a movie and go to bed!
The next morning we got up and went to Dunkin’ Donuts, which was right around the corner from the hotel. Caroline loved the donut!!
After our breakfast, we walked to the Navy Pier. We stopped at the shore line and a nice woman offered to take our picture…
And then we made our way to the pier…
And we also stopped and took Caroline’s picture in front of the huge macaroni noodle!
We walked the pier and did some early Christmas shopping.
And then we rode this…
After all of that we walked back towards our hotel, stopped for lunch and did a little more shopping and site seeing.
Then we took another taxi ride to the train station for our ride home. Molly enjoyed people watching at the station…
Our train left Chicago at 5:15pm and we pulled into our driveway at 11pm. It was a fun time and Caroline is already talking about going back!!
We had a family party for Caroline today after her soccer game (which her team won, 7-0!). It was a nice party and Caroline was so happy to see everyone and play with her cousins.
We sang happy birthday and William got just as excited as when we sang it to him on his birthday!
Caroline helped me make the cake the day before, I think it turned out really good and it tasted wonderful!
She opened gifts and William was very interested.
She read every card out loud.
Mikkah was so excited about the gift that he got for “Taroline”. He picked it out all by himself (and he couldn’t keep a secret to save his life!!).
Aunt Marty came home from Indiana for the party! Caroline was so excited that Marcea and Dane (her boyfriend) came to the party.
After everyone left, Caroline and Josh got in the car and headed downtown to go the Blues game! They are there now and I am sure that they are having fun (Caroline’s favorite player, TJ Oshie is playing). The girl has had a long, fun day!
She blew out a candle with breakfast, lunch and dinner…
She had an owl cupcake…
She got some loot…
I let Caroline decide what she wanted to have for lunch and dinner for her birthday. She chose macaroni and cheese for lunch and chicken and dumplings for supper. After dinner we sang happy birthday for the third and final time of the day and then she opened her cards. She asked for money for her birthday because we are going to the American Girl store on Monday and she wanted some spending money…she was tickled pink!
Her face when she realized that she had enough money for the AG doll that she is wanting…
She had a good day…
Happy Birthday Sweet Caroline!!
It makes my heart skip a beat when I say it out loud…The girl is 7!
Happy Birthday Caroline!! You are an amazing, beautiful, smart, caring, compassionate and loving little girl. Mommy, Daddy and William are so proud of you!!
A short video of the Birthday Girl herself…
Yesterday the kids and I went to the St Louis Zoo with Caroline’s best friend from school, Alexa, her Mom and Sister. We had a beautiful day to enjoy walking around and seeing all of our animal friends.
All of the kids in front of the Penguin exhibit…
William waving to the penguin as it swam by…
All of the kids checking out Caroline’s favorite animal the Zebra… 
William checking out the lemurs…
William trying to touch a snake!
We had such a great day! We are looking forward to our next playdate with Alexa, Ally and Mrs. H!!
