Birthday Movie

This video is really for Amy and Tom who both had birthdays this week.  Ava has been running around singing Happy Birthday at the top of her lungs for weeks now, but when I asked her to sing it for a real birthday...  "NO!"

Watch the vid, its really cute. Okay, maybe its just because she's mine... 

Avoidance

I have a ton of things that I am avoiding doing.  Consequently, I have crocheted a turtle for Taylor for Christmas, assembled one 2000 piece puzzle, crocheted three slouch hats, read numerous websites and listened to four books in the last two weeks.  I am not usually a procrastinator, and I remember why, but there are just a number of things that I have no motivation to accomplish right now.  

On a side note, I have crocheted for years, blankets mostly, so this was my first stuffed toy and hat.  Its addicting.  I am planning to make Monkeys for Ava and Wes for Christmas too.  I make a blanket for Liv already, it has a Firefly on it.  

Wow, how random was that?

Happy Birthday

Tonight I will video tape Ava singing you both Happy  Birthday, it is her favorite song, and she sings it every day.  She will be excited tonight to have a reason to sing it!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Amy, and my brother in law, Tom!

IEP

Tonight we sat for Taylor's annual IEP... all I can say is ugh.  

We didn't come to a conclusion on his services for the coming year, and we will have to go back to reconvene the meeting... ugh. 

Sometimes I sit back and think about all the things that poor kid has been through, and I say to myself, "Look at how far he has come.  He is so darned normal!" Then I sit through one of these meetings, where it is necessary to point out all the tiny flaws, and my imperfect little monster re-emerges.  I wonder how different our education system would be if we treated every child in this manner. 

Orthotics

Yesterday Wes was fitted for new orthotics.  He will also get a new Spio suit when his new orthotics are in.  I hope that all of this will make him even more steady when he walks.  I admit that he is doing well even without them, but I dare to imagine that he will do even better when he has them.  

While the orthotist was here, he also took a look at Taylor's orthotics.  Taylor has been fighting wearing them recently, so I thought maybe after a year they were not fitting right anymore.  He thought they looked fine, but did modify them a little to give T a little bit more room in the ankles.  

One week post op, I have a cold.  A nasty awful cold that is making me loose sleep at night and feel crapy all day.  The coughing and hacking really does make my incision sore, but I haven't been able to stop it.  Otherwise, I'm recovering well. 

Bike Ride

Yesterday after putting up the decorations, Jon took the kids for a walk.  Taylor and Liv have finally discovered a passion for learning how to ride their bikes.  This after years of disinterest.  So they rode while Jon walked with Ava and Wes, in the wagon, I assume.  Taylor made it about a city block before deciding that it was "too hard".  Jon told me he walked the bike the rest of the way. 

I'm watching my neighbors mow their lawn... so weird in the second week in November...  

Christmas?

Christmas is coming... though not as quickly as Taylor and Livi would like.  This morning they helped Jon put our Christmas lights up.  I like to get that done while the weather is still ok, though we don't turn them on until after Thanksgiving.  I'm not really sure they understood that caveat, but they will. Jon also cut down our tall grass, a plant I put in our front garden four years ago.  The plant said that it would grow a couple feet tall... well, it grew over my head this year...  It is really pretty though, and lots of neighbors and friends have commented about it.  It needs to be cut down each year though.  Anyway, we have enjoyed a really mild fall, but after the snow last week, we decided to get our butts in gear and get the last of the winterizing done.  T&A assumed that the snow meant that Christmas had come, poor kids...  

My recovery is coming along.  I have developed a nasty cold, it makes my chest hurt when I breath and my nose has been running/sneezing almost constantly.  Ugh.  It is probably my turn though, all the kids have had one already, and Jon too...  It just makes my incision sore, so I have walking around with a pillow to brace my abdomen when I have to cough or sneeze.  I think my bladder is finally recovering too...  for the first several days it acted like I still had a catheter. I would go to the bathroom and it would trickle out for like five minutes... all day long.  But I noticed that I could go longer in between trips yesterday, so I definitely think its getting better.  The incision over the scar is the one troubling me the most.  I tend to think if that hadn't been the case, I would be good to go already.  Alas...

Family time

Love having the ability to do this!

Friday

Wes has been making some really nice progress, developmentally speaking.  He is mimicking entire sentences... this morning he was copying the other kids who were making knock knock jokes.  Wes' version became completely garbled after "knock knock". Yet I am pretty sure I heard a "whose there".  He is using words a little more.  He will say hungry and sign it.  More and all done... but these are usually said after someone else has said them, so I sometimes wonder if he is more or less just mimicking some more. 

Wes is a walker. I posted some vids, but they are not the best.  Usually he does this in low light situations, I think he knows what makes a good/bad video environment.  He falls a lot, and at least at home, he still gets pretty upset about it... but as far as I can tell its not because he is hurt or anything, he just really wants the attention.  I love that he has finally found a use for walking.  The only trouble is that he generally does not want any help, and he definitely does not want anyone to tell him which way to go.  Its like he knows that he has that independence now, and he has waited for it forever...  I love watching him chase after his brother and sisters, who are obviously more adept at running/walking.  I just love that he wants to be with them doing whatever naughty thing they are. 

Eating... its coming.  SLOWLY.  Finally got most of the angry fits out of him, and we are not using the grinder at all at home.  But we do have to over cook his food and be very considerate about what foods we are feeding him.  Still, he ate french toast, and nearly climbed over the table to steal a whole chicken leg from Jon!  Love the motivation!

Day 3

I took this photo of Liv when we were at the Building for kids.  The exhibit is about recycling, and using news paper and compost for rabbits and gardens.  Livi thought it was more fun to climb into the bunny cage...  I feel a little bit like I'm in there now.  I can't drive, doc's orders for another whole week... ugh...  Can't pick up my bambinos, this is probably the hardest part of the recovery, because they just don't really understand why I can't hold them.  They want to climb all over me, and I ended up going to our bedroom to lie down for a while until the kids went to bed.  Later in the day my scar started to sire and burn, that same awful prickly pain that started all this.  I hope this is normal, I just don't need the incisions to become infected on top of everything else.  I am behaving as good as I ever have after surgery.  I took a walk to the mailbox today, then I went right back in and rested.  I have a 2000 piece puzzle keeping me company during the day, and I started working on some crocheted christmas gifts for the kids.  But its a long time to sit alone, with little that I can actually do...

Day 2

Taylor spiked a high fever late last night.  So he and I spent the day home, sick.  We watch TV for a little while, then he colors and I build a puzzle.  Lunch was probably the most challenging time of the day.  He was so hungry, "more mom!"  Once I satiate him, he spends the rest of the afternoon playing.  Taylor defiantly has one setting, LOUD!  :O)  

I am feeling pretty good, though I got pretty tired toward the end of the day.  Around 2 I hit a big wall, and Taylor and I cuddled under a blanket and watched "Charlie Brown's Christmas" special while eating popcorn and watching the serene snow fall outside.  From inside my house, it was serene.  

Post Op 1

So after suffering under the influence of Dilauded, it took nearly 14 hours to get the headache it caused under control.  At 1am this morning, my perky night nurse woke me up, from what can hardly be called sleep.  My headache was finely manageable, still there, but not so bad.  She did her assessment, vitals, all that hospital stuff.  She informs me that she'll be waking me up again at 4, goodie.  Lets recap my "sleep": I woke up for surgery at 5 am on Monday morning.  I "slept" through the surgery, 8:30 ish to 10 ish.  I get the Dilauded around 11am...  instant headache, dizziness...  "sleep" restlessly four an hour or so, complain about the dizziness...  more restless "sleep" waking up every hour or so until 3 ish... NAUSEA...  Its five or so before the nausea starts to get under control.  Between 5 and 8 I "sleep" some more.  I hear everything though.  The nurses/aides coming in for vitals.  Jon playing on his iPad, my book playing on my phone.  Jon leaves at 8 ish, and my nurse decides that its time to get me up.  I have been trying to sit up all afternoon, without much success.  So its impressive that I am up and walking within a few hours.  Around 10:30 she helps me back in bed to "sleep".  

My head is pounding from all activity, and I ask for drugs.  It takes her nearly two hours to bring something, and I have to admit that I am not at all excited about IV Tordal.  The first dose burned like hell in my hand.  This one went better, she pushed it real slow.  But maybe its just that I am super exhausted.  I have the Monday Night football game playing on the TV, but watching it makes my head spin.  At 11:10 I turn off the TV and listen to the IV pump for an hour or so.  These pumps are the loudest pumps I have ever heard.  It sounds like a car engine next to the bed...  I decide to argue about the SCDs on my legs and ignore the IV pump.  Eventually I convince her to take them off.  I threaten to do it myself, I know what my rights are.  At least now, my knees don't feel like they are being torqued in directions they are not meant to go.  

I "sleep" for an hour or so, and there is madam perky.  I guess it is better than having a crabby evening nurse.  So I won't complain about it.  I fall asleep again sometime after 1:30am.  Around 4 I'm awakened by a sudden awful pain in my abdomen, gas.  I decided to put on my light and let the nurse know that I am already awake, so she might as well come in and do whatever she needs to. 

I rest a half hour here and there from 5 ish (with the catheter finally out) until the doctor arrives around 8.  Then I take the fast track out of there.  By 9, Jon and I are headed out into the pouring rain.  I spend most of the day on the couch, "sleeping".  

S day

Today Jon woke me up at 5am, ugh, I hate getting up early.  It wasn't as bad as it could have been though, since my body hasn't adjusted yet to daylight savings time...  It pretty much thought it was its normal up time...  His mom arrived a short time later, and we were off to the hospital.  I got checked in, and gowned up in one of those almost cloth paper gowns.  Poked, of course, and other wise prepped... dry erase marker to mark my mass.  Who cares, as long as it is gone when this is over... 

I rolled of to surgery, and forgot how cold it is in that department.  It didn't take long for them to hook up this nifty vacuum thing that made my paper gown all warm.  Then I was breathing oxygen, and out.

Next thing I knew I was in recovery, wiping my head around.  Damn I hate that feeling of not know what is going on.  It wasn't too long and they were wisking me off to my room.  I heard them comment that they couldn't find my husband... I figured his dad found him, and they would find us shortly.  Half way down the hall I heard the evidence that confirmed my suspicion.  It was nice of him to stop by, sounded like it was his day off too.  

I just about got settled in that room and they were all about giving me some pain meds.  Good thing, it was pretty sore.  Dilauded. 

Let summarize and say that my body is NOT a fan.  

Dilauded made me nauseous, dizzy, diaphoretic... but did make me unable to feel my pain.  

I spent the rest of the day severely sick from these symptoms.  

NO SHOTS!

It would be an understatement to say that the kids didn't like the shots.  Taylor and Liv screamed before the needles even came out.  Liv let her body hang like dead weight, refusing to even be put up on the table.  It took, me, Jon and the nurse to get her up there and hold her down.  Taylor was basically the same.  Wes was happy to lay on the table, and reacted more typically, about five seconds after the need was already out.  Ava was the shocker... no tears at all.  If she was even scared, it was hard to tell.  She laid down, held my hand, and bounced right back up when it was over.  Super proud of her, my brave little bean.

Bumble Bee

Lil Walker

Wiggles

Shoo flu, I don't want you!

The kids are going to look worse than this once they realize that they are getting stuck tonight!  

Muscle Man!

Happy All Saints Day! (Why do I know this? Because at Marquette celebrating saints meant another day out of classes... see I did get an education!)

Ava sings, sort of

Happy Halloween!