Recent doings - July

After horrid lurgys, and being at home with Snail pre-surgery, then having the surgery - Lolly and I have found ourselves with time to go out!  It's very strange.  But Snail is at her mother's, so weirdly after all the *emergency* of our past few weeks, we had basically 2 weeks off, with no Snail, no lurgys, and lovely fine winter weather.  She's back Friday.

Once I'd had a couple of days at home reeling around and feeling anxious, depressed, and weird, we've been off doing stuff.

We visited an awesome friend at her new home (yay!  Much closer to us!), and Lolly had her face painted.

Lolly - Face painting by her little friend, B.

We've been to the shops!  Lolly's lunch of choice when out is what we call "McSushi" - fries, a raw salmon sushi roll, all dipped in oodles of soy sauce.  

McSushi

 One night last week Lolly decided she was going to sleep in the toy basket.

The cute!!

 And when we can, we go visit Snail at her mother's.  Here we are, all buckled up ;)

Click, clack, front and back!

We've also been to playgroup, had Nanna and Pop over, and generally been enjoying a strange island of peace and quiet as much as we can.

Hospital time

So, this is what we've been doing the past few months...

As most of you know, Snail has cerebral palsy, and uses a wheelchair.  A lot of CP kids develop hip problems, mostly due to their lack of weight bearing in early development.  Your hips and femurs need walking and weight bearing to finish forming properly.  So a lot of kids with issues walking, and issues with muscle tone, end up with hip malformations which eventually leads to dislocations.

Which is just what happened to our Snail.

Over the past year, since an x-ray last August, we've known that Snail would need surgery.  Last August, her right hip was 40% subluxed (sitting incorrectly in the socket), early this year it was 80%.  A few weeks ago, we had a bad incident with her pain and when they did an x-ray at Emergency, her right hip was completely dislocated.

So, after living with that for several weeks, she had surgery 2 weeks ago.

Here is a simple link to what she had done.  She had a femoral varus derotation osteotomy on both sides (re-angling of the femoral head), and an acetabuloplasty on the hip socket (re-shaping the hip socket) on the right side.  Basically - it was an operation on both femurs, to reposition the head of the socket correctly, and to make sure her legs came out the same length after surgery (which is why they do the both sides at the same time).  She also had her right hip socket reconstructed into a more normal shape. 

It was, in the words of one of the registrars, a "big day out" in surgery.  One of her surgeons commented that it's pretty much the maximum amount of surgery they can do on a person, other than in a crash or something.  It was 4 hours, and took two surgeons. 

Towards the parent lounge, during surgery.

Surgery day was everything you might expect, horrible, torturous, awful.  And can I say there's nothing quite like having to spend the entire waiting time with your husband's ex-wife.  I'm sure she would say the same!  No way round it when we're all there waiting for Snail to get the awful thing done.

She looked AWFUL in recovery.  It was a shock.  You know that's what people are going to look like after surgery, but it's still horrible to see Snail go through it.  She was white as a sheet, with heaps of cords and lines everywhere.  She ended up having two transfusions.  For which we are so grateful for Australia's safe blood supply!  We're all going to donate blood in the next couple of weeks.  You should too: there are kids out there, like MY kid, who need it.

The first couple of days were predictably horrid, DinnerDad stayed at the hospital, I went up a lot as my Mum and Dad stayed a couple of days with Lolly (THANK YOU - you both rock!!).  She looked like death and was barely moving or awake.  She had a temperature, and part of her lung collapsed.  Both her legs are in these fabric splints, and hold a foam wedge in place so her hips can't move.  She had an epidural for four days.  They put a naso-gastric tube in as hospital and pain upset her eating and drinking, and she needed her regular oral epilepsy meds. So, you know, all that fun stuff.

By day four she was starting to perk up.  Truly amazing what our bodies can recover from, and so quickly.  She was more awake and interested in us all, and watching telly.  They got her chair organised, a reclining wheelchair as she can't sit at more than 45 degrees for several weeks.  We also have a hoist to do transfers, as she can't help with transfers and can't be moved much until 6 weeks afterwards.

This is day 4, trying out the reclining wheelchair and getting some sun!

Day 5 I think!  Watching Blue's Clues on her iPad and starting to look better!

The girls watching iPad telly :D

She went home after 8 days, back to her mothers for two weeks.  We'll do our catch up after that, and will have her here for a good while.  Can't wait, we miss her.

It's very strange to have a child go through this and not be with them (even if you aren't their "real" mother).  I feel for DinnerDad, it's been very hard on him not being with her, too.  Looking forward to having her here!!

Turtle tales

We can haz turtle.  In fact, we has haz turtle since we bought the house we're in!  Our place had a rather...unique wavy in-ground tank, in which our turtle, Squirtle (most common turtle name, EVAH!) resided since the people before us built this house in the early '90s.

Squirtle, and our giant goldfish (the fish has sadly gone to the pond in the sky).

Being an inherited creature, we didn't have a licence for him until very recently *gasp*.  That's right, our family was living on the edge, walking the line, practically criminal!!

Anyhoo, as part of our never ending renovations before we sell the house, we decided to knock out this paragon of eighties architecture. 

The old tank that was built in, complete with kid-proofing and kid.

Tres classy!

Cleaning it out on moving day.

Which involved re-homing Squirtle.  One 4ft tank and much hefting later, we have a temporary spot for him in our lounge room.  When the painting of the new bits of wall are done, he'll go in our doorway to greet the world.

New tank, precariously resting on a TV stand.

 

Catching all the feeder fish that lived in the old pond! Hours of fun...

Given how much fun he's had since we moved him into the new tank, I now feel like we'd been keeping him in some kind of turtle-torture cave for the past few years.  Still, he's out now, and loving it.

Turtle renovation: done!

Oh, extra bonus shot of our other fish tank.  You can't keep fish in with a turtle (unless they're big enough), the turtle will eat them!  As we learned to our shame...it was two fish-buying sessions and a lot of "where did those fish go!?" before we worked it out. 

So when the kid wants goldfish and guppies, you get a kids tank for them.  So we did.  

Stuff Lolly does: aged 4

Lolly is four and three months, and is all the awesomeness that is four! She's outspoken, engaging, friendly, stubborn, and fiery!  She loves to chat, and loves to have complicated things explained. 

Here are some recent gems:
- How do engines work?
- What are stars?
- Why does it rain?
- Why do we have hair?
- Why are some animals carnivores and some are herbivores?
- Why do those cars drive over there on that side of the road and we drive over here on this side?
- What is that bug and can we keep it as a pet?!

Lolly, being foolish :D

She is VERY interested in numbers and letters, both writing and reading, and does a lot of practice of both.

She's super-competent on my iPhone and iPad, and chooses mostly pre-school style games with adding, subtracting, matching, and letter/word recognition.  Her game play is more advanced now, she loves this kindy game (Teach Me: Kindergarten) where you answer questions for "coins" that you spend building an aquarium.  While part of me cringes at the *reward* thing, I actually think it's been positive for her "saving" for fish and accessories, and working out how many questions she has to do to get her next "thing."  She also watches a bit of telly on it, but not much, it's mostly games.

Bug, from Tickle Tap, by Lolly!

She's very oriented towards play with others, but also has very shy days, where if we go to the park with friends, it can take 45 minutes of sitting on my lap before she feels she can go play.  Once she does, she's totally fine and can't be dragged away by the proverbial wild horses.  I actually remember being very similar as a child, feeling painfully shy and unsure, but also very social and making new friends seemingly easily once I'd taken that painful first step.  It's hard to watch as a mother!

She's kind, but also feisty.  She speaks up for what she wants, and is willing to fight for it.  While this is, frankly, a pain in my parental arse at times, it's also one of the qualities I really wanted to give her as a parent, despite it's frequent inconveniences.

She's a fan of television, but in a moderate way.  It's a rare day she can sit through more than one episode of something without having to run off an play something else.  I use TV more than I am comfortable with at the moment, but we all have compromises.  While my ideal is no TV unless she request is (self-regulation), I all too often suggest it myself as I'm desperate for a break, or to get something else done.  As Lolly is kind of an only child (in a practical sense, with no siblings who can or will play with her, and some not present for a week at a time), and I don't live in a tribe filled with children who can fulfill her needs to learn and socialise, TV is all I can manage some days.  Watching favourites at the moment are Octonauts!, Play School, Mister Maker, Dinosaur Train (!!), and Blue's clues, with a bit of Diego thrown in.

Lolly is articulate, and awesome words at present includes the adorable 'oncentrate, "actually," and the less fabulous (but still hilarious) "shitbags!"  For extra effect, she calls me "knittingbags" when pissed off. "Bumhead" is also a favourite insult/term for Daddy.

Lolly and the various Alices

The other main part of her day at the moment is PETS.  She's always been oriented toward our animals, and this has just taken off over the past few months.  She now has pet fish (Gup A, Gup B (filter accident!), Alice and Alice), complete with snails (Alice and Pippin), pet hermit crabs (Alice, Little Alice, and Pinchy), and a keen interest in our turtle, Squirtle.  Nearly every day, she feeds them and looks after them.  Also, all of them are called Alice.  Hilarious.

What's this? A post...?!

Clearly *checks date stamps* it has been some time since my last blather here on Memo To Self.  Why?  Not sure!  We all fall out of the habit of blogging our lives at some point or another, and this, I am guessing, was one of my points.

Oh, and life got busy and shiz.

So here's post, with random life shots :D

Smash contemplates modes of transport, at the beach.

It has been quite remarkable how many things fell off my wagon since taking on a measly one day of work a week this semester!!  I teach a grand total of 3 contact hours (which is around 8-10 hours a week over the semester in prep, admin and marking), and have promptly stopped exercising and blogging.  I guess that's where I found the time!

Lolly swimming in freezing water on a recent weekend away :D

Well, assignments are back, and I'm on a short break until they have their exam, so I'm suddenly back.

At the movies for the Muppets!

We've had a whirlwind of a time these past 3 months, we've been renovating the house (some more) and plan to have it on the market in the next few weeks.  We've had bad hip news for the Snail, who needs a major hip reconstruction and repair, also in the next few weeks (now THAT sucks).  Lolly is well and truly four, and into all the things four year olds love, which is mostly awesome.  Smash had his school formal (!!) and has been busy with an assortment of grade 12 things, and mindless computering (the latter, probably not to the benefit of his final marks ;)).  I've been on a body transformation journey, and have switched to a paleo/primal mode of eating (not strict, yet!), together with exercise and strength training, and have been remarkably more well, more energy, and have shed 11 kilos I didn't need.  And Nanna and Pop have been away, making us all sad and miss them (no really, we're glad they're having a good time, sort of! xo).

Snail and Lolly have a hug at the ANZAC day parade.

More on all this exciting life stuff in future posts.

I miss you, bloggy interweb friends!  xo

Shitty cat is shitty, but this time with good cause.

I have eclectic tastes in books

I read a lot, in a range of things, and my current Goodreads recommendations, based on my Read shelf, includes:

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise,

The Stand, Stephen King (actually one of my favourite books), spinoff book, Captain Trips.

John Holt's How Children Learn

and

A World on Fire: Britian's Role in the American Civil War, Amanda Foreman.

It made me laugh a bit. 

My latest weaknesses have been in zombie literature, and crappy vampire books.  No, really.  





Check out my books on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/Selenegonecrazy

I have new kitchen friends

Thanks to my Grandma, and some money she was lovely enough to leave me, I have some new kitchen friends!

Meet Davros, my Thermomix!  And the as-yet-unnamed coffee machine of awesomeness!

See, they like each other...

My A-Y-U-C-O-A grinds beans and has twin thermoblocks.  I don't even know why, but am guessing it's awesome!

I *heart* you both, kitchen friends!