Norah: Keepin' it real!

Tonight at dinner, Norah said to me, "You're real, Daddy." I'm not sure what she meant, but okay. Krys said, "Yeah, Daddy is keeping it real." Without missing a beat, Norah said, "I'm keeping it real, too."

I often tell Krys that we should have microphones all throughout the house, because then we would catch all these fun things Norah says that later we can't remember. But for now, Norah is keeping it real. That's good to know.

What's wrong with Mia's ear?

Beats me. Check it out:

You can see a small red mark on the top of her ear. I couldn't get any closer without my camera rebelling and refusing to focus, but it looks worse in real life. We're not sure what it is - it looks like she or someone else cut the skin with, say, a fingernail, because the wound is very small and not deep. The edges around it are raised a bit, indicating a scar, but we didn't notice it until Sunday, and her OT, who watched them on Saturday night while the wife and I saw a movie, didn't notice anything. She did notice the way her ear was shaped, though (it's a bit odd, if you can tell), so she was looking at her ear. Perhaps it was just too dark to see - it was night, and we don't have extremely bright lights in the living room. It doesn't seem to be bothering her, and I'm not worried about it, but it looks weird. I wonder what it could be?

Mia's hip saga: Still Not Over!

Yes, we thought we had moved beyond Mia's hip problems. We're foolish mortals, yes we are.

Her hip is still fine. At least there's that. But here's the problem: On Monday, 31 August, Mia went to bed fine. She had been doing well with her rehab, even walking a little bit with her PT, and we were getting her standing a lot more. However, sometime in the night of 31 August-1 September, something happened. We're not exactly sure what. She didn't cry out in pain during the night, or if we did, we didn't hear her. When she woke up in the morning her legs were really stiff, and she wasn't happy. Over the next two days she was extremely tight, to the point even when she was sitting, she would twitch a little and start crying. It was somewhat frustrating. Eventually, she started to calm down when she was sitting, but she still didn't want to straighten her legs out. After a week of this, I took her to her pediatrician just to eliminate the idea that she had an infection. She didn't have any infection, and her pediatrician worked on her hip for a little and she didn't scream in pain. He thought it was just that her muscles were really, really tight and she needed to stretch more. We still didn't know why her muscles would suddenly be so tight, but okay.

We continued to work on her muscles. I called her orthopedic surgeon and spoke to his nurse, who said that if there was something really wrong with her hip, she'd be getting worse and the pain would be more intense at night, but she was sleeping fine. So we kept stretching her. This week, however, her PT was working on her, and after an hour of stretching her, the muscle on the inside of her groin was still extremely tight. Her PT said that if it was just a case of her muscles being tight, stretching would work, but it's not. So I called the orthopedic surgeon back and got her in for an X-ray. Yay, X-rays!

Mia went in on Thursday for the X-ray. I'm still not sure what the deal is, because I have to e-mail the doctor to get his opinion. He told me what he thinks, but I don't want to get it wrong. On her right leg, there's a triangle coming from her femur toward her groin. He said it was a bone, but I don't understand how that wouldn't freak him out and get her into surgery right away. He said he'd have to compare it to her old X-rays, but he didn't think it was that big a deal. He told me we'd just have to "let it heal," and that he wanted her to come back in four weeks. I'm still not sure what's wrong with her. It's nothing major, obviously, because she doesn't need more surgery. He said we should keep stretching her, and whatever she can handle in therapy is fine, but we shouldn't push her too much.

She is getting better, but it's still tough picking her up and moving her around. We are once again putting on her leg braces at night to keep her legs straight, which she seems to appreciate, but she wasn't happy about the foam wedge that was keeping her legs apart. Her adductor muscles are so tight that separating her legs really bothers her, so we figure it's better to work on the adductors by stretching them in therapy rather than putting the wedge on. We hope we can put it on her soon, because it does a good job stretching her adductors. If only she would leave it alone instead of weeping when we put it on her.

So we're still working with her, and we're still in the dark as to what happened to her. Her PT thinks she may have been sleeping in an odd position (we had stopped putting the leg braces on because she didn't seem to need them) and had a seizure or muscle spasm and twisted an odd way. That's really the only thing we can think of, as it definitely happened when she was in bed and therefore not moving too much. We hope that it doesn't happen, again, obviously, whatever it was! But as long as her surgeon isn't too freaked out by it, we're not going to be. We just need to keep her loose and hope whatever is afflicting her heals and she begin rehabilitating in earnest. That would be nice.

Norah had a playdate!

Yes, this past Thursday (10 September), Norah had her first playdate. You might wonder why she's two months past her fourth birthday and hasn't had a playdate yet (well, you might). It's basically because her father has never made one for her, so she didn't know the concept even existed. She always seemed perfectly happy doing her thing, so I never went out of my way to set one up.

Then, last week, while she was at her swimming lesson, one of the boys that has been hanging out with her there for some time asked her if she wanted to have a playdate. So I set it up with his mother, and on Thursday, he came over with his dad. It was quite fun. Norah and Alex played inside for a while with her kitchen and her garage, and then they went in the pool for a while. His dad had to leave a little early for a business phone call, but we're planning on getting together again soon.

Norah cracks me up when it comes to kids her age. I don't know if she's typical or not in this regard. She tends to do her own thing and, if any kid comes over, she'll play with them. She doesn't really seek out kids too much. Mia's speech therapist asked if she hangs out more with girls or boys, as girls her age tend to play with other girls. She asked that because Norah keeps telling us about the two boys at school she plays with. Naturally, one is a "good guy" (her words) and the other often takes her toys. Ah, the classic good boy/bad boy dilemma! And now there's Alex. Where will he fit in???? Norah acts like an only child quite a bit (not surprisingly, I suppose), as she amuses herself very easily. I have seen her go up to kids and start playing with them, but I know it's more likely to be the other way around. Therefore, she doesn't care who she plays with - boy or girl, it's all good to her!

She was very excited about her playdate, and I hope she has fun with any others she might have. She's already stringing the boys along!

Mia turns seven; Dad struggles to catch up with pictures!

Mia turned seven on Sunday, 30 August. I'm a bit amazed that it's been seven years, but not as much as you might think. I mean, people get older, don't they? I'm not one of these people who sit there and think, "I can't believe she's not a baby anymore!" I watched her grow, didn't I? Kids are interesting because when you don't have them, you can't imagine what it's like. Well, I certainly didn't. That's why it's neat watching Mia and Norah grow up. Every day is something new and keen!

We had a party on her birthday, which doesn't often happen, as her birthday is usually closest to Labor Day and we have to have a party the week before in case people leave town. But this year we were able to have it on her birthday, which was neat. A few people said they were going to come but then didn't (what's up with that?), but a bunch of people came, including one of my friends who has three children younger than Mia (one by a month, but still) and another guest who has an 11-year-old and a 5-year-old, so there were enough kids there to keep it fun. Norah went in the pool with some of the other kids, Mia blew out her candles with some help from Norah (who, last year, was scared to death of candles, so that was progress), Mia refused to eat cake, and she got some nice presents. All was well! And here are the pictures to prove it!











And, just for fun, here are some pictures of Norah swimming, instead of just standing around in the pool:


Thanks to everyone who came to the party (that is, if any of you are reading). It's always fun to see people, mainly because we don't see them as often as we'd like (many of them live too far away). Mia had a great time, even if she didn't eat cake!