Long time no blog

In the last two weeks since I managed to write a post I have:

• had Hannah's first constraint cast removed, after 3 1/2 weeks and having only cried when people asked me about it if they were people I knew and who loved me but I never once cried to a stranger (this pleases me to no end)
• tears may have come to my eyes when my daughter clubbed me with the cast in my sore jaw
• finished getting ready for the iconic family trip to Disneyland in the minivan, six family members and my best friend, who I think will now no longer travel with my whole brood.  I'm going with her.
• had a tooth extracted ( I think when body parts are taken from you you should get paid, not the other way round)
• had some other guys' squashed up sand like bone and a titanium implant placed in the hole described above, having been told going out of town with my decayed tooth holding a a bridge was "ticking time bomb"
• gone to Disneyland with my family and my best friend, who is a Disney expert and who makes every trip more fun, even when my jaw was throbbing and I'd periodically find not two but three different child applied stains on my clothing in all the usual suspect areas representing food and other fluids roughly equally (I just did the laundry) and I still had a fantastic time
• had two sick kids at Disney (you should buy stock in Kroger grape flavor children's ibuprofen - just a little tip from me to you)
• did not divorce my husband or at least send him packing for a most aggravating incident
• took some lovely pictures of my kids at the beach, which was one of my goals and which the children obviously loved, and which was the source of the friction that made me want to divorce my husband and I think I'll just stop with that there and throw in a little pixie dust

• after pulling in last night around 3:00 a.m. the garage door worked well enough to let my friend's car out and let us park the van.  We put the kids in the bed, came back to get stuff and found the garage door would not open or close.  Since I would access back of the van through the back, this presented some difficulty.  We were held captive but I did get a lift to the store from my husband's ex-wife, then I got a ride home with my groceries from a dear friend who lives hear me, and when I got home the job was nearly done, so only $175 later we are now allowed to leave the house using our own vehicles. 
• After the last two weeks, putting a turkey in oven sounds easy

She said it, she finally said it!

My favorite PT, the Angel of PT as we call him, taught Hannah to say "I do!"   We can say "who loves butter?!?"  "I do!" she says.  Who loves Mama?  Who loves doggie?  " I do, I do!"

Tonight, during our nighttime cuddles while I put her to sleep, when she gets all generally squirmy and excited at first because she has her Mama's undivided attention and then snuggles happily into the breasts of comfort and joy, I said "I love you" and she repeated it.  She really did it.  It sounds like "I yuvyou" and it made my heart melt.
I love you too, honey.

Occupational therapy - constraint casting at three weeks

Halloween part two

This seems like old news but I can't stand skipping the pictures so here we go. If you noticed the Belle dresses on the girls at their costume parade party at school from the post last week, you might notice a lot of glitter. Did I mention there was a lot of glitter? Glitter doesn't really stick very well to fabric, but it is really effective on baby skin. In the time it took me to hold Hannah through the magic show, I must have gotten three glitter chunks in my right eye. Hannah's binky was covered in glitter, which was probably made by melamine eating slaves in China, and is likely to affect Hannah's future girl children in some horrific way. I knew that day that three days later it was likely the dresses would have some unfortunate accident that would cause them to be ruined (I thought it might involve tomato soup on Halloween, after trick or treating). Rain made Claire willing to change her plan and wear the candy costumes from our last parade entry, and Hannah likes to copy Claire so we went to a party and then trick or treating in other costumes. And some glitter turned up in my eyebrow, again.

Lord Honey beat me in the hands free donut eating contest. Because I love you, I will let you see this picture of me in half a convict costume, thinking that the donut will distract you from the size of my rack in that polyester, horizontally striped shirt.

The girls collected buckets of candy in a short time, Lord Honey carrying Hannah through the rain to save my neck and back.  I'm glad that one is behind me, and the dresses are out in the can.  I only "lost" them, in case they ask.  Whew.  Hey, is that glitter in your eye or are you crying?

Tulip, Welcome to Holland. Holland, meet Tulip.

We'd had some trouble getting Rocky to hold still once we changed dates/handlers. Our OT had us working more on developing protective movements such as getting one's arms out in front or to the side as necessary, and that was beneficial work, but since Rocky stopped stopping consistently, we weren't getting as much work done with grasping objects. So, we switched to Tulip, and lo and behold, yet another cute young man showed up to volunteer as the side walker. See the results for yourself.

Boys! Tasty! He is all mine.

She knows all her colors!

I can move objects with my mind! Er, um, right hand.



The walk of triumph.



Look out Holland, we have some tromping through your flowers to do.  Heh.