The Tooth

We have a tooth—an adult tooth.  My son told us he had something in his mouth and when we looked, we saw a tooth erupting.    The baby tooth doesn’t seem to be loose yet, but it’ll  come out shortly.    The adults were far more excited about the new tooth than my son is.

 
Wait, more information.   My son just came over to look at the picture of his tooth on my computer screen.   The baby tooth is apparently loose.

The Big Boy Update:  At dinner tonight we were asking my son if he was going to finish his food.   He got annoyed and said, “I’m full, I said that one hundred thirty times.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  It’s hard to know what my daughter sees.  Sometimes things are worse, sometimes they’re better.   She said for no particular reason the other day, “Mom!  My eye is better.  I can see from here!  Maybe Dr. Trese’s idea was better than I thought.”   On the other hand, her vision impairment teachers say her vision has decreased.

Running Happened:  I ran fifteen miles today in preparation for an early March park/trail marathon.   Nice run except for the half-hour we rain in cold rain.

Bali Hai

We have family visiting this weekend.   They’re looking at potential colleges for their daughter, my niece.    We were all in separate places today either meetings, college tours, school or real estate work, but came back together late afternoon in time to catch up and go out to dinner.  

Figuring out what we’re going to do for dinner is a daily discussion my husband and I have.   We don’t plan in advance unless we have dinner reservations with friends or family.   Today was no different.  We had family in town, but we didn’t have specific plans for dinner.

We threw out some ideas and then Nicole, my niece, asked if that Mongolian restaurant we went to years ago ever reopened?   It hadn’t—at that location, something the locals were disappointed about, but it had opened back up in a new location not that long ago.    I’d completely forgotten about it because it was off my radar for so long.  

We all went tonight and ate a lot of food.   There were potential plans for frozen yogurt after dinner but no one had the room to entertain dessert.   We need to go with my parents sometimes soon, they always loved the restaurant too.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was so happy to see his aunt, uncle and cousin today.   He went into the kitchen and made everyone a very nice snack, including three of his favorite things to eat.    He put them in bowls and then handed them out to everyone in the living room where we were chatting.   He was a little gentleman, serving us all and then sitting down to eat with us.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter knows she has a crown on one of her teeth.   I don’t know if she likes it or not.   Sometimes she thinks it’s her special silver tooth, but then she said to me the other day, “I wish my silver tooth was gone.”

Extra Napkins

We use white, cloth napkins at our house for mostly anything you can think of that you’d use a paper product for—with the exception of blowing your nose or things that happen in the “potty room”.    We have dozens of them in rotation in use all around the house.  

We bring food in from outside from time to time from ordering delivery, fast food or buying something at a restaurant and bringing it home.   Many of those transactions involve paper napkin products which make their way to our house in the paper and plastic bags with the food.  

Because we associate a thicker, sturdier cloth with napkin use at the house, even with fast food, we grab a cloth when we sit down to eat.   The result is a stack of napkins I keep thinking we’re going to use someday that only seem to grow in number.   This is what’s in our pantry now:

The Big Boy Update:  My son was exceptionally rude to his sister tonight when he didn’t get a small thing the way he wanted it from me.   He was sent to bed almost an hour early.   By bed, I meant he had to stay in his room.   I did come in when he’d calmed down and we had a very nice fifteen minutes of special time before bedtime.   Sometimes an attitude resetting is all it takes.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter brought home artwork she had made for my husband, son and me today.   They were pieces of paper glued onto larger pieces of paper.   The added, “handles” to each side so we could hold the artwork and look at the whole paper.

The Ice Ball

We were meant to have a lot of snow.   Possibly eight inches of snow.   But it didn’t happen.   We got maybe an inch-and-a-half of snow, but underneath that was an inch or more of sleet/freezing rain/ice junk that crunched under foot until it partially melted and then froze back as a block of ice.   It was treacherous for a while until it started melting.

The melting has taken a lot more time than I expected though.   We’ve been well above freezing for two days now and the amount of frozen stuff coverage is still significant.   I suppose if it were eight inches of snow I wouldn’t be surprised to see a decent bit still here.   It’s just the compactness of the frozen material that’s throwing me off.

This afternoon I was heading out in the car when I saw three children with a big red bucket on the front walkway.   They dumped it out and a huge block of ice came tumbling down.    I rolled down the window and asked what they had there.

They told me they had wanted to make a snow ball two days before but they couldn’t get one made with what was on the ground.   So they filled up a bucket with water and made a large ice ball instead.   It’s still well above freezing, but I think that ice ball is going to be on my driveway for another few days.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is hearing catch phrases and sprinkling them into his general conversation of late.   Just the other day I heard him yell out, “awesome saucesome!’   And then later, “oh yeah, complete success.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  One of my lifelong friends read here how my daughter wanted a “Mermaid Set”.   She messaged me asking for more details as she hadn’t gotten my daughter a Christmas present.    I consulted with my daughter to find out the mermaid had red hair and a green tail.    I further learned she was from “that movie I can see on the iPad”—which I figured out was The Little Mermaid.  Now it all made sense.    Today, thanks to a very kind gift from JoAnn, Ariel arrived.   There was a lot of dancing and jumping up and down, after which my daughter requested, “mom, can you take ‘mermaid set’ off my Christmas list now?”

Silly Putty Pulse Ox

No one ever wants their child to have to go through extensive medical procedures.   No one wants to see their child suffer.    And yet it happens.   In the case of my daughter, she’s not suffering in pain, she just can’t see.   She doesn’t seem to be overly bothered by the reduction in vision, she just asks for help when she needs it.   And she doesn’t even mind the medical parts—as long as we can make them fun for her.

We’ve had our trials on the medical front, most memorable were the months of immunosuppressant injections with the, “flushing toilet” IV she hated.    Now we just have OR visits with or without surgeries and lots of drops—lots and lots of drops.    My daughter seems to cope with all of it fairly well, considering everything.

Sometimes she brings forward something that’s cute and yet tragic at the same time though.   Tonight I was drying her hair—something I do after every bath night.   She is fine with the drying, as long as there is something to entertain her while I’m brushing her billowing hair around.    We’ve done all sorts of things but tonight she made a request for “putty” otherwise known as Silly Putty.

While I dried her hair she made all manner of things.   As I was finishing up, putting the final bows in her hair for the morning, she said, “look mom, it’s the oxygen thing for my finger”.    She had made a cover for her index finger out of the Silly Putty, mimicking the shape of the Pulse Ox meter they put on you before and after each OR visit.

The Big Boy Update:  My son had another one of those evenings where he wasn’t going to eat anything ever again.   He was upset because dad’s homemade pizza didn’t have pepperoni on it.   This just wouldn’t do.   He agonized.    He was almost sick.   He came up with twelve other reasons (at least) why the single piece of non-pepperoni pizza was untenable to him.    We didn’t budge.   He eventually ate it.    This is the second, and likely not the last of the food battles we’ll go through with my son.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When my daughter and husband were in the plane yesterday, about to take off, she had her headphones and iPad playing.    When the plane started to accelerate she suddenly put the iPad down and said to dad, “oh, this is the best part about flying”.    I have to say, I quite agree.

Cutting It Close

My daughter had an EUA today in Detroit.   We didn’t expect to learn much new, only if things were maintaining from the surgery she had last month.   I don’t have an update yet, mostly because the EUA ran so late that my husband and daughter dashed off to the airport once she woke up from the brief, fifteen minute anesthesia from the evaluation.  Hopefully they’ll make their flight in time.

I did talk to my husband and it didn’t sound like there was anything unexpected.   I’ll update here tomorrow with anything else of note.   For now, I’m hoping the roads have cleared reasonably so I can get to the airport tonight to pick them up.

The Big Boy Update:  I was working on the computer here, just now, doing this and that when my son came to the basement.   He came over to me and said, “mom, can you hack computers?”  I’m not telling you what I answered…

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was in the pre-op room this morning in Detroit while I was at the grocery store here, getting some supplies.   I asked my husband to update the list with anything we needed.   In addition to things I did expect to see, there were several things clearly added by my daughter.   “A real baby” made me laugh so much I sent a picture of a baby to my husband via text, asking if that’s what she was looking for.   He responded back, “she said that’s what she wants.”   Unfortunately the store sold out of them before I could get one in my cart.

Below Freezing

The “not snow” has been fun for our children and their friends.   The last bit of precipitation we got was about an inch-and-a-half of snow on top of the icy, sleety, freezing rain mess that came down for twelve hours.   The accumulation, while not appealing in any way to most adults was still, “snow” to the children and it was still fun.

They’ve spent a lot of time outside today and yesterday.   It’s not gotten warmer, it is much colder than the temperature when the precipitation started.   While some has melted on the black roads, a lot is still in place and is quite icy and as such, most things are cancelled or closed for tomorrow.

The Big Boy Update:   My son has told me, “the snow is freezing”.   We didn’t have a pair of snow boots to fit him so he had to wear his rain boots with multiple pair of socks.   He was warm everywhere else, but his feet did get cold enough to send him in.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and husband are in Detroit, missing the snow day off from school for an EUA one month after her latest surgery.   They’ll be home tomorrow night in time for school on Tuesday.