The livin' is easy.

We have been having a super fun-filled week!

PP had OT at Children's on Monday which went well. Tuesday was a home visit with the OT from school and our summer school teacher, Vicki. I had a lot of fun! The OT hadn't been to our house in a while and it was the first time meeting our summer school teacher so they told me how cute my house is and were amazed at how big PP is getting! We have been working on alternate forms of communication with PP lately, focusing mostly on using pictures. There is a neat acronym for this process, but I'm too lazy to go look at it right now! Vicki took pictures of PP's favorite things to make some special cards for me to use. She is proficient in this type of teaching, and the OT recently took a class to refresh/renew her knowledge about using pictures as language. I am surely not as knowledgeable as these two amazing women, so they are teaching me and PP at the same time! I'm excited about using pictures, because although PP is good at using sign language, she doesn't have enough coordination to accurately tell anyone exactly what she wants. She can use certain signs if you show her how to do them first (like 'help' or 'open') sort of defeating the purpose of her saying what she wants, but she mostly uses 'more' and 'yes' without prompting. Things can get confusing when you can only say 'more' and 'yes'!

The pictures will help PP to literally show me what she wants. Seeing it in black and white makes me realize how easy this sounds! We have been trying to get PP to use pictures for a very, very, very, very long time. It is not as easy as it sounds. The summer teacher had some new ideas for us tho, like making the pictures a certain size and only using pictures of particular things. I already have a bunch of pictures for PP: small ones, big ones, medium ones, just a couple of computer generated images, a whole bunch of real object images, velcro ones that stick to a corresponding piece of laminated paper, and a bunch more that I can't remember. Hopefully, Vicki can finally help us out and get the right combination of the style of picture that PP will respond to.

My big job in this is to push PP, as usual. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it! The nice thing about my job is that I get to play with kids all day! Wednesday was my reward for the week! I took PP to a splash pad by Lake Hiawatha. We met some friends from our ECFE class! The kids don't really play together, but I got in a few nice conversations with the parents. We had a great time! Chris got a blow up pool for me and PP to play in as well, so we have been making good use of that thing every day this week!

Thursday was ST at Children's. It didn't go so well because we had a bit of a rough morning. ST is still an iffy therapy for PP anyways. I bet it's hard for her due to her lacking ability to use speech and the abundance of ants in her pants. She would rather just run around the room, throw the toys around and eat snacks, but the therapist makes her sit down and look at things and touches her face. PP has to ask for every toy when it is being dangled in front of her face and if she doesn't ask for it, the therapist won't give it to her. She gets mad very quickly! Thursday was a 60 minute session; 30 minutes of tantrum and 30 minutes of pre-tantrum. Ugh. The therapist touches her mouth while she touches her own mouth and making 'M' or 'B' sounds. It works, sometimes, but PP just isn't a huge fan of ST. It is getting better though! When we first started this therapy, we had to switch rooms all the time. We ended up doing a couple sessions in a gym so PP could burn off steam. She used to always need  a snack to sit still, which isn't our goal for PP. Slowly but surely we have phased out the snack during ST, but I can tell when PP wants it. She gets mad about not getting snack also, making therapy really hard sometimes! We will get to a good place at ST someday, I hope.

Anyways, it's Friday. No more therapy til Monday, and no ST till next Thursday. Yay! We are gonna fully enjoy the weekend because we will get Papa Chris to partake in our adventures! Yay for family weekends! Yay yay yay!

Safe travels
XoX

Now, I'm even more badass.

I like to try to try a new thing every day. Some days it doesn't work out, so on a different day I might try two or even THREE new things to make up the difference. It helps me and PP stave off boredom! Today, I did two new things.

I started the day with a blunder. I woke up a bit late, and PP slept later than I did. I went downstairs to get some laundry. I was immediately reminded of an ongoing incident waiting for me in the dryer vent. Ominous scratches could be heard from tiny claws making a futile attempt to escape the abyss of my dryer. Oh crap. I really didn't want to deal with that at the time, or ever. So I left the basement, forgetting the clothes, but remembering what needed to be done to fix the problem the entire day. We were almost late for OT at Children's, but with my fancy driving we arrived exactly at 10AM. Little did I know, that at 9:20AM, I was supposed to be hearing a voicemail from Children's saying that our therapist was out of the office today. Our appointment was cancelled. As I picked the sleep from my eyes the front desk receptionist filled me in. I hardly look at my phone in the morning so it wasn't a surprise to me. I thought PP and I could go play at the park. Wrong.

When I got home I realized we were nearly out of wipes. Blah! So on our way to the store I decided to be all spontaneous and junk; I bought a giant sheet of plastic. I had some big plans in store for our day that were better than the park.

We got home and hung out for a bit. But, holy poop, it was hot out today and everything we did seemed to take much longer than I planned. My plastic sheet plans were foiled and had to wait for the afternoon. PP went down for her nap and I was all like, "Eff this...I'm taking a nap." So I did. It was lovely! Then we had to run some errands. When we got home I was super productive and got dinner ready a half hour early! I was really motivated to get this plastic sheet biz on the jump start.

Finally, it was plastic sheet time, my first new and exciting thing to try for the day. I laid it out on the lawn and then folded it in half. I duct taped the three sides together, like a plastic hot pocket. I kept a little space open for a hose to fit into one of the corners. I got the hose and some blue food dye and began to fill my plastic hot pocket with bright blue water. My intentions were to make a big, cool, water blob for PP and I to roll around on (thanks a million, Pinterest!). It was going to be like a big water bed and probably the coolest thing I have done in a while. The idea is fool-proof! This nonsense was going pretty smoothly until PP got bored. Yikes! This giant piece of plastic would take forever to fill up! The blob was only about half full when we ventured to the garage. We were gone for just a few minutes. The anticipation of having this giant squishy thing on the grass was becoming too much for me to handle. I picked PP up and ran back to the blob, only to see that it had rolled down the slight slope of the yard. There was my big, beautiful blob, reduced to nothing more than a wet and very dirty piece of plastic, dabbled in duct tape cuddled up next to the fence. I couldn't stop myself from saying, "You win again, gravity." and shaking my fist in the air. The hose was also spraying all over the yard, so to get everything under control I had to run into the shower of freezing cold water with PP so she wouldn't go running in the opposite direction. She was pissed. This giant blob was more difficult to handle than I thought it would be because there was still water inside. Tugging on it was like tugging on a sheet stuck under a boulder. During a brief fit of rage I ripped the dumb thing apart. Then it was done. Water was everywhere.

I sat in my lawn chair next to PP and we discussed what was to be done with the rest of our day. What other shenanigans could I get the two of us into?!

Going to the beach never fails, so I popped PP into the wagon with some snacks and our beach bag. Holy poop, it was hot out! We got to the beach and it was play time! I got some funny looks from people as I started to put wet sand all over PP as she shrieked in delight, but she liked it and it's good for her to get as much sensory feedback from her surroundings as possible. Yah, I buried her in some sand. No big deal.

We even kind of made a friend. She was a very curious 4 1/2 year old girl with a million questions. Her parents didn't even give a courtesy wave when I waved at them, but they seemed to be OK enough with me to entertain their daughter. I think she was so interested in us because we were the only ones in the water literally horsing around. She started horsing around as well, so we had a good time. I was spinning PP in circles, singing "Ring Around a Rosie" and taking a break closer to the shore now and then to bury PP in the sand. The little girl, Taylor, was right along with us. She also liked to show me the fancy things she could do in her life jacket. It was a really, really nice day at the beach! Our day seemed to be on the upswing!

We got home just in time for bath and bed. PP went down without a hitch, thank you beach! Chris finally got home and he made us some cheeseburgers. As the two of us sat on the porch eating and discussing our day I brought up the situation waiting for us in the dryer. We tossed ideas back and forth on how to free the animal, but it was obvious neither one of us wanted to do anything. It's so gross.

If this little bugger was still alive I would have to catch it and probably end up killing it in the process. If it was dead in the dryer, I would have to fish out a dead animal from the dryer. A complete lose-lose situation.

We went downstairs to take a hard look at what we were dealing with and decided a piece of cardboard and a garbage bag were the two best tools for the job. We rattled the tubing around a bit to see if it was still alive and there were no signs of life or death. There was nothing! Thanks? I wasn't sure. We took the tubing apart and found nothing. UGH! I knew there was something in that damn dryer, and not seeing anything in the tubing meant the stupid animal had probably chewed it's way somewhere deep inside the actual dryer. The only feasible option seemed to be to turn the dryer on, since the thing was obviously dead. We hoped it would get sucked back into the tubing. Sure enough, when we turned on our death machine we heard the banging of a little animal carcass. I was about to pull my hair out! After that, there were still no signs of an animal inside the tubing. We turned the dryer on it's face and decided that taking the back off was the best solution. As Chris went upstairs to get some tools, I thought it would be a lark if I shook the tubing once more. I wasn't expecting anything to happen, and this is the second new thing I did today. I acted on an impulse in a situation that could take a very terrifying turn. Immediately after I did, I wished I hadn't, because a freshly deceased chipmunk fell onto the ground and my eyeballs almost popped out of my head. I screamed and ran upstairs. At least we didn't have to take the dryer apart.

Mind you, I have seen horrendous things in my life. As a CNA in a nursing home I helped nurses dress subcutaneous ulcers on a coccyx so deep that you could hide a wine cork in them. I have seen nightmarish staph infections. Improperly healed knee replacements which grow superficial pustules that ooze green madness and need to be dressed every other hour. Poop, pee, vomit, injuries beyond your wildest dreams. I've handled dead bodies.

I'm certainly not a wiener, but I have limits.

This chipmunk was hardly even dead, but it scared the shit out of me. I don't dig on bugs or rodents or anything like that.

Chris knows this about me because he has seen it first hand. These things are not something I go parading around telling anyone about, except for right now. Hah! So, being a smart ass, he says that I am the one who has to pick it up. I made a good case as to why I couldn't, but seeing that stupid chipmunk laying dead on the floor was a bit too much for me. I could barely stand the sight of it; it was very fresh, and still squishy. Chris poked it. I swear it looked at me. I was scared that maybe it would turn into a zombie and attack me. I stayed as far away as I could from it while using a dust pan to scoop it up. The zombie theory flew out the window because it was most definitely dead. Of course, right as I get it into the dust pan Chris yells "BAAAHHHH!" and scares me half to death! In a flash I tossed that damn rodent into the plastic coffin and cursed it. Then I cursed Chris and ran upstairs. I might have acted like a baby but I still did the deed!

Today was like a TV show. Some crazy hilarious events took place, but at the end of the night everything is back to normal.

Now the house is calm and my dryer is humming along with the laundry that has been building up since Friday. I've got my work cut out for me as far as housework is concerned, but my work as a handy-lady/zombie chipmunk handler is over. Thank goodness. I am experiencing a fresh sense of self-empowerment. Lovely.

Eh...bedtime never sounded so sweet.

Strong stomachs and new experiences!
XoX

FREEDOM!

We had a visit from a PHN yesterday for PP's PCA assessment, and it turned out better than I could have imagined.

My lil PP qualifies for 31 hours of PCA time every week. WHOA! Can you say, "AWESOME SAUCE?!" The kind that is the thousand island kind...yes!

This is such amazing news because I expected only about 20 hours, but now I have more time to do wonderful things for my family and not feel guilty about it. I always feel bad leaving PP with a sitter, even though it's always her grandparents. I can't even explain why I feel guilty, but I think that any mommy would know what I am talking about. Maybe it's because PP cries when I leave and it makes me feel bad.

Thankfully, this emotion is fleeting. I keep reminding myself that PP needs to be around other people and get to know her family and friends. She can't always do that with me holding her hand, and I need to let her explore the world with other people so she can build trust with them. It's all fine and dandy!

With that said, I am excited for this weekend! Tonight, I get to spend time in good company for the evening; running amok through a beautifully landscaped yard and watching tight-rope shenanigans, sans PP. Tomorrow, I get to watch a long-time friend tie the knot! My sister, Lee, is the Maid of Honor! My most immediate family will be there so I will get to dress up and hang out with some of my favorite people! Yay! Sunday is Father's Day. As of right now, a BBQ is in order with some lovely friends and their sweet baby. I won't be with PP the entire weekend, but it's ok to put a clamp in the umbilical cord now and again. I've heard before that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but a break for mommy makes the world a little brighter.

Thank goodness for positive energy, even if it takes a little while for it to run it's circle.

Tasty s'mores and no chores
XoX

P C fraakin' A!!!

I am so excited. I just scheduled the Public Health Nurse assessment for PCA services for PP! If you don't know what a PCA is, it is a person who more or less is a baby sitter. They are way better than a normal baby sitter though, because they have to be somewhat trained in caregiving and I don't have to pick up the bill. To top it off, the PCA we have chosen for PP is one of the most amazing people I have ever met!

ASHLEY D! I am so excited! The day has finally come! Thursday at 1 PM a PHN will come to assess PP for the amount of PCA hours we will be receiving.

I've known Ashley for a while, and PP has gotten to know her pretty well over the past few months. They have many of the same interests, including jewelry and a love for fun times. It's a match that I couldn't have dreamed for, it's so perfect, almost unbelievable! Ashley and myself are good friends and have a lot of the same interests as well, so not only am I comfortable with this arrangement, I am peeing my pants over it! Yahoo!

This appointment has been a long time coming. I was very ambitious in getting the first steps for this process completed, but then PP had her health insurance taken away. You can't have a PCA assessment if you can't pay for it, so I had to cancel the appointment with the PHN. That was in April. It has taken about 3 months to get back to square one, but we won't have to go through that circus ever again. PP has guaranteed health insurance until 2016, and when that day comes I'll deal with whatever needs to be done.

I have made several attempts to get a hold of the PCA Service Coordinator at St. David's Center, which is the provider for the PCA services, but I had no luck. What the fluff! Thank goodness for Stephanie, my own personal PHN, because she was able to go down a different avenue to get the PHN assessment from the county.

So what will I do with my free time allowance? For the rest of the summer, I have no idea. This whole concept is so new I don't think I have really absorbed what it means for me yet. Maybe I will get all of the things done that are half done around my house. Maybe I'll get a job! That sounds like the best idea. In the fall, I will be attending the Phlebotomy program at MCTC so I'm sure I will have plenty to do then. Until then, I am going to enjoy myself and TCOB.

For the rest of the day I will be blaring the song "Taking Care of Business" by BTO while having a blasty blast!

Pretty flowers and sun showers
XoX

Too crazy? Poppycock!

I have been reading my previous post a lot. It more or less complains a lot about how strangers interact with me and my girl. I still like it, but it kind of makes me sound nuts.

As if I need anything else to make me feel peculiar!

It's not so bad this time because I did the crazy myself. It's like I pinched myself, but it didn't hurt like it would if someone else had pinched me. I really feel the need to get some things off my chest, especially things that have been stewing for a while. Maybe I overreact sometimes. Well, I know for sure I can overreact. Who doesn't from time to time? I love it when people place themselves outside of their comfort zone. You learn something about yourself and that person when it happens, and it can be really interesting.

I am not used to publicizing my crazy, though. I have plenty of crazy shit to write about. I don't feel it's necessary to constantly spew every thought from my brain onto the computer. Writing, by itself, is a nice outlet for me. However, the more I do it the more weird I become. Pretty soon, if I keep it up, I expect to start keeping a journal on a roll of toilet paper dedicated to the daily activities of my many gnomes, which will be written by Christmas light with a spaghetti noodle pen using ground up Cocoa Puffs for ink. Yikes.

How do I keep myself from falling into this weird, food infused madness?! The answer might make me sound even more crazy: I talk to myself. All the time. I talk to PP, but she can't talk back. When she's sleeping I talk to myself. When I am out and about with PP, I talk to her about everything I am doing. I go a little crazy when I go places by myself because I feel extra silly talking to myself, but I still end up doing it anyways. In an unexpected way, my constant narration is therapeutic. Sometimes you need to say things out loud because it helps you put stuff into perspective. If you say something aloud just one time you may not ever need to say it again which is usually a good thing.

I don't completely blame myself for this level of crazy, I hold PP's teachers partly responsible. A very important thing that has been drilled into my head by the school system is to verbalize everything you do. The more you talk, the more you expose your child to language and it helps them learn language. Also, imagine if you were quiet all day just because you didn't have anyone to talk to? I don't like talking on the phone either, so it's talk to PP or next to nobody. I have a feeling that I would be in a straight jacket shrieking the theme song to Spongebob Squarepants if I didn't do it.

I also sing all the darn time!

As awkward as it was to verbalize every action in the beginning, it is now just a habit. I don't even realize I am doing it. I sing about walking while we walk down the sidewalk. I talk about almost everything we walk by on our daily escapade. If I am not talking about whatever we are doing, I am telling PP how amazing and wonderful and beautiful she is. Maybe this is another reason why strangers in public treat me and PP differently! Hmm...

I will keep doing it tho. PP likes it. She loves to sing and have conversations with me. Her side of the conversation is mostly screaming or weird throat noises, but it's a start. Anything I can do to help her, even if I make myself look crazy, I will do in a heartbeat. You only get to raise a child once, so you'd better make it as awesome as possible.

I might even write a crazy blog post. Hah! But, ya know, if you were me you'd be a bit wacky too.

Porch lights and summer nights
XoX

Being social.

Sometimes, I hate going out into the public. People can be stupid and thoughtless.

It's surprising to hear some of the things that come out of the mouths of strangers. I think, maybe they don't think I can hear them? Can't they see my ears? I bet that's it, because no one can be such a bitch on purpose. Or maybe I hold my standards of society too high. I often stop myself from giving anyone the benefit of a doubt. Thankfully, bad situations do not outnumber the good ones.

Keep in mind that I am most definitely having the most wonderful time of my life. PP makes everything fun! I am pretty sure I make everything fun for her as well. Before she was born, I lacked direction and ambition to do what was good for me. PP makes me want to be a better person so she can have the best life possible. Sadly, strangers don't see this blinding happiness when they see us walking down the street, or grocery shopping. It's not like I can always look like merry sunshine with all the work it takes to be truly happy on the inside.

I need a spit of time to rant. This may be the perfect place to do so.

People in public places can be so rude. The main objective of this rant is to help all the Normies out there realize that what you say can hurt someones feelings. Please, think before you speak. Maybe, think before you stare. It's so obvious when people stare and they think you don't notice. All of those little comments and thoughts will rest easy inside your tiny mind. Just pretend I'm not even there, let me go about my business as you would for anyone.

To the guy in the bread aisle at Cub:
Yes, I noticed that you thought you were so sneaky to take a second glance at PP as you walked by; your first neck wrenching glance was not obvious at all. I also noticed that you laughed as you did so, and please know it took every ounce of my strength to not throw every item in my grocery cart at you like a professional softball player. In a fit of rage, I can channel the ability of any sports star. Including  kung-fu.

To the sweet, old couple walking around the lake:
You are so sweet. I get it. I love sweet old people. You wear your "Life is Good" t-shirt, fisherman's hat, and cargo shorts. Wearing velcro sandals is a necessity for Arthritis. I GET it. Please realize, you aren't really that old yet. Medical technology is only getting better, so it will be me or one of my amazing Nurse friends standing in as your caregiver when you can't hold your bowels anymore. You'll be staring at a painfully accepting and understanding face until the age of 100 because your kids won't come visit you enough, and you'll be glad for it because that person will be a very good caretaker. I think it's appropriate to refrain from mentioning (as I truck along with my sorry, un-athletic ass, jogging) that I have "Quite the job to train for" because I could say the same thing to you. Your sympathetic eyes make me want to kick something. You'd better get in some of those Depends now, because you'll need to know your preference for preventing diaper rash in the future. You'll see how much sympathetic eyes will save you when you are actually old.

To the teenie-bopper girls that just so happen to be EVERYWHERE:
I know you saw that girl on '16 and Pregnant' who has the baby with glasses. OMG can you believe it. You see kids with glasses every day. LOL. You feel it's necessary to let every parent with a child who has glasses know how CUTTTTTEEEE their kid is, just for wearing glasses. Comments, giggles, stares, points. SMH. You have no filter, and no one has ever told you to have one. I know my daughter is freaking adorable. Shut up. I hope you have a perfect life and no harm ever comes to you as you grow older and increasingly unattractive.

Am I anti-public? Maybe. Probably. I probably shouldn't let other people bother me, but when rudeness rears it's ugly face, it bothers me. The amount of exposure available to people with disabilities is greater than it ever has been, tolerance is publicized obsessively, but yet I am astounded at the amount of whispered comments and funny looks I get from people when I go into public with my daughter. Please make a note, I am not a Normie. I am Lacey. I am a mother. I will rip someones face off like a psycho chimpanzee if you catch me on a bad day. I am crazy Minnesota Nice at the same time.

My daughter is a Weaver. She makes weird noises when she's excited. PP will charm your socks off when she laughs. She laughs hysterically when she's mad. She communicates with sign language. She looks different. She wears different shoes. She wears pink glasses. PP always wears stretchy clothes. She needs her mommy more than a normal child does. I literally need to hold her up when she wants to play at the park. I don't mind. I love playing at the park, and I have since I was a kid. So what's wrong with being around other people while playing at the park?

It depends on who is at the park. Out of the numerous times PP and I grace the park with our presence, only one mother was brave enough to ask questions and seem interested, and she had to tell her daughter, Ruth, to not hug PP because she didn't want to scare PP. I loved it.

One time I caught myself saying something ridiculous. PP wanted to get closer to a girl who was playing with a basketball near a hoop while her mom was watching. The girl was about 10 years old, and her mom was shooting lazy daggers from her eyes as she was obsessively glancing at her smart phone. As PP got closer, without thinking I said "Now, Nelly, we don't go to the park to play basketball with other kids." I didn't want to go near this Botox babe, but what the fudge. Why else would you go to the park, and why the fuzzy haired devil would I tell PP otherwise? There is something wrong here. Maybe Mommy's alright, and Daddy's alright, they just need a little help. I would recommend a lot of help, because Mommy got so upset when her daughters solo basketball game was interrupted she took herself and her stupid, beautiful, untamed golden retriever back to the overpriced cave they slithered from. Can you blame PP for wanting to play with the most orange-y, giant-ey bouncy ball she has ever seen? I bet if PP was playing the worlds largest breast implant,  that Mommy would be my bestfriend. The park is better off without piles of shit laying around, so see ya later.

I've timed it. Every time PP and I go to a park, any park, anyone who is there will leave within 5 minutes. It takes about 5 minutes for any normal child to notice PP, whether they were brave enough to come up and say hello or just see her in action. Their caregiver or parent will get weird. They won't know what to do around PP because she is terribly shy. Talking to me is even more far fetched. But, if PP is brave enough to go near a child, she is too shy to actually have any sort of interaction with a stranger. She literally closes up; sitting on the ground and covering her face with her hands until whoever is trying to interact with her leaves. She smiles the entire time. I know that she loves to be around other people. She loves to watch other kids play and do what they do, she just doesn't know how to interact with them. PP can't talk like other people can. It takes her longer than 5 seconds to warm up to someone. Peace out, playmates...5 seconds is all it takes to make a friend. We have no neighbor friends. As frustrating as this situation may be, in the end it is nice to have a park to yourself. PP can fall, make weird noises and explore the environment without obstruction. She can be obsessive, playing with the steering wheel for 10 minutes straight and eating the dirt she picks off of her clothes, blissfully shrieking at the top of her lungs every time a plane flies ahead or someone with sunglasses walks by. The most honest people are young children and drunk adults. When a young person stops dead in their tracks and just stares at PP, it makes everyone weird. In a way, it's nice. I like that little kids can show their emotions without a filter. Bring it on, babies. It's refreshing from the veiled conversations and practiced expressions I encounter with your parents.

Regardless of how it makes me feel, I still bring PP to the park every day. It may not be the same one every day, but you don't encounter the same people every day anyways. I don't really want to encounter the same people every day. Most of them are assholes. The most important thing to me is the success of PP. Even if it means putting myself last in every situation. PP doesn't notice the weird looks. She doesn't understand the passing comments people make. The only thing PP knows about is having fun. Consequently, PP having fun is always at the top of my list. It's a good indicator for knowing that I am being the best mommy for PP. This reason is why going to the park tops my list of favorite things to do. I think that one very, very valuable lesson I can teach PP is to build a callous, to be tolerant of nasty people. I did it when I was a kid, and I didn't have a quarter of the problems PP is faced with. I survived, and so will PP.

You don't have to be friends with everyone!

No matter how nasty one person can be, the next person may be just as sweet and understanding. This hasn't really been my experience thus far, but I can't poo-poo on everyone. It's more of a 1:4 ratio of nice to naughty. I don't want to give PP an inherent notion of hating society though. It takes a large amount of personal experience to make an educated decision in that area. As much as I would like to stay home all day and send Papa Chris out to do our bidding, it's just not feasible. So I put on my happy face and hope that people can refrain from being a jackass. I always end up having a wonderful time with my daughter despite what anyone says or does. Dealing with Normies is a fact of life. Needn't I remind all of you Normies, dealing with us Weirdos is a fact of life as well. Respect is something everyone deserves, even if you are a disgusting human being.

You don't have to be completely comfortable with it, but please try to exercise your ability to be accepting, respectful, and socially graceful. Everyone will reap the benefits.

Well, I just had a Cheez-it fight with Chris. I think that about calls it a night.

cheez-it fights and late nights

XoX

National Best Friend Day

June 8th is National Best Friend Day.

It is just a stupid Hallmark holiday. Totally. However, it made a good excuse to go do something fun even if I feel like doo-doo.

I am sick. Got sick on Wednesday. It's not a 'barf all over and sleep facedown in the bathtub' sick, it's a 'wake up with a throat frog who happens to hate your life' kind of sick. I am pretty sure I got sick because of a bad sunburn. Ish. No more sun for me this year, pass the Coppertone please! Despite my cranky tush I wanted to spend a fun day with my best friend, and that meant going outside because it's her favorite thing. I figured a proper Best Friend Day should be spent doing whatever is your favorite, but you do it with your best friend. Everything that is PP's favorite thing, is most likely my favorite thing. She likes the park to play and eat dirt, I like the park so she gets tired and sleeps in til 9AM. She likes to take wagon rides because she can sit back and people watch, and I like wagon rides because I gotta work these glutes somehow. She LOVES chocolate cake, I LOVE chocolate cake, 'nuff said.

Our day started with a hefty helping of snuggle time. We ate a lot of goodies, because eating just happens to be ANOTHER one of our favorite things! We ate lunch and took naps. It was so lovely! Then it was time to have fun! We ate a pizza for dinner, got cleaned up and put on some sunscreen. Our wagon ride was warm, but very pleasant. We walked around the lake, and then ended up at Wild Rumpus bookstore. It was AWESOME! We saw some chickens and kitties, some cockatiels and doves, and lots of books. PP wanted to leave before I could get her to 'pick out a book' so we just hopped back in the wagon. On our way home, we spotted a park that we hadn't been to before. Play time! At about the same time, Papa Chris got done with work and running a few errands. He met us on our walk home and brought us for a nice, cool drive around the lake. We all went home and got PP ready for bed, then it was off to snoozeville for her. What a fantastic day!

One thing I hate about stupid Hallmark holidays is how they celebrate stuff that we should do all the time. Valentines Day? PSH. I tell Chris how much I love him every day and I buy him chocolate all the time, and vise-versa. Mothers Day? It's nice, but I like to be appreciated all year round. So, Best Friends Day should just be renamed Monday or Friday in my opinion. I love to do my favorite things with PP, and I think that's the way a childhood should be spent. Having a kid is an opportunity to re-do all the fun stuff you did when you were a kid, and actually remember it. I LOVE being a mom! Especially on days like today.

I still feel like doo-doo, but I am determined to have some sort of fun even if it is a tad uncomfortable. Chris and I did a really, really fun photo shoot with a family this morning. It took a couple hours, we got beautiful shots, and we wrapped up earlier than I thought. Chris had to zip off to work when we got home, but he still got some smooches from his girls. PP and I felt a need for some sun, so we slathered on some sunscreen and got outside. We went over to a local farmers market in a church parking lot. It was cute! I got some green onions. We walked by a park and I thought PP was going to have a little spaz-fit if we didn't stop. We played until we were done, and then we walked home. Stopping at a garage sale was a necessity. I love our neighborhood.

Nap time is over! What will we do for the rest of the day!? I can guess it will be anything fun, and that includes chocolate cake.


Sandy toes and zinc on your nose
XoX

Perturbed, disturbed: A routine, interrupted.

It has been one heck of a week.

We enjoyed our free time over the holiday. Chris and I hung out with some friends while PP went over to Grandma Glenna's for a sleepover. This time of R&R was so wonderful because I knew that a lot could change over the week. Turns out, I couldn't have imagined the things that would be different by today!

Tuesday was a normal day, with just one therapy session at home. Wednesday was the day I had been anticipating the entire week prior, and for good reason. We were going to visit the Urologist to discuss the bilateral vesicoureteral reflux situation with PP's urinary system. This condition, VUR, affects only 1% of children in the world. Depending on the severity of the reflux, a child can grow out of it, take antibiotics, or have surgery to correct the problem. It is measured on a scale of 1-4; the least worrysome and most simple to fix is a 1, while a level 4 is very frightening and requires a full reconstruction of the urinary system. PP had level 2 on both ureters. Even though PP had to have this odd condition, she didn't get the worst of it, which makes me very glad. However, she has been taking an antibiotic every day for the past two years. This presents a few problems. For one thing, the body can adapt a resistance to the antibiotic and the bacteria can still break through and cause infection. This was the main factor in deciding that we could no longer wait for PP to grow out of VUR, because the bacteria in her body were becoming resistant to the antibiotic. I also did not want to keep giving her the antibiotic because it can pose health risks for her in other ways.

After talking about our options with the doctor, Chris and I decided it was time for surgery. To make things less stressful, the surgery could be done endoscopically. The doctor would go through the bladder and make a tiny little bump outside of PP's ureters. This bump would make the ureters smaller, but it would not inhibit the urine from flowing downwards like it's supposed to. With VUR, the urine flows down from the kidneys, into the ureters, and then into the bladder. From there, some of the urine flows back up the ureters because the little valves between the ureters and bladder do not work properly. This increases the risk of infection (UTI) in the bladder and kidneys and can lead to scarring. What the doctor does is make a new valve, and the procedure is 90% effective. He injected a material that will go away as PP grows up, but as her body heals new tissue will grow around the material. So it's not a permanent procedure if you want to get technical, but the body can now correct the problem with a little help.

I forgot to mention that the doctor wanted to do this procedure ASAP, so we were scheduled for surgery two days after our visit. I was nervous and anxious to say the least. This also meant that on Thursday, PP had to have a pre-pre-op checkup with her regular physician. This was the only day we could do it, but we also happened to have a therapy appointment in the morning and an eye doctor appointment shortly thereafter. Our day was already jam packed before this surprise surgery! I managed to make it work. I scheduled her pre-pre-op checkup for the early afternoon, almost immediately after the eye doctor appointment. I had to factor in driving and possibly eating lunch, so it was a fly by the seat of your pants kind of day.

Thursday went by so fast. We went to ST at 10AM and left early to go to the eye doctor. We were at the eye doctor by 11AM. I scheduled this appointment three months ago expecting it to be a normal checkup. PP has been wearing glasses for a long time now, and I have a hard time being able to tell if they are helping her or not. I can still see crossing, and of course the eye doctor could see this as well. The doctor had a surprise for me and I was told to put an eye patch over PP's left eye for two hours every day starting immediately.

Yeah...the doctor ordered PP to wear an eye patch and glasses at the same time. It can be difficult to get her to wear her glasses, and she HATES stickers. She hates stickers. The type of eye patch that PP is to wear has a sticky surface that is supposed to be put directly onto her eye area. So, I am supposed to put a sticker on her eye every day for two hours. Sounds fun, huh? I have a few tactics in mind, and I will share them when I find one that works. This will be a huge challenge, but I can remember when PP had to wear a helmet in the hottest summer months when she was younger. She hated it, but I made her do it. She only needed the helmet for 2 months and not the expected 4 months, so I think it was a good effort on both sides.

On to the pre-pre-op. Oh wait, that went fine. PP is as healthy as a horse despite her health problems. We were OK'ed for surgery the next day and we sprinted home to relax for the night.

Friday was surgery day. I was just about to lose my mind. I was forced to absorb some hard, weird truths about PP in the past few days, and now we had reached the top of the mountain. I knew what to expect, but I had no idea what to expect. The doctor told us on Wednesday he can see no reason that PP would need any more work done than what was planned, but he said that if he saw things weren't the way they were supposed to be he would have to do some reconstruction on PP's urinary system. It's good to know every possibility, but sometimes it's the worst thing anyone can do to your mind. Hence, the fuzzy-haired, coffee soaked Momma Lace. We got her pre-op done, and it was time.

I went with PP to her operating room. She liked my mask and one of the male nurses. She had him carry her into the operating room. She sat on the table while the anesthetist prepared her anesthesia mask with some bubble gum scent. He had me smell, then PP's new nurse friend smell, then he smelled it, by then PP was grabbing for it to put it on her own face. The mask was put on. She fussed, and then she was asleep. I left and it felt weird. I kept it together and went back to her room where Chris was waiting. He grabbed some lunch for us and I crocheted.

PP was put into the recovery unit after surgery. Everything went fine, but she was crying hysterically and screaming the only word she knows... "MOMMA!!!" A nurse came to get me and she seemed frazzled. I came to PP's bedside and she was belligerent. It was cute...in a scared to death for no reason kind of way. Eventually, we got back to the room where Chris was waiting and she calmed down. We signed some papers and it was done. We jumped in the car, it was hot outside. I was so glad it was over.

Sadly, we will still be giving PP her antibiotic every day. To make sure the procedure was a success it is important to not have any infections afterwards. We will see the urologist again in 6 weeks, and we will see what surprises are in store for us then. Hopefully we will be told to stop giving the antibiotic, closing a chapter of PP's baby-hood and putting the whole ordeal behind us.

The eye patch will be a different story, but we will just take that one day at a time. This week we haven't got much more planned than the usual therapy sessions and some play dates with our favorite people.

I am ECSTATIC to say the least.

Well, nap time is over. I think a trip to the beach or the park is in order on this gorgeous day. I hope everyone's Monday is going as splendidly as ours!

lemonade and sunny days
XoX