Oreos

Oreos are Kimmie's favorite food. Unfortunately about an hour after eating them she has a sugar crash accompanied by a screaming temper tantrum, especially if she has the oreos as a snack on a mostly empty stomach. I prefer that she have them at the end of a meal to try to avoid the hysteria.

Kimmie also has an exceptional memory.

Yesterday Kimmie wanted a snack and was intently rummaging in the cupboard looking for the cookies. I was busy with something so her sister helped her find the package. Kimmie then opened another cupboard to get out the bowl we put her snacks in. Her sister placed three cookies in the bowl and Kimmie sat down to snack and color. Surprisingly, Kimmie got up and left the table leaving a cookie in her bowl. After a few minutes her sister asked if she could eat the remaining cookie. I responded, "sure, Kimmie went off and left it."

It wasn't long before Kimmie was back looking for the last cookie that she knew she had left in the bowl. I told her sister that Kimmie caught her. We replaced the cookie and all was well after that.

She's a funny girl.

--Mom

Sleeping beauty

In an earlier post I wrote about "Sleep, or the lack thereof" which talked about how Kimmie did not sleep much as a baby. Her tendency to not sleep lasted until she was six years old. When Kimmie was six the doctors decided that she was ADHD and we needed to get this under control so she could benefit more from school.

Different medications were tried including one that is a blood pressure medication that has been around a very long time. The idea was that this would chill her out a bit, slow her down. The first day I gave her the medicine she was sound asleep within an hour. Since I had not been told this might make her sleep, I called the doctor's office to make sure she was ok. They assured me this often happened with the medication. I wondered how they expected her to benefit from school when she was asleep. We were advised to switch to giving her the medication in the evening, instead of the morning.

I told the doctor later that I did not know if this was helping at all with the ADHD, but for the first time in her life she was going to sleep at night and regularly sleeping through the night. I figured that if she was sleeping better, surely that would help her learn better at school. The doctor agreed.

Kimmie continues to be a good sleeper. As she moved into her teenage years she became even better and often sleeps 15-18 hours straight on the weekends. She has to get up so early for school, that by the weekend her little body needs to recover.

When Kimmie started sleeping better, Dad and I felt like new people as well. Over 6 years of being up night after night for hours on end was wearing us out.

We call her "sleeping beauty" now because, left on her own, she will sleep and sleep and sleep. She looks so peaceful when she is sleeping.

--Mom

January 23

Today is January 23, 2009. One year ago today Kimmie went to the spine doctor and was released from wearing the back brace. It has been a wonderful year watching Kimmie move and play more comfortably.

Last night I got Kimmie to sit on my lap so I could talk to her about it. I told her that tomorrow would be January 23 and that last year on January 23 she went to see the doctor, and he said she didn't have to wear the brace any more. Kimmie told me that it was on a Wednesday. She has a wonderful memory. It was on a Wednesday.

Kimmie wore the back brace for scoleosis for a little more than 3 1/2 years. We hated that brace. At first it was hard to put it on her every day. But, as time went by, we became used to it and our desire to avoid surgery became stronger, so she wore it every day, 24 hours a day.

Yes, she slept in the brace. That was always the question people asked us, "does she have to sleep in the brace?" or "She doesn't have to sleep in that, does she?"

She did not wear it when she bathed, swam or went horseback riding. We would usually let her go without it on Christmas.

One year later she has had two checks of her back and so far no surgery has been recommended. Next month, on the 23rd, she has her next check.

Today I will hug Kimmie and enjoy the feel of my arms wrapping around her back. It's so much better than wrapping around plastic and metal.

--Mom

Salt and Pepper

On Wednesday evenings we go to church. Kimmie's sister goes off to the youth activities while Kimmie and I join the pastor's Bible study in the fellowship hall. Dad is usually around getting microphones and slides and video clips ready for the study. He usually goes straight to church from work.

The church serves a meal before the Bible study, but the girls and I eat at home since they don't always like the food that is served.

When the Bible study is over we have to wait a little while for Kimmie's sister to appear since the youth activities go a little longer than the adult Bible studies. While we are waiting the people who clean up usually come in and start cleaning up the fellowship hall. They pick up the salt and pepper shakers, remove the tableclothes, stack the chairs and fold up the tables.

One evening Kimmie started playing with the salt and pepper shakers so we encouraged her to help gather them. She really took to this. Most weeks now she helps gather the salt and pepper shakers, running all over the room snatching them from the tables. I run around behind her encouraging her to hold them upright, although the floor gets its share of salt and pepper.

At first I wasn't sure what the cleaning crew thought of this. They even picked them up in different ways a couple weeks, ways that did not allow Kimmie to help. But now they place a tray out for Kimmie to put the shakers on while they take the tableclothes off. They carefully remove the tableclothes leaving the shakers on the edge of each table so she can reach them. And everyone comments on what a big helper Kimmie is.

--Mom

The Easy Child

I'm sure that many people look at Kimmie and see the extra work involved. Helping her eat, helping her dress, helping her bath, helping her in and out of the car, helping her up and down stairs . . . And I will admit that, over the years, she has been a lot of work, but as she has gotten older, she has become easier. (Or maybe we are just more accepting of the daily routine.)

Whatever the case may be, Kimmie has become our easy child. She is easy because we just take care of her. It's like taking care of any other preschool child, except she's 17.

But, you see, with the other kids there's so much more to do. They are teenagers, high school and college age. Over the years there's so much to teach them: to be kind, trustworthy, responsible, honest, dependable, competent, capable, independent . . . Then there are the issues of teaching them to drive, hoping they make good choices in friends, encouraging them to stay drug and alcohol free . . . And the list goes on, along with concerns about who are they with, are they driving safely, are they making good choices . . .

Maybe you can see, too, that Kimmie is looking easier and easier.

--Mom

Mornings

Poor Kimmie. She is not a morning person, never has been.

This year her bus comes at 6:10 each morning. We try to let her sleep as long as possible, so we get her up about 5:45-5:50.

She's hustled out of bed while her breakfast is heating in the microwave. Her clothes are already laid out. She staggers around with her hair in her face and her eyes more closed than open. Brown Bear securely clutched in the crook of her arm.

She is quickly stuffed in her clothes. Breakfast is shoveled hurriedly into her mouth. Hair brushed. Teeth brushed. Glasses washed and on. Coat.

Then she boards her bus. I'm not always sure she is fully awake when she gets on the bus, and we think she often goes back to sleep on the bus.

No wonder she's grouchy in the mornings.

--Mom

Pretend Worlds

Kimmie likes to pretend. She has a lot of "places" she visits when her mind wanders off.

Sometimes she is on a rocket ship to Mars.

Sometimes she is a butterfly sleeping in a tree in a cocoon.

Sometimes she is Aladdin walking in the lion's mouth and setting the Blue Genie free.

Sometimes she is flying on Eeyore's back.

Sometimes she is on a picnic with Winnie the Pooh having honey from a honey pot.

Sometimes she is riding on a dinosaur's back.

Sometimes she is Superman, or Batman, or Danny Phantom.

Sometimes she gets a far away look in her eyes and a sweet smile on her face and we wonder where she's wandered off to. How many other places does she visit that are locked up in her little head?

--Mom

Hallway of Doom

This week Kimmie had a bit of trauma. A trip to the pediatrician for a check-up.

She started whimpering as soon as she heard where we were going, which I didn't tell her until time to go. We were able to get her distracted. Every now and then she would start to cry, again, and I would try to distract her.

I call the hallway to the pediatrician's office "the hallway of doom", because when we get off the elevator, we turn down this long hallway and straight at the end is the door to his office. All the while we are walking down the hallway we are looking at his office door, getting closer and closer.

Now, don't get me wrong, we have a wonderful pediatrician, but he comes with shots and other fun stuff.

At Kimmie's appointment this week she had a blood test done by finger prick and a booster shot. It only took two nurses and Mom! And, of course, there was much sobbing and hugging and she wanted everyone to kiss her finger, which did NOT have a bandaid on it. (See a previous post about bandaids if you don't get this comment.)

--Mom

Doctors and Nurses

Kimmie has a love/hate relationship with her doctors and nurses. She loves them, but she hates to go visit them. Just the thought of going to the doctor or dentist can start her sobbing. Years later she can still tell us the day of the week, the month, and which body part was hurt. For instance, the last time she had blood drawn from her arm was about 4 years ago, in August. She still talks about it and tells us that it was in August. But she always hugs the doctors and nurses, often while sobbing.

There is only one doctor that she likes to go to. That's the spine doctor. She knows he doesn't poke at her. They weigh her, take an xray of her back, the doctor comes in, looks at the xray and then we talk. No hands on with Kimmie except for the hugging part. It's the only office where, when they call her name, she leaps up and runs to them with her arms outstretched for a hug.

The poor pediatrician, whose been with her her whole life, brings on one of the biggest responses from Kimmie. She sobs at the thought of going there. Too many memories of shots and finger pricks for blood tests.

The dentist ranks right up there with the pediatrician. Too much poking and proding.

The doctors are pretty good at keeping their professional manner, but the nurses often melt over Kimmie and her sobbing. She can be quite pitiful.

--Mom

Toes

When Kimmie was a baby she slept best when her head was covered up. Today, she still sleeps mostly with her head under the covers.

When she was a baby and we would check on her while she was sleeping, we would always find her head covered up and her little pink toes sticking out. We would carefully rearrange the covers so her toes were covered up. We didn't want them getting cold. Then we would turn to leave the room. Before we could reach the door of her room we would hear a rustling sound. Turning to look back at her we would find that she had kicked her feet and her little toes were once again sticking out from under the covers.

Now she likes her toes covered up as well as her head. She mostly burrows down under the covers making it look like she isn't even there, it's just a pile of blankets.

--Mom