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Kimmie is so funny when we watch this show. She laughs so hard she can't sit up. Last night she was falling over sideways on me giggling.

She has always loved slap stick humor and watching people fall down really gets her laughing. She especially likes when they fall in water, but any kind of falling or crashing will get her going.

It was so incredibly good to hear her laugh last night. She has been grumpy for weeks, so we just sat and watched her smile and giggle and laugh and fall over.

--Mom

Countdown

We are counting down here at our house . . .

Dad has four more days to work, and then he's done. For a while he's going to be Mr. Mom, or Nurse Dad, or my House Husband. It will be interesting to see what he does when he no longer needs to check voicemail or email for work.

Ten days to Kimmie's next surgery . . . and still a number of things to get done. Two doctor appointments. Pre-op testing. Disciple Now weekend. Cleaning up the flowerbeds and leaves. Finishing the Christmas shopping (I'm making good progress.) Cleaning the house. Stocking the kitchen with food so the boy doesn't starve while we're at the hospital. Packing for a hospital stay of 5-10 days. Making sure sister gets packed for Grandma's house.

And, coming up with a better meal plan than we had during the last hospital stay. When Kimmie had surgery in October, she was suppose to be in the hospital for 2-3 days. No problem, we can get by eating in the hospital restaurant. Well, 2-3 days turned into six days. Six days was way too long to eat at the hospital restaurant. The children's hospital restaurant is McDonalds. Six days of McDonalds, yuck! By the time we left, we never wanted to see or eat at another McDonalds. I'm taking my own food this time. Dad will probably roll his eyes and complain about taking so much stuff, but it beats facing McDonalds every day.

--Mom

No More Oreos

No more Oreos, Halloween candy, or anything resembling chocolate or sugar!

Ever since Kimmie came home from the hospital, she has not slept well. If Kimmie doesn't sleep well, Mom and Dad don't sleep well. Funny how that works. We are ready for some good sleep at night.

She's not just waking up in the night; she is waking up hysterical, mad, frantic, screaming.

We ask ourselves, and each other, "Is she cold?" "Is she hungry?" "Is she thirsty?" "Does she hurt?" "Did she have a bad dream?" We ask her, too, but that's kinda pointless since all she does is scream at us and throw anything she can get her hands on. Fortunately blankets, pillows and Brown Bear are soft.

Don't know what's going on, but hopefully this new policy will help even out some things internally.

No more Oreos, Halloween candy, or anything else chocolate or full of sugar!

Trauma

Once Kimmie was home from the hospital, she recovered quickly from the surgery. Within a few days she was back to normal activity around the house and soon back to school.

Recovering physically is a whole lot faster than recovering mentally.

Kimmie has been fixated on doctors for a long time, but now it is even worse. And hospitals, well, need I say more?

If she dwells on it for too long she can work herself into a crying fit. We usually try to distract her with something much happier . . . which is just about anything.

She knows the way to the hospital, which is also the way to two of her doctors. She starts wimpering when she realizes we are close to the hospital.

Unfortunately, the trauma from the surgery is only going to get worse as we go next week for pre-op testing and then the following week for more surgery.

I'm sure she will be quite pitiful.

--Mom

Transitions and Cooperation

Kimmie is not too good with transitions. Going back to school this past week after being off for three weeks was pretty bumpy.

By Thursday the word was that if her behavior improved, she would be taken grocery shopping on Thursday, but if not, the teachers would not take her shopping. I told Kimmie that I was putting Oreos and pudding on her shopping list, that she needed to be good so she could go shopping and buy her favorite foods. She had her best morning ever on Thursday! (Mornings not being her best time of day.) And she did get to go shopping. Shows you that she can pull herself together and cooperate when she WANTS to.

It all depends on the "want to." Kimmie's "want to" doesn't work too well!

Maybe tomorrow will be the start of a better week. We can always hope!

--Mom