Pandas Get a Bath

Panda bears are one of Kimmie's loves. She has quite a collection of panda books, movies and stuffed animals. Her stuffed animal pandas range in size from a giant plush to the Ty beany baby size. The ones she plays with the most are the little ones. She has seven or eight of these little ones. I think there are four identical Ty ones, a couple other Ty versions, and then a couple other brands.

She often takes these little ones out and about with her and they were starting to get quite grubby. I told her they needed a bath. Brown Bear needed one, too. His fur was quite matted.

So, the other day I threw them all in the washing machine with some towels. Brown Bear survived the washer and dryer. That's always our first concern. I was sitting with Kimmie when Dad pulled that load from the dryer. He brought the little pandas in and gave them to Kimmie still warm from the dryer.

Kimmie very carefully picks up each panda bear and sniffs it. She held them by their front paws and sniffed each one's tummy. One by one she did this until she'd smelled each one three times, just like a momma bear sniffing its babies.

Then she started examining their faces. She held each one around the neck and looked and looked at their faces. The way she holds them around the neck it looks like their heads might pop right off. Before the bath she could tell them apart by the dirt marks, and she always picked the dirtiest one to play with. Now she had to figure out which one each was by some tiny difference. It's amazing how she can usually tell them apart, just like she can tell identical shoe strings apart that came out of the same package just ten minutes ago!

She's so funny! I sat there watching her and laughed. The sniffing I'd never seen her do before and it was too funny!

--Mom

Tonight

Tonight, out of the blue, Kimmie signed, "God love." Then she made motions like she was sharing God's love. We tried to get her to share with us, but she shook her head "no." I asked her who she was sharing God's love with. She signed, "Jesus."

For several minutes she sat there with a far away look on her face and signed, "God love . . . God, love."

I just had to wrap my arms around her and give her a hug.

--Mom

Sleep . . . .

Well, for about 3 or 4 months now Kimmie has taken another spell of not sleeping through the night. She has slept through maybe twice in all that time.

We get up, find Brown Bear, rearrange her blankets, and anything else we can think of, but as soon as we go back to bed she is screaming again. If we don't get back in there fast enough, then she throws everything on the floor--blankets, pillows and Brown Bear.

It doesn't seem to be a scared scream, more like a mad scream.

It amazes me that she slept for three and a half years with the back brace on. She slept amazingly well in that awful brace and all night nearly every night. Oh, occasionally her blankets would get caught by the brace and we'd have to go in and free them. She'd go right back to sleep, and we'd go back to bed. But most of the time she slept through the night.

Now, no back brace, big queen size bed for her to roll around in, and she's up every night.

After her surgeries it took her quite a while to get to where she would sleep through the night, but she had been sleeping through for about 7 or 8 months when this last sleepless spell began.

I guess we'll never really figure this girl out. She's our puzzle.

Right now, the easiest thing to do is lay down with her, but that's become a problem in itself since she's getting too used to having someone sleeping with her.

--Mom