Disney World

Well, if you read the last post you heard about Kimmie's book that's all about her. I think I really started something with my choice of pictures.

Evidentally, in looking at this book and talking with the kids and teachers at school, Kimmie has a new understanding of Disney World. And now knows how to sign it.

She tells us regularly now, almost every day, sometimes more than once a day . . . "Go to Disney World."

Hmmmmmm.

She wants to find Aladdin and the Blue Genie and hug them.

--Mom

Kimmie's "Book about Me"

The first week of school, Kimmie's homework was to complete a book about herself and then present it to the class. The pages were already started. "This is a picture of my house." "This is a picture of my family." "My favorite animal is__________." "My hobby is___________." Kimmie was to complete the pages by drawing or pasting pictures.

As is often the case, Kimmie's homework turns into Mom and Dad's homework. I hunted up and printed off several pictures to complete Kimmie's book and then wrote captions for each page. I sat down with Kimmie and we looked at the book together. She really liked it.

Her hobby is horseback riding. Her favorite animal is the Panda. Her favorite food is chocolate pudding and oreos. And her favorite movie is Aladdin.

After she took the book to school, her teacher asked if they could keep it at school for Kimmie to look at during free time.

Kimmie's favorite page seems to be "My favorite memory is _____________." For this page I put in a picture of Kimmie and her sister hugging Eeyore at Disney World. They were 6 and 9 at the time.

When we went to school on Open House night, Kimmie had to get her book and show us her favorite picture.

--Mom (Stay tuned for Part II)

Bringing Back Memories

Last night brought back memories we would rather not relive.

Kimmie has been sick with a cold/sinus stuff. She has started on an antibiotic, one she hasn't been on in years. Last night we gave her the antibiotic a little later than the night before and along with her other medications. The late hour and the combination of medications did not turn out to be a good thing.

It took her longer than usual to go to sleep, and then at about 1:30 this morning she was awake, WIDE awake, and mad, mad, mad. Finally she calmed down, then she was happy, happy, signing a blue streak, but still wide awake. Then out of the blue she was mad and we went through mad fits. Back and forth she went until almost 5:00 AM. Shortly after 5:00 she fell asleep. We get up at 5:00 so it was a very short night--or long, depending on how you look at it.

I let her sleep about an hour and then woke her up, got her ready for school and put her on the bus. It was one of those days when I was glad to get rid of her.

For the first 6 years of her life she hardly ever slept between 1:00 am and 5:00 am. Those are memories we'd rather not relive.

Today we gave her the antibiotic when she came home from school. Fed her supper. Let her play a little while, then gave her the usual medications. We hope she sleeps tonight, although when we asked her at supper if she was going to sleep tonight, she told us no.

--Mom

UPDATE: She slept peacefully all night. I hope this holds for a while, she needs to be rested.

-- Dad

Kimmie's Worrying

Kimmie has been fixated for a long time on all things medical. When she was little the toy doctor kits sent her into hysterics. I remember a little girl trying to listen to Kimmie's heart on the toy stethescope in preschool. Kimmie screamed until they were separated.

For literally years she will talk about having blood drawn or her finger pricked for a blood test. And she can usually tell you what day of the week it was and in what month.

But she has a new phrase she's using a lot now. "Hospital none, hospital none."

Yesterday she climbed off the bus signing to her sister, "Hospital none, hospital none."

Then, yesterday evening, she came out in the kitchen with a worried little forehead, stopped in front of me, and signed with that worried look on her face, "Hospital none, hospital none."

She knows and she's worrying.

--Mom

Men in uniform (by Dad)

Kimmie likes to give hugs. And there are some predictable patterns -- she like to hug men, and she likes uniforms (except nurses and doctors). Military, police, fire fighters, bus drivers -- she seems to be able to pick out a uniform.

Last week we were at church Wednesday night for the usual activities. Kimmie and I went to find her sister after things were finished, since the youth seem to be slow to let out.

One of the young men in the group has started ROTC. You can see what's coming.

He is a freshman, tall and slender. Very proud in his fatigues. He was talking in the crowded hallway with the rest of the youth; Kimmie's hug radar went PING and she just made a beeline.

Suddenly he had a little girl wrapped around his waist. Ambushed. He couldn't decide if he should be embarrassed or pleased. After a few seconds he gave in, as everyone does eventually. Kimmie's hugs are an irresistible force.

Dad.

Grocery Shopping

I actually took Kimmie grocery shopping the other day, and she was very good.

For years we have avoided taking Kimmie to the grocery store because it took longer and sometimes involved a lot of hysteria.

When Kimmie was little she could sit in the seat part of the cart, but we could only buy a few groceries that would fit in the bottom of the cart. If the groceries stacked up within her reach she would start pulling them out and throwing them on the floor.

When her legs were too long for her to sit in the seat, then she would have to walk along with us. This became an adventure because she would randomly grab things off the shelves and drop them in the cart. We might be picking something off a shelf, turn around to put it in the cart and there would be all this extra stuff in the cart as Kimmie grabbed and dropped items in as fast as she could. The items she dropped in the cart were not foods she liked, just random things she could reach and grasp. Fishing all these extra items out of the cart, putting them back on the shelf, and trying to keep her from putting more items in the cart, extended the time it took to shop and made the endeavor feel like an olympic event. Exhausting. This is when we stopped taking her to the grocery store. It was just too much trouble.

Now that the store has these extra long carts with the bench seat in the back, it is easier to take her along. She has also mellowed a little bit and does not jump out of the seat as much as when she was younger. There is still, usually, a little hysteria over Kimmie wanting to buy something and having trouble deciding what she wants to get.

The recent trip to the store with Kimmie came about because everyone else in the family was busy, so there was nobody to stay home with Kimmie. I couldn't put off the trip because we were running out of too many things. My list was long--not the best time to be taking Kimmie, but sometimes you have to do what needs to be done no matter what.

As it happened, Daddy had a bottle cap with "buy one get one free" on the inside. I gave Kimmie that bottle cap and told her to hold it for me. We had a little hysteria over Kimmie picking out a movie to buy. She finally settled on a spiderman cartoon--she does love superheros. She held the DVD for a little while but was taking the plastic off of it so I had to take it away and give her back the bottle cap. She held that bottle cap through almost our whole shopping trip. She put it in her pocket. She took it out. She twiddled and fiddled with it.

She still had it when we checked out. We traded the bottle cap for the movie. She only fussed a little when we left the store without the bottle cap.

She was amazingly good for a long shopping excursion. I was proud of her.

--Mom

Surgery X 2

We've known since the end of May that Kimmie would need surgery. Finally we have some of the details finalized.

Surgery #1 is scheduled for October 6. This is an exploratory surgery to look at the bottom of her spinal cord and determine if it is "tethered". If it is, then the neurosurgeon will "release" the spinal cord. She's had two "tethered spinal cord release" surgeries already, one at age 7 and one at age 13. Hopefully this will be the last, especially since her growth should be complete.

Surgery #2 is to be scheduled about 6 weeks after the first surgery. That will put it around the third week of November, the week before Thanksgiving. We don't have a definite date yet. This surgery is for the scoliosis.

Poor little girl sat on Daddy's lap and sobbed while we talked to the doctor today. Heartbreaking.

When she wasn't sobbing she was hugging the doctor. When he was leaving the room he declared himself to be stocked up on hugs for about a year.

--Mom

Grandma & Grandpa Are Moving

We have been telling Kimmie for several weeks now that Grandma and Grandpa are moving. Her response has always been "no."

On Wednesday they closed on their new place. That evening we went to help them with a few things. We had to take Kimmie with us, but thought maybe she would understand it better if she saw the old place boxed up. And maybe the new place would be a new adventure waiting to be explored.

Well . . . it mostly just got her worked up. At Grandma's house she always goes immediately to the video cabinet and picks a movie to watch. Once the movie starts she might go to the linen closet to get her blanket. Then she might gather the teddy bears to strew across the floor and get her books to open to her favorite pages. Once she has all her "stuff" then she is content to sit for a while.

Well . . . she went to the video cabinet . . . no movies. We told her they were boxed up to go to the new house. She looked around at all the boxes, leaped up and frantically started trying to dig through each box, while I chased her around trying to keep her from unpacking them.

She was mostly worried about where her Aladdin movies were.

Today, while she was at school, we moved everything to their new patio home. The first box I put in my car was the box of her videos. The second thing I loaded was her video cabinet. When we got everything over to the new place, we made sure the TV was hooked up and the videos were in her cabinet next to it.

When I told her tonight that we had her movies in her cabinet, she signed, "Aladdin?" I assured her I put the Aladdin movie in her cabinet.

Tomorrow we will see if she is better about the move.

--Mom

Sobbing for Sister

The other day Kimmie's sister had to go to the doctor. We had to take Kimmie with us. She was visibly anxious even though we kept telling her the doctor was not going to look at her.

We walked down what we call the "hallway of doom" looking at the door to the pediatrician's office at the end. Kimmie was clinging to my arm. Her sister commented that it is an eerie hallway with shadowy lighting.

Kimmie clung some more when it was time to go to a room. She refused to go any where near the examination table.

Kimmie's sister had to have her finger pricked for a blood test. Kimmie sobbed and sobbed for her sister, clutching me and hiding her face. Her sister just laughed because Kimmie was so pitiful.

When the doctor came in Kimmie sobbed some more, then hugged the doctor while she continued to cry.

Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh because she is so funny, or cry because she is so afraid.

--Mom

My Little Monkey

I came home from work the other day and Kimmie was sitting at the table in the kitchen. She looked up at me. She had black crumbs all around her mouth. I said to her, "Have you been eating Oreos?" She grinned and shook her head, "Yes."

She does love Oreos.

--Mom

My Little Collector

Kimmie never likes going to the dentist, although she does hug and hug and hug all over the dentist.

But the part she likes the most is the treasure box. For a while she was collecting plastic ducks for her bath, but now she has started collecting bouncy balls. And of course one is never enough, she has to have one for each hand. So when she went to the dentist this week she came home with two more bouncy balls.

Of course, after all the crying and the screaming and the hugging, everyone feels so sorry for her that they would just about give her the moon. Two bouncy balls, no problem.

--Mom

Trauma at the Dentist

Kimmie went to the dentist yesterday afternoon. Always a traumatic experience. She doesn't fight as hard as she used to, but she does cry and scream and wiggle a lot.

She looked like she had been in a fight the rest of the evening. Her lips and cheeks were puffy with red blotchy spots on them. She never eats well after the dentist, and yesterday was no exception. She ate maybe 4 or 5 bites of supper. We tried to get her to drink instant breakfast to give her some calories. But even drinking seemed to be a problem.

Poor little girl. It always seems like she has to endure so much more than her share of problems.

--Mom

Kimmie's Laughing

Kimmie's laughing. It's such a happy sound.

Last Saturday I was taking my other daughter someplace and we were driving a way we have not gone in a while. We approached a stop light on the green cycle at an intersection with a little hump in the middle. It's a fun intersection to go through a little fast on the green because the hump in the middle gives you that "whoosh" feeling.

Kimmie always loved going through that light on the green and feeling the "whoosh." She would laugh. I told her sister on Saturday when we were laughing that I could hear Kimmie laughing in my head even though she was not with us. And see her signing, "funny slide, funny slide."

We'll have to go that way soon so Kimmie can laugh as we bounce over the hump.

--Mom

School Dance

Kimmie has been having happy days at school. Yeah!

Yesterday at school she did a hula dance, her air guitar dance and she pretended to be a soldier (she likes to salute).

And she danced on the bus again.

What fun!

--Mom

School

School started this week.

Kimmie had a good first day. She even danced on the bus.

The second day she danced for them at school, but she threw her glasses on the bus. Little stinker.

Her sister's response to the first day of school, "School was awesome!"

--Mom

School Registration

I took Kimmie to school this week for registration. She received her schedule. We paid her class fees. Then she had her picture taken for her school ID.

It was a rather entertaining activity.

We had been telling her that we would be going, but she would repeatedly sign "No." I picked her up at home, loaded her in the car and off we went. When we arrived at school, she sat in the car signing "no, no, no" and refused to unfasten her seat belt or get out of the car. After I promised to take her back home afterwards, she calmed down and climbed out of the car.

When we entered the school she insisted on clutching my arm, hiding her face, and then she giggled. She wanted to go in the office, but when she looked in there, whoever she wanted to see wasn't there so she finally walked on with me to the cafeteria, clutching my arm and half hiding.

When we entered the cafeteria there were tables around in a semi-circle with different letters of the alphabet on them. Two people, mostly women, sat behind each table. There weren't too many in there registering, so the folks behind the tables were mostly sitting, looking around, waiting.

They were mostly sitting there with ho-hum kind of faces, until we came along. As we walked across the cafeteria and they spotted Kimmie, one by one their faces lit up with a smile. I guess that's the effect Kimmie has on people. She makes them smile.

We took care of the paperwork and then went across the hall for the picture. We had to wait behind a couple other students. Kimmie was pretty good. She decided to pretend she was playing baseball and she assumed her batting stance, complete with "digging your foot into the dirt" motion. One of the women from the office was helping with the ID cards. I knew she was one of Kimmie's buddies so I asked Kimmie if she wanted to say "Hi" to her. No, Kimmie was too busy "batting." As we moved up in the line and were closer to the woman from the office, Kimmie spotted her and over she ran with her arms out. This lady was pretty smart. She jumped up and went around the table so she could get a good Kimmie hug. And it was a good one, a double hug. One around the waist and one around the neck, with a really good squeeze.

Registration was actually kinda fun, watching everyone's reaction to Kimmie.

--Mom

Vacation and Another Friend

Last week we were on vacation. The first evening we stopped at a restaurant to eat. Kimmie was sitting at the end of the table where the waitress stood to take our order.

It wasn't long before Kimmie was hugging her. When Kimmie finally let go the waitress started telling us about her brother being autistic.

After she walked away, Daddy just looked at me and said, "That's another one, another life she touched."

I said, "Yes, Kimmie made another friend."

--Mom

Kimmie's Birthday Celebration

I'm very behind on my stories. It's already August and I haven't even written about Kimmie's birthday celebration.

Since Kimmie's sister was going to be gone to camp on Kimmie's birthday, we celebrated early. We told Kimmie when we were going to celebrate her birthday about a week before and boy was she ready.

Not normally a morning person, Kimmie was up at 6:20 am. We weren't celebrating until evening, so she had a long day of waiting. Fortunately she was pretty good about it. She signed repeatedly "Grandma Grandpa over." I reminded her that they weren't coming over until evening. She was amazingly patient.

It did start to get the best of her when she could see the presents, but she had to wait for us to all finish our cake and ice cream. We all knew that she'd been waiting a long time, so we gulped down the cake and ice cream to get to the important part -- presents.

She was very excited. One of her new loves, this summer, is Teen Titans. One present was Season One of Teen Titans. She has been carrying it around and sleeping with it ever since. (Well, when she can convince Daddy that she needs to take it to bed with her.) She doesn't ask to watch it very often, but she keeps the movie box close by. Sometimes she cries in the night and we have to find it for her.

She is enjoying her new books and toys.

It won't be long before she starts talking about Christmas.

--Mom

Shopping

Kimmie has a one track mind and lately it has been fixated on shopping. Unfortunately she is not happy to just go out and wander around looking. She thinks she needs to buy something every place she goes.

Usually she also has in her mind something that she wants to buy. Unfortunately it is often something that we cannot find in the stores.

As you might guess, shopping with Kimme usually involves a lot of screaming. Screaming because what she wants is not in the store. And screaming if we try to leave without her buying something.

It's a challenge.

--Mom

The Waiter

Tonight we went out to eat. Kimmie was determined to hug the young man who was our waiter. Every time he came to our table she would look up at him and hold her arms out. Dad would try to distract her and redirect her.

One time she was smiling at the waiter and I asked her if she was flirting. The waiter laughed and said, "that's ok" as he went about his work.

We managed to keep Kimmie off him until we were leaving. As we were leaving the waiter came past us to speak to us as we left. Kimmie's arms went up and he got his hug. Another waiter went past about that time and paused to say he must have done a good job. Our waiter laughed and commented that his customers love him. It was cute and sweet and funny.

Kimmie's sister was laughing as we finally made our way out of the restaurant. She observed that every time we go out to eat Kimmie hugs the waiter or waitress. I pointed out that most people who work as waiters and waitresses are outgoing, people persons, which is good because they are not too bothered by a little girl hugging on them.

Another life Kimmie touched.

--Mom