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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

The Elevator Man

Yesterday we were on our way to the doctor. We parked in the parking garage and walked over to the elevators. There were already some people waiting and another young man in a suit walked up about the same time we did. As we waited, Kimmie was signing to me and I was interpreting her signs aloud (she won't go on to the next sign until we speak her sign).

The young man who had walked up at the same time as us became quite fascinated with this. Kimmie was telling me her doctor stories . . ."hurt finger, doctor March". . . "hurt finger, doctor January, red blood bleeding, shot arm". She didn't want to be going to the doctor and was working herself up to a sobbing fit remembering all the past experiences at doctors' offices. Just as she was about to cry, the elevator arrived--just in time to distract her from the sobbing!

We all entered the elevator. I asked the man by the buttons to push 11 for us. When the elevator stopped the first time, the young man who was so fascinated with Kimmie realized he had forgotten to have the button pushed for his floor. I guess we were already above whatever floor he wanted to get off on because he was rather flustered. He was muttering to himself as he tried to decide whether to push the button or wait until it was headed back down. Kimmie heard him and turned to see who was talking. She looked him over, turned back towards me, turned and looked him over again, then decided she needed to hug him. He looked at me to see if it was ok, I looked him over and nodded. She gave him a really nice hug. As she was hugging him, he said to me, "She probably wouldn't be hugging me if she knew I was a doctor." I assured him that she hugs all her doctors, even though they make her cry.

I think he probably decided the extra time in the elevator was worth it.

--Mom

(By the way, she did go to the doctor in January. They pricked her ring finger to take blood for testing and gave her a shot in the arm. We don't have to tell her when that was, she remembers. There's nothing wrong with her memory!)

Our Hummer

Yes, we have a hummer. Not a Hummer, but a hummer. Our hummer is named Kimmie.

She sits and rocks and makes this "mmmmm" sound. She's usually very happy and content when she does this. So, for a while, we smile at our happy, humming girl.

After a couple hours of her making this sound continuously, well, we aren't always smiling. We start to feel like our heads might explode from the build-up of the sound. We try to get her to understand that she can stop making this noise, but to her it seems to be an uncontrolled noise that just happens. She doesn't seem to know how to stop it.

Maybe we need to buy some earplugs?

--Mom

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