Man's Best Friend

We were a petless household for a few years. Two reasons...Owen and Stormin' Norman. 


Let's begin with Owen. I brought Owen home from the humane society when he was about 6 years old and I was living the single apartment life. He was a big baby, gave love bites and was the size of a bulldog. Occasionally, he would leave me little vomit presents around my apartment, but I didn't have children so wasn't bothered by the extra work. And he was so cute! I seriously loved my senior cat. Then E came along. Little nighttime presents he sometimes left right smack dab in the middle of the hallway. So nighttime feedings for my human baby at times included stepping in the little presents. He is lucky he lasted as long as he did. After scratching one of the kids, he was sent away. 


Stormin Norman was a tiny yorkshire terrier. No more explanation needed! Terriers are horrible to house train and incredibly stubborn in every other area. He loved himself and was very much disappointed in his family. We just weren't trainable. He required such a high standard of life and he was also sent away after biting one of the kids. 


Wonder why both our animals wanted to hurt our children???

They do look like they are guilty of something!


So after about a year of E begging for a pet, we gave in. I did a little research and decided on a guinea pig. I'm not really into rodents of any kind, but all the "pet experts" love guinea pigs for their hardiness and ease of care. Great pet for small children! We got to the pet store and went straight to the Small Animal section. The guinea pigs were on sale....$38.00 each. Are you kidding me? The rats were $7, gerbils were $5 and hamsters were on sale for $4.50. We could buy a hamster and a cage for the price of one guinea pig. Plus guinea pigs live to be 8 years old and you are assured much less of a commitment with other small rodents. That's a negative for the guinea pig! I'm kind of partial to a more disposable pet, but after some conversation, we decided to take the plunge. 


Now three months later, we have adorable little "Snow". Her full name is Snowflake Sarah. She started out in a hall closet and we would just walk by and give her attention. Maybe hold her occasionally. She is now officially part of the family and we keep her mostly in our great room area...okay, she's in the kitchen. We do move her when we have guests. But otherwise, she is right in the middle of the craziness that is our household. 


It did take some time to tame her, but she is now very attached to her humans. During her floor time in our living room, she will run right up to any of us for a little love...even J! That's amazing that a little tiny animal would run up to a scary toddling girl! Maybe she isn't that smart, but we love it. 


Here are some reasons guinea pigs are THE best pet.

• Take up a small space
• Affectionate and social with their humans
• They play
• They aren't tiny and one fall from a toddlers arms wouldn't hurt them badly (although we won't test this idea)
• Cheap to feed
• Easy to clean up after
• And she's a little garbage pail...if you have ever bought a bunch of parsley or cilantro only needing a tablespoon or two, Snow will eat the rest over the next week. She eats the bad end of a carrot or celery and kale stems. Wonderful!

Here is little Snow!  Man's best friend...

Yes, her eyes are red. That's not just my camera flash. You get used to it!

Pop the Pig

This is such a fun game. It was a gift from Aunt Julie.

We like it because it's silly! But it also helps J with color sorting and beginning to recognize written numbers. Aren't games one of the best learning tools?!?!

This is the game and J can't play until she sorts colors. It's what she does best.

E was home sick and played with us. She helps J with the counting.

Each hamburger is color coded and has a number on the back. One roll of the dice and you choose a hamburger, put the little hamburger into the pig's mouth and push the pig's head the number of times written on the back of each hamburger. 

The pig fills with air every time his hat is pushed until...POP!  The pig gets so fat he explodes. What kid doesn't just love an exploding pig??? 

Mason

There is a little boy in E's first grade class. He has cancer. That is really all that needs to be said. Here is his caring bridge journal.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/masonmacrostie/journal/1


We know what Mason is going through and can only imagine what his parent's are thinking right now. But what about his siblings? It is easy to forget those on the sidelines when you are facing a medical crisis. 


When J had her first surgery, we were housed at Doernbecher Children's Hospital. A place filled with pediatric expertise and wonderful care, but not a place you want to spend any time. J was recovering from a surgery to detether her spinal cord. Any surgery near a spinal cord is scary stuff, but we knew when we were admitted onto our hospital ward that J was one of the "healthy" kids. 


Our hospital ward was full of children with neck tumors and brain tumors. And we were worried about a little tethered spinal cord. Big deal! But there was one little girl who was down the hall from us. She was probably around the age of 12-14 and she never left her bed. She had an inoperable brain tumor. But the surgeon was going to operate anyway to "see if there's a chance", he said to one of the nurses.


I sometimes worry about that little girl and wonder if she made it. I also wonder about her mother who never left her side during those days we watched this all play out. But the one I think about the most is her brother. He was maybe a couple years younger than she was. And he was sad! I mean really sad. I never saw him cry, but he walked all over that hospital by himself trying to keep busy. He would visit the playroom, check out movies, play video games and cook burritos in the microwave down the hall. He just kept moving and I don't think his parents checked in with him even once. You can't blame them! They were losing a child. They were busy. 


The day we were discharged from the hospital, we walked past this little boy. I'll never forget him sitting in his sister's unused wheelchair in the hallway. He wasn't eating one of his burritos or playing a video game. It looked like his attempt to keep himself busy had ended. He had given up. He just sat in that wheelchair and stared at the wall. As we walked past him, I wanted to say something to him. I wanted to hug him and take him home with us. He was as much a victim as his sister. But what do you say. 


"Everything is going to be okay" is just plain dishonest.


I think he would have appreciated some attention. Someone to play a game with or to talk to. I hope he found that while he was there, but it may not have come until later when his parents were able to focus on him again. It's tough to be a sibling!

Memories

I came across this photo this morning.

This was how a life jacket fit prior to J's surgery to correct her Sprengel's Deformity. And yes, I knew it was not safe! She wasn't on that boat for long as it was so uncomfortable. Uncomfortable for her and it was uncomfortable for the rest of us to look at her. Poor thing! 


About 30 percent of children with Klippel Feil Syndrome have a sprengel's deformity. It means that one or both shoulder blades are deformed and/or elevated. Generally, range of motion is very restricted because of the elevated scapula. 


We chose to have surgery to correct the deformity to improve her range of motion, but also for cosmetic reasons. Her shoulders are level, she can raise both arms straight above her head, clothes fit better and she can comfortably wear a life jacket. It's been a little over a year since this surgery. What a journey! And what a wonderful gift we were able to give her with the help of Shriner's Hospital.    


I can't wait to show her this picture when she is older! 

Tracing

J doesn't have good fine motor control so we practice tracing. I'd love for her to start working on writing her name by next year. This is the book we are working through.

The first few tracing lessons are very straight or slightly curved lines following a dashed line. She did pretty good.  This we did a few months ago.

She still has trouble staying on the track, but is still doing awesome as it gets harder and harder. I do tell her where to start and show her the path to take with my finger before I let her loose. When I don't give her that instruction, she doesn't want to try. But the idea is to get her better control of the small muscles in her hands so I'm fine with helping her along a bit.

This is getting very difficult and we'll try this one another day.  :)