Our Spring Break Week

I've been sewing!  I went to a quilt show with a friend, and came home with some new fabric, which inspired me.  

Here are the fabrics I picked up.  The center is a charm pack that coordinates with the two prints on the left.  

I decided these needed to be a bag.  These are the (sideways) front and back of the bag.  

I had the yellow piping in my bias tape bin.  The white is the lining of the external pocket.  

I picked up some foam interfacing at JoAnn's.  This is the "trying to figure out how to sew the guts and have everything right side out at the end" part.  

Seriously, Fiona?  Usually Grumman is the one messing with my sewing stuff.  

He must be a bad influence.  

The finished bag, side one.  Straps are made from navy, extra wide, double fold bias tape with a stripe of lime twill tape.  

And side two.  The inner lining is the bottom navy print.  I bought a Bagnet that's the baby green of the lower right charm square.  

Katie had a biome diorama project for school.  This is the "working on it the night before it's due, in pajamas with bath hair" picture.  

This is the, "Hey, Hannah, take a picture of your sister's finished project for me" on the way to school shot.  

Ah, now this is what usually happens.  While I was puttering in the sewing room, I found a UFO and decided to finish it.  So when I picked up the foam interfacing for the bag, I also got a yard of minkee to back the little blanket I was working on.  I got to the point where I was ready to put them together, so I spread the minkee out on the floor, and Grumman lost his mind.  He ran over, slid onto it like a baseball player, grabbed it, bit it, bunny kicked it...  little psycho.  

Eventually, I shoed the Grum away and serged the top to the minkee.  Then it was time to bind the edges.  My basket of bias tape yielded almost enough bias tape.  :sigh:  

The finally finished product.  (This UFO was started during the mask sewing part of the pandemic, 3 years ago.)  It's a small blankie, a good car seat size, so I'm sending it off to Texas for the grandbabies.  

I spy Fiona in the window.  

JoAnn's is dangerous for me.  Even though I went with a list of like 5 items I needed, I ended up with a few extras.  Such as this Starry Night inspired print that became napkins backed in navy flannel.  

And there's my Grum-lin (Grumman the gremlin) who immediately came over to "model" with them as soon as I tried to take a picture.  

Proof of life that Jack still exists.  He had something on his elbow that he couldn't see, so I was going to take a picture of it so he could look at his elbow.  He recently had a birthday and got new sheets as one of his gifts.  Because when you're an adult, presents can be practical.  

Katie brought home her mountain biome in one piece, so I took a better picture of it.  

While we were on Spring Break, Katie got the opportunity to participate in a medical study at Shriners.  

They took some measurements, we answered some surveys, and they had her do some step ups to get her heart rate up.  Then we went to the lab for a little finger stick blood test, and then a couple more measurements and we were done.  It was an easy way for us to give back in a small way for all the care we have received there.  

Dropping Jack off at work, we often see bunnies in the mornings, but this was the closest one we've seen.  I'm always afraid of hitting them as I roll through the teardrop shaped loop where I let him out, so I go really slowly.  

Having a week off has been a nice rest.  We've had one "thing" each day, but not been so booked up that it's been stressful.  Hopefully we'll go back refreshed and ready to hit the massive twirly slide that is the chaos time between Spring Break and the end of the school year.  

Our Week - with a Visit to Shriners

We've been busy this week!  I love summertime.  The more relaxed pace gives the kids so much opportunity for free play, and it's fun to see what they come up with.

The cat was feeling neglected.  He's not normally one to aggressively pursue affection, but maybe I don't realize how often I pet him ordinarily.  He needed a little reassurance that the toddlers who chase him around haven't taken up all my energy and attention.

The teens developed a new game:  Fishing For Toddlers.  They're a little bit like kittens, the way they're fascinated with the moving bright paracord.

These dresses from Zulily were supposed to be the girls dresses for church 4th of July weekend, but they ended up not arriving in time, so they wore them this week instead.  I can't get over how lucky I am to be their mama.

Containers are a toddler favorite.  Putting things in and dumping them out again is a fun pastime.

We've been playing outside, too.  Hannah can just barely pedal her big wheel now.  I would really love to find a bike-ish sort of thing that works for her.

This is my Pinned It and Did It for the summer.  One drip pan, 4 Command strips, and a set of LeapFrog magnets have generated all sorts of spelling play.  (affiliate links)  Katie is working on singing the ABCs, and still learning to identify letter names and sounds.  I am hoping this will be a fun way to help with that.

I was concerned about the automatic doors on the waiting room, but they were so good about staying in.  And yes, I am having fun dressing them.  A lot of fun.

This week, I decided we needed a couple of new noisy toys in the house.

Turns out, I should have gotten 2 of the same thing instead of 2 different ones.  We're working on the fine art of taking turns.

This was incredibly sweet.  They were bringing me stuffed animals and playsilks so I could wrap up their babies for them.

I love love love watching my teens with the babies.  Last night, Josiah and Sam each carried one out to the van for me.  There's something so endearing about watching young men be gentle with little ones.  A couple times now, Sam has gotten into the play yard and let them climb all over him.  They love it!  The toddlers light up when they see my boys.

Guess who came over to play this week?  We haven't seen Brayden in a while, so it was great to have him here for the day.

This is a cool stacking toy that I got from 4Knowledge-4Fun a while back!  Right after I snapped the picture, Little One toppled it over, of course.  I like the way it can be stacked in any order, not just cone shaped, like most stackers.  And there's no center post (which in my house would turn into a hammer or weapon).  It was really nice to be able to welcome our Small Guests with a brand new toy that I'd tucked away.

Eli has been making new K'nex creations again.  This one is a pickup with a helipad.  He comes up with the most interesting designs.  He also did a hand grenade and a large helicopter this week.

I took Katie and Hannah to Shriners this week to get checked up on by their surgeon.  Both girls needed adjustments to their prosthetics.  Katie got the good news that she no longer needs to wear her AFO (brace) on her formerly clubbed foot at night time!  I'm so grateful that her foot and ankle are in such good shape, despite not being corrected until she was 3 years old.  For our family, club foot has been a super easy special need.

Actually, limb differences in general has been quite manageable.  Each of the girls has had one surgery, and we visit Shriners every few months, but on a daily basis, they're just kids.  Kids clowning around while they wait for their legs to come back from the prosthetist.  I'm amazed at Hannah's upper body strength!

When we were done, we were told there was free ice cream out front, so we went to check it out.

Turns out, Uber was there giving away Three Twins ice cream cups and other swag to promote their business. That was a fun treat!

On the way home, we had a dragonfly land on our antenna.  Hannah asked me how many types of dragonflies there are in the whole world.  I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a lot of internet searches with her homeschooling this year.  (5000, if you're curious.)

This week we hit one month with our Little Visitors.  I have found having them here to be healing to my mama heart.  Being sought out for affection, being the recipient of spontaneous snuggles has gone a long way. These things and more are helping me realize that the "perks" of caring for small children are what make it worthwhile, and it's just amazingly hard work when those perks aren't there.  Luke turned 4 this week, and we sent a gift and got a picture of him with it.  I feel good about his placement.  He's being well cared for, and I hope that, against all odds, he can make some progress there.

Less than one month until school starts now!  I ordered Eli's backpack this week.  And we got some cool school supplies from BzzAgent, too!  Eli snagged The Big Pen and claimed it for his own right away.  We're looking forward to checking out the rest of the Designed By Students line at Staples.

Aside from Hannah's math, all of our curriculum is here waiting for our first day.  I don't know what that first day will look like yet, since I don't know if I'll still be entertaining toddlers at that point or not.  But I suspect that one day that first week will involve stopping at the donut shop after we drop the teens off at school to celebrate.

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Limb Differences: What is it like to have a child with a prosthetic or AFO?

Prior to adopting Hannah, I wondered what it would be like to have a child with a limb difference.  I mistakenly assumed we'd be bringing home a "poor little waif" who would need lots of help.  

Ha!  

The reality is, for our family, bringing home our girls with limb differences has involved a flurry of medical appointments in the first few months, and then one ongoing issue afterwards.  We'll get to that in a minute. 

There is a little learning curve that goes along with prosthetics.  For example, I sometimes forget that the girls' feet don't get washed with the rest of their bodies.  That's Katie's foot next to Eli's.  Fortunately, whatever that was came off with a diaper wipe.

Hannah is an above the knee amputee, and Katie is a below the knee amputee.  This means that their prosthetics attach differently.

Hannah's leg has a belt that goes around her waist to help it stay in place once it's on, and Katie's pinches around the top of her knee.

Katie's leg has a separate liner that we put on her stump before we slide the leg on.  

Hannah has a liner, too, but hers stays inside the prosthetic.  You can also see here that Hannah's leg bends at the knee, whereas Katie's leg attaches at the knee, and her actual knee does the bending, not the prosthetic.  Notice the matching heel wear above on Hannah's current leg (foreground) and her previous leg behind it?  

Hannah's old leg on the right, new leg on the left.  They have different knee mechanisms.  She's gone through about 3 feet, upgrading size as necessary, on the old leg.  It has also "grown" a couple inches since she got it, so the difference between the two is not as obvious as it would be if she had the original foot, and the original length of the old leg.   

These are stump socks.  They go on the stump of the limb before the prosthetic (or in Katie's case, before the liner).  They come in a variety of sizes and thicknesses.  Counting left to right, Katie is currently using the first ones, Hannah is using the third ones.  There's a little trial and error involved in figuring out which work best.  

Both girls are able to don and doff (put on and remove) their prosthetics on their own, despite having hand differences as well.  I just started letting Katie do her own in the last few weeks.  At bedtime, she undresses and takes her leg and day brace off.  I change her diaper and the sock she's wearing, and she can put on her own pajamas and night brace.  

I was used to the prosthetic scene, from Hannah, but Katie has introduced me to a whole new world:  AFOs.  AFOs are worn, not only by kids with clubfoot like Katie, but also kids with cerebral palsy, and occasionally other conditions, as well.  That's Katie's night AFO on the left and her daytime one on the right.  She's currently in her brace 24/7, aside from baths.  Most kids wean down to nights only by around age 5.

I have talked before about the need to find long socks for her to wear under the AFO.  At some point after that post, I realized that if I folded the top of the long socks down over the velcro tab, the velcro wouldn't get caught on her leggings.  So, for toddler sized feet, Old Navy triple roll socks are the way to go, in my book.  

Now for that ongoing issue that I mentioned at the beginning of the post.  What is the toughest day to day aspect of having a child with a prosthetic or AFO?  

Clothing.

And yeah, that sounds shallow.  But the reality is, this is something I didn't realize would be an issue.  By sharing this with prospective adoptive parents, I hope to help them be more prepared than I was.  

So what are the clothing issues?

1) Hannah's prosthetic is larger in the thigh area than her real leg is.  This means that leggings look lumpy and lopsided on her, and she doesn't fit into girl jeans.  

2) Hannah's knee tears fabric.  These are high quality leggings bought new in October.  Trashed.  I think I've shown pictures here before of the same thing with her jeans when she was younger.  

3) Katie's AFO takes up a lot more shoe than a typical foot does.

Here's how our family deals with these things:  I tend to dress Hannah in boy jeans, skirts, or leggings with long tunic tops, tulle skirts or dresses that cover the thigh area.  She absolutely can't wear tights at all.  I tried putting tights on Katie once, and they look pretty silly on her, too.  Between the lumpy prosthetic on one side, and the lumpy AFO on the other, she does better in straight leg pants than leggings, as well.  

We asked our prosthetist to put a larger foot on Katie's leg.  This means that now she can wear a pair of shoes that are the same size.  Her prosthetic foot is much larger than her real foot, so if we do wean down to where she only wears AFOs at night, we may have to switch to a smaller foot at some point, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  

There you have it, in a nutshell.  The most difficult part of raising a kid with a limb difference is not that they need tons of help or that they're unable to do what their peers do.  It's that you have to think a little before you buy their clothes.  I can live with that.  

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