Appendicitis....and a trip to Ohio

In the middle of the night, Ms. Clevelle turned on the light, and said, something is not right!  And to the scene of the disaster, Ms. Clevelle ran fast and faster.   The doctor dialed, dan ton ten six....nurse he said... it's an appendix......  Well something like that.  It WAS kind of the middle of the night....1:30 ish......a gassy bloating that had been bugging me for the past two weeks, relocated itself into one extremely painful spot.......Quiz here......which side is your appendix on???  The Right side.  I googled it.......what did we do before google??......I had every single symptom of appendicitis.  I called the nurse, she said get to the hospital now.  Soooo Long story short, I don't have to ever worry about my appendix bothering me again.  This little detour in our plans, delayed our Ohio departure by a week.  The boys kept asking me "Mom, are you feeling better?"  It would be nice to think they were concerned about my health....well I guess they were,  in the sense that it effected the departure to Ohio.  So less than a week from surgery, slightly hazy from pain killers, I managed to pack us up (only forgetting the girls' tooth brushes, and swim suits...maybe I should try the painkillers every time I pack!) for a week in Ohio.  Promising the doctor...and my father....that I would stop and walk no less than every 2 hours.

The boys were very glad to see their cousins.  The girls were thrilled to see Grandma and Grandpa...... mostly Grandma.  Sorry Dad, but you are not a devoted enough slave.  Grandma on the other hand.......lets just say it's a good thing we left after a week.... before they were completely converted back to complete helplessness, and had completely forgotten the meaning of the word NO.

Grandma, and Cousin Fran, cleaned out the "play house", It was the garden shed in my day.  The girls loved it.  They made a "salad" from flour petals, hydrangea leaves, green beans that they delightedly cut up with their play knives, and other random gathered items.

Wren is holding the stick that they have to use to turn on the light.  It's too high for them to reach.  I'm not sure Iley ever got a turn.  It's a good thing she's easy going. Cause Wren definitely runs the show!

 The "Salad"

 The beloved Grandmother.  Iley got all weepy about 10 miles from their house on the way home.  She sobbed out "I miss my Grandma!"  I miss my mama too I told her! I said "it's a long way to Grandma's house from our house.  It will be dark again before we get home."  She says "It's too long, lets go back." 

The Wreath Aunt Gwen made them from the vines outside the door.

 The charming "play house"  

 It even has loft beds.

 and a cute little bakers rack for all their dishes.

Their table set with salad and drinks.  This was the 2nd day.....I think Wren added some dirt to the salad....extra fiber maybe?

The poor denuded hydrangea bush outside the door.  It gave generously to the salad greens.

Fine ladies in their heels.

 The entire contents of the playhouse was packed up and moved to different locations several times.

 They even got to visit Aunt Linda, who lives just down the lane from Grandma.  She has a charming log cabin playhouse.  My cousin and her girls were visiting with some little girls they babysit for.  They were playing restaurant.  We had to bring our pennies and come through the "drive up window"

 It even has an upstairs with a balcony, and a curly slide for a quick exit.

 Fancy dresses make everything more fun.

Iley was trying to figure out how to navigate the stairs in her finery (well except the shoes).  

 Leanna came to her rescue.

 I did a terrible job of taking pictures on this trip.  That's a lot of pictures of the same subject, sorry.  We skip from there........to the trip home. 

This was seriously cracking me up!  Boredom overtook the back seat.......and a beauty shop was born.  With some very patient brothers as their clients.  Welcome to the Hello Kitty Salon!

Meet the stylists....Wren, with Harrison as her client.

...and Iley, with Sherman in her chair. The consensus was that Wren was a gentler hair dresser.  Iley dug her fingernails in.

 They were caped, and combed, and scrubbed, and clipped.  I saw a screw driver, a flip flop, a phone charger, and several other items used in the grooming. The girls DO have their seatbelts on here for anyone concerned.  They just took off their shoulder straps for better mobility.

Time for a buzz with the  Phone charger Clippers.

 Now it's time to blow dry and style.  This girl does NOT lack imagination, she even made sure to plug it in!

We were quite entertained with Sherman's salon gossip too!  "OH my word, did you hear about sarah?  She broke up with Bill!"  "And so and so cheated on so and so, and Kate is dating John now".........or something to this effect.  

Conclusion of Wren's 3 week therapy session and pictures of the Baby

I will get to the therapy........but here is some therapy for your eyes..........but then again, maybe we are just partial.

I know, I know......I'm such a grandma :)

Now more on Wren.......Some one asked me if we got a good report......the answer is Yes.....and No.  Yes because they were very pleased with her progress, and we have a game plan to move forward.  They remapped her processor to give her better sound and to stop the twitching in her face when the device made connection when putting it on.  Her whole right side would give a creepy involuntary twitch.  Weird.  The bad news is .......the twitch is a problem.  They remapped it so it stopped......BUT........the INTERNAL device is faulty, and has to be replaced.  Which means another surgery.  Thankfully she will still have hearing on one side while the other side heals.  It happens very rarely............why us??  Who knows.  

For anyone interested in what "therapy" consisted of here is a description.  She worked with 2 different therapists. Allison on Monday and Tuesday in CO springs, who focused mainly on her listening,  and Kerry one Wed.- Friday in Denver who worked mainly on her articulation with a lot of listening skills thrown in too.  Listening is definitely easier for her than speaking at this point.

Allison took pictures of Wren doing different activities like opening a bottle of milk and juice, pouring the milk and juice, drinking the milk and juice, and smelling it, and then big cup and little cup.  She then laid the pictures out in front of Wren of her doing each activity, and said "open juice"  or smell milk, or pour milk/juice etc.  By the last day of the week Wren was getting them all.  The trick was for her to not only listen for the noun Juice/milk......but also the command, or verb.  The next week was another set of word combinations.  Again she could get them all by the end of the week. Same the third week.  They did other vocabulary words too.

Kerry worked on the same things, but made her say each command. "open milk"  Pour Juice"  etc.  She also had several doll house objects.....mom, dad, dog, cat, chair, table, book, and a hat.   Then she would say "give me mom"  give me book"  etc.  Then she moved to "Put the hat on the bed"  put dad on the chair"  etc.  Then she would walk the dog to the chair and Wren had to say "dog walk chair".  or "dad on chair", or "mom on bed",(a funny side note on this..she always put "mom" on the side of the bed that I sleep on!  If Kerry put me on the wrong side Wren would correct her!) "book on table."    Then Kerry would say "make mom fall down"  and wren had to listen to the whole command and follow instructions.  She did really well by the end.  Now the trick is to get her to understand the same commands in a different context.  So we will continue to work on all of these skills at home.

Kerry also worked on understanding On or Under.......and where, and who.  These are simple language concepts, but crucial to her base understanding.  she would put the dog under the table and ask.  where is the dog?  Wren had to say "under table"  or when asked, "who is in the chair" say... "dad in  chair"  Because even if she can memorize sight words, if she doesn't understand what is going on, reading is meaningless.   If I signed/spoke to her saying "The cat jumped on the box of books"  she might be able to read all of those words, but if I asked her "who jumped on the box?"  she couldn't tell me.  Or if I asked her "what was in the box?"  again, she couldn't tell me.  Every single thing she understands has to be very intentionally taught to her. She doesn't hear or understand "conversational/caught language, all the words normal hearing kids pick up just by overhearing conversation" The Mountain ahead of us seems impossible, and insurmountable.  I have to NOT look at the Mountain, and move on rock at a time......and TRUST God to move the mountain that I can NOT.  I confess to feelings of panic.......especially when I take my eyes off of the creator of this little girl.  When I forget the miracles that have already been done in her, and on her behalf. 

So say a prayer for both of us if you think of us...........and wish us luck :)  She does NOT enjoy doing therapy, and resists.......which makes the rock moving even harder.......and requires MUCH attitude adjustment........and many tears of frustration on both our parts.