Moving Right Along...

Yesterday was a big day for Jane. She bid farewell to her first prosthetic arm and got a shiny new arm. And this one has moving parts.

Jane wears a lightweight harness that connects to a small lever that closes the "hand" (or "terminal device" as the prosthetist calls it). We chose a shape called an adept terminal in order to give her the most functionality. The terminal itself is made by a company in Boulder called TRS. It was designed by an amputee as a better option to the traditional split hook design. Her arm was made by our wonderful prosthetist, Kevin, in Fort Collins.

Every time she puts tension on the cable, either by shrugging her shoulder or by reaching with her prosthesis, the hand closes. This is more intuitive than the traditional devices that open by putting tension on the cable.

So far she is doing pretty well with adjusting to the new arm. It is a bit bulkier than her old arm and it looks more like a medical device, but Ami helped me pick out a super cute fabric to make it look somewhat less industrial (the fabric is laminated over the fiberglass arm).

At this point, she's not to the point where she's picking up objects with her new arm, but she's starting to figure out that it opens and closes when she passes it across her body, so I think she's doing great with it for now. We will continue with her occupational therapy and work towards her being able to use it for everyday tasks.

The Fall, Demon, Ghoul and Harvest Celebration

Emily has been looking forward to today for a long, long time (which in her world is a week). It was the day of her preschool Halloween party (or Fall Celebration as they're now called). Her very first school party. She went to bed last night full of plans about the party preparations and the party itself. She could hardly get to sleep she was so overjoyed at the prospect. She must have finally gone to sleep because all was quiet when we went up to bed.

Then 2 a.m. rolled around. We were awakened by sobbing. After a stumble down the hall, we realized that Emily wasn't feeling great. She said she had a sore throat. A quick temperature check revealed a moderate fever. After a dose of medicine, I held her while the sobbing continued,

"Mom, I'll be better tomorrow!"

"It already is tomorrow"

"But I want to go to my party!"


A sobbing child at 2 a.m. can get you to promise anything just as long as there's a chance you might get to go back to bed. So I bit. I promised Emily that we would have our own party complete with trick or treating and that it would be better than the school's party. I figured she'd be too sick to want to party much anyway.


Morning came, the fever was down and Emily remembered every word of the conversation the previous night. She held me to it.

So we started the day with homemade pancakes, followed by a lengthy makeover in which I did my best to replicate Emily's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience.

Then... trick-or-or treating. This one was a little difficult for me to figure out, but in the end, I went from room to room in the house while the kids knocked on the doors. I handed them a starburst at each room.

Emily approved.

Jane was worn out from trying to get starburst wrappers off with her tiny fingers.

By that time Emily was more than ready for pumpkin and bat shaped grilled cheese (I didn't think to get a picture of this since she has to have all her sandwiches in shapes).


I hope this is the last time Emily has to miss a school party but to tell the truth, I wouldn't mind doing this again... next year, that is.

Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

And I could tell it was going to be a terrible horrible no good very bad day.

I could tell because Jane wouldn't stop throwing fits long enough for her OT to come and when the OT finally showed up late, Jane pooped her pants as if on cue.

I could tell because Emily would rather play than put her shoes on even though we were running late for story time.

I could tell because Jane kept throwing fits all the way to the library.

I could tell because after Jane fussed her way through storytime and the kids were playing, Emily ran off, I lost her and when I finally found her she threw a fit of her own to punish me for her lack of judgement..

It's not even lunchtime.

I think I'll move to Australia.

Nature's Bounty

Never take small children with you to pick out seeds for your vegetable garden. If you do, you are sure to come away with either watermelons or pumpkins - neither of which can grow in our very short summer. This summer, it was pumpkins. I bought the seeds to oblige Emily, brought them home, put them in the ground and didn't expect much.

I was pleasantly surprised when, a few weeks ago, I encountered a green orb among the towering sunflowers (which I planted two years ago and didn't have the heart to pluck up) and beside the crispy brown pea plants. I was even more pleasantly surprised when the frost held off long enough for that orb to (mostly) turn a bright shade of orange.

Two days ago, our first frost of the year prompted me to harvest the great Pivik Family Pumpkin. Care for a peek? I would if I were you.

Isn't she a beauty? Although I don't believe you can actually make a jack-o-lantern out of a pumpkin that is only 6'' high, this fine specimen will make a lovely addition to our front porch decor... that is if Emily doesn't love it to death first. 

(she is also holding our entire zucchini harvest.)

Thanks Emily for keeping the faith. 

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

As promised, here is the tale of how Emily became a princess for a day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (hereafter referred to as BBB) it is a salon in Disneyland where small girls have their hair, nails and makeup (yes, makeup, it's not like I let her have it on a regular basis) done to be made over as princesses. They also offer an array of very beautifully detailed princess dresses that cost more than any dress Emily owns (thanks, grandma and grandpa for making a gift of the dresses).

From the day Emily learned of the existence of the BBB, she couldn't wait to go. We saw an opportunity to bribe her and made her earn her visit with a sticker chart: 20 days of good behavior. I think it took her 3 months.

Finally the chart was filled and we were officially obligated.

Upon arrival at the BBB, Emily was assigned a Fairy Godmother to facilitate her transformation.

Her hair was princessed out.

Nails and makeup were done.

Glitter, glitter and more glitter was applied (it's in the wand).

And Emily became a somewhat paler and considerably shorter version of Princess Tiana.

When the makeover was complete, Emily asked, "Where's my carriage?". I think she took the promise she would "become a princess" a bit to literally. Evidence of this misconception persisted as she posed with Cinderella moments after her makeover.

"Princesses like to clasp their hands in front of their hearts", explained Cinderella.

Emily really took the princess gig over the top as we walked down Main Street. I looked down to find that she was spontaneously waving and blowing kisses as she walked to everyone she saw. I'm not sure that she wasn't waiting for someone to ask for her autograph.

I am 99% sure that Emily believed in her heart of hearts that her makeover was intended to make her an official theme park princess. Whatever she believed, she was one happy kid.

Although Jane was too young for a makeover, we didn't leave her out of the experience. Emily made sure Jane was decked out properly as Snow White. 

The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique was a great experience, worth every dollar (and there were lots of them. Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa!)

Family Vacation: Beta Testing Mode

This past week we took our very first real family vacation. What better place than the happiest place on Earth? That's right, we went to Torrington. No, not really. We went to Disneyland. How did the kids like it you ask? Well, I don't think love is a strong enough word for how Emily felt about it. She bought the Disney experience hook line and sinker.
From the moment we arrived, Emily was more excited than any human has a right to be. From the ultra exciting bunk beds

to the thrill of seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle

 
to the delight of meeting the characters

to the blow-your mind rides

Emily ate it up. As far as I can tell, Emily is the target audience for Disneyland. She loved the little kid stuff in Toontown (although she did grow tired of it quickly), she loved the princesses (whom we had to stand in line an hour to meet), she loved dining with characters (goodbye college fund), she loved the roller coasters (Big Thunder was her favorite) and she even loved the big thrills, insisting that we go on Tower of Terror and actually liking it. If you know Emily, you'll notice I've omitted mention of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, her favorite moment of the trip. It's coming, but it will require a separate post. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy these princess photos that were an hour in the making:

And Jane... oh Jane. Let's just say that Jane was a bit overwhelmed and leave it at that.

There were brief moments of happiness from Jane. She adored Small World, which she dubbed the "Baby Ride".

But let's face it, it's hard to please a 21 month old. Not even the Disney magic can vanish the terrible twos. We knew that before we left on our trip so we weren't that disappointed.

As for the adults on the trip, I think I speak for both of us when I say it was more than worth the stressful airport experience, the meltdowns and the small fortune spent on food the kids didn't eat just to be able to experience Disneyland with our kids.

We even got a tiny bit of time alone on our hotel balcony which overlooked Downtown Disney.

Every night, after the kids were in bed, we got to eat dessert while looking at this. It was a lovely end to every day.

It wasn't easy to pull off our first family vacation. It was a bit more Griswold than Roman Holiday, but it was absolutely worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Just give me a couple years to recover.

Captain Obvious Dabbles in Culinary Arts

You know the guy who always seems to know exactly what's wrong and how to fix it? I'm not that guy. Most of the time it takes me a couple beats longer than Joe Public to even realize that something is wrong in the first place. Case in point: my oven.

Last weekend, Chris was gone on a backpacking trip. I had planned some healthful meals for my kids while he was away. Okay, so I didn't really. Most of them went from freezer to oven to plate.

Friday night was fish sticks and while I was working my culinary magic, something went horribly wrong. The oven began emitting a sputtering noise and it looked like a sparkler was going off inside of it (or a welding torch, but I was too slow to think of that). But then it stopped. I assumed it was just some food burning off and let it be (come to think of it, food would have created more smoke). The fish sticks were cooked and I went on with dinner despite the fact that there was a vaguely familiar smell in the air. Why was I suddenly thinking of my Sophomore year circuits lab? Anyway there was too much standing between me and some well earned peace to think too deeply about that.

The rest of the weekend went fine and I managed to actually not make any more freezer to oven fare for the remainder of the time. I put the oven out of my mind until yesterday after lunch when I went to make caramel bars. The elders were coming over for dinner and I wanted to make sure the bars had plenty of time to set.

I set the oven to preheat and began my prep work. Prep work done. Oven still cold. Crap! The sparks! They must have meant something! Maybe the element went bad. But how can I tell? Finally, after four days I stick my head in the oven (don't be alarmed - it's not gas). What I saw wasn't good. In fact, it was quite bad (please excuse my oven. I refuse to clean it by hand and self clean isn't exactly an option now).

Note the right hand side: the completely severed element. The white material is a result of the electrical fire that caused the severing. The black bits are slag (yes, slag - as in resolidified molten metal). Here is one up close:

The new element is on the way. It will be here Monday. But now I'm craving cookies. Homemade cookies. Probably because I can't have them. Or maybe because I make them too much and now I'm in withdrawals. Either way, there will be no cookies until Monday. Or lasagna. Or brownies. Or fish sticks, frozen pizza or corn dogs. At least caramel bars are still in the realm of possibility. It turns out that they do beautifully on the bottom rack under a broiler set to low.