Happy Father's Day/Camping

You've got a little schmutz right there!

Had to strip him before getting in the camper.  Yuck!

Hello rock, meet my face :-(

We had to make some adjustments with this whole club foot thing...

When we first started Alex's casting a little over a year ago I thought it really is no big deal having a 20 pound kid with 2 full length leg casts on.  We'll deal with a few casts and pop on the brace and be done!

I think I was wearing those famous rose colored glasses.

Match pic with beautiful little feet!

 His first casting wasn't as horrible as I thought, he cried, James cried, I cried.  This poor little guy had been home for only a month before we took him somewhere his adorable little feet were getting pulled and stretched in ways they had never moved before.  Huge casts were put from upper thigh to over his toes and he couldn't move anymore, and this kid loves to move.

 This is when I learned what we could and could not do with all this extra bulk.

• He was heavier, but much easier to carry.  He didn't have a whole lot of strength so he always leaned and it was tough to carry him around, the casts gave me something solid to hold onto.
• Say bye bye to pants.  When we were hanging at home I just left him in a onesie.  I got some cheap athletic style shorts a size too big for when we went out and the one piece short sets that snapped at the crotch were perfect.  
• We put a pair of James old socks over the casts when we played outside, we didn't want the casts to get ruined or his toes to get torn up on the ground.

• Do not get white casts, if you do, take him to your daughters school and have them sign the casts so they don't look so grody!

• Do not under any circumstances try to put him in the seat of a grocery cart!  I really wish I had known that before I  learned this the hard way.  I got him in the cart just fine, standing next to my car trying to wedge him out without hurting him was another story!  I was praying for someone to walk by and help-at the same time I was praying that no one would see me wrestling this poor kid out of the cart.  I was teetering between tears and hysterical laughter.  Not a pretty sight.  It only took me 15 minutes to get him out :-(
• Take the bar off the shoes before leaving the car when you know you're going to put him in the seat of a grocery cart.  Taking it off with one hand while holding him is tough.
• It was (and still is) so hard to see people staring at him.  Adults have always been the worst, kids just come right out and say what's wrong with his legs.  I can handle that, it's the rude pointing and under the breath comments that I have issues with.  Not too long ago I had a woman ask "What happened to him?" and this was not a friendly tone.  I explained that he has club foot and we're correcting his fee with casting.  "Oh good" she says "I'm glad to know that he wasn't abused!"  By this time we had been stared, pointed and commented about for the past 2 hours so I told her that I was pretty sure I wouldn't take my kids out in public if I beat them.  Probably out of line, but hey, don't make rude comments!
• As I said, Alex is a mover.  And a tosser when sleeping.  With both the casts and the brace, he would get stuck in the slats of his crib and bang into the sides allllll night.  So I took an old comforter (yes, that is Dora) and lay it under his mattress, wrapped it up the sides and safety pinned over the top.  It doesn't look pretty, but it works. 

• I get so many bruises in strange places from his brace and I can't count the number of wounded toes in the house from him crawling over our bare feet.
• If the dr says the next step is surgery, do your research!  A couple of months ago the dr wasn't liking how one of Alex's feet was looking so she wanted to jump into surgery.  After a ton of research, I said no, I want to explore other avenues before doing anything else (pretty sure they're not used to hearing "no").  So now we're working with a physical therapist who is staying in touch with our ortho and his foot is doing better!  We're working on strengthening the muscles in his legs and basically retraining his legs to be in the correct position.  He's in his brace 15-18 hours a day so he can play outside, take swim lessons, go camping, go hiking and do anything else he wants to.  He couldn't do any of that last summer because of his casts.
• We have to stock up on masking tape, the little stinker has figured out how to unbuckle the brace.  He likes to do it as soon as he goes to bed so we have to put them back on in the dark.  Now we put tape over each of the buckles so he can't get to them.  Wonder how long that will last :-)

 I do wish that I had had some of these hints so I didn't have to figure them out on my own.  I hope these hints help some one starting the fun new journey of club foot!

We do NOT throw potatos!

Today, I became that mom I swore I'd never become, I lost it in the market and yelled at the kids.

Not at the same time, but separetely, so people in different parts of the store could stare and judge me.

I'm sure that the staring and the judging was all in my head, I was totally judging myself for being "that mom" who can't control her kids or the yelling coming out of my own mouth.

It started out well enough, everyone behaving nicely. 

As Syd and I are shucking corn, a baby baker goes flying toward us.

And another. 

And another. 

Crap, that's my kid throwing the baby bakers! 

"WE DO NOT THROW POTATOS!!!"

"No throw potatos mommy, throw balls"  my wise 2 year old informs me.

So now I'm trying not to giggle as I'm reprimanding my spud throwing toddler listening to the snickers of fellow shoppers and Syd in the backround saying "oh my God, I can't believe he's throwing potatos, he's so WEIRD!"

In the check out line, my darling instigator is standing within centimeters of her brother who is sitting in the cart with his brace on (which has caused MANY poor baby stares).  My sweet little 2 year old loves to kick and smack his sister and he was taking full advantage of her being within range for target practice.  So after the 5th "Alex, STOP KICKING ME", I again lost my cool.

"IF YOU DON'T WANT HIM KICKING YOU, MOVE!!!" 

No giggling to hide this time, just embarassment for being "that mom".

I was really happy to leave the market today and even happier to go to WallyWorld all by myself while James wrangled lunch for them at home :-)

Not always so sweet, but I do love them with my entire being!

So Quiet

I gotta say, waking up at 5:30 in the am is not my kind of fun!

But then again...the silence is wonderful.

No "Nineeeeee, TOP IT!!!"

No "Alllexxxxx, DON"T TOUCH!"

No "I'm hungeeee!"

No "What are we doing today?"

No  "Mom"
       "Mommy"
      "Mom"
    "Mommy!"

Silence and coffee...that's a fantastic way to start my day :-)