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A couple of months ago Ellen went to a local park with Randy in order to give me a chance to get ready for a date. As I got out of the shower I saw that Randy had called. I started to listen to the message, but stopped when I heard the awful letters “ER” and looked outside to see them in the garage. Well, after what seemed like an eternity in the emergency room we discovered that indeed Ellen had a broken leg. She went down this HUGE tube slide with Randy and her crocks skipped on a curve giving her a spiral fracture of her tibia. She was quite a trooper through all phases of healing.
The first phase was a cast that allowed her knee to be bent slightly while isolating the joint above and below the break, namely the knee and ankle. The day she got it it was adorned by our good friends who took great pleasure in writing all over it. I really meant to have her little friends at preschool sign a cast, too, but totally slacked on it.
She went to school, which in and of itself was a feat. Her preschool is on the third floor of an old church…with no elevator. Her teachers were very accommodating, although I did have to go up to help her get outside and then back in again for playtime. The doctor assured us that she would figure out how to get around on her own, but cautioned against letting her on the hardwood floors without a sock or something to protect the floor from scratches. One day I finally just left her on the back porch screaming at me to pick her up after showing her how to scoot around on her bottom. I felt bad, but she did start scooting. The funniest thing about her scooting was that Sarah (Dana’s adorable youngest), a one-year-old, decided that this was a mode of transportation by a big kid she could really get into. She still is known to occasionally scoot this way.
This is not the second cast. The first time she got a walking cast we think it was too snug because she would not walk on it at all. Of course, she barely walked on this one at all until several days before she got it off. She is definitely stubborn. She learned to walk late and I always said it was because there was no real catalyst for her to get up and move around. I think she felt the same about walking with her cast.
Here she is in her final cast and also in her Halloween costume. We are in the thick of princess-mania and I made her a pretty princess outfit for Halloween that included a robe reminiscent of one we played with when we were kids. For wanting to be a princess, it sure took a lot of cajoling to get her to actually wear the dress. What is up with that?
When we first started going to our church we met a couple with whom it seemed we had crossed paths with many times in our lives. She went to the same church camp as my husband (though she was a few years younger), her parents own a place on Mackinac, Randy and her husband share a lot of the same pastimes (golf, etc.). We shared a friend in common as well. Dana is one of the best friends I have ever had. After I began actually interacting with Cris I told Dana that it has probably been difficult for her not having us be friends with each other, similar to a friend who is dating a bad guy and has to just figure it out on her own. We just had to figure out that we really are quite well suited to each other. Where I am quite languid in my approach to teaching the youth, she is very…let’s just say she has a Type A personality…
In the end, all it took was an invitation to Mackinac. We went the weekend before July 4 and as a thank you gift, I knit Cris these socks. They have been finished for a while and they are like a lovey to a child for her. When they were in the wash, her husband claimed all she did was sit and whine about needing her “Abby socks”. I can become good friends with someone who respects my socks like that.
The socks were knit toe-up on two circulars in Dream in Color Lipstick Lava. The pattern is based on the “Go With the Flow” socks in Favorite Socks. I say that they are based on them because they are toe up with an afterthought heel. I have found that for me, sock knitting is all about the method. I have a difficult time with double points. I wind up with ladders at all corners and often pull out the entire needle when moving to a new one. I love knitting on two circulars and have yet to try the magic loop method, although having knit on two circulars it seems simple enough. I will say that while this is my preferred method, the aforementioned best friend claims it is like knitting with a wind chime. Apparently she thinks the needles clink together in a most annoying fashion. I don’t even notice it.
Sometimes I write and just don’t post it. This is one of those rants:
I have to admit that I think about writing almost every day. I don’t (obviously) but I think about it. Sometimes I can be so lazy. Today I have an actual excuse since I am recovering from surgery. I had an outpatient procedure done to see if I have Endometriosis, which I am happy to report that I don’t. Instead I had some sort of infection which could have happened six months ago or six years ago that left scarring which the doctor felt could be impeding my ability to get pregnant. He seemed to Randy quite pleased with the outcome and said he was glad we agreed to do it. I find myself kind of back where we started. I feel excited at the possibility of becoming pregnant again and despite myself feel almost giddy at the idea of saying the words again. Nothing like a little good news to get me right back on the roller coaster.
I have been saying lately that I am not even sure I want to go back again. I was just a a three-year-old birthday party and we were laughing at the prospect of keeping Playmobil things away from a baby. I barely got all of the electrical sockets covered for Ellen! I have said before and will say again that I think every mom has a thing that she fears, often irrationally. I have a friend who is scared of her child drowning, another one hates parking lots. Mine is stairs, yet I never got a baby gate. Only this year did Ellen actually fall down the stairs and when she did I was remarkably calm. I am overwhelmed through all of this that she needs a sibling.
I have no full length mirrors in my house and while this is not intentional, the more time goes by the more I actually enjoy this little design element. That is…until I try to shop for any clothes. That is when it becomes no less than pure SHOCK to stare slack-jawed into the glaring truth of my entirety. We have lived this way for nearly 6 years, which means that the last time I had 24 hour access to a full length mirror was before I had Ellen. Yeah. Before stretch marks, sagging breasts and that large pillow below my bellybutton. Sarah refers to this part of our anatomy as a “food baby”. I think this is a rather accurate description. These are all of the thoughts that I have as a woman that, as a mother, I cannot express. We live in a society that applauds women with serious disorders and shames those who are overweight. I love the quote Camryn Manheim gave in her book Wake up! I’m Fat! which was “…over who’s weight, exactly?”
In the end, I am just trying to make good decisions and keep myself afloat. Oh, and knitting. And sewing. More on that later.
to force a bath
Originally uploaded by AbbyLu.
So often I take pictures with the express intent of blogging about it. For instance, this one, taken in [gasp!] April. I was fighting with Ellen about her nightly bath (yes, she bathes every single night…up until she broke her leg, but that is another entry altogether) and as I recall Randy was gone. So I did the logical thing and bribed her with whipped cream and food coloring and have yet to hear the end of it.
For the record, she is “swimming” in the background…blowing bubbles in the water…not drowning or anything.
