Last Sunday we had a wonderful time at Simmon’s farm, our traditional spot for play and pumpkins. Two of Amy’s friends were there too, and we were lucky that it didn’t rain. After our requisite chocolate covered pretzels to eat on the hay ride, Sarah made a bee line for a giant slide. She grabbed an inner tube and got in line. I stood with her and helped push her to get her started. That was a scary moment for me because I was pushing the inner tube from a flat place to a very steep drop. I was sure she would immediately fall out and get hurt. I nearly made her get out. But I didn’t. I pushed past my fear and pushed her over the edge and she raced safely to the bottom. She loved it. She did one more ride and then spent many minutes watching other people slide down. Amy and her friends also went down the big slide and did many other activities. Just before it was time to pick our pumpkins, Sarah got in the big fire truck. In past years that was always her first stop and this time I had to ask if she wanted to do it.
Another highlight of the week was learning that Amy is probably going to be done going to Schroth therapy in a week or two. She has learned all of the exercises. She will still have to do them at home daily for who knows how long. But we will get our Wednesday afternoons back! She won’t have to miss half of her science class and I can start seeing clients at 4:30. And I won’t have to find care for Sarah from 3-4 every Wednesday!
Thursday evening Amy had her first Higgy Bears zoom. Higgy Bears is a group for kids with scoliosis. There is going to be a local group for in-person gatherings but nothing has happened yet. Amy loved the zoom and already wants to go to the national conference in the summer. Luckily it is a different weekend from the conference for those with Sarah’s diagnosis. Each kid now gets to the star of the family for a conference.
Carl had a very rough few days with a stomach bug, but luckily was on the mend enough for me to head to Delaware on Thursday. My dad had his right hip replaced, so now we match. I’m so glad to be here helping during the recovery phase. I’m also stunned in retrospect by how little I was instructed to do after my surgery compared to the detailed instructions my dad received about ice and movement. I was not told to move a certain amount each hour nor how often to ice. I wonder if I would have recovered faster if I had. My dad is doing wonderfully, considering that he had major surgery. He came home the same day of the surgery and is healing well. It has been lovely spending so much time together. I have also gotten time with my stepmom, brother, and uncle. The biggest surprise though was that the cat spent two minutes on my lap! This is a cat we usually barely glimpse during family visits with the kids.
Carl’s dad helped make all of this travel possible by meeting Sarah’s bus and hanging out with the kids on Thursday and for part of Friday. Friday was also the evening of the fall festival at Amy’s school. She went with her bestie since Sarah didn’t want to go and stayed home with Carl. After that they had a late dinner, a huge Sarah-Carl upset (extremely rare), an emotional recovery phase, and then went to the mountain house. The upsets with Sarah can escalate so rapidly over something seemingly tiny and with no real clues ahead of time. I’m sure there are clues that she is somewhat stressed but sometimes those same clues do not portend disaster.
Carl said that they had a really good day yesterday with delicious food that he made, naps, legos, guitar playing, ping pong, listening to music, chatting, and fearleading (cheerleading for monsters). He said Sarah kept talking about her big upset from Fridayand connecting it to something that happened to Olivia the Pig. It started with Sarah being Olivia the Pig in Timeout, along with tears, but as Sarah processed things it turned to her usual glee about someone being sad because things have gone awry.
Lots of love to all of you. May you turn your upsets to glee and celebrate yourself for persevering through struggles.
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