Of course, while the recipe and technique may not have been passed through on this session, the joy certainly was.

Grandma makes a pretty killer Country fried steak, and Mary Vic was EXTREMELY interested in helping. When I came in to the kitchen, I was afraid that Mary’s face was going to split in two from the smile! They even tried to cook a cake for everyone, although that didn’t turn out so well, since there wasn’t actually anything ingredient-wise that was capable. The attempt was made anyways, and thankfully, everyone was smart enough NOT to try to eat it.

From Mary’s standpoint, the Lesson learned this day was simple: Cooking is fun, it’s hard work, and best finished with Ice Cream!

The Original plan was to come down Friday night, stay in Arab, and then go to the airshow in Huntsville on Saturday. Jeff had to work Sunday on a Literacy program for the Library, so we’d come back Saturday Night. Shades were drawn, and the kids wouldn’t see the fort until Sunday Morning. Perfect planning, deserves perfect execution, right?

Ok, so, it wasn’t the perfect plan, and it didn’t have flawless execution. Friday night, we find a 70% chance of rain during the airshow hours. Immediately, and especially after the previous week, we start contingency planning. Mary has always loved the Rocket coming into Alabama (Saturn 1b at the rest stop). So, let’s go to the Space center.

Even on Saturday, Mary didn’t want to go. I think one Airshow a year is probably going to be pushing it. A Friend SMSed me later that due to the traffic, we made the right decision. He drove further than we did, and never made it onto the grounds.

Ok, she’s 4. It’s a reach. She did enjoy the beginning of it. They have done a pretty decent job restoring the Saturn 5 that was laying on it’s side in the original space park. It’s now suspended in an environmentally controlled building, and it’s been cleaned up. They have all sorts of exhibits in the building, and Mary loved the science (kid friendly) demonstrations.

Then, the second treat. Kung Fu Panda on the Imax screen!

First off : None of the following apply to Kids.

Second: Rectangular projection movies should NEVER be played on a spherical screen. I think it’s Mercator’s revenge.

Third: Grandma would violently agree with the above.

I enjoyed most of the center. It needs money. It needs massive amounts of restoration done, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s getting much of that, even with the money it’s getting. It seems like much of the facility is now devoted to Space Camp (and hey, *I* went to Space Camp). It’s a shame that Space Camp is taking the priority away from the history, as much of Space Camp itself IS history now. Look to the future, but always remember the past.

The fact that we can’t DO some of our very recent past anymore is very troublesome to me. We haven’t been out of low earth orbit in practically my entire lifetime. And that isn’t progress.

Kennedy’s quote about space being the next ocean, and America needing to be able to sail it seems quite right to be on the wall of the US Space center. Why does it feel like we stuck our toe in, said “WOW, that’s cold” and walked away?

We finished up, and took some tired kids home. They slept a large part of the trip. They needed their strength for the last phase.

The Pictures are up now, the post will follow when the Video is done.

I took William’s stroller to dance class and he pushed it around from about 10 minutes before class started till we left. They have long hallways and outside was a nice ramp next to a loading dock. He gave himself a good workout. While out there, one of MaryVic’s classmate’s Momma’s flagged me down. She was hanging in the car with her son. He had banged himself on the side of the head next to the eye. He had a slight black eye but it had puffed up and warranted a ER visit. He was okay but gave everyone a scare.

After class, MaryVic wanted to go to Panchos. We quickly figured out why when she told everyone it was Grandmomma’s birthday. We had a nice lunch and then Grandmomma was serenaded and got to wear the big black and gold sombrero. There was a special dessert that looked like some sort of pudding. William was wanting to walk outside so I didn’t get to stay to see what it was.

We went home for naps and quiet times. After which Mary Alice and I loaded the kids up and went to Main Street Festival. We divided the kids up with her taking care MaryVic and me keeping an eye on William. On the way, MaryVic was made to repeat the Mommy Law of ‘Not Running Off’. There will be a lot of people. Stay with Mommy or Grandmomma. If you disappear, you will have to wear the harness, etcetera.

We went to What’s In Store first which happened to be right next to an air brush tattoo tent. “I want one!” No. And so on. MaryVic monitored the number of people in the tent and kept us updated. We promised to look for face painting on the Children’s Aisle and she was appeased. The sale at What’s In Store was very nice with several baskets of jewelry marked down to $2 each. We love the little shop and seriously, where can you beat the deal? They had a lot of neutral jewelry that I picked up – gold, silver and copper. Mary Alice picked up several pieces in a variety of pieces in pretty colors.

Finally we made our way down to the Childrens Aisle. William pushed the stroller for a block or two then opted for crawling or being carried. He was most disappointed not to be allowed in the inflatable bouncies. MaryVic went in every single one. I tried William in the ball tent but he freaked and we were refunded our tickets. William did go in the petting zoo and touch a rabbit and baby duck. I also rode with him and MaryVic on the train. William screamed at first but quickly became amused with waving at everyone. We don’t have a lot of pictures because we were handling the kids.

William was hanging on to the inflatable and I ran to get a picture of Mary. I thought he would slid along it but he became upset instead.

Mary had no problem with the balls.

Momma had her blood pressure taken at the Williamson Medical Center tent (120/60) and William didn’t like being put down.

Right before we rode the train, MaryVic told me her stomache hurt but then she ran off to go in the dragon bouncer. She became very sick on the train and complained about stomach cramps. She and I went into Mellow Mushroom to order a pizza for dinner. We put her in the stroller and carried William. She quickly fell asleep in the stroller. When she woke up, Momma had a pink pony webkinz and all was well. We figure she just became overheated and tired from bouncing.

We hoped to find the vendor who did the shadow art profiles as we had one done of MaryVic when she was 2 but couldn’t find him. We didn’t get past the roundabout or down any side streets since MaryVic wasn’t feeling well. One year he was on the roundabout and a year before on down towards Dotson’s.

We went home and had pizza. The dough from the Mellow Mushroom had a different taste so that was a disappointment. But there was cake! MaryVic sang Happy Birthday to Grandma and William chimed in at the end. Greg picked out a great cake from Kroger, very good. A good end for a good day!

William’s progress: He will hold your hand and walk or he will push the play stroller or shopping cart. I think he’s averaging 1.5 to hours of walking practice a day now. His preferred and fastest mode of travel is still crawling and he’ll bottom scoot when his knees and knees start to bothering him. Not much independent walking at all, just the occasional 2-3 steps to grab something that has captured his interest.

Storms were forecast for Friday evening but the morning was beautiful. The kids had a blast playing on the driveway. They escaped the house after MaryVic was dressed. I caught William on the driveway wearing nothing but a diaper as he chased MaryVic to the ‘doghouse’ to get Poppa. I dressed him as he scooted on his bottom yelling ‘Poppa!’ The driveway concrete being too rough to crawl on.

Here comes sister back!

Special package delivery and no you don’t get to keep the egg.

Playing with brother as she runs circles round him.

Posing with the precious pink egg.

All worship the egg!

William figured out he could scoot up into the garage, push back and roll out of the shade into the sun on a slight slope. This would have entertained him all day.

As you get tired. you have to put more effort into it.

But this may be overkill.

Taking a break and Mom, why don’t you take a break from the camera!

We played ball too. William would get the ball, sit up and try to kick it. It wasn’t a good system but they had fun until MaryVic fell on the driveway. Poppa said she was going to fall.

Now we have a Dora band-aid on each knee. She still guards the special delivery package egg though!

We joined everyone for lunch at El Rancho.

Aunt Brenda came and ate with us!

William had some of Dot’s red velvet cake and El Rancho cake. I didn’t think he was going to eat the red velvet and took it. Needless to say he had a problem with that, wanted it back and did eat it despite someone at the table saying children don’t like red velvet cake.

The Birthday girl!

MaryVic skipped the red velvet cake in favor of 2 pieces of El Rancho yellow cake.

More friends off to the side.

Max and Justin.

How dare Mom take my cake!

Walking downtown Arab.

She was running ahead so I teased her that she couldn’t touch the flag which set her to jumping like a cat beneath it.

She found a few feathers but then found a big one here. It was greasy and all kinds of nasty so we had to have a discussion about how it was NOT going in the van. She finally dropped it after realizing that none of her ‘buts’ were going to work.

It was a nice lunch with good friends. Later we loaded up and headed back home to Franklin with MaryAlice. It took a while but William finally took a bit of a nap along the way. We managed to beat Greg home and have dinner ready for him when he arrived.

While the kids took a bath, we wrapped Mary Alice’s gift, an iTouch from Apple for listening to her audiobooks. Greg gave it to her and showed her how to use it while I got the kids to bed.

We still hadn’t gotten to cake in Franklin but we like to spread birthdays out for a while and when your Grandmomma is as extra special as Mary Alice, you sing Happy Birthday everyday and count your lucky stars!

Our first stop was El Rancho for lunch. William latched on to Ms. Dot. I think his opinion is she has the third best lap after Momma and Grandmomma. He sat with her for the whole meal.

We went strawberry picking Wednesday afternoon. It was hot and the lady in charge sent us down an aisle with a huge mud puddle. I didn’t realize how deep it was until my entire foot went under. MaryVic lost a shoe in the muck and there was no water to rinse anything off. Between that incident, the sun and the heat, it just wasn’t as fun as remembered. I think she went strawberry picking later in the year last time. Grandmomma bought a basket and we’ve been munching on them during our visit.

There’s a red one! William was unhappy the whole time considering he didn’t get his feet muddy,.

and that was enough strawberries!

At the playground on Thursday.

Running a milkshake shop. These pictures are all after the big fall.

William took a turn at management.

Being brave and making everyone nervous.

He climbed so far and then wouldn’t put his feet down. I took him off and put him back when he fussed. He wouldn’t let me set him up top with sister but wouldn’t climb either. I finally had to put him down and let him tantrum it out for a few seconds before he moved on to something else.

Lunch at El Rancho. He amused everyone by using one french fry to eat all his ketchup. He did eat his half of his cheese sandwich first.

and MaryVic ate her half.

Off to the pond. MaryVic walked and carried the crickets part of the way. No worms this time! We still have my willow stick fishing pool though.

Poppa set her up and she caught a fish 95% of the time.

William watched from the sidelines at first.

He tried to free the crickets and then poked at them with the clippers.

One of Greg’s teeny tiny catches. More than big enough for the kids.

William takes a turn with Daddy.

And catches a fish!

It takes Momma a few tries to catch him a fish in a coordinated effort with Poppa and MaryVic.

The smallest catch of the day.

Let’s do it again!

MaryVic found our presence in the room very distracting and it took a lot of persuasion to get her to get out there with her classmates. William enjoyed watching and was wishing he could get out there and dance like he did at her last ‘bring a friend’ day.

Getting started.

Running to us for hugs.

Running around in her warm up circles. She laps the room a few times.

Starting to get unhappy.

She’s retreated to sit with us in the corner.

We’re trying to persuade to participate.

Roll call.

Princesses putting on the dress.

The princess wakes the sleeping flowers with the magic wand.

William stands.

Heels kiss, plie.

Dancing from the sidelines.

Smearing peanut butter on her foot.

Then they stick them together to make sandwiches.

Eating food off the floor.

William tries to dance.

Glue your back to the wall.

She got in line for the kicks.

En pointe sideways.

Floating like butterflies.

Looks like hard work, he takes a break for the girls.

Checking on us.

Jump over the cones.

Running to get lined up in recital order.

Lining up. The little girl in front kept smiling.

Twisty walk to their spot on their toes

.

Then they are supposed to stand tall and still.

Mary’s twisty walk.

Standing in her spot.

Love Me Tender!

After the recital dance they flipped.

While waiting her turn, she made faces at herself in the mirror!

William takes another break for the hardworking girls!

Counting 1, 2, 3 as loud as they can for the girl flipping.

Mary rolls.

The audience, Moms

And more Moms and siblings.

And the all important dance class treat at leaving time.

I taped part of the recital dance practice. I didn’t think to flip the camera to video at the start of the dance so I missed that part. The camera ran out of room on the card before the end too, go figure!

We went to Shoneys for breakfast / brunch with Grandmomma and Poppa on Thursday. William got to sit in a high chair. I was startled to realize as I got ready to go that I could wear anything I wanted without worry about it catching on his cast. Yay! I’m sure I’ll have lots of these little mental readjustments. Diaper changes are a lot easier now, lol!

We ran by the grocery store after Shoneys then home to unload and see the Grands off. Waves and hugs. The kids and I relocated upstairs to the bonus room where they watched the Jungle Book and then took naps.

After nap, they enjoyed a warm bath playtime with some initial protests by William. He is sitting up better and will go to his tummy when he gets tired. I’m putting lotion on him whenever I think of it. His legs look normal now. The hotspot on his back looks better but has a slight bruised appearance. A few more days and it may be gone.

MaryVic had been asking for the teepee to be put up so we went downstairs after bath and I did it. I sat William on the floor while I worked on it with Mary’s help. As soon as it was up, he crawled over and sat in it. He does the same thing on land as water. He sits until he gets tired and then goes on his belly.

We had dinner eventually. Did another bath with soap this time. William protested getting in but did not want to get out! He did a little better sleeping overnight. Some fussing about every 2 hrs or so and then there were a few storms. The weather alarm went off at 3 a.m. with a severe thunderstorm warning. Some rumbles and MaryVic found me.

This morning I pulled out one of the walker toys we had in the garage and cleaned it up. William is enjoying it. He sat on it for about 20 minutes before I took him off it. He had propped a leg up on it and was about to slide off.

Hiding it the teepee. “Hide, hide, hide!” Crawling, scooting on his bottom while sitting up, and wiggling on his belly.

Maybe I’ll be brave enough to let them fingerpaint at the table later today…

MaryVic was the most excited. She was literally bouncing off the walls. “I’m so happy for William!” Practically shrieking as she spun around the bathroom. It was quite a contrast between her and William. He sat fastened in a chair while I ran a warm bath. He watched her and seemed quite oblivious to the fact he had lost 20 pounds of cast weight. He did move his legs but not with any excitement.

MaryVic mid-spin. She was running around brother. “Happy, happy, happy!”

William was not enthused with the idea of a bath. It was a surprise to discover he could not sit up in the tub when he was put in. It took just a few minutes for Grandmomma to be evicted so someone could get in and support him. We gently rubbed his legs and a lot of skin flaked off in the water. William did finally relax and play a bit in the water. He was okay so long as he had someone to lean on.

I rubbed his legs down with baby lotion after the bath. He did exhibit some distress during the diapering and dressing process as his legs and hips were moved.

After the bath we went for celebratory ice cream!

GrandPoppa carried him in.

Ice Cream!!!

Wow, look at all the candy up top!

The one mishap, MaryVic was running up and down the length of the counter. She squeezed past me and scraped her finger.

She did it Grandmomma!

Oh, the guilt!

William was served first.

MaryVic got her usual strawberry with sprinkles in a cone! We did ask for a kid cone.

After ice cream, we came back home and put William on the floor to play. He is not able to sit up by himself yet. He did surprise us by crawling some and he does remember how to stand from a crawl. He kept putting his right foot underneath him from a crawling position like he was going to push himself up. He rolled around a bit too. He tried to pull himself into his chair which is a rocker like the one in the bathroom picture but started crying. I had to pick him up and put him in it.

Sitting in his booster seat instead of the stroller. The spica cast had spread his legs too wide for the seat.

Enough with the pictures Momma!

After dinner, we did another warm bath. MaryVic got in with him and he did a bit better at sitting. Promises were required by us from MaryVic to be careful and not bump him. William didn’t want to get into the tub. He did finally wind up on his tummy in the water. He propped himself up on his elbows and played a little bit. I gently, gently rubbed his legs with a washcloth and applied more baby lotion to his legs afterwards.

He went into footie pajamas for the first time after. He slept okay but does have some pain as he moves in his sleep. He seemed to want his legs up and I tried propping them up on a pillow. He eventually wound up next to me with his feet on me. We were going to give him some pain medicine but I think he slept okay for being without it.

Mary Alice told me the following morning that at bedtime MaryVic said she sometimes gets scared at night and gets in bed with Mommy. MaryVic then wanted to come get in bed with me and William. She told Grandmomma she would be very careful and not bump William. I knew MaryVic had fallen asleep at the foot of the bed leaning on my legs. MaryAlice moved her to her bed after she passed out.

We are very grateful that William is out of his cast, for the support of family and friends and all the love and prayers for William’s recovery. It is wonderful to have him home, free to wiggle and snuggle. Grandmomma asked him if he was stuck while he was playing on the floor and William answered “uh-uh” so he does realize that the cast is gone and is enjoying being more mobile.

Yay!!

MaryAlice and Roy arrived around 8:30 with the required chocolate donuts. She fed MaryVic and got her dressed after laying down the law about pajamas not being appropriate storytime garb. William was a little easier since he can’t get away. Once we were ready, we loaded up and headed to the library.

The children had time to play on the computer for 10 minutes before the 10 a.m. storytime. I left MaryAlice with them in the activity room and went to take care of some library stuff. I came back at 11:05 worried that I had taken to long. No one was in the department other than staff. I stopped and asked about storytime and Ms. Kristin said that they were still in there. Really ???

I went in and they were all there busily making books. I sat down and helped MaryVic finish her book. MaryAlice worked with William on his book.

We left the library at 11:15 and drove home to pick up Poppa and Daddy for an early lunch. MaryVic decided it was imperative that she have an Icee and almost melted down in the car over it. I don’t know where that stray thought came from to her head.

We had a quick lunch at Panchos. MaryVic stayed at the house with Poppa and Grandmomma while Daddy, Momma and William went to Vanderbilt. It broke William’s little heart to leave Poppa at the house. He cried, “Poppa, Poppa!!” until we reached the interstate then passed out.

We reached Vanderbilt after a bit of traffic. Thankfully we had left early enough that we were still there early. They had one of those wooden boxes with the bead maze on top so I sat there with William laying across my lap and playing with the beads. Greg and I chatted with some other parents from Hopkinsville, KY with a baby with clubfeet. They seemed to reassured somewhat in talking with Greg about it. Greg had issues with his feet as a baby too. Not nearly as bad as this kid, however.

A quick trip to x-ray. There is something about going into that dim room that sets William off. He screamed through the process. It was over quickly and we were back in the waiting room with the toy. Daddy got a turn with William across his lap.

We were called back to the cast room where we sat for a good 30 minutes before the doctor came in. There was a little girl maybe 6 or 7 years old who had just had her cast off, fractured wrist. Clubfoot baby had his casts off and was having his stitches checked. Another older boy was getting a cast put on his arm. Scooby Doo was on a t.v. so all the children were entertained.

Dr. Martus came in and showed us the x-ray pictures. You could still see the break but the bones were starting to ‘bridge’ and grow over the break. He didn’t see any problem with taking the cast off. He cautioned us to take it slow with William. He would be sore and stiff from being in one position for so long. Let him proceed at his own pace. Put him on the floor to wiggle around, etcetera. Keep carrying him around. Do we have any questions? Hmmm… There is only one pair of headphones on the wall? Do the parents get a set while the cast is coming off?

So now the cast comes off. You would think the little boy would be thrilled but no… Apparently he had bonded with the cast and the two year old rule of ‘MINE!’ was firmly in effect. The headphones were for him to keep him from being so scared of the noise from the saw. Would he wear them? No that was just another instrument of torture that was being inflicted on him. The child life specialist was called in but no toy was going to comfort him. He screamed, turned red, and reached out to Daddy, Momma, the child life specialist, not the guy with the saw…he was just evil at this point. “NO, DON’T, MOMMA, DAAADDDYYY!!” This last as Greg says for about 4 years of our lives. Finally the cast was off and Greg was able to scoop him up.

William snuggled in immediately. The saw guy came back to see if he was forgiven. Nope, lifetime grudge rule in effect. William came to Mommy while the saw guy tried to figure out if we were free to go. Greg saved the bar part of the cast, just the fiberglass – no steel rod, fyi. William and I looked at the dinosaur pictures and he gradually perked up

The skin was flaky but not as bad as we were expecting. We also didn’t notice any obnoxious smell either. There was just the hotspot on his back that we already knew about it and one spot on the back of his knees that was starting to get really red. It wasn’t great but so not as bad as expected. I could see that if he’d had to wear it much longer, he would have easily had more hot spots and it would have been a lot worse. The child life specialist told me to give him a warm bath when we got home to help ease the stiffness of his joints.

We ran into Dr. Martus inbetween rooms while looking at the dinosaur pictures. I asked him if we could go and he said yes. We proceeded to checkout and were told someone would be with us in a minute. An RN with other patients came up behind us and started chattings. She told me to do 2 warm baths or more a day over the next few days to help William deal with the discomfort of being mobile. She talked to the receptionist and we were finally able to go after promising to call the Cool Springs facility for a follow-up appointment in 8 weeks.

The care at Vanderbilt has been excellent. The only thing I would say is that we were surprised at the lack of follow-up advice after the cast came off. I guess we expected there might be a sheet or something. The warm bath suggestions were great but were totally asides as we bumped into staff. Warm baths sound completely logical but you know, not everyone does the logical.

So we went home. William was chatty on the way and seemed comfortable.