Mom walked today...

I just took a call from my mom. She walked from her bed to the doorway of her hospital room! Of course, she then started to get a little fuzzy from the pain in her knee but the nurses and therapists took care of her. I am so thrilled that she is doing better! The pain had been so bad that she was unable to put any weight on it the day after, like the doctors were hoping she would.

I am going to dinner with my longtime friend Rachel this evening. Plans were that I would meet her at her home but I think I will just meet her at the restaurant. This way I can spend a few hours with Mom at the hospital.

A few days ago...

Mom

Well, Mom had her knee surgery today. She is in a fair amount of pain but that is being managed with the medication they are giving her. After reporting to the hospital before 10 a.m. this morning for check-in, with the anticipation of surgery at 12 noon, she wasn't taken back into the O.R. until almost 4 p.m. It made things rough, having to spend the whole day in the waiting rooms, jumping when the phone rang, hoping the next doctor stepping in was going to be hers. In the end, things went well.

One of the many unique things about today, I had a few brief, wonderful conversations with my SIL's mother. Dana's mom was in visiting and was able to talk with me about Mom when I called to leave a message for her and my brother. She is such a sweet lady! Dana, Mom says to tell your mom, "Thank you."

Another unique moment occurred throughout the day. Aunt Martha took the day off and came to the hospital with us. She brought this fantastic book on photography that she checked out from our local library! Now, the three of us (me, Grandpap, and Aunt Martha) are determined to BUY THAT BOOK! It is full of wonderful information and humor! Plus, I had a blast playing with Pap with it. I would leave the waiting room - he would take it; he would leave the waiting room - that thing was mine! Aunt Martha laughed and giggled every time! Now, if I could just remember the name of that book. Help!

Oh, and the photos posted for today, I took today. The petunia was shot this morning in Grandma's yard while the dew still rested on the petals, before we left for the hospital. The clouds and sun were shot through the glass of the waiting room window (Aunt Martha saw a flag hanging down the street - she humors me - and then we saw this shot).

Night Flag

(due to getting a new computer, I have had to edit this post and repost my Night Flag)

I have a new flag photo. I am thinking of entering it into next year's county fair photography contest. Seems I have a penchant for our nation's flag! It was taken at a local family restaurant by standing directly underneath it while the wind made it whip and curl. It looks like it is just hanging there, gently billowing.

Videos

I am hoping that I can post more than one video on here for you to see. It may not work but we shall see. Animoto is a very cool site. If your video is 30 seconds or less, it's free. Over that and there is a fee. I don't know how much but from the looks of what they can do, I think it would be worth it if you were really trying to get something out there for people to see.

Playing with video

Animoto Video. Thought I would give it a go. Turns out it's really great! I think I shall make a few more!

Speech Evaluation

The meeting with Little Pirate's speech teacher was this morning. She giggled A LOT! She said she thoroughly enjoyed working with him! Most of his vocabulary skills and item recognition are 1-2 years ahead of his age, which is great. He has NO - and I mean NO - problems with conversation skills. This child can talk! It's his blending and some of his verb usage that needs work. She is hoping that with 30 minutes a week, broken up into ten minutes a day with a day off, we should should have him sorted out by the end of kindergarten at the latest.

*giggle* She told me how Little Pirate had to identify pictures. One was of a scholar but he recognized it as a graduate, which lead to a conversation about Isaac (his oldest brother) who just graduated from high school in May, which lead to a conversation about college. Okay. She let him have that one. He has good reasoning skills, she told me. She loves his thought patterns. He absorbs it, processes it, changes it so he can understand it, and then moves on to the next. It's like - Okay, I'm done! NEXT!

The book the picture of the scholar was in is the type that you look through it, get to the end, flip it upside down and go through it the other way. It's a regular paper book (as apposed to a board book) that's about an inch thick. She told me that until Little Pirate, she has never had a kindergartener go through the whole thing! It was like he couldn't get enough of it! She loved it!

I am relieved that he is going to get some help. I was at the end of my rope. I wanted to help him so much but nothing I did worked. I know it's not my fault. Every child is different. I just want him to be able to talk with his friends as he gets older without the fear of getting picked on because of his speech. Kids can be vicious sometimes. Little Pirate is a smart little scrapper and he processes things so fast. He just can't shape his mouth right sometimes. Mrs. E. is going to be a great help to him.

When did they grow up?!

It happens so fast, we never see it coming. No matter how many minutes, how many hours, how many days we spend with them they always seems to grow faster than our hearts want. Mr. Rebel is in third grade this year. Just yesterday he was starting kindergarten and NOW -- *sigh*-- now, he is walking his little brother to the bus stop so HE can go to kindergarten.

Little Pirate has been so thrilled about school but still nervous enough to stick to his brother without a problem. Mr. Rebel is going to be just fine! He really likes his class and his teachers. His homeroom teacher has been waiting for him for FOUR years! LOL!

Before Mr. Rebel started school, the county hosted a summer kindergarten program to prepare students for school. Mr. Rebel's teacher was introduced to his wonderful personality in full techni-color! She handled it with grace! We worked together to help him understand the rules, came up with a reward system just for him (good behavior = 5 minutes of Video Game time at the end of the week) and he had a blast for four weeks. She put a request in at the office that SHE get Mr. Rebel. She checked on him all the time, talked to him during the day, just generally kept tabs on him. Well, she got him! All the teachers are probably breathing a sigh of relief! So far, he is doing well.

Little Pirate is going to be in Speech Therapy. He doesn't like to use his 's' at the beginning of words and he has difficulty with his L's. I have been talking with the instructor since Tuesday (ran into her after a general orientation meeting with third grade teachers). Because my husband and I know Little Pirate has some speech issues and we aren't in denial about it, she has been able to waive the waiting period. I have another meeting with her on Friday morning to go over the results of Little Pirate's evaluation from Wednesday (they evaluate the whole school every year). From there, I should know the extent of work he has to do at home and what he will be doing in school. Technically, he will be listed as being in Special Education because she has to take him out of regular class to go to Speech. She seemed to think I would be worried about that. Oh, well. No big.