Busy Week

  It feels like it has been a very busy week. Lydia is doing pretty well. She needs to stay up on her pain meds, but with elevation and ice and pain meds, she usually feels Ok.

 The rest of us are definitely feeling a "Lydia gap".  She usually does a lot of work around here, but of course this week she just needs to take it easily.  She is also a favorite of the young ones, who can't understand why there is this weird THING on Lydia's hand and also wonder why she can't pick them up and swing them around and dance with them.

  She sees the surgeon tomorrow, and we'll talk about the next steps for Lydia -- including hand therapy.

  

     As so often happens, the kids have rampaged off into a new and creative endeavor while my back was turned (metaphorically speaking.)

 Earlier this week, most of the kids watched all or part of The Great Escape, a movie made decades ago.  The movie is based on the real life escape of 70+ British POW's from Stalag Luft III, a POW camp in Germany during WWII.  They got out using a tunnel.

 It is a GREAT movie, with humor and fascinating history, but with a sad (and true) ending.  Hitler was furious when the escape was reported, and he ordered 50 of the recaptured POW's executed. This was contrary to the dictates of the Geneva Convention, which both Germany and Britain had signed and which specifically state how POW's were supposed to be treated.  Execution for escape was not permitted, but of course Hitler was far from rational.

  Anyway, 50 did die, 3 escaped back to Britain, and the others were returned to a prison camp.

  The children mostly liked the movie (not all watched the sad ending) and then "Great Escape Comic Fever" hit.  4 or 5 kids have  spent much time the last 2 days making comics of prisoners and Nazi guards and tunnels. They are meant to be funny, not serious.  They are quite creative but I find myself once again thinking, "Where did these children get their artistic passion?"  Not from me :-).

  

    Last but not least, our youngest son has decided that books are actually cool.  He is now 3 and previous to this, books were either just plain boring, OR they were fun only to rip apart (that, unfortunately, is the stage Rose is in -- books are fun to rip apart.)

   But the last couple of weeks, Daniel has frequently requested that I read books to him. Which is delightful.

  A LITTLE less delightful is that he almost always wants ONE BOOK.  Corduroy.  Corduroy is about a stuffed bear in the toy department of a big store who wants to be purchased by a child.

  It is a great book but oh, I'm tired of it.

   But I know it is normal for a little person to get attached to a particular book, so I grimly read on.  With a smile.  He doesn't know I'm really really really tired of it :-).