Lydia Update

     Obviously, Lydia has moved from a full hand bandage and splint to a splint on the specific finger that was surgically corrected.

  She is off the powerful pain meds and is doing hourly stretches.

 I won't show you the picture of the finger without the splint. It doesn't bother me but some people might find it hard to look at.  There are still stitches and significant swelling.

  Tomorrow I take her to a hand therapist and they will REMOVE the stitches, and do some more exercises with her.

  So we are making steady progress. The finger is definitely WAY straighter than it was pre-surgery, which is great.

  Life continues to be extra challenging without Lydia at full strength.  I'm doing all the pots and pans, which she usually does. I don't leave her alone with all the kids, which means when I leave, Naomi has to be here (or Kevin, of course.)  Kevin's mom graciously took Naomi to get her allergy shot today as I couldn't make it work to take Naomi there myself.

  But Lydia is progressing and should be close to normal in a few weeks, though it'll be months before  she is 100% well.

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 :-).

Lydia's surgery

Lydia's surgery was yesterday.  It went well.  She had a plate and screws put in and the surgeon believes the finger will be mostly corrected after she heals.

She is, obviously, bandaged and splinted.  They used a nerve block and it didn't wear off for more than 12 hours, so yesterday was weird.  She said it felt like she had a block of wood attached to her left shoulder :-).

Now she can feel her arm and the pain is here, though she is on good (read, powerful) pain meds.

So all is well in our household, though we are definitely out of routine.  Naomi and I will need to run things and take care of Lydia, and Lydia usually is the helper, not the helped.

Rose has been super cranky, I think partially out of indignation that Lydia isn't picking her up.

Lydia will go back to the surgeon on Friday and the splint will be removed.  We then need to talk about physical therapy.

So all this is good but a tad strenuous. But good.

Gas Experiment: Contraction of Heated Air as It Cools

Here was another fun experiment.

Same glass bottle.  Similar balloon.

I filled the glass bottle with boiling water and swirled the water around so the air in the bottle was thoroughly heated.  I then poured out the hot water and quickly placed the balloon over the neck.

Over the next hour, the air in the bottle cooled down and contracted.  Normally, new air would be pulled into the bottle but since the balloon was blocking air from outside coming in...

This happened...

Coolness, huh?

Gas Experiment: yeast, sugar, and water

Considering I have a PHD in engineering, I don't do enough experiments with the children.

I'm trying to change that.

I did a really fun experiment recently.  Very simply, I poured yeast, sugar, and water into a glass bottle with a narrow neck. I then placed a large balloon over the neck.  The yeast, sugar, and water began to react and the yeast started generating carbon dioxide.

And voila...over the course of 24 hours, we observed the following:

I confess I was surprised how long the yeast reaction continued, and how much the balloon blew up!

Lots of fun.

Lydia is 14

14 years old

5 foot 6 inches tall

Our precious second born is growing up!

Chiggers and Baths

I am mind bogglingly tired so this won't be an amazing post.

Let me talk chiggers.

They are very tiny bugs, for those who don't know.

They are evil bugs.  I hope they aren't in Heaven.  But if they are in Heaven, presumably they won't bite. And if they bite, I won't mind.  We are wandering into strange theological waters here, so let me get back to the main point of this blog post.

Chiggers are so small you can't see them, but they live in the grass and get on people. They then creep to some area where the skin is thin, and start doing nasty things to the skin so they can eat.

Yuck.

They only show up in summer when the weather is hot.  So while I like summer, I don't like THAT ASPECT of summer.

Interestingly, it is an old wives' tale that they actually burrow UNDER the skin. They don't.  They attach, but a vigorous scrubbing every 24 hours will remove them before they can do damage.

 I am horribly allergic to chigger bites. They swell up and itch OH SO MUCH.  For like, days.   I hate chigger bites.

Thankfully, I have figured out the shower trick.  I've only gotten 2 bites so far this year, and the second one isn't too bad (I have it now.)

I suppose it is no surprise that my precious kids also tend to have trouble with chigger bites.  They definitely get that from me.  Kevin can get bitten dozens of times and they don't really itch.  Lucky.

All this means that as part of my daily routine, I need to give our 3 little ones baths if there is any chance they came in contact with chiggers. I don't want them getting bitten and itching horribly.

Let me talk baths.

Baths are a blessing. I am very thankful for hot water and soap and nice shampoo and bath toys.  They are all nice.

But...they are tiring. Oh so tiring.  Daniel and Sarah love baths and resist getting out.  Rose likes them Ok except when I put her in with Daniel and Sarah and she gets splashed too much.

I have been giving baths to small people for 15+ years now.

Does any other mother get tired of them?

Thankfully my big girls can help bathe Daniel and Sarah, which helps a lot.

I do love my littles and I love this stage of life.

But I'll enjoy it when everyone can bathe him or herself.

And I'll enjoy colder weather when the chiggers stop biting.