Doctor Nick is in

It's time for a check-up!

Nick was a very gentle doctor, and did the full medical-kit with his cousin.

 Then cleared everyone for play!

Cousin Play Date!

We had a cousin play date!

One castle, 8 princesses, a raised footstool and we have 4 kids playing together (at least long enough for the picture)

 

Nickolas and Madi are the same age, and are starting to play together more and more.

What is more fun than to play princess!

 

 

The 3 older kids are all around the same age, but Austin is still so little! But Nick got some boy-play-time in too.

 

He even shared his hat while they were playing with the mirror!

Cousins are great!
No one understands the craziness that is your family... better than your cousins!

 

It's wonderful watching that friendship develop.

Some imagination

OK Maybe 3 isn't as horrible as I may have made it sound.

What I have found and loved is the imagination that has bloomed and developed in Nickolas. On top of being very specific about what he loves and likes - pirates and backyardigans topping up this list, he wants to play all the time.

And both the kids are playing together. Yes they have been playing together for a long time. A lot of it was Katheryn playing and directing Nick about what to do and Nick saying yes, yes, yes.
But now Nickolas is directing Katheryn! It is his ideas that they are playing out.
Nick pretending to be a rocket ship and flying through space

 

Nickolas is a little bit obsessed with his "Back-e-gans". He watches the same 2 episodes over and over and over again, and then acts them out, alone or with Katheryn.

 

I love watching the kids playing together, and hearing Nick explore his imagination. I can't describe the joy I get from watching my children grow before my eyes! Imagine that!

Home!

We got the 'GO' to be discharged home! So then Kyle and Katheryn came to pick us up! Katheryn hadn't visited at all and was asking about us all the time!

I stayed the whole stay and I didn't want Katheryn to come to the hospital and have to leave without us. Also we were in the observation room until the last couple of hours of our stay - so we had a little corner with the crib, a table and an oversized chair. And so did the other 3 kids in the room. It was for kids who needed that extra level of care, so there were always 2 nurses in the room too.

I think that Nickolas missed her too!

There were lots of kisses and hugs (Nick wasn't THAT excited) but she got him laughing - something we hadn't heard for a couple of days!

She's telling him about everything  he's missed at home!

And trying to make him laugh!

We got our discharge papers, packed the car (how did we collect so many bags in just a couple of days) and were on our way home!
One question they kept asking - is he back to his normal self? Well... not really, and that is the question that drove me crazy, I did want to go home, but he was more tired than normal, more cranky than normal. But he finally had something to eat (and kept it down). He was only 36 hours after anesthetic, and had just had BRAIN SURGERY!!! Who wouldn't be cranky and tired after that. Oh yeah and 72 hours in the hospital being woken up every couple of hours, poken and prodded.
How is he supposed to be back to his normal stuff! What if I say yes, and we get home and need to come back? But they seemed to be satisfied with my answers and what they saw.

After an ok night (Nick threw up his milk once we got home and didn't eat much for dinner). Oh oh, is this a symptom, is this an upset stomach, do we call, do we wait?! I think milk was just a little heavy for him.

Nick was more bright-eyed and ate breakfast and his milk. Still very, very cuddly but his old stuff was starting to emerge. And I got a couple of posts off to ask opinions of other moms.

It's so hard when I'm the one who is supposed to know everything. And to watch out for symptoms that may or may not be there, may have an alternate explanation or be the thing you are supposed to be looking for. AND from our experience the symptoms for the revision and the UTI were not the ones that I was originally told to look for!

I was very happy when Nick wanted to start playing. Yup there is my boy!

Sandbox Fun!

To enjoy the last full day of summer, we went outside and played in the sandbox. This was Nick's first time in the sandbox actually playing with Katheryn. He is sitting much better independently so I can leave him to play without holding him.

He liked outside the box much better than inside, and reaching in the play with the sand. And Katheryn really liked covering him with sand. I found a bunch in his ear! I had to make extra sure that there wasn't any sand left in between his toes.

But I think they had fun!

It's harder than I thought it would be

With a title like that, I could really be talking about anything, be it with our spina bifida journey or separate from it. When reading and imagining what all the hard stuff would be, this would never have even crossed my mind. I can do this, no problem. This will not be a challenge. I know the importance of this, and it will be on the top of my list.

So what is it? What is this simple-tough thing that I'm finding hard? OK suspense over. Not babying Nickolas. Not treating him like a baby and letting him do things.

I don't want to baby Nick, I do not want to treat him any different than his sister or cousin or any other child. But I think I might be doing it. He is moving out of the baby stage - he is 10 months old! and I'm afraid that I still consider him a little baby.

A prime example.
We go to the park, Katheryn plays with everything and Nick stays under a tree, lying on the ground or in his stroller. Because he's not mobile he can't play. I don't think I actually thought that, but that is still the end result. I have pictures of us at the park, and there he is, underneath a tree on a blanket while the kids are running around the playground.
Luckily I recognized this. So out he came from the stroller, I carried him around the park with me and we tried out some of the park toys.

We bounced on the bouncy teeter-totter thing, he twirled in this twirly thing and he swung on this swingy thing. This was a brand-new park and had a lot of things that I hadn't seen before (and obviously have no idea what the names of them are). A long way from the simple metal teeter-totter, metal slide, plastic S slide and swings that we had in our parks.

Nickolas had a lot of fun! And Katheryn had fun playing with him as well. The twirly thing was like a bucket on a pole. So Nickolas was able to sit in it and Katheryn and I twirled him around. He laughed so hard! His eyes were rolling around in his head because we got him really dizzy. I put Katheryn in the same thing and twirled her once - but she got scared and started screaming! But she had no problem twirling Nickolas.

They also had a large disc that was on 4 chains that you were able to lie on and swing. Nickolas lay on it and Katheryn liked pushing him and swinging him.

They had a little bit of R&R on the swing together as well.

So that is it!
No more babying Nick. No lying him down and setting him in the corner as other kids are able to be more active and play. Nickolas is still a baby (I think I'll always think of both kids as babies) but he is no longer a baby-baby.

Nickolas is growing out of his inactive babyhood and it is my job to ensure that he gets to appropriately play.
So we had a little speed bump and now I recognize that it will be harder to keep from treating him like a baby. But I like to think that I'm up to the challenge.


FYI I learned that when you go to the park do not dress your kid in dark blue or black. When Katheryn was running around and would get out of site and I was looking for where she was, the navy wasn't bright enough for me to identify her. I ended up looking for that little orange headband to keep an eye on her.

I have also learned that while Katheryn does not like twirly rides, she has no problem with climbing up ladders. But cries and screams when she gets stuck (4 ft off the ground)! Especially when I have my hands full with a poopie diaper and can't help her down. Thanks to that unknown mother who helped her down for me!

A Bouncing Baby Boy!!

Nickolas is getting the hang of the exersaucer! He likes being in it now, and he actually BOUNCES!!!

Yes Katheryn likes to give him and hand, she also likes jumping up and down beside him and tells him to jump too!

I think he likes it because he is verticle, instead of being horizontal all the time. I just have to make sure that his feet are straight on the ground. But he can turn around the whole thing and plays with everything. Katheryn helps showing him what everything does.

The kids are playing together more. Together not just Katheryn bringing toys to Nickolas, or taking toys away. But side by side playing.