Sunday, December 7, 2014

Catching Up

I just logged into Blogger for the first time in awhile, and realized it's been a month since I've written anything. It's both disappointing and also indicative of where we are right now.The last month has been so busy, it feels like we're just barely staying afloat sometimes.

The highlights:

School is still going well for the dynamic duo. They're both readers now, although we are still working on the whole comprehension thing with the boy. He *JUST* got the concept of setting, so we are making baby steps. Amelia, on the other hand, has mastered somewhere between 50-75 sight words and is really coming along. Anderson is absolutely FASCINATED by numbers right now. He loves to count things, loves to talk about different ways to make certain numbers. He can count well past 100 and can complete a hundreds chart. He's still working on the whole independent work thing.

Amelia got tubes in her ears last week. It was no big deal at all--I guess because we've dealt with hernia surgeries and heart surgery; this just didn't seem major. She was a trouper, and the ENT was pretty awesome. At her pre-op appointment, he talked to her about Frozen and told her she could wear her Ana costume to the procedure. Naturally, she was more than happy to oblige. She didn't even cry when they took her back, and about ten minutes later, they were calling us back for consultation.  She had pretty significant fluid in her tiny ears--no ear infections, but just standing fluid. The doctor told us that she should regain 15-20 decibels of hearing over the next few weeks and months. Crazy that it had gotten that bad.  She woke up angry as hell, which was no surprise to me, and we were on our way in about 20 minutes.  An hour later, it was like nothing had happened.  The ENT made a slightly surprising/shocking suggestion--he wanted us to take her to a pediatric pulmonologist and have her tested for Cystic Fibrosis.  I talked to our regular pediatrician about it, and he was as skeptical as I was, but we both agreed that since it was out there now, we should follow through and have it done.  She's scheduled for the CF sweat test on December 18th.

Anderson and I continue with swimming lessons...yes, you read that right. I'm taking lessons, too. Every time I take Anderson to lessons, I find myself staring at the people who are swimming laps, jealous. I've had back issues for years and all of my doctors recommend swimming. I'm a decent swimmer, but I have one huge problem--I can't (or I should say I couldn't) breathe while swimming. A few lessons later and I'm getting  better at that, but I still have issues. Actually, quite comically, one of my phobias is coming into play in terms of me being able to actually swim the length of the pool. I kind of have a version of megalophobia, which is the fear of large objects. Especially large transportation vehicles. I don't like being next to cruise ships, airplanes, etc.  I absolutely cannot STAND propellers--the ship-sinking scene in Titanic is horrible.  I know--totally irrational. Anyway, as part of that whole issue, I cannot STAND to look at empty swimming pools. Seriously. Like I just googled "fear of empty swimming pools", and images came up--and I had to turn my head. So...when I start off on the shallow end, I do fine. But, because I'm wearing goggles and can see under water clearly, I see when that steep drop-off is coming up and I freeze up. I put my feet down immediately. I know--so weird. I am absolutely not afraid of deep water. As a kid, I had no problem jumping off the diving board and touching the bottom, and I would gladly do it now, without goggles. But if I can see what the pool looks like, that steep hill that leads to the deep part and looks like an empty swimming pool...creeps. me. out.  So, I've got some work to do. :-) I'm quietly working towards a fitness goal that I refuse to make public until I commit, but so far, so good. Lots of working out going on, and it feels really, really great.

That's all around here. Passing time until winter break, when we can all breathe a little. More to come...as soon as I can work up the nerve to click the box next to the "fear of empty swimming pools" so I can log off. :-)

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