Immersion

So we're at Suzuki camp.  Q has had a hard time settling the last three nights and tonight, in addition to us singing him The Two Grenadiers, in parts, G brought his viola and quietly played Q out with Humoresque.  I've frozen those moments in my head so I can have them always:  Q draped across me atop his bed on the floor, drooling on my shirt, almost trying to still fight sleep, K in her bed, S snuggled with grandma in her bed, E in the shower, and the giant boy who is taller than everyone else much of the time these days sweetly playing his punkin brother to sleep.

There's plenty of irregular nonsense, as is the case with Life.  There's a crazed seagull outside the window right now, for example.  And G is probably not yet asleep, though his sisters are, and he will miss breakfast in the morning if he isn't out soon.  There's the part where we're figuring out the new versions of the parent-child and child-parent relationships - no easy task even when everything else is smooth and lovely, much less with a few irregularities thrown in.

However.  That young man who played for the littlest guy of the bunch also let me know that he's decided against looking for a job right now, though he'd need one to get a phone, which he badly wants.  He's forgoing the job so he can focus on succeeding in school.  He's making plans.  And his sisters aren't far behind.  This is so incredibly awesome.  I know people often report the empty nest thing, and I'll probably have some of that too, later, but oh wow, is this exactly what all the hard work has been for!  I just love that they're in the middle of the progressive circle that takes them ever nearer competent adulthood.

And this week has been great for us all, in different ways.  The teacher who trained under Dr. Suzuki himself captured G's imagination, the one who dances with all thirty-five of her sweet younger kids while they play with violins atop their heads has S smiling like crazy (she loves all her teachers).  E and K were given tiny things to work on that will improve their performance in gigantic ways - much of which carries over to Real Life, too.  Q wants to go home with his Rhythm teacher so he can always have such fun.

So hurray for a week well spent.  For kids who've taken great advantage of the opportunity (and are willing to work and save for the next go round).  And hurray for the bazillion people who've helped with Q and all manner of support roles.  We wouldn't be here without you.  Thank you so very, very much.

In my running around campus and I've collected about three miles per day, huffing and puffing as we go.  This campus is built on a hill, so it's either lots of stairs for me or hauling Q up and down hills to handicap accessible entrances.  I forgot to mention when  posting about the news of Friday (ortho appointment) that Q weighed a little more than 40 lbs.  Hooray!  And so does his chair.  Not hooray!  So when "sprinting" behind him up hills, I'd like a little fanfare.  Or a sparkler.  Or just a bottle of water might be nice.

Sleeping time now.  Yikes, but we're tired.

Still

So we've had an unusually big week.  Between the whooping cough exposure scare, the orthopedics appointment, and sundry volunteer projects, we've slid into Friday just about toodled out.  Among other exciting details for this week is my ongoing argument about coverage of one of Q's meds - it's been a particularly bad time to pay out of pocket for a generic which is running almost five bucks a day.  But here we are.

On Thursday we got to help put together the bound schedules for the Suzuki camp which begins bright and early Monday morning.  The kids have been practicing the music for their groups as well as their pieces for the master classes.  It's a little surreal to contemplate, how all their effort comes together for them.  They've been taking violin for three years now, G has had about a year on the viola.  It's pretty thrilling to watch and listen to them play in groups, and their solo performances are coming along nicely - E especially so with fiddling.  The bigger three have been taking piano for almost six years, S for five.  K and S are streaking out ahead with piano:  K has been pushing G and E for a couple of years now, while S just recently announced that she believes she's at the place where she's now just going to play for fun, it's that nice.  See me grinning?  I listen to them these days with my heart in my throat, amazed at all this progress.

About Q's ortho recheck, then.  The x-rays this time show his left hip out about 75%, as compared to the 60% from earlier this year, with an increased slope in the socket.  His right hip is out a smidge farther than it was last time, but not much a'tall changed, though that socket appears to be somewhat more sloped as well.  We discussed the options for surgery, for waiting, for injections into Q's thigh muscles.  I asked the surgeon what he'd do if this was his kid.  He grinned, self-deprecatingly, knowingly, and said that there just isn't a right answer, but given how engaged and responsive Q is*, he would go ahead with the surgery to change the angles in both femurs, build up the left socket, and look at the right socket once in surgery to determine whether or not he needs that socket built up too.  There's a 5% chance that Q would need a transfusion (the pelvic area is highly vascular) with both femurs and one socket, but about a 40-50% chance of needing a transfusion when the second socket also requires work.  About 3% of patients seen through this clinic (children's hospital) require another surgery to tweak something or make further changes after the initial surgery.  This is important partly because if that right socket needs work, better to do it all at once, because it's a not-fun recovery.  So if there's a 97% chance that the first go gets it all, best to do it then - which leads us to wait a little longer.  The ortho guy said that since there's been some small changes in that side that we'd have a better idea in another six months.  So Q goes back in February for more pictures and another chat.

In the meantime, we've therapies, dental appointments, orthodontist appointments, school, school, and more school to do.  Q begins kindergarten in a few weeks (gak!).  G begins the tenth grade (how did that happen!?) and thinks about getting a job to pay for all the cool stuff he wants to do.  And the girls push on ahead in their studies, too.  I may be a little bit of a geek, because this all seems like pretty exciting stuff to me, this growing up and out of the kids, this new school term.  This stretching and testing of their ever stronger and more capable wings.

*You may recall - I hope I mentioned this before - that there's a study out of Australia indicating that the more engaged and "verbal" a child is, the more likely he is to have pain with subluxed hips.  In fact, it's nearly 100% vs. about 40% for kids who are less interactive.  In other words, there seems to be a connection between how much a child is trying to venture into or respond to relationships, typical presentation or not, and his or her pain levels.  This fact drives me a little crazy.  Imagine all those punkins who have pain and can't communicate it.   Thinking about it feels like toothpicks in my brain.

I had a moment on my back porch (my back porch!) with a nice glass of ice water, checking out the stars as the sky emptied its light into another hemisphere.  You'll be relieved to know most of them are still out there.  The backyard rocks continue to proliferate like bunnies.  I've had some help with the weeds - thank you (you know who you are)!  And the wee little discount/saved from death plants are looking like they may yet choose life.  It smells good out there, all sweetly herby and verdant in our wedge of earth.  It's quiet and a little damp in the coolness of the day.  Dewy, I guess. 

Peaceful. 

Peace-filled. 

Come on over.  I've got ice water.

Tools

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Crazy teenagers.

Crazy parents.

Punchy-tired

We are wiped out from the big weekend activities.  Q rode the cars again in the Challenge Day race.  This year the founder, Leo, had added a seat back for the boy to be strapped to.  They used it last weekend in a different city for a kid with similar physical presentation.  It was so fun!  Q had a moose head wraparound neck support, and he grabbed onto the car right away and just rode like he was in charge, man. 

When he wasn't riding, he was having a rest in the van with G (so cute, the pair of them all sprawled out), or even better, helping G or E drive this.  There wasn't a roof on it, and the steering and brakes were located on sticks at the hips of the riders, rather than out in front as handlebars.  He loved, loved, loved it.  I've been thinking about how to get him on the road on a bike, and this would be one awesome option.  There was a bag at the back, strung between the two joined bikes.  It would easily hold most everything Q would need for a day out.  Amazing how much fun he had as soon as he was in motion.  He's definitely a little adrenaline junkie in an uncooperative body. 

We're waiting for the modification piece for his backpack - how cool will that be!?  It's been a few days since I ran - have to get back to that tomorrow.  Since running longer distances and doing so more consistently, plus walking lunges, etc., I can easily tell a difference between last summer and this:  Q is easier to hoist and easier to haul in the pack.  How nifty, right? 

Now to figure out the next bits of life:  G and K got running shoes today, inspired by E's PT successes which correlate mostly to her shoes, though the exercises sure are helpful.  G went parallel parking this afternnon and needs a viola bow and would love to have a new violin bow as well.  The last violin bow he tried and thinks still would fit best was more than $700.  Gulp.  So we'll be praying over this - the viola that came from Goowill and makes such nice sound.  ;o)  The house windows need screens and I need a big, bad, load of dirt to come here, be free, and make friends with the rocks.  Until the dirt tosses the rocks out, on sheer principle.  So there, rocks!  Heh.  I'm afraid I've constructed all kind of scenarios in which the rocks just go poof.  Of course, so far, the best way is to have cousins over and to announce that anyone who plucks a weed or moves a rock will get a penny apiece.  K, of course, is the fastest - I owe her almost $4 so far!  And the other girls each made some money off me too.  Hooray!

The Zyrtec has taken over.  Q's quiet so time to sleep!  XO

Week end

I've been chewing on things this week about how to mold one's family culture, what input is most effective for kids as they grow their wings and look to leave home.  One of the things that seems a constant recurring theme is that I have a lot of friends, some real, some "imaginary", who require a LOT of their children.  Some of these people are thought of as tough, true (like that's a bad thing), but most are thought of as responsible parents.  People who are busy helping their kids to be people the rest of us want to be around.  As opposed to say, children who walk around having tantrums over the silliest of things, or demand that occasions suit them at the cost of others' needs, and more.  I don't know that I have any conclusions on the matter because I'm kinda in the thick of it, here.  I do know for sure that two parents in the same household, a team working together for their kids, whether or not they agree on even as much as fifty percent of how to proceed, is making the process that much easier for those who have it. 

I'm out early in the morning, so shall sign off.  Hope you all have some sweet rest and a very productive time in whatever place or area you most need.

Apropos of Nothing...

I'm thinking on this as an excellent item for inclusion in life skills discussions.  Perhaps difficult for some parents, but when thinking about things like adrenal exhaustion and long-term consequences - man, seems like a no-brainer to me.

In other news, the kids are home.  Yay!  The morning activities prior to my getting to the airport demonstrated the growing complexities with Q.  Again.  Thinking on that for now, and hoping for forthcoming solutions.

I don't know how to speak about the kids visits with their dad.  They love him so much, and rightfully so.  He's their dad and they need that relationship, that champion who only shows up in daddy clothes.  And also, there's fallout.  Uncomfortable questions.  Sadness at the very real losses resulting from his absence in their daily lives.  So.  Lots of tears tonight from one of the punkins.  It can be hard to keep one's head together under the abrupt changes occurring with visits.  Q had a hard time eating tonight - as he does during the beginning days of the big kids' absence.  Here's to an easier day tomorrow.  Yes.  That.

Gotta nail down a few of life's details before I hit the sack.  Huge shoutout to the people who took care of Q so I could go get the rest of the kids.  Hope life is being kind to you and yours.

Midsummer Night

A song.

I have a little lesson planning done, a little housecleaning done, a little sorting done, a little digging in the yard done.  But Q is fatter and happy, and that is the primary job here when the bigs are out of town, so hooray for us.  In the morning I will fly down to pick them up and they'll be tucked in here tomorrow night.  Can't wait to squeeze 'em!  Two have had birthdays of some consequence whilst off visiting, so this will be exciting.  Have I mentioned that G has his permit?  See how my eyes bug out while I think about this?  There's always a new phase of life to enter, isn't there? 

Better scoot to bed so I can get Q fed and head off to the airport in the morning.  Tra la!  Hope you're reveling in a little summer bliss.