Lavender festival

Here's a quick recap of the weekend. Please forgive any typo's and grammar mistakes I was rushing to post before our therapy appointment today.

Saturday

Amaya slept good on Friday night and had a good day. In fact she didn't need pain medications all day. I only gave her some before bed, as a precaution. 

As I watched a movie with her I was drinking from a mug that one of Josh's students gave him, it says  A+ teacher. Amaya said, "hey you can't use that, you're not a teacher." I said, "Well, I use to be, but now I stay home and take care of you and Lidie." Then she made the biggest smile and said, "thank you." Awe, that smile warmed my heart so much.

I gave her a shower in the morning, since we got home late Friday night and she didn't get to do it then. She had so many scabs peal off, gunk and pain. She was in tears, which hasn't happened in a while. I felt bad making her take a bath, but I know better than letting her skip one. At night she had to take another, she had more drainage in her middle and top pins that looked very bloody, so I'm glad I did it then. We give her a shower every night (sometimes we let her skip washing hair, but always wash her pins). On the few times that we've come home late and she's missed her shower at night (this has happened less then five times) we give her one in the morning then one again at night.

Sunday

     She woke up complaining of hip pain and requested pain meds and a hot pad. After that she felt fine all day. We went to the Lavender festival out in Cherry Valley. It was a wonderful day. We ate delicious food; lavender ice cream, lavender cheese cake, quinoa salad, chocolate sorbet, lavender lemonade. We went with family friends, Richard, a very pregnant Diana (due in ten days) and their daughter Seraphine. As we sat in the shade enjoying the breeze and French music that played (one of the highlights of the day), we started making wishes on pine needles. Amaya said, "do you know what I keep wishing for?" "What?" I said. She responded, "To be an orthopedic surgeon."  What a good wish to have.

    We took the girls over to see the puppet show by Mrs. Lavender and Little Vera. I was pleasantly surprised by her show. She included costumes, dances and songs from different countries but then also had a mouse puppet from the three countries she visited. The thing I was most surprised and enjoyed the most was that all three of the mice had a disability. The first had a hurt foot and had surgery, the second one lost an arm in war and had a prosthetic, the last one was blind, but had surgery to correct it and now wore glasses.  I loved how Mrs. Lavender incorporated the mice and their disabilities in such a natural way. Later I went to talk to Mrs. Lavender and thank her for including those mice and how much I appreciated it. She thanked me for my compliments, and said that some parents are uncomfortable with the mice's disabilities. She said that it was important to her that they had disabilities. I told her about Amaya's disability, surgeries and blog. She said that Amaya was lucky to be born in the United States and to have access to such good medical care, I agreed. She went on to say that when she's traveled to Bangladesh she sees children with many conditions who don't have access to quality care. I mentioned Dr.Nelson to her and his commitment to go to Haiti to perform surgeries there. She was happy to hear that.  Here's Mrs.Lavender's website, http://www.apogiatura.com if you'd like to visit it and get to know her more or book her for an event. Here's her email if you'd like to contact her apogiatura@aol.com.  I was so happy to see her show, and talk with her. Thank you Mrs. Lavender for all you do.

    We had such a wonderful day and by the time we got home the girls were worn out. Lidie fell asleep by six p.m.. Amaya had lots of pain during her shower and a bit of a rough night; she had hip pain, so we did stretches and as she sat on the couch she put a stuffed animal under her fixator to help prop it up. She woke up an hour later complaining of knee pain, so I massaged it. She also asked me to push her kneecap down, and said it felt good. Then throughout the night she cried and moaned of pain and discomfort. This morning she's done well, so hopefully today is a good day for her.

Here's Amaya doing her stretches on the wall. Her and Lidie were watching something on the iPad to help the thirty minutes pass. She also did her stretches during the day (bends and stretching the hip).

The girls found a castle at the lavender festival. Amaya thought that perhaps fairies lived there. 

Here's one of the puppets, Lord Nelson. He lost his left arm during war and now wears a prosthetic. Mrs. Lavender said that he now does things differently, like clapping; he now claps with one hand on his head or thigh. 

Here's Kioni, the Japanese mouse who was blind, but had surgery to correct her vision and now wears glasses.

Here's Amaya, Lidie and I dancing the Irish group dance with the other kids. I was proud of Amaya for getting up and doing it. First Amaya danced with dad on the sidelines, which worked well because some of the dances were so fast. But, this one was for kids and a bit easier for her to keep up with.