The winding down of summer

In the last week and a half, our family has had 13 appointments between the five of us.  Anna still has one more to go.  Granted, several of those were scheduled together (girls' haircuts, kids' dentist appointment), but still.  It's a lot.  Here's a few quick updates on the different noteworthy visits.

Anna's growth hormone testing was last Wednesday.  A few weeks back she had an x-ray to check her bone age.  Her bone growth shows that she is the age of an 8-year-old, not a 9-year-old; we haven't yet learned the results of the growth hormone testing.

The day of the test, however, was awful.  The nurses couldn't get a good IV placed, so the venous ultrasound techs had to come and poke Anna for a third time.  Screams and tears accompanied each procedure.  Somehow Anna and I forgot how sensitive her skin is to sticky substances.  So each of the three times the IV dressings were removed, she screamed and cried again.  The literature told us that the procedure should take "3-4 hours"; it took 6 hours.  The literature also told us that the drugs might make Anna "a little sleepy".  She fell asleep while coloring, slept for an hour at the hospital, then crashed for another couple of hours at home.

Girls' haircuts - Anna's hair is finally starting to soften up after almost a year of shampoo specially designed for "damaged" hair.

Anna's pre-op check-up - nothing to report.

Kate's physical - She's wonderfully healthy.  75% for height, 65% for weight.  No need to worry about her string of illnesses requiring antibiotics.

Anna's MRI - Everything is still stable.  The changes noticed last time around have remained the same.  These are going to be considered changes as a result of treatment.  The sedation experience also went smoothly.  No tears again this time.  We may finally have found a good combination of sedation medications that work for Anna.

Dentist appointments - No cavities and no tears.  Hooray!  We have a referral for an orthodontist for Anna and, even though she's not quite ready for any braces, it was recommended that we start a consultation early since Anna "is a special case" and the orthodontist may need to think things through in a different way.  (i.e. Braces + MRI?  Braces + growth hormone?)  Also, I've decided to give the dentists' office a brief summary of Anna's treatments and how it may affect her teeth.  I'm tired of trying to explain it each time.

We also had our yearly review for the Katie Beckett program (WI Medicaid for kids).  This year was made complete with a home visit.  The extra financial support is worth all of the paperwork, but it's still a lot of paperwork.

We've tried to include some fun in these last few weeks, too, but it's tricky.  In general it takes us a lot longer to load and unload the van.  Now that Anna is using her walker more for short trips, we have to add an additional 10-15 minutes of transit time for her.

One day we went around town to redeem prizes from the summer reading program.  New books, pizza from Pizza Hut (turns out no one likes it), ice cream for dessert.  My timing was off a bit, but we made it work.

On Saturday, we gave Kate the option of going on an active field trip with Mom or Dad.  She chose Aldo Leopold Nature Center.  Ethan chimed in and then Anna said she'd like to go for a hike, too.  So we tried.  Matt took the active kids ahead and they explored lots of fun places.

Anna and I walked along a wooded (and mosquitoy!) trail until she got tired.  Then I gave her a piggy back ride so she could experience a little more.

Earlier this week we had a picnic lunch at a local park before heading into Woodman's for groceries (only my second time this summer with all three kids in tow!).  It was hard to get the kids out of the house that morning, but they all enjoyed themselves once they warmed up to it.

Here are a few pictures of Ethan's silly faces these days.  He likes to stick a cherry tomato in each cheek before he gives his "wide eyes".

They when everyone laughs, he smiles right through the tomatoes :)

We also went to the school's summer reading wrap-up this week.  The event was not very well attended, but our kids are suckers for any good story, so they thought it was fun :)

The pool is also a hit, but we don't make it out there every day.  Matt and I wonder how much longer this pool will work for our family.  Right now, it does :)

Ethan has asked to swim some without his floatie this summer.  Earlier this week we learned that he can doggie paddle for short period of time without it!  I guess lots of pool time has paid off for our youngest :)

We are down to three more weeks of summer.  Not only are we getting ready for school to start, but we also have peaches, tomatoes, and corn to deal with.  I'm not ready to send my girls off to fourth and second grade just yet!