Working through the winter

We're doing our best to work through the winter blues here, but it takes a pretty conscious effort.  Here's a few of the tidbits from life lately.  I'll try to write down some better anecdotes and finally take some pictures ones of these days.

Friday evening we took the kids to an open gym sponsored by Anna's therapy location.  The dense fog advisory didn't deter us and we ended up having a good time, especially since we were all able to burn off some pent up physical energy.  Ethan had a good time playing tee ball and football, while Kate found her stride playing basketball with me.  After a bit of work, Kate ended up making several baskets on a lower hoop.  Then she got up the courage to try shooting at the regulation height, and even made a couple of baskets.  Good persistence, Kate!  Anna goofed off with Matt and her regular physical therapist, who just happens to coordinate the open gym.  The kids were all pretty tired at the end of the night, but happy tired.

Along the lines of therapy, Anna has been trying out some new equipment the last couple of weeks.  The next step in pediatric rehab is to use forearm crutches (click here for a picture) instead of a reverse walker.  Last Monday she successfully used a set of crutches owned by the clinic for the first time, albeit for a very short distance.  However, her PT was hoping that she would just feel comfortable enough to stand with them.  Anna decided that just standing wasn't enough and she wanted to practice steps.  This week Anna increased her distance and speed with using the crutches (a total of about 55 ft. for anyone keeping track).  We have started the process of getting Anna a pair of her own forearm crutches.  Eventually (think of this in terms of months/years), Anna will transition from using her walker to using the crutches for shorter trips.  At least that's what we hope.

Back to home.  The girls have started taking a weekly piano lesson at home from me.  We tried this last winter with Kate, but the lessons kind of fizzled out.  Both girls are a bit more interested this year and I think our system works better than it did last year.  Kate is picking up on everything very well and doesn't complain much about practicing right now.  Anna's finger movements seem to be improving with the new activity as well.  Hopefully she doesn't get discouraged with her slow progress.

Ethan and I are playing many games these days.  He likes to go into the girls' closet and pull out a random assortment each day.  It's actually a pretty fun way to pass some of our time indoors.  He's a great sport about playing games, and even enjoys playing different games with Anna after school.

Speaking of Ethan, he finally had his four-year-old check up after school this week, coordinated with Anna's semi-annual pre-op appointment with her primary care physician.  As expected, Ethan is a wonderfully healthy kid.  He finally registered below the 90th percentile for weight, weighing in at 43 lbs. (89th percentile).  He's 41 inches tall, which is around the 60th percentile.  He's stretching out, as expected, but maybe just not as quickly as the girls did at his age :)

Finally, Matt doesn't get as much credit as he deserves on this blog.  Here is a snapshot of this past weekend ... Saturday morning he dealt with the kids right away so I could meet some friends for an early breakfast (we have decided that an early Saturday breakfast is the best time most of us can meet!).  Matt had then planned to clean out some drains that day, but the project turned into a go-to-the-hardware-store-to-replace-some-pipes kind of project.  Once the project was done, the kids enjoyed tackling and rough-housing with Matt downstairs while I went for a walk.  Then as we were preparing dinner that night, we discovered that the oven door hinge was broken.  A quick change of plans made dinner salvageable, but then Matt spent plenty of time that evening diagnosing the problem.  Sunday afternoon was spent making the oven workable until the new hinges arrive.  He's a pretty talented guy.

And then tonight, he was okay with having pancakes for dinner!  If you know Matt, you know that he DOES NOT like breakfast foods.  However, the kids LOVE pancakes for dinner, but we haven't had them since mountain biking season ended.  Ethan and Kate ate more than Matt did this evening, even when you count the bacon consumed :)

Here's hoping that we either get snow or sunshine soon ... maybe even both!