CI Summer Camp Week 3

Three weeks of intensive therapy are now under Anna's belt.  Last summer her session was only three weeks long; this week it's four.  She's coming down the home stretch now.

Last week was Water Week at CI so Anna had the option of doing different water activities each day, such as shooting water balloons with a slingshot.  She still went up and down stairs with her crutches several times a day, worked with the pulley exercises, completed obstacle courses with her crutches, and played games with therapists or her CI friend.  In addition, she did a crawling obstacle course race against one of her therapists and rode her bike to and from a local splash pad to play in the water.

Numbers from last week include walking 505.5 feet during the six-minute walking test and completing the 10 meter walking test in just under 9 seconds.  Both are good numbers, but the most exciting one was that Anna took 56 steps unassisted one morning.  Wow.  Her average was around 15 steps before she lost her balance, but after she reached 25 steps one time, she wanted to try it again and that's when she ended up with the 56 step personal record.

Occupational Therapy time also included pulleys, more typing, more games and water activities, and of course more walking.  Amazingly, Anna continued to be motivated throughout the week.  We decided to start her on a very low dose of hydrocortisone this past week, as we ended up doing last summer, just to make sure her body could keep up with the stresses put on it.  We're pretty sure that the steroids only helped Anna stay out of the extreme tired zone.

Kate, Ethan, and I were busy with our mornings, although we didn't do much special any day.  After realizing that those two kiddos spent a little too much time together the previous week, I set up a handful of playdates for the afternoons this last week.  First, Kate had a buddy over on Monday afternoon; these girls had a grand time after not seeing one another since school let out.  Then Anna's CI friend came over again on Tuesday afternoon and brought the new Beauty and the Beast movie along so we could all watch it together.  It was a memorable afternoon.

My mom arrived late Tuesday evening to spend Wednesday helping me with the garden.  That was considered MY playdate :)  Thursday was Ethan's turn so a neighborhood friend and his brother came over for the afternoon.

By Friday, I missed hanging out with our kids, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and do a Friday afternoon field trip up to Devil's Lake State Park.

Enough adventures happened in that short afternoon that I could either write it off as a bust, or try my best to remember the good parts and consider it a hit.

The bad parts included one child's bathroom accident, another child finding a spider in their lunchbox, realizing that we were only a few of the hundreds of people who decided to go to Devil's Lake that day, our inability to find any semblance of a nearby parking spot, the rocky ground in the water, and mom's headache that crept up on me throughout the afternoon.

On the other hand, the good parts included Kate and Ethan's independence in walking from our parking spot to the beach, Anna's positive attitude about walking the 1/4 mile or so to the beach, how Ethan made a fun friend while playing in the water, collecting plenty of treasures, trying to catch minnows, and enjoying the sun and the water on a gorgeous summer day.

We rounded out the trip by taking the Merrimac Ferry across the Wisconsin River on the way home and getting ice cream while waiting for the ferry.

I'm going to choose to remember the good, and maybe just learn from the bad.

Saturday was a garden day and a family day during which Matt created an obstacle course around the yard for the kids (and any grown-ups who wanted to try).  Why not, right?  Here's a few elements of the course.

Homemade Slackline:

Swinging across the Crocodile River:

Tire Hopping:

Balancing up and across before jumping down:

Pulling yourself through the spider/scorpion desert:

Balancing over the Pit of Despair:

And walking across (or playing on) the teeter-totter:

Ethan gives it all a thumbs-up.

Anna tried several elements at least once, but after about 30 minutes of the course, she opted for some more relaxing activities while the other challenged themselves.  She's got enough therapy these days.

Sunday we hosted Anna's book club.  She chose The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe this time around so we have been enjoying different aspects of the Narnian tales these days.  For the book club, I even attempted making Turkish Delight.  It was not necessarily my favorite, but we all agreed that it was good to have our curiosity satisfied.

Now we're on to one more week of the Advance session for Anna, a week of an Art and Nature camp at the UW Arboretum for Kate, and a week of harvesting, preserving, and random doctor's appointments.for the boy and me.