Moving Forward: When Grandma Comes to Town

Carole and Maya read "Doggies" for the 26th time.

There have been many enjoyable grandparent visits during my blogging absence. Our latest one ended today when Maya, Elijah and I put Grandma Carole on the SmartWay Bus to the Roanoke Airport this morning. There were no tears but their was much sighing by Elijah about wishing "Grandma Carole could stay forever" and wishing "Grandma Kathy was here right now" and wondering how long he had to wait before Kathy and Grandpa Michael visit.

For my part, I love taking advantage of having physically fit grandparents visit. Carole helped immensely with my raised bed renovation with dirt moving, 8'x4'x1' raised-bed installation, deconstruction of existing beds, and salvaging with reconstruction. In between all the digging and heavy lifting, Carole read Maya's favorite book "Doggies" (a dog counting and barking book by Sandra Boynton) many times a day (Maya says, "Aah, Aah, Aah?" for dog while she helps find the book or helpfully shoves the book into your person in case you missed the hint she wants it read.) and generally kept track of Maya while we were outside anywhere. Maya in turn helped Carole haul my garden grass clippings around the house to the compost bin, stopping to admire the wonderful contents of the bin with each visit. Carole played trains with Elijah, read with both big kids, and "watch this"'ed while they road bikes up and down the front path, neighbor's long drive and the grass hill to the other neighbor's driveway. We managed a visit to the Roanoke Transportation Museum with the littles and have a bikes and 'burgers lunch at the Heathwood Pond with all three. (Elijah continues to master all things biking and Shayna has improved her control and comfort dramatically over the last two weeks.) Carole even managed to save Passover Seder on Friday as I made a last minute dash to the pediatrician with Shayna for an ear infection at 4:30pm with dinner prep in full swing and guests expected at 5:30. Nahum pitched in once he arrived home and promptly put David to work once David, Laura, Genny, and Claire arrived. We managed to sit down to a delicious, festive Seder celebration by 6:30 with a truly wonderful evening had by all.

Shayna's liver numbers have been improving over the last four weeks with one concerning check two weeks ago that interfered with her prednisone weaning. Yesterday's numbers were stellar so we get to drop another 5mg of prednisone and move to only having a morning dose. Currently, the prednisone makes Shayna over enthusiastic about everything, a bit hyper all the time, not good with impulse control and cry uncontrollably at the slightest perceived insult which isn't that bad considering other people's experiences but I am ready to have normal Shayna back. Luckily, her belly stopped hurting too much after we increased the pepcid dose three days into treatment; however, she does have a steroid moon face and round belly. We have had to work hard keeping her hunger under control. We were advised to keep her on a diabetic diet while on prednisone since it interferes with blood sugar management leading to a prolonged elevated blood sugar level ("no white food" per Dr. Berry). Shayna is looking forward to the family pizza party we will take to the Mellow Mushroom once she has been weaned off the prednisone and to losing her moon face as she doesn't like her "squishy" cheeks.

Other notable happenings: We stopped Elijah and Shayna's Thursday gymnastics classes and will be adding a Monday modern dance class for both on the 20th. When Maya was helping me make scrambled eggs with cheese this weekend, I asked her to bring me two bowls. She climbed down, walked over to the kids dishes, picked out two bowls and brought them back to me. She turned 18-months-old yesterday. I haven't gotten my seasonal allergies yet that I've had for the three years prior. Nahum will finish his "March madness" with the submittal of three proposals Friday at 8pm. We will all be very happy to have him home again in the evenings.

Opening Easter eggs. Maya doesn't like candy but she loves to open the eggs to discover their contents so Carole put one Cheerio in each egg, load the basket, Maya enthusiastically opens each egg, then hunts down the Cheerio as it always came flying out of the egg to eat. I think they played this 2-3 times that morning.

The obligatory surprised-Carole-eating picture I always seem to get and sisters enjoying breakfast (it melts my heart to see how much those girls love each other).

Elijah riding down the hill to Micky's driveway, because that's what every responsible mother should teach their barely 4-year-old to do. A week later he taught Shayna and now they both come racing up the drive way and down the grass hill.