In Which The Little Guy Is Rip Van Winkle

Connor seemed to be feeling a bit under the weather today; he slept in until 9:30 in the morning, and during Thai lessons he fell asleep on my lap.  I ended up leaving a bit early because once he woke up he told me he wasn't feeling very well.  So we went home and he napped until early evening.

Then he woke up for about an hour, had a small seizure, and promptly went back to sleep.  I ended up putting him down for the night around six, and he hasn't stirred since then.  I don't know if he simply felt the seizure coming on all morning, or if he's getting sick again. 

Either way it made for a pretty quiet day.

~Jess

In Which We Attend A Party For The Moon

Today Connor and I had a very busy day planned, but it didn't end up being nearly as busy as we expected.  He seemed to be feeling pretty good-- other than that lingering cough-- so I figured we'd give it a try and see how things went.

Since it was National Free Museum Day, we had scheduled a play date in the morning with some friends for the Tacoma Children's Museum.  After that, we were going to drive up to Gig Harbor where another friend was holding a grand opening party for her business.  Then finally that evening if Connor wasn't completely exhausted we were going to try and visit the first ever Tacoma Moon Festival.  The Moon Festival is a holiday celebrated in many Asian countries marking the autumn equinox, and the festival was going to be chock full of performances that I knew Connor would love.

Unfortunately none of the kids wanted to cooperate in the morning, so our museum trip was pushed back to early afternoon.  I was the first to arrive, and glanced in the museum windows as I drove past towards the parking lot.  It was wall-to-wall children in there.  Uh oh.  I suppose I should have guessed this would be the case, given the whole "free admission" thing, but suddenly going to the museum didn't look like such a great idea.  Not only was it going to be very, very difficult to maneuver the wheelchair around in there, but the noise level would probably be through the roof.  So I called up our play date and suggested we might want to rethink things.  We agreed to meet up and figure out something else to do.

I decided to feed Connor a quick bit of lunch before we left the parking lot, and I got almost all of it into him before he had a coughing fit and his formula lunch made a reappearance all down his shirt and pants.  Luckily I always carry a backup outfit for him in his wheelchair.  I'd just gotten him into it when he had another coughing fit and the rest of lunch made a second appearance.  Fantastic. 

So we made a long detour to find someplace that sold clothing so that Connor didn't have to spend the rest of the day in wet clothes.  By the time we finished up and made it back on the road it was obvious that there was no way we were going to be able to make that grand opening party, as it was already well into the afternoon and by the time we got to Gig Harbor it would be over.  So we figured that since the Moon Festival was on our agenda anyway we'd move the play date there.

I'm so glad that we went!  Connor had a blast; he loved the Korean drummers, the Taiko drummers, the lion dance-- okay, pretty much anything that involved drums.  He got to examine one of the lion dance costumes close up and see how the dancer made it blink and open and shut its mouth, which he thought was very interesting.  The only time he seemed to get a bit bored was during the boat race; he watched for just a little bit but then quickly requested we move on and get back to watching the Hula lessons and the Cambodian dancers. 

Unfortunately we had to leave just before the Thai cultural exhibition because the kids were pooped, but I'm pretty sure they all had a terrific time.  Next year I'll try and have Connor go down for a bit of quiet time earlier in the day so he (and Ellen, who should be here!) can stay up late and watch the lantern release; I think that's something they would really enjoy.  Someday I'd love to see Yi Peng-- the lantern festival held in Northern Thailand every year. 

Maybe in a few years when we visit Thailand again we'll get the chance to go!

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Stopped Up

Connor's stuffy nose is refusing to go away and seems to be developing a rather worrisome cough, which means we may end up at the doctor's office again next week.  We'll just have to see how he does over the weekend; it could be allergies of course, but since the stuffy nose dates from the cold he got I'm doubtful that's the case.

He's been pulling out his hearing aids a lot too, which isn't like him.  I suspect that having his nose all clogged up changes how the sound is amplified in his hearing aids.  I need to call his audiologist next week, because he's actually pulling his hearing aids apart when he tries to take them out and then I get to play a frantic game of Find The Really Expensive Computer, as he always seems to leave the ear molds in and drop the computer portion on the floor.  Whee.

~Jess

In Which Connor Gets A Workout And I Call The Roll

Connor saw his physical therapist at school for the first time today; he's been out for the last three Thursdays due to various doctors' appointments so he kept missing her.  So now he has a stander that's adjusted at school and he can do some of his standing time there, which will be really nice.  Trying to cram two hours of standing in before bedtime has been a bit rough on the little guy, so he'll probably appreciate it being spread out a bit more.

He's started wearing his knee extension braces for a couple of hours before bedtime per his outside physical therapist, who he also sees on Thursdays.  Thursdays are probably going to be Early Bedtime Day for Connor; he crashed at 6:15 this evening.  I guess he's getting a workout!

I spent a good portion of today on the phone, talking with various people at Ellen's future school, doctor's office, etc. to try and get as much done in the way of enrollment as we can before she gets home and to give them a heads up that we're getting closer to her getting here.  Ellen will probably be starting up school right after Christmas break, so I talked with a counselor at the junior high she should attend about what that process should entail.  We're going to try and get her school records while we're in Thailand to help with the transfer, but there's no guarantee we'll be able to make that happen. 

We won't know for sure yet exactly what grade she'll be placed in, but we're guessing it will probably be 8th grade based on her age and where she is in school now.  The junior high schools here are 7th-9th grade, so this will give her the chance to be with the same kids for a year before she starts high school; something we think will be pretty beneficial. 

I was talking to Jer and called Ellen "Connor" for the first time today.  She's not even home yet and I'm already mixing up my kid's names.  I'm pretty sure this is a rite of passage for any kid with siblings-- I even got the cat's name every once in a while.  I haven't called Connor "Ellen" (or her actual name) yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time!

~Jess

In Which Connor Tries On Shoes And I Have More Cooking Adventures

I picked Connor early from school today so he could go in for his first fitting on his ankle-foot orthotics (AFO's).  The outer shells and inner foam of the AFOs has been made, but they don't have any straps yet and the final trimming still needs to be done.  The shells go quite a bit higher on his calves than his last pair, so he'll get some more stability with them while he's standing at the expense of some of his flexibility. 

The fitting went well, and they only need to make a few little tweaks to the AFO shells.  His next appointment will be for his final fitting, and then we should be able to pick them up.  I'll be sure to post a picture of his cool new shoes when he's got them!

After that we stopped by the house to discover a package on the door-- a care package I'd sent to Ellen this past summer.  Apparently it got all the way to Thailand before they decided the postage was wrong, and then it sat there for a while before it ended up being sent back here.  I'd sent almost all of her previous care packages via priority mail, so I think I'll be going back to that.  So I'm combining this package (or portions of it, anyway) with the current package I'm working on and she'll just get two letters in it instead of one, written several months apart.  It's suddenly become much more urgent to get this next package out; I'm worried she's going to think we've forgotten about her.  I'm going to try and get this latest letter out to the translator tomorrow so I can get the package back in the mail and on its way to her again.

Then we stopped by the adoption agency to drop off a bit of paperwork.  On the way home we hit the Asian grocery store to pick up ingredients for Yam Kun Chiang and discovered a new favorite food.  I'd never tried dried Chinese sausage (lap chong) before, and it's not something I would have taken home on a whim without a specific recipe in mind.  But after slicing it up and pan frying it for this recipe, I was tempted to skip the rest of the salad and just eat the stuff directly out of the pan.  It's really sweet, so when you sear it (or in my case, half-burn it) it tastes sort of like meat candy. 

Which doesn't actually sound very appetizing when I write it out, but trust me when I say that the stuff is delicious.  It reminds me a little bit of what I call Death By Bacon, which is where you take a big ol' mess of bacon, brush it with maple syrup and dip it in brown sugar before popping it in the oven.  Lap chong isn't quite that sweet and the flavor's a bit more complicated, but it has that same sort of overall effect, and while it's probably not great for you it's got to be a lot better for your arteries than Death By Bacon is. 

I did end up making the rest of the salad too, and that only made it better, but I think I'll be adding lap chong to my growing list of foods I'll be using in the rest of my non-Thai recipes.  My kitchen is becoming this weird food fusion place where I've started mixing Thai spices and ingredients in with my regular cooking, where I do things like use smoked red chili paste on my turkey sandwiches and put coconut cream in my hot cocoa. 

Yum.

~Jess

In Which Loki Helps With Everything

Loki has been going nuts today for some reason.  He keeps following me around the house helping with everything.  And by "helping," I mean "sticking his nose into the middle of whatever I'm doing."  Apparently he feels neglected or something.  This is absurd since he demands petting at least once an hour.  I oblige because if I don't he'll start doing something like ripping pages out of my books with his teeth. 

Really.  A lot of my favorite books have little wedge shaped sections torn out of the corners.  Loki is a weird mix of really smart and really dumb, but he's definitely got my number.  If he can't get what he wants by being ridiculously cute, he has no compunction about getting my attention in some other fashion. 

Anyway, today he was nicer about it and simply sat right on top of whatever I was working on.  Right now I'm having to type around him, as he is draped over my keyboard.  There he is with the book I was trying to study from earlier, looking so ridiculously adorable I can't help but pet him even if he is being really annoying.  How could I possibly resist that face? 

Also, when the heck did I adopt a tabby colored seal?  I don't remember that happening.

Anyway, so when he wasn't helping me read, he helped me out with many other important things, for my own good of course.  There was absolutely no way I could possibly use the restroom without his help, for example, so he rammed the door until he managed to pop it open and provided a Helpful Audience completely with meowed commentary.  He also went through my shopping bags, helped me file my receipts (on the floor) and made sure that all of my clean laundry had an appropriate coating of cat hair.  Cricket just watched him cavort around me like a maniac every time I tried to go down the hallway with a vaguely disgruntled look on her face, as if he was a disgrace to feline kind everywhere by acting in such an undignified fashion. 

Both cats abandoned me the second our night nurse got here, though, and Cricket's concern with feline dignity goes out the window.  They are completely convinced that instead of hiring a nurse for Connor, I actually got them a Personal Petting Assistant.  They've taken to hanging out by the front door in the evenings waiting for her to arrive.  They aren't allowed in Connor's room, so they sit outside the door all night and every time the nurse leaves the room they start flinging themselves at her ankles.  They seem to be trying to convince her that they are Horribly Neglected and that she must remedy this At Once by petting them or they will Surely Perish. 

The only way I think they would possibly be more intrigued by her is if she was allergic to cats.  If you are allergic to cats and you come to my house, my cats are instantly convinced that they must be your best friends in the whole wide world.  They're just nice like that.

Crazy cats.

~Jess

In Which Connor Plays Hide And Seek With His Medical Equipment And Gives Me More Gray Hair

I'll be making a trip to our local Asian grocery store this week because I'm almost out of palm sugar and I'm running dangerously low on Thai peppers.  I've been in a big Thai food cooking kick as I try to work out how to make a lot of the dishes Ellen might be eating right now. 

It helps that the orphanage website posts a lot of the menus and that I'm able to take a look at those, but occasionally the translations don't work out very well.  Today she's apparently having something called "Prikking Fried Morning Glory."  After a bit of detective work I'm pretty sure this is Pad Prik King (a green bean curry), but it's hard to be sure.  I've been working my way through Leela's recipes over at She Simmers, and while I have no idea whether or not I'm doing them right I'm at least eating well in the process. 

So now I find myself incorporating a lot of Thai flavors into the rest of my cooking as well.  It's been fun playing with flavors like galangal and tamarind pulp in my sauces and marinades.  Connor seems to enjoy the intense flavor of a lot of the spices, but that's not really a big surprise.  This is the kid who likes to literally suck on lemons.  He's a flavor extremist.

Speaking of Connor: he went back to school today, which was pretty exciting.  He's mostly over his cold, and seems to have gotten through the entire thing seizure free.  Hooray!  Today was pretty much without incident, though he did pull his right hearing aid apart and throw the super-expensive computer portion of it over the side of his wheelchair; something I discovered once we returned home from running errands.  This prompted a frantic phone call to the grocery store and the coffee shop and a search of the whole house, driveway and van.  I finally found it when I deployed the ramp, apparently it was hidden under the vehicle when the ramp retracted and it rolled down when I put it down to take the little guy back to grocery store to search the parking lot. 

He likes to keep me on my toes.

~Jess