Ok, so I lied about the diagrams.

But here are a few pictures. Note the progression of happy.






X-ray's show the hip is *still* in place. Good news. The actual cast removal was a bit traumatic, so I'm not posting those pictures. It was loud. She was sad.

But remove it they did, and she has done like, a million times better than I thought. She is ready to go - if only her muscles would cooperate.

She's in a brace 24/7 for the foreseeable future. [Months. Not weeks.] It's extremely important that she remain braced, to allow the hip socket to continue to grow around the ball, and learn it's correct position. So, if you see my kid in a brace that is secured with duct tape...well, just don't call CPS. It's there for a reason.

And if you ask nicely, maybe I'll tell you about Thursday's trip to the zoo, and how smart our kid is.

Upteenth Update

The cast is off. The brace is on. The child is in bed napping.

We are very happy.

Pictures and explanations to come later. Maybe even diagrams.

I'm blogging my ass off.

Jason told me yesterday that we should shoot a little more film of her crawling in her cast, so when she's being a pain in the ass teenager, we can show her exactly what she put us through as a toddler.

Done, and done.

[Maybe we should have sounded more disappointed or something. I think maybe the impact is lost when we are obviously having fun.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha7WvlqK420

Oh, and by the way, she's saying "pretzel".

Nothing says "Remember our Troops" like inexpensive Swedish furniture.

Some fun things we've done this weekend, that do not include obsessing about Scarlett's cast removal.

Gone to the Children's Museum and played on the "buck".

Eaten everything in sight at the local street festival where they specifically want you to eat everything in sight. And tell you how cheap it is, except that you realize that you actually spent quite a bit of money.

Tortured the dogs feet.

Discovered a love of ketchup, without any pesky food to get in the way. Fingers work just fine.

And maybe, just maybe, bought a really big TV, and then bought and assembled furniture with the aid of one tiny Allen wrench.

[Which of these things do you think Kevin ranks highest? Give ya 3 guesses, and as the kids say, the first 2 don't count.]

Like what, 80 some odd hours?

Honestly, this has been a lovely holiday weekend. But completely overshadowed by the fact that this Friday, life is changing again.

I put Scarlett to bed tonight and thought, "only three more nights of all this extra crap."

The cast removal will be an interesting obstacle, and it worries us a little. We talk about things that are loud, and I think she understands, because tonight when her friend Forrest was protesting his entrapment, I commented on his volume and she agreed, nodding and confirming "loud". The devil you know is less intimidating than the devil you don't, and I'm a little scared of the days to come. Will she be sore? Scared to move her legs?

But I know all of this will disappear the minute her skinny pins emerge from all that fiberglass, and soon we'll be chasing them around, wishing that for 5 minutes she would Just. Sit. Still.

Speaking of lift off.

Blah blah blah - long story involving scheduling mix ups and very nice, accommodating nurses - blah blah blah

The cast comes off a week early.

May 30th. 8am. We will see her legs again in 10 days.

Now, if you'll excuse me, we need to go for a WALK. That's how it's said around here...or rather, yelled. When we want to go for a WALK we want to go for that WALK right now. Not in 5 minutes, and not after our nap, but now. And no, you do not have time to go to the car and get the stroller, you need to go buy a second stroller to keep at the ready for my WALK.

Did you not hear me? WALK!

Happy Accidents.

This morning we headed out to the "other mall." This place has crazy rules, like they don't open the department stores until 10am. What is that? That's like 3 hours after I need stores to open.

Well, at least one.

Anyway, we had some time to kill, so we became accidental mall walkers. And on the second floor, in the center of the food court, we found these gems. She is ready for lift off.

Wearing your judgy pants.

To the woman next to me at the sand table in the "Little Sprouts" area:

She sneezed and bit her lip. I'm not sure how I was supposed to prevent that.

I'd rather blame blogger.

I'm a little challenged when it comes to "embedding", so I'll just let you click the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCtwV_m9Tw8

And just so you all don't think I am unsure of my letters and shouldn't be homeschooling, her "S" and "X" sound pretty much the same.

Even Alice doesn't move that fast.

I apologize that I'm posting pictures from 5 days ago.

You'd think that by now we would be so used to Casty that life would be pretty much humming along as usual, and that I'd be able to post pictures within a few hours of taking them.

Haha.

Scarlett has become "accustomed to the cast". Or, as we say around here, hell on hardwood. It takes approximately half a second to scoot across the width of the house to grab whatever shiny object caught her eye. Also, naps are in an uproar, and she wants to subsist on crackers, cookies, and air. And cake. Developmentally, she's right on track. To turn 2.

Anyway, Kate and Jason closed on their new house last Friday, making them the owners of a pied a terre in the city, and a rolling estate in the country. Obviously, the proper way to celebrate was with pizza and red ale.

Oh, I'm sorry. She eats pizza as well.

Of course, I preferred the stuff that caused cancer.

One of these days I have to set up a video camera so you can all see what pug contortions occur when I eat smart pop.

Of course, that would mean filming myself eating, and that isn't going to happen.

You'll have to take my word that it is really, really funny.

This little piggy ain't so little.

This one tried to eat our stroller.

This one eats everything.

This one loved the choo choo.

This one wanted a better view.

And sure. Clumps of dirt. You just keep telling yourself it's dirt.

If only...

In my own secret fantasy world, when the segment ended, Heather Armstrong stood up and punched Kathie Lee in the face.

Always a bridesmaid...

So the manager of my local Starbucks said to me one day "Libby, Amanda and I were talking about it, and we were wondering..." and I got all excited, like someone was asking me to prom, until he finished "if Scarlett would like to be Customer of the Week?"

Crushed. But then I realized Scarlett doesn't really drink much coffee, so she has been kind enough to share her 'one free drink a day for the week' with me.

Rock on.

Fire Retardant.

We got to take a tour of a fire station over the weekend. Scarlett was all whatever about the heavy equipment, but certainly was ready to accessorize.

Don't even get me started on Birds.

This morning, Elmo's thinking about Bugs. For those of you not mainlining Sesame Street, every day on "Elmo's World", Elmo thinks about a different thing. Then we spend 15-17 minutes exploring all the facets of said thing; kids ruminating, checking the Internet, and watching TV. Also, Elmo asks the opinion of a Baby, whose job it is to sit there and drool, while offering no opinions whatsoever. Kids like babies. Whatever.

But anyway, bugs. I'm trying so hard not to hide behind the monitor during the live action shots of actual insects, but I'm failing. It's not fair to impart my own fears and phobias on my kid, who is just a purple coated sponge - but when they show a really icky bug walking on the arm of a girl, who professes to love insects...well, that just give me the heeby jeebies, and makes me hope to God that not only does Scarlett hate bugs like me, but that she also hates soccer, so I don't have to spend every Saturday morning until I die on some Godforsaken field nowhere near a Starbucks, but that's a whole different post.

There will be time for that later.

I had to put the gates back up. AND SHE'S IN A BODY CAST.

I keep finding her places she shouldn't be. And I swear to you, if she could crawl up the stairs just by wishing, I'd be fishing her down off of there as well.

I'm a little worried about how lazy we've gotten in terms of childproofing. Even the dog is a little too relaxed. But if she is this mobile while she's, well, immobile, then I think we're in for a world of hurt when that cast comes off.