Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window

[porphyry]

These are Andrew's latest toys, which, I am pleased to be able to say, he actually likes. Who knew that one would be able to get such nice things anymore?



The large one is a de Haviland Mosquito Mark VI. I was compeletely flabbergasted when I saw this one on offer on the web.

The Blue one is an F-18 Hornet painted in air-show colors, which Andrew thinks is Big Jet from the Little Eisnteins (if you don't know what that means count yourself fortunate). Big Jet is really an F-15, but since its painted blue, Andrew more easily accepts this as him than he would have the actual F-15 in the series which was painted in desert camoflage. The next one a German Comet from the War (really a rocket rather than a true aeroplane), and finally an A-10 Warthog; this he knows from a video I showed him on you-tube of an A-10 shooting up tanks on a fireing range with its gattling gun after he enquired about Big-0's gattling gun.

Comments

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Those hardwood floors are precisely the reason Andrew wants to keep his wheelchair! He can get up some good speed and he's learned to steer around with utmost precision--he imagines he's Racer X (from Speed Racer, remember? Andrew never wants to be Speed; he prefers Racer X, Speed's older brother :)

Speaking of those hardwood floors, here's my broken foot story; I don't mind telling at all. In January of 2006, when Madeline was about three months old and I was still doing night feeds, it was very early in the morning, about six o'clock, and barely light. She had awakened hungry, and I was carrying her out of the bedroom in the semi-light when I stepped on a Matchbox car (if your son had those, then you know no little boy ever has three or four of them but forty or fifty or a thousand). I had somehow missed picking this one up, and so stepping on it was like stepping on a slick spot on that floor. As I did so, I lost my balance badly but of course my only goal was Let's not drop this newborn baby on a hardwood floor!, and let it suffice to say, Madeline did not get dropped but my left ankle and foot took a beating. At first, I thought I had only badly twisted my ankle, and eventually that felt better. My foot, though, kept hurting and hurting but I did nothing about it until one of my co-workers remarked, four months later--yes, four months; I really do ignore pain--"You know, Rita, if your foot still hurts you probably have something wrong in there." So I went to the doctor, finally, and it turned out I had a broken bone in my fifth metatarsal, meaning the long bone of the little toe, the part that runs across the top of the foot to the ankle. When my doctor asked when the injury occurred and I told him the past January, he looked at me like I was crazy. I wore a walking cast, a boot similar to your daughter's, for twelve weeks. But that wasn't the end of this.

In February of 2007, last year, I took a misstep and I heard that bone break again--it sounded like a twig snapping. When I went back to the doctor, he x-rayed it again and found that it was indeed no new break; it was the old break, rebroken. "I'm not touching this," he said, and sent me to an orthopedic doctor, who pronounced it a "true Jones fracture" meaning the break had occurred in a very particular part of the bone that has a low blood supply and are notorious for healing poorly. His first approach, though, was conservative; he wanted to pin it as a last resort. So I went into a cast and was given instructions not to bear any weight on it, so this meant either crutches or a wheelchair. Not wanting to seem weak (I'm rather foolish that way), I opted for crutches. For ten weeks. And I didn't miss a day of work although I had to teach sitting down. But that approach worked, and I have had no trouble since.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the italicized text; I didn't mean to do that!

[stefanie-bean.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, my brother and I loved Speed Racer.

Ouch - stepping on a toy. Good for you, not dropping the baby. We at one point had so many toys strewn around the floor, it was a miracle something like that didn't happen to one of us.

Yup, Anna got her plate and screws because of the location of her fractures; apparently there's not too great a blood supply on the distal ends of the tibia and fibula.

It's probably better in the long run that you didn't go for a wheelchair. Crutches are hard work, I imagine (from watching Anna!) and the less muscle you lose, the better - and the easier it is to get functioning back.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I saw on television there's a Speed Racer movie coming out in May. I imagine Andrew will want to go see it.

Crutches suck! But you're right--my arm muscles certainly strengthened but what was better was I didn't lose aerobic capacity; my mother is quite concerned after being so sedentary for so long that she won't be able to do much without getting exhausted! She'll be having PT, though, whereas Andrew won't need that. The doctor at Cardinal Glennon said kids his age bounce back pretty fast.

[stefanie-bean.livejournal.com]

A.'s PT is to re-establish the flexibility, stretch, and strength in her ankle and calf. The MD thought she needed it when he asked her to rotate her foot around at the ankle, and she had some difficulty. I like her PT, though, and she's making progress, so it's good.

I know what your mom is saying; I'd be worried about that too. I hope everything is going OK with her.

Yeah, we saw the trailer for Speed Racer this afternoon - it looks pretty tolerable. Lots of CGI; seems halfway between animation & live action (but a lot better job than Beowulf.)