practice

Apparently Reuben decided I need some practice having a non-mobile child who's about the size of a four year old.

 Last night at Grandma's house Reuben somehow gave himself what the doctors are diagnosing as a bruise on the bone. It's not broken according to the x-rays they took (it takes an MRI to be able to see the tiny fracture that is present in a bone bruise), but he refuses to put weight on it - and that coming from a guy whose pain indicators-to-brain connections are not very good. So, with Reuben, we know that if he's complaining about pain, it must REALLY hurt. Many times the fact that he doesn't register pain very well is a nice thing for him, because with his physical challenges, he falls a lot, and as it is now, he's able to just pick himself up and keep going. His knees are pretty beat up this summer - scabs on scabs on top of scars, but its all been pretty surface stuff until this one.

 We're not sure if Krassi will be flexible enough to be able to use this carrier, but it was neat to have a reason to get it out of the closet and give it a try with Reuben. He and I got some weeding done in the peony beds by the shed and some in the onions. Reuben was laughing every time I squatted down and he could grab at the taller weeds near him (yes, they're that bad in the veggie garden this year.) I anticipate spending a lot of time carrying Krassi during our day to day activities around the house. There's the obvious fact that he will not be mobile himself, even in a wheelchair, at this time, but beyond that, I'm looking forward to the close physical contact with him through carrying him where he needs to go. And, if he's able to (physically), I would much rather have him enjoy the outdoors right up close to me where I can talk to him and touch him, and he can be the little baby that he never got to be than always have him sitting in the wagon. Though I have a feeling that even the wagon is going to be a pretty good deal for him - brothers and sisters and mom and dad close by, talking to him, smiling at him, and just getting to be part of the life of a family -  his family.

 We then walked over to check out what the framers had done yesterday. Leah backed way up on purpose when taking this picture, she told me, to get the cantilevered roof into the photo! Matt's pretty excited about the two-way cantilever, and the way the structure of it ties back to the main structure by the house as the floor joists of the upper level stair landing. Though the fact that it actually works is credit to Eric, our structural engineer. ;)

another view of the cantilever over the office entry