The crew

Daddy works from home, so most days the older kids (Evania and up) have the option to choose to stay at home and go about their day when I'm off running their siblings to appointments, but more often than not, I've got company of some sort with me. These times become our own special ways to connect - listening to favorite music in the van, getting to hold hands in the parking lot, or just talking without as many interruptions.

Last week's appointment for Mira to get evaluated for a bath chair involved three sisters joining us!

Rinnah sat in the back to keep Mira company.

The question of transporting Mira was one of our biggest practical unknowns as we prepared for her home coming. The solution they came up with at Gillette is simple and just perfect for her - it's a harness that straps around her chest, over her shoulders and between her legs, and a separate strap that goes around her knees. The regular seat belts are then slipped through certain points in the harness, and buckled in. Easy-peasy, and she can be positioned reclining on an incline just the way she's comfortable. The only downside is that she takes up two seats to do it! (But since Big Blue isn't big enough for all of us anymore, it's not really that big of a deal!)

Getting in and out of the van takes a while once we reach our destination. Evania's taking advantage of being unbuckled to scope out some interesting bird poop on our window. Funny how exciting the little things in life can be.

The three girls brought along a bag of things to do (coloring books, math assignment for Rinnah, and a few Duplos), and played happily on a mat while Mira and I talked with the occupational therapist.

Getting Mira back into her harness is also a time-consuming task, so Gloria and Evania checked out the fun toys in the lobby.

That Gloria is such a ham.

Then, back across the skyway to the elevators. Rinnah asked to push Mira's chair, and actually did a decent job considering how wonky the wheels are after the chair was dropped on our flight back to the US. (This same trio accompanied me and the chair minus Mira about two weeks ago to the medical supply company who the airline contracted with to repair the chair...45 minutes across the Cities...only to find that the one piece that we knew needed to be replaced was only the worst damaged piece, but that there were other parts that would also need replacing to make the chair truly safe to use again. So we're still waiting on those parts to arrive. Even though this won't be Mira's primary chair, it's still a useful enough piece of equipment to have.)

And so ends another girls day out. Mission accomplished. And the bath chair should be arriving in a month or two.