The last day of Museum School was 4 days after Amelie’s surgery and I knew she would be so sad to miss, but she had been in a lot of pain. But she slept all night on Monday so I gave her some pain meds and warned them not to let her operate heavy machinery when I dropped her off 🙂
Nadia wanted to make candy for her teachers for a goodbye and then decorate the bags. All the little items on there had something to do with what they learned this year or something about the teacher. It was really sweet to see all the effort she put in for them. I found myself feeling a little emotional that it was her last day of Museum school after taking her up there for 3 years. What a wonderful place and she has learned so much and loves science more than anything else we study at home. The good thing is that she will be able to visit when we drop Amelie off next year.
I am so glad that the girls were able to go for one year together and the teachers told me that frequently they would be outside at the same time. They said that Nadia would always check on Amelie to be sure she was okay. I was told over and over, by both sets of teachers what a great big sister Nadia is to Amelie. Another great year is in the books!
And for reference – the first day of Museum School 2012-2013 on September 11, 2012.
A really exciting thing for the kids who get to go to the 3rd year of Museum School is the parent/kid field trip to the Botanical Gardens. It’s lead by one of the scientists from the Science and History Museum named Ms. Spotted Bear. We dropped Amelie off at the school and then headed over to meet up with the group at the gardens.
The first thing we did was walk over to one of the ponds and Spotted Bear had a net to scoop up some of the water. She asked the kids for observations before we started and then put the pond water in a bucket. She let the kids look and also put things in a containers for the kids to pass around and get a closer look.
Nadia was a little timid at first since most of the other kids are a lot more boisterous than she tends to be in large groups. But I encouraged her to get in there and look because she loves science things so much.
At each stop, Spotted Bear encouraged the kids to point out the things they were seeing, smelling and feeling. Several times she had the whole group close our eyes and she asked us questions about the sounds and the breezes. She pointed out a lot of very cool trees and had facts about them and why they do so well in Texas, even if they are transplants from other places.
The kids had a good time feeding the fish and turtles in this area of the gardens. Nadia was trying to throw hers out as far as possible so the turtles would pop up and grab a bite.
This is a duck box high up on a tree. While I was taking this photo the kids on the other side noticed a large snake working his way into a crack in the back. They started screaming and jumping up and down yelling, “Don’t get the duck eggs!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” It was hilarious.
Here is the whole class with their teachers who were so sweet! Nadia just loved them.
Nadia and Ms. Spotted Bear at the end of the field trip. What a fun morning we had at the Botanical Gardens.
I got this idea from the Steve Spangler site. Fast, easy, fun and the girls screamed with delight when it worked! You only need three things for this experiment: glass bowl, lukewarm water and M&M’s.
Place some M&M’s in the bottom of the bowl. Fill with enough lukewarm water to cover about an inch over the candy.
Keep your eyes on the bowl because the color starts coming off immediately.
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH the letters are coming off!
If you look closely, you can see the the M’s popped off the candy and floated to the top. It happened so quickly that the girls loved it.
On Monday May 6th we got a call in the afternoon from Scottish Rite letting us know that they had a cancellation for Friday morning and we jumped at the chance to have Amelie’s right hand worked on. I told Amelie about the upcoming surgery and the first thing she said was, “Dat’s cool.” I asked her how it made her feel that they were going to try and make her some new fingers. She said, “Dat makes me happy.” I told her she would have to wear a cast again and she said, “Dat’s okay mama. Maybe I can get a toy!”
Our friend Sarah came over early in the morning to pick up Nadia to keep her for the day and that was a big relief. Our pastor Darwin came up to the hospital to pray for Amelie right before they started to prep her for surgery which was also very sweet. We had the same day surgery nurse and were in the same spot for the prior 2 surgeries so everything was very familiar and we were ready to roll. Amelie just wanted to confirm “no pin” and “new fingers” and she was ready to go.
They gave her another Raggedy Ann doll to add to her collection. When they gave her the “goofy juice” to help her relax they also put the side bar up and she said, “Now I SAFE!”
This was after the surgeon and anesthesiologist had come by the confirm everything and she was starting to act really silly and saying all kinds of funny stuff from the “goofy juice” which she told us tastes disgusting.
This was shortly before they rolled her back and we headed to the Crayon Cafe to have breakfast.
Amelie loves elephants and while we were waiting we found this cute guy in the gift shop. We also talked to the surgeon and she showed us a few photos of Amelie’s hand before they put the cast on. I teared up a little seeing those 3 new fingers.
Once out of recovery she was awake just long enough to snuggle up to this guy and go back to sleep.
At this point she was doing a lot better and coming out of the haze. A little while later her pain meds and antibiotics were ready in the pharmacy and we packed up to head home. She fell asleep so we headed straight over to Sarah’s house to pick up Nadia. I had sent a little surprise package with her with 4 new costumes I had picked up on clearance so her and Sarah’s girls could play dress up. Amelie wanted to see them when we got home and asked so sweetly if she could be a ladybug. It’s a good thing it was so stretchy and went over the cast.
She was woozy from the meds and Nadia read her books until nap time. The rest of the evening was fine and she didn’t seem too uncomfortable. She took the cast in stride, but the pressure bandage on her skin graft site really bothered her and she kept picking at it over and over.
*On a side note, all the hand surgeons at Scottish Rite are amazing and they travel the world training people and doctors come to Texas to be trained by them. When you schedule a surgery you don’t know who you are going to get, but you can be sure they will be good. When they put my parent hospital band on and I saw Dr. Ezaki on there I started to cry a little because she is like a ROCK STAR in hand surgery circles. The only other time we have ever even seen her was when she did the release of Amelie’s left hand in April 2011. It was thrilled and after she showed us the photos she took I danced a jig in the middle of our waiting area.
