Dishpan Hands

The other day I was doing dishes, and once she saw the soap ("bubbles"), Ava wanted to help. So I let her. Now every time I do dishes she wants to push the stool over and get involved. It's messy and slow, but also fun and cute. Of course once she sees the camera it' all over, which is why the video is so short.

That Darn Finger

Today Ava had her appointment with the hand specialist at the U. I brought her previous 2 sets of x-rays, but they decided to take more, and were glad they did. Every x-ray looks different. This time it almost looked as if one of the pieces of bone had rotated. But after much examination and contemplation, the doctor decided that because she's so young, and it's already been a month, he'd like to leave it alone for now and check it again in a month. At this point waiting isn't going to do any more damage and may help us to know if surgery will be necessary or not. He said (as have all the other doctors) that in kids this young the bones heal so well, and the body can usually do more for the healing than a doctor can. He doesn't want to do surgery unless it's really needed, because it could just make things worse instead of better. It's possible that if it doesn't heal back together, she may lose some mobility in that end joint of her finger, which isn't the worse thing in the world. But if she shows signs of pain, we are to bring her back sooner. So he wants us to stop wrapping it and see how she does (if there is any pain, if she is using it normally, etc.) So hopefully it will just heal itself and she won't need any further treatment!

Happy Easter!

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter today, hope you did too! Ava got to wear a new dress to church, took a great nap after church (as did we), went a little early to Grandma (Mamoo*) and Grandpa's (Papa*) house to play with a new ball, ride in the wagon, swing with Daddy, and enjoy some more candy. She even ate a great dinner! (I told her the ham was hot dogs). Then we enjoyed an Easter egg hunt with cousins Jackson and Preston. Jackson was very helpful in leaving some eggs for her and showing her where to find them.

 

*Last weekend Ava started calling Grandma "Mamoo", and a few weeks ago started calling Grandpa "Papa". She calls Daddy "Dada" and Mommy "Mama" or occasionally "Mimi". As a side note, she knows most of her colors now (orange gives her some trouble though).

Broken Finger Update

On Monday, Ava went in for a follow-up x-ray of her broken finger. The cut is looking great, but to me the finger still looks wrong. Unfortunately the x-rays confirmed this. They look worse than the initial x-rays. She goes in Monday of next week to see a specialist at the U of U.
I tried to scan the x-rays to show you, but even with help from Photoshop you couldn't see it. So here's a simple illustration of what it looks like.

Even to an untrained eye like mine, you can see a visible gap where the bone should be fusing back together. I have no idea what they might do to fix this. Do they make pins that small? The pins that were in Ryan's elbow were surprisingly huge.
Ava is really good with the bandages though. When she's wrapped up, she just uses her hands like nothing's ever happened. But if I take off the bandages (for a bath, or to change the dressings) she holds that hand up and away like it's diseased, and doesn't use it at all.
We are praying for a miraculous healing, and that she won't have to have surgery.

There are few things that keep Ava's attention for more than 30 seconds. The only 2 things we've found so far that will keep her entertained are looking through photos (mostly of herself) and watching biking videos, like this one. This also keeps Mom and Dad entertained. But seriously, she'll sit and watch bike video after bike video. Dad has trained her well.

Danny MacAskill is beyond amazing.

Corn Pop Nose

Ava has discovered Corn Pops cereal, unfortunately. I've been trying to keep her on Cheerios, but when Dad is eating Cocoa Krispies and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, it's hard to keep her away forever. The other day she decided she wanted to eat the Corn Pops with a spoon, which led to this.