And The Loser Blogger Award Goes To...

Wow!  I can't believe it has been SOOOO long since I last blogged.  It's been so long, that when I logged in to Blogger today I had to re-acquaint myself with this whole new system they have put in place (who knew?).

Let's see...what has happened in the past month: Riley had surgery on both of his feet and is now in double walking casts (which come off in TWO weeks!).  Tanner 'gradulated' from preschool and is now a kindergartner.  A tornado touched down close enough to our house that we got a cool picture of it from our front porch.  Todd spent 2-weeks in Europe with his brother Ryan.  Tanner learned to ride a bike. Todd got accepted into graduate school at the University of Kansas.  Yesterday was the first official day of summer vacation...Wow again!  How will I ever catch up?

Well, let's start with Riley shall we.

Riley has walked on his tippie toes ever since he could walk.  Over the past year or so it has gotten a lot more noticeable, so we FINALLY took him to see an orthopedic surgeon to see what could be done.  We were hoping some physical therapy would do the trick...um, no.  The specialist told us that Riley's inner calf muscle is too short and the only way to help him walk flat footed is surgery.  Crap!  So, surgery it was.  The big problem was that Todd had already scheduled this trip to Europe with Ryan and the surgery was going to fall right in the middle of it.  I could have postponed the surgery, but it would have meant that Riley would be in NON-water proof casts for most of the hot, HOT summer.  No way!  (insert big sigh....)  Thankfully, my wonderful mother consented to come and help me be nurse for our darling convalescent.

Riley was such a trooper during this whole ordeal.  He looks mad in the picture, but only because he is playing it up for the camera.  In reality, he was laughing and joking around the whole time.  

Riley got his own personal DVD player and was able to watch Star Wars for a while...he liked it better under his blanket.  

The surgery involved Dr. Jarka cutting his achillies tendons in two different places.  She cut 60% through the tendon from right to left and then 60% of the same tendon, only a little further down and from left to right...then she flexed his foot to make the tendon stretch out like an accordion...GROSS!

Riley camped out on the downstairs couch for several days.  I didn't make him walk for the first day.  The second day I did make him stand up...very briefly...but still, he did not walk.  The third day, however, was a walking day.  This was a sad day.  Someone told him that he was very brave and his response was, "Not really.  My mom made me do it".  The first time he walked was awful.  The second time he walked, not so awful.  Before I knew it, he was walking around like a crazy person...if a crazy person went the speed of a snail and used a teeny-tiny hobbit walker that is.

Within a week he was back at school.  I was so worried how the other kids would react to Riley using a walker, but I needn't have worried.  Riley's friends thought it was the coolest thing ever.  One of his friends saw him and said, "Can Riley play tetherball?"  When he was told no, he promptly said, "Well then I won't play either." He had several friends every recess who volunteered themselves to stay in with Riley and play board games with him.  A little girl in his class even stopped me and very solemnly said, "Mrs. Register, I just want you to know that I am taking care of Riley.  I even gave him one of my colored pencils today."   He felt like a rock star!

A week after that, the walker was gone.  And though he still has his casts on, he runs and jumps and plays like they weren't there at all.  And would you believe it, every moment since the picture above, my Riley Boy has not let one word of complaint escape his lips...regarding his casts anyway ;)