Halfway

Seriously debating renaming the blog Random Thoughts from a Week Ago.  It may be more appropriate.

As for halfway, Sam-not me.  I'm looooong past that point (thank goodness).

We get the cast off 3wks from Tuesday!
And boy, that's a good thing for so many reasons.  He is still doing amazingly well.  Happiest kid ever.  Totally dealing with it and just moving on with life.

Not only is he rolling and scooting in the thing, but he pulls himself around everywhere now.

My kids got lazy about locking the gate at the top of the stairs for a little bit.  No more!  Sam is everywhere again.  Not quite to his normal extent obviously, but he's everywhere he can be.  It's a little awkward to be back in that stage of making sure that every little thing is picked up off the floor like when a baby first starts crawling.  He has ignored little random things on the floor for a long time, since he's been much more interested in getting to the things behind doors and up high.  Considering they are back in his immediate sight again, we have to pay attention.
And he's pulling up now, which is crazy to see while he's all strapped up with his legs stuck out in a straddle.  Still needs a little help, but man, he is determined!  He has tried to cruise a little bit when I am holding him, but can't quite get anywhere yet which of course frustrates him.

And he still loves his chair, which is obvious as he tries to climb into it multiple times a day.

It's so awesome to see him still going at everything with all his might.  It's amazing how kids just adjust and do what they need to do to make life work.  I can't believe how quickly he has made things work and how excited he is to try and find a way to do whatever it is he wants to do.  So different from most adults!  We get set in our ways and tend to use things for excuses instead.

On the flip side, I am so anxious for this thing to be gone!  I really miss being able to hold him and snuggle him.  We make it work, but I miss being able to really hold him close.  I miss squeezing his chubby little thighs and the way he giggles when I do.  I miss giving him a normal bath.  I'm pretty sure he misses real baths too.  It is very possible that he will have a dozen baths the day the cast comes off.
And geesh....this thing stinks!  We were warned that it would, but we were doing so well.  Even the ortho that we checked in last week commended us on the fact that he didn't stink.  To me he already didn't smell great, but the dr said that if he can walk in the room without catching his breath, we're doing good.  Apparently spica casts can get really bad.  Reeeeally bad.
So of course I got all confident in my abilities to keep my child clean and needed to be smacked back down to reality.  Within a couple of days not only had his diaper leaked (pee) more than once, there was a blowout.
I'll leave it with no further description-use your imagination.
It took over an hour to clean him up.
Cleaning out the cast (which went shockingly well!), changing all of the edging on the cast, cleaning up Sam, washing things as best we could, drying them out....wow.  I have never appreciated just how fabulous a normal diaper change is!
And now, despite our best efforts, he stinks.  Well, the cast stinks.  Have you ever been around a kid that just didn't smell very good and you wondered if the parents noticed?  If the kid needed clean clothes or a bath?  Were the parents just not paying attention to their kid?  Well....now I'm the parent with the kid who doesn't smell very good.  Despite my best efforts, and trust me, we're going to great lengths to work on it!  Big fat slice of humble pie for me.  So yeah...we are counting down the days till a bath.    

Until May 15th rolls around we stay focused on the fact that he is healing as well as we could hope, and managing fabulously.  And I'll be grateful that I'm not in my first trimester when every smell was a million times stronger than normal.