Evelyn

 

The most crucial time for Evelyn to get her skewed feet stronger is from now until she is about 12.  Covid hit and we did zoom ballet for her physical therapy, but she just doesn't pay as much attention. We still have the option of doing it over zoom, but I prefer in person.  She's not going to stop growing pandemic or not.  She just had a parent demonstration day for both her ballet and acrobatics classes.  You can tell that she likes acrobatics the most, but she's getting some good exercise in.

New School year

So, we started school two weeks ago, but I'm only having time to record it now.  For the first time, I have all 4 kids in the same school.  So far they are loving it.  Ada loves being with her best friends, Frankie, Taevia, Luke and Brenden.  Sam respects his teacher, so he's being kind.  Evelyn just loves being there.  She really likes her reading teacher.  Evelyn is loving her new ballet studio and it does make her feet stronger.  Both her and Ada fall less and Ada doesn't sprain her ankle nearly as much.  All three of the older kids decided that they want to do school clubs this year.  Evelyn signed up for Art.  Ada signed up for yearbook, 6th grade play and art.  Sam and our carpooler, Logan, signed up for chess.  They both wanted to do orchestra, but I need to find out if they can do that one without already knowing an instrument or not.  Sam knows how to read music, so they might let him learn an instrument.

I thought I'd have a rougher time with all of them gone, but I haven't had any hugely down days.... I did cry Seth's second day to school.... but that could have been the medication I was on.  I was put on a non steroid anti inflammatory to try to get my feet to finally stop hurting once and for all.  After three days on it, I noticed that I'd been super emotional about everything and crying.  I looked up side effects and mood shifts were one of the rare side effects.  I stopped taking it and they got me a new one.  So far, the new one has helped my foot and hip not feel like they're burning all the time (I popped my hip out during a Karve class with Ada)…. They make me tired and a little nauseous, but I'm willing to put up with that for a week or two so that I can be DONE with foot pain.  10 years is quite enough. 

While they've been at school, I've been ministering to my ministering sisters, cleaned out my sewing room and mended the mending pile, de-junked the toy room, and done lots of planning for the next few weeks.  I'm officially done teaching fencing.  It's really sad for me, but the kids weren't chomping at the bit to stay and it was a good time to leave.  Ada doesn't really enjoy it.  Sam does, but he'd rather focus on soccer.  Evelyn was a very good beginner, but it's really not a good sport for her or Ada because of their feet.  Seth didn't care one way or the other.  We stopped because of two things.... the coach is pushing us to register the kids in competition fencing.  Currently we've been spending about 4 hours a week fencing, competition would put us up to about 8 hours of practice and a tournament ever other weekend.... which is another 8 hours on those days.  The other reason is that the new club is requiring that we register everyone, including me, yearly as USFA members.... that's a good $500 a year commitment as well as club fees and equipment.  The last owner let the kids fence for free in exchange for me teaching.  This one is willing to let one fence free for me teaching, but it would be $80/kid/month for the other three. Time and money.  So, love you fencing, love you fencing friends, but we're done.  All the kids told me, "We can just have family fencing days mom!"  That's true, we have the equipment, but I need to remember to make that happen.  It's still sad for me. I think I'll like being done once I'm used to the change though.

This kid started Kindergarten a few days after the rest.  He has Frankie's mom as a teacher and couldn't be happier.  I was a little worried about him not being able to sit still during class, but so far he's doing great.  He's my only child that didn't start school already knowing how to read and write.... so it will be an adventure.  He comes home and talks about coloring and playing with the kid next to him.... but he can't remember what the kid's name is.

Finger signing K for Kindergarten

He was happy that Uncle Seth gave him a Link shield for his birthday... He went and found all Sam's Link stuff and has been wearing it everywhere.

Happy two weeks #3

We got to celebrate Christian's 2nd birthday.  I can't believe that he's that old already.  His family is doing a lot better.  They went from pregnant momma sleeping on a couch in apartment with 4 other people to having their own apartment, driving themselves places, having their own tax numbers, etc... They still have some progress to make, but now they're in they're in a situation to make that progress on their own.  Now I'm just the friend.  I'm very happy for them.

Sharon was coming down to visit Janelle and they asked if I wanted to come hang out with them.  It was so fun.  We went to the kids story time at the library, to eat at Zupas and then shopping at Costco together.  I had to go to volunteer at Evelyn's class, so Janelle offered to keep Seth with her so that he could play with Vivien.  They sure love each other.  They giggle and tease each other.  I love it.

Evelyn has just started ballet again.  She's been asking for a long time, but now we have a reason for it.  After some research into skewed feet, I found that before a kid's feet have finished growing they still have fairly flexible skewed feet.  After about the age of 12 they harden and become inflexible.  The number one thing that they recommend is to spend about 45 minutes on your toes a day. That exercise will prevent their skewed feet from becoming inflexible.  So Evelyn is in dance and Ada is going to be doing barre exercises with me.  Ada has grown so much lately that I just hope that we didn't miss our window to help her have a more comfortable adulthood.

Our neighbor, Laurel, has been super bored lately.  Her best friend is in Jr High and in a play with play practice almost every day, her mom started a new job and works until about 5 every day, and her sisters are both in College and High School.  She said that she doesn't like coming home to an empty house and just sitting to watch YouTube videos…. so any time there is something that we have going on she asks to come too.  Sometimes it's something fun like the park.  Often it's grocery shopping.  She decided to come to Evelyn's dance class and it was the cutest thing.  She said things like, "Look at how excited she is! She's so cute!  You can tell she loves dancing." for the entire hour.  It was fun to have someone remind me of the joy that you can have from others having joy.

Seth and I went on a whim to the dinosaur museum.  It was good to be there with him again before our passes expire, but we stayed too long and made Ada late for the podiatrist to get her orthotics checked.  Whoops.  They were good sports though, and since I've never been to an appointment there that they were running on time, I'm guessing that it happens often.

They were supposed to be cleaning their rooms... and Sam, Evelyn and Seth were caught reading instead.... Awww cute, now get to work.

Ada's orthotics

We went to our check up.  Evelyn's doing really well, but Ada's orthotics are not, so we are getting custom ones done for her too.  It really is worth the money though.  The differences between Evelyn's before and after are significant.

Podiatrist

Picking up her orthotics

This was when we were picking up Evelyn Orthotics. She was fairly nervous about them but had no problem wearing them which is great. The doctor said that it could take up to 3 weeks for her muscles and tendons to be used to wearing them. She wore them for 3 days without a problem. I'm hoping that will help long-term.

Evelyn

I found this with Evelyn's homework. I'm not sure whether to say oh cute or oh sad.

Orthotics

So we got Evelyn's feet molded for custom orthotics. That was fun for her. It was a little bit of a struggle to keep her from wiggling her toes.

Latest development

Evelyn has been complaining about pain in her feet and legs for about a year. We were told that it was probably from growing. She would be running or playing and just stop in her tracks to kneel down and say her feet hurt. I couldn't see anything so I took her in to the doctor when Seth was going in for a check up. They thought it was high arches. They referred her to a podiatrist. The podiatrist took one look, said she neede xrays and took some. Apparently she has a deformity in her feet called skewed foot. Her tendons pull one way and a bone in her ankle is too long and pushes her bones the other way. As she gets older, it will spread out more and hurt worse. Luckily they're not talking about surgery.... Apparently surgery for this is fairly involved... Cutting bones and tendons shorter.... Pinning them.... Thigh high casts for 3 months and learning how to walk on new feet. I've read that a lot of people have pain for years while they recover. They are recommending custom orthotics for her though. $400 a pair... And she's still growing so it will be pricey. I will still count ourselves lucky because with early intervention you can prevent a lot of problems later in her life with her feet, her knees and her hips.

As a side note, notice where Seth is standing in the picture. All my kids and my mom commented on how Seth is getting his nose picked with Evelyn's feet.