So, Sam's had three weeks of school, which is great. He's learning a lot, and really starting make an effort to communicate well with us. Then last week, it was parent-teacher conferences for the whole district, so there was no school. I was adamant about keeping Sam "on a schedule", so we went out of the house at roughly the same time every morning as we would have for school.
On Monday we went to the Minnesota Zoo. It was Sam, Maggie, and me. We visited Discovery Bay, the penguins, the bumble bee room, and then walked the Minnesota Trail. It was still a bit chilly outside so I kept the kids bundled up for the Minnesota Trail, which is covered but mainly outdoors. Sam wasn't a fan of staying with me, so he stayed in the stroller on the trail, but got to run around to look at the penguins and both kids got to get down and play in the bumblebee room.
On Tuesday we went to Toddler Tuesday at the Mall of America, with Sam, Maggie, and me, plus my sister in law, her daughter, and her mother in law. We met up at the Lego Store, where the little kids played with duplos at the tables in the little play area outside the store. When it was time to go buy ride passes, Sam didn't want to leave and ran away from me, throwing himself full force against a bench he thought was padded. Nooooope. It had a cushion on top, but the bench was hard metal. He still has the bruise, and it looks pretty nasty. He cried and cried for at least five minutes or so. At least I know he feels pain, I guess? (Most days he crashes and gets right back up to play.) When everyone was calm again, we started in on rides. Sam is not yet a fan of the Wonderpets Fly Boat. He did pretty well, regardless--just sad face and a lot of whimpering. We visited the main event for the week, which was a sort of lame "World's Largest Show and Tell" thing. The kids colored a little. Then we went on the Big Rigs ride and the train ride. Had lunch at Famous Dave's, where Sam ate all of his chicken strips, and Maggie ate practically all the snacks I'd packed for her. By that time we were all pretty wiped and I could tell we needed to get home for Maggie to nap, so we headed out.
Wednesday I was sort of exhausted from the previous two days' outings, but we did get out of the house for a short Target run in the morning. The kids seemed to like the cart with the double seats so they could sit side-by-side and face forward.
Thursday is my day without Maggie, and Dan had taken Thursday and Friday off from work for a much-needed break. The three of us (Sam, Dan, and I) went back to the MN Zoo. We did most of the same things as Monday, with the addition of chasing Sam around the Minnesota Trail where he was out of his stroller most of the time. We also walked the Northern Trail and let Sam play for awhile at the playground near the road to the farm, which we decided to skip. Sam loves the slide there and the board with numbers, letters, and shapes. It was nice to see Dan get to play with Sam in some of Sam's favorite places. Sam was, as usual, tickled pink by the penguins that were swimming around. He kept trying to hug one of the other moms who was crouched down, trying to get a picture. My little photo-bomber. He's also become fascinated with fish. I'm so tempted to get him a betta or something for his birthday, but I'm not really ready to make the commitment to clean a tank, so that's not happening until further notice.
Friday Maggie was back, and we had an appointment at Gillette to get to. Unfortunately the van's battery was dead, so Dan had to jump it with the car before we could get underway. Luckily we'd left some extra time (because seriously, parents always have to leave extra time) so we were only 15 minutes late. That meant virtually no waiting room time, which was a pleasant bonus. Sam was not at all excited about getting his height and weight taken, his x-rays taken, or really anything, until we got into the exam room. Then he just kept playing with the monitors and keyboards. This was a followup with his surgeon who did his first three surgeries. The news, good or not: Sam's hand seems to be doing well, his elbow contracture is due to a couple of slightly malformed bones, not muscles, and he has a little bit of web creep between his first and middle finger. She measured his elbow and saw that he is missing 10 degrees of flexion and 40 degrees of extension. She'll see him again in a year to follow up and measure things again. She also brought up the possibility of a syndrome being responsible for both the arm/hand and the autism, but for the moment they seem unrelated. We might follow up with the geneticist we saw back when Sam was a baby and see what she says.
So that was our "work week"! Saturday we visited with Sam's Great-Grandpa Des and Great-Grandma Judy at my parents' house, and Sunday we stayed home and did laundry. Glamorous, I know. Now that the weather's good (and Sam will be back in school this week), we'll probably go on our walks to the local parks as often as possible instead of the major destination type playdates on Sam's days off. (Mondays and Fridays, if you want to join us!) I was proud of getting the kids out of the house on the last two Mondays: we went to Burnsville Center two weeks ago and the zoo (we love the zoo!) again three weeks ago, but this past week has really pushed my limits. Looking forward to warm weather and less travel!
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