Best-Laid Plans

So before I tell you how my plans got changed (it's obvious from the title right?) I wanted to share a few things about Imogene. She has started taking steps ... she'll let go of your hand, steady herself and then shuffle her feet once or twice. Amazing. She will also stand on her own for at least 15-20 seconds. She's such a hard worker. Have I shared that she loves to say "oh-oh" for uh-oh? And that she loves to dance? She even learned to move her arms up in the air like Lily does in her dance from cheer camp. When she's not super frustrated or angry or really clingy, she's the happiest, cutest thing ever.
The other big piece of information (in our world at least) is what we heard from the hospital today about her surgery. They called to confirm that we're on the schedule for Monday. We won't know until Friday afternoon for what time the surgery is scheduled, but she said to expect to arrive 2-3 hours prior to the procedure, allow 1-2 hours for the actual surgery, and 1-4 hours for recovery. Yikes. If you go on the long end of their spectrum, that's 9 hours. Hopefully the surgery itself won't take that long. Not sure how I feel about her being under that long, but I'm just not going to think about that right now!

So my best-laid plains. We were supposed to be on vacation in Maine this week. Things got messed up on the rental end, and so we're going in August. Not really that big of a deal in the end, but it's a little disappointing. We could really use some time away together the four of us. But anyway, with a whole day of no therapy scheduled, I planned a trip down to Richmond to see two friends and their girls who used to live up here. Plan to get up early, out the door before 830, enjoy a whole day there, go to the pool or the Children's Museum, totally enjoy catching up with the moms and the kids, eat supper and head home in our pajamas. I contemplated staying overnight and then I remembered whose kid I have! So that was my plan...Except that Imogene was up ALL night last night. This was most likely due to the fact that her legs are covered in 21 different bug bites. Poor Poor baby. I mean this kid just never catches a break. So she's up all night, and up screaming by 630. And so here comes Lily at 640 am. This is REALLY early for both of them to be up. Of course neither Bill or I have the energy to get up and going, so we held them off in the bed until 715 or so. And then of course it took me until after 9 am to get out the door. The drive was fine, except for the big part that was NOT fine AT ALL. I always stop at the first Chick-Fil-A on 95 south. I get gas, and go through the drivethru for my sweet tea.  Except this time we were all the way back on 95 when I realized the tea was not sweet. I cannot, cannot for the life of me drink unsweet tea. It's just such a waste. I even stopped at the next CFA exit down 95 to see if they'd switch it for me. I bet they would have, except that the CFA was 1.2 miles off the highway and I never found it. (As an aside, when I run for President one day, my first platform issue will be "Truth in Highway Advertising." You should not be off the highway when you find out the CFA is 2 miles off the exit. That's just wrong.) So anyway, we finally got to Richmond, and Lily glued herself to my body for the first 30 minutes. Imogene did too, but that's nothing new. There were about 20 princess items to chose from and she would not budge. She got a little better when they played outside. But when our dear friend served a lovely lunch outside, Lily chose to eat at the grown-up table and refused to sit with her friends. She was such a mess by the time we all finished lunch that we came home. Imogene probably wouldn't have napped there, and in the girls defense at making me come home, I totally balked at putting her down for her nap there. I struggle with her at home, I was not excited about trying it elsewhere!  Poor Imogene was so tired though, she slept 2 hours in the car.  But it was great seeing Tess & Meredith and their girls, and I hope we'll get down there again soon - for a longer visit!

And we'll end on a nice note about sweet Lily. After changing out of her princess dress-up outfit tonight she said, "Here I am, back to normal me again."