Daniel & Annabel's Adventures: July 2018

At the end of May, I found out that my summer plans would include surgery, once again. A follow-up CT scan from my pancreatitis hospitalization last summer (I'd been doing scans every 6 weeks upon discharge and then at one point the doctor said not much was happening let's do the next scan in 6 months- which turned out to be a really good thing!) revealed what is called a mesenteric mass. The surgical oncologist (talk about scary words right there) I saw said yes this must be removed, which I whole heartedly agreed of course. We told the kids I had to have another surgery in June to remove something that didn't belong there and they understood. I kept thinking though- I was just astounded at what a completely lucky find this was. If we hadn't done this one more scan in 6 months, this wouldn't have been found, till much later. I'm so very grateful this was all timed as well as it was, even as unfortunate as this whole thing (from all the way back last summer) has been.

So we spent early June marking the calendar with doctor appointments for later that month and then we soaked up our summer weekends as much as possible! I knew what surgery meant recovery-wise thanks to last summer's hospital fun and subsequent surgery removing the gallbladder. I knew that once I had surgery, I would be pretty house-bound once again. I also knew this would completely change whatever vacation plans I'd dreamed of doing, which of course made me so mad and brought back many memories of last summer. I mean- I just did this last summer! Talk about deja vu! It really wasn't fair. But. It did need to be done and we would just have to do the best we could with what time we had.

So, the first part of June was BUSY! The kids and I walked to the library together (something I'd done myself a few times and had really wanted to do with them), we mini-golfed, we played hard, we played games galore, we painted nails, we went to museums, we went to plane shows, we went to the arboretum, we visited limited-time exhibits now while I could, we did a LOT! In my mind, I had to make up for the summer my kids wouldn't have, again. In my mind, being a fun mom and having that be the memory they had was the most important thing to me. In my mind, my recovery goals were go to Daniel's first band concert, do our local 4th of July parade, and then get back on the floor playing with my kids. In the back of my mind was the vacation I'd wanted that we just couldn't squeeze in, so I kept rearranging my mind and dreams around and searching the calendar for spots where we could maybe get a change of scenery (something we're still working on planning, as more things came up from the surgery). You see- I still wanted my summer.

Now, at last, we can move forward. But all along, my mommy instincts were first and foremost. My friend marveled at me because when the nurse called with my surgery date, I was thrilled with the date (June 19th) because it meant I could just squeeze in my girls' weekend trip with Annabel right before the surgery AND I'd be a week past surgery for Daniel's first band concert and thus able to go (things that were both VERY important to me!)- my friend was amazed that these were my first thoughts and commented it was total "mom-think." Indeed it was and I'm proud of it- it's who I am. Not that my own self-care and recovery was not important to me- it was just important to me because of my kids and how important being there for them is to me.

So, here's to summer weekends before surgery!

One sunny Sunday morning, Annabel and I sat out on our screened porch and painted her nails! So fun!

An afternoon at the arboretum! Always a good time!

We loved seeing the new troll exhibit in progress! (It would be done after my surgery, so getting this sneak peek was great!)

I really wanted to make it to the Museum of Science & Industry to see the limited-time Pixar exhibit. We spent almost three hours in that exhibit! So neat! We were glad we went. We did get to see a few other things before our timed-entry to Pixar, but the Pixar exhibit was our main goal.

The kids, and Ben!, had fun making their own Pixar lamp movie! This was cute.

One of my favorite movie couples- the couple from Up!

Daniel's Pixar lamp animation!

Annabel's Pixar lamp animation!

Another little airport near us hosted a plane and car show another weekend, so we went. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit wet and rainy, so not many cars and planes showed up, but we still had a good time and the kids experienced their first Pancake Breakfast. Annabel was just thrilled to be able to use her new watermelon umbrella!!

The kids had been begging to make slime. So we did. I won't touch the stuff. But they had a ball! Daniel got his slime from a party out- in the end, he didn't want to touch the stuff Annabel had either!

Annabel has had the most fun making projects on the computer this summer. Her screen time always consists of making posters and games and projects to be printed. I rather like this creative use of screen time- it's hard to argue with when she exercises such fun creative skills! It's reminded me of when Daniel used to love watching Curious George shows and how afterwards he'd act it all out or be able to explain things because of that show- I loved how his screen time was really rather educational and I couldn't argue with that!