Leah's cast update

It has been almost 3 weeks since little Leah has been in her cast, or "CastTina", as we loving refer to this 7th member of our family- and it definitely deserves its own name in this house, as it is large and in charge.  You would most certainly agree that it deserved its own name after the first time you were "casted" or stepped on by CastTina herself.  She must weigh at least half as much as Leah does and you can hear her coming from a room away as she pounds away at the tile floor, or knocks herself along the wall as she climbs her way up the stairs with her host body.

The first week of adjusting to the cast was hard for Leah- hard for all of us really.

Within the first week, she went through all the stages of a newborn/toddler.  She went through the stage of sitting and playing with the toys in front of her.

Lexi has been the best twin sister ever- although she doesn't have a broken leg, she will do most everything with Leah and all of the things Leah can't do, Lexi will do for her.  If Leah needs something, Lexi will very sweetly go and fetch her whatever she needs with a smile on her face and never complains about it.  I will always remember this period of time as Lexi's first opportunity of true service.  What a sweetheart she's been.  I've never seen a more happy giver.  I remember thinking of all the things we'd be giving up for 4 weeks or all the work it would be adding with Leah's broken leg and how ashamed I felt for thinking those things every time Lexi would bring Leah something to make her happy, or clean up a mess Leah had made that she couldn't clean up herself.  Lexi has been so happy to be able to help her sister.  It has been so touching to see.

As expected, Leah has been getting lots of attention for breaking her leg.  We get lots of comments in public about her leg and people wondering what happened.  Poor Lexi already felt left out from day one.  When people would ask Leah what happened, Lexi, not to be outdone, would pipe up and point out owies on her legs and feet that hurt. but is now pointing out scratches and Bandaids on her legs and is going as far as saying, with a sad voice, "I broke my leg."

On the day after she got her cast on, a little friend from nursery brought her over a sweet little card and some treats.  It was so cute and she was very excited (not that you can tell from the above picture).  

Next came the crawling stage.  Lexi (and Mitch) were more than happy to join in Leah in learning this stage over again.  Leah was quite excited to learn how to do this with a cast on.  She learned how to do this on day 2 of her cast, but by then, she had had a broken leg for 4 days and was aching to be mobile on her own again.  She was ready to start moving again!

She picked up crawling up the stairs pretty easily too, which was helpful for me. 

While she took to crawling quickly, she was not excited or anxious to walk or stand for the first week.  At. All.  And broken leg or not, she is still Leah, through and through, so there was still plenty of whining and classic Leah behavior.  Leah loves to be carried around regardless if her bones are broken or not so she milked her broken tibia for all it was worth.  For the first 2 weeks I heard, "I have a broken leg!" said in the whiniest, most pitiful voice at least 6 or 7 times a day. That was her way of telling me she wanted to be held or that she couldn't go down the stairs by herself, even though she was completely capable of going down on her stomach at that point.  One day during the first week, I was cooking dinner and she crawled over to me in the kitchen, crying, and cried/whined, "Mom! (sniff, sniff), "I broke my leg!"  It was very heart breaking.  I felt very bad for her.  I know she was very frustrated because she was still in pain at that point and frustrated that she couldn't do the things she was used to doing (running around, jumping, etc).  Poor baby.

But the doctor told us that she could start walking as soon as she felt up to it and I knew she would be much happier when she was fully mobile.  But she was not wanting to even try.  The above picture of her standing was done only with a bribe. 

She would only walk for the first week by holding on to our hands, like she is here with Ben, and only for one or two steps, and only with her special walking shoe (at her request) and only for a treat.

She hated walking and couldn't wait to be done.  I thought we may go the entire 4 weeks without her walking on her own.

Ahh!  So glad to be done walking and safe in Dad's arms!

It's been kind of nice having a snugglier Leah.  She has been more demanding in some ways, but less demanding in other ways.  Kind of hard to explain, but with not being able to do as much, and knowing that she can't do as much, she is more content to do less and it's been so nice to just sit and snuggle this girl.

The next toddler stage we went through was learning to walk behind something.  She finally got brave enough and started walking behind her doll stroller.  

We were so excited!  It was like having a one year old in the house again! :)

We got really excited when she randomly started walking alone, without the help of anyone or anything.  And bless her heart for doing it because the cast keeps her knee constantly bent at an awkward angle.  We shouldn't have been surprised that she did it- you can't keep a two year old down too long.

 She and CastTina have also played in down town Seattle

They crawled over to the fountain at the Seattle Center and watched a water show.

 CastTina doesn't hold her back from playing on toys or doing fun activities anymore.

Standing is no longer a problem- we can hardly get her to sit still anymore.

 And walking is certainly not an issue anymore- she and CastTina are now running buddies.  I am glad the constant cries of the first two weeks of "I can't walk, I can't walk!" are gone.  She can walk and can walk very, very well.

Look at her go!

Poor, poor CastTina- we have just over a week to go with her, but we're not sure she's going to last.  Leah doesn't like to wear the shoe they gave us because it's harder to walk in.  But we are literally shredding this cast.  We find bits and pieces of purple cast all over the house on a daily basis.

When she first got the cast on, it completely covered her toes and now her toes are sticking out.

And the stuffing on the inside is coming apart more and more each day.  It's pretty gross.

If you can see from this picture, Leah's cast in the beginning was in great shape and so clean and crisp and it completely covered her toes (and such a nice, dark purple color too!)  I wonder what the doctor will have to say when we go get the cast off... they may not even have much to take off.  At that point, they might just finish unraveling what's left...

 Way to go, Leah and CastTina!  You've come a long way in (almost) 3 weeks!

My two favorite memories of the past 2 weeks of Leah and her cast:

1: Once she was all pain free and walking and had adjusted to the cast, we expected Leah to resume all her normal responsibilities.  One day, I asked her to put a toy away and she turned to me and said, quite matter-of-factly, "I can't.  I broke my leg."  It was quite funny.  She was trying to milk it for all it was worth.  It was definitely worth a shot.  Sweet side note: Lexi jumped up and offered to put the toy away for her.  End of story update: Leah had to put it away herself.

2: One night at dinner we were all eating and Ben and I were up from the table doing something and Mitch nonchalantly announced, "Broken Leg is done." He announced it with no humor, as if she had always been called Broken Leg.  It was a classic Mitchell one liner and we are still getting a good laugh out of it.