Our
Journey:
Journey:
Avalon's Army of Angels
| September 12, 2008 Firehouse visit |
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Lots of school today. Avalon's very
frustrated/frustrating. She will do well
understanding a large concept I'm presenting to
Ambrosia (for ex: air being all around us) - but
can't remember her ABCs. And write them? With
her poor hand control, I'm worried she'll never
write more than a line or two without
crying...much less write anything that you can
read. Arghhh.......
Anyway, after working hard on school, it was time
for an evening of fun. We bundled up Aurora,
and ran her across town for a sleep over. Wee
ha! I totally loved the mom. That makes it a lot
easier when you're surrendering your daughter
to her for a night.
Then, sans Aurora, we headed for our
adventure, visiting a local firehouse. We were
invited to visit by Tyler, a member of the
Delaware Road Hawgs motorcycle group that had
come to visit Avalon before her last surgery.
Tyler is the adorable young man who was
pictured tying Avalon's very first do-rag on. And
yes ladies, he is just that handsome in real life.
Of course, during our visit to the firestation,
Tyler happened to point out that his mom and I
are very close in age. I personally think that was
mean...downright mean...
Anyway, all age-torture aside - the kids had a
blast at the station! They sat in a firetruck,
checked out lots of equipment, and had a
whopping good time investigating the ambulance.
By sheer coincidence, Tyler works at the station
that would serve our house. He and I had
lengthy conversations with Avalon that this was
the ONLY way we ever want her to see the inside
of the ambulance. She could visit - but she was
never to use its facilities. I hope the universe
heard us too.
Kind of funny, but rather sad...our kids knew what
most of the equipment was on-board the
ambulance. We discussed the differences
between medical equipment the ambulance
carried, and stuff we've used in the hospital.
(temporary versus hospital-permanent) They
understood stabilizing a patient vs. treating one
for the problem. As Avalon was nosing around,
Tyler warned her away from a certain cabinet -
there were needles in there. Ambrosia said, "Oh
- its your sharps container?" Sharps containers
hold used needles. They're mounted in hospital
and clinic rooms. Heck, during Avalon's Delayed
Intesification (part of her chemo protocol) we had
a sharps container sitting on our mantle. So Yay
for Ambrosia figuring out what Tyler meant - but
Boo for having the base knowledge to deduce it.
Chalk it up as weird experience #6,012.
As you can see from the photos, Anam was just
as interested as the girls. He had to have his tiny
nose into every nook and cranny they did. If
Anam grows up to be half as mature and 1/10th
as sweet as Tyler, I will consider myself to have
been a parenting success. Tyler is the epitome
of what any mom would love to see her children
grow to be. He's kind, gentle, committed, and
hard-working. Best of all, he's bonzo sweet to my
kids. That makes any mom weak at the knees.
Overall, the visit was a huge success. The girls
are still talking about it, and mulling over what
they saw. I'm thinking they'll eventually come up
with more questions and ask to pester Tyler
again. My guess is, he wouldn't have a problem
with that. From my point of view, any time you
are blessed enough to spend time with someone
who is kind to your kids - its a banner-worthy day.
I consider this one to be darn near perfect.
frustrated/frustrating. She will do well
understanding a large concept I'm presenting to
Ambrosia (for ex: air being all around us) - but
can't remember her ABCs. And write them? With
her poor hand control, I'm worried she'll never
write more than a line or two without
crying...much less write anything that you can
read. Arghhh.......
Anyway, after working hard on school, it was time
for an evening of fun. We bundled up Aurora,
and ran her across town for a sleep over. Wee
ha! I totally loved the mom. That makes it a lot
easier when you're surrendering your daughter
to her for a night.
Then, sans Aurora, we headed for our
adventure, visiting a local firehouse. We were
invited to visit by Tyler, a member of the
Delaware Road Hawgs motorcycle group that had
come to visit Avalon before her last surgery.
Tyler is the adorable young man who was
pictured tying Avalon's very first do-rag on. And
yes ladies, he is just that handsome in real life.
Of course, during our visit to the firestation,
Tyler happened to point out that his mom and I
are very close in age. I personally think that was
mean...downright mean...
Anyway, all age-torture aside - the kids had a
blast at the station! They sat in a firetruck,
checked out lots of equipment, and had a
whopping good time investigating the ambulance.
By sheer coincidence, Tyler works at the station
that would serve our house. He and I had
lengthy conversations with Avalon that this was
the ONLY way we ever want her to see the inside
of the ambulance. She could visit - but she was
never to use its facilities. I hope the universe
heard us too.
Kind of funny, but rather sad...our kids knew what
most of the equipment was on-board the
ambulance. We discussed the differences
between medical equipment the ambulance
carried, and stuff we've used in the hospital.
(temporary versus hospital-permanent) They
understood stabilizing a patient vs. treating one
for the problem. As Avalon was nosing around,
Tyler warned her away from a certain cabinet -
there were needles in there. Ambrosia said, "Oh
- its your sharps container?" Sharps containers
hold used needles. They're mounted in hospital
and clinic rooms. Heck, during Avalon's Delayed
Intesification (part of her chemo protocol) we had
a sharps container sitting on our mantle. So Yay
for Ambrosia figuring out what Tyler meant - but
Boo for having the base knowledge to deduce it.
Chalk it up as weird experience #6,012.
As you can see from the photos, Anam was just
as interested as the girls. He had to have his tiny
nose into every nook and cranny they did. If
Anam grows up to be half as mature and 1/10th
as sweet as Tyler, I will consider myself to have
been a parenting success. Tyler is the epitome
of what any mom would love to see her children
grow to be. He's kind, gentle, committed, and
hard-working. Best of all, he's bonzo sweet to my
kids. That makes any mom weak at the knees.
Overall, the visit was a huge success. The girls
are still talking about it, and mulling over what
they saw. I'm thinking they'll eventually come up
with more questions and ask to pester Tyler
again. My guess is, he wouldn't have a problem
with that. From my point of view, any time you
are blessed enough to spend time with someone
who is kind to your kids - its a banner-worthy day.
I consider this one to be darn near perfect.
| Driving the firetruck |
| Ambrosia was the first one to try on the hat. |
| Avalon said it was "Really heavy" and hurt her head. Fair enough - she does have extra hardware under there. |
| Little Mr. "Me-too" had to have a chance. |
| Sitting in a "back seat" of the engine. |
| OK, peek-a-boo in an ambulance is just weird... |
| "Me-too" - even if he has no idea on earth what he's doing. |
| I do not find this nearly as funny as they did. I put the kai bosh on Avalon participating. Didn't want to give the universe any ideas... |
| Hawgs had to have his turn too. Its only fair. |
| Ambrosia is definitely my surgeon-in-the-making. The more medical stuff, the better. |
| It has been decreed, this is the ONLY way Avalon is to ever see the inside of one of these. |