The Goodwins

It seems a lot longer than 24 hours ago upon seeing little Ella recovering from her surgery.

Bonnie spent the night with Ella. I’m told that Ella woke up every few hours to make sure Bonnie was still there as well as wanting to watch more Veggie Tales. We made it home around a bit after 2:00 EDT. Of course, Ella immediately wanted to play in her play room. We changed out her drainage tubes, sent Bonnie to bed and Ella and I made our way to Ella’s playroom.

I just realized that Ella’s playroom is the largest one in the house, and somehow we’re filling it up fast. While I’d like to blame Ella’s Nana for that, I’m certain Bonnie would keep me honest and point out that the vast majority of the things in there I bought.

Ella is laughing, playing, crawling and walking just like before the surgery which is great. However it took longer than I thought. She had the IV in her left hand and was greatly favoring that hand for a few hours after removing the IV. I changed out the bandage to a stream of her tears and replaced it with one of those “dot” Bandaids. After Ella was apparently confident that I wasn’t going to remove her hand she calmed down, but still wouldn’t use that hand. After playing for about 30 minutes she started using both hands again without a noticeable difference than before, which is a relief for me.

We played with nearly everything in her playroom, spending only moments with each toy. She seemed to just want to make sure they were all still there. The biggest frustration for her was the fact that she can’t crawl under the side of her “house” to go in and out of it. Before I could grab her, she stuck her head under one side of it and caught her headdressing in it. I successfully readjusted it during another round of her flowing tears.

It’s pretty obvious that Ella realizes what’s on her head and is trying to ignore it when ever possible.

Ella and I went outside for a bit. It’s in the 70s here today and beautiful. Ella loves the outdoors and couldn’t get enough. We even went down below to the river. The daffodils are up down there and Ella loved pointing them out. One of the trees near the river fell so I see I have a bit of work to do down there. We walked a bit up and down the path along the river, saw a heron (which made Ella clap) and a lot of deer tracks (which made Ella want to crawl in the mud).

We got back to the house and Ella played the piano a lot. She’s a real composer and obviously loves it.

After playing a while long she remember the care package from her friend Dominic (they are in one of the same therapy classes) and found the Cheddar flavored Goldfish and now we are sitting by each other while she eats her fish (she’s very good at the sign for fish) and I type this blog.

Well, she’s transitioned to Cheerios now. I’m not sure if mixing your snacks is a bad idea or not, but I’m sure it means she’ll be ready to play again soon.

So in short, the Ella we all know and love is back, just with the need for a bit more head room than before!