We’ve been home for almost 5 days now and sometimes it feels like we never left at all.  How quickly a routine can be picked up.  This is good news for our return trip to Florida in September.

I am happy to be home, but I’m surprised to find that I miss Florida.  The weather was a lot more tolerable, even with the frequent rain.  Instead of dive-bombing predatory wasps like here in Kentucky, you must only tolerate  lizards that do nothing but run away from you in Florida.  And, cleaning an apartment that is half the size of my house is a lot easier!

But, Drew won’t be letting us move from Kentucky for a long time so don’t be fearing a permanent departure from the Gattens.  In fact, the Gatten family may never go on vacation again.  Any time driving on the road that exceeds 15 minutes convinces Drew that we are leaving Kentucky.  He scolds, “We are going too far! I don’t wanna leave ‘tucky!”  He’s always skeptical to my promises that we are going to be staying in Kentucky for a while as if he’s a hostage trying to trust his captors.

Florida is pretty much been knocked off the list of a future vacation destination.  Most kids upon hearing about the coasts and amusement parks of Florida would dance in celebration.  But I have a feeling that for Drew’s lifetime, the word “Florida” will send him in uncontrollable shivers and would be found in the corner hugging his knees and humming.  If we get to leave Kentucky AT ALL without inducing terror in Drew I’ll be happy!

We’ve visited a lot of friends and family since our return home.  Everybody is excited to see Drew and while I know Drew is internally excited, outwardly he’s not displaying those same emotions.  But, we are always visiting them at their place and now that Drew associates not being at our house with having a barbaric device drilled into his leg requiring days upon days of painful adjustments and showers, he is more difficult to take out of the house. And, if I do manage to get him out of the house, he gives me strict rules: “ONE minute, mama. Then we go home.” So, if I haven’t come to see you yet, I’m afraid you’ll just have to come see me.  Especially if you don’t want to hear loud objections from Drew!

However, Drew surprisingly didn’t object to going to Granny’s for the day while I

worked.  There was some minor fussing before we left our place, but Drew handled it very well.  And, because this is only the third time that I’ve been separated from him since April, I, of course, have texted Granny for an update and I’ve since heard that he ate really good (ate better there than he does at home!) and behaving very well.  Good.  One less thing that I have to worry about.

 

 

But I have been worrying about keeping Drew’s leg clean.  We have a dog that seemingly sheds more hair than he grows and after dealing with a pretty significant infection in one of Drew’s pins I’m very paranoid about additional infections due to dust or hair that lands on Drew’s leg.  He used to have fixator covers that were sewn up for him by a nice young lady, but they now do not fit since his standing plate was put on.  So, last night I customized a pair of shorts so his leg would be completely covered from top to bottom with some superhero fabric I found at Walmart.  They velcro up the side of the leg and have been sewed around the leg of the shorts so none of his leg is exposed.  I’m actually pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea as well as actually doing it correctly!