Not Much To Say

Much to Jane's chagrin, I've included another picture of my scar, taken on day 19. Yeah...it is kind of gross. After Jane saw it, she made me put lotion on it because it looked dry.

Tomorrow (Thursday) marks 21 days since my surgery. The time has gone by quickly! It certainly doesn't seem like it's been so long. My leg pain is constantly changing lately. During the day, I seem to get aches in the calf muscles and sometimes in the area just above my heel. The pain is much reduced from before the surgery, but not 100 percent gone. However, there are times when there is no pain. For example, yesterday I had a mild ache in my calf for the whole day but when I got home it completely went away until the morning.

A few minutes ago, when I started typing this entry, I had a light ache in my leg. Now...none. It's so odd. I really hope that it all goes away. The neurosurgeon noted that it can take up to a year. Sooner would be preferable to me.

Jane set up an evening with Elliot tonight so I picked up Holly from camp. She looked worn out and was a little grouchy. We went by the grocery store to grab dinner. I let her pick out the meal. She had quite a time choosing between the Chinese Express and the hot, traditional foods. A game of Eeny, meeny, miny, moe declared chicken strips and macaroni and cheese the winners. I asked her if she thought the meal was healthy. She contemplated it for a few seconds and stated that chicken and cheese are both good for you. Holly then suggested that we add bananas, watermelon and a salad and "Yahoo" to drink. I got her regular chocolate milk because, and I could be wrong, I don't believe that Yoo-hoo has any real nutritional value. She constructed a nice salad at the salad bar and we went home.

Holly watched Ed, Edd and Eddy while eating and completely cleaned her plate. I bribed her into taking a shower at 6:45 by telling her that she could fill shower caps with water and drop them like water balloons. She didn't spend much time in the shower, which is unusual. By 7:15 she was asleep for the night.

I think the camp is difficult on all of the kids. They spend most of their day at real school sitting in a chair and occasionally walk the halls, have gym or recess. This camp seems to have them moving all day. She looks utterly wiped out every afternoon when we pick her up. She loves the camp though and says it's "way better than school because there's no learning."

Holly impresses me with her ability to make friends with older girls. During the school year, she would tell us about her friend in fifth grade or a friend in third grade. I always believed she knew them and talked to them, but I figured they were just humoring her. Well, I've been witness to several examples at this camp of the older girls truly liking her. One fourth grade girl yells out her name every morning when we arrive. A second grade girl ran over and hugged Holly and told her mom that this was the friend she'd been talking about.

Perhaps this is just a girl thing and I never experienced it since I was a guy. In my day, older boys only associated with younger boys when they were teasing them or kicking their ass. This included brothers, especially in public. I haven't witnessed older boys hanging out with the younger ones at school or camp so this behavior doesn't seem to have changed.

Kudos to Holly making the older girl thing work - however it happens.