Sunday, May 13, 2018

Sunday Updates: Week 2

So a few nights ago I was laying on the top bunk with Maggie, part of our nightly bed time ritual, when I saw her flip onto a screen on her iPad that I hadn't seen her use before.

Now usually during Mommy and Maggie time iPads are not allowed. But once in a while I bring a book to read and I let her have her iPad and we have quiet time together. Except quiet time only lasts for thirty seconds or so, because she decides that she would rather have my attention than play on her iPad and so she quickly begins to have me tell her a story that almost always goes something like this:

Maggie: "Molly. Freckle. Toe."
Me: "Molly is a mermaid with a freckle on her toe."
Maggie: "Flip, flip, flip."
Me: "And she goes flip, flip, flip."
Maggie: "under the sea."
Me: "Under the Sea."

Molly always has a freckle on her toe because Maggie has a freckle on her toe. Sometimes she also has legs. But she's always still a mermaid.


But on this particular night the iPad held her attention for a few seconds longer as she brought up the messenger screen and for a moment I saw a long string of a conversation filled with gifs.

I quickly grabbed the iPad. She grabbed it back and flipped to another screen. I grabbed it again. She grabbed it back a second time.

"Who are you talking to?

"No thank you please. NO! THANK! YOU! PLEAE!" Came the response, standard whenever she doesn't want to talk about something or is embarrassed.

I was surprised. I have extreme parental controls on both the girls iPads. Maggie has hers for short amounts of time, and not every day. She has apps that I've selected for her, but can't go on safari. And I hadn't taken the Messaging app off because I didn't think she had access to any phone numbers. I had looked at the app and it was entirely blank. In fact after I found the messages I tried typing in letters and I couldn't make a single name come up.

I still have no idea how she did what she did.

Somehow she used the Apple Messaging to access my phone book.

Because she's apparently a genius in breaking open more than just physical locks.


Now remember this is a child who, according to what we "know" doesn't demonstrate any significant ability to read beyond simple basic words.

I've had my suspicions, here and there, when we're walking along and she'll see the word mermaid, no picture, and her head whips around so fast and she runs over to get a closer look (even if it's in fancy hand lettered cursive) but even then I wasn't sure she hadn't memorized that single word.

So.

I opened the app and found that she had been messaging a therapist that she hadn't seen in almost a year, sending gifs and what I first thought was random letters, since December.

And I laughed and laughed and wondered if the therapist thought that they'd been coming from me and that I'd lost my mind.

There were angry Donald Ducks and other random gifs that had caught Maggie's eye.

I texted back quickly, that apparently Maggie had figured out how to text from her iPad and she texted that she thought that was what had happened.

The funniest part though is that she is one of Tessie's new therapists.

And she had therapy with Tessie on Thursday.

And we were able to laugh together. And she gave me more information.

"Were you able to read the messages?" She asked.

"I saw the gifs." I said. But honestly I'd been so embarrassed, thinking that it looked like they came from my account, that my first instinct had been to quickly delete it (something I regret hugely now).

"No, but did you read them? She was sending me sentences!"

And that's when I found out that Maggie had been texting entire sentences about her day to her old therapist.



And I nearly fell over.  And we laughed more about the amazingness of this kid and all that's going on in her head.

Yesterday her teacher called, to tell me the Special Olympics was canceled for the day, probably because of the non-stop rain, and I passed on the information to her and she said that they would definitely start her on a typing program on the iPads at school and see how it worked out.

And I think I'll sending Maggie texts from my phone and see what we can come up with.

This kid.  She is constantly amazing me.

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In surgery news: I had my surgery yesterday. I don't really know anything beyond that it happened because Paul was with the kids and picked me up outside the door, so he wasn't there to talk to my doctor afterwards and when I was awake enough to ask if my doctor was around to let me know how it had gone he was already in his next surgery.  



I'm still feeling pretty beat up this morning with my Motrin, but that's to be expected, and I'm sure I'll be feeling better everyday.

I'm having a hard time slowing down and not being up getting stuff done though.

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We let Tessie stay up late on Sunday night watching Goldie and Bear and woke her up early Monday morning.

We needed her to be exhausted by the time she got to her EEG Monday afternoon. And she was. 

She was also furious. The moment she realized she was being hooked up she was outraged. For a solid two minutes. 

The techs were ready to give up after one minute, and said not to worry. We could come back and sedate her.  

I explained that she because of the central apnea they would have to intubate her. So they rallied and tried one more time.

And after two minutes she was sitting back in my lap watching cartoons. By the time they finished she was almost asleep in my lap. 


And five minutes after it was over she was soundly asleep and she slept for just past the time that they needed her too and we had a little trouble getting our very determined sleepy baby to wake up because she wanted a three hour nap. 

But wake she finally did.

Two days later he neurologist called to check in and when he called and heard she'd had the EEG he checked and called back and let us know that it was perfect. 

So that is one thing checked off the list and now we just have to get through the MRI.

The MRI is where all my worries lie. The last one had the little brain bleed and was inconclusive. So it would be great if this one was not inconclusive and was actually... good.  Or better yet. Entirely normal.

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May has been the most hectic of months. 

I'm ready for it to be over.  I'm ready for school to be out and for summer to be here.  I'm ready for days playing in the back yard and going to parks and for long walks in the evenings.

I cannot wait.

We just have to get through my two scopes and Tessie's MRI and we're in the clear.

I have never been so ready for summer.

Sadie dancing around outside the night before her birthday.
Two summers ago.




3 comments:

  1. Prayers for a peaceful, quiet, and enjoyable summer!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So happy to see your blog posts are back. I've enjoyed following your family, but can't really do videos.

    Hope you are able to slow down enough to heal; and that you guys can have a restful summer. I'm looking forward to ours too. Tristan had a rough year at school, so I'm ready for this year to be over. We all just need a break.

    Happy Mother's Day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow,thanks so much for sharing Maggie's accomplishment. She is amazing. So exciting that you may gain a way to communicate with her.

    Thanks for doing these written updates. I know they take way more time, please know your effort is so appreciated.I love following and praying for your family, but can't do the videos either.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments and I read every single comment that comes in (and I try to respond when the little ones aren't distracting me to the point that it's impossible!). Please show kindness to each other and our family in the comment box. After all, we're all real people on the other side of the screen!