Since January, I’ve repeated my story a gazillion times a lot about how I injured my knee and ankle in toddler gymnastics. (Dislocated knee, tore 2 ligaments, sprained some muscles including hamstring, and sprained my ankle.) It’s been difficult trying to maintain a “normal” life while dealing with the discomfort of not being able to do much physically besides chasing Charlie around. (Which is quite a workout, actually.)

I finally decided that it was taking too long for me to feel better. Plus, I really didn’t like the first orthopaedic surgeon I saw. Besides not giving me much information about my injuries, he pushed surgery and thought physical therapy was going to be a waste of time. I am NOT going to have surgery if I can help it. So I started physical therapy and enjoyed getting some one-on-one treatment and some strengthening exercises. I loved physical therapy – it was so much fun!

Now it’s June, and I’m no better than I was back in February once some of the pain had subsided. I decided to find another orthopaedic surgeon and try again. This new guy was great! Other than the ego coming out with his displeasure at being the second doctor to examine me, he showed me everything he could see on my MRI films and explained exactly what was happening with my knee and ankle. (Kneecap is popping out of place every time I step. Ankle is still pitiful.) He also said that physical therapy was going to be the best way to heal. Whew!

I’m going to the physical therapist with his practice, and they are KICKING MY BUTT! Physical therapy is apparently not all fun and games. I hate how much time I wasted earlier this year. Ugh. I know dwelling on things you can’t change is a waste of time, but I can’t help but think about how much Charlie had to miss out on while I hobbled around and did so many things that were actually exacerbating the problem.

The positive side is that I am now doing everything right to heal and have a normal leg again. And my upper legs might be a lot sexier after all this strength building and stretching!

This should be a warning to everyone that toddler gymnastics can be a dangerous sport for the parent. (I’m semi-serious. It’s not unreasonable to say that I might be the only person that something this weird could happen to. Well, I could see it happen to Amanda E. and Kelley L. too, my random injury friends!)

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In addition to spending an unhealthy amount of time thinking of baby names, I have been concerned about what to call this decade we’re in. And the next…the Teens? Sounds too teenager-ish.

I just happened upon this hilarious site, Surviving the World, and this post made me feel a little better that I’m not the only one thinking about it.

P.S. I am NOT pregnant, just love names…John pointed out that someone might get the wrong idea. )

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Charlie’s always LOVED playing with all kinds of balls and we got him a t-ball set a few weeks ago (which quickly became his favorite toy – he even sleeps with the baseball some nights). So, a few days ago, I had a game on and noticed that everytime the ball was pitched, Charlie would go BOOM! when the catcher caught it. Since then, we’ll sit there and talk about what’s going on and what happens when a ball gets hit, etc. Here’s a short video of us discussing the game today!

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Now we just need a guitar…

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Charlie and I spent a few days in LaGrange this week. I was *hoping* to have a little “me” time while Charlie played with his grandparents, and boy, did I get it! I got food poisoning and spent most of our trip in bed. I guess I should have specified that I wanted my alone time to be getting a pedicure and NOT being sick.

My friend Mary made a very good point about getting food poisoning that makes a lot of sense. She feels that with the bad economy, restaurants may be stretching the life of their food instead of always having fresh ingredients. Even with restaurant inspections, there could be ways of avoiding it being noticed. Definitely something to think about when dining out. I’m glad that we don’t eat out very often.

I was so disappointed that we didn’t get to see Mary and Will because I got sick. But Charlie did get to see his best friend, Bo, and meet a new friend, Holden. Holden’s dad has been re-landscaping my parents’ neighbor’s yard, and Holden came over a couple of evenings and showed Charlie his dad’s cool tractors. They had a great time together! Bo and Charlie had a fun afternoon of swimming.

I’ve been thinking about the next parenting post and will get to it as soon as we get settled back into our schedule. There are some amazing posts done by a couple of friends that I want to share.

Here are some pictures!

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