Summary
We spent this entire month in the US visiting friends and family. It was great to have that kind of time with everyone, and Lumi seemed to really enjoy it.
3.2 sushi lunch, Monkey Joe's playroom, arm break
4.2 cast put on
8.2 flight to Atlanta
14.2 party at Kathy Rudolf's house - she had a great time playing with Hadley
15.2 Isä arrives in Atlanta
17.2 Georgia Aquarium with Susie Cone and grandma - a great time for everyone!
18.2 flight to Orlando
23.2 Silver Springs and glass-bottom boat
24.2 swimming in big pool, with inner tube "by herself"
26.2 root beer at World of Beer
28.2 flight to NYC, visit with Nikki and Uncle Dudu and Nova
2.3 - 3.3 trip home to Norway
I had expected her to start eating ketchup in Indy, but she still doesn't eat sauce.
She has eaten pizza happily, and all kinds of new junk food in the US.
We are having a "language bath" in the US, and it was difficult to start speaking (but understanding didn't seem to be a problem) Finnish again when Isä arrived.
She is loving all the playtime in Indy. Lots of kids, which is great. She calls them all "friends". Samari also introduced her to sword toys, which she liked.
In Atlanta, Grandma has been reading a lot of books, but she also saw her first movies: Brave and then the Lion King.
In Florida she watched a lot of Mickey Mouse and Doc McStuffins on the tv, as well as the movie Finding Nemo.
She had a runny nose in Indy.
On her birthday, we went to Monkey Joe's, a play place with lots of bouncy slides. She was having a great time sliding with Sophie when she bounced off a bumpy slide and fell on her arm. At first we didn't notice and in fact she went again on the slide before Troy brought her to me because she was still crying. I thought she hurt her face and was helping her put cold water on it when I heard her say "my arm" and then we looked down and saw that it was at a funny angle.
Des called the family while the staff got us some ice (which lumi rejected). We decided to not go directly to the hospital and Uncle John met us back at the house. John recommended to go to Urgent Care for an x-ray. Zac had gotten us an appointment with his friend (a pediatric orthopedic doctor) the next day, so we just needed the x-ray. Des took us to Urgent Care and we waited for 2 hours but the doctor there said he wouldn't do anything and we needed to go to the ER. They said that if they did the x-ray they would be required to treat her, so they wouldn't do it. We were quite irritated and decided that since it was already late and we had an appointment the next day that we should just go home. The nurse wrapped up her arm in an ace bandage (which didn't do much at all).
All the family was upset about this, and Zac asked his friend Dr. Bill Bean to come over. Dr. Bean had just finished a whole shift at the ER but he nonetheless stopped by and put a proper splint on lumi's arm. She was happier and so were we. Lumi watched TV throughout the splinting and the Doc McStuffins episode that happened to be on was about splinting a broken arm, which was great and a little creepy.
The next day Zac picked Lumi and me up and took us to Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. We registered and did the x-ray. Then we went to breakfast with Zac while we waited for his friend Dr. John Wilhite to come out of the operating room. Troy came to meet us with Otso and Zoe after he dropped Samari off at school. Eventually Dr. Wilhite came. He looked at the x-ray and showed us that her radius was broken and the ulna had a
plastic deformation. He said that with a growing child, the plastic deformation will simply correct itself and straighten over time. He put the cast on (waterproof because they can use goretex wrapping instead of gauze) and straightened her arm as the cast was drying. This hurt, and Lumi cried and cried but still patiently held her arm out. It was hard to watch, much harder than anything else. She chose the color green for her cast. It was "off the books". He said to walk out and don't "check out" and if someone said anything to just keep walking. It was a new experience for Troy and me.
We had a good experience overall and Lumi was quite calm and brave. She held her Doc McStuffins toy (a gift from the Herringtons) tightly throughout. I am so grateful to Des and John and Zac and their doctor friends for taking care of Lumi. Knowing that they were handling everything helped me to be calm and just concentrate on Lumi, and I think that calmness helped Lumi to stay calm too.
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She saw the eagle in her US passport and said "mine has a flamingo!"
Such a great writeup of your experiences! We did more in Atlanta, too - had playground time, and a big storm which led to Lumi's first (I think) pajama day - couldn't go outside! We made a scarf, played with bubbles and play-dough, washed dishes, made puzzles, and Lumi enjoyed playing the piano.
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