ltc's strong personality will serve her well in the future, although it is quite the challenge for the parents that think they are the boss of her.

This was my hope with the Willful Young Emmett and it turned out to be true.

This was my hope with the Willful Young Emmett and it turned out to be true.

Thanks. This helps a lot, since Emmett is quite obviously an amazing human.

ltc, sj, smonster, all awesome. smonster's new boy, potentially awesome. smonster's wanker roommate, the opposite of awesome.

Laura, incredibly awful about Bobby's friend. I'm so sorry.

Java, increasing wellness to you!

Continuing ~ma for those in hospital, may they be well soon!

Re: me, while of course I want what is best for my leg bones, I also really want this cast off. It itches and is uncomfortable and I want my regular life back. Percocet seems to dull itching as well as pain, and now that I'm taking less of it for pain, there is more itching. It's probably inadvisable to stick a butter knife down my cast to try to scratch my ankle, but I'm doing it anyway.

Good morning! My bag is at the hotel waiting for my room to be available. I'm at the convention center clocking in volunteers who are helping with set-up and working to organize our volunteer room. It is pretty quiet...for now.

No butter knife under the cast!

I had a cast on my shin back in the day. I really wanted to scratch, but I was scared to hurt myself and get an infection. So I invented something: taped the vacuum cleaner's crevice tool to the hair dryer. Got some cool air under the plaster which helped, especially on my trapped foot.

Maybe I just liked being able to do something for my leg while I waited for the bones to knit themselves back together.

Suzi, kick some ass and have a lot of fun!

Zen, no kicking anything, except kicking back. Sorry about all the itching! Seems like that's something they would have figured out by now.

Wanker once again failed to answer the door this morning, so I gave the delivery man his number. Delivery guy didn't call back, so I guess his phone DOES work. @@

Feel better, Java.

Zen, I saw an article that someone's designing a cast that's made of waterproof something (plastic? fiberglass?) that's cut like netting so it's not only more comfortable but you can shower in it, your skin doesn't get as itchy, etc. Wish you'd been able to get something like that.

We went to meet ltc's new teacher today who was teaching camp. ltc walked right in and started playing with the other kids like she had been doing this all her life. And she even helped at clean up time! Then we went with my mother to lunch at our local museum and Nonni bought ltc a book at the gift shop to congratulate her on doing so well in the bath this week. It was a good day.

sj, that sounds like a GREAT day!

Thanks. This helps a lot, since Emmett is quite obviously an amazing human.

Yeah, it's actually a small concern on the obverse side with Matilda who is much more eager to please. And...that can be an issue later in life where you sacrifice your own needs to make others happy.

Basically you need a little bit of Fuck-It in your nature. If you come by it naturally you have to socialize it and keep it on the rails. That's what we did with Emmett.

Matilda needs to grow a little more Fuck-It, so I have to nurture it.

Though I did see an encouraging sign of it at her orientation at the new Middle School. I picked her up at lunch time and we were hanging out afterward at the playground. And she had met three other girls who all knew each other from their elementary school (and while they were in the same grade they were a little bigger and older). And they knew her but weren't quite including her in their games but she just shoved herself right into their social mix until they were playing with her.

Then the alpha girl asked Matilda to hold her phone while alpha got on some apparatus and swung around upside down. And another girl (bigger than Matilda) tried to grab the phone and Matilda completely stiff-armed her and held her off and was totally "No Fucking Way, Bigger GIrl."

I think the soccer helped her learn the value of pushing and shoving against bigger girls.

That was actually something her coach noted in our last party. How much he loved watching Matilda go toe-to-toe with the biggest girls, and best players on the other team. He said she was fearless and she never gave an inch, even to girls who were a head taller.