Eli's Therapy Fund

Today was a big day for Eli the frog; his 7th (hopefully his last) set of casts were removed and replaced with cool new shoes and a nifty new bar. Or at least those are the descriptions I use when talking to Eli, in the hopes that he will not hate the new contraption too much. So far he's just plain fussy; the shoes are a new feel for him, as he's never worn shoes before, and his heels are still tender from the surgery, so the socks/shoes rubbing against the incision site it a bit much to handle. I have to imagine sooner or later Eli will need serious counseling for all of these curveballs we keep throwing his way. As soon as he gets used to a cast, we take him to the doc to change it. Then he gets used to changing casts and we take him to the hospital for surgery. Now he's confident he's been through it all and we impose this aluminum bar on him. Please send your checks to "Eli's Therapy Fund"...

Dr. Morrissy inspected Eli's feet once the casts were off and found them to be healing as expected. Eli will wear the bar for 23 hours/day for at least the next month. Dr. Morrissy expects that we'll stick with that schedule until Eli starts to crawl, at which time he'll only wear it during naps and bedtime.

The biggest change for me has been the rebirth of my baby. All of the sudden I have little baby legs to tickle and dote over. You'll have to excuse me for making a big deal out of this as I have not seen Eli's legs since he was eight days old. The poor things are very dry and cracked, and very skinny (surprising, considering the heft of the rest of his body). I am having to re-learn how to pick Eli up, how to hold him, change his diaper, etc. to accommodate the not-stiff legs and new bar. I'm used to throwing the little guy over my shoulder and holding on to his heels as they essentially controlled the rest of Eli's lower body. Now he's all 'soft' in the leg area - it's like holding a newborn again.