Words... what do they all mean?

Today I went to the Motherhood store in the mall to return the ill-fitting maternity clothes that gave me so much consternation in my last entry, and am very pleased with what I brought home in exchange. The store had my Easter dress in the next size up, so that was a straight-across trade, and I got some t-shirts and a blouse for work, and a long white skirt that can dress up or down because, dudes, I am _so_ tired of wearing cords or jeans every single day.

Dad is doing really well. He's home now, Rew and I were going up there periodically throughout last week to help him out with the things he can't quite do (drive to the mailbox/grocery store, fill his bird feeders, sweep the porch, etc.). He was trundling around with a walker and then a cane but the last time I was up he was walking unaided. He said he was still carrying the cane when he walked outside, just to be safe, but inside the house he didn't need it. And this morning I got an email saying he doesn't think he needs us to come up regularly anymore. Which probably translates to once a week for mail and groceries.

Since he can't drive anyway, he loaned me his Jeep for a few days and we bought Morgan her first bike as a birthday present. (Have I mentioned this? Maybe on Facebook) I had forgotten just how exciting and cool bikes are to kids. She wants to ride it _all_ the time, and sadly since I'm not able to run alongside her, we're limited by Alan's schedule. It's also interesting to watch, because I'd also forgotten the process of learning to ride. It's really a tricky thing at first: the balance, moving your legs at an even rhythm, steering; it's a lot going on at once. Of course to one who has learned it, it's all second nature, but as I said it's interesting to watch her learn it for the first time, and try to find ways to explain to her things that are intuitive to us now.

Oh, birthday presents. I alluded to mine and then didn't follow through. In my family there's a bit of a tradition that when you turn thirty you get a cane (because you're _so_ old, right?). Alan married in after his 30th so on our honeymoon I got him a carved kauri walking stick with paua inlays. At my birthday brunch, Dad gave me mine, eliciting "Oh, yeah, I was wondering about that..." from my mom and brother (it's been a while between the youngest of the parents/aunts/uncles and me, the oldest of the cousins/grandkids. Rew's next!). It's pretty and kind of Victorian, black with a silver and pearl knob on top, but I hope not to need to use it for a good long time. Except maybe in a larp. It would be an awesome prop. ;)

Went to see Dad after work today, and despite the receptionist telling me - when I called on my lunch break - that he was in recovery and would be moved to his room soon and should be ready for visitors by 3pm, they were only _just_ wheeling him into a room when we got there at six thirty. Yeesh. Glad I didn't try to get there earlier.

He's in good spirits and seems to be doing well. No word from any doctor to the tune of, "The surgery went well, here's where we stand..." etc, though. Hopefully someone will check on him this evening or tomorrow morning and there will be more information the next time someone goes to see him. As I mentioned, he was only just getting settled into his room when we were there this evening. He did say that there was no pain in his legs, which hasn't been the case for a very long time, so yay!

Early tomorrow morning, my Dad is going into the hospital for spinal surgery. As I understand it, he has bone spurs inside one of his vertebrae and that's causing constriction of the spinal cord/ nerves. This is the latest (and hopefully finally accurate) explanation for the chronic pain he's been feeling in his lower back and legs for, oh, months now. He hasn't been able to ski at all this season (most of you don't know Dad, so I'll just tell you, not skiing is a BIG DEAL), and even back when the weather was nicer he was already feeling poorly enough that he didn't do as much hiking or rowing (in that snazzy boat we made a while back), or riding his motorcycles as he normally would. There have been various diagnoses and treatments in the meantime but it would seem now those were only addressing the symptoms and doing nothing about the actual problem. So, hopefully they've got it now, and "carving out the pumpkin" will fix him back up again, and then I'll be the only one moving slowly and making multiple attempts at rising from the couch and groaning whenever I stand up from the table. Which reminds me about my birthday present, but that's a longer and unrelated story so I'll tell you about it later.

He's got four days of recovery in the hospital before one of us gets to take him home, then a couple weeks off work recovering at home, some physical therapy, and hopefully back to 100% in three months. Plenty of summertime left to fish from his rowboat.