Cast removal.

33 days.
2 stinky casts.
1 unfortunate accident.

I'm not quite sure who was more excited to get that cast off - Svea, or me.

Walking to X-ray.

And now we're in the exam room, and little people were busy.

Viggo heard that I got to feel the vibrating blade on my hand (to show Svea it was safe) the last time we were in to have the long cast removed, so he had been looking forward to seeing this thing and feeling it for himself for days.

And yes, seeing the cast-remover saw-thingy was as exciting as he had been hoping.

Svea made a gift of perler bead creations for her doctor, and wrapped the present herself, in puppy dog paper and lots of tape. It took the doctor a few minutes to get through all the tape. He said that he doesn't usually get gifts from patients and he was very surprised and pleased :) No pictures of that though - Svea was struck with shyness at the thought of having her picture taken with the doctor. And I didn't want to take one of just him . . . I might take a lot of pictures, but I'm not that weird.

Elin pushed the stool around and enjoyed looking at all the fiberglass cast color samples.

The sawing begins! Is this technically sawing? I don't know medical terms.

Elin thought it was a little too loud.

Viggo was fascinated. I haven't seen him so focused since he was up at the lake catching crayfish.

Pulling the cast apart.

This was way more entertaining than TV!

Svea's tiny toothpick-like leg emerges, looking fabulous!

Personally I think the lady who removed the cast is awfully brave. The smell alone from Svea's stinky foot made me want to pass out, and here she is, actually bending close to it. She was amazing.

Good as new - literally. Brand-new bone in there!

Daddy carried her out. Svea wasn't quite ready to test her ankle strength yet.

We came home and after a few minutes, Svea's been getting around just fine! Favoring her leg a little but we're impressed.

I am really looking forward to bath time tonight. We've already washed her foot and leg some, but what she needs is a serious dunking.

33 days later and we are nearly out of the woods! Now she just has to get used to walking again, and she's not supposed to jump. At least she has permission to sweat now.

I am so glad this is finally over. PTL!

Lake Vermilion. 7.

Ingredients for happiness.

Zeke.

Hula hooping!

Enjoying the lake view.

Campfire!

Will makes a gourmet campfire pie out of squishy white bread and pie filling.

Ollie and Viggo.

Elin has already eaten several marshmallows (with and without permission) at this point.

A handy cup holder.

Spotting crayfish.

Sophia caught a baby crayfish and Svea was in awe.

A plane flew over us.

I felt so bad that Svea couldn't get her feet in the water like everyone else. She hung in there, though!

Lake Vermilion. 6.

We were at the lake a couple weeks ago. Finally getting some pics up!

Extreme Makeover: Viggo's Room Edition

When we came home from the lake we unexpectedly left Viggo there.
Don't worry - loving people were taking care of him.
We decided that it was time for a change.

Nate got to work in his shop.

He bought lots of wood. He had plans.

After agonizing over a color for Viggo's walls we decided on Sweet Marzipan. Nice and light. Nice and neutral. I didn't want his room to feel dark like a dungeon.

At the time it seemed like a good idea.

Here's some befores. Nate made this headboard when Viggo was 2 1/2.

When we moved in furniture got thrown into Viggo's room and it stayed that way. It was cramped but whatever.

Cramped and . . . boring.

Boring . . . so I cleared out the room and all twelve million Lego pieces. That took all afternoon. Especially when I kept finding granola bar wrappers and pencils with the erasers chewed off and shoved underneath every surface.

And when I moved some furnitureI knew this was a fake snake. But knowing that really didn't make it any easier when I found it.

Nate cut out huge panels of wood for shelves to go underneath Viggo's new custom bed.

And I painted the room.

Nate came in to check out the paint job.

"I really hope he doesn't hate it." That's what Nate said. Oh dear.

The paint matched the carpet. Everything was cream. We had held the paint sample up to the wood trim and thought it looked nice. Kind of slipped our mind to see what the paint sample looked like next to the carpet.

Whoops.

After some agonizing over more color samples we found a better one. It was dark, but at least we were positive Viggo would love it. So the girls and I trucked back over to Home Depot - again - and bought another can of paint.

Why buy one when you can buy two at twice the price?

And here it is in the lovely Neptune color.

I wish that it was really that easy.

Nate took care of painting around the ceiling and I took care of the rest of the painting. And Nate hauled in the frame of Viggo's bed and assembled it in the room.

Putting it together . . .

Adding the shelves for maximum Lego capacity . . .

Nate is adjusting the placement of the blinds. I made curtains to make it look more cozy and less like an office. He had to move the blinds back to fit the curtain rod.

Of course when I bought the fabric I bought dark blue to really stand out with the boring light paint I had chosen.

With the wall color change, that just wouldn't do. So the girls and I headed off to Gruber's - again - to get different fabric that wouldn't blend in with the newly painted dark blue walls.

I think Nate rolled his eyes all the way to Wisconsin when I said I had to get different fabric to go with the different paint. This was just a gentle reminder to Nate that he did not marry me for my gift of planning ahead.

Nate, putting Viggo's books on his new wall-mounted bookshelf.

Here we go!!!!

Now, what could be better than a bed that sits on top of Legos?

A bed that sits on top of Legos and lights up! Yes. There is a light switch.

Nate made this nice little bookshelf and tucked it in by the edge of the window so it looks like it's always been there.

This bookshelf was my idea and Nate . . . well, he did everything else. Although I do claim some spray painting.

His bedroom feels so spacious now. There's room to play on the floor!

Lots of more room. A bedroom that is actually fun to be in. And I am banking on it being fun to clean too.

Ahhh!!! SO PRETTY! Nate did such a fabulous job building everything.

When Viggo came home yesterday he couldn't believe it. It was so much fun surprising him!

And we weren't the only people that liked it.

Before, nobody else wanted to hang out in Viggo's room. He never had any visitors who wanted to play with his toys. Now, well . . .

One little girl woke up from her nap today and made a beeline for you-know-where.

Viggo is one happy kid! He's so blessed to have a dad that loves him like crazy :) We love you, Viggo! We were so excited to do something special for you!