Hospitals, and other adventures

We finally had our appointment with the paediatric orthopaedic guy last week, after a very last minute cancellation of our original appointment.  X-rayed (do you know how difficult it is to keep a naked and wriggly 9 month old still long enough to have her hips x-rayed?), examined, and apparently she's now within the normal range.  Not in the middle of the normal range, but within it at least.  Which is a huge relief.  Seemingly the double nappies have done their job, and I will not be sad to say goodbye to them - they've been getting harder & harder to put on because they add so much to the time a nappy change takes.  We've still got to go back in 6 months time, for a follow up check when she's walking properly, but generally, we're very very relieved.

I said hospitals up there, not one but two.  Last weekend my right knee started playing up.  Just felt a bit bruised, like maybe I'd knelt on something awkward or something, so I shrugged it off.  But it got progressively worse, until Monday morning I could barely stand on it. So I phoned the doctor & got an appointment for that day, toddled off, doctor took a look and phoned the hospital & sent me off up there.  5 1/2 hours of sitting around in casualty, x-rays, blood tests, and purple pen marks around my now bright red & swollen kneecap, and apparently I've got an infection in the fluid on my knee, giving me Housemaid's Knee.  Of all absurd things.  It kind of makes sense when you consider how much time I spend on the floor, crawling around after Squeaky, but even so, I can't get any kind of glamorous complaint, can I?  Bloody housemaid's knee, I ask you!

Squeaky also had her 9 month check up this week, and passed with flying colours. According to the doctor, she's quite advanced, in as much as she's happily crawling, pulling up to standing, and cruising around with something to lean on when the mood takes her.  Is good, if scary.  Honestly, she's a little dynamo.

Oh, and her latest discoveries?  She can remove any kind of shoe I put on her.  Elastic, no problem. Velcro, easy.  Boots, piece of cake.  Shoes with built-in socks, no worries.  I don't understand. How can she be mine & not want all the shoes in the world?  And she's also figured out how to clap her hands herself.  She figured out flattening them to make a noise when I clap them a while back, then last week how to clap my hands together holding on to my little fingers, but yesterday she put the two concepts together and learned how to clap her own hands.  This is maybe the most exciting thing ever, from the look on her face when she does it.  Hours of entertainment to be had now.