Welcome Home LeggieLoo Quilt

YAY! Gela came down from Brisbane and brought Tara's LeggieLoo quilt, which her and her friend Catherine have finished off BEAUTIFULLY...even tho' Gela was meant to be recuperating in bed from her op! The LOVE and dedication that's gone into the quilt are just extraordinary - especially since Catherine's never even met Tara...and Tara only met Gela properly the night before her operation (Gela had already been a brilliant support when Tara was a baby having a million ops - but Tara had no memory of those days...thank goodness!) That night before Tara's amputation, Gela turned what could've been a nerve-wracking evening into the most fun and giggles the girls had ever had - she painted Tara's left foot so that she could leave colourful prints of Leggie Loo all over a piece of canvas material. The girls also wrote messages, and Big Foot (Tara's right foot) got a look in too. Tara kept the canvas tucked around her during the week in hospital, like a security blanket...and then we gave it back to Gela to magically transform it into a quilt that tells the story of Tara's journey this year. The girls fought over who was allowed to sleep with it, they just love it so much. And Tara took it to show-and-tell on Friday.

So lovely re-reading the messages the girls wrote to Leggie Loo like Tara's one saying "I love you. I will miss you a lot. Thank you for teaching me things. You are lovely. bye!!!! Love Tara".

One of Jadie's messages read:

To Leggie Loo
It was the last day of seeing you. It was very tough for you I think.
Love Jade!

Cassie wrote:

To Leggie Loo
We will all miss you! I love you so much!
love Cass xox

And one of them wrote "Leggie Loo was a great friend".

They're all loving LouLou tho'...even tho' she does occasionally (hmmm...frequently) stand on her sisters' feet by mistake!

First week back at school was fab. Jadie's loving her new role and Cassie went to New South Wales for a school camp for a few days - learning to canoe and do all kinds of fun stuff in the lake and the ocean. Had a LOVELY evening with Neal who was up on business from Sydney...and brought Gela, the quilt, flowers (thank you Gussy!) and truckloads of chocolate with him (which Tara also mentioned in her Show & Tell).

Shame - Tara shed a few tears because Jadie's been invited to play at a friend's house tomorrow and she hasn't - but just feels right for Jadie to get her first play on her own (Tara's had a few already). Jadie loved her first modelling lesson this morning and we had yummy dinner and bingo at Granny's tonight.

Last night the Baxters came for a sleepover and we adults went out for dinner in Tedder Avenue - and spotted Dicko (from Australian Idol) and Nigel (from the US So You Think You Can Dance) - which was kinda fun coz not much normally happening in our neck of the woods!

Tony happened to buy the newspaper today...and there was an article asking parents whose children have had operations in the last year to please contact this Hotline. And blah - turns out that some children have been left with wire lodged near to their hearts from the catheter that was inserted in their arm to give them antibiotics and other drugs. It's not life-threatening but requires an op to remove it. Only 3 hospitals in Queensland have been affected...and the Royal Brisbane, where Tara was, is one of them. Argh! Hopefully Tara's not one of the kids that had this particular catheter (altho' of course we feel for the parents of anyone whose child did use it). But they'll only let us know next week. Yikes. It's never over.