The sock junkie

Remember the blood-squirting, broken, nearly severed appendage / plastic surgery / pull the pin holding your finger together out your own damn self drama involving my daughter? For three weeks now we've been dutifully tromping up and down to the hospital as she's pulled off cast after cast. They finally taught me how to redo her casts myself, which was invaluable in the last week as she pulled off four. It wasn't a hard orthopaedic cast, more like a huge gauzy, tape-y boxing glove. Covered with a sock. Impossible to push through sleeves, easy enough for her to pull off mid-stride.

Like her mother, Maia appears to have masochistic tendencies, because despite pulling it off constantly, she loved the cast. She would howl whenever she pulled it off, trying desperately to shove that wee hand back in. Her panicked, tear-filled eyes would look pleadingly up at me, imploring "Put... it... back... on...."

On Thursday, I was allowed to take the boxing glove off permanently. In between bandages, quite often she wore just the sock on her hand until the glove could be re-done. So now, sans cast, she insists on wearing a sock on her hand, all the time. Maybe she hopes that having a sock on her hand means one day she'll be reunited with The Cast, and that this is just a particularly long hiatus. Or maybe she just likes showing perfect strangers what a clearly deficient mother I am by waving a sock-clad beacon of truth around while I avoid eye-contact and shrug in an 'aren't kids weird' kind of way.

Makes me wonder when she'll allow us to take the sock off... And in the interim here's some weird and wonderful hand puppets (courtesy of Etsy) we could maybe put on to break of the tedium of a sock:

She'd look so fierce wearing this awesome Bat girl hand puppet by TheHookery

Maybe she could wear this super-realistic Stripo Hand puppet by Sweetartcreations to scare the bejesus out of Jamie.

I would hope that the 'Picasso meets Dark Crystal' look of this unusual Rue Bunny Clue puppet by MiaRae would impress and inspire Maia on an artistic level.

This felty fellow by Ohmygolly is named Beardo. She could wear it when she wants to show solidarity with her Mum, as it says in the description that he likes listening to Arcade Fire.

This Dragon puppet 'Laverne' by Puppatoons's defiant expression and tongue proudly sticking out would be perfect for all the people who will stare at us on the bus.

Other than the wings, this Vampire Bat puppet by MadameMorgan is actually a pretty accurate depiction of Maia during a game of Bite-Chase. Wouldn't it be post-modern if she wore this simultaneously?!

And if she still hasn't grown out of it by the time she's an adult, she could graduate to this full size Wrap around Giggles puppet by Giggles711