The director of Museum School told me at the beginning of December that the girls loved these “Straws and Connectors.” She got some out of the classroom for me to look at and I realized that this would be an awesome gift for the girls. I told Papa and Grandma Brooke about it and suggested that they get the jumbo set so they could build some big things. They have had a lot of fun with it, but they hadn’t really tried anything big until the other night. Nadia told me that they decided they were going to build a tent and they got to work.
They were making great progress before Mike and I started helping.
Amelie said, “Now we look like we in purse!”
This turned out really cool, but it was very fragile. The next morning Nadia wanted to try something a little more stable and I told her to get the instructions out. Mike started looking at it with her and they decided to try another one.
The final product with a sheet on top to be more like a tent. What a great gift! I highly recommend them for your kids.
On December 20th we had a one year check up with the surgeon at Texas Scottish Rite hospital, since they told us in December 2011 they wanted to let her hands grow for a year. We arrived and got checked in and the admissions woman said that Southwest Airlines had donated pillow pets for the patients. Amelie chose a lady bug and then the woman noticed Nadia and let her pick one too. As we walked down the hall to the radiology department some more people where there handing out large helium balloons. Amelie was given a panda and Nadia a jet. So the girls were excited before we even made it to our first appointment.
Amelie playing around while we wait on the hand team appointment.
Dr. Oishi came in the room with his nurses and a surgeon from Belgium who I think is training at TSRH. He had Amelie play with some toys and then he felt for the bones in her hands. He showed us the x-rays and told us what he would like to do for her this time around. We agreed and his nurse returned to ask if we could be ready on January 2nd. We agreed and the hospital got everything set up.
We arrived at Scottish Rite at 7 am and went straight to the Day Surgery area. The nurse Anne led us over to our waiting area and told one of us to head downstairs and get Amelie signed in. Everything that followed was just like her first surgery. She even had the same anesthesiologist who came to speak with us in advance. They weighed her and checked all her other vitals and we tried to keep her busy until they were going to give her the “goofy juice.” Last time she had only been home with us about 6 weeks when she had surgery and didn’t speak English at all. This time she was quite hilarious once the relaxation kicked in.
This was shortly before surgery. We changed her into her gown and she was being silly with the Magna Doodle.
They came to get her and told us we could take a pager/buzzer and leave our cell number with them. We headed downstairs to the Crayon Cafe for breakfast. We both got gigantic omelets that were a whopping 2.50 each 🙂 All the while we were receiving lots of love, prayers and encouragement via FB and text messages. About 90 minutes later they called and said that the surgeon was done and wanted to speak with us, so we went back to the day surgery area. He told us that her foot was really easy to do. Then he told us everything he did with her hand. They released her pinkie, cleaned up the banding to try and make it look “prettier” and put a temporary pin in her middle finger to try and fuse the two bones together.
She woke up in recovery and they brought her out, but she fell asleep again pretty quickly. We were surprised and relieved to see that she didn’t have a cast on her leg. Instead she has to wear an ace bandage on it for just five days. While waiting on meds and for her to be discharged, the PA reminded us about taking care of the cast. She also told us that because of the pin in her finger she will now have to wear the cast for five weeks instead of three. Then we return to have the pin “blown out” and see if the fuse worked. I am interested to see how they do that, but they did tell us that the key to it is for us parents to be calm while they blow it out. I am sure that will be it’s own blog post once we actually see what happens.
Being silly with Daddy while I sign documents and wait for her discharge.
Amelie did a great job and Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children is amazing! We are also thankful for all the love and prayers for our family.
I got this idea from The Imagination Tree site. If you have little kids and haven’t been to her site, you should go! I dyed the rice with food coloring, stirred in some cinnamon and gold glitter and added all the fun items. I made it so that everything in the pan was yellow or gold. I even buried some chocolate coins which I let them eat when they found them. Before letting them see it, I tried to bury almost everything in the rice.
They were really excited and told me this was so neat. I gave them spoons and containers and let them have at it. They played for nearly an hour and rice ended up all over the kitchen floor, but it was easy to clean up! The more they stirred, the more the cinnamon smell wafted up and they kept telling me it smelled so good. Nadia created stories from the stuff she found and acted them out. But Amelie was the most content to pour the rice from container to container which was fine by me.
This is such a great idea and fun for the kids – I plan on trying another one of the Imagination Tree sensory bins in the future.
We had our 5th annual PJ party and book exchange and the group was our biggest yet! We did an exchange for the big kids and for the little ones, but not for the babies. Cindy hosted this year and we had a potluck lunch.
I totally adore this time with friends each year. It is one of my favorite things that we do in December.
The little’s after their book swap.
The big kids after their book swap.
The kids had a blast playing as they usually do. The girls did some crafts while the boy jumped on the bed. The mom’s had a chance to chat and I got to hold some sweet baby boys.
And here is my favorite part of these yearly posts – the photos from prior years. And I haven’t repeated a pair of my jammies yet. Ha!
