Surgery...1 year ago

One year ago, we were preparing for Josie's hand surgery to remove her extra thumb. Many of you know that she was born with a heart condition, but she was also born with two thumbs on her right hand.

We scheduled this purposely over Christmas break so that we could help Josie adjust to being in a fingertip-to-shoulder cast.




Her surgery scar has really faded and without looking back at her hand pictures, I tend to forget that she even had a special extra thumb.



I'm so glad to have the majority of Josie's major medical issues behind us now.

When I think back to everything we went through our first year home with Josie , I'm surprised she's as well adjusted as she is.

We can't wait to see you open gifts with two hands this year!!

Living for the three-day weekend!

I'm already dreaming about the approaching Labor Day weekend. This fun-filled yet productive past few days, simply wasn't long enough. And yes, I spent part of the weekend creating new Halloween decorations (pictures and instructions to be posted later).





And as a follow-up to Verna's advice on how to find out which hand is the dominate hand (use a toilet paper roll or rolled up paper as a telescope. Have your child put it up to their eye. Whichever eye they use is probably the dominant side) Josie consistently put the paper roll to her left eye. That being said, she painted with her right hand and cut her play-doh with her left hand. I can't wait to see how this turns out.





Have a great week! I can't wait to fight traffic and parking spots at GVSU.

Lefty or Righty?

I'm feeling nostalgic this week about Josie's special needs and how far she's come since her surgeries. I'm blaming Kimberely for it (congratulations on a great heart appt for Sophia) and Karin (I just love your generosity and all the adventures of your special kiddos).

We're seeing a switch again between which hand Josie is using. After her corrective surgery on her right hand back in December, she stopped using her right hand for most fine motor skills. Forced to be in a cast for nearly five weeks, we weren't surprised.



I was fairly certain that we now had a lefty in the house. Not so. She's now back to being fairly ambidextrous. The mystery of the dominate hand continues.





Her surgery scar has really faded. Without looking back at her hand pictures, I tend to forget that she even had a special extra thumb.



I'm so glad to have all our major medical issues behind us. Years down the road, she'll need a valve replacement but it's nothing that we are obsessing over at the moment.



When I think back to everything we went through our first year home with Josie (MAJOR open heart surgery and then hand surgery) I'm surprised she's as well adjusted as she is. We love you, sweetie and you are an amazing little miracle!!

Snow, Updates from the Hand Surgeon and Baby Easter Bunnies

This is a long post and I'm apologizing for the length, but I have lots to share.

The snow storm could have been worse. Honestly, the girls LOVE the snow and I should really stop complaining because we did have a great time sledding and playing in our woods after church on Sunday, but...I'm ready for spring.

Here are a few snow pictures.







Josie visited her hand surgeon this afternoon and we're happy to report that she doesn't have to go back until the end of May.



Her x-ray looks perfect. Her hand is healing nicely and he's not surprised that her thumb joint is stiff. Her hand surgeon doesn't want us to do anything differently. All in all, a great appointment. Bonus. No tears from Josie!



Her next doctor's appointment is with our cardiologist on Friday morning. She'll have an EKG and an ultrasound (the usual stuff). More updates to follow that appointment.

Because I'm determined that spring is coming early to my house (even if it doesn't look like it in West Michigan) here's my first Easter craft project for 2009. Today's craft is dedicated to my Aunt Jean and Aunt Marion. They always had on display cute little pom pom bunnies during Easter. Who doesn't remember making pom poms? I loved making pom poms for my ice skates during junior high. You could vary the color of your yarn and make Easter chicks. We just happened to have white and pink yarn on hand and decided to make bunnies.



Supplies needed:

* Cardboard
* Two circular items you can trace around
* yarn
* Scissors
* Felt
* Hot glue gun (only Mommy works with the hot glue gun) or tacky glue
* googly eyes or other embellishments

Step 1. Create two donut shaped pieces of cardboard. Using your larger of your two circular items, trace out two circles on your cardboard.



I would suggest about 2 inches). Next put a smaller circle, a little under 1 inch, in the middle of your larger circles. Now cut out the two larger circles, then cut out the inner circles.


You will now have two donut shaped rings.



Step 2. Place the rings together. The idea now is to wind the yarn around and through the rings. Cut the yarn into manageable lengths for little hands, around 6 feet at a time works pretty good. Hold one end on the outside of the ring and feed the other end through the hole, round the back and through the front again.



Repeat this, working your way around the ring until all the cardboard is covered. As you use additional lengths, you don't need to tie them together, just make sure the ends are on the outside, not in the middle.



Step 3. The next step is the trickiest in making pom poms. Once your rings are fairly full of yarn, cut the yarn around the edges (i.e. the scissor blade should eventually pass between the two pieces of cardboard as you are cutting.) You won't be able to cut it all in one go so just do a few layers at a time.



Step 4. Pass a length of yarn between the two pieces of cardboard, around all the strands of yarn, and tie it firmly together. Now you can remove the cardboard rings. Trim any lengths of yarn which are uneven to give your pom poms a tidy look.



Step 5. Repeat this process to create a 2nd pom pom. We then trimmed the size of our second pom pom to be smaller than our first pom pom. The second pom pom is going to be our bunny's head.

Step 6. Cut 2 bunny shaped ears with felt and a triangle piece for a nose.

Step 7. Cut eyes out of felt or even better, use googly eyes available at most dollar stores.

Step 9. Using a hot glue gun, assemble your bunny. Let your bunny cool down and enjoy!



Happy crafting!!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Josie screamed bloody murder getting undressed and in the tub again tonight. She's so afraid of getting her right hand and arm wet and she didn't want her hand splint taken off for her bath. The hand splint represents security right now. It took her a good 15 minutes to settle down in the tub. She refused to put her right arm in the water but I did lather her up despite the crying. You would have thought we were hurting her by her crying and yelling. It reminded me of when she first came to us in China and she hated her baths and I used to have to get in the tub with her.



It's one step forward and two steps back right now with Josie. Her left hand is definitely the dominant hand now. She's still not wanting to use her right hand and she hasn't moved (bent, flexed..etc) her new thumb at all. She's so resilient, so I know this is only time limited and we are continuing to find new activities that force her to try and use both hands.

Despite all my concerns or complaints, she's amazing. She's now counting. Emma worked on counting and numbers with her over Christmas break. Josie's so eager to count objects and her favorite books right now are the ones that are counting ones. What a smarty pants. If the teaching market ever improves in Michigan, I'd love to encourage Emma go into Education. She's such a natural teacher. I need to videotape Josie and Emma counting. It's so cute to watch.

On a completely different subject, we decided to have a little salsa music and frozen drinks with our dinner this evening.





As much as I love winter, the idea of warm weather sounds very appealing right now. Our salsa music and frozen drinks were a great temporary escape. Anyone else sick of wet boots, misplaced mittens and soggy snow pants?

Hand Splint, Head Gear & CNY

Here's a picture of Josie's splint. It was custom made for her hand yesterday at the surgeon's office.



She's not thrilled with wearing it (we had quite a bit of toe stomping this morning when she was getting ready for daycare) but I imagine it will become second nature in a few days. She only needs to wear it while she's at daycare for the next three weeks.



Funny thing about the bubble bath last night, she was terrified of getting her right arm and right hand wet. I'm not kidding. She's been so used to her kitchen sink baths and plastic bread bags around her cast, that she wasn't real comfortable with the regular bath tub (even though big sister tried to make her comfortable).

We also keep reminding her that she can use her right hand now. She's been hesitant to use her right hand for playing, eating or picking up objects. I can't wait to do some art therapy with her. Bring on the crayons and stickers!

Enjoy a few pictures of Emma and Josie's new winter head gear. Chris and I both thought that Emma's picture reminded us of Audrey Hepburn from the movie Charade in the opening scene at the ski lodge. Josie certainly makes a cute snow bunny.



In a few days, I'm going to post a gold fish craft project for CNY. I have a toddler version and a more elaborate version of this gold fish project. The Chinese believe that goldfish bring good luck, abundance and great fortune to their keepers. I think we all could use some luck and great fortune right now!!



Speaking of Chinese New Year, we're attending the Chinese New Year Gala Show at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center on Saturday with two of my blogging friends (Kelly and Kimberely) and I can't wait. I'm guessing we'll have all kinds of photo opportunities at this event. Be prepared for lots of pictures!!

Introducing Josie's New Hand!

We spent nearly 2 hours at Josie's hand surgeon's office and we are happy to report that Josie is one brave little girl and that her right hand looks amazing.



The noise of the saw cutting away at her cast frightened her (she wasn't real fond of the scissors either), but overall she was amazing.











She barely cried through the pin removal and she was only slightly annoyed with getting a splint made for her hand. She'll wear her new splint while she's at daycare for the next three weeks.





Tonight we are looking forward to a bath in the big tub with lots of bubbles and toy boats. I think we'd give her the moon if we could. To further celebrate, we're eating Chinese take-out on our cast-away (fishing dinnerware). We couldn't be more proud of Josie. She's one tough little girl.