Enough already!

Once you get her started on something...

Little Girl is about to have soup on her menu. If she loses any more teeth, she'll be gumming her food!
She has pulled 3 of the 4 teeth all by herself. #3 was pulled during her slumber party late Friday evening. #4 was pulled during school today. Enough already!

A Plethora of Passion

We have a very passionate backyard. I am in love with my Passion Flower Vine. I had to take some special pictures this week just in case she doesn't survive the weekend. As you can tell, we need a new fence... I hope to be able to take some survival pictures next week with a beautiful new fence behind her.



It is unbelievable the number of blooms on this vine! There are hundreds of blooms, spent blooms and buds about to bloom.








You can see these blooms surrounded by buds.

This shot shows some of the spent blooms as well.










The intricate details of these blooms are so amazing!

Bloodshot??

So, we were told Little Girl's eyes would be bloodshot for a week or so after the surgery. I'd like to rephrase those words. Let's make that "shot (full of) blood". Yes, I was prepared for "bloodshot", but this was a whole different level according to my expectations.

Here's a picture the evening after the surgery.

Here's a picture the day AFTER surgery - she looks much more lively...

Today, a week after surgery, I would definitely say her eyes are "very bloodshot".

At her post-op yesterday, the doctor said her eyes looked "appropriately red". And I could tell a difference in the alignment as he went through the normal routine of examining her eyes. The Hypertropia is definitely gone. (That's the thing where he said "this was the surgery to have if you're going to have eye surgery" because "this is a one-time-fix surgery".)


He said she looked great. We go back in another month to continue to check her nearsightedness, but he is very optimistic that she will have such a low prescription that he would prefer to keep her out of glasses a while longer since she's still so young. We'll confirm that at the end of May. It's weird seeing her out of glasses and not being upset that we can't find them anywhere... :-)

Now, as a type-A mom, I am still not sure I see "perfection" in her Strabismus issue. I saw her right eye turn in slightly a few times yesterday. Of course, it was AFTER her post-op appointment... Maybe it's just me. As far as I can tell (and the doctor said so yesterday), the reflection in both eyes is looking symmetrical. It's pretty amazing how they can tell exactly how to move those little eye muscles 3 little millimeters and know they've actually done such an incremental movement successfully.

"The Procedure Went Perfectly"

I guess all doctors say that whenever they possibly can, but it's always reassuring to hear those words from a doctor who is greeting you after some type of surgery on your baby.

After we got the other 3 kids off to school, we were off to our pre-op appointment with the doctor at his office.

Isn't it amazing how quickly you can get in and out of a doctor's office when you have plenty of time? We were in the office for all of about 20 minutes. And that included getting an agreeable post-op appointment scheduled and paying the doctor for the surgery he would be performing in 4 hours. Oh, and at her appointment this morning, the doctor could tell a difference since her last exam as both eyes were exhibiting signs of hypertropia. That was actually a relief for me because I worried that we would have to do this again if her left eye started showing signs AFTER he fixed the right eye for that today.

Funny thing happened, too. (ha ha) We walked into the office at the same time as a dad and son we know from church. The son was there for an exam and we told his dad were having surgery today. So comforting to hear from a family who has had FIVE strabismus surgeries the morning you're going in for your first... I have to think his case was much worse because he was diagnosed before he was one and our doctor's dad was his mom's doctor for the same condition.

SO, with all the time in the world, we headed for one of the nearby malls. Ice skating was on our potential agenda and we managed to put away an hour with a Wal-Mart detour to buy socks since none of us were wearing any. Unfortunately, on Wednesdays the ice rink doesn't open until 12:30. Every other week day (of course) it opens at 11am. Little Girl was highly disappointed, but we whiled away the time on the carousel and window shopping in various kid-friendly stores.

Dad even suggested a visit to Build-A-Bear and shocked Mom by letting Little Girl pick a bear to build. This would serve her well as the day wore on. She's not been particularly attached to a stuffed animal or anything, so her new little friend (Madison) was a great comfort to her on this day.

Madison and Little Girl are enjoying "Happy Juice" and "High School Musical 2". During her "Happy Juice" experience, she suddenly commented on the fact that all the little cubicle rooms were purple and she was hoping hers would be pink. Obviously, the juice was taking effect. Two of the ministers Mom works with came and prayed with us and visited for a bit while we waited.

The surgery had been delayed to 2pm and we were back with her in the recovery room by about 2:40. All the nurses commented on how great she had done and she was waking up perfectly and they were so impressed with how well she was doing. I'm sure they say that as much as possible, but it's encouraging no matter.

After Little Girl was able to drink a satisfying amount of her water and a bit of popsicle, they said she was ready to go. They wheeled her out in a wheelchair, but she was disappointed to have no recollection of it. She slept most of the way home with a cool wet cloth over her eyes.

She rested comfortably (well, as comfortable as you can wearing sunglasses ... although, she IS conked out here) until she decided she was ready for some food. She's out walking around the block with Dad and Heidi at the moment, so I think that means she's feeling fairly well.

Even though we had been warned about her bloodshot eyes and her eyes watering a bit of blood, I really wasn't prepared for how bad they would look. Her eyes are itching her a bit and she wants to rub them. They're weeping blood much more than I expected and it's bothering her so she wants to wipe it away. I don't want to hurt her eyes with the camera flash, but I'm going to try to get a picture soon of how her eyes look. They aren't looking quite as dilated as they were earlier this afternoon, so hopefully I'll be able to get a picture this evening so we can really tell how much better they look in the morning.

Thank you for all the prayers for Little Girl and everyone today. I remember being much more apprehensive with her endoscopy 2 years ago, so I appreciate your prayers for our peace. Let me also commend the Pediatric Surgery Center. If your doctor is part of that group and your child ever needs a procedure that can be done there, they are SUPER.

Eye Surgery

After a visit with a 2nd opinion pediatric ophthalmologist, we've decided to go ahead with Little Girl's eye surgery. She's scheduled for April 23rd at the pediatric surgery center over by Prestonwood. Surgery should be brief and we might even be at church that night. Little Girl's eyes will probably be a bit bloodshot, but other than that she shouldn't have any side effects to deal with. Pray for her (and us) - that she'll be quiet and peaceful before and after the procedure and that the doctor will be successful with the surgery. They will address the strabismus in both eyes and the hypertropia in one or both eyes. Lots of detaching and reattaching muscles at one time.
(Additional info on the eye surgery here)







(This picture was taken last fall at Mom's college homecoming football game.)

Moving on up the Growth Curve

Bit is celebrating an almost 3-inch growth spurt since school started last Fall. She now towers over her little sister at a whopping 4 feet 8 inches. She has inched up in the growth percentile for other kids her age - she's up to the 4th percentile now. (In case you need a really clear picture - Bit is short.)

As you can tell from this photo, Bear is disappointed in her clear loss of "big-sister" status.

Bit will be 13 this summer and Bear will be 11 in a few weeks. Oh, my goodness, where does the time go!?

Changing Faces...again

Last February faces changed as Bit got her braces off and Bear got glasses. (see post here)

Faces change again as Bit gets contacts and Bear gets her braces off.

Smiles all around...

Bear brushes her teeth 5 times a day and smiles at everyone.

Bit gets up 30 minutes earlier and smiles once she finally pries her eyes open to get those wonderful bits of plastic stuck on her eyeballs so everyone can see her pretty brown eyes.

Bit will begin phase 2 of her orthodontics later this year - more braces. Bear will lose more teeth very soon. Changes never stop.

Daddy's Girl

What is this white FLUFFY stuff...?!

You know, snow in our part of Texas is generally either slushy or icy. It's so wet it won't stick or it's like a snow cone and just makes a hard mound. So, what was this stuff we woke up to this morning?!? It fluttered. It floated. It fleetly fleed, it flew... (sorry, song burst forth...) The kids got to go to school late, so of course they were up hooping and hollaring well before they ever get dragged out of bed on a regular school morning. And I was SO looking forward to a bit of a sleep-in. Heavens no! I had to get the camera out. I'm not sure if the kids enjoyed it more or if Heidi was having the most fun.











When it first started coming down (the floating stuff, not the sleet that we got first) last night, Heidi tentatively stepped out on the back porch. Things kept touching her head and back. She was very confused. The last time we'd had anything like this was the day we brought her home last February. She wasn't so sure about being outside last night. But, this morning was a totally different story.







Heidi was like a jack rabbit hopping all over the backyard. Actually, I think maybe she looked a bit more like a deer. There was a gracefulness to the hops.

The kids tried to build a snowman, but someone was always counteracting the progress with a snowball in the head or face or something. They were completely wet and white when I finally got them in the door for more breakfast than they probably eat in a week. I even let them have hot chocolate on a school morning.















Ok, this one's a bit jack-rabbity.
























A winter wonderland: The birdhouse Pawpaw built, the day lilies peaking through the snow, the untouched front yard, the red leaf maple blooms on our new tree and my favorite - the bradford pear blooms. I worried how the snow would affect all this pre-spring blooming, but by the afternoon everything looked just as before.

So, yesterday, in the freezing rain, I was planting a few more violas on my front porch. Here you can see the violas (winter) mixed with geraniums (summer) and some other little white flower that I really like but have no idea what it's called - I'm sure it's a summer thing, too, since that's when I planted it last year. Everything is perfectly happy together on our porch.

This new little viola got a bit of snow.

Now, here's a picture of a REAL Texas snowman. The kids scraped together every bit of snow/ice they could find on the north side of the house where it hadn't melted yet. This was the snowcone consistency "snow". They packed this little snow guy together and held their breath until I got a picture of it. Notice the viola petal buttons on the little man.

Run, Heidi, Run!

Which one's bigger... tongue or ears...



Heidi loves her squeaky football.




















I can't wait for green grass! Won't be long now. Well, maybe, anyway. You know Texas... 30 degrees one day and 80 degrees the next. I was planting flowers on my front porch in the freezing rain this morning. Sometimes Texas weather is nice. Sometimes Texas weather means a line of prescription meds lined up across the kitchen counter.

Some of Dad's Handiwork

Mom had been looking for some sort of "game table" for the family room for some time now. E-bay had stuff every now and then at somewhat reasonable prices, but not being the ambitious auction-type person, well, E-bay's just scary! So, then came the e-mail saying that they needed to move out all these tables from the church. They were neat tables - a bit beat up due to so much use and abuse, but they didn't store well and the room they were in was being renovated and the tables would no longer be needed in there. After much searching, it was decided that there really wasn't a good place for them to be used or stored so they would just give them away. Too bad they couldn't sell them. I'd have bought one!
As it was, I got to take one home. I was so excited. And Dad said he'd get it all cleaned up and looking good as new. And a couple of months later, that he did. He stripped it and used tongue oil on the top. The legs were obviously a different wood, so he had to use a stain there to get the color about even with the top. And it's so cool to have it in the family room now. At the moment it's covered in a 1000 piece puzzle (and some dust), but I don't have any pictures of that.

Daddy-Daughter Dinner (Dance!)

The rumors were true. They danced. At the dinner. At church. Dad didn't get any pictures, but he said there were plenty being taken. I can't wait to see some! I'm surprised anyone knew how to dance at a Baptist Church. Yeah, right! No, I'm just surprised it happened in the church. Well, if I get wind of any good pictures of the action, I'll be sure to post some. In the mean time, here are some pictures of the girls with their date before they left the house.

The girls took some pictures while they waited for their "date" to get ready. Might be the only time that ever happens... (Dad was trying to get rid of the cable guy who had to come out and work on the new cable boxes Dad has made two trips to pick up this week after he got his Valentine's present - a new widescreen TV...)







Dad got the girls beautiful wrist coursages. They make them with velcro now! How smart!















Bear looks like such a little lady all dressed up. She talked Mom into no glasses for the evening.










The crew together on their way out the door.















Once they were gone, Mom, Bit & Little Buddy popped popcorn and watched "The Game Plan" in PJs. An enjoyable evening after spending 2 hours getting two little girls dressed and ready for a night out. I've decided I'm saving now for the cost of whatever salon needs we have for future proms and such. With 3 girls, I'm certain saving now is a good start!