Good News and Bad News

Anna is home and recovering nicely from surgery.

The good news is:

She did SO MUCH BETTER going in and coming out of the anesthesia. No screaming at all. She whimpered a bit when she first came to. And then was really happy to enjoy a slushy. When it was time to go home she didn't want to leave!

She got new tubes and they were able to save one of her top front teeth.

The bad news is:

One of her top teeth was completely dead. It was extracted. Now the bone will not continue to grow there and her bone graft later on might be more extensive.

She has a large perforation (20% of the ear drum) in one ear from the previous tubes. The ENT tried to paper patch it but he doesn't know if that will work. There may be more extensive surgery for that later on as well.

Four surgeries so far is so much for such a little one!

Tea Party

Today we went to "tea" at Mrs. M's house. Mrs. M is the neighbor who directed and produced the Wizard of Oz play. She is such a sweetheart and going through some hard times right now. I almost canceled, but I am glad I didn't.

She made the girls a lovely little tray of snacks.

We put in a Dora movie and let the girls play with Mrs. M's grandkid's toys and her and I had a nice conversation.

After that we bought new shoes for winter. The weather around here can change at the drop of a hat (I actually like that!) and it's just easier to be prepared. The girls each got a new pair of tennies and some warm boots. I can not pass many of Mia's shoes down to Anna as she wears wide and Mia's feet are narrow.

Here is what is going on in our life:

Speech: Anna is doing great! Her speech teacher is AMAZING! He is making videos of Anna's sessions that he uses when he gives lectures to students about teaching kids with clefts! We are so lucky to have been referred to him.

Eating: We are no longer eating the French way. I just don't want to can't do that many dishes! French people, I applaud you! We are eating 90% paleo at home. It really does seem to calm Mia's emotions. Dan and I are somewhat amazed at times about that. We don't know if it's the lack of gluten or the lack of blood sugar fluctuations. But no matter, it's working well. She eats non-paleo at school snack time and when at other's homes. With the history of eczema and autoimmune diseases in both my family and Dan's family and the history of eczema in Mia's birth family, I highly suspect we are all gluten-intolerant!

School: Preschool is going well. They seem to like it. Homeschool is also going well. We do both twice a week. They are pressuring me to send Anna to school four days a week as she qualifies for it. I am standing firm! No way! She is not even three yet. From what we have learned this past year, there is NOTHING more important for a child's mental health, education, self-confidence, abilities and relationships than to be firmly attached to their parents. She will be with me. End of story.

Mia's curriculum at home is:

Math: Singapore Math Kindergarten A
Reading: All About Reading Pre-reading Skills, Bob books

Though some of these are kindergarten level, it will take us a year and half to get through them since we only do them twice a week. At that time I will evaluate whether to move on to first grade or finish her kindergarten age year with another program. That's one of the great things about homeschooling-working at their pace!

Mia's fine motor skills are taking off like crazy. Her gross motor skills have always been amazing. She does stuff on the playground 8 and 9 year olds can't do. But, her fine motor skills were not there yet. But now...

She is a drawing maniac! Do you see the plans in the corner? Those are the plans we no longer need for the fireplace and the backyard. She is making "maps" with them. She literally spends hours on them.

I will be starting printing with her in January using Handwriting Without Tears.

Tomorrow Anna will have new tubes put in her ears as well as dental work under anesthesia. we are hoping the dentist will be able to save her two front teeth. This wouldn't be all that important to a kid without a cleft because they would have ample bone. Anna does not! We have been on such a learning curve with her. She is such a trooper! Last time it took her all day to recover from the anesthesia, but she had only been home two months. I hope it goes easier for her this time.

Georgetown

Today we decided to go to Georgetown, up in the mountains. It's about an hour away. We were a little bit lazy in the morning after having guests the night before. So we didn't start out until around 11:00. About three quarters of the way there, the traffic started to get really really heavy going the other way. Duh. It was the end of the last three-day weekend of the summer. A zillion people were coming back from the mountains! There was nothing we could do about it now! So we pressed on.

Georgetown is a cute little town with stores and restaurants. There is also a loop railroad there which we thought we might take but decided not to as we weren't sure what we would be up against on the ride home.

Our first stop was a library book sale. I bought some books for the girls. I refused to buy a book with all the pages coming loose. Mia really wanted it so she bought it with her own money. Dan negotiated a half-price deal for her.:)

We then had a terrific lunch.

After that, we cruised the town.

We came upon an ice cream shop with a giant blackboard for the kids to play on and some toys for sale. The girls never even noticed there was ice cream for sale.

We purchased some drawing pads with magic markers that made the colors appear as you colored. Mia drew the entire way home. Anna slept. She will up LATE tonight!

The locals gave us a tip about a road only open in the summer that would be a longer distance to home, but beautiful, and no traffic.

It was beautiful! Some of the aspens were even just starting to change color.

It took us three hours to get home. I then read a few of the books we bought.

Despite the long ride there was no traffic and that made it feel like a very relaxing day.

Lollipop Park

The girls earned a reward for staying in their beds at night. It took about three weeks to earn it - a trip to Lollipop Park!

It's a little indoor amusement park for the under 8 crowd. They loved it!

We're thinking we might have Anna's third birthday here. We're not believers in having kiddie birthday parties every year. But Mia had a kiddie party for her third so we would like to give one to Anna too.

Our Week

It's been a good week for us here at the end of the summer in Colorado. The pool closes this weekend. Boo hoo! But it's been in the 90's all week, rare for us.

We started out the week with a Wizard of Oz sing-a-long at the library. The girls know the story and songs so well now after the play.

There were props to use during different parts of the movie.

They blew bubbles every time Glinda appeared.

On Tuesday we went to free day at the botanic gardens. It was hot. We spent a lot of time at the creek in the Children's Garden.

I couldn't believe there was another dam! They must be big in Colorado. Mia was excited to see it.

Mia takes Marmot in the car with us a lot. Dan gave it to her for her adoption. This time she brought it with her into the gardens. We were stoked to see there was a whole marmot section!

There was a Native American area that the girls really liked.

After the Children's Garden we went into the conservatory.

At the end of the week we had several play dates.

And at home the basement wet bar is being installed...

We hope to do a bunch of stuff this last weekend of summer coming up in Colorado!

Circus Circus Not

Two years ago we took Mia to the big circus that comes to town every year. We didn't go last year because Anna was so frightened of everything new. We planned on going back this year until we heard about this.

Zoppe is an old-fashioned family circus that has been around for 180 years! Since their tent was set up at a park, we picnicked first.

After lunch we went over to the circus where the performers were entertaining the crowd beforehand.

Guess who wants to join the circus!

The seats were cheap, my favorite, and ringside!

The girls were mesmerized the entire time.

This clown pretty much stole the entire show.

We loved everything, except the lack of air conditioning!

Legoland

Last Monday we went to Legoland! Since we were staying in a hotel down the street it seemed the obvious thing to do! It's a great place for the girl's ages. But it was a lot more crowded than we expected. I forgot that California schools haven't started yet!

We have lots of navigators!

The fairy tale boat ride was perfect for them because they knew all of them!

More navigating!

Short Stuff was not able to go on a lot of the rides, but I shouldn't complain as she had free admission!

But there are so many parks and other things to do she had a blast!

We'll go back in a few years when they can both enjoy all the rides. And we'll bring our bathing suits to play at the little water parks we didn't know about.