Wendy's Surgery

Wendy's surgery has been scheduled for March 18th. She will have a pre-op appointment the day before. When I have times I will post them

Puppies!

Wow! Five posts in one day, that just seems a little excessive, but I do feel caught up now.  Today, we took a walk up to the Emme’s house to see their new puppies.  They are sooo cute!  Ella loved them. On our way home she asked if we could take one home ( I laughed).

 

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

     

A is for Apple and Ant

Today Ella and I re-started working on writing her alphabet.  Naturally we started with the letter A.  First, we ate some apples.

Then, we did some work sheets.

We turned the polka dotted A into an A covered in apples

Then we colored in this Ant

We worked on Big A’s and Little a’s

Then we ate some more apples.  So far, so good.  After naptime I think we may read some apple books and sing “the ants go marching one by one”.  Should be lots of fun!           

Happy Valentimes Day

Well, I had every intention of taking photos and blogging through the whole process of making these, but that didn’t happen, so here are a few pictures of the finished product.  Ella made these and handed them out to her friends at church on Sunday.

We pealed a TON of crayons, broke them into little pieces and then put them in silicone molds, baked them in the oven and voila!

I was going to make valentines to put them on, but then I found these ones at www.thelongthread.com (she has a ton of really cute ideas, you should definately check it out). In case you can’t read them they say, “Have a colorful Valentine’s Day!”

As great as these were, I’m afraid I may have bitten off more then I can chew.  I don’t think regular boxed Valentine cards will be good enough now, we will have to wait and see. 

Childhood Right of Passage

Yesterday Ella (and Wendy) experienced something that is a right of passage for every child.  Her very first trip to Chuck E Cheese.  (Now, if I had realized that school was out and it would be packed, we probably wouldn’t have gone).  Ella had a great time.  She loved seeing Chuck E Cheese, although she didn’t want to get close to him.  So a large pizza, some lemonade. 3 hours and 100 tokens worth of games later, the day was a success.  Ella has not stopped talking about our trip since she got up this morning.  I planned on taking more photos, but we were having too much fun.  Here are just a few.   At first Ella wasn’t so sure what she thought of Chuck E., cut eventually she decided he was great.    

The News You’ve All Been Waiting For

Wendy had her appointment at Children’s Hospital today.  We were meeting with Dr. Ojemann (her doctor, as well as the head of the neurosurgery department) to check on the cyst on her brain and decide what we should do about it. He took a look at her old MRI and at her head now.  He basically left the decision up to me.  He said that we could wait and watch it, or take it out.  Both options had risks and perks. 

Waiting meant that there was a larger possibility of head malformation if it had to be removed later, and a more difficult time getting the bone to go back together.  Also, there was the obvious possibility of it growing. However, there was less of a possibility of needing a blood transfusion. 

Doing the surgery now holds the risk of more blood loss, but there is less of a possibility of them needing to manipulate the bone in order to cover the hole.  There is also the peace of mind for Mommy that this foreign object is no longer in her head.

I have had six months to think about what I wanted to do, and I have had a peace about doing the surgery for quite a while.  Dr. Ojemann was very supportive about doing the surgery and agreed that it was a good way to go.  Dr. Thompson (Wendy’s pediatrician) also had advised that if given the option he would have it removed.

So, that being said sometime in March Wendy will be going in to surgery. If they do not have to manipulate the bone she should be able to go home that day, otherwise she may have to stay overnight.  They did some blood work today to test and make sure that her blood does not have any problems clotting. Wendy did not enjoy this part, and they had to poke multiple times and root around before they found the vein.  (Mommy was very sad).  A week before her surgery she will meet with the aenesthesiologist (even my spell check couldn’t figure out what I was trying to spell) and another doctor to determine that she is healthy enough for surgery.  The day of surgery they will start with an MRI to make sure they have a current idea of what the cyst is doing.  Then they will cut a W shaped incision in her skull, they will then scrape out the cyst and then put everything back together. 

So, know you know what I know.  I will keep you posted on dates and details as I get them. Here are some of her MRI photos to give you a better idea of what is going on. (And it took me literally hours to figure out how to get these up here so I hope you appreciate them :-)

Somehow in all my messing with these the films got reversed, so picture the cyst on the other side of her brain.  Don’t look for the cyst in the profile picture, because you can’t see it.  I just thought it was cute!

The Big Update

Ok, I know I promised more Christmas photos, but seeing as how this is February that seems a little silly, so here is an update on what has been going on post-Christmas. 

THE INDOOR PARK

Ella’s new favorite place to play is the indoor park.  At our local community center they set up toys inside a gymnasium and the kids can run around and play.  She loves it.  She especially enjoys playing with her friends Jacob, Johnny, Warren, Aubrey and Jeanine (Wendy and Daniel are there too :-)

THE LIVING ROOM SIDE TABLE

Wendy’s new favorite place to play is the table in the living room.  She has claimed it as her official “playhouse”, she climbs inside and sits there for about 20 minutes at a time, some times she brings her toys in there with her, its very cute.  She hasn’t figured out how to get out without slamming her head into the ground, but I’m sure she’ll figure it out eventually.

AWANA GRAND PRIX

Our Cubbies (including Ella) had there first AWANA Grand Prix.  I wanted to get photos of all the kids with there cars, but I missed a few (well, most of them).  They had a fun time racing.  Ella designed her car all by herself.  Papa cut it out and sanded it, then we decorated it.  She picked everything out herself and decided exactly where she wanted it all to go. Mommy and Daddy made cars too, but we didn’t get any pictures of those.

SOME EXTRA PHOTOS

The best thing about baking will always be licking the bowl. :-)