Merry Christmas!!!!

God bless everyone tonight and every night.
Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!



Luke 2:15-16

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the LORD has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in a manger.

Second trip to see Santa

Chloe could not be convinced this time to see Santa.

First trip to see Santa

Princess 1 & Princess 2

We had pictures done of the girls at the end of October -- normally that would be very cold here in Michigan. However, it was about 68 degrees this day. We were lucky as we have an appointment at 10am. The night before I had to quickly plan out new outfits for the weather. In the end they smiled and that's all that matters.

Puppy love.....

More Halloween

See I am trying to catch up.

Chloe wore an adorable kitty-cat outfit to both dance classes (no pictures) and then did the whine and pout as she was suppose to put it on again for the Gymboree Halloween party. She wanted Zhen-Zhen to wear the kitty-cat outfit so she could be the princess. (haha -- there was no way Zhen-Zhen was going to give up her princess dress for anything.) Not wanting to disappoint my baby and not wanting my head to explode from the stress of not being able to get her ready for the party, I quickly went into plan-b mode. Or the stash of clothes for 2012 -- remember I shop WAY to much. Needless to say the kitty-cat outfit was ADORABLE on Chloe -- the mermaid-princess -- not so much -- plus it was at least a size too big. But Chloe got to be a princess like her sister so that's all that mattered to her. By the way, she's the one who wanted to be a kitty-cat.

Fall leaves

The girls couldn't wait for to go jumping in the leaves. But it didn't really live up to their expectations as they quickly got bored with it. However, having daddy blow leaves on them with the leave blower was loads of fun.

Excuses

So it is now December and I haven't updated the blog since Halloween. And then for October that was the only blog post. So here is my list of excuses as to why that happened:

1. I'm lazy.
2. I don't get enough sleep.
3. I spend way too much time online shopping -- my 25 online orders to Gymboree just in the month of November is proof of that.
4. I started taking Saturday morning for myself -- 3 hours of alone time at the mall is wonderful for soul. Not so good on the wallet since that means more trips to the Gymboree store.
5. Two 3 year olds keep me really busy.
6. My 3 year olds have activities 3 nights a week and 2 times a week during the day.
7. The fairies don't clean my house or do my laundry while I'm sleeping.
8. My laptop died. Spent 1 week waiting for parts. Laptop still wasn't right. Ordered new laptop that took 2 weeks to arrive. This really cut into my computer time and online shopping abilities.
9. Coffee doesn't have the same kick as it use too.
10. But it all really comes back to number 1 -- I'm lazy. My plan is to update the blog with tons of posts this week. And then try to be less lazy.

And now I can't hit the publish post button on the new laptop. Have to run upstairs and try the other computer. Anyone have any ideas as to why? Figured this one out. IE9 and blogger don't work together. Nice. Not.

Happy Halloween!!!

Wow -- where did October go?!?!?! More updates -- coming soon. Promise.

The most magically place on earth.....

for 6 days it was for 2 little girls.








6 days, 5 nights, 9 character meals, eating breakfast and dinner at Cinderella's Castle, fireworks and dessert on the Toworrowland Terrace, balloons, rides, way too much food, swimming, and snacks....makes for so many memories of our time at mouseland.

All I want for Christmas....

...is my two front teeth, OK just one. Or so Chloe would say if she knew what was really going on.

OK, I'll explain.

Last Sunday night, Chloe didn't sleep well. She woke up crabby, complained a little that her lip and nose hurt, but was otherwise normal. Monday night she was up 3 or 4 times crying and couldn't get comfortable. Tuesday morning started with more complaints of "my lip and nose hurt", but now her upper lip and the inside of her top lip were a little swollen. I still wasn't sure what to make of it. So we went through a few days of Chloe being grumpy, over-tired, laying around, being clingy, and just not her self. And more not sleeping. Wednesday we went to art class at 9:30am. At some point a little boy backed into Chloe and his back touched her mouth area. She screamed and cried for 5 minutes over it, all the while crying that her lip hurt. And it was still a little swollen. After we got home, Chloe curled up on the couch and fell asleep -- so unlike her. I knew something was wrong. I called the dentist and he said he could get her in at 2pm. I called Sonny at work and had him come home early to stay with Cassie. The dentist did x-rays and didn't really see anything, but said that one of her front top teeth didn't look right in surgery and he almost pulled it then but thought it would be OK. This is a tooth that was filled in April. He sent us home with antibiotics, instructions to call him on Friday, and with another appointment for the following Wednesday. Chloe didn't improve and her lip started to swell a tiny bit more. We canceled all our activities for the week and just hung out on the couch watching TV, mixed in with me walking around holding Chloe. We did go to speech on Friday morning at 7:30am, and Chloe really wasn't herself. When we got home, I called the dentist. He decided Chloe needed a CT scan to see what was going on. He called the oral surgeon who does the CT dental scans and he was working at an office an hour from here. Chloe would need to be sedated for the CT scan, but Chloe had already had milk, so the surgeon would not do the scan. So our dentist said to be at his office at 12:30pm and he would sedate Chloe and do full x-rays and see what he could see since he was worried about waiting until Monday. I had to literally take a banana away from Chloe as the Dr. was telling me this because she couldn't have anything else to eat or drink. That made an unhappy girl even more unhappy. Again, I had to call Sonny home but this time to go with me and the girls since I had no idea what to expect.

After Chloe was finally in la-la land, the fun began. More x-rays, then still more x-rays, lots of poking, pulling surgery x-rays, poking more, then drilling in the front tooth under where the swelling was - the same tooth that was questionable from surgery, but drilling didn't really prove anything either. Then he said "I think I need to pull it." I said "Can you do it now?" and he said "yes." By the way, Chloe has been moaning in pain and crying since the drilling started. She had already had two meds to sedate her, stuff to numb her gums and lips, and was getting nitrous-oxide the whole time, and had two shots of Novocaine, and was still in pain. It was very tough to watch them drilling into my child's tooth while she's screaming and I'm saying "it's OK, mommy's here", all the while I'm crying inside for her. All I can say is it sucked. After another two shots of Novocaine and he pulled the tooth. Then he said "There is puss." Music to my ears. I've never been so excited to see puss. The tooth was abscessed but in the very early stages and didn't really show any signs outward yet. We took a shot by pulling the tooth, and it paid off.

So Chloe is missing her top right front tooth. There will be lots of toothless pictures in my baby's future but that doesn't matter because she's adorable with or without teeth. Chloe fell asleep on the way home and slept on the couch for about 3 hours after we got home. When she woke up she told me "the doctor bit me." So cute. :) Her Dr called around 8pm to check on her and by then she was doing much better.

Today my baby girl is back to her self. It's so nice to see her smiling and playing again. It's been a long week.

Surgery for Chloe

On Friday we were at Children's Hospital at 6am for a 7:30am surgery for Chloe. Getting up at 4:15am is tough but exciting when you know that at the end of the day your baby will be pain free. That's enough to keep you going -- along with coffee of course. Chloe was scheduled to have her ear tubes replaced, an ABR (hearing test), and some dental work.

Chloe should be getting frequent flier miles for all the time she's spent at the dentist this year. Chloe went to the dentist in January, February, and again in March to try and get some fillings done. Unfortunately, they couldn't do anything in January or February because they had trouble finding the right amount of sedation. It wouldn't do to have a screaming wiggling child while the dentist drills her teeth. It also wouldn't do to have her over-sedated. Finally in March, we got 2 fillings done. Our dentist is very patient with her and will only work on her if she's relaxed and not screaming/panicking/etc. That's makes for a lot of trips to his office but I'm glad he does it this way. However, Chloe needed crowns, so we knew she'd be going to the operating room eventually for lots of work. Meanwhile, in April we saw an ENT specialist. Chloe's ear tubes looked good but would need to be changed out before fall -- they only last 12 - 18 months before needing to be replaced. Then in May we did our yearly cleft appointment for both girls will the full team. It was then decided that it was time to schedule Chloe's dental work and new tubes. Both girls were already scheduled to have their teeth cleaned in June but I only had to take Cassie in since Chloe's teeth would be cleaned during her surgery. Cassie has her first cavity which is scheduled to be filled in the office in September. In July we had no doctor appointments -- shocking. :)

So that brings us to Friday. At 7:05am, we were taken back to pre-op. Dental was going first. We spoke to Chloe's dentist before-hand and he said that it would take him about 2 hours. Seemed long to me but ok, it is what it is. Then her ENT would replace her tubes, then her ABR test, then recovery and then home. Piece of cake.

I took Chloe to the operating room to assist in putting her under -- she did really well with it -- much better than she did last time. The dentist was already in there waiting for her. Then I went back to the pre-op room to gather up all our belongings, and Sonny and Cassie to head to the waiting room. I sent Sonny and Cassie to go get some breakfast and I sat down at 7:39am. At 9:30am I figured they should be done anytime -- after all he said 2 hours. Then at 10am I started to get nervous, at 10:30 panic started to set in and I started to pace. Finally at 11am the resident came out to talk to us. Chloe had needed a lot more work than they thought going in. They did x-rays (it appears that all her adult/permanent teeth) are there, she also has 4 shiny new silver crowns, and 8 new fillings. Wow -- poor girl. I feel so bad for her but so happy that they are now all fixed. About 30 minutes later her dentist also came out to talk to us and said he now needs to see her every 3 months since her teeth are so soft. He also said he could have put crowns on every one of her teeth but he ran out of time with the sedation. So we will be doing more work down the road. He also wants her on a prescription-strength extra fluoride toothpaste at night -- besides the recommended toothpaste we are already using and the rinse. Now we just pray that her adult teeth are in better condition when they come in. But, on the silver lining on all this -- Chloe's teeth are pain free for the first time ever!!!! That will be worth the huge bill we will be getting for all this dental work since our dental insurance won't cover most of this work.

Chloe's ENT called us around 11:30 to tell us he was done too. Tubes are quick. Her right tube has just fallen out -- it was still sitting on her ear drum and the hole was still there -- talk about perfect timing. And her left tube was still in place but had lots of fluid built up behind it -- more prefect timing. She needs antibiotic drops twice a day for a week in her ears but that's it for the ears.

Next was the hearing test -- that's done in recovery and takes about an hour. I had called Chloe's audiologist (Angela) the day before surgery to let her know Chloe was coming in and to see if she could do the test. Of course she said she'd make it happen. And yes, Angela did Chloe's ABR for her. And for the first time -- after 6 to 8 hearing tests in the past 18 months -- Chloe's hearing tested in the normal range!!!!!! We are so excited about this. God is healing and watching out for our baby girl in so many ways. It's just amazing!!!! We do need to check Chloe's hearing every 6 months to monitor it but Friday was very rewarding as a parent to see God's work and all the wonderful medical personnel take such good care of our baby girl.

Winnie the Pooh

On Saturday the 16th we went to the show to see Winnie the Pooh. It was the girls' first time too. They did great and had lots of fun. We went to a 10:25am showing so that helped too. We all gave the movie two thumbs up!!