Hello, Strangers!

Hi y'all! Well the musical finished up last weekend and IT. WAS. AWESOME. Really one of the most fun things I have done and I am super sad it is over, but alas, I suppose all good things must come to an end. And also the laundry has become alive and is breathing down my neck and threatening to kick me out of the house so I guess it might be nice if I was around the house once in a while. Since I last posted anything, the older 2 Things have gone back to school (sniff, sniff) and we have all been busy getting back into that groove. Also, while you are still chuckling about my musical participation, I will add to you chuckle fodder by letting you know that the Husband and I got 24 hours away from ALL the kiddos and spent it at Mountain Lake Resort for 'Dirty Dancing' weekend, oh yes we did! It is about 25 minutes from our house and is the place where most of the movie 'Dirty Dancing'[ was filmed, GASP!, 22 years ago (What?! how can that be since I remember it so well and I am still just a college kid??). We missed a lot of the "activities" by the time we could get up there but we did get to go to the big dance they had Saturday nite and it was a blast! I have some pictures and will post them when I am not exhausted (hahahaha, look for them about 2035 then...) and hopefully I will get to them before the laundry takes over. Glad to be back to blogland and hope there are still all 3 of you out there checkin' in!

On Hiatus

So our very busy dress rehearsal schedule and soon to be performances, coupled with daily life here at Chez Things, is necessitating a blog hiatus until after the show closes. So, if you are local or even if you are not, below are the show details-c'mon and see it!! Otherwise, I will see you back here in about 2 weeks and until then, here is a topic: Joseph's coat, neithuh technicoluh naw dreamy, talk amongst ya selves........


Performance Dates:Thursday through Sunday, August 13-16 & August 20-23, 2009

Curtain times are at 7:30 pm (Thursday through Saturday) and 2:30 pm for the Sunday matinee.

Location: Haymarket Theatre, Squires Student Center, Blacksburg

Tickets available at the door: General Admission $15 Senior (+65) $10 Student/Child $6

For more information, visit the web site: http://www.civic.bev.net/sme/

I Spy

How many real human children are in this picture?

Guess It's 9 Lives Were Up

(DISCLAIMER: THIS POST MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CAT LOVERS, SERIOUSLY)

So, last nite the husband (who is AWESOME, thanks for the super great birthday, baby! I'd marry you again in a heartbeat!!) goes to let the dog in before we go to bed as I straighten up the blanket and stuff (read: empty Starbucks mocha frappucino ice cream container that we had eaten out of with 2 spoons like savages after the Things were in bed, mmmmmm) on the couch. He goes to our back sliding door that goes out onto our deck, our deck which is like 15 feet up off the ground of our fenced in yard and faces a big rolling cow field and nothing else. Said husband had also been asleep on the couch, a most unusual occurrence (not), so he was in a little bit of a groggy state. From across the room I hear a bewildered "oh! what the..?" and he shuts the sliding door, then he flips on the light, looks back out and says.............."there's a dead cat out here!"

um, WHAT?!?!

At this point I cannot fathom what he is talking about because how and why would there be a dead cat on our deck and also our little annoying, I mean endearing, feline was sitting by the couch doing nothing productive as usual, but being alive so that automatically disqualified her from the situation. So I go to look and sure enough, there was a dead cat right on the deck. SO GROSS! And moderately creepy. I ask the husband what we should do with it, after we poked it with a shoe to make sure it was really dead, even though there was not much question about it's deadness really, but it seems like the proper thing to do, you know, just in case. Yep, dead alright. We stood there discussing how it got there-the dog we guess? It was not "disturbed" in such a way that would indicate he was uh, playing, with it but unless it fell from the sky or walked up to our deck and died--which we doubted b/c it seemed to be quite dead, if you know what I mean, as in "not recently walking" dead--then our disgusting,er, faithful canine must have gifted us with it-he will never lick me again, I'll tell you that. Anyway, we decided the best course of action was to get a shovel and put it up by the curb for the town to come pick it up in the morning because we didn't want to bury it and have the dog dig it up (sorry cat lovers, I know this is disturbing--try being the one discussing this plan at midnight) so my husband went to get a shovel. He came up ready to do the deed and get on with going to bed but I said "WAIT! we have to take a picture." He looked at me like I had said I wanted to eat the dead cat and asked "WHY would we take a picture??" "Honey, for the BLOG!" I responded as in, duh!!! Yeah, it's true, I love you guys that much that I wanted to be sure you got the true experience of our hoppin' nightlife around here. Welcome to the family, y'all.

HIJACKED!

This is MR. Jody here and I've seized control of my lovely wife's blog (even changed the password for the day so she can't delete this post hehehehe). I want to make sure that everyone knows that...

TODAY IS JODY'S BIRTHDAY!

So make sure you pass on your birthday wishes - let her hear it! Here's a photo from birthday surprises past (that's tiny little Thing 2 in front of her...ahh memories):

Altogether now...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JODYYYYYYYY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

I love you, babe.
I hope you have a great day.

Family Fun

We had a stupidly busy week last week and the blog posting just didn't happen (nor did the laundry-sorry family! and everyone else who had to smell us!) so a brief re-cap of the week: got Thing 4's superhero helmet, had a fun time in Named Charlotte with a friend who had moved away, lived at rehearsal for the upcoming musical, and finally had a free weekend to just have fun with the kids and my sister's family and then the husband and I had our first date of just the 2 of us in a REALLY long time. It was GREAT, and our newest little Thing did very well at her first time being without mom and dad. It is an incredible blessing to have a sister nearby who also happens to be my very best friend-I love you, Tracy! Thanks for everything you guys do for our family-it never goes unnoticed, and we OFTEN thank the Lord for you all!!!

Anyway, some pictures of the fun:

What is this martian hat you put on me, Mom?

A 2 headed monster (one head very nicely decorated, I might add ;) )

Swings are the best invention EVER!

No wait, COUSINS who are best friends are the best invention ever!

Questions and Answers

Let's talk about my head, shall we?

Erin asked:
Will you get the cool custom airbrushing?


We will be decorating her contraption in such a cool fashion ALL the babies are gonna want one. And maybe even their parents, too. Because nothing is cooler than a big plastic helmet.


Theresa asked:
Can they make her band hot pink?


No, they all come in white, but WE can make it hot pink, or blue, or green, or swirly....the possibilities are endless!

Sarah asked:
How obvious is it, Jody? I mean, did you notice it on you own or did a doctor have to point it out?


VERY obvious, and we had it pointed out to us the day after we got home as something to "keep an eye on" by the doc we saw the morning after getting back in the country and were told to really try to work with repositioning her at her feedings, sleeping times, etc. But, honestly, it got put on the back burner when we were working on her breathing issues (not her head on the back burner b/c well, that wouldn't be right and all, but the thought about it) One day shortly after getting out of the hospital we were at the park. I was swinging her in the little baby swing which afforded a great top view of her little head and I looked down and went "WHOA! that's not a normal shape at ALL!" and felt the "oh no..." feeling growing in my stomach. We doubled our efforts of repositioning and trying to keep her out of car seats/bouncy seats as much as possible. As an aside, she also has a condition called torticollis which means she has a shorter, tighter muscle on one side of her neck which causes her to hold her head at a tilt. This is very often present in children with plagiocephaly-they tend to lie in the same position all the time b/c of the tight neck muscle, which causes the flat spot to get worse, and it is kind of like a chicken and egg thing. A lopsided egg, that is :) Anyway, when we were on vacation her torticollis was VERY pronounced (she tends to tilt way more when she is tired or somewhere unfamiliar b/c it is most comfortable and therefore comforting to her. We were really getting concerned and were anxiously awaiting our next doctor appointment to talk to the doc about it.

Was it your regular doc who found it or a intl doc? Did he/she see it at your first appt?

At our next doctor appointment with our regular family doc, I asked specifically for him to check it and he basically told me what I was fearing-it is a very significant flat spot, it is really not going to correct itself, she will always have the flat spot/lopsidedness which could be covered up by her hair later in life and we can either live with it, or our only real option for treatment is a helmet. He supported either decision and said he was happy to refer us to a specialist if we wanted to have it looked at and he gave us a few days to think about and look into our options. Our pediatric pulmonologist had pointed it out, as had a friend who is a nurse, as well, so it was not like we were seeing things, but whether or not to treat it was really the question we had as it is no small decision. Anyway, the next day was our 1st post placement visit with the social worker and she, truly very kindly and gently, asked "so, what are you all going to be doing about her head?" She told us she noticed it immediately when she came in and knows for sure at the big adoption clinic near her (she is 3 hrs away from us) they would immediately refer Zoe to be evaluated and treated b/c it really looked, to her, pretty severe. She really was great and talked through the pros and cons of it with us and we knew from our own research that if we did it, we would want to go to the clinic in Named Charlotte. So, that very afternoon, I called them and asked them 50 million questions and then set up an appointment for the next week. At that appointment, they do all sorts of measurements and pictures (where they completely slick her little hair down so they can really see it-she looked very, um, lovely, with it all combed absolutely flat to her head, her little torticollis-y head cocked to the side b/c she was in a new unfamiliar place, and her tongue hanging out b/c she does that ALL. THE. TIME.--and drooling, which she also does ALL THE TIME, for good measure. It was a vision of pathetic-ness, poor thing.) Anyway, after all that, one of the physical therapists came in to go over all the data with us and show us the photos. It was quite obvious that the treatment was absolutely necessary if we wanted her head shape and ear and eye alignment to be normal, and while it will not affect her ability to live or anything, the problems it would cause if we did not treat it now when it is treatable far outweighed the negatives of not treating her. So, we will be picking her little helmet up in a week and will get her little noggin right where it needs to be!





For the record, I know it seems like all the sudden there are several babies that have come home with this problem (there have been 5 that I know of in the last year, including ours-but really that is a very small number considering how many have come home in total) and a lot of you fellow adoptive parents are feeling concerned about your own little ones. If you are worried about your child's head, check with your doctor, but it is not something that happens to every baby and yes, it happens from too much back time, but can also happen in utero from positioning or as a result of the torticollis. It is not at all an "Ethiopian baby" thing nor a Hannah's Hope thing, specifically-there are lots of US-born babies with the same issues as there has been a huge increase in the number of cases of plagiocephaly since the launch of the "Back to Sleep" campaign in 1992. I wanted to state that we this is not something we are doing just to make our girl look pretty, it is not just a cosmetic thing and we really truly would not even consider it unless we thought it was severe enough to merit this treatment b/c quite truthfully, it is wildly expensive and not at all convenient as we have to drive the almost 3 hours to Named Charlotte and back every other week for her adjustments as she grows. So, do your research and follow up with your doc if you are truly concerned, but please don't worry about it if you have not thought it was an issue before :) Hope this helps clarify things for y'all--I know in the blog world b/c it is so public, it can seem like it is something "everyone" is doing, so I just didn't want to cause any undue panic :)!!