My Little Dancer

Here's another dancing video. Maybe I will make it a weekly thing since she's always dancing. I can't believe she dances perfectly with the beat, no matter what the song. She adds on moves every day. It's hard to get video of Evan because he likes to hold my hands and dance, so I can't hold the camera. Sometime I will have to set the camera up. Anyway, enjoy the cuteness!

Uh-oh

Things I Wonder About

I just sat on a Mandarin orange and it squished onto my butt. How did that happen? Amelia must have chucked it about 4 feet.

What am I stepping on with my bare feet? Sometimes I can clearly tell it's pulverized Cheerios, but this time it's a little wet. Chewed on Cheerio? Mandarin orange?

What's that on my back? I've been out and about and back and in the mirror I see a chewed up piece of carbohydrate on my back. How long has it been there?

Are there any jeans left with no stains on them? I'd like to go out today without stains, but if I can't, I can't.

How long has this one area of hair been out of my ponytail? I look like a 1990 fashion statement.

How can I just forget to wear a coat? It's 45 degrees and I'm out shopping in short sleeves. I need to get my head outta my butt.

How is it possible that I've held my pee for this long? Even forgotten that peeing is something that I should be doing?

When is the last time I took a shower?

It's been 10 months since I've had my hair cut. How long can split ends get? Can they go all the way to my roots?!

OMG, is that a mouse? Eek!! Oh, wait, it's just a gigantic hairball from my cat that I haven't brushed in 9 months.

Eek!! Is that a mouse?? Oh, it's just that same hairball and I suffer from short-term memory issues.

Eek!!

What am I going to do when I can't use the fence anymore? How much does one of those invisible fence systems cost? KIDDING!!

And finally, why do I keep buying new flavors of Doritos when it's clear that Cool Ranch will always be my favorite?

The Medical Update

I've been procrastinating because I don't really feel like talking about it. This is the best way to update all our friends and family, though, so here it goes.

This past Thursday, we went to Seattle Childrens Hospital to see two orthopedic surgeons. The first was Dr. Theodore Wagner, who specializes in the spine. He went through Evan's MRI that was done a year ago. Since Evan is doing so well and the piece of vertebrae (hemivertebrae) that could one day make his spine grow crooked isn't currently a big problem, we will wait and have a CT scan in January. The CT will allow him to rotate Evan and see if the hemivertabrae is attached to another vertebrae. If it isn't, at some point it will just be taken out. If it is connected, then it would be a different procedure. What I don't know right now. The thing that I can't get out of my head is that something else was found in his neck. There is a disc missing in one of the neck vertebrae. The Dr. wasn't as concerned about it, but now of course I'm freaking out about it. I have many questions after the fact. Is this part of the problem with his torticollis? Good thing I'm seeing another back surgeon at Madigan Army Medical Center, which is a whole other thing to be talked about later. I'm also going to talk to his past physical therapists and on May 6th we are going back to Children's to see the physiatrist. And maybe I will call Dr. Wagner. Guaranteed I will get me some answers!!

Second appointment was with Dr. Hanel, the hand surgeon. He once again reiterated that nothing is to be done on the left. Agreed. The right? Well, it's complicated. Evan is always complicated. There are 5 levels of hypoplastic thumbs. Levels 4 and 5 do not have much bone at all and it is a clear cut decision. The thumb is removed and the forefinger is turned into a thumb. Levels 1 and 2 have enough bone to work with and a surgery is done to rearrange tendons and strengthen the base of the thumb. So what level do you think Evan's thumb is? Why level 3 of course!! There is bone there, but not enough to successfully do the strengthening surgery. Our options are to either leave the thumb the way it is or cut it off. What a horrible decision. I say that, but it really isn't hard. He clearly doesn't use the thumb. He uses his forefinger as support under objects that he's holding. The doc said that his brain has already programmed that finger to be his thumb. So a decision is made. And then I put my thumb on his little thumb and he pushes back. Not a lot of pressure, but still pressure is felt on my thumb. Enough to make you second guess. A decision must be made soon. An appointment for surgery to follow. It must be done by age 3. A small child's brain reroutes the finger to be a thumb. Any older and it would just be a forefinger turned in weird. John will be gone, so I will report the decision on my own...

There's more medical bullcrap coming soon, such as next weeks kidney ultrasound, a trip to Madigan for a Developmental Clinic involving all kinds of specialists (not needed in my opinion cause I've got it all covered, but who am I to deny second and third opinions), and the limb difference clinic with the physiatrist at Children's. So stay tuned I guess. Now you know why I want to put a bucket on my head and hide in the closet!

This is what I feel like

I started blogging about either being depressed or stressed, but no one wants to hear about that. I'm sure you all get it, I'm dealing with a lot, blah, blah, blah... So I will post this pic as a symbol of how I've been feeling lately.

Details of Evan's orthopedic appointments coming soon.

Belly Button and a Walker

Funny Amelia and Evan walking around even more. He walks more and more every day and loves to walk in his shoes- took about 25 steps today!

More Easter Pics

If you want to see all of the Easter pictures, go to my flickr page at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jassharrop/sets/72157616582754727/

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone is having a great Easter and Passover!

Here are pictures from this morning. They didn't know what was going on, but they sure were excited! They both tried chocolate for the first time. I put a couple of M&Ms in each plastic egg. Amelia loved them and Evan spit them out. Same with the chocolate bunny. The cat thought the whole thing was pretty interesting. She sat right next to them while they were going through everything.

Here are pictures from my attempt at taking Easter pictures.

Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose

What fantastic things do 15 month olds do? Why, they put their fingers in their noses, of course! And their ears and their eyes, though they haven't figured out that the finger can't go too far in the eye. Both of them started doing this within the last week.

A little less gross is the dancing that's been going on up in this hizzouse. Any time ANY song comes on, Amelia is dancing. If we are in the car, her head is going Stevie Wonder style. Evan likes to dance with his mommy. He sways back and forth and likes to stop and balance on on leg. They both like to dip, of course. The dancing shouldn't be surprising seeing who their crazy mother is. Dance champion, oh yeah.

Stay tuned for the Easter pics!

A Lovely Day for the Park (with weirdos)

Now, I know you are going to agree with me on this one. Why is it that every time you go to the park there is always that one weird kid? The one who is slightly "off", but his parents still let him run around by himself? They let him attach himself to another family and they think that that's OK? If you have not seen this kid, look for the parent who is twitching or wearing Birkenstocks. Then follow his/her gaze to another family. Look for the kid that is totally obnoxious and you found him! I say "him" because, for us, it is always a boy.

The past two days we went to two different parks because it is really nice outside. Seventy degrees in early April in this area? People come out of the woodwork. Here is what we encountered:

Park #1: Lovely park in Poulsbo on Liberty bay. Grassy area, merry-go-round, swings- you get the picture. Evan and Amelia are playing with their balls and here comes this 3 year old kid who steals Amelia's ball and starts kicking it across the field. His dad finally tells him to give the ball back, but does not reprimand him. This happens over and over, but what do you do? It's such a weird situation. Finally I told John to go get the ball and we'll just put them away. Then on a whole other creepy level, he comes onto our blanket and precedes to rub my arm up and down with both hands. The dad is just standing there smiling. He finally called his son over to him, but a few minutes later he came up to Evan and whipped a wiffle ball at his head from 6 inches away. End day at the park.

Park #2: Even lovlier day at Island Lake Park, just down the road from us. Lake, playground, grassy areas, you get the picture. A 4 year old hits Amelia's ball out of her hands, then gives it back to her. He then starts coughing really bad, whooping cough style. His dad runs over and tells him not to touch her ball because he is sick. Too late asshole! Why is your kid at the park touching the playground? Idiots!!! After he left, another kid, who reminds me of the kid from the day before, latches on to us. He kicks the ball away from my kids. I can hear his mother say to her friend, "He always makes friends wherever we go. He's so amazing." And I don't say anything because it has to be me, right? Am I the one with the problem? End day 2 at the park.

Well, what do you think? Am I crazy to hate on these kids? I would never let my kids do what these kids do. Am I the bit@#??

Anyway, I'm sure this is just going to keep happening because I intend on visiting a different park on every warm day. And there are ALOT of parks out here. Maybe I should write a parks guide book. I will call it "Don't Play With the Weird Ones- A Complete Guide to Kitsap County Parks". I will include a Weird Kid Rating from 1 to 5.

I will leave you with some cute pictures from the parks. I photoshopped the weird kids out (just kidding).

Recent Cuteness

Evan tried to climb on the activity cube and got stuck. I didn't realize he was stuck until after I had taken ten pictures and he started whining. Oops.

All tired out from the jumpy. Just the way I like her.

Grandpa Gary, is that you?



Ponytails and bruises. She's fearless and is currently sporting three bruises on her face.

They finally take baths together. I haven't decided whether this is easier or not.

John and Evan on the ferry to Seattle. If you look close, you can see the snow-capped Olympic mountains in the background.