Eyes and Ears

Sweet HG had an eye operation on Wednesday. This was to help correct the alignment in her eyes. They look GREAT! We won't know for sure if this will be the final surgery needed for the alignment for several weeks, but they look good and straight to me! I'll try to take a picture of them tomorrow. They are a bit swollen still and rather red, but they look much better than I expected, to be honest. I imagined that they would be much more blood shot than they are. She has taken it easy for the last two days and is still rather tired. The hardest part is that she has to have drops put in her eyes (antibiotics and steroid) for a week, 3 times per day. She doesn't care for this at all! She did do better today. I'm sure about the time she gets used to it, it will be time to stop. She also cannot touch her eyes at all and so she has to sleep with these splints on her arms. She doesn't really seem to mind the "no-nos" on the arms and actually asked for them tonight! Ha! She doesn't wear them during the day, but she knows she cannot touch her eyes. If I see her getting close to touching them, I will remind her in spanish. She will then repeat it to me, telling me "No tocas!" That girl!
After the eye surgery, they did a sedated hearing test (ABR). We did not expect any hearing issues but did this at the request of the speech therapy folks. They feel that HG will benefit from a specific type of speech therapy but she can only receive it if she has no hearing loss. Well, the ABR showed a signficant hearing loss. We were shocked! It did not seem possible for her to have this severe of a loss and for us to not notice it at all. Yes, her speech is bad, but according to the initial/verbal report from the ABR, she shouldn't hear much of anything at all. If you have spent any time around HG, you will know that she does indeed hear you, often repeating what you say. Today we folllowed up with the ENT and his initial comment was, "Well, this is going to be an interesting case for sure!" The ABR was contradictory to some of the findings of the initial hearing testing done in his office with an audiologist. He said that if he only saw the paper report on HG, he would say that she could not hear much of anything at all and that we would definitely notice it. Since she was responding to his commands (in poor spanish at that!), he knew she could indeed hear better than the ABR showed. So, his approach is "let's wait and see." She does have a large amount of wax in her ears (he cannot even see her ear drum) and wants to work on getting that out before we go to the next step. He said that he thought the ABR "over stated" her actual hearing levels. So, we are grateful today for that potentially good news.
For now, we will continue to heal and continue to "work" on HG's development. She is doing SO well!

Happy B'day, J!

Poor pics, I know. Sorry! That's the best I could do with my phone. and poor lighting!

Today we celebrated J's birthday! After swimming for the big girls this morning and work in the yard, we ate dinner at Babe's. Yum! We had never been to Babe's and we all really enjoyed it! The girls were a little freaked out by the "chickens" in the entry way, but they were able to laugh about them on the way out the door. Then, a yummy ice cream treat at Dairy Queen. Whew! We are stuffed! In fact, we had to save the presents for in the morning because we were all tired and too full to celebrate any more. Happy Birthday, J!

My Fish

HV and HM swim... a lot. Even as cold as our pool is now, they still get in (not daily, but still!). This school year they joined a swim team through their school and have loved it! Technically, HM is too young for this school group, but the coach said "let's try her and see how she does." She's been in the water with them every week since then! They had their first meet this past weekend and did GREAT! Both girls competed in all 4 strokes and placed in the top 3 on all events for their age bracket. HM came home with a medal and 4 ribbons. HV came home with a trophy and 4 ribbons. They issue points based on their ranking and HV had the highest number of points in her age bracket. Needless to say, we are proud of our "fish!" Good job, lovies!

Two on Thursdays

So she was my date tonight. Pizza and then to the park to feed the ducks was on the agenda for us. We had a good time together.
Since bringing HG home, it has been hard for all of us. We are SO grateful, of course, that she is here. It's just an adjustment for us all. The "big girls" are feeling a little left out and so we decided to have a babysitter each Thursday afternoon/evening for HG (and ironically, her name begins with H as well!). J and I each take a kid and go do something, just the two of us. There will be times when HV and HM have a sitter too and J and I will be having a date. We've got that lined up for next Thursday! So, if you want to "borrow" our big girls for a Thursday afternoon/evening, let me know! It's good for all of us!

and then she was 8

HM today, her 8th birthday

One of the first photos of HM, 3 days old

Oh my! Our "middle" baby is 8 years old today. Boy, she has grown and changed! Entering the world at just 5 pounds and a few ounces, we never imagined that she would grow up to be such a "big" girl! She can still scream and screech with the best of them, but she can control herself so much more in the last year or so. She's such a good big sister to HG and a little sister to HV. I can't imagine our family without her! We love you, Stinky Girl!

No, she doesn't stink. :) I'm not sure why we call her that, but we do.

Serving Spoon

I had a date tonight, just with my oldest "baby." Check out that spoon that came with her pork lo mein! She thought it was hilarious!

And yes, I did eat at a chinese food restaurant. They WILL prepare chicken lo mein without veggies, just in case you wanted/needed to know. :)

Socktopus

I love this thing! In order to continue to cut back on expenses, I've started hanging some of our clothes to dry. I bought a metal drying rack but was struggling with how to keep the socks from falling off. I found this little gizmo at Ikea and HV named it the Socktopus. It does have eyes too! (No, I don't leave it hanging here. It's just hanging there for the picture). We'll see how this impacts the electricity bill.

A Work of Art

I know. You're probably thinking that this looks like any other preschool art project. You're right! It does! And that is SO exciting!

Yep, our little HG made this fireman puppet at her preschool this week after a visit to the fire station. She colored it herself (look at how she made the different parts different colors), cut it out herself, and placed the pieces on the sack. She didn't have time to finish it all at school and so I had her cut it out at home and I confess that I did squirt the glue out for her (all in the interest of the little time we had left after her cutting) but she did place the pieces appropriately!

Why is this such a big deal? This child didn't color in the lines a few weeks ago. This child did not color different parts of a picture different colors. This child could barely handle a pair of scissors. And this week, she put it all together and made a puppet.

So pleased with her work, aren't you? She's learning, working hard every week. I'm a proud Mommy, that's for sure.

Home for 3 Months!

At times it seems like just yesterday that we arrived home with HG and at other times, it seems so long ago. Yesterday marked our 3 month family anniversary with HG. No, we didn't celebrate but perhaps we should?? Just a few thoughts, in no particular order, regarding our last 3 months:

• It's not always easy. I'm guessing that most of you have figured that out by my lack of posting on here. I'm delighted, don't get me wrong, to have HG home. But it's work. She is happy most of the time, but her lack of communication skills and her desire to be in control give her "reasons" to have some tantrums. Her preference is to be with me and me only, meaning she can have my undivided attention.
• She is attending preschool and is doing well there. Her teacher says that each week she gets more into the "school groove" and I can tell a difference in her school work too. She LOVES going to school, asking me every night and morning if she will see her teacher tomorrow. Her preschool, by the way, is in English.
• She also loves her gymnastics class. It too is in English but she is able to follow the example of the other kids and does well.
• She is learning to complete a series of events such as take your pajamas to your room and then put on your clothes, do this gymnastics skill and then move onto a different station, returning to the skill later. This is helping her tremendously in so many aspects.
• She is working with an occupational therapist who thinks that she is doing great! She is able to focus more, paying attention to completing a task. This is huge as HG likes to wander from one activity to another. Her therapist is bilingual and said that she feels like HG is understanding more English each week.
• She has had her speech assessment but the therapy has not started as of yet. We're waiting for the good ol' insurance approval and then we'll be ready to go. Her therapist will be bilingual.
• Her need to be in control is often rather subtle. We might put the dinner plate down and then she will move it, only about 1 cm, just so that it will be where SHE put it. We require the girls to drink all of their milk at dinner. HG will leave just enough in the cup to barely cover the bottom and then she will try to give it back to you. Nope, you gotta drink it all. She'll put it up to her lips and do it again, not drinking anything. Ah, that girl! She is learning, little by little, that J and I ARE in control here. She is learning that we will provide and protect her and that she no longer has to do it herself. She really does the control thing with J much more than with me.
• She will now kiss me on the lips without wiping it off. In fact, she will often pucker up, asking me for a kiss! This is HUGE considering that at one point she could not even stand to drink out of a cup because she didn't want the liquid to touch her mouth/lips. Lots of lip gloss applications have helped with the mouth desensitization.
• She has learned many things, even if they are small. She has learned that she doesn't have to be the first one in the car because everyone WILL get to go. She has learned that she doesn't have to be served her meal first because everyone WILL get something to eat. She has learned where to put her dirty clothes, her eye glasses, and her night-time diaper (she's potty trained but not at night). She has learned that Mommy WILL return when I take her to school or if I have to work late/early. She has learned how to make her bed in the morning and where to put her stuffed animal, Donkey, so that she can find him for sleeping again. She has learned to take a bath, including washing her hair, without screaming (at least not too much screaming!). She is learning that Mommy does not hurt the children. She is learning that wresting/rough-housing is fun. She has learned to make the letter H which is pretty important, you know. :)

I could go on and on in the "what she has learned" category, but I'll leave it with these things for today. My sweetie is evolving, changing, blossoming. I always knew that she was "in there," and I'm starting to see that sweet child on the outside. Beautiful!

Nuevo Lentes

Mira! Yo tengo nuevo lentes! Que linda! Look! I have new glasses! How pretty!

Tin Grin

Someone has a new smile as of Tuesday! She's growing up SO much!

Warm Your Neck!

Look at the right-hand side of your screen. Yep, over there at the top of the blog. I've added a new page titled Warm Your Neck, Guatemalan Style! Check it out and let me know what you think! You can also see some pictures of some SWEET girls that I know. :)

Have a Heart Day

The school where HV and HM attend had their annual Have a Heart Day this week. The students go out into the community and do something to give of themselves. J went with HV (they went to a retirement center and then to the animal shelter) and I went with HM. HM's group went to a nursing home, a senior activities center, and a fire station. Here's little HM manning the firehose!

I took this with my phone so the quality isn't the greatest, but you can still see her in action!

Nueva Prima

I had to steal these pictures from my sister's blog, but the girls have a new cousin! Yippee! M was born on a cold and snowy Friday! In this picture, she's ONLY about 30 hours old! And yes, she was already at home.

What a sweet little "burrito!"

When we let HG hold her, she patted her and said "O! Pobrecito!" which means oh you poor little thing! Too funny!
J and HM stayed home, not going out for the snowy drive to see the new cousin!

Still Here!

It's been almost 2 months since HG has been home and I have been AWFUL about posting here. I'm sorry! We're all hanging in there and doing as well as we expected.
1. Christmas was lovely. I don't know if HG quite understood it all, but she had fun nonetheless. The girls got a wii from Santa and we've had fun playing the different games together.
2. HG started preschool (where HV and HM went) in early January, going 3 days per week. She seems to enjoy it and asks each morning about going to see her teacher! She will increase to 5 days per week of preschool this month/February. We are checking into putting her into a spanish preschool part-time too. A speech pathologist that we consulted recommended that we do this since HG isn't speaking in spanish as she should for her age--she uses 1-3 words, not complete sentences--and since her dominant language is spanish, it would make sense to increase that too. There are several spanish preschools around us, but I do not know if they will accept her since she is technically the age for kindergarten here.
3. All 3 girls are doing gymnastics. Everyone goes on Monday evenings and has a blast. HM also goes on Wednesday evenings. We don't care if they are gymnastic superstars. We just want them to have fun and have some exercise.
4. The big girls are continuing with their swim team on Fridays and Saturdays too. Both of them are like fish. I think once HG realizes that the water in our back yard is for swimming, we will be in trouble with her! She will want to be in it all the time! She likes to "swim" in the bathtub.
5. FIVE--we're still adjusting to being a family of five. We knew it would take time--a long time--for it to seem normal. I would say that where we are today is where I expected we would be: everyone still testing the boundaries, checking to see where they fit in this new normal for us all. Little by little, we will get there.
I promise to be better about posting. When I got 2 emails saying that people were worried because I had not posted, I figured I had better get busy! I'll do better--promise!