Aches and Pains

She really thinks ballet is worth it!

Cullen Willgers uses a heated rice pad to soothe her aching knees after practice at Bonnie Cokinos Dance. Tammy McKinley/The Enterprise Photo: Beaumont Enterprise 

 

Soccer Champions

Congratulations to the Mudbugs for winning the 2011 Houston Express soccer tournament!

Jane Kurtz

Jane Kurtz will be in Houston  this weekend.  She will be signing books the following dates/times/locations:   Thursday, January 27th  5 p.m. Blue Willow Book Store   Friday, January 28th 7 p.m. Memorial Barnes & Noble   Saturday, January 29th 3 p.m. Town & Country Barnes & Noble   Sunday, January 30th 12ish* DSM Ethiopian Orthodox Church

 
So who is Jane Kurtz?  Jane is the author of numerous award-winning children's books, such as Pulling the Lion's Tail, Trouble, Only a Pigeon, The Storyteller's Beads, Faraway Home, and Saba. [And yes, I have everyone of them signed.  :) ] She spent most of her childhood in Ethiopia and has based many of her books on her memories of Ethiopia, such as the ones I named above. Most recently though, she authored American Girl's Lanie and Lanie's Real Adventures.  She works with a company in Ethiopia called Ethiopia Reads which helps bring books to the children in Ethiopia.

When Life Hands You Lemons...

Make lemonaid! 

 I'm just not sure how to do that just yet.  :)  I finally took my hubby's advice on having a plantar fascia release.  I had been having problems for awhile, tried many conservative treatments, then decided to finally take the surgery route.  That was a couple of months ago, but now the pain is worse.  Not only is it still in the same area, but now I have pain in part of my foot that wasn't hurting and have paresthesia along the bottom of my foot.  So I had an MRI of my foot, and what do you know?  The radiologist apparently tells my husband that the surgery really screwed me up.  Uggh!!!  SO does anyone have any suggestions on how to make something good of this?  I don't blame my podiatrist.  He is a great doctor, and mistakes happen.  I also don't blame my hubby.  He thought this would help because it does on most people when conservative treatments fail, but my problem has been since birth.  I was born with club foot.  Now, I haven't had problems all through life.  I guess my prior gymnastics career, cheerleading, and gym work outs have caught up with me.  We'll see what another specialist says tomorrow.

Two Years Ago Today...

Two years ago today I got the most wonderful phone call from Grace that we had passed court and Maritu and Mamush were now officially part of our family!

Here's a picture of Mamush:

And Maritu:

Finally!

Yes, It's been awhile.  I guess ADD keeps me from focusing on keeping this blog updated.  But I've decided to share some news.  Mamush had PE tubes placed in his ears in October.  For those of you that know how minor this is for most children, I feel you rolling your eyes, but this was huge for us because this was his second try at tubes.  You see, his ear canals are like a preemie's.  Our local ENT sent us to a friend of his in Houston, Newton Duncan, who deals with Down's children on a daily basis.  Apparently, they also have small canals.  We thought we were going for a consult for hearing aides, but after examining Mamush, Dr. Duncan said he has dealt with smaller ears!   And now he can hear!!!  Imagine the tears that streamed down my face in the recovery room when Mamush said, "That's too loud." 

But that's not all.  Mamush has also been seeing a new pediatric endocrinologist at UTMB in Galveston.  Unlike the resident at Texas Children's Hospital, Dr. Lee has listened to our concerns.  Mamush just had an MRI of this brain a few weeks ago, and Dr. Lee said that it showed he had a very small pituitary.  So now what?  He'll have a return visit in January, and Dr. Lee will begin working on getting growth hormone approved for him.  Surely Blue Cross will see his need.  He is no where near the bottom percentile on a growth chart, he hasn't grown a centimeter in 18 mo., and we have ruled out any other possible causes.  And let me tell you how much of a trooper he is!   The anesthesiologists were commenting on how well behaved he was, and saying that they wished every child was like him.  He has made me proud, and I'm sure his bio parents would be too.

Jingle Bell Ball

Here's my beauty:

But this is really how our family rolls...

Johnson Space Center

Today I got to ride the charter bus with my son's class to Johnson Space Center in Houston.  Was I thinking clearly when I agreed to chaparone third and fourth graders?  :) 

What did you say?

Don't you just love when children learn a language?  They are so stinkin' cute sometimes with the things they say.  This morning I was taking the sheets off of our bed, and Mamush says, "Momma, what's that all about?"  He had me rolling!

Doctor Dolittle

I am a lover of classics, and Doctor Dolittle is just one of them, so now you can see the connection between this pic and my title.  You see, Curran was on a break in between soccer games, so she wanted to go look at these animals.  Some people that are regulars at that park said these nutria are always here but never come up to you.  Well, my husband commented that Curran talks to the animals, and right at that moment, one crawled right up to her!  She fed and petted it!  Oh my! 

Needless to say, we did play all of our games today.  We won the first 2-0 against the Dallas Texans from Austin.  Then we dropped the second 0-2 against the Lonestars.  I was told it was heart-breaking!  Apparently, the first score came from a PK awarded from a yellow card against one of our girls.  Even the other team's parents said they didn't see a foul.  Then the second goal came when the opposing team held our goalie's jersey in the box.  I don't mind losing, but not like that!  I have to place blame on bad officiating!  You know it's just not you when the other team's parents agree.  But we came back with a 6-0 win for our third game which sealed a second place victory.  The best comment of the day was when a few of the Lonestar parents came up to our parents and asked why they hadn't heard of us before.  (I guess we are like Grandma's secret recipe-a well hidden secret!)

Here's  a better pic that one of our parents took of the Nutria:

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Little Curran wants to play!  Soccer that is!  My husband made a trip to Houston for Curran's Director's Cup State Championship games, but as soon as he pulled into the park, he got a message that the games were cancelled due to field conditions.  So, it was another two hour trip home, not to mention the price of gas!  Yikes!  That was okay with me though because we both were able to attend Cullen's dance recital...  My how she's grown!

Eugenics and Modern Racism

  Please visit http://www.maafa21.com/ .  Click on the link and watch the trailer for this documentary.  I believe You Tube also has a couple of trailers too.  (This is especially important to the African community.)

3 Amigos

Frustrated!

Sometimes I just want to oull my hair out in frustration.  What is going on in the world when we can justify our agency's unethical actions just so we can have a child?  Are we that selfish?  Do the ends justify the means?  Ever?  Do you think that by bullying another person to keep quiet is going to change reality?  One day, the truth WILL come out.  Then, what will your answer be on why you chose to stay silent?

Paboos for Africa

Today Sheridan is 4 years old.  I thought she'd be past the "terrible two" stage by now.  Boy, was I wrong!  But she never ceases to amaze me with the things she comes up with.  We have been preparing Sher for taking away her paboos for awhile now on her 4th birthday.  We tell her that she is a big girl at the magical age of 4, so she told us this morning as she handed her paboos (6 of them) to us that she wanted us to send them to Africa so all  the babies will have something to make them not cry until they have a family. 

She did cry for them tonight when we put her to sleep, but we reminded her that she wanted them sent to Africa.  She really is a big girl!  :)

No More Shots!

This cartoon made me think of our public school system. In Vidor, I was told that I couldn't register my children for school until they had all their shots. I explained that we are on a catch-up schedule as this person already knew they were from another country, but the special education teacher said there were no exceptions. Well, she obviously hasn't read the TEA manual, so I didn't bother arguing. I guess I'll educate the educators when the time comes...

Good news is that Maritu got her last vaccination today. She is officially caught up! This reminds me to tell you to ask your pediatrician to do a catch-up vaccination schedule. There really isn't something official, but just ask that doctor how they'd like to receive 6-8 shots at a time! Not I! So, I can't do that to my children either. Besides, there really is no concensus on what causes autism, so why take the chance? I just asked that they get no more than two at a time. I think the only drawback is that I've felt like our family needs their own room at our doctor's office...


Next, it's Mamush's turn...

Update:

Well, now we are officially back into soccer season.  Curran's team is trying to petition for a place in the Super II division.  We have been a Division II team, but we combined with our rivals, the Jasper Twisters, and I have to brag that we have a great group of girls!  We are kicking girl's butts in Division I in tournaments, so there shouldn't be a problem, but we have been told that it depends on how we place in the Director's Cup.  Right now, we qualified for State through our district games, so all I can say is, "Go Xtreme!"

As for Mamush, the last we were told is that the doctors are going to watch his growth for 6 months to a year before deciding on starting treatment.  We were going to have genetic testing done, but we have to wait until we get our insurance straightened out.  What a mess!  Well, Obama's plan that no child would be denied due to pre-existing conditions hasn't taken effect....So much for that....

What I love about Spring

Sorry for the silence.  I sometimes want a little silence in my life, but now the days are growing longer and the temperature is increasing which inspires me to talk again.  So here's a few pictures of why I love Spring:

Sher peeks around the trellis.

Maritu is showing off Mommy's first blooms.

Test Time

We are here at Texas Children's Hospital for Mush's growth hormone stimulation test, and of course the first thing he asks for this morning is food. He did not like that I ignored his request. But as he soon saw, food was going to be the least of his problems. I say that because he got stuck twice for his IV line. The first one blew immediately, but so far the second one is holding up. We are half way through.

UPDATE: What's worse than getting stuck again? Answer: Mom leaving you with the big, bad nurse that stuck you! :) I had to pee, so I had no choice but to ask the nurse to hold Mamush. He was a real trooper throughout the test. First, he was given clonidine which made him drowsy. Then he had an iv of arginine and his blood was drawn every 30 minutes. The nurse had to flush his tubing with saline several times which made him scream, and if you have ever experienced that, it hurts! The nurse, however, was able to make all of the draws except for the last one. That darned iv line just plugged up tight, but it's over now. SO now we just wait for the results and see what we need to do next. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 3 months for the results. (I think he has to have an MRI of the brain to make sure he doesn't have a tumor on his pituitary gland that could be causing the problems.)

More Sticks

As if Mamush hasn't had enough "owies", we received a letter in the mail from Texas Children's Center stating that Mamush's labs require further testing.  You think?!!?  We only had those labs drawn in November...!  Good thing he is young because if we were in a race to begin growth hormone treatment before puberty, we'd  be in trouble.  So, Mamush now has to undergo a growth hormone stimulation test next month.  After fasting for 12 hours, he will have an IV placed in his arm.  The staff will then draw an initial growth hormone level.  After that, he will receive periodic IVs of arginine and something else (I can't remember.) which is supposed to stimulate the pituitary gland into producing growth hormone.  They draw blood samples over a 6 hour period.  I guess I have to be thankful that Mamush is the one undergoing this test because Maritu would have a fit if she couldn't eat for 18 hours!  She likes her food!  I just hope I don't have to wait another 3 months for those results.