Recovery

February 13

Before the rhinoplasty:

 After:

 Ben was a pretty good patient.  The surgery lasted just under three hours with no complications.  The doctor was two hours late starting, though, because of a previous surgery, so Ben was the last one in the recovery room, and the nurses wanted him to go so that they could go home.  They had no sympathy for him!  He was so groggy, but sadly, didn't make any hilarious or embarrassing comments.  We were able to get him up and to the car just before 5, so everyone was happy.  Ben just really wanted to go back to sleep, so he did.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To amend my comments earlier--Ben had more than three stitches.  He had them going all around inside his nose.  The three were just the ones we could see on the outside immediately after the surgery.

Ben was feeling pretty good the day after the surgery.  He was up and able to watch Benson and Tessa in the afternoon while I went to do Caytie's class Valentine party.  My wonderful friend Esther brought us some pizza (and salad and ice cream) for dinner, and not just because she's the Relief Society President.  She's just awesome.

Then days two and three hit, and Ben was in pain.  He was pretty much out of commission.  Thankfully he was still able to take care of changing the dressings and cleaning things out on his own, because it was making me light headed seeing all the fun liquids draining out of his nose.

He had to keep the cast on for a week.  I was able to go with him to get it off, which turned out to be a good thing, because he passed out while the doctor was taking out the stitches.  Apparently that part hurts a lot.

And here he is, with residual swelling, on the way home from the doctor:

And then, because it's Throw Back Thursday, here's a picture of him after the first time he had this surgery, way back when he was 21.  A week after his mission, he went swimming with his family.  He dove into the pool from a diving board and hit the bottom with his face.

We hope that this time the surgery worked a little better.

A Labor of Love

Caytie got a new doll for Christmas, which has renewed interest in the dolls Emma and Gracie already have.  Sadly, these dolls have serious bed heads, which comes from, you know, playing with them.  So after searching and watching a few you tube videos, I thought I'd give doll hair repair a try.

This is a "before" shot of Emma's.  Hers was more damaged, because she loves to brush and brush and brush the hair.  It's all frizzed and tangled and matted, and no brush has any business there any more.

I decided to go with the "wash with conditioner, dry, then flat iron small sections" method.  Amazingly, it (mostly) worked.  It took a LONG time.  A long time.  Like, over two hours.  For a doll.  (See the title of the post?)

Here's what we ended up with.  It is not quite frizz free, and I learned that I can fix that with high heat (and time) to "melt the hair back into shape."  But Emma was happy with it like this, so like this it is staying.  It is now brush-able!  (I'd tell her not to brush it, but it's what she loves to do with this doll.)

(I hope naked doll pictures don't make you squeamish.)

Gracie's doll wasn't as tangled to begin with.  I had read a tip a couple years ago to use baby oil to help brush the hair, so I had started out with that about a month ago, but had to go work on something else.  Gracie wanted her doll done, so she added more oil...

When I was able to get back to the project, we did the same method as above.  The washing helped with the excess oil, and the flat iron method was really very effective.  Hers only took a little more than an hour.

Good thing I love these girls.

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (God Bless Africa)

The third grade classes at Gracie's school did a "Music Around the World" presentation in January.  Her class was assigned Africa as their country.  (Um, continent.  And Hawaii was also one of the "countries."  Of course.)

I do happen to have a soft spot for Africa in my heart.  I will post more about that soon.....

The girls were assigned to wear a colorful wrap skirt with a matching head scarf.  I thought that my chances of finding that at the stores I frequent were minimal, so I Googled some free wrap skirt patterns, and found one that said "Easy One Hour Wrap Skirt for Beginners!"  Exactly what I needed.  She chose the fabric, and four hours and another trip to the store later, we had a skirt!  And, after much experimentation and a hidden safety pin, a matching head scarf!

The other classes sang and did a dance, but Gracie's class did a little play with instruments.  She got to play the bell.

She did a great job and looked great (if I may say so), and it was a fun program all around.  I'm grateful for robust music programs in our schools.

The most confusing thing ever, amen.

So, we have this boy Benson.  He's fun.  He doesn't talk much, but he generally gets his point across.

I don't use baby sign language too often, because I always forget the signs, but I've taught "more" and "milk" to almost all my babies, since they answer a whole lot of questions.  He sometimes will do the more sign, but he did pick up on the milk sign early and has used it with great success whenever he wanted a sippy cup.

Well, one day he decided he was too grown up for the sign, or something, because now he won't use it.  He uses a word.  And what word has he assigned to "milk"?

"No."

I don't remember how I realized that the wailed "No, no, no, no..." really meant that he wanted some milk. He does also use the word correctly.  So yes, this is officially the most confusing thing going on in our house right now.  "Hey, Benson, would you like some milk?"  "No."  "Well, do you want a snack?"  "No, no, no!"  "Um, milk?"  "NO!" (As he grabs the sippy cup of milk and happily drinks away.)

We are working on this.

Tessa-isms

I've made a few notes about things Tessa has said lately...

When making a choice between two objects:  "Eenie, meenie, tres, quatro, cinco, tres."

When asking to watch a program with Elmo and Big Bird: "Can we watch Mystery Street?"

When describing the movie we had seen in the doctor's waiting room: "It was Bamboo the reindeer."  (It was actually Bambi--the deer.)

When looking for Benson's new ball: "Where's the chicken liver pirate ball?"  (She was trying for "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" ball.)

When getting out of the car after preschool: "I'm cold and my hands smell like sandwiches."

When coming downstairs 20 minutes after being put to bed: "PS--I can't go to sleep because my owies are hurting."

When coming downstairs 20 minutes after being put to bed again: "PS--I still can't go to sleep."

When seeing a bone-in ham steak for the first time: "Is that the belly button?"

She also peppers her conversation with the words "actually," "definitely," and "go-faat" (which means forgot, and is how Caytie used to say it).

I think I've said it before, but I really like to be around four-year olds.

Fear not, little flock

I know you were all worried, but rest assured, I'm still here.  I feel like I've been in slow motion since December.  We're still getting a lot done, generally on time, but we're not quite rolling along as smoothly as I'd like--we're all kind of sluggish.  I'm pretty worried about soccer season starting again--with two girls on different teams.  How do we get everything done in an afternoon?  It is a puzzle we're going to have to figure out soon.

Ben had a rhinoplasty done today.  Septums are generally straight.  People who have this surgery have septums that are leaning over, blocking a nasal cavity.  His surgeon said his septum was bent at a 90 degree angle, so they just took most of it out.  They also shaved some extra cartilage off, as well as re-positioning some to where they needed it, and just kind of shifted everything over.  They cut the skin just under his nose and folded it up to have access to it all, and after they folded it back, it left him with just three little stitches.  Ben is looking forward to breathing easier, as well as having a straighter nose--but he has some healing to do first.  Pictures to follow...

Caytie had a rough couple weeks.  She had the flu--type A.  No, she didn't have the flu shot, but "they" say it didn't cover that type of flu this year anyway.  Who knows.  We got her some Tamiflu, and she was feeling much better the next day.  We also got prescriptions for all the others so they would be less at risk to get it when exposed.  The doctor (not our regular one) said the pill form was probably cheaper than the liquid, so I got the pill for the older five, and the liquid for Benson.  (Turns out they were all the same price.)  Worst decision of the month.  The pill was extremely bitter, and we had to do some serious bribing to get it down.  We finally gave it to them in extra strength hot chocolate with whipped cream, and even then, it wasn't always finished.  It was a long ten days.  ("You kids better finish all your hot chocolate before you go to school!")  Benson did also hate the liquid, but I think the older ones would have taken it better.  Caytie also has been asking me to take her to the eye doctor, but I kept putting it off.  We finally went, and sure enough, she's getting glasses.  She's actually very, very excited about this.  (That's four for four kids with glasses/contacts!)  Finally, on Sunday after church she was jumping on our beanbags and landed with her foot twisted under her.  She complained about it enough (and refused to put weight on it) that we kept her home from school on Monday, and after no improvement after a couple hours, I took her in to get it x-rayed.  Tessa was in preschool, but Benson, Caytie, and I had lots of fun waiting and waiting and waiting until it was her turn.  It was fine.  An ace bandage gave her the attention she needed, and after resting the rest of the day, she went back to school the next day.

I'm finally putting this blog into a book!  I really love how it is turning out.  Of course, the most interesting entries are the ones with lots of pictures and few words, so maybe I should stop this long list of random events until I have some pictures to go along with it.  (Someone gave us a computer they're no longer using at work, so we have upgraded, but I still have my pictures on the old computer, and I'm slowly working out how I want to organize everything on this new one...)

OK, that's all for now.  Lekker slaap!