Plants and First Day of School

Here is Clio with her plants. Last year she grew an Amaryllis plant and really enjoyed watching it. They are so fast growing it's really fun for kids. This year, we're a bit behind due to being in China, so we won't have flowers for Christmas, but we started three bulbs. An Amaryllis, paperwhites and calla lilys. Clio is really proud of them and checks them every day and waters them herself.




Today was Tian's first day at school (a.ka. daycare). We wanted to give her an easy transition, starting with just a couple hours a day and working her way to full days, so she started today and will be going full time when I head back to work after New Year. It was an adventure for mom to try and get both girls ready, but they were surprisingly cooperative. Here are a few photos. So, yes I've got the house to myself for a couple of hours to do the final Christmas preparations and a little blogging! I wanted to let everyone know that I am planning to transition to a new blog soon. I want to have a general blog rather than just a travel journey blog. I'm also experiencing some frustration with the way blogger does photos and video (which I can't get to post at all!), so once I figure out what the new one will be, I'll let you all know. I imagine once I'm back to work, it will be harder to find time to do blogging, but I'm hoping to keep it up with some regularity. It's been such a great way to stay in touch with everyone and at the same time have a record of what is going on for our family.

Anyway, here are the photos of the girls as we are about to leave for school. Clio was VERY happy that Tian was finally going too!

Watch me eat!

One of the gaps in Tian's skill set was that she was never given the opportunity to feed herself. I suspect that they just had to shovel the food in with all the kids at the SWI and also, probably didn't want to deal with the mess of self-feeding. So our baby has been clueless about the concept that she can actually pick up food and put it in her mouth. We've really been working on this...and have a breakthrough. Here are some photos of her with a large piece of cracker. The funny thing is she will only pick up really large pieces of food and gnaw on them...once it's gets too small she won't even try. But we are so happy to be making progress.

I should probably also update you on her appointment with Early Intervention. She had her assessment last week and it was very interesting and the staff were SO nice. I highly recommend doing this for anyone who has adopted. Even if your child doesn't qualify for services, you'll learn a lot from the appointment about where they are at developmentally and how you can help in areas they may be a bit behind in.

Interestingly, Tian's fine motor skills, which I was most concerned about, tested about average for her age. I was really surprised at this because she doesn't self-feed and struggles to grasp some things. However, while there she demonstrated a pincher grasp between her thumb and middle finger which was a surprise to me. However, they felt she was behind in both gross motor skills and problem solving for her age. She has "low muscle tone," particularly in the hip area. I'm really not worried about this because she has made such progress in the short time she's been with us. Also, with problem solving, I think it is a matter of experience rather than skill. A lot of the activities she needed to do where things like reacting to a mirror or putting blocks in a cup. I think she is capable of this, but was a bit overwhelmed with all the "stuff" at the assessment and carefully watching the new adults. She also hasn't had the opportunity to do many of these tasks yet. In the end, they decided that she qualified for the services of a occupational therapist. She will be seeing one once a month.

Matching Dresses!

One of the cool things about having two girls is matching dresses. I'm not sure why exactly, but it's REALLY cute to put them in. Thanks to Elise for the gift of these stripy ones!

Special Delivery from China!

OK, I know this might not be totally PC, but it was too cute not to post!

Meeting with Dr. Benson

Today, we met with Dr. Benson, a pediatric orthopedist. She is the one who talked to us at length when we were learning about Tian's condition. She is also an adoptive mom and has several other little girls adopted from China among her patients.

She took a lot of time to explain to us how Tian's hands and feet formed in while she was in the womb and what likely happened to make them form differently. She believes it is a genetic condition called Split Hand and Foot disorder where the mid-portion of the hands/feet does not continue to form correctly. She drew me pictures of how it likely developed and really gave a lengthy explanation. She says ectrodactly (which is what we originally thought Tian had) is similar, but is characterized by a "less organized" and more erratic pattern of bones.

Basically, Tian's hands and feet began to form in the usual way, but then the middle parts did not continue to develop, although on her right hand, all the bones formed, but the middle two are fused at the very top, so did not split.

As we had thought and hoped, Dr. Benson does not recommend any surgery on Tian's feet. However, her recommendations on her hands were a bit surprising to us.

She recommends two surgeries. The first would be done very soon and would take the webbing out on her left hand between the thumb and first finger. This would be fairly simple as far as surgeries go, but she would have a cast on that hand for four weeks. It will give her a lot more mobility and flexibility with that hand and much better ability to grasp.

The second surgery would be more complex and involve both hands. We would probably do this sometime in the fall after she is fully recovered from the first surgery. On the right hand, she would split the fused finger into two fully working fingers. She will need a skin graft to make up the skin in between the two fingers. The Dr. plans to use some tissue from her left hand and also some from her groin area if necessary. Also on her bent pointer finger which she believes is missing a tendon, she will fuse the top joint, so it will be straight, but the top joint will not move.

On left hand, she will actually move the pointer finger over into the gap left by the missing finger. This was a surprise to us, but seems to make sense. This would allow Tian to have three fingers together rather than a large gap. Some of the tissue from the gap would also be used to help reconstruct the fingers on the other hand that are being separated. Dr. Benson believes this will be much more functional and also will look better; as she gets older this missing space would continue to widen and be much more noticeable. Currently, with this hand, Tian tends to pick things up between the middle fingers using the space of the missing finger, rather than put things between her thumb and fingers. The Dr. believes this change will help with that function.

After the second surgery, Tian will have casts on both hands for four weeks. I'm sure that will not be fun, but when it is all done she will have two very functional hands, one with four finger and one with three fingers.

We like Dr. Benson very much. She and her staff are very nice and we have a lot of confidence in them. She showed us several plaster casts of all kinds of different kids hands that she has operated on. Two of them were Chinese adoptees. (Not that it matters really, but it was interesting.) I feel very confident in her and the fact that she comes so highly recommended.

Right now, Dane and I are feeling that we would prefer to do the surgeries here at home rather than travel to Philadelphia to the other surgeon all things being equal. We need to make sure our insurance will cover these surgeries. And we need to give it a bit more thought and make sure we are making the best choice for Tian.

Dress Up for Movie Night

We have started a new tradtion at our house of movies and popcorn on Friday evenings. Clio insisted that the whole family also play dress up for this one because we were watching Cinderella III.

 
 
 

Winter Fun!

Clearly, Tian LOVES her snowsuit!


Sleddin' Sisters!


Clio and her new friends!

Tian's First Ortho Visit

Tian had her first visit today with a pediatric orthopedist and we finally got a glimpse of just what is inside her little hands and feet. It was actually very interesting. Poor Tian screamed as if she was being tortured during the xrays though.

Mostly good news, although we haven't heard directly from the top doc. yet, just the PA at this point...In her little feet, she has the bones for most of four toes, but only the "tips" for two. The good news is that everything is aligned well and she shouldn't need any surgery for her feet (YEA!)

Her hands are a bit more complicated. The fused finger does indeed have all the bones for two full fingers. The xray could not show if they are fused at the very top or just close together, however the rest of the joints are separate. It may be possible to separate into two full working fingers. It will depend on the nerves and some other stuff. We may have a decision to make on that as it does function pretty well as is. We'll see what the Dr. has to say about how it will grow in the future and the risks/benefits involved in separation.

Her hand with the missing finger just has one bone for the missing finger deep down in the hand, the others are just not there. The good news is that everything here is aligned well too. We were worried there might be some bones going the wrong way and causing spreading, but there aren't.

The PA says the webbing between her thumb and first finger is a pretty easy fix and that is the part that is actually causing her the most issues with grasping. She also has a first finger that is curved inward and can't be straightened. This is still more of a mystery as the xrays didn't really show what the issue might be. The bones appeared to be normal in the xray. We are hoping the Dr. will know more.

The PA is supposed to consult with the Dr. this week and call us back before the end of the week. I feel very relieved to finally see what is going on inside her hands and to learn what we need to do. Now that we have xrays, we are also planning to send them to a Dr. at Shriner's that we have been in touch with. We will have to decide where to have her treated once we know more.

More LYG photos

Here are the photos that were taken on disposable cameras we send to LYG SWI. It is a gift to have a glimpse into Tian's life before she joined our family.

Holiday Ball

We've been trying to do some special things with Clio that only BIG sisters can do. She went to the Holiday Ball on a date with her dad and had a great time! Here are some photos to give you an idea:

No we didn't fall off the deep end...

But it sure felt like we were in some deep dark hole for about a week. Seriously, I had conveniently forgotten just how hard that transition home is. (I guess it's something like labor pain...if you let yourself really remember you might not do it again...) But we survived it and it appears that we finally have both kids back on a fairly normal sleeping schedule.

While we had planned to have Clio attend her preschool part time until I go back to work in January, we came to the decision very quickly, that she needed to go full time. She's always been such an adaptable child, that I didn't realize how important her schedule really is to her. There was a moment in China where we were eating dinner and out of the blue she teared up and said, "I miss my Spanish teacher..." Her little heart was breaking missing all her friends and activities. So, she went all week last week and has been much much more enjoyable to be around. Still a bit jealous that Tian stays home with me, but I assure her that we are only doing boring stuff and getting her ready for school in a few weeks. I'm feeling a bit guilty about this as it also is helping me big time to be able focus solely on Tian during the days, but I do think it's for the best.

As for little Tian, she is doing better and better each day. We had a few days when we arrived home where she was crying inconsolably for many hours at a time. I now believe it was a combination of sensory overload, fear, tiredness and hunger. While we knew she was a good eater in China, she has turned into a major food inhaler once home. Seriously, she eats all the time and is eating more the Clio most days. I don't know if she is making up for lost time or having a huge growth spurt, but we are trying to keep up. Luckily she will eat anything so we are bulking her up with healthy foods...unfortunately, she will not feed herself, so it occupies a lot of parental time shoveling the food in. Part of the way we finally got her to sleep through the night was giving her a huge meal of cereal and fruit prior to bed time.

We have also been running her around the a variety of medical appointments with more to come this week. I will be glad when we know what to expect regarding surgery and future medical treatments.

She continues to improve her motor skills daily and I don't have a lot of concerns about her development, other than the fact that she doesn't put food into her mouth. She has already learned a few signs of baby sign language and is crawling and pulling up like crazy.

So now I'm going to go back and post some photos from our last days in China and our first days home.

Here are a few from our last couple of days in China...






Including the infamous sake photo...I ended up leaving about half of this for whoever cleaned the room. They probably had a really good day!



Here are some photos on the famous red couch...the girls weren't cooperating a whole lot so the photos worked better with parents involved. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone around we felt comfortable asking to take one of all four of us.




Here are some others around the White Swan Hotel.



We finally found someone to take one of all of us near the waterfall. Yes, this is IN the hotel.

Finally back home...we went on lots of walks trying to get the girls some sun and help reset their internal clocks. The swing was not a big it with Tian...just one of many ways she is the opposite of big sister...

Some photos of Tian learning about her new home:

Despite the smile here, Tian is much more cautious and observant than her big sister. She is getting used to riding "Blue" but it's been a gradual process. Big sister was riding this thing standing on one foot at her one year birthday. It amazing to see the different personalities already at work at this young age.

Here they are in their new double stroller, courtesy of my friend Kelly. I would have killed to have this with us in China.

On Dec. 1, our Homeowner's Association did a nice event with carriage rides and Santa. No Santa photos through, Clio was terrified of him. We feel really lucky to live in such a nice neighborhood.