A Girly Girl

Twink is defiantly my girly girl. She loves to dress up and look beautiful. If we put dresses on her she will run her hand down her side and a huge smile will spread across her face. She loves to look pretty. I painted her toe nails for the first time a couple weeks ago and you would have thought we'd given her all the candy in the world.

This is the warning look we receive when she has had enough. Notice she is now laying on the ground? She was rolling around trying to get a way from me! LOL

As you can see she does not like me now! LOL This is her famous uh-uh yell. She is telling me no more. The count and I were outside planting and Jewel had brought her out to play and this was what she was wearing. I could not pass up trying to catch a few pictures.

Dragon Boat Festival 2009

Yesterday we went to our local FCC Dragon Boat Festival. The little ones had a great time. I think I caught a glimps of Jewel and The Count sitting at a picnic table. :) The weather was wonderful and the food was great! No melt downs from my children which was even better! LOLTwink found this streamer and was in heavan! She played with this for an hour until someone steped on it and it ripped in two. I thought for sure we would have a melt down but we went over and ate a cookie. ;)

Here is Spitfire getting her nails painted at the nail station. I'm pretty sure she did not see the face painting station or I'd have a picture of her with some sort of face painting. I was not brave enough to have Twinks fingers painted. We have only done toes and that was once. I'd like to try fingers at home and not in front of a public audience.

Here is little *S* and her super cute dragon boat! You've got to love that tail! :)

Here is *C* and her super cool dragon! LOVE the fire coming out of his mouth. Looks so real! She has another dragon hot on her tail.
Look at all those awesome dragon boats getting ready to race! Due to Twinks sensory issues *I* opted not to make one for her this year. I would like to give her one more year in hopes that things will be better next year. She is not real cool with unknown things going over her head. More than anything I wanted her to go and have fun even if she was just there wandering around. We'll try it next year. The main thing is she had fun and there were no tears! :)

Backyard Fun

The children planned a picnic with the neighbors earlier this week. Sort of an end of the year picnic and a goodbye party. We have lived next door to them for the last 6 yrs. They move in two weeks. They will be moving directly behind us BUT there is quite a bit of woods between us.

As you can see Dash and Twink were missing from the "party". Twink was taking her nap and Dash is spending some time at my dads house. The kids had a lot of fun and had very full tummies!

This is Spitfire and her "boyfriend". She says she is going to marry him. His sister spent the night at our house the night before and he said the funniest thing. He said to me, "Maybe when Spitfire and I get bigger we can have a sleep over." Ummm, I don't think so buddy! LOL These two are so cute together from playing with babies to playing with wrestling action figures. Spitfire is going to be lost with out her best bud!

The Binder

This is Twinks medial binder. This is great for a child who has a complex medical condition and sees multiple doctors. This was once recommendation to to me so I am now passing it on to all of you. What I have done is collected all of Twinks medical reports (MRI's, MRA's, EKG, ECHO, EEG, etc.) and keep all her recorders in one place. I bring them with us to her medical appointments. I can not tell you what a great suggestion that was. When I brought this binder to our first appointment with our new pediatric neurologist he was impressed. He told me he recommends this to all of his patients parents but many do not take the time to actually do it. He said for me to actually show up and already have one was impressive.

It just makes it very convenient if we go to a new doctor and they don't have a report. I can just pull it out of our file and say here you go. Make a copy and return mine. The only thing I lack and still plan to call on is Twink ER visits. Other than that, we have test result and initial report for every doctor she has seen. I hope this has been as helpful to someone as it was to me.

She's Here!

After years of infertility, over 24 hrs of labor and a c-section Special K arrived June 21st (Father's Day!) weighing 9lbs 8oz and 21inches long! My niece is here!

My sister went into early labor Friday and was able to stick it out at home until 10:30pm. She called me to let me know that she and her husband were heading up to the hospital. I waited about an hour and headed up. She was only dilated 2cm and was the story until till about 4pm the next day. The baby was positioned wrong (was head down but facing the wrong direction) and causing major back labor. She was able to receive an epidural at 2cm and they started pitocin even though she was having regular contractions. They wanted them stronger and closer together. About 8pm I decided I was going to go home as we thought it was going to be awhile. I was not home 5 minutes and received a phone call telling me she was 10cm. I decided I was going to stay home as I had a terrible migraine. Turns out she ended up trying to push for 45 minutes and then they decided to do a c-section. She said things (meaning she) got ugly! LOL She ended up in her room around 3:30am. I know she is tried and sore. Both are doing very well.

I'll tell you one thing, this baby is a chunker! She has some major rolls. LOL I think she looks a lot like Spitfire when she was a baby. I must tell you that Spitfire looked just like my sister when my sister was a baby. Oh I could just nibble on those cheeks!

Family Fundraiser

We are kicking off our fundraiser today and have some wonderful prizes. We hope to raise enough money for Jewel and Dash to come to China with us. Our thought is that it will help Bebo (6 1/2 yrs) with the transition and hopefully make it a tiny bit easier for him. I can honestly say I wish we had brought at least one of the children with us when we adopted Twink.

There are two different ways you can help. Please go over and check it out. Click on our button below or to the right and it will bring you to the fundraising blog.

PA!

We received and e-mail from Lauren today stating we had received our PA for Bebo today! :) What awesome news! Now if only we would receive the last of our clearances!

Would you all mind saying a prayer for my friend Ginny as she and her family have been waiting for their LOA for a VERY long time. I'm sure she would not mind the extra prayers.

Oh So Close

I can almost taste it! We are waiting on ONE state clearance for Bebos paper work. We've been waiting only a little over two weeks for this clearance when we should be on week ten (hopefully it would have been in by week ten). Praying it won't take nine weeks like the last one did. We are praying we will be DTC in July but we have to be by the end of August or we will have to ask for an extension. I must say this processes has taken much longer than Twinks did. With hers we were done and LID in 2 1/2 months.

At any rate we should receive our PA within the next couple of weeks. We will take anything we can get at this point! LOL :)

Omega 3 6 9

I would like to thank all of you for your wonderful comments and suggestions. You've been a great deal of help. I must admit, just writing all of that out helped immensely.

Things here the last week have been wonderful! Twink started the omegas a week ago this past Saturday and we have seen such a HUGE difference. We started them in hopes for her speech but we have received an added bonus. There are many benefits to taking omegas but the one Twink is receiving the most is a mood stabilization! We have had maybe a handful of tantrums this WEEK! That's right, I said week! People, we would have more than a handful a day!! She is a happy child. Playing, laughing and smiling all the time. Twink was able to go to Dash's baseball game on Saturday and we did not have one problem with her! :) We are also taking some of the suggestions and applying them where needed.

I'm not one to promote ANYTHING but I am a firm believer in omegas now! I'm not really sure my husband was at first but he's sold. We are actually giving them a try on our almost 5 yr old. If you'd like to read about all the benefits omegas have you can read them here. ** I am not promoting what they are selling on their site as I do not know anything about their product nor have we ever used it. We use Nordic Naturals.** If you have a child that tantrums and try it let me know how it works for your child.

IMPORTANT-As always check with your childs doctor before starting them on any supplements. There are certain health conditions that omegas could have adverse reactions to like diabetes and blood clotting disorders. Be safe and double check.
Thanks again for your support! It means the world to us!

This Momma Needs Help!

I'm not really sure where to begin. As you can see from the video Twinks melt downs are what is on my (our) mind. I really thought that after a year and half that they would improve. We are dealing with these numerous times a day and to be honest they are about to send me over the deep end. I am a mess. I feel like I am on pins and needless and I myself am ready to cry at the drop of a hat. If Twink doesn't get her way it sets her off. If she doesn't like something the crying can go on forever!
I just don't know what to do. I don't know if it sensory related, behavioral issues due to the stroke, adoption related or typical toddler behavior. We are a waiting to hear when her appointment is for her sensory evaluation, shouldn't be too much longer. Her developmental doctor did tell us that Twink is a bit extreme with her emotions. More so than most the patients she sees. She mentioned that if her behavior were to continue into the school years that she may need a small dose of medication. The medication she mentioned I know very well as I used it at the hospital I worked at. Bob and I have started her on some Omega's so hopefully that will actually help with her behavior as well as her speech. I have talked with The Count about seeking out an attachment therapist.
I am to the point where I do not look forward to bringing her out in public. One wrong move and the whole event is shot. It usually stems from her not having her way. If we ask her to walk she will refuse and plop down and start screaming. She likes to do this when she comes home from school or if we ask her to hold hands. She is upset really easy. I would call her SUPER sensitive. If she is upset and The Count or I hold her, it only makes things worse. She cries harder and longer which makes me tense. If I give her a quick hug and kiss, let her cry, walk a way and ignore her it does not last as long. Is this wrong though?
We love Twink with all our heart and would not trade any of this for the world. As frustrated as this is she truly brings a ton of JOY to our family. All we want to do is help her and I'm not sure what to do. We have been helping her physically but what about the emotional aspect? Any suggestions would be helpful.