Year of the Dragon

I took no pictures at our Chinese New Year party because I was having so much fun. We had about 30 people over for kids' crafts, play time, FOOD, and fireworks. (And demo's of the stereo room!) Lucy was very excited and told everyone "I was born in China, you know." And Lorna rightly insists that we ARE part Chinese. The girls were dressed in their fancy Chinese dresses and we had the house all decked out. Kai was mostly excited about the idea of Dragons.

The children all tried some new Chinese dishes and desserts and each received their lucky red envelope with money inside. The fireworks on the back patio were a riot! I bought extra last fourth of July and kept the "loud but legal" just for the occasion. The children were all at first afraid, but then wanted more and more. Sparklers were a big hit too.

I love being part Chinese, even if it means some fast study on the internet. We hope to make this a yearly event!

Gung Hai Fat Choy!

Lucy learns to ski!

At Christmas in Tahoe, we invested the time an energy to get Lucy comfortable on skis. Learning in Tahoe is a lot more friendly than learning at cold and windy Eldora. The girls were skiing without jacket or mittens in 50 degree weather. Only the bunny slope was open but it was perfect for us - I got reacquainted with the poma lift! Having a thirty pounder and a poma between your legs is much like pilates.

Lucy picked it up so quickly in CA and then I brought the girls back to Eldora upon return to Colorado so we didn't lost momentum. She is so naturally athletic and fearless. With Lorna there was a lot more finessing and bribery needed - although I'm not supposed to compare.

At just 30 pounds, she doesn't weigh enough to release the heel binding, but the toe binding should theoretically release. She took one hard fall without releasing a ski, but at least there is a heathy respect for control. Before that she was frustrated with me asking her to slow down! constantly.

We are heading to our house in Ned this week and hopefully the girls will get some good skiing in and hopefully a few lessons so that mama can get some turns too!

Tonsils

What a journey! Kai's tonsils were first enlarged at the end of September at the tail end of the croup. We tried and tried all the alternative avenues to bring them down without luck. In fact, we rushed him to the ER for steroids three times in October and then had him on low dose steroids for a month - all the while watching them get bigger. In general, he was fine during the day, but night was horrible. He would sometimes go 10 seconds between breaths and even then his chest caved in dramatically to take that breath. He was exhausted during the day and had circles under his sweet little eyes. His tonsils were touching in the back of his throat although he could eat anything we gave him. These days they don't do tonsillectomies unless tonsils have stayed enlarged for 6 weeks without responding to steroids and antibiotics and then there's a 6 week wait to get scheduled. So by the end, I was actually begging to get in asap on the schedule. It's hard to watch your kid suffer.

Finally, we got them out on December 6 and spent 36 hours in the hospital. Dad and Val came out to help with the girls and his recovery was intense but at the two week mark he was finally feeling relief. Since then, he has put on all the weight he lost, really come back to his usual "happiest kid I know" mode.

All this is to explain why I stopped posting on this blog for so long! We moved his bed next to ours and I was up much of the night to take care / worry / comfort him through the night. Just now I realize how much stress I was under. They ran tests to rule out lymphoma and just the mention of that was enough to stress me out.

Spending a night at Children's is an excellent reminder of how lucky we all are. There were kids recovering there with major issues, have had mulitple surgeries, and life threatening illnesses. This is tonsils, we are lucky to have access to medical care, and now we are fine!