The Jones Girls

Halloween was so much fun this year.  The week before Halloween I took her down to Children’s Museum of La Habra and we carved a pumpkin and then we did a wind sock in the shape of a bat.  Our friends,  Victoria and her daughter, Sophia, joined us.   The museum offers this every year.  It is free.   They have really cool stensiles, all of the carving tools and the tables are covered to keep things cleaned.  Their craft room where we made the bat had all free materials so we could make the windsocks.   We are so lucky to have this place in our community!!

The weather in the last 2 weeks of October has been HOT.   We are talking mid to upper 90’s every day.  It certainly didn’t feel like autumn weather here!!  I didn’t want to get the girls costumes that made them too hot but when they trick or treated at night I wanted them to be warm.  So we decided to do 2 different costumes.   All 4 girls were ballerinas.  They looked so precious in their pink tutus and matching ballet slippers.   Their costumes for the evening of Halloween for trick or treating were Minnie Mouses.

In the morning I took the girls to the La habra Heights 30th anniversary celebration at the LHH park.   They had pony rides, bouncy houses, petting zoos, hay rides and fun activities.   Everything was complimentary.   We had so much fun.  The girls rode the ponies twice!! 

In the afternoon, we attended a Halloween party at Presbyterian Hospital in Whittier (PIH) for the annual NICU party.   They had a really fun bubble mania where the kids could make life size bubbles.   They looked so cute…4 ballerinas making all of these bubbles.

In the evening we attended our La Habra Mom’s Club annual Halloween party at my friend Fay’s house.   We had a costume parade, played games, ate yummy appetizers and enjoyed every one’s company.  It was a lot of fun.

I was supposed to take thre triplets to Savannah’s Halloween party at preschool but I was sick.  Savannah was a ballerina at school.  I ate some tamales my neighbor brought over and got really sick.  I think it was food poisoning.  So I was out of commission and couldn’t do anything.  I felt much better the day of Halloween thank goodness.    So mommy and daddy took our 4 adorable Minnnie mouses out for trick or treating in their choo choo wagon.   They filled their pumpkins with candy!!   The neighborhood was the busiest with bustling trick or treating that I can remember in the 10 years that I have lived here.   I came home to give out candy and Cliff continued on with the girls to trick or treat.  It was so much fun!!

Maryssa doesn’t seem to come to me when I call her name.    Her verbal communication and receptive language seem to be delayed. than her sisters Amanda and Miranda.  She only speaks barely 1 word sentences.   There are only about 10-15 words she will say.    Interestingly though, she knows the whole alphabet by sight and numbers 1-5 by sight too.    I have been working with her speech, language and communication through books.    She loves books.    I spoke to Dr. Sylvia Gonzalez, our pediatrician about it.   She ordered a hearing and speech evaluation.

Maryssa had a hearing test and evaluation at Providence at CHOC in Orange.    The results are her hearing is fine.   They are recommending a speech evaluation.  I will receive an authorization from them in a month or two.

I contacted Regional Center about Maryssa’s delay.   I met with a case worker, Paulette Diaz, and she ordered a speech evaluation.   Maryssa had the evaluation just a few days after her adenoid surgery, on Thursday October 2nd.   The report said she was 49% delayed in receptive language, close to a 13 month old.  They are recommending speech therapy for her.  They recommended a group setting 3 times a week for 2 hours each.  I told them I want an in-home speech therapist because Maryssa is already in a group setting here at home and that really hasn’t helped her that much.   I believe she would benefit from one-on-one sessions with a speech therapist.   So they recommended that.  I have an appointment this Friday October 17th to meet with Maryssa;s new case worker, Melanie Barkken.  She was Amanda’s case worker when Amanda was receiving Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

I am so glad that I looked into this.  I have been really keeping an eye on Maryssa’s communication skills when she turned 18 months old.   I want early intervention for her so she can start communicating and close the gap on the delay.

Savannah was showing the same signs at the same age and I started doing all of the same evaluations for Savannah too but Savannah didn’t get the evaluations done till she was 2 -1/2 years old, 6 months older than Maryssa.  Savannah’s hearing came out fine, just like Maryssa’s.    Savannah had a speech evaluation and it came back about the same as Maryssa’s.   By the time all of the evaluations were done, Savvy was turning 3.   I contacted the school district and we had a few  evaluations with the school psycholigist and the speech therapist, Ronita Van Vliet, who teaches and offers speech therapy at the preschool.    Her “IEP” reported she was delayed.  Savvy started preschool at Meadowgreen Preschool for the s4 week ummerschool session for the month of mid-June through mid-July of 2007 when she was 3.  Then she went back in the fall, September 2007 through June and then again she did the summer school session.   She is now in PreK at the preschool.   She will not be dong summer school session there.    Savvy gets picked up and dropped off by a ittle school bus.  It has been so helpful.  She loves her little school bus.

More than likely Maryssa will be going to the same preschool to help her with her speech, communication and language delays.   Thank goodness they have such wonderful programs in place to catch these things early on for our kids.   I really do think very highly of our school district, Lowell Joint School District.

Maryssa has had a very smoothrecovery with her adenoidectomysurgery.    She has been cutting her 2 year molars and I think that was about as painful as dealing with the pain from the adenoids.    For over a week she has had a hard time sleeping.   I am contributing to the molars coming in.   She is all healed from the surgery by now.  So every few nights I will give her a little Tylenol with Codeine and that helps her sleep peacefully through the night.   Goodness knows I have enough of this Codeine in the house….a huge pint size bottle!!

Her breathing through her sinuses sounds so much more clear now.    I don’t hear snoring anymore when she sleeps and she doesn’t wake up suddenly from apnea.   So I am hoping this adenoidectomy did the trick.

She has a follow up appointment with Dr. Koempel at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Tuesday October 28th, the same day as Amanda’s appointment.

Amanda had a follow up appointment with Dr. Wright at Children’s Hospital a few days after her surgery which was Tuesday September 30th.  Cliff and I were so excited with anticipation to see Amanda’s new thumb.  When the bandages were taken off, we were amazed how awesome her new thumb looks.    They cleaned up the surgical sight with Betadyne then Dr. Wright bandaged it up with something similar to an ace bandage.  No cast!1  Woo hoo!!

Then I had to take Amanda the following week, Tuesday October 7th.   They took off the bandages and again cleaned up the surgical sight with Betadyne then Dr. Wright bandaged it up with same similar ace bandage material.  She will not be required to wear a cast at all.  She wears the bandages for a month.  I iwll need to replace the bandages once a week.   I wrap 2 bags around her arm to protect it when I give her baths.

Her recovery is going smoothly.    We have another appointment on Tuesday October 28th.  They will then fit her for a new wrist brace.    She will wear the brace only at night.

Cliff and I are so thankful to God for taking care of our precious Amanda.   Praise The Lord!!

Yesterday we took the girls to Knotts Berry Farm.   Knotts Berry Farm was hosting a Halloween event in Camp Snoopy.   We spent the afternoon at Camp Snoopy.  They were giving away pirate hats for all of the kids to wear and cute pirate bandannas.    Creepy Halloween characters were walking around providing great photo opportunities with the kids.   

The triplets rode their first ride all by themselves at Knotts Berry Farm today.  They rode on the airplanes.  They had so much fun.    I tell you , it just put tears in my eyes.  My baby girls are all growing up!!   Then they drove in a race car with Daddy.  Each child had to ride with daddy because it had a height requirement to be with an adult.   That ride took us over half an hour for all 4 of the girls.    Savvy rode on a kiddie roller coaster with daddy.    We got some great pictures.  At the end of the day we got to get a great family shot with Snoopy.   

We are home from Maryssa’s surgery today. She was a champ going into the OR room. It just put tears in my eyes, I was so proud of my baby!! However, coming out of surgery wasn’t the same for her. She  was out of control in pain, confusion and anger. They gave her 3 rounds of Morphine and that didn’t even touch her anxiety and pain.   It took Cliff, me and the nurse to keep her from pulling out her IV and trying to roll off the bed in the recovery room. This went on for 45 minutes. Finally after countless humming of her favorite nursery rhymes, soothing rubs and lots of cuddling, I coaxed her into taking tiny bits of popsicle. She slowly calmed down. She held her little popsicle for 1 hour as I continued giving her pieces of other popsicles provided to me continuously from the nurses. We were able to go home after 2 hours in the recovery room. She is now sleeping here at home. She is going to have a rough 2-3 days I expect – UGH. The surgeon diagnosed lots of Tylenol with Codeine for her.

We take Amanda to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles tomorrow. She will see the surgeon, get her bandages removed, get cleaned up and the new thumb will be evaluated. I hope everything goes ok for her
tomorrow. I have lots of Tylenol with Codeine for Amanda too. I tell you, I have never had so much of this Codeine around in my house before, but I guess it is to be expected with 2 kids having back to back surgeries. I am glad we got them done that way we can enjoy Halloween and the upcoming Holidays.

I thank God for all of our Blessings he has bestowed on us. Praise God my girls came out of surgery ok. That was my scariest thing was making sure they made it through surgery. Anesthesia is so scary to me.

If recoveries go well for the girls this week, this Friday I am taking a Mom’s Night Out for myself. My sister Nadine will be joining me.   This has been a tough couple of weeks for me.  We are planning on
seeing the movie “Women” and maybe going to a Japanese restaurant and having sushi.

Today Amanda surgery at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.  Her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Joan Wright, performed a surgery called “pollicization“.    Amanda’s index finger was shortened, imposed and positioned into the thumb position to become a new thumb.  Her middle finger will now become her index finger.  

The surgery lasted 3 hours.   We arrived at 7:45am and she was rolled into surgery at 10:45am.     We met her in the recovery room immediately after surgery.  She slept in recovery for over an hour.    She was given Zofran to help stop nausea and vomiting.   We arrived home at 5:30pm.

when we got home, she was laughing and began running around with her sisters.   She was in a little pain so we gave her Tylenol and Codeine tongiht for pain.   When she got home, she ate a popsicle, an ice cream drumstick, 2 sippy cups of apple juice, and string cheese.    So far her recovery is going great.  She is now sleeping in mommy and daddy’s bed.   

We have a follow-up appointment this Tuesday September 20th at 11am.     The bandages will be taken off, her hand cleaned and she will be fitted with a special brace for her thumb.   

We are so excited for Amanda.    We are so  proud of our little Amanda.  She continues to show and teach us how precious life is.   Our hope and belief is this very important surgery will give Amanda the ability to have pincher reflex and it will offer her so much more opportunities in her life.    Dr. Wright said she will follow Amanda’s progress every year till she is about 18 years old.