a helmet?

today, maggie's physical therapist said we might want to consider a helmet to help reshape her head. i was a bit blindsided by the suggestion because i didn't think her plagiocephaly (you can click on that word) was that bad, but apparently it's borderline. the physical therapist (aida) gave me a pamphlet about the helmet and said to think about whether we wanted it. (the kid in the picture above is wearing one of the helmets. it would have to be worn 23 hours a day for probably 3 months and is for purely cosmetic reasons).

one of nina's classmates dad, khan, is a physical therapist, so i asked the mom if he would give an opinion on the head. she said sure, and to call right away because he was answering the phone and not with patients today. i called and he said to bring her right by and he'd take a look (this is zohaib's dad. this is the family that we went to chuck e. cheese with back in september so nina and zohaib could play).

well, he agreed that the plagoicephaly is borderline, but he said if maggie were his patient, he'd want her to see a pediatric neurologist to decide whether the helmet is in order. i guess that's what we'll do next. he also said that if it were zohaib, he wouldn't be going with the helmet because zohaib would really hate it, and the correction wouldn't be worth it. if it was his daughter, he said he'd think about it.

the issue is that the flattening on the back, right side of her skull causes a slight misalignment in her ears, a slight bulge in her forehead, and can cause some asymmetry in the face. if you look at this chart(you can click that too), maggie is a 1 in all of the categories. she used to be a 2 in neck involvement, but we've corrected that to a 1 with the PT. khan said she'd probably improve about 50% without a helmet, close to 100% with. i think the 50% might be optimistic--she spends almost no time on the flat part anymore, even at night, since she nurses almost all night long and that puts her on the left side. i was expecting that it would be much better by now, since we started PT 2 months ago, but it's only slightly better.

so, that's that. i guess we'll see the neurologist and find out whether the asymmetry in her face will become more pronounced as she grows, less, or stays the same. the only way i could see us going for the helmet would be if the asymmetry is going to become more pronounced. right now, the only thing i really notice is that her ears are ever so slightly misaligned, but i don't think anyone else would notice.

also, i asked aida how much longer we'd be in PT, and she said she'll want to eventually be seeing us every once in a great while to make sure the torticollis doesn't return, but for now it's next week, and if maggie's rolling well then, we go again in a month. i also asked if maggie's torticollis was mild (like i've been telling people), but she said no, moderate.

so, big update there, but i think that's everything.

she has her grandma's snore alright...

turn the volume up because it's quiet. then close your eyes, and it's just like watching a movie with mom.

HA!

aww, i see now that it's dark. well, it's just maggie's little face. such a cute face though, what a shame you can't see it. i'll just have to upload another video where you can see her face. since nick is just playing wii anyway...

maggie's turn for a post and a picture

maggie likes food! mmmm!

we started feeding maggie solids this month, and they've been a hit. she's still mad that we're not feeding her the same food we're eating (especially the chocolate. she knows what's good already!), but she's far happier getting something. she eats a lot, too. my baby, she's growing up!!

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

we got our wii!!

i just bowled against myself, and i won, 164 to 89! funnily, the 164 was using my left hand, and the 89 was using my right (you can configure the controller for lefty or righty, and it was set for nina, lefty). maybe i'm such a terrible bowler because i'm really a lefty bowler, and all these years i've been using my right hand.

the lessons we've learned from wii already...

we've been trying to figure out what to be for halloween. this is a costume possibility. she'd be balloon girl, obviously.

short entry, kids need me!

oma gets in trouble...

nina wanted oma to read her a book during dinner. oma told nina to finish her dinner and she would read her a book afterward. nina approached the dinnertable, book in hand, and said, very softly, "oma, read me this book or i'm going to spank you with it."

where does she get this stuff!

fuzzy-headed baby

here is maggie's beautiful fuzzy head. i don't have too many funny maggie anecdotes yet, since she's just 4 1/2 months old, but i can tell you all that she snores like her grandma when she sleeps. yup i'm talking about you mom. sleeping with her is like sleeping in a room with my mother. or watching a movie with my mother. ha!

the sky is blue

nina, maggie, and i walked to and from the dr's office on friday afternoon. it was cool and clear, and maggie was sleeping. the sky was totally clear, and i pointed it out to nina.

me: look at the sky, isn't it beautiful?
nina: can it come off?
me: no, it just goes up and up forever. if you went up, you could just keep going and going.
nina: i couldn't come down?
me: no, you could come down too.
nina: maybe the wind could blow me down.
me: maybe.
me: isn't it such a pretty blue?
nina: who colored it?
me: (pause) just the light colors it blue.
nina: look a doggie!!

i love conversations with nina.

isn't this picture adorable? it's nina coming home from her first day at preschool. i love the look on her face.

Mini-Me

One of the great things about having kids is watching them grow up, seeing them develop and noticing the traits they get from their parents. The one big thing that Nina and I have in common, other than our beauty, is that we both love food very, very much. And our metabolism is insanely fast. The girl is a stick despite eating far more than any other child we know. Our days are structured around food. Sometimes she will want to eat leftover Chinese food at 10 in the morning. What kind of kid does that? We had to give her snacks to take to preschool when she first started going because she was getting hungry. All they get is a small snack and they're there for 3 hours. That's not going to cut it! One of the teachers asked Desiree concerned: "Well, what has she had to eat today?" "Let's see, a bowl of cereal, a slice of cinnamon toast, a banana, a yoghurt, a bowl of Wonton soup, three figs and a half of a PB & J sandwich." This was at 12:30. Most kids don't eat that much food in 2 days.
But anyway, we eat. She gets very excited about food. We shop at Costco a lot where they often have free samples. Not often enough though. One late afternoon there were none. She would point at the workers unpacking boxes and stocking shelves and ask if they had free samples. For Halloween she is going to be a Costco lady handing out samples. She got all dressed up one day in a princess outfit she had gotten for her birthday, gloves, shoes, veil and went around the rest of the day handing out free samples. To my dismay, they were pretend. Princess? How dare you father, I am a Costco lady! I am going to have to warn other parents on Halloween not to mistake her for a princess either.
But all this talk about food is making me hungry, of course. We just got back from the diner 2 hours ago. What did we have? "Stuffed mushrooms, soup, french fries, cake,...."

oma comes to visit

oma is here (that's anne, nick's mom, for those of you outside the immediate family circle). she came bearing gifts for the girls (as usual) and chocolate and coffee (as usual) and cheese (not usual). the cheese is called geheimratskase, which translates to "secret agent cheese" (says nick), but nina calls it austria cheese. nina really likes cheese, it makes up about 40% of her diet. she's only 3, but she can tell her colby jack from her monterey jack. no big surprise, nina loves austria cheese.
nina is also learning about the days of the week and the months in preschool. (check out that link insertion. sweet!). i think she's getting a better concept of time because of this. or not. either way, she keeps asking when oma is going to leave, is oma leaving, is oma going to be here in the morning, and we keep explaining that she'll be here for a looooooooong time (2 weeks). yesterday at lunch we had the following exchange:
nina: is oma leaving?
me: no, oma is staying for a long time. she's staying monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday. that's a long time!
nina: when she leaves, will she take the austria cheese with her?

ha!

the inaugural post

well, nick and i have decided to start a family blog. the idea is to write often about the adorable things the kids do, to complain about things (like the viagra commercial playing on TV as i type), and other such blogginess.

we will take turns typing. you'll know it's me (desiree) because i don't use the caps key (why? it's a mystery. a hook, if you will, to draw in readers). also, i use exclamation points. a lot!

i'll get right to it with a little story about nina. she's in preschool now, and comes home singing new songs just about every day. last week she started singing
row row row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily merrily merrily merrily
your life is about a dream.

and that's why i've decided to name our blog about a dream.

so, enjoy!