Halloween, one year later

My first post to this blog was just about one year ago.  It featured a photo of the boys in their Halloween costumes and I wondered out loud what this year would be like, and what kind of costume my new daughter would choose.  Well, I definitely got a "girly" girl and here she is in her green fairy dress (complete with wings, wand, hair accessories, and heels)!  She spent quite awhile shopping for this outfit.  She asked a million questions about the purpose of it all.  She finally narrowed it down to about 3 of the "wings and lace" variety.  I think her plan was to do Halloween "Oscars" style, with multiple back stage costume changes (presumably to take place in the girls lavatory at school).  She gave a big sigh at having to pick only one, but happily clutched the Kmart bag all the way home. 

I think she must have felt the need to do several dress rehearsals before the big night.  She would disappear into her room and close the door with strict instructions for everyone to "stay out" for "just a few minutes".  The green glitter, which remained in her hair, was the only giveaway of any suspicious wardrobe activities.  When she finally did model the dress publicly, she was very satisfied (although a bit bashful) with the praise of her absolute beauty.  We looked at blog photos of her best friend from China (Eva), who also had a beautiful Halloween costume (Snow White), and Wu Yi talked about how great it would be for all the kids at the orphanage to see how cute they both looked today.

On Halloween morning, she was up and dressed for school bright and early!  She was a little nervous about wearing a costume to school, and needed lots of encouragement from Evan (who sported his Crayon Box costume with easy confidence).  Once we arrived at the playground, however, she was absolutely delighted to see all of her friends dressed up.  She continued to ask me "why?" about a dozen more times (her favorite word ~ my 8 year old toddler), but when the bell rang she waved goodbye and ran off with her group of girlfriends.

Halloween night was beautiful and not too cold.  Wu Yi, Evan, and I went out with some friends and their daughter, while the older boys went out on their own (last year for Daniel!).  Wu Yi was a little uncertain at first.  She told me "You aren't supposed to take candy from strangers.  Do you know all these people??"  (Again, there is my good girl who listens so carefully at school!).  Fortunately, we have lived in this neighborhood for 11 years and I do, in fact, know most of these people, so I was able to reassure Wu Yi for her safety.  She followed Evan and Jordyn to the first house and hesitantly accepted some candy.  She was a little more confident at the second house.  By the third house, she was racing ahead and yelling "Cmon" to the other kids!  We stayed out for about an hour, and then she was ready to go home.  She came in the house, put her bag of candy in the kitchen, changed into her pj's, and was pretty much ready for bed.  She thought that was all there was to it.  She was gravely mistaken! 

As the boys returned home, she learned the "proper" way to come home from a night of trick-or-treating.  First, you select your spot on the floor in the living room ~ giving yourself plenty of space.  Then, you dump all your candy into a big pile, stand back, and admire how you got the most candy of all!  Then, the sorting process happens ~ you divide into the Tootsie Pop pile, the various chocolate piles, the fruity Skittles and Starburst piles, etc, etc.  And then you rank the piles by most coveted vs the up-for-trade variety.  And then the bartering begins.  Candy is traded, a few of the favorite pieces are eaten, and then Mom finally says "no more eating candy!!".  Then (and only then), is Halloween finally complete.

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Earlier in October, Wu Yi returned to surgery.  She was struggling with speech therapy and needed a "touch up/tightening" surgery to the back of her throat.  This was an unexpected procedure (although about 25% of CLP kids need it) and I hated explaining to her why it was necessary.  Wu Yi has made amazing progress in learning English.  She has sacrificed her native language to do so.  She survives in public school on her own and yet, she needs a surgery so people can "understand her better".  Despite facing another major surgery, however, she just sort of "shrugs her shoulders" and says "oh well".  She is so brave and trusting of what I tell her is necessary.

After the nightmare that was "surgery #1", she was only nervous about the IV.  She had several IV's last time and it always hurt when the medicine was going in.  Otherwise, she was confident about going into the cold operating room with the anesthesiologist, and breathing with the mask to go to sleep.  She didn't even need premedication to make her sleepy first. What a grown up girl!

Like the last surgery, she woke up wild and screaming.  (Last time it was "mommy mommy".  This time it was "mommy daddy").  She couldn't swallow, had a mouthful of blood, couldn't breathe through her nose, and was in alot of pain.  Heartbreaking, but so satisfying to know that we are the most important people in the world to her now.  Things settled down within an hour and later that afternoon, she was trying to drink and eat jello/ice cream in an effort to go home.  She had no desire to spend 10 days in the hospital again.  (Last time I think she liked being in the hospital because Don wasn't there.  Thank God those days are gone!!!!)  We went home the next afternoon, but it was, once again, a struggle to get her to eat and take medicine.  The first couple of days I held the threat of having to take her back to the hospital for an IV over her head in order to keep her hydrated.  She lost alot of weight and I lost alot of sleep:)  Not only did I worry about her eating and drinking enough, I also had her sleeping in my room, and she is now a major snorer!  Snoring is a side effect of this surgery and she is really loud.  Hopefully it will only last 6-12 months.   Despite it all, she seems to sleep just fine.

She needed pain medication for about a week, started eating and drinking well at about that same time too, and went back to school about 10 days post op.  On her follow up visit, the surgeon was very pleased, and she starts going back to speech therapy this week.  She sounds different.  She used to be very nasally.  Now she sounds like her nose is plugged up with a cold.  Lets hope the speech therapist can make some progress with her now!

Her next surgery will be in about 15-18 months.  It is to put a bone graft from her hip into the gap between her front teeth where the cleft was, so teeth can come down in that space.  She will need to get braces on her teeth next May in preparation for this surgery.  Both Evan and Daniel have braces so she is cool with that.  Hopefully the only remaining surgery will be to fix her nose and that can't be done until she is fully grown.