Saturday, January 5, 2008 - Las Vegas
Ah, the cute girls! On our way down to Newport Beach, we stopped in Las Vegas to visit Cassy Dickerson. It was a great break, and the kids loved running around and around in the house. (We'd already had a few hours of driving by then, and had a few more to go...). The kids were actually really good in the car, and the Honda Odyssey with DVD player was definitely a big help for this trip.
Sunday, January 6, 2008 - Newport Beach
Church was great, we made it just on time, and it was right next to the beautiful temple! We spent a while after church just walking the grounds of the temple. It was a little cool, but very beautiful and peaceful.
Monday, January 7, 2008 - Tidepool Beach
Just down from the place we stayed was a beach that was a protected reserve for tide pool creatures. It was fun to see the creatures in the tide pools, but it was just fun for the kids to get out and run on the beach. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to collect shells at this beach.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - Seaworld
The kids were so excited about Seaworld. We loved all of the shows, and I think we were able to catch most 0f them. It wasn't too crowded, and it was quite warm until later in the afternoon. We had a "fun backpack" for Jonathan, which had a "cool strap" connected to Dad's hand. Nobody got lost at Seaworld ;). Rebekah especially loved the hands on tide pool, where we could pick up and hold sea stars.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - Beach
Thursday, January 10, 2008 - Legoland
Friday, January 11, 2008 - Beach and Driving home
Well, as a lot of you may know, Jonathan (now four and a half years old) was born with a duplicate digit, i.e. two thumbs on his right hand. This precipitated comments such as "Give me six" and "Do you have six fingers on your right hand? My father was killed by a six-fingered man" (From "The Princess Bride" movie).
Well, one thumb was slightly smaller, and was obviously the duplicated thumb. We spoke with a pediatric hand surgeon when Jonathan was an infant and decided to operate when Jonathan was old enough to understand and want the surgery and yet young enough that it would be before school. (He is in pre-school currently and can't hold a pencil properly or use child scissors.)
Earlier this week, Julie was talking to Jonathan and trying to understand how he was feeling about the upcoming surgery after he overheard a phone call to the surgeon. She knelt down by Jonathan and rubbed his duplicate thumb. "Jonathan, honey. Do you remember when we talked about a doctor removing this?" He looked up at Julie. "Would you still like to have two thumbs like Mom and Dad?" After a long pause, Jonathan said, "I would kind of like to keep my 'lucky thumb'-- How about he takes off one of my fingers instead!" Julie spoke of all that he could do with only one thumb and he said "that would be all right."
Jonathan was very good the morning of the surgery up until just after the anesthesiologist came, when he said "I don't want to be here anymore, let's go home." "I gotta go!" He made to get off the hospital bed where he had been making cards with stickers and paper. Well, a little distraction and about 10 minutes later he was rolled past the red tape where parents say goodbyes and off to the operating room. Everything went well with the surgery, and it only took a short while.
When they wheeled Jonathan back, he was alert and very chipper; chatting with the orderly who was pushing the bed. Jonathan turned to me and showed me the IV in his arm and told me, very first thing "Don't ever take this out!" The orderly explained that when he woke up he was curious about the IV and they said it was to give him medicine without him having to taste it. He told them something like, "Can I keep it always?" Apparently the taste of medicine is way down on the list of things Jonathan likes.
Well, after a couple of days Jonathan seems to be doing well. There will be a doctor follow up on Monday. One thing is sure, even surgery didn't slow Jonathan down.
Well, here are a couple of pics of what it looked like before surgery, we may get some better before/after shots from the doctor as well.
