Surgery times three

The boys had surgery today. All three, one after another. Lots of people have been asking me what sort of surgery they are getting, and I am uncertain as to whether or not I should make an effort at privacy on their behalf. Since this blog has such a limited following I will go so far as to say, in the words of their doctor, they are "having their stems trimmed". Painful. In addition to that Andrei got his tonsils and adenoids out and Alex had tubes put in his ears. And something else private, but now he will be able to have children. Enough said.


Alex is staying overnight in the hospital because he has a bad history with anesthesia reactions. Dan is staying with him, reading books and coloring and playing with toys with him. I took Andrei and Pavel home and they are sleeping and being grouchy alternately. We went to the library and got 24 videos out to keep them still, but it looks like we might not have much of an issue with that early on. They are supposed to stay still for at least a week, though, so we might have need of them in the future.



OK, fast forward 1.5 weeks because it has been busy around here recently. We watched 23 of the 24 movies. Ugh! My kids act weird after they watch too many movies. They get hyper, and emotional, and clingy, and very difficult to manage when they all do it at once. Plus I guess I have to allow for the fact that they were in pain every four hours when their narcotics wore off. I was actually really happy to unload those movies back at the library drop box! Well, not exactly, since I miscalculated the due date and they were one day late and now we have a whopping bill.

California Beware!

Inga is going to Hollywood! She is sooooo excited, and so am I. Since she is in a scene where there are lots of other amputees, I can imagine that we will be making lots of friends and comparing notes on how we all do certain activities with various missing limbs. We actually already "know" a bunch of the kids from a child amputee chatlist we're on.
Next week we will be in Hilton Head on vacation, and will fly out from HHI airport to LA on Tuesday. We will be staying in Valencia, and shooting on some sort of a plateau around there. But first they have to figure out hair and makeup and clothing and props (prosthetics), etc., and it is going to take 9 days in all. 9 days with only Inga, staying in a hotel room with a pool and eating at restaurants every day, all on Tom Hanks' bill--nice! Once Spring Break is over, Dan and the kids are driving back to Maryland and Dan's brother is coming to stay with the kids during the day while Dan works until I come home (supposed to be Thursday). What a great guy!
Well, I've got to pack. My living room is full of clothes because I am switching over from winter to summer apparel for everyone in the family and it looks like a tornado hit (sorry, Jaime!). I've also got to go buy lots of books because I will probably have a lot of time to read in CA. Any recommendations for books that will be good for escapist type entertainment?

Multiple topics and a picture

I have bronchitis, and am on my second round of antibiotics to try to conquer this thing. The new pills are huge and bright blue and stick in my throat all the way down. In the little bottle they gave me there are those little capsules that keep your medication dry. They are about the same size as the medication. Guess what color they are? Some brilliant pharmacist thought it would be cute to make them the same color blue as the medication. I have almost swallowed these little vials of poison several times already, and I've only been on this stuff for three days.

Our church is wonderful. New mothers get the first week of meals cooked for them by members of the church, and apparently adoption is no exception. This is especially nice for me since being sick and jetlagged at the same time makes me tired. I take nice long naps in the afternoon so I can recover my strength, and someone comes to our door around 5:30 with a nutritionally balanced meal (always with gravy--what is it with the gravy?!) AND desert. This is much better fare than we are used to having. Quick--let's go adopt another one so we can be well-fed again.

We got a call from the casting director of Charlie Wilson's War and she said that Inga is in the final round for being chosen to be in the movie. They asked for an outside picture of her so they can see her skin tone in natural light. So I dutifully took pictures of my child looking devastated and forlorn and then trooped down to our public elementary school to ask for a signature on the California work permit application stating that Inga has good attendance, good grades, and good health in her local public school. This is pretty amusing since she is homeschooled and they don't know her from Mary and the follow-up educational interviews are done by the district and not by the local school--but we got the signature anyway. I think it helped to mention that the film was being directed by Tom Hanks. Plus they love my boys there (Andrei and Alex take speech therapy twice a month at this school).

OK, here are two pictures of Sam, or Pavel, or Pasha. You can call him whatever you want. That's what I am doing right now, and it changes every other sentence. This kid is going to be schizophrenic. He fits beautifully into our family and is making trouble like only a two-year old can. I had forgotten how all-consuming a child can be who is developmentally at the stage where they are prone to accidentally killing themselves every third minute. Hmmm...if I need to go to California with Inga, can I take him along? Brad, what do you think?

Practicing

Inga is still practicing her refugee look. I personally prefer the smiling countenance but this at least gets us the odd quarter from the innocent bystander.

We have done the Unthinkable

We have submitted an application for Inga to be an extra on a movie which has asked for child amputees. The film is called Charlie Wilson's War (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/) starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, who is also directing. I have no idea what will come of this, but a lot of people are applying so the chance that she will actually make it is slim--especially since this is for a refugee camp scene which takes place in Afghanistan. I don't think she quite fits the profile, but I guess they are counting on modern technology to darken skin tone because they listed "Caucasian" as a type they were inviting to submit. Inga has been practicing looking gaunt and haunted all day, and asking others (including her gymnastics teacher) if she looks traumatized enough. This would be hilarious if she didn't also have a sinus infection (apparently these are easy to come by after you break your nose) with huge puffy red bags under her eyes that make it look like someone ought to call 911.
So, Brad, if the unthinkable turns into a reality can we come stay at your place? Oh--and can someone give Inga a crash-course in acting 101?