trip to shriners

Well, as though we have not done enough traveling in the last couple of weeks, we left Tuesday evening for Chicago Shriners. We left the house by 5:30 and had to stop about an hour and a half into the trip so we could eat. We got the girls good and full with high hopes that they would just drift off to la la land for the next 4 ½ hours…..NO WAY! That would be far too easy wouldn’t it? Hannah fell asleep after a couple of hours since she did not have a nap Tuesday, she was pretty tired. Makenna on the other hand, even though she was tired, refused to go to sleep. I think she slept the last hour of the trip. With the stopping we did, we did not get to our hotel until 12:30 our time. We were all very pooped. The girls were so excited to get in the hotel room and I had a hard time keeping them quiet so we didn’t disturb the other guests! Hannah crawled in bed with Scott and Makenna slept with me. Even though she was tired, she was very excited and didn’t want to fall asleep. She kept playing with my face and trying to talk to me. I finally fell asleep and when her play toy didn’t play anymore, she finally fell asleep. We were up by 7 AM and all of us showered, dressed, and packed up by little after 8. We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast then to Shriners we went. Our appt was at 9:30 and we arrived right on time. Thank goodness for our Garman GPS, it takes us right to places. As we walked in the hospital, the nurse that discharged us from the hospital after Makenna’s surgery was walking another family out to their car. She remembered Makenna and wanted to talk to her. Everyone is so very nice there. They really do care about the kids there. We saw the audiologist first and he said that her hearing was great! He did a hearing test and she did really well until she lost interested and refused to look towards the sound. When she is done, she is done! We then saw the ENT. He said the tubes looked good and had no recommendations for us. He said we do not need to use the ear plugs for bath time or swimming, unless she will be more than a foot and a half under water! We sat and sat and I finally asked someone when we would see the plastic surgeons. Come to find out, they had Makenna on the wrong list and she was not scheduled to see them! They called the doctors back up to the clinic and we finally go to see Dr. Grasseschi (I think that is how you spell it!) He said her mouth looked great, he had no concerns. He said the little bit of drainage out her nose could come from the roof of her mouth where there is a tiny spot still not completely healed, or could be from the back of the palate. I told him that we still were not giving her chips or anything hard like that and he said to allow her to eat whatever she wanted…no restrictions. He has no idea what all this girl would eat! As we were leaving Shriners, we asked at the front desk how close China Town was from the hospital. It was within a half hour so we decided to stop by on our way out of town.. We had seen lots of buildings from the highway on our way to the hospital with Chinese writing on them and we were intrigued so we headed off for some simulated culture for the girls! On the way there we drove through little Mexico! It lasted forever; it was about the size of the real Mexico! When we finally arrived at China town, it was shocking at how similar it was to China. For one thing of course you see so many Asians in one place! We parked and got out of the van and right away the smell took you back to China! We started walking and had many many stares from women trying to decide if the girls were Chinese or they looked like me, or maybe I had an affair?! We went in one shop that had grocery type items and Hannah did not like it at all. I think she recognized the smell from far back in her little mind and she got scared. She cried to leave right away. We did not go into another store for a long time after that, just walked and enjoyed the sights and sounds. We were wanting to get the girls authentic Chinese noodles but there were so many restaurants we were overwhelmed at which one to choose. Scott saw a Caucasian couple getting ready to head into this one restaurant and asked them about it. They said it was very good so we decided to try it out,. We had to collapse the strollers and carry the girls and strollers up a flight of steps because the restaurant was on the second floor! It was very good food. Scott and I’s meals came with egg drop soup and the girls loved it. We each got sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. I thought I’d get something to share with the girls that wouldn’t be so spicy. I ordered them a side of lo mein noodles since that is what Hannah really wanted. They brought this huge platter of noodles! The girls hardly touched it so we ended up bringing it home. They also served 4 cookies and 4 fortune cookies at the end of our meal. I used my chopsticks throughout the entire meal and even fed Makenna off of them! I was fairly proud of myself, only spilling rice on myself or the table a couple of times. When we were getting ready to leave a lady sitting at the table next to us asked how old the girls were and commented on Hannah’s vocabulary and her use of words. She said she was very impressed. We have one that speaks at a 4 or 5 year old level and one that doesn’t speak at all! We did stop in a couple of other stores and Hannah did much better., I think she realized by that point that she was safe. She tried on some hats in one store and looked through the traditional Chinese dresses. As we were walking to the van we passed a Chinese Christian bookstore and went in. The number one thing I remember is Tornado Makenna. Oh my, how embarrassing! She was sooooo tired and ready for a nap and she was terrible! She would pick up any book and throw it down and keep running. We had her belted in her stroller but she was screaming and pitching such a huge fit we let her out..big mistake! We did get a couple of nice books for the girls. The sales girl was wonderful. They are run by a church in China town and they give English lessons to the Chinese people and then tell them about Jesus. Sounded like an awesome ministry. They had the cutest little bible books written in Chinese then English on the same page. As we headed back to the van, we decided we need to do this again when we can stay longer. The sales ladies loved asking questions about the girls. Everyone kept saying how big Makenna was! She has gone from skinny starving little girl to a chunky monkey for sure! She is up to 27 pounds!
It is now 9:49 pm and we are little over an hour from home. Makenna has just now finally dozed off! How this girl fights sleep while traveling. Next time, we are drugging her, hate to do it but it is miserable for everyone! Hannah decided she was starving the whole way home so she had cheeseburgers from McDonalds, cookies, 2 cups of Gatorade, cup of milk, cup of my watered down diet coke……..and still kept saying she was hungry. She is still awake watching Milo and Otis. Amazing that girl She is really turning into quite the little traveler. She is not afraid of hotels any more and feels safe in most environments. Tomorrow is a big day for her…it is her second Gotcha Day anniversary! Hard to believe it has been 2 years in some aspects and it also seems like she has always been with us! I will try to post pictures of her in her gotcha day outfit tomorrow. I am sure it still fits her well; it was pretty big on her when we got her!