Timothy - I had written last May about our visit to Dartmouth to see a specialist in cases of hemifacial microtia - the condition you see in Timothy's ear. Today we all hopped in the van to visit a family in southern NH whose son had this condition and was cosmetically corrected at the same facility with the same doctor back in 2001. The result was pretty amazing as far as reconstruction goes. Make no mistake -- he'll not hear out of that ear as there is no ear canal. Opening the canal is pretty risky and he still has full function in his other ear. The surgery is purely cosmetic.
I would say that the scariest part is the first year of reconstruction. The early stages of the work actually make things look significantly worse while the ear is in the early stages of the reconstruction. It's not as outpatient as other vanity forms of cosmetic surgery (implants, lifts, tucks, etc.). Once all 4 or 5 operations are done and everything has healed, it's a decent mirror image of the other ear, using cartilage from his lower front rib.
Overall it was nice to see the end result and talk about the experiences of going through the process.
Claire - Over the course of the past couple of weeks we've decided to postpone Abby's piano instruction for a year or two until she is at a better age and temperament to take piano. Abby would do fine as long as I sat there the whole time giving her feedback. In an unusual character twist for Abby she did not do well working on piano on her own. This is unlike most everything else that she's more than happy to work on by herself - for an hour or more!
On the flip side as I was instructing Abby, Claire took a big interest in piano. As she learned what the exercises entailed, she would sit down and work on them until she had the piece down pat. Again this is not typical of her character either. This was the behavior I expected of Abby. Inside of a week Claire passed what Abby had been practicing.
With that we called to postpone Abby's lessons for a while and put Claire in her place. Once the teacher saw what she had picked up this past week, she went right into the basics of reading notes on a musical staff.
Choir - Tomorrow will be Claire and Abby's first choir activity at Mass. They've had a few sessions and are now going to be involved at Mass one Sunday per month while attending weekly evening practice sessions. I look forward to seeing them.
Paper Mario - I forgot to mention that about 2 weeks ago I started to do a scan of some games to buy for this winter. Winter at home inside with the kids is very prone to cabin fever. Last year we were greatly aided by Mario Golf and Mario Kart on the GameCube. I did a scan of what kinds of fun new games were out or on the horizon for this upcoming winter. Earlier this month Nintendo released Paper Mario to good reviews. I picked it up along with its player's guide. It's a bit between the Super Mario series of the GameBoy and the Zelda series, both of which are very popular on the Nintendo platforms. Abby and I have gone through a little of it, but I'm sure we'll delve in deeper once the shorter days and colder temperatures trap us inside. I'm also looking into Mario Pinball Land for the GameBoy, although I may hold off until after the release of the new GameBoy DS.