Tidus the Mightiest and His Head

This is the intro to the story of Tidus the Mightiest and his head. From the day Tidus was born I noticed his tendency to look to his right. This was especially prevalent when I was nursing. He preferred one side over the other. This can be common in babies but Tidus just did not like turning his head to the left. 

Not thinking much of this, some time passed. I casually worked with Tidus to get him to turn his head to the opposite side but by the age of about 2 months I started to notice his head was flattening on one side from the constant lying on his right. Thank goodness I decided to attend the Relief Society Halloween dinner. With Tidus in tow I say at the first table I saw an opening. This table happened to be occupied by a sister in our ward whose child wore a helmet. After some time I worked up the courage to ask her about it. Was his head misshapen when he was born? Was it from lying on his head wrong? She informed me her son had TORTICOLLIS a condition where the neck muscles contract or are short on one side causing the head to turn a certain way. The sister asked why my questioning and I told her of my concern about Tidus' head shape. She looked at him and commented that his head looks like it tilts to one side. At her urging I set right out to get Tidus into his doctor to take a look at his neck. She warned not to let this go too long. The longer you wait the harder this issue will be to resolve! 

That was all I needed to hear. 

An appointment was set and the doctor agreed that Tidus has some torticollis. Looking at his skull, she stated she was not concerned about his head shape but that she would refer me to a cranial specialist so they could take a look. 

Thank goodness for that! Below are the pictures from Tidus' evaluation. Not only was the back side of his head misshapen but it was beginning to effect his face! One side of his face was pressing forward from the flattening on the back side of his head. He had severe plagiocephaly! The therapist gave me some stretches to do with Tidus 5 times per day. He was also to do at least an hour of tummy time every day and avoid sitting in the stroller where he will be lying on the back of his head for extended periods of time. I was to come back in a month and have his head reevaluated. 

We worked hard! Since that time Tidus has not once been in his stroller. In fact, I completely put away the double stroller and Tidus is exclusively in the baby carrier. He did his stretches, his tummy time, and was rolled to his left side as much as possible. 

Fast forward one month and we found ourselves back with the cranial specialist. She remarked how improved his neck was. It was not perfect but in a vastly better state. His head shape was also much better. BUT not good enough. It was still severely misshapen and the next step is wearing a band, or helmet. A positive note is that we caught this early and Tidus will only have to wear the band 6-9 weeks. (The sister I go to church with had her son wear his for 4 months because he was so much older when the caught the plagiocephaly!) 

Below are the second results. There is a level of guilt that comes with this experience. I feel bad that I did not catch this sooner. Yes Tidus was born with the torticollis but I wish I could have prevented the flattening. We are very blessed to have such amazing health insurance that will cover 90% of the costs. 

In a few days we will go in to get Tidus' band. And that is where the story will continue... 

We made PICARONES

Picarones 

A Peruvian dessert

Source: The Friend Magazine, December 2015

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cups canned pumpkin puree

vegetable oil for frying

1. Mix all the ingredients except for the pumpkin. Then add the pumpkin puree and stir until smooth

2. Put about 2 inches of oil in a heavy skillet. Heat over medium-high until about 350 degrees. 

3. Use a spatula to scrape the dough into a large resealable plastic bag. Twist the top of the bag to push down the dough. Snip off one corner of the bag. 

4. Squeeze the dough into circles in the heated oil. Fry the circles until golden brown, about 60 seconds on each side. Drain on paper towels. 

5. Choose a topping. We went with powdered sugar but you could drizzle honey, sprinkle cinnamon sugar or try whipped cream. Mmm

                                 After watching a tutorial on food photography I can safely say I know how to make food look super unappetizing. :) It is not really fair though. In the class the teacher was using all natural light and was not cooking food that looks like big brown worms in the end. You will just have to take my word for it that picarones are yummy and taste like pumpkin doughnuts. Add in the powdered sugar and mmm! 

Ted ate the picarones long enough to let me take a picture of him eating and then he raced back to watching our nightly Christmas movie. Tonight it was The Christmas Story. A classic! I could watch this movie over and over. I love that both boys are watching. My little Ralphie and Randy :) 

Once again, could Tidus be more smiley? He is so happy! What a wonderful couple of kids I have. Some point in the future they will inform me of how annoying it is that I am constantly taking pictures of them but until that point I get to flaunt my handsome little guys as much as I want. 

This is a universal baby thing, but I love Tidus on his belly and I set toys all around him. His little head bobbles back and forth taking in all the new sights. I imagine he is thinking about what he needs to do to grab the toys. Hmm, what are these? The toys in this picture were all Ted's as a baby. He has even found a new love for the stacking rings. In fact, I am constantly searching the apartment to find where Ted has taken the rings off to. Tidus finds joy in the simple pleasure of knocking over the ring tower. 

Baby's First Time in a Swing

A walk to the park is commonplace in this home. In fact, the moment Ted gets out of bed he will request one of two things, either to watch Paw Patrol or to go to the park. We have been cooped up the past few days so some fresh air was much needed. 

Normally Tidus spends the entire time in my ergo carrier sleeping. Today I pulled him out and attempted a ride in the baby swing. He LOVED it! The moment I started pushing (ever so gently) the swing he had a huge grin on his face. He is to most precious thing on the planet. I love how smiley Tidus is. 

Ted was so excited to have his brother swinging next to him. Swinging did not last long for Tidus. At the age of 4 months he still does not posses the ability to sit up and he began to tilt dangerously forward. :)

Ruby's favorite activity is munching on nature. At the beach this means shells. At the park it means pinecones. 

Palm trees at the park! Seriously?! So cool!

There was only one other child at the park today. A little boy who insisted on sharing his mini football with Ted. Ted was more than happy to oblige. He has never played with a football before and he had a blast throwing it around and then running after it. 

Giant hills surround the park and make for fun times of running up and down them. 

 

We are the Opfars

Two children later and we can officially declare ourselves a family. :) Or maybe it was sometime before that. Here is the introduction. 

I am Whitney, the wife, the mom, and the reason so much of our family's lives will be documented in either video or picture. I can't help it. I love every season of life and I have a bad memory so there is a part of me that feels the necessity to capture everything. 

Tyler: the husband, the dad. I challenge anyone to find a more awesome person. Do you see this photo? He literally posed for my awkward pet photo idea with the dog. He is smart, fun and pretty stinking good looking ;) 

Ted and Tidus: the boys. I hope they will always be best friends. Did you know your sibling relationships are the longest ones you will ever have in this life? We even gave them related Star Trek middle names. They can bond over how weird their parents are when they get older. 

And Ruby: the pug. If there is one universal fact people know about me it is that I like pugs. Our kitchen is pug themed. I made it a point to be up front with any guy I dated letting them know I attend an annual pug gala each year. Last year I even volunteered to be the videographer. Basically, I love pugs. Sometimes Ruby can drive me up the wall though. 

This is us. We are the Opfars. The "P" is silent. I love my family and all the adventures we have together. 

The Gingerbread Castle

We built a gingerbread house. Well, gingerbread castle to be more precise.

Each year Tyler's family does a gingerbread house building competition. His mother buys the kits and makes the frosting. The adult children supply tons of candy. And we all compete to see who can make the best house. This year our little Opfar family is living 2 states away in southern California. We still made our house and entered it into the competition. 

I am not a super huge fan of this tradition in all honesty... but on the other hand I am super competitive so when you say there is a winner I am not going to just sit back. Tyler suggested a gingerbread castle so Ted and I spent some time on Pinterest collecting ideas. We made a trip to the store and $50 later (yeesh) we had our supplies ready to go. I baked up a few squares of gingerbread and the family set to work putting together our house. 

Don't be fooled by the pictures. There were some chaotic moments when the frustration level was about as high as Ted's blood sugar. I have these bursts of ugh-ness when I am getting so impatient with Ted about knocking over the Oreo tower and then I think, why in the world am I so upset? It is a candy castle? What I really should be upset about is the fact that all this delicious candy is being donated to the royal icing monster. 

Our castle turned out awesome thanks to Tyler's engineering skills. After we showed the pictures to the Washington state Opfars I think the gauntlet has been dropped for next year. Thank goodness for Pinterest.