Lilo's 2nd Halloween

Inspired by the wooden spoons, bowls, and other kitchen utensils that Lilo loves to cart around the house, Vone whipped up a little Halloween costume for Lilo to wear to daycare today...

Lilo's Big Toe

As most of our friends and family are aware, when Lilo was about 2 months old we notice she had a very large big toe. For months we've proudly stripped off her socks and shared a giggle with friends, as we remarked at how unusually huge her toe is. And over the past 10 months, her big toe has gotten even bigger - and seems to be growing even faster that the rest of her toes (i.e. if it was twice as big as normal before, it's more like 3x as big now). While this has been a cute litte abnomally, we've alos been slightly concerned about what's behind it - and what it might mean for Lilo in the future.

We got some answers this past Friday, after an appointment with an Orthopaedic Surgreon and Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital. As it turns out, Lilo appears to have a condition called 'macrodactyly' in her 'great toe' (which seems to be the technical term for the big toe). Kind of a strange term, in that the direct translation would seem to be "Big Toe" - but the same name is apprently applied to the same condition when it appears in entire feet, fingers, or even facial features.

Here's some information I've found online, from various sources, for those who might be interested or curious:

Here's an article from Boston Children's Hospital which is pretty non-technical, straight forward, and easy to understand.

Here's a much more technical article from Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics.

An article from BBC News, about an African girl with an untreated case of macrodactyly. (Don't worry, with Lilo having already visted an Orthopaedic surgeon, there is NO WAY things could progres this far).

And if you're really interested, here's the National Library of Medicine's (US) list of medical articals and studies regarding macrodactyly in the foot.

Update on Lilo's toe.

Lilo on her 1st Birthday

Some pictures of Lilo taken on her first birthday! With a party planned for this weekend, we'll be sure to have more photos soon!

My Sister Apparently Lives at the North Pole

Janet sent these pictures of the freshly fallen snow in their backyard. This is THIS MORNING - October 13, 2006. Geez, and all these years we've been making fun of the Manitoba weather...



This is the same yard we were all playing in just 5 days ago, in the pictures from Thanksgiving Weekend below.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent thanksgiving weekend at Janet, Drew, Andrew, and Ian's place in Huntsville, along with Rob's parents as well. It was a fantastic weekend, and Lilo loved all the attention from having so many relatives around. She especially loved playing with her cousins - piling leaves in the backyard, and of course tackling mommy!