Pediatric dentist visit

Doesn't every explorer have a mallet and lego piece?

Looks like I'm ice skating

Handsome but not so happy at the Memorial Day picnic

Be alerted. I'm changing to wordpress since it is much easier for anybody to comment and you don't have to put your full name or anything so you can be private if you want to, will be better, promise! I'll give you all the info you need with the new address and it will still have all the old posts.

T had his first dentist appointment. The dentist says he has 8 teeth not sure why cause there's only seven but supposedly one nub counts. He's gotten in a molar and overall his teeth look to be in good shape. He's behind, not uncommon for cleft palate babies and should have a total of 16 teeth right now. We may eventually find that he has missing, extra or teeth in weird places like the roof of his mouth. The important thing for all c/p kids is to keep all teeth cavity-free.

Last week after I realized that I needed to put more time and energy into Timothy's speech therapy we worked each day together for 25-30 minutes. It's made a huge difference! Well sorta. He's working a lot harder to try and imitate us. He's very good at saying his version of "more" really just the "m" sound as well as moo. He also has a version of "meow" without the "m" sound. When he tries new sounds he doesn't know how to say he'll use what he knows - a combination of "m" "moo" and "maama". He's very brave and wants to please and wants to speak.

So very tired - here are some photos

I'm a bit overwhelmed and finally starting to understand what it means to have a child with c/p. I wouldn't change a thing. I had been thinking in terms of surgeries rather than teaching our child speech and now the light is turning on in my brain - finally.

Timothy works so hard at speech therapy and he is doing great. He said the M sound last week and has done it a few times since when trying to say 'moo'. It takes patience and giving him time to motor plan - it seems like it takes him five minutes.

He's also teething like crazy. He now has 7 teeth - one coming in the middle of his gums at the far right side of his mouth - sorry rambling. I can feel some other nubs that haven't come in yet. He's gotten frustrated more easily this week and to my great joy amped up the whining. He's chewing on everything in site, poor guy.

He drank one milkshake from a cup and since then - not so much. It's a huge mess (still learning how to be okay with these huge toddler messes). Turns out we need to support his lower jaw much more to develop the weak muscles and that is my task this week.

Enjoy the photos. Timothy loves to wear hats even when not seasonally appropriate. His Aunt Lori gave him one she got from being a volunteer at the Obama Inauguration.

A couple of milestones!

Today was a great day!

Timothy said the "m" sound! Leslie, Greg and I were all working with him. Leslie was moving his face into correct position and Timothy was looking at his dad so he could see what to do and he did it! We erupted into a huge cheer and Timothy was beside himself. He was smiling, laughing, squealing and jumping - we are so proud of him. He tries so hard and it really is difficult for him to do what Leslie calls "motor planning". His brain isn't wired the right way, since his mouth developed the wrong way and he's had to overcome so much. He has to do it the right way a certain number of times before his brain will be "rewired" (studies show 450 times). His upper lip has healed with scar tissue that have made it less flexible than it needs to be, so we do some massaging and work with his body to get his central nervous system primed for him to be able to learn. There are lots of brain-body connections, so interesting, I never knew.

We've gotten some equipment to help Timothy "reorganize" when he's fatigued from learning - though he doesn't seem to have any sensory issues. The P & Q in the above photo he chews on and when he's better he throws them down. The star toy vibrates and also assists with the reorganization.

The cup in the photo you'll notice has a "U" side on it to make it easier for certain SN kids to drink easier. He would drink a little, but not swallow much of it and eventually spill the entire drink on his lap. Leslie suggested using a thicker liquid - a strawberry milkshake and it worked! He drank about 3 oz. All by himself. I'm so proud of him I can't stand it. I wanted to knock on all of our neighbors' doors and say "Do you know what Timothy did today?" But I don't want them to think I'm crazy so I just called my mom and sister.

I am so lucky, truly I am. I am so grateful we have this wonderful, amazing, smart little guy.

5 month update

April 2009

Back in December

It's been 5 months since we received Timothy and he's now 19 months old.

His favorite toys - any type of ball - he likes to gather as many in his arms as possible and let them free. His next choice would be to walk and run down the sidewalks of our street in his walker, with frequent stops to look at birds, trees, grass or sticks. We stop quite a bit.

He seems to understand so much English and will actually do what you ask most times. He's also starting to sign his needs to us - such as drink.

We've started to work on transitions between activities - when we first started doing clean up before we brought him upstairs to play, bath and sleep he would cry and try to stop us. It took about three nights. Then he pointed out a ball that Greg had forgotten to put away (mind you, did not bring it over himself) and now will just wait by the stairs for us (we let him climb the stairs at night). He kisses us - everytime we kiss each other and before he goes to sleep at night. I love that so much.

His favorite food is watermelon and would eat an entire one each night if we let him. We are starting to try to get him to drink from special cups with, sigh, little success but we are still working on it.

The speech therapist told us to remind him whenever he is drooling and close his mouth - which he doesn't really appreciate but is starting, finally, to close his mouth (due to the surgeries and the scar tissue formed, he doesn't have as much sensitivity in his lips as we do). We still have plenty of drool though. If you don't see him with a bib in a picture it's because we wanted to take one without it for a few minutes, not because he doesn't need one anymore.

We have only occasional success getting him to say the "m" sound. In fact, he's kinda regressed a little bit, which is normal. He's learning new signs all the time. The latest are "please" and "bear".

He's started to walk in little circles continuously, very strange but he thinks it's funny.

Still continues to be a big cuddlebug, loves loves loves to be held, lucky for us because we love to hold him.

We've let him start eating from a bowl and plate on his tray and it's working very well. He gets very bored when eating so this gives him something to occupy his attention.

A few more photos

Daddy put on my shoes. Um, ...notice anything wrong here?

You talkin' to me?

Watermelon's my new favorite, I've got the diapers to prove it!

Enjoying bluegrass and my shades

I didn't know that Daddy had a walker

I can mow the lawn too!

more Cincy pictures

cousins, cousins, cousins

and grandparents too!

All about speech therapy

At the Cincinnati Zoo...on the train

Down in the basement workin' the car

Back home in the pool!

I did not post last week since we were on vacation with Greg's family and Timothy did great!

He was insanely good on the car trip to Cincinnati and cried twice for a total of five minutes. He was upset to have to sleep in his car seat rather than a proper crib or even a pack n' play. He resisted and did not sleep. Also he was upset for the last few minutes of our 12 hour trip - seems fair to me. He did so well with all the relatives it was amazing. In fact, he was better behaved on vacation then he is here at home. Of course, here he does not have four people doting on him constantly. The beginning of our trip was rainy and cold and the second half was perfect sunny weather. Even though we didn't get out much at first, Timothy still had fun exploring Susan and Micheal's basement with all of their fun toys - especially the battery-powered Jeep. We went to the Butterfly Exhibit at Krohn's Conservatory and to the Cincinnati Zoo both of which he enjoyed, especially as an opportunity to see other children. Everyone says the same things about him that he is alert, calm, a great eater and very smart. It's nice to hear these things since we have no clue as this is our first, but we are very spoiled, no joke.

One thing that's helped a great deal in understanding how well he is processing is our speech therapy. He's learned about twenty signs - his favorite (obsession) is 'light'. We were to teach him a few signs as a bridge to speech but once I got help from Leslie I just keep showing him more and more and he's picking them up quickly. Today we learned 'car' and he points to our car every time I say the word. Nothing, and I mean nothing is cuter than seeing him do the sign for 'dog' (which is hanging your tongue out of your mouth and panting). He stands kinda bent over to simulate the 'pant' part and sticks his little tongue out, I practically have to hug and kiss him every time he does it.

We have a long way to go with speech as he is only at 10 month level. He's very instructional with his grunting and pointing but he seems so gratified to communicate so much more clearly. We continue to emphasize the 'm' sound - he's actually pretty good at this especially when making the moo sound for a cow and the 'b' sound using baa. He even tries to say 'quack'. Of course he has surgery hopefully in June and we'll almost have to start at the beginning, sigh, with articulation.

It's such a responsibility to teach your child speech! I feel pressure to constantly teach and sometimes I just want him to play. But that's what parenting is all about anyway is teaching your child problem-solving skills, creativity, sharing, discipline. This gig is a lot harder than I thought it would be...the change in lifestyle, freedom - no problem, he's so easy anyway, I get a full night's sleep every night and he's had no problem lately taking his nap. The responsibility of teaching him is overwhelming at times, but he's just so sweet and getting sweeter with each day as he gets more attached.

We had our 18 month check up on Tuesday with the pediatrician - he seems to have grown an inch since we took him to the IA doctor last month but most 12 month clothes are still too big for him. He also had to get 4 vaccines - poor guy, not happy and a tiny bit crabby all day and Wednesday.

He still loves to play ball, any ball and walk outside. He watched his Daddy mow the lawn the other day and was beside himself with fascination and kept following him with his little walker, so cute and adorable. By the way - he knows the sign for Daddy but Mama, not so much.

It the pics above I kinda rushed the whole swimming thing - although it was 83 degrees it was a bit windy and we were in the shade and the water was pretty cold so as you can see he looks freezing. I would have moved the pool to the sunny spot except the pool weighs like 90 tons with water so we stayed put and he would not let me take him out.