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!