All About Kate

I seem to have several short, Kate-centric anecdotes to share, so I thought I would combine them all into one post.

Story number 1:
Kate has lost her first two (non-cleft related) teeth.  The first one came out while she was playing July 2 at her buddy Olivia's house. (Yes, I am a belated blogger.) It was so loose I could've plucked it right out, but she insisted she wanted it to "just fall out."  And it did.  It bled a little bit, and she cried.  I asked her if it hurt, and she said that it didn't.  So then I asked her why she was crying.  She looked at me and said, "Oh, yeah," and immediately stopped crying and gave me a huge smile.

 

The second one came out between Sunday school and church one Sunday in August.  It just fell out.  No crying this time.  The end.

Story number 2:

Kate loves soccer.  In the spring she played in the 6-7 league with her brother because a) It meant less driving for me and b) She can totally hold her own.  So even though big brother Will moved up to the 8-10 league this fall, we left her in the 6-7 league, even though she is only 5 1/2. On Monday she played in the pouring rain (no lightening at all), and scored her first two goals ever!  The team won 5-2, and she was very proud of herself.

Story number 3:
At school, Kate was nominated for the "Take Pride In Your Work" award. When she came home with the paper and a note from the principal, I bragged on her and talked to her about what that award meant.  I thought she understood it, until her Mimi called an hour later.

Me: Kate, your Mimi is on the phone.  Come here and tell her what your award is for.
Kate: (shrugs) Being a little Chinese person?

Apparently I have done such a thorough job of instilling ethnic pride in my daughter that she thinks she gets awards for it.  Either that, or she has more personality than I know what to do with.

Story number 4:
Will wants me to add that he just taught her to play piano without any lessons.  Seriously, she is downstairs playing a song he taught her.  Good job, Will and Kate!

Jack: Two Weeks Post-Op

Thankfully Jack is on a solid diet now.  We are still keeping it fairly soft (no pretzels because Mama is mean like that), but he is mostly eating regular foods.  If he could talk, I am pretty sure he would say that he is never leaving the kitchen table ever again, thankyouverymuch.  He is that obsessed with food. He thinks about it all. the. time.

Also thankfully, his signing vocabulary has probably doubled since his surgery.  He was already signing more and milk, with an occasional - water, up, and down - thrown in there.  He now signs water all the time, and also signs: banana, food, shoes, socks, and please. We are very impressed.  And he is very impressed with himself.  There is something magical about that moment when a child realizes that he can communicate what he wants, and that mom and dad Understand! It is beautiful.

We are still watching one of those spots in his repaired palate to make sure it isn't a fistula, but no amount of watching will make it be or not be a fistula.  So I am trying my best to leave him alone and wait for the surgeon to look at it again in two weeks.

I have lost track of how many health care professionals my children have seen in the past month.  Seriously.  Dentists, surgeons, speech therapists.  I am not a soccer mom.  I am a waiting room mom.  Go team.

And now for some pictures.  I took these about a month ago, but forgot to post them.  I was probably in a waiting room when I should have been posting.

 

 

   

Jack: One Week Post-Op

Jack saw the plastic surgeon today for his one week post-op appointment.  Dr. L. said that it looked like it was healing well, and that if a fistula (hole) was going to form at this point, there isn't much we can do about it.  He said that chances are that there will be no fistula, but he pointed out a couple of locations where they could possibly develop.  And yes, Jack is still on liquids/baby food consistency until Tuesday.  Blah.

He hates hates hates his current diet.  I am not sure what he hates more - that he can't have normal food or that we don't let him have full control over the spoons and syringes we use to feed him.  For a kid with food control issues, this is a killer. His diet right now is mostly yogurt, baby food bananas, hummus, and Pediasure milkshakes. And he is eating less - he is kind of bored with it.  Who can blame him?  There are only so many times you can eat baby oatmeal without wanting to fling it at the wall.

And one thing I have learned: baby food is just as nasty now as it was ten years ago when I fed it to Ben.  Yay.

On the bright side, he isn't in any pain, we are finished with all medications, and he is back in his own bed (even if he still isn't sleeping through the night). He is also using a B sound now.  I just got serenaded with a beautiful song called "Ma-ma-ba-ma-ba-ba". It was awesome. We are praying that he won't develop any fistulas and that his healing will continue over the course of the next months and years. 

Jack's Surgery, Part 2

I apologize for not posting another update yesterday, but once your child comes out of surgery there are more important things than blogging. The repair went well, but it was more complicated than the doctor thought it was going to be.  The repaired cleft in his lip was unilateral, so the assumption was that the palate was too.  We were also hoping that since his gumline is mostly intact that he would not require a bone graft when he is 7 or 8.  We were wrong on both counts.  Apparently the palate was more of a bilateral cleft, which means there is a cleft on both sides of the mouth.  I knew it looked bilateral to me, but I had never had a doctor tell me it was, so I just assumed that my uneducated eye didn't know what it was looking at. 

Also, the clefts extend into the bone of the gum line.  So even though it looks like his gum line isn't affected much, he is missing bone on both sides and will need a bilateral graft later on.  This is disappointing news for Jack, but will be manageable, of course.  Bone grafts are just considered to be very painful surgeries - I know from experience with my leg that the bone doesn't really numb.  The skin and tissue around it might be numb, but when you mess with that bone it hurts like the devil.

Ear tube placement also went well, although we haven't actually talked to Dr. V.  She had another appointment to get to, but it apparently was a standard tube insertion.  His ears don't seem to be bothering him.

His mouth on the other hand, hurts a lot.  He spent most of yesterday curled up on top of me, either sleeping or moaning, or moaning in his sleep.  He didn't sleep very well, and any rest he did get was thanks to some good drugs.  Today he is feeling much better, but still  not himself.  There is still some drainage and it hurts for him to swallow.  We are having to force feed him liquids, pudding, and applesauce with a syringe so the doctor will let us go home. 

We did venture out of the room today.  We went and found the playroom, where we played trains for awhile.  He also spent most of the morning awake, playing trucks and reading.

The plan from here is to go home this afternoon/evening.  He will then be on a liquid/baby food diet for two weeks, so don't expect to see us much in any place where they might serve food. My boy loves to eat, so this will be hard for him.

Posts (so far) about Jack's cleft/developmental/IA issues:

• Let the Appointments Begin!
• Appointments, Part 2: Audiology
• Appointments, Part 3: Plastic Surgeons
• Appointments, Part 4: The Dentist  
• Appointments, Part 5: Early Intervention 
• Appointments, Part 6: Speech 
• Appoingments, Part 7: ENTs (and Plastic Surgery Revisited)
• Jack's Surgery (Part 1)

Jack's Surgery

Jack has gone into surgery. Tim and I are hanging, seriously considering breakfast and any other distraction that might come our way. They are going to place ear tubes, do a sedated ABR (hearing test), and then Dr. L will repair his palate. It will probably take around three hours, but each doctor will give updates as they finish their part.

I am a big bundle of nerves.  Trying to prepare my heart for the crying and clinging that will happen.  Praying that he is already asleep and that Dr. V already has those tubes in. Praying that when he wakes that they will get us back there super fast to comfort that sweet little man.  Praying that everything goes more smoothly and perfectly than any tube/palate job ever. 

Not impressed with the new jammies.

Much more impressed with the transportation.

Will. My Eight Year Old.

 

I was walking down the stairs today, and I noticed a picture of Will that hangs on the wall there.  I walk past the pictures that hang there a million times a day, rarely taking the time to slow down and look at them.  In the photo, he is four years old.  His face is round, with kissable cheeks, sparkling eyes, and a noticeable lack of freckles, considering his current tally of "sprinkles." It was shortly after this picture that his face started to lose the "baby-ness."  Suddenly, he was a big boy.

Will is my mama's boy.  (Jack is in hot pursuit of that title, but Will is hanging on for dear life.) I always tell him that no one loves me quite the way that he does.  (Not the amount, mind, but the way he does it.)  When he hugs me I can feel it in my bones.

  

And I am constantly amazed at how much he has grown up.  He isn't a baby any more.  He is a second grader.  He is the "grit" of the soccer team.  He is a beginning piano student who has joy in every correct note.  He is the kid who gets off the bus and proudly shows me his perfect spelling test.

Oh, and he adores small children.  He was my biggest asset when I was babysitting regularly.  He could usually figure out what was wrong and how to make the baby stop crying before I did.  He loves his brothers and sister fiercely, and loves torturing them almost as much.

He still makes me laugh like crazy.  Still says off the wall things.  And we will be using Will-isms until we die.  (Nevah-evah-evah! It's too much soup! Shirts are very important to me. That was a sarcasm. I knew I would have a great life.)  A friend of ours who goes to the local college (where we know lots of folks)  said she overheard another student using a Will-ism one day - and it was someone we don't even know.  The girl apparently thought it was a movie quote because she had heard it so often from our friend.

Of course, those of you who know Will personally also know that this is the child that has taught me the most about parenting.  Any patience, creativity, or gray hairs that I exhibit come from parenting this child.  He keeps me on my toes, this one.

But, oh.  How I love this kid.  I love every sprinkle on his face.  I love his persistence and tenacity - which make me crazy, but will serve him well in life.  I love his search for justice in his life and in the world.  I can't wait to see how God will use this kid. It's going to be awesome. 

Birthday Bash: Will & Jack

Last year we had one massive birthday party for all three kids, regardless of the fact that their birthdays spread across a 4 month time span.  It's a long story, but suffice it to say that it is much easier to throw one massive party than three big parties, when more than half the guest lists overlap. 

As the birthdays approached this year, they all wanted different parties.  Ben wanted to take a friend for pizza and video games.  Kate wanted to go to a local pumpkin patch.  Will wanted a pool party.  His only rule was that he wasn't sharing his party with his brother.

Except then we met Jack.  Whose birthday is six days after Will's.  And Will said, "Of course, we will just share the same party."  And I said, "But you said you wouldn't share with your brother."  And he said, "I meant the other brother."

And so we once again had a shared party.  Which is just fine by me.  And the grandparents who have to travel.  My uncle graciously agreed to open his home and his pool to us, and our craziness.  Thanks again, Ricky:)

Will designed his own cake this year.  C3PO kept falling over, so we had to push him way far into the cake.  Hence, his short stature in the picture.

Jack wanted to wave his candles out, but once I blew them out for him demonstrated, he did his best to pretend to blow.

And thanks again to Grammy, because this mama forgot the camera at home.  Yes, I am that awesome.  Oh well, at least my kids are awesome.