Monkey Adventures - "Uh-Oh"

Today when we were in the doctor's office, Luke and Jacinda were across the room while I was paying. All of a sudden I heard someone say, "Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh." It sounded suspiciously like Jacinda ..... which is odd because the only word she's said up to now was Mama.

Sure enough, Jacinda now has 2 words .... Mama and Uh oh! I was very excited .... but then I realized she probably picked it up because we're always saying Uh oh when she destroys something!!!

This afternoon, somehow, she managed to get mud all over her ...... and she had been inside the whole time!!! I think it came from the dog, although I didn't see it actually happen.

Monkey Adventures

It has come to my attention that several of our friends find our life wildly entertaining. So, in order to keep them laughing, here are some random stories about our crazy little monkeys.

- A few days ago, Luke was watching TV in the family room, I was watching TV in the living room, and Jacinda was bouncing around all over the place. Luke comes into the living room, sighs, and says, "Mommy, Jacinda went outside with no pants on." She likes to open and close the sliding door that opens onto the deck. She was wearing a shirt and a diaper, but no pants. I left the door unlocked, and sure enough, she was standing on the deck with no pants on!!!!!

- I told Luke that he needed to stop growing because his pants were getting too short and I didn't want to buy new ones. He said, "But I HAVE to keep growing." I asked why and he said, "So I can reach things."

- Last night, Jacinda fell off the couch onto a puzzle, and landed on her face. She didn't have a single mark on her face!!! Then at church this morning, she ends up with a nasty scrape on her face and no one knows how it happened!!!!! She's going to end up in the ER one of these days.

These 2 monkeys definitely keep us laughing and we LOVE it!!!! There's always something crazy going on around here!!!!!

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On a more serious note .... Jacinda's palate surgery is still on for February 3rd. She has a hearing test this Wednesday. Everyone (her pediatrician, her speech therapist, and us) think her hearing is fine. It's just something that a lot of cleft kids have issues with, so her pediatrician thought it was a good idea to at least get a baseline before her surgery. Her pediatrician's office pulled some strings and called in a few favors to get us in this quickly!

Luke has a follow-up appointment the week of January 25th with a cardiologist. He has a tiny heart murmur that was diagnosed when he was a day old. It has never caused any problems and still isn't. He saw a cardiologist when he turned 1 and he had several tests on his heart and the doctors were not concerned. His pediatrician would just like us to have a follow-up.

I (Sherry) have several medical appointments over the next few weeks. I'm seeing a new ENT doctor this coming week for some help with my allergies and sinuses. I have a root canal scheduled for the 27th of January. The dentist that's doing the root canal is kind of wacky, so I'll have to write a post about that later!

That's about it from here ...... just pure chaos!!!!!!

Jacinda's Birthday is Tomorrow .... Bittersweet

So Jacinda's 2nd birthday is tomorrow. It's great ... we've been home from China with her since the end of October. There was a time when we weren't sure if she'd be home before her birthday. So we're really excited that she's home and doing so well.

But. I can't help but think about her first mom. Was she excited to be having a baby? How did she feel when the baby was a girl AND had a cleft lip and palate? Did she immediately know that they would give up the baby? How did it feel to leave the baby outside, in front of an orphanage? I'm so glad DD was left somewhere that she'd be found quickly. She was dressed in a coat and wrapped up in blankets. Obviously, someone took good care of her.

How does Jacinda's first mom feel every day, but especially on her birthday? I'm so sad that DD's first mom will never be able to see her grow up, or see her sweet, crooked smile, or get kisses from her. But on the other hand, we get to experience all of that. It's such a strange, bittersweet feeling.

I haven't thought much about Jacinda's first mom until now. I can't imagine leaving my baby and never knowing what happened to her. I am so grateful that God thought we were the right parents for this precious, sweet little girl.

Speech Therapy

Jacinda finally started speech therapy this past Monday. It was WONDERFUL! Her therapist's name is Allison and she was just amazing. Jacinda really warmed up to her quickly .... probably because Allison brought lots of puzzles and toys with her!

Allison was very impressed at all the noises Jacinda is already making. She thinks that once Jacinda's palate is repaired, she'll be talking in no time! Allison also said that Luke talks VERY well for a 3 year old, and that having him as a model will really help Jacinda.

We learned a few more signs, which Jacinda already had mastered by the end of the hour. We learned help and down. Our speech pathologist on the craniofacial team really wants us to limit the signs we use because she doesn't want Jacinda to rely on the signs once her palate is repaired. She wants her to talk. Allison said she understood that and the way to avoid it is for us to use the sounds with the signs.

Allison showed me some ways to help Jacinda make sounds, even if she can't say the actual word. For example, when putting an elephant in the puzzle, I should say, "Jacinda, say eh-eh-elephant". And she says the eh sound just fine and puts the piece in the puzzle!!!

Allison will come once a week for an hour for now. Once Jacinda makes progress, we'll re-evaluate.

This will sound crazy, but I'm actually looking forward to her palate repair surgery! I'm ready to get that over with and move on! I can't wait until Jacinda can talk!!!!! And drink from a sippy or straw cup that doesn't leak!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas is Almost Here!

We are SO excited for Christmas around here.  The first reason, of course, is that we have Jacinda home.  Over the summer, we were preparing ourselves for the possibility that we might not have her home by Christmas.  All the paperwork was just so uncertain at that point.

 

There is a lot that we don't know about Jacinda's first 2 years.  We have no idea if she ever received presents.  So we're a little excited to see her when she opens her presents.

 

Back in December of 2008, before we had Jacinda's referral, I had this conversation on Facebook:

 

12/6/08:  Me – Sherry Barber Wolfe is SO happy Immigration approved us so quickly after getting the new document!!!!!!

12/6/08:  Janna (my sister-in-law) – Way cool Dude! Maybe I'll have another new niece by next Christmas!

12/6/08:  Me – Janna, it will probably be longer than that, unfortunately. But crazier things have happened!

 

I think I need to listen to Janna a little more.  She must have known something we didn't!!!

 

The other major reason we're excited for Christmas is that this is the first year Luke really understands all the hype.  He knows that Christmas is when God sent us baby Jesus.  He knows that we get to open presentqs.  We took him to a store and let him pick out presents for each of us and he's helping us wrap them.  So he also understands the giving part of Christmas.  We let him choose some of his old toys to give away to kids that are in need of gifts this Christmas.  He also helped us put together shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  It's really been a lot of fun for us to see him learning about all of this.

 

This is also the year that Aaron and I have been discussing what we want to teach the kids about Christmas and what traditions we want to start and continue in our house.  We really want our kids to know that Christmas is not all about opening presents.  Yes, that's a really fun part of it, but it isn't the most important part.  We want to give them things they want, but we already have so much stuff.  We also want to instill in them a desire to help other people who don't have as much as we do.  And not just at Christmas, but all year long.

 

We'll definitely post lots of pictures of the big day, so stay tuned!

A Little Update

While I have a semi-quiet minute, I thought I'd type out a little update about what we're up to around here. Both kids are eating a snack and playing together and dinner is simmering on the stove - Navy Bean Soup.

The kids and I are settling into a routine during the weekdays. We usually run an errand or two in the morning and then try to go to the park if it isn't raining. Even if it's cold, we bundle up and go! The kids love running around and it's good for all of us to get some fresh air. Then we usually come home and have lunch and the kids take naps!!!!!

The kids still have their moments, but they are slowly playing together better. So that's good news! Jacinda continues to leave a path of destruction wherever she goes. She gets into things that we forgot we had! She undoes everything I do. Or, she makes a bigger mess somewhere else while I'm getting something done!!!! Needless to say, our house is not clean and tidy all the time! We have been having both kids help clean up all the toys every night before bed. So at least the floor is toy-free at some point during the day!!!!

We should be starting her speech therapy soon. She qualified for once a week therapy. Because of the holidays, we don't have a starting date yet, but that should be coming soon.

Update on Jacinda's Surgery Plans

We met last week with the Craniofacial team at our children's hospital. We are so fortunate that we have the Operation Smile doctors here locally. The consult went really well. Jacinda was very cooperative with everyone.

The orthodontist we saw said that her teeth looked great so far. Right now, we just need to do what we'd normally do with a 2 year old, which is brush her teeth. He said we'd need to start orthodontic work probably when she's 5 or 6.

The plastic surgeon was very informative. He said that during her surgery, he would do 3 things. The most important thing he will do is close her palate. Then, he will touch up her lip just a little. He was pretty impressed with her lip repair, though. The third thing he will do is try to even out her nose a little bit. He said that that is the hardest part and that her nose will probably be a bit uneven forever. We don't really care, because that's something you don't even notice unless you're looking really closely.

He also said that we need to meet with the ENT surgeon at some point soon. If she needs tubes in her ears, they will do that during the surgery as well. As far as we know, she doesn't have issues with ear infections, but it's pretty common with cleft kids to have ear fluid issues.

We also met with the team's Speech Pathologist. She doesn't deal with speech really, mainly just with feeding issues. She was very impressed that Jacinda is using sippy cups and not a bottle. She will work with us while we're in the hospital to teach Jacinda how to eat with a repaired palate. She also said that if we need any help getting Jacinda's speech therapy services taken care of, she will help us.

Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, February 3rd. Jacinda will only need to stay in the hospital for 1 night, assuming everything goes well. She will need to be on a liquid/soft food diet for at least a week. She's going to LOVE that part! The good news is that our surgeon does NOT use arm restraints for kids Jacinda's age. It's fairly common for kids to have their arms in splints after surgery so they don't mess with their surgery sites. We were really worried about that and were happy to hear that we won't have to deal with it.

We just had Jacinda's evaluation for Speech Therapy services today (Tuesday). She is developmentally on track in all areas, except speech. In fact, she is ahead developmentally in a few areas, like fine motor skills. She does have delays in expressive and receptive speech. Pretty soon, she will start speech therapy once a week.