Well, Oct. has come and gone and Nov. is half way through! Seeing as my last post was early Oct. you should come to the conclusion that we are really...really busy, which is a good thing. Kelly is "done" healing from her surgery, and on any and all foods now. The disappointing news is that while the surgery was mostly successful, there is still a small hole in her palate, which will need to be closed by surgery again, at some point, but not for a least a year. We were so hoping that this would be the only one to close her palate, but at least it is far and away better than it was. It does mean that there is still no way for her to create a suction, but we'll deal with that as it comes. The good news is she can eat and feed herself and she is a happy camper now. Even put on a little weight! Her hair is filling in, her motor skills are improving very rapidly and she is even doing a little babbling. She still does not talk, and while that is frustrating for us all, she is using her mouth and voice more and more...shouldn't be too terribly long before we have actual language!! I've been doing battle with the powers that be to get her into Speech Therapy and we are finally approved for Calif. Child Services, just need to get the right referral to the right place. Gotta love State run programs (not!!)
We had a great Halloween, and look forward to a fun Thanksgiving with family. I can't find the pictures of her Halloween outfit at the moment, but will post those when I can. The moment I have now is one where I can find some random pictures of Kelly (Jamie and friend Taylor are in the picts too) helping to wash Cory's car. The one of Kelly eating is when she was able to finally eat with utensils...double handed, like she did when we first brought her home.

She's 2!

Kelly turned 2 on the 21st, and we had a small family party for her. She didn't understand the gift thing (of course) but did get the hang of the cake thing! She's acting more and more like a 2 yr. old too, which is great to see, just a little frustrating to deal with. We are now 5 1/2 weeks post op from the palate surgery and so far things looks pretty good. The Dr. is concerned with one part of the repair, but there's nothing to do about it at this point but wait, hope and STAY on the "soft food only" diet..poor kid. Her greatest source of frustration these days is still not being allowed to feed herself and not getting the food she wants. She has gotten taller, but not put on any weight, so I can't wait to give her the things she craves like Goldfish, cookies and chips (might be a looooonnnnggg time before she gets chips!)

Kelly and I are attending a Tumbling Tots class and Sign Language, and the Tumbling class is taught by the same woman who taught it 15 years ago when I took Cory to it...yikes! The teacher and I both agreed it was something we wouldn't think about too much. We are seeing improvements in vocalization and mimicing, but other than a very few words, still not getting much vocal language. Kelly continues to sign many things, and can say "Mama" and "hi" much more clearly now, and "more" and "music" if you use a little imagination. Fortunately her receptive language is really coming along now and she understands most, if not all, of what we say. Of course the 2 yr. old in her chooses not to listen sometimes too! All in all we have made it through the 6 week recovery period pretty well, and are anxious to move on past this and on to "normal" life!

One week done!

yeah!! We made it through the first week of recovery after Kelly's cleft surgery.

She did really really well, considering, but it's been a long week and I'm glad we are on the other side of it. She will be off the No-no's soon, and we are only using them nights, naps, and car rides and when I can't be right there with her. As the girls have been on vacation still, that has meant that someone is with Kelly much of the time, so that has made those nasty No-no's pretty easy. And the fact that Kelly really doesn't put much into her mouth. She's till sleeping fitfully, but not bad thank goodness. Wakes several times at night, but goes back to sleep usually. We also stopped the Codeine, and I'm glad...was making her too loopy, volatile, and I think nauseous so she wasn't eating or drinking. She's still pretty mad about not being able to feed herself or get the food she wants, but we can at least get a little into her now!

It's going to be really sad for her tomorrow when Cory and Jamie leave for school. Kelly adores them and loves to "hang" with them or just watch what they are doing. I'm going to be sad too, as they have been such an amazing help to me these last 2 months. With them gone during the day, and the surgery over and winding down (in a month or so) with the Dr. appt.s I'm going to have to get both Kelly and I into some classes to keep us busy. Actually it's really good timing as I think Kelly is ready for some more stimulation now, without getting too overwhelmed. Hopefully this surgery is a complete success (we won't know for a few months) and we can start Speech Therapy in a month or so.

Surgery over

Kelly's cleft palate surgery is over and at this point a success. Acually we won't know if it was successful for a few months, but so far so good. She had the tubes put in her ears, and her palate closed on Friday, and we were discharged on Sat!! Only one night in the hospital, a record short time, thank goodness. While they took good care of us at the hospital, it was so VERY noisy, crowded, busy, and uncomfortable. Fortunately Kelly came thru the surgery with flying colors, and her bleeding stopped by Sat. and pain tolerance was great, so home we came. She is doing really very well considering, but the whole thing is so very painful and the "no-no"s so very annoying that it's best we are here to distract her with whatever we can. She is sleeping well, it's just tolerating the arm restraints and eating that are the trouble. She is in pain when she eats and drinks (not surprisingly) and VERY angry that she can't feed herself, can't eat what she wants, and of course we can't explain it to her, poor thing. Ah well. 10 days to go till the no-no's are off, and the pureed food is done...but who's counting! Meds will be stopped in four days, so that will help too.
Thank you all for your kinds wishes and especially those of you bringing food!!

Chillin in my room with my dog and sisters

Busy week coming up

We've got a busy week coming up this week. We are hosting Cory's Crew team's Seniors dinner Monday, Ron and I will be going out on Sunday and we will have a sitter (not one of Kelly's sisters!), the Sikoras will be traveling from Oregon and we will see them Tues. for dinner, Wed. all day and evening is our annual High School friends dinner here (can't wait) and Friday early is Kelly's surgery (with pre-op bloodwork on Thurs. ick) Whew. Most all of it is really good stuff. The surgery I could skip, but it needs to get done ASAP and this was the first available time. Luckily we will be able to combine the palate work and the ear tubes in one surgery. We expect to stay at the hospital for 2-3 nights. Poor Baby! Thank goodness she doesn't know what is about to happen to her.
I've been trying to go through some of the paperwork and photos we collected on our trip to China and I'm noticing how seldom Kelly smiled in the photos! She smiles all the time now, and is so happy most the time it's hard to remember when she didn't.
We also will be trying to fit in an additional ABCme Sign class. She was invited to go, and it's a wonderful class for infants thru 5 yrs. old learning American Sign Language. She has picked up SO many signs and was invited to attend this last class where the local cable network is filming a segment on the class. Should be fun! I'll post more if it looks like the segment will air anywhere but right here. Glad we are doing the class, not that she'll be signing much her whole life, but it really helps now with communication, otherwise we'd all be pulling our our hair in frustration with trying to guess what she wants to tell us. So far we are still on just a few sounds, although I think we are finally getting "uh oh" when things fall, but it's not very clear. Might even finally have "Mama", and mean it! Slowly, slowly.
Off to order some pictures and organize food for the team!
Beth

"borrowing" her sisters' headbands