Palate Update

A little over four months ago, Mason-Kate had her first palate surgery. The surgeon stated that her cleft was one of the worst cases he had ever seen, her tissue was very thin and her palate was extremely wide. One week after her surgery, she developed a fistula (hole) in the repair. We were so disappointed. Today we had an appointment with her surgeon for a follow up visit. He gave us great news! He looked in her mouth (as she screamed) and said "it looks great, the palate looks great!" I dared to ask what our future held in the surgery department. (Yikes!) The fistula is still there, but because of its location and its small size (barely there), he said that most likely they will repair that, if needed, when they do her bone graft surgery at the age of 6/7. Yippee! We are thrilled! And though I did mention that she screamed during the actual examine of her mouth, she was an angel the remainder of the visit. She played, she giggled, she interacted with the nurses, she even let them take her blood pressure without a fight....that scared little girl is no more!

The Latest

The latest on MK:

• She now walks around the house with her hands up to her cheeks calling "brobas, where are you?" Sadly enough, most of the time, they are at school.


• She and her speech therapist are friends. MK's speech therapist has been coming once a week for 2 months. For the first month, MK cried for the first few minutes of every session especially if I dared to leave the room. Yesterday, the therapist arrived, MK took her by the hand and they walked off together. I was left behind.


• MK's necklace is a necessity in her daily wardrobe. She calls it her "neguc".


• She is like a little parakeet. She will repeat words that I say as long as I don't ask her to say them. If I ask her to say a word, she responds with a blank stare.


• Sad but true she is growing fast. Some of my most favorite outfits that she wore when we first got her are too small now. About a month ago, I tried some Fall clothes on her to get an idea for sizes. At that time, 2T was more than HUGE on her. Now, they are just right.


• She was introduced to the world of ketchup this weekend. She LOVES it with green beans, carrots, apple and whatever else is on her plate.

The latest on the funny boys....I have to say that one of my favorite times of the day with the boys is in the morning on the way to school. We always say prayers in the car. One person will begin and then it has a domino effect until the last person to pray closes the prayer. Yesterday Pryce began our prayer. He was saying thank you for the beautiful day, for the trees, our family, etc. and as he was praying, a United Moving truck passed by....his prayer took a turn at this point....he began to pray for the movers that they didn't fall off the truck moving the furniture, he prayed for the family to like their new home, he prayed for the drivers that they didn't wreck...it just made me laugh because he was so matter of fact. Colin, unfortunately, had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day to contend with yesterday. Nothing went right for him and it was sad to see him down. He was describing a particular situation that had happened during the day. He said, "Mom, my oxygen supply just cut off - it wasn't flowing and I couldn't breathe!" He was so serious! He is my little man trapped inside an 8 year old body. I am realizing how good I had it when they were little and could easily be protected by me and Ryan. Now, as they grow older, that protection is proving to be a little trickier to provide.

Sweet Girl

Remember the little girl who would not think of letting me hold her on Gotcha Day? My how things change! Ihave to write about what she just did....if you have followed along, you know then that Barney and MK have a little thing going on between the two of them....she is in love! Well, moments ago, MK was watching Barney when it unfortunately came to an end. I was doing my domestic duties and putting clothes away. She called "mama" and I turned to see her coming to me with arms wide open. She hugged me and then she did her little "uh, uh" sound with her mouth all puckered up for a kiss, so I leaned down and she gave me a kiss and hugged me again, hence says the Barney song "I love you, you love me,...." What a sweet girl!

Ode to Granny

This weekend our family visited the beach for one last hurrah before the cold weather sets in. Our trip was much like the rest of our beach trips....we did some bike riding/walking, Colin and Pryce spent a good bit of time on the beach trying to dig a hole in the sand to Colin's waist, MK observed everything around her and eventually tried the ocean out, the boys played ping pong by the pool (MK observed this too and I am thinking that if she could have, she would have offered them some tips on how it is really done!) and we tried to relax. On our trip home, we made a side trip to visit the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point. The boys had a lot of fun climbing on all of the ships! That is our weekend in a nutshell. However, I must say that I spent a lot of time Saturday thinking of my grandmother. I was reminded of her funny little sayings on Saturday morning when Ryan, myself and Mason-Kate were sitting in the kitchen having breakfast. For whatever reason, MK decided to place her feet on the table. At first I was appalled and then, as I watched her, I felt like laughing because she was just so relaxed hanging out with her two little feet on the table eating cheese toast. I did what every blogging parent in America does, I took pictures. And as I took pictures, Ryan said "Just as Granny used to say, this is a vacation, not a Continuation!", so we let MK eat with her feet on the table! I know, gross, but as she ate with her feet on the table, the boys were in the den eating their own breakfast in front of the TV that had already been on for hours....definitely vacation. Throughout the day, I was reminded of these sayings....Colin told me he was bored at one point so I told him to "go play in the traffic". HUH? was his response....I explained to him that this is what my grandmother used to tell me if I dared to say I was bored at her house....she lived way out in the "country" as we liked to call it, on a long two lane road that only saw traffic when she and my grandfather decided to go somewhere....at another point on Saturday, Pryce asked me what time it was and I asked him "are you taking medicine or catching a bus?" HUH? is the response I got from him as well so I explained to him that it didn't matter what time it was because he didn't really NEED to know, we were supposed to be relaxing. The grand reminder of Granny came on Saturday afternoon. Mason-Kate was asleep in her room, and we told the boys they were going to have rest time for an hour. So, after a few voiced complaints, the boys went to their respective resting rooms in the house. Pryce fell asleep. Colin, on the other hand, decided to write a story for his friend....and he kept coming in and out of his room, which honestly was driving us a little nuts as we were trying to take naps ourselves. Anyway, at some point, Colin came out of his room and told us that he was hearing a scratching noise in the closet of his room. A half asleep Ryan told Colin to go to his room and stay in there....we would check on the scratching in a little while. Keep in mind that Colin tends to be a bit dramatic at times (no clue where he gets that!). Fast forward an hour, Pryce wakes up and I assume that Colin has fallen asleep as we have not heard from him in awhile. So, being that it is late in the afternoon, I suggest to Ryan that we go wake Colin up. Ryan goes upstairs and into Colin's room. In a few moments, he comes out with this stunned look on his face. He was kind of laughing as he said "Beth, there is a baby SQUIRREL in the closet and the mom squirrel is in the wall trying to get to it!". At that moment, I could hear my grandmother saying to us all, "Well, now we are in a mell of a hess!" as I sat there asking Ryan what in the world we were going to do. All is well that ends well, Ryan caught the baby squirrel and took him outside to live in the wild, we sealed the hole in the ceiling where the squirrel apparently had fallen through, we called someone to come get the other squirrel out of the wall, and we spent the evening apologizing to poor Colin for not rushing into his rescue the moment he said he heard something suspicious. It made for an interesting, unforgettable afternoon.

"This is a vacation, not a continuation"

"Now we're in a mell of a hess"

USS Yorktown

Hanging out at Seabrook