Apparently...

...she felt the need to fill the void in my bed with Daddy gone. And she brought along her furry friends for a sleepover as well.

A Rachel Funny

It was the week before Halloween and I was working in Rachel's class, sitting at the table in the back, busily putting homework folders together, hearing the kids hum and sing Christmas songs. I smiled to myself thinking how funny it was that we were a week before Halloween and here these kids have Christmas songs on their lips.

And then, all of a sudden I heard one of Rachel's classmates exclaim "He is too real!!!!"

A wave of panic struck me as I looked up and saw Rachel standing there and her saying "Mommy, tell him that Santa Claus is not real!!!"

I motioned for Rachel to come over and I whispered in her ear that we were supposed to remember that while we don't believe Santa Claus is real, a lot of kids do and we're not spoil their fun.

She then turned and as she walked away she got in the last word with "Well, he's not real at our house!!!" and back to her work she went. LOL.

This incident came to mind today as we were waiting to see Santa Claus at Disneyland.

To my children, seeing Santa Claus is just part of the holidays and is nothing more than a man dressed up, just like those of the characters at Disneyland. So of course Rachel wanted to see him. And as I stood here, watching Rachel tell this man that she was hoping to get a brown horsey (huh? where'd that come from??) for Christmas, a streak of panic set in and I wondered if she would tell this man he wasn't real and that it was Mommy and Daddy who brought the presents on Christmas and that Christmas wasn't about him. When in fact it's Jesus' birthday.

Not that I wouldn't have been proud of her for preaching the truth, but whoa, that would have been really awkward! LOL

Disneyland with Family

As everyone by now knows, this year, Disneyland's promotion is that you get into Disneyland FREE on your birthday. To make long story short, my sister in law and brother in law came from Oregon last week all centered around going to Disneyland for Ed's 40th birthday!

We spent the day all day with them on Tuesday, and they stayed in a nearby motel on Tuesday night and played all day on Wednesday. We just spent the one day at Disneyland. I was worn out and tired and wasn't up to dealing with the crowds that might come out as a result of Veteran's Day. But Tuesday as GREAT!!! We had a wonderful, wonderful time and did managed to squeeze a lot in during the short off season hours for the park.

Over the weekend the kids had all been practicing in anticipation of being chosen for the Jedi Training Academy in Tomorrowland. To say Ryan is a Star Wars fan would be an understatement - he eats, sleeps, breathes Star Wars. So the first thing we did for the day was head over to the first showing of the Academy. We've seen the show dozens of times, but never once has either of our girls had the desire to go and try to be chosen. They were too afraid to fight Darth Vadar, let alone the scary looking Darth Maul. But on this day, Rachel was up for trying out! I think it helped tremendously that her two cousins had the strong desire to be picked. Turned out that all three of the young cousins got picked and they are now officially honorary Jedi trainees. They each did an awesome job and made this entire family of Star Wars Geeks proud!!! Rachel even says she'll try again next time we're at Disneyland!!!

The crowds were light and we managed to do sooo much. We spent the day focusing on the big rides and a lot of the favorite rides that our family hoped to accomplish while visiting. We all went on Autopia, and managed to be on the tracks that were side by side and had fun racing, passing up, and taking pictures. There were some rides that the smaller kids didn't wish to experience, and a time or two, Rachel wasn't quite tall enough to ride. So we had our fun sitting out and waiting for the rest of our family to get off the rides. The cousins all had a great time paling around and riding with each other and competing to sit with one another on rides, etc. We really did have a great day!Gramie with four of her five grandchildren.
Disneyland closed at 8:00 on Tuesday. We skipped dinner and took advantage of relatively short lines and then went out to dinner after leaving Disneyland. The kids were all tired, but they relished all the time they could have together...

Orthodontic Growing Pains

Off and on over the last couple of months, Rachel has been complaining that her tooth hurst. Her front top tooth is the one she always points to. We'd looked in there and kinda came to the conclusion that her 'funky tooth' as we affectionately call it, the tooth that is sideways in her cleft aveolar ridge (her gum) was moving down and pressing on her good tooth.

I took her to our pediatric dentist on Tuesday and she checked her over - no cavities, no visible problems. She took an Xray which showed her jacked up upper teeth, but nothing that really jumped out.

Our dentist emailed her Xray to an orthodontist to look over and his conclusion was that she has so many issues where her cleft is, that more than likely the pain she is experiencing is growing pains in the area of all the movement and change. Our plan is to keep an eye on it as there really isn't anything that can be done right now orthodontically.

Hearing Test

At Rachel's Crainofacial Team Appointment the end of January, after talking with the ENT, it was decided to have Rachel's hearing retested in 6 months. Her P.E. tubes had both fallen out and we wanted to stay atop of her hearing as it can affect her speech.

She really should have had her hearing tested in August, but with school starting that month, etc, it just slipped my mind. But now that we've gotten the ball moving on getting her speech through the school, I wanted to follow through with getting a hearing test so that the results could be passed on to the speech therapist and to her teacher.

She had her hearing test today and it came back 'normal'!!! Whoo Hoo! No need to see the ENT at this tube for possible tubes!

She did well for the first part, the part where they check the pressure and sound waves bouncing off the ear drum.And for the second part of the test, they took us into the sound proof room (aka the panic room for those that are claustrophobic, etc). She and the assistant sat down, the hearing test started, and things were going well. And then all of a sudden, Rachel stopped putting blocks in the bucket every time she'd hear a sound. She just stopped. I got concerned, cause I heard one or two sounds and I didn't have the ear phones on and yet, she wasn't putting blocks into the bucket! How could she possibly not hear that?!?!? And then the assistant put on a special set of ear phone looking things. I'd never seen these before and it concerned me even more. And then Rachel resumed back to following directions and putting blocks into the bucket.When the test was complete, the audiologist came into the room and we talked and he said that he'd gotten to a point in the test where she just stopped. He was making sounds as loud as her volume in talking and she wasn't picking them up. He said he got concerned for a moment, and then looked at her face and she must have just zoned out for a few minutes because she got back with the program and did it and passed it. LOL. The special ear phone looking thing he had the assistant put on, was to test the nerves in her ears, seeing how she wasn't admitting to hearing anything. LOL. That test too turned out normal.

So it's been proven, she can hear. Now if we could only get her to listen!!! LOL.

Parent / Teacher Conference and a Speech Update

This afternoon was our Parent/Teacher conference with Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Maingot. The conference went very well and she's already proving to be advanced in her Language Arts and Math! She listens well, follows directions, and has a great interest for learning. We were very pleased with how her first trimester of Kindergarten has gone.

Last Friday, we met with the Speech Therapist, the Assistant Principal, and with Rachel's teacher to talk about the need for further evaluation of her speech. It was a very short meeting whereas the teacher expressed her concerns, the Speech Therapist addressed what she saw in her initial brief screening, and we expressed our concerns. The next step is for a full Speech Evaluation and then we'll meet again to set up an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan), and then she'll begin Speech Therapy.

It's such a process with the public school system. But I'm thankful it's available and soon she'll be getting the services she needs. And it'll be school based which means the teacher will know whats going on, and can help in the classroom, etc. We go off track the end of next week for three weeks and then back for three weeks in December and then it's Christmas break, so more than likely, Speech won't begin until January.

Pumpkin Walk

This morning was our schools annual Pumpkin Walk. Room Moms solicit donated pumpkins for their own class as prizes and then each class had an assigned time to come and walk the circle in attempts of landing on the chosen number.

Rachel was so excited to get to participate this year. She was even more excited when her number was a winning number and she got to choose a pumpkin from the pile of pumpkins donated to our class. She was very pleased with her choice - a pumpkin with pink fuzzy hair!

Build A Bear

For her birthday, Rachel received a Build A Bear outfit and two gift cards! With Hannah away at a birthday party this afternoon, Rachel saw it as the perfect opportunity to ask to go to Build A Bear, and that's what we did!

First, we made the exchange of the outfit as she already had it. And then we discovered how much was on one of the gift cards, and figured out just how much money Rachel had to spend! And then it was off to pick her animal. She chose a brown bear, whom she named "Browny", pronounced Brownie.And then time for stuffing....And time for dressing...
She chose a leopard print outfit, which fits her wild personality to a tee.And a final shot before paying for all the goods...Two boxes you might ask?? Well, Rachel had enough money to buy Hannah a bear, in which she also put a Hannah Montana voice box into, just for her. Such a sweet sister...

Fall Harvest Party

This evening, our family participated in a good old fashioned Harvest Party where you came dressed as scarecrows and made carmel apples and just had a lot of fun. There were no signs of witches, ghosts, or goblins. It was a great, great night and the girls had a ton of fun.

Because I had an activity table, we arrived early to set up. Rachel was more than delighted to play with her friends, and played and played and played with her friends all night long. We ended up staying long past the party ended and visiting with a few other couples and Rachel literally kept going until we left at 11:30. She had so much fun. And was one dirty scarecrow by the end of the night. One of the table activities was a fabric pumpkin. Rachel was so proud of her pumpkin. She made it with no help from Mommy or Daddy!What could be more fun then wrapping your own carmel apple and adding mini M&M's to it!?!? Rachel loves apples. And she loves her M&Ms. So it made for a perfect combination!The evening was a great time of food, fellowship, and lots and lots of fun!

Speech Therapy Update

Monday mornings I work in Rachel's classroom. This morning as I was putting my purse away, she handed me this envelope that was in her cubby. It was from the Speech Therapist.

Rachel was apparently pulled from class one day last week and was screened by the speech therapist and the conclusion was a concern for her articulation (sounds in words). Rachel has "nasality with certain sounds (b, p...) and distortions typical of a repaired cleft palate". There were no language concerns, she puts sentences together very well. And there were no fluency or stuttering concerns. Her concerns were our concerns and the same concerns of the Speech Therapist on our craniofacial team.

The recommendation is that Rachel "be referred to the Student Study Team for intervention strategies and/or consideration for possible evaluation."

I had to ask the teacher for clarification on what exactly that meant. LOL. Rachel was just screened by the Speech Therapist. And her recommendation is that now a team of people get together to talk about Rachel and what to do. Her teacher must submit paperwork and then they go from there.

The good thing is Rachel wasn't denied right off the bat, like we were told was a possibility...

Prayers for Adalynn

This is Adalynn. Some of our regular cleft friends might recognize her. She was born with a cleft lip and has surgeries to repair it, etc. But this post isn't about Adalynn's cleft. It's about a terrible, terrible accident that occurred and the request of prayers.As a mother of a cleft affected child, I know I'm always much more cautious about things in the mouth - suckers, straws, toys, etc. While after a palate has been repaired, the chances of developing a fistula (hole) are slim, I'm generally a little freaked out by anything that involves Rachel's mouth.

So imagine Shannon's (Adalynn's Mommy) current nightmare...

At the beginning of the week, Adalynn's older brother was being helpful when he handed her her toothbrush, but then he tripped her and the toothbrush went down her throat. An uneventful trip to the doctor was made, only to be followed by a trip to the ER after Adalynn had not eaten or drank anything all day long, not even swallowing her own saliva. Four X-rays later, and being told she was okay, was sent home with Tylenol and Motrin.

The next evening brought another trip to the ER as Miss Adalynn was pretty miserable with a lot of swelling in her neck/throat. After a diagnosis of a possible infection at the site where the toothbrush hit, she was sent home on antibiotics.

Thursday afternoon, Adalynn woke from a nap with blood pouring from her mouth. Trip #3 made to the ER. Arrangements were made to see an ENT the next day for a possible scope.

The ENT finally ordered a CT scan whereas Adalynn was diagnosed with a hematoma and was admitted to the hospital. A hematoma in such a place is life threatening as it could potentially obstruct the airway if the swelling got worse. She is being closely monitored, on an IV, and is receiving antibiotics.

Please be praying for the swelling inside Adalynn's throat to diminish and that there wouldn't be any long term complications from this. Please be praying for her Mommy and Daddy as well. I know they would very much appreciate prayers right now! Thanks!

It's a Part of Her

These are Rachel's official pictures for her kindergarten year and I love them! Sometimes when picture day comes I get a little nervous for how Rachel's, Hannah's too, pictures will turn out. But I'm always a little more nervous when it comes to Rachel's pictures - will they make her smile too big and therefore you'll see her cleft gum and jacked up tooth? Will she smile in such a way that her scar will look drawn up?? Will her nose look okay?? Will her repaired cleft stand out in the picture or will you not be able to tell?? Things that go through a mother's head when she's had a cleft affected baby, or a child with any facial deformities for that matter.

This picture captures her cuteness. A glimpse into her personality. I just want to go to her and squeeze her cuteness, but I can't, she's at school! :)

Sure, you can see the notch in her lip. Maybe you can't, but the Mommy and the Gramma can see it. But really when I sit and stare at the picture and think about it, that little notch, as little as it is, is part of her. It's how the Lord chose to make Rachel, it's a symbol of how great our God is- in providing a perfectionist of a plastic surgeon and a testament to all the prayers prayed on behalf of Rachel. She'll always have it. It's a part of her...