handsful

Home from her appt. with Dr. Glassman…Payton loves having his picture taken with the little one. 

Lainey had her appointment with the surgeon today, so he could see her fistula and tell us “the plan”.  He looked in her mouth and saw the small fistula smack in the middle of her palate.  He was not terribly surprised to see it for two reasons, (1) her repair was “tight”, as he told us right after surgery and, (2) most surgeons would have done her palate in two seperate surgeries, but we tried to get the whole thing repaired in just one (we all decided this), so a fistula is a chance you take. 

The good news…he thinks it will shrink up SOME on it’s own, he does NOT think it will get bigger, and she does NOT need a seperate surgery to correct it.  Whew!!  He said it can wait to be repaired until she has her nose and lip revision, which should be around age 4.  We also talked about having her left ear tacked back a bit (it sticks out more than her right) and he said it could also be done at the same time.  Wow, 4 procedures in one surgery.  Now, if I could just share the operating table with her and get a tummy tuck at the same time?  I digress…

He doesn’t think this fistula will adversely affect her speech development, because it is so small.  She has no new restrictions because of it, we can continue trying a straw (with lots of supervision!) and keep using a sippy cup.  He also said we wouldn’t have to deal with no-no’s for this next surgery, since she’ll be old enough to be told to leave her mouth alone…another praise there! 

So, all in all, a great visit.  We were preparing ourselves for another surgery and we’re SO happy to hear that isn’t the case. 

Here are a few swimming pictures from the other day.  Did I mention she has NO fear of the water?? 

That face makes me just melt…

No, Randy isn’t doing this, SHE is.  Everytime he held her out front, she’d dunk her face in, over and over again and come up laughing.  Payton isn’t thrilled about this picture, but he consented to have it in the blog.  Thanks, dude. 

Just the thought of her jumping into the water makes her giddy…sorry, I couldn’t time it right to get a shot her jumping in.  Maybe next time…

 

No longer the youngest kid in the family and loving his role as big brother. 

See the look of pure joy on her face?  For those of you worried that Randy is MAKING her do these things, be assured…she gets BORED when we put her in her floaty and almost immediately asks to be taken out (signs “all done”).  Randy has spoiled her rotten and become her water entertainer.  I’m much more boring laid back in the pool, so I’m not her preferred playmate. 

Two challenges we have with her in the water…she will NOT put her legs down when we try to teach her to float, they stick straight up in the air!  And, we’re having trouble teaching her to CLOSE her mouth when she goes under.  She thinks thats the time to open wide…needless to say, her diapers after swim time fill up fast :) 

Lastly, we have a new member of the family.  Marley decided to spend her birthday money on a new pet…a hermit crab.  We bought her the cage for her birthday, and she bought everything else including Herbie the hermit crab.  She insists it’s a girl (I hear it’s nearly impossible to tell, unless you’re an expert in hermit crabs), so the name confuses me! 

Her shell is very decorative, they come like that! 

A closer look at little Herbie…the pet store said she’s a baby.  Awwww…