Sisters

The weeks are flying past and we're still trying to adjust to being a family of four! This last weekend as we try to wrangle two active girls through the grocery store we decided that we'll divide and conquer the regular weekend chores and errands from now on.


Gabby continues to be a great big sister (albeit a little overzealous at times). Gabby has started first grade and has lost another tooth. This time it was with much more drama. One evening she managed to knock her tooth while eating and it bled a little, the next evening it came out while eating - very dramatic but at least she didn't swallow it.

Lydia continues to make her thoughts and feelings known, I'm trying to figure out how much sound can come from someone so little. I think both Gabby and Lydia are learning how to push each other buttons. Lydia has her surgery scheduled for Sept. 16th. We're anxious about the surgery but these last couple of weeks has shown us that she's right at the critical time to get her palate fixed and start on speech therapy too.

Gotcha Day Video

We finally got around to looking over the video from our video camera and not just the short clips from the digital camera. In many ways it already seems like a lifetime ago since we got Lydia, but in other ways it's feels like yesterday when she was handed over. When we got Gabby she cried for the first couple of days so we were expecting anything from Lydia. It's hard to hear her crying on that day but we know that the tears soon dry as the bonds begin. Driving from the adoption office feeling her cling to me as she fell asleep is something I'll never forget. I wouldn't change a single thing about our time in China.

Another loose tooth gone

After what seems like weeks of Gabby having a loose front tooth, tonight it finally came out. With barely a whimper but much excitement Gabby found the tooth lying in her palm while reading books with Kara. Now the tooth is inside her tooth pillow waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy.

Wiggly...

... and finally out!

First Cleft Team Visit

July 30 was our first visit with the cleft team that we'll be working with for Lydia's cleft repair. We arrived for the appointment around 8am and there were quite a few other families in the waiting room including a few China girls. We were shown to into a waiting room that had a few toys and such to keep Little One occupied.

Four hours later we were done and Lydia had been seen by an ENT, audiologist, geneticist, speech pathologist, dentist, behaviour, plastic surgeon and the cleft team nurse. Lydia did great, a lot better than we had expected her to react to seeing so many strangers in such a short amount of time. By the end of the day she was cozying up to the plastic surgeon and trying to get his attention. The cleft team visit is something that we will have every year and right now we're feeling lucky to have such easy access to a team of physicians that will give Lydia all of the care she'll need.

Lydia has some fluid in her ears so she'll be getting ear tubes at the same time as her palate surgery. In the hearing test she was not responding on her left side as well as she did for her right side, but hopefully the tubes will take care of that. The plastic surgeon said that her mouth and jaw look good and we're hoping that she'll only need the one surgery. There's always the possibility that her palate will be too short, or that holes (fistulas) in the palete will form after the surgery. She does has some thick scarring on her lip that may need to be fixed later but it is still healing as her lip surgery was only performed at the end of March.

We're currently waiting on confirmed dates for her surgery but it'll probably be sometime in September. It is best to get the cleft repaired as soon as possible to avoid any further speech delays or problems.