Just a Swingin'

One year ago this month, I started my blog. In that blog I had pictures of the kids on the swing in the backyard so I thought it would be fun to post a picture of them this summer on the swing. They all have changed so much. Can you tell that Nate does not like the camera and was trying not to smile for the picture. Silly boy.




Brooke's Team Meeting

Last Thursday evening Brooke had an appointment to meet with her craniofacial team. We were able to speak to a speech pathologist, a pediatric dentist, a geneticist, and her surgeon. We had just met with her ENT on Tuesday so no need to see him that evening. It's great because we just sit in a room and all of the doctors come to us. She just needs to go to see the team once a year to check up on how things are going. Everything is going along just as expected for Brooke. She's doing great.

Brooke's surgeon, Dr. Stephen Baker is absolutely wonderful. Dominic and I will always be grateful to him for what he has done for our little girl. He truly is one of the best craniofacial surgeons. He has been filmed on TLC's Personal Story where he performed a cleft lip repair. I was so happy that he was at the meeting that evening. It has been a little over a year since we have seen him. He did her cleft lip repair when she was 3 months old and her palate repair (the most difficult for sure) when she was 6 months old.

Here is Brooke and her favorite surgeon, Dr. Baker.


I was also hoping that we would see Dr. Deirdre Maull, who did the work for the nasal alveolar molding or NAM for short. Unfortunately she was running late and there was no real reason that we needed to see her so we didn't stick around. I will definitely make a special trip to her office to see her sometime soon. She was absolutely wonderful through the process. Brooke had to wear the molding along with all of the tape that goes along with it for 3 months. I will be quite honest and say that taking care of the appliance (cleaning it and changing it) was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. Brooke and I had to make weekly trips to see Dr. Maull for adjustments (an hour and half drive away one direction). But honestly, I looked forward to those trips because talking to Dr. Maull gave me what I needed to make it another week. She was always so supportive and encouraging. All of it was so worth it to make the surgery easier on Brooke.

Daddy's Little Helper

Dominic was building a floor for a small shed he was putting in the backyard. Lenny was in the back helping Dominic and then he ran to the door and asked if I would get his tools.



About the Twins

Brooke and Nathan love riding their four wheelers around the backyard. Unfortunately they never figured out how to steer them so I had to run all over the backyard getting them unstuck. Well not anymore for Brooke. She is hilarious. She drives it all over the backyard and does a really good job steering it. She goes from one side of the yard, then turns around and goes to the other side. It is very funny to watch our GIRL driving her four wheeler.

Nathan is my sweet little helper. Every time we leave the room or if I say that we are going to go somewhere, he goes over to the TV, turns it off, and then closes the doors to the entertainment center. It's very cute. Then when we get in the van, he reminds me to close the doors (I leave them open until I turn the car and air conditioner on). He starts pointing to the doors and then he points to the button in the van to close the garage door. Dominc saw him do it this weekend and got a kick out of it.

The other day Brooke and Nate were pushing some big soft trucks around the house. All of a sudden, Brooke's flipped up and hit her in the face. She immediately started crying so I went over, picked her up and started to comfort her. She was really making a bigger deal out of it than it was. She's very good at that. Anyway, Nate was standing there watching us. Then he turned around, bent over to the truck that Brooke was using, touched his head to the truck, and then turned to me with his arms up and pretended to cry. That silly boy pretended like he bumped his head. It was very cute! So of course I had to comfort him too.

From the Mouth of a Four Year Old

This evening Dominic took Lenny, Brooke, Nate and Daisy for a walk. Talk about brave. I never take Daisy along that is just too much. Anyway, every time Dominic takes Lenny out for a walk he gives him a lollipop. Today he got them each a very big blow pop. When they got back Lenny was still eating it. Lenny and I walked down to get the mail and he was telling me that it was called a blow pop. This is what he told me. "It's called a blow pop. On a rainy day, the wind blows the stick away and you still have this (pointing to the candy). That's why it's called a blow pop."

I bet you all didn't know the meaning behind blow pops. Now you do.